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THAT WHICH ENLIGHTENS US BECOMES TO US LAW+

Psalm 16, Psalm 19

I want to give you one thought -- namely, that that by which men are enlightened becomes law to them; it is a principle which all can take in -- it is not a difficult sentence. You see it with people of the world; if a man has been enlightened by philosophy it becomes law to him, or if by science it is the same thing, the principle is true.

I want first to say what the light is and then to show how it becomes law. If that by which we have been enlightened does not become law to us it proves that the light has not been very bright. The brighter the light the greater the law.

In the series of Psalms up to Psalm 16 you find weakness in the experience of saints, for till you get to Psalm 16 you have not got a Man. But when you come to Psalm 16 you have a Man who of necessity must go to the right hand of God; He was so divinely perfect, earth could not hold Him. Man was made for earth and earth was good enough for him as so made; but what has come to pass in the ways of God is that a Man has been manifested here on earth whom earth could not contain. He must go to the right hand of God: "at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore". I allow that Christ went there, too, on the ground of redemption, so that He might carry others with Him to heaven, which could not have been the case had He gone in only on the ground of His personal perfection. He came from heaven and went back to heaven -- that is the Man of Psalm 16. In Psalm 17 His sentence comes forth from the presence of God. There were two men,

+Lecture at Calne.

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the man of the earth and the Man of Psalm 16, and God had to determine between the two. You get the same thought in John 17:25, "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me". The righteous Father had to determine between the world and Christ.

Then in Psalm 18 you get the exercises and history of Israel taken up in Christ and carried on to the ultimate glory. But when we come to Psalm 19 our mind is carried from earth to heaven. The thought hid in it is a very great one indeed. I look at it morally, for if Scripture speaks of phenomena or of what is apparent, it always has a moral thought in view. It is most important to read Scripture in that light. Even as to historical occurrences related, they are not related as history, but for the moral point in them. The earth declares the glory of man -- a very poor glory, a Babylonish glory, but man is content with it. But earth also declares the dishonour of God: if you look abroad you see moral confusion -- good and evil entangled; God is not the author of confusion but of peace. The coming in of Christ meant peace, but you never get it established till you get the disentanglement of good and evil. The works of the devil are seen in the confusion of good and evil, and the Son of God was manifested that He might undo the works of the devil; when that is accomplished there will be peace, not confusion. Man is content to have his glory in a scene of confusion. This is true of many a king since Nebuchadnezzar. Man is not at all particular about moral confusion; in fact, he does not detect it very much, he is so much at home in it. But if you look up, the heavens declare the glory of God, the firmament shows His handiwork. God's glory is that in which He is effulgent; no one can carry glory to God; His glory must be the effulgence of Himself. If I look at the work of God upon earth I see confusion;

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but if I look up to heaven, there is no confusion there. The more men know of astronomy, the more they see the perfect order there: the heavens declare His glory. But my point is to look at the thing morally, not simply as a question of God's handiwork. The heavens declare His glory, and why? Because you find there the answer to Psalm 16. In Psalm 16 you have glory down here, but in Psalm 19 Christ is set in the heavens, and so the heavens declare God's glory. God's glory is the moral effulgence that shines out in Christ: we behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. What we see in Christ is every right of God maintained, and yet light and salvation to men. I want you to take that in. Christ in glory appeared to Paul; He was light and salvation for Paul as He is for every one on earth. The grace of God has appeared -- where? In Christ: the practical result is that grace reigns through righteousness for the glory of God. We can understand that; the sun is a figure of it -- it is a light set in heaven to enlighten men on earth, "In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun". Paul was a remarkable exemplification of this, and so, too, the Philippian jailor. I do not doubt that Paul put before the latter how every right of God was secured in Christ so that He might be salvation to men. The light becomes law to us. What is the light we get by Christ? The light of grace: He has opened to us the heart of God. I take it no one here is a remarkable person in this world; but in another way we are remarkable, for we know what is in the heart of God towards men. How did we know the forgiveness of sins? Because we learned that forgiveness was in the heart of God towards men. How do we know grace? Because grace is in His heart; Christ has made it plain and it shines now in Christ. In His name repentance and remission of sins are preached. Where were repentance and remission to be known? In the heart of God

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towards men. If I apprehend that, I am not one bit afraid of God. I see the same as to eternal life -- that it is in the heart of God towards men; so in our weakness and poverty we are rich, for you cannot have greater riches than to know what is in the heart of God for men; every right of God maintained that Christ might be for salvation to the ends of the earth.

Now I will illustrate the principle I speak of: Christ enlightened Paul: he saw a light greater than the sun and he was enlightened by one word from Christ, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" He knew then very well that there was nothing in the heart of God against him. But then he says, "To me to live is Christ"; the One who was light to him became his law. Again, in John 9 the blind man knew who had enlightened him and he did Him homage. And again, the two blind men to whom Christ gave sight followed Jesus in the way; they might not have been able to tell why they followed Him, but He had become law to them. In the parable of the good Samaritan (though the lawyer did not follow it out) the lawyer had answered, "He that shewed mercy" was the neighbour, and the Lord said, "Go, and do thou likewise". If he had had his eyes opened to the apprehension of Christ he would then have done likewise. You have to look at what you are enlightened by. Some people think they are enlightened by works of fiction, and if so what they read will be law to them It is a very important thing to be enlightened by true light, for then it becomes law to you. I will refer now to the latter part of the psalm (verses 4, 5, 6). "In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoiceth as a strong man to run a race. His going forth is from the end of the heaven, and his circuit unto the ends of it: and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof". I will show the reference of that expression to Christ in Romans 10:6 - 8. The report there

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referred to is that which the Holy Spirit has brought down from heaven. A great moral light has been set in heaven -- that is the report. I trust all here have been enlightened; it is a great thing to walk in the light of God. We need naturally to be in the light of the sun, the light of this world. But the light of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ; it is only there you get it, and I cannot conceive anything more blessed than to walk in the light of God's heart towards me, or rather towards men. I can understand a timid believer hesitating to appropriate it to himself, but God has no two thoughts in regard to men; Christ is His mind towards all men.

I take up the details of the second part of the psalm -- the law of Jehovah. You come here to a more limited circle bringing in the thought of relationship, as is evident from the name employed. It converts the soul; that is the first effect of the law. If you have not law you are lawless. We have not now the ten commandments but we have law; it is a great thing to have Christ as law. All of us have been enlightened by Christ and He is law to us; the effect is that it converts the soul. If you can think of a woman married to a perfect husband he would of necessity become law to her. He is not law to her till they are married; there may be attachment before, but there is no true affection of husband and wife till they are married. Then every thought in her mind is revolutionised, every interest of hers is subordinated to the new interest of her husband. The law of the Lord is perfect. No woman has a perfect husband, though she may think it, as every wife does; but our being married to Christ ought to work a perfect revolution in us. I surrender my own interests and am governed now by the interests of Christ. That is the revolution that takes place in every one who is married to Christ; then you bring forth fruit to God.

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"The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple". I will illustrate this from Luke 10:21, 22, 38 - 42. Christ was revealing the Father; that was His testimony, and Mary sat at His feet and heard His testimony; she had chosen the good part; He Himself was the testimony to her. It was beautiful to see her sitting at His feet, and what held her was what He was; it made her wise. She was simple, but she became wise. You remember how the Lord vindicated her; she was the one person who did the right thing -- the testimony of the Lord made her wise. She was not at the grave; she knew that Christ would rise again; the testimony of the Lord was sure, and her conduct was the evidence of her wisdom.

"The statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart". If you look at Luke 24:46 - 53, you will see what were the statutes of the Lord ordained to the disciples. His name was the statutes; repentance and remission of sins were to be preached in His name: the statutes were right, rejoicing their hearts, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

Another thought -- "The commandment of the Lord is pure". The commandment is Christ Himself; you will never carry out His commandment except as you have Christ Himself commanding the heart. "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you". We are to love one another with a pure heart fervently, and the effect of that is you get enlightened. Christians are often not very intelligent because Christ is not commandment to them. I refer to Colossians 2. The first thing here is to be knit together in love; it is about the one thing in the world that is pure, and then not only are you knit together, but you advance to all riches of the full assurance of understanding.

"The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether". We read in 2 Corinthians 5:10: "For

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we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad". The 'terror' of the Lord should be read 'fear'. What was the fear of the Lord to Paul? Christ, and the right that Christ had to judge. He was not afraid of Christ; he would not be judged of man's day, but he recognised the right and title that Christ had to judge of his conduct down here. And what is the effect? It is clean; we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God, we cannot cherish an unclean, unworthy motive.

"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether". To illustrate this I refer you to John 7:17, 18. You see there that Christ answers morally to the judgments of the Lord, He tests everything by Himself. You get the idea of His judgment in Revelation 1, "feet like to fine brass": the seven churches are tested and judged by Christ Himself, He is true and altogether righteous. You can understand that whether it is fear, or statutes, or law, or judgments, all is presented to us in Christ, and He is all these things to us. It is a great thing to have Him for law. He says, "Come unto me ... take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ... and ye shall find rest unto your souls". To take His yoke is to engage in the service of love. The apostle said virtually to the Galatians, you are desirous of law, why do you not fulfil Christ's law and bear one another's burdens?

Mary found the testimonies of the Lord sure, making wise the simple; she surpassed the disciples in intelligence. The thief on the cross was intelligent above all; he recognised what he was himself, but also what Christ was. We have all to be tested by Christ. Let Christ be law to you; love one another with a pure heart fervently and you will get your eyes greatly enlightened. The fear of the Lord is clean. It kept

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the apostle clean, he was never governed, as far as we know, by unworthy motives.

"The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold ... sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb". People run after gold and after honey -- what is sweet and pleasant in this world; but these things of which God speaks are more to be desired, and in keeping of them there is great reward. There is great reward in being married to Christ.

The longer I live the more I appreciate Scripture, not simply the detail, but that from beginning to end you have a living, powerful voice speaking in strong moral accents -- a voice which is the expression of feeling, the voice of One who is affected by what is passing down here.

We may well echo what we get at the end of the Psalm, "Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer".

You may depend upon the truth of the principle that that by which we are enlightened must of necessity become law to us.

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FELLOWSHIP, PRIVILEGE AND TESTIMONY

1 John

The idea in Scripture connected with children seems to be always that of a company -- 'we' and 'us'. It is not the idea of the privilege of an individual; it is the common privilege of a company, because the Spirit that bears witness that we are children of God is one Spirit -- the same Spirit in all, and the effect of it is this -- it of necessity leads to the assembly. It compels saints to come together. I cannot understand a person choosing isolation and talking of what he gets from the Lord at home. I am certain that person never enters into the privilege of being a child, because if he did, the craving of his soul would be to get into the company of the children, for the children are all one band. It is "one flock, and one shepherd". The children are one band, and stand thus in Christ. 'In Him we stand, a heavenly band'. Therefore if you want to realise the privilege of the children of God, you must get into the circle of the children, you must really get into the assembly, for it is in the assembly that we realise the privileges that are proper to the children of God. They stand there on the ground of sovereign love as the children of God, and it is their privilege to worship the Father. You have got thus what failure cannot touch. You have the Father and the children (the Father has sought such to worship Him), and you have Christ in the midst leading their praises. I do not believe that anyone learns the truth of what belongs to the children of God except in the assembly. You are brought into it individually, but you can hardly individualise the children because it is one Spirit in them all, and that very fact arouses the craving for the assembly, because the assembly is the band. Now nothing can deprive

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us of this; even in the ruin of the church there is a fellowship (those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart). Whatever may be the ruin, you cannot displace the children. One may be very sorry that the whole company does not come together, and we ought to mourn for that more than we do; but still we can come together in assembly, and if we do, it is as children, nothing less, because that is the calling, the privilege that the Father has bestowed on us. I am sure we do not sufficiently see how the instinct of the scriptures which apply directly to Christians is unity. And though the structure, which Paul the architect raised, has broken down and is in ruin, John gives us what is essential, what is vital, and that is privilege, and the tendency of this must be toward the assembly.

The privilege belongs to every Christian, but it is one thing to have a privilege belonging to me, and another thing for me to have entered into the truth and reality of the privilege. It is in the realisation of our privilege that we more fully understand the true character of the assembly, and you can enter into that apart from any kind of ecclesiastical pretension. The point is to have the great reality of it in our souls, to accept the privilege, and to be in the light and joy of it, to be found in company with the other children, that is, in the assembly. If you do not understand the proper privilege of the assembly, and the great blessing which belongs to it, you will fail to present a testimony which is according to God. It is in the assembly that we properly learn our relationship with the Father and with one another. You may accept the light of it, but it is in the assembly that you enter into the reality of it. We all get set in our place in the assembly. The Lord's supper is the beginning of it, it sets us in our souls rightly in relation toward all; to the Father, to

Christ, and to one another. Then we come out of the assembly to be here as the vessel in which God is displayed in the world. You must apprehend things

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in the order in which they are unfolded in the epistle (John's). Souls are bound to learn them in that order; first fellowship, then privilege, which places us in the Father and the Son, and then testimony. God is displayed in the heavenly band, which stands in Christ. That is the divine order. Precisely the same order is found in Paul. You could not enter into Colossians if you did not first understand Corinthians. In Corinthians you get fellowship and the privilege of the assembly, but in Colossians you get the other side of it, that is, the life of Christ coming out in the assembly; the divine nature as in Christ expressed in the Christian company.

All this is suitable to the day of ruin in which we are. I pray God to grant for myself and for us all that we may be more prepared in spirit to come under the sense of the ruin, and to take our share in it. May God keep us from attempting to construct anything, from setting up any kind of imitation of the church, but may we recognise that the church is still here, both vitally and responsibly; and though the house is in ruin, it ought to be a very great encouragement for us that all that is essential abides. There is a true bond of fellowship in which saints can be together here, and true privilege which belongs to them, and which none can deny them, which is made good to them vitally by the Spirit of God. And if we enter into our privilege, I believe that though the company may be very restricted, there will be a real expression of God in that little company, and thus a testimony for Him.

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THE LORD

Notes of Address

Mark 16:19, 20; 2 Timothy 1:8; 2 Timothy 2:19; 2 Timothy 4:7, 8, 17, 18

"So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And they went forth and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following", Mark 16:19, 20.

"Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God", 2 Timothy 1:8.

"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity", chapter 2: 19.

"I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing", chapter 4: 7, 8.

"Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, ... And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" (verses 17, 18).

I have read these scriptures because of the striking way in which they bring "the Lord" before us, and my desire is to speak to you about the Lord. We get our direction from the Lord as we walk in His light, but we must first of all get to the Lord. Many believe on the Lord who have never yet reached the Lord, and you cannot reach the Lord unless you depart from unrighteousness. We read in the Acts of some that "they clave to the Lord", of others that "they gave

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themselves to the Lord". The Lord is the great resource in the day of evil, and specially so in the time of the ruin of the church. One great service of the Lord is to direct His people into the will of God, but we must first of all reach the Lord, and for that you must, as I have said, be apart from unrighteousness. In 2 Timothy, we have three things brought before us in connection with the Lord. First, "the testimony of our Lord". Second, 'the Lord as our resource', and third, the Lord as "the righteous judge", the One who gives the crown of righteousness. Now the gospel is our Lord's testimony -- it is from Him and concerning Him. In Mark 16 the Lord commits the testimony to the eleven, and, as from the right hand of God, He wrought with them in it. He will use all the power which He has, as at the right hand of God, in the interests of His testimony. The testimony of the Lord brings the Lord Himself before men. Paul said to the Corinthians, "We preach not ourselves but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake". We make, as a rule, too much of the vessel. Paul brought the Lord before men, and where the Lord is received He confirms the word by the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is a mistake to make too much of the instrument; the instrument is our bondman, and the Lord should be the great reality to us, both as the source and subject of the testimony.

My second point is the Lord as our resource in the day of the church's ruin. In the first epistle to Timothy we read of "the house of God", but in the second epistle of "a great house" in which are vessels, some to honour and some to dishonour. Many of us have not found the great religious systems which exist today a satisfactory foundation. They have not approved themselves to us as being God's foundation. We want the foundation which has God's seal upon it, that is, God's attestation that it is His, for the seal is the attestation. Now what is first of all in the seal is

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this, "The Lord knoweth them that are his"; man may not know them, but the Lord knows them, and this is a great comfort to any one seeking God's foundation. The obverse of the seal is "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity". We want to be on God's foundation, and when we see what its attestation is, our eyes are opened to the ruined state of things: for we find the people of God completely swamped in a mass of profession, so that man does not know them, though the Lord knows them; and we are called upon to depart from unrighteousness. If you connect the name of the Lord with any religious system that accredits, or is accredited by the world, it is unrighteousness; because the Lord has been rejected by the world; and therefore we have to leave all such, if we would reach the Lord, who has been lifted up from the earth. Thus the faithful heart judges the world, for "Now is the judgment of this world"; the world is judged by the Christian, and thus he is delivered from it. The Lord draws all to Himself away from the world, "I, if I be lifted up out of the earth, will draw all to me". We are drawn to the Lord, and the Lord becomes a living reality to us, and then we are directed by Him into the will of God. He guides us into God's will, and we then learn what fellowship is, for it is as we are near to the Lord that we are drawn to one another. If we are truly drawn to the Lord we are prepared to stand alone, if need be; we are independent of man; but nevertheless, thankful to go on in fellowship with all who are drawn to Him -- to "pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart". Scriptural principles are not of themselves a ground of fellowship, the Lord alone is sufficient for that, and therefore we must be drawn to the Lord apart from everything that is of man, and apart from unrighteousness, if we would have heavenly light and guidance

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amidst the perplexities that are to be found in this world. Paul said to Timothy, "Consider what I say; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things". It is a great thing to get understanding as to all things from the Lord Himself; and though we cannot be what Paul was, for he was an apostle, we are privileged to be what Timothy was, a man of God, a servant; and he was a typical servant, one who was to continue till the Lord comes. He was a servant for the last days.

In chapter 4 the Lord is the righteous judge. Man is not the judge, but the Lord is the judge of my course. I do not look for man to approve my conduct, whoever he may be; we have got to receive from the Lord the result of what our conduct has been here, for "we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ". All may forsake the servant, even those whom he has been used to help, but the Lord will not forsake him; "Nevertheless the Lord stood by me"; He was true to His servant, and the apostle had been true to Him, for he could say "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith". In the great perplexities and extremities in which the apostle had been placed the Lord had stood with him and delivered him. But the apostle was not soured because all men forsook him. If we get to the Lord we get our hearts enlarged. The Lord is "the righteous judge" but the apostle was not a bit afraid of Him! Whatever may be man's judgment of the servant, the day of the Lord will be the time of the Lord's vindication of him; all may misjudge him, but the Lord will vindicate him. Get to the Lord and your heart will not get withered whatever you may experience here.

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LANDMARKS OF GRACE

Luke 7; Luke 10; Luke 15:23

I desire to point out a few landmarks in Luke's gospel. The apprehension of these landmarks will, I think, help in the understanding of this gospel. Each gospel has its own peculiar character. One characteristic of Luke's gospel is that it deals with us individually. There is nothing in it about the church or assembly, nor, as in John, about the family. Luke is individual.

Now there are four landmarks of great interest in the gospel, and no one of them appears in any other gospel. Two are parables, and two are facts. The first is found at the end of chapter 7 -- the woman of the city in the Pharisee's house. The second is in the latter part of chapter 10 -- the parable of the good Samaritan. The third in chapter 15 -- the parable of the prodigal son; and the closing mark is in chapter 23: 39 - 43, in the Lord's words to the repentant thief. There is, I judge, a progress in the exposition of the truth in these. If you read chapter 7: 1 - 42 you will find the beginning. It unfolds the thought of God in the mission of Christ, and is beautiful in that way. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses. In Christ here dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead, all that was necessary for the full display of God; and God's attitude was that of reconciling the world to Himself. It was God coming in grace, and finding men all alike, debtors with "nothing to pay". One might owe five hundred pence, and another fifty, as Simon thought of himself; but if both had "nothing to pay" they were in the same position; and in the eye of God the Pharisee no more than the woman had aught to pay. This was

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man's state God-ward. And what was God's attitude towards man in the presence of Christ here? Free forgiveness: "He frankly forgave them both". This was the thought of God, and that which Christ came to present: "Thy sins are forgiven ... go in peace". Why? Because the sinner had accepted the light from the Lord. Faith is light in the soul from God. God's attitude towards the world in Christ is grace, and free forgiveness for those who have "nothing to pay", and who accept the light of grace.

We will now pass on to chapter 10: 33, etc. The parable of the good Samaritan brings into prominence, not the great thought of God in Christ's mission here, but the relation of Christ towards those who are the subjects of grace. It is in principle the declaration of the spirit of the new covenant, the terms on which God is with the believer. It presents the transition from law to grace. The priest and Levite passed by on the other side. The good Samaritan could declare to the soul the terms on which it is the pleasure of God to be with man. It is not simply forgiveness, but pouring in oil and wine; and more than that, the man set on his own beast, and brought to an inn and taken care of. This is how Christ comes to be known to us, declaring to us the terms on which God is pleased to be with us; and it is a great thing for the soul to learn it. He is at peace with us; and more, we are in favour. It is in the Lord Jesus Christ, the last Adam, that we see declared what God is to the believer. He is the Head of the family. In Him we see man's place with God. "His own beast" refers to the gift of the Spirit. This is the first real link of the believer with Christ. "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his". The soul is taught to look to the Lord Jesus Christ to learn in Him the terms on which God is with us. All the pleasure of God in regard to man is declared in Him. That which

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is true in Himself He declares, and communicates the Holy Spirit, so that we may enter into it. The Holy Spirit is given that we may be helped and supported in every way, to enter into the good of the declaration made to us, and even to guide us in the exigencies of the way here.

The third landmark is in chapter 15. In the parable of the prodigal the feasting goes on in the house. It was when the elder brother drew nigh to the house that he heard the music and dancing. The good Samaritan declared the grace in which God is with us down here, but in the prodigal we get, not what God is to us as in the wilderness, but what we are for God's satisfaction before Himself. Two things are evident -- all distance is removed, and the prodigal is in the best robe for the Father's pleasure. I am reconciled, and in Christ before God; I can reckon myself dead unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus -- before God in the "best robe", and that is Christ. Why "the best"? Because there could be no better. Nothing could fit me more absolutely or completely for the eye of God than Christ. Nothing is for God's perfect satisfaction but Christ. The best robe is more than acceptance; it is the consciousness of acceptance. The Father had come out to the prodigal and kissed him; and He fits him to be with Him in common delight for His own satisfaction, and so that the prodigal might feel at home in His house. This is a point which we are slow to reach. Many believers know the terms on which God is with them in grace; but it is much more to know that He has us before Himself to His own satisfaction. And more -- If the prodigal is inside with the Father, it is according to the way in which the Father came out to him. If God has set us before Himself, it is to enjoy Him as He has been pleased to reveal Himself in the Son. We go in to enjoy it. We reckon ourselves dead unto sin, and the Spirit is the One who leads us into the

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enjoyment of the love of God. This is what is presented in type and pattern in this gospel, that which came out in the personal ministry of the Lord here. All leads up to that which was unfolded doctrinally by the apostle Paul afterwards.

For the last point we will look at chapter 23: 39, etc. There could be no greater contrast than between a crucified malefactor and paradise -- the extreme of misery and the greatest height of delights. Here we get the climax of grace. A malefactor crucified was "that day" to be with Christ in paradise. The thief confessed Christ as Lord, when all else had deserted Him, and he believed in His kingdom. His thought for himself did not go beyond being remembered by the Lord in the kingdom. Now the point of importance is the Lord's answer, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise". It is the height of grace to be Christ's companion in the place of supreme bliss. It was where Christ was going, and it was where the thief was to be with Him. Christ had come alone from heaven, and now He went into paradise as Man, but He did not go there alone: one went with Him -- a companion and a trophy! The thief certainly owed five hundred pence; but when he had "nothing to pay" God freely forgave. That was the first point we saw; chapter 7. We could not understand the three succeeding scenes if we did not understand the first. Then we learn what Christ is as the last Adam. We are under Him, justified since He is risen. We have the Holy Spirit, and are cared for in the path here. Thirdly, we learn that we are for the satisfaction of God. He has put us in Christ, and we reckon ourselves dead unto sin and alive unto God in Him, so that we may realise His love. And the climax of all is, that we are to be Christ's companions in paradise! The whole economy of grace is most marvellous. Who could have thought of such grace? We may wonder at the demand that God's love has made upon Him.

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Think of a Being, infinite in love and power, working for the satisfaction of His own infinite love! Love is God's spring, God's standard, and God's end. All is to be for the satisfaction of the love of God. May He give us to understand the greatness of His love!

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THE ONE BODY AS PRESENTED IN SCRIPTURE

Romans 12; 1 Corinthians 12; Colossians 1; Ephesians 1

I desire to bring under the attention of the readers of the Voice the teaching of the word in regard to the "one body", which I judge all will allow to be Christ's body. The thought of the body is referred to in four epistles, namely Romans (chapter 12), 1 Corinthians (chapter 12), Colossians (chapter 1), and Ephesians (chapter 1), though in the first two it is only just touched for certain purposes.

Before going into the subject in detail I must make one or two prefatory remarks; and at the outset I assume that the truth of the body is "the mystery of the gospel". Paul refers to this in Romans 16:25, 26, and in Ephesians 6:19, and no one can fail to see the great importance that the subject had in his mind, and the responsibility which he felt to make manifest the mystery. I do not think that I should go too far in saying that the body is the great end of God in the gospel, and that until our souls are in the truth of it we do not fully answer to the thought of God in regard of us. It appears to me that many of us stop short at the gospel, and never reach the clear knowledge of the mystery. And this is the more to be deplored because that while the gospel unfolds the whole extent of our blessing in Christ according to the purpose of God, the mystery shows us what the church is as a vessel for Christ, the body in which He was to be set forth in the world from which He had been personally rejected. The ministry of the mystery is evidently distinct from that of the gospel (see Colossians 1:23 - 26), but the mystery is the mystery of the gospel. And though we cannot understand the mystery by the gospel, yet it is evident that the mystery is

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involved in the gospel. The importance of this is that it makes evident that all we receive from God we receive through the gospel, and that the ministry of the assembly as Christ's body adds nothing to the gifts of God, but leads our souls into the light of God's thought in the assembly, as I have said, into what the body was to be as the vessel in which Christ was to be portrayed here, Christ among the Gentiles the hope of glory.

I come now to the teaching of the epistles in detail; and I remark a distinction of importance between the four passages, namely, that in Romans and 1 Corinthians, though the truth of the one body is introduced, there is no allusion to the Head save that it may possibly be involved in the expression "the Christ" in 1 Corinthians 12:12. If we desire to find the Head we have to go to Colossians and Ephesians. Now it is evident that without knowing the Head no one can possibly have any intelligent apprehension of the body. And I do not think that such apprehension is supposed in 1 Corinthians or in Romans, for it appears to me that the statement of our being one body by the baptism of the Spirit is introduced in 1 Corinthians simply as a check to clericalism in the assembly. All the gifts were the working of the Spirit dividing severally to every one as He would, and hence one gift was not to be set against another; doing it would be an offence to the one Spirit; and the truth of the saints being one body by the Spirit is introduced to give force to this. Many results in the human body flow from that action of the heart, but these consequences are not discordant but harmonious. The source is one and the body one, requiring the co-operation of every member, and no member is redundant. Evidently clericalism is the opposite of this, and I imagine that it was to check the tendency to this that the light of the one body is brought into 1 Corinthians.

In Romans the truth of our being one body in

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Christ, and every one members one of another, is introduced to give force to the exhortation that every man should think soberly as to himself according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. If the saints had, in the sovereignty of God's will, been constituted one body in Christ, it was evident that any right thought of themselves must be, not according to nature, but according to grace -- the first were last and the last first.

Thus the reference to the body in these two epistles may be said to be by the way. There is no mention of the Head, nor any unfolding of the divine thought in the body. The object is to set the saints in their right bearing both in the assembly and in their individual path.

But when we come to the Colossians we learn another truth of the greatest moment, namely, first that Christ is the Head of the body, the assembly, and consequent on this that the assembly is the vessel in which He is to be displayed among the Gentiles, the hope of glory. This is the mystery of the gospel. Evidently this display was to be moral in the saints, and thus the body was necessarily co-extensive with the work of the Spirit in them. But nothing could be more wonderful than that Christ, who had been rejected by the Jew, should be seen in the Gentiles in moral suitability to the scene in which the body is. Hence the anxiety of the apostle in his preaching of Christ that he might present every man full grown in Christ. It is in this epistle especially that the truth of the Head and the body are prominent, and the divine idea in the body is reached. In Ephesians we have the thought of the bride predominant, and in connection with this the truth of union, that is, the setting of the saints in Christ where He is in the heavenlies. But we have the additional truth as to the body that it is "the fulness of him that filleth all in all". Christ is set personally at God's right hand far above

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all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this age but in that to come. All things are put under His feet (Psalm 8), and He is given as Head over all things to the assembly which is His body, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. In the divine counsel the body is sufficient for Christ even as filling all in all, and being His fulness not a trait of Christ is deficient. May God give us some estimation of the greatness of His thought, and use the above, though it be but a bare outline, to this end.

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NOTES OF READINGS ON MATTHEW

CHAPTER 1

D.L.H. A suggestion has been made that we should read one of the gospels.

F.E.R. If we take a gospel, I would suggest that we take Matthew.

Ques. I suppose chapter 1 shows us Joseph's Son legally, though not actually?

Ques. Why do you suppose Matthew stands first in order? Luke begins earlier in one way, though not in another. I mean, Luke begins with a pious remnant. Matthew in the genealogy goes back to before that, and therefore in that sense earlier.

Rem. I think it was necessary in the first place to establish Christ's rights as Messiah -- heir to the throne.

Ques. Is it not the promised seed, and therefore he begins with Abraham?

Rem. A brother suggests an answer to the question of order: the Jew first, the Gentile afterwards.

F.E.R. I think the first great point is the connection with the past -- with the line of promise, in connection with the Old Testament. It was necessary that the line should be maintained.

Ques. Something after the manner in which in the epistle to the Hebrews the Spirit of God takes up what already existed?

F.E.R. Yes. After the presentation to the people of the vessel of promise, other things may come out, but that is the first thing. It is the fulfilment of prophecy. He was the One in whom the promises must be accomplished.

Ques. Do not we find that the title, Son of man, comes in with His rejection, so that we can hardly

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begin with the gospel that sets forth the Lord under that title?

F.E.R. As to the order in which the gospels stand, it is only man's arrangement; at the same time I think it is right that the connection with what went before should come first. It does not matter in one way which comes first. I suppose it was felt to be well that this gospel should come first, but there is no significance beyond that. Really John stands at the head of all the gospels. There you get the truth of the Person, and everything must be subordinate to that.

Ques. Is it as man here?

F.E.R. Well, but in John He is as much man as in any other. Who He was must be before what He became, if Christ is to be presented to Israel, He must be presented according to the way in which God had spoken. The word had spoken of the coming of Christ. Otherwise it would have been outside of their responsibility -- Son of David, Son of Abraham.

Ques. Why do we get these three cycles of fourteen generations?

F.E.R. In the account of God there are certain generations in each period.

Rem. That is important, because as a matter of fact some generations are omitted.

F.E.R. One thing is very important, the birthright belongs to Joseph, but the genealogy is maintained in Judah. It is of the greatest moment for the future.

Ques. From thence is the Shepherd the Stone of Israel?

F.E.R. The blessing belongs to Israel, but the genealogy is in Judah. God has maintained a link with Abraham, etc.; that is in Christ. Israel in the future comes into blessing in Christ. If the birthright had been in Judah, Israel might have been shut out.

Ques. Do you mean that other tribes cannot maintain their genealogy in the future?

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F.E.R. I mean, God has maintained it for them.

Ques. Is it from the God of Jacob or from Joseph the stone comes?

F.E.R. From the God of Jacob. I do not know why it is in connection with Joseph it comes in.

Rem. Joseph is peculiarly typical of Christ.

F.E.R. Yes; but you could scarcely say, "from thence", etc., on account of that.

Rem. No, I did not mean that, but that is why it is associated with him.

F.E.R. It is important that in Judah is the line of genealogy. I remember it being spoken of years ago in regard to 1 Chronicles 5:1, 2; I do not know that I took it in then, but I have thought about it since. Christ was Joseph's Son legally, and I suppose, too, in the account of God -- as regards earthly title -- "Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ". That title is taken up.

Rem. Christ really means the anointed Man. The actual anointing took place when the Holy Spirit came upon Him.

F.E.R. The Lord speaks of it in that way. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me", etc.

Ques. What is the significance of bringing in Rahab and Tamar?

F.E.R. It has been said, to cast a slur upon the house of David. It was that they should not boast in the flesh. The omissions are remarkable. It is a wonderful thing to get things as they are seen in the eye of God. If men had had the writing of this they would have left out all that tended to cast a slur upon the genealogy. The very way the Scriptures are written is a testimony to their being of God. In them you get things as God viewed them, not as man did.

Rem. That is why these things are spoken of as spiritually discerned.

Ques. Spiritually discerned. Would that be a

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reflection upon any action of the mind in attempting to discern?

F.E.R. The passage is intended to show you how to discern. There is no other way. I can understand a man taking up divine things, but it is the spiritual man who discerns.

Ques. Spiritual discernment would be linked with the Holy Spirit?

F.E.R. It is a question of state; you could not speak of the Corinthians as being spiritual, although they had the Spirit. There is great danger with an active-minded person of trying to take in divine things, and this passage is a check. A spiritual man is a self-judged man, that is one thing. It is put in contrast with a natural man. The Spirit is the real living power in the believer, and you cannot separate the Spirit, who is the source of the state, from the state; but we are not, I think, on 1 Corinthians 2. There is no communication with Mary here, it is with Joseph. I think the Son of David is in view. "Joseph, thou son of David". It is not the seed of the woman but the seed of David that is in view.

Ques. Emmanuel!

F.E.R. Christ is Emmanuel, the vessel in whom God was set forth. Name means renown. God was with them. You get in Colossians, "In him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell".

Rem. The whole Godhead found its expression in the blessed Lord.

Ques. And that is maintained in this chapter?

F.E.R. Yes. He became the vessel in which God was to be set forth. Emmanuel is not exactly personal to Jesus, only there is one thing to remember, that though the vessel, yet He Himself was divine. What comes out in later chapters is the setting forth of God in the midst of His people.

Ques. You connect the name Emmanuel with the divine fulness dwelling in Him?

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F.E.R. I think the Son became the vessel in order that God might be brought close to man in the midst of His people. It was not possible in the Old Testament.

Rem. So you get Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

F.E.R. Yes; all come out. You get two things: He is Christ, the vessel of promise, but at the same time He is the vessel in which God is perfectly set forth. You get the same now. He is the expression of the glory of God, all the divine pleasure, in a man; but all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in Him. If you would learn the pleasure of God in a man, you must learn it in Jesus, but it is the same Person in whom all the fulness of the Godhead dwells. I do not think the Jew entered into it, that is, that they identified the two. They had the two thoughts in Scripture.

Ques. Do you take that from the questions and answers of the disciples?

F.E.R. Yes, and from the Lord's question, "What think ye of Christ? whose son is he?"

Rem. There you get the truth of His Person lying at the root of it.

F.E.R. Yes, I cannot conceive any other way possible for God to dwell among men except in a divine Person come down among them. No other would be adequate even as a vessel.

Ques. How far does "save his people from their sins" go? Beyond breaking off the Roman yoke?

F.E.R. Yes; they were under Gentile oppression; but the great purpose of the coming of the Lord was to save them from their sins: everything is looked at from the eye of God, it was easy enough to save them from the bondage of the Romans.

Rem. You get the idea of that in the case of the man with the palsy.

F.E.R. They must get rid of their sins before they can rise up and walk.

Ques. Do you distinguish between saving from

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their sins and saving from the consequences of them? Saving from the Roman yoke would be the consequences?

F.E.R. I suppose it practically comes to that, saving them from their sins would lead to saving them from the consequences.

Ques. Does it not go on to the future?

F.E.R. Yes, that is the covenant when God takes away their sins; but in some way the governmental wrath of God will come upon them.

Rem. In Isaiah 40 they receive double for their sins.

F.E.R. Yet ultimately God will save them from their sins, and I think the proof of it will be they will be relieved from the pressure of death. It carries you on to the quotation in 1 Corinthians 15, "death is swallowed up in victory".

Rem. "Thou shalt call his name Jesus". Was that in connection with Joseph personally? Lower down we get, "they shall call his name Emmanuel".

F.E.R. That is what the Jewish mind did not take in, not even the believing ones; the disciples were very slow to apprehend who Jesus was. They had the two thoughts, but I question whether they put them together.

Ques. Did not Peter receive it in chapter 16?

F.E.R. What you get coming in there is what you may call relative terms. I think Peter took very little of it in, for soon after he rebukes the Lord for thinking of death. It was a revelation beyond his state. It was a moment for a Jew to learn that something new was coming in. It was a direct revelation from the Father to Peter, not what Peter saw in the Lord. Well, it is a great thing to see His title to Israel. In spite of all the persecution of the prophets, the Lord came, the vessel of promise. It is striking, because they had broken the law and persecuted the prophets; but in the Person of Christ the promises are presented to them, but the One in whom the promises are presented

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was Emmanuel, and "God with us" in that way was God with them in grace in chapter 8, according to Isaiah 53, and in chapter 9, according to Psalm 103.

CHAPTER 2

F.E.R. I think it helps somewhat the understanding of the gospels to see that Matthew and Luke present the Lord to us in the way in which He is to be known on earth, that is, by Israel as in Matthew, and by man as in Luke. In John's gospel, on the other hand, He is presented to us, in a sense, as He is known in the Father's house. It is the same Person, but He will not be known upon earth as He is known in the Father's house. In John it is I know, and am known ... "as the Father knows me, and I know the Father". That is how He is known in the Father's house. That is how He is presented in John, not in Matthew. In the other gospels He is veiled, as it were.

Ques. Will you complete the circle and say what Mark is?

F.E.R. Well, Mark hardly comes in. He is there the spokesman of God.

Rem. In the John aspect He could only be known by those whose eyes were opened. In Matthew in His presentation is shown the state of Israel, that when He came they did not receive Him.

F.E.R. You will find that repentance and remission of sins to be preached among all nations is the close of the gospel of Luke. I quite admit that you may be carried farther if you take the parables -- the prodigal son, for example.

Rem. There is a touch of John in Matthew 11.

Rem. And there is the church in chapter 16.

F.E.R. Yes; but the Lord does not complete the instruction about it, but goes on to speak of the kingdom.

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Rem. There is just enough in Matthew to show what God was going to do on the rejection of Christ.

F.E.R. What was coming in was completely outside the knowledge of man, you are shut up to the Son and the Father; chapter 11.

Ques. Do we come into the knowledge of the Father and the Son by the Spirit?

F.E.R. We come into it effectually by the divine nature, we cannot enter into it but by the divine nature.

Ques. Will it be right to say that in Matthew we have the accomplishment of promise, in Luke the accomplishment of purpose, and in John the revelation of God?

F.E.R. A very distinct feature of Matthew is the accomplishment of Scripture.

Ques. When you say 'purpose', what do you mean?

Answer. God's purpose in man.

F.E.R. In Matthew Christ is viewed as the vessel of promise, in Luke as the vessel of grace. He came to relieve man of every pressure under which man lay, that is pretty much the character of Luke.

Ques. Would you say the scope of grace is wider than the promise?

F.E.R. Yes. The promises are fulfilled in Matthew, but in Luke humanity is considered. It is the woman's seed. I fancy it is all leading up to Paul's doctrine, the no difference doctrine.

Rem. The gospel is preached oftener from Luke than any other.

F.E.R. And it seems to me perfectly just. I think it is important to see the different views that are given in the four gospels; to remember that it is the same Person presented in different lights, but one single Person in all four.

Rem. You let everything go if you do not hold that.

F.E.R. If you let that go you have lost all. When you come to Matthew, chapter 1 gives us His name, in

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the middle of chapter 4 He enters upon His ministry, what comes between is what was presented to the eye of God in connection with His birth, etc.

Ques. Is there anything in "seeing his star"?

F.E.R. It was something special. The fact is, God met those poor men where they were.

Ques. What do you connect with His name?

F.E.R. It is His renown, His renown was that He was Emmanuel. It refers to what was set forth in Him, not so much to what He was personally. He was not simply Christ and His pedigree traced from Abraham, but He was Emmanuel, God with them. Name is used to designate, it is renown. At the name (renown) of Jesus every knee shall bow. The sad thing is that the poor Gentiles were looking out for the King of the Jews, when there was no movement among the Jews.

Rem. The first intimation they had of His birth was from these wise men. And is it not very remarkable that not Herod only, but all Jerusalem was troubled. Why were they troubled?

F.E.R. Because they did not like disturbance, that is the reason people do not like conversion. They would sooner have a legion of devils than a man converted.

Rem. This is in keeping with the brightness of His rising among the Gentiles.

F.E.R. It was the sign of it.

Rem. Some considerable time had elapsed between the birth and the announcement of it at Jerusalem, some two years. Pictures lead us astray, the wise men are seen in the stable. They mix up the shepherds and the wise men.

F.E.R. It was all used in the providence of God that the history of Israel might be taken up afresh. Israel in a certain sense is set aside, just as Jacob had to go down to Egypt so had Christ. It was the disturbance consequent upon the visit of the wise men that caused the going down. I saw it pointed out

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somewhere that Christ identifies Himself with Israel's history in Psalm 18 right away from the outset, and that is the ground upon which they come into blessing in the future, not on the ground of their responsibility, but of their connection with Christ. Their history has been traced again in Christ. In Isaiah the remnant comes in in connection with Christ, and that is the great importance of seeing the history of Israel complete in Christ, so that God should be glorified in Him. Israel was forty years in the wilderness, Christ forty days. While in Israel it brought out failure, in Christ it brought out perfection.

Ques. Would that same principle hold good in Luke as to man?

F.E.R. Yes. The coming of these wise men brings out the condition of Israel. It is most painful to see how the Jews and the Gentiles were all mixed up in this matter. It was a kind of Satanic plot to cut off the line. It had been attempted before to cut off the royal line. The great red dragon of Revelation gives it to us, only there it was to swallow up the man child that was to rule all nations. The point of great beauty to me in this chapter is that if Israel is to be identified with Christ in blessing, He must be identified with them in suffering. He goes down into Egypt that He might be completely identified with what Israel had to pass through, that you get in detail in Psalm 18; He identifies Himself with the remnant at His baptism, but He had been into Egypt first.

Ques. You said just now that the first intimation the Jews had was the visit of the wise men, but were there not a few in Jerusalem who were in touch with God about these things before?

Rem. But there is nothing about that here.

F.E.R. The Spirit of God takes up every trace of piety in Luke, all the fruit and remains of piety that existed; but what you get in Matthew is the responsible side, the responsible people are presented.

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Rem. In Luke He is separating the precious from the vile.

F.E.R. You can very well understand when you come to Matthew that the responsible people come more into view, the heads, they were the husbandmen, in that sense even Herod was responsible. I quite admit that Herod was an Edomite, he used his place, if he could, to cut off the true line of David, he usurped the kingdom, and to keep it would cut off the true line.

Rem. It is remarkable how the Lord here is in the completest sense in the place of man. Herod's effort is not met by divine power but by providence. It was not Mary but Joseph takes Him down to Egypt. Everything is natural.

F.E.R. It is exceedingly beautiful to see what was then under the eye of God in the young child.

Ques. You said the first thing was the name, what was the next?

F.E.R. What came in next under the eye of God was the perfection of the One who had taken Israel's place. He goes to the wilderness to be tested, but the testing only brings out the perfectness. I think it is an immense thing to recognise what has been under the eye of God upon this earth. We are very little acquainted with it.

Ques. I suppose Herod and Jerusalem knew who He was?

F.E.R. I think they had a sense of it. People know uncommonly well where the truth is, in the present day people know a great deal better than you think where the truth is; they would not allow it, but it makes very little account to me what they allow. Look at the way, for example, that they will not let Scripture alone. Men do not like the truth being brought home to them, because it means displacement for man. If you preach the truth you will not fill a room with a popular audience, but you may fill it with souls with whom God is working.

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Rem. I do not think our empty rooms are because we have too much of Christ, but because we have not enough.

F.E.R. We get another remarkable thing at the close of the chapter, that is, His going to Nazareth. It was through Joseph's fear, but the voice of the prophets had to be fulfilled.

Ques. Do you read verse 22 as in spite of "being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside into the parts of Galilee"?

F.E.R. I think it was in consequence of it; I suppose as far as that goes He would not have gone into the land at all otherwise. The Lord had to be identified with the Nazarene, it was the fulfilment, not of what any particular prophet had said, but the prophets.

Ques. I have never been able to find out where that is spoken?

F.E.R. It is not apparently a quotation from any particular prophet, it is a term of reproach as I understand it, and the prophets had spoken of this.

Ques. You do not connect it with the Nazarite?

Rem. There might be a connection with the Nazarite, as the root for Nazareth has the same meaning, separation.

Rem. It is another root really, though similar in pronunciation.

F.E.R. Term of reproach, I think it means.

Ques. What is the connection with Rachel weeping for her children?

F.E.R. I think they were indifferent to Christ, and had to weep for their own children.

Rem. Benoni is son of my sorrow.

F.E.R. Israel was God's son and stood in relation to Him, but only in anticipation of Christ. It gives place to Christ.

Ques. If the Jews had been in a right state would it have been necessary for Jesus to go into Egypt?

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F.E.R. It is impossible for us to reason in that way. God always carries out His purpose through the evil of man.

Ques. Were the wise men true to the testimony God had given them in creation, while the Jews who had the law were unfaithful, Psalm 19? They had a link with God outside the Jewish order of things.

F.E.R. It was scarcely the heavens, they saw a meteor. They must have had the idea of the King in their minds in coming up to Jerusalem.

Rem. I thought it was from the prophecy of Balaam, God spoke of a star there, no doubt symbolically, but God met them with this star.

Rem. It seems remarkable that the Spirit of God should recognise them as wise men.

Rem. I should think they were wise men if they had taken heed to what God had said.

Rem. It is remarkable that they came from the place where the line of kings had disappeared. I have no doubt they came from Babylon.

Ques. Was not the hand of God in it in making known to the uttermost parts of the earth? They did not stay in Jerusalem but went back!

Rem. The point here is what they did, and not their private history.

F.E.R. The subject before us is the relation of Christ to Israel, the taking up again of Israel's history, in this chapter. It has been taken up afresh in Christ, it is the accomplishment of God's promise. You see the same thought in John 15, "I am the true vine". Israel in the future is to come in under Christ. They cannot come in under calling or promise after the flesh, but simply under Christ.

Rem. The thread of everything in which man has broken down, has been taken up in Christ, and in redemption a ground has been formed on which we can come in under Christ and be blessed.

F.E.R. Nothing is more important than that.

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CHAPTER 3 - 4: 11

F.E.R. I think we see that chapter 1 is Christ's name, and it is a great thing to get hold of that; then in chapter 2 His identification with Israel from the outset, He goes down to Egypt that He might be called out of Egypt; and in the chapter before us we get a new departure in the ways of God. It is no longer recalling the people to law and prophets, but the kingdom of heaven is at hand. It is a great thing to apprehend this, because it enables us to see how the Lord identified Himself with it at the close of the chapter.

Ques. Does it not emphasise what you are saying to see that the voice comes from the wilderness, setting aside all constituted things?

F.E.R. It is a voice, too, from the priestly tribe, John belonged to that, and yet, as you say, from the wilderness. Zacharias ministered in the temple; John, his son, preached in the wilderness, and Jordan was the place of his baptism. I suppose Jordan means death.

Ques. Is there any significance in the baptism being in the river by which they entered the land?

F.E.R. They have to come on to completely new ground.

Ques. Like what the Lord says, "Except ye be converted, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven"?

F.E.R. The same thing comes out here, "think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father".

Ques. In connection with baptism you always get some new thing or new start, do you not?

F.E.R. I think so; the great thought of baptism is dissociation from all you were connected with before.

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Ques. I suppose by means of John's testimony the godly remnant was separated?

F.E.R. I think so. They were separated in view of the kingdom, but another point comes out -- judgment was imminent, "the axe is laid unto the root of the trees". It is always of great importance to seize the bearing of the moment, the mind of God at the particular crisis. At the present time I think it is "the Spirit and the bride say, Come"; so at that time it was most important to seize the bearing of the moment.

Rem. That is, there is no blessing for man except through death.

F.E.R. It must be so, if death is upon man then through death blessing must come.

Rem. It has always been true.

F.E.R. The principle stands good through Scripture. In the Old Testament if a man came to God he had to come with the acknowledgement that death was upon him. Naaman had to go down into Jordan, he had to drown every pretension, and he felt it to be such. Every pretension I have as a man must go.

Ques. Why was the Lord baptised?

F.E.R. To fulfil righteousness. The people were baptised on the ground of repentance. There was no repentance in the Lord's case.

Rem. Fulfilling righteousness is the maintaining in the presence of evil what is right before God.

Rem. He could not have identified Himself with the remnant apart from it.

F.E.R. No; but it was no baptism of repentance for Him, though He is identified with them.

Rem. It has been said, Grace brought Him where sin brought us.

Ques. Did He own the righteous claim of death?

F.E.R. He owned it with regard to Israel. Every one acquainted with Scripture must notice how the

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Lord identifies Himself with Israel and even with their sins in the Psalms.

Rem. This is in keeping with Psalm 16.

F.E.R. Yes; but now we get a wonderful thing coming out, He is owned as God's beloved Son.

Ques. What is the force of the kingdom of the heavens?

F.E.R. It is the sway on earth of what God has established in heaven. I think the idea is taken from the sun, the sun was set to rule the day, the sun is in the heavens. The kingdom of heaven was not set up until the Lord was in heaven. There are two parts in Matthew: one goes on the ground that the Lord is down here, and the other, from chapter 16, that He is exalted. I mean that this is seen in the parables of the king's son, etc., but not those in chapter 13, it has not come to that. He is the sower.

Rem. There is a remarkable expression in Luke after the transfiguration, "when the time was come that he should be received up".

F.E.R. That is a transitional part in Luke, in the next chapter Satan is seen to fall from heaven, and the disciples' names are written there. In our scripture I think it is wonderful to see wherever these poor people take a right step they have a great accession of light. The Lord was identified with them, and you get the full revelation of God as known in the economy of grace, not exactly Father, Son, and Spirit, and yet it is the Father and the Son and the Spirit; you will call that refining a bit, but it is "to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him". If you speak of Christ in eternity you would speak of Him as Son, not quite Son of God. That applies to Him as born into this world. He takes a place relatively lower, as become Man, and He is the Son of God, "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee". "Son of the Father"

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in 2 John, I think, refers to what was eternal. You cannot help seeing that in becoming Man He takes a place relatively lower; but then the moment He does that (Hebrews 1) He is constantly saluted as God. There is the most careful maintenance of His glory, His proper divine rights.

If people take a right step they get a great access of light. I do not think any one gets much until he does. You get light enough for the step, not much beyond until you have taken the step. People do not get much light about the church until they have left the systems of men. We are so accustomed to the terms of the revelation that we fail to see what an accession of light it must have been to them. I cannot conceive any more wonderful blessing for God to give to man than to make Himself known in what He is. I would give up everything else to keep that.

Rem. There can be nothing greater in eternity.

F.E.R. You come next to that wonderful scene -- the temptation. It is the Son of God tested.

Ques. Son of God as born into the world?

F.E.R. Yes; it is after the baptism and the Spirit had descended upon Him that He is tempted. I do not think the saints meet the temptation of Satan until they have the Spirit. Typically I do not think Israel did. It was after the giving of the water that Amalek came. I do not think God allows you to be exposed to the temptation of Satan until you have the Spirit. He providentially shields you. Now this truth comes out you do not need forty years to prove the flesh. Israel had forty years of being tested and humbled, and they needed it; but now it is seen that the moment you walk in the Spirit you are superior to evil. Satan is defeated at the very outset, you do not need forty years to learn yourself.

Rem. It is a great thing to see that we are to be in the power of the Spirit.

Rem. At the first God did not lead Israel through

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the land of the Philistines lest they should be afraid and turn back.

F.E.R. But they were foolish enough afterwards to trust the flesh, and if we trust the flesh we might need forty years, but there is no need really.

Ques. Is the result of the temptation that the strong man was bound?

F.E.R. Yes. To me it is wonderful how the Lord meets Satan.

Rem. He takes the Lord up as Son of God, because He had just been owned as such.

F.E.R. Well, no, I do not think it was because of that, the devil always knew Him to be the Son of God; it is a curious thing that what men did not know the devils did. How they knew I could not tell; they are spiritual beings, and they knew.

Rem. There was a testimony here.

F.E.R. Well, I do not think it was because of that, they knew Him in some way apart from that.

Rem. But that distinguished Him, and I suppose these spiritual beings took note of it.

Ques. Was He not announced as Son of God at His birth?

F.E.R. Yes; but all that is to faith, not to wicked spirits. I do not think they were affected by such.

Rem. Angelic hosts proclaimed the glory of God at His birth.

F.E.R. Every part of the temptation is so wonderful to me, it all commends itself to me as so perfect; to begin with, you get One with all divine power at His disposal, and yet He will not use it to relieve Himself. Where could you conceive such a thing save in a divine Person, and to relieve Himself in what was perfectly right; it was perfectly right for man to want bread and to look for bread, but the Lord will not relieve Himself of hunger, because He will not take Himself out of the true place of man.

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Rem. Had He done so it would have been no pattern to us, it is all as man.

F.E.R. He would not do anything at the bidding of Satan. He does not expose Satan until the last, although, of course, He knew him from the first. It is a great thing to know that Satan has met his match in man, you thus get the path, and you get the great principles marked out in the Lord for us.

Ques. In what way are we led into the wilderness?

F.E.R. The moment may come when a saint is exposed to peculiar assaults of the enemy. I think God allows a saint to be tested.

Rem. But then God will never do that without He fortifies you first.

F.E.R. That is the beautiful thing here, you first get the light, and then you are tested; you never get a great accession of light but you find yourself tested afterwards. You would be inclined otherwise to ride the high horse, and you have to find your bearings. It is the greatest possible comfort that the path has been marked out for us, we are not called to tread a path that has not been marked out. You see what a man is to be under the eye of God. You really are morally what you glory in; if a man glories in evil, that is what he is, if he glories in Christ that is what he is morally.

Ques. Do you think the great point is the lack of bread?

F.E.R. Yes; and to supply it people set to work and use human means. I am not left in the world for my own will, but for the will of God, and if so, I can count upon God for my bread. Christ was here for the will of God, and He will not use His power to alter His circumstances; the path of dependence is the only path for a man who is here for the will of God. Satan wants you to be here for your own will, and if you are here for your own will you are here for Satan's will. The second temptation is putting

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God to the test; if you put God to the test, very likely He will not answer to it. God is not at my call. Finally, Satan exposes himself when he proposes himself as an object of homage, and gets rebuked: "Get thee hence, Satan".

Rem. The first temptations were what you call 'wiles'.

Ques. What do we get in the last temptation?

F.E.R. Satan will make a bold bid, it is wonderful how people are taken in by barefaced wantonness. He comes out boldly as Satan, he is under some restraint in the first two. Some who would stand the first well are taken in by the last.

Rem. It is like the last desperate throw, he risks everything.

Ques. Has "keep yourselves from idols" anything to do with it?

F.E.R. It is remarkable that you get that in the epistle that brings out Christian privilege in the highest development, where there is really the display of God morally in the saint, yet this warning against idolatry comes at the end.

Rem. And now angels come and minister to the Lord.

F.E.R. He had to do with evil spirits, and now with good ones. Angels are guardians of the heavenly city, and they are in attendance upon Christ. In Gethsemane we get angels again. If a saint is faithful he gets some mark of providential favour. Angels are sent forth as ministers for those who are heirs of salvation. It is in contrast with helping Himself.

Ques. What is the difference between the order here and in Luke?

F.E.R. They are, I suppose, in historical order in Matthew, in moral order in Luke; in Luke the first is the natural, and then the worldly. The words, "Get thee behind me, Satan", ought not to be in Luke, it is a spurious passage there. It looks as it

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stands as though Satan did not go away when bidden.

Rem. Does not this in Matthew correspond to the failures of Israel in the wilderness? First, they murmured for bread; then tempted the Lord at Massah; and lastly, threw Him off in the golden calf.

F.E.R. I think that is of importance here. The great point is the way in which all was taken up in connection with Israel.

Ques. Does this correspond to "all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world", 1 John 2?

F.E.R. Well, I should expect to find that more in Luke.

CHAPTER 4: 12; CHAPTER 5

F.E.R. In chapter 1 we had Christ's name; in chapter 2 His identification with Israel's history; in chapter 3 John Baptist's testimony and Jesus baptised and owned as God's beloved Son; and in the first part of chapter 4 the temptation, all a sort of moral sequence; now, in the latter part of the chapter, we have His entrance upon His ministry, John being put in prison being in a sense the signal.

Rem. With regard to John Baptist, does he not carry on Elijah's ministry, beginning at the place where Elijah left off -- the Jordan? Then it is carried on in the book of Revelation in the two witnesses. It is the continued testimony of Elijah. The temptations are arranged according to the structure of each gospel. Matthew gives Man, Messiah, and Son of man; Luke, Man, Son of man, Messiah. Matthew presenting Messiah, brings Messiah in second; Luke presenting Man, brings Son of man second.

F.E.R. It says of John that he should go in the spirit and power of Elijah.

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Ques. Does the Lord expect His own rejection in thus going into Galilee?

F.E.R. I think He does. Galilee was the proper scene of His service; but there is another thing, prophecy was fulfilled.

Rem. In going into Galilee He identifies Himself with the despised few.

F.E.R. In a certain sense the prophecy stands by for the future. When the Assyrian came up in the past the people had not had a great light, when he comes up in the future they have had a great light, the darkness will not be as it was in the past. "The people which sat in darkness saw great light". That is in connection with Christ's presence. The light was connected with His own Person, He was the Light. It is very interesting to see the connection of a quotation, the quotation helps you greatly to see the meaning of its connection. Quotations are made in a very intelligent way.

Rem. But often they are made in a surprising way.

F.E.R. Yes, and they often throw a reflex light upon the passage from which they are taken. The service begins here, verse 17. It is the starting point. Jesus takes up John the baptist's testimony. You see a little lower down He went about all Galilee. It is not that all this took place just at that time, but it is the remarkable form His service took. It is repeated almost word for word at the close of chapter 9.

Rem. The kingdom here bears upon the kingdom in Daniel 2:44. That, of course, is the millennial kingdom.

F.E.R. I think the force of it in the mind of a Jew was pretty definite. The whole burden of the prophets led them to look for a good time to come.

Rem. Acts 1 shows that very clearly, asking the Lord whether He would restore the kingdom to Israel.

F.E.R. Everything portended it. Christ was to

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sit upon David's throne, the promises of God had to be fulfilled.

Ques. Is that called the kingdom of heaven? It is not so called in the prophets.

F.E.R. I do not doubt that the idea is in Daniel. The king had to learn that the heavens rule.

Rem. And that does assume the rule of the heavenly kingdom.

F.E.R. It assumes the rule of what God has set in the heaven. I do not think it is the vague and indefinite idea of the rule of heaven, but of what God has set in heaven. The form in which it comes to us is the authority of the Lord, that is the kingdom of heaven to us practically. The Lord is set in heaven, the church is not set there yet. I quite admit that in the future it takes the definite form of the kingdom of the Son of man, but in that day you get the saints associated with Christ in rule, they reign with Him.

Ques. What are we to understand was before the mind of the Lord when He said, "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand"?

F.E.R. The general idea; you could not tell what form the kingdom would assume; what really came in were the mysteries of the kingdom, that is, the kingdom did not come out in a manifest form, mysteries are in contrast to what is manifested.

Ques. Would it be right to say that the kingdom was presented to the Jew as the responsible man?

F.E.R. Yes, only we must remember that the Lord said from the beginning, "Ye must be born again". You do not get the mysteries of the kingdom until the Lord takes the place of the sower. Repentance is in view of the kingdom.

Ques. I suppose you have the blessing of man on the earth in the Lord healing diseases?

F.E.R. I think you have the definite setting forth of what God was to Israel in the Lord's ministry. Up to this it is the perfect setting forth of man, now it is

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the perfect setting forth of God in a Man, all that God was towards His people, preaching, teaching, healing, made up the service. The idea of preaching is heralding what was to come, teaching is more moral, and the healing sets forth the power of God superior to everything that man was subject to.

Rem. Miracles are called the power of the world to come.

F.E.R. Yes. God will show His power to relieve man from every evil by which man is afflicted. It is in the grace of God to do it. People scoff at miracles, but to scoff at miracles is to leave God out. It is in His power to relieve man of every evil by which he is afflicted, the only question involved is the righteousness of God because these things are the fruit of sin, scoffing at miracles only shows gross moral incapacity in those who do it.

Ques. Would you say these miracles were specially in connection with the new testimony that God was establishing?

F.E.R. You can look at miracles as vouchers of testimony, but then they were more than that, because they were the expression of God's goodness. It is important to see that the Lord becomes a centre. No prophet ever gathered to himself. No one but Christ could take such a place. He takes it before He enters upon service. It brings in such an important point, that is, association with Him. You do not get it fully here, of course. I think association with Christ is one of the great truths of Scripture. There is association with Christ in the church and also in the kingdom. In the Revelation you get the 144,000 on Mount Sion, they are in association with Christ. They are the only company, I think, in the Revelation to which a character is given. I fancy they answer pretty much to what is set forth in Matthew 5. They are not a heavenly company, but they sing the song, and no one could learn it but themselves. In Matthew 5

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it is not Christianity exactly, it is so morally, of course, but it is characteristic of a people who are on earth.

Rem. The salt of the earth.

Rem. Associated with Christ.

F.E.R. Yes, that is the great point, the 144,000 never leave Him.

Rem. They are with Christ in earthly circumstances.

Rem. That is the actual remnant by-and-by.

F.E.R. Yes, but I think the 144,000 are a special company with special privileges.

Rem. It is interesting to see how God has determined to associate men with Himself.

F.E.R. I think that comes out here in the beginning, and at the close the Lord says, "Ye are they who have continued with me in my temptations". Eating and drinking imply the place in association with Christ and the apostles, each have their distinctive place, they sit on thrones.

Rem. You cannot identify in every respect the whole of this chapter 5 as belonging to us, the Lord's prayer for instance.

F.E.R. No, although you may get many things which morally apply to us. I do not think you find association in the Old Testament. It is the great thought of Christianity.

Rem. "Behold I and the children which God hath given me", was the beginning of that association.

Rem. In the gospel of Mark the Lord calls the disciples that they might be with Him.

Ques. Do you say there is association in the church and in the kingdom?

F.E.R. Yes. I see in Thessalonians, that although it does not unfold Christian privilege as in Ephesians, yet you are with Christ in the kingdom, you are waiting for and coming with the Lord.

Ques. Why are the Thessalonians addressed as in God the Father?

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F.E.R. Because they were in the truth of it, the Father had been revealed to them and they stood in the truth of it.

Ques. Does the term, "kingdom of the Father", give the heavenly side and the kingdom of the Son of man the earthly?

F.E.R. It has been thought so, I do not know that I have tested it. One great principle is, that things are stated on broader ground in the gospels than in the epistles. The epistles are written more to Christians, and do not in general go beyond what applies to them and to the church. In the Revelation there is no distinction between the church and the Old Testament saints in the elders of chapter 5.

Ques. Would you say that with regard to the epistle to Romans?

F.E.R. Yes, why not?

Ques. Because in chapters 2 and 3 He takes up the Jew and the Gentiles, and eternal life comes in as a reward.

F.E.R. It is only the introduction, and refers not to blessing but the responsibility of man, but it is in view of Christian blessing.

Ques. Do you think the crowds were following the Lord in a natural way at the close of chapter 4, and He begins His sayings in chapter 5 to show to them the kind of people who were to go into the kingdom?

F.E.R. I think the going up into a mountain signified that His teaching was outside this world.

Rem. I have thought the mountain was the seat of authority, just as Moses had done before.

F.E.R. Well, I daresay it is that, too, but to me it is more the position the Lord took, more His place outside the world. It was a continual habit with Him to go up into a mountain. He is not here as a legislator, but as a teacher, I fancy.

Ques. Does not Hebrews 8 show that Moses was shown heavenly things on the mount?

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F.E.R. Yes, I think so. If people are perfectly indifferent to the state of things here on earth they will get no instruction, if they are content to remain down here on the earth and do not go up after the Lord.

Rem. It does not say the crowds went up, but the disciples did.

Rem. The Lord draws a moral picture of Himself.

Rem. And shows the kind of people who were to go in to the kingdom. I think the people thought they were all right, that is what comes out in the question of Nicodemus.

Ques. Would you give us a little outline of these chapters 5, 6 and 7?

F.E.R. I think the principles that are found in Titus 2 come out in them. We are to live soberly, righteously and godly. Chapter 5 is righteousness. Chapter 6 brings in what has direct reference to God, piety; and chapter 7 is more sobriety. Chapter 5 is a wonderful chapter, you get the rebuking of the two great principles of evil, violence and corruption; and then we have "Love your enemies", that is the character of God coming out. At the first you get evil rebuked, but the positive thing is the character of God coming out. It is a most wonderful epitome of righteousness according to God.

Ques. Does James make any allusion to this in the royal law?

F.E.R. It is more than the royal law, it is the character of God: the royal law is the law written in the heart. Here it is the character of God, it is thus we are sons of the Father, not actually begotten, but we come out in that moral likeness. I do not think the Lord could propound any line of conduct inferior to His own.

Rem. He was what He taught.

F.E.R. Yes, and others were to be that, too. What you get is, "Ye are the salt", and then "Let your

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light shine". It is a wonderful chapter. The springs of evil are judged and it is not a law written in your hearts, but love your enemies, the character of God comes out in practice, for when you come to faithfulness and not recompensing evil, it is what the Lord was here.

Rem. It is what gives power to testimony.

F.E.R. Yes, and we come up very poorly to it.

Rem. You are to be what Christ was in the world.

F.E.R. Yes, you may say it was impossible for Him to propound a line of conduct which was inferior to His own.

Rem. But then you would say it needs the Spirit to carry it out; you can hardly take up this chapter without that, or you would be making the people all legal.

F.E.R. Well, I think it is a great thing to set before people what they ought to be; when you come to the millennium, when everything is ordered according to God, a great deal of this will not apply, you will not have to love your enemies and no man will smite you on the cheek.

Rem. This is introductory to the establishment of the kingdom.

F.E.R. You prove yourselves to be children of the Father.

Rem. I think that is where the teaching touches us, because we are in circumstances where the opposition is not removed.

F.E.R. I think we show up poorly in all this, we know well how readily we resent any offence, as if God resented; it would be all up with us if He did.

Ques. What is the fulfilling of the law in verse 17?

F.E.R. As far as I understand it, it all depended upon the Lord; but He will not have a slight put upon it. He maintains the law, because it expressed the authority of God. All had to be fulfilled, nothing should pass away.

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Rem. He was there to make everything good for God.

F.E.R. Yes, the law was to be vindicated; and not only that, but the transgressions which were under it were to be put away; but here it is not law, not even the spirituality of it, that He was insisting upon.

Rem. They might have thought He was making light of it because of this, and therefore He says this.

F.E.R. The Lord brings in something further than an eye for an eye; you are beyond that here, you are to love your enemies.

Rem. In these passages He is putting Himself in contrast to the law, "But I say unto you".

Ques. What is the righteousness of the law fulfilled in us? Similar to what we are reading here?

F.E.R. No, I do not think it comes up to it; the righteous requirement of the law was not loving your enemies, the righteousness which is of God is.

Ques. Does it stand restricted to that in Romans 8?

F.E.R. You may fulfil a great deal more, but the immediate point there is the fulfilment of the righteous requirement of the law by those who walk in the Spirit.

Rem. Being Son of the Father would carry us farther?

F.E.R. Yes, because we have the character of God there.

Ques. Do we see the Lord here as Prophet?

F.E.R. I think it is more as teacher. He is expounding the character which is according to God, suited for association with Himself.

Ques. What does Romans 13:10 mean, "Love is the fulfilling of the law"?

F.E.R. It is there the "fulness of the law", that is what is adequate for the full display of a thing, just as the church, the body, is the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. You have got what is adequate for the display of Christ in the body. So here, if you have

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got love you have got what is adequate for the carrying of it out; if you have got love you may go beyond law, but you have got what is sufficient for the carrying out of its commands; but I think we understand righteousness very poorly because we have got a lot of legality hanging about us, and do not understand that our righteousness is that we must act as God has dealt with us. I say it is positively unrighteous in me to act differently from how I have been acted towards. If God loves me, I ought to love.

Rem. Our responsibility is to display what God is.

F.E.R. The church is to be here the expression of the grace of God.

Ques. That we might become the righteousness of God in Him?

Rem. But that is not practical.

F.E.R. No; but you cannot help being affected by what you are, and therefore it is not apart from what is practical in that way, nor do I think it will be in the future.

Rem. The full result is, that you come out like Christ. The moral effect in the soul now is, that you become like Him, you are on that line.

F.E.R. Yes, it is all a new creation.

CHAPTERS 6, 7

Ques. You said last time that these three chapters take in the three things we get in Titus 2?

F.E.R. I think they do in a general way, I meant only in a general way -- soberly, righteously, and godly. The great thought here (chapter 6) is piety, and you get more of sobriety in chapter 7. The connection between chapters 5 and 6 is simple, at the end of chapter 5 you reach the Father -- morally reach Him -- and chapter 6 is that you follow what is suitable to Him, you seek Him in secret, and He rewards you openly.

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Ques. How far do you get the Father known in Matthew?

F.E.R. I think it goes to the recognition of it by those on earth. There is an analogous passage in 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18. It is not the heavenly privilege, but refers to what they were to be here under the eye of their Father.

Rem. That is the cause of the expression, "heavenly Father".

F.E.R. I think what we may speak of as a heavenly privilege is a different thing.

Rem. Our practice would not be beneath the level of what is here if we were in the power of what is heavenly.

F.E.R. 2 Corinthians 6 is all taken from the Old Testament. Promises are in view, I do not think it gives you the new man.

Ques. Will you tell us what the new man is?

F.E.R. The new man is a new creation. I do not think this chapter goes to the extent of the new man.

Ques. And would you contemplate that when it says, "He that is born of God cannot sin"?

F.E.R. Yes; only John puts all those things as tests, the great principle with John is that he first takes you within, that is, he takes you in as children. All those things are tests of profession.

Ques. But does not John bring the thing down to you here?

F.E.R. Ah! yes; but I think he takes you in first that you may come out. I am speaking of "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God". Then in chapter 4, "If we love one another, God dwelleth in us", etc. You come out there.

Ques. Is it the Ephesian thought, children of light and love? John and Paul run together.

F.E.R. Well, John and Paul always do run together. Loving the brethren is a test. John takes

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ground, like all the catholic epistles, that it is the last time, and there were many antichrists. In Matthew 5, it is not reaching the Father by the Spirit of sonship, but we reach the Father in practice, we are in accord with the Father. I think many people could approach the Father by the Spirit of sonship who do not approach in this way.

Ques. Is it conditional?

F.E.R. In a certain sense, but it is that you know yourself to be a son of the Father.

Ques. How is the relationship brought about?

F.E.R. Well, it is not exactly a relationship brought about, but you are morally like the Father.

Ques. It is not being born again?

F.E.R. No, you are manifestly the children (sons) of God because your practice is according to God.

Ques. But then you would say, you must have the new birth?

F.E.R. Oh, yes. It is a very high standard here, you are to love your enemies, etc., and "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect". The Father in Luke is the standard.

Rem. That ye may be children (sons). It is put conditionally.

F.E.R. Yes, quite so. I do not see how it is possible that the Lord could have given anything short of that standard when He was here upon earth.

Ques. Does not the chapter suppose that you have your place on earth? And in that way would it not rather be a contrast with a son now, not only to carry out these principles but to go far beyond them?

F.E.R. It really flows now from having the privilege of going in, you come out to manifest the character of the Father.

Rem. There will be a people here who will carry these principles.

F.E.R. Yes; but their heart will be in heaven.

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Rem. You get the idea of laying up treasure in heaven, all in that line.

F.E.R. Because the principle is, "where your treasure is, there will your heart be also".

Rem. Quite a new thing to a Jew.

F.E.R. You cannot get practice beyond this, "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect".

Rem. It was the Lord's own path down here.

F.E.R. I do not know that we quite apprehend the perfection of the communion that will exist between heaven and earth, I mean, in the millennium; I have not thought much about it, but I have got an idea of it. I think the heavenly company will have interests upon earth, and there will be saints on earth who will have interests in heaven. It is very evident to me that there is the establishment of a concord between heaven and earth. The names of the twelve tribes of Israel are in the gates of the city. It must mean something to Israel and the nations. There is a company on earth who learn the heavenly song. All that indicates a very intimate connection between heaven and earth.

Rem. And I suppose indicates relationships all the way up and down.

Ques. What would you say is the motive power for this moral life? In Christianity we have the power of the Spirit?

F.E.R. Well, I think the Father, in a certain sense, is the motive power. I should say the Spirit is the formative power, not the motive power. The revelation of God is.

Rem. The Spirit is the subjective power.

F.E.R. The Lord brought all the light of heaven to them, for the moment you may say, and that was the motive power. It was suitable to their practical association with the Lord in the light of the Father. I think there will be a company again in special privilege

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and association with Him, and that this character will come out in them again.

Rem. All this for the moment was in view of the setting up of the kingdom.

F.E.R. Yes; but all that was doubtful. Then you get in chapter 6 almsgiving. There is no almsgiving in heaven, nor prayer nor fasting, are there?

Rem. No, nor daily bread.

F.E.R. And these are the three things taken up. If you have reached your Father in heaven you must have to say to Him, and whatever has that religious character on earth, must be in reference to your Father who seeth in secret. Any man who has the knowledge of God must long to be with God, he will not wish to be with men. I do not know any greater privilege down here than to be able to withdraw from even your most intimate circle to be with your Father who seeth in secret.

Ques. It was the reign of Christ they were to pray for. The Father's kingdom will be the kingdom in manifested power?

F.E.R. Yes; I think you get all the great principles that belong to it, "Thy kingdom come", etc. I do not think, as far as I can see, that a saint is at home -- free with the Father -- unless he is in conformity to the Father's nature. Crying "Abba, Father", is not the same thing. To be at home with the Father you must be partaker of the divine nature, that is more than crying, "Abba, Father". You want to be one in nature with Him to be at home with Him. You are partakers of the divine nature by being formed in the divine nature.

Ques. How are you formed in the divine nature?

F.E.R. By the Spirit the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, the saint is formed by the light that is presented to him.

Ques. Are you thinking of 2 Peter 1 when you say that?

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F.E.R. I am thinking of the general run of Scripture.

Rem. It is more than being a child of God.

F.E.R. The moment you get into the light you have the place of child, but I think it is another thing to be formed by that place.

Ques. Do you get anything of what you are saying in Luke 15?

F.E.R. Yes, the father was at home with the prodigal when he kissed him; but the son had to be made at home with the father.

Rem. Luke 15 covers a great deal of ground.

F.E.R. Luke 10 gives you your side; but chapter 15 gives you the Father's side.

Ques. Would you say the good Samaritan in Luke 10 sets forth the riches of grace, and the prodigal son in Luke 15 the glory of the grace?

F.E.R. Pretty much so. There is perfect relief from the good Samaritan. That is grace, but it is our side. When you come to the prodigal, he is reconciled for the father's satisfaction, and that he may know he is for the father's satisfaction. It has been said that in chapter 14 you get the house, and in chapter 15 the guest. Until Christ completely governs the heart it is impossible to be at home in the Father's presence. It is the Holy Spirit's work. What it means is, Christ is now all to you, it is most utter and complete displacement of self.

Ques. Is not Romans 3 the best robe?

F.E.R. That is more the wedding garment.

Ques. Can you tell us how to put the best robe on?

F.E.R. I think we see it carried out in Paul, "whom we preach, warning every man", etc. He preached Christ, and it involved all that is beyond. I do not think there is anything for us but Christ. I believe a man is what his glory is. If a man's glory is in his shame, it describes his debasement; if Christ is your glory it describes what you are morally; a

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man's glory is what his heart cherishes. Do you think so?

Answer. I think it is very good.

F.E.R. But it is very true. In this chapter 6 we have the Lord propounding something entirely different from all they had ever heard. I do not think they had the idea of doing everything for the Father before.

Ques. What does "reward you" refer to?

F.E.R. I think He would give you some public recognition in the present time, He will mark you with His approval. A man may go on through evil report and good report, but in some way you will get marked, I think. In the last part of the chapter a very important principle comes out in connection with God, it is practical confidence, dependence and confidence.

Ques. What does "mammon" refer to?

F.E.R. Always to the god of this world. A single eye is not pursuing two objects; if a man is scheming for his own advantage, and at the same time seeking to walk before God, he has not a single eye. My conviction is, that he has not learnt to what a wonderful extent a man may trust God. I do not mean a man is to lie down and do nothing, but if you seek His kingdom and righteousness you may depend upon it He will not neglect your needs.

Rem. The Lord says in another place, Not a hair of your heads shall perish, just after telling them of the dreadful things that should happen and the persecution they would be subject to.

F.E.R. Well, not a hair does perish, for God takes care of all. Man may take life, but that is all. There is a beautiful character of piety in the chapter. You have reached the Father, and that pervades everything, all your religious devotions and your character down here; you do not resort to worldly schemes and plans, but seek His glory, and all needed things are added. Then I think chapter 7 brings you outside more, you

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get the contrarieties here, you have to meet all sorts of things in the world, you must beware of false prophets, not cast your pearls before swine, etc. I think it is an unvarying principle in Scripture that you must go in before you can come out.

Ques. What about verse 14, "few there be that find it"?

F.E.R. I am afraid it is too true; men do not want to be saved, it is that side. He puts it in contrast with, "broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat".

Ques. Is the gate Christ?

F.E.R. Well, it may be; but the idea it conveys to me is, that it lets in only what is of Christ.

Ques. "Narrow is the way", is it not death?

F.E.R. Yes, death to the flesh. There is everything congenial to the flesh on the broad road, I think a man has to do violence to himself naturally if he is to enter upon the narrow road.

Ques. Is it broad because a number go on it?

F.E.R. No; it is because it is congenial to men.

Rem. We are looking at the application rather than explanation.

F.E.R. The explanation is this, that the way of life is open, but in the very nature of things it must be a narrow way, it must be distinct and apart from all that is of nature.

Rem. And then the Lord introduces the false prophets who would divert you.

F.E.R. The way of life then was the path of the despised Christ; if the way had been after some distinguished person, men could have pursued it; but to go after a rejected Christ, to be in His company, men had to do violence to themselves.

Rem. It marked rather a narrow path when the Lord said, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and

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brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple".

F.E.R. There is scarcely a single thing to which a man has not to do violence to follow Christ in this world. I do not mean that we should be without natural affection. My impression is that the way of life is as narrow as ever. I do not believe it is a bit easier to confess a glorified Christ than to follow a humbled Christ.

Ques. Do they not go inevitably together?

F.E.R. Yes. Violence must be done to the whole system of natural affection if something comes to which it has to give place.

Ques. What does casting pearls before swine mean?

F.E.R. You will meet with certain classes who are morally dogs and swine, you do not put your good things before them. It is a matter of spiritual discernment. It does not mean exactly man in his natural state. I do not think every man is a dog, it refers to special men. The apostle prays that he may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men, for faith is not the portion of all.

CHAPTERS 9 AND 10

Ques. What is the reason we get the commission to the disciples here?

F.E.R. I think it was in consequence of the blasphemy of the Pharisees. They said He cast out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. His work was in a sense finished. When things have come to that pass it could no longer be a question of His personal service but of that which is committed to the disciples. Chapters 8, 9 and 10 are a complete section of the gospel. You get the Lord going forth to preach in chapter 11. He always does until the end, but you must take things up in their moral connection.

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Rem. The testimony that is sent forth here is an interrupted testimony.

