John 9:1 - 7, 35 - 38; Revelation 3:18 (last clause) - 19; Revelation 4:6 - 8
I wish to speak, dear brethren, on the subject of spiritual vision, first as bearing on the glory of Christ and the revelation of God and His purposes; secondly, as bearing upon the state of the church and our state at the present time; and thirdly, as bearing upon the public ways and dealings of God, this last being connected with the beasts or living creatures who were full of eyes, before and behind, around and within. I need not say that the matter of spiritual vision is a very important one; without it there can be no spiritual history at all for, if we are to have a spiritual history, we must have our eyes opened to see the Son of God. John as a writer makes a great deal of spiritual vision. In chapter 1 he says, "we beheld his glory", and the Lord Himself says to the two disciples of John, "Come and see", and to Nicodemus, "except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God". Again, the woman in chapter 4 says, "Come see a man". All these statements emphasise the necessity of vision.
Chapter 9 records this great sign wrought by the Lord Jesus. Each sign is great in its place, but this is a remarkable one for the Lord speaks of the works of God being manifest in the man; and He also says, "I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day". So that in connection with the man born blind, He stresses His own works and the works of God. You will notice the initiative is entirely from His own side. It says, "as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth". Then further down it says, "when he had thus spoken, he spat on
the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay". As long as He was in the world He was the light of the world, and He would open this man's eyes in order that he might see the light of day in Himself, and He operates from His own side. This is the way of divine operations. Everyone here who has spiritual vision is a monument of the works of God -- they are manifest in him, and also of the works of Christ, who still works, though it may be through His servants here. He is no longer in the world but He is in a greater place; the Lord Jesus is now in the place given to Him in purpose; as Man He has reached that place. The full light shines and the full truth is expressed in His Person where He is, so that it is an even greater matter today to have our eyes opened than when the Lord was here.
This incident is to teach us, that we are all born blind. Our state by nature is such that we have no power to see anything spiritually at all, and that state has to be met if we are ever to have vision. Two operations are involved: firstly, the Lord Jesus makes the clay and anoints the man's eyes; then He tells the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, and he goes and washes and comes seeing. These two operations have to take place. In figure, the Lord Jesus applies the truth of His Person to the man's eyes -- that is His side of the matter; but then the man would never have seen if he had not washed, because it is our state that renders us blind. Unless we are prepared to go and wash, that is, to own our need of and accept the gospel, we shall never see. The clay on the man's eyes would make the man more blind, if that were possible, but in washing he came seeing. In this sign the Lord Jesus illustrates the truth of the previous chapter where He was faced with self-righteous men who would not admit the need of washing, and, though blind, claimed that they could see. In His
ministry to them He emphasised the need of washing, going so far as to say that they were children of the devil. They had proved themselves so because murder was in their hearts towards Him. The Lord did not call people "children of the devil" until they came out in the devil's likeness; they had murder in their hearts towards Him, so He tells them plainly, "ye are of your father the devil ... he was a murderer from the beginning". He would bring home to them that the essential thing was to wash, to cleanse themselves from that generation, for the whole state of man is wrong. Then at the end of the chapter He applies, in principle, the clay to their eyes, for He says, "Before Abraham was I am". He brings before them the truth of His Person, the great truth of the incarnation, and it is this that the clay represents.
Here is a man born blind, representative of us all, and the Lord, it says, spat on the ground and made clay of the spittle -- referring to His Deity but as coming into Manhood. It is a wonderful symbol. The spittle speaks of His Essence -- His essential Deity -- for He is God over all, blessed forever! -- and yet He has "come in flesh", as symbolised in His making clay of the spittle. The clay therefore represents the wonderful character of His Manhood, a unique Manhood of a new order. That is the kind of ministry which the Lord presented to His enemies in John's gospel! "Before Abraham was I am", chapter 8, and "I and my Father are one", referring to Himself here in manhood, chapter 10. He puts the highest truth before them. It is an example for us today. We should not hesitate to put the highest truth before men, the truth of the Lord's Person, His Deity and the unique character of His Manhood. Let us present it to men, because if they will go and wash they will see. Sight is given to this man to enable him to see the Lord Jesus. It is one thing to have the greatness of His Person presented in ministry, but it
is another thing to see Himself. There is a process to go through until the wonderful moment comes when he is in the presence of the Son of God, and the Lord says, "thou hast both seen him and he it is that speaketh with thee". His eyes had been opened in view of the great moment when he actually saw the Son of God for himself. "And he said, Lord I believe, and worshipped him". This is what we might call normal spiritual vision. Our eyes are opened to see the Lord Jesus, as appreciating the greatness of His Person. It is a wonderful thing to apprehend in any measure the greatness of His Person, His essential Deity, yet His perfect and unique Manhood. That is what makes a person unshakable in this world: "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" You apprehend who the Person is. The title Son of God, as applied to Christ, implies that One possessed of absolute Deity has come into Manhood as a Man of a new order, Jesus the Son of God!