Rem. It comes out during the time of His absence.

F.E.R. I would rather say it is superseded by something else.

Rem. The disciples needed some preparation before they were commissioned. The Lord could scarcely have sent them out directly after their call.

F.E.R. We get the Servant in chapter 8, and the service in chapter 9. You must take things up as they are presented. The final test of Israel is the disciples. The rejection of this leads on to the judgment. It is all final in chapter 10. Chapter 8 to me is a lovely chapter, because it gives you a picture of Jehovah's Servant. It is all personal in chapter 8. He puts His hand on the leper, He disposes as to the centurion's servant, He touches Peter's wife's mother, He is in conflict with the winds and waves, and eventually comes in to solve the great question between God and the enemy. As J.N.D. has expressed it, 'He suffered in His spirit what He took away by His power'. It is all to set off the Servant. It was not simply One coming into the world doing wonderful works of power, but it was the way in which He did them that speaks. He is in touch with suffering humanity in every shape. They have to confess it in the day to come, "Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses". There is nothing for Israel now in Christ after the flesh. They come from the east and the west, and the children of the kingdom are cast out into outer darkness, so hereafter what is said is, "Who hath believed our report"? (Isaiah 53:1.) It is Jehovah's Servant. I could not tell you what a chapter that is to me, it gives such a picture of what the Servant was.

Ques. Why do you say chapter 9 is service?

F.E.R. You see everything for Israel there. He brings life into the ruler's house, heals the woman. It is all for Israel.

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Ques. Is the new wine coming under the new covenant?

F.E.R. Yes; chapter 9 takes up Psalm 103. It is the sovereignty of grace in spite of the perverseness of the people.

Ques. Take chapter 8: 11, in what way could we connect that with His Person?

F.E.R. They did not appreciate Him after the flesh, and therefore the children of the kingdom are cast out; but that does not hinder the sovereignty of grace. It is Jehovah who heals. Chapter 8 is intended to give you a picture of the Servant; but then you have to see the sovereignty of grace. It is He who brings in all the healing and everything for Israel.

Ques. You mean that the rejection did not shut up the virtue that was in Him?

F.E.R. Only they get nothing in connection with Christ after the flesh. Everything which they will get is in the sovereignty of divine grace. They will have to take up the confession of Isaiah 53.

Ques. Do you mean that they got nothing in Christ after the flesh, but in the future they will in connection with Christ in resurrection?

F.E.R. They get it with Christ, but Christ in resurrection. That is the beauty of Isaiah 53. All that section of Isaiah is occupied with Jehovah's servant. There are three sections in the latter part of Isaiah. First, Israel is the servant; then Christ is the Servant; and then the remnant. Chapter 53 comes in the middle section, and it is a confession of the remnant in the future: "We did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed". It has very often been said that Matthew 8 is Christ according to Isaiah 53, and chapter 9 according to Psalm 103. Israel's conduct cannot alter the great

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fact that He had authority on earth to forgive sins, the Son of man on earth had that authority. I think what comes out in chapter 10 is administrative. He sends out the apostles. Twelve is symbolic of administration. In reference to the ruler and his daughter, I think the time will come when Israel will come under the pressure of death; but it is plain enough that Christ will set death aside for them. They will have to go through the valley of the shadow of death first, but when He comes into the house He will set aside death for them.

Rem. And that in view of the kingdom.

Ques. Do you connect it with the great tribulation?

F.E.R. That may be a means to it. They will have to learn what you get in the end of Romans 7. They will have to come under the sentence of death. The moment we come under the sentence of death we see an outlet, for we see that Christ has died and risen.

Rem. And they will not see it until they see Christ.

F.E.R. He opens the eyes of the blind and causes the dumb to speak, the whole result is there, and the Pharisees say, "He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils". The perversity of man is perfectly amazing, when they cannot deny the miracles they discredit them. Perfect provision is made for the blessing of Israel in the future, but in the meantime it is all over and Christianity is brought in. That is what is so interesting in the gospel of Matthew. Matthew is not the Jewish gospel in the way that many think. The parables of the kingdom in the latter part are not pictures of the future. I mean such as the marriage supper and the ten virgins. They are pictures of the present time.

Rem. But then the Lord is presented to Israel as the Son of David, and rejected in that character.

F.E.R. Because His rejection makes room for Christianity. Matthew is the only gospel that brings in the church. Provision was made for the remnant by

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bringing them into the church. Acts 2, "The Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved". This chapter 10 has distinct reference to the future, no doubt there was a testing time literally by the twelve, their preaching was a testimony at the moment.

Rem. It has the character of a final testimony.

Rem. It is a limited service. "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not. But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (verses 5, 6).

F.E.R. How careful every gospel is to maintain everything for Israel! Look at this in the beginning of Luke and John. The first two chapters of Luke are wholly taken up with the links in Israel.

Ques. Does that mean that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance, He does not change His mind?

F.E.R. Yes, in Romans the very point is the 'no difference' principle, but when you come to chapters 9, 10 and 11, you get the conciliation of the promises with this principle. Israel has to come in on the ground of mercy, as you get it in Matthew 9. "I will have mercy and not sacrifice".

Rem. They will come in precisely on the same ground as the Gentiles.

F.E.R. The only possible ground for blessing for them is resurrection; we often argue as though they could have received Christ after the flesh, but the great difficulty to me is how was death to be set aside. We speak of it hypothetically sometimes, as to what would have happened if they had received Him.

Ques. You mean receiving Him as on earth?

F.E.R. Yes. They were tested by it, but I do not see the possibility of Israel being blessed except on the ground of death and resurrection. Abel had to come to God through death. I do not see how any could, except through death.

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Ques. What do you say as to "This do and thou shalt live"?

Rem. It was the way of life but it became death, we are expressly told it was the ministration of death.

Ques. Yes, but death being there and man generally lying under the sentence of death, how did the law come in and present death in any kind of way?

F.E.R. It all came in in the process of testing, in fact if a man could have kept the law it was the way of life. Life was in it.

Rem. Life was in it, for it says, "This do and thou shalt live".

Rem. Then the settlement of this great question of death and life was lying by until the Lord came and settled it.

F.E.R. And in the meantime the law came, which was a ministration of death.

Rem. Not death in the law, but death in the man that was under it.

F.E.R. It is one of the most difficult things to impress on a man that death is on him.

Rem. And yet you would think it most obvious.

Rem. It is difficult for a man to take it home to himself, the sentence is not speedily executed and he hardens himself against it.

Ques. What about Enoch?

F.E.R. He was so completely clear of death that he could go to heaven without dying. It was in anticipation. So Noah. Faith with him looked on to the world to come. It got some light, very little, it may be. The Jews had the promises but would not have the light that was here.

Rem. Whatever there might have been there was this concurrent thing, death was there.

F.E.R. Yes, death was upon man, his life was forfeited, his mind agreed to the law of God that it was good, but death was there and the law came in to

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bring it home to a man's spirit. That is what we get at the end of Romans 7.

Ques. Was the judgment of death under the law something different from the death that was upon man by reason of the first man's sin?

F.E.R. No. I do not think so. If a man came to God under the law it was always by death, there was no coming apart from that, you could not have a greater evidence than that.

Ques. The life proposed does not go anything beyond life on earth?

F.E.R. No, but keeping the law would not annul death, and that is exactly what Christ has done. He removes death, and the law is written in their hearts. That is what I understand by the Lord's coming into the ruler's house. He comes to where death is and removes it and therefore life came. He went into death to remove it.

Rem. And that could only have been done by one who was free from it.

F.E.R. And it must be one in whom there was positive merit, a mere perfect man could not do it; as you get in Romans 5, "By the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life" (verse 18). The value of His Person comes in. His work derives all its value from His Person. In chapter 9 you get two things, on the road the woman with the issue of blood gets healed, it is a picture of what the Lord does to the remnant when on the way to raise up Israel, when He comes to the house He removes death.

Rem. The blind men cry for mercy just as we find Israel coming in on the ground of mercy in Romans 11.

F.E.R. The way in which these circumstances are put together, not in chronological order I take it, but to form a complete picture, is wonderful. What a picture it is! If you take the end of it, it is death removed, the eyes of the blind opened and the dumb

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made to speak, the devil being cast out. What a change! Then the Pharisees close it all up by saying, "He casteth out devils through the prince of the devils".

Ques. What is implied in, "freely ye have received, freely give"?

F.E.R. I do not think anyone could go and preach without having a sense of having received, else it would be legality. I think the heart of a servant must be in the sense of grace; there is an elevation about service, it comes from one who is in the sense of benefit received. After all I have received more than ever I can give.

Rem. If service is without a sense of having received, it is very dull and very dead.

Ques. Do you take it that after chapter 10: 16 the circumstances refer to the future?

F.E.R. There is a sort of transition from the present to the future. There was a testimony specially addressed to Israel in their land, Paul had no part in it, the twelve carried it on. The same testimony goes on at the end when Israel is in the land again, not perhaps with the same light but it is the same testimony, so that I see the future testimony from this testimony.

Ques. What about the commission in the end of Matthew?

F.E.R. That was dealing with the nations. "The nations" was an expression well understood among the Jews. I think it refers to nations connected with Israel.

Rem. In that case it would be those who are referred to in the Psalms in a similar way. The English translation obscures this somewhat.

Ques. Do you take it that the closing verses of Matthew do not refer to the present time?

F.E.R. Strictly they do not; I think the present service is taken from the end of Luke. In Mark it is

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more personal, the apostles carried it out as it says, "They went forth, and preached every where, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following". In Luke it is more general.

Ques. What is the everlasting gospel?

F.E.R. "Fear God and give glory to him", etc. It is not preaching Christ at all, but a testimony sent out to all nations to fear God as Creator. There is no very great demand made upon them.

Rem. It is the most elementary idea of the gospel you can think of.

Rem. It just suits them where they are.

F.E.R. Yes; but it is carried out in heavenly power, and they will respond to it. Judgment is imminent. Missionaries could not take it out to the heathen now, because judgment is not imminent in the same way. I suppose there will also be a testimony to the nations after the Lord has come, and the judgment of Matthew 25 takes that up.

Rem. The testimony of the twelve in chapter 10, or what corresponds to it at the end, is before He comes.

F.E.R. Yes; it is to Israel, and it is cut short by His coming. It is a question whether they will be able to endure to the end, the pressure will be so terrific with a view to pervert them.

Rem. To save them means to bring them into the kingdom.

Ques. Why is the mission of the seventy not brought in in Matthew?

F.E.R. Because it goes on heavenly ground, it is a testimony that is not limited to Israel like this is, it is on the ground of the glory of Christ. It is after the time had come that He should be received up that He sends out the seventy.

Ques. Can you tell from Scripture how it is that there arises a class of believers who can carry on this testimony?

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F.E.R. In the book of Revelation you see certain companies that are illuminated. God begins to work among His ancient people, the Jews, and some are converted and some are martyred. I think the darkness in that day will be upon Christendom; if you notice, everything in the seven trumpets comes on the third part of the earth, which I suppose is Christendom. In Matthew 24 and Matthew 25 it is the whole arena of judgment, everything comes into judgment -- Israel, Christendom in the ten virgins, and the nations.

Ques. Did not Paul preach the kingdom of God?

F.E.R. Yes; and we preach the kingdom of God, and we ought to. It was the glad tidings of the kingdom the apostle preached.

Rem. It does not say that Paul preached the 'glad tidings' of the kingdom, but that he preached or proclaimed the kingdom; Acts 20:25; chapter 28: 31.

F.E.R. I think there is a passage in which the idea is contained in the word 'evangelising', announcing as glad tidings the kingdom of God, that is the meaning of the word; I do not think people are alive to the blessings of the kingdom.

Rem. The passage is in Acts 8:12, evangelising concerning the kingdom.

Rem. In Acts 20 and Acts 28 the word is "heralded" or "proclaimed".

F.E.R. The apostle heralded the kingdom because it had not been known before, his voice was the voice of a herald.

Rem. I thought there was a distinction between preaching the gospel or glad tidings of the kingdom and preaching or proclaiming the kingdom. Preaching the kingdom is pressing the claims of the kingdom. I shall be glad to be corrected if I have made a mistake.

F.E.R. We are not here to dogmatise, but as learners; but I do not think it is so much the claims of the kingdom as the blessings of the kingdom that

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are in view. Righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit are great blessings. Paul heralded the kingdom of God because it was a new thing to the people he went among, he was the first to go forth with it among the Gentiles.

CHAPTER 11

F.E.R. I think down to the end of chapter 10 there is nothing that goes beyond Israel: in chapter 8 it is the Servant, in chapter 9 the service, and in chapter 10 the administration, but nothing that goes beyond Israel, even when you come to chapter 11 there is nothing that goes beyond Israel for the moment, but the two great points of the chapter are, that the kingdom of heaven takes the place of John the baptist's ministry, and Christianity takes the place of the mighty works of the Son of man.

Rem. And in the next chapter He becomes the hope of the Gentiles, and breaks the link with Israel formed by His coming in the flesh.

Ques. Where do you see Christianity in this chapter?

F.E.R. In the revelation of the Father. This supersedes His mighty works. The Lord acknowledges the Baptist's ministry, but adds that the least in the kingdom was greater than he; that is, has greater privilege. Chapter 12 brings in the thought of the Gentiles in connection with that. He speaks of the trust of the Gentiles, and He breaks the covenant with Israel, and at the close of the chapter He says, "Who is my mother? and who are my brethren?"

Ques. You refer to the sabbath?

F.E.R. I think that was the beginning of it. At the close of the chapter He brings it out plainly.

Rem. The Lord bears witness to Himself in chapter 11, instead of John bearing witness.

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F.E.R. Yes; it was all for conviction to John.

Ques. I suppose John himself breaks down, does he not?

F.E.R. Yes; I think so. The Lord gives the largest place to John and his ministry, but another thing had come in, "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence", etc.

Ques. Is the violence the energy of faith?

F.E.R. Yes; I suppose so.

Ques. Would you say the latter part of the chapter is like the gospel of John?

F.E.R. Well, it is part of Christianity. It is brought in to show what was coming in, the revelation of the Father.

Ques. Is the idea of the kingdom here association with the king during the period of His rejection? And it is a greater privilege to be in that than to deliver even John's testimony.

F.E.R. Yes, I think so, because what the kingdom means is power acting in grace. John the baptist was recalling the people, convicting them. The kingdom is power acting in grace.

Ques. John did not bring the people into anything, did he?

F.E.R. No; he told them what was coming.

Rem. John broke down in view of the complete rejection of the Messiah.

F.E.R. Yes; you would not naturally expect the forerunner of the Messiah to be in prison, the fact is everything that came out was consequent upon the state of Israel.

Rem. "Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me" was a gracious message to John.

F.E.R. Yes; and couched in language that John probably understood, and no one else.

Ques. Does not chapter 11: 28 take in the Gentiles?

F.E.R. I do not think for the moment it did, it

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was the labouring and heavy laden in Israel particularly in view.

Rem. I thought the moment He takes the place of Son the Gentiles come in.

F.E.R. Well, for us it is so.

Rem. The question is the interpretation of it in the chapter before us, no one would deny its application now to any who are heavy laden.

F.E.R. What strikes me and is interesting to me more than anything in the chapter is the wonderful resources the Lord had. He is not baffled by anything, John the baptist in prison, and His own mighty works rejected; but there are resources for Him, greater things come in, Christianity is greater than law. I have felt in reading the scripture that God is never baffled. Take the case of Babel, there was a sort of crisis in the history of the world, there might have been a fear that everything for God would be annulled, but God comes out with something new.

Ques. Do you mean resources in spite of Israel's state?

F.E.R. Yes.

Ques. And John was not in the secret of those resources?

F.E.R. That is it exactly, apparently all had ended in nothing, but something far greater than John's testimony or the Lord's mighty works was to be brought in. It was the intervention of God. Take again Christ crucified, you might have thought that everything was over, what is God going to do now? Well, if He sets forward the testimony of Christ crucified it is to subvert the pretension of the Jew and the wisdom of the Greek. To me it is most wonderful, the princes of this world crucified Christ, they could not have done a worse thing for themselves, the cross is not the subverting of something in the future but something in the present, and the only way in which

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Satan spoiled it was by perverting the testimony to it, that was the tactics of Satan.

Rem. And that is the wisdom of God in a mystery.

Rem. John was not in the secret of Isaiah 49.

F.E.R. No, I should not think he was.

Rem. But no one seems to have had the slightest apprehension of the rejection of the Messiah.

F.E.R. The disciples evidently did not understand it.

Ques. Do those two things of which you speak, the kingdom of heaven and Christianity, run on together?

F.E.R. Yes. Christianity is the inner and the kingdom is the outer. The kingdom of heaven is the light and rule of heaven, that is the much greater thing than the testimony of John the baptist. A man can be here in the light and rule of what God has established in heaven. The other thing is the knowledge of the Father.

Rem. As to the one there is no overthrow. When Peter confessed the Lord as Son of the living God it was declared that the gates of hell should not prevail against the assembly.

F.E.R. Nor is there as to the other, if we only knew it; people just turn anywhere and everywhere in their troubles but to where they ought to.

Ques. Where is that?

F.E.R. Heaven. People look to one another, just let anything come in amongst us and see how we look to one another.

Rem. A man who knows the resources for himself is able to help others.

F.E.R. I do not believe you will be able to help others unless you save yourself first. I think a true motto for servants is, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine", etc.

Rem. We really lack true independency of character in not thus looking to the Lord.

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F.E.R. See how different things would be if when a difficulty comes along, we turned to the Lord instead of being swayed by this person and the other. People do not see that the kingdom of heaven is really the Lord. God has established nothing in heaven but the Lord, the church is not established in heaven though it will be.

Ques. I suppose we get a wider thing in John 7, "If any man thirst let him come unto me"?

F.E.R. It is the power of the Spirit the Lord is speaking of there, what should come in in the power of the Spirit. The kingdom of heaven is the sway of what God has been pleased to establish in heaven. You get it from Genesis 1. God sets in heaven what is to bear rule upon earth, He has set Christ in heaven to bear rule upon earth. I believe He will set the church in heaven by-and-by. If you have a sense of what God has established in heaven you do not look anywhere else.

Ques. Are we children of the kingdom as well as children of the Father?

F.E.R. I suppose so, although the expression is used of those who were the natural children. The thought of the kingdom is power, but power acting in grace.

Rem. But grace reigning through righteousness.

Rem. By-and-by there will be the purging out of the kingdom.

F.E.R. That is only for the more perfectly establishing of it. You do not root out the tares now.

Ques. I thought one great feature was righteousness?

F.E.R. No doubt you get that, too, coming out in the parable of the debtor; chapter 18. You have to act as you have been acted to. The sin of the servant was that he exacted from his fellow what his master had not exacted from him.

Rem. He had not the spirit of the kingdom.

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F.E.R. Exactly, he had not the spirit of the kingdom. The Lord says in the same chapter, "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven".

Ques. I suppose the kingdom began in Acts 2?

F.E.R. Yes, the moment the Lord was seated in heaven it began. I think the first part of Matthew goes on the ground of the presentation of Christ after the flesh, and the second part on the ground of Christ exalted. Evidently the application of all the parables of the latter part of the gospel is to the present time, the ten virgins, for instance, and the king that made a marriage feast. The division is about chapter 17. The Lord takes pains to detail what His coming again would mean to Israel, and Christendom and the nations.

Ques. What is the difference between the kingdom of heaven and the church?

F.E.R. In the kingdom we are individuals but in the church we are brought into the fellowship of the Spirit. You are brought into the kingdom by the word, that there may be a sphere where Christ is owned as Lord, but it contemplates saints in their individuality. By-and-by you will not be a subject in the kingdom, but will have part in the rule, the church will bear part in the rule.

Ques. I suppose a Quaker is not in the church?

F.E.R. He is not properly in the house because he has not gone through the act initiatory to it, and if he wanted to come into the fellowship we would not have him, at least not until he had.

Ques. What is the force of Jesus "answering"? Is it the answer His heart gave to the circumstances?

F.E.R. Yes, I think so, but there was not a single soul upon earth at that moment that took in what the Lord brought out, it is good for us today.

Rem. It was the comfort of His own heart.

Rem. I have heard that some rationalists consider

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this passage (verses 25 - 27) as a piece of John's gospel put in here. It is so different to the rest of Matthew. They cannot understand it otherwise. They have perceived a difference.

F.E.R. They do not understand anything really, they have no weight with me with their way of handling Scripture, we can understand the difference for a spiritual reason. They say because the two parts of Isaiah are different, therefore it must be the work of two persons.

Rem. I think a great many Christians do not understand these differences, leaving out the rationalist.

F.E.R. The wonderful thing to me is that I can look up to heaven and be perfectly certain of getting light and guidance, that is the effect of the kingdom of heaven. If a man wants to walk he seeks to be in the light of the sun, and if he walks in the light of the sun he will not stumble. I see light and guidance for me, and in that light I am to go about.

Ques. If you baptise anyone do you do it in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit?

F.E.R. Yes; you baptise people now in the light of the full revelation of God as He is.

Ques. In the Acts they baptised in the name of the Lord?

F.E.R. Yes; whosoever was baptised was committed to the lordship of Christ -- "One Lord, one faith, one baptism".

Ques. Why does the Lord speak in the past tense, "Wisdom has been justified by her children"?

F.E.R. I think the children of wisdom always justify her.

Rem. Whatever has been done by God has always been misunderstood by man, but it has always been justified by wisdom's children.

F.E.R. It is a general statement. The testimony of John the baptist might seem to be different from

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Christ's. The one mourned, the other piped, but wisdom was in both.

Rem. But one of the first things a soul does when light breaks in is to justify God.

Ques. Was John the baptist one of wisdom's children?

F.E.R. I do not think that is quite the idea. God presented something by John, wisdom's children were those who apprehended what God had presented.

Rem. Everything is settled, whether for heaven or for earth.

F.E.R. God brings out His resources; when John the baptist's testimony and the Lord's mighty works were rejected you would have thought all was at a standstill, but the kingdom of heaven and Christianity come in. How wonderfully God answers men, it is one of the studies of Scripture.

Ques. How do you understand "more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment", etc.?

F.E.R. The people of Sodom had much less light, and judgment takes into account the light people have; privilege and opportunity form a large part of the ground taken in judgment.

Rem. It would not be righteous otherwise.

F.E.R. Judgment was governmental at Sodom, but it leads to what is final. Wrath from heaven is now revealed, God reveals His wrath contemporaneously with His righteousness. People now have an opportunity of learning His righteousness apart from judgment on them; if they will not learn it in that way there is nothing but judgment for them.

Rem. Both judgment and grace are perfectly righteous.

F.E.R. If God had cut man off it would have been perfectly righteous. The first principle of the gospel is that He makes known His righteousness and does not judge; the first idea is not that He justifies, but that He is righteous in grace.

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Rem. The righteousness of God is the backbone of the gospel.

F.E.R. I believe it is the first great lesson anyone has to learn. The first thing that God must impress upon man is that He is righteous.

Ques. That He must deal with sin?

F.E.R. That He has dealt with it, the blood that witnesses that God is righteous witnesses that sin is put away.

Rem. Otherwise there would be no gospel.

Ques. Do you think it would be helpful if we preached righteousness more?

F.E.R. Yes, I do.

Ques. Does not one go forth to preach grace in the gospel?

F.E.R. Righteousness is made known in two ways, in judgment and in grace, you cannot avoid preaching grace if you preach righteousness. You go and tell people that the blood of Christ is the witness that God is righteous, and also the witness that sin has been dealt with, and you will profit souls, no one can doubt that.

Rem. You will never establish souls if you preach grace apart from righteousness.

Ques. What is the meaning of verse 27 of our chapter, "no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him"?

F.E.R. Divine Persons simply as divine Persons are unknowable save by divine Persons. It is true in Ephesians we have to come to the knowledge of the Son of God, but to think that we will know the Son as the Father knows Him would be to bring the Lord down to the level of the creature. Son of God is spoken of as a name inherited, but Son is a name of divine personality, it is a correlative term to Father; if you deny the Son, you deny the Father. I do not think we know the Father as the Son knows Him,

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though the Son reveals Him to us. That has to be weighed. "Babes" of verse 25 are those who have no pretension to righteousness or strength.

Ques. Why is the Father spoken of as Lord of heaven and earth?

F.E.R. Because the Lord had taken the place of man on earth, and recognises the Father as such. You might in one sense say the Lord was Lord of heaven and earth, but it is all in connection with the place He had taken.

Rem. There is the thought, too, of heaven coming into prominence.

F.E.R. He reveals the Father. That is the great thing for me, if He reveals the Father to you, you are in company with the Son. He puts you in the presence of the Father's love. You are rejected on earth, but you are put in the presence of the Father's love.

Rem. I think harm has been done to souls by the way "Come unto me" has been used, severing it from its context, so that the real point of the passage is lost, and what is often presented is not in the scripture.

F.E.R. If there were any heavy laden ones in Israel, I think there was a deal for them in this invitation.

Rem. It is in view of the collapse of everything in Israel.

Ques. What is "Take my yoke"?

F.E.R. It is association with Christ.

Ques. And is it not connected with being in the secret of the resources?

F.E.R. Yes; I do not think you ought to expect fine times down here where Christ has been rejected. People want to get the best of everything, they are very cautious for fear of losing things here, very much afraid of losing any present advantage.

Rem. The knowledge of the Father was the resource the Lord had.

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F.E.R. In John 17 He says, "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them". I think you are uncommonly well off to be partners of Christ's rejection. God rests in love, and it is only in love you can rest.

Ques. What is "for I am meek and lowly"?

F.E.R. He was adapted to the necessities of saints down here, it is wonderful to me to see in the Lord what was essentially divine adapted to the circumstances of man down here in a scene of evil, in a kind of way it was not proper to Him as a divine Person.

Ques. Is there not the idea of no self-assertion, no asserting of your rights, in meekness?

F.E.R. Yes; and the title to inherit the earth is meekness, so we read, "Behold thy King cometh unto thee, meek", etc. The meek shall inherit the earth, not the proud and arrogant. We are to be all in lowliness in regard to God, and meekness in regard to men.

CHAPTER 12

F.E.R. I think we saw last time a certain progress in these chapters. Chapter 11 does not in itself go beyond the Jew. It brings in the kingdom, as it were, in the place of John the baptist's testimony, and Christianity in place of the mighty works of Christ, but does not in itself go beyond the Jew. It is in this chapter that Christ becomes the hope of the Gentiles and breaks His covenant with Israel.

Ques. Does He give a sign of it by His action on the sabbath?

F.E.R. That gives the sign of it, but I think He breaks it at the end of the chapter.

Rem. Everything was 'common' in the days of David, because the Lord's anointed was in rejection.

F.E.R. This chapter goes further than the eleventh. That gives the rejection of Christ, but here we get the

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unpardonable sin, they attribute the works of the Spirit to Beelzebub.

Rem. So you get the nation viewed as apostate, and then those in spiritual relationship with Christ, "whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother".

F.E.R. But to enter upon this new relationship, Christ breaks with His kindred after the flesh. The nation was an evil and adulterous generation, "a wicked generation". The early part of the chapter shows that He was entirely in the thought and mind of God, and He becomes the hope of the Gentiles: "in his name shall the Gentiles trust".

Ques. At what verse does the break come?

F.E.R. I think the Lord takes the ground of being rejected all through the chapter. He justifies what the disciples do by what David did. It is all paving the way for what comes out in the next chapter, that is, the form which the kingdom was to take. Until Christ had broken all association with Israel after the flesh, you could not have the kingdom as in the next chapter. The field is the world. There is no special place for the Jew.

Rem. After He has broken with them, He goes out and sits by the sea.

F.E.R. Yes; no doubt all is in anticipation. I think the blind and dumb man out of whom the devil was cast was a kind of crucial case. The people said, "Is not this the son of David?" but the Pharisees said it was by Beelzebub. Asking for a sign after that was like a man colour blind asking you to show him something blue.

Ques. Does not the sea represent the nations, and the Lord taking His place in the ship mean going out to them?

F.E.R. Well, I think He left all the order after the flesh, and presents Himself in a totally different

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character; the point in the next chapter is, "the sower", and "the field is the world".

Rem. It was a new beginning.

F.E.R. In a certain sense the old closes up. The great subject of Matthew is the kingdom of heaven. In chapter 13 the Lord begins de novo with the disciples. I think there was a special covenant made with Israel in Christ coming after the flesh; it was not the first covenant, it was a special covenant. They had lost everything under the law and the prophets, yet in spite of all that, Christ came; this is referred to in Zechariah, and that He breaks all association with Israel, He refuses all claim of His kindred. It was like beginning with them afresh, and now He breaks that covenant; but then I think it is all in view of the form which the kingdom was to take in the world irrespective of the Jew, it is a question of the children of the kingdom produced by sowing the word.

Rem. Both John the baptist and Christ had come, there had been the mourning and the piping, but there had been no response.

F.E.R. There is the complete refusal of the testimony of Christ and John, but this chapter goes further, the Pharisees conspire to take away the Lord's life. They were the responsible and moral heads of the people. The generation is doomed as an evil and adulterous generation.

Rem. And now the Lord rejects them.

Rem. After the demon was cast out, the people say, "Is not this the son of David?" They ought to have known, there was sufficient testimony.

Ques. Do you mean that Christ came in the time of mercy?

F.E.R. Yes; you cannot conceive anything more wonderful than that, after everything had been forfeited under law and prophets, Christ came to them.

Ques. What passage in Zechariah do you refer to?

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F.E.R. Where He cuts asunder the staff Beauty, that He might break the covenant with the peoples; this is no new thought at all.

Rem. It is very important to see it, because otherwise you do not apprehend the blessed character of the Lord's coming.

F.E.R. The two essential points of the chapter are, that He becomes the object, the hope of the Gentiles, and the covenant of His connection with Israelis broken. Unless you see this, you have not room for the kingdom, as in the next chapter, to come in.

Rem. The Lord's action is inexplicable apart from this.

Ques. Does that passage, "I will have mercy and not sacrifice", show that the Lord came in the way of mercy?

F.E.R. I think it indicates that the Pharisees were not at all in the mind of God, but the Lord was. After all, a sabbath not characterised by mercy cannot be a sabbath according to God.

Rem. The nation really was in the state described by the ox or ass fallen into a pit.

F.E.R. Yes, and their own actions condemned them, for I imagine they were in the habit of showing mercy to the brute creation on the sabbath.

Rem. David speaks of things having become common because of his need.

F.E.R. The sabbath lost all its holy character when Christ was rejected.

Ques. How did the priests profane the sabbath?

F.E.R. By offering sacrifices; the service of God takes the first place, the temple service justified it, and here was One greater than the temple. Here all was premonitory to the break-up of the legal system; in a legal system the sabbath had a character in keeping with it, it had a legal character, but the way in which the Lord alludes to it shows that it was about to be broken up.

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Rem. The leaders of the people had no conception of the state of things, morally all for Israel was gone, and to talk about keeping the sabbath was really ignoring the moral state of things.

F.E.R. And here they were rejecting the One greater than the temple.

Ques. Is the Lord seen here as the Shepherd about to lead the sheep out?

F.E.R. That really was the thought from the beginning, but it is the peculiarity of the gospel of John, that it does not take up the people on their responsibility; but it was the divine thought to lead the sheep out, Christ came for that, the divine purpose is shown in it. Here He goes into the fold and tests those who were there.

Ques. What is the force of verse 8, is that another ground?

F.E.R. I think it is that the sabbath was to have the character of grace, the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath.

Ques. Is that for justifying the disciples?

F.E.R. Yes; the Lord says, "if ye had known what this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day" (verses 7, 8). The legal system was put under angels, but the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath; it is a very important point to see that the system of grace is brought in by the Son of man; the world to come is subject to the Son of man and is brought in by Him; that is the teaching of Hebrews 2.

Ques. Were the disciples guiltless because He was rejected?

F.E.R. They were morally guiltless, it was a very different case from that of the man gathering sticks on the sabbath day, that was simply profanity; but here the disciples were hungry. I think the Lord

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allowed it, for He did not stop them, to show what the state of things was.

Rem. Then the point is, that He had rights above the sabbath.

F.E.R. If the world to come is put under Him, the sabbath is, everything is put under Him. I think it is a terrible thing in a world of suffering and woe that men should condemn the doing of good. An institution like the sabbath could not stop the doing of good, it is right to do well; the sabbath took a legal character under law, but that could not stop God from doing good.

Rem. It was not much of a sabbath to the man with the withered hand.

Rem. It is the religious leaders who oppose Christ.

F.E.R. I think nothing can be more beautiful than to see Christ retiring into the good pleasure of Jehovah (verses 16 - 21). You see the Pharisees take counsel, but Jesus withdraws.

Rem. And there was no suspension of power in blessing all that came to Him.

Ques. Does the Lord justify the disciples on the ground that the true David was rejected, just as David and his men were justified when they ate the shewbread, being hungry?

F.E.R. It has often been said that when the anointed of God was hunted about like a partridge on the mountains, there was no value in the religious system; everything hangs on the anointed of God, in fact the nation stands or falls by the anointed, the idea of it is grace coming in in power.

Rem. And now the Lord no longer presses His rights, but goes on in His path of goodness.

F.E.R. Yes; but He has His compensation.

Ques. Do you mean in the pleasure of Jehovah?

F.E.R. Yes. "Behold my servant, whom I have chosen", etc. He is to show judgment to the Gentiles, and finally in His name the Gentiles trust.

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Rem. That is introduced to show there was a change.

F.E.R. And to place Christ in relation to the Gentiles, to widen the field, the field is enlarged in that way.

Ques. What is the object of introducing this quotation here?

F.E.R. To show the Lord retiring from Israel into the good pleasure of Jehovah, but becoming an object of hope to the Gentiles.

Ques. What is the application of the bruised reed and the smoking flax?

F.E.R. I have been accustomed to think it represented the condition of Israel.

Rem. That is, He does not interfere with it, lets it go on.

F.E.R. "Till he send forth judgment unto victory". The powers of evil are not put down publicly yet, but God will bruise Satan under our feet shortly.

Rem. I thought the word 'till' showed that He would quench it by-and-by. He is waiting now.

Ques. "In his name shall the Gentiles trust" takes in present and future, I suppose?

F.E.R. An application in principle is sometimes given to Scripture when the direct application is not in view; the principle is brought in here. We are Gentiles and He is the object of our trust, but I do not think that He has shown judgment to the Gentiles yet.

Ques. What do you think that means?

F.E.R. When He comes again, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Ques. And glorify God for His mercy?

F.E.R. Yes; and yet that very passage is applied to the present time, such scriptures are quoted as having an application in the present time, though their fulfilment is future.

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Rem. Verses 19 and 20 is a policy of non-interference until the Lord comes again.

F.E.R. Yes, I think so; and then we have the state of the leaders of Israel set forth in the possessed with the devil, blind and dumb. They were blind and dumb as far as the Lord was concerned. The Lord was there willing to heal. The man with the withered hand is connected with the sabbath question. I think that the Lord shows that mercy is to characterise the sabbath according to God. I do not think that in the millennium they will lose the sense of the mercy of God, it will characterise the sabbath then. He is Lord of the sabbath, and He disposes of the sabbath as He sees fit, that is in mercy. It is a principle that whenever you get a people in relationship with God they have the sabbath. There was the sabbath before the law was given. The manna was not to be gathered on the sabbath day, and that was before the law. What we as Christians have got is the first day of the week. They tried to do away with the sabbath at the French Revolution, but it would not work. In mercy to man God gave one day in seven. They wanted in the Revolution to break every sign of relationship with God, but it would not do. The sabbath was made for man, not for the Jew only. The Pharisees here raised the question of the power by which Christ wrought, and their answer brings out their complete apostasy, there is no forgiveness for it.

Rem. And then follows "Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit".

F.E.R. They crown it by asking for a sign; they first prove that they are completely blind, and then ask for a sign.

Rem. And in face of that wickedness, mercy was

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displayed before their eyes; the Lord was in the spirit of that verse, "I will have mercy". They were on the ground of sacrifice.

F.E.R. Yes; the Lord was in the spirit of all that. He was in the mind of God. The sacrifice is no pleasure to God, He delights in mercy. The sacrifice is something which a man thinks he can offer to God, the idea was that of Cain, that man could render something to God. When we offer the sacrifice of praise, we give back to God of His own.

Rem. So that they are seen not only breaking the law, losing everything on that ground, but they reject His mercy.

F.E.R. What more could be done for them when they attribute to Beelzebub the power by which Christ wrought, the only power which could deliver them from evil? It was impossible for God to go further with them. The sign of the prophet Jonas was a sign of death and resurrection, it closed all.

Rem. You get the cross and the glory brought together in that way in Jonah and the queen of the south.

F.E.R. But both the men of Nineveh and the queen of the south would rise up in judgment and condemn them. The Lord then goes on to show what the end of that generation would be, that is, that the spirit of idolatry would return with sevenfold power, and their last state be worse than the first. The last form of idolatry will be the worst that has ever been. The kingdom of God had come to them. It was the sway or power of God, that is, a power had come in in Christ superior to everything here. Generally it is the kingdom of heaven that is mentioned in Matthew, but three or four times we get the kingdom of God.

Rem. We get the judgment and the glory of God established in Jonas and Solomon.

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F.E.R. The point for the Jew was that people with less light will rise up in judgment against them. The Lord was greater than Jonas as a prophet and greater than Solomon in wisdom.

Ques. Was the Son of man three days and three nights in the heart of the earth to be a sign to that generation?

Rem. The testimony of Jonas was given after he had been in the whale's belly.

F.E.R. Quite so, and so the death of Christ is presented to them in testimony after His death and resurrection.

Rem. But the sign is one thing and the testimony another.

F.E.R. The one who testifies is Himself the sign. That is what I understand by Christ being the power of God and the wisdom of God in 1 Corinthians. To the Greeks it is foolishness and to the Jews a stumbling-block, but none the less Christ is the sign of God's intervention on man's behalf.

Ques. Will you say a word as to what the sin against the Holy Spirit was?

F.E.R. It is very simple to understand, it is when a man attributes to the evil one the very power of God by which alone he could be delivered from that evil one.

Rem. It must be wilful.

Ques. What is the application now? It is possible to commit such a sin now, is it not?

F.E.R. I think so; suppose you get people converted under the preaching of the word, and there is opposition, and opposers attribute the change to the power of Satan, it would be like it.

Rem. It must be a sin against light, a wilful sin, not mere ignorance.

Ques. This has never forgiveness. What about "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do"?

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F.E.R. I think that was against the Son of man and another opportunity was given them.

Ques. What is referred to by the words, "By whom do your children cast them out"?

F.E.R. I think there was some sort of exorcism going on.

Ques. Do you think they cast out demons?

F.E.R. Yes.

Rem. Well, then it must have been by divine power.

F.E.R. Quite so, they did not attribute that to the devil, but Christ's casting out they did. Then comes the close of the chapter, and what is important to note there, as we saw, is that the Lord breaks with His kindred and establishes a relation between Himself and the disciples; the disciples now come into view; in the next chapter it is no longer a question of testimony to the nation, the disciples are the initiated.

Ques. What do you think the passage, "That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof" means?

F.E.R. It is just that kind of profane, wanton word, a word of such a character as they had been speaking; it is not the sense of idle word as we often understand it, it is a strong expression, and refers, I think, to words like the words of the Pharisees.

Rem. You must read it in the light of its context, because everything they said was against the plainest testimony.

F.E.R. I do not suppose at the bottom of their heart they believed what they said.

Rem. Something like the story they invented about the resurrection, but the Lord shows the folly of it.

F.E.R. It is a remarkable thing in connection with the ministry of the Lord that everything was completely measured: here He says, "A house divided against itself shall not stand".

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CHAPTER 13

F.E.R. I do not think the Lord takes a new character here, but He reveals the character in which He had been acting all along.

Ques. What, as a sower?

F.E.R. Yes, as a sower, it was not stated before, but He had been a sower all along.

Ques. Will you say how far the section goes which begins with chapter 12?

F.E.R. My thought is to chapter 13: 52, when we begin again and go on to the end of chapter 18.

Ques. Will you say what characterises the section we are on

F.E.R. The Lord has broken the link, the covenant with Israel, and now we get the revelation of the real character in which He had been here, and the whole view is enlarged; you get the whole world brought into view, the field is the world, in contrast with Israel. I think we saw pretty well in chapter 11 that new things were coming in, I mean the kingdom and Christianity, that is, the knowledge of the Father and the Son. In chapter 12 the Lord shows that the link is with those who did the will of the Father, they took precedence. He breaks the link that was after the flesh with Israel, and that must be, if He is to make known what the kingdom is, that is in the form it takes now, where there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile. The kingdom is not set up in power, but is the fruit of the word; when it is set up in power there will be a distinction between the Jew and the Gentile, but if it is a question of seed sowing a Gentile can receive the seed as well as a Jew.

Rem. There will be no mystery about the kingdom when it is set up in the millennium.

F.E.R. God will fulfil His promises to Israel and the Gentiles will have a subordinate place to Israel, but then that is all a question of God's ordering; I

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cannot see that there can be any distinction between Jew and Gentile when it is a question of seed sowing, the seed produces the same effect in everybody, not one effect in the Jew and another in the Gentile.

Ques. Would the blindness of the Jew make any difference as to the reception of the word?

F.E.R. The Jews are really merged in the field; in consequence of their blindness they have lost the privileges peculiar to them. The seed sowing goes on in the world.

Rem. They are treated as the world in this chapter.

F.E.R. Yes, pretty much as in John's gospel. It is a great thing to see that the Lord had been preaching the word of the kingdom previously to this. What I understand by the word of the kingdom is the light of God's administration. The Lord had spoken of the Father's will. He was here to carry out the Father's will, you get complete light as to the administration of God, that is the word of the kingdom and that forms the kingdom.

Ques. How was the Lord a sower outside the Jews?

F.E.R. I would not quite say that, still the sower had relation to the world, what He was doing was preaching the word of the kingdom and in that there is great light.

Rem. He leaves the land and goes to the sea. Judaism had been tested and now the Lord goes to the Gentiles.

F.E.R. We get here a figure of sowing outside of the Jews, it is only a figure of it, I should suppose. It is not telling people something about the kingdom that forms the kingdom. It is important to see what the word of the kingdom is, because the kingdom is formed by the word.

Ques. Is it the preaching of grace and truth?

F.E.R. No; it is divine administration. You must remember that many things which are familiar to us were quite new to them.

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Rem. It would be well to say a word about divine administration, as many might not be clear as to what you mean.

F.E.R. Well, for instance, in the Old Testament you do not get anything of that kind, anything of divine administration; the giving of promises was not administration, administration points to how God would effect anything.

Rem. And when you speak of administration you speak of the Person by whom God would administer.

F.E.R. And therefore the kingdom does not properly come in until the Lord is at the right hand of God. The Spirit of God is the power. The Jews would not have the word of the kingdom, for the Lord had been sowing the word of the kingdom, and the sin of the Jew was against the Holy Spirit.

Ques. Is sowing going on now?

F.E.R. Yes; people are brought into the kingdom by receiving the light of God's administration. Christ is the administrator now working from the right hand of God. I do not think getting into the kingdom is the same thing as being brought into peace. I think people are brought into the kingdom by getting light in their souls.

Rem. Then only those who are really converted are in the kingdom.

F.E.R. Matthew 18 makes it plain that only such are really in it. I quite admit there is a great system, but that shows how man has taken it up; it is not the divine thought, and I should not like to lose the divine thought in it. The administration supposes the revelation of God. The Father has revealed His will, the Son is effectuating His will, has become Man to carry it out, and the Holy Spirit is the power by which subjectively it is carried out. If you are in the power of the heavenly administration you are in heavenly light.

Ques. Would you say that the kingdom of heaven

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does not extend so wide as the circle of profession?

F.E.R. You get two sides to the parables, one views the kingdom from man's side, and the other from God's side. I quite admit what is on man's side, but I should not like to lose sight of what is on God's side.

Rem. There is the real thing in the midst of the unreal.

Ques. Will you distinguish between the church and the kingdom?

F.E.R. The kingdom is individual; the church is the house of God, the dwelling place of God by the Spirit, you could not say the kingdom is the dwelling place of God. It has its application to us individually. Man's side in the kingdom is how man takes up the idea. In the introductory parable only one out of four is good ground, that is that brings forth fruit. Then you see another thing, that the field is the world and the enemy comes and sows tares; the servants want to root them out, they do not properly belong to the kingdom, they are not children of the kingdom, they are children of the wicked one, that is how the servants look at the tares. Then you get the mustard tree and the leaven, what the kingdom becomes in the hand of man.

Rem. The seed sowing then is preparatory, and after that we have six similitudes of the kingdom.

F.E.R. The first similitude, the wheat and the tares, first belongs to the one side and then to the other, the interpretation shows the divine side; in the parable the thought is of the servants, but in the interpretation the point is the Son of man, He will gather out of His kingdom; and it comes in as a prelude to the last three parables.

Rem. Sowing the seed is not a similitude of the kingdom, it produces the kingdom.

Rem. And that is not limited to the Lord's teaching.

F.E.R. It began with Him, He had been bringing

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to light the administration of the kingdom. What is a kingdom but administration? If you bring to light the administration of heaven you bring to light the kingdom of heaven.

Rem. In chapter 4 He preaches the "gospel of the kingdom".

F.E.R. You get the divine administration in the millennium, it will connect itself with the presence of Christ and will be public; but even then everything will be effectuated subjectively by the Holy Spirit.

Ques. Why do the disciples ask the Lord about His speaking in parables, and then He tells them that the mysteries of the kingdom were only to be known to them?

F.E.R. Mystery is that which is concealed from the careless but made known to the initiated; so with regard to the kingdom, it is concealed from the indifferent, it is for those who have ears to hear. I do not believe that Christ as Lord has any connection with this scene, I do not expect to bring the Lord into my things, into my circumstances; the great point is to get outside my things and to be in the Lord's things, that is the point for the Christian.

Rem. As to our things, the Lord is absent and we have to suffer in consequence.

F.E.R. Yes; the Father has not been rejected in that sense and He holds His hand over everything and cares for His people; but the Lord has been rejected and has taken the place of administration to give effect to everything of the Father's will; if you are in the testimony you are with the Lord.

Rem. That is to say, if you are in the current of His mind.

Ques. Is that the way you would define the testimony -- being in the current of the Lord's mind?

F.E.R. You get the word in Timothy, "Be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord",

Rem. But that embraces a great deal.

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F.E.R. The context shows it is the gospel, but the gospel looked at not as meeting man's need, but as bringing life and incorruptibility to light. The gospel is the instrument to effectuate the will of God, and therefore it is the testimony of our Lord.

Ques. Why does James bring in the will of the Lord in everyday matters?

F.E.R. Because you are tested by it. If I think to leave G -- -- and go to live in P -- -- I am not to go there but in the Lord's will. Most people when they go from one place to another go for some reason of their own.

Ques. But it is buying and selling in the passage?

F.E.R. The Lord's will comes into everything, I do not do my business for my own gain. I believe we should often be diminished if we were here for the Lord's will, so that we might be less hampered, more free. The Lord breaks with His kindred after the flesh and takes up a new link with those who do the Father's will.

Ques. Is that what is meant by obedience to the faith?

F.E.R. What I understand by faith is the revelation of the will of God.

Rem. That is what you have to believe in.

F.E.R. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. Faith opens up the Lord's will, baptism cuts me off from what is here which is not the will of God, I mean sin and the world. I think that a man would be so subdued by getting into the will of God, by all the blessed light of God, that he would feel he could only be here for the will of God. It is extraordinary that the most complete and full revelation of God is in connection with a man; the Lord was down here as a man doing the will of the Father, you cannot conceive anything more amazing.

Ques. Why is the kingdom compared to so small a seed as the mustard seed and yet it becomes so vast?

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F.E.R. I suppose men saw that the light of the kingdom was better than anything they had had before, so they took it up and systematised it. They take it up now in a similar way. Judaism is an advance upon what went before, and Christianity is an advance upon Judaism. They approve of it. There is one thing I cannot understand about their reasonings, Christianity goes back to what was anterior to the law and the prophets, it goes back to the promises, so that the theory of progression breaks down.

Rem. It goes back before the fall.

Rem. Then again the idea of progression is limited to man, but in Christianity you get the will of God.

Ques. When do you think these parables became facts?

F.E.R. When the kingdom began to take shape in the hands of men. You get the sowing of the tares very early. I think the tares are heresies.

Ques. Not persons?

F.E.R. Doctrines would mean nothing at all if they did not characterise persons.

Rem. The good seed are persons formed by the word.

Rem. I suppose the common idea of imitation has arisen from the difficulty the servants had in discerning always between the wheat and the tares.

F.E.R. But the servants could discern.

Rem. Yes, they could discern that the tares were there. The danger of attempting to root up the tares was lest they should root up the wheat also; the idea is that persons would be sent out of the world.

F.E.R. Yes; so in popery, although there is a good bit of tares in popery, they attempted to pull up the tares, but they put out of the world a good deal of the wheat. I have been struck with this, that man has been successful in imitating everything on man's side. Take, for instance, the forgiveness of sins. They have their absolution and even the conferring of the Holy

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Spirit; but on the divine side all imitation ceases, the instant you get life and incorruptibility all imitation is at an end. Take what has happened amongst ourselves during the last sixty years, those who have left have not gone back to the thing they came out of, but have set up an imitation; but all the imitation goes to the outside church system, and I believe in doing it they have lost the divine side.

Rem. The moral thing has been given up for the outward thing.

F.E.R. What is vital and on the divine side has been largely lost. I think the great thing is to be in the secret of the Lord, so that we may be in the testimony, and if we were in it and prepared for the consequences, we should be able to meet the imitation. Well, then we get the three last parables -- the treasure, the pearl, and the fishermen. It is a curious thing that in the interpretation of the wheat and tares the Lord does not say one word about the servants, in the parable itself He says a good deal about them (verses 27 - 29). It is all a dialogue with the servants.

Ques. With regard to the expression "kingdom of their Father", is that the administration again in millennial times?

F.E.R. Yes; I think it indicates the heavenly place for the righteous; the point is, they will shine in the kingdom.

Ques. Who are these righteous?

F.E.R. Christians from this point and onward. Then in the last three parables you have the real thing, you have the divine side, you see the kingdom from that point of view, and you get more light. You have the kingdom as the kingdom of the Son of man. You have not had that before. The present aspect of the house of God ceases when the Lord comes, but the kingdom goes on because it is the kingdom of the Son of man.

Ques. The tares go on to the end?

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F.E.R. Yes, to the end of the age.

Ques. Do you connect them with the foolish virgins?

F.E.R. No; I think they are more heresies.

Ques. Are the righteous here the same as in chapter 25? The righteous go into life eternal?

F.E.R. They do, but I do not think you can put the two together. That is when Christ has come, and it is the righteous nations before Him. Here we have the righteous shine in the Father's kingdom. The same adjective may characterise both, but it does not follow that they are the same persons. There will be those in the kingdom of the Father, and others in the kingdom of the Son of man; but the point is, not being in the kingdom of the Father, but shining, that is, conspicuous. They will be displayed in heavenly glory, in the heavenly places. They will reign, there will be light from heaven in the heavenly city, the nations walk in the light of it. Then we get the purchase of the field for the sake of the treasure in it. The Lord is showing what the kingdom is in the divine thought; after all, the kingdom is entirely subordinate to the church, the administration at the present time is entirely for the latter.

Rem. The treasure is the church.

F.E.R. I think so, because it refers to the present time, the existence of the kingdom in its present form is in mystery. When you come to the pearl it is one pearl of great price, the treasure does not express the same idea; it is unique.

Ques. What is the hiding of it?

F.E.R. It is not out in manifestation. Then you get the last parable, the net cast into the sea. It has been going on all along, but the selection has not been going on. The net has been cast, and what is going on now at the end is the selection. The fishermen deal with the good and the angels with the bad, that is a little remarkable.

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Rem. The application is somewhat diverse from the parable itself.

Rem. You get the same thing in the parable of the tares and the wheat.

F.E.R. It shows what the spiritual principle of these parables is, the thought of the kingdom in them does not go beyond the present time.

Rem. With "angels" there is the thought of providential dealing.

F.E.R. Yes; and I think we have to be thankful that we have to do with the good and not with the bad.

Ques. When does the kingdom terminate?

F.E.R. The kingdom is the kingdom of the Son of man. It never terminates until He gives it up to the Father, when the kingdom has done its work and all the administration has been carried out, then it is that the Son gives up the kingdom and there is no more kingdom; supremacy does not cease, but the kingdom ceases. After all, everything will accomplish the will of God.

Rem. I think that is the comfort of this chapter, that you see the Lord as administrator of the will of God, whatever man might do does not affect that at all.

F.E.R. Angels are at His disposal, everything is at His disposal. Well, I think it is a most wonderful thing, before the kingdom existed you have got the whole result laid out before you. It characterises the whole of Scripture that the end of a thing is always laid out at the beginning.

Rem. So that we never find God taken aback by anything.

Ques. What are the things new and old?

Answer. There were things in the parables not to be found in the Old Testament, and there were things in the Old Testament which had to be fulfilled.

Rem. And these last are the old things.

F.E.R. Yes.

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CHAPTER 13: 53 TO CHAPTER 16: 5

F.E.R. I think this is all one subject, and the whole passage brings out the completeness of the break with the existing state of things, and the new place which the Lord takes. You see, for instance, when He had finished the parables "he departed thence" (verse 53), then He goes into the "desert place apart" (chapter 14: 13), in the next chapter He goes into "the coasts of Tyre and Sidon" (verse 21), and in the following chapter (16: 4) "he left them, and departed". It is all indicative of the break with the existing order of things, and then in connection with Peter in chapter 14 we find the new place which the Lord has taken; it is really what marks the present time, and Peter has to go to where He is. All that has to come out in a certain sense before the Lord could speak of the new thing, that is, the church. We could not understand anything about the church if we did not see how complete the break was with the existing order of things, and the new place the Lord has taken. It is a little difficult to follow, in a certain way, because there is an overlapping; we get the Lord still ministering to the poor of the flock, and yet at the same time the circumstances indicate to anyone who has the least spiritual judgment the break which now existed with the established order of things.

Rem. But then it was no longer the nation, as such, but the poor of the flock.

F.E.R. Yes, they sought Him. It is what comes out in Zechariah. He breaks the covenant and feeds the poor of the flock. That is what He is doing in these two chapters. He proves the boundlessness of the resources that were there outside the existing order of things. As to Himself there are two great things, He goes up into a mountain to pray, and He walks on the water; both indicate the place which Christ has taken outside the Jewish order of things.

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Ques. Gone up to heaven?

F.E.R. Yes, gone outside all human order, flesh cannot walk on the water.

Rem. And that is what He is doing now.

F.E.R. And that is where we have to find Him, we cannot find the Lord in the boat now. He will be found in the boat by-and-by. The boat is the Jewish order of things. Christendom, in a sense, has become the boat.

Rem. But you cannot get out of it.

F.E.R. Well, you can and you cannot; you can go forth without the camp though you cannot get out of it dispensationally; I quite admit, you cannot go out of the great house.

Rem. The boat is something that you can look to for support. Christendom is really a religious system in which a man can settle down as a Jew could in his.

F.E.R. It is all set up on the pattern of Judaism. Of course, you have to remember that there is this difference, that the Lord comes to the boat (to the Jewish remnant) by-and-by, and they own Him.

Rem. That is, He resumes connection with Israel.

F.E.R. Yes, and then they own Him as Son of God, but they do not walk on the water. It is as plain as possible to me that a Jew will neither go inside the veil nor outside the camp. Hebrews 10 and Hebrews 13 have no application to the Jew. If we come in as companions of Christ within the veil, our place is to go forth to Him without the camp; but the Jews will not have the same open to them.

Rem. The disciples in the boat really set forth the Jewish remnant.

F.E.R. Yes, the boat was the proper place for them; but the important point is that the Lord does not go with them, but up into the mountain. I suppose it is coincident with John 6. He goes up into a mountain there after feeding the multitude, only Peter does

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not walk on the water, there is that difference. I think it is a pretty good proof of the break with the existing order of things. That is the reason Herod is brought in here. The Lord leaves things in that state, in the hands of the lawless Edomite. He goes out to the desert place, and ministers to the poor of the flock; but He shows to the disciples the new place which He was about to take. The important point about it is, that it is a place that the natural man has no power for at all, only the spiritual man can reach it. I think it is a great thing at the present time, for I do not know a greater lesson for any one of us to learn than to cease to bring the Lord into our things, but to leave our things and go to the Lord's. He came to the boat ultimately, He will come to man's things; but we have to leave the boat, and it is only faith that can do that.

Rem. It is a comfort to see that the Lord sustains all who are willing to go to Him.

F.E.R. I think there is a certain exhilaration about going outside the boat, that is, going where we are entirely cast upon the Lord. Peter began to sink; it was all a pattern; Peter could not walk on the water until the Spirit was given, until he was supported by the divine power. As long as the Lord was here He did in a way what the Spirit does now; for example, He was the expositor of Scripture; many things for which we are dependent upon the Spirit the Lord did when here.

Rem. And yet I suppose the Spirit does what the Lord did not do.

F.E.R. Oh, yes, quite so. All these scenes are more or less typical.

Ques. When you speak of leaving the boat and going on the water, do you mean people leaving the sects and systems and coming into fellowship?

F.E.R. No, I do not; I do not believe in that. I want people to leave their sects and systems and go

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out to Christ. I have seen the bad effect of what you refer to.

Rem. They merely leave one boat for another.

F.E.R. It is poor work to leave one body of Christians for another, the point is to come to Christ. I know what it is, I had the errors of the Church of England exposed to me, and I was attracted to brethren; I think I had but a poor sense that I had to leave the boat and go to Christ.

Rem. You have learnt that since, and you leave others to learn it.

Rem. Still it is a great thing to start with it, and why should not we start with it?

F.E.R. Yes. It is to be found in 2 Timothy. You cannot read the epistle without seeing the prominent place the Lord has. "Let every one who names the name of the Lord". "The Lord knoweth them that are his". "The servant of the Lord must not strive". It is all the Lord. You must have a boat unless you have got the Lord. It is a great thing for those who have to do with people to put it before them rightly.

Rem. Else it is merely a question of getting out of an unsound boat into a sound one.

F.E.R. I think I felt that if I got among brethren I should get to where I would be supported; but if you would be supported by the Lord, you must leave the boat.

Rem. Otherwise you get nothing that will stand any test; if a test comes along you are on your beam ends.

Rem. What makes it difficult is that it is intensely individual.

F.E.R. Yes, for although the church is here, the church is in ruin, and things must be individual. You cannot have a church within a church, that is not the divine thought.

Rem. We look for support and encouragement

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from the brethren rather than from the Lord. The time comes when the boat gets a good shaking.

F.E.R. Yes; but then in all the troubles the Lord has been somewhere.

Ques. I suppose it was affection for the Lord which animated Peter?

F.E.R. Yes; in 1 Corinthians 16 the apostle says, "If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maranatha".

Ques. What do you mean by a church within a church?

F.E.R. The idea might come into the mind of setting up a model of the church, then you would have a church within the church. Matthew 13 brings out the place the Lord had occupied here, from the outset really. Matthew 14 brings out the new place He was going to take, and in connection with the new place comes out the whole system of heavenly administration.

Ques. What do you understand by receiving the Lord into the boat?

F.E.R. He comes to the Jewish remnant by-and-by.

Rem. But is it not clear that the Lord has not come into the boat yet and does not it follow that the Lord is now supporting those whom He has called out?

F.E.R. Peter is a representative man here, he is not viewed as an apostle, he indicates the necessity of the moment if you are to be where the Lord is.

Ques. Did you say the Lord was supporting those whom He had called out?

Answer. Yes. He has called out the assembly while He is away, presently He is coming into the Jewish boat.

Ques. Do you mean He has called the assembly out of the boat?

F.E.R. Strictly it is the calling out of those who formed the remnant, but practically it includes the Gentiles.

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Ques. Does it answer to the calling out of the Jewish fold as in John 10?

F.E.R. It is something like it, but the connection is different.

Rem. You get Peter's energy and affection, he says, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water".

F.E.R. If you get the realisation of the Lord as is evident in Peter's question, you find that Peter got assurance of heart in taking the step.

Ques. Is Christendom a system like Judaism?

F.E.R. In Christendom they have gone back to the boat principle, that is a great system that supports people. We all confess the Lord, but I think there is a point beyond that, when the Lord is known individually to affection. You are not very effective unless you know the Lord in affection, so that you are prepared to leave everything and go to Him.

Rem. I suppose the character of Ephesus was that at the outset, first love.

Ques. We should all be prepared to admit that there are many with affection for the Lord in what we should call the boat?

F.E.R. Yes, but it is a pity they do not leave it and go out to the Lord, not to the brethren but to the Lord; surely we should be prepared to leave everything so as to get to Him.

Rem. It is important to notice that Peter has the Lord's word.

F.E.R. He would not have taken the step otherwise; the idea is first with Peter, and the Lord encouraged it saying, "Come". The Lord had gone up as the Priest and now He comes out as Lord, supreme in administration. We have to go out of our things to Him, but are not people very much disposed to bring the Lord into their things and not to go out of them to Him?

Rem. I think that is just the difference between

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what we are talking about and the very true piety among the sects and systems.

F.E.R. I think that 'Lord' is the title of administration, and that the administration is wholly limited to the will of God. He does not administer in the things of this world, and what I argue from that is that you must leave your things to find Him. The will of God is the body of Christ, and if you are set on that you will be with the Lord and the Lord will be with you. I do not undervalue piety. I do not say it is not right to make your wants known, I most heartily go with all that, but the administration of the Lord is another matter. The will of God is to gather up all things in one in Christ, but at the same time is made known the mystery of His will, the body, that is what God is working for. The principle comes out in the parables of the kingdom, the field is bought for the sake of the treasure, and it is one pearl of great price. God's will was revealed in the Old Testament, Psalm 8; but now in addition to what was made known there we have the mystery of His will, that is the body. "That they who are of the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings". That is what has come to light now.

Ques. Is it that the great thought now is the body, and ultimately it will be the heading up of all things in Christ?

F.E.R. Yes, the body is Christ's fulness. God is forming the vessel which is to be perfectly expressive of Christ.

Rem. So that the will of God is expressive of what God is doing.

F.E.R. Yes, and it is in that sphere that the Lord administers. There is no novelty about the will of God, it was made known in Psalm 8; everything is to be under the Son of man, but now He has made known the mystery of His will.

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Rem. And that is something that is known only to the initiated before the public display has come, and the great thing is to be in the truth of that.

F.E.R. The first great act of administration was the sending down of the Holy Spirit to form the body. He ascended up far above all the power of evil, above all heavens, and the first great act was the gifts to men, and these are all for the work of edifying the body.

Ques. What is the difference between Lordship and Headship?

F.E.R. Lordship is supremacy and administration. Headship is that He receives everything for the body so that the body is formed according to the Head. I should not say the body is formed according to the Lord but according to the Head.

Rem. The Lord, too, is individual, not so the Head.

F.E.R. I think the Lord will be known more as Head by us when in heaven.

Rem. But you have to bring the Lord into your things so as to do His will in them.

F.E.R. You are tested in your things, you have to consider whether you are acting for the Lord's will; for instance, do not take a house in a pleasanter place than the one you are living in or I shall doubt if you are doing His will; do not bring up your children to occupy a better position in society than yourself, or I shall not be disposed to think you are acting for the Lord's will.

Rem. Well, but that is bringing the Lord into your things.

F.E.R. All these things test you, they test where you are, you are to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Ques. What is the difference between doing everything in the name of the Lord Jesus and holding the Head?

F.E.R. They are two totally different things. Holding the Head is wholly in connection with the

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body, the other enters into all my individual everyday things. I think the will of God has its own specific character.

Ques. Do you think the difficulty comes in because we do not recognise that we are here for the will of God?

F.E.R. Yes. Now is the judgment of this world; but the will of God is another thing; and I think everything comes in to test a man.

Ques. Is that what is meant by Lydia saying, "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord"?

F.E.R. That refers, I suppose, to the baptism. I think that she put everything into death, not herself only, but all that belonged to her. If you have taken that place I cannot understand how you can be seeking great things for your children.

Rem. In the millennium blessing will be in connection with things down here, but now it is just the opposite.

F.E.R. Yes; now you have to leave the boat.

Rem. A good many seem to be surprised to hear that they have not reached the Lord, as such, at all.

Ques. Suppose they have only one bit of light, what would you do with them?

F.E.R. Cherish them.

Rem. Well, that is a good thing.

F.E.R. The fact is, that if you have not much affection for the Lord you cannot do much. If we look at Matthew 15 the light has left the Jew and gone to the Gentile, and then in chapter 16 we have the sign of Jonas, it all marks very clearly what the moment was. The Lord says in regard to the scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind". Then the light goes to the Gentile woman, and she appeals to Him as the Son of David; the Lord would not listen to her until she took lower ground as to herself, then He answered her. To me it is a most solemn chapter,

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whatever light there was had left the Jew, light was with the Gentiles. The Lord had exposed the fallacy of the whole system of the scribes and Pharisees, they were properly the custodians of the light, but they had turned the light into darkness. It was religion and false religion. The light goes to the Gentiles, it is outside of the scribes and Pharisees. In chapter 16 there is no sign but the sign of Jonas, and Christ leaves them and departs.

Ques. What of chapter 15: 30?

F.E.R. The Lord still goes on ministering to the poor of the flock who sought Him, but what becomes evident is that He is taking another place.

Ques. Is it the same as in Luke 14, there we find first those out of the streets and lanes are sought out, and then in the highways and hedges?

F.E.R. In Luke the point is the transition from law to grace, in Matthew it is the change of dispensation. Seeking a sign indicated terrible perverseness in reference to all that the Lord had done, you could not have a greater proof of wilful unbelief, it was an awful thing, the very worst thing in the eye of God. The sign of Jonas was a sign of judgment. Jonas goes to the Ninevites as a man that had been under the waves and billows, and tells them that judgment was coming upon them. The Lord condemns the generation as a wicked one. It strikes me as very beautiful to see the Lord going on ministering to the people. He does not cease, but still goes on, and yet makes evident how complete the break was with the existing order of things. I think it is wonderful to get in a few verses a showing forth of the place the Lord had.

Rem. We cannot understand the true force of the gospels unless we understand the epistles. They are the last part of scripture we can make much of.

F.E.R. Yes, because you find perfection there; the epistles often deal with the saints going on badly, and we can understand imperfection better than

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perfection, because we are imperfect ourselves. Nothing is more marvellous than the gospels, you come there into the presence of perfection; of course, there was imperfection all around the Lord, but in the Lord Himself there was divine perfection in a man. I think it is interesting to see what has been before us tonight, that is, the completeness of the break with the existing order of things, and the new place the Lord takes, because it all leads on to the new thing, to what comes out in chapter 16, that is, the church.

CHAPTER 17

F.E.R. There is a difference between Matthew and Peter. In Matthew the subject is Christ, in Peter it is Christian privilege. In Matthew Christ is the builder. It is His assembly. He says, "On this rock I will build my assembly". You want to get a sense not of what the stones are, but of what the assembly is. The great point in Peter is that the saints had in a spiritual way what Israel had had in a material way. Those to whom Peter wrote had lost everything in a material way but had gained everything in a spiritual way; but I think it is very much more interesting to see the place which the Lord takes consequent upon His withdrawal from Israel and all connected with Israel. You see (Matthew 16) that there was a nucleus, the disciples were the bread and the Lord makes known to them all that was coming in consequent upon His withdrawal from Israel. He withdraws from Israel for the time being but there was a nucleus. They began to question about the bread, but what the Lord virtually says is, "You are the bread". His fear was lest they should be leavened, they were to be an unleavened company, kept clear from the leaven of formalism -- the Pharisee -- and scepticism -- the Sadducee; if you are not clear from these things you will not get much

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light about divine things. There are three things in the end of chapter 16: (1) He is the builder; (2) He is the administrator in the kingdom, and then (3) He comes again in glory. He is rejected here, but He comes again and sets up the kingdom in glory. It is wonderful to see the place the Lord takes. The kingdom of which He spoke to Peter is going on now. The Lord brings before them His sufferings, but the sufferings were to prepare for the kingdom in glory. The transfiguration is what Peter refers to in his second epistle. "We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eye witnesses of his majesty". The great point of the building is this, that it was the way by which Christ was going to secure that He would have a place here upon earth. That was the mystery to be solved, how He would have a place here upon earth, and that is solved by the assembly.

Ques. Do you think that takes the place of Israel?

F.E.R. I think it takes the place of Urim and Thummim. It is a most wonderful thing to conceive that the Lord should secure that He should have a place here upon earth where He could make known His mind. The point here is how it was to be brought about. I think that if we had the idea that there is actually a spot here upon earth where His mind is declared, our thoughts about things down here would be materially changed. I do not think we should care much about anything else. I do not think "my assembly", as far as I understand it, refers expressly to heaven, the expression "gates of hades" not prevailing, is a pretty good proof that it refers to something here upon earth. There is no chance of the "gates of hades" prevailing against anything in heaven.

Ques. Then the idea is a spiritual idea?

F.E.R. The whole thing hangs upon the divine nature; it rests on the apprehension of what Christ

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is according to the divine nature, if one might use the expression, the divine generation. That is the rock and then you see Peter is of the rock, he is a fragment of the rock, he is of the same nature as the rock. We are formed in the divine nature by the Spirit. It is the divine nature which appreciates the presence of Christ, people think it is by the Spirit but I think that, if we are not in the divine nature we are not in touch with Christ. The gates of hades cannot prevail against that, whatever is formed in the divine nature cannot go. Faith and hope (1 Corinthians 13) will end, but love will abide. I think 1 Corinthians 13 greatly helps. Nothing but the divine nature can resist the power of evil. Peter's great point in his first epistle was to show the Jews who had believed in Christ that they had lost nothing. The word for stone in Peter is not the same as that employed here, the idea of the stone here is that it is a part of the rock, a chip of the rock. The Lord recognises Peter as being of that nature. The word in Peter's epistle might refer in a certain way to the same thing, but it is not the same idea. In Peter's epistle the point is a building, here it is the foundation. Peter personally was according to the foundation. The thought here is that Christ will build that which will give Him a place here in spite of breaking with Israel.

Ques. Supposing that a person has got in his mind some sort of ecclesiastical organisation? Rome has built up an ecclesiastical organisation upon this scripture.

F.E.R. An ecclesiastical organisation is not in the divine nature. There is not much of the divine nature about Rome.

Ques. Is this what Christ gets for what He has lost?

F.E.R. Yes, I think it is. When He breaks with Israel there is, "I and the children which God hath given me", and to them He makes known the steps

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He would take. I think it is a great thing in the present moment to be in the secret of the Lord. You could not have a greater privilege.

Rem. The force of calling Peter by that name was to show that he was a chip of the rock.

F.E.R. People think that they are going to realise the Lord's presence by the Spirit, but it is in the divine nature that the Spirit works, it is affection that is the point; you are formed in it by the Spirit, and if you are not formed in it by the Spirit you will not realise the Lord's presence.

Ques. Then the idea of the assembly is the plurality of persons being together in this way?

F.E.R. Yes, perfectly in touch with Himself in nature, and such would secure His presence. What has made it plain to me is 1 Corinthians 13. There the whole subject of the assembly is brought out; chapters 12 - 14. The apostle breaks the thread of the subject to bring in the divine nature, you might have gift and prophecy and knowledge, but without love you are nothing, and certainly one cannot be less than nothing. The first thing that the Spirit will do for a man is to bring him into the light. He will not work until He has brought him into the light, and although I would not say that divine affections are only found with us, yet I say divine affections are in the light. A person whose eyes were opened would be bowed down with the sense of the state of things, he would not be disposed to think much of himself or his company, he would be far from attempting to set anything up. It is a wonderful thing to have your eyes opened. The Lord is then your resource; that which Christ builds is not touched, that which is connected with divine affection is lasting. I think the Lord gives a pretty good indication of what the assembly is, the assembly is where He is, and we must answer to Him. It is not because you are identified with a particular company that therefore you are there.

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Ques. Are we justified in looking for the assembly now?

F.E.R. Yes; for the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. The great thing is to see that Christ has not changed. We must be on a right line, and the right line is the recognition of what Christ is in the divine nature, not as the Son of Mary, nor the Son of Abraham and David, but the Son of the living God. He does not gather to Himself after the flesh at all, and it is only the divine nature that can touch Him; it is really the teaching of 1 Corinthians 13 that in the assembly, love is everything. What a wonderful thing it is to think of a company here in touch with Christ, and His presence really known by them. Peter had no function in regard to the assembly, he is simply a pattern; as to the kingdom, the Lord gives Peter a place, but not as to the assembly.

Rem. I think we ought to learn from Peter.

F.E.R. I think we ought to learn from the Father. I cannot describe it to anyone, but there is a moment when the Father speaks to the soul. A man believes the gospel and receives the Holy Spirit, but there is some moment in his history when the Father teaches him this.

Ques. That is, that he apprehends something about the Person of Christ?

F.E.R. Yes. You can only know God in the divine nature, "He that loveth not knoweth not God". Peter was really a converted man before the Father gave him this revelation, you do not speak of this as conversion. It would produce the greatest moral effect upon us. There is nothing here for God now but what is in the Spirit. We have to leave the camp, the established order of things here was the camp. The necessity is leaving the camp. There are thousands who are converted who do not know this, they have not left the camp. We do well to apply it to ourselves.

Ques. What about all those saints who lived through

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the long centuries up to about seventy or eighty years ago?

F.E.R. They knew nothing about the church.

Ques. Did the Father touch them?

F.E.R. It is hard to say what the Father did, but it is certain they knew nothing about the church. They were real Christians and had the Holy Spirit, they surrendered their lives for Christ, gave up everything for Him; but they knew nothing about the church, as far as we can gather.

Ques. They belong to the assembly?

F.E.R. They will come out in the completeness of the assembly, I do not doubt at all, but the point is the assembly here.

Rem. Is it not to create a difficulty to look upon what is in a ruined state and argue from that, rather than go back to the architect's plan?

F.E.R. When things are in ruins you are compelled to look at truths in an abstract way.

Rem. And you have to judge what is contrary.

F.E.R. Yes, that is the first step.

Rem. I am glad you say you believe these Christians will come out in the completeness of the assembly, there is a strong party who say they do not belong to the assembly and will not come out in the assembly by-and-by.

F.E.R. That is just where I should disagree with them, "For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body". That must cover every saint, but then it is not merely being indwelt by the Holy Spirit; but being in the divine nature, you are a "Petros", and that comes about through the divine touch, the Father's revelation. To my mind Peter's confession is an expression of affection, it is affection's recognition of Christ. The Lord only speaks of these things to the disciples, they were the nucleus, He does not speak of them to the people. The disciples were the bread, and He warns them that they must be clear of formalism

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and scepticism. These communications are made to a people separated from the Jews. He draws the confession from them, He asks first what the people thought of Him, and then what they thought of Him; and then Peter's confession comes to light, and the Lord says it is the Father's revelation to him. This is apprehended individually. Peter gets the revelation, I cannot say why, my impression is that he is here as a pattern. The confession involves the recognition of Christ entirely apart from the flesh. In the assembly He is the Head, in the kingdom He is the Lord. He does not give to Peter a place of administration in the church, but in the kingdom. Peter was to carry out the administration in the power of the Lord, in spiritual power; that is the meaning of the keys, it was administration committed to Peter in connection with the kingdom. I do not think that the keys have been given to anyone else but Peter. Peter used them in opening the door to Jews and Gentiles. It is when we come together that we realise the assembly. The first point then is to be in touch with the Lord, and with one another in the divine nature.

Rem. All are not in the truth of this who are on this ground.

F.E.R. Can you tell me of any meeting you know of in which everybody realises the holiest, yet I would not have one single person away from that meeting? They all get the benefit of what perhaps only two or three are in the truth of. I have no doubt that there are a good many who look upon the two or three who take part as virtually the priests; but priestly privilege belongs to all, both brothers and sisters.

Rem. We exercise priestly functions in the holiest.

F.E.R. You cannot have Israel's place, yet that is the place you must get when an established order has come to pass, then you are neither in the holiest nor outside the camp. The third great thing that comes out in the passage is the sufferings of Christ,

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but it is only paving the way for the Lord coming in glory and power in the kingdom. He is supreme for He gives the keys of the kingdom to Peter, but then afterwards He comes out in His power and glory. What has been a great thought to me -- not that it is new, but it is important -- is, that when Christ was here He was here in testimony, when He comes again He comes in glory and not in testimony.

Rem. And we are connected now with the testimony part.

F.E.R. Yes, and all the testimony is comprised in one word -- "Christ". There is no testimony but Christ.

Rem. That which is the burden of testimony will be brought out in glory.

Ques. What is your thought of the kingdom of heaven now? How does it go on now?

F.E.R. Well, the Lord is in heaven, and if I look to Him for direction in the things that He administers -- not the things of the world, mind, but in the things that He administers -- then, at any rate, the kingdom of heaven is good for me. The kingdom applies individually, not corporately. In the kingdom of the Son of man the Son of man is the centre of all the glory, His own, the Father's, and the holy angels'.

CHAPTER 18

Ques. In chapter 16 we had Peter's confession, "Son of the living God"; in chapter 17 we have the Father's voice, "Thou art my beloved Son". Is the same thought in both?

F.E.R. The first passage is the confession of Christ in what He was according to the divine generation, in the second passage it is honour and glory conferred upon Him, that is how Peter interprets it. The latter has to do with the kingdom.

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Ques. Is it the same thought as chapter 11?

F.E.R. No, I do not think it is; in that sense He did not receive honour and glory.

Ques. I should like to ask, now that we are on the subject, what is the difference between Nathanael's confession (John 1) and the confession of Peter (Matthew 16); Nathanael says, "Son of God; ... King of Israel"? Peter says, "the Christ, the Son of the living God". In Peter's case it is said to be a revelation from the Father, but nothing of the kind is said in Nathanael's case?

F.E.R. Nathanael simply confessed Him according to a name inherited (see Psalm 2); in Peter's case it was according to what He is in divine generation. He was taught of the Father that He was of God, according to His divine nature.

Ques. Do you mean His Person?

F.E.R. Well, not exactly, though it all hung upon the truth of His Person; it was the divine relationship and nature, but as giving character to man that was taught to Peter, and however little he understood it, that was the purport of it; but as to Nathanael it was no more than Christ according to Psalm 2. That is a name inherited, the thought there is of authority over the nations, and you get this subsequently in the Scriptures, in the address to Thyatira and again at the close of Revelation in connection with Son of God.

Ques. And the revelation in Matthew 16, what you speak of as divine generation is the foundation of the heavenly order of things?

F.E.R. Yes, all hangs upon the divine relationship and nature brought into manhood. It hangs upon His Person, but if He had not taken a place in manhood it could not be available for us. Matthew 11 is not like chapter 16, a foundation upon which He can build. It is essentially as Son He speaks of Himself there, I know only one title that describes Him as to His Person, and that is "the Son".

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Ques. Would you not say "the Word"?

F.E.R. That is designation, and it says, "we contemplated his glory"; that is, the glory of the Word is the only begotten of the Father, that is the Son.

Ques. In John 1 the Lord calls Simon Peter, has that any connection with Matthew 16?

F.E.R. You have to consider that in John's gospel the Jews are looked at as reprobate from the outset, thus you can understand why from the outset the Lord should designate Peter by the name by which he was to be known afterwards, and he gets the confirmation of it in Matthew 16. I do not think that Peter had the revelation in John 1. He was not much up to it then, and yet that was what was in the Lord's mind. I understand a name to indicate that which is to be set forth in a man.

Rem. He gives him the name anticipatively.

F.E.R. The force of it did not come out until the beginning of the Acts, when Peter received the Holy Spirit.

Rem. So then you may say there are three steps as to Peter, John 1, Matthew 16 and Acts 2.

F.E.R. The first in connection with Christ, the second with the church and the third with the Spirit, but you must have all three. What I think we saw last time in the previous chapter (16), was that the Lord had broken with the Jews and that He looked upon the disciples as the loaf; the bread; then subsequently to that He builds the church, He commits the keys of the kingdom to Peter, then unfolds what the path down here is to be, and then goes on to the kingdom in glory. The Lord brings out all the great principles that were to come in, the kingdom now, and the kingdom in glory and the dispossession of Satan down here. What we read tonight brings out in detail the great principles which carry us on to the future, you cannot go further in that direction than chapter 17;

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what comes in after is detail, principles for the ordering of conduct and so on down here.

Rem. You do not get Satan falling from heaven in Matthew.

F.E.R. Because you do not get in Matthew the thought of man having a place in heaven, the thought of Satan being cast out is connected with man having a place there; Luke 10. Here it is a question of the world to come and Satan being cast out of it. The child is in picture the Jew, Christ comes down from the mount to cast Satan out of the child of the Jew. It is rather a large field to be brought out in a few verses. The building of the assembly, the kingdom in mystery, the pathway here in fellowship with His sufferings, the kingdom in glory and the dispossession of Satan are all here. Now at the end of chapter 17 and in chapter 18 we get the entering into and ordering of the kingdom, what you might call the economy of the kingdom, for the public outward thing down here was the kingdom and yet not exactly public because it was in mystery, but the conduct that men could see. In the end of chapter 17 there is One who is conscious of being the greatest, yet He will take the lowest place in order to avoid offence; there is a great contrast between what He reveals Himself to be and the place He takes. The first principle is that you are to avoid offences, but not to be offended yourself. You do not want to stumble anyone else, and you take care that you are not stumbled; it is all individual, the only time that I know of where anything collective comes into the chapter is in verse 17, where the church is just introduced, but that is the only allusion that I know of.

Ques. What is the difference between this and John 3?

F.E.R. There it is that a man must be born again, here it is the spirit and character in which a man is to enter the kingdom. It is in a certain sense the effect

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of being born again. John looks at the work of God which is underneath. Matthew, like Mark and Luke, looks at things more outwardly, that is, what comes to pass in the experience of people.

Rem. I suppose you might say that the kingdom of God is moral and the kingdom of heaven administration.

F.E.R. Yes, to a certain extent; what the Lord brought out here was the kingdom of heaven, and yet it is moral; for though we get the parables of the leaven and of the mustard seed, yet what you find is that a man has to be converted and become as a little child to enter into it; evidently it is looking at the kingdom in a moral aspect; no doubt in the aspect of a mustard tree there is a vast number of people in it who are not morally in the kingdom. It is the reality here. As a matter of fact a man does not enter into it unless he is converted, it is the condition under which he goes in, you must become as a little child.

Rem. You are not fit as you are, you must go back to the beginning.

F.E.R. It was the more striking to a Jew because a Jew made so much of the man. You have to let go all that you have gained in this world; it is what a man has acquired in this world that makes him a man, but it has to go, it is no good. Man makes use of the faculties God has given him to acquire prominence here, but it all has to go, all the greatness and pretension a man has in this world, religious or in whatever form it might be. A child does not set up for strength or knowledge. What can you take to the Lord?

Rem. You can take a great deal from Him.

F.E.R. But then you must give up all you have, I think it is a most wonderful thing to be governed and ordered here by the Lord, no one can describe the manner of it, because it is peculiar to each, no one can define it to another. There are people in the world

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who think that they can carry on the Lord's work as they carry on man's work by organisation and combination and natural means; but as far as I understand it, everything which tends to give greatness and importance to man has to be dropped, I do not think you ever cease to be a little child in that sense. I think that the Lord in this chapter takes up one point after another. We have the very important principle, that even the infants have their place in the kingdom, they were despised among the Jews, but it shows the character of the kingdom, it is not law but grace. "Of such is the kingdom of heaven". The Lord attaches great importance to it, "In heaven their angels do always behold the face of my Father". "The Son of man is come to save that which was lost". The meanest and smallest thing upon earth has its place; this is a beautiful feature of the kingdom. Law recognised the man, there is very little about the children under the law, but here there is. I think the gospels show how the children stand in relation to the Lord, and the epistles how they stand in relation to the Spirit.

Rem. They are to obey the Lord in the epistles.

F.E.R. Oh, yes, it is all in that sphere where His rights are maintained. In Corinthians they are holy, in the gospels, where it is more a question of the Lord, they are to be suffered to come to Him. After the children you have the question of difficulties between brethren, how they are to be met. You first get the way in which offences are to be avoided, then the place of children, then the dealing with possible offences between brothers, and in that connection the church comes in.

Ques. Why does the parable of the ninety-nine come in?

F.E.R. Because law would make everything of the ninety-nine, but grace makes everything of the one. It shows the complete reversal of all that existed before. "The Son of man is come to save that which was

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lost". Seeking is left out, it has more applicability to those grown up. Children are viewed as "lost", but it is not the Father's will that one of them should "perish". Angels are here, as very frequently, representative. With regard to the matter between brethren, the Lord lays down a way of which we must all admit the wisdom. The great object is to gain the brother.

Ques. The thought is that there is something between two parties, and the one offended goes to the other, is it not?

F.E.R. And evidently that is the very best thing that could be done, it is difficult to do sometimes, but the one offended is to be superior in grace, and this is a great test for us.

Rem. Writing would not fulfil this.

F.E.R. No, it would only increase the mischief; letters do not bring the persons in contact, and there is not much opportunity in them for showing grace; a difficulty might be solved by the spirit of grace in the parties.

Rem. One often notices that there is a great deal in the manner in which a thing is said, and you cannot impart that in a letter.

F.E.R. The Lord's way is not public exposure, He will expose you to yourself, but to no one else except when nothing else avails.

Ques. When the Lord uttered these things who constituted the church?

F.E.R. The Lord had not taken the new place, except typically, at this time; the teaching hangs upon that; He had brought it before His disciples, and His rejection in chapter 16. In chapter 14 the Lord typically takes the new place, but He was not yet actually walking upon the waters. All the latter part of Matthew hangs upon the thought of the Lord being in glory.

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Rem. In applying this teaching you have to treat it from the standpoint of the Lord's rejection and that He is no longer here.

F.E.R. The Lord gives the keys to Peter, but Peter had not begun to unlock. I do not think Peter used the keys until he had the Spirit.

Ques. Why is it "keys"?

F.E.R. Because it is administration, keys are so used figuratively in Scripture. "The key of the house of David will I lay upon his shoulder". Here the Lord gives instruction concerning what should take place when He was away; you could have no kingdom without the Lord in glory, you have got no kingdom light in heaven until He is there. What has God set in heaven? Nothing except Christ at present. I think when the church is set there it will share His authority.

Ques. The question in 1 Corinthians 6 is of a different character from what we have here?

F.E.R. I do not think, however, that business matters should be brought into the assembly; why cannot people go on quietly in spiritual things, and not trouble us with their business difficulties. Verse 20 is to my mind the greatest verse in the chapter. It is connected with asking of the Father. I think it is that you are here for Christ's name and interests. You are not asking for yourself, you are, I understand, entirely taken up with His interests, and you can ask anything then.

Rem. Philippians 4 is not the same thing.

F.E.R. No; you are free as to your own things in that. I think a person has to find out the things in which the Lord administers. What people have to get clear about is the sphere and order which the Lord administers, I think you are free enough to ask then.

Rem. One said, "Speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance".

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F.E.R. But the Lord would not have to do with it at all. This chapter contemplates a normal state of things, it does not contemplate anything sectarian, it says, "If two of you", that is, any two of the assembly.

Rem. And yet it is wonderful provision for a day of ruin, because everything remains true.

Ques. What does "there am I in the midst" mean? Does it refer to such a meeting as on Lord's Day morning?

F.E.R. I should connect this very much more with the prayer meeting. I think the Lord's Day morning stands on different ground. "In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee". Here it is a question of asking. You would not connect the gathering of the assembly with this verse; it is good for the assembly, but it is on other ground.

Rem. I think this verse has been connected with discipline in people's minds.

F.E.R. But that is not the normal meaning of the verse.

Rem. It is a question of asking in the interests of Christ.

Ques. Does this apply to two or three come together in a private room for prayer?

F.E.R. Not in independency; I should very much object to the verse being used as a warrant for independency; but where there is the smallest interest in His things the Lord is there, though you may have only two or three come together.

Ques. What is the force of "there am I"?

F.E.R. I could not say; I know what realises His presence, that is love.

Ques. Would you not say "holiness" as well as "love"?

F.E.R. Holiness is indispensable; you cannot separate the two.

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Rem. But then first of all you have to be gathered.

F.E.R. Yes; but being gathered and realising His presence are two different things.

Rem. I should have thought it was by the Spirit.

F.E.R. That is not the way it is put; I have been greatly instructed by 1 Corinthians 13.

Rem. No doubt the Spirit would produce love.

F.E.R. I do not think that you can touch Christ in the assembly except by love; one must have faith as to it, but that alone does not put you in touch with Christ.

Rem. But faith works by love.

F.E.R. Yes; but it is well to observe the order in 1 Corinthians: in chapter 11 you have the Lord's supper, in chapter 12 the manifestations of the Spirit, in chapter 14 detail; chapter 13 comes in between to show us the vitality of the assembly, that is love; if a man have not love, he is nothing; he might have gifts and self-abnegation, but if he have not love he is nothing.

Ques. What is the force of "to his name"?

F.E.R. It is the recognition of Himself, of what is set forth in Him; you want to know this to understand what it is to be gathered to His name.

Rem. It supposes that you have gone over to His interests, you are not occupied about your own concerns.

F.E.R. I would not go to the Lord about my own circumstances, I would go to God.

Rem. Whatsoever ye do, do it to the Lord?

F.E.R. Yes; that verse is a test as to your whole life here.

Ques. Marriage is to be in the Lord?

F.E.R. Yes, that the head may not be disqualified; the household too is to be ordered in the Lord. A person goes into business or changes his business or

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takes a partner, well, I say, why do you do this? He replies, I feel the necessity of increasing my means for the support of my family. Then I say, Go to God about it; but if you think the change will conduce to the Lord's testimony, go to the Lord.

Ques. You would be more free to address the Lord in an ordinary prayer-meeting?

F.E.R. Yes; I should be perfectly free there.

Ques. What is the name we are gathered to, the Lord Jesus Christ?

F.E.R. Yes; I do not want Him according to what He was upon earth, I want to apprehend Him according to what is set forth in Him in heaven, His new name.

Ques. The Lord is there by the Spirit, what do you say to that?

F.E.R. I do not think that is right, we apprehend Him by the Spirit.

Rem. He is there in spirit in contrast with being there in flesh. He is there Himself.

CHAPTERS 19 AND 20

F.E.R. The parable at the end of chapter 18 evidently connects itself with what went before in that chapter, it is the close of the subject. This is an important point. It shows that the whole spirit of the chapter is grace. If I fail of grace and get into a spirit of hardness I may come under discipline. "So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses". In the kingdom there is the principle of righteousness, and righteousness is, as I understand it, that I should act as I have been acted to.

Ques. It is the same as "Forgive us our debts as we forgive", is it not?

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F.E.R. It is rather the other way, it is forgiving because we have been forgiven.

Rem. Yes, but if we do not forgive we shall not be forgiven, that would be the kingdom character of things.

F.E.R. The very thought of the kingdom involves responsibility or at any rate it involves government. It is not a very difficult thing for any one of us to cherish an unforgiving spirit; my conviction is that in me dwells no good thing; and the only chance of good is my soul being under the influence of good; if you are not immediately under the influence of grace you cannot do anything right; you have no spring in yourself, you must find your spring in God. Bear one word as to the run of the chapters. Chapter 14 is really the starting point, the new place Christ takes, evidently when He takes the place of walking on the water He has done with Israel, the water is not a type of Israel; in chapter 15 the light leaves the Jew and goes to the Gentile, the Gentile gets the light which the Jew despises; in chapter 16 we find the disciples the nucleus of a new thing, the testimony is sealed up among them; then we have the church and the kingdom and the kingdom in glory, after that the principles and ordering of the kingdom, and so pretty much in the closing chapters; I think we see in chapter 18 the grace in which fellowship is founded; what comes before us tonight is the sovereignty of our Lord.

Ques. Then do all these parables suppose the Lord rejected by Israel and His rejection of Israel?

F.E.R. Yes, and they suppose the new place that He has taken, and that is the Lord in glory, exalted. And you get the Spirit down here figuratively in the oil which the virgins had. The spirit of everything until you come to the close of chapter 18 is grace, for example, at the close of chapter 17 the Lord takes that ground, saying, "Lest we offend them", and then in chapter 18 everything is to win your brother, the

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whole ground of fellowship is grace; we do not get fellowship, properly speaking, unless we are under the influence of grace.

Rem. The transfiguration has an important place.

F.E.R. The first intimation of the Lord's glory is in His walking on the waters, but in the transfiguration it comes out plainly that the One rejected here is accepted of heaven. The exaltation and authority of the Lord can only be entered into by faith.

Rem. These four parables in chapters 20, 21, 22 and 25 are the form the kingdom takes while the Lord is away.

Ques. Would you say the kingdom in mystery will go on until the Lord comes?

F.E.R. The kingdom does not become manifest until He comes. It was to go on in a corrupt way; man has sought to take away the mystery of the kingdom by making a great conspicuous thing of it, when the kingdom is like a mustard tree it is no longer a mystery, not in man's thought. Men have taken occasion of the name of the Lord to build up a great conspicuous thing in this world. They have falsified the truth of Christ in that way and built up a great system, but that is not mystery.

Rem. The pearl and the treasure are as much mystery as ever.

F.E.R. It is just as true today as it ever was that a man must be converted and become as a child to enter into the kingdom. The moral abides when the outward has become a great corrupt system.

Ques. What about chapter 19?

F.E.R. Everything in chapter 19 is individual. The Lord puts the first great relationship upon the basis of creation, not of law.

Rem. I think it has a reference to Israel's divorce, we read, "Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement?" It shows that what was God's on earth

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becomes divorced, and a new thing comes in, and Christ becomes the object of the soul.

Rem. But here you get the Lord taking exception to divorce.

F.E.R. When you get the light of the Lord come in, everything is restored to its original character. I think He brings marriage back to this. There was nothing which had been so obscured as the relation of man and wife; the law took up things as they were, and many a thing was allowed which was not of God originally; there was divine wisdom in this, for God was dealing with a people in the flesh; slavery was allowed, that was not of God. When you come to the light of the Lord you must have everything on a divine footing. There is another thing the Lord speaks of, eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake, but adds that everyone cannot receive that saying.

Rem. Then the point is that there is a new and higher principle introduced.

F.E.R. Everything is in the light, it is no longer partial darkness as under the law, when God was legislating for a people in the flesh; that was not full light, now it is.

Rem. The Jews must have been astonished to hear the Lord say this.

F.E.R. I think He always astonished them; it was just the difference between a man looking at a landscape from the top of the hill and from the bottom. The Lord was at the top and saw everything according to God. I do not think they could understand Him at all.

Ques. I suppose the rejection of the Lord coming in shifted the centre of blessing from earth to heaven?

F.E.R. I think so, and the point here is that you are walking in the light of heaven not in the light of Mount Sinai. A man may walk in darkness with the

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help of a lantern, that is a man under law; but that is a very different thing from walking in the light of the sun; and that is what has come to pass for us; you cannot have any lapse now, every institution of God has to be regarded.

Rem. No modification because of the hardness of their hearts.

F.E.R. You get children in the same way, they have their place in the kingdom they were taken very little account of by the Jew or by the law, there was one commandment which referred to them, but now they are made much of.

Rem. So that they become the very pattern.

F.E.R. And they have their place in the kingdom as children, not only as converted, but as children. The next case is that of the rich man; as to children it says, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven", but with the young ruler it is, "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!" It is with difficulty. The truth is that a rich man is severely handicapped, his riches are a hindrance not a help. We have both kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God mentioned here; it means that it is just as difficult for a rich man to come into the state required for the kingdom of God (verse 24) as it is to get direction from the Lord (verse 23). Riches are a very bad education.

Rem. From the point of view of the kingdom of heaven.

F.E.R. It never was of God for men to be rich, it only came in after sin; you cannot conceive that God intended that some men should be rich and others poor, God allows this, and we have to accept it; I quite admit that. You have to accept what God allows, the radicalism of the present day would set aside what the providence of God allows. I think that God can govern the world better than I could, but at the same time if we look at things morally you must not tell

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me that God intended that one should be rich and another poor.

Rem. Having everything common is the fruit of the Spirit.

F.E.R. The effect of riches on the mind and spirit of man, the education it gives, the state it produces, all this is against him. But what is impossible with him is possible with God, and so you may have a rich man in the kingdom.

Ques. What is the difference between "kingdom of heaven" and "kingdom of God" here?

F.E.R. I think this, that where a man has wealth, and consequently ability to command almost everything, he is less likely to know much of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, this is the kingdom of God. I think a poor man knows that better than a rich one. So in regard to the kingdom of heaven, as to his direction and service, the rich man has great difficulty in that sense, from the very fact of the education that wealth has been to him, accustomed to have everything about him of luxury, and to do and to go as he pleases. I know that grace can overcome it, but it is a bad education.

Rem. The expression used by men of such is that he is independent.

F.E.R. Yes; but only as enabling him to command everything. Look at the ordering of things in such a country as this, everything, is arranged to make men independent of God. I suppose that they could not do without it now; if a drought came they are independent; it is an extremely artificial state of things, and an extremely unreal state of things, and when tested will prove to be so. Riches take a man away from God. Look at the rich man in Luke 12"So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God". I am not at all surprised at men being struck with the apparently extreme inequalities,

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any thoughtful man must be struck with it, and then he often tries to put things to rights. What I should say would be, You had better leave things alone, you will only make them worse. The effort of man to rectify things down here is futile and ends in nothing.

Rem. The disciples would have looked upon this man's riches as a mark of God's favour.

F.E.R. Yes; but when the Lord puts His proposition before him he does not accept it. You may have to forsake father, mother, lands, etc., but you will get compensation, and that is where the blessings of the kingdom on the other side come in.

Ques. The Lord here referred to entering into life, I want to know in what way a man could enter into life under the law?

F.E.R. Had it been possible for man to keep the law he would not have died, he would have lived on; but then, as far as man was concerned, death was upon him when the law was given to him; it did say, "This do, and thou shalt live", but death was upon him. Romans 6 is death on me, and Romans 7 proves death in me.

Rem. It is arguing upon supposititious premises.

F.E.R. That is what the Lord does sometimes. The law was ordained to life, but found to be to death; and it will be practically the way of life by-and-by, for when the law is written in men's hearts they will live.

Rem. But then death has been removed when you come to that.

F.E.R. Yes, and not by their doing the law, but by the power of the Lord.

Ques. Was it possible for a man to keep the law?

F.E.R. The law came to a man and said, "Thou shalt not covet", but man does covet. Nine commandments have to do with conduct, the tenth with state,

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and the law prohibited what was man's state. The sting of the law is in the tail.

Rem. Man thought that he could keep the law, and that had to be exposed.

F.E.R. With the apostle Paul it was the external obligations he went upon, and therefore he could say, "Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless"; but in another place he says, "I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died". This has to do with the last commandment.

Rem. The rich young man says, "All these things have I kept from my youth up".

F.E.R. And I dare say it was true, but when the Lord proposed that he should sell all and follow Him, it brought out what was there, the man coveted, he loved proprietary possession; you may say it is a hard judgment, but if a man loves proprietary possession he covets. I believe it is a root which God has to deal with in us each, it is not only in the rich, coveting is to be found in the poor. Coveting is not only in desiring what is not yours but in cleaving to what is yours. Proprietary possession is in man having possession of something that he can call his own; but the fact is, with regard to the Gentile the only title he has is providential, the Jew had a divine title to his possessions.

Rem. At the first there was a company who called none of the things which they possessed their own.

F.E.R. Yes, it was a state of things that did not last, that is, having all things common; we can still act in the spirit of it. There is many a good Christian who tithes his income like a Jew, that means one-tenth is the Lord's, and nine-tenths is yours, that will not do. What I feel is, that what I have is all the Lord's, but I and my family are the first charge upon it; it says, if a man care not for his own he has denied the faith and is worse than an infidel; therefore I say my

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own are the first charge upon what I have, but I administer it as belonging to the Lord; your wealth is another's; yours is what you are going to get, the true riches, it is not anything you possess here.

Ques. What about laying up?

F.E.R. Who could justify laying up? I do not mean that a man is to spend carelessly, it seems a want of moral sensibility; I do not think that a man can be with God to lay up, for a man to make up his mind and to set himself to lay up, I cannot understand that that man is walking with God. But we had better turn to our chapter. In the parable presenting the sovereignty of the Lord in His own things you will find that the first in nature is the last in grace; if a man thinks that because he has made some sacrifice he is therefore entitled to something, the Lord in dispensing His things does not recognise it; in spiritual things the Lord is perfectly sovereign, and will not take into account any claim a man might make; a man might make a sacrifice, very likely, and he will get compensation; but it is as regards this scene, he will get it in the fellowship into which he is brought. The parable is in answer to Peter's question. The Lord shows the disciples what they have, even a hundred-fold more, for what they have forsaken; but then He brings in the parable as a corrective, to show that that will not be taken into account in ministering spiritual things.

Ques. What is the meaning of "many be called, but few chosen"?

F.E.R. It contemplates the state of things that would come in in connection with the kingdom, like the net cast into the sea brings of every kind. I think we have to stand still and let the Lord be entirely sovereign; the thought has entered minds that because they have given up temporal things they are going to be greatly endowed in spiritual things. A man may have made a sacrifice, given up his commission in the

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army, he will get compensation for it; but the Lord will be sovereign in His own things. The spirit which dictated Peter's question was that of getting a quid pro quo, but the Lord will not confer spiritual things for natural ones. The Lord will be sovereign in His own things, He says, "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with mine own?"

Ques. Was not their compensation the company of Christ?

F.E.R. Yes, but this refers to the time when He would no longer be present with them, He tells them they would in the future sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel; but also that they should receive a hundred-fold now for whatever they had given up; they get compensation governmentally, but not in the way of spiritual endowment.

Rem. No one has given up anything but he has found this out.

Ques. But are we not told to covet earnestly the best gifts?

F.E.R. Yes, still the Lord will be sovereign.

Ques. Does the penny a day refer to present endowment?

F.E.R. I have thought so.

Ques. Not the future?

F.E.R. Well, it is a parable and therefore you must not construe it too strictly. It is a corrective to the thought in Peter's question: "What shall we have therefore?"

CHAPTERS 21 TO 23

F.E.R. I think the section begins with chapter 20: 17 and continues to the end of chapter 23. It gives us the Lord going up to Jerusalem and judging the whole state of things which He found there. You see Him in a very different character from that which He has in the rest of the gospel. In these chapters He

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takes up the character of judge, not in sessional judgment but in moral. We have had His position with regard to the church, the kingdom of heaven, and the kingdom in glory, and the ordering of the kingdom. Now we have the account of His entry into Jerusalem and His stay there right down to the last supper. He enters in as judge of the whole state of things which existed there. He first judges the fig tree, then silences the opposers, and then He has the last word, the last word is chapter 23. He judges the husband-men, silences the scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees, and when no man durst ask Him a question or answer Him, He has the last word in the denouncement of the scribes and Pharisees. In the two parables at the end of chapter 21 and beginning of chapter 22, we have the responsibility of the Jewish leaders, first in regard to fruit-bearing and then in regard to the gospel -- the latter is seen in the marriage supper. The parable of the labourers (chapter 20) closes up that part of the instruction; after that it is the Lord going up to Jerusalem and His entry into it.

Ques. When do you think the labourers were hired? I mean is the thought that the Lord is in glory?

F.E.R. It says a certain man went out early in the morning, it has reference to the kingdom. The Lord is now dispensing His own things. The great point in the parable is that you do not look at any other labourer, the mistake was that some compared themselves with others. In the Lord's things you do not compare yourself with others as though you had a greater claim than anyone else. The disciples thought that they had, but the Lord would not admit it. But the starting point of the progress to Jerusalem is in verse 17, "And Jesus going up to Jerusalem took the twelve disciples apart in the way, and said unto them -- Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and unto the

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scribes, and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock, and to scourge, and to crucify him: and the third day he shall rise again". Then you see an important point, the Lord enters through testimony, that is, you get first the blind men, and then the coming in according to prophecy. The blind men say, "Have mercy on us, O Lord, thou Son of David". And then the scripture, "Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass". But Jesus does not enter as Saviour, He enters as Judge, and He enters through testimony. It is two blind men, it is adequate testimony. An important point is in the quotation from Zechariah. The words "Just and having salvation" are omitted here. You will find the passage in Zechariah is connected with His coming for the deliverance of the people; here the moral characteristics are quoted, but He comes to judge not to save. The omission of two or three words in a quotation is most significant, like in Luke 4:18, 19.

Ques. Is this a kind of picture of the future day?

F.E.R. He will come having salvation then.

Rem. But He will judge what is contrary to God.

F.E.R. Yes, but He will come for the salvation of the remnant and reign, not to suffer in that day.

Ques. Will the remnant be with Him?

F.E.R. He will find them in the land.

Rem. They are with Him here.

F.E.R. Yes, in this passage.

Rem. The remnant will receive Him.

F.E.R. There are three positions in which the Lord is seen here very distinctly marked; in the beginning of chapter 21 He enters Jerusalem; at the end of chapter 22 we have, "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool". That is the place which Christ has provisionally; and then at the end of chapter 23,

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"Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord". You get the whole period beginning with the time of His entry into Jerusalem until He comes again; meanwhile He sits at the right hand of God. The entry into Jerusalem has an important place, He goes there to suffer, He does not go up to reign. He enters through testimony according to prophecy, as Zion's King. David's son and Zion's King.

Rem. Going into any other city or place would not be so important. Jerusalem was the city of the great King.

Ques. What do you get in chapter 21 after His entry?

F.E.R. First He cleanses the temple, then He curses the fig tree, then the priests and elders come and ask by what authority He did these things, and the Lord exposes them. They had no power to judge for themselves, they were incompetent. The curse on the fig tree is the one miracle of judgment which the Lord did, all the rest were miracles of blessing; it just shows the character in which the Lord was acting at that moment. The fig tree represents man under culture. Israel was man under culture. They had utterly broken down in all that was committed to them, they had made the house of God a den of thieves, it had been committed to them and they had turned it into this. This is the second time the Lord cleansed the temple, the position which the cleansing occupies in the gospel of John is before the Lord's public ministry properly. It appears to me that the state of the temple was the greatest possible proof of the unfaithfulness of the husbandmen, and fruit is no longer to grow on the fig tree.

Ques. Why does the first cleansing come in John?

F.E.R. John begins where the other gospels end.

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Man is set aside in John from the outset; the other gospels take up the responsibility of man; but in John you see what man is from the outset, and the counsels of God are brought in, it is another line of things entirely.

Rem. It is not until John 10 that Jesus calls His sheep out of the sheepfold.

F.E.R. In chapter 10 He shows what He had been doing all along.

Ques. What does the mountain signify (verse 21)?

F.E.R. The power connected with Jerusalem, a mountain is a prominent thing in the eyes of men. Jerusalem was to lose its privileged place and be merged among the Gentiles.

Ques. But this was to be done by faith, "If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done" (verse 21). How do you make that out?

F.E.R. Well, I question whether the twelve ever did it; I think Paul did, he seems to have had faith to do it. The mountain represents the prestige and everything that belonged to the Jews properly. It was all carried out among the Gentiles. In the epistle to the Corinthians you will find that the Gentiles have all that belonged to the Jew; the temple of God, the Christ, and victory over death; properly all these things were connected with Jerusalem, but instead of their being centred at Jerusalem they are gone out among the Gentiles.

Ques. But how do you understand all this brought in in connection with faith and prayer?

F.E.R. Well, the faith of Paul did it; God gave him faith for it. So the faith of Peter brought in Cornelius, though he was rather reluctant at first. Faith is, that man has got light as to the mind of God;

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you could not have faith without some basis in the way of light from God.

Rem. It is the old order after the flesh that man loves.

F.E.R. The truth as to that really came out by Paul. In the cross God condemned sin in the flesh, the state was condemned.

Rem. Peter seems to have allowed the old order, as we see from Galatians 2.

F.E.R. Even Paul clung to the Jews a good bit, went up to Jerusalem at the last, seemed reluctant to go to the Gentiles at first; it was not a change wrought in a moment. I do not think that the disciples understood much at this time of what was meant, not effectively until the Holy Spirit came. He brought all the things that the Lord had spoken to them to their remembrance; but casting a mountain into the sea was not a new thought, in Psalm 46 we have it, "though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea".

Rem. If a mountain is cast into the sea you do not see much of it. God's centre is no longer at Jerusalem.

Ques. Is the sea the Gentile nations?

F.E.R. The sea generally represents the unformed peoples.

Ques. Does the goodness and severity of God come out in this?

F.E.R. That is not quite the idea, for in Romans 11 the subject is the tree of promise, the natural branches are broken off and the Gentiles grafted in, then eventually the Gentile branches broken off and the natural branches restored. That refers to the bringing together of Israel in the future.

Ques. Do you get the Jew and Gentile in the parable of the two sons?

F.E.R. It represents rather two classes in Israel: the scribes and Pharisees formed one class, the publicans and harlots another. At first the ground the latter

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took was that they would not go, but afterwards they repented and went. After that you get two parables, the husbandmen and the marriage feast. The Jews were judged upon the ground of law and upon the ground of the gospel.

Ques. Did the parable of the marriage feast begin with the Lord's ministry?

F.E.R. No; it began rather with the Lord in glory, "my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready". They are invited to come in on the ground of the glory of the Son, God made overtures to them through the apostles. They had lost everything in the vineyard, and then God makes overtures; he calls them to the celebration of grace. He deals with them on that ground. I think it was a most wonderful thing, to present to them the celebration of grace in the exaltation of Christ, the judgment of God had been met and the power of the enemy destroyed in his stronghold. The Jews are the first invited. That is what is meant by "beginning at Jerusalem". The servants go out and invite, and the wedding ultimately was furnished with guests, both bad and good. The servants do not trouble themselves about the character of the guests, but gather them in; the great point is the wedding garment. You must first look at the parable in connection with the Jew, they would not come in on that ground; they had failed on the ground of fruit-bearing and they would not come in on the ground of the gospel, they were perverse.

Ques. What do you understand by the wedding garment?

F.E.R. Christ for your righteousness, it is viewed as a necessity, the man had no business to be at the feast without it. We get the thought of this parable carried out in the Acts, first by the apostles, and then by men raised up, like Stephen and Philip, men that did not belong to the twelve. The prophets come in in the parable of the husbandmen, they are the servants

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there; here the servants are the witnesses to the marriage supper, which the prophets were not, they could not say what these say. I think that if a man is coming to the marriage supper he cannot come in according to God if he does not recognise his true position according to God. He cannot come to the festivity which God provides without recognising his true position. If he accepts the invitation he must come in according to the truth, he must admit that death is upon him and that he is liable to judgment.

Rem. The parable gives more prominence to the responsibility side than Luke 14 does.

Ques. Is the wedding garment that which grace provides, or is it what the Spirit works in a man?

F.E.R. It is what grace provides, but that is not apart from the Spirit's work which is true of every believer; you could not talk about Christ for righteousness and leave out the Spirit's work. They are two very distinct things, but united in the same individual. It is an unreasonable thing to think that a man is coming to a feast that God provides without recognising his true position in regard to God, it seems to me to be an insult to God. No man has any title to come unless he recognises that death is upon him, and that he is liable to judgment.

Rem. Going back to what was said just now, it was not failure on the servants' part in gathering in both bad and good, they were told to bring in as many as they found and they did so, they could not judge of people.

F.E.R. After this the Lord silences all classes, the different classes come up to judge Him, and He judges them; the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Sadducees, all come up, but only to be silenced.

Ques. What about the king coming in?

Answer. He comes in to see the guests, and his eye detects the man without the wedding garment, and he is cast forth.

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F.E.R. The man no doubt represents a class. I do not think that the wedding garment goes quite so far as 2 Corinthians 5:21, "the righteousness of God in him". Well, then, after answering all the questions and silencing every opposer, in the following chapter (chapter 23) the Lord leaves Moses' seat where it was, but pronounces woes upon the scribes and Pharisees who sat in it. There is no public change in the dispensation, it is still the age of law, as regards the public dealings of God, and this goes on until the Lord comes. Faith gets an outlet from these things, but at the same time the dispensation, in God's public dealings, will not be set aside until Christ comes; if people sit in Moses' seat and lay down Moses, I do not reject Moses.

Ques. But do not they reject Christ?

F.E.R. They do, but I do not; if they bid me observe Moses, I do.

Rem. But not on their line.

F.E.R. The righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those who walk after the Spirit. Love is the fulness of the law, it is remarkable that the law should be regarded as the rule for the man down here in the epistle to the Romans. "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit", Romans 8:3, 4. I do not set Moses aside, I do not fulfil him in the letter, but I fulfil him in the Spirit. Love is the great point in Romans. If I love God and my neighbour, I fulfil the law. In the preceding chapter (chapter 22) the Lord has given you the great moral principles of the law. You need have no fear of breaking the law if you love, you may not have kept it in detail, but you do in principle. I think the whole chapter is most solemn, the Lord goes to sit on Jehovah's throne until His foes are made His footstool, and He leaves Moses' seat

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untouched, and the scribes and Pharisees in it, and He charges His disciples to do what they bid, but not after their works. He really has the last word. Their house was left desolate, and they would not see Him again until they should say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord".

Ques. Why were the disciples not to be called Rabbi?

F.E.R. There was a disposition to give men a place, and the disciples were not to do so or to take such a place. The Jewish house was left desolate, it was their house, not the Lord's. I do not think anything can be more dreadful than the exaltation of man, be it religious or political; the way in which men are invested with honour today and all that sort of thing. In this chapter you see how they exalted themselves, but the greatest gift never made a man anything more than a servant (verses 11, 12). Priesthood, the priesthood of Christians, is common to all. The greatest gift, that was an apostle's, only made a man a Levite, it never made him a priest. Chapter 23 is really the exposure of what man is; the leading classes in Israel are specially in view, but do you not think that if the Lord were here He would denounce the leaders in Christendom in quite as strong terms? The present leaders of the people, it seems to me, are not a whit better than these; I think the Lord if here would denounce things just as strongly.

Rem. Cain comes in here morally, the Lord speaks of the blood of Abel.

F.E.R. Cain is applied to Christendom in the epistle of Jude. I think it is wonderful to see the Lord doing all this, when He had no kind of support, for the disciples were no support to Him; you find the Lord perfectly alone and yet able to hold this power of evil at bay, able to silence the gainsayers, and then to have the last word. It is just one man. He cleanses the temple, curses the fig tree, each thing was done in

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power; silences everybody -- no one can resist Him, no other voice is heard.

Rem. Finally you get the grief of the Lord over it all, and His looking forward to the time when they would say, "Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord", they would see Him again, and Jerusalem should be restored.

CHAPTERS 24 TO 28

F.E.R. We have to take chapters 24 and 25 together, as forming one section. In the preceding section you have the Son of David claiming the inheritance, bringing to light the purpose of God, and silencing every gainsayer, in the main it was this. Now you have the coming of the Son of man, and what is here till He comes; it is not the Son of David, but the Son of man who is in view. The parable at the beginning of chapter 25 is a picture of what is in His absence. In the end of chapter 24 you get the responsibility of the servant, of the one set over the household; when you come to chapter 25 you will find that there is an unseen power in His absence to maintain the light, that is, to maintain the testimony.

Ques. Is that their qualification to meet the Bridegroom?

F.E.R. Nothing stands in relation to the Bridegroom but the Spirit, and what is of the Spirit. This parable takes in the whole period of the Lord's absence; the virgins went forth to meet Him, and this goes on until He comes and they go in with Him to the marriage.

Ques. What are we to understand by the coming of the Bridegroom? Is it what we generally speak of, the coming of the Lord?

F.E.R. Well, I think so; but it is a parable, you must remember, not a statement of doctrine.

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Ques. Is the going in to the marriage, what is generally understood as the rapture of the saints?

Rem. We do not get the rapture here at all, nor does the thought of the Bridegroom bring in the relationship of the church, we are apt to get turned aside by the term 'Bridegroom'.

F.E.R. There is no rapture here, no catching up, it is simply that they have the privilege of going in to the marriage, they are the people that have part with Him.

Rem. This might cover the other.

F.E.R. I do not see why you want to bring in the rapture, the virgins will have part with Him at the marriage, that is the teaching of the parable, it is responsibility, and therefore individual. I do not think you will understand the parable unless you understand the preceding section, where the titles Son of David and Son of God come out. This section brings in another thought, namely, of what belongs to the Son of man, all the same Person, of course, but viewed in another light. You get the same three things in John's gospel, but in a different order. He comes up to Jerusalem to make known His claims as Son of David, He comes seeking fruit, that is seen in the parable of the vineyard; then comes the gospel, will they come in on that ground? That is the marriage supper, and it puts, obscurely I admit, the purpose of God in His Son. In the virgins the ground the virgins took was to go forth to meet the bridegroom; that was their profession, and it carried responsibility with it; but we had better take the two chapters together, the twenty-fourth and the twenty-fifth.

Ques. Does the "then" at the beginning of chapter 25 connect the parable with the preceding verses, where the servant says, "My lord delayeth his coming"?

F.E.R. It connects the parable of the virgins specially with the end, but it takes up the whole

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period of time; still the force of the parable is connected with the end evidently.

Ques. You spoke of the Lord as Son of David, Son of God, and Son of man, will you tell us the verses you refer to?

F.E.R. In the preceding section Jesus comes to Jerusalem as Son of David, the blind men had owned Him just before as the Son of David. He rides in on an ass, and claimed the inheritance which belonged to the Son of God -- not simply David's Son. It says, "last of all he sent unto them his son, saying, They will reverence my son. But when the husbandmen saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance". The Lord takes up the same ground in the beginning of chapter 22. It is a certain king made a marriage for his son, it is not simply the Son of David, but the establishment of God's purpose in His Son. The invitation goes out to the Jews to begin with and eventually to the Gentiles. The Jews had lost everything on the ground of fruit-bearing, but God accomplishes His purpose in His Son; that is the ground of the gospel on which we all come in. Really it is as though God turned round and said, Man has lost everything on the ground of fruit-bearing, but I am going to carry out my purpose in my Son, the point now is, Will you come in on that ground? That is what the parable conveys to me, God's purpose established in His Son, and man invited to come in. In chapters 24 and 25 the Son of man, with universal rights and judgment, comes in to put down all evil and every opposer; I do not think that anyone will get a full idea of these two chapters who does not see what comes out in the previous chapters in connection with the Son of David and Son of God. It is the thought of Psalm 2 over again, "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son ... Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen

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for thine inheritance". It is the establishment of that; and then comes Psalm 8, the rights of the Son of man and the power of the Son of man to put down all evil, all things put under His feet; that is what you get in these chapters.

Rem. Then even as Son of man the centre seems to be Jerusalem, all revolves around that.

F.E.R. You get the whole sphere and scene of judgment, first in regard to the Jews, that is the first thing that comes out, then Christendom under the figure of the virgins, and then the nations; but it brings out the universal right of the Son of man in judgment. In chapter 24 the disciples are looked at in remnant character, and they raise the question, and then the Lord reveals the coming of the Son of man, the sign of the Son of man will appear in heaven, and the character is seen of the remnant who will receive Him. The great point they are guarded against all through is looking to earth, they are instructed to look to heaven, their tendency would be to look to earth. It is a lesson for us in that respect. I think the sign is the Son of man in heaven, it is the sign of God's intervention in judgment, that is in putting down the enemies of His people and the power of evil here. What we see at the present time is the Son of man set at the right hand of God far above all heavens, exalted above all. That involves the complete subjugation of evil. God has entrusted judgment to Him, because He is the Son of man, for the complete subjugation of evil. In the time to come the Jews will look to Babylon or to Egypt; this is just the natural tendency of man; and they will have to confront their great enemy the Assyrian; then their true resource will be to look to heaven, that is where their redemption will come from. It is the same principle for the believer now, if you are in perplexity you naturally turn to man, and in so doing you try to neutralise the discipline of God, for circumstances are

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the means by which God disciplines a man; this is all human, it is not looking up to heaven.

Rem. In the chapters the circumstances do not follow in chronological sequence, in chapter 24 the Lord comes, and in chapter 25 He comes.

F.E.R. Chapter 24 carries you on to the end in connection with the remnant of Israel, the disciples being viewed as the remnant; the Lord shows the coming of the Son of man in relation to the Jews and then He goes back to view the disciples in another light, that is, as those who are occupying for Him in His absence. They were the remnant of Israel but they had another character, they were the nucleus of the kingdom, and were to be here in the character of a household, and in the end of chapter 24 the Lord addresses them in that character. We know how perfectly this has been verified, what more accurate picture could you get of it than in the parable of the virgins? In a few verses you get what has occupied the period of His absence laid out, and that at a time when the virgins had not gone forth.

Ques. What relation does the parable of the talents hold to that of the virgins?

F.E.R. The parable of the virgins views Christendom in a general way, the parable of the talents is more individual, showing the peculiar responsibility of those to whom the Lord has entrusted talents; everybody was supposed to have a lamp and a vessel; the vessel is the body, everyone has a body, and, properly speaking, has no business to go out to meet the Bridegroom save in the power of the Spirit; that is where professors will be completely confounded. God's thought was not failure; you may say Jew and Gentile builded together have lapsed into a great house, but that was not God's thought; I think it is a very great point to see in everything what God's thought is. Everything now is on the ground of divine

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purpose, and what is of Himself He will own, He will disown everything else.

Rem. That was true in every dispensation.

F.E.R. But it is especially true in a dispensation characterised by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Ques. I suppose there was a time when God owned man after the flesh?

F.E.R. Yes, but it is not so now, that is the meaning of the wedding garment, the man had no business to be there on the ground of natural fitness, for he completely ignored the previous parable, that is that God had been looking for thousands of years for fruit and had found none.

Rem. The fact is, every man bidden was unfit from the first.

F.E.R. And they had to come in owning their unfitness, coming in with the wedding garment on.

Rem. Divine righteousness instead of human righteousness.

F.E.R. If a man comes in without the wedding garment he as good as says, I am fit in myself; he ignores the whole previous dealings of God which were to demonstrate to man beyond a question the reality of the fall.

Ques. What is the meaning of receiving the talents according to their several ability?

F.E.R. I think it is the taking up of a man according to what a man is suited for; evidently men are not suited for everything; you could not put Jeremiah in the place of Ezekiel, nor Timothy in the place of Paul; I think it is the vessel. Men are not constitutionally alike, Ezekiel was a man of iron, Jeremiah was timid.

Rem. Paul refers to it when he speaks of God who had set him apart from his mother's womb.

F.E.R. The absent one delivered to the servants His substance, He gave them the wherewithal to trade with, that is the talent. It is those in view who are specially to occupy the ground in His absence, they

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have His goods to trade with, and they are responsible to trade. It is not exactly gifts, though I think it might include gifts; the idea is you have something wherewith to trade. I think the talent is, that Christ gives you light, the truth to trade with. I do not think that you can use the talent save in the power of the Spirit. The point here is the diligence needed to turn these things to account. You are tested by the absence of the Master, just as the virgins are tested by the absence of the bridegroom. I think the Lord will give to a man what that man can well trade with, so that there is no excuse for a man not trading in his Lord's absence. I am not over-weighted with the talent, the talent is a man's stock-in-trade. The point of these parables is the way in which we are tested by the absence of the Lord. The test comes at the end of the dispensation; all testimony was to be in the power of the Spirit, the question was who had got oil. It is dreadful at the present time to see how men seek to maintain a testimony for Christ by human means, that is the character of things abroad in Christendom, the use of human means to maintain a light for Christ; the point of the parable is, that you have no power to maintain any testimony apart from the oil, you may have a wick, but that will go out. How can you speak of divine things except by the Holy Spirit?

Rem. In the case of both servants and virgins the lack was affection, for the master on the one hand, and for the bridegroom on the other.

F.E.R. The way by which the Spirit works is to keep me under the sense of the affection of Christ. There is really no light for Christ except by affection. The foolish virgins could say, "Lord, Lord", but it was not the Lord of affection. I think chapter 25 is a most solemn one. "Our lamps are going out", only proves that they were dependent on others: if they had been in the sense of affection for Christ and depending on the Spirit, they would not have said it,

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their lamps would not have been going out. They found the wick would not support the light without oil; it is like people attempting some kind of testimony and they find they cannot support it; you have no power for service more than for worship except by the Spirit; you cannot carry out levitical work any more than priestly work except by the Spirit. There is no power for these things except in the Spirit, who keeps you in the sense of Christ's affection, and if you are not in that there is no real light for Him. In the absence of the bridegroom the virgins were to be uncontaminated, maintained by the Spirit in complete separation from the world, and a light for the Bridegroom; as a matter of fact, they became worldly, they all slumbered and slept, but still the wise virgins had not lost the oil, the Spirit was still with them.

Rem. As a fact, it is a great comprehensive parable running right through the Christian period.

F.E.R. And the moral which it is intended to point is, "Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour". If you are in the power of the Spirit and under the sense of Christ's affection, you are always ready for the coming of the Bridegroom, you have not got to prepare; the only preparation, properly speaking, is the possession of the Spirit. The virgins became worldly, all ten of them, they were hindered by the world; when they were awakened the difference between the wise and foolish became apparent, five were in the power of the Spirit, and five in the flesh really. The idea of sleeping in Ephesians 5 is of a wise virgin sleeping, that is a believer, it is not an unconverted person. Who can tell the difference between a sleeping Christian and the dead? When you become worldly it is difficult to tell the difference between the world and you. The only way the difference can be supported and maintained is in the Spirit, you cannot maintain the separation in the flesh. Finally, we have the Son of

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man sitting on the throne of His glory in the end of this chapter.

Rem. This is called sessional judgment.

F.E.R. Yes, but it is limited, the sphere is limited.

Rem. He comes like lightning in the previous chapter.

F.E.R. He comes for the destruction of the beast and antichrist. There are some cases in which the people of God are associated with the Lord in judging, as of old we find Israel joined with God in exterminating the Canaanites; but then there are some cases in which the Lord acts alone, and I think it is so in the destruction of the beast and antichrist, for the people could not be delivered until they are judged. In the case of the Assyrian I think Israel is joined with the Lord. Then, as to the rest of this gospel, the main part is historical; the great point at the close is, that you have not got the ascension, but you have the whole ordering of things connected with the Lord on earth, He says, "I am with you all the days". "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth". He does not leave any power behind Him, the first thing is to break the power of evil in heaven, the dragon is cast out, that is done before the Lord comes to execute judgment. The dragon is cast down to earth, and there is no more place in heaven for him; it is the signal that his time is short; but there is no place more for him in heaven.

Rem. You might say the Lord clears as He goes.

F.E.R. The two sections that we have lately looked at are of great value in the way in which they connect themselves with the Old Testament. All that is made known to us is most wonderful. You could not have a more remarkable picture of what has taken place in Christendom than the parable of the ten virgins and the parable that precedes it.

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THE WAY CHRIST IS PRESENTED IN DIFFERENT PSALMS

Psalm 2; John 1:45 - 51; Revelation 2:24 - 28; Revelation 19:11 - 16

The subject that is on my mind to bring before you is the special way in which Christ is presented in different psalms; how it is carried through Scripture, and also how the thought connects itself with the church.

In connection with that I will just say, what no doubt all here are well aware of, that you do not get the church in the Psalms; but, though it is not spoken of, yet clearly the place or time covered by the Psalms begins with the rejection of Christ and goes on to His coming again in glory. The opening psalms start with the fact that He is rejected and the closing psalms with the consequences of His coming: the Hallelujah! the coming of Jehovah. Jehovah reigns is the burden of the fourth book; and in the fifth book, especially the close of the book, it is praise to Jehovah; Hallelujah! From the very fact of the period which is covered by the Psalms being the period of Christ's rejection, room must be left for the assembly; for it is the time of her history upon earth.

You get in the Psalms different thoughts of Christ, special traits of His perfection, and you will find how that light is carried into the New Testament, and becomes the groundwork of a great deal there. For instance, the book of Hebrews; you might say that epistle is built up from quotations of two or three psalms. You can understand the wisdom of the Spirit of God reasoning with the Jews out of their own scriptures. Psalm 2 and Psalm 8 especially are woven into the structure of the book in a remarkable way.

It is very wonderful, when you think that these psalms were written a thousand years before Christ

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came, that they should give the whole history of things -- Christ's rejection and the state of the people consequent upon it; you see in that way how prophetic they are.

Psalm 2 is a kind of basis. From the very starting-point you begin with Christ and Christ rejected. It is quoted by the apostles in Acts (chapter 4: 25, 26) and clearly refers to Christ. First the Lord comes out as Jehovah's anointed; that is, He is Christ. There is one very important point raised; who is going to have the earth? That is the great point of the Psalms. Is man going to have it, or is God going to have it? The question is solved as you go through the Psalms. Man claims the earth, but God is going to possess it. The book does not open up heaven and heavenly things, but gives the answer as to who is going to have the earth. It is what the apostle John does; he does not carry saints to heaven, he brings heavenly things down here. In the gospel it is true in the Person of the Son; in the epistle it is true in the saints; and again in Revelation he presents Christ executing judgment according to Psalm 2. As another has remarked, John claims the earth for Christ.

John's testimony is God's love to the world; John 3:16. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son". You see God's faithfulness to the Jew, but then Christ is "the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world". That distinctly refers to Christ -- He takes away the sin because the world is to be for God. He brings God to the earth -- God's King, God's Anointed is going to possess it, and He shall reign for ever and ever. No doubt it carries us on to the new heaven and new earth.

Here, as I have said, we have Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah -- all terms which mean the same thing, but He is rejected. Then comes in verse 7, "I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee".

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He was Son of David in a sense as anointed, but after His rejection the great truth comes out, "Thou art my Son" -- God's Son. I want to give you an idea of the moral importance of that name, because it is a name, and a name inherited, as we read in Hebrews 1:4, "He hath by inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they". That is proof that it is not exactly an eternal name. Son of God according to Psalm 2 is a name inherited. He takes it up in that way as begotten in time.

One great thought I believe to be connected with the Son of God is that He has the power of life and the power of death. What I think is connected with the thought of Christ is that He is Jehovah's Anointed, the accomplisher of His will. I refer you to a verse in Luke 24"It behoved Christ to suffer". He is the Anointed of Jehovah -- anointed with oil to perform Jehovah's will and to rule over Jehovah's people. When you come to the thought of the Son of God He can open the doors of death and He has the power of life, too. He can remove the power of death, and eventually He will set it aside; He has, too, the keys of death and of Hades, and He can bring man out of death; John 5:24.

Think of those two things in the power of the Son of God -- to set death aside and to bring man out of it! The most simple instance I know is the millennium, because then man will be conformable to God. It is the Son of God who will effect this. He annulled death and brought life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. In the millennium they will love God with all their heart and all their soul, and their neighbour as themselves. The Son of God has the power to set aside death and to bring life in, that everything down here on earth may be conformable to God. This is not true publicly yet, but Christians pass out of death into life.

I find another thought connected with Him as Son

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of God in Psalm 2 that is the authority given to Him (verses 8, 9). Judgment is committed to the Son; John 5:22. It is not simply that as Son of David He rules God's people, but as God's Son He has authority over the nations to rule them with a rod of iron; but that is not the primary thought connected with Him as Son of God, but it is introduced to us in Psalm 2, because Christ being rejected as God's Anointed becomes the occasion of the declaration of greater glories.

In the gospel of John you get the presentation of the Son of God. At the present time He can only be apprehended spiritually. When He was here on earth this was equally true -- He could only be apprehended spiritually, and it is so now. That comes out in chapter 1. We read the passage which brings Nathanael before us; whatever apprehension he had of Christ was spiritual. The Lord begins with him: "Behold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile!" (verse 47). Nathanael finds that the Lord knew him, not simply that Nathanael knew the Lord, and it draws from him the confession: "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel".

I should venture to say that it was by divine teaching that Nathanael thus apprehended Christ. He was touched evidently in verses 47 and 48, for it brought forth from him the confession, "Thou art the Son of God". The Man of Psalm 2 was apprehended. I should feel that Nathanael accepts even the rejection of Christ; no doubt he felt things down here were not according to Christ, and you cannot conceive that he could have been in concert with the general condition of the people.

In what the Lord says to Nathanael there is a beautiful point; He does not speak of judgment but of the whole system of blessing that is to come to pass in connection with the glory of Christ as Son of man: "Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of

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man". It is interesting to notice that he confesses Christ according to Psalm 2 and Christ answers him according to Psalm 8. A thousand years had gone by since David spoke of these things and now here is "an Israelite indeed" apprehending the Person as spoken of in the Psalms. Christ touches a chord in his heart and he responds to it. He is rejected, but He is recognised spiritually as Son of God and King of Israel by one divinely taught.

That is true of us today; no one has an apprehension of Christ except by the Spirit of God, that is, as taught of God. There is the pretension in Christendom to know Christ but He can only be known spiritually. Christ was not here in glory but in testimony. The same is true today and testimony can only be apprehended spiritually. In order that a man should receive any testimony from God he "must be born again", as you have it in John 3. To apprehend the testimony of a rejected Christ a man must be born again. If you apprehend that, it will save you from being deceived by what is going on around, and from the pretension there is on every side.

Now to pass on to the close of Christianity: Revelation 2:18. Here we have the Lord introduced again as in Psalm 2"These things saith the Son of God". He comes in here in the character of judgment, His eyes like unto a flame of fire, and His feet like fine brass, and has the power of life and death. He kills with moral death. An awful thought to me! "I will kill her children with death"; that is, the children of that awful system that has come into Christianity -- that woman Jezebel.

Thyatira, as you have no doubt noticed, closes the connection of Christ with the church as a whole. The reason is that evil had culminated then and there -- Jezebel had been admitted. It is a great mercy that you get other states brought in after -- such as Sardis and Philadelphia, for the last four churches run on to

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the end, but the public connection of Christ closes in Thyatira. He takes up there what belongs to Him according to Psalm 2. As long as the public connection of Christ with the church went on the time had not come for the Lord to go back to that -- to ask for the nations: "Ask of me and I shall give the heathen for thine inheritance" -- but when evil is authorised and allowed then He closes His public connection with the church as a whole.

Another natural consequence is, the King comes in verses 26, 27. Two things mark Thyatira -- worldliness -- worldly commerce, and the acknowledgement of the god of this world. These two things were peculiarly offensive to the Lord. It was an awful thing to the Lord when the church fell to that level. There is no mistake about idolatry in Rome, indeed there is a vast amount outside of it -- of a more subtle kind, perhaps -- the love of money and so on. The overcomer is not carried away by the current; he walks in separation from the state of corruption that has come in; he is one who refuses commerce with the world.

Now I want you to mark the promise to the overcomer. "To him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers"; then is added what you do not get in Psalm 2"even as I received of my Father". He thus gives the overcomer to share with Him in what has been committed to Him. Perhaps you may say it is not a very special promise, but it comes in, and is intended to be a great encouragement in a difficult day.

Do you want to please Christ? Then stand apart from worldliness and worldly commerce. Do not "eat and drink with the drunken"! That is the mark of the evil servant who said in his heart: "My lord delayeth his coming". These features are all true of Popery -- it is thoroughly worldly; but, alas, one can find a great many others who are so too. Be sure of

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this, if you eat and drink with the drunken you are in great danger of acknowledging the god of this world.

It has been said, and I believe, truly, that the higher a person is in the social scale, the nearer he is to the god of this world. The difficulties are much greater the higher up you are, and the more difficulty you are in with regard to the things of God. I thank God with all my heart that I do not stand very high socially! What I want to press is that we should be content to be unworldly; not merely that we should be separate from the ungodly, but that we should not be sitting down to be at ease here.

The promise to the overcomer is indeed a remarkable promise, "He shall rule them with a rod of iron". I want it to come home to us as a word of encouragement. We may be depressed here and find the path difficult, and there are few of us who have not found the temptation to be conformed to this world, but I get great encouragement here. I would not care to go on with the course of this world when I see the promise of Christ to the overcomer here. I should find in it the most powerful possible motive for separation from the course of things from which Christ has been rejected. He has been rejected as God's King: "The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his anointed". That attitude is not given up, it is still maintained. The kings of the earth stand up still, they will not give Christ His rights. This is the time of suffering; that is what marks this moment. The present moment is marked not by our being glorified but by our suffering.

In conclusion I turn to Revelation 19:11, 12. The same description is given of the Lord as in Thyatira, "His eyes were as a flame of fire". In verse 14 all the saints are viewed as in heaven; "The armies which were in heaven followed him"; then in verse 15 we get, "Out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with

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it be should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron".

Now, refer back to Christ Himself in Psalm 2, "Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron". He appears in glory and majesty, and the saints come with Him and they will have part with Him in the work of judgment; and this is the promise given to the overcomer in Thyatira.

Well, I only just desired to trace out these expressions. I repeat, all acquaintance with the Son of God at the present time is spiritual. He never comes again in testimony. When Christ comes as in Revelation 19 He comes in glory to execute judgment; and there will be no question in that day as to who He is; there will be no mistake then.

In John 11 and John 12 you find the testimony given to Christ in His various titles before He suffered, as Son of God, Son of David and Son of man. In the meantime we are privileged in the time of His rejection and suffering to own the truth of who He is -- the truth of His Person, of all that is covered by His name. The name is that which is set forth in the Person. Son of God is set forth in Him (Romans 1:2, 3); rejected as Son of David He is declared Son of God with power.

I can only pray that we may have grace to walk in entire separation from the world, from the commerce of this world, and from in any way acknowledging the god of this world; and may God also give us grace to go on refusing to acknowledge these things. Then, too, may we be encouraged by that which Christ promised to the overcomer, part with Him when He comes in authority.

Another thing is promised: "I will give him the morning star". That is peculiar to the church. May God give us to know what it is to have Him in the heart, the day star arising in our hearts -- the harbinger of day!

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SONSHIP

Galatians 3:24 - 29; Galatians 4:4 - 7; Romans 8:14 - 21; Ephesians 1:3 - 6

T.H.R. Many are desirous to look into the subject of sonship this morning. I think people will find the difficulties are more in themselves than in the putting forth of the truth. If we were fully set for the new place there would be no difficulty in understanding sonship. We do not like to leave this place and go to another: we try to attach the privilege of sonship to the scene in which we are.

F.E.R. We had better look at the passages where the truth is brought out: Galatians 3:24 - 29; chapter 4: 4 - 7; Romans 8:14 - 21; Ephesians 1:3 - 6. The great thing is to look it in the face. It is a point of great moment to apprehend that sonship does not belong to this present scene at all, but to another place. The light and the spirit of it are given to us in the scene in which we are, but the thing itself belongs to another scene. Therefore you must leave where you are, to enjoy it; it is in a scene where, in one sense, you are not.

T.H.R. I think the difficulty of souls is that they attach Christianity to this scene; they have not got the sense of deliverance out of it.

Ques. What is deliverance?

T.H.R. It takes me right out of the scene in which I am, to know union with Christ.

Ques. Is there any relationship that could be enjoyed, except as outside this scene?

T.H.R. Christian relationships undoubtedly belong to another scene.

Rem. Deliverance has been rather limited, I think, to getting out of the trouble of Romans 7.

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F.E.R. A person might be free of the trouble of Romans 7, but not be free of the world.

Ques. Will you go over the scriptures read?

F.E.R. Galatians 3:26 -- "Ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus". In Galatians you get the purpose: light has come in as to this. In Romans the prominent point is the spirit of it; in Ephesians, the place of it. In Galatians, faith has succeeded law, and has brought in the light of God's purpose. It is "in Christ Jesus". In Christ Jesus you are all the sons of God through faith.

Ques. Is this faith in contrast to law?

F.E.R. Yes. When faith is come we are no longer under a schoolmaster. It is what faith is to bring in; but faith is not fact.

T.H.R. Faith enters into the purpose.

F.E.R. Exactly. The light of purpose has come in.

T.H.R. Faith always looked outside this present scene: that is the great point in Hebrews 11. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen".

Ques. What is "sons of God without rebuke" in Philippians 2?

F.E.R. It is "children" there. The thought of "children" is that the Father is with us in love; "sons" is that we are with the Father. Mr. D. used to say the only thing Christians actually possessed here was forgiveness of sins and the Holy Spirit.

Ques. Is it so that "children" speaks of descent?

F.E.R. I do not think that is quite just. It is not the Scriptural thought of children. The Spirit bears witness with our spirit: it is by the Spirit we understand we are children. Sonship has to do with the apprehension of God's purpose in its full result for us. In John 1 it is Christ gives the title to take the place of children. You could not be children unless born of God, and so this is introduced in John as a test of it. You ought not to take that place, except as

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born of God; but the place is given you of the Father -- "See what love the Father has given to us that we should be called the children of God".

Ques. Has sonship anything to do, as to the apprehension of our souls, with our actual present position before God?

F.E.R. No. It is the revelation of God's purpose through Christ.

Ques. But we may apprehend that in our souls now?

F.E.R. Certainly; but it is what is true in Christ. As to rank or status, we have no rank or status here: it is all in Christ. Sonship does not confer on us any present dignity that I can see: I am in the light of all the dignity that is in Christ. The dignity has to come out by-and-by; it is there, but it is no dignity to me down here. We are going into it, and we have the light of it now. I think it all hangs on, how are we going to touch what is in Christ? It is only reviving the question of three or four years ago, is the thing in us, or we in it? If we are in it, how? The tendency is to bring every thought of God, every promise of God, to us down here. It was said, 'Everything is as true of us in this world as it ever will be, and the Holy Spirit is here that we may enjoy it'. I am only speaking of the way in which things were stated: it was laid down that you possessed everything, and the Holy Spirit was given that you might enjoy it. The Christian here was the depository of everything. It was the most complete falsification of Christianity. It is perfectly true that the believer is justified, and has the Holy Spirit; but the positive blessings of Christianity are not said to be in the believer, but in Christ; and the crucial question is, how are you going to touch what is in Christ? Two things are essential -- deliverance and the divine nature. They are concurrent: you cannot have a vacuum. Dead to sin, alive to God in Christ Jesus, they are always concurrent.

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Rem. What is "in Christ Jesus" is according to purpose.

F.E.R. It is good to faith by the Holy Spirit. Faith gets the light of it, but two essential things come in: you want deliverance from what you are in, and the divine nature to lead you into what is in Christ.

Ques. Do you mean by "the light of it" that it is all revealed and we see it?

F.E.R. God has been pleased to make known His purpose in Christ -- that is what I mean.

T.H.R. The Spirit and the divine nature are most important. A man might adopt a child, and tell him to call him 'father'; but he cannot give the natural feelings of a child; and by-and-by the child may call him 'sir', and not 'father': and that is where many Christians are -- they say they are sons, but are not really in the truth of it.

Ques. Might that question of divine nature be made a little plainer for us?

T.H.R. It is love.

Ques. But as to entering into the enjoyment of sonship in connection with it?

T.H.R. It seems to me to involve the difference between Romans and Ephesians. In Romans you have the Spirit, but in Ephesians you come to another point -- that you are quickened together with Christ. I have the sense that I live in what He lives in. It is love, what God is as known in Christ.

Rem. "He that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God".

T.H.R. What is there but love in the divine nature?

Rem. We cannot enter into it naturally.

T.H.R. I need to have the sense that before God I am gone, and that there is another Man before Him to His own infinite delight and satisfaction, and to know what it is to be in Him; it is not standing, but the soul reaching Him where He is.

Ques. If sonship is connected with another scene

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into which Christ is gone, how am I to reach Him there? We cannot reach Him without loving Him; is not that the point? Is that what you mean?

F.E.R. Pretty much; but I think you leave God out too much. There is a special link with Christ, but sonship refers to God as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. You are quickened together with Christ, raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, and this is to satisfy the love of God.

T.H.R. You realise what Christ is in the presence of God, what He is to Him, and if you are going to live with God in that sense, you must have His nature -- not as a pious Jew loving God with all his heart, but perfectly free with God, formed according to Him.

F.E.R. There is most perfect freedom in sonship; in that sense it is beyond 'children'. Even in the assembly you are nothing without love.

Rem. I do not quite see how in the matter of sonship the divine nature would show itself.

F.E.R. You are not competent for sonship if not according to God and His nature: you could not have perfect freedom without it; holy and without blame before Him in love; it is not only that you love, but you are in it.

Ques. Does not that lie in new creation?

F.E.R. Yes, and you could not speak of living together with Christ except as being emancipated from all here.

Rem. It seems to me we should not be quite so free to use these terms if we knew more about them.

Ques. Have we not been on a wrong tack all this time in using them as true of everybody?

F.E.R. I do not see how you can be quickened, except as risen with Christ. The indiscriminate application of truths generalises everything, and produces a very unreal and artificial state in souls. The nature is identified with myself. People have looked

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at it as if it were a kind of material thing given to a person. A great many Christians have thought that in new birth a new nature was given -- full blown.

Ques. Would you tell us a little what the true thought is?

F.E.R. I remember very well, thirty years ago, Mr. D. preached at the Priory, and drew a distinction between new birth and eternal life. That opened my eyes to the thing. I saw that eternal life was not an immediate and necessary consequence of new birth. A good many were stirred up because it cut athwart what they had been accustomed to believe. Their thought had been the communication of nature in divine birth.

T.H.R. The teaching was that you were born of the word, and that as the full truth of Christianity was now revealed in the word, you had it all. It has always struck me as to what we get in 2 Peter 1, "Partakers of" (communion in -- you cannot translate it) "the divine nature" -- that you have part in it, but it is myself; I love, not a nature apart from myself.

F.E.R. You cannot talk of the nature of a thing till the thing itself is there. Endowments are not myself; the endowments pass away, but the nature is myself, and remains. All the talk about nature, as an abstract thing, began right, I am sure, but it has become crystallised and pernicious.

Ques. How would you meet the idea that in new birth something is imparted?

F.E.R. The teaching of Scripture is that I am born again, whatever may be the extent of it; it is myself, the individuality. That is how Scripture speaks of divine birth; "Except a man be born again". It is a human idea that something is imparted, but Scripture says I am born again. Then the Lord puts it more abstractly, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh", for it would go too far to say: he which

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is born of the Spirit is spirit; it would make me spirit, and nothing else.

Ques. Do you touch the divine nature before you receive the Holy Spirit?

F.E.R. You first touch it when you appreciate the love of God: we love Him because He first loved us.

Ques. Is there growth in the divine nature?

F.E.R. I hope so! Romans 7:25 is the mind and apprehension, not a nature.

Ques. Have we not had a wrong idea as to what 'nature' means?

F.E.R. It is the looking upon nature or life as something substantive; any substance is characterised by its nature: but you cannot talk of the nature of a thing till the thing is there. It is like many other things: terms that meant right at first have become stereotyped, and people take their doctrine from the terms, not from Scripture.

Ques. You said 'sons' are with the Father, but 'children' is the Father with them. Is it true of Christians that they are loved by the Father down here? "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them".

F.E.R. The whole assembly stands on that ground.

Ques. But we are that in glory?

F.E.R. Yes; but in a very different state of things. Christians in a hostile world are the objects of the Father's love as Christ was -- that is the idea of 'children' to me. They could not have the privilege without the nature: but the nature is not the privilege; it manifests that they are that. 'Sons' is to be with the Father at the top of the mountain, and you look down and survey the whole extent of the Father's counsels, conscious of being with Christ, and as Christ, in His presence.

Ques. Is it the full knowledge of the Son of God?

F.E.R. Yes. I do not think "sons and daughters" in 2 Corinthians 6:18 gives the idea of children, but that

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God will be to us what He was to Israel: He is not ashamed to own those that are separate from the world, and to undertake for them, in the sense of taking care of them. He gives us the Old Testament blessing now; but if we are content with that, we do not know sonship in its true power. You realise deliverance from all here, if you are in the enjoyment of Him there. It raises the question whether you are prepared to leave this scene for another.

T.H.R. In Ephesians 1 redemption is brought in to show you are clear, and free to go on to another scene -- that there is nothing left behind that needs to be cleared.

F.E.R. The truth of the one body hangs upon sonship -- there is only one Spirit of sonship. We being many are one body in Christ: it follows, of necessity, on being partakers of one Spirit. I think it is of moment to apprehend that the truth of the body hangs upon sonship.

Ques. Is this in line with what John presents as "one flock and one shepherd"?

F.E.R. I think so.

Ques. You said once the sheep had to do with nature, and that the truth involves nature?

F.E.R. I think so. "I ... know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father". It is the same character of intimacy.

Ques. Is the "knowledge of the Son of God" knowledge in association with all the saints?

F.E.R. I should think it was more the knowledge of Him as the Head and Centre of this new system, in which are displayed the counsels of God. 'Unity' refers both to "faith" and the "knowledge".

Rem. We must begin with the knowledge of Himself.

F.E.R. And we must end with it. It begins with the "unity of the faith", and ends with "the knowledge

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of the Son of God". You come to a perfect man and to the fulness of Christ. The fulness of Christ is the body.

Ques. Do we not get the thought of the body as well as the bride in Ephesians 5?

F.E.R. Yes; Eve was a figure of the body, as well as of the bride: she was taken from Adam. The church is taken from Christ to be united to Him, and so He nourishes and cherishes it.

Ques. Does the thought of 'body' drop in glory?

F.E.R. I think not; but the bride character of things is the prominent one, i.e., what is displayed.

Ques. Is the idea of the body that it is the complement of Christ?

F.E.R. I do not think that is the idea of Scripture. I think where the figure of the human body is employed as an illustration, it does not take in Christ. The body is commonly distinguished from Christ: "From whom the whole body", etc.; that is, both in Ephesians and Colossians the body is looked at as in itself complete, but deriving from Him. I do not think the figure in 1 Corinthians 12 goes beyond the church; for it speaks in detail of the eye and the ear, which, of course, belong to the head, as members. The figure of the human body is brought in to illustrate the relation in which we stand to one another in the body down here. We have been materialising these things too much.

Ques. What do you say of Psalm 133 as an illustration of this?

F.E.R. There is no idea in it of the head and the body; Christ receives the Spirit to shed forth. To apply "the head cannot say to the feet" to Christ is not, I think, the Scripture way of treating Him: Scripture never forgets that He is divine.

Ques. In what sense is the church "the Christ"?

F.E.R. It is the anointed body. "For by one

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Spirit are we all baptised into one body". "He called their name Adam" -- that brings in the bride.

Ques. What is the force of "gave him to be head over all things to the assembly"?

F.E.R. That He might in all things have the pre-eminence -- be chief.

Rem. I fancy we have forgotten these things are only human figures.

F.E.R. Exactly; the same has been done with new birth; it has been materialised.

T.H.R. You have got to dig the wells; it is hard work, and the Philistines will fill them up still; they are awkward people; they dwell in the land and have prior claims. They came out of Egypt before Israel did.

Rem. In Jeremiah 23 we have "the Lord our righteousness", and in chapter 33, "Jerusalem shall be called the Lord our righteousness". Mr. D. connected these passages with 1 Corinthians 1:30 and 2 Corinthians 5:21.

F.E.R. "The Christ" is the anointed, and in that sense the church is here as Christ, and to hold the ground for Christ: when here He claimed what belonged to Him, and was rejected, and the church is left here to claim the inheritance, what belongs to Christ.

Ques. Are you thinking of the heavenly line of things?

F.E.R. The whole extent of what belongs to Christ. The professing church has set to work to claim the inheritance without Christ. We claim it by the most intense separation from the organisation of this world. You compromise the testimony if you use the world in any way except to go through it and earn a subsistence in it. The enemy is claiming it for man, for he dare not claim it for himself. That is why the conflict comes in Ephesians 6. The Christian says, I stand apart from the whole thing because the world belongs to Christ.

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Ques. Is the claiming by testimony, and not actual?

F.E.R. Yes. A man mars the testimony the moment he accepts honour from the world. It is very searching.

T.H.R. We had a nice case in Berlin of a young soldier who declined to take 'buttons' (answering to 'stripes') for good conduct.

F.E.R. That is a man to be admired. I should like to shake hands with that man! I do not know who of us is prepared to refuse 'buttons', but you will not understand sonship if you do not. See a man who accepts the world's honour: he will not enter much into spiritual things. I believe the providence of God comes in and marks your path for you, so that you will not be carried into that kind of thing if you desire to go on.

T.H.R. You would seek to help others, but your interest would be in another scene. If risen together with Christ, you would not want the honour of this world. That is the whole point of sonship: it is "in Christ Jesus", and if you want to reach that you must be free of this scene.

Ques. Why did you say that risen with Christ comes in Colossians before quickening?

F.E.R. They must come concurrently, but the first place is given to "risen", which gives the thought of deliverance. "Dead" gives the thought that I am weak. I accept death -- but "risen", I am out of it: it is complete deliverance.

T.H.R. "Quickened us together with Christ" goes a long way; it means you live in all in which He lives, and you are competent for it.

Ques. Must we not notice that it was written to the Ephesians and Colossians, and not apply it promiscuously?

F.E.R. You must learn what the Spirit is to you before you touch sonship. You must go to "therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the

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flesh ... if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body ye shall live", before you come to the question of sonship. The effect on the Galatians of what was put before them ought to have been: here is a most wonderful thing that is brought before us, which we do not know anything about; it ought to have exercised them deeply. But in Ephesians it is different; he breaks it at once with the great truth of sonship, outside this world and in heavenly places to Himself. The Galatians were going back into the bondage of servants, but the light of sonship would set them at liberty: it was not that they would get into it all in a moment, but it would exercise them. Did they want to enter into this: "Ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus"? Then comes the point, how are we going to touch what is in Christ Jesus? New creation comes in and deliverance. You could not be before God if you were not holy and without blame in love. "Holy and without blame" characterises us "in love" -- there is no aspersion on you, nothing that could come against you.

Ques. What is "before the foundation of the world"?

F.E.R. It is outside the whole course of things here with which the world is connected. Mr. D. always said sonship is the highest blessing and privilege conferred on the Christian: the truth of the body hangs on it.

Ques. Does union with Christ refer to the body?

F.E.R. The instant you bring in union, it is the thought of the bride. The church would not be fit to be the bride if she were not the body.

Ques. How far is the truth of the bride actually entered into now?

F.E.R. It is entered into so far as union is realised: if the truth is realised that we belong to that scene, that heaven is our place, then we get the truth of the bride. The bride is that you are with Him, not in Him.

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"Unity" refers to the body, "union" to the bride. In Ephesians 1 Christ is raised up and set in heavenly places; in Ephesians 2 you are raised that you may be with Him. You are seated together there in Him. It is said to be in Him as regards the place, because bodily you are not there. With Him is the great point in union.

The Lord is helping us, and I think we shall be greatly helped if we go on with patience; not calling each other heretics, but seeking to get the mind of God from His word, instead of clinging to stereotyped forms of expression that had their value in their day. I do not believe the Spirit of God will bind Himself to that kind of thing.

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THE SERVANT AND THE SERVICE

The apostle had a strong sense of the greatness of the Lord, of His authority and power, and of how the Lord would stand by him. It is a wonderful thing to know the Lord at the right hand of God, and that all power is given to Him; for the servant can then be content, to take a low place, as the apostle says, "Your servants for Jesus' sake". It was a suited place for a man who had once wanted to be conspicuous among men.

It is a great thing when we are content just to serve the saints, and it is a great thing also when the saints in the meeting are conscious that you are their servant. If I have any feeble sense of the glory of Christ I shall not want to be anything down here but the servant of the saints.

The source of transparency in the apostle was that God had shone into his heart, and that which God had made known of the glory of Christ had taken possession of his heart; and the result for him was a life of effective service. His heart had been touched with a sense of all that God had made known, the light of the knowledge of God had entered there. The Son of God had been revealed in him, and therefore he was content to be the servant of the saints for Jesus' sake; and all true service is of this character. It is blessed to know that there is a full setting forth of all that God is in the face of Jesus Christ.

There were two things in this world that compromised the character of God -- sin and death. Sin called in question the righteousness of God and death the power of God. But in the death and resurrection of His Son, God's righteousness and power have been set forth. Who can say that God is unrighteous or weak? The death of Christ is the witness of the

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righteousness of God. He has given proof in it that sin is intolerable to Him. The resurrection is the proof of His power. Death is weakness, but the exceeding greatness of God's power has been set forth, and both righteousness and power are now testified of in Christ at God's right hand, and no one can say a word against God. There are, of course, other things that find their expression in Him at God's right hand. The love of God, and the grace of God which brings salvation, and the glory of God, these all shine out now in Him. God's love which was the spring of all that was in His purpose for man has come out (John 3:16), and so the apostle could say, "After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared". The time had come when God could make known His love and kindness to man, it shines out now in the face of Jesus Christ, and when I look there I see all God's attributes made good, and Himself fully made known in grace and love. And the more we apprehend the glory of the Lord the greater apprehension we shall have of the grace of God, and the more we shall learn His love. His love has now come out, it is without measure or end, and love will have its own satisfaction in its objects, and the reason that you and I are going to be in everlasting glory is to satisfy the love of God; and all stands on the immutable basis of righteousness. God is not unrighteous for Christ has died, and He is not weak for Christ has risen; and all this had taken possession of the heart of the apostle. He had apprehended that which the light had revealed, and it was the delight of his heart to make it known. God has made Himself known in the face of Jesus Christ, that He might be known and trusted by man, and that men might find a resting-place for their poor aching hearts in the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ. The apostle had apprehended the greatness of the light of which he was the bearer, and his care and desire was that there

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should be nothing about him that was unworthy of the position in which God had placed him, that there should be no provision for the flesh, nothing that would tend to obscure his testimony. And the Lord Himself in His goodness to His servant had given him a thorn in the flesh, so that the flesh might not come into prominence. I do not think a man makes an effectual minister until the truth has taken possession of his soul, and has become the pleasure and delight of his heart. It is a great pleasure to speak of that same light in which God has shone into one's own heart.

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GOD AND CHRIST -- THE FATHER AND THE SON

Colossians 1:12 - 23; Ephesians 1:3 - 6

It appears to me that nothing is really effective in our souls except the knowledge of God. The divine purpose in the gospel was to bring the knowledge of God home to the heart of man; and it is the knowledge of God as He has been pleased to reveal Himself that is effective in man's soul. If doctrine fails of increasing our knowledge of God, doctrine is of little value to us.

It is hardly profitable to study Scripture for any other purpose than to learn God and His ways. It is the pleasure of God to enlighten man here with regard to Himself. He presents to us the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

I see in the writings of the New Testament as regards Christians two distinct lines of truth: the one connected with the titles of God and Christ, and the other with the names of the Father and the Son. It is in connection with the latter -- the Father and the Son -- and our place in relation to it, that you get the greatest insight into the grace and love of God. You come to a point where the love of God can rest without let or hindrance, and with supreme satisfaction. At the beginning of the Christian career (Romans 5) the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit; but when you come to the close of chapter 8, you find the persuasion that neither depth nor height nor life nor death nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The one appears to be in advance of the other. The Christian begins with the knowledge of the love of God, as He has been pleased to prove it in the death of Christ; but in the close of chapter 8 we find that nothing can separate

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us from "the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". That is the circle into which you are brought. You get something of the same thought in John 17 "that the love wherewith thou has loved me may be in them, and I in them". The Lord does not refer here to a love that has passed. It is the love that rested upon Christ when He was down here but it does not cease. It rests on us as it rested on Him. We are loved as Christ is loved. "As he is, so are we in this world".

I will just draw attention to the two lines of truth to which I have referred, the one, as I said, in connection with God and Christ; the other, in connection with the Father and the Son. I own that they are very intimately allied; but I think that it is important for us to distinguish them.

If you want to learn what the saints are to God, you learn this in connection with the Father and the Son. This thought led me to refer to Colossians 1. It is a remarkable passage, as bringing out the truth of the Father and the Son.