But this book shows that from this point the believer's vision develops, for the Lord Jesus says, in chapter 14, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father". You have had your eyes opened to see the Son of God, but it is with a view to your seeing the Father. That is a wonderful thing! Philip says, "Shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us". I wonder if we have all seen the Father! Our eyes have been opened in order that we might see the Father in the Son. "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father". It is a distinct apprehension in the soul of the Father revealed in the Son; the Father is a distinct Person. It is one thing to apprehend the Person of Christ and His greatness as the Son, it is another matter to apprehend the Father, though He is revealed in the Son; and the Lord says, "he that hath seen me hath seen the Father, and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?" It is a wonderful thing that God has
given us spiritual sight that we might see the Father!
Then in that chapter the Lord seems to indicate, by implication, that we see the Spirit, because lower down it says, "whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him". Of course, the Spirit is not incarnate; one would not suggest that we can see the Spirit personally, but I judge the Lord has in mind that we learn to recognise His movements and to discern the manifestations of the Spirit. The Spirit is here as Comforter taking charge of God's family, and we have been given spiritual sight in order that we might discern and become acquainted with His movements as abiding with and in the saints.
Then the Lord goes on to speak of seeing Him in resurrection. "The world sees me no longer; but ye see me; because I live ye also shall live". It is a wonderful thing to see the Lord risen, triumphant over death. It means that we have life in Him: "because I live ye also shall live". Finally He speaks of vision in His prayer to His Father in chapter 17, saying, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world". What a wonderful climax that is! Our eyes have been opened in order that, as with Him where He is, we may behold His glory; that we might arrive at a full appreciation of Christ as He is and where He is. That, of course, involves apprehending our own place with Him; He is ever unique, but how blessed that we have a place with Him! This links up with what the apostle speaks of in Ephesians, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of "the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe". We have the eyes of our hearts en-
lightened to see all these things. So that vision in John's gospel is normal spiritual vision and has normal development in view in the apprehension of the Father and the Son and the place the saints have in relation to divine Persons; and you can understand that it will result in formation. We shall be formed in spiritual manhood and affection.
Now I pass on to Revelation 3. The Lord says there, "I counsel thee to buy of me", and He counsels us to buy three things, the third being "eye-salve to anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see". I do not think that this suggests a normal condition such as we have had before us up till now. The suggestion seems to be that eyesight has become defective so that eye-salve is needed -- something to heal and to put matters right. It does not speak here of the Lord doing it for us, although we are to get the eye-salve from Him. We are to do the anointing, "anoint thine eyes, that thou mayest see". I feel that this is a word for us at the present time, because while we have been helped greatly on the line to which I have been referring, it seems to me we have suffered from defective vision in regard to a sober view of ourselves and the present state of Christendom. So the Lord here speaks of what implies exercise, that we are to buy of Him eye-salve. I suggest that it needs exercise to get it, so that the eyesight might be put right. I think our experiences in the last few years have indicated that our outlook upon ourselves, as part of the responsible profession, and our outlook upon the profession generally, has hardly been in accord with the Lord's own outlook, so that we have been taken by surprise by many things which the Lord has allowed. It may be that the Lord would raise an exercise with us as to getting our sight thoroughly adjusted. We have had adjustment; we have been adjusted in many ways, but one would raise the question as to whether the adjustment has been
sufficiently thorough, whether we are thoroughly adjusted in this matter.