With regard to God and Christ certain other thoughts come to light. In the place which Christ has taken as man He has become the vessel of God's pleasure. All was purposed in Christ -- the promise of life was in Christ Jesus. Every purpose or promise of God is to have its accomplishment in Christ. He is the Vessel in whom all these purposes are to be established. I think the truth of the body and of the bride both come out in this connection. The body is a vessel adequate for the setting forth of Christ -- "his fulness"; and the bride has the glory of God. Ephesians 2 brings before us "That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus". That is a clear proof that the church is the vessel in which the glory of God's grace will be set forth, as in the body the character of Christ will be seen. The body is taken

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from Him in order to be His bride, as the rib was taken from Adam and built up into his bride. It is adequate being taken from Him, in order to be united to Him for the satisfaction of His love, and that in it God might show forth His glory. Thus the point is of what God is going to show forth in the church, rather than of what we are going to enjoy. In the Revelation the bride is seen coming down from God out of heaven, not going up to heaven -- the blessed vessel in which the glory of God resides, and in which it is displayed. It comes from God, partakes of the divine nature, and therefore God's glory is set forth there. There is no temple there, but the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. The same will hold good in regard to other things, for Christ is the vessel in which all the purposes of God will have their accomplishment. On that line, I think, as I have pointed out, you get the truth of the body and the bride.

But there is also the line of the Father and the Son; and there we have a still more blessed idea, for it is in that connection that we learn what the church is to God. It is not here a question of what comes from God, like the heavenly city, which is what God displays. Everyone can, I think, distinguish between the thought of display and of what God secures for Himself, for the satisfaction of His love -- what God rests in for His own satisfaction. The more blessed line for our contemplation is of what the church is for God, for His satisfaction. Nothing can be more wonderful than this, and it is where the thought of the Father and the Son comes in, and where the truth of sonship is also found.

If you look at Colossians 1 you will read (verse 12) "Giving thanks to the Father", and then verse 13 brings in the name of the Son "who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love" -- the Father and the Son. The whole passage speaks of what God

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has secured for His own satisfaction. He is the image of the invisible God (verse 15). Verse 18, He is the Head of the body. Who is the Head of the body? It does not here say Christ, because it is not in that connection. Of course it is Christ, and the church is the fulness of Christ; but that is not the thought here. "The Son of his love" is the Head of the body, and I will tell you why, because the point is of what God is securing for Himself. It is all for God. And in all this the Son of His love is to have the pre-eminence. When it is a question of sonship the point is not of display, but of what we are for God, and sonship must bring in of necessity the thought of the Father. When we stand with Christ in the presence of God, it must be of the Father. The passage continues, "In him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell" (verses 19 - 22). And it is in the presence of that you are to be presented. Again I say it is not a question of what God is going to display, but of what He is securing for Himself, of what is to be presented before Him. The Son of His love is the antecedent of the whole passage; the One by whom all is to be reconciled, the Head of the body, etc.; and the end of reconciliation is to present Christians holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. Where? Before Him. It is a question of what the saints are to be in the presence of the fulness of God according to His own nature and attributes -- "holy and unblameable". The fulness of the Godhead has been set forth in the Person of the Son of the Father's love. All the truth hangs upon these titles. All has its source in the Father, and all is accomplished in the Son, and we are presented in Him in the Father's presence.

If you turn to Ephesians 1 you get substantially the same thought (verses 3 and 4). It is not the question of display, but of what we are to be before the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It very much accords with Colossians. We are to be holy and blameless

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before Him in love. That is according to His own nature. He has chosen us for that. "Having predestinated us to sonship (I use the word 'sonship' instead of 'the adoption of children') unto himself". It is to Him, all on that line. Sonship is always for the Father that He may have His part, His satisfaction. Sonship is that you are in the full light of His love; you enjoy it and respond to it; you cry, "Abba, Father". That is what we are called to, and the place which Christ, the Son of His love, has taken is that of the First-born among many brethren. The church is seen in that light, for the thought is not merely of individuals, it would be a great mistake to make it that. Everyone who has part in the assembly has received sonship, and by the Spirit of sonship is formed in love, and it is that we may be in the Father's presence, companions of the Son of His love -- "accepted in the Beloved".

Now that is the other line, and it is an eternal line. It is what we are called to in the Father's presence, to be companions of Christ, to enjoy what He enjoys, to be loved, as He is loved. It is a most wonderful conception, an amazing thought, that we should be called to share His portion! He truly has His place, He is pre-eminent, but we are with Him, and loved as He is loved. There is also, as we have seen, what God will display, namely, the body and the bride. The bride must be suitable for Christ, for it is taken from Christ. God surveyed all the creation and could find nothing suited to be a helpmeet for Adam, nothing in which he could be adequately represented, and hence the woman was taken from the man. The idea of fulness is that which is adequate for presentation. The body is the bride, the holy city in Revelation which has the glory of God.

It will open up Scripture to you to follow out these two lines of truth -- the one, our wonderful place in the Father's presence, Christ the First-born among

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many brethren, and we with Him, loved as He is loved. And the other, that which God is pleased to set forth in Christ. That is display, and the vessel, the church is adequate for it. But the more blessed part is to ponder on what is presented in the Father and the Son, for it brings in the whole system of divine affections. The Head of the body is the Son of His love. He -- the First-born, we -- His companions! What can equal that for blessedness?

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THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST AND THE REALITY OF THE INCARNATION

Hebrews 1; Hebrews 2:10 - 18

What Christianity is is but very little understood. The mass of Christians are in experience very little beyond pious Jews, the difference being that the Jew had not a perfect sacrifice, whereas the Christian has; Hebrews 10:11 - 14. The secret of this is that the incarnation is but poorly apprehended. The Son become Man, is in Scripture viewed on two sides. First, in what He is as under God's eye, as presented to us in chapter 1 -- the antitype of the ark and the mercy-seat; and then what He is to us -- on our side, the side on which He is identified with us and on which we can appropriate Him. He is an adequate object for God on the one hand, and He is one with us on the other. All hangs on the truth of the incarnation, "a body hast thou prepared me". Unless the Son of God had become Man and had died and risen we never could have appropriated Him. He had not been within our reach. He is both Apostle and High Priest, and as the Priest I am entitled not only to His help, but that He should conduct me in His life into the holiest of all. This is true for every Christian, and it is in His heart to do it for them. The names of the children of Israel were not only on the shoulders of the high priest, but on his breast also. We are entitled to His help in regard to temptation, and also that He should lead us into the consciousness of being His companions in the holiest of all -- in the presence of God within the veil. He helps us in view of our infirmities in order that He may lead us into the scene where He is.

In chapter 1 we have first of all what a man now is under the eye of God, in the glory of God. He takes

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a place by so much better than the angels as He has inherited a name more excellent than they. It is His renown, that which is set forth in Him. He has obtained a renown more excellent than that of angels. Of old God spake from off the mercy-seat, and God has spoken to us in Him. He has made known to us all that is in His heart, the counsel of His will. It was impossible for God to declare all this save in the Son; a prophet was not adequate for it. It is very blessed to think of what Christ is as under the eye of God -- as Man; what is true of Him as Man is that He is kindred nature with God, He is His Son. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee". There was nothing morally kindred between Christ and Mary, though He was her first-born Son. As born into this world He was called God's Son. What He was is of more importance than what He took. He did not take a nature morally from Mary, but He gave to manhood a nature morally akin to God. "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son". He was of kindred nature with God in a sense in which we never can be, for He was God's Son even as born into this world.

Secondly. He is greater than angels. He is as Man the object of homage to angels.

Thirdly. He has a throne founded on the perfect discrimination of good and evil. "Thou hast loved righteousness and hated lawlessness". The temptation brought out what Christ was morally; it showed His perfectness, His dependence, for He would not exercise His power on His own behalf. What other man is there who, if he had all divine power at his disposal, would not use it on his own behalf? Then, His confidence in God is shown: He will not tempt Him, in the path of His will, all that He had promised to be, "He shall give his angels charge concerning thee", etc. And again, He will not take anything from any hand but God's.

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Fourthly, His years do not fail. He is the Lord who created all things, and though, as Man, His strength was weakened in the way and His days shortened, yet He is the One who endures for ever -- whose years do not fail. (See Psalm 102.)

That is the glory of the Lord, and it is our privilege, in love and reverence, to behold it: what He is under the eye of God -- an adequate object for God. It will help us to get clear of the glory and glitter of this world if we contemplate the glory of the Lord.

It is all to come out very soon, though during the time of His rejection all is hid in Him at the right hand of God.

Chapter 2 is quite a contrast to chapter 1; the same Person, but viewed on our side. First we have His complete identification with His brethren, and then His preparation for the priesthood. If we fail to apprehend this, we shall never understand the true nature of Christianity. What is God doing at this present lime? He is bringing many sons to glory. He will come out by-and-by for the salvation of His earthly people; but now He is bringing many sons to glory, to the full result and satisfaction of His purpose. As the leader of our salvation, Christ is the One who conducts us in. What are believers in the eye of Christ? The objects of God's purpose, and it is as being such that He loves them. The disciples were of the greatest possible account to Christ when He was here, because they were the Father's gift to Him; therefore it is that He loves us, and is not ashamed to call us brethren -- for the saints are the objects of God's purpose. "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one". It is the complete identification of Christ with those who are the objects of God's purpose. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the assembly will I praise thee with singing"; and again, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith

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thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". We are defective in regard to the assembly if these things be not understood. We are there as His companions -- His brethren.

Next we have His preparation for the priesthood (verse 14 to end). He has left no evil power behind, but has destroyed all that could possibly harass His brethren. A good general would take care to secure his base before further advancing. He would be careful not to leave an enemy in his rear. And so Christ has left nothing behind. He has cleared the field of every foe. He took flesh and blood that He might die, and thus remove the judgment that was lying on us, and He could not do this otherwise than by bearing that judgment in our stead. If I am free from the judgment of God, so am I free also from the power of the enemy. Israel in Egypt under the shelter of the blood were free from the judgment of God, but as having passed through the Red Sea they were free from the power of the enemy. Then again, He makes atonement for the sins of the people, that there might be no imputation to them. You cannot enjoy Christ as Priest, you cannot touch Him as Priest until these things are known. We have nothing to fear from death, nor from the devil, nor from imputation of sins, and it is on this that priesthood is based. This is the work effected by Christ in order that He might enter upon the priesthood.

Chapters 7 and 8 give us the Priest and the priesthood in their true greatness. Chapter 2 is His preparation, His qualification for it. As Priest, He first of all helps us in regard to our infirmities and difficulties. He Himself suffered being tempted, and hence He is able to succour the tempted. This was His qualification for the office of Priest. He was not tempted from within, but from without; but temptation always produced suffering in Him -- He suffered being tempted. We do not always suffer when we are

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tempted, because we have sin in us, and alas! often under temptation yield to it. It is the faithful heart that suffers. The fact that He suffered, and always and only suffered, is proof of His perfection morally. He knew no sin. This is a great point. He was divinely sensitive to evil.

Thus it is He is for us, for our appropriation. But it is affection that appropriates Him -- and that not simply that He may bring us through the wilderness, but that He may conduct us now into the purpose of God concerning us, for we have boldness to enter into the holiest. These scriptures set before us the greatness of Christ, and the reality of the incarnation. A divine Person has been pleased to become Man, assuming the form of a servant, in order that we may appropriate Him, and that He may bring us into the enjoyment of His own place as Man before God, that we may be conducted into the purpose of God concerning us.

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THE PURPOSE AND POWER OF GOD

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Notes of Readings on Ephesians

CHAPTER 1: 1 - 6

F.E.R. The first six verses are a kind of introduction; they show us God's side, that is, the revelation of God's mind and purpose in Christ. This forms the introduction. God is active according to His own counsels, and the question of sin does not come in till verse 7. The truth of it is, that God has come out in the revelation of His will and His counsel, not simply in grace to man. This last is, of course, necessary, but behind all that is the revelation of God in His will. The gospel came in when God had on His part tried every overture and mode of dealing with man, but all to no avail. Then it is He sets Himself to act according to the counsel of His will; He makes it known and accomplishes it Himself. It is no question of the responsibility of man, it is the counsel of His will which He sets Himself to effect. The purpose of God in regard of man is revealed in Christ, the full light of it is made known in Him, and God works according to that. The mischief of late years has been, the separating the grace and gospel of God from the counsel of God. People have thought that grace and salvation were everything. If God was to approach man, it must be in grace to meet man's state, but behind that there is the counsel of God. The door is open to all in grace, but behind the presentation of grace there are the counsels of God which He has set Himself to effect for the satisfaction of His own love.

In the two first chapters, God takes us to Himself. The latter part of the epistle is that we come out for God here, so that He might be displayed.

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In verse 3 we have spiritual blessings; in verse 4 the nature in which we can be before Him; and in verse 5 the relationship; it is all a question of what we are before Him and to Himself, what God has provided for His own satisfaction. This is the family, which is the first thing in the counsel of God. It is in heavenly places and before the foundation of the world, and therefore it has nothing to do with this world, for it belongs to another place and is outside all time.

Some omit "at Ephesus" in verse 1, but I should not like to lose it, it gives a link in the chain. I incline to the idea that it was written to the Ephesians; verse 13 seems to apply to Gentiles, while verse 11 plainly applies to the Jew. It seems to have been written to a particular assembly, of which "faithful in Christ Jesus" appears to have been characteristic. I gather that in the first few verses there is an implied contrast to what the earthly people will have, just as the conflict in chapter 6 is in contrast with the earthly conflict.

Ques. What are spiritual blessings?

F.E.R. They are blessings of that character in contrast to temporal blessings in the land; but just as the Israelites could only tell what they were when they got there, so we can only tell what the blessings are when we know something of the heavenly places. The point here is that the blessings are not connected with the order of things in which we are down here. The whole thing is based on verses 4 and 5. We cannot enter into the spiritual blessings unless we are according to what is stated in these verses, "holy and without blame before him". This is practical, not exactly practice. A man is either holy and without blame, or he is not. Of course, as long as we are down here we have something to be divested of, and therefore we cannot say we are holy and without blame in an absolute way. We can be delivered, but

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we cannot be fully divested, so we are this and yet we are not. The passage looks on to the coming age (see verse 6). People have looked at it as what they are in Christ, but it is not standing. We are not holy and without blame if we are not so practically. We are entitled to it because it is the revelation of God's mind about us, but it is unreal to say I am holy and without blame if I am not.

The work of the Spirit in the believer is according to God's purpose about him; the Spirit works according to that. The purpose is revealed, but there is more; there is also adequate power to effect the purpose, and therefore there is no reason why we should not answer to it. It is the purpose of God that we should be holy and without blame; that is the point here.

What I call 'objective truth' is the revelation of God's counsel in Christ, but it is not yet made good in me, therefore I am not it in an absolute way. Here we get the revelation of God's purpose, and the work of the Spirit in us is to form us according to that purpose.

The great point in verse 4 is "in love". We must be holy and without blame to have to do with God, but "in love" means that I am before Him according to His own nature. The connection of light in Scripture is that it is brought in where darkness had been, to expose and disperse it; here, it is no question of light but of love.

The "choosing" here is of the company, not merely of the individual. The prominent idea is that God would have a company characterised by divine love. When you come to the revelation of God's counsel, I believe it is a company that is chosen, and for this reason I have said that sonship involves the truth of the body -- it really depends upon sonship. It must be "one body" by the very fact of partaking of one Spirit, and that, the Spirit of sonship. Christ is

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the Head of the body, that is, He takes the pre-eminence. It is a most wonderful thought that God should have a company before Him answering to His own nature. All is according to the good pleasure of His will, not connected at all with responsibility. Great stress is to be laid on these expressions, "before him", "to himself". A man must be clear in his soul as regards the question of responsibility before he can enter into these things, and therefore we get all that question taken up in the next chapter.

It is remarkable how inheritance is always connected with the gospel. In the apostles' commission these two things are spoken of -- forgiveness and inheritance, and so it is here. Forgiveness is a great thing, but it does not confer much; hence we get an inheritance. We have not come into the inheritance, but we have the earnest of it in the gift of the Spirit.

The Son comes by incarnation into manhood, and brings all the value of what He is into it, and then, on the ground of redemption, we come into it (i.e., sonship). It shows the intimate connection between the eternal Son and the Son become incarnate. We could not have come into sonship save by the Son becoming Man, so we get, in verse 5, "through Jesus Christ to himself". We get the same thought in Galatians 4, "God sent forth his Son come of woman ... that we might receive sonship". People often try to carry human ideas into divine things; it is dangerous to construe figures too literally. Sonship is a grace given. My son is my son because he is born of me, but sonship has not the same force in relation to God.

Sonship carries us to glory. The Spirit of sonship is the Spirit of a glorified Christ, not of a humbled Christ. Galatians gives the light of sonship: in Romans you await sonship while you have the Spirit of it: in Ephesians you get the place of it. In Romans 8 it is not absolutely stated that we are the sons of God, but that "as many as are led by the

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Spirit of God, they are the sons of God". We are in the light of it, and we have the Spirit of it. The Spirit is more than a seal; He is that, of course, but He has come from Christ to conduct us to Christ.

It is wonderful that the Eternal Son should become a man, stepping outside the place of Godhead that there might be a company in association with Himself! The moment the Lord became man it could not stop there; divine love must have fuller scope, it must go out to a company.

CHAPTER 1: 7 - 14

F.E.R. In the first few verses we had the revelation of the purpose of God's will predestinating us to sonship. Now from verses 7 - 14 we get our standing down here.

In the first six verses, in the most concise way possible, we get the purpose of God. It is God's side, all is for Himself, what He works for His own pleasure. It is important to see that what is revealed to us as God's counsel does not belong to us looked at as responsible men upon earth; these things are not decorations for us. As men in Christ, everything is effectuated for God, but the thought of our being in Christ is abstract.

Ques. Is redemption limited to forgiveness of sins?

F.E.R. Forgiveness of sins is the way in which redemption applies to us; forgiveness stands in contrast to imputation. We stand on that ground -- no imputation, but forgiveness. We are looked at as having been brought into a certain position here, in virtue of having received the gospel -- that is, we have forgiveness, inheritance, and the Spirit as the earnest of it. The Spirit also brings God in, and therefore the love of God. These three things are the present actual value of the gospel to us. Forgiveness of sins,

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used in this abstract large way is in the sense of sins not being imputed. We are on that ground.

It is important to keep the light of God's counsel distinct from the Christian standing. The purpose of God holds good for us in the Christian circle. It is all good for us in connection with God. The work of the Spirit in the believer corresponds to the revelation of God's will, and I believe that goes a long way beyond our standing. I believe, too, that the way in which 'standing' has been taken up amongst us has worked mischievously, and has tended to a good deal of unreality. Sonship is revealed "in Christ Jesus", and faith apprehending this, I see it belongs to me and is the light of God's will about me. But it belongs to heavenly places. A Christian is much greater as to his place with God than he is with men. With my fellow men the only difference is, I can take the ground that I am forgiven, and that I have received the Spirit which is the seal and evidence of it; but with God, I am in the light of His will, and His Spirit works in me according to that.

Verses 8, 9. His grace has abounded to us in making known not only His will but the mystery of His will -- that which is hidden in it; I think that refers to the truth of the church, the body. God made known to Old Testament saints that He would put all things under the Son of man, but the mystery of His will was that the church was to share with Him.

In verse 10 the expression "the Christ" brings in the Spirit, the anointing; "Son of God" brings in more the nature of God; "Son of man", the subjugation of evil. As the Christ, He is the anointed One to take the inheritance; as Son of God He brings in the light of God's nature; as Son of man He subjugates. These are His three great titles; verse 20 is the present position of Christ, verse 10 His future position. Christ is anointed to take the inheritance, and we come into it in that way, too -- as anointed.

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Jew and Gentile are taken up and referred to in their relative places in this epistle, but the great point is to bring them together. When once the Spirit is introduced, he can show them as one. He does not here go beyond the standing of the Christian: the idea of the seal in verse 13 is the evidence of God's rights. "That we should be to the praise of his glory": His glory is the complete display of the triumph of God over all evil, it is effected in resurrection. The assembly will come out in a very special way in regard of it.

Ques. What is "the purchased possession"?

F.E.R. It is the whole scope of the inheritance: it is all purchased, but not yet redeemed. Israel, too, will be to the praise of His glory, it is not limited to the church. Israel is raised from the dead; the whole scene will be to the praise of His glory; it is the divine power of recovery. God gains a great deal more than had been lost. In result He puts it all on a broader platform. The Son of man has dominion not only over the works of His hands, but over all things.

Ques. What is the force of verse 12?

F.E.R. It is what marked the believing Jews at the time the apostle wrote; they had trusted in Christ before He was manifested.

We get these three things, redemption, inheritance, and sealing; but when the apostle comes to prayer, he goes out a great deal beyond that, to the full scope of God's will concerning us. The prayer goes back to counsel. The first thing he prays for is, that they may know the hope of His calling. I have been much interested in trying to distinguish between the work of the servant and the work of God. No doubt the apostle brought the light of the gospel to them by which they were saved, but then he can do no more; he has to turn to prayer. Then again in chapter 3 when he has unfolded the mystery, there, too, he prays for them. I do not think the servant can put the best robe on people; his whole work is to enlighten.

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I do not think he can go beyond that. It is God who works and effects everything. The apostle was to open their eyes that they might turn from darkness to light, then God gives the Spirit as the seal, and after that it is all His work. No man, not even an apostle, could give me the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. We know everything by knowing God; all hangs on that. Everything that God does arises from what He is; the Christian state is brought about by knowing God, the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things", was said to babes.

The effect of having the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him is that the eyes of our understanding are enlightened. Wisdom is resource, revelation is unfolding. When we know God we have the opening up of Scripture. People are not going to get the knowledge of God by the study of Scripture; we get at Scripture by the knowledge of God.

Christ is God's resource; Proverbs 8. He is not baffled. Christ was the link between God and men: "His delights were with the sons of men". Christ as wisdom is the Mediator.

You never got a single bit of light on the Scripture till you had the Spirit. The Spirit may help you by Scripture, but if you are going on, you may by the Spirit be beyond the letter of Scripture. But you must never transgress the Scripture. "To the law and the testimony; if they speak not according to this word it is because there is no light in them". Scripture tells me things I am entitled to have, but I only get them by the Holy Spirit leading me into the knowledge of God. Take a man who receives the preaching and is converted; he receives the Spirit, and he finds he loves the Scriptures, which he never did before. Having received the Holy Spirit, he knows the love of God shed abroad in his heart. If

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he comes to the Scripture, he will understand what has taken place. We get the thing by the Spirit of God, and then by the word we get what explains and confirms it. We need to have things intelligently -- by the Scriptures -- not only instinctively. It is the Spirit only who enables us to understand the Scriptures. "The spirit of wisdom and revelation" is a special favour, things open up.

There is great danger in speaking of things which we know by Scripture, but do not know by the Spirit. In teaching you must keep yourself within the bounds of what you really know.

CHAPTER 1: 15 - 23

Ques. Why is it "faith in the Lord Jesus"?

F.E.R. The apostle takes them on the ground of the great characteristics of saints -- faith and love; they were in that circle, as it were. I do not think that it is faith toward Him, but it is that they were in that sphere, they were in the Lord Jesus, and faith and love characterised them as there; verse 13 had brought them into that circle. There were certain marks about these saints that gave the apostle confidence to pray for them, and that unceasingly.

In one sense the platform is higher in Ephesians than in Colossians. In Colossians, the faith is "in Christ Jesus"; here, in Ephesians 1 the thought of "the Lord" is brought in, as also in chapter 6. His exaltation is more contemplated here. Saints may be looked at as on the border of the land, as in Colossians, or as having gone up into the land, as in this epistle, and therefore here you are more fully in the light of "the Lord": it contemplates Him in His position as being far above all principality and power. "Groweth unto a holy temple in the Lord". "In whom" (i.e., in the Lord) "ye also are builded together

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for an habitation of God". The higher up you go the more you get into the light of the Lord. The prayer here is to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory.

Ques. Why is it "Father of glory"?

F.E.R. He is the source of it all; the thought of 'God' brings in supremacy, as "the God of glory" in Acts 7; 'Father' brings in that of source. "To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things ... and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things", 1 Corinthians 8. The counsels are brought into effect by Him, but the Father is the source of them. The counsels belong to the Father, but the Son is the centre of them, and it is through Him they are brought into effect. Christ having become man, stands in relation to God. God is the Father of glory, the devil is the source of shame. Death and lust are of Satan, but the setting aside of all evil and the introduction of what is in Himself, is what constitutes the glory of God.

Ques. Why does it say in Romans 6, "raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father"?

F.E.R. Resurrection is the platform now, therefore the Father is the standard for walk: "even so we also should walk in newness of life". God allows things to operate until all is completely weakened; all that is in the world has decay inherent in it. God will allow things to wear themselves out, and judgments, too, will be inflicted, as in Revelation, in order that He may bring in a new state. Man is utilising natural forces, but I believe eventually they will become too strong for him, and in the end will turn to his own destruction. Think of the immense strain on man which it all brings in! It is a very serious thing the way man interferes with natural forces and things. Man is taken in his own craftiness.

Ques. How far does the prayer go?

F.E.R. There is a remarkable break in verse 20:

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after saying "which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead", it begins again: "and he set him down at his right hand in the heavenlies". The might of God's power is in resurrection, but setting Him at His right hand, is the place given Him, dignity and honour conferred. We, too, are made to sit together in heavenly places, it is a place given to us, but it is not, as with Christ, at His right hand. If we know the hope of the calling and the inheritance, then it is we want to know the power by which we shall enjoy it. We have to be conscious of those two things, but the power is towards us to put us in heavenly places. If we are in the resurrection sphere, where alone we are conscious of these things, then we know that the same power is towards us which was towards Christ, and that, in order that we may enjoy it. It is a great thing to be in the resurrection sphere; it is where God operates. The word 'know' here, is what you are made conscious of. There are three parts in the prayer: calling, inheritance, power.

When we come to the middle of verse 20, where the tense changes, we get in that which follows, the statement of what God has done in order to satisfy His heart. He must put you where Christ is, and that is what I call union. Union is the answer to the prayer. In John 17 the request that they may "be with me where I am" is higher, for it is to behold His glory; here, it is to enjoy the inheritance. His 'glory' is His peculiar distinction as "with the Father"; this we can behold, but we do not share. It is incommunicable; we cannot share all. The fact of Christ emptying Himself cannot alter what He is personally with the Father. It is the same as in John 1. "We have contemplated his glory, glory as of an only begotten with a father". We do not know the power of God towards us unless we are in the resurrection sphere. Christians who go to church and pray for victory in war, and to be preserved from famine, etc., are not in

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the resurrection sphere at all; it is outside all that, and it is there where God is operating. The complete triumph of God was seen in the resurrection of Christ: His resurrection involved the whole thing in principle.

Ques. In Colossians we are said to be risen now?

F.E.R. Yes, but it is through faith in the operation of God who raised Christ from the dead: it is in this way that we come into it. Israel comes in also on that ground; the resurrection of Christ involves their being raised up. In 1 Corinthians 15 the resurrection of Christ works out eventually, to death being swallowed up in victory. It is life out of death -- life superior to death. We have to learn it, for every purpose of God comes out of Christ risen. The church, indeed, every family comes out of Christ risen. God began afresh when all was in death, and that, by the resurrection of Christ from the dead. It is God's calling, God's inheritance, God's power. The hope of His calling is heaven; the calling is sonship. The inheritance is all that is headed up in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth, and in order to take that up, He must be set in heaven above all principality and power.

The prayer in chapter 3 is for state; here, chapter 1, it is for the conscious knowledge of what is of God. It was suitable to God to give Christ the highest place; it is what He is pleased to give to man according to His purpose, and He has found a Man in whom He can give it. He has set man in the Person of Christ, in the highest place. When Christ was here, God was at His right hand (Psalm 16:8); now, He is set at God's right hand, and that is His place according to God's purpose. The right hand of God is high above all principality and power; it is the supreme place of honour and glory. The right hand is emblematical of power. It was in eternal purpose that man should have that place. The "Son of man" is the One crowned with glory and honour. The Son of man

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was made lower than the angels for the suffering of death. In Hebrews 2 it is spoken of from our standpoint: "we see not yet all things put under him"; but in Ephesians, which looks at it from God's side, all things are put under His feet. Hebrews 2 contemplates One who was superior to angels, taking, for a special purpose, a place inferior to angels. Angels excel in strength, but the church is to stand in the Lord, and in the power of His might. The church can do what angels never could.

"Head over all" (verse 22), means headship over all, and as such He is given to the church.

The apostle comes, so to speak, to the end of all he can do, and so is obliged to turn to prayer. He cannot touch their state, nor can he give conscious knowledge. God only can do that: it just shows the limit of a servant, and where God has to come in. The servant enlightens, and it is the divine way. God uses men to enlighten men. Paul enlightens the jailor, and Philip is sent to enlighten the eunuch. Light comes through the servant, but the actual growth is from Christ. Therefore the servant's prayer is very important. The apostle -- almost a perfect servant -- has to pray. Ministry gives light, but God only can give the state and power for enjoyment. People may run after ministry, but if they do not get to God they never get much. They need to get to their closets and pray individually. If men pray in private they will pray in public.

Christ is given to the church; He stands pre-eminent to the church. Nothing is excepted from His pre-eminence. It is a Greek word which means being 'first'. The church is His body -- that is, it is derived from Him as Eve was derived from Adam; and it is His fulness. There was nothing in the inferior creation which could set forth Adam, and therefore God formed a woman out of himself, that she might set forth man: the woman is the glory of

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the man. Nothing is more wonderful than that there should be a company here which is adequate for the setting forth of Christ!

CHAPTER 1: 19 - 23; 2: 1 - 4

F.E.R. The passage at the close of chapter 1 (verse 22) introduces Christ, not as Lord but as Head: "Head over all things", He is presented as Head to the church. Colossians, too, is headship, first of principalities and powers, then of the body. The Corinthians were not in a condition to enter into the truth of the Head or the purposes of God. The relation of Christ as Head to the body, is always in connection with His being Head over all things. In Colossians 1, "he is before all things, and by him all things consist", and then it goes on to, "he is the head of the body": and in Colossians 2 after presenting Him as Head of all principality and power, he speaks of "not holding the head, from which all the body ... increaseth with the increase of God". The idea of headship is supremacy; it is not the same thought as lordship. You get it in the relationship of husband and wife: the husband does not exercise authority as lord; it is the pre-eminence of affection. It is in that sense that Christ is Head of the church. So the husband is to love his wife even as Christ loved the church. The wife is to be subject, but the husband is not to rule her.

All that is under Christ, as Head, takes character from Him; whether it is as taking up the throne of David, or as Head of the Gentiles, He will give character to all. He will not rule as Nebuchadnezzar did, for it is said: "In him shall the Gentiles trust". It is not simply that He rules them. Everything which Christ takes up in headship takes a character from Him. He is Head to the body -- but then it is His

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fulness: the Gentiles will trust in Him: the Jew, too, will take character from Him, the law will be written in their hearts, but that is partial, only a trait of Him. The church alone is His fulness, adequate for the full display of Christ. Eve was the fulness of Adam.

The prayer terminates in the middle of verse 20: "He raised him from the dead". After that, it becomes statement -- "and set him at his own right hand ... and hath put all things under his feet". The great idea of the passage is God's great beginning -- the moral beginning. All was in death; Jew and Gentile were dead, and Christ was also in death; all were dead, and then it was that God began to work, that He might bring about the resurrection sphere. The question of time is no element in this passage.

In chapter 2 "quickened" is applied to Jew and Gentile, not to Christ. Christ is raised up and made to sit at His right hand.

Ques. Why is "quickening" left out in regard to Christ?

F.E.R. Because it is used in a moral sense and therefore could not be applied to Christ. Peter uses the word as applied to Christ, but not with the same force as here: "put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit", 1 Peter 3:18.

People are but poorly prepared to receive what we get here. It is not the responsible man as living on the earth that is in view. People are uncommonly careful of the present creation, which proves that they are not prepared to enter on, nor do they attach much importance to, the new creation. 'Quickening' is for another sphere: the resurrection sphere where Christ is. A man made alive is not brought back into the old sphere. The point here is that we may have the conscious knowledge of these things.

What led the apostle to prayer was that they might get the state to enable them to enjoy the light he had

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given them. In chapter 1 he gives light in regard of the gospel; that is as far as he can go, and then he resorts to prayer. In chapter 3 he gives them all the light of the mystery, and then again he turns to prayer. The gospel gives forgiveness, an inheritance, and the Spirit as the earnest, and this is as far as the apostle can go in regard to the gospel; then he prays to God for them that He may give them the state to enjoy the light. The most eminent servant can do no more than enlighten. The evangelisation of the present day has often a great evil in it; man is acted on, his flesh, his sensibilities and nerves -- the emotional part of man. Many of these preachers lay themselves out to affect men in this way. God works in spite of it, but what He uses is the measure of light presented, for there is of course a certain amount of truth in the preaching, and this God uses. It should be a settled thing with the servant that his work is to enlighten. The evangelist has to open their eyes, and what follows is, that they turn from darkness to light. The evangelist works to that end, i.e., that men may be undeceived.

Ques. You would like people to be interested, would you not?

F.E.R. Oh, yes! and what comes from the heart goes to the heart. The qualification of an evangelist is that he is interested in people -- this cannot be affected or imitated; but the relating of thrilling anecdotes is acting on men's nerves, not enlightening them.

We do not get the verb belonging to verse 1, until we come to verse 5, "hath quickened us together". In verse 1 "you" is Gentiles; in verse 5 "we" is Jews, but he repeats the expression "dead in sins" in connection with the Jew; he shows that the Jew also is dead. In verse 3, he speaks of Jews, and then he adds "we too being dead in sins". There was but a scene of death -- all were dead. Christ is in death, and God comes in in resurrection power, and the first expression of it is in Christ!

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What we do need to know is the resurrection sphere. It starts in Romans; God has raised up our Lord Jesus from the dead; there we are put upon that platform. He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, that we should walk in newness of life. Here, in Ephesians, it is a much larger thing; He has raised us up together, i.e., Jew and Gentile.

There is very little instruction in Ephesians about the body. Colossians is where it is most brought in, because there the Christian circle is most in view. In Ephesians the great point is, God is looking down upon a scene of death, nothing but death -- Jew and Gentile dead, Christ in death, and nothing remains but for God to work, His motive and spring being in Himself, for the satisfaction of His own love. Nothing is expected from the responsible side; it is because of His great love wherewith He loved us, that He quickened us together with Christ. He brings us to His own habitation; He quickened us to that end.

It is here that we touch union. Scripture does not use the term, so the question is, what force do we attach to it? To my mind, union is as when Eve was brought to Adam and united to him, and she shared all that Adam possessed -- that is marriage. Eve was taken from Adam, so the church is Christ's body because she was taken from Him. There was no help-meet found for Adam, and God took a rib -- what was essentially Adam -- and He forms a woman and brings her to the man, and they are united and she shares all that belongs to Adam. The idea of union is taken from marriage, not the figure of a body united to the head. If a man marries a woman positionally below him, she, in virtue of being united to him, shares all that belongs to him. So, "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit"; the link is the "one spirit", just as the link between man and woman is "one flesh". The idea of all this in Ephesians is collective, not individual, but we enter into it individually.

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Now the first thing we get here is, "quickened us together, with Christ"; then, "hath raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus". Mark, it is "in Christ", it is abstract, not actual. We are associated with Christ in life, that is quickening, but more -- resurrection power has come in to raise us above the level of nature. The apostle would not have said this of the Corinthians; he does say it of the Ephesians and Colossians. Everything is true for every believer who has the Spirit, but it must be realised. There is no sense in saying that I live with Christ, if I do not know anything about it. "Hath raised us up": it is complete liberation from all the bonds that held Jew and Gentile in moral death here; they are all broken. As with Lazarus, grave and grave-clothes all left behind!

Then more than that -- "made us sit together in heavenly places". That is the great point here, I get a new place. "The quickening" is that I am made partaker of the divine nature; I am in conscious association with Christ. We live with Him in being partakers of the divine nature. I could not live with Christ merely by virtue of having the Spirit, I must be in the divine nature. John 5 runs parallel to this -- we have passed out of death into life. John 6 corresponds more with "raised us up"; that is, I am emancipated from all the bonds that held me. There are two appropriations in John 6the one is eating the flesh of the Son of man and drinking His blood, that is His death; then, appropriating Christ, that is the Priest.

Do you suppose that we are going to get into such exalted blessedness without the appropriation of Christ? He must be and He is the Leader in it all!

In connection with Romans 5 I have noted three 'D's' -- disturbance, distance, death -- and in contrast we find peace, reconciliation, and eternal life.

John 3 is the divine side; chapters 4, 5 and 6 are subjective. It is most extraordinary that we should

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be raised up and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ, and this for the satisfaction of His love. The more we enjoy His love the more we enjoy the place.

There are four words used in chapter 2 as setting forth the attitude of God towards us: love, mercy, kindness, and grace.

CHAPTER 2: 1 - 10

F.E.R. Verses 4, 5 and 6 are in contrast to verses 1, 2 and 3, and in them we see God acting from motives which were purely in Himself. It is easier to understand God showing grace, than God acting from the great love wherewith He loved us. God's purposes are the counsels of love. Love brings in the idea of sovereignty. "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated". He sets His love upon whom He will, and so here the sovereignty of love comes in. It was not what we were, "but God" -- because of His great love; the love is the spring; the mercy is where He touches us. It is equally true in regard of Israel. He delivered them out of Egypt because He had set His love upon them, and so He does not leave them in the wilderness, but brings them to the place which He had made for Himself to dwell in. He loved them because He loved them (see Deuteronomy 7:7, 8). We have to face these things: when we come to God we come to sovereignty. Grace comes out to relieve, according to Romans, but here it is love. The measure of blessing now is the measure of the love of God. It is what will satisfy His great love, not what will meet my necessity. Grace comes out after love. Four qualities of God come out here: love, mercy, kindness, grace. Grace is more what is for display here. When the Lord was here, the thought of grace was to deliver man from all the pressure that lay upon him. The connection between grace and mercy is very

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intimate, for we come to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. In 'mercy' God takes account of the whole bearing of what we are. Grace comes in to relieve you when you do not deserve it; one element in grace is its freeness -- it is gratuitous.

In this passage the Jews are dead in sins, the Gentiles, too, are dead, and Christ is in death. There is no life anywhere except in God, and He acts, not to please us, but for the satisfaction of His own love, and that is to have Jew and Gentile in His own place.

Rem. There are very few people in what this chapter speaks of.

F.E.R. Very few indeed; and there were few, too, when the apostle wrote. Justification-righteousness has its application to me, because I could not be before God, being a sinner, unless I am justified. But then I find out that God had a purpose about me in Christ, and when I apprehend this better I see that justification was not merely that I, who had been a sinner, might be able to stand before God, but that I was of the elect: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?" God chose me because He wanted me. We do not understand all about righteousness when we are justified as sinners; it is when we come on to the ground of purpose that we see the full end of it; whom He justifies He also glorifies.

All is intensified here: God who is rich in mercy, His great love wherewith He loved us. God has a clear platform on which to act in love. Love is the nature of God. He is merciful and gracious -- these are attributes, but love is His nature. Love is the spring of every divine activity, but love could not touch us except in mercy. God does not abate one whit of what He is, and this is really the strength of our security. It is very wonderful to me that we should have a seat in heavenly places; the nearer you come to it the more you learn the love that would have you there. The better you know God the better you know

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the love. There is wonderful blessing in store for man! If only we were prepared to sacrifice ourselves and have God, we should get on a great deal better. God takes us up for blessing, but He will not save a bit of me. God has the individual before Him, but the man -- that is, the order of man, has to go. Man would not need to be saved if there was a bit of anything in him that could be recovered; then there would have been recovery.

The thought of heavenly places is brought in to detach us from the place here; we do not give up the earth unless we know we have a place in heaven. We get the same in principle in John 14. The Lord reveals that He has a place for them in the Father's house, that they might be detached from the scene here. There are but few who seem to be going in for what is heavenly: if they were, it would have a great effect upon them, for they would only want here what God in His mercy sees fit to supply. All that is mine here is simply of the mercy of God; He cares for me as He does for the ravens, but He has given me a place in heaven. No one is safe from the things here, and the influences that are abroad today, unless He learns the power of God in the resurrection sphere, which is where God works. There it is you get your faith confirmed, because you see His work. People who are occupied with the world sphere, see nothing of the work of God. It is in the resurrection sphere alone you see His work, and there you are greatly confirmed.

We are in the sense of having a place in heaven just in proportion as we enter into the love of God. In Romans we get God "who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead" (chapter 4), and then in the resurrection sphere we get peace, favour, reconciliation through Him (chapter 5), and we are married to Him; chapter 7. In Colossians we are risen with Him. In Ephesians we get further light as to the resurrection sphere; we see Christ at the right hand of God, and we have a

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seat in heavenly places. It is in this sphere that we see the mighty power of God. The effect of what we get in Colossians, i.e., risen with Him, is that we are associated with Him in the resurrection sphere, so that we are free of this scene. Ephesians 2:6 will be true in actuality when the Lord comes, but if you lay hold now of the power and love of God, you will find out that you are near to God where He is; not merely that He is near to you, but that you are near to Him in His own place.

The genius and spirit of what we get in this chapter is collective, it is Jew and Gentile together, but all the same its application is highly individual. Display is contemplated in verse 7, and the church will be the vessel of the display.

These things are very abstract, but I think by the Spirit of God we ought to be able to abstract the thought away from all question of experience, to see the light of God and how all is effected for God. One great office of the Spirit is to withdraw us from all the things in which we have to move in daily life, to God and His side of things; it is going into the sanctuary. J.N.D. has put it that we go in to God before we come out from God. "Heavenly places" is not the same as the holiest. The power of the Spirit is what carries us to heavenly places. The conflict in encountering spiritual wickedness is down here: the heart and power of Christ are down here. If He walks in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, they are here; so, too, if we are to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, it is here. Christ sings praises in the midst, that is, not in heaven, but down here. The wonderful effect of redemption is that Christ can take His place in the midst of a company. Colossians answers most to the assembly: we are in association with Him, risen with Him, and quickened with Him, and thus associated with Him. Christ has declared the Father's name. He said:

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"I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it"; but that was in resurrection; the declaration is made, the Father's name is declared. The truth of it may be brought home to you, but it is done and perfectly done.

It is perfectly wonderful what we are called to! The real secret of our not getting the blessing is want of affection for Christ, and the cause of that is that we do not enter into His love. When Christ takes up His place as Leader of salvation in connection with bringing many sons to glory, it is not on the ground of personal perfection, but because He has cleared away all that hindered so that we might be in association with Him. The result, therefore, is that if He is the Leader in the midst, He must have the pre-eminence, for He is there in His own personal excellence, He is there by right and title, and is morally suitable. We are there as the fruit of His work and of what He had effected, therefore He must have the pre-eminence.

Union is the fact of being joined; the sharing is the result of it. Abigail shared the rejection of David. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". She has nothing till He gets His rights, but she has the affections of the Bridegroom. It is wonderful what God intends to display! I believe God will make manifest the complete superiority of what He provides -- the whole existing state of things will fade away in the presence of divine goodness. We shall see how completely God's thoughts and God's desires will triumph in the end!

We can only really see the assembly in the scripture, and that shows the importance of apprehending an abstract idea.

We shall enjoy the love, but the grace will be displayed; that is what the heavenly city will be. God is never baffled; all fails in man's hands, but all His purposes will be accomplished. The 'city' is a symbol of stability; the 'camp' the symbol of movement.

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The city -- the grace which God will display in the church -- will be the pledge and security of everything. Israel will get the benefit of it, too, as well as the nations. We get the thought now, "by grace are ye saved through faith", and faith is "the gift of God". The apostle will not allow anything to man; it is all of God, even the faith. If a man has faith, it is divinely given and a favour of God. We are responsible to believe, and yet it is not in the capability of man to believe. If he does not believe he makes God a liar. The responsibility and the capability are different things. "We are his workmanship" -- all is "of God".

"Created in Christ Jesus" (verse 10). He is the Head of the new stock; all takes its character now from Him. It is the idea of a potter forming a vessel.

The natural affections are not new creation. I do not bring new creation into them, nor into my business, but I am ruled by new creation, I walk by this rule (see Galatians 6:16). I do not want things down here to ruffle and disturb me; I want to be kept in the qualities of Christ. You see the "good works" in Christ as He says, "Many good works have I shown you of my Father".

CHAPTER 2: 11 - 18

F.E.R. Now that they have a place in heaven, the saints can look clearly at things down here on earth. We never get a clear view of things here till we are conscious of having a place in heaven, and that is why so few understand things down here; we are hampered by these things and cling tenaciously to them. We never get free of the place here till we see we have another place. There is no other way. We might have the place here as uncomfortable as you like, but that would not deliver us from it. The latter part of

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the chapter is a sober and divine view of all that is down here. When Paul came down again after he had been caught up to the third heaven, he took a very sober view of things here. In the first part of the epistle we get a place in heaven, and all the rest from verse 11 on is that we are sent to carry out cheerfully everything that is appointed to us here. I have a place in heaven, and every time I retire to it I find a welcome.

In verse 12 the whole condition of their past life is summed up in a few statements; it is wonderful! It is the description of the state in which God had previously left them, and it is all in contrast with Israel. It is the position down here that is in view. The apostle would not draw such a contrast in regard of heaven; there he proves similarity, not contrast. Jews were dead in sins, and Gentiles also; they are quickened with Christ and raised up together. 'Risen' and 'seated' are expressions applied to Jew and Gentile, and also to Christ, but 'quickened' is not stated of Christ. When we are quickened then the same expressions which are used in regard of Christ are used also in regard of Jew and Gentile, and this in view of union -- of being joined to Christ where He is; that is, in the enjoyment of the love of God. But when the apostle looks at things down here, the distinction between Jew and Gentile is taken into account, and then he shows how the whole position of things is altered. If all the saints were in "heavenly light" there would be no difficulty about maintaining unity; the pettiness of what comes in to disturb it would in that light appear simply contemptible -- bits of envy, jealousy, and self-assertion! In "heavenly light" there is no place for what we are in nature. The difficulty is that so few of us are in "heavenly light".

"Raised us up" is, I think, complete deliverance -- emancipation from everything in connection with our

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place on earth. The bonds are all broken, the grave clothes gone! We are lifted out of everything of death. When raised up you are fully in the resurrection sphere, and the power of the natural sphere is completely broken. We are in the same sphere that Christ is in. In Colossians the being risen with Christ is looked at on the side of our experience, but here it is looked at as the work of God's love to satisfy Himself. The spring is love, and therefore if He works He works for the satisfaction of love. Lust works for its own satisfaction, but by so doing degrades its object for its selfish gratification. Love works to satisfy itself by elevating its object. Here it is viewed as God's work: "He has raised us up". We are become nigh "in Christ Jesus"; the nearness is in another Man, and the old man is gone in the blood of Christ (see verse 13). If God pronounces the sentence of death on man, the man must go, he cannot be reprieved. 'The man that was under judgment had to go in judgment'. I like that statement immensely.

In Romans 3 it is God's side; it is by the man under judgment going in judgment that the righteousness of God is vindicated. This paves the way for God in the triumph of resurrection to bring in another Man. "Righteousness of God" is in contrast to the sin of man. God is declared to be righteous, and the blood is the witness that sin was removed, and then God is free to act. It is a most wonderful thing that the decks, so to speak, are cleared, and God is free to begin in another Man in resurrection. Resurrection is the glory of God; it is on the line of divine glory, but righteousness is in contrast with sin.

I used to connect righteousness with resurrection and glory, but when we come to test things they do not always stand. Scripture presents things much more wisely than we can, and is always right.

Ques. What is the meaning of John 16:10?

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F.E.R. There was no righteousness here, and therefore Christ had to leave this place. Sin was proved to be here, and no righteousness. They killed the Just One -- the only Just One -- and so He went to the Father. Christ was a divine Person come forth in the communion of the divine counsel to accomplish a divine work. It was not possible that He could be holden of death. His going to the Father was no question of righteousness in John's gospel; when He goes to the Father it is simply taking a natural course, only He goes back as Man. He was raised up by God, but as a divine Person He says, "I will raise it up", John 2:19.

Ques. Has Christ no place in the declaration of the righteousness of God?

F.E.R. Psalm 40 is, that He was there to do the will of God, and that was that He should put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; that is the declaration of God's righteousness. We have a place in Christ, and at the same time God has given us a witness of His righteousness. In giving effect to His purpose, He has not compromised His righteousness. Therefore the blood was put on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. The other Man has been brought in in divine righteousness, because the first man has been cleared away. Righteousness (which is the clearing away or removing of the man) is the basis, and paves the way for God to give effect to His purpose without compromising His glory. In Abraham God took up a "wholly right seed", and yet when planted it bore wild grapes. They proved unrighteous, but this paved the way for God's righteousness; their unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God: it proved the righteousness of God in condemning all alike. The result of the testing was that the seed of Abraham proved worse than all, and there is proved to be nothing for God in flesh, and then the true Seed comes in -- not the seed after the flesh, but that

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by promise. The man under judgment must go in judgment: "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die".

Satan has changed his tactics now; he had succeeded in degrading man by idolatry, but now he transforms himself into an angel of light. He would bring man under law, and thus man is set upon his legs again; he professes to keep the law, and he takes up Christianity as an outward thing; but what about Christ? What about the Man risen from the dead? The end of Satan's pretended ministers of righteousness shall be according to their works.

Verse 16 is the cross, and the purpose of it is stated in an abstract way. The effect is, there is a new man where the old man was. The new is Christ, the old was Jew and Gentile. The great point is, everything must go that does not take its character from Christ; that is now your genealogy, your starting point. There are many things that go to make a man what he is in this world: self-confidence, haughtiness, education, and the like -- he would not be much thought of if he had not these. But "in Christ Jesus" you begin with totally new qualities. Instead of self-confidence you get confidence in and dependence on God, and you get meekness and lowliness too; it is as complete a metamorphosis as ever could be!

Peace is not patched up here; it is in 'abolishing' the enmity that peace comes in. "Making peace" refers to what lay between Jew and Gentile: it is not peace with God. In Colossians it is more reconciliation, and in view of God. It was not paring on this side and on that side to make them agreeable to one another, but both are put out, and then they are brought in "in Christ Jesus". People do not apprehend the gravity of accounting themselves alive in Christ Jesus; it means the refusal of all that is of me; the best of me has to go, and the qualities of Christ

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alone are to be seen. The day is coming when the Lord alone will be exalted.

In verse 17 we get a remarkable statement as to Christ. He comes and preaches peace. He comes as having slain the enmity. It is in a moral way He comes. It is His coming out in resurrection. Christ's ministry after the flesh was limited; He was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God; but it is in resurrection that the announcement comes to the Gentiles. It is "evangelising peace". He made peace, and He announces it. If He did not, who could? If one died for all then were all dead, and if all were dead, who was there to announce peace? He announces it by the Spirit. The effect of it is that "through him we both have access by one Spirit to the Father" (verse 18). We get here the three Persons of the Godhead; it is remarkable that the three divine Persons are bound up with those called of God. It is "through him", "by one Spirit", and "the Father" is the object.

It comes out in John's writings that the Father sent the Son, and that He would send the Spirit so that they might understand what the Son had said to them. There is no access to the Father apart from the power of the Spirit; there could be no worship of the Father by Jew and Gentile apart from the Spirit. Here we get what makes the worshipping company. Here it is not individual approach to the Father; it is collective. The principle of it is, that we cannot have the privilege of sonship apart from Christ. He has His place in connection with it, because He is the First-born among many brethren. We cannot enjoy sonship apart from Christ and the company with Him, and that brings in the thought of the assembly. If we are in the light of the assembly we find there are others there, too.

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CHAPTER 2: 19 - 22

In the latter part of chapter 2 (i.e., from verse 11 onwards) we get the place into which the gospel brings us. Then in chapter 3 the mystery is unfolded. It is important to distinguish between the effect of the gospel and the effect of the mystery; we get here what they were brought into by the gospel. The Gentile was brought into it in connection with the Jew. My impression is that the thought of the 'household' is taken up from Israel; Israel was God's household. Now these Gentiles, brought into the good of the gospel, are in this place. They were no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints and of the household of God. It is important to see what the church is as God's house; it should be a place of warmth and comfort. Everyone having a house would like it to be a place of comfort and order; so the gospel brought people into a place of divine order and comfort -- that is God's house.

"The middle wall of partition" was the system of ordinances which parted off Israel from all the rest; circumcision to begin with, then all the sacrifices. A Jew would not care to eat with a Gentile. Some nations could never come in, even as proselytes; others could in the third generation.

In this chapter there is nothing about the mystery; it is the benefits of the gospel into which Jews and Gentiles are brought. There is no direct teaching here as to our being one new man and one body. We get the work of Christ in view of His making in Himself one new man and reconciling both in one body, but the conclusion arrived at is in verse 19 "Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens of the saints, and of the household of God". Notice the connection between verses 14 and 19.

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"An holy temple" looks on to the future, but verse 22 gives the present status -- Jew and Gentile "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit".

Ques. Why is it "an holy temple in the Lord"?

F.E.R. It refers to Christ in His place of supremacy. The whole epistle contemplates Christ thus in the place of glory and supremacy which He has taken as Lord. In chapter 1 the apostle prays for them, having heard of their faith in the Lord Jesus.

It is very difficult for us, brought up in Christendom, to understand what the house of God was at the beginning, marked off as it was from all around, both in heathendom and Judaism. "Of the rest, durst no man join himself to them", Acts 5. All was light there, the rest was darkness, the darkness without being intensified by the light within. The character of God was reflected there -- His righteousness and holiness, and even His love. Persons brought into it must have felt the immense deliverance that had been effected for them from the hardness and legality of Judaism and the awful degradation of heathenism, into the light of the house of God.

The temple is built upon the foundation -- the testimony of the apostles and prophets -- but Jesus Christ Himself is the conspicuous stone. The thought in 'corner stone' is that He is conspicuous, while the foundation is not seen.

The first impression that God intends to make on man in grace is that He will not tolerate sin; that impression of Him was produced in His house. Man must answer to the demand of His holiness. The righteousness of God does not suit man; man wants licence to please himself.

Citizenship is privilege, as with the Romans and Greeks; citizens were men of privilege. Peter had to learn in the case of Cornelius, that the Gentiles

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were to come into privilege direct, not by becoming Jewish proselytes. Had it not been so, it would have sanctioned the Jewish system; but the truth was that the man under judgment had to go in judgment! This is as true of the Jew as of the Gentile. Indeed, law had made the Jew's case worse, for he was under the curse. They were guilty, too, of having killed the Holy One and the Just. The door by which we all come in is the righteousness of God, which is, that the man under judgment is gone in judgment. The cross is the true setting forth of man as he was in regard of God. There was in it a full demonstration of the state of man before God, and it was condemned, and that in order that God might be free to impart the Spirit. He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of God might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit; Romans 8:3.

There are three great aspects of the death of Christ presented in type: the blood in Egypt, the Red Sea, and the brazen serpent. In the blood in Egypt, the point is the righteousness of God -- He is a Judge. At the Red Sea it is the enemy, and God is a Conqueror, a Man of war. The brazen serpent is the state of man, and God condemned sin in the flesh. Israel was not common flesh, it was of the best type. The seed was wholly a right stock, the seed of Abraham, but they were as bad as any others. The state of man was irretrievable, and therefore was condemned; this is the brazen serpent. We get it in three parts in type, but what is presented to us is one testimony, because there is but one death of Christ. All was under the eye of God at the same moment in the death of Christ -- the blood on the lintel and doorpost, the waters smitten, and the serpent transpierced to a pole; but they are set out in detail in the type that we may see the distinction. Jordan is realisation; there was no water there; they passed over in company

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with the ark of the covenant; there was no smiting there. It is a real delight to me to see all that is in the types summed up in that one Person, in His death and resurrection. The righteousness of God vindicated, God's victory gained, and the state of man condemned, and all summed up in the work He accomplished!

Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets (verse 20) -- The men who laid the foundation were apostles -- men sent; prophets were the mouthpiece of God. They did not take upon themselves to lay a foundation -- they were sent. One thing is remarkable, the apostles are not conspicuous, they are not seen; it is Jesus Christ who is conspicuous. Of course, if you speak of what is wrought in people's souls, it is Jesus Christ who is the foundation; but when you think of the church as a building, the apostles and prophets are the foundation stones. So we get in the heavenly city that the names of the twelve apostles are in the foundation. The last verse brings in what is special to this time. The heavenly city will not be a habitation of God through the Spirit; it is the special way in which God dwells today. The 'building' is God's building by man's agency; He uses men as the instruments. But man has no hand in the temple; it groweth unto a holy temple; you cannot facilitate growing at all. You may sleep and rise night and day, and it grows you know not how.

The thought of being 'fellow-citizens' is, you have privilege with the people of God. The thought of being of the household of God is more the honour of being associated with what God tended; that is what He did for Israel.

"In whom" (in verse 22) is the Lord; the habitation is really formed by people confessing Jesus as Lord. By baptism a man was dissociated from all with which he had been previously connected, so that through it he might come into the habitation of God.

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Baptism is really washing from all the pollution with which we were previously associated.

God was dwelling there by the Spirit. His house was here. What a flood of light there must have been! Even in our day the result of the Spirit's presence in Christendom being recognised is that you get, or begin to get, extraordinary illumination from Scripture. We have to go back to see what the church as the house of God was at first -- what it originally was. When the church as the body goes, there will be no Spirit left here. The Spirit is here in virtue of His indwelling believers, therefore the church is the habitation of God by the Spirit. Air and water are mutually exclusive; so if the saints are the habitation of God by the Spirit, it excludes the flesh. The moment there is the least intrusion of the flesh there is trouble, as in Acts 6. It is an outrageous assumption for a man to think he is going to be great in God's house. I may be great in my own house, but is man going to be conspicuous in God's house! Think of a man parading himself in conspicuous vestments! The house of God is for an habitation of God through the Spirit. It is astounding how people in the sects and systems are content with a spurious Christianity. When the glory of God filled the house, no man could enter.

In 1 Corinthians 3 the point is that in spite of all, the temple will be vindicated as holy, and woe to the one who defiles it! If I make dirty footmarks in somebody's house, it does not prove that the house is a dirty one; on the contrary, if the housewife is a good one, she will take very good care to remove all traces of me. God will take care to bring out His temple spotless and holy. It is all the divine work here -- "groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord".

It is a great thing to fall back upon the fact that the Spirit of God is here, and the proof of it is that we have light from Scripture. The Spirit is so sensitive that as man came in little by little, the Spirit retreated.

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CHAPTER 3: 1 - 13

We get the construction, the architecture, in chapter 2; the third chapter gives us the filling-in. We get first the form or skeleton of the building, but we want to get the filling-in, and that is what I would call this chapter. In chapter 2 Jew and Gentile are built together for an habitation of God by the Spirit, but in chapter 3 we get "filled even to all the fulness of God".

God bound the apostle in prison for the Gentiles, or he might have gone roving off to the Jews: naturally he would. He would not have been bound to the Gentiles, but he accepts the position providentially: "I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles". He was made a prisoner by the Jews, but he was detained for the Gentiles.

No one can understand the secret of the house of God except they know the mystery, for the mystery is the filling out of it; the fulness of God was to characterise the house. You may get the framework of the house of God by people being converted, but there must be muscle and sinew: "That ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". The house of God is before men in a public way, but no one not in the house can understand the secret of the house. A clock shows the time of day, but people do not see its works. The filling-in takes place in the saints. The third chapter is the filling out of the last verse of the second chapter. We want more than a skeleton; as in Ezekiel's vision, flesh and sinew came up upon the dry bones. The filling out is entirely the divine work in the saints. Ministry may enlighten either as to the gospel or as to the mystery, but when the evangelist or teacher has done his work, he must betake himself to prayer. The mischief is that sometimes

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the servants think they can convert. Conversion is entirely God's work. I do not doubt those used are gifted men, but they are too anxious to get quickly manifested results.

The filling out is the divinely-formed state, "rooted and grounded in love", "to know the love of Christ". The saints are thus completely adequate for the display of God. I have seen a man skin and bone, but that is a poor specimen of a man; if you want the idea of a man you must get the filling-out. The prayer in the first chapter has reference to the gospel. In the third it has reference entirely to their state. The saints were to be here collectively as God's house, and there was to be a complete display of God in them; every quality of God was to come out in them; this was what the church was to be here. So, when Christ was here, He was the vessel for the completeness of the Godhead, and there is that too, in the church which is sufficient for the full display of God. The last part of the chapter brings out what the church was to be according to the thought of God.

Verse 6 gives the idea of the mystery; Gentiles were to be fellow-heirs with the Jews. The mystery was made known to Paul directly from God; it was made known to him by revelation; that is the point of verse 3.

"Joint heirs". The force of this expression is Jew and Gentile together. The mystery is, how that could be.

The two loaves in Leviticus 23 were baken with leaven because the flesh was there, the human element; leaven is there, and a sin-offering had to be offered, which was to meet the leaven.

What we get in 1 Corinthians 12 is the fact that by one Spirit we are all baptised into one body; this does not explain how there could be one body composed of Jew and Gentile. The answer to this is the

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cross, where both Jew and Gentile are removed, and the two are reconciled unto God in one body. It is "one body in Christ". 1 Corinthians 12 states the fact, but not how it could be. The answer to the latter is, the two are abolished, and Christ is here instead. He forms in Himself of twain one new man. Christ takes the place of Jew and Gentile: it is "in Christ". The mystery is for earth, not for heaven. The mystery lies in that Jew and Gentile are both gone, and in place of these Christ is there. What a triumph it is! The world could not understand this, but it is true for God and true for the believer.

Paul was the special minister of the mystery; we get the light of it from Paul, but God alone can make it good to us. There are two fatal things in the world -- orthodoxy and theology. To be bound by them is to be put into an iron box with fetters, and such an one never moves on!

The "administration of the mystery" is the practical effectuation of it down here.

"Promise" (in verse 6) is something definite; I think very likely it is the Spirit; "in Christ" makes it abstract. It was not wonderful things given to them as men in the flesh down here; but what pertains to them as in Christ. Many things pertain to me as down here -- family ties and such like -- but they have no reference to me as in Christ. In that sense "in Christ" is a limited expression. All the things of the wilderness are not in Christ, but are in the flesh; everything "in Christ" is eternal. What I am in Christ should be the spring that regulates me and enables me to carry out my duties according to God down here.

His (Christ's) body is what is taken from Him. If a rib was taken from Adam and builded into a woman, the woman certainly belonged to Adam: "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh".

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We get two things in verses 8 and 9: Paul was to preach "the unsearchable riches of Christ", and also "to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery". Paul brings out the riches of Christ in a way the others did not. The twelve preached an exalted Christ, and the Spirit as the witness of this, but the apostle Paul gives all that was involved in the gift of the Spirit, and that brings in all the unsearchable riches of Christ; for what is true of Christ objectively, is made good in the saints subjectively by the Spirit.

"Unsearchable" -- the riches have that character; they cannot be sounded, they are past finding out. He, the Eternal Son, became man; you cannot get to the bottom of that! Abraham's portion could be measured (see Genesis 13:17), but the love of Christ passes knowledge.

Man gets no spiritual blessing, nothing from God, except by the gospel. He gets the gift of the Spirit, and no more is given of God; but if you have the Holy Spirit you have a power in you which can effect anything. The apostle's work was enlightening -- not acting on people's nerves and sensibilities. If ministry is not in divine power, no one suffers more than the speaker himself, for he must feel himself more or less an impostor.

"To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God". I do not believe these principalities and powers had had an adequate sense of the resources of God, His manifold wisdom. Apparently God had been baffled; sin had come in, evil had even been in heaven, and God saw fit to give a testimony to principalities and powers of His resources -- of what He could do. All the victory was in death: all was silenced and baffled in death. Resurrection is the display of victory, as Goliath's head was in David's hand, but death was the victory.

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"That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death". God's righteousness was vindicated, the flesh condemned, Satan defeated! We have not had a sufficient sense of what has been effected in the death of Christ. These principalities and powers learn more now than they did in the creation. I wonder what they think of the church! "All the sons of God shouted for joy" at the creation, but now they have a witness to the manifold wisdom of God. God was apparently baffled, but He had resources. Both Jew and Gentile had completely failed, and He removes them and brings Christ in, and makes the Jew and Gentile together the vessel for the display of Christ. Depend upon it, the principalities and powers were astounded! They had seen Christ rejected, the Jew handing Him over to the Gentiles, and He is crucified; and now, all gone from under the eye of God, Christ takes the place of both. But Jew and Gentile become together the vessel for the display of it. Although the ruin still remains, there is always recuperative power by reason of the Spirit here. The times of the reformers and even the present century prove this. Angels have to look upon things as they are; they would not be able to discern between the work of God in the saints and the saints themselves.

The church is a very poor testimony now. When we look at the existing state of things, the ruin around us, it seems almost impossible to enter into what the divine thought was in regard to the church. Philadelphia stands in the breach, but "a little strength" is all that is attributed to it -- that is, as taking up the place of and answering to the church. If the Lord says "little strength", it is a great mistake to think of great strength. If your eyes have been opened to the confusion, be thankful for the light He gives, but make no pretence to great strength.

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CHAPTER 3: 14 - 21

F.E.R. "For this cause" is in reference, I think, to the apostle's own case, the special place he has in connection with the ministry of the mystery. It is on that account he bows his knees.

In the first chapter it is for the apprehension of the inheritance he prays, but here it is much more in connection with the state of saints, that they may be filled to all the fulness of God. It is a tremendous thought!

The "fulness of God" is that there is nothing lacking; it is the full display of God. The church is the fulness of Christ; it is that in which Christ is to be fully displayed. So, too, the saints are filled to the fulness of God; that is, for the full display of God.

There are two distinct thoughts in this prayer: (1) "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height"; (2) "And to know the love of Christ". Both are necessary in order that we should be filled to all the fulness of God. If God is dwelling here by His Spirit, is there not to be any effulgence, any shining out? If there is to be this, is it not to come out in the saints? We have been accustomed to look at the house too exclusively as a dwelling-place of God by the Spirit, but there is more than that: it is that the effulgence of God should shine out in those who compose the house. The apostle prays about the state that is needful for that. We get the statement that it is the dwelling-place of God in chapter 2: 22, but I am sure chapter 3 comes in parenthetically to fill it out.

The principalities and powers in heavenly places saw in creation the perfection of divine ordering, and

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the man and the woman placed in the midst of it. They saw the beauty of all this; then sin came in. Philosophy did not improve things; philosophers had beautiful ideas, but they were as corrupt as those whom they condemned. But the principalities and powers saw what had been marred, restored in the house of God -- men lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting; women adorned in modest apparel giving honour to the man; the husband in the superiority of love towards his wife, and she in her place of subjection; I think this is what they saw.

From verse 14 we are introduced to the new order of things. The apostle prays to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and earth is named. The Father puts each family in its place according to His purpose. It is not all brought about yet, but we are in the light of it. What will be displayed in each family is an eternal purpose; it is like Adam naming all the animals. Nothing is more important than the way we are brought into the presence of an entirely new order of things. That is where Christianity brings us. It is not displayed yet, but it is in existence.

In this prayer we get all the divine Persons connected with the saints, with the assembly down here. The Spirit of the Father is to strengthen you, that Christ may dwell in your hearts. The love of Christ is the love of God expressed in Him. God comes in mediatorially: He is not, as God, directly in connection with men; it is in Christ, and thus Christ becomes the expression of what is of God, for He is God. The place Christ takes mediatorially takes its character from His own Person. All that is divine is set forth in Christ; the display is all in Him. Who shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? (Romans 8). It is thus through the Mediator alone that God puts Himself in relation with men. The love of God is immeasurable, you cannot

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compass it; you may know it, but you cannot fathom it.

It is wonderful to me how all the divine Persons put themselves in touch with the saints; they all have their part in producing the state which brings about the presentation of God here. It is Christ who comes out.

We may become weaker in the outward man, but the inward man is strengthened. The Christian is a duality in that sense. The "inward man" represents what is of God. It is a man -- it is presented in the light of a being. The inward man puts me in touch with the new order of things. The outward man is ruled by the inward man. It is unseen, but it is that by which I am in touch with unseen things, the things that are above. By the outward man we are put in relation with things here. We get no "inward man" contemplated until there is a work of God; the inward man starts from the beginning of God's work in a man. The "inward man" in Romans 7 is akin to it -- it is the same in germ -- the beginning of God's work. We get the expression again in 2 Corinthians 4, "though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day". I do not know if it is identical. The Spirit of God works in the inward man. There is what is antecedent to the Spirit indwelling, and He works in connection with what is already there.

New birth is not something imparted to a man: it is an operation of the Spirit in a man. There have been mistaken ideas about it. It is perfectly beyond the ken of man to define what the operation is. You cannot dissociate what is done in the man from the man. Take a man of parts in this world, full of self-confidence and self-reliance -- it is all brought down, there is a complete collapse. That is what is brought about in new birth. It is a tremendous work; the man is brought down to the smallest thing possible -- a mere babe, only able to utter a cry! Then the next

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thing is that man gets light, and the Spirit of God connects Himself with what is there. The negative effect of new birth is a collapse, and the positive is a cry: a man wants light. The evangelist ought to preach in view of the work of God, for his work is to enlighten when new birth has taken place. Man cannot help it on -- it is in God's hands entirely. The wind bloweth where it listeth; we only know it by its effect. The Philippian jailor was undoubtedly born again before the word of the Lord was spoken to him. The evangelist's work is "to open their eyes", that is, to give them light, that they may turn from darkness to light. The apostle reasoned with Felix, but there was no work of God in him.

The preaching of the gospel is enforced by the thought of judgment to come. We get God's righteousness revealed in the gospel: He is just, and the Justifier of those who believe in Jesus; but contemporaneously the wrath of God is revealed, so we get also, "In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to my gospel".

The church was to be here in the world what Christ had been. It was to be a perfect representative of Christ here. Instead of the thing being brought out in a divine Person, it was to be brought out in the church. For this we need to be intelligent as to the whole range and scope of things which it is in the purpose of God to accomplish for His glory: the breadth, and length, and depth, and height (see verse 18). Stephen saw the failure and collapse of all down here, and he could look up and see the whole range of divine glory come out in Christ. Nothing was lost!

The next thing we have to know is "the love of Christ", and you can only know love by love. In proper Christian privilege no one has a monopoly of love. It is an amazing thing to me that what came out in Christ was to come out in the assembly -- the

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assembly "filled even to all the fulness of God". If we love one another, God abides in us; this is an illustration of it. "No man hath seen God at any time", but what was declared in Christ is displayed in the saints when they love one another. It is in this way the Spirit of God works. It is by the Spirit that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts, and we get rooted and grounded in love.

Men do not care that God should have any pleasure. The thought of nine people out of ten who are converted is their own pleasure and gain. This shows the importance of the way in which we present the gospel. There is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repents. The epistle to the Romans was not written to unconverted people; it is to show God's intent in the gospel, His special purpose, not what reaches man's point only. All the apostles had was the commission at the end of the gospels; but the epistle to the Romans greatly helps us; it is Christians who want it, and I think we want it very much.

In the present day we cannot expect to see much of the power of God in the gospel testimony. We ought to accept the ruin. See the state of the vessel! In the gospel God is not approaching man directly, but in the church, just as He had approached man in Christ. I do not believe God overlooks the state of the vessel. See the state of things in Samson's time! What was done was through individual faith. I do not expect now to see three thousand converted by one sermon; there will not be the same outward effect. Today it is gathering up the fragments that nothing be lost. What testimony is there to the world at the present time through the church? If the church has any power at all, it must be in the complete sanctification of the Spirit and the most absolute separation from all that is of the world. The gospel comes into a world of which Satan is the god and prince.

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The apostles all went out from the assembly, and gathered into the assembly, and returned and reported to the assembly. The power of the church was when she was maintained in the sanctification of the Spirit; that is, in moral separation from the world.

When it comes to the doxology, it is "to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us". It is beyond our limit or capacity.

In the first chapter it is the power of God towards us; in the third it is the power in us; and in the sixth it is power from us.

CHAPTER 4: 1 - 7

F.E.R. At the close of the second chapter we find Jew and Gentile builded together for an habitation of God. In the third chapter we get the state by which we can enter into the privilege, "filled even to all the fulness of God". In the fourth chapter we have the exhortations founded upon what comes out at the close of the two previous ones. If God has a house, the great point is that there should be no obstruction to the shining out of God; hence it is that saints are to be filled to all the fulness of God. All that in which God has been pleased to express Himself, is to come out. It is not a material house that God has set up, but a living house, a spiritual house, composed of living stones -- that is, people who are filled to all the fulness of God. God never entertained the thought of having a house of professors; what was in His mind was a house of living stones.

The mere apprehension of the light will not enable you to walk worthy of the vocation. The house is the external part -- it is like the dial of the clock; but what gives character to the house is the body, which corresponds to the works within. It is one body because it

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is one Spirit, and it is Christ's body because it is Christ's Spirit. Our conduct and ways down here have to be ordered according to the vocation. When those who constituted the body lost the sense of this and came under the power of the world, the house lost its character. The dial ceased to witness truly for God. So long as it remained in the sanctification of the Spirit, it was God's house. 2 Timothy speaks of "a great house" with vessels to dishonour in it. The Spirit is the Spirit of God, but characteristically it is Christ's Spirit, as in Romans 8:9. "The Spirit of God's Son" is connected more with our standing in Him 'a heavenly band', in relationship, but "the Spirit of Christ" is character: "Christ in you, the hope of glory".

At the beginning the outward corresponded to the inward, the hands answering to the works. There is great good in getting God's thoughts; I feel quite lifted up when I get a divine thought. However little we may see the answer around, it is a great thing to get God's original thought in regard to things; you get it by the Spirit. His pleasure is to communicate His thoughts to us. Abraham had God's thoughts communicated to him; at that moment he was morally higher than ever Adam could be. He was called the Friend of God. There is no greater favour; but He communicates His thoughts as we are able to bear it; He does not crowd in upon us what we are not up to.

Rem. It would be a terrible thing to think you could not get any more light than you had at a given time!

F.E.R. Yes, and absurd, too. The fact is, you get some little light on a point, and then you have to modify your ideas of the whole truth you have -- things have to be re-cast for us. We still hold the coming of the Lord, but in very different bearings to formerly.

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What comes out in the third chapter is in anticipation of what is to be displayed in glory in the heavenly city, but here we get what is suitable to the circumstances in which we are. It is "the fulness of God" that comes out, but in the heavenly city it will be displayed in different ways to that which could be down here. Christ came out here in all that was morally suitable to man in the midst of circumstances of weakness and humiliation. What will come out of Christ by-and-by in the saints is morally the same thing, but it will be displayed in a way suitable to the new circumstances. The third chapter shows how the state can be effected by which the fulness of God can be brought out.

In the first chapter it is God's calling; in the fourth it is our calling; but we could not get the idea of what the calling is (although stated in chapter 2: 22) if we had not the third chapter.

We are to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, but to do this intelligently we must know the truth of the body as brought out in the third chapter. Unity does not depend altogether upon the body, though it accentuates it. There was a unity which held together the saints in early days, before they knew anything about the body; but the truth of the body greatly helps. Everything then depended on the power of the Spirit; they were "of one heart and of one soul"; this was a unity brought about by the Spirit. We could not have the truth of the body till the Gentile was brought in, for it was essentially that Jew and Gentile were one body, in contrast to two.

Their fellowship in early days depended on the Lord and the Spirit. We do not need the truth of the body to maintain unity and discipline; but what is done in the way of discipline in the Antipodes is binding on us here, because it is done in the name of the Lord, and there is but one Lord. Letters of commendation do not maintain the truth of one body:

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they maintain practical fellowship, and this depends on one Lord. Bethesda is a practical ignoring of the truth of the one Lord and one Spirit; each meeting exercises its own discipline, and they are independent the one from the other. Discipline is never connected with the "one body", but with the Lord. It is for this reason, I think, that the apostle in 1 Corinthians so constantly brings in the title of 'Lord', because he wanted to arouse them to their responsibility; it is a question of fellowship.

When all you see around is so completely contrary to God's thoughts, you have to enter into them abstractly, in order to have before you an unseen sphere, as it were, in which you see an order of things entirely different to and outside the whole course of things down here.

In great religious bodies such as the Church of England and Dissent, they do not exercise discipline at all; in fact, things are in such a state they could not do it. Perhaps if it is something ostensibly and flagrantly wrong they may exercise discipline, but it is for the maintenance of their own respectable front more than for the Lord's honour. I feel their lack of discipline is a good and sufficient ground for leaving them; you depart from unrighteousness.

How many of us know what the true spiritual character of God's house is? You cannot know how to behave yourself in the house unless you know what it is. Nothing comes up to it but "filled even to all the fulness of God". The terms are known -- Jew and Gentile builded together -- but if you do not enter into the thought of being filled to all the fulness of God, you do not rise to the height of the thought of God's house.

People may see as light what they do not enjoy; for the latter you must have state. You might have all the light of Romans 5 and yet have no enjoyment. There are great things that God intends me to enjoy,

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but the enjoyment is dependent on the Spirit and deliverance. We may get glimmers, but God's thought is to set us free from all that would impede our enjoyment. The natural office of the Spirit is to shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, and if we have the Spirit we have the power of enjoyment, but it is another thing to be able to say, "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life ... shall be able to separate us from the love of God"; that is the man who has enjoyment!

There are three circles in verses 4, 5, 6 -- three divine Persons in relation to the Christian circle. The Spirit must have a vessel; that is why the 'body' is put first. The last is God in the display of Himself in grace. 'Father' is the character God has taken in the administration of grace.

The "one hope of your calling" is the heavenly city; what is expressed in the body will come out in the New Jerusalem. In the first chapter the hope of the calling is more heaven.

Saints are to be characterised by longsuffering, meekness, forbearance. If you are conscious of being in God's presence, you cannot but be meek and lowly. Love and peace is to characterise the saints.

The best way to contend for the truth is for you yourself to be in the light of it. These exhortations are very wide in their application, for we all come under them. We are all responsible to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace; we need to give diligence to it. The Spirit is bent on unity; the moment the flesh comes in, it brings in grit. The power for unity depends upon the Spirit, it is not unity in the flesh. "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" but that will be the effect and influence of the Spirit upon Israel -- the precious ointment upon the head that went down to the skirts of his garments. There might be agreeable cliques, but that would not be the

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unity of the Spirit. You must keep flesh out; that is the only way to maintain unity, the unity of the Spirit. It is by forbearing one another in love. If we had more love, we should not find it so difficult to get on with other Christians. The church may be broken up in ruins, but the unity of the Spirit remains to be kept; the unity of the Spirit is not affected by the ruin of the church. Those who keep it are really answering to the mind of God. It is a moral, not an ecclesiastical, thought. J.N.D. points out how intensely moral Scripture is!

Ques. What is the uniting bond of peace?

F.E.R. Refusing disturbing questions. God has so wrought in the cross that questions need not come up between the saints. In the cross man has gone -- Jew as well as Gentile. In the brazen serpent God went back to the garden of Eden, when there was neither Jew nor Gentile. There is no more vital point for us than that 'the man under judgment has gone in judgment'. The righteousness that ended that man remains, but the man has gone -- all gone! Peace, favour, reconciliation, all for us depends upon the man having been removed. If the flesh works in any of us, as sure as possible it will bring in a jarring element. The principle of the flesh is, Every man for himself! That does not bring in unity. In the unity the Spirit it is, Every man for others.

There is a great difference in Scripture between 'for' and 'because'. 'For' accentuates the previous statement, and gives a little further light, as here: For "there is one body and one Spirit". 'Because' simply gives the cause, the reason for the former statement.

Verse 7 shows there is diversity, but it is all to serve unity; even in the natural body there are very diverse organs; there is nothing in common between an eye and a hand, and yet they both serve the unity.

Ques. What is the force of "through all" (verse 6)?

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F.E.R. The Christian sees one God and Father; nothing happens apart from Him. He is supreme. All things work together for good because God is above all, through all, and in us all. "In us all" is in the sense of life; it is more limited.

CHAPTER 4: 7 - 13

Ques. Is the grace the gift?

F.E.R. Yes. Grace has been given that every one may be contributory. Previously the chapter has spoken of what is common to all, but here the saints are individualised; they are all contributory to the whole body. It is the same in the human body. If a man is going to fall he puts out his hand to save himself. It is a very important point which many overlook. They forget their obligation to be contributory.

The "measure of the gift" brings in Christ's sovereignty; whatever is given, whether less or more, is according to His good pleasure. He appoints you your service. It is the sovereignty of His giving: it is not to all alike. Take Paul, for instance: what very great grace was given to him! Each one has grace; I could not say each one has gift. He did not make all apostles. People might think that because they had no particular gift they had nothing to do, but it is not so at all; grace is given to each one in contrast to that which is given to us all in common. You have individuality marked here. Of course, it is to minister to the body -- the honey must be brought to the hive -- but it is His sovereignty in giving.

Christ received everything for the body: He received the Spirit for it, and the gifts, too. Peter says, "Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this which ye now

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see and hear", Acts 2:33. Everything comes to the body from the Head. He has received everything for man, having received them first according to Psalm 68, "in Man". The gifts here are the fruit of His love and care for the assembly. They are given to the assembly. You get the same thing in 1 Corinthians 12, "members in particular", and, "God hath set some in the church". The church is the outward thing down here. A gift might be in a mere professor who was not in the body at all. I suppose 1 Corinthians 12 contemplates such a thing. No doubt Judas did miracles like the eleven; Luke 9:1. People came under the influence of the Spirit apart from being really born again. In Corinth they were using their gifts for their own gratification, rather than for the use of edifying. In Hebrews 6 tasting of the heavenly gift and being partakers of the Holy Spirit goes very far.

Miraculous gifts would be quite out of place in this chapter. The miracles were witnesses to His glory. The lame man at the beautiful gate of the temple was a wonderful witness to the glory of Christ. It was a notable miracle. There were certain gifts which were to be the testimony to His exaltation and glory; they bore witness to the power of His name. I think God condescended to the weakness of man. The Lord Himself went out with signs, and so did the apostles. The signs and wonders have ceased, but not the Lord's love and care for His church.

I think the parenthesis in verses 9 and 10 is brought in to show the whole result and extent of Christ's victory. He goes from the lowest place to the highest. "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men". The power of the Holy Spirit is a power commensurate with the exaltation of Christ. He went from "the lower parts of the earth" -- that is, lower than any living man -- up to the highest place. It is the moral height, the right hand of God. You get an allusion

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to it in chapter 1: 20 - 23. In this chapter, too, He fills all things.

He took captivity out of the hand of the captor. The captor is Satan, and He delivers those who were subject to his bondage. He leads them captive; it is a fresh captivity, but the chain is love! The prey is taken from the mighty, and it becomes the prey of another. It is a showing forth of the completeness of the victory He gained in death. It is not the victory, but the manifestation of the victory. The victory was gained in death; the manifestation of it is in His ascending up far above all heavens, and the first proof of that is in the gifts sent down. You could not use the gifts in power, unless you knew that all was in the hand of the Overcomer. You would then go in the consciousness that all that was hostile to God and man had been completely overcome in death. If a man went forth -- say, as an evangelist -- he must have the thought in his soul that everything has been overcome. Christ received the gifts "in Man" and for man; He received them as a Man Himself, risen and exalted. The gift is from the Father; all is viewed as having been received from the Father. The Lord Himself came forth from the Father. The Spirit comes as the Spirit of Christ, the exalted Man. In the economy of the Godhead, counsels belong to the Father, all proceeds from Him.

I feel what a poor sense I have of the victory that has been gained. Christ was in conflict with every adverse power, and in death everything was overcome. The resolution of the whole question of good and evil was accomplished at the cross. It was as though God had said to the man in Eden, 'You had better not touch this question'. The two trees brought knowledge and life within man's reach, but if he touched the tree of knowledge he died; that question was beyond him, too great for him. Christ is the Tree of Life, but more -- the whole question of good and evil

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is in Him completely solved: good has completely overcome the evil -- it has been completely solved to the glory of God, and now He stands as the Tree of Life for man. The thought of God was that man should have steered clear of this question; it was too great for him. But having taken of the fruit, the whole question must be solved in man, and Christ had to take that up. "One righteousness towards all men for justification of life". Evil had to be overcome, and that brought in the question of death. All evil culminated at the cross, and all good was there; it was the focus of evil, and good overcame it all!

Ques. In what way would you say the prince of this world has been cast out?

F.E.R. The cross was the breaking of his power. I remember how Mr. Darby used to talk of the two trees. I used to feel it was beyond me, but I think I am just getting a glimpse of it now. What an intensely solemn thing it was that man should undertake to eat of that tree! The "one offence" was the taking of the fruit. In the end of Romans 5 man is shut out and it is all Christ. It is immensely important to see the completeness of the victory. We do not see evil publicly overcome yet; we see it rampant, but we are in the faith of the victory. The place where the victory is known is in the soul of the Christian.

I feel I hardly understand the nature of this conflict. The goodness of God said, 'Leave it alone, you are not equal to it'. His goodness prohibited it. Man was involved in the question of good and evil, and if life was to be brought to him, that must be solved first. It was solved by Christ, and He has brought in everlasting righteousness. Man was not equal to such a question, but he hankered after it. I should beseech my children not to tamper with things and questions that were too great for them, that were beyond them. The question of good and evil has been the ruin of many a one; it is beyond man. At one point every

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evil culminated, but there was the "one righteousness" there, and it has brought in everlasting righteousness and life. The obedience of Christ was there.

A gift is the proof of Christ's love and also of His power. He has overcome all; you must go about in the sense of victory; you ought to be in the light of it. He has ascended up far above all heavens. The fact is, if we had a sense of the greatness of His power that could fill all things, we should have much more effective ministry. You ought to expect to see evil coming down before the gifts. "The weapons of our warfare are ... mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds". The effect of the truth is that man is delivered from infidelity and superstition; the power of Christ effects it. It casts down imaginations, and brings every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10. The obedience of Christ means to be subject as He was subject.

The foundation is laid by the evangelist; his work is to bring God to the heart. Of course, all work together, all the gifts affect each individual; the evangelist does not do all the work: souls have to be built up by the pastor and teacher. "The perfecting of the saints" is the great idea. Then follows "with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ"; gifts are given with a view to that.

Many of the men in the pulpits are not gifts at all; that is not taken into account when a man studies for the ministry. The gifts may often be sitting quietly in the congregation, while the preacher might in a way have grace and yet no gift. What a state of confusion! Gift is from Christ.

To my mind a man cannot be eloquent in divine things: his language is restrained, he would have great difficulty in expressing himself. There might, of course, be an eloquence of appeal or affection.

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The point to arrive at down here is unity -- that is the end of ministry. If that should come to pass the purpose of the gifts would be served. We should then have come "unto a perfect man"; that is collective. It is not here the individual growing up; it does work in the individual, but here it is the whole body, until we are all come. 'Unity' governs both 'the faith' and 'the knowledge' of the Son of God. The thought is, that the church should answer to what she really is, that she should be adequate for the full display of Christ. The present state of ruin should not hinder us from working to that end. The apostle did not intend to give in. People say, The corporate testimony is all over: so it is as far as they are concerned!

CHAPTER 4: 14 - 24

F.E.R. Verse 14 comes in in view of systematised error; there was a great deal of will in it, too. Popery is an example of systematised error; it is a system of deceit, not merely one item, but a complete systematised whole. You can see one wrong point, perhaps, but behind that there is sure to be systematised error. We have seen it in the history of brethren; there was a whole system of error behind the first division at Plymouth. Of course, when the apostle wrote this, what he had more particularly in view was "philosophy and vain deceit" (see Colossians 2) -- the rudiments of the world. I always tremble when a man goes wrong on some one point, for fear of what is behind it. The great safeguard against error is to hold the truth in love. As long as people are babes they are susceptible to all these things. See in a conflict how the mass of people are carried away -- "tossed to and fro".

If you hold the truth in love you do not go beyond your measure. You hold truth, but love is what you are. "In love" occurs very frequently in this epistle.

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We are to grow up unto Him in all things; nothing is left out; He is the standard as to all things. Truth and love are the two things that are to characterise the saints.

He "is the head -- even Christ: from whom the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase". He is Head here in the sense of being the pre-eminent One; it is like the husband being head to the wife. From whom all the body makes increase; it is all from the Head. The Head receives everything for the body: He is the source of supply to it. The body makes increase in divine love. He ministers to the whole body. God gave Him Head over all things to the church; He ministers to it very much in the same way as a husband to his wife. In 1 Corinthians 12 where we get the details of the head, the eye, the ear -- it is not the Head as you have it here, but just the saints under that figure. The Corinthians were not in a fit state to receive the truth of the Head.

Verse 16 is the Lord's side, not ours. The fact is, the body makes increase in no other way; if it is not ministered to by the Head it will not grow. It is not by the ministration of gifts, or anything of that sort, but it is the silent growth of the body; it makes increase entirely independent of any other ministration than that of the Head. I do not think that people see much the identification of the Lord with the saints. He is pre-eminent, and He is the source of supply; you will not understand in any other way how the body makes increase. Christ is also the Head of Israel, and of the nations, too.

Ques. Would you say 'Head' in the same sense as He is Head to the church?

F.E.R. Yes; it is identification there, too. It is in a very special way that He is Head to the church: "He is not ashamed to call them brethren", but still

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He is Head to Israel, and He says (Psalm 18), "thou hast made me the head of the heathen". He is chief.

The point is, He is identified with the body, but He is pre-eminent. He is the source of supply; the body makes increase in that way. You must appreciate His place in regard to the body. Much more goes on in the body than we see, but it is essential to see His place in regard to the body. We appreciate Him as Lord, but it is difficult to many to understand Him as pre-eminent. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one. We are one with Him; the mystery is really little known. To many who pass as Christians, Christianity is only a system of religion better than anything that went before -- an improved Judaism. How could you expect such to appreciate the mystery? Christ, who was personally rejected from the earth, is here in His saints. He is present in them; He says, "Why persecutest thou me?" It is His body, because it is His Spirit that is in it; you could not exactly connect the "Spirit of God" with the body in that way; it is Christ's Spirit. It takes in all, pervades all.

"The whole body" applies to it at any given moment. Those who have passed away are not exactly in the body. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come" -- that is, the bride at that moment. Its completeness according to the divine thought will be when Christ comes. Those who have passed away are not at this moment in the baptism of the Spirit; it is that that makes the bride. In Revelation 21:9 it is the "Lamb's wife"; that title is His in connection with the earth.

The "life of Jesus" comes out in us individually, but the fulness of Christ is a different thing. The testimony to the world was to be in the unity of the saints. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". The unity of affection was the testimony to the world.

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Ques. Does the heavenly city take in the Old Testament saints?

F.E.R. No, I do not think they are the bride: they are the friends of the Bridegroom: they are to a large extent identified with the church: they are included, too, in the twenty-four elders sitting on the thrones. It is a great comfort to me to think there are points of likeness between us and them. When the angel shows John the Lamb's wife, it is a kind of supplement to what has gone before. You will sit down in the kingdom with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, but the church is identified with Christ in the time of His rejection; and she has her peculiar place from that. Joseph gets a wife while rejected of his brethren, and she shares his rejection.

It is remarkable that before there was any mention of the fall we get a type of the church. A "deep sleep", a figure of death, fell upon Adam before ever sin came in. A deep sleep is deep silence, and it is in the time of His deep silence with regard to Israel that the church is taken from Him. She receives of His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ. It was in death that He became silent to Israel.

It would be impossible to conceive such a thing as one Man alone in heaven! He must have companions. Where would be the fruit of redemption if there were not others with Him? And if there are saints with Him, then they must be His companions.

The character of these sixteen verses is, that you must be right within before you can be right without. These verses indicate what is to be within. It is like John 13 and 14. If you are coming out to the world to manifest God, you must first be right within. It is the provision and the purpose of the provision. Verse 16 is not dependent on the saints -- the Lord looks after that. It is the normal order. Unity is the real point of these verses: "one Lord, one faith, one baptism". If the clock goes right it is sure to keep

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right time; but it must work harmoniously. Where can the world look now for the time of day? Is it to Catholics, or to the Church of England? For harmonious working we must have the truth of the body, and it is the whole body.

The epistle to the Ephesians may be summed up in this way: you go in to God that you may be able to represent God here. You are to manifest love and light. Everything that came out in Christ is now to come out in the body; it must be so, for God is to come out.

The first thing that he enjoins upon them here is that they were to be separate from other Gentiles: "That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk".

The life of God is love, and nothing else: God is love, and they were alienated from that (verse 18). All the activities of God have their origin in love. Man in his pride or ignorance does not tolerate the thought of the love of God.

Idolatry was the cause of the most terrible degradation; it put a religious sanction on every vice, and the result was the most awful debasement of man. Man has by nature an idea of a being high above himself; but if he likens God to a serpent, think how terribly he must have become debased! I do not believe that man, unassisted by Satan, could ever have become as debased as he is; I am strongly inclined to think the devil helped it on. "Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone" Hosea 4:17. How awful! Yet it is only what the Lord said of the Pharisees, "Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind", Matthew 15:14.

When the Lord was here there could not exactly be the putting off the old and putting on the new. It is the truth in Jesus; the putting off was really in the cross; we have not yet actually put off the old. It is the truth "in Jesus", because that makes it personal to Him; it is what has been effected in that Man, in Jesus. It is His personal designation. If 'Christ'

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had been said, the saints would have come in. It is absolutely true in Jesus; it is spiritually true in us. The "old man" has been put off in the cross, and a different man has come to light in resurrection -- man morally after a new order -- after God.

What is presented to you in testimony becomes the power of life in your soul; man is formed by light. The testimony of the gospel is light; the revelation of God is the life of my soul. "The word of God is quick and powerful": it is living power in you. It is not living in the book -- the letter kills -- it is the revelation underlying the letter that lives! That light becomes life in you.

CHAPTER 5: 1 - 14

F.E.R. The great object of the epistle to the Ephesians is the presentation of God down here. In the second chapter we are seen "builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit". In the third we are to be "filled even to all the fulness of God" -- the church is to be for His glory. Now the same thought comes out here: "Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children, and walk in love". It is the character of God coming out. The "life of God" is an expression we find in this epistle -- that is, the life of God coming out here in its moral features.

Ques. What is the difference between this and Colossians?

F.E.R. In Ephesians the church is the vessel of testimony, just as the life of God was expressed in Christ; the same is to come out in the church. In Colossians it is more the relation of saints among themselves. It will all come out in the heavenly city.

Rem. What comes out morally now will come out then in display.

F.E.R. Yes, it will. The natural man is averse to the life of God; he does not like it in its moral

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characteristics. The life of God has two features -- love and light. It is love, but it is love in the light, where all evil is rebuked and made manifest. Christ, when here, was perfect love and perfect light, so that all that was of darkness was rebuked.

Rem. The love that goes out to man goes up to God as a sweet savour.

F.E.R. Yes, it does. We can only get the thought of it in Christ. It goes out to others, but it goes up to God. If your brother was the only object of your love, you might pass over all sorts of things; it would be partiality. Perhaps the best service you could render a person, if you had grace to do it and it was the fruit of love, would be to point out something that was not right in him.

Ques. What is the difference between love and brotherly love?

F.E.R. The principle of love takes a wider range, it puts you in touch with God: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love". Brotherly love adapts itself to the particular circumstances in which you find yourself in relation to your brother.

One wonderful thing in Scripture is, that you get great contrasts brought out; the best and the worst are brought together. We have had the life of God spoken of, and now (verses 3, 4) we get the very worst. In verses 1 and 2 we are carried up to the nature of God: "Walk in love" -- then we get lust, fornication, and all uncleanness. So in Galatians 5"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace", etc., and the works of the flesh are "adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness", etc. The nature of God and the nature of man are diametrically opposed. The way in which flesh acts is the complete opposite of what God is. Flesh would sacrifice others for its own gratification. Love would sacrifice itself for the good of its object. The nature of fallen man and the nature of God are completely opposed. Here they are presented

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nakedly. The apostle takes up the thing in which flesh sacrifices others to gain its point. I do not believe man at all knows how bad he is; he is restrained, made respectable, but it is all there. If a man is bent on making money, it is no question whether others are sacrificed or not. It is the same in the politics of countries; there the same principles come out on an enlarged scale. The missionary is often the pioneer of trade, and often trade ends in annexation. Many things are done politically which are not at all justifiable morally, but all is passed by because it tends to the aggrandisement of the country. It is difficult for us to imagine what a world would be where all is of God -- love reigning, every man seeking the good of others!

Verse 5 is an accepted proposition, "For this ye know". The person contemplated is not a Christian at all. It does not contemplate a person who falls, but one of whom these things are characteristic. It is like John's statements. It is the "without" of the heavenly city; Revelation 22:15. These things would be perfectly inadmissible in the kingdom of God; grace reigns in that kingdom, therefore these things would be inadmissible; they are obnoxious to God, and so we get in verse 6 that "because of these things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of disobedience". It is a most dreadful thing, that man having departed from God, sets himself to work to gratify himself without God. The systems of science propounded in the present day are intended to do away with the fact of sin. It is intended to do away with the moral element -- with the thought that man is responsible. They ignore conscience.

It is inconceivable that God could begin at the bottom! It is contrary to all my knowledge of God. If He makes a man, He makes the very best man first -- there never was a better man than Adam; or an angel -- it is the best angel that could be. Do you

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think God could begin at the bottom and allow things to work up to something better! No Christian could believe such a thing, though "some have not the knowledge of God"; but it is an awful reproach to a Christian not to know God.

Scripture is light, and light makes manifest; there is a perfect exposure somewhere in the word, of every evil that can come out in man, if only we had eyes to see it. I believe, for instance, we should see the germ of Darwinism exposed. Things here grow darker and darker, but it is a great comfort to have the scripture. It is a fashion with people to set it aside, and it is done by those who have the merest superficial acquaintance with the letter of it.

Scripture gives samples of things. For instance, Nebuchadnezzar is a sample of unlimited monarchy; the Medes and Persians of constitutional government; the kings bound by the constitution, and that administered by those who are irresponsible. Scripture is so simple and yet so profound!

"The sons of disobedience" are those in whom disobedience is expressed; the man of sin is the son of perdition, the one in whom evil will find its perfect expression. It refers to a class of people who have had the light presented to them and have refused it: they are not subject to the light. At the time when the apostle wrote, the Jews were the "sons of disobedience" -- they really courted the wrath of God. It was the same with Israel of old: they could not enter in because of unbelief -- disobedience. They first disobeyed in making the golden calf, and then when the report of the good land was brought to them they refused to believe it; then God closed up His offer to them: it was final.

People are not judged merely because they do not obey the gospel; when they are judged, it is according to their works. And so, too, it is because of these things

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that the wrath of God comes on the sons of disobedience. It is what a man is morally. His whole course comes up for judgment, not merely the fact of disobedience. Nothing can be more explicit than this passage; it is what the man is morally that is obnoxious to God. The Jews admitted that they had the light in the Scriptures; they did not attempt to gainsay it, but they did not obey it. The glad tidings are supposed to command the obedience of faith; disobedience involves responsibility. You are to bow to it: it brings the light of God to you: it is the crowning testimony; to disobey leaves a man without excuse -- it is his crowning sin, though his whole course is obnoxious to God. The Jews "stumbled at the word". They expected Christ, and when He came He did not please them. If they had been all right they would not have needed a prophet. A prophet was only sent in times of weakness, when the ordinary state of things had broken down. Now, when a prophet came to them they were offended, because he did not come in the way they approved. John came to them mourning, and they would not weep. But neither did they like the way in which Christ came. As has been said, they would rather have a man with a legion of devils, than Christ! It is so today; people feel and know that they are not fitted to be with God. "Seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles".

Ques. Why is it "light in the Lord"?

F.E.R. Because it is not light outwardly; it is only in the Lord that we are light. The title 'Lord' brings in the light of the day, and we are light just in proportion as we anticipate the day, and are controlled and governed and affected by the Lord. We are in the light as to our souls; our bodies are in the darkness, but the Day-star has arisen in our hearts. I am more than ever sure that the epistles are written to

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bring us anticipatively into the light of what is to be displayed in the future. Romans anticipates the reign of grace; Corinthians, the temple, and victory over death; Ephesians, all things put under Christ; Hebrews, the world to come; Galatians, the New Jerusalem. All these things are anticipated in faith for the Christian. Every principle of the heavenly city is to come out in the church. We are in the end of the testimony in a certain sense, and yet in another way we are only at the beginning. This latter is important. We are to be in the faith sphere, where God is known in resurrection, His power exhibited, and Christ is known as Lord; that is where the Christian is to live! If we were more there, we should see a great many more signs of God's activities than we do now. We are "of the day"; it is not yet displayed, but what will come out then, should come out in us morally now. We anticipate the day. Here on earth we are in the kingdom, subject to the Lord. We never shall have part in the kingdom in the same way in which we have part in it now. We shall be reigning with Him in that day. We ought now to prove ourselves in the kingdom; we shall not have the opportunity of being subject then. The best man to exercise authority is the one who has been subject to discipline. You will find the same principle in all the epistles -- we are to be in the light of all that is to be displayed.

Rem. Everything is finished for God.

F.E.R. Exactly. He has put forth the might of His strength, and He will not do it again; all the rest is a question merely of detail, and we are in the light of the world to come. The working of His might has been displayed, and all He does after is according to that. A continuation of the same power will change our bodies of humiliation and fashion them like to the body of His glory. The natural outcome of the resurrection of Christ is a new heaven and a new

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earth. We get the same line in 1 Corinthians 15, "That God may be all in all".

The fruit of the light has beautiful features: it is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth; not in some, but in all goodness. The man who walks in the light of the Lord and in love to Him could not go on with evil. It is the greatest antidote to going on with evil. "The Lord" brings in not only the thought of subjection, but of administration: "One Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things", 1 Corinthians 8:6. This latter idea has not been sufficiently in our thoughts in connection with the place Christ has as Lord.

CHAPTER 5: 15 - 24

F.E.R. There are several things brought together here: intelligence in the will of the Lord; being filled with the Spirit; giving thanks; and submitting yourselves one to another. The exhortations are all interwoven with the divine Persons -- the Spirit, the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ. They all answer to one another. "Light" is brought in as one of the characteristics of God, as love is. To walk in the light is the first principle of Christianity. It is "in the Lord" that we are light, not in ourselves. If anything comes in to obscure the Lord, you have not much light left in yourself. All the revelation of God is set forth in the Lord, and all administration centres there, too. The thought of light in Scripture all centres in the Lord. The necessary condition to Christ shining upon you is to be awake; the natural tendency is to go to sleep when it is dark. The influences of the world are so soporific, and even good men go to sleep: they succumb to the influence of the world, settle down to ease, and give up labour, devotedness, and vigilance. It is a very dangerous thing to retire from the activities of life: the tendency

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is to sleep. It is not that a man ceases to be a Christian, but Christ does not shine on him. A man should anticipate having more and more to do in the Lord's things when he is free from things here. A man not in the light has lost freshness. When people are occupied with what has been brought out in the past, it is a clear sign that they are not getting much for themselves. When a man goes to sleep he is like the dead. If a man awakes, Christ would shine upon him -- that is, he would get more into the light of what has been revealed in Christ.

Doctrine is given to produce an effect on our walk; "see then that ye walk circumspectly". The standard is "as wise"; not as unwise, but as intelligent in the Lord's will, and seizing opportunities.

"The days are evil" -- it is the existing state of things; pressure without and great opposition to the truth. If it was so even then, it certainly applies to this moment, too. It needs great vigilance and diligence -- loins girt about with truth, that there may be a full testimony, however limited, and a standard lifted up against the flood of rationalism and infidelity. It is a moment of the greatest importance to those who have light with regard to what the divine purpose as to the church is, and great responsibility attaches to such. I do not believe that many Christians understand it. The great point in regard to it is that the church is the vessel of testimony, not the preachers; it has been too much thought that it is the latter. Testimony was intended to be collective. In spite of all being broken up, do not give up the idea of collective testimony. This is Philadelphia. If you have got light -- understanding in the will of the Lord, as in John 14 and 15 -- you will not give up the idea. If preachers could get rid of the thought that they are the vessels of testimony, it would be a great point, because it would lead to great concern as to the state of the church. God's house is the vessel of testimony.

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Ques. Do you not get the individual looked at as the vessel in 2 Corinthians 4?

F.E.R. I should confine that to the apostle. The apostles had a special place: they had the treasure in earthen vessels, but they really formed the house; and the house once built, it was the vessel of testimony. The thought of the house was that it should be radiant. God was to be known there. Ephesians 3 is the effulgence of God in the house, which we get spoken of at the close of the second chapter. The testimony of God was in the house. It was not what the assembly said, but what it was: every evangelist bore the light of the house into all that he did. Christ in the church -- I believe that was the testimony. I think it was a far deeper kind of testimony than what you get in 2 Timothy 2; it was that nothing of God was lacking in the vessel. The servant that has the light of the house in all he does, works to bring into it. The apostle laboured till Christ was formed in the saints; that was the light of the house, the light and love of God presented in the testimony.

The church as a whole has ceased to be a candlestick. If the church does not give light, it is of no use for the end God intended. But the great thing is not to give up the divine idea. Philadelphia is this: I will not give it up; I shall stick to it through thick and thin! "Thou ... hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name". In Philadelphia we get the revelation of what is according to the mind of the Lord, and, without assuming to be anything, I, at any rate, want to answer to it. In the darkest day in Israel faith erected an altar of twelve stones. It is a great offence to me to hear a man say, All is gone. Has the word gone? Has the Spirit gone? These are the questions I ask myself.

What I see today is that evangelists go forth perfectly independent of the assembly. They would be much more effective if they took into account the

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state of the vessel of testimony. All these flashes in the pan that you hear spoken of in evangelists' work do not strike me much. It is not the day for it; it is not in keeping with the state of the church to go out with a flourish of trumpets. If the evangelist was in the mind of the Lord I think he would go to work very quietly. There is no pure evangelising in this country. You cannot go out heralding the gospel, as the apostles did, to people who had never heard it, for ninety-nine out of every hundred you preach to know the facts of the gospel as well as you do. With us our preaching has to be reasoning on the facts, and this is right. When the gospel was carried to the heathen it was accompanied by miracles, and this was needed.

"Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit" (verse 18). There is an exuberance, an exhilaration, connected with the Spirit. Being filled with the Spirit corresponds to understanding what the will of the Lord is. Nothing could delight me more than to be filled with the knowledge of His will, to know the Lord's thought as to the church at any given moment. To be in the light of the Lord is an immense mercy. In Revelation the Lord speaks to the angels of the seven churches, but at the end you get: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches". Thus the Spirit answers to the will of the Lord. The will of the Lord is His mind for the moment. Very few Christians know what the will of the Lord is; they have their own will and mode of doing things. This is all individual, because it brings in the Lord and walk.

Verse 19 is the exuberance of the Spirit; but I do not expect a return to Pentecostal days. This passage shows, however, that there is an understanding of what the will of the Lord is -- that is, His interests in connection with the church, and with the individual Christian as regards the work of the Lord, and the Spirit, and power to give thanks, too. The Lord has

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His own particular sphere, and He occupies Himself with that sphere, and with saints as regards that sphere. While He is seated at God's right hand, the only sphere He occupies Himself about is God's house, and He occupies Himself greatly about that: when Christ leaves the Father's throne it changes everything; He will then occupy Himself very much about the earth.

"Giving thanks always for all things to God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ"; that is a test. My one absorbing thought is to be the interests of the Lord; it is not in my own name. We may get thwarted in things, but very likely it is the best thing for us; God uses it to put us in touch with Himself. Just see how the way of the Christian is bound up with divine Persons: He is to understand the will of the Lord: he is to be filled with the Spirit, and he is to give thanks to God and the Father. These things are tremendous tests. How far do we give thanks always for all things? It is having the sense that nothing can go wrong with you; this makes you to give thanks. It all depends on a person being in the full light of God. If a disappointment comes, depend upon it it is better for you than if you had got the thing. When all failed here outwardly, the Lord said, "I thank thee, O Father". It but made way for greater and deeper things. It was the works of Christ giving place to Christianity, which was a greater miracle than all. The Son reveals the Father. I believe the Lord thought very little of miracles; they were important as leaving the people without excuse. His testimony was everything, but the reception of His testimony depended on a silent work underneath. John 3 and the parable of the Sower would prove this. It is an amazing thing to me that the Lord should be the Sower, and yet only one out of four yielded fruit; it only springs up where there is preparation underneath.

Now we come to the social circle, the natural

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relationships. He is the Preserver of the body. It is the natural body which is preserved. The point to be recognised is the pre-eminence of Christ; He is pre-eminent in every way. I look to Him in regard of everything. He is the Head, and besides that I look to Him for the ultimate salvation of my natural body. Christ has a special care for the body; it is Christ's member; He saves it. The passage is interesting to me as showing the true idea of headship; it is as the husband is head of the wife. Christ is not Lord to the assembly, but Head; He is pre-eminent in affection. He has more love to the church than the church has for Him. He receives all for the church, the Spirit and all else; He received them "in Man" and then communicated them -- that is Christ's relation to the church (see Psalm 68:18). It is the ascended Man in glory who does so.

Verse 24: The church receives everything from Christ. The recognition of His headship is the moral condition of the church -- subjection to Him in all things. So the wife to her husband. If you get a wife setting up her will, in the long run it will not work well.

CHAPTER 5: 25 - 33

F.E.R. Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it. I think if I speak of giving myself for another, it is putting myself in that other's place. He took upon Himself all the responsibility that attached to the church. He went into death where the church was, and took up all that lay upon it. The church is viewed even then as an object before Him. He loved the church, and gave Himself for it. It is viewed collectively as the antitype of Eve. The church was in His purpose, and is looked at in its entirety here; He gave Himself for it. He could do no more: He gave up all that He could give up; He

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gave Himself, to the end that He might sanctify it and cleanse it.

Ques. When did that cleansing take place?

F.E.R. I think it is setting it apart, and in that mode -- having cleansed it with the washing of water by the word. Two clauses hang on the statement that He gave Himself for it: (1) In order that He might sanctify it; and (2) In order that He might present it to Himself. (The participle "having cleansed" is used.) The church is looked at in the individuals who compose it. "The washing of water", of course, applies to individuals. New creation does not change the individual. Washing must be practical, and takes place in time; it is not like cleansing by blood.

Ques. Is sanctifying done once for all?

F.E.R. No. I think the means of setting apart is the washing.

Ques. Is it the word of God that is contemplated?

F.E.R. What other word could it be? In 1 Peter 1, "Being born again ... by the word of God", the word 'logos' is used. Then in verse 25, "The word of the Lord endureth for ever" it is another word; but the latter refers to the former, and therefore the connection is most intimate. The one is the utterance, the word spoken; the other (verse 25) is the revelation of God. The point in the washing is that it brings in what is new; it completely changes the nature of the thing whatever it is. "Born of water" brings in what is completely new. It is the clearance of the old by bringing in the new. You introduce, as it were, a new thread into the texture of the wick; that to me is the cleansing, and that is the meaning of "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you", John 15. Ultimately the whole texture becomes completely new -- nothing left but a little fluff! New birth is like the new thread introduced into the wick, but it involves all being made completely new eventually. People are not sufficiently alive to the complete

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moral change in the texture of the man. The individual remains, but God is bent on making all new. We get a strong word in Titus 3:5 -- the "renewing of the Holy Spirit". It is an important thing to see the way the cleansing takes place; it is by introducing what is new, and all that is left is, as I said, like a little fluff. The interest of this passage is, that notwithstanding the complete change, the individual remains. The same church is presented that was cleansed.

Ques. Would you distinguish between this service and what we get in John 13?

F.E.R. Here it is more abstract: it is the outcome of Christ's love to the church. It takes in the church in its entirety.

Ques. Is it not by the ministry of Himself to the church?

F.E.R. Yes, but I think water has reference to His death; water came from a dead Christ. Cleansing has been too much connected with cleansing the old from defilement, but I remember well J.N.D. connecting water with what is new. Water has to do with what is 'born'; there is cleansing, but that takes place by changing. Here the whole thing is viewed as the expression of the love of Christ, and that is connected with "Husbands, love your wives". The church is to be moulded by Christ, that is the divine idea as to husband and wife. A perfect husband will sacrifice himself to mould his wife to himself. The tendency is for the wife to assert her own individuality, but that is not the way of happiness. The church will never shine by its own light. If you put a precious stone in a dark place it will not shine; it simply shines by reflected light. There is not a single trait seen in the New Jerusalem that ought not to come out in the church now. The fact is, we are ten times more zealous for doctrine than we are for Christ. It was the snare of Ephesus; they became zealous for doctrine, but gave up "first love". It ought to be a lesson to us.

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Christ presents the church to Himself. It is Christ in His divine being. The thought is taken from Eve being brought to Adam. The light of all this is brought in that we might know what is going on now -- what Christ is doing. No one can understand the relationship of husband and wife unless he understands the church. It shows how much the apostle was preoccupied with the church, when he lights up these relationships with the truth of it.

In this epistle the apostle is viewing all that comes under Christ; so we get the church first, in chapter 1; then we get these relationships because they are under Christ; it is a sphere where Christ rules. He does not rule in the world, but He does in the household. Baptising the household is the recognition of the Lord having a place there. I should not look to the Lord about the detail of my business; He has nothing to say to it except as it might affect His interests; in these things I should look to God. "Let your requests be made known to God". It is a point of great importance to see the Lord in His own proper sphere. He has a great deal to say to the church, and to the believer, and to the believer's household, but nothing to the world; He has left the world for the moment. Later on He will have a great deal to say to it.

Verse 27. It is a great thing to have before us now as our standard the end which Christ has in view -- to present the church to Himself without spot and blameless. The effect would be, I should like to be that now. We get the two things here, the church as the body of Christ, and as the bride. In verse 30 we are "members of his body". I think "of his flesh and of his bones" is interpolated. Two things come out in Eve; she was taken from Adam to be united to him, and this is a point of the last moment in regard of the church. The nourishing and cherishing is the Lord's care for the church. Verse 31 would be more

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the thought of the bride. We are members of His body by having part in the Spirit. Every Christian who has the Spirit is a member of His body. The Corinthians were not very satisfactory as to their state, and yet the apostle says, "Ye are the body of Christ". In the latter part of this chapter the mind of the apostle is completely absorbed with one subject, and that is Christ and the church. It is most important to see that nothing could be united to Christ save what came from Him.

Verse 31 is Christ leaving all natural links; He breaks all. If we had had the writing of this verse we should have put: For this cause shall a woman leave her father and her mother and be joined to her husband. But what was in view was Christ and the church. It just shows how foreign our minds are to what He had before Him. He had ulterior thoughts in all He introduced at the beginning. It is this which shows how flimsy all objections are to Scripture. The divine and ulterior thought is not apprehended. We have to be very simple in accepting Scripture; the simpler we are the more light we get.

"He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6) does not refer to union, but is brought in to show how intimate the link is; the link with Christ is in the Spirit; it is much more intimate than any link in the flesh can be as between man and woman. It is not one flesh, but one Spirit.

It is only as we are in heavenly light that we carry out the duties connected with our social relationships, for all the natural things are so marred and degraded. Even under the Mosaic system which God had set up, a man could give his wife a bill of divorcement and send her away, and this because of the hardness of their hearts. But when Christ came He says, "But I say unto you", etc.

I am perfectly sure the tendency naturally of a man is to be bitter to his wife; he will be pleasant to everyone

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else, but he will be bitter to her; it is the natural tendency, and he must get into heavenly light to learn how to behave to her according to God. Some people think light makes you unpractical; it is a great mistake; it never is really light to you until it affects you.

Now at last in verse 33 the apostle comes down to the actual exhortations, "Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband". All natural ties have a peculiar place with regard to Christians: they do not lie in the wilderness, nor in the land. Christ takes the supreme place and these ties have to be readjusted; all come under Christ because they are God's institutions.

CHAPTER 6

F.E.R. Nothing is more noticeable than the intensely moral character of Scripture; nothing is dogmatic. Children are to obey their parents, and it is added, "for this is right". So, too, as to servants; whatever good thing a man does is commended of the Lord. Things are commended because they are just and right. The injunctions, although especially applying to those in the Christian circle, contain principles of universal application. It is always right under all circumstances for children to obey their parents. These relationships do not belong to us as over Jordan, but on this side. If you look at Matthew 19:1 - 9, "The Lord came into the coasts of Judaea beyond Jordan"; and in the parallel passage in Mark 10 it is even more specific -- "The coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan". It is the land where the two-and-a-half tribes settled. The moral force in it, to us, is this: that the natural relationships do not lie on the other side of death; they are not on the resurrection side of Jordan. These things are not in Christ, they are "in the Lord". So we get, Obey your

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parents in the Lord. "In Christ" takes you over Jordan and into all that is of the purpose of God. "In the Lord" refers to the sphere where Christ has authority; it is not the wilderness. It is intensely individual. The authority of the Lord is in its character millennial. It has been said that you have the Lord in the house, not in the garden. The thing is, people not only want their house well ordered, but they want their garden prettily laid out; but it will not do to have your garden millennial. When it is a question of moral order inside your house, it is millennial; every relationship is to be properly maintained because it is right. All the institutions that are really of God will have their place in the millennium, and so they have now in the house of God.

Ques. What is the difference between the house of God and the kingdom?

F.E.R. The house of God is where the Spirit of God dwells, but the kingdom of God brings in a different idea; it is the authority of Christ. That is one thing, but the presence of the Holy Spirit is another. There will be no house of God in the millennium. "In the Lord" brings in the thought of the kingdom and of what is individual; it is the believer and his house, and the place the Lord has in his house. Beyond Jordan you know Him as Head, not as Lord. Lordship supposes authority and subjection to that authority. As Head He should have pre-eminence. A man is not lord to his wife: he is head, and that brings in subjection to him. It is only to the believer properly that Christ is Lord. Many may say Lord, Lord, but no one can really say that Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit. When the thought of the Lord is brought in, its application is to me individually, not in connection with the house of God. Christ is Son, not Lord, over God's house. "One Lord, one faith, one baptism" marks the sphere where Christ is Lord, but the application of it is to

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the individual and to all that relates to him. If Christ is Lord to me, He must be Lord to all that is mine; that is the ground of household baptism. It is an impossible idea that He should be Lord to me and not to mine.

The fifth commandment is brought in here to show the great importance which God attaches to filial obedience. The promise still holds good for children; here it is connected with Christianity. The best way of looking at it, is seeing how much importance God attaches to it. It is not a good beginning for children when they are self-willed and self-assertive towards their parents; it is not likely to bring about good results. "That it may be well with thee" is, of course, in natural things.

Then comes the injunction to fathers; it is put upon them to bring their children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. And for this reason, that the father stands in the place of responsibility. The father properly represents the authority of the Lord in the house. As a matter of fact the mother has more to do with the children, but this does not alter the fact that the father stands responsible.

Ques. What is provoking children to anger?

F.E.R. It is not a very difficult thing to do. They are often unjustly blamed. Something happens which greatly aggravates me, and the likelihood is that I visit it on the child according to my provocation, and not according to the measure of the offence. If you deal unjustly with them you lose influence, and very likely provoke them to anger. The great thing with children is to retain your hold on their affections. The Lord never provokes us to anger; He always takes a right measure of everything. The great end of all discipline is moral training. Children are foolish, and you have experience, and you can warn them of what would become a pitfall to them. The discipline of a house is entirely different to that of a regiment

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or a school. The Lord gives character to the nurture and admonition. We have to understand something of it before we can exercise it. The Lord never chastises us hastily. If a child is chastened in heat it is sure to be done unduly. Discipline is always for our profit.

Rem. J.N.D. has said, 'Discipline is never without love in God and need in me'.

F.E.R. It is beautiful to see how Christianity came into the world and took up things as they were; it did not come to set it and its things right, but to set people right. Therefore slaves are exhorted to be obedient. Christianity was not intended to disturb the state of things, but to bring into a man's soul that which would enable him to fulfil his obligations. It is the Lord, not Christianity, that will set the world right. We are not called upon to set it right. Those who try to do so do not make much of it. Men have gone into Parliament intending to revolutionise things, but they have found themselves powerless. The point to me is that one Person has gone through the world and has completely solved the question of good and evil; and He only, when He comes in power, is able to set the world right. The point for us is to get out of the world; that is what baptism really means, and thus the question of good and evil is solved for us.

In the end of this chapter we come into the world in testimony, and then we come in contact with the rulers of the darkness of this world, who have their seat in the heavenlies. We meet them down here; we stand here as against the force of the world, where the power of the enemy is. The apostle breaks off from telling them of the armour, to tell them of the powers with which they must wrestle (verse 12). There are three things in this epistle -- the power of God towards you, the power of God in you, and the power of God that works from you. It is in the world the conflict takes place. You have gone over Jordan, but you must come out to maintain for Christ here.

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It is here, not in the heavenlies, that we want the shield of faith.

Now we come to the armour. It is complete armour -- it is from head to foot. You cannot take up one part without the other. It must be taken up individually, but it is what has to characterise the whole company. The point in the armour is that everything which is presented to you in the gospel has become effective in you. It is not only that the great things which the gospel brings are light to you, but that these things have become effective in you. Then "above all" you have faith, the shield of faith. The armour is the proper and practical effect of the gospel; these principles have become effective in you.

The truth, the righteousness, the peace are all of God; that is why it is God's panoply. Righteousness is the disallowance of sin; that is what God has done; He would not tolerate sin, and this principle is effective in me when I walk in self-judgment. Peace, too, is of God. We are in a scene where there is falsehood, sin, and confusion, but I am to be characterised in it by truth, righteousness, and peace. Truth is that all is estimated according to its own proper value and place. If my loins are girt with truth, I am not unduly governed by my natural affections; the truth puts everything in its true place.

"Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace"; it is peace adapted to the whole course of a Christian down here. How could a man talk about the righteousness of God if he is not walking in self-judgment, and how could he talk about peace if he is not in the sense of peace?

Love does not come in here, because it is a question of armour. Love is not armour, it is in the heart and gives its character to all, it is not protective.

It is the whole or "complete armour". It is no use having a strong point; you must have things balanced.

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If defective in any one part, you would be open to the enemy; you are to be encased.

"Faith" is that a man has confidence that God is able to bring down all the power of the enemy. A man could not stand here if he does not believe that the whole great world-system is to come down. The great point of the armour is to enable you to stand for Christ, to claim the inheritance for Christ. Things do not belong to Satan or to man, but to Christ. The armour is necessary to claim it. It is a principle in Scripture that if you have an inheritance, you must claim it. The Lord riding into Jerusalem was claiming the earth. They cast Him out, and now we claim it for Him. It is not that you are to be aggressive, but you claim it for Christ. The effect would be, I would have nothing to do with this world, nor with the honour which comes from it, for Satan is the prince of this world; but the earth belongs to Christ and we claim it. The enemy comes in by means of the influences of infidelity and superstition; his darts may come in between the joints of the armour. The influences of the devil are very deadly.

This conflict is being carried on through the saints. We are to stand "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might". When He comes into the inheritance we shall come with Him, but now we claim it for Him. He is heir of all things, and God has made known to us the mystery of His will, to head up all things in Him. Things here are in a most outrageous state; Satan claims all for himself.

We could not come out in this way (as in chapter 6) unless we first knew the two things that have been spoken of in this epistle -- the power which is towards us (chapter 1), and the power which worketh in us; chapter 3. Chapter 6 is the power which works from us.

The "helmet of salvation" is that you lift up your head in the dignity of Christ.

Every saint ought to claim the inheritance, and

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then there would be prayer for the testimony. Here the testimony was identified with the apostle.

The sphere of this conflict is the world. The enemy does not dominate in heaven, but he has great power on the earth. Satan does not put himself to the front; even in the latter days he will not come to the front; the beast will. Satan is a lying spirit. All this demands the most rigid separation from the world, and to be encased in what is of God.

There are three circles of testimony -- personal, relative, and the enemy.

It is something to stand here for the inheritance that belongs to Christ. We are not only going to have things in heaven, but also those on earth. What a mockery Christendom is! -- it is a make-believe that Christ is in honour here. It is the same principle as "ye build the sepulchres of the prophets and your fathers killed them".

To stand for Christ is the common privilege of all Christians; the testimony is greatly marred if it is not so. The sword is a two-edged one, it cuts yourself as well as others.

APPENDIX

Extracts from Two Readings on Ephesians 5

F.E.R. We are to be imitators of God as dear children, and walk in love; our practice has its source in God. It is not in any way an improvement of man, but the Spirit of God coming in that the practice may be according to God. The issue of God's ways will be that He will be all in all; and that has already begun in regard of us, in that we have put on the new man which is after God. We can get nothing higher or greater morally than what is after God. There can be no development, nor progress, nor advance in connection with it. We may advance in it, but the thing itself cannot be higher. It is after God.

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The love was perfect towards us, but at the same time it was perfect in its object, because Christ offered Himself to God. No human mind, even if capable of entering into the fact that Christ gave Himself for us, could have added the statement which follows: "An offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour". it was perfect in every way.

'Imitators' is the real idea. It is to imitate God morally. When God created the world, Adam was not morally "after God". He was not created in righteousness and holiness. But now in regard of the universe of bliss, God is morally the beginning of it. Adam had been made in the likeness of God in a sense -- that is, in intelligence and so on -- but it never could have been said that he was after God in righteousness and holiness of truth.

In the kingdom of Christ and of God, all will come out in its true character, and then you get the inheritance. Morally, we are now in the kingdom, but dispensationally it is not yet set forth. The kingdom morally is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit, but in the way of display it is yet to come: "Thy kingdom come"; then we shall have the inheritance in fact. If we have the Spirit we have the inheritance, for the Spirit is the earnest of it. It is absolutely impossible for God to take up the possession of things until they are brought under His moral sway, till all is subdued to God; and that will be by judgment. Then there will be the redemption of the purchased possession. It is a great thing to see that the kingdom of God is going to be brought in. If we look at the world around, it is filled with lawlessness, and that leads to every possible development of evil, for if a man break away from God, he could not be guaranteed in any relationship in life.

Apostasy is more than lawlessness; it is the positive rejection of God, after God has revealed Himself Men are prepared to have a world without God.

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There have been two worlds; God's world and man's world; in each you get a city and a religious system (Jerusalem and Babylon). Man's world swallows up God's world. That which has taken the place of being Christian, will ride the beast and prove itself to be essentially Babylonish and idolatrous. Egypt was the world of nature; it was not imperial. It is the world of flesh. The beast is the world-system, which is to be revived, and the harlot then rides the beast.

"Now are ye light in the Lord". Any part of the earth which is dark proves that it is not in the shining of the sun. It is a great thing to be light, for it proves we are in the shining of the light. There is no meaning in it unless we are morally "in the Lord"; it is true of such. The Lord must be a reality to us, and we have to be in the shining of Christ, otherwise we cannot be light in the Lord. When the Lord comes and takes up the kingdom, then we shall get goodness, righteousness, and truth, but these things are to come out in us morally now. It is to come out in us as fruit, proving what is acceptable to the Lord. When He takes things up, you may be sure He will have what is acceptable to Himself: It will not do for people to assume they are light, if there is no fruit of it. The earth brings forth fruit because it abides in the shining of the sun.

The effect of "the truth" is to make you free -- i.e., truth in the inward parts; then you look at things morally. The great things of the world are nothing to me, for if I look at them morally, i.e., in their relation to God, they are completely stripped and naked to me; it is thus we get a true estimate of things. Many things were tolerated in Old Testament times which are made manifest now. The light had not come in; now it has, and things are convicted by it. Deception came out in many of the people of God in Old Testament times. You cannot get truth, which rebukes all these things, except in the light of the revelation of God. There are arguments in the present day, as to

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how far falsehood is permissible under certain circumstances. The question may be argued for ever, but the real point is, what is permissible with the light of God? If people have dull perception of good and evil, it is because they are not in the shining of Christ.

The walk of a Christian is his testimony to the truth. We fail as to being "filled with the Spirit". We are so largely governed by the natural. The thought in Christianity is that you are to be filled with the Spirit. When one thinks of one's relations with others, one feels how little what is of the Spirit comes out. It is humbling when one has met a Christian, not to have had anything of a spiritual character in the way of communications one with another. It is a great thing to apprehend that there is in the world what is according to God's own nature, love and light, and these things come out in the saints in testimony to God.

Christianity is no question of holding doctrine; it is vitality. It is after God, vitally and practically. No person really possesses more than he enters into. It is a total mistake to assume to possess that into which you have not entered.

It seems evident from what we get here (verse 25, etc.) that in the creation of the relationship of husband and wife, God had in His mind the thought of Christ and the assembly. And now that the truth of Christ and the assembly has come to pass, it becomes the standard of conduct between man and wife. But Christ and the assembly was the first thing before God. The first testimony that God gave was to unity: "And they shall be one flesh", Genesis 2:24. When things were created, the first relationship established set forth the principle of unity. There were two, and there was union; they became one and that is unity. When God sets forth the moral universe, I think the first principle that will be seen in it will be unity. The Lord's thought as to the apostles and those who should believe on Him through their word, was that they

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should be in unity. What was to be before the eyes of the world was the great principle of unity. "That they may be one, as we are". The prayer was all to that end. The spirit and principle of unity will pervade the whole universe of bliss. Every family will be named of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. All will be held together by Christ, and so unity will pervade all. It is remarkable that even before sin came in, God should have set forth the principle of unity in Adam and Eve. "I and my Father are one"; they are one in nature. So too, Christ and the church are one, because they are one in nature.

Another principle comes in in connection with unity, and that is subjection. Unity is not incompatible with subjection. You get that coming out in Christ Himself when here. He and His Father were one, and yet it was not incompatible with His place of subjection as man. "As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything". The husband is head of the wife; the head represents the intelligence. In the relation of Adam and Eve, her will was to have no place. If she appreciated Adam, he was her intelligence. So, if we appreciate Christ, we carry out things according to Christ, because He is the directing intelligence. The effect of this would be that the church would set Him forth. Eve was taken out of Adam, and if so, she was not wronged in being ruled by Adam; he was to be her intelligence.

The truth in regard of Christ is, that for their sakes He sanctified Himself. He separated Himself from all here, that they might be sanctified through the truth. The church has allied herself to the world in the absence of Christ, He having set Himself apart in heaven.

Faith is not to be faith in dogma, but faith in God. Our ability to appropriate what is in God's mind for man, depends on our knowledge of God; it is according

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to our measure of the knowledge of Him that we are able to appropriate the blessings. God has given a perfect expression of His mind and thought in regard to man; it is set forth in Christ, but my appropriation of it is proportionate to my knowledge of God. That is the way people begin to possess spiritual things, and hence the work is purely moral.

It is very wonderful that when Christ came into the world, He was conscious there was a treasure in it. Everything was dark enough, but Christ came into the world, and having become a man, He was conscious there was a treasure in it. It was not His mind that it should come into manifestation. This is not the time when the church is to come into prominence; but she is to come out of heaven, to come out having the glory of God.

"That he might sanctify and cleanse it". Christ would set the church free from every contamination of the world. Cleansing is by the action of the word. As you come under the action of the mind of God, it forms you in the divine nature. You could not get cleansing from the world in any other way. I cannot conceive it possible that a man can be cleansed from the contamination of this world, unless by entering into the world that is before God. If we comprehend the length and breadth and depth and height, it is in that way the cleansing would be brought about. We must be formed in the intelligence of the positive, otherwise we cannot be apart from the influence of this world. It is by Christ dwelling in the heart by faith. The cleansing is the course Christ took in order that He might present the church to Himself all glorious. It is not so much the application, as the end or purpose for which Christ gave Himself. In spite of everything He will present the church to Himself, according to Himself -- morally according to God.

I should connect this, not so much with ministry as with the work of the Spirit. Nothing brings about

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washing, save the natural influence of being formed in the divine nature. It is immensely important that we should have it before us as a serious matter, that we are to be growing by the knowledge of God. There is no single thing that comes out in the way of good towards man, that is not bound up with the knowledge of God. Take the simplest thing, the forgiveness of sins, it is bound up with what God is morally -- it is bound up with His righteousness. Eternal life involves the love of God; the gift of the Spirit is bound up with His faithfulness; the casting off of the Jew is bound up with His character -- it is "the severity of God"; salvation is bound up with the love and kindness of God to man. Whatever thought of blessing there is for man in Christ, the only ability we have to appropriate it, is our knowledge of God. It is that which gives its intensely moral character to Christianity. Even in regard to presentation, the great thought is to be in suitability for the presentation. It may not take place down here, but we need to look to it in order that we should be in suitability now. The Lord will not present part of the church to Himself, but the great point is that those who are here, waiting for the coming of the Lord, ought to be in suitability. No spots or wrinkles are suitable. I suppose wrinkles are marks of decay or old age -- there are to be no wrinkles; that is the state we ought to be desiring now. It is no good looking back to the past, we need to have what is coming in view, i.e., the coming of the Lord.

If we know the truth of these things, we ought to set the example. I believe the generality of Christians attach a great deal more importance to their own concerns than they do to the things of Jesus Christ.

I do not quite know why "the Saviour of the body" is brought in. It indicates the completeness of the title of Christ to the believer. He is not only the intelligence, the Head, but He also is the Saviour of

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the body. All are actually dependent on Christ even as to condition. The word 'body' must not always be taken too literally; it is also symbolic of the present condition: He will change all into His own glorious condition.

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THE EFFECT OF THE LOVE OF CHRIST ON THREE MEN

John 21:15 - 25; 2 Corinthians 5:14, 15; Ephesians 3:18, 19

The mode of God's dealings with us is not understood in a moment; it is complex, there are many parts in it, there is very much to be done. If you have any comprehension at all of His great end, you must see there is very much to be done. Then again you have to take into account the material on which He has to work, the kind of clay, if I may say so, on which the Potter works.

Many are content with being enlightened; others, with the sense of forgiveness -- they do not go further -- but that is not the work of God. I do not mean that God does not produce it, but I should not speak of it as the work of God. You get His work expressed in 2 Corinthians 5:5. "He that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing"; that is the work of God, whatever that thing may be. I have no doubt that it is for a glorious condition -- the house out of heaven -- and He has also given the earnest of the Spirit.

The work of God never begins in a person properly till he has the gift of the Holy Spirit. What I understand by the work of God only begins when the Holy Spirit is received.

I was speaking last time of the light of God and the effect upon us. That must be the first thing: naturally man is in darkness, departed, fallen far away from God, and therefore the first necessity of his heart is that God may be made known to him. Man can have no sense of God except as God illuminates him, and that is what He does by the gospel. That is the proper work of the preacher, to enlighten man. That is what the apostle's work was; he speaks of it

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in that way when he gives the details of his commission. The first point is "to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light", not that he could turn them, but he was to open their eyes that they might turn -- in other words, that they might be converted and receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified. The light of God, therefore, is the first thing that affects the heart of man, and this is God's intention. The first thought is to lay a moral foundation; you cannot build a superstructure till you have a foundation; and as far as I understand, the light of God is the foundation God lays in a man's soul -- the light that has come out in the Lord Jesus Christ: it forms the foundation on which God can build. It has been said that where persons are converted very lightly it is like trying to build on the sharp edge of a knife; but if, on the contrary, a man gets a sense of divine power, love, grace, and righteousness, a foundation is laid on which God proposes to build; the Spirit of God builds up the superstructure. That is of the last moment.

After all, it is a wonderful thing to know God. In this dark world there is no expression of God except of His mercy; the world is all contrary to His righteousness. Evil and sin dominate in the world. In this world there is not much expression of His power. Everything in this world is weakness. Let men combine and effect what they may, it all ends in death, and death is not power. Sin is dominating, and death as the fruit of sin, therefore I do not think we see evidence either of the righteousness or power of God, and certainly not of His glory. But the wonderful thing is, all is made known to the heart of the believer -- that is the gospel. Faith brings me into a scene where the power of God operates.

Christ is invested with all authority, and He uses it to carry out the work of God, but in an unseen way. It is not what man would take account of, it is only

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faith that can take into account and appreciate what God does down here, and faith knows that all the mighty power of God is exercised, the same power that raised Christ from the dead. What did the world know about that? There were a few witnesses, but the world knew nothing of it: yet never was there such a mighty act of power as that! Chosen witnesses were permitted to see the effect of it in seeing Him risen from the dead, and that mighty power has continued to work in its own way, producing its own effects. Every converted person is a proof of the power of God; none of us came in voluntarily, we were compelled, and the compulsion was the mighty power of God.

Now, what I want to come to tonight is, what is it that makes a man devoted? It is a great thing to have a foundation. The Spirit of God is bent on building, and so the Spirit is very jealous to have a good foundation. People have thought that the reception of the Spirit was the crown of everything; the truth is, it is the beginning of everything. "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". The well is there when the Spirit is given, but it has to spring up -- you cannot have any springing up till the well is there. It has to get rid of a great deal of encumbrance and rubbish that overlays it; there is a great deal that has to be displaced in order that the well might spring up freely to everlasting life. But then the well is the beginning, not the end; the rubbish is removed by the living energy of the well.

Now what is it that makes a man devoted, supposing a good foundation has been laid? I tell you what it is, the love of Christ. I feel quite sure of this: there never was a Christian devoted, except as under the influence of the love of Christ: no other influence in the universe will do it. I am quite sure in my own soul it is the case, but I cannot convince you except

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by the way it is presented in Scripture. You will not get a man or woman effective for the Lord here, except as under the influence of the love of Christ. His love is very peculiar. It is not quite the same as the love of God -- that is a more general idea; John 3:16. The love of Christ, if you will excuse my using the expression, is a little more personal in character. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit; it is blessedly true, and the gift of His Son was the expression of His love to the world; but there is a peculiarity of its own about the love of Christ that attaches to nothing else.

We find three men of very different characters in these three passages read. They were all apostles, but as different from one another as could possibly be. They were different in character, bringing up, and in proclivities, but each was under the influence of the love of Christ, and I want to show you the effect of it upon each.

Look first at Peter; John 21:15, 17. Now see, what the Lord said to Peter was about his (Peter's) love. I want to call your attention by the way to verse 20, where it is said, Peter seeing the disciple whom Jesus loved. You cannot fail to observe the contrast; to Peter the Lord says, "Lovest thou me?" Now I do not doubt for a moment that Peter loved Christ; the Lord owns it, but the defect was, he thought too much about his love. No one ever loved Christ unless he was first under the influence of His love; but Peter gave himself credit for being pre-eminent in love to Christ; he thought he loved Him more than all the others, and that was the reason of Christ's challenge: "Lovest thou me more than these?" It is a serious thing to talk about your love to Christ, for what you bring on yourself is, you must show it. Peter had not shown it; he had denied the Lord with cursing and swearing, but he did love Him. The Lord interceded for him and he was restored in

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conscience and heart, and now the Lord challenges him to give expression to his love. "Feed my sheep". "Feed my lambs". So I would not care to talk very much about my love to Christ, for the Lord might challenge me, too. I do not doubt Peter responded to the challenge -- he laid himself out with martyrdom in view -- to feed and shepherd the lambs of Christ. But I think he got a challenge in that way, because he attached a little too much importance to his love. He gets this challenge three times, and Peter has to say, "Thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee". The Lord, as it were, says, You claim to love Me devotedly -- I give you another chance -- now show it. Here is a man under the influence of the love of Christ who had been taught by bitter experience that you cannot trust anything at all in yourself; you can only trust what is in Christ. He interceded for him, and the faith of Peter did not fail; he went out and wept bitterly; it was bitter repentance, and he was restored in conscience and in heart, and he laid out the rest of his life to feed the sheep of Christ; he proved his love in that way, but it was the effect of the love of Christ to him.

Now we will take the case of John. "Then Peter turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved following ... this is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true". John did not talk about his love to Christ. I do not think he cherished the idea that he loved Christ more than any other; what marked him was, he traded on the love of Christ to him, and that is a much safer thing. Peter rested on his love, and he broke down and denied Christ. John rested on Christ's love, and he lay on His bosom; that is what I mean by trading on His love. I recommend everyone here to do the same: get as close to Him as you can. John could not be closer, and the Lord did not resent it in any way. John took advantage of His

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love and leaned on His bosom; he was near enough to speak to Him and to hear His voice. It was very like Mary; she was affected by His love, and she got as near to Him as she reverently could, and her point was to hear what He had to say. I venture to say there is not one here who would not be delighted to get a word from Christ, but He does not speak to people at a distance from Him. You must be near to Christ if you want a word from Him. I want you to notice how the love of Christ acted on John. "This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true". The Lord does not challenge him as He does Peter, but John proves his love to the Lord divinely by the power of the Holy Spirit; by recording what the Lord had said; it was his pleasure to do it. How did Philadelphia prove its love? "Thou ... hast kept my word", and it is to them the Lord says: I will make them to know that I have loved thee. John wrote the incomparable gospel; he was the inspired instrument for recording the words of Christ; it was the work in which he delighted. So with Mary, she not only heard but kept His word. John wrote these things, he bore witness of them, he was so under the influence of the love of Christ that he could not write what was untrue. What gospel brings out the love of God and of Christ as John's does? Others also are beautiful and perfect in their place, but they do not bring out what John does.

Now turn to 2 Corinthians 5:13, etc. It is not exactly the same thought as with Peter or with John. Paul was not employed to write a gospel, but his peculiar characteristic is this, that he was a man wholly devoted to Christ as he had seen Him. The other apostles had not seen Him as Paul saw Him. He made Paul deeply conscious of His love to him, and what marks him is, he is devoted to the One who appeared to him. "We thus judge, that if one died

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for all, then were all dead; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again". Paul was a man devoted to the risen Christ, and at the same time he is conscious that outside Christ risen everything else was death. Death is on Christians -- the Christian accepts it, he drinks the bitter waters of Marah; it is the difference between the Christian and the man of the world. What a Christian apprehends is, that everything is death outside Christ risen. I am shut up to Christ, I live to Him who died and rose again; He is the One who is before the soul of the Christian, properly speaking. So it was with the apostle, it guided and governed him in all his course. He said, "We know no man after the flesh". He went to an extent to which none of us could go. I do not think we could say that. Paul was apart from human affections and relationships, and his life was simply this: he lived to Him who died for him and rose again. The love of Christ constrained him; he was under that constraint, it marked him in a special way. He went through thick and thin -- trials, persecutions, the loss of everything in this world, the loss of all, that he might gain Christ. And what affected him? The love of Christ. He saw the wonderful truth that when all were dead, He died for all.

I want you to bear in mind the way in which these three men, so diverse in character, and each having his own peculiarity, were under the influence of the love of Christ. Where the love of Christ first touches us is in death. The Christian has to go back to what is properly presented in baptism. "If one died for all", we were all in death and Christ came into death -- it proved that all were dead -- it did not make them dead but proved them dead.

The heart of everyone ought to be affected to think that when we were all in death, the judgment of sin,

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the blessed Son of God actually came into that place. The spring of it was love; the love of Christ constrains us, the love that led Him to come down into that death in which we were, that we might rise from it, and live to Him who died for us and rose again. It is the first point that touches the heart of a Christian. Our feebleness lies in this, that we fail to apprehend that man is under the judgment of God; people refer judgment to the future, and fail to understand that it is now every man is under death. Let a man have what he may in this life, he is under death. Death is the great leveller, it puts all on a common platform: all are under death. What sense can there be in sticking up to be anything in this world, if all are under death? People are quite sceptical about it, it does not enter into their thoughts, they look upon it as natural decay, not as the judgment of God. What are rich or poor, high or low, if all are under death? But I see that Christ came into death, there was no death on Him, but He came into it in love to man. He came into death that He might establish upon us an incontestable claim, the claim of love. He can say, There is no love like My love; you were all in death, the judgment of God, and I came into it that I might have an absolute claim over you. "He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again".

I would like to stir you up if I could, and to be stirred up myself, as to the absolute claim Christ has over us down here. We are accustomed to give a great place to other claims; but does not every claim give way to that one? It ought, for He died for all to that end. The apostle responded to it, but we also ought to respond to it -- that expression of the love of Christ which came out in death.

But that is not the end of the love of Christ. Look at Romans 8:33, 34, which I will connect with

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Hebrews 7:25; you will see that intercession is the connection. My object in referring to it is to connect the love of Christ with intercession. The first proof and expression of His love is in death, but now He lives, and the next great effect of His love is that He intercedes, and the effect of that is, He saves to the uttermost and we are more than conquerors. It is a point of all moment to us. We should all like to be more than conquerors. His intercession is the expression of His love. "I have prayed for thee". What dictated that? The Lord's affection for Peter. Peter had not asked Him; He loved Peter, and the spring of His intercession for His people is His love. I really would not care for the intercession of Christ if I did not think the spring of it was love, that it was the fruit of love.

Beloved friends, Christ will intercede for you because He loves you; and whatever we may have to confront, or whatever may confront us, we are more than conquerors through Him that loves us.

Priesthood is a very blessed thought to me; the high priest carried the names of the children of Israel on his shoulders and on his breast, the place of affection and strength. Intercession is the blessed fruit of affection, and the practical result is, we are sustained and supported while down here by the intercession of Christ. There might be a lapse in Israel's case, but with Christ it is after the power of an endless life -- always the same High Priest and able to save to the uttermost. It is a blessed thing, to trust one Priest. He ever liveth, and He intercedes because He loves, and the result is He saves us from being swamped by the thousand and one things down here. You will not be able to be devoted or happy Christians except as your hearts are under the influence of the love of Christ.

I turn to one more thought; John 14:1 - 3. What I want to show you is the climax of the love of Christ.

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We have seen His love in death, and the object, to establish upon us an incontestable claim; then His love in intercession to make us more than conquerors, and now the climax is, to bring us to the Father's house. The people of God were given of the Father to Christ, as it is beautifully expressed in a hymn,

"Thou gav'st us in eternal love,
To Him to bring us home to Thee". (Hymn 88)

That is where saints are placed, between the Father and Christ; the Father's gift to Christ, but given to Him with an object, that He might bring them home to the Father's house, and the love of Christ will never have complete satisfaction till He has them there. He tells them He is going to leave them, but He is going to prepare a place for them. "I will come again, and receive you unto myself".

Now what I have to say is, the moment has not yet come for that, it is a future moment; but I tell you what He does in the interval: if He does not yet bring us to the Father's house, He brings us to the Father's heart; His love is not satisfied with anything else. He declares the Father's name and makes us know the Father's heart. He makes us know we are loved of the Father as He is loved; John 17:25, 26. What a wonderful thing that He should declare the Father's name, that is, His love! (That declaration was completed in John 20:17.) He declares it, "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". That is what it was for the Lord to conduct them to the Father's heart.

No man is fit for the assembly except in proportion to his love. Faith is no good in the assembly -- you could not be there without faith; but you are only in touch with Christ according to your love. He is in touch with the Father, and His part is to conduct us to the Father's heart, as it will be His part to conduct us to the Father's house.

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I only touch on those three points, but you cannot suppose I could exhaust the subject of the love of Christ. There is first His claim in death, then the fruit of His love in intercession, then that He may conduct us out of the world to the Father, that the love wherewith He is loved may be in us; that is the climax of His love. And then you can very well understand the prayer of the apostle which I read in Ephesians 3.

If the saints all knew the love of Christ, there would be a present expression of Christ down here in the saints, just as there was the perfect expression of God in Christ Himself. "No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us", 1 John 4:12. The same expression is used as to Christ in John 1:18. It is the nature and character of God coming out in the saints down here, and that is the great idea of the prayer in the third chapter of Ephesians.

Once Christ had been here in testimony, nothing short of Christ would suit God, and therefore the church was to be filled to all the fulness of God. But the secret is that you may know the love of Christ. Nothing else makes people devoted; doctrine and light do not do it; love does it, for the great object of devotedness is Christ Himself, as it was to Mary when she sat at His feet, and to John when he lay on His bosom.

May the Lord give us to know His love, so that we may be close enough to Him to get a word from Him. It is a great thing to be near Him; He draws us close to Himself that He may make us know the Father as He knows Him; "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them".

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GOD'S TESTIMONY AS LIGHT IN THE SOUL OF MAN

Hebrews 11:39; Hebrews 12:1 - 3

I do not think that I need make any apology for turning to this well-known scripture, in order to introduce to you the subject about which I desire to speak. There is a kind of fascination about the passage which makes it difficult to me to leave the chapter alone; and what interests me is that the testimony of God exhibits the true character of the world to come. And we are allowed to see the witnesses through which the testimony of God has shone out in this world from the time that sin came into it. The testimony of God came out both before and after the flood. In considering the passage before us, I desire that we should see also how the testimony of God affected those who are brought before us.

And further, I want to refer to what the testimony of God is now that it has reached its height, as we have come to it. It gives me the idea of a vast arch built up piece by piece, and now complete. We have come to the crown of the arch -- to the keystone; we have it in its completeness; we are in the full blessedness of God's testimony, which shines out through faith.

I may remark that what is presented in the epistle to the Hebrews is confirmatory of what is presented elsewhere. We may see there what is to be seen in other parts of the scriptures. When the Spirit of God addresses Himself to the Hebrews, He presents things in one light, and in addressing Gentiles He presents substantially the same things in another light.

John presents Christianity as do also Paul or Peter, but in a different light from that in which they present it. God's word is one -- the work of one blessed Spirit. The part of the apostles was to present the

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truth in the light in which the Spirit of God gave it to each. We have great gain in this, and though we learn in detail, yet all the teaching becomes one in the soul of the Christian, in the power of the Spirit of God.

I pass on now to the two points that I wish to bring before you; i.e., the testimony of God, and the way in which the witnesses were affected by that testimony. No one could have the testimony without being affected by it. We see how it shone out thus in Abel, Enoch, Noah, and others named.

The interest of the eleventh chapter is in seeing the testimony of God shining out, faith discerning the foundations of the world to come; for God gave expression in detail to what was in His thought.

In the attempt to build the tower of Babel we have man's will coming out. They set to work to build a city for man's glory -- that was man's will and purpose; but at the same time God had His own will, and that shines out from time to time through faith.

I will touch on two or three salient points in the eleventh chapter to show what the testimony of God was in detail; then I will endeavour to open out a little what the better thing was that God foresaw for us. We read that the patriarchs died in faith, not having received the promise. God had in this a purpose -- viz., that they were not to be made perfect without us for whom He had prepared some better thing. I should like that we might see a little more clearly what the better thing is, and how saints are properly affected by it. How far we have been actually affected by it may be another question, but it is well to see what is its proper effect.

In reverting to the patriarchs, the testimony of God to Abraham was, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. There was here the light of a distinct purpose on God's part of blessing to all the nations of the earth. The promise was given

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to Abraham, but I take it up in connection with the seed, because that is really the important point, for my impression is that God intended to intimate how blessing would be secured to all the families of the earth in a risen Christ. That was His testimony, and faith apprehended it. The true idea of faith is of divine light in the soul. God gave to Abraham His testimony, and Abraham believed it, and thus had light in his soul and was affected by the light. God does not intend light to be ineffective. Abel and Enoch had light, and they were affected by the light. As to the latter "he was not", for God took him. The church is now in the light of translation, and if saints were in the power of it, man as such would not be seen in it. That was the practical bearing of the testimony which Enoch had. Noah had the testimony of the way of salvation through impending judgment; he had light from God that judgment was coming, but that there was a way of salvation. In Abraham, as I have said, the point was "In thee ... shall all the families of the earth be blessed"; and this was confirmed when in figure Isaac was raised from the dead. Every attribute of God had been met, typically, in the sacrifice, and then the promise that all the families of the earth should be blessed, was confirmed to Abraham's seed.

The effect on Abraham was, that his aspirations went beyond the testimony, i.e., he sought two things -- one was a city, and the other a country. And on the other side, he became a stranger and a pilgrim here. "He looked for a city", and he sought a country; he saw that God was even greater than His testimony, i.e., God was not limited by His testimony; and in fact a city and a country were necessary to His promise. A city is the symbol of rule, and a country I might speak of as an expanse for liberty and enjoyment. That was what Abraham foresaw. The city that he looked for was one that "hath foundations, whose

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builder and maker is God"; and the country he sought was heavenly. He looked for a city and country having these characteristics, and in that way he traded, so to speak, on the goodness of God; and it is added, "Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city". It is our privilege to know that we shall have our part in that heavenly country where there will be full expanse and liberty, and we shall form part of the city, of which Abraham does not form part, though he will have the good of it.

I pass on now to Moses. The testimony of God which Moses apprehended was, that God had a people here. The first principle of God's purpose which we have seen was that all the families of the earth should be blessed in a risen Christ, and then we have the fact that there is a people of God here on this earth. Moses "was a proper child" himself, his parents "were not afraid of the king's commandment"; and when he came to years he discerned and was affected by the testimony of God. This so touched Moses that, seeing God's people in reproach, he chose to be identified and to suffer affliction with them rather than to be separated from them for the pleasures of sin. I understand from the fact of God's people being in reproach that they were not favoured by the providence of God; had they been thus favoured, they would not have been under the oppression of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. The resolve of Moses was to share in their reproach and not to be countenanced by the world. I need not say that when Christ was here He too was in the place of reproach. There was no reproach for Moses in the house of Pharaoh; but he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter because he would not disown his people for the kindness of the world, and "he had respect unto the recompense of the reward". That was the way in which things worked with Moses.

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But there came a crucial moment in Egypt, a night to be much observed, when the destroying angel passed through the land. God's people had been in reproach, and now the judgment of God was to fall upon the oppressor, while those under the shelter of the blood were secured from the judgment. And a further moment of the same kind occurred at the Red Sea, when the people of God passed safely through as on dry land, and the waters overwhelmed the Egyptians. In our case, we have seen God's testimony in Christ's going into death; God's love has reached us in the place of death, and we have passed through in triumph to receive assurance of that love by the Holy Spirit. Thus the people who had been in reproach were completely vindicated.

The next point that I notice in the testimony of God is the falling down of the walls of Jericho, after they had been compassed about for seven days. Those who went round them became pretty well acquainted with the walls by the seven days' survey. The truth is that the foundations on which the power of the enemy rests are rotten. Satan trades on man's ignorance of God. When the strongholds of the foe are reached, they need only to be compassed about, like the walls of Jericho, and they will fall down flat. The heart of Rahab did not fail, her faith was firm; she took in the situation, and could say, "I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you"; and thus we have in result the intervention of God in the salvation of a Gentile and her family.

We pass over a long period until the times of the Judges, and then we get some striking examples of the energy and patience of faith. There was a testimony of God still bound up with Israel; God had not ceased to regard or care for His people, although a point in their history is reached when their state

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was at the very lowest -- "every man did that which was right in his own eyes".

In Samuel's time the links of relationship with God were broken, for the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, and Israel's glory was departed; but the ark was recovered in God's mercy, and under David was brought to Mount Zion.

A point I would notice is this: that no testimony of God is lost in a subsequent testimony -- no succeeding testimony swallows up a previous one. Can we suppose that God will give up any part of His purpose -- for instance, that in the seed of Abraham all the nations of the earth are to be blessed? Nothing can set that aside. Again, have not the walls of Jericho fallen down? Depend upon it that the one who attempts to build them again will bring on himself destruction. The word of the Lord abides for ever.

What we come to now is this: that all the detail of the past converges in the testimony of this moment, and it is that which I wish here to bring before you. The testimony of God in our day is of a glorified Christ; and that, I think, is the better thing which God has foreseen for us. It is the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ that is now presented.

All will probably remember the word of the apostle in 2 Corinthians, at the end of chapter 3, and the beginning of chapter 4, where we read: "But if also our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in those that are lost; in whom the god of this world has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God, should not shine forth for them. For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus Lord, and ourselves your bondmen for Jesus' sake. Because it is the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ".

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I understand that to be the light of God's testimony at this moment. The apostle speaks of it in 1 Timothy as "the glad tidings of the glory of the blessed God, with which I have been entrusted". It was not entrusted to him merely for himself, but to make known to the saints; it shone out in Paul, and the apostle preached the gospel not merely to sinners, he preached it for the building up of saints. If you approach unconverted men, you must approach them with the light of the gospel; but the saints have also to be built up in the gospel of the glory of God. It is a purpose that is served to a large extent by the faithful evangelist.

What I understand by the gospel of the glory is, God's satisfaction in the complete bringing to pass of His will and purpose of blessing in the hands of One in whom He is perfectly revealed. The will of God is all that which is in His heart to bring to pass; all is centred in the One in whom God is effulgent, and there only is God fully revealed. Where did God shine out in all His fulness? I believe it was in the death of Christ. He went into death to bring into it the testimony of God's love. God is effulgent in Christ; the glory of God shines in the face of the One to whom is committed the full accomplishment of God's purpose.

I wish I could say a little more about the glory of God. I feel for myself how little I am affected by it. God has been revealed, and every attribute of God magnified. The love of God was revealed in Christ, but it was made effulgent at the cross. The Son of God came here to make God known, and He did this; and as the Man who glorified God, He has now gone up to God. He came out that God might be effulgent; and, on the other hand, as the Man who has glorified God, has gone in to God -- one and the same blessed Person, but viewed in two distinct lights. That is what faith apprehends. Faith is now the light of the

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glory of God in the soul, and if we are rightly affected by it the result will be most marked. Where the word has entered the soul, and brought in the light of the love of God, that man is completely subdued to God -- he loves God; and the moment a person loves God a most wonderful and complete revolution is produced in him.

Many have been affected by the grace of God, but I do not think we have been so much affected by the love of God. God has come out in love that He may secure man's heart for Himself. He will have the love of man, He has set Himself to gain the heart of man -- but how? By making known His love. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us". The believer is in the light of the glory, and he rejoices "in hope of the glory of God".

I ask, is your heart in the light of this glory? The testimony of God now is the light of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ.

Now I want to say a little about the way in which we are affected by this. I judge there are two special ways set forth -- one in Hebrews 10, and the other in chapter 12.

As far as I understand it, Hebrews 10 runs parallel with .the epistle to the Ephesians, and chapter 12 with that to the Philippians. They bring before us the ways in which we are properly affected by the light of the glory of God.

The first way in which, as seen in chapter 10, we answer to the light of the glory of God is in our acceptance of the calling which God has given us. As sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, we have, as sons, boldness to enter the holiest by His blood -- the new and living way which He hath dedicated through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.

I will say a word about the "new and living way". Christ made that way by coming out from the heart of

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God to the cross, to bring the light of God's love. We travel the same way in our souls, only in the opposite direction, i.e., from the cross to the heart of God.

We enter the holiest; but let us remember that we go in as priests, not as common people, nor even as Levites, but as risen together with Christ. We are sanctified -- but how? By our extinction; by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all -- that involves your extinction after the flesh. You go into "the holiest" as priests, i.e., as formed by the love of God. It does not follow that because you go to the meeting, you go into "the holiest". You must not think that "the holiest" is synonymous with the meeting. True, it is the privilege of every Christian to enter "the holiest", but you must enter as priests, in conscious association with Christ.

I very much doubt whether anyone who fails to apprehend the calling of God enters "the holiest". I do not say that such have not a title, but as priests you must of necessity be on common ground with Christ; you are risen with Him -- delivered from the rudiments of the world; and not only that, but you are formed in the divine nature by the Holy Spirit, so as to be fit companions for Christ.

In Ephesians you apprehend the calling of God. We are said to be raised up together, and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ; but the "heavenly places" are not exactly the idea of "the holiest".

God has been pleased to give us a place in the scene where Christ is for the satisfaction of His love. If you enter "the holiest", you enter the scene where everything is in perfect correspondence with God.

In chapter 12 there is another effect of the light, viz., you are running a race -- you run to the place where Christ is; and that is the idea which we find in chapter 3 of Philippians. And in running the race

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you get more distant at every step from all that man esteems here; at the same time you get nearer and nearer in soul to where Christ is. It indicates not exactly the entering into the calling, but a man getting more and more apart from all that is of account in this world, and becoming consciously nearer to Christ in glory. There is a goal before him, and that is the idea presented in the race.

And let me draw attention to what appears so strikingly in chapter 3 of Philippians, viz., purpose. This is a point of very great importance with saints, and one in which I doubt not we are defective. The apostle writing to Timothy says, "Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience". Many a saint is lacking in purpose, though at the same time wishing to go right; and the purpose of the heart does not come out so much in the acceptation of the calling as in running the race. There are certain things here in which one may have been glorified as a man, but there is a goal now presented to the saints, and that is Christ in glory; He is the end before us, and to reach Him means complete and eternal happiness. When we reach Him we shall have left all that is earthly behind us, and it will be unfailing satisfaction to the soul.

God has come to us in grace to make known His love to our hearts, that they may be full of confidence in Him; and one effect is, that, severed in spirit from all here, we run to where Christ is, and with the object of finding what God has found, viz., His glory -- complete satisfaction for our hearts.