What caused the blindness in Laodicea was self-satisfaction and complacency. The Lord describes their state, they were saying, "I am rich, and increased with goods and have need of nothing". That was not His outlook upon them, it was their outlook upon themselves. The Lord says, You do not know what you are really like -- they were blind in that sense, they had never seen themselves aright. "Thou ... knowest not that thou art the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". The passage seems to indicate that what will cause blindness in the sense in which we are speaking is self-satisfaction and complacency. We are all liable to be coloured by the outlook of the part of the world in which we live, and complacency has been the outlook of the Anglo-Saxon world in their own affairs -- rich and increased with goods and needing nothing -- and it has almost brought them to ruin. The question is as to whether, in measure, we have been coloured by that outlook in our affairs, as those who have had much to be thankful for in the way of ministry and light, for the ministry and the light and many privileges of the past few years have been great. I am not in any way desiring to impute a Laodicean state, but to point out the danger and touch upon the principles involved -- the tendency to be satisfied with what we have in the way of light, and perhaps to attach it to ourselves, assuming that it has been formed in us in a far greater measure than it has. Coupled with this is the danger of connecting our blessings with earth, because we enjoy them here on earth, whereas our blessings are heavenly and our outlook needs to be heavenly. Any measure of self-satisfaction or earthly mindedness will cause defective vision.
There has been surprise that the war should come while we are still here, surprise that the brethren
should suffer in their homes and in their bodies. But why were we surprised? We all feel now that the outlook we had was not a right one, and would suggest that the Lord would help us to go into the matter thoroughly with Him so as to be really adjusted. Not to accept adjustment in a grudging kind of way, coming to it slowly by force of circumstances, but that we should get into His presence in order to learn the underlying principles which caused the blindness, so that with sight restored we might see things as He sees them, for that is what is in view in this address to Laodicea. The Lord desires to bring us into intimacy with Himself; friendship is in mind -- "as many as I love" -- "love" there is the love of friendship. He wants us wholly in His confidence, and sharing His outlook. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous therefore, and repent". We need zeal in repenting, not a grudging repentance and admission. You say you do not think we need repentance? If we do not need repentance we are putting ourselves either in Smyrna or Philadelphia, the only two churches where the Lord does not call for repentance; and if we put ourselves in Philadelphia we are very much in danger of Laodicea. We need to be in continual repentance and to be zealous in it. We need adjustment of vision to discern our own state and the state of Christendom, and to discern the Lord's active judicial dealings in Christendom which are going on all the time. We are not living in a kind of gap when the Lord is inactive in this regard. There is a tendency to relegate some things to the past and to put other things off to the future. But the Lord's dealings with Jezebel and those who commit fornication with her are going on all the time. Similarly His dealings with Protestantism, as to which He says, "I will come upon thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know at what hour I shall come upon thee". Well, He says to Laodicea, "As many
as I love I rebuke and discipline". These movements are going on now; the Lord is doing these things now. To suggest that no upheavals will come while we are here, is to suggest that the Lord is not doing these things. But the Lord is doing these things all the time, and surely we need the discipline as well as others, perhaps more than others, because we have more light. How we need to be with the Lord in these matters! He desires friendship, true friendship and confidence. Certain things were tending to blind us, but the Lord would bring us into closest intimacy with Himself, "I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me", suggests a meal where all secrets are shared. What a wonderful end the Lord has in view as we accept adjustment!