Another thing is that you have to run the race "with patience". There is this admonition connected with it, to which we need to give heed -- we are called to lay aside every weight, and sin which doth so easily beset us, and to run with patience the race set before us, looking unto Jesus.

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I think that what we have of this world's goods, though ours providentially, may like many other things be possibly a weight. A rich man's wealth may be a weight. If a man is running a race, every weight would be an encumbrance. To a man who is settling down in this world things here are not weights; but when you start in the Christian path, then they become weights. I can understand a Christian being a rich man -- the Scriptures contemplate such a thing; but in such a case it needs much grace and wisdom to know how to use riches, so that they may not be weights.

And besides this there is "sin which doth so easily beset us". I understand sin to be the activity of the human will; and all that has to be firmly put aside -- it is so close at hand, that it soon gets hold of us. Every working of your own will must be unsparingly refused; if you allow it you will be greatly hindered in running the race, and the race has to be run with patience.

What makes a man impatient is that he cannot compass his will. If I see impatience in a man, I know it springs from his inability to give immediate effect to his will, and impatience is a sure sign of moral weakness.

The two great principles seen in the epistle of James are, patience and no will. "Let us run with patience", and then there will be the acceptance of God's will -- "Looking unto Jesus". He accepted the will of God here in the fullest possible way, and He is now "set down at the right hand of the throne of God".

It is a blessed thought that we are running to the place where Christ is; He has reached the goal, and our happiness will be found in reaching in spirit the place where Christ has gone.

May God give us each to see what the testimony is, and its effect in accepting the calling, so that we may

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be worshippers; at the same time running with patience the race, so that things in this world become more distant, while we ourselves come morally nearer to the place where Christ now is -- at the right hand of God.

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THE PRIESTHOOD OF CHRIST

Hebrews 2:10 - 18

What is on my mind, is to seek to open out what is found in the early part of this epistle on the subject of Priesthood; both as to the fact of it, and its character.

There were two parts in the provision of God for His people in the wilderness -- one was priesthood, the other the water of purification.

My desire is to speak on the subject of priesthood and the bearing of it, so that we may have a better and truer sense of its application to ourselves -- that is, of what Christ is to us as High Priest. The fact of Christ being connected with us as High Priest is so practical, that it is most important that we should have a true intelligence as to it.

There are two sides on which we can regard Christ in relation to man, viz., as Mediator and as Priest; the one is a contrast to the other.

Mediator covers all that He is on God's side towards men; Priest, on the other hand, covers all on man's side towards God -- a very simple thought to take in. It is in the Mediator that God has approached man. It is not a question here of man approaching God, for it would be impossible for man to approach God unless he has first learned how God has approached man. The Mediator is brought in in this connection -- "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself a ransom for all", 1 Timothy 2:5, 6. We have here God approaching man in grace.

On the other hand, priesthood is connected entirely with man's approach to God. The one is the consequence of the other; the Priest could not be without

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the Mediator -- the Mediator and the Priest are combined in one divine Person.

Christ, having completed His work as Mediator in giving "himself a ransom for all", goes back to God and takes up the position of Priest on the behalf of those who are the objects of God's purpose.

With a view of making the subject plain, I will just touch upon the Psalms, and open out a little their scope.

They begin with a rejected Christ, and end with the establishment of the Kingdom; anyone may readily see this. Psalm 2 brings before us a rejected Christ, who is declared to be the Son of God; and in the closing Psalms we have the hallelujahs consequent on the establishment of the Kingdom: this was all prophetically recorded long before Christ came.

Another point of moment in the Psalms, and to which others have called attention, is, that they bring in (and they are the first part of Scripture which does distinctly bring in) the idea of "a remnant".

It may be a church remnant, or that which is the nucleus of the church, or the remnant of Israel in the future. But the thought of a remnant is a very important one in the Psalms, and in connection with Priesthood. In Psalm 22 we have a very distinct reference to a remnant in "I will declare thy name unto my brethren"; and also that which will eventually become "the great congregation" is first a remnant; it becomes that, but is a remnant. In Isaiah we read, "Except the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have been like unto Gomorrah".

In connection with the thought of a remnant an interesting question suggests itself -- i.e., how could the Gentiles come in in the character of a remnant? The answer is that an election from the Gentiles is identified with a remnant saved out of Israel. There was a remnant of Israel who received Christ, and the Gentiles became fellow-citizens with the saints and of

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God's household. The thought of a remnant brings in the purpose of God; God reserves a remnant to Himself; the apostasy of Israel is foretold, and a remnant is left, and an election from among the Gentiles joined with them.

The High Priest is identified according to the thought of God with the remnant. I do not here refer to the priesthood in Israel, because the high priest there and the whole order of things was after the flesh; but speaking of priesthood as in the mind of God, it is identified with a remnant, it is on their behalf.

As far as I can see there are two ideas taken from the Psalms on which priesthood is built up in Hebrews, viz., sonship and a place at the right hand of God.

In Psalm 2:7, we read, "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee". And Psalm 110 opens with the words -- "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool"; and in verse 4 -- "Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec". In Psalm 2 we have the Christ rejected by man, and the same thought appears also in Psalm 110. Now I will ask you to look for a moment at Hebrews 5:4 - 6 and I refer to this passage because that in it the passages I have quoted from the two Psalms are brought into conjunction, and we see that the truth of priesthood in Hebrews lies in the identification of sonship with priesthood, a point of the last moment.

The truth holds good also in our case, that we are priests because we are sons -- the priests are now the many sons whom God is bringing to glory. The truths of sonship and priesthood are thus very closely connected, both with regard to Christ and to us.

The value of being a priest is, that you have access to God; and how could you have such access if you did not know His love? It is the knowledge of God's love that gives you that freedom. Confidence is a

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most essential element of Christianity, and what do you think that it springs from in the Christian? I should say confidence is rather the effect of love than of faith. That is brought out in John's first epistle. Perfect love casteth out fear, and then we have confidence. It is in the apprehension of the love of God that we have access to Him.

I have already said that priesthood is closely connected in the divine mind with the idea of a remnant, and that thought is very important in connection with the Psalms. We have the same principle in Hebrews 6:17 - 20, in which we read, "Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil; whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec".

We have here the thought of a remnant of Jews, who, in the general defection of the nation, had fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before them. And that remnant was secured for God Himself. I think that passage is amply sufficient to identify the priesthood with the thought of a remnant, who are "the heirs of promise", and who are identified by faith with a rejected Christ. Christ could not be a Priest on earth, though there were in Him all the moral qualifications for a Priest. He could not be a Priest on earth, He was made perfect for such an office through sufferings; and it is when He is exalted to the right hand of God that He enters properly upon His priestly function.

I will enter into some detail connected with priesthood as referred to in the earlier part of the epistle.

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In chapter 2: 17, 18 we have, "Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people".

The important point to remark in connection with this passage is, that the work of offering is no proper part of Christ's High Priesthood. It is true that in the work of offering He fulfilled the type of an offering priest, but in His work He was properly the victim -- He offered Himself by the Eternal Spirit. The basis on which priesthood rests is righteousness. The righteousness of God was fully vindicated and established as a basis for acting, before Christ entered on the office of High Priest. You find in this passage the qualification of Christ as High Priest -- "For, in that himself has suffered, being tempted, he is able to help those that are being tempted".

I will endeavour to give you an illustration of this succour in the history of Paul. He was placed in a great variety of circumstances, and now and again you will even find him brought into such as the Lord would have spared him from: an instance of this is when he went up to Jerusalem and was seized by the people, and afterwards taken out of their hands by the Romans. He put himself into those circumstances in his affection for, and desire to reach in testimony his own people, the Jews. Still, at the critical moment the Lord appears to Paul to succour him. If a man gets into a false position he is in danger, and very liable to depression, and no one but the Lord can help him. So in the case of Peter: he had not faith to go into the palace of the high priest. He did not go there in the way of testimony as Christ did; and having signally failed, what he needed at that moment was succour; and the Lord had prayed for him, and his spirit is saved from being overwhelmed within him, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not". The

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care of the Lord is seen in His looking on Peter; and further, in John 21 the Lord takes the priestly place in restoring him.

These examples I think show how graciously and effectually the Lord can succour His saints, even when, through want of watchfulness, they are brought into unhappy circumstances. We may be allowed to be greatly tried, but then it is that the Lord is able to come in in priestly service to succour, lest the spirit of His saints should be overwhelmed. And He comes in that there may be restoration, though the circumstances of trial may be unchanged. Paul had still to suffer in the circumstances, but his spirit was succoured.

If we pass on to the last three verses of chapter 4, we get a little further light; we have here not simply the qualification of the Priest, but that He has passed through the heavens, and that, I think, confirms what I have said with regard to the contrast of Priest and Mediator; you would not speak of a mediator passing through the heavens. The point is, that Christ has gone up from the lowest place of humiliation here, through the heavens, to the throne of God. It is not a question of His having come out to present God to man, but going from the lowest place here to the highest place in heaven; and one result of that is the establishment of the throne of grace. Grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord came down from heaven and was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death; descended into the lowest depths of shame, but He has now passed through the heavens to the throne of God; He has travelled that course in the interests of man; there is righteous ground for the inauguration of the reign of grace. We have consequently a High Priest who can sympathise with our infirmities, and we have the encouragement now to come "boldly unto the throne of grace".

I should like to show the working of this. There

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are three things that at one time or another press upon us all down here; three kinds of pressure that are incidental to human life; one is bereavement; another bodily weakness; and the third is trial in circumstances.

Let me ask if every one has not more or less been touched by one and perhaps all of these three things: it is hardly possible to pass through life here without experiencing something of all three. Well, it is a great thing to know that in all three we have the sympathy of Christ, and that sympathy encourages us to go to the throne of grace to find help and mercy.

The One who is now as man at the right hand of God is the same blessed Person that stood with Martha and Mary at the grave of Lazarus; He came into full contact with human sorrow, so as to sympathise. He has not lost ability for that, now that He is at the right hand of God; there were qualities displayed in Him when here in the flesh which belong to Him still. Could we suppose that the heart of Christ is changed?

We are permitted, too, to see Him on earth in resurrection, in order that we may appreciate the fact that He is not changed, and we have the very same Christ at the right hand of God. The pressure of bodily weakness is understood by Him; and we have a throne of grace where we can obtain mercy, everything connected with us in our path here being taken into account. These are the effects of having a High Priest who has passed through the heavens.

I will now go on to chapter 5: 7 - 9: "Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered; and being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him". I desire to say a word as to two thoughts in this passage. One is, He learned obedience. We must not confound that with the idea

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of learning to obey; we have to learn to obey because we have wills. Such could not be supposed of Christ; His meat was to do the will of His Father; but in His path down here He learned everything which obedience involved. The other point is, "being made perfect". This must be limited to His qualification for entering upon priestly functions. We have the same thought in chapter 2 there He is made perfect as leader of our salvation.

When you come to the application of the passage, "He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him", I understand eternal salvation to be in contrast with temporal deliverance. God effected temporal deliverances for Israel, but now Christ has secured 'eternal' salvation. In their case deliverance was material; for us salvation is in a sense moral -- the emancipation of the soul from all that would hold it from God.

I believe that the Lord was bent upon this in His dealing with the woman of Samaria at the well of Sychar. He says, "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". My thought is, that what the Lord effects for the soul of the Christian, is the communication to him of an entirely new spring, which shall in result emancipate him from the power of all that is of sin in him. This, I think, is seen in His words to the Samaritan woman.

The effect and evidence of sin in man is largely in that the affections go out in all sorts of irregular directions. Christ gives that which shall form and regulate the affections of the soul, in order that they may take the channels of God's appointment. It is in that way that a person is truly emancipated from the law of sin; the secret of liberty lies in the affections.

The Spirit of God in the believer directs the affections into their proper channels, and they flow out

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first to Christ and then to saints. Christ has thus become "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him". The well of water in the believer springs up into eternal life; and the believer is thus not only in the power and result of what Christ has given him, but free of the law of sin and of death.

I would now ask you to pass on to chapter 6: 20. And here it is very interesting to see that the Priest is "the forerunner", who has entered into that which is within the veil. The idea I have of a veil as a figure employed in Scripture is, that it is anything that conceals God. When Christ was here, the fulness of the Godhead was here, but hidden behind the veil of flesh. My impression is that in chapter 6 God's providence is the veil. God is hidden behind His providences. If you attempt to judge of God by His providences you will not have a true idea of Him. I do not doubt for one moment the wisdom of God in His providences; but the providence of God stands in the strongest contrast with the revelation of God; and it would be a great mistake to confound the two thoughts. Now Christ has entered as Forerunner; He has gone within the veil of providences, and we go in, while we accept God's providences: for He can turn these to account in the way of discipline.

I might add this in regard to providences, that they may misguide, if by them you judge of God's thoughts of His people. If you recall the voyage of Paul as narrated in Acts 27, you must see how the providences of God appeared to be all against him. We cannot think for a moment that he was bound in spirit by the providence of God. No; he knew he had access to where the Forerunner had gone, and so he got the mind of God as to the shipwreck and the preservation of all.

I pass on now to chapter 7: 12 and following verses, where we have, that "after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest, who is made, not after the

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law of a carnal commandment, but after the power of an endless life", and again, "And inasmuch as not without an oath he was made priest". And in connection with that I will read verse 4 of Romans 7"Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God".

If you have followed me, you will see the progress we have made in opening up the subject. Christ has become the Author of eternal salvation. Then, as our Forerunner, He has entered within the veil, and so has opened a way for us to go in. Now I would suggest that two further thoughts are brought before us here -- the one is, attachment to the Priest, and the other, that we draw nigh to God by Him. If you have not attachment to the Priest, I doubt if you will have much liberty to draw near to God; and I think that not only is this brought out in Hebrews 7, but that you will find the same idea in Romans 7. The point in both passages is that one system of things has been set aside in the death of Christ: "There is verily a disannulling of the commandment going before", as stated in this chapter, while in Romans 7 you are said to have "become dead to the law, by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God". Of old we have the principle that the death of the high priest ended one order of things; and thus the legal order of things has been ended in the death of Christ, with the intent that you might be attached to Him as risen, to bring forth fruit to God.

He has become Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him, and is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto God by Him, seeing that He ever liveth to make intercession for them. The secret of drawing nigh to God is, that we draw nigh by Him, and

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He ever liveth to make intercession for us that thus we may be freed from anxiety as to the pressure of things here. Christ is attached to me, and I can say that I am attached to the High Priest. I know His ability to sympathise, and that He is the Forerunner, and so I am able to go to God by Him. And being attached to Him, I get support from Him. He concerns Himself about me as a tree of God's planting; and He ever lives to make intercession for us. Thus we see on the one hand the ceaseless interest of Christ in His saints, and on the other hand their attachment of heart to Himself so that they draw nigh by Him.

Before closing I would like to touch on what I regard as the proper function of the Priest, "For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens ... We have such an high priest ... A minister of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man".

When you have come to chapter 7 you have reached the limit of the relations of the Priest to, what I might term, our individual experience here.

Henceforward it is no longer a High Priest having regard to our infirmity; that subject is left, and we are called upon to apprehend the Priest in another light, i.e., in His proper function.

What are we, that it should be said, "Such an high priest became us"? It is, I judge, that the saints are viewed in the light and height of God's calling, and He alone who is "holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens", could properly be High Priest for such, all the offering work having been done. "The law constitutes men high priests, having infirmity; but the word of the swearing of the oath which is after the law, a Son perfected for ever".

In chapter 8 we appropriate Him, "We have such a one high priest". It is not here a question of intercession,

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nor of sympathising. The High Priest is here charged with the service of God; He conducts the company of God's sons, and leads them into the consciousness of the scene where He is. He is the Minister of the holy places, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, and not man. My conviction is that all the service of Christ to us individually as our High Priest is with a view to attach our hearts to Himself. He comes to us in sympathy with us in our circumstances down here, and He thus attaches our hearts to Himself where He is; and having done that He leads us into the sanctuary, and we apprehend Him in His proper priestly function -- Minister of the holy places.

This brings us back to the verses that I read in chapter 2 of the epistle, where He has a worshipping company, in the midst of which He sings praises to God.

May the Lord give us to realise practically what the service of the High Priest is. I would wish that each one might look into the subject prayerfully for himself, so that we might rightly value all the good of the present priestly service of Christ which God has appointed for us. Thus you will get attachment of heart to Himself, and so bring forth fruit to God. It is a great thing to know Him as the Minister of the holy places; it is not only that He serves, but He has put Himself in the midst of the worshipping company. The Sanctifier and the sanctified are all of one, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brethren. I feel how imperfectly I have brought the subject before you, but I hope that you will look at the scriptures we have read, and that God in His grace will give you to understand the great work that He has set Christ apart as Priest to carry out.

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THREE TITLES OF CHRIST

Matthew 21:33 - 46; Matthew 22:1 - 14; Psalm 2

It is very remarkable to see the titles which belong to Christ and to see too how they are interwoven in the gospel, not in the gospel of Matthew simply, for the same thing is found in the other gospels; in John, for instance, you get three names or titles of Christ. The three to which I refer are 'Christ', which is equivalent to Messiah, the one being Greek and the other Hebrew, as you all perhaps know, but the terms are equivalent; then the other two are 'Son of David' and 'Son of man'. Now I want to point out to you the significance of them.

When everything breaks down at the hand of man -- there are certain titles in which Christ is presented to man and everything breaks down on that ground -- God is not baffled, but He accomplishes everything in Christ. Take the second Psalm, for instance, though you must first remember the period taken in by the Psalms. The Psalms were compiled by very many people, and they consist, as you all doubtless know, of five books, in which there is a certain progress. They were written very many years before Christ came, yet the period covered by the Psalms begins really with His rejection, and they close with the establishment of the Kingdom; you get the restoration of Israel and Judah and the establishment of the Kingdom. The books close with the great Hallelujahs consequent upon the establishment of the Kingdom. Here in Psalm 2 we get the rejection of Christ, it commences with that all are found to be in organisation against Jehovah and against His Christ, yet has He set His King upon His holy mount. Then He is not simply 'Messiah' but Jehovah's Son -- "Thou art my Son", and then connections are formed for Him, that is the

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consequence of His rejection by His own people. But I will not dwell long upon that. The second Psalm gives us the thesis or groundwork for very many of the Psalms, in fact, I might almost say for all the Psalms. Now the effect of the presentation of Christ in the flesh was this, "Let us ... cast away their cords from us". Not only the nations but God's own people reject Him. Then in verse 4 you get the response, "the Lord shall have them in derision", etc., in spite of all their disturbance God will accomplish His purpose. There are two things, God sets His King "upon his holy hill of Zion", and at the same time He is declared to be God's Son; it is another light in which He is presented, and then connections are formed for Him. You get part of this Psalm taken up in Revelation 2:18, 26, 27; the title under which He here speaks to the churches -- "Son of God" -- is beautiful taken in connection with what we get in Psalm 2. Christ comes in as the Son of God, and He gives to the overcomer authority over the nations -- it is the new connection formed for the Son of God.

Now I will just revert to what I said as to the three titles -- first you get Christ the anointed; secondly -- Son of God; and then thirdly -- Son of man. Now just look at Matthew 16:13, Jesus asks His disciples, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" Then in verse 16 you get Peter's confession, "Thou art ... the Son of the living God"; then in verse 20 He charges them that they should tell no man that He was "Jesus the Christ"; then again in verse 27 you get Him as Son of man. It was just at the point when the Lord's rejection comes before Him, "Who do men say that I the Son of man am?" Then we have Peter's confession, "Thou art ... the Son of the living God", and immediately upon that the Lord forbids them to say anything more; and judgment comes in consequent upon that. He comes out in a new light and in connection with that the new connections come

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in; that is really what comes before us in these scriptures.

These parables come in in connection with the Lord's coming up to Jerusalem to suffer -- as we have it in the parable the husbandmen said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him and the inheritance shall be ours". In the beginning of this chapter (21) He comes into Jerusalem as the Christ, and He claims the inheritance, the way in which He claimed it was by the testimony, and had they been in intelligence as to the mind of God or as to Scripture they would have been quite contented that He should have had His inheritance. The Lord Jesus Christ comes into Jerusalem under the title of Son of David, and claims the inheritance according to His proper line after the flesh, He claimed what was His properly as after the flesh.

You must take all these chapters in conjunction, so if you will look on to chapter 24: 29, 30, we get "the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory", then in chapter 25: 31 again, "The Son of man shall come in his glory", etc. These two chapters are taken up with the coming of the Son of man, "They shall see the sign of the Son of man", etc., the kingdom of heaven comes in between but still the great subject of the two chapters is the coming of the Son of man; then in chapter 25 in regard of Christendom you have the "Son of man shall ... sit upon the throne of his glory", and all nations are gathered before Him.

Now, my beloved friends, we have two things in these chapters -- Christ entering Jerusalem as the Son of David -- and as such His title was rejected, they disowned Him at once; in chapter 21 from verse 12 onwards the Lord gave a twofold testimony not only by His testimony claiming the inheritance but in the healing of the blind and lame. What I read all these scriptures for is really to prove to you that Christ coming as the "Son of David" His testimony is rejected in spite of the testimony He gave; then

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again in chapters 24 and 25 you get the judgment He executes on the nations and the power and glory that He will establish; in these chapters you get the substance of what we find in Psalm 2.

Now I will take up the two parables, turn to chapter 21: 38, 39, that brings us to the end of God's dealings with the responsibility of the husbandmen; they said, "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and let us seize on his inheritance", now the Heir was God's Son, though presented as Son of David, and they had rejected and refused God's Son. He came to them with adequate testimony and they had refused Him and they were responsible for killing Him -- the Son of God -- that brings everything to an end on that line. This parable is very plain and their own answer to the Lord's question as to what shall be done with those wicked men is, "He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out his vineyard unto other husbandmen".

Now, beloved friends, we will turn to the other parable which brings another thought before us -- chapter 22 -- the first point is it is a similitude of the kingdom of heaven, it fills up the interval between the rejection of Christ and goes on till Christ comes again -- it is a similitude of the kingdom of heaven. There is another thing, too, you do not get anything about husbandmen in this parable; in the previous one they occupy a very conspicuous place, but here all that is seen is God's Son. In spite of all that is contrary God will accomplish everything in His Son -- He will accomplish all in His own Son; it is a marriage supper made and the central figure of it all is the king's son. What is intended to be set forth in this figure is what is true of marriage according to the thought of God -- "For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife". It is Christ entering into connections outside his natural connections with Israel, He has left father and mother and all that, and other connections are formed for Him -- the

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connection of Christ and the church. I am quite aware that it does not come out very plainly but still what you really get in the marriage is a man separated from all his natural connections, that he may form new ones. The first testimony that goes out to the Jew is this, "God has made him, Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" -- that was the apostles' testimony to the Jews, then too there were festivities in connection with His exaltation; the apostle in Acts 2 urges them to repent, it was a time of festivity at the exaltation of Christ -- God had made Him both Lord and Christ; He had made a marriage supper for His Son and they were invited to come in and share His good things. The Jews who had killed God's Son were invited to come in and share His good things. The whole ground of God's dealings was changed, it was no longer a question of His testing the husbandmen, but He sets forth His Son in a scene of festivities, and invites man to partake of the good things -- other connections had been formed for God's Son -- He was separated from the natural kindred.

All Christianity hangs upon the fact that God's Son has been rejected here but accepted up above; Christendom wants to blind the eyes of people as to Christ's rejection -- look at the church steeples they set up, they want to pretend that Christ has been accepted here; but the truth remains that He has been rejected here, and man is invited in to enjoy all that has come in in consequence of His exaltation to the right hand of God. When Christ comes again people will not be invited to come in, for Christ will bring salvation with Him, but now God is inviting people to come in and enjoy all that is consequent upon God having been glorified -- there is forgiveness of sins for man -- and the gift of the Holy Spirit. If Christ is the central figure for God -- it is of all importance, beloved friends, that He should be the central figure for us. Everything now as established

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in Christ is in accordance with and consequent upon the love of God, "Thou art my Son". I ask all here tonight, is God's Son to you what He is to God? Is He your central figure? If we have come into the marriage supper, we have come in at God's invitation, to do honour to God's Son, and He is to be the central and commanding figure in our souls. He has "translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love". Beloved friends, a great many things come in to divert our hearts, and to conflict the ground with the Son of God, but the very ground on which we have come in to the supper is to do honour to His Son.

Now one word as to the wedding garment, verses 8 - 14, the only possible title that we can have to come into the supper to share the festivities is this, that Christ is our righteousness -- there is no other ground on which God could possibly approve us. Abraham will have his part in the world to come because the Lord is his righteousness. The only title we have to enjoy the good things of God is that Christ is our righteousness, it is, as I said before, the only possible ground on which God can approve us. We have no title to be in the kingdom of heaven other than as having Christ for our righteousness; suppose a man should say, 'I am quite fit to go in, I can read chapters and I can take part in divine worship, I do not see any particular need to go through exercise of heart': the wedding garment is a proof of this, that I have gone through exercise of heart, the only ground on which I can come into the kingdom of heaven is as having on an approved righteousness -- and Christ is that righteousness.

Now the servants gathered together all, both bad and good, people come into the outward profession of Christianity, but mark this -- there comes a moment when the King comes in to inspect the guests; that moment is coming. He looks to see the guests and He sees one man who has not on the wedding garment;

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that man is a representative man, the wedding garment was provided for that man but he has not it on. The garment is this -- I have no righteousness of my own, but Christ is my appointed righteousness; there is a way of justification for those who own that they have no righteousness of their own, Christ has been "raised again" for their justification. If a man has not Christ in that sense, he is not fit to be in the kingdom of heaven. The man we get here is a representative of very many more.

Now suppose I have the wedding garment -- Christ as righteousness now, then I can come into all the festivities of that scene, in which Christ is the object and the central figure; He is to be as much an object to your heart as He is to God; He has made Him the central figure; He has formed connections for Him outside of Israel, and He is the only figure in that scene.

Does every heart here rejoice that in spite of the contrariety of all here, Christ has found an adequate object for His own heart. And in that object God has been pleased to establish all the purposes of His will. I see that when Christ was born into this world the announcement of the angels was "on earth peace, good pleasure in men". That song was changed when He came into Jerusalem, it is taken up by the children, but what they sing is this, "Peace in heaven", He is the Object, supreme honour, and there is peace in heaven, and the reason that there is peace in heaven is because He was going to be honoured there, and because He is there, there is peace there. The apprehension in the soul of the place that Christ has is a most wonderful thing. He is coming again in judgment, to establish things in the kingdom according to God; but meantime He is known to us as the Son of God's love, and the church is His fulness -- that is what God has made known to us. We bow to the righteousness of God, and to the sentence of the

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cross, and so we come into the scene of festivity, and what fills that scene is Himself, and He is to be to us what He is to God. He is the Object of the Father's heart, and He is to be that to you and to me.

We have in Christ the wedding garment -- there is no garment of ours that God could approve; everything of you -- every miserable shred of you is to be set aside if Christ is your righteousness, another thing comes in and that is Christ is to be your life, in connection with the "New man ... where there is neither Greek nor Jew ... but Christ is all, and in all".

Only one word more -- it is a solemn thing to think of this Christendom, it will all come under the inspection of the King, and as sure as anything there will be a man there who has not on a wedding garment, "many are called but few are chosen". Oh, to see what is suitable to the King, and to recognise that we are there in no fitness of our own, but as having Christ for righteousness. If I were invited to a feast I should not only try to be in suitability to it all, but my eye would be on the One who is the central object of the feast. Beloved friends, the Son of God is to be the supreme and commanding object of our hearts even down here.

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THE SIGNS OF HIS COMING

Matthew 24:42 to 25: 33

These scriptures show us, beloved friends, that the Lord had the most perfect knowledge of all that would come to pass in His absence; and they all have in view His coming again; these two chapters are taken up entirely with His coming again. The matter is raised by the question as to what should be the 'sign' of His coming. The Lord speaks about His coming with regard to Israel, and then He speaks of what would fill up the interval of His absence. In the latter part of chapter 25 He has come, and then you get what will take place at His coming.

Now what fills up the interval is what I want to speak of tonight; these things that are spoken of here had not really come at the time the Lord was speaking, the kingdom of heaven did not properly begin till the King was sitting in heaven, that is when the Kingdom really began. In chapter 24 we have the responsibility of the servant while the Lord is absent; their faithfulness would be tested by His coming. In all these parables those, too, that I read last night, we find there is a mixture in the kingdom -- the servants gathered all, "both bad and good" -- and here in the parable of the ten virgins, five were wise and five foolish; the Lord predicts the character that the kingdom would assume in the end. In the one case they are tested by the coming of the King to inspect the guests, and in this one by the coming of the Lord. The one raises the question of their suitability to God, here it is more a question of their suitability to the Bridegroom -- to Christ. It is a principle in the word of God that the end of a thing is seen from the very beginning, and the Lord tells them here what character things would

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have in the end. "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened", etc., that is at the close. It has been noticed that the very same virgins that set out in the beginning are those who are found going in at the end, the truth is constantly presented thus in Scripture. I will just refer back for a moment to the parable on which I spoke last night -- then I will speak on this parable, the parable of the ten virgins.

The coming in of the King to see the guests brought out one thing in regard to the man, he had not on the wedding garment; he had never recognised that the judgment of God was upon him, and the man who has that resting upon him cannot stand before God; if you are going to stand before God it must be in virtue of another's having borne that judgment, Christ "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification". I cannot stand before God on the ground of my own fitness, but Christ has given me a place in the presence of God. Now that question had never been raised in that man's soul, he had not on the wedding garment: it is so with thousands and thousands today, they have never realised that it is only another who can give them a place in the presence of God. It is "with the heart man believeth unto righteousness" and it will be so with Israel in the millennium, the Lord must be their righteousness; He gives them a place, as He does us in the presence of God. Christ has glorified God, and raised from the dead, He gives us a place in the presence of God. We have to stand in the righteousness of another; in the parable of the marriage supper they were tested in that way; it is a great thing to know on what ground you stand in the presence of God; I can stand there because Christ is there, if He is in the presence of God in resurrection, I can stand there, too: He has become "the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth".

Now I pass on to this particular parable -- chapter 24.

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We know very well that the Lord left His servants here in the time of his absence, and what comes in between that and His kingdom is the "coming of the Son of man". He comes to take up the kingdom under the name in which He suffered; if He takes that name as suffering it is under that name that he will reign, "the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father"; the truth that is concealed is that He is Son of God, but He takes up the kingdom as the Son of man, because that is the name under which He suffered, it is the kingdom of the Son of Man; we wait for the coming of the Son of man; and it is His absence that gives opportunity in a way to faithfulness or unfaithfulness on the part of the servants, faith comes in in that way, they did not hold down their hands. Now we ought to be occupied as those were who were faithful, in ministering to the needs of His household. If people were to be busybodies, I should not say that they were waiting for the coming of the Son of man; but you are to recognise the presence of His house here, and you seek to minister to that house. We should each seek to be doing that; it may not be in very great ways, but still each in our way we should be seeking to meet the needs of His household. Ecclesiasticism sets to work to trade on His absence, and priest-craft comes in, domineering over the servants and eating and drinking with the drunken. For myself I would very much like to be in the rank and file of those who were seeking to meet the needs of His house. It might not be in any great way, perhaps, but still if it might be said as it was to the church of Philadelphia, "thou hast a little strength"; I would like to be little, and in the company of little people, but those who are seeking to minister "Meat in due season", to His household. I think it might well be an ambition of every soul; and on the other hand I would like to steer clear of everything like priest-craft, that would domineer over the servants; popery is the expression

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of that to a very great extent: they have usurped authority over their fellow-servants.

Now I just pass on to the parable of the virgins -- the great point that comes in in the marriage supper is the man's suitability to the King; it is in reference to God, and that raises the question of righteousness; here, it is more a question of suitability to the Bridegroom. What I understand by a Bridegroom is it points to One who has rights; I do not want to raise a thought as to a bride, but simply of what is to be conveyed in the word 'bridegroom'. Now we recognise that Christ has rights, and He is coming again to take up those rights; the Son of man is coming again to take up the kingdom that He has received by divine appointment. He has not yet come, but He is coming to take up that which belongs to Him by right. We are going out to meet Him, we are going to leave the world and we are going forth to meet the Bridegroom; and that is a point of very great moment as to our attitude of soul. Are you quiescent here, just content to enjoy things here in His absence? Then you are not waiting for the Bridegroom; I would just like to turn you to one passage of scripture to confirm this -- Titus 2:11 - 14; that chapter greatly confirms to me the thought of the bride going forth to meet the Bridegroom; you will find there was the sense of salvation, they were free from God's judgment and the power of Satan, and then there was a certain teaching inherent in grace; what I understand by the 'teaching' of grace is that if you have that in your heart, it must have a corresponding effect upon your practice; and then we get something more, "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ", in spirit and affection you go forth to meet the Bridegroom; now another point -- you are in that sense to be a "peculiar people, zealous of good works", it is that He might have a claim on a people here; that is the proper attitude of Christians --

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you have the teaching, and what is inherent on that is you are "looking for the great God and our Saviour ... who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works".

Now, beloved friends, I come back to the ten virgins -- it did not take long for the mixture to come in -- five were wise, and five were foolish; five went out in the consciousness that only the Spirit could maintain anything like a spiritual testimony here; and with them were five foolish virgins who trusted to their profession. Now if you go forth to meet the Bridegroom you must be in spiritual accordance with the Bridegroom, and the very first idea in a virgin, is one who is uncontaminated by the world; you have to be purified from the world -- that is the first point, then you are in accordance with the Bridegroom; no one could be in touch with Christ except by the Holy Spirit; He is the "Spirit of Christ" and if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His; it is that which puts you in touch with the Bridegroom. Now, beloved friends, I cannot be waiting here for Christ unless I love Him, it must be "the love of Christ that constrains", it is only by the Spirit of Christ that my heart can go forth to the Bridegroom. How can you maintain the testimony if your heart does not go out to Him? He does not care for it at all unless it is the result of affection to Himself; your heart will not go out to Christ except by the Holy Spirit, but if your heart goes out to Him where He is, then you will have something to maintain the testimony down here. I am purified from the world and my heart goes out to Him; I cannot get the full measure of my happiness until He comes, but my heart goes out to Him where He is, and so I await His coming again. Do you think you could be looking for the coming of Christ unless you had a link with Him? If your heart goes out in affection to Him, then you will be looking

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for His coming, and meanwhile He has entered in within the veil for us, and we have the hope that "entereth into that within the veil".

The Bridegroom comes -- there is delay in His coming, and that gives the opportunity for all ten virgins to go to sleep, they become insensible to the coming of the Bridegroom; they fell under the power of the influences here; but there is one thing -- the wise virgins never lost the Spirit, He at least remained with them. Even in the very darkest days of the church's history, the Spirit remained here, there never would have been a revival at all in the church if the Spirit had not remained here. Now we come on to the close -- the cry goes forth, "Behold the Bridegroom" -- the word 'comes' is omitted by the best authorities -- "then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps" -- then there are those who feel that there is no power to maintain a continuous testimony; there was no continuous power to sustain the testimony, they had no oil in their lamps. If there is no outgoing of heart to the Bridegroom, there will be no power to maintain the testimony down here. If you are to be a devoted people down here, it is only affection to Him that can be the spring of that -- the "love of Christ" constraining. Christ came into death to make manifest His love to us, He has not only expressed to us the love of God, but His own love. If you are constrained by His love, it will be very easy for you to be waiting for the Bridegroom down here; and while you are waiting for Him to be seeking to minister to His household. Well, the cry went out, "Behold the Bridegroom", and "they that were ready went in with him to the marriage", their readiness was simply that they had oil in their lamps. I quite admit that the oil is a type of the Spirit, but what marks a person who has the Spirit is affection for Christ. The testimony for Christ must have its own peculiar character, it is the fruit and result of affection for Christ. It will

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be a great day when Christ has His rights here ... Now the Lord goes on to the parable of the talents; He has left talents behind Him, to every man according to their several ability; it is not only the one who had five, or even two, but there is a man who has only one talent; the Lord takes people up outwardly according to their profession. Beloved friends, do not you think if that man had had any sense of the goodness of the Master that he would have traded with His talent? The great point is to have the knowledge of the Master; what would enable us to be faithful is the sense of the grace and goodness of the Master. There can be no fruit except that which is the fruit of affection to Christ; the point is, have we a sufficient sense of the love of Christ? All along our path as Christians here the Lord is bringing before us His love to us; He came into the death in which I was, and I have been buried in His death, in order that I might come on to His own ground, into His place; and His love will eventually bring us into the Father's house. The love of Christ is wonderful, it touches us all along the line, not only just at the beginning, but all along the way; and it is the love of Christ that is the climax, that we might know "the love of the Christ that passeth knowledge".

Beloved friends, I would like to be in the company of those five virgins; I would like to be uncontaminated by the world, and, too, that there might be more outgoing of heart by the Spirit to Christ in His absence; it is not that I do great things, or that I make a testimony, but I am attached to Christ; neither is it that I have any rights here, but the Bridegroom has, so I make my yieldingness known to all men -- the Bridegroom has rights. Man has begun to think that the world belongs to him, and the end of that will be the antichrist, but what the Christian is doing is he is waiting for the one who has rights, the One who has a perfect right to control everything because "He tasted

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death for everything", and we have a link with that One.

May the Lord give us to be faithful to Him, not only virgins, but that we might be strong in the link of affection for the Bridegroom, that we may be 'ready' so that we may go in to the marriage.

How solemn it is to think that when once the door is shut, it will never be opened.

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BLESSING AND CURSE

The relation in which these principles stand to one another, and to man, in Scripture, is a point of deep interest, and may profitably occupy attention for a moment.

When in the thought of building a city and a tower man had shown his purpose to make for himself a centre and name on earth and thus to pursue his own glory, and not God's, then the God of glory called Abraham out of country, kindred and father's house, that is, every association in which a man is naturally, and made known to him His own purpose to bless. Man's purpose was for the time frustrated in the confusion of tongues and the scattering abroad, and God had revealed His own purpose of blessing in the man that answered to His call. The principle of calling became important as showing that God was not in the things out of which He called Abram, or He would not have called him out of them.

The promise made to Abraham was of blessing and inheritance, but the point on which I dwell now is the blessing, which is described in Galatians as "the blessing of Abraham".

Now before inquiring as to what the blessing consisted in, I remark that blessing stands in Scripture as the antithesis to curse, and it is of vital importance to see that God anticipated curse by blessing.

To return to Abraham. The nature of the blessing does not appear to me to come to light until Genesis 15, where we find the statement that Abraham "believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness". In respect of God and of the world to come Abraham was held or estimated for righteous; he was cleared in the eye of God of all reproach that had attached to him in connection with this world. This

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I judge from Romans 4 and Galatians 3 to be clearly the nature of the blessing. Blessing and not curse was in the purpose of God.

We pass on now over a period of four hundred years or more, to the time when the seed of Abraham in the flesh, after having proved the delivering power of God, was tested by law. This was a retrograde movement, and had the children of Israel understood the meaning and effect of it they would have deprecated the testing and claimed the blessing of Abraham. But they had no faith, they knew neither God nor themselves.

The effect of law on fallen man could only be to put him in a worse position than he was in before. He was already under death, now he came under curse, and so far as he himself was concerned hopelessly so.

The next great point in the history of Israel is, I judge, the brazen serpent, when the experience of the wilderness had shown the perverseness and contrariety of the flesh, even in Abraham's seed, as tested under law, and we find here how in divine wisdom the matter is met. Reading it in the light of the New Testament, we see, in the lifting up of the Son of man, the condemnation of sin in the flesh -- the sin is put away with the life to which it attached. The man that was under condemnation went in the condemnation, nothing of the flesh remains in the eye of God's purpose; but God was glorified in the Son of man, and in resurrection another Man brought in -- the last Adam, a life-giving Spirit. What now takes the place of flesh here is the springing well in the believer, the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, thus the curse which the law brought in is gone in the condemnation of the state that was under it, and in the place where it was another man now lives in the power and liberty of the Spirit. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death".

Now, we find very soon after the brazen serpent and the springing well, that God allowed the question of

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the blessing and the curse to be again raised, but this time by the enemy. Balak, king of Moab, proposed to Balaam to curse Israel; and God takes occasion of that to give us a view of His people as in the vision of the Almighty. If the brazen serpent, and the springing well, be borne in mind, it will be apprehended that Balaam saw Israel not as after the flesh, but as in the light of divine purpose, in connection with Christ and the Spirit; and he is unwillingly compelled, to the irritation of Balak, to announce that there is no curse, but that the blessing of Abraham is there. God has not beheld iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel. Jehovah his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. The application of this to our souls is sufficiently simple.

How blessed for saints when they can take account of themselves as no longer in the flesh, dead to sin, but alive to God in the risen Man -- free from curse and condemnation, because no longer in the man that was under it; but enjoying the stability of God's purpose of blessing first made known to Abraham, and then confirmed in his son raised in figure from the dead. It is then that we apprehend the truth of justification, not simply in its application to us as guilty sinners, but as the called according to God's purpose: "whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified". And again, "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us". The man under curse has disappeared, and Christ intercedes for those blessed in Him.

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THE LIFE OF FAITH AND THE DELIVERANCE WHICH ACCOMPANIES IT

Hebrews 11

I would like to draw attention to the life of faith down here, and to the deliverance which is connected with this life of faith as its necessary accompaniment. I shall dwell a little upon the various features of this life as presented here, and upon the deliverance accompanying each feature. I am quite sure that the two things which we have already had before us, namely, association with Christ and the hope of the coming of the Lord, are of all moment in the apprehension of the Christian. It has been said that the coming of the Lord is not as much before the minds of saints as in earlier days, but I cannot say that I think so. It is not perhaps before their minds as a prophetic event, and it may not be so much spoken of, but I believe it may have as much or more place in the hearts of the saints in its moral bearings.

I want now to speak of faith as personified, that is, to look at the various features or expressions of faith recorded in this chapter as though they were all recorded of one person; there are many illustrations of faith, but if you can take them up as if they applied to one person they present one life of faith. What should be expressed in the Christian down here is the life of faith. Faith does not come out now in one and another in the way of some particular testimony, but every testimony finds its place in Christ, and thus every trait of faith is to characterise the Christian. I purpose to dwell upon two or three leading points in the chapter.

The first thing which comes out is a rebuke given to materialistic ideas in regard of the creation; the moral element, the word of God, is introduced. This

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is a day when much is made of physical science, which deals with material things, but the deadly mischief of materialism is that it shuts out the moral element, and thus God. By faith we understand that the worlds were made by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. It is not the consequence of evolution. The faith of God's word as the first cause delivers from materialism.

The next point presented is the first great principle in connection with man in regard to the world to come. On the ground of sacrifice Abel had acceptance with God, he obtained witness that he was righteous. The first trait of faith which characterises the Christian is in that he has the witness that he is righteous with God, and as a consequence of this there is the acceptance of death here; that is the beginning of deliverance. If we are accepted through death, necessarily we have to accept death. How can we righteously live here if we have acceptance for the world to come through death? We have to accept death in this world -- it is the drinking of the bitter waters of Marah. Abel had to experience this in a very bitter way, but if death is in itself bitter, the Son of God has come into it, and the testimony of divine love has made it sweet, and now death has become the way of deliverance.

Enoch prophesied of the coming of the Lord, "the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints". He believed not only in the existence of God but in His being a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. Reward is more than acceptance, and the reward is God Himself. Enoch sought God, and he had the answer to it, that is, he got God Himself. He was not, for God took him, and that is really the portion of the church. There will be a company who seek God, and when the Lord comes they will be with God. Then there is the deliverance that accompanied Enoch's faith; He was not. He disappeared. I wonder if that applies to us. We accept death when we realise the

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meaning of being baptised, but if we "are not" we have evidently got out of sight. We are buried.

We now come to Noah, and you need to bear in mind that we are looking at each example as if all were true of one person. In Noah we get the same person coming as it were into the world after having, as in the case of Enoch, gone to God. Consequently he is occupied with God's work -- the building of the ark. When I come to the application of this to us it raises the question, What are we occupied with? Well, what I do is first to look after myself. I am to take heed to myself and to the doctrine. In so doing I save myself and those that hear me. If we go on this line we shall condemn the world. I believe that judgment is coming on the world, and if occupied with saving myself and others, necessarily in so doing I condemn the world, without having any definite intention as to it. We see thus how deliverance comes in: first, we have accepted death; (2) we have got out of sight; and (3) we are apart from the course of things here. I am thankful to be apart from the current of this world, and as I go on I feel more and more that the only man effective for God here is a Nazarite. He does not come at the things of death; he does not give himself up to earthly joys and proprieties, not even to those things to which he might be naturally entitled.

In Abraham another principle is seen; you get a man who has food for his soul. Before the flood faith is seen in regard to what was very personal to the subjects of it; Abel offered sacrifice; Enoch walked with God; Noah built an ark; but Abraham got light from God as to His own counsel. The promises were the occupation of his soul -- and he embraced them. It is a wonderful thing to have light about divine counsels. All the promises form part of one complete system; they may be given in detail but they are part of one whole, and all are "yea and amen in Christ". The

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revelation of these promises forms the food of the soul, and you can mark the effect of them on the patriarchs, they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. They looked for a city and sought a country, and the necessary accompaniment of their faith was deliverance from this present world, they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. We have both a city, the Jerusalem above, and a country, the heavenly land. The coming of the Lord will bring all these things into display, but faith is already in the light of their existence.

In Isaac and Jacob and Joseph there is the continuity of the line of faith of the promises, but in Moses there is an advance. It is now not merely that there are promises which belonged to the seed of Abraham, but in Israel we see a poor and afflicted people under oppression by the world power down here. Faith not only feeds now upon the promises of God, but will be identified with His suffering people, simply because they are the people of God; and the practical result of that was that Moses got deliverance from the influence of Egypt. That same people of God come out again in a different light as viewed by Rahab; Moses had to do with them as their leader, and consequently in regard to their discipline, while Rahab regarded them as the people of God entering into the land given to them of God, and she proved in a sense a traitor to her country. The truth is that you cannot make a step in the path of faith without getting deliverance. Rahab got a place with the people of God, and she was delivered from patriotism, which is but a human sentiment.

The light of God may, in a certain condition of things down here, warrant the breaking of bonds which, as in patriotism, many would hold sacred. The iniquity of the Amorites was full, and the terror of God had fallen on the land.

Thus we see the importance not merely of one's

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own personal course and experience, but of seeing as did Abraham the range of divine purpose, and on the other hand of being identified with the people of God down here. It is impossible to regard the life of faith in the various traits in which it has come out here in different witnesses without seeing that it is one whole, and that deliverance is the proper accompaniment of each expression of faith.

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READINGS ON PHILIPPIANS, CHAPTERS 1-3

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CHAPTER 1+

This is not strictly a doctrinal epistle, it is more occupied with the mind and spirit of the saints. We do not find in it the unfolding of divine counsel; it supposes people to be in the light of that, and speaks of the experience down here answering to it.

Had anything special called it out? -- Yes, the fellowship of the Philippians with the apostle in the gospel. There was a great contrast between the Philippians and the Corinthians in relation to Paul. One thing that shewed where the Corinthians were spiritually, was their lack of sympathy with the Lord's work; they were too much taken up with themselves and their own importance.

Was not the way in which the Philippians looked at Paul a great mark of their state? -- Yes, and we are tested to a large extent by our appreciation of those who are specially the vessels of God's testimony down here.

Is it because the men are identified with their teaching? -- Yes, with Paul it was remarkably so. Paul does not exactly take the ground of apostle here; he and Timothy were servants or saints.

Is that so that we should not feel what is here to be beyond us? -- Paul was putting himself before the saints as an example, identifying himself with them on what was common ground, so that they might go on with him. Apostles were not very ecclesiastical as far as I can see. God-ward, they had the sense of what was committed to them, but they had much more pleasure in identifying themselves with the saints and

+Notes taken at Greenwich. Revised by F.E.R.

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the saints with them, than in being looked on as a distinct class. It was a trial to them to exercise authority, they had no pleasure in it: "We are glad, when we are weak, and ye are strong". It is so contrary to the spirit of priest-craft, though they had the sense of their responsibility to be faithful and true in what was committed to them. I am certain that the New Testament, including all that was written to the churches, is much less ecclesiastical than we are accustomed to think. We on our part have been affected by habits of thought around us -- all that we have been brought up in. Naturally, we like ecclesiastical form; it is something in the eye of man that can exist apart from the spiritual condition that composes it. It suits man to have something to shew, but it is not the idea of Scripture; this epistle does not fit into it. Yet it recognises church order -- bishops and deacons. I think the point in those offices is not so much of office held, as moral and spiritual qualifications that fitted the holders for them. Christian fellowship is a most important principle in this world; it has its force in a scene where there are contrary elements. I do not think the idea of fellowship would come in if there was nothing to hinder or oppose. The greater the opposition, the stronger the fellowship.

In what way does this epistle follow Ephesians? -- You get the marks in it of a person who has entered into Ephesians, having one object -- the practical setting aside of oneself, having no selfish interests to serve.

Should we have more fellowship if we were more firmly established in the truth of Christ's rejection? -- Yes, and if we felt more the strength of Christian bonds we should be more conscious of the contrariety. Organisation is man's work, fellowship is of the Spirit. The Philippians had ministered to Paul, shewing practically their fellowship in his service and testimony, and what they had done calls forth what the apostle says here.

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Was it that he was pleased that they had fellowship with him, or with the work of God? -- We should lose much, I judge, if we did not apprehend the identification of the apostle with the gospel.

Does not spiritual life in a Christian involve fellowship? -- Yes, I think so. In Old Testament times there was no fellowship exactly, or at all events in a very limited sense, as in Malachi; fellowship came in with the gospel. Christ was rejected, and certain people who believed in Him were bound together in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Christianity has become nationalised, and the idea of fellowship thoroughly lost. That which was national rejected the Holy Spirit, the only true bond of fellowship.

Is not verse 6 sometimes used of people who have been born again to shew they will be brought into the full light of the gospel? -- I do not think it refers exactly to that, for the Philippians were Christians who had made some progress; the expression applies to advanced Christians, and is connected with their going on well. It was a delight to the heart of the apostle to see saints identified with the testimony. Every Israelite was connected with the tent of the testimony, and this is what marked the Philippians. You get the same idea in 2 Timothy: "Be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel". The gospel was not in prosperity then. There had been a time when, in a sense, it was so, as at Ephesus; but now the apostle was bound, and it was the time of the afflictions of the gospel. At Ephesus the power of the testimony seemed to be carrying all before it, but at the time the apostle was now writing the gospel had come into reproach.

Is the reproach known today? -- I think so. The signs and wonders had in measure passed away, and so the advantages to man were in that sense gone. If the Philippians were identified with the suffering, they had the grace, too (verse 7).

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Is the connection in verse 9 that they might understand the state of things? -- I think so; some were preaching Christ out of contention. It supposes a mixed state of things that called for the exercise of spiritual judgment on the part of saints. There are a great many things that seem plausible enough at first sight, but when you get a little deeper you find you cannot go with them. We have to approve the "things that are more excellent"; but love is to abound.

Does this shew that the affections being right is a great matter in testing things? -- Yes; love, or what is often called love, might pass over many things, but in the things of God this cannot be. There must be pure and holy love that does not pass over what is unsuited to God. When you have come to love you have come to what God is, and that is holy love; love is something pleaded as a ground for passing over all kinds of things. You get no enlargement in the love of God till the foundation of righteousness is laid in the soul. If a man talks much about his love to God without a solid foundation of righteousness, I do not believe in it a bit. Love does not want to bring sins into the light of judgment, but it is not indifferent about them.

Verse 7. They had the apostle in their hearts when he was in bonds. I suppose his prayers went up for them, and they were all partakers of his grace. If you are identified with the work of God and those who are carrying it on, you will be partaking of the grace; but it is impossible to define how this works. You could not be in fellowship and contact with the servants without being more or less partakers of their grace. I desire to be in company with those who are in the testimony for the moment, for there is a testimony for the moment, and it is not revivalism! We must admit that the Lord has a mind about things at any given moment. There is something down here, small enough perhaps, but that which meets the mind of the

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Lord, being the fruit of His grace. We need clear knowledge and judgment to discern, for as sure as possible if anything good springs up there will be also imitation; even fellowship can be imitated externally, as in such a thing as Freemasonry.

Verse 10. "Sincere" is, without mixture, pure, unalloyed. It is more difficult now than in that day; the difficulties now are enormous. Things were much more declared in that day; but when Christianity is nationalised, it is far more difficult to judge the path. You are insensibly influenced by what is around -- you cannot help it. We have not persecution, but we are in the greatest possible danger of being demoralised; it is so very easy to drop down to a lower level and to maintain orthodoxy and proprieties. I do not believe one of us is safe from this if not conscious of being in the mind of the Lord for the moment. There is no moment in the history of the professing church as to which the Lord has not revealed His mind.

Verse 13. "My bonds in Christ are manifest". It is beautiful to see that the apostle was vindicated in that way; he was not looked at as being bound as a malefactor. The effect was to give confidence to the brethren. If a man is going on right God will vindicate him, and not allow him to be looked upon as an evil-doer.

Was it that which affected the brethren, so that they preached? -- I think so.

Did it command the respect of men generally? -- Yes. God's testimony must claim and gain attention. The effort to gain attention by revivalism is deplorable. When the truth of the church first came out, it commanded attention much more than at the present day. If God is speaking to man, there is no need for us to make efforts to gain attention, to advertise, placard, etc. It is poor work to use the means that man would use. The Spirit is here to witness for Christ; if in the power of the Spirit, we should attract attention,

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and if not, the less attention we attract the better. It is not a question of what we are, but of the dignity of the message. It is humiliating to think of God being dependent on the means that man would employ to attract attention to his own things. People want something that approves itself to man. If approved of God you are independent of man. Approval you must have, no one in this world can do without it; and if not conscious of God's you will seek man's. Man is not self-supporting. When the Lord was here men could not let Him alone, and it will be the same with us now if we are connected with God's testimony.

Are the "fruits of righteousness" (verse 11) what God has wrought in the saints? -- Yes.

Is righteousness the fruits? -- No, I do not think the expression means that; it is the fruit of righteousness. Everything in the Christian that is agreeable to God is the fruit of righteousness. "Become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness" -- there was no fruit when in bondage to sin. There are certain things that spring from righteousness -- James speaks of it. I think a mistake has been made as to the righteousness of God, as though it could have any application to you apart from a moral effect in you. I do not believe it possible or intended; you must be morally affected by it. A man has nothing to do to be justified, but if I have an appreciation of God's righteousness, while I am justified, the light of God's righteousness must affect me; you cannot divorce the two things. The objective side has been presented to the exclusion of the other. I do not think that is the divine way. God makes His righteousness known that we may know Himself. It is not conceivable that God could come in to make Himself known without our being affected by it; it must become living and operative in us. I am speaking in a certain sense apart from the truth of an indwelling Spirit. When the light of the gospel comes in, making God known,

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a person is affected by what is made known to him. The full effect is that he is set free from sin; then you get the fruit of righteousness. I think God has very great satisfaction in the fruit of righteousness, for He gets it in the very place of sin. Righteousness hardly refers to heaven, but to the place where sin has been; it is to the praise and glory of God. He gives us righteousness; it is a gift, but He gets the fruit. It would be difficult to define the fruit, but God gets it, and it is the expression of a moral triumph where sin had ruled. The idea of fruit in Scripture is, that it is for God.

What does man get? -- Testimony, I should say.

Is it the difference between John 15 and 16? -- Yes. Man gets testimony, God gets fruit; what is fruit to God is profitable for man, but there may sometimes be fruit to God when there is no testimony to man. People are sometimes in circumstances where they cannot render much testimony, yet there may be fruit. I suspect people ought to be more exercised that there should be fruit to God. The producing power of what you get in John 15 is found in John 13 and 14; and what was the fruit? -- Love; that in the midst of a hostile world the disciples of Christ loved one another. The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace; that is fruit to God.

Verses 15, 16. "Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife", etc. Things do not appear to have been very happy at Rome -- I mean as to the way in which the testimony was taken up. Evidently there was an element in the church that was hostile to the apostle: they were "brethren", for he speaks of them as "some" and "others". I think we can understand this in the light of many things that have occurred amongst us. There were those who had other lines, and became animated by other motives. The preaching of the gospel is one of the most difficult things among us; there is a tendency to do it in a way that is compromising

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to the testimony. The apostle wrote to Timothy as to the state of things in his day, that at his first answer he was forsaken of all. He speaks, too, in a very strong way in this epistle: "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping". It is a solemn thing that the most blessed service should be a subject of envy and strife.

Do you think it was the grace of the apostle that made him say Christ was preached? -- I think so; but I do not suppose they preached Christ as he preached Him, but more in connection with Judaism -- a Jewish faction in the church -- man's own will in a certain line. Christ was preached, but there must have been some qualification or dilution of the gospel if preached of envy and strife. The apostle uses two strong expressions: "not sincerely" and "in pretence". You can see now that a great deal of very specious work, which passes with many, comes from motives not quite pure; there is a great deal of activity, and people are often uncommonly active if a little bit twisted. I can understand the Jewish faction at Rome taking the opportunity to bring in legalism, as at the present day. They say, Christ kept the law for you; but if so, you are under law. One sees the sort of place Christ has in such teaching as that; no death and resurrection, no setting aside of man after the flesh. The object, to a large extent, is to make room for clergy; but the truth is, Christians are priests only as risen with Christ. It has interested me that the attestation of priesthood was the budding of Aaron's rod -- resurrection -- and if you are sons of Aaron you too must be of that order. I think verse 18 has been used to keep people a little in bondage -- that if Christ is preached you must accept the preaching. The motives from which the preaching sprang could not have given Paul satisfaction; if a testimony to Christ, it must have been very low down. I do not suppose they testified very much that the first man had gone in

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judgment, or to Christ crucified, and the gift of the Spirit. If the first man is gone, you must evidently be on new ground before God, and the only proper answer to the first man being gone, is that you receive the Spirit of another Man, the Spirit of God's Son; but then you cannot put God's Son under law. But the point is to observe the way in which the apostle rises above all; he knows that it will turn to his salvation. God gave him compensation.

Was it deliverance from prison? -- I do not think so; it was more like, "The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work", etc. There was present compensation in the supply of the Spirit. We cannot compare ourselves to the apostle; he stood alone with all the power of evil against him. If you or I fail it is in a sense a small matter (though it matters very much to ourselves), but if the power of evil could have brought down the apostle and made him deny the testimony, or come down to a lower level, the testimony would have been most seriously compromised; so salvation in his case meant a great deal. In his own mind he never severed himself from the gospel, he stood or fell with it.

Was it his desire, that in the circumstances in which he was placed, he might comport himself as Christ would have done? -- Exactly! His desire was for the reproduction of Jesus Christ in himself (verse 20); that Man was to be displayed in him. That was what was verified in the apostle. There is a good bit of rivalry in preaching the gospel, but God may use it. If I saw things carried on in that way I would rather retire from the field. The Lord retired under certain circumstances into a desolate place, a mountain, the desert. The servant ought to be in the background, he ought to retire. And I think if you retire, possibly the Lord may open a door to you, and a door opened by the Lord is worth any amount of doors you can open for yourself. It is a wonderful thing to think of Christ

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being magnified in the apostle's body. There, where the first man had been exhibited in all his crookedness and contrariety, Christ was to be magnified. I think the important thing in this world is moral power; profession, or pretension, will sooner or later come down. And I do not believe there is any moral power for us outside of Christ. The moral power in the apostle was the Christ in him. If a man has moral power there is no questioning it; the world may hate it, but cannot deny it. I should suppose that moral power in the Christian comes out in complete superiority to every influence here -- it was so in the apostle.

How would you say moral power is gained? -- By company with Christ. It was when Moses had been in the mount that his face shone. One is in such constant danger of being affected by the influences around. You want to go on easily with people. I do not like having to take a separate line; but what one wants is moral power to take a right course, whatever course other people take. Doctrine has not power except in the sense of its giving light. The influence of a person is beyond calculation for good or evil. You cannot describe it, reason could never understand it. You get the secret of it in the apostle -- he had nothing to gain by living; to die was gain, but to him to live was Christ; others could gain by his living, and so he elects to live; no doubt the Lord decided it. You can rest easy about things, you need not try to compass them. Abraham had in taking Hagar a right object in view -- he was to have a son, and he himself set to bring it about. This is a great danger amongst us; it shews restlessness of spirit. It was of God that Israel should be delivered, but it was not right for Moses to kill the Egyptian; it effected nothing. God let the enemy rush into ruin. There was, however, a very much more serious question as to Israel. When the Lord was here, He came to save His people from their sins. They would have liked to be saved from the Romans,

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but to save them from their sins was much more important; and so when He comes again it will be to turn away ungodliness from Jacob. This is God's covenant with them when He takes away their sins. Moses thought the point was the Egyptian, but God had other things to teach His people; there was the passover to be kept; if the judgment of God had not been held back by the blood, the Israelites would have suffered as much as the Egyptians.

"According to my earnest expectation and my hope". There was no pretension about the apostle -- he was so simple and natural; he never speaks in an inflated way; his words are not the language of self-confidence. The Philippians were a company to whom he could let out his heart. The gospel was a special bond between himself and them, and he greatly appreciated their fellowship. They looked upon the apostle as set for the defence of the gospel, and they were with him in spirit; it bound them together in a special bond. I think the same thing may be found now; a meeting may be going on happily in Christian fellowship, but there would also be special sympathy with and regard for those bound up with the testimony. The real standard with Paul was the testimony, and hence his anxiety that there should be nothing in the vessel that should in any way discredit the testimony. It would be a great thing if we all had that in view, in all things approving ourselves. I suppose he is speaking here pretty much in a levitical character, not perhaps exactly as an apostle. Shut up in prison, his apostolic service was in a certain sense over as to activity. You get apostleship in the unfolding of doctrine, but in Philippians the pre-eminent thought is not doctrine, but experience; and so the apostle does not speak so much in that light, but rather as a servant to and pattern of the saints. So he determines to remain for their furtherance and joy of faith; he could serve them better by remaining than by departing. The gospel

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was to be the standard for their walk as well as for his, "Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ". Dying, for the apostle, meant his complete release from the whole weight and pressure under which he was here -- as he says, "The time of my release is come"; but in consideration for the saints he elects to stay and continue to serve, he rejoices in that which is not advantageous to himself. It is interesting in this epistle to see it is not simply common Christian fellowship that is in view, but the gospel looked at as a special bond of fellowship.

Did that include any special testimony? -- I think so, for the testimony at any particular time is the gospel in some form. The tabernacle of witness never changed, but its position was shifted continually; a point of great moment to us. The place of testimony is changed, and you have to see what is that place. The circumstances in which the testimony is are always changing, and you want to observe the location of the tent, the attendant circumstances in which the testimony has to be rendered. The special terms and setting of the testimony a hundred years ago would hardly suit today; the location is different. "Striving together for the faith of the gospel" is identified with it: one heart and one soul, no divergence, nothing of this emulation coming in, but an unbroken front. I think you must present the truth with regard to the particular circumstances of the moment. I do not doubt, if we had skill enough to use it, we should see how perfectly the testimony meets the errors of the present day. If you cannot use it so, it is because you have not got sufficient hold of it yourself.

Do you think in other circumstances the apostle would have said, "To die is gain"? -- Well, I do not know that he would have said the same when at Ephesus. I think he apprehended that his active service was closed, and it was the suffering part now. He was tested in every possible way -- in the activity

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of his service, and in the suffering -- and he answered to every test. He could say at the close, "I have fought a good fight", and on that ground could claim a crown of righteousness.

CHAPTER 2

In this chapter the principles of life and death are the great point. In one sense we die out of sight, but it is that we may come out in another light altogether, in another colour; not that people could understand it. It is not here a question of a Christian's everyday life and duties, but of his testimony. Everyday life has to be carried on, and we have to take up a variety of things down here. But that is not the point of this chapter -- it is not even like Romans, where the ordering of the world is recognised; but it is the testimony of the Christian, the principles of which are death and life. You die out in obedience, but you work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and the effect is that you come out in a new colour, holding forth the word of life -- the testimony. If I wanted to find out what a Christian is to be in his everyday life among men, I should hardly look to Philippians for it, but rather to Romans; but if I wanted to know what a Christian should be as dead to the world, I should turn to Philippians. You would not come out in this way unless you had learned something of Romans. It is the practical getting out of sight. In Romans it is a question, to a large extent, of deliverance from sin; but it goes further here -- it is coming out in a new way, "blameless and harmless" as children of God.

Is it collective? -- Yes, I think so. The point of the apostle is, while recognising the great encouragement he had had from the Philippians, that they should complete his joy, that there should be complete oneness; it is, I judge, the idea of collective testimony.

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Why is it "as lights"? -- I think the work ought to come out in every one, but if you want to carry it into effect in its fulness you must see to your relations one towards another. I am certain that in our day individual testimony has been made too much of. You can understand that in the great professing systems, what we call collective testimony is impossible. There are individual Christians mixed up in all sorts of unsuitable things, but there is no such thing as collective testimony, and so the idea of it is not realised.

Is the maintenance of unity essential to it? -- There could be no collective testimony without it. At Philippi there was a little jarring, not complete unity, and so Paul says, "Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like-minded". I see three points in John's gospel: (1) Life, which is individual, and connects itself with the wilderness; it begins there; (2) Unity; (3) Fruit. Up to chapter 6 it is all life, but not out of the wilderness -- the bread, the manna; but in chapter 10 the point is unity: one flock, one Shepherd. Then chapter 15 is fruit, which connects itself with this chapter; it is what you get here. In order for fruit there must be unity; if anything interferes with that, there will not be fruit. Fruit is the evidence of life, it is the spontaneous product of life in healthy conditions. As surely as possible in a tree, if there be life in a healthy condition, fruit is the spontaneous product; but you may be sure of this, if not of one mind there will not be much fruit -- there is a hindrance to affection. Still, what comes out is, that you have to get out of sight as to all you are in your own eyes, and that is not so easy; for there is not one of us but attaches a certain importance to himself -- you are something in your own eye. But all that has to go, and that is why Christ is brought in, for whether in the form of God or the form of a servant, He made nothing of Himself if one may venture to say it of Him. It is very humiliating for a man to be nothing in his own eyes.

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If the Christian had not the consciousness of being something for God, he could not be nothing in his own eyes. The Lord was conscious of what He was to God.

Is the Lord brought forward as a pattern? -- I think so, to shew the mind; not exactly the mind that was in Him, but which is in Him -- it is characteristic. It goes right back to what He was in the form of God; but the mind is not altered.

Is it in principle, "I am meek and lowly in heart"? -- Quite so; it is part of His perfection the moment He comes into man's place: all that is beautiful and perfect in the eye of God is seen in Him; it is moral perfection in man. It is the adaptation of what is properly divine to the place of man. He brought it into man; He got nothing from man. I suppose these allusions in verse 1 are to what the apostle had experienced from the Philippians in their ministry to him; but evidently what he sought now from them was perfect oneness, which involved one mind, and that the mind of Christ. He had great joy in them, but he wanted it to be completed. It was great delicacy to take occasion of their grace to intimate what was lacking. There is the fullest possible recognition of what he had experienced from them. He could count on their receiving what he said, for there was real attachment of heart to him on the part of the Philippians. I do not remember that he uses the expression "My beloved brethren" elsewhere. I think there is more real freedom of utterance in Philippians than in any other epistle; Timothy is the only one like it. There was no restraint on the apostle's part, he was so at home with them. I do not think that people could ever be content to go out of sight if they did not apprehend what is in Christ; it is only His mind that would put you out. It is not effort; effort brings you more into sight. Trying to be humble is poor work.

I suppose this (verses 6 - 8) is the most remarkable statement with regard to Christ and the incarnation

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that you find in Scripture, if you take in the whole extent of it. You get the facts elsewhere, but looking at it as the mind that was in Christ, you do not get any other such complete statement. The great point of it is, the purpose of mind. It is not the mind in the sense in which we commonly understand it -- the thinking faculty -- but the purpose.

Is his exhortation that this should be the settled purpose of their souls? -- I think so. It brings in enlargement of heart; you look not on your own things only, but on the things of others. There is not one of us but needs the word, for everything around tends to narrow us up here. As regards ourselves, we have not really anything to surrender. If a man estimates himself at his true value, what has he to surrender? Nothing, for he himself is under death. What has a man to give up when he has death on him? He is but a life-tenant as to all he has. It may seem a great deal to give up, but in result it gives you up. Now with the Lord, it was totally different; it was with Him a question of obedience, of divine grace, which brought Him into our place. He surrenders all in that sense: He had something to give up. There were two great steps in His path: one, when in the form of God, the other, when in the form of man. He emptied Himself, and then as man He humbled Himself and became obedient. I think it is His mind, in contrast with the act of mind in the first man, who coveted to be equal with God. Then you get what is more positive -- taking a servant's form, and becoming in the likeness of men. One side was the making Himself of no account or reputation, the other, the form assumed. I have a dislike to the word 'emptied' -- though it may be a literal rendering -- because it brings in the thought of emptying of something, which is not the idea. The act of mind of Adam did not give Adam anything; it was the act that gained him something. With Adam act of mind, the object of rapine, was to be equal with

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God; but in contrast to that, Christ emptied Himself. The only other place in which the verb rendered 'emptied' is used in the active is: "that any man should make my glorying void". The revised translation of verse 7 may be called a paraphrase, but that it conveys the sense I have no doubt.

But was it not the estate that was given up? -- That is not the statement; it was an act of mind: "I come to do thy will". It is the setting of the one act of mind against the other act of mind. (See Psalm 40:7, 8.) Christ takes that place: the act of mind was the greatest possible proof of His divinity, and it comes out in what He does; He takes a servant's form and the likeness of men.

Then you do not put it as positive till you reach that point? -- No, the emptying was no positive act, but an act of mind that led to the positive act -- the taking the body prepared for Him, the servant's form, the likeness of men. It is in connection with His being in the form of God that He makes nothing of Himself and becomes a man. It is the act of mind put in contrast with the mind of Adam in aspiring to be equal with God. The overt act comes out in taking the servant's form; with Adam it came out in taking the fruit. "Thought it not robbery to be equal with God". He did not think it an object to be snatched at; it is a contrast to Adam. Then comes the overt act -- He takes the body prepared: "the likeness of men" is explanatory. The second great step is, that having become man He humbled Himself. He had everything to surrender as man. All belonged to Him as man just as all had belonged to Him as God, yet He humbled Himself, it was the most complete self-abnegation; though He was rich, for our sakes He became poor. All the promises belonged to Him as man, though He could not take up anything, for He would have taken it alone. Redemption was an absolute necessity if any one was to be with Him. It is not the atoning efficacy,

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but the measure of His obedience. Once He entered on that path, it was humility and obedience that characterised Him. He could not go lower than to be made a curse -- it was impossible.

Is not disobedience always assumption? -- Yes, always, for it is the assertion of will and that with the creature must always be assumption. Voluntary humility is not set upon doing the will of God, it is not humility at all.

Is it your thought that we should recognise what He is in the unity of the Godhead? -- Yes. He must have been a divine Person to empty Himself. You cannot have everything turned upside down, God must be God and man man; but, nevertheless, a divine person comes to do the will of God, and takes the body prepared for Him, but God remains.

Do I understand that you limit the act of mind to the one verse? -- The taking a servant's form is more than an act of mind. He takes a body, it is an actual fact. He is in the form of a servant, and the likeness of men; but then, it is not simply taking the form, but accompanying the taking of the form is the act of mind suitable. It is not simply a divine Person in that form and place, but in everything suited to that place, because the act of mind was there; not merely a divine Person in a body, but all moral perfection as suited to that place; that is what I understand by the act of mind. Then He goes as low as He can, and the answer is, God hath highly exalted Him. God is in the place of God still, it is only God who can exalt. He is exalted as man, the place He has taken for eternity.

"And given him a name which is above every name". Renown is the idea of "a name" to me -- what is set forth in a man. We say a man has got a name -- that is, renown. What God sets forth in a man is that man's renown. God called Abram, Abraham; his renown is that he is the father of a multitude. So "Isaac" --

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laughter, that is what was set forth in him. If God gives a name, it is the renown God gives. "My new name" is not the literal name of Jesus, but the renown attaching to Him; all that God sets forth in Him is included in His name. I think 'Lord' is too definite as to name; it is whatever God has seen fit to set forth in Him that constitutes His name -- Lord, Saviour, Jesus. Peter says to Cornelius that it was He who was ordained of God to be judge of quick and dead; that is covered by His 'name', and through His name whoever believed shall receive forgiveness of sins. 'Name' on the part of God indicates the way in which He sees fit to be known; but in its application to a man, it is what God sets forth in that man. It is not a question of a proper name, as 'Jesus', but the renown that belongs to the man by the ordering and appointment of God; the One who bears the name of Jesus has such renown. It is to the glory of God the Father.

It is a great thing to apprehend that before honour is humility. Christ came into the place of humiliation. It is a great thing for us to accept humbling, and it is a mercy from God if we are not allowed to be anything great in this world. The higher up a man is in the world the more difficult it is for him to come down. J.N.D. used to say that the only good of position was the privilege of giving it up for Christ. The same principle of humbling in obedience comes out in the Christian, but it comes out in testimony down here; and I am sure that if people do not give up in spirit what attaches to them and tends to make them conspicuous in the world, there will not be much testimony. I do not want to abolish social distinctions, but I speak of the spirit of the Christian. If one is of any account in one's own eyes there is a hindrance to testimony. In that sense, if we do not humble ourselves we may be humbled, or we shall fall out of the ranks, and in that case there is not really the acceptance of death,

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the mind of Christ. Lowliness is the way of unity. If the flock is following the shepherd, the eyes of the flock are upon Him, and that is the only way to get unity. "Let this mind be in you"; there is no unity if our eyes are upon one another. If my eye is on you and yours on me we shall see the weak points in each other, and we shall not get on that way. We look too much at each other. It is impossible but that there will be things calling for forbearance in one another. Honestly I can say, I would not like everybody to be like myself. I am sure that people have to forbear with me, and the same thing comes in with all. The mind that is in Christ Jesus is what we need.

What do you mean by falling out of the ranks? -- The ranks of testimony. I have seen a good many do it; they do not cease to be Christians, but they are not in the ranks. I quite admit there is not much testimony in these days, but to say there is none would be to cast a great slur upon what the Spirit of God has been working in this century. It is out of that testimony that many have fallen; they have not been prepared to surrender worldly advantage; they were people of a certain status, and that had much to do with the late defection. If you are not prepared to surrender worldly status, you will have little entrance into the purpose of God. You must be prepared to accept death, and there comes a moment when that is put to the test, and people do not always answer to the test; but I do not unchristianise a person on that account. The ground of salvation, as far as I understand it, is that the grace of God has come to man where he is. But there is another side of truth, and that is, man going to God. It is perfectly plain to me they are two distinct things -- God coming to man, and man going to God. Man cannot go to God in his own importance; he has to give all up, it is the first step. I believe the apprehension of the cross in its moral bearing is the first step, and then the drinking the bitter waters of

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Marah. I doubt if they are really drunk until the truth of the cross, in the aspect of the brazen serpent, is apprehended. The brazen serpent to Israel has its antitype in the preaching of the cross; man's state has been condemned in the cross to God's glory, that God might impart the Spirit to man, might thus form him in a new state. It is the purpose side of the gospel -- a side which few are prepared to accept.

"Work out your own salvation"; it is working it out in result.

Is it in view of the apostle's absence? -- Yes, he had guarded them as long as he was with them. The way to work our salvation out is to come out in the true colour of testimony. A man must emancipate himself from every hindrance, so that he comes out in the true colour of Christ -- blameless, harmless, lights in the world, and all this with fear and trembling. If you know anything of the world, and of what you yourself are, the effect must be to produce fear and trembling. I should not be afraid of anything in the world if I had not got the answer to it in myself; that necessitates fear and trembling. A general who underrates the importance and strength of the enemy is not a good one. Many a Christian does very well in adversity, but does not shine in prosperity. The snare of prosperity is where a great many fall. Then I think the fear and trembling is dependent on what comes after -- that it is God that works in you. If any one has a sense of that, it will produce fear and trembling lest one should interfere with the work of God. There is no unfolding of doctrine to my knowledge in Philippians. It has often been said to be the counterpoise to Ephesians which gives you the doctrine. If really instructed in Ephesians, this is the character in which you would come out down here. It presents what a person is, not what he says: he shines; a light is a moral idea. "Holding forth" would be testimony, but not exactly preaching. It is what comes out in the

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saints; light and life go together, it is the light of life. The disciples were the vessels of testimony collectively. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". The church was that corporately; it was God's vessel of testimony down here.

Before we proceed further, I would like to ask what rendering you were referring to in answering the questions put as to verse 7? -- "Made himself of no reputation" is what I spoke of as right. "Emptied himself" has sometimes been spoken of as though it meant emptied Himself of something, and it does not mean that, but that He made Himself of no account. I believe the old rendering gives the true idea. If you want literality, it is "emptied himself"; but then a thought is suggested to our minds of what is not implied. I have a conviction that the translators had a sense of the difficulty which made them render it as they did. What the emptying took form in was in assuming the servant's form; the thought took shape in that way. He took something upon Him -- that is not divesting Himself.

When you say 'act of mind', you mean that He was minded to do something, and He did it? -- Yes, as in Psalm 40 He says, "I come to do thy will", before ever He takes the place of man.

Is the state of the believer what is spoken of here? -- Yes; I do not know any scripture in the New Testament in which the state of the believer is not the subject. If light is brought in, the object of bringing it in is in reference to the Christian's state. It is remarkable, as we saw in Ephesians (chapters 1 - 3), that the apostle brings in as much light as he can; when he can bring in no more he sets to work to pray. You put the truth before people in a lecture, and at the close, when you can go no further, you pray about their state. You cannot touch their state. I cannot affect your state nor you mine. I might bring light to you,

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but we cannot affect one another's state; no one but the Spirit of God can do that. We cannot go beyond instructing, but that is not exactly divine teaching. Every bit of light I get in any way, the Spirit of God uses in reference to my state. His purpose is to use it to affect me as to my state; it is not simply light mentally, but it is to affect my relations with God and the saints.

And I suppose unless it does have that effect, we do not get much more.

In that sense, to get increased light is a serious thing, for it raises the question, How is it going to affect you? If not, it is only the knowledge that puffeth up. A man may be inflated by the great knowledge he has of Scripture. I do not think any light comes in in Scripture that has not reference to, or at all events a bearing on our state. What might seem to be otherwise, that is, the whole scope of divine counsels, is all opened up in reference to the state of the Christian. The apostle prays (Ephesians 3) that they "may be able to comprehend", etc. The great spirit of the prayer is that they might be filled to all the fulness of God -- that is state; the idea is that there might be an adequate presentation of God in the saints. Here it is the same kind of thought -- God is the One who works in you to will and to do of His good pleasure. The Lord says: "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart". I think the law was looked at as the expression of the good pleasure of God as regards man. The great point of God's working in us is, that it becomes liberty to do God's will. God works in you to will, not simply to do -- this is liberty; it would be servile or legal otherwise. It shows that God's purpose is according to His good pleasure; He works that Christians may be here for His good pleasure. It is an immense recovery for God that in the scene where the will of God has been contested we are to be here

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for His good pleasure: "On earth peace, good pleasure in men". It is what has come to pass down here. The good pleasure of God cannot be in His people if they do not answer to the light of His purpose. You will not be for His good pleasure if you only take the ground of a justified person down here; you would not have the consciousness of His pleasure, and you could not be for it without having the consciousness of it.

Is it in connection with the "working out"? -- Yes, you come out in the light of God's purpose; no will of your own, but His good pleasure. You cannot now have anything, any testimony short of Christ; no testimony short of Christ could suit God. In Old Testament times it might be; but once Christ has been here under the eye of God, He will not put up with anything in character inferior -- everything must be according to Christ: "righteous, even as he is righteous". Take Ephesus: no church testimony suited afterwards. The warning to Ephesus was, He would take their candlestick out of its place; if not according to Christ He would remove the testimony. It was not up to the mark, according to the mind of God. It is clear, if God has replaced the first man by the Second, no other will do. It is a most solemn consideration to my mind that Christ has actually been here under the eye of God, and if Christians do not answer to that they are nowhere, and so the threat comes to Ephesus, "I will remove thy candlestick out of his place", and there is no more mention of any candlestick in the other churches. Why is all the infidelity that exists in Christendom? Because there is not the presentation of Christ in the church; if there were, you would not have infidelity, the presentation would be unanswerable. You might have plenty of hatred, but not infidelity in the Christian sphere itself; man would have to own its power. But you have not the presentation of Christ in Christians. When the church

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failed in that way, God would not let them any longer have miracles. I do not think God will use Christians largely now to convert the heathen, because there is no testimony in the house; it is a corrupted Christianity. In Philippians we do see Christ in the saints, "blameless and harmless ... holding forth the word of life".

Why is it the "word of life"? -- All the truth which Christians had was a testimony of life; you cannot hold forth the word of life except as you are in life.

The apostles were told to preach "all the words of this life". -- Yes, because they were up to it. When the Lord preached the glad tidings of the kingdom, He did not tell people about the kingdom, but He presented that in which it consists; and so it is now. Mere statement is nothing; you may have statement and really present nothing at all. "Holding forth" really implied that the whole company were in the light of life, they were a candlestick.

Are they looked at collectively -- "children of God"? -- You do not see the children of God individually, you only appreciate them through their love one to another. How can you know them else? If that does not exist, I do not think there is much light. The one injunction of the Lord was, "that ye love one another"; that was to be their testimony. He put no burden upon them beyond that. If you had a company in G -- --, or L -- --, who loved one another as Christ has loved them, you would never have a bit of trouble, nor a case of discipline.

You were saying the pathway of the Christian is one of obscurity; how do you reconcile that with being lights in the world? -- Well, it would be like the Lord; He went and hid Himself, but He could not be hid. People will not leave those who have the truth alone; and if we were more effectively a testimony to Christ down here, they would not let us alone. The Philippians were quite an obscure company. The apostle

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speaks elsewhere of their deep poverty, yet they were lights in the world; there was no light at Philippi outside them. What would be the use of Scripture in the world without the company? Men had the preaching of the gospel before they had the New Testament scripture -- a living setting forth of the truth. The scripture became the security of the company. The "holding forth" was by the company. The word of God is living, but it is seen to be living when it comes in contact with man, when it is lighting a man's soul; it is not living between the pages of the book -- that is the letter. If we get into the light of divine purpose the effect is we love one another, as Christ loved us; that is first love.

Did the Ephesians ever get back? -- There is never corporate recovery in Scripture. Israel never got back to the first estate, but when Christ came there was a remnant; the effect of grace was moral, and in a few, not national. I think one would give up much to be found among a remnant in the light of divine purpose; that is the company I should like to be with. It is proved by the promises to the overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 that the church as a whole never gets back to its first state, the overcomer always has to pull against the stream. Even in Philadelphia there is the promise to the overcomer. The general tendency is invariably to decline.

What is the preservative? -- Well, I think you have to recognise the individuality of the overcomer; to look to yourself, not to other people; to be careful not to find fault with anyone else, but to take care of yourself, and yet not to get into the spirit of Elijah -- "I am left alone". God's answer was: "I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal". This was a rebuke to Elijah, for he ought to have known something about them. Yet he was a wonderful man, but I think a little too much self-occupied. He was legal, and in a kind

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of way his mission demanded that he should be, for his mission was to recall the people to allegiance to Jehovah and the law, and when that failed he was disappointed, and went to mount Horeb to give the law back into the hand of God. Then God comes to him, and shows him that what he would have been well pleased to see, was not that which would effect anything for Israel; the still small voice did that. Grace could do more than law. The attempt to recall people to what they have departed from will not affect them, the only hope is to present to them the grace of God.

"The day of Christ". Christ's day is pretty much in contrast to man's day. You may labour in view of man or in view of Christ. Which man have you in view? Paul's object all through his course was to present every man perfect in Christ. Christ was his standard, not man. It is astonishing how much we are affected by man, and very likely it is because we know so little about Christ.

Are you referring to service only? -- Yes, service is to a large extent done in view of man, the approval of man is courted. This is not consistent with true devotedness. We do not see how completely the first man has been superseded. A vast number of people can talk about the setting aside of the first man at the cross, but know little about the Man who has superseded him. If self is set aside it is that the ground may be occupied by Christ; He displaced man to make room for Himself in man's heart. If I affect you it is by the light of Christ that is in me. In worldly Christianity the same thing that makes a man a priest, according to man, would make him a political leader -- it is the love of influencing men; but with the Christian the object is totally different. We do affect one another, but it is by the light of Christ in us, if going on with God. I should fear to get any natural influence over others. If going on with God, we rightly have

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influence over His people for good, without thinking of or wishing for it. If going on yourself; you will be thankful to carry others on with you; but whether they go on or not, you go on. The apostle would go on; if others went on with him he was rejoiced, but in any case he went on. In the present day there are men with very marked and strong individualities, and with it a tendency to hero-worship. It is all human and fleshly; there may be light underneath, but as to the outward thing it is all the first man. What came down from heaven was "blameless and harmless". That is what Christ was. It is the exemplification of Christ in the saints. It is not that which would fit you to shine in the world in a natural way.

Another thing comes out: perfect obedience -- no will. It is what was seen in Christ; all the grace of it -- the frankincense -- was for God. How divine the Scripture is! We have the beautiful picture of the meat-offering long before Christ was seen. Perfect purity, anointed with oil, dried or baked, nothing of human moisture in it.

We see the traits of Christ coming out in the saints in what follows to the end of the chapter. Epaphroditus was full of heaviness because the Philippians had heard that he had been sick. The same thing is seen in the apostle -- he was content to follow in the path of Christ, was ready to be poured out; he made himself of no account so that he could do the will of God. It was not that he had not rights, but if he had he made no account of them. Do you not think we greatly fail in that because we do not see the church as the vessel for the setting forth of Christ? Eve was taken from Adam to be the fulness of Adam, so the church was taken from Christ, and is His fulness. It is very beautiful to see all this grace coming out in individuals; Timothy, too, anxious about their state, the only one like-minded with the apostle. He must

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have been a great comfort to Paul, yet the latter sends his comforter away. Then, too, the rejoicing on the part of the Philippians in seeing Epaphroditus again would mitigate the apostle's sorrow in parting with him; these are all traits of Christ. What is Christianity without divine affections? It is worse than Judaism -- a greater pretension to light.

I think it is so important to see that the way we get everything is not simply by the Spirit's indwelling, but by the Spirit's work. A state is produced by the Spirit, and that state capacitates you for enjoyment of what is of God, and that is more than the mere fact of the indwelling of the Spirit; you enjoy things by the Spirit's work. He is bent on forming Christ in the Christian, and according to the measure of the Spirit's work, you enjoy.

Is it God's education? -- Yes, as I might educate my child for the enjoyment of the station in life in which he is set. Your power for enjoyment is that in which you have been formed by the Spirit. It is as in the divine nature that you enter into all that belongs to you. Thus your enjoyment is not apart from the Spirit, nor is the Spirit apart from you. You are in the Spirit. The Galatians had but little enjoyment, because there was so little of the Spirit's work in them; so, too, in the Corinthians. Romans 8 shows that in principle we have everything in the Spirit; but you do not see much in the chapter of the Spirit's work in you. It is witness, and cries, and groanings. "You hath he quickened" is a different thing, and presents the result and completeness of God's work in the believer.

CHAPTER 3

This chapter is very important, for it gives the true character of the circumcision, the proper moral characteristics. The apostle makes nothing of what

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was external. Circumcision was nothing in itself -- the value of it was in spirit, not in letter; and you get here the marks of true circumcision. It meant the putting off of the flesh. God said, as it were, to Abraham, I will have you, but not the flesh. The true character of circumcision comes out in the Christian, because the power has come in practically to set the flesh aside. Circumcision was necessary for the entering into and enjoyment of relationship with God.

Why does the apostle say he might have confidence in the flesh? -- He meant that he had something he might boast in: his antecedents. He was not a common man; he had a great many distinctions.

What is the hindrance to the Spirit's work? -- A short answer, but perhaps not a very intelligible one, would be, "The flesh". The will comes in, lust in some form or shape, and the Christian needs to be exercised about it. The Spirit has only one direction in which to lead us -- He would continually lead us to Christ.

In looking at the epistles, we are greatly helped if we distinguish between the aspects in which the apostle commonly looks at the saints. He speaks to them either as partakers in the common privileges of Christianity, or on the ground of their individuality and their responsible path. The truth is presented largely in that way in Romans and Corinthians; but in other epistles, as Ephesians and Colossians, the saints are viewed as possessing certain Christian privileges in common. In this chapter (Philippians 3) the constant use of "I" -- the way in which the apostle puts himself forward -- simply means that he is pressing things in the light of individuality. This epistle does not unfold our privileges, there is nothing about our being quickened together with Christ, etc. It presents more the character in which we are to be known in our relations one with another.

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What about verse 3, "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit", etc.? -- I do not think that is a statement of privilege exactly. It brings in the thought in contrast to those who pretended to be the circumcision. The apostle gives the marks of true circumcision.

Is rejoicing in Christ Jesus individual? -- I think so. The chapter is occupied with what the apostle was pursuing. He puts himself as an example, and speaks not of what he was, or of what he had, but of what he was pursuing.

How do you explain, "Rejoice in the Lord". "Rejoice in Christ Jesus"? -- The idea of Lord carries you out of the scene of sight; you have to apprehend it in its own proper connection.

Is the thought of "rejoicing" the same as in the end of Habakkuk? -- Yes; there is no mark of outward prosperity, yet you rejoice in the Lord. You may be tested in that way. If you want to rejoice, you must rejoice in something stable.

Everything here is marked by sin and death. -- Yes, quite so. What you want to apprehend is the greatness of the victory which God has gained, and the expression of that victory is the Lord Jesus outside of all that is of sin and death. I do not know anything more important than the fact that Scripture presents a faith scene to us, and I suppose that is where one rejoices; everything there is established before God. The glory of God is the result of the operation of His power. Christ is Lord, the Holy Spirit is given, and all goes to constitute that faith sphere and scene, which stands in contrast with the course of things down here.

"Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision". There was probably a great deal of assumption in connection with those thus described, and we have to beware on that account. One cannot always see through it. People are blinded by the

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attempt to connect Christianity with the sphere that is, and all about you tends to encourage that idea. The pretension is, that Christ is in honour here -- the church steeples and great buildings all tend to witness that Christ is in honour; and people naturally connect Christianity with the course of this world. They do not see that in its true power it is a sphere morally outside of this world. The care of the Lord as Shepherd is only known in His own proper sphere.

Is it because those in verse 2 were within, that they were told to beware? -- I fancy in that day the cause of warning was the Judaising element, not necessarily profession.

I was wondering whether those spoken of at the end of the chapter are of the same class? -- I doubt if it is so. I think "dogs" represent a class of persons without conscience or shame. I fancy it referred to Jews, but it might be a larger class; if not in the profession of Judaism, they assumed at least a certain amount of light. What is interesting is, that you get the marks of circumcision. "Concision" is used as a term of opprobrium. "We are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit", etc. It is we Christians in contrast to Jews; the proof and description of the circumcision is that. The Lord had said the hour was coming when the true worshippers would worship in spirit and in truth. We do not worship in flesh; we only have to do with God in the spirit.

Is it not priestly worship? -- I suppose so; but that is not brought in here, the object not being to open up and expound the subject of worship, but to give the true character of circumcision. They boast in Christ Jesus, not in anything of the flesh. "Christ Jesus" means the new order of man, of which He is the pattern. It is not a very easy thing to get hold of the truth, though we know it doctrinally, that there is no real worship apart from the Spirit. It is "Spirit-wise"; and not only that, the Spirit is the power.

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It is by the Spirit that you worship God; but it is in your own spirit, though not apart from the Spirit; what is engaged is not the flesh, but the spirit. Spirit was not needed to be engaged in Old Testament days; there were carnal ordinances which could be carried out as well by the unconverted as by the converted man. The secret of all approach to God lies in the divine nature. John says: "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love". You have not the first element, you do not know God except by love. Reverence does not touch Him, faith does not, hope does not. The way you touch Him is in His nature, and that is love. You must, of course, have faith in His existence, but that is not touching Him, though "he that cometh to God must believe that he is". But you must touch Him according to His nature, and that is what I should suppose it means to worship God in spirit. The power of the Spirit forms a believer according to God.

Is there such a thing as individual worship? -- No, not in Christianity; it is not the spirit of Christianity. Christianity is the antitype of Aaron and his sons; a common person was not to draw near the tabernacle -- the priests only drew near (see Numbers); and if one priest, all the priests, the priestly family.

You do not make three classes of Christians, such as the priests, the Levites, and the common people? -- No; but it is important to be able to abstract yourself in mind from the other two classes, and to realise that it is as a priest alone that you have part in the service of the sanctuary.

Do all those present in a meeting worship? -- I do not say that people do not join in the worship, but it is only as you are outside yourself, that you are really a worshipper. If you are to worship, it must be according to the prescribed order, or it is not worship. I would not attempt to define what worship is, but I am certain that for it, the soul must be conscious of

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what it is before God, according to God's calling. You may come together as believers, and may pray or praise, but if you are simply in that character you do not worship. Worship is connected with the priestly company, Christ the Head, and we one with Him. You cannot be a priest without being a son, and a son is a priest. And for us there is only one place of worship, and that is the holiest; if God is not now worshipped in the holiest, He is not worshipped at all. Worship must be according to the light of His revealed will. Many of us have unconsciously lowered the thought of worship to the actual condition of those who do worship. It is disrespect to God to attempt to worship Him apart from His prescribed order -- the new and living way which Christ has consecrated for us. Everybody must apprehend God's calling for himself; but the moment I apprehend the calling, I find myself in concert with others.

The real secret of defect as to worship is, that people have not got to Christ. I do not deny that they are Christians; every believer on the Lord Jesus is a Christian, but they have not in their souls got to Christ. Peter was a true believer in Christ as his Lord and Master, but never really got to Christ till Matthew 16, when the Father revealed Christ to him, and he confessed Him as the Son of the living God, the foundation and pattern of the building. That is more than coming to Him as Lord, it is the Father drawing to the Son.

Is conversion coming to Christ: is it not more, Christ coming to us? -- Yes; you come to Him afterwards. The Lord came to the lepers, and then one returned to Him, but they were all cleansed. It is the same thing with the woman with the issue of blood; she touched and was healed, but she had not come to Christ; grace had come to her, and then the Lord brings her to Himself.

What is the result in the soul of having come to

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Christ? -- I have fresh light, and apprehend the purpose of God, of which Christ is the expression and revelation, and I am going to be like Him. Would you say that the mass of Christians believe they are going to be in Christ's likeness! I do not believe it, the thought has never taken hold of them; they want all that is comely and agreeable here, but the thought of being in the likeness of His resurrection has never taken possession of their souls. Peter, though he started in a sense in Matthew 14, never got to Christ properly till chapter 16, and that was to apprehend Him as Son of the living God; and the Lord practically says, Now that will do; I am the rock, but you are a stone of the same kind as the rock.

Does the confession of Christ as Son of the living God imply divine generation? -- Yes, you are akin to Him. He is the pattern and expression of the purpose of God, as though He said, I have become a Man, that upon Me, as Man, may be built up the purpose of God. I believe the thought has to take possession of saints, that if we have been planted in the likeness of His death, we shall be also of His resurrection -- that as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. It would completely alter our ways down here, we should not be detained by all sorts of things on the way. People are detained, you are detained yourself; the secret is, not being in the light of the calling, nor the sense of the power which draws me to Christ now.

Is there not a sense according to Colossians in which we live together with Christ now? -- Yes; quickened together and risen as well. The man who is risen with Him, is as much out of the power and influence of everything here as He is. As quickened with Him you live in His sphere.

Is that what you mean by the soul being in the apprehension of its calling? -- Yes. So far as I am concerned people are welcome to have what they like

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here; but it may be an indication of where they are. I do not at all believe that God denies people any reasonable comfort. Having "no confidence in the flesh" goes pretty far. A man has to give up all idea of importance as connected with his earthly status; people often attach a good deal of importance to it, but if you have no confidence in the flesh you do not. I think that in the development of Christianity the Gentile has got, in his own thought, into the place of the Jew as a people of privilege. What meets it all is the consciousness that the world is the same from which Christ has been rejected. It has to be remembered that if God deals with the flesh at all, the Jew has a place which the Gentile has not. The new man is neither Greek nor Jew; it is not the Jew set aside and the Gentile made something of. I do not think the Gentile comes into any present status. He gets a part in the olive tree, but it is the tree of promise; it is not to give him any present status as a Gentile.

Why does he put "circumcised the eighth day" first? -- Circumcision connected him with Abraham; there was nothing omitted in his case. There was, I suppose, a certain class of Hebrews who were looked upon as peculiarly pure as to derivation -- a Hebrew of Hebrews; "as touching the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless". He went as far as a man could go in that line. It is strange how blind a man may be, hating people with all his heart, and yet thinking that he was really blameless. It was a sign that things were wrong if he hated people. Looking at things externally he has never broken one of the commandments. What he speaks of is what he was in the eye of man in flesh. A man cannot apprehend anything rightly till the light of God comes in. This is an immense thing to get hold of in the soul. You get the light of grace, and then you find out what your righteousness is worth.

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The cross is the revelation of God's righteousness, and in the presence of that, the best of man's righteousness is not worth a rag. The moment man ceased to be what God made him, there was an end of him morally; it must be so if God is God. The setting aside of man for God's glory was really effected in the cross, and now there is a new Man. It is striking, that when the light of God did come in, there was the breaking up of everything that existed and had pretension to light. What is man worth in the presence of Christ on the cross? It is the first principle of Christianity that God has brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light. People fail to take death into account as God's present judgment resting on man; they connect judgment with the future instead of seeing that it lay upon man from the very moment that he departed from God; the man is condemned, his state is terminated.

It seems to me that people have but a poor idea of God morally, for had they any just thought they would see that anything that had departed from what God made it, would not do for God! There must be a new creation. The idea of a man like Saul asserting himself, and attempting to make out that he would do for God! The fact is that his taking such ground was the greatest possible proof of evil, for if evil had not come in, such a thought could not have entered into a man's mind.

The persecuting was a proof of terrible darkness; and in it, Saul was not doing violence to himself, he was doing what pleased him, consecrating the natural hardness of his heart, as many a man has done, under the cloak of religious zeal. Even Christianity has become an excuse for the darkest evil. I think that self-assertion comes from people not being in a right state. Christ has not got His proper place, they are not affected nor bowed, and hence self seeks a place.

The great difference in principle between these two

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chapters is, that in chapter 2 the mind is in a world of evil, in chapter 3 it is in a world of good. In chapter 2 the way is downward, because a world of evil is in view; in chapter 3 the way is upward, because it is just the opposite, the thought reaching out into the scene of God's calling, another scene altogether. The true course morally in a world of evil must be that of going down, for the more light you get the more you want to get away from all that is great and pretentious in this world, the mind conscious of what is proper to it.

Do you connect Ephesians with this? -- Yes. Ephesians views the Christian abstractly, according to the work of God; Philippians practically, according to the course he is taking and the direction of his thoughts; Colossians is in intimate connection also, guarding against leaving that course. The three epistles were written together, and refer to the heavenly Man. The thoughts presented in chapters 2 and 3 must go together; for a man to go in the direction of chapter 3 the humbling of chapter 2 must accompany it; he is diminished in this scene, becomes less conspicuous, gets more out of sight as regards this world, if he takes the course marked out in chapter 3. It is the same principle, that "inside the veil" must go with "outside the camp".

You think Paul the apostle was a smaller man than Saul of Tarsus? -- Even as the Lord's servant, he was less conspicuous at the end of his course than at the height of it; he was in prison. The Christian feels he wants to get out of sight. The apostle did not deviate from his course, his soul had risen -- Christ Himself had risen, you might say, in his estimation; he "counted", and he "counts". "Whatever things were gain to me". You could hardly specify what things.

"That I may gain Christ" (verse 8). I think Christ taught Paul something that he never knew before.

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The Christian learns something in Christ he never knew before, and could learn nowhere else. He learns love. You never really learn personal love till you learn it in Christ; it was that which made Christ everything to Paul. All that tended to attach importance to Paul was loss, Christ loved Paul, but not any of his accessories, therefore whatever things came to Paul they were loss, in view of Christ. In the presence of Christ's love everything else was eclipsed.

"The excellency of the knowledge": this is personal, in a certain sense different from the thought of God's love, which is not exactly personal, but a more general thought. I said the love of God is a general thought, because you cannot speak of it as of any particular Person. You could not say, God gave Himself for me.

I think Paul had in one way a different sense of things from the other apostles, because he had been a persecutor, which they (the twelve) had never been. Yet after all, no one could have had a greater sense of the love of Christ than John. John and Peter were simple men in this world, who had not much to lose, but Paul had a great deal that attached to him as a man which he had to lose. The others were Galilean fishermen, but Paul had things which gave him distinction both religious and worldly, and all that he had to lose. You become conscious that Christ loves you, but not any of your accessories, and you must be free in spirit from all these if you would enjoy His love to you. They are positive loss in view of Christ, you are better without them. The time must come when you will be stripped of them, and the sooner the better in your own sense of things. With all that Paul was and had as a natural man, he knew nothing about love; he was a self-righteous man, as hard as the nether millstone; he had no conception of love. I do not mean that he had not natural affections, but disinterested

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divine love he first learned in Christ. The beginning was: "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?"

A man full of hatred could not know love? -- No, the end to which we are brought in Ephesians is, to know the love of Christ; I suppose that means, you learn what you are to Christ. "The excellency of the knowledge" was what Paul had learned in Christ. The great lesson you have learned in Christ is love, personal love to yourself. "The love of the Christ constrains us". The apostle could say, "In that I now live in flesh, I live by faith, the faith of the Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me"; this was continual with the apostle.

It is not the love of God that constrains us? -- It is not so said. God loved the world, love is the nature of God; but the love of Christ is the love of a Person. In Christianity, the Father is presented to us as God objectively, but if you speak of God as usually spoken of, the thought is of Godhead; what the Father is the Son is, and so too, the Spirit. The Father and the Son are one in one Spirit, so the Spirit is spoken of as the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son.

In Ephesians 3 we have the Spirit of the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ; the Father loves personally? -- Yes, a very important point; but then I think it is because you have loved the Son. You get reciprocal affections between the Father and the Son, and Christians come under the love with which the Son is loved. The general thought of divine love is expressed in: "the kindness and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared"; but you get too the love of Christ as the motive spring in Christians.

But to return to our chapter. Paul's desire (verse 9) was to be divested of everything that distinguished himself. In regard of God, the first thing you want is righteousness, you are not and cannot be innocent. If a man's mind has ever been privy to evil he never

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can be innocent. An infant is innocent in a certain sense until its mind becomes privy to evil, though, of course, will is there. I may not have committed evil, but if the mind is privy to it I am no longer innocent. Adam, after he fell, begat a son in his own likeness. Saul went in for righteousness after the flesh, he was not a careless man. But now the extraordinary thing is that he wants to be found in Christ completely divested of his own righteousness, he wants only the righteousness of God. God's righteousness is in this, that He righteously clears a man; that is very different from works. Saul's righteousness was in his works, such as they were.

Righteousness is viewed here as future, and in the day of public clearing it will be evident that no reproach attaches to Christians -- a wonderful thing! The believer is righteous now before God; but we are speaking of what will be declared; it is not declared yet. Righteousness is by faith, and so is good for faith. But there will be a public declaration on the part of God that we are clear from every reproach. We are not justified in ourselves, but by faith. Christ is our righteousness; it is not clear to any eye but that of God that I am free from every reproach that attached to me in this world. Balaam's prophecies give us a view of the elect of God, and they are plainly clear of every reproach: "He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel". Moses had another story to tell. It is a great point to see that the Israel that came out of Egypt, was not figuratively the elect of God; the elect came to light after the brazen serpent.

Their ground was very much the ground on which Christendom is now? -- Yes, a mixture of redemption and law. It is anomalous that though the Christian begins in his experience at Egypt, or the Red Sea, the brazen serpent also may be looked at as the starting point of his soul's history.

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I have heard it said the brazen serpent is not the beginning of the gospel. -- No, it is not, I quite understand that, for it does not bring in the light of God in regard of man's responsibility; but if God approaches man to fulfil His purpose, His way is through the brazen serpent. In the cross of Christ God has condemned man's state in the flesh, and He gives the Spirit to be life in the believer. The death of Christ is all one, though there are various aspects of it, and if you believe in Christ's death you are in the value of every aspect of it. The brazen serpent and what comes after it runs concurrent in Christian experience with the first part of Numbers. The Israelites are looked at in a different light from the point of the brazen serpent and onwards. It is no longer the generation that came out of Egypt, and that is why Balaam comes in to pronounce on them as the elect. How can you use the terms of Balaam's prophecies except in connection with the elect of God?

In dealing with souls, would you begin with the brazen serpent, or on the ground of responsibility? -- Well, I am not clever at that, but I daresay it is better to begin with responsibility. The statement in John 3:16 is in connection with the accomplishment of the purpose of God's love; it is the gift and purpose of His love that is in view, not the question of man's necessity.

Does not the brazen serpent really mean that man as such will not do? -- Yes; it witnesses that the flesh has to go, every bit of it; there must be a springing up of life in the power of the Spirit, and not a bit of the old allowed; the old condemned in the cross, and the Spirit working to bring about a new man where the old was.

"And be found in him". What of Paul was left? -- I should say, not a shred; nothing but love when found in Christ.

You are looking at it as future? -- Yes. In the

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blessed Son of God there was the complete exposition before God of man's position and state, and God's judgment fell there; and now we have a new man, every feature of which is according to Christ. The Spirit is life. Righteousness comes as justification of life, for you are manifestly free from every reproach that attached to you. The fact of your being in life is proof and witness of your justification, and that consistently with the righteousness of God. Christ was made sin for that. Two most wonderful things have come out in the gospel -- light and life -- and I am sure they run together. Life in itself will not give a moral foundation in man; you must have light for that, the knowledge of God. It is not beneficial to people that they should be converted by, 'Only believe, and you will have eternal life'. They get a flippant idea in regard of believing, and there is no moral foundation laid at all.

What is the thought of: "That I may know him"? -- What you cannot get to the bottom of. You are to know the love of Christ, and yet it passes knowledge. Then the next thing is, "the power of his resurrection". You begin with Himself, and then the power of His resurrection. Ephesians 1 shows us the power of God in the rescue of everything out of the state of death.

"The calling on high" (verse 14); this shews where the calling takes you to. In Ephesians, Christians are viewed abstractly according to the work of God in them; but in Philippians you are going on as a responsible man down here to that very point; the mind is completely in accord with God's calling, but the work of God had already set me in heavenly places. It is a wonderful thing for the mind of the saints to be in complete accord with the work of God. The work in you and the work for you correspond, and that is the purpose of God.

Is it connected with working out our own salvation?

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-- No; that is more how you come out down here. This third chapter is not attainment, but realisation. If you apprehend a certain point or goal, you get morally nearer to that point, more conscious of being free from the influence of all here, stepping out, getting nearer to Christ. That is what the power of His resurrection does for you. The power of His resurrection is a great thought! the complete rescue of everything from sin and death; it goes on very far, even to the new heavens and the new earth, the reconciliation of all things. God works everything on the principle of resurrection. Israel will in principle be raised; they are buried in the dust of the earth, and will be in figure raised for earthly blessing. God allows everything to come out in the principle of resurrection.

"The fellowship of his sufferings". No one could touch this who did not know the power of His resurrection. Man would naturally cling to life. "Skin for skin ... all that a man hath will he give for his life", shows as plainly as possible that only the light of the resurrection of Christ can deliver a man and make him willing to accept death here. It was affection for Christ that made the apostle desire the fellowship of His sufferings. The nearer you get to Christ the happier you are. People do not understand the activity of Christ in attaching them to Himself, the pleasure He finds in doing it.

Would you speak of that as intercession? -- Quite so. The moment intercession is spoken of in Romans the apostle speaks of the love of Christ. This shows that you are right in connecting priesthood with affection. The next clause is: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?" People are too content with faith. I do not undervalue faith, God knows, but people may be too content, I think, with it; they do not make enough of love. Now the thing that Christ makes known to the Christian all along is love. He draws

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us to Himself by making us conscious of His love. The Ephesians were zealous as to doctrine, but they had got away from the sense of Christ's love -- that is how I understand the address to Ephesus. We do not know love at all till we have the Spirit. Faith was what characterised the Old Testament saints, but what characterises saints in the New Testament days is love: "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". So I think we are justified in saying, what ought to mark us is love. There is faith and hope, but love abides.

If we were more in faith we should know more of love. -- I do not doubt it, for we should have more light as to God's love. Love is linked with faith in 1 John 3:23: "That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, as he gave us commandment". This whole passage is exceedingly important, as showing that there is to be with the Christian purpose of heart. We might settle down and say, We can do nothing, all is the work of God in us. That is quite true, but the spirit and mind of the Christian can be engaged and may be in accord, and there is such a thing with him as purpose. A man is not much without purpose. So the apostle could say to Timothy, "Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose". So here, "One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before".

I suppose it is affection that keeps us in freshness? -- Yes. The great thing is to see that Christ is at the end of the road you are going; you will not grow old in the wilderness if you do, but you will grow old if you do not take that line. If you are not going on with Christ the power of the thing that first brought you into the wilderness will fade in your soul -- the knowledge of redemption, etc. You cannot live on the past, and in that sense you may grow old; on the other hand, if you see Christ at the end of the road

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you are travelling, you do not grow old. There is a danger of the freshness of things first known wearing off; you want to be on the living road so as to have the light of life, and that maintains us in freshness, even as regards the very things that are connected with the wilderness. "If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead" (verse 11). I think the apostle wanted to be fully identified with the path of Christ.

Is resurrection out from among the dead only as yet true of Christ Himself? -- I do not know; unless also of those who came out of the graves after His resurrection. Once Christ was out of death, others could be; the resurrection of saints was a kind of sign to show the power of His resurrection.

Is the idea that the resurrection state was so glorious, that Paul was prepared to go through everything to reach it? -- I think his great point was a Person, and to reach that Person by the same road He had taken. I should not like to say I would like the fellowship of His sufferings, for I do not know that I am prepared for it. The apostle had a very strong sense that he was not worthy to live here -- that he had been a persecutor, and it was according to God that he himself should suffer. Martyrdom was a sort of retribution; he could never forgive himself for having persecuted the church of God.

Would the fellowship of His sufferings include death? -- I think so. Paul was foremost; he was a man of like passions as ourselves, leading in the race to be like Christ, the mark set before him.

Is there any difference between the race here and in Hebrews 12? -- I do not know. In Hebrews Christ is seen as gone up to the highest point, and believers are looked at as going on to where the Forerunner has entered. The apostle is putting himself forward in chapter 3 as a pattern. He says, "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded". There is the

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possibility of being on the line on which he was; the beginning of it is in being perfect.

What is it to be "perfect"? -- I think it lies in the realisation of deliverance.

But there might be differences of apprehension? -- Yes, deliverance may be known in measure, and yet not known in completeness; but the apostle wanted to bring the saints into his mind and way of looking at things.

Would "thus minded" refer to his pressing on? -- I think so; those not in deliverance are not ready for that line. It is useless to speak wisdom except to them that are perfect. You cannot make much headway in unfolding the purpose of God to people who are detained in mind here. Accepting death with Christ, as in Romans 6, does not in itself involve "risen with him". Living to God puts you outside of sin and its power, but "risen with Christ" (as in Colossians) puts you outside the religious world. If dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, and entering in any way into the truth of the assembly, you have the sense that nothing is of any avail in religious things except the Spirit of God, though there may be many things for the satisfaction of the flesh. Such things detain souls; people are greatly hindered by the tendency to conformity to all that is around. With many of those who meet with us on Sunday morning, their minds are in a great measure in concert with what is going on in the systems (save as to form); but if we understood things aright we should be in spirit in protest against it, for Christ is disallowed of men. The tendency with us is to mould our ways on what is around.

I think the function of the Holy Spirit is not much understood. It is thought that He has come to confer on us a certain sort of power. The office of the Holy Spirit is to connect us with Christ in heaven; the world cannot receive Him, but His presence and power

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have the effect of connecting our hearts with Christ in heaven. The Holy Spirit has not, as Christ, rights and titles as Man connected with the world; His function is to bear witness to Christ in heaven, and to set saints apart to Him. Christ had sanctified Himself, and the Holy Spirit has come down to give effect to that in the saints, and not simply to empower them for testimony on the earth. The Holy Spirit has no link with the earth; the Lord had His titles to it. He rode into Jerusalem to claim His inheritance. But the Holy Spirit has come down here consequent on the exaltation of Christ, to unite the saints to Him in heaven, and when the church goes the Holy Spirit goes.

Is this work of sanctification progressive? -- I do not think so; He came to set apart for Christ.

Is every believer sanctified? -- He forms part of what is sanctified, the sanctified company. Sanctification connects itself with the whole company set apart for Christ. Then it would be a question of how far it is realised in the soul. The sanctification existed the moment the Holy Spirit came. The Lord had prepared the company, and they were there ready for the Holy Spirit to come; and when the Spirit came the company was in the sanctification of the Spirit, set apart for Christ in heaven, and all that has taken place since is simply the extension of it.

With Israel the sanctification was national, now the sanctification is entirely of the Spirit, and only a spiritual person can take account of it; the world cannot understand it, but it is as real as the national sanctification of Israel, though unseen. "Through sanctification of the Spirit" (1 Peter 1) is characteristic; the Jews were accustomed to the idea of national sanctification.

Where do we find that the Holy Spirit departs with the company? -- I do not see how the Holy Spirit could be here when the company is gone. A vessel is necessary to the presence of the Spirit, and when the

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vessel goes the Holy Spirit goes. You can understand the power and activity of the Holy Spirit, but not His presence apart from a vessel. The Spirit has not become incarnate; He has a vessel, and if a vessel is necessary to His presence, He goes with the vessel: it cannot be otherwise. Believers are the temple of the Holy Spirit. "In you" (John 14:17) is the vessel, but "dwelleth with you" is in contrast to Christ, who left them. The Spirit dwells in saints, which Christ never did. It is as the Spirit that He comes, and not incarnate, and therefore would continue with them and be in them. There had been individual saints up to Pentecost, but not a company. In principle, the Lord's sowing was past, and as to outward appearance very little had been effected, but in its bearing what He did was vast; the vessel was prepared for the coming of the Holy Spirit. The great end in view as regards man was for the Holy Spirit to come. Christ not only accomplished redemption, but He gathered in resurrection the vessel which He had prepared for the Holy Spirit, and the consequence was that in due time the Holy Spirit could come, and Christianity and all that has taken place since is the outcome of that.

What do you mean by 'gathering the vessel'? -- Gathering saints to Himself. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him". All this gathering was in view of the coming of the Holy Spirit; there was to be a vessel ready for the Holy Spirit when redemption was accomplished.

There was a work in them as well? -- Undoubtedly there was. "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you". He had declared the Father's name to them.

Is "perfect" in verse 12 the same as in verse 15? -- In verse 12 the word is "perfected", made perfect, in the sense of reaching the goal; that would be in resurrection -- what the apostle sought to attain to -- as

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is spoken of the Lord: "made perfect through sufferings"; "the third day I shall be perfected". He was perfected for a new function. There is no such thing for us as being perfected while we are down here. The thought must be qualified in its application to Christ; it is "perfected" in regard to some office on which He enters, as High Priest at the right hand of God. The apostle could not pretend that he was perfected according to the counsels of God, and yet on the other hand you may, if "risen with Christ", be perfect, free from the detaining power and bond of everything down here; that is what death and resurrection imply. The apostle says: "As many as be perfect"; he does not quite conclude that everybody is perfect.

Is it, as in Colossians, "present every man perfect in Christ"? -- It is pretty much the same thought, only that there it is not only deliverance but condition, that is, in Christ; here it is simply "perfect".

It is a great point for Christians to be apart in spirit from all that is around, recognising the false character of all professing to be Christian; in fact, all that is going on religiously after the flesh.

What would you say if God was really working in the conversion of souls outside? -- God is sovereign. A man may have gift and God may use the gift; but He only makes manifest His own sovereignty in the state of things. There is plenty of gift, but what pains you is to see gift exercised by men who are very fleshly. There are a great many gospel preachers abroad whose methods and ways are all fleshly; you do not see much of the Spirit of God in that. The Corinthians were endowed with every gift, but they were carnal. I understand men being used of God according to their gift, but they do not faithfully represent Christ to their converts. I think, properly speaking, the first thing is for the preacher to put himself right, or the light is very much veiled in him. If the servants of

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the Lord are entangled by many things here, as they often are, that tends to veil the light, they do not bring the full light of God to people. What marks the bulk of Christians shows how little light they enjoy.

What is the force of "our conversation is in heaven"? -- All our links are there; we belong to that country; it is not only the old links broken, but new ones formed.

What would characterise those who are enemies of the cross of Christ? -- They are those whose practice is hostile to it; where the flesh is allowed and paraded the cross is denied. Such as are spoken of here are unconverted. You could not say of a real Christian, "whose end is destruction". It is the end, not something by the way -- "whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" -- that is the lowest point. It is a terrible degradation in a Christian to mind earthly things -- politics, and that kind of thing. There are certain relationships and duties in the world in which the Lord is sanctified; I would not call them "earthly things".

Do you think a man who reads the newspaper is delivered? -- Of course there may be circumstances which render it needful for a man to do so, but one who for pleasure reads the paper habitually is hardly delivered.

Why do you speak of the newspaper especially? -- Because it gives you the politics and things of earth, and the habitual reading of it makes pretty evident where people are. "Our conversation is in heaven", is in contrast with earthly things. People fail to see that the Lord Jesus Christ is the centre of an entirely new system and order of things, another world, the power of which is in resurrection. The world which is to be set up in this power under Christ, is as great a contrast to the existing world as can be; resurrection expresses the complete triumph of God over death and Satan's power -- it is His glory. Nor is that triumph except

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in resurrection -- the Lord Jesus is the centre, and the Holy Spirit the power of that world. Our citizenship is in heaven, for all that we look for is centred in the Lord and not yet displayed. Whoever gets hold of this can say, One thing I do. Our commonwealth is the other side of death: the expression, "Death is swallowed up in victory", refers to what is millennial rather than to what is eternal. Resurrection is the power in which God is working, and the present effect in regard of us is that we are said to be risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God that raised Him.

That puts us in touch with that bright and blessed scene where He is, you know the power of God that has raised Him from the dead.

The "end" of those whose course Paul deprecates is in contrast with Paul's end. One was up, the other was down. Christ comes to change our bodies according to the power whereby He is able to subdue all things to Himself. He acts, as to our bodies, according to that power; we enjoy the first touch of the wave of that power which will pass over all. What has struck me in Philippians is the intensely moral character and force of what it presents; we have not a mere statement of events and facts. What is said here as to Christ, involves that everything is subjected to Him.

Do you mean that it is necessarily so? -- Yes; for if a divine Person becomes Man, He must, in the very nature of things, be the centre and head of all that is of God.

"Mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample". I do not believe one person is competent to exhort another unless he can say, I want you to go on as I do. I cannot exhort another to do what I have not done myself; it makes me slow at exhortation, for the question comes up directly, Have I travelled that road myself? It is well to expound

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Scripture, but there, too, the question arises, How much do you yourself know about it? I think that is what the apostle meant when he said, "Thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life", etc.

What is the force of "stand fast in the Lord"? -- That the soul may be kept in the light of the Lord. But if so, you are morally apart from all here, for all here is a denial of the Lord; the world does not take account of Him.

What account do politics take of the Lord, though they may use His name! -- He is not a factor in things down here. God may be acknowledged in these things, but not Christ -- they present the actings of men. But when Christ rises from the Father's throne, everything is changed. This thought keeps you in the light of that day. Everything here is so poor to the Christian who has the apprehension of what the Lord will introduce into this scene. He sets aside what is contrary to God, and introduces what is according to Him.

Have you said that lordship is only connected with the earth? -- I think what was said was, We shall not know Him as Lord in heaven. Every one confesses Him as Lord, but we shall know Him in another way. 'Lord' is a title connected with the kingdom; but He gives the kingdom up, and is Himself subject. In chapter 2 we have had the necessity of coming down, in connection with the scene of evil here. Chapter 3 is a different thing, the Christian in purpose and aim really entering into the scene above. We could scarcely have a greater contrast. In chapter 2 we see even Christ humbling Himself. A man must be content to come down here. If a man stands on his rights he does not go down; but in Christ there was the most complete surrender, in going down, of all that belonged to Him as Man. In chapter 3 we have the apprehension of a scene above in which, according to the counsels of God, we have a place; and then it

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is all going up. Chapter 4 brings in complete superiority to circumstances. "I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am, to be satisfied in myself". I am not callous, but not mastered by circumstances.

Is chapter 4: 1 the closing up of chapter 3? -- Yes. I think you must stand in the Lord. The Holy Spirit has come down to witness to the glory of Christ, and it is a great thing to stand fast in the sense of His mighty power; we shall not get free of the world if we do not. I believe the glory of God is His complete triumph over evil, and resurrection is the great expression of it, and it is according to that power that Christ works. What is the power of this world in the face of Christ's resurrection? The power of this world tends to death. Faith only wants one Man risen; that is enough for it. Man's power is exercised in destruction, or preparing for it. God has set forth His power in the resurrection of Christ. If one Man is risen, everything is involved in that. The one crucial test in Christianity is the fact of the resurrection of Christ. The principle of God's victory is established; the whole fabric of Christianity hangs upon it; it stands or falls with the resurrection of Christ. What I fear is the acceptance of resurrection as an article of a creed without the power of it being known in the soul. People outside of ourselves do not take much account of resurrection. It is a more common idea that souls go to heaven; the thought is that when people die they go to glory. It is all a loose sort of idea. The fact is, if you have not clearly before you the resurrection of Christ, you do not see the glory of God, for He hangs everything on it. The Lord said to Martha, in view of the resurrection of Lazarus: "Said I not unto thee, that if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?" A point about Lazarus is, that it was the raising of one who had a spiritual link with Christ; it was not merely a display of power. I am certain that resurrection is

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the test, the crucial point; all depends on the fact of resurrection, for if there is no resurrection there is no redemption, no Son of God.

Man's mind can take cognisance of death, but not of resurrection; it is beyond the scope and experience of his mind. Man knows nothing beyond death; these things are only known spiritually through revelation. Salvation, everything, depends upon resurrection, and all fails if resurrection is not true. Once God brought the judgment of death upon man, nothing could set that judgment aside. God could not ignore His own judgment, and consequently if God was to do anything for man, the only outlet was the transfer to Another of that judgment, in such wise as to bring in resurrection. The Son of God, who created all things, goes into death. He could not be holden of it; He must come out of it. "By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead". That which will overturn the great system of the world will be the resurrection of Israel. There are two great systems, one in connection with the Gentile and the other with Israel. When Israel revives, the Gentile system goes, it crumbles to dust. I believe God will weaken it by death, pestilence, famine and the like, but the real overturning of everything here is the resurrection of Israel.

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NOTES ON THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS+

+These Notes were taken at Readings on the Epistle to the Hebrews, at Greenwich, and have been revised by F.E.R., who has also written the Introduction.

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INTRODUCTION

The following Notes on the Epistle to the Hebrews having been read with profit by one and another into whose hands they have come are now presented in print, in the hope and confidence that they may be serviceable to the people of God.

It will be observed that gaps appear in regard to portions of the epistle where Notes were not taken. These are chapter 1 and chapter 11 from verse 17 to end. A few remarks in reference to these passages may with advantage be made by way of introduction.

Chapter 1 presents to us the truth of a heavenly Christ instead of an earthly Messiah, beyond which the thoughts of Jews had hardly reached. The quotations in the chapter, taken almost exclusively from the Psalms, present to us the more excellent name (than angels) which He has inherited. We see in them all that which is under the eye of God in Christ -- like the ark of the covenant in the holiest -- when purgation has been made of sins.

The quotations begin with setting forth One who is of God's nature and is viewed as in the relationship of Son to Him -- who is the object of homage to angels -- whose everlasting throne is based on proved discrimination between righteousness and iniquity -- and who, in contrast to all created things, remains the same, and His years do not fail. For the time all is hid in Him in the place which He as man is called to occupy provisionally at the right hand of God, but will be displayed when the moment shall have come for His foes to be made His footstool.

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All that has been noticed above is, as we have seen, established on testimonies drawn from the Old Testament scriptures. But the great additional light shines in this chapter that the One who has inherited the more excellent name is "the Son" by whom God has spoken in these last days.

Thus we have before us that blessed divine Person who, being the effulgence of the glory and the exact expression of His substance, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high. Such is the apostle -- the speaker, in contrast to prophets; and it is evident from the fact of who He is that He must have the last word -- no one can speak after Him. Hence the appeal is final; and it may also be added that speaking from heaven (not from mount Sinai) He brings to light all the counsel of God. "He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you".

It needs not to say much in regard to chapter 11. The thought will be found expressed in the notes that every individual testimony of faith will have its answer in the world to come. Saints before the flood received light as to the principles on which the world to come is founded, viz., acceptance through sacrifice, translation to heaven, and preservation through judgment. The promises refer in their full scope to the world to come; and the ground from Egypt to Canaan, traversed by Moses and the children of Israel, will never be trodden by them again. When the Lord comes He meets the Jew in the land. All the worthies died in faith, not having received the promises, though persuaded of them; but without us they were not to be made perfect.

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CHAPTER 2

Down to verse 4 we still have the thought of the apostle, then verse 5 introduces the world to come, in connection with the purpose of God, which has been put under the Son of man. In chapter 1 the point is the greatness of the apostle. Then we get the greatness of what has been spoken, which introduces the thought of the Son of man. The Son is the Apostle. God had spoken in times past by prophets, now by the Son. The idea is that the communication is characterised by the greatness of the speaker.

The "world to come" is the special subject of testimony, that of which the epistle speaks -- not the world that is. All the truth unfolded in Hebrews with regard to saints has reference, I judge, to the world to come. The holiest belongs properly to the world to come, to the time of Christ. We get heavenly blessing in anticipation, on the principle of 'which gives us now as heavenly light what soon will be our part'. From the fact of the world to come not being yet established publicly, if we enter now into what will be the heavenly part of it we must go outside the camp. We are partakers of the heavenly calling. There is a heavenly and there is an earthly calling in connection with the world to come. We, as believers, have the privilege in anticipation; in heaven we shall be in the actuality of the blessing. Privilege is that which belongs to me, but I may not always be in a state to enjoy it. We do not speak of privilege in heaven -- there all will be actuality.

It is interesting to see that the great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord. "Great salvation" refers, I suppose, to all that has been effected for saints in the way of deliverance, and which is made good by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Lord began to speak of it. He spoke of the coming of the Comforter, the promise of the Father. Then the Holy Spirit came;

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but the testimony began to be spoken by the Lord. No one enters into the salvation till he has received the Spirit. In 1 John 5 the witnesses are the Spirit, the water, and the blood. This is the order of application in believers. Historically Christ came by water and blood, and it is the Spirit that bears witness, but in application the Spirit is the first witness. The water and the blood refer, I suppose, to the great salvation, the water to cleansing from the pollutions of the world, and the blood to expiation. To "neglect" is not to turn the salvation to account -- not working it out into result, it thus loses force with you, it is ineffective in you. God has put everything within our reach, but it has to be turned to account, to be made good in our souls, otherwise it is inoperative.

There is a real object in deliverance, and that is that you may enter into God's purpose concerning you. The divine end is that the soul of the believer may be so at liberty as that he may enter into the enjoyment of his true place with God: we are often greatly hampered by sin, the law, and the world. The Jews had not got salvation from the Roman power, it was salvation for their souls -- that Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth; He had come to give salvation to His people by forgiveness of their sins. The great idea of salvation is that you are saved from something. "The knowledge of salvation ... by the remission of their sins" refers to what you are saved from. Faith would embrace more and take in all you are brought to. Salvation is the emancipation of the soul from all that could be between it and God. We get salvation as to the moral part before it is applied to the material part; we get the soul salvation first. The first thing is to get the soul freed from the judgment of God. Afterwards it may learn that it is freed from sin, law, the world. It is of great interest to see that the great salvation began to be spoken by the Lord, and had its climax in

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the testimony of the apostles. All the gospels lead up to what came afterwards. Matthew leads up to the truth of the church; in Mark it is the testimony of the twelve to Christ risen; in John you get the Comforter spoken of. The woman in Luke 7 gets the word of forgiveness. The woman in John 4 is told of the communication of a heavenly power to be within the believer, by which he should get complete emancipation from that power of evil by which he was held. It springs up to eternal life; not to heaven, but to eternal life, to that order of things, and the soul is freed from the power of all that held it. The question of deliverance is not raised till the believer has the Spirit, then it is raised. The flesh is not to be tolerated, and the believer is to be freed by the power of the Spirit from all that held him in bondage.

In Psalm 2 we get Christ rejected, but man's rejection of Christ serves the purpose of God; so in Psalm 8 we get the counsel of God in the Son of man. This Psalm is quoted here (verses 6, 7). Man rejects Christ's claims as the Anointed, then we get the Son of man -- a lower place in one way than the Anointed, for it was as Son of man that Christ suffered, but then it involves universal dominion. The Son of man had not where to lay His head. He accepts His rejection, but the world to come is put under the Son of man, and as the anointed King (i.e., Christ) He will bring in the sure mercies of David. The Psalmist was astonished that God should take notice of the Son of man, but when you find who the Son of man is the mystery is solved. God had been dishonoured in man; now what has come to pass is that God is glorified in the Son of man; the one answers the other, and the result is that all is put under the Son of man. The world to come is to be characterised by grace. The claims of God having been fully met there will be blessing for all; the effect of righteousness will be peace. Righteousness might come in as judgment in the

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repression of evil, but grace reigns now through righteousness, and will be made public in the world to come. The dispensation has not yet been publicly changed. What has come in as a present thing is in the nature of a parenthesis, and the dispensation does not change publicly till Messiah comes. The world to come will be characterised by grace. The terms of the new covenant are the law written on the heart and forgiveness. Saints have now only two things, forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit, and all else hangs on that. Law is done away in Christ, but publicly law is not set aside -- it is gone for faith.

Verses 8, 9 -- We see not yet all things put under Him, but we see what involves it -- Jesus crowned with glory and honour. If He is above all, all is virtually put under Him.

The human mind cannot take in all as to Christ at one and the same moment, as for instance the truth of chapters 1 and 2 of Hebrews; we have to learn it in detail. It is a great thing for our souls to be in the light of Jesus crowned with glory and honour, in the highest place as man. If this is so it bodes good for man. It is bound to have a great effect upon us if we are in the light of it. If He takes that place in heaven as Man He must have companions. "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one". The purposes of God existed before sin came in, but before they could be effectuated the Son of man must be in this place in heaven. Angels are the highest of created beings, Jesus "made lower" is simply that He became Man. We have never yet heard of an angel being placed in a position corresponding to that in which God placed man -- and in the world to come all things, including angels, are put under the Son of man.

In the coming day of evil Satan will give his throne and authority to the beast; he bolsters man up in arrogance and evil; he cannot come to the front, so he puts man forward. God knew at the outset what

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was to come about, and so we get Adam, the figure of Christ, set in dominion over things on earth. It was God's purpose to put all under man, and in the Son of man you get things in heaven and on earth, put under Him, which means the destruction of Satan's power.

Then we get another very important truth coming out -- that there were to be many sons in glory. God is love, and His love impelled Him to make Himself known, and so we get many sons brought to glory. The privilege of sons is that they know God as revealed in love. To Adam He was known as a beneficent Creator, but we have now the revelation of God in love. The glory of God is in the accomplishment of His purpose. Nothing thwarts Him. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God; glory is the complete satisfaction of God in the accomplishment of His purposes in Christ. We are in the light of all that God has accomplished in Christ. The key-note of this epistle is "bringing many sons to glory". The counsels of God came to light consequent upon the rejection of Christ, but the counsels were there before. The Hebrews had lost all by the rejection of Christ -- promises and all that belonged to them; but then God's counsels come to light and these Hebrews came in on this ground. Peter preached to the Jews that though they had crucified Christ, God had thus accomplished His purposes and Christ was in glory, and if they believed they would get more than they lost, if they came in on that ground.

"Leader of their salvation". He is victorious over all; and what He has actually overcome we overcome in the power of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the first to reach the goal, and He has become the High Priest to carry us in. He is the Forerunner. He is God's High Priest as to appointment, for He does not take the honour to Himself; but He became us, He is the representative of His house. He is perfect as leader; He has reached His present office through sufferings;

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He has had experience of all the conflict. The One who helps and carries us through is the One who has encountered all, whether it be the forsaking of God, the temptation of the devil, or the power of man in persecution, etc. He has gone through it and met it. This is a great thing for our hearts.

He tasted death for every circle of blessing: the whole world to come is set up on the basis of reconciliation. Tasted death, i.e., in all that death meant, His soul entered into it -- not merely that He died, but He tasted what it was to be in the lowest point.

Chapters 1 and 2 give us the basis of the epistle -- chapter 2 especially; it gives us the light and thought of the divine purposes; then, after that, the epistle shows how it is effectuated in us. The revelation does not go beyond what we get in chapter 2. In chapter 10 we come to what we get here. "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one" is what we have in chapter 2, and in chapter 10 we have "By the which will we are sanctified". Verse 10 is the revelation of divine purpose, then in verse 11 we get the place that Christ takes in regard to it, as in Psalm 22. He who sanctifies and they who are sanctified are all of one. The counsel of God with regard to Christ is that He is to be Firstborn among many brethren. The great point is that the saints are to be brought into oneness with God's Son, become man, for that end: oneness, not on the ground of the flesh, but through redemption. We are to be conformed to the image of God's Son; this is God's purpose; we are to be brought to know the love of God. In Romans 8 the apostle says: "I am persuaded that neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". We are in that circle.

As Apostle, Christ inaugurates the system of our profession; as High Priest He maintains it when it is established. But we have to know what is established

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to begin with. God has spoken by His Son that is the Apostle. The great salvation is what was revealed. There were many things in the teaching of the Lord that indicated the grace into which saints were to be brought. We see this in the parable of the prodigal son; grace brings us into the Father's house, and Christ has declared to us the Father's name. "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". The purpose is to set the saints in company with God's Son, that they may be loved as He is loved, so we get: "bringing many sons to glory". Predestinated to sonship, chosen in Him.

The accomplishment of God's counsel is glory. We have the light of God's counsel, but it is not yet displayed in us, yet so we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. It is an old saying: 'that gives us now as heavenly light what soon will be our part'. Christ is well pleased to have a company who are loved as He is loved; in fact He declares the Father's name to us that we may know it. Nothing is more wonderful than that He is to have a company who are to know what He knows, to know the love wherewith He is loved. Sovereign grace brings us to the Father's house and Christ declares the Father's name, and then in the midst of the church sings praises to God.

It is important to see the sovereignty of God's grace (Romans 5), how He commends His love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us -- but the great point is, that we should know the love wherewith He is loved: so we get in Romans 8 where we are brought into the light of purpose, the truth that nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It is important to see that there is nothing in this epistle that goes beyond what we get in chapter 2: how we come into it we see later on. Verse 12 is present. It is quoted from Psalm 22 and that Psalm

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refers not to heaven but to earth: all the statements refer to earth (1) the assembly, (2) the great congregation, (3) all the ends of the earth. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren": they are His brethren because they are the objects of divine counsel. It is in the assembly this is made good. There is no reason to doubt that where two or three are gathered unto His name, there He is in the midst, and if there is faith for it He will act in the assembly. Christ does not act in the assembly apart from the state of the assembly. If people come together, they are not going to have bright meetings if as individuals they are not bright.

The proper ground in the assembly is that we are Christ's brethren. He is not ashamed to call us so. We are sanctified by the will of God. He is the Sanctifier, we are set apart to God. Then (verses 12, 13) scriptures are quoted to show the place Christ has taken: "Behold I and the children which God hath given me". These scriptures indicate that God had something even when the mass of the nation was blinded: the children were to be for signs and wonders; Isaiah 8. Before we get the praising we get the Father's name declared; that declaration is to make known to the assembly that they are loved as He is loved. Worship is not realised apart from the assembly. We are sons individually, but the full realisation of it is in the assembly. The idea is that of many sons, the declaration is to bring home to the saints what the Father is to Christ. We do not properly begin on this ground till the breaking of bread is over. We get very little of the good of the assembly, for we are so weak and we have not faith for it.

We get in Scripture the coming together in assembly -- then the Lord is there. When we do come together in assembly the first thing is to break bread, then it is as the Lord may lead. There is no restriction save as to what would lead to confusion, "Let the prophets

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speak two or three", "Let your women keep silence". Coming together in assembly is that the assembly is in function. The discipline meeting in 1 Corinthians 5 is abnormal. An assembly meeting called for the special purpose of discipline is far better than tacking it on to the public meeting.

We are greatly helped in coming together as the people of God, for we enter there into our proper privilege, we are refreshed, encouraged. The breaking of bread is introductory -- the Supper is remembrance, In Christendom they falsify it (1) by making it individual, whereas it is collective, and (2) they make it administration when it is communion. The bread which we break, the cup which we bless. The effect of the Lord's supper is to put us in the touch of affection with Him and with one another: we recall the proof of His love to us, and are thus put afresh in touch with Him. When the Corinthians came together it was to eat their own supper -- it was not the Lord's supper.

First of all "when ye come together in assembly" -- the subject of these chapters in Corinthians from 11 down to the end of chapter 14 is the assembly. The practical effect of the Lord's supper is that it extinguishes us -- we realise that we are all there on one common ground as His guests. We may have the assembly extended through the week, but every first day of the week we begin afresh -- then we start with the Lord's supper. The Lord's death is to have a great place with us. We are in the fellowship of His death. Baptism is that I am committed to His death, but the fellowship of His death goes much deeper.

Verse 14. -- We get here the 'cause' which Christ has taken up -- not angels. "The children" refer to the true remnant of Israel; "the children are partakers of flesh and blood". Christ takes up the seed of Abraham; I believe that is the true seed of Abraham -- not after the flesh. It is not the cause of angels

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He takes up. "The children", "seed of Abraham", "brethren" are all the same line, the line of God's purpose. Christ became man that He might die and make a way out of the ruin for us, Christ in all things was made like unto His brethren, exposed to and able to suffer pressure and temptation.

God could not touch man except by death -- man was with God's judgment upon him; I see, therefore, no way in which God could touch man for good apart from death. God sets to work to remove death so that His testimony in grace could go out to man. If we are to approach God, we have to go the same road -- i.e., through death.

On the divine side, Christ tasted death for everything, so that the testimony of God's grace might come out. "Whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of his righteousness" -- He takes pains to vindicate Himself in the eyes of the universe. "That he should be just" -- He is not indifferent to sin.

CHAPTERS 3, 4 AND 5

We get the establishment of the professing system -- what is called God's house down here. Moses inaugurated the system in connection with God's habitation in the wilderness -- so Christ is Son now over God's house, and He is also the builder. This is the house where the Spirit dwells, and hence you get a remarkable verse following: "As says the Holy Spirit". He has a warning voice inside the house. The Holy Spirit spoke in the Psalm -- now, it is the Holy Spirit in the house, and He warns us not to apostatise. The house was not formed till the Holy Spirit came; it could not be God's house till God dwelt there. Verse 7 is in principle very like to Revelation 2, "He that hath

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an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches".

When you get the house brought in, there are three thoughts connected with it, (1) the Lord, (2) the habitation of God, (3) fellowship.

We have come here to the living voice of God in God's house, and we have to give heed to the warning. The word of God is really God Himself, the connection is so close. The word of God as often used in the Scriptures is not simply an utterance. 'Logos' is moral, and brings you into the presence of God, as He has expressed Himself, and if you turn away from it you turn away from God.

The Old Testament belongs to Israel properly, but the moment you come to the house of God you get "says the Holy Spirit" -- that is the living voice, and He uses the Scriptures (see 2 Timothy 3:16). The warning is against departure. The tabernacle really was a pattern of the universe as God's house. "Whose house are we, if we hold fast", is a warning against apostasy. The saints are not addressed here as 'living stones' -- they are addressed on the ground of profession; and in coming to God's house they had come to a living God, and the danger was of turning away -- this they are warned against. "Whose house are we, if" it is contingent. If we are God's house, Scripture speaks to us, because we stand in relation to God on the ground of profession. We are come into the circle to whom God by the Holy Spirit speaks.

The apostle is leader, the one who established the profession -- so the apostle Paul was a master builder, he was used to found the church at Corinth -- Christ is Son over God's house. He is Lord, has authority; He is over God's house; the contrast here is with Moses, not with Aaron. Moses was a ministering servant in -- Christ is Son over -- the thought is God's house, I judge, all through. Christ's title to be Son over God's house is that He made all things (verse 3).

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His title will be made good in the universe by and by. He will be supreme over all; now He is supreme in God's house. If we have a case of discipline we act in the name of the Lord. Moses had the place of a ministering servant, but Christ has a very different place, for He made all things, He is Son over God's house. There are two cardinal points connected with Christianity; one is, that Christ is Lord, and the other that the Holy Spirit is here. They are correlative. The Holy Spirit here is the proof of the place Christ is in. He has been sent down from heaven to report the glory of the Lord. Christ is Son over God's house as Man, but his real title to it is that He is divine. The proof that Christ is divine is the place He has as Man, to be such a Man He must be divine.

Another principle comes out in verse 13, that of looking after one another, "exhort one another". There is danger of a lack of care for one another amongst us; we need to go on ourselves, but we are to care for one another, too. We have to take heed to ourselves first, and then we become concerned for one another. It is exhort one another daily. It ought to be a great grief to us to see marks of defection in another. The beginning of departure is perhaps very small, only a little bit of a chill. "Am I my brother's keeper?" is a principle totally foreign to Christianity. We are our brother's keeper, but we are to keep ourselves first, otherwise we are not fit to keep anybody else.

"Departing from the living God" -- the light becomes dim. The revelation itself does not become dim, but it may become dim in my soul. Something is allowed that is not judged. Every professing Christian is in the light of the revelation made, but the real point is that it should be light in his soul. If it is so, it brings him into the presence of the living God.

The Son of the living God in Matthew 16 refers to what Christ was as outside the whole scene of death.

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It was His generation, so to speak. He was of that order -- Son of the living God. "Living God" is in contrast to the state of Judaism; all was dead because they had rejected Christ. It was as dead as heathendom, but in the house of God saints had come to a living God, and the danger was of departing from Him.

I wonder how far we are really as to our spirits in the light of the revelation. Revelation is a proof of His being a living God. He is living whether He reveals Himself or not, but in revealing Himself He comes out to prove to us that He is living. How far are we in our souls in the light of the living God? As the apostle could say, "We both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God", etc. When Christ was here there was more to come, but when the Holy Spirit came there was nothing more to come; there never was and never will be such a moment on earth as is now. In the millennium there may be the same light, but certainly not the same entrance into it, and the reason is that now we have an indwelling Spirit. The baptism of the Holy Spirit involved everything in Christianity -- the love of God shed abroad, the Spirit of sonship, the house constituted, the body formed.

Verse 14 -- We get another thing; we are companions of Christ. It is our place of privilege, 'Thy fellows', as we get in chapter 1. We are all partakers of the same Spirit, one Spirit of sonship. "Companions of the Christ" is our privilege. I appropriate Christ as High Priest, but that is not the thought here. It is companions of Christ if "we hold ... firm". It is all contingent so long as we are down here on earth; it is the same in Colossians 1, "reconciled ... if ye continue". So long as we are here in the place of responsibility we get tested, so we get "if we hold ... firm". Companions of Christ is present privilege, yet we are tested. It is companions of a heavenly Christ, too. The 'if' proves that you are tested. You are in

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the light of counsel but on the ground of responsibility. The very best thing that can happen to a Christian is to be tested, for it will confirm him; when there is not a real work people turn away. We have to accept the fact that we are tested here, Circumstances test us, many things test us, but if you answer to the testing you are confirmed, you have a better knowledge of good and evil. The real point in the epistle is association with Christ. He is the Firstborn among many brethren; we become companions.

Sin in Hebrews is not the common gross forms of evil, but lawlessness, an unbridled will, and the effect of it is to draw you away from the living God. Verse 14 -- we have to go on with the confidence with which we began. People begin with confidence, but often instead of becoming strengthened it is weakened.

A large proportion of persons converted are converted through those lately converted themselves, and that because the latter have confidence. The greatest gift is that of an evangelist; there could be nothing greater than to announce God's glad tidings to man. It would be no honour to an evangelist to become a teacher. This is not underrating the other gifts. There should be no flagging of energy with us. The character of a man's service may change, he may sober down, but in the case of the apostle Paul he had as much energy when he wrote in 2 Timothy as at the beginning of his course; there was as much go in him as ever, he had not abated a bit. When people are first brought into fellowship the truth has great interest, all is new. This freshness may fall off, but if the work of God goes on the reality of the truth is deepened, though perhaps there may not be the same excitement about it. The young men have overcome the wicked one, the word of God abides in them. They are told not to love the world nor the things of the world. It is a perfectly healthy state; but what marks the fathers is that they have known Him that is from the beginning. There

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is not the same danger as to the world with them; they apprehend a completely new point of departure in Christ, and all else is nothing.

The Priest is the first who gets in, and he is appointed to help the others on the road. Christ is the leader of salvation, the first who has entered in, and He is constituted to help us on the road. Christ is Great Priest over God's house (chapter 10), that is, He orders the house according and suitably to God; high priest is rather a different idea.

While we are in the wilderness we need help and support, still we can be out of the wilderness in a sense, for we have privileges that carry us out, although as to the fact we are there.

Chapters 1 - 6 are introductory. The truth of the new system begins in chapter 7, where you get the new Priest; chapter 8, the new covenant; chapter 9, the new sanctuary; chapter 10, the new worshippers. "Boldness to enter into the holiest", as I understand it, is that our souls enter into the light of God in that in which God has revealed Himself. The idea in Hebrews is not that of a son, a child of God, but we get sons, children. We have to individualise the truth in coming into it, but the spirit of Scripture as to Christian privilege is not individual. God brings many sons to glory, Christ is Firstborn among many brethren.

We have had the warning of Israel set before us, an example of those who failed of the purpose of God. They failed in faith; they had been delivered from bondage and called out, but failed of God's purpose. They fell in the wilderness, they never came into the full purpose of God. The purpose of God for them was Canaan; they never entered into it. The secret of it was that the word did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. I suppose that was the word of His purpose, the glad tidings preached to them. It is a real danger with which we are beset, namely, an evil heart of unbelief in departing

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from the living God, turning back in heart to Egypt.

The rest of God was rest in reference to creation. It is an allusion to that, as we see in verse 4, "and God did rest the seventh day from all his works". The rest of God will, I suppose, be realised in the millennium. The divine thought as to Israel was to enter into God's rest, but even Joshua and Caleb, who entered Canaan, did not enter into God's rest, so the rest remaineth. "He that is entered into his rest" -- that is one who is an enterer -- 'hath ceased from his own works'. This shows that we are not yet entered. The thought in the chapter is God's rest; that is not rest of the believer's conscience. The argument is that Israel did not enter, therefore a sabbatism remains. We have not entered into rest yet, otherwise we should not be working; when we have entered in we shall have ceased from our works as God did from His. You are to labour to enter, go on with your works till you enter into God's rest in actuality. It is God's rest that is spoken of all through the chapter, God's rest will take in both the heavens and the earth. It has not simply to do with an earthly people. "Come unto me ... and I will give you rest", that is, to your souls in all the turmoil of this world. When the heavens and the earth were finished, God rested. His rest was broken in upon by sin, so we get, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work". The rest of God takes place in the complete subjugation of evil. Then it is that God rests; when all is put under Christ it will be so. Christ is really God's rest.

The rest of God refers to this creation. The thought is not connected, as far as I see, with the new creation. The seventh day is the sabbath, and the Son of man is Lord of the sabbath. The thought of the sabbath is at the end, it was the rest after six days' labour, the seventh day. It was given as a sign of the covenant with Israel. When the Lord was here, every reference made to the sabbath was, to the legal man,

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a slight upon it, indicating that the covenant was on the point of being broken.

Verse 7 -- "saying in David, 'Today'." This occurs in the fourth book of Psalms, which presents the coming of the Lord, as the third book brings in the sure mercies of David. There is then a prophetic appeal to Israel in that day, but the Spirit of God takes it up here and applies it to Hebrew Christians in this day, for we may be in danger of not entering into God's rest. There are millions today professing to be Christians, but profession will not bring you to the rest of God. An evil heart of unbelief turns away. We have to look to it that the heart is exercised in faith, not simply that we believe that the Scripture is the word of God, but that faith is operative and an active principle in us, bringing the light of God into the soul. It is an old saying, 'a man is governed by what he believes'. If we are in faith we are governed by the things that are revealed.

The argument here is that though Israel had entered into the land, they did not enter into the rest. God had sworn in the wilderness that they should not enter into the rest, and Caleb and Joshua had to share the common judgment of the people. Verse 1 is a warning to those who are in the Christian profession; "lest... any of you". The Hebrews are addressed as in the place of profession, and the fear was lest they should depart. The whole point of the chapter is a warning against Christians failing to enter into the purpose of God. The danger is of failure in faith to grasp the purpose in the present. We may come into it in result by and by, but that is another matter. The leading saints on to the ground of purpose is the great object of the epistle. When you begin to see that your responsibility has been completely met in Christ, then the purpose of God is presented to you, and this is what tests people, so that we get such chapters as chapter 6. The apostle separates himself

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from those who would turn back; "we are not of them who draw back". Constantly, too, he associates himself with those whom he was addressing; "Let us therefore fear". The point that tested was, were they prepared to accept the purpose of God about them, for if they did they would have to leave man's ground.

I believe there is a moment in our histories when we are thus tested; then people either go forward or backward, you must be going in one or other direction. God-ward or man-ward; that is, either going in the direction of God's purpose, or turning back to man. If people do not go on when they get the light of purpose presented to them, they are the most exposed to the enemy; like the two-and-a-half tribes, they would stop short of death. If you accept death with Christ, you will enter on your new place with God; death is the only way by which we can enter on a new position before God while we are down here.

The Lord's miracles on the sabbath were all miracles of mercy. When the ruler of the synagogue said to the people, "there are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day", he never meant that for the people, but for Christ; it was a stab at Him. It is like man! See the hypocrisy of it; the sabbath was an institution for the Jew, but is God going to be bound by an institution? It was the sign of the covenant, and the man who gathered sticks on that day had, under the law of Moses, to be stoned. But the Jews sought to bind Christ by it. The ruler says "there are six days in which men ought to work". Who work? Was Jehovah to be bound? The Lord speaks in a most scathing way -- "thou hypocrite!" It was all hypocrisy.

Going back to the chapter, glad tidings were presented to Israel -- the tidings of the land, the report of the spies. The people were guilty by reason of the land being searched and the report brought to them

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which they disbelieved. In Hebrews 11 the only act of faith recorded of Israel is "they passed through the Red sea". Moses kept the passover; "through faith he kept the passover", etc., the faith is not attributed to the people. It is significant that the people had not faith in that which was the basis of everything. The people did it in obedience, but Moses was in the faith of it.

It is very solemn as to the rest of God, that we are not going to enter into it as an earthly people. We have forfeited it, and if we are to enter into God's rest, it must be in a heavenly position, and this latter we can only have by sovereign grace; and this brings us to the purpose of God concerning us, which is the test of faith. The sovereign purpose of God is to give us the place of sons. If we are to accept the purpose, it must be through death, by the new and living way which He has consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. We must get into it by death. We do not like to accept death to the status and natural prospects of a man down here, to be strangers and pilgrims here, but we can do it as entering into the blessed light of the purpose that we are predestinated to the adoption of sons to Himself. There are two aspects of the death of Christ -- first, it closes the door to all here, because Christ died to all here; secondly, it opens the door to all with God. Faith then enters into how completely all is secured for God in Christ, and in that way we who have believed do enter into rest as a present thing.

At the close of the chapter we get two great means which God employs in regard of us. The word of God and the priesthood. It is very important to see that here the word of God is God Himself (verses 12, 13). It explains the passage "the Word was God". I only quote this to show how intimate the connection is between God and His word. God would be of no avail to us in grace unless He had expressed Himself,

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that is, revealed Himself; thus He becomes available to us. At the same time the revelation of God must search us. The word thus finds out what we are about, our most secret emotions are discovered by the light of God, and thus we are led to distinguish between good and evil as in Psalm 139, "Search me, O God". So here it is we are searched, and it is the revelation of God that searches us. We do not get the help of the priesthood until the word of God has come in to cut down all contrariety. The heart of the Christian rebels sometimes in contrary circumstances. The light of God comes in, and we see that we have reasoned falsely. "I was as a beast before thee", that is, an unintelligent, unreasoning creature. Like Job and his friends, our reasoning is all wrong. How falsely we judge God when the will is at work! We get sometimes a boiling cauldron in the human heart fretting against God. So long as this is at work -- will -- we get no good of the priesthood. The word of God exposes all this, it is all false; this exposure of necessity must come in. It is God, but God expressed, and God expressed is the word. It is a word (i.e., the word) the force of which it is difficult to render in English. It is not simply an utterance. We are brought to our bearings by the word of God.

Now we have a great High Priest; we get living bread, One whom we appropriate. We see in this the link with John 6. The High Priest is Christ on our side -- that is, we appropriate Him. I appropriate when I see Him as a man. As Forerunner or High Priest He is on my side. It is the appropriation of what grace has put within my reach.

He has passed through the heavens; representatively gone in for us.

It is noticeable how the teaching of this part is built up on two passages of Scripture: one taken from Psalm 2, the other from Psalm 110, two texts which, from what comes out in the gospels, the Jews evidently

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never understood. "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee", and "Thou art priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec". The first sets aside all fleshly and carnal ideas connected with Messiah, the second sets aside the Aaronic priesthood. He was after the order of Melchisedec.

The Jews looked for Messiah as Son of David, as begotten after the flesh; but in Psalm 2 God claims that He has begotten Him, that He is of His generation.

In Psalm 2 'Son of God' is Christ in incarnation; in Psalm 110 it is Christ in glory. The Psalm begins with "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool". The first looks at Him personally; the second, more at what He is officially.

As to the Melchisedec order, the point was that there were in it none of the limitations that belong to the Aaronic order of priesthood. The latter could not minister before or after a certain age, but Christ had neither beginning of days nor end of life, that is as priest, "who has been constituted ... according to power of indissoluble life".

You do not get the 'High Priest' exactly after chapter 7. What you come to after that is "a minister of the sanctuary", which is proper priestly office in the sanctuary. The priesthood of Christ is based on the establishment of righteousness.

Chapter 4: 14 takes up the thread from chapter 3: 6, "seeing then". The voice of the Spirit's warning has been introduced parenthetically between. It takes up again the thought of the High Priest. We get apostle and High Priest of our profession in chapter 3. He had spoken of the apostle, and we are now carried on to the Priest. The priesthood of Christ is based on the fact that sins have been put away by His offering. Still, we are actually down here in circumstances where we need grace and mercy. If we find ourselves in circumstances to which we are not equal,

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what we want is mercy. We are to come boldly to the throne of grace because we have a High Priest. The Christian is considered in regard to weakness, so we get mercy. It would be depressing if we did not feel we could count on the mercy.

We are considered with regard to circumstances which might overwhelm us, and thus we are encouraged to come to the throne of grace. The question of sin is not in the line of this part of Hebrews. Priesthood is not in regard to sins; the point is, your being fitted to enter into your calling, which is of God's purpose. "Great priest" gives the character -- 'great'. Aaron was high priest, but not great priest. Great Priest (chapter 10) is more that He is Son over God's house charged with the order of the house. The High Priest is the Son of God. He has passed through the heavens, which is a pretty good proof that He came from the heavens. "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven", John 3. The point of it is "let us hold fast our profession"; that is the confession of what we are. It is not the idea of Christian profession, but the confession of what we are as in the calling of God; many sons being brought to glory. We may be good Christians down here, but that is hardly holding fast our confession -- it does not go far enough. It is that we have a calling of God in another scene. Christ Himself is at the full height of it. The calling is revealed in the High Priest. He describes the calling. "Having therefore a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast the confession". He is the first of the company who had entered in -- the Forerunner, and then He is constituted High Priest, so that we may be helped and not surrender our confession; the object of the High Priest is that we should not give it up. If persecution came in we might be tempted to surrender.

Now we touch again on what is called 'appropriation'.

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When you come to the High Priest, you come to that which in John 6 is called 'eating'. When I see Christ on our side, I appropriate Him. I am entitled to all the help He can give me; "he that eateth me, even he shall live by me". In John 5 He is on the divine side to declare the Father. Chapter 6, He is on my side, and I appropriate Him. The great point (John 6) is that He is on our side; speaking reverently, that He is within the reach of our appropriation. So, too, in Hebrews where we get "high priest" we can appropriate Him. In John 6 Christ will not be king, but He goes up as priest. Feeding on living bread is what forms you constitutionally, that is what appropriating the High Priest is; you will arrive at the same result. John 6 is connected with life. In Hebrews it is to enter into the holiest. John takes the reverse line to Paul. With John it is God coming down; with Paul it is man going up. We want both in order to get a full view of the truth; they all tend to give one blaze of light.

Christ is constituted High Priest for us, therefore I can be urgent to get all the help I need. He has taken up a place in the glory as man where He is the Firstborn among many brethren. Romans 6 is akin to this, "in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord". He lives to God on ground on which we can live to God; to be dead to sin is the only possible ground on which we can be alive to God, for we were alive in sin. Christ has taken the place of death to sin, so that we may reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Him.

Verse 15 we get another thought, that the High Priest is sympathetic. It is not compassionate, it is not that He can feel for us, but that He feels with us. Sympathy is not help, but it becomes encouragement

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to us. The effect of sympathy is that you go to the throne of grace. The thought of the High Priest being sympathetic is very distinct here (verse 15). Christ is out of the pressure -- and therefore He can sympathise with us in it. Sympathy means that you feel together with a person; you could not have His sympathy if He had not been tempted. A high priest taken from among men can have compassion.

The point in the "throne of grace" is, the sense that grace is on the throne. It is the supremacy of grace that is the idea: grace is administered through the Lord Jesus Christ; "come boldly" has to do with the apprehension that grace is in the ascendant. People often come to God almost complaining. Take Job as a case in point. He really thought he had a good case against God. We come to a throne of grace and the point is that in coming I should have the sense that grace reigns. If we come to God with a sense that His grace is supreme, then we shall get what we want -- mercy and grace. God is the source of everything, but we get all through the Lord Jesus Christ, it reaches us through Him. To us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things. We have to distinguish between divine Persons: sometimes there is a tendency to separate them too much. We cannot come to the High Priest without coming to God, for He is the revelation of God to us; I know nothing of what God is to me except through the Lord.

In the beginning of chapter 5 we get a contrast, a picture of a high priest taken from among men. The one point of similarity is in verse 4. He does not take the honour to Himself. We do not want a self-constituted priest. If we go to God we want One divinely constituted. This shows the great reality of Christ having become man. He did not glorify Himself to be made High Priest.

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Verse 9. "Eternal salvation" -- the question now is not of temporal deliverances.

Chapter 5 is a wonderful bringing out of the great reality of Christ in manhood. He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. He had to take that path as man. "He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears". It was not a question of learning to obey, but of learning obedience; there was no will to be broken as with us, but He had been accustomed to command. Now, He learned obedience in taking the subject place: "Being made perfect" is in view of His being Priest We could not think of strong crying and tears in connection with God; the moment we speak of that we exclude for the moment the idea of God. It is what He is as man: it is the Man who is now at the top who represents us who are not there yet. "Unto all them who obey him"; we are subject to Him, He is Lord. The 'author' means the "cause" of eternal salvation: He is a Priest called of God, and thus a man although the Son of God. "Priest for ever" is that His priesthood is intransmissible. Succeeding generations are all helped by the same Priest. We forget the same Priest has helped many others through, but the great idea of the Priest is not helping through, but helping in.