Now I pass on to chapter 4, and here it is a question of being, as to outlook, in accord with the throne and with God in His public dealings. I am assuming now that we are clear in our outlook as to our own state and the state of Christendom -- clear, too, that our blessings are heavenly, so that we are not surprised at discipline on earth. As adjusted and at rest on our side we are at leisure now to share the outlook of the throne, to be with God as to His public dealings. So we have here in the midst of the throne and around the throne four living creatures full of eyes, "before and behind". Lower down, in verse 8, it also says that "round and within they are full of eyes". The elders and the living creatures both refer to the saints; no doubt others are included as well as the saints of the assembly, but they certainly include those who form the assembly. These things are not simply written to tell us that at some future time we shall be in accord with the throne, but are intended to have a present bearing upon us, so that we may be in accord with it now, surrounding the throne now in mind and affection, and so with God in what He is doing. Ephesians 2, referring to the
work of God, says that we are already raised up together and made to sit down together in heavenly places; it is regarded as a present thing. So God would have us in spirit already with Him, able to see things as He sees them, and to be with Him in what He is doing. This is brought out in a remarkable way in these living creatures, full of eyes before and behind, round and within. One would desire to be something like that -- to be full of eyes in regard to God and His ways and His movements. "Before and behind", that is, there is the forward look and there is the backward look. In both there is full discernment as to God's ways. Their note of worship is "Lord God Almighty, who was" -- that would refer to the backward look, we can look back upon the ways of God. God intends the saints of this dispensation to be fully intelligent in regard to His ways in past dispensations. "And who is to come" -- that is like the forward look. Surely God has in mind too, that we should be intelligent, full of discernment, as to all that God has before Him, all that lies ahead. Then it says, "round and within" they were full of eyes. One would link that with the God "who is". God ever is, and if we are to walk before the God who is we need to be full of eyes round and within. All those principles which we discern in God's ways in the past and in the future are to be brought to bear on the present and are to be judged in our own souls. We are to be full of eyes within as walking before God, and also to have a present judgment before God as to all that is around. This book develops the way the elders and living creatures are with God in all that is happening; they are linked together, and I think one can see that they must be linked together, because unless we have this discernment, how can we gain experience? The elders are those who have experience and worship God as the result of experience; so that both the elders and
the living creatures represent the saints.
This book shows that the elders and living creatures are able to worship God, as entering into His ways and thoughts, as Ruler, Creator, Redeemer and Judge. As regards God in each of these characters they are worshippers. One feels, dear brethren, that the Lord would help us to have a greater appreciation of God as Paul speaks of Him, "the blessed and only Ruler". That is how Paul regarded God; to Paul there was only one Ruler and He was blessed! He looked beyond the immediate instruments -- there was one Ruler. It would help us in our outlook on the general state of affairs at the present time, God's public dealings, if we see Him as the blessed and only Ruler. He is blessed in what He allows and in what He orders. Whatever happens we trace it back to Him.
Then these eyes, this discernment, would help us to value Him as Creator. We find in this chapter the elders are profoundly affected by God as Creator; they fall down before the throne, they are prostrate, they do homage to Him who lives for ever and ever, and they say, "Thou art worthy ... to receive glory, and honour, and power; for thou hast created all things". You see, having this kind of spiritual vision will make us worshippers of God, not only as the blessed and only Ruler, but also as Creator. It involves the forward and backward look, taking us right back to original creation and right on to the new creation. The physical creation is the great framework in which His purposes are carried out. He has not left His creation to function, as it were, by itself, but He sustains it and operates in it continually. "In him we live and move and have our being".
Then we are worshippers of Him as Redeemer, and we discern that all His ways have in view the securing of His rights in redemption. If He permits upheavals in His over-ruling government of this world, one
great object in view is to bring to light the elect, to secure the redeemed company. After the first six seals are broken a great company comes into view which no one can number, out of every tribe and kingdom and people and nation. But God is acting on that principle now.
Finally, the most extensive note of worship in this book is in chapter 19, and is addressed to God as Judge, the word being "true and righteous are his judgments", and the living creatures and elders fall down and worship. God would have us as worshippers of Him in that character. We need to be full of eyes to be with God in His judgments, to be so with Him in His judgments, so fully on His side, that we are worshippers of Him as Judge. We have come "to God the Judge of all", Hebrews says. That is what marks a true elder, that he is thoroughly with God in His judgments; he is a worshipper of God as Judge; but how can that come about unless we are full of eyes, before and behind, round and within? Dear brethren, that is what will qualify us, it is a necessity to qualify us as worshippers of God in these four aspects which I have mentioned: as Sovereign Ruler, as Creator, as Redeemer and as Judge. We need to be "full of eyes" to discern His outlook on things, His judgments and His ways.
May the Lord help us in these three matters which I have sought to bring before you -- feebly though it be. Firstly, normal spiritual vision to enable us to behold Christ's glory and the purposes of God which centre in Him; secondly, adjusted vision as to our position here in responsibility and the position of the profession generally -- a sober outlook; and lastly, discernment as to God's ways and activities in the four characters to which I have referred, so as to be with Him in a worshipful spirit in whatever He is doing. May He help us, for His name's sake!
Leviticus 4:7 - 12; Exodus 30:8 - 10; Leviticus 16:14; John 17:4; Hebrews 9:13 - 14
It is thought that we might get help so as to be more clear as to the fundamental place the sin-offering has relative to the economy of God which is in faith, and also to the service that is proper to the saints as brought into the economy; so that, while, except for the fat, etc., it was not offered on the altar, yet the service at the altar was based upon it.
If we are to be free in the economy, and free according to God in our relations with one another and with God Himself, it will depend a good deal on our apprehension of this truth. The divine thought is that we should so understand the truth in relation to the sin-offering that we can move freely in the economy without being occupied actively with it. The fact that it is foundational is seen in that the blood of the sin-offering was poured out at the base of the altar of burnt-offering -- I do not know that that is true of any other offering -- and the altar of burnt offering is the place of the public service of God. The blood was also put on the horns of the altar of incense; finally, it was sprinkled on the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat. So that in whatever phase of the service we are engaged, whether it be what corresponds with the altar of burnt-offering or the altar of incense, or whether we come into the immediate presence of God as typified in the cloud on the mercy seat, this truth is foundational; our presence in such surroundings depends on it. At the same time one feels that it should be so known in the soul that
we do not need to be actively engaged with it, but it is there as a foundation which sets us free in the economy.
The economy of God stands related to thoughts that are outside the sin question; therefore we do not normally bring references to the sin-offering into the service. In that connection it helps us to see where the sin-offering was burnt. The sin-offering, as it says in Leviticus 4, was burnt outside the camp; it was not burnt on the altar, nor in the court, nor even in the camp, but outside the camp, which in itself is a dreadful consideration when we think of what it typifies. It was not burnt on the altar of burnt offering. All that went up from the altar of burnt offering was of sweet odour -- for the service of God is connected with what is sweet -- and the fire on that altar hardly speaks of judgment; the word for "burn" in relation to the altar of burnt offering means "to cause to ascend". The fat that covered the inwards of the sin-offering, and the kidneys, and the net above the liver, were put on the altar of burnt-offering and went up as a sweet odour as part of the service; but the atoning sufferings of Christ are represented in the burning of the body of the animal outside the camp, and in that connection the word for "burn" means to consume utterly. So it is manifestly wrong to attempt to burn that on the altar of burnt-offering; the sin-offering was never burnt there, but was consumed to ashes outside the camp, conveying the idea of the unsparing judgment of God against sin that Christ bore. Christ has glorified God in His nature and His attributes in the work of atonement. The claims of His throne as a righteous and holy God had to be met, and the sin-offering has met them. On that basis, the economy of God comes into view; that is, God known as the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the purposes of divine love, which moved God to come out and declare Himself in that way, are made known. They really have no relation in
one sense to the sin question. They relate to those matters which were in the divine mind and purpose before the world was; but on the basis of the sin-offering God is free, speaking reverently, to come out and declare them.
The Lord's prayer in John 17 links with the golden altar. He speaks to the Father about matters of purpose, but He does so, speaking typically, on the basis of the blood being put on the horns of the altar of incense; so He opens His prayer by saying, "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have completed the work that thou gavest me that I should do it". The viewpoint there seems to be the way in which He has, speaking reverently, set God free to come out in the economy in which we know Him, and to declare His purposes; whereas the epistle to the Hebrews presents the same truth to set us free that we may move in the economy without the slightest twinge of conscience; so that Hebrews has the altar of burnt-offering more in view, and our liberty to serve there, for we read, "How much rather shall the blood of the Christ, who by the eternal Spirit offered Himself spotless to God, purify your conscience from dead works to worship the living God". "Worship" there, is public priestly service linked with the altar of burnt-offering. Ephesians 1 gives us what answers to the blood upon the mercy seat, because it is a matter of our acceptance in the Beloved. At that point it says, "In whom" -- in the Beloved -- "we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences"; so at the centre of the system the blood is there.