CHAPTER 6

Everything in the epistle on our side up to this chapter has been elementary, but here we get to the counsel of God; and the rest of the epistle develops the new order of things -- the new Priest (chapter 7), the new covenant (chapter 8), the new sanctuary (chapter 9), the new worshippers (chapter 10); but so far as the saints are concerned all is elementary up to chapter 6. We have now the word, "Let us go on unto perfection"; evidently all up to perfection must be elementary,

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"leaving the principles" -- that which is elementary.

Perfection is the apprehension of the true Christian place, intelligence in the purpose of God. Hitherto it had been mostly warnings. The truth as to Christ and His glory comes out in the first two chapters, but after that it is largely warning, lest the saints should turn back. Now, it is going on to perfection -- things connected with manhood. The object of this chapter is to put the saints as to the condition of their souls on the ground of the counsels of God.

"The word of the beginning of the Christ" went no further, I judge, than a kind of John the baptist preaching; repentance, faith towards God, all known before Christ took His place in resurrection. Resurrection of the dead was accepted by orthodox Jews. These were not things that Christ brought, but people were awakened to them by the coming of the Lord: they came with peculiar force, the meaning of them was brought out. They are the things we have been accustomed to be occupied with, and it is quite natural for us to be taken up with the things connected with the responsibility of man. The Hebrews had not got on to the counsels of God. You must begin with responsibility, but you must go on, or you do not get your senses exercised to the discernment of good and evil. The forgiveness of sins is the recognition that I have responsibility, but that it has been met; it does not go beyond. Perfection has reference to the apprehension and intelligence of the place in which it has pleased God to set us. The thought of 'babe' here is more in a legal sense. In Christianity the babe cries, "Abba, Father". The question of responsibility never enters within the veil. The saints here had the hope and the Forerunner, and so were in the light of sonship. It is evident that if Christ was the Forerunner, others were running, too, to the same end. God is bringing many sons to glory. The hope is

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glory and in Christ Jesus God has effectuated His purpose. He has gone in as Forerunner: we are sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Hope is the pledge of the whole result.

Many read Hebrews, and for many years I read it myself, as though the whole point was how we were to get through the wilderness. But the point is, how you are led into perfection, to get out of the wilderness while you are actually in the wilderness -- to get into the holiest, entering into rest, as it were. You enter into the rest of God when you see that all God's ways have found their rest and accomplishment in Christ in glory. Christ has been raised from the dead and exalted, and we see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; that is the rest of God, the satisfaction of all that He is. Aaron never went into the holiest to remain there: he did not enter as forerunner. Now Christ has entered in, and has sent forth the Holy Spirit to carry us there in spirit. The high priest could only go in alone, and had to come out again; he dared not go in to remain. There was no liberty or boldness; it was impossible that man could go in till God had come out; it would have been no good to man. How could he go in to God, unless God had revealed Himself? The veil was rent on the divine side to enable God to come out, when all before Him had been cleared to His glory.

There is a very solemn warning in the early part of the chapter against turning back: "It is impossible for those who were once enlightened" contemplates a class of persons who were, in a certain sense, in the house of God. It is possible to have great light and yet to turn apostate; it contemplates the furthest point to which man could go and yet turn back. "The good word of God" is the 'good utterance' -- not 'logos' as in chapter 4. "Powers of the world to come" were miracles as seen in Christ; it is hopeless to wait for those who have come to that point and turn back;

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what more is there? It was fatal apostasy without hope of repentance. It was the case of a man who had deliberately tried Christianity, and had given it up; one who was enlightened, not born again. "The powers of the world to come" refers to that which will introduce the world to come. Christ came in the powers of the world to come. If you are to have a world of blessing such as God contemplates, you must have the devils cast out, the sick healed; every outward effect of sin must be set aside; the infirmities from which people suffer are the effect and fruit of sin. When Christ is present He comes with the word of power and gives relief; even as to the Lord Himself when here, you might say, these miracles were His credentials; He was the vessel anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. He could say, "For which of those works do ye stone me?" The One who did all these miracles was a man. Christ came as man, the proof and testimony that the world to come is to be put under man. All things will be put under Him, and He has tasted death for everything.

"The heavenly gift" is 'heavenly giving'; the grace that was present in the church.

The apostle could say, "We are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak. For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love", etc. The Hebrews had shown evidence of a divine work in their souls. If you have not love -- that is, part in the divine nature -- you are nothing; the divine nature in the Christian is the fruit of the formative power of the Holy Spirit, and for that you must have an indwelling Spirit. The first principle of Christianity is love, the love of God is shed abroad in the heart. No one is formed in love till he knows love.

The 'rain' was there -- the proof of the blessing of God. If rain was withheld there was no blessing, but

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the effect of the rain was that people were tested by it. There was gracious ministry, and if the ground that was graciously tilled brought forth only thorns, it showed apostasy; but if it brought forth fruit, it received blessing from God. Apostasy is a public thing. I have known, in my time, of one or two distinguished persons giving up Christianity and turning away to something else, and they put Christ to an open shame. The apostate not only gives up Christ, but he turns back to something else.

Obedience is hardly a principle of the divine nature, but it marks one who is perfect here in a scene where disobedience is. We are to be marked by obedience, because we are in a scene of disobedience, but how could you talk of obedience in connection with God? But obedience was part of the perfection of Christ's path when here.

A very beautiful expression to my mind is "God is not unrighteous to forget", etc. Whatever man may overlook, God is not unrighteous. Beautiful fruit we should see in one another if we had the eyes of God -- the fruit of love -- and I wish we saw more. We have to love saints because they are such; not naturally, as I love my child, because he is my child. In John you are placed under obligation to love because God loved us: it is really thus a question of righteousness. "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren". We have come into the Christian circle, the proper circle of affections. The Christian has more affection for his fellow-Christian than even for his own kindred.

Verse 11. It is a great thing to go on in the path, not to be diverted from it; 'continue' is the great test. People will do great things under excitement or momentary influence, but that is not the test; to 'continue' is: it is quite a characteristic word in John's writings. In the case of the patriarchs there

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was patience. It is remarkable how the entire period of law is passed over in this chapter as if a blank, and the saints are identified as followers of those to whom promises were given long before law was brought in. Promises were the fruit of God's counsel. You become Abraham's seed by faith. In Christendom everything is set to work and every energy employed to keep saints at the level of man's responsibility -- a forgiven man, it may be, but still a responsible man. Of course we must begin there, but the great end of God in the gospel is the body, the vessel in which Christ is to be displayed down here, but you cannot come to that unless you understand that as to your place before God you are of that body of which Christ is Head, and as such pre-eminent; the truth of God's purpose as to your place in His presence must be learnt before you can answer to the other side. What Satan is bent on is, to thwart the object of God in the body -- that is, that in it Christ should be displayed.

It is important to see how Scripture is bound together: you get back to Abraham, to promise, and that is the fruit of counsel; and the law, which came in by the way, is ignored. There was no need of the oath to bind God, His word bound Him as much as His oath, but the oath is His condescension for the sake of men, that we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope.

"Heirs of promise" is a very wide expression; it includes all the true seed of Abraham, all on the ground of faith. Nehemiah, Daniel, those who pleaded the promises, they were the heirs of promise: we are the heirs of promise: "If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise".

It is not we who go within the veil here, but the hope is there. In chapter 10 we go in, but here it is the hope that connects us with what is within; the Forerunner is there, the Leader of our salvation.

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There is an allusion here to the cities of refuge. It points to the position of the nation, guilty of the murder of Christ, but Christ was after all delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God, and so God had approached the Jews in the gospel on that ground, and they could enter a place of refuge by accepting what God set before them; that through their wickedness He had accomplished His counsel. God sets up His house here, and the condition of salvation is that the Jews must enter it in the appointed way; the house has been set up here in spite of everything man had done in rejecting Christ. The Holy Spirit speaks in the house (see chapter 3: 7, and 1 Timothy 4.) He does not speak in Judaism or heathendom, but in the house.

A believer has to learn that there is a hope which identifies him with heaven. The only principle on which we can enter into present privilege and blessing is the appropriation of Christ. I could not be a son of God as a man down here. I enter into sonship exactly in proportion to the Spirit's work in me. The Spirit forms us according to the place and by the place which God has given us; having got into the light, the Spirit forms us according to it, making good in us the place which Christ has secured for us. It wants a little energy of faith to look at Christ. People stop short -- they are taken up with the grace brought to them down here, but do not care to take up the other side, which involves the acceptance of death. The old corn is what Christ is according to the counsels of God. The manna is more daily grace for daily need.

In this chapter you get the promises introduced; in the next the Priest -- both established by oath. The oath indicates the determinate counsel of God; what depends simply on the promise of God, can be confirmed by an oath.

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CHAPTER 7

In the previous chapter we had the thought of "fled for refuge", that is the entrance of the soul on to new ground -- the ground of divine counsel; leaving the ground of responsibility, where for the Jew all was lost, to enter on that new ground. Now we get what is exceedingly important, the new order of priest; the order of the priesthood determines everything. I do not think the priest could be beyond the people as regards his order. Aaron was taken from among men, he had honour put upon him, but he could not be beyond the people, or he could not properly have represented them; and so, if you get a change of order, it involves a great deal as to those represented by the priest, a change of order as regards them, too. The priest is not of one order and we of another. He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one. When you come to the priesthood, you are on the ground of appropriation. When Christ as Apostle is making known the mind of God, you listen; but when you come to the Priest, you appropriate, or, using the figure of John, you eat. Our entering in to our proper place according to God's thoughts depends on our appropriation. In the measure in which we appropriate the Priest we enter into our calling.

Aaron was taken from among men; but the people then could but poorly understand the value of the priest. All was taken up after the flesh: the defect was that there was no power to appropriate, for you can only appropriate in the power of the Holy Spirit. There was no change of order then, but now this change of priesthood is consequent on a change of order as to us. The priest then was compassed with infirmity, and had to offer for himself as well as for the people. The great point is to see that the Son of God is the Priest; Melchisedec was assimilated, made

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like to the Son of God -- not, of course, to the Eternal Son, but as become man. At the close of the chapter the Son is brought in again in connection with the oath. The Son is brought in to show the dignity of the Priest, but also to pave the way for showing what our calling is, that we come in with Him.

This chapter (7) ought to be taken in the succession: it shows us the new order of priest; then in the following chapters we have the new covenant, the new sanctuary, the new worshippers, and in Christ we are brought in as sons; but no one will enter into this except as he appropriates the Priest; I am certain we must begin there. What hangs on our being sons of God is that we are companions of Christ: He is Firstborn among many brethren. The only possible way in which we can enter into it is by the appropriation of the Priest. Israel will have part in the Melchisedec priesthood in the millennium when He comes out. I do not see that the Priest has anything to do with Israel in Hebrews. Chapter 7 is not a question of the wilderness only, but of leading us into the holiest. The first few chapters refer to succour and sympathy, after the pattern of the priesthood of Aaron; but Aaron had also a function as having charge of the sanctuary. He was not only for succour to the weak, but all the responsibility of the sanctuary belonged to him. I think it is miserable to limit the thought of the priesthood to grace ministered to carry us through the wilderness -- that is not Christianity! We have privilege to enter now; but we must appropriate the One who has entered in, for that. Appropriation is the use of that which is placed within your reach. The High Priest is for us. He is Captain and Leader of salvation -- entered in for us as Forerunner, and surely we have title to appropriate Him; He is gone into the presence of God for us.

An immense point in this chapter is to see the change of order: He is there, so our place is there

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too; if He is of another order, we are of another order, another generation. If He is of that generation, we are of it, His lineage. The commencement is when we apprehend our calling as sons of God. I think the real entering into sonship is in connection with the assembly: I doubt if there is such an idea in Scripture as a son of God -- it is many sons, many brethren: the privilege of sonship is realised in the assembly: as companions of Christ you are in it in relation to the Priest.

In Galatians we get "thou art no more a servant, but a son"; but I think the apostle applies the truth there: thou art no more servant but son, is characteristic. I do not look upon it as a statement of privilege, but as application of it to the soul. Sons of God are companions of Christ, and you get at the close of this chapter "such a high priest became us, holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners", etc., that is what He is now. There is very little difference between the terms 'children' and 'sons', but sons is association with Christ where He is -- children, I think, refers more to Christ's association with us. To say "my Father" in prayer savours to me somewhat of irreverence, it is assumption: a great many others beside myself call Him Father. We speak of "a child of God", but I do not think Scripture does.

There is much confusion in the minds of Christians between privilege and profession: if you keep the distinction clear in your mind it will help you. The house is the place of privilege, but there is also responsibility there. With true Christian privilege there is no responsibility connected, for it is simply and purely the result of the Holy Spirit's work.

The Melchisedec order of priesthood comes in properly with the millennium; "the most High God, possessor of heaven and earth" is the title that connects itself with the millennium. It is only brought in here to show that there is another order of priesthood;

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it is not here so much a question of the way in which it is exercised; it is a higher order of priesthood than Aaron's, and the promise to Abraham was connected with it, and that was fatal to law. The promise to Abraham and the priesthood connected with it, existed four hundred years before law, before the Aaronic priesthood existed at all. Levi paid tithes in Abraham. Melchisedec was greater than Abraham. The apostle simply takes up what is revealed in Scripture as to Melchisedec. He is inferior to the Son of God; Melchisedec is assimilated to the Son of God, not the Son of God assimilated to Melchisedec, that would never do at all. Melchisedec was, of course, a real person; his titles, King of righteousness, and after that King of peace, indicate supremacy. It points on to the millennial day. Scripture does not care to awaken curiosity about Melchisedec; the point of the passage is that he was not under the limitations of the Aaronic priesthood -- he had no genealogy. In the Aaronic order, the priests who could not prove their genealogy were disqualified.

The argument is that the introduction of this new priesthood must set law aside; this is of the greatest possible moment, for there was no drawing nigh to God under law; if there was to be such a thing as that, you must have the law set aside. You could not possibly have the assembly under law. If you think of a company having access by one Spirit unto the Father, that could not exist under law!

One thing strikes you -- the utter blindness of the Jew, for he had all this in his own scriptures, he knew of the Melchisedec priesthood; and Psalm 110 long after Aaron's day, spoke of another priest after the order of Melchisedec, and you would have thought the Jew ought to have turned that over to know what it involved. It meant that the Aaronic order was to be set aside. It shows how blind they were to their own scriptures, and that apart from the Spirit of God

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you cannot understand them. Now there is the setting aside of the law for the weakness and unprofitableness thereof, but the introduction of a better hope by which we draw near to God: it is the setting aside of the one, and the introduction of the other -- what is between is parenthesis. A better hope because founded on divine counsels. The law was but the shadow of good things to come. The law suffered a man to write a bill of divorcement; if a man was suffered to break part of a divine institution the law could not be part of the divine counsel. Now God is bringing many sons to glory which is His counsel. It is by the apprehension in the soul of the counsels of God and where He sets us that we draw nigh: "through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father". Another point is that as in the previous chapter the promise was confirmed with an oath, so now the priesthood is so confirmed -- the indication that there can be no revoking it -- it is part of God's counsel: those priests were made without an oath, but this with an oath because connected with the eternal purpose of God; you get stability there, and you cannot get it in any other way. The oath of eternal continuance could only have been made to the Son; the way of accomplishing the divine counsels was that He became Man, and (having died and risen), because He continueth ever, He has an intransmissible priesthood. It was totally impossible for Aaron to abide in the holiest for ever, for he had death upon him as much as anybody else. Christ goes in after death is annulled, in the power of an endless life.

The priesthood of Christ applies to us in the present, it will also be for the earthly people in the millennium. I do not quite see how it could apply to us hereafter in heaven; we are in the Father's house then, so it could not be to bring us in, the company would be all there. "In perpetuity" means there is no changing it. The whole heavenly company in Revelation 5 are looked at

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as priests because all have access. What is unfolded in Hebrews would not apply then. He would not be Forerunner, for we are there -- nor Leader of salvation, for we shall all be saved -- and so "in the presence of God for us" could hardly be said when we are there.

The New Testament is the unfolding of Christianity, and Christianity is not the future but the present. The point here is, He is able to save to the uttermost those who come to God by Him. In the future He is as Son of man. In coming out as Melchisedec it is in relation to the earth, and then the church reigns with Him; you do not want to be saved then. Priesthood has nothing to do with the gospel. I know His saving to the uttermost is used as one of our standard gospel texts, but it is a misapplication; it is speaking of Christian privilege: we draw near to God, but you cannot unless you are a converted man. He is High Priest for His people, and able to save them out and out. An unconverted man does not want the Priest but the blood, when he has got the blood he wants the Priest. The salvation is in the sense of preservation, the deliverance of the soul from all that is contrary to God, that we may enter into His thoughts. We have to be set free from sin, the world, and the law.

It is a most remarkable expression that follows, "such an high priest became us" -- it marks our identification with Him looked at in the light of divine counsel. He must be at the height of what we are according to the thought of God, "holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners" -- that is what we are in the thought of God. It is both what we are and in a sense what we are not: practically, who would say he was without blame? but abstractly, according to the work of God he is without blame. It is not exactly as Balaam said, "He hath not beheld iniquity", etc.; that is a question of imputation, but this is an actual state. Now the truth comes out, the Priest is

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suited to us, made higher than the heavens, separated from sinners -- not simply separate from sinners, but "separated".

The oath is contrasted with law; the oath makes the Son Priest who is consecrated (perfected) for evermore.

I believe we have a great deal to learn on the apprehension side as to entering into proper Christian privilege, and if we had faith to appropriate, my conviction is that we should be greatly helped. We are called into the place of sons that we may be companions of Christ. If He is Firstborn, you cannot ignore Him; we have no existence apart from Him; He is in heaven, and we not yet actually in, but the Spirit helps us to appropriate Him while we are not actually in; it shows the present importance of Christianity. Nine out of ten are satisfied with the light of God from the apostle, and do not take up the Priest -- satisfied with things here, and what is suited to them, forgiveness, sprinkling; but in all this you do not get beyond responsibility -- responsibility met, but it is not beyond responsibility: until that question is settled you cannot enter into the other. We are brought into a sphere to which responsibility does not attach, and that sphere is what I should call Christianity proper and connected with the body: "one body in Christ", 'in Him we stand a heavenly band', a new creation, neither Jew nor Gentile, male nor female, but all one in Christ Jesus, but you can only enter into such an idea as that by the appropriation of Christ. I ask any reasonable person how you can realise "neither male nor female" except by the appropriation of Christ?

If a person is in earnest he would begin to get to God about it, and I think he would begin by the appropriation of Christ's death. There is no reason why we should not appropriate Him; if we do not, perhaps something is allowed in ourselves which tends

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to hinder; you want the help of the word to expose some hindrance. If you eat His flesh and drink His blood, at the same time you get "he that eateth me, even he shall live by me". It says, "who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice;" etc., because we are as completely clear of all connection with responsibility as to our calling, as Christ is, and He has done the offering work -- all was settled on the cross: He was the victim there.

Aaron's priesthood was connected with sympathy, succour, compassion. Aaron had to show them the way; they came to the priest for the judgment of God; he had a great place in Israel. Christ is perfected for ever as to His priesthood. He has gone through all necessary to exercise priesthood; He was made perfect through sufferings; He has gone through all needed to exercise His function. His service, as I understand it, is to lead us into communion with Himself.

CHAPTER 8

The previous chapter showed us the order of the Priest, and a great deal hangs on that. It is evident that the order of the Priest must greatly affect those who approach to God by Him, "such a high priest became us". In the first verse or two we get the Priest installed, and then we get on to new ground which leads eventually to the worshippers. The whole system depends upon the order of the Priest; the word of the oath makes the Son Priest who is consecrated for evermore; all hangs upon that, it declares our place and establishes it. He must be Son to be suitable to our calling. You get much more on to the ground of the worshippers in chapters 9 and 10, what the priestly family is -- the High Priest first, and then the priestly family. But first we must have the new covenant. The last chapter was the new

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Priest; a new Priest necessitates a new covenant. The new covenant must have a new sanctuary, and the new sanctuary must have new worshippers; it all leads up to that.

But first, the footing on which we are with God as men down here must be determined; we must know this, or we could not avail ourselves of the privilege of our calling. There could not be entrance into privilege so long as men were under law; it is only as under grace you could enter, or you would be constantly shut out by your own failure. All takes its character from the knowledge of what the One has done and is, who has entered in. You must know the terms on which God is with us down here, or you cannot go a step further. Chapter 8 is not proper Christian privilege, for strictly the new covenant has application to Israel, but we have not to read it in the letter but in the spirit -- you must be on the terms of the new covenant though not strictly under it. The apostle speaks of able ministers of the new covenant, not of letter but of spirit; you must take it up and understand it in the spirit. The covenant itself is made with Israel and Judah, but, if in relation to God, we must be either under law or under grace. If under grace you are on the principle of the new covenant. The covenant is the expression of the will of God: all through it is "I will". It is only in view of Christ being David's seed that the eternal covenant with David was made, for David had to say, "My house be not so with God; yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure"; he has to look on to the morning without clouds. J.N.D. has pointed out that in that very passage, 2 Samuel 22, when it was a question of victory over his enemies, it is all exultation, but when he got into the result of his own faith, he has to end with "my house be not so with God", though there is still the outlook through grace.

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In the first verses of chapter 8 you have the Priest installed for us, "we have such an high priest" -- you come to the point of appropriation. Some are not quite clear about appropriation. It lies in the expression "we have". It does not say 'God has'. God has installed Him, He is a Priest with God, but now it comes in "for us"; we have to use Him. He leads you into all that into which He Himself has entered, so faith says, "we have such an high priest".

The tabernacle represents a moral order of things; it is not a material thought, which makes it difficult sometimes to understand. The tabernacle is a figure in one sense of the universe, but I imagine in the moral not the material sense, the whole order of things that will prevail when God has brought to pass the result of His ways. A remarkable thing is that the tabernacle was anointed with oil; a point of great significance, for the whole order of things will be established in the pervading power of the Holy Spirit, but you must divest your mind of the material idea. What you get in new creation is God all in all, the whole thing characterised by the power of the Spirit. Nothing is set up again on the ground of human responsibility. We are a kind of first fruits of His creatures, because we are brought into the Spirit's power whilst all around is in ruin. All through revelation the Spirit was promised. He is called "the Holy Spirit of promise". In the eternal state there will be no trace of sin, for God trusts nothing again to the creature, everything will be established in the power of the Spirit; every moral question has been raised and settled, and God will be all in all -- God morally.

A new thought is introduced here in connection with the High Priest; it is no longer succouring the tempted, and sympathising, but Minister of the sanctuary, the proper part of Aaron's priestly work. That is what we have: "such an high priest".

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We have had the wilderness in the previous part, and now we get to the holy places where the Priest is charged with everything connected with approach to God. There is no approach to God simply by the individual, according to the divine idea, "we both have access by one Spirit", that is two at all events -- Jew and Gentile. The holy places are the inner and the outer, the holy and the holiest of all. Moses had the setting up of the first system, but he had not the administration of it when set up. Aaron had charge of the holy places. The Apostle is on God's side in approaching us, but the High Priest is on our side in all connected with approaching God, that all may be according to God and have His authority.

What is so essential to Christianity is the realisation of the place which Christ occupies as man in the presence of God, not only as from God but God-ward. The thought of incarnation is by many confined to what Christ was here, but the object was that man might be in the presence of God according to His glory. The Priest is charged with all connected with approach to God. Moses went in to get the mind of God, but not as representing others. The mercy-seat was the place of divine communications. In Romans, Christ is that mercy-seat whom God hath set forth. It is where God has put Himself in communication with man. You do not get into the holiest till you have learned the truth of the mercy-seat. The mercy-seat was to declare God's righteousness, it was the vindication of His character, the ground on which He comes out to man. The altar of burnt-offering is where man meets God; the mercy-seat was wholly God's side; the burnt-offering indicated the existence of a ground of acceptance for man through Christ's sacrifice.

There is a difference between the apostle and prophet. The prophet was more continuous; the work of the apostle was inauguration. There is only one apostle in Hebrews, and he is also God's mouthpiece,

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the Prophet -- Christ was essentially that. In the gospel of Mark, which views Christ as Prophet, He is "Son of God" because essentially God's mouthpiece.

The tendency with man, if he has any sense of the failure of the church, is to begin again, to try and set up a sort of pattern of what the church originally was. It has been said that if we are a testimony to anything it is to the ruin of the church, but people do not quite like that, they want to be 'a local expression' of something. It is humiliating to be a testimony to a ruin! Irvingism was a futile effort to set up the church again in its original order. No greater mistake can be made if the church is in ruins than to attempt to set up anything, but if you have apprehended the ruin you can stand apart from what is contrary to the Lord, and be guided by the light which was from the beginning, without making any pretension to ecclesiastical order.

I think it is important to see what are the terms of the new covenant; they represent the terms on which God is with us, which is much more important than the thought of the terms on which we are with God. Not law, but grace. The principles of what comes out in the new covenant with regard to us, are forgiveness and the gift of the Spirit; the literal terms were with Israel; the law will be written in their minds -- the effectual teaching of the Spirit of God -- and then: "their sins and iniquities will I remember no more". So with the Christian, the only two things you actually have are forgiveness and the Spirit. God is known to us in grace; each one knows Him for himself, his own offences forgiven; and so all know Him from the least to the greatest. It is of all importance to apprehend the two things we actually have by the grace of God -- forgiveness and the Spirit -- the spirit of the blessing of the new covenant. Having the Spirit involves indeed a great deal more, I quite admit that, but as to

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what a Christian actually has, no one can say more than the Spirit and forgiveness. As to Israel, it is the law written in their heart, and forgiveness. The law will be in that day in the mind and the heart, the mind is the intelligence; the heart the affections. It is the work of the Spirit to write the law in their heart, but they will really take that from Christ; He said, "thy law is within my heart". We get what is infinitely greater, the indwelling of the Spirit, we learn everything by the Spirit. Christ is formed in us; that is now the Spirit's work. The law will be written in the heart of flesh for the Jew, the stony heart must be taken away and a heart of flesh given; the law could not be written on the heart of stone, there is nothing in man naturally on which God could write. The passage in Ezekiel speaks, I suppose, of new birth. The Spirit's work now in the believer is to form the new man, which is an altogether different thing. If Israel were to be in a world full of evil, they could not get on: you must have the whole outward condition of things changed if the law is written on the heart. Christianity has come into the world and has changed nothing outwardly; it delivers out of what is. It is wonderful that Christianity could be brought in, the house of God set up, without changing anything around us. The world has come in to break down the walls of the house of God, but it has never got rid of it, though it has marred its character. The Spirit of God is as really there as in the early days of Christianity, the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

The Spirit remains in spite of all man has done, and so all that is essential abides, for all that is essential is in the Spirit, though no doubt we are all hindered and affected by the state of things.

It is a great thing to learn the terms on which it is the pleasure of God to be with us; many are not established in grace. It is His pleasure to be with us

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on the ground of divine teaching and forgiveness; if people knew that better they would be more free of legalism. He could not be with us on any other terms. If it were better understood saints would have more confidence in God. Devotedness on our part does not improve a bit the terms on which God is with us: and no one is taught a single thing by devotedness -- none of us are taught a single line except by the Spirit.

It is well to notice what we have at the close of the chapter, "in that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old". The instant God began to speak of a new covenant, it made the first old. It is remarkable that Israel should not have seen that. And then, "that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away". By speaking of the new, He made the first old and proved it was near disappearing. It had been near it since Jeremiah's day, and now it was very near, and they were called to come out of the things connected with it, for not merely the promise of the new covenant had come, but the Mediator of it, and we have come to it.

Hebrews has a most remarkable place in the word. The people had special difficulties, and God took special pains to meet these difficulties. The writer argues the matter from their own scriptures, which is very important. It was not that they found fault with the old covenant, but God found fault with it; as though God had said -- It is no use my being with them on those terms, I will be with them on other terms; and that is, forgiveness and divine teaching.

A man must have forgiveness because he is responsible. Forgiveness comes first, but it is not entered into until the teaching of the Spirit comes, so the teaching is put first. In chapter 9 He is Mediator of a new covenant; but I suspect it is new in the sense of a different kind of covenant, wholly different, not only new. The point of it is, that God is not

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satisfied to be with you on any other terms. Men naturally prefer the old covenant. The mind of man does not care to go beyond what it can take in. It can understand law, but cannot understand the Spirit, and so man complains he cannot understand the things of God. Man can take in the idea of forgiveness, though I doubt if it is possible for man to take in the divine and scriptural thought of it: forgiveness in Scripture is non-imputation, not only forgiveness of what I have done, but sins will never be imputed to me. The new covenant comes on the ground that man has already been tested -- not to test you. The only terms can be that God must do all for man: the new comes in when man has broken down under the old. "I will remember no more". "He frankly forgave"; there is no reserve, all is gone.

The great object of the gospel is that God may be known. People do not see that enough in connection with the gospel; the object is, not simply that man may be saved from hell, but that God may be known in the heart of the believer. The object is not attained till the Holy Spirit is received and has brought God to us. God could not have been fully known if evil had not entered, but I am inclined to ask those who raise questions about evil being allowed -- Are you prepared to take in hand the government of the world? If I could undertake to govern better than God, I might be entitled to raise some of these questions.

CHAPTER 9

It is a great point to see that the proper function of the Priest in regard to us is to lead us in as being of His house. One used to think that it was to bear us, as God's people, through the wilderness; this is true in a sense, but His proper work is to lead us into the

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holiest (not yet to heaven), but where He Himself has entered.

In this chapter He is gone into the sanctuary -- not the holy of holies on earth -- and in Christ we go in. We get in this chapter twice that he has entered in (verses 12, 24). Verse 12 is the moral idea. Christ has entered in once. It will not be repeated. He has definitely taken up that place as man before God on the ground of accomplished redemption. We get somewhat the same idea in Romans 6, "In that he liveth, he liveth unto God". Verse 24 is that He has entered in as representative. He has entered into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us in contrast to holy places made with hands. Christ has entered in not simply on the ground of personal perfection, but on ground on which we can enter in. He enters by His own blood, and we go in because He has obtained eternal redemption for us, i.e., His work has cleared all for God so completely that we can go in.

So long as God went on with the testing of man, there was not the unfolding of His purpose; the way into the holiest was not made manifest. In the Old Testament we get in the main the testing of man, in the New the purpose of God unfolded. The first tabernacle, whatever it might present in shadow, was in connection with the testing, therefore there was no liberty of access; but in the New Testament we get God's purposes, and so there is going in: all is of the order of the Sanctifier. The first tabernacle was suited to man in the flesh: it had that character: the religious system which God gave to man in the flesh suited man in the flesh; the new sanctuary is moral in contrast to the material.

The apostle gets back to the first tabernacle for contrast in the beginning of this chapter -- not for comparison. In the first tabernacle the priests went into the holy place accomplishing the service of God

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because their ministry was in the things connected with Israel; the candlestick, shewbread, etc., each was symbolic of Israel in connection with Christ. The shewbread is the exposition of the twelve loaves, as setting forth Israel in completeness in connection with Christ. The candlestick is Israel in connection with the Spirit. Israel will have the place of God's centre of administration on earth; so, too, it will be the light here. The priests did not minister in the things that are in connection with Christianity.

Now the first tabernacle is done away -- that is, all in connection with Israel is done away for the time being, so that if we have not the holiest there is no service of God at all. In Matthew's gospel we get the history of Israel taken up afresh in Christ; He becomes the true Israel, and Israel is set forth in Him before God. He comes in as Jehovah's Servant to that end; but that is in view of the future.

Service was the rendering of what was due to God. All this part leads on to worship. Under the law, the priest was the worshipper, the worship was carried on by the priests -- a select class. They talk in Christendom of 'divine service'; it is quite a common expression. The apostle cannot spend much time over it (verse 5) -- it was not the moment to speak particularly of the things that belonged to the first tabernacle; he was hastening on to speak of another thing. The first tabernacle in verse 8 refers to what existed then. Now that is done away -- all that remains is the holiest, and that not in type and shadow, but in reality. There is no proper priestly service at all, except as connected with the holiest: no real service to God, except what comes from the consciousness of the calling.

In Christendom we get the first tabernacle set up again in principle -- this could not be the service of God. The generality of people in Christendom are, in their sense of things, on the footing of responsibility

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before God. 'We bless our Saviour's name, our sins are all forgiven'. Now in this hymn you are never away from the responsible man; it was a very common hymn some time ago amongst us. It is true we are forgiven, but when we speak of forgiveness we are not off the ground of responsibility; in the holiest you lose the sense of previous history. It is not possible that the mind of man can be occupied with two things at once. It has been pointed out that the consecration of the priests came after all the offerings had been offered. The whole question of sin and sins has been settled first, and the holiest is where God has been pleased to reveal Himself.

God can reveal Himself in a way to occupy and completely absorb us to the exclusion of everything else; this is the idea of the holiest; this leads to worship. This revelation of God really presents the Father, for it is in this character that God has been pleased to reveal Himself. Sins are individual and forgiveness is individual, but in the holiest we are of the company. We go into the holiest as the companions of Christ, and God is towards us as He is towards Christ. The holiest is what Christ is under the eye of God.

We cannot assemble together on the ground of our calling, for this latter depends on the state of our souls: we come together as Christians, for there are many things we have in common as such; but being in the truth of our calling in our souls is another matter. We cannot exclude from the company those who do not enter into the truth of our calling, for they have the Spirit of God, and for this reason I have not as much difficulty as some in singing certain hymns. The idea of the holiest is that God is towards us as He is towards Christ. We are loved with the same love. The proper privilege of the assembly is realised when Christ is known in the midst. Christianity is not simply that God has come out, but that

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we go in with Christ into the place whence the light has come -- the Father's presence.

In verse 12 we get that Christ has entered in -- i.e., He has taken up a place before God on the ground of redemption -- eternal redemption in the broad sense, not mere 'for us'. Christ could have gone in on the ground of His own Person, but then we could not have gone in; but He has died to sin and lives to God, i.e., He has taken up ground on which we can go in. He entered by His own blood. Christ has entered in as Forerunner. He is Priest and can conduct others in. We go in under His shadow, He introduces us, too, according to His own acceptance, and is not ashamed to call us brethren. Christianity is a most wonderful thing if you really get the idea of it; the more we realise the place that Christ has taken up as man, the more we are filled with reverence, and the more tenacious we shall be of the glory of His Person. It is a wonderful thing to find out that we are objects of God's love. It is this that calls out worship.

So long as we are down here we are always, in the sense of grace and righteousness, as men here; but in the holiest, and so too in heaven, we are entirely a new creation.

The Father will be the great object in heaven and in eternity. The Father is the way in which God is now presented to us. We shall see that the Son is the object of all the divine purposes -- and that the glory of God is displayed in the accomplishment of them.

The land is not a figure of the holiest, the land is the inheritance, that is what Christ inherits. In Hebrews it is largely contrast, it is not instruction in types. In these we get priests going into the holy place, and the high priest only once a year into the holiest of all. It is all in contrast to what has come out in Christ.

In verse 14 we have "dead works", it could not be otherwise when the sentence of death was on man.

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All the priests who went in performing the service under the law had the judgment of death still on them.

"To serve the living God". It would affect man even physically if he believed in the living God. All that we have to do with in this scene is under death, but having come into contact with a living God must have a great effect upon a man -- it works morally, and I believe it has an effect even physically. If we were more pious we should have better health; piety is profitable to all things. Christ having come in is not exactly His coming in or going in anywhere. The idea is that He has come on the scene; the law pointed on to millennial good things; it had a shadow of good things to come. Christ will be High Priest of good things to come (as Melchisedec) when He comes out in the millennium. But we get the good things and better, on the principle of going in, not when He comes out; when He comes out we shall come out with Him.

Christ takes up His place as Priest on the ground of righteousness; Psalm 110. It is when He is at the right hand that He is saluted as Priest for ever.

The first covenant is referred to now simply to show that even in it all things were purged by blood. The "heavenly things" are Christianity (verse 23). The "things in heaven", of which the tabernacle was a figure, is rather a different thought from the heavenly things. The argument is that the first system was not dedicated without blood, it was inaugurated by blood. Blood is the witness of death. The heavenly things are purified with better sacrifices than these. If there are to be worshippers who enter the holiest, they must be cleared from all against them and from all inconsistent with the presence of God in heaven. So at the close of the chapter we get sin and not simply sins put away. A worshipper now in the eye of God is completely purged from what came in by man.

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Chapter 9 presents a great contrast to the beginning of the epistle. In the beginning we saw how God had come out, and now we see that man has gone in. "Has spoken to us in the person of the Son", gives the key to the wonderful character of the revelation. There was a great deal that God could say by prophets, but a great deal also that He could not say by them; and now He has said that by His Son in the character of apostle. As High Priest He has gone in; by the Apostle God reveals Himself, and consequent upon that, man goes in. The two things must go together, for if God had not come out, man could not have gone in. He would, as regards man, have remained in darkness. The great point of chapter 9 is that Christ has gone into heaven itself to appear in the presence of God for us representatively, that we may reach there.

God could not have come out in the gospel if sin had still been before Him. When Christ died the veil of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom, the witness that God had come out. The truth of sin put away refers to the gospel; it is the only ground on which God could approach man in grace. If God had come near to man without it, it must have been in judgment or else to condone sin. It helps to the understanding of the epistle to see the contrast between God coming out and man going in. God could speak in a totally different way by His Son than He could by prophets. "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". Now, Christ has entered in, and the believer appropriates Him as on our side: He is for us. In chapter 10 we enter in; at the close of chapter 9 He has entered into heaven to appear in the presence of God for us; we have boldness to enter into the holiest. I think the distinction between heaven and the holiest is that heaven is the actual place. There is no thought of our going into the place now, but we enter in morally.

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As far as I understand Hebrews, I do not think it takes believers off the earth. It is not like Ephesians, where Jew and Gentile are made to sit in the heavenly places in Christ; the holiest does not carry you to heaven exactly, though into the presence of what is heavenly in association with Christ. I do not think the thought of worship is prominent in Ephesians. You have gone in, and you come out to fight, to hold your ground. There is access to the Father in Ephesians, but worship is not the subject; it is the full height of the calling of the church brought out, and the object is, that you may be able to come out in divine power here; so the apostle exhorts them to walk worthy of the calling. In Ephesians we have also the state answering to the calling; God has predestinated us to sonship by Jesus Christ to Himself, and the state is for the entering into the calling.

In the latter part of chapter 9 you get the completeness of the offerings. Christ entered into heaven when the offerings were all completed. He appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by His own sacrifice, and then He enters in when all is complete. He has left no offering work behind to be done. We could not go in if the offering was not complete. He is there as man, to the perfect satisfaction of God. It is most important to lay hold of that side, I mean of what is found in the fact of His presence there for us. The Apostle is from God to man, the Priest is from man to God, after the order that God has approved. A wonderful thing, for all He is as a divine Person gives its character to His manhood. Morally He gained nothing by becoming man; the point is what He brought into manhood.

The essence of appropriation is that He is put within our reach, so that you may eat Him. It is affection, I think, that does so, for it is a question of attachment. We are drawn to Him, and it is affection and not simply faith that appropriates Him.

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I must have Him, and I am entitled to have Him. If not entitled it would be covetousness; to desire anything to which I am not entitled is covetousness. I admit that affection is closely linked with faith, but it is not faith only. It is on the principle of Peter, in his saying to the Lord, "Bid me come unto thee on the water". Christ was above the difficulty, He was drawing Peter to His own side, attracting him out of the boat to Himself, and making him consciously His companion where He was. You appropriate Him by affection. The more you appropriate Him the more you are separated from all here. It is the principle of John 6"As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me". I think it is most wonderful to apprehend Christ on our side; it is a great defect if you do not see what He is on our side, the place that He has taken as man God-ward; you do not get the good of it without appropriation.

"Once in the end of the world (the consummation of the ages) hath he appeared to put away sin ... and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation". The latter part of the verse proves how perfectly everything has been effected -- no question of sin when He comes again; He has completely done with it. Properly it is the Jew who looks for Him; morally it applies to the Christian I do not doubt, but He appears to Israel for salvation. Some people try to make out from this verse that only those looking for Him will be taken at the rapture; but it does not speak of the rapture at all; it is His appearing, His coming out, and not the saints going in.

Strictly, the 'salvation' is the deliverance of the Jew, but I should not have the slightest objection to applying it to Christians, for it is true of them, only He comes out to take us in.

The idea of the Priest used largely to be, of one

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who carried us through the wilderness. It is only comparatively lately that I have seen that the point of the Priest is to carry us now to where He is -- not only to bring you safe home at last, but to take you in now. The principle on which you go in is the appropriation of Christ as Priest.

CHAPTER 10

The principle of chapter 10 is explained in verse 9, "Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second". It is connected with chapter 9. He takes away the system of sacrifices that He may establish the will of God, which He puts in contrast to all those sacrifices. When He comes into the world, He says: "Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not ... Lo, I come ... to do thy will" -- that is, in order for the establishing of the will of God, all those sacrifices must go. God found no pleasure in the offerings, and Christ came to do His pleasure, and so He must take away what God had no pleasure in. There never was the least intrinsic value in any offering under the law; there was no value in the victim, though the offerer acknowledged his own state in bringing it; there was no pleasure in the victim, though there might have been in the faith of the offerer. The offering is the basis of God's will; it is not His will; His will goes on to the bringing many sons to glory. The cross is the basis of everything; it establishes the second, and that remains for ever: "by the which will we are sanctified". Every item of blessing is a part of the will of God. Christians may come to the morning meeting to get, in a certain sense, assured, and your soul must rest on the completeness of what Christ has done once for all, the basis of the will of God; but the will of God puts us in the place of sons for priestly service.

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We are sanctified to that end. When the Lord spoke in John 17 of sanctifying Himself; He spoke of His present glorious place in heaven. It is not the time for possession yet, for He has not taken the inheritance, but He has set Himself apart as the heavenly Man, that we may be sanctified by the truth. The more we understand His place, the more separating the effect. The sanctification here (verse 10) is the same as in chapter 2: 11, he has brought us, as to our apprehension, to God's point.

The system of continual failure and offerings could not give God pleasure; it is very poor taste when we go to God, to be continually bringing up the question of our sins; it is unbecoming. I really think the answer God would give us would be: 'But have I not cleared you?' If I had forgiven another, I should not like to have the thing constantly brought before me; I should doubt if the person had the sense that he really was forgiven.

All depends on this point of appropriation: if you do not appropriate, you cannot be consciously in the family. It is the only principle on which you can be in association with Christ. We can get nothing without appropriation. I think people are content with a Christianity that does not involve appropriation. Justification does not call for appropriation: you believe on Him for forgiveness and the gift of the Holy Spirit, and numbers are content with that. But I find in Scripture entirely another line which hangs on the place that Christ has taken up as man in the presence of God, and that is our place according to the will of God. That is where Christianity comes in to my mind. We cannot touch this but by the Spirit.

The truth of John 6 depends on John 4. There must be faith before you get the Spirit; you were enlightened by the gospel -- that is faith. Those satisfied with justification do not know much about life; they are very like a child who refuses food. You

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will not get much vigour of life unless you take food. I look on John 6 as a test: "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you". It was a test rather than the act of faith that receives the testimony. John's point is life, and not peace.

There are a great many anomalies in the present corrupt state of Christianity, but John gives you naked principles, and it is absolutely true that if a man does not eat the flesh and think the blood, there is no life in him. Chapters 5 and 6 depend on chapter 4, you could not alter the order. The man in John 5 (Israel)+ is raised up by the law written in the heart. With us, it is by the love of God revealed to us -- that is the way in which we are raised up. The love of God is shed abroad in your heart, and you are brought into the place of a child. Hence you do not want to be on the bed of legality any more. In chapter 6 Christ is the living bread; He is on our side and we appropriate Him, and enter into life. You have to die experimentally, appropriating His death, in order to appropriate Him in life -- die to the whole system of things in which flesh finds its life.

The offerings are over, and you are sanctified once for all, and properly priestly service is what remains for us, to serve God according to His mind. It is most difficult to impress upon people that they are brought into the new place, not for their pleasure but for God's pleasure; no question as to responsibility could be entertained; you are silenced as to that, and you have to realise that you are brought into God's presence for His pleasure. Worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth as He has been pleased to reveal Himself, that is God's pleasure. You are perfected -- no question can ever again be raised.

+The man in John 5 is a figure of Israel, who will be raised up by the word of Christ.

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Priestly service is in connection with the assembly. There is no such thing as a single child; the great point is that you should be in company with Christ. There may be thanksgiving and a great deal for saints individually, but worship properly is collective. Chapter 13 gives us more what is individual, and is outside the camp, not inside the veil, it is the place of reproach in the world. When you are inside the veil, you are in company with Christ and the whole worshipping company.

"A body hast thou prepared me", describes the human condition, all of the power of the Holy Spirit, prepared by God miraculously for Christ; a body prepared for that Person who says, "Lo, I come to do thy will". It is the condition in which the Lord was and in which none was like Him, He remains the same Person, yet changes His form; He takes a body prepared, a condition as man, though in person still divine.

"In the volume of the book". I believe that literally this expression means the heading of the roll; I have connected it with the eternal counsels. Referring to the expression in Psalm 40, "ears hast thou prepared me" (digged) you could hardly apply the thought "as I hear, I judge" to God. It expressed the position which the Son had taken in becoming man.

What takes us a long time to get hold of is that it is the pleasure of God to give us this place; the pleasure which Christ came to carry out; we are set in the place of sons for God's pleasure. We are too commonly occupied with our own side, and Christ is constantly seeking to draw us to His.

When we have come to verse 17, we find that the ground has been completely cleared -- there is no hindrance now to anything in the way of privilege; we have got our title. "By the which will we are sanctified", and then those sanctified by one offering are perfected for ever, completely cleared, and so you are

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free for privilege. No question can be raised as to responsibility, no hindrance remains to our entering into privilege; we have boldness to enter into the holiest. The Holy Spirit is the witness that there is no more offering for sin (verses 14 - 18). Sins are not revived. It goes on to say, "Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin".

There could not be the terms of the new covenant until there had been an efficacious offering, and the Holy Spirit witnesses to this. If sins and iniquities are remembered no more, there must have been an offering to remove them. The Holy Spirit did not come to do a work, but to bear witness to a work done. The Holy Spirit is an abiding witness. This epistle contemplates the house of God, and it is there that the living voice of God by the Spirit comes out. We learn "the new and living way" in Christ Himself -- it is by Him we enter: we have the great truth in Christ that there is a Man alive to God as having died to sin; Romans 6. The principle is established in One, but if so it holds good for a million; God has established the principle. One man fell into sin and died, another man dies to sin and lives to God.

We enter the holiest individually: the truth has to be made good in us individually, but the moment you pass the threshold you find yourself in company. Christian privilege has to be learned individually. We enter that we may come on to the proper ground of the church, of association with Christ where He sings praises in the midst. It is really learning that we belong to heaven, to the consecrated company typified by Aaron and his sons. It is a privilege to be in the assembly, in the holiest. I do not mean to say by this the meeting. The point is being in the sense of the Lord's presence. We come into the consciousness of being companions of Christ, so that in the midst He is the leader. He sings praises to

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God. If you come into this you must come into it in the consciousness of your soul. The Lord speaks to Peter of "my assembly". "To whom coming" (1 Peter 2) is the entrance into privilege. If I come to Him as Lord, I am not His companion, He stands alone; but if I come to Him a Living Stone, I come to Him as one of His companions. He is chief, the Head, firstborn among many brethren, but we are His companions.

Verses 19, 20, is what we have: we have boldness to enter, and we have a Great Priest over the house of God, and the exhortation is, let us draw near. The idea of the holiest is there is nothing holier.

"Through the veil" -- that is, He lives to God as having died to sin. His death was the rending of the veil, the veil was His flesh. High Priest and Great Priest are very much alike; the latter perhaps more connected with His place over the house of God. The privilege of entering is always ours, it belongs to us. I question if the privilege is realised short of the assembly, because it depends so much on the presence of Christ. The apostle wanted the Hebrews to accept the privilege. There are two things connected with the rending of the veil -- God coming out and man going in. If you enter the holiest you come consciously into all the light of the revelation which God has been pleased to give of Himself, and that not simply in relation to us, as in grace and righteousness, but in what He is in relation to Christ. This latter is another lesson. The point of God's grace is to bring us into company with Christ, so that God may be towards us as He is towards Christ. One verse expresses it: "that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them", and this is the holiest. We come into Christ's place in the presence of God, and are loved as He is loved. The instant there is a spark of attachment to Christ in the heart, then the Father loves you "because ye

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have loved me", and then the point is that Christ is the measure of the love. We could not speak of the grace of God in relation to Christ: grace and righteousness are what God is in relation to us, but in the holiest Christ is firstborn among many brethren, and He declares the Father's name.

We are accepted in the Beloved, and being before Him, partakers of the divine nature, we are holy and without blame. Divine counsel is that God is bringing many sons to glory; this is our title. In the end of Acts 7 we get the introduction of it. Heaven opened to Stephen. Before that, the heavens opened on Christ and God proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son" -- now they open to Stephen, and he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. What was revealed to Stephen was the glory of God, as it were claiming him, and immediately after, Paul is called out to be the minister of it. Stephen is the illustration of it, and Paul comes on the scene to lead us by ministry into it. Nothing more marvellous than for the heavens to be opened to a man, and that he should see into glory, and more than that, that the glory should claim him! Stephen said: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit".

The blood is the witness (verse 19) that we can be there consistently with the glory of God; every claim of the glory of God has been vindicated. These expressions as to the blood apply to us as down here, but in the next statement (verse 20) you are looked at as on new ground, on the ground of being alive to God. We reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.

The veil is gone as far as God's coming out is concerned, but it is not gone in the same way in connection with us; we have to appropriate the death of Christ. We have to go in on the ground of another Man "passed out of death into life". The veil is rent for God to come out, but our going in is another matter.

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We only go into the holiest as in the life of Christ, as in Romans 6, "Reckon yourselves ... alive to God in Christ Jesus". Man in the flesh could not enter: it is by the Holy Spirit. How else could we as a present thing be companions of Christ in the presence of God? The work of Christ has so completely removed all -- the old man crucified, and we go in because we are alive to God in Christ, in the Spirit. It has been a source of mischief taking up Romans 6 too exclusively on the death side; we have the same title to reckon on the life side: "alive unto God in Christ Jesus". Verse 21 is Christ in the midst of the assembly; what is purposed in chapter 2. He is in the midst: how could we entertain the thought of entering into the holiest if He is not there to lead? He is Minister of the holy places, what was typified in Aaron. Aaron was charged with the maintenance of the service. His office was not simply to compassionate the ignorant. The lighting of the lamps, the placing the shewbread, was properly priestly work. We are the priestly company, and Christ is the Great Priest.

So far up to verse 21 it is the statement of our privilege -- what we are entitled to. Now we get the exhortation: "let us draw near", but first we must understand what we are entitled to. It is most wonderful to me that I am entitled to live to God in the light in which God has been pleased to reveal Himself in Christ. We learn the revelation of God first in relation to ourselves in grace and righteousness. We learn this before we learn our place as sons. The character of our life is according to the revelation which God has made of Himself.

"Bodies washed". This is practical purgation from the pollution of the world, and "hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience". The priests were washed, sprinkled, and anointed: we do not get the anointing here.

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"Pure water" is the power of the word morally, so that you are not hampered by your bodily condition: you are practically cleansed in soul from the filthiness that attaches to your bodily condition. The heart is at rest as to an evil conscience. If there was not all this there could be no entering into the holiest. The holiest is open for the Christian to enter in. It has been said that Christianity is as Christ is -- we can only learn it in Him. He is the only perfect expression of what we are.

Verse 23 is to have its place with us, too, "let us hold fast the confession of the hope unwavering". The full result is what we are to have before us. We have privilege, and faith substantiates what is hoped for; still we do hope and wait for it. The hope refers to the glory. Hope steadies a man. It is like a beacon, so we are to hold fast the confession of the hope. God's end is to bring many sons to glory, and God is faithful, so we are to hold fast the hope.

Many of us would accept the truth as to keeping the end in view, but where we have failed is in entering into privilege as a present thing. The High Priest is to this end, that we might enter into the holiest.

Glory is the accomplishment of promise; so we get "He is faithful that promised". If we look at things on God's side, all is accomplished (see Ephesians 1), but in Hebrews we see not yet all things put under Him. We go on in patience and faith. "For whatever promises of God there are, in him is the yea, and in him the amen", for in Him where He is set, all is accomplished: it is all effected for God. All is gathered up in Christ; every counsel and purpose is headed up in Him.

We get two extremes presented in the end of chapter 10, i.e., living by faith or apostasy. You either get to life or to perdition; there is no neutral zone,

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there are the two poles; they are alternatives. The apostle transposes the order of the statement in the prophet Habakkuk (compare Habakkuk 2:4 with Hebrews 10:38): "If any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him" is the same as "His soul which is lifted up is not upright in him". The point in the passage in Hebrews is, "we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul".

Soul salvation is not exactly life; salvation is from our enemies and the hand of all that hate us; it is salvation from the enemy's power. Israel was saved at the Red Sea, and they sang the salvation song. You come to salvation when you confess Christ as Lord; when you have left Egypt and are beyond the reach of the enemy, you come under another sway. Life is connected with the sphere where the Son is.

If you look at the end of chapter 7 you find first "this man, because he continueth ever, hath an unchangeable priesthood. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost", etc. Then you come to another point, "such an high priest became us", this of necessity brings in the thought that we are of His order. Both things are predicated of the High Priest, but one is simply saving us, and the other is that He is going to conduct us into the holiest. In chapter 8 we get the thought carried on: He is Minister of the sanctuary.

Soul salvation is the emancipation of the soul from God's judgment and the power of the enemy; this is in view of life, I admit. We have faith "to the saving of the soul". "The just shall live by faith" goes further. In Romans 4 and 5 you get soul salvation, to those "who believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead". We have got to the Lord, have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. If we have got to Him, we are free from the power of

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the enemy. Then in Romans 6 you have another step -- you accept death; then in chapter 8 you reach life. The Spirit is life. "If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live". Man is saved in being set free from the power of the enemy. It is not temporal deliverance, as in the case of Israel, but soul salvation. The thought of salvation comes out in the song of Zacharias; "Saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us", etc. It is salvation in view of life: "salvation which is in Christ Jesus" does not go beyond what we are speaking of. "With eternal glory" takes in the other thought in its fulness: "Who has delivered us from the authority of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love". We get salvation thus, and have reached another authority, "In whom we have redemption".

Life is reached in reaching Christ. Life is Christianity proper: life is 'in Him we stand a heavenly band, where He Himself is gone'. "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God", that is, where life is -- with Christ. The first thing is that God takes account of the reality of our position as men. You must be free of death and Satan's power, and this is really broken for you when you come to the Lord. Life belongs to a completely new relationship. "Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" refers to another relationship. The Spirit helps us in our responsibility, "that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit"; but "Spirit of life" involves the thought of relationship. 'Life of faith' I do not understand; the just are to live on the principle of faith. We do not yet live as to actual condition, we are not actually quickened: the principle upon which we live is faith. In faith I have got the light of God; now in heaven we shall not want faith, but we cannot be in the light of the knowledge of God now, save by faith.

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"+Quickened us together with Christ" includes all the work of God in us: we are not yet quickened according to 1 Corinthians 15:22, "as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive".

In Ephesians 2 it is life in the sense of affection which has appropriated Christ. It is clear that when "quickened ... with Christ" is said of saints, it is when their affection had appropriated Christ. It is the power of God's Spirit that has enabled me by affection to appropriate Christ as He is and where He is, and thus we are said to be quickened together with Him; it was the then present state of the Ephesians, and the effect of divine power working in them when they were dead. It is thus that we are quickened with Christ; it is life in the character of affection. Love is the life of God; Scripture knows no life that is not love. Natural life is nothing without the system and framework of affections in which it is properly expressed.

"Soul and spirit"? The soul is often used in Scripture as the individual. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die", not another for it. Life in Scripture is connected with the Spirit, and always with a new

+Explanatory Note. -- As to Ephesians 2, the statement in that chapter is clearly of what God by His power had effected in the saints: He had, as is seen also in Colossians, quickened them together with Christ. In referring to it, my point was to show what it is in which this is displayed. Evidently the first point is that Christ risen is the centre and ground on which all is formed. Then we stand associated with Him, a heavenly band. We have (conscious of His love) appropriated Him in what He is to God as risen from the dead, and thus live together with Him God-ward in love (see chapter 1: 4). It may be said that this is mixing up what is, in a sense, experience, with the power of God, but I think that the result of God's work is viewed, as a whole, in Ephesians: the fruit and effect of His power working where nothing was but death, and producing a result suitable and sufficient for Himself. It is seen in its full extent, and is what is true in principle in all Christians, though not realised by all.

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relationship. Life comes out in your affections answering to the new relationship.

Body, soul, spirit, may, perhaps, be said to be the three constituent parts of man; the "spirit" as inmost. "Soul" is what man has in common with the animal, the natural life. "Spirit" is the conscious individuality; but you cannot trace a word right through Scripture and always attribute the same meaning to it. "Soul" is often that particular person, not another.

CHAPTER 11

The importance of faith, as presented here, is that it brought in the light of the world to come. It is this that Hebrews has in view all through. The practical working of it is that when saints got the light of another world, they gave up this world and were pilgrims and strangers in it. Then we get faith in perfection in chapter 12. There is a world to come, and a city. Abraham looked for a city, he dwelt in a tent, but he looked for what pledged a fixed established order of things -- a city. It is an important principle: the moment sin came in, this world was rejected, and what God had before Him was another world in view of which He has been working, although He has gone on patiently with this world for six thousand years. "The world to come" is in full view to us, we have full light on it now. Wherever faith has been, saints have always had a glimpse of light as to the world to come.

Creation is brought in first in chapter 11 to show its connection with the word of God, that God has created the universe as a theatre for the display of His ways. Scientists are in their thought of things too material. 'Framed' does not give the idea of a system of evolution. "Things that are seen were

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not made of things which do appear". Its present form was given to the earth in the beginning of Genesis. What is called the six days of creation was not strictly creation. It was the moulding of what had been created into its present form. Perhaps there was some modification of it after the flood. The earth was set in relation to the sun and moon on the fourth day. The great point to me is that it was framed by the word of God to be the theatre for the display of His ways. His word here is His utterance.

The 'elders' are the men who are referred to throughout this chapter as illustrating the principle of faith. What came out through Abel was acceptance on the ground of sacrifice. All the blessing in the world to come is based on sacrifice. It would not have been suitable, I think, to bring in Adam in this chapter. He was before God on the ground of innocence, and the ruin came in through him, and recovery does not come in by the same one. It was through the Seed of the woman that recovery came in.

It has been the pleasure of God all along to give insight into the principles of the world to come. 'World to come' takes in, I think, the heavenly and the earthly, for we get the heavenly city. The world to come is put under the Son of man, He who tasted death for everything. As to what Abel had or knew, that is not the point -- the principle goes beyond this.

Enoch gives the heavenly part of the world to come -- the church, and Noah the earthly -- the Jews saved through the judgment. 'Ark' is derived from a word meaning 'covering'. No flesh was seen in the flood; it was either drowned, or covered in the ark. You must not be seen in your nakedness before God, but God has provided a covering. Noah preached righteousness, for God never brings judgment in without first giving a testimony -- it is not His way.+

+See Introduction for further remarks on chapter 11.

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CHAPTER 12

This all follows on and is connected with the life of faith. There is a tendency in souls when under pressure to be discouraged, to droop; but we could not do without discipline. No intelligent Christian would think so for a moment. The effect of discipline is to teach me my contrariety. If all were smooth we should not learn this: there would also be a great lack in knowing what is of God. Discipline paves the way for divine communications: you hear the voice of the One who speaks now from heaven.

God is speaking now from heaven, not on earth as on mount Sinai, and what He speaks of is His counsels and purposes. I question if any one would learn this without discipline. We have to learn to distrust ourselves. We cannot be depended on. If we believed Him we should distrust ourselves more. God makes what is in us known to us to do us good at our latter end. The effect of discipline is to expose all that is in your heart to yourself, and this has to go on. A newly converted soul could hardly bear this exposure. Such generally trust themselves in measure; they have often faith and energy and zeal, but they know very little of themselves, and do not much distrust themselves.

Verse 10 is God's holiness. Verse 14 is holiness in the sense of sanctification. We have to learn to judge of things according to the holiness of God. The standard of holiness for a Christian is God's holiness. Holiness by faith really makes law the standard; but if I look at things in the light of divine purpose, the standard is God's holiness. There is no moment when this is attained by faith, for God's holiness is immeasurable. A Jew in the millennium with the law written in his heart is holy, but it is not according to the standard of Christian holiness. God's purpose is that we should be holy and without blame; we

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become partakers of the divine nature, the new man is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth, and the measure in which the new man is true in me is the measure in which I am a partaker of God's holiness. People who go on the line of holiness by faith mistake righteousness for holiness. In their thoughts of holiness they do not go beyond righteousness: this latter refers to conduct, but holiness carries the thought of spirit -- it repels, shrinks from evil. A person may walk in self-judgment, and this is righteousness, and this leads to holiness, which is properly instinctive as to what is not according to God. To the Lord evil was simply repulsive: He never needed to walk in self-judgment. He was holy. With us it is "righteousness unto holiness".

Verse 14. If there is not sanctification you will not see the Lord. You must be set apart from evil and the course of things here before you see the Lord. Many a one believes in the Lord who has not reached the Lord: and it is really this on which Christian fellowship depends. At the outset men believed in Christ and then they confessed Him as Lord, and that drew them to one another. It was their bond. It is on the same principle that we have been drawn together, purging ourselves from vessels to dishonour.

The titles "Son of David", "Son of man", and "Son of God", are covered by the name of "Lord", and none of these titles is connected with any order of things now existing here. As Son of David Christ's rights are in abeyance -- as Son of man He is connected with the world to come.

The obligation on everyone who names the name of the Lord is to depart from iniquity. So many Christians have only reached Him savingly, they are not in the intelligence of what He is as Lord. To confess Him you must have some sense of who He is as Lord. Paul says to Timothy, "be not therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord". You cannot connect the Church

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of England as a system with "the Lord". Christ has been rejected, and how then can there be a state church owning Him? All the systems are alike, they do not know the Lord. In the eye of God all the systems of men here are unrighteousness. Many do not feel them to be so, but if they would reach the Lord they must break away. Many of us have been brought out by some point of detail, such as objection to one-man ministry -- but when once out it is a great thing to get hold of principles, it is a help to yourself, and you can thus help others.

Later on in the chapter there is a good deal introduced of the world to come. Mount Sinai is of the world that is past. Mount Zion is the principle of the world to come, and it is in connection with this that the three titles which cover what is connected with Him as "Lord" have their force. They come out in John 11 and 12 -- Son of God, Son of David, Son of man -- and so, too, they characterise the first three gospels. Matthew gives us the Son of David; Mark, the Son of God; Luke, the Son of man. There is one point of difference between the first three gospels and John; it is this: in the first three, He (Jesus) goes up the mount of Transfiguration and there receives glory and honour from God the Father. But in John we have the truth of His Person, and there is no mount of Transfiguration. He comes down from heaven.

Nothing subdues the flesh but grace; a root of bitterness springs from one who does not enjoy grace. We ought to make it apparent that we are all bent on one another's good and blessing. If this were so there would not be roots of bitterness springing up. It is not enough to be bent on our own good, but on that of other people. First, "take heed unto thyself", and then thou shalt "both save thyself, and them that hear thee". We should ourselves be expanded if we were bent on others' good. The nearer we get to the Lord the nearer we get to one another. The administration of

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all that is of divine goodness, of all that is in the purpose of God to effect for man, is through Christ as Lord.

A profane person is one who has no sense of the sanctity of things; this is a danger which besets such bodies as the Salvation Army -- making divine things common. Profanity is treating divine things as if they were common. If Esau had had any sense of the value of the birthright, it would have been his secret. We see the same in Samson; the secret of his power was his Nazariteship, and he made it known to a Philistine woman -- it was profaning it. Esau did not seek a place of repentance: He sought the blessing when he had lost it, but the blessing went with the birthright. If God gives you a secret, you must never play fast and loose with God. If God gives you something between Himself and you, it is profanity to treat it lightly. The birthright was the gift to Esau; it was his glory. Paul kept the revelation and vision a secret with God for fourteen years. He cherished it, and he kept it with God. In the gospel preaching, what is to be presented is the grace of God, and I should not parade in it what constitutes my own place and blessing with God. I should present the grace of God to man in regard to his responsibility and state. Now of course the work of an evangelist has to be done among professed Christians, because they are not established in grace.

The idea in mount Zion is not material, therefore there is no use speaking about it to flesh. Mount Sinai was material, could be touched, the natural man could take it in; but mount Zion cannot be taken in by the natural man. This is brought in in connection with profanity. It would be profane to present mount Zion to the mere natural man. Mount Zion is the sovereign grace of God when all has failed on man's side. The ark was brought to mount Zion after Ichabod had been written upon Israel. Mount Zion is now the great principle of God's dealings with the

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Jew. We have all to come in on the ground of mercy. God is rich in mercy; Ephesians 2. We had no hope, but God comes in in sovereign grace. Love is the spring; grace is what He displays; mercy is the first thing we get: "I obtained mercy".

The thought of mount Zion is wonderful. I rejoice in it. One of the most beautiful Psalms is the 78th. All had failed on the side of Israel, his glory had been given into the enemy's hands; then God awoke and smote His enemies, and chose David and mount Zion -- that is God. Mount Zion is the joy of the whole earth -- the city of the Great King. Mount Sinai represents what is material and awe-inspiring, and mount Zion the spiritual. For the apprehension of that we need the Spirit.

Then we come to what is interesting, viz., Peter's aspect and Paul's aspect of the church. The city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem is that which was built up by the twelve, the church of the firstborn ones written in heaven is more Paul's aspect. He establishes the church in its proper relationships; but none of these thoughts could be taken up except by faith, for all are spiritual. Then we are led up to God as the Judge of all; then we come down to look at things in relation to the earth -- the spirits of just men made perfect. This is through redemption; they are perfected now. Their place before God is clear. God waited, as it were, in view of what was to be accomplished.

Then we come to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, etc. It is God placing Himself in relation to man mediatorially. Jesus is the Mediator, and we have come to Him; and He is to us the Minister of the holy places, and leads us in with Himself. We are in association with Himself in the holiest of all. We get the principle of the new covenant, the good of it, the Spirit and righteousness as we find in 2 Corinthians 3 and in Hebrews 8 --

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divine teaching and forgiveness. The expression "judge of all" refers to God's relation to things in the world to come. He will be judge then. What marks the present is grace reigning through righteousness, but in the millennium it will be righteousness reigning.

CHAPTER 13

It has been said that this chapter gives us the dress of the Christian, and that conveys the idea pretty much. It gives that by which the Christian is to be characterised as down here, his outward appearance. We have had entrance into privilege; then we had the life of faith, that which determines the Christian's course here; then here we get his dress. It is not a garb to appear religious here, but is moral. The thought in chapter 10 is to go inside the veil. In chapter 13 it is outside the camp, so we get: "be content with such things as ye have", and "to do good and to communicate forget not".

The first thing is hospitality -- and to strangers. Under the form of a stranger you may entertain an angel. An angel is a messenger of good, a bearer of good tidings.

The next thing (verse 3) is identification with those who suffer. The apostle says to Timothy, "Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner". Many profess now in a way to value the truth, and yet hold themselves apart from those through whom it comes to us. In Psalm 18 you get the identification of Christ with Israel, right away from Egypt. The people of God were then oppressed. Their reproach was His reproach: when they suffered, He suffered with them, and the sufferings of the people in that way were the reproach of Christ, for the power

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of the world at that time was turned against them, just as it was against the Lord when He came here.

"As being yourselves also in the body". We are in the body and therefore exposed to the same things. The right feeling for us is, that if Paul, the vessel of the truth, was bound in prison, we should be prepared to be where he was. We might have a feeling of shame in being better off than the vessel of the testimony. I think I can understand this.

Onesiphorus was not ashamed of Paul's chain, "he sought me out very diligently, and found me". It is very beautiful to see how he is thus marked out. He had gone into the metropolis of the world to hunt out a prisoner. God orders things so that we are free from the pressure that such were under, but we should be sympathetic. It is a great thing to be identified with those whom the Lord is putting forward for the good of His people. When Moses might have been great and instrumental for relief, through his influence with the worldly power, he did not feel that to be the true path, to be a patron of the people. It was rather to suffer with the people. Moses felt his rejection by the children of Israel a great deal more than the power of the Egyptians: "who made thee ruler and a judge over us?" The man whom God is using in His testimony is sure to come into reproach even though the powers that be do not oppress.

The next point is respect for God's institution, and then trust in God, which is true piety. What proves piety is contentment with present circumstances. Faith brings me into God's things; piety is the contrast of this, and brings God into my things. Piety has respect for God's institution -- marriage, etc. Another feature of it is that you are not afraid of man. Piety is called in the Old Testament "the fear of the Lord". If we expect anything from man, we are afraid of offending. If we do not expect from man, we are not afraid of man.

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It goes a long way to be content with present circumstances. There are few people who would not like some sort of change in some way or other. If there is not confidence in God, we are not worth much; therefore the apostle laboured so much in the doctrine that is according to piety. If I expect anything from man, I have the fear of men, and the only way to get free of fear of men is trusting God: when you can say: "the Lord is my helper", it is then you can say, "I will not fear what man shall do unto me". We ought to take that word home: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee". It is so natural to begin to reckon what we shall do in certain contingencies, but what meets every contingency is, "I will never leave thee". God does not come in for us till we believe Him and trust Him: while people are on the line of putting God to the test -- tempting Him -- they will not get much from Him. If a man be pious, God will come in in some way or other for His need. I desire to be free of the fear of man, so as to be able to say, "I will not fear what man shall do unto me". This specially refers to circumstances here -- not to persecution. If I can take that home, "I will never leave thee", I can go on my course in peace. Half our troubles are prospective.

1 Corinthians 2:9 is not got hold of by one who does not love God. "All things work together for good to them that love God". And it is to those who love Him that God reveals by His Spirit what eye hath not seen nor ear heard. It is this that makes us superior to every influence here. We are not to be high-minded or imprudent, but not afraid of man -- the Lord is my helper. To be satisfied with present circumstances meets all the natural tendency to turn to man to gain advancement here. If God pleases to order well for a man providentially it is all right, but it is poor work for a Christian to be seeking and scheming to open doors for himself -- and has a miserable effect

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on the soul, for it keeps you in the fear of man.

Verses 7 - 9. "Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God". Stability is the point here. We need to be established; the basis of stability is the word of God. These leaders were, I suppose, the Jewish apostles. Then another reason for stability is that there can be no change in Him; therefore they were not to be carried about with divers and strange doctrines. Paul is an independent writer here (the epistle is anonymous), but it is beautiful to see the recognition of these Jewish teachers. Hebrews is one of the most valuable epistles; if it were possible to take it away from us, there would be a great gap. The reason of the absence of the author's name is evident, for Christ is the Apostle. This epistle came to the Hebrews as a kind of independent witness.

We are to remember the leaders as knowing their manner of life, "considering the end of their conversation" -- whose faith follow. "Your leaders" in verse 17 are those who watch for your souls; in verse 7 those who had been the vessels of God's communications to them. I do not care for a man's doctrine if his manner of life does not correspond.

Verse 8 is distinct; there is no change in Jesus Christ. It is the same Person all through, not only yesterday, but today and for ever. What He was in heaven He was down here, and what He was down here He is in heaven -- as to condition changed, but always the same morally. One who is carried about, shifting here and there, proves that he is not established in the word of God -- this gives stability. The great difficulty for us is to rest in what we know as the word of God. Orthodoxy is no security for stability: many are orthodox who have no sense in their souls that it is the word of God. The word of God is God Himself, but God expressed. I always believed that the Bible was the word of God, but to

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know that I could trust to it if all else were broken up is another matter. Suppose every prop were knocked away and all Christian association broken up -- what then? Would you cleave to the word of God as your stay? "Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea", Psalm 46. A time does come when we are tested as to how far we can rely upon the word of God when all else fails. Man lost God, and therefore we know nothing of God save as God expresses Himself to us, and that is the word. We cannot know Him without the word. There is a moral character about the word -- it is God in expression. If God has been pleased to express Himself, then when the upheaval of all things comes, the thing that I can trust to is the word of God, for it is Himself. Orthodoxy will not avail you then.

"We have an altar", etc. It is evident that the apostle is addressing himself to those who had not taken the place of reproach as dead to the world -- outside the camp. If you enjoy the place of privilege inside the veil, you must take the place of death to the world. It has been said "the camp" is where everything is ordered with military precision. With Israel, the camp was connected with the religious system; their camp was ordered with reference to the tabernacle; the tribes were arranged in reference to it. The only place in which Christ is known here is the place of reproach.

To "eat" is the thought of fellowship or communion. Those who were going on with the Jewish order, how were they in the fellowship of Christ's death? Christ suffered without the camp that He might sanctify the people with His own blood. The first thing we have to learn is the Lordship of Christ. No thought that is covered by the Lordship of Christ is connected with any existing system upon earth. As Son of God, He raises up man to heavenly life. As

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Son of David, He will sit on the throne of David and bring in the sure mercies of David. As Son of man, He brings in the world to come. If we get to the Lord we must leave systems on earth, for He is outside the camp. People will never get rightly into fellowship till they get to the Lord. The systems must be left in the Spirit. The Lord is to be found, but outside all the systems here. All that goes to make up His title of Lord belongs to another order of things.

The only place in which Christ is known here is outside the camp, and that is reproach -- the reproach of having suffered outside the gate. Man put Him outside, but He took that place, and He can have no place here but through judgment. This chapter is the answer to chapter 10. If we go in we cannot evade the reproach of Christ. Christ is accepted in the holiest, but He is in reproach here. Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp: "go forth" is an injunction at a certain crisis. The Living Stone is disallowed of men, but accepted of God -- chosen of God and precious. The two things go together. It resolves itself into a question of going on with the first man or with the Second. Those who served the tabernacle had no business to take the place of reproach here, for the tabernacle service contemplated God being in relation with that order. If the camp were owned by God, it would be clearly wrong to go outside.

The altar refers to what the Patriarchs had -- they had an altar. It is a place of communion, and we get eating associated with it. By the fact of being a sin-offering Christ necessarily suffered outside the gate.

In verses 7, 8 and 9, the point is stability; it is a good thing the heart should be established with grace not with meats. The "meats" in verse 9 is what gives rise to the thought of the altar.

The holiest on God's part is where He displays Himself; on our side it is worship; the holiest is the scene where God's purpose in Christ is displayed. It is the

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privilege into which the assembly is led by the Spirit of God. It is in the holiest Christ has His proper place in the assembly. The holiest had no existence, I judge, till Christ became man, save in type. Then we get that, not only is Christ the antitype of all in the holiest, but more, that He Himself has entered the holiest by His own blood. We get this in chapter 9: 12. We are not led into the holiest except as conscious that He is there. He is the Great Priest over the house of God. Affection claims Him and gets Him.

Nothing is of any power in the assembly but affection. If you were not in faith you would not be there, but being there, nothing is effective except the divine nature. Christ is the Living Stone -- that is, we know Him and recognise Him in His nature as the Son of God, and when we realise this we too are recognised as living stones. It is thus we are led into the sense of the holiest. It is all a question of living stones, and that is not simply faith, but that you are partakers of the divine nature. This is the real point of 1 Corinthians 13. You may have all gifts, but if you have not love you are nothing.

Many people think that because they are in our fellowship, the Lord's presence is guaranteed to them. To affection there is no difficulty in realising the Lord's presence in the assembly. As has been said, we must first know the Lord's relation to us as High Priest, it is then that we learn His love -- not only see His death as the proof of His love, but learn the way He rescues us and draws us to Himself. The Lord is not bodily present now, it is all a question of spiritual affection. John had the deepest appreciation of His love, and for this reason, he was the disciple whom Jesus loved.

In 1 Corinthians 12, the church is the vessel of the Spirit; if this is held too exclusively it would make us Quakers, but in chapter 13 everything is made of the

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divine nature, and what we are as partakers of the divine nature. We sing sometimes,

''Tis the treasure we've found in His love,
That has made us now pilgrims below'. (Hymn 139)

If we had any true idea of the holiest, we should feel that the only possible place here in consistency with it is that of reproach.

With God, love originates everything; with the Christian we love because we are loved. No one appreciates love without responding to it. A person may be loved and not appreciate it, but if love be appreciated you must respond to it. The Holy Spirit sheds abroad God's love in our hearts, and our love is the answer to that. The Corinthians were gathered to the Lord's name, but they knew little of entering into privilege. The Lord is in the midst, but it is not much good to us if it is not realised.

If we know anything of the service of Christ in the assembly we should feel that the only place in the world is the reproach of Christ, for all here is but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.

Verse 14, "we have no continuing city, but we seek one to come", the Christian has the sense that there is nothing stable in this world -- no continuing city. A 'city' in our day has a cathedral and a charter; the idea of a 'city' is a political and ecclesiastical centre. Jerusalem was a 'city'. What is the charter in the coming City? "Jerusalem which is above is free". We are under grace. The mother represents the system under which you are, and that system is grace: it is the grace in which God is accomplishing His purpose. We are not under law but under grace.

Verse 15. A sacrifice is that which costs you something, it is not quite like worship, it will cost you a little self-abnegation; the application here is individual, not collective. The idea of an altar to me involves acceptance; we are on the ground of acceptance. It

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is a place of communion, and we are accepted there. A man who comes to God in the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ is acceptable, and so our sacrifices are acceptable.

The blood of the burnt-offering never went inside, but that of the sin-offering did. I have thought this remarkable. The blood of the burnt-offering is connected with acceptance down here, but the blood of the sin-offering goes in to meet and vindicate God's glory -- all His claims met and vindicated, and on the ground of this we can enter. We go in in the life of Christ. It was on the day of atonement that the blood of the sin-offering was carried in: we go in in a life which needs no acceptance, but the burnt-offering, being all burnt on the altar, is the ground of acceptance for man here on earth, and that will be equally true in the millennium. We get it set forth in figure in Noah's offering. There is no ground of acceptance for man down here save the death of Christ.

In Leviticus the way into the holiest is not yet made manifest; this makes it difficult to bring Leviticus into Hebrews.

Verses 15, 16, to minister to the need of others, and for a man to deny himself to this end is a sacrifice. It is the spirit and principle of the thing that is in question here. Sacrifice involves self-denial; what you have you do not use to gratify yourself, but for the Lord. The body is to be a sacrifice for God's will. If I get into a passion my body is for my will.

Verse 17. "They watch for your souls". I have wondered sometimes who watches for my soul. "Do it" is watching -- that they may watch with joy. It is wider here than a local charge, I think. Watching is more than praying -- it is taking oversight. It would be a comfort to people if they felt their souls were watched for. The shepherd does not drive, but leads. It is not God's intention that people should be without a shepherd. A leader is a guide, one who

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shows the way. One of our great weaknesses is that people have so little sense that their souls are watched for. Bishops were more akin to the leaders here. The guide partakes of the character of the shepherd, and so we get the great Shepherd of the sheep. Pastor is gift, and more like the shepherd. Pastor and teacher go together.

The two great functions of the shepherd are guiding and watching -- showing the way. I remember at a crisis in London a brother who had been a leader in a gathering wrote to the gathering to the effect: 'I shall be content to go with whatever course you take'. The brother had given up the place of guide so that when the wolf came he was content to follow the sheep.

Verse 18, "For we trust we have a good conscience". I have wondered whether there were insinuations abroad about the apostle -- unworthy motives imputed, etc.; so he adds, "in all things desirous to walk rightly".

Verses 20, 21. "Through the blood of the everlasting covenant", should be, "in the power of the blood".

"Perfect you in every good work to the doing of his will"; shows what the path of the Christian here is -- the doing of God's will. He works in you what is well pleasing in His sight.

"Everlasting covenant" -- never to be set aside; everlasting is used all through the epistle in this sense as "eternal redemption, eternal salvation, eternal inheritance".