John the Baptist referred to Christ in sin-offering character before he drew attention to Him as in burnt-offering character, "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world"; and then "Behold the Lamb of God". Perhaps we tend to think too much of the thought of sin in connection with the sin-offering, rather than of the greatness of
Christ as One able to remove the moral stain of the universe.
What is in mind is that we do not pay enough attention to the sin-offering continually, and therefore we are not too sure of our ground in the economy. Moral questions tend to hinder us when we should be perfectly free and at home in love. Furthermore we may come without that peculiar touch of love which the inwards of the sin-offering suggest. "The fat that is on the inwards" of the sin-offering, "the two kidneys, and the fat that is on them, which is by the flanks, and the net above the liver" typify the inward motives of Christ, the love that led Him to go that way. They were put on the altar of burnt-offering, and went up as a sweet odour as part of the service, as we read in Leviticus 4. The kidneys are the discriminative organs, which maintain the purity of the blood stream. The word "reins" in Revelation 2, is the old English word for kidneys -- "I am he that searcheth the reins and the hearts" -- and it has reference to purity of motive. The Lord's motives were ever pure. There is also "the net above the liver" -- the diaphragm, controlling the breathing. In Christ it may be linked with the thought of sonship, for every breath the Lord drew was on the line of "Abba, Father". The inwards of the sin-offering set forth the devotion of the love of Christ which led Him to give Himself in such a service.
We need to let the truth of the sin-offering into our souls, the magnitude of the fact that Christ has been made sin for us; the awfulness to Christ of what is typified by the sin-offering being burnt outside the camp -- no sweetness there! As understanding this basic matter we should come to the morning meeting, and to the service, with a wealth of love, and should move in the economy in great liberty, carrying with us what answers to the inwards of the sin-offering, which would give a peculiar touch of love. Love has
found expression in the way that sin has been dealt with. It has become the occasion for God to express Himself in a way in which He could not otherwise have done, both in His nature and His attributes; so the Lord says, "I have glorified thee on the earth".
The passover presents Christ's sacrifice from the standpoint of our need as needing deliverance from judgment and from Egypt, but what we are considering now is connected with the tabernacle system which typifies the economy of God. God was making Himself known in connection with the tabernacle, as today He is known relative to the assembly. The tabernacle system began with a divine desire, "They shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them", Exodus 25:8, and this is what is in mind in the present economy. The Lord, as forsaken, quoted from Psalm 22, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" and it is important to keep in mind that in that Psalm, in spirit He goes on to say, "And thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel", shewing that in connection with the abandonment what was in the Lord's mind, and governing His thoughts and affections, in taking such a place, was that God would inhabit the praises of Israel; that is, the economy is in mind in that Psalm. In that same Psalm He later says, "I will declare thy name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee". We have spoken of the inwards of the sin-offering, and we see in that Psalm that the Lord has in His mind nothing less than the establishment of the economy as we know it, and the praises of God in the assembly.
It is important that as being priests of God and of Christ, we should be intelligent as to what is proper to the different stages of the service, and know where to put things. In the scriptures we have read the blood of the sin-offering was poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering; it was also put upon the horns
of the altar of incense in the holy place; finally, it was carried into the holiest and put upon the mercy seat and before the mercy seat. To begin with, it is important to understand the sin-offering basically and feelingly; we should enter feelingly into what it meant to Christ to lay that basis as suffering outside the camp. That being so, we should be saved from bringing it into the service of God, for it would have had its right place with us. We should not attempt to burn the sin-offering on the altar of burnt-offering; it does not belong there. We should carry the inwards there -- the love that led the Lord to deal with the sin question should be valued by us, but we should be very concerned that what we offer at the altar of burnt-offering should be in keeping with what the Lord had in mind -- something of sweet odour. What goes up from off the altar of burnt-offering refers to the Person as well as His work. I have wondered whether the fire on the altar of burnt-offering might refer to the affections that burned in the heart of Christ, leading Him to offer Himself; and on our side the affections that would cause His perfections to ascend to God. It is as the hearts of the saints are on fire that the service is maintained; they bring what is precious to God from hearts like that.
In Hebrews 10 we have access to the centre of the system, "Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus". The blood having been poured out at the bottom of the altar of burnt-offering, and having been put on the horns of the altar of incense, and having been put on the mercy-seat, it has met every question, and glorified God as to the whole matter of sin, so that we can go freely into every part of the divine system. All is open to us. The sin-offering presents the sacrifice of Christ as the basis of the economy of God in which He has come out, and as the basis on which we can be free to go in before Him.
The appreciation of that would lead to true liberty and intensity in the service. As bringing with us what corresponds with the inwards of the sin-offering we should come with a deep sense of the profound character of the love which took the Lord that way. We should put that on the altar of burnt offering with our peace-offerings and our burnt-offerings, and it would give an intensity to it all; for the service of God proper is made up of burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, with the appropriate meat-offerings and drink-offerings.
It would appear that the blood is intended to be the sign of love, "This cup is the new covenant in my blood". In connection with the supper it is the sign of love; it does not occupy us with the matter of atonement; that is a settled matter, and our souls are set free; but by the blood we are reminded of the love of Christ and set free in every part of the divine domain, and to move on the line of purpose. While the bread and the cup indicate to us the way in which the Lord has moved, and where He has gone in His love, yet He does not ask us to be occupied with that exactly, but with Himself, "This do for a remembrance of me". At the same time, in the account given to us by the apostle Paul of the institution of the supper, as received from the Lord in glory, there is the allusion to the night in which the Lord Jesus was delivered up. There is the fact that the Lord as being here with His people is still feeling that; He is feeling it in some ways, perhaps, more keenly because the opposition against Himself, about which He is very sensitive, is directed against His own, which is harder in some ways for the Lord to bear than if it were directly against Himself. The world, and particularly the religious world, is still against Him, and expresses its opposition as against His people. The Lord is in need of present comfort. He needs to have a foretaste of what He will get from the assembly eternally; on
the other hand, He feels for us, and says, "I will not leave you comfortless". The Lord is feeling present conditions, and we are feeling present conditions. He says, 'I am not going to leave you, I will come to you while those conditions prevail'. So even as we come together to break bread, we do not regard Him as far away, though in actuality He is on the Father's throne. We think of Him as ready to come in.
We must not limit the Lord to any position. He has His place above, but then He says, "I am with you alway", and "I am coming to you".
We shall get profit from thinking about the different positions brought before us in the scriptures we have read. God counts upon His priests to be intelligent as to His service. We have referred to that which takes place outside the camp. Then there is that which is proper to the altar of burnt-offering; we need also to understand what belongs to the altar of incense. Do we know much about reaching a point in the service of God when the sacrificial side -- the burnt-offering side -- has no place because we are so with God relative to His eternal counsels and purposes, that we are with Him in personal relations, with Him as subjects of His work, and on the basis of our genealogy, one might say. John 17 helps us as to that. When the Lord at the beginning of His prayer says "I have glorified thee on the earth", that is on the line of what we have been considering, for it is inclusive of the sin-offering which is the basis of everything. Apart from that, other relationships could not be known. But then the remainder of His prayer is wholly on the line of what the saints are to God the Father in connection with His purposes; it does not touch what we speak of as the sacrificial side. The Lord speaks of "the men whom thou gavest me out of the world. They were thine, and thou gavest them me ... They are thine (and all that is mine is thine, and all that is thine mine) and I am
glorified in them" -- such a high level! In the holy place and the most holy place, the prominent metal was gold, which is connected typically with the divine nature, work and purpose; whereas the silver was not prominent, although it had its place basically in the sockets beneath the boards. In Ephesians 1:3 - 6 we have the saints viewed as vessels of gold -- what we are according to purpose; yet in speaking of us in that way in John 17, the Lord prefaces it with that statement, "I have glorified thee on the earth", which introduces the sin question, as to which He glorified God and set God free to move in relation to His eternal thoughts. As enjoying eternal thoughts we are not occupied with the sin-offering at all, but the blood on and before the mercy-seat is the assurance that we are free to move in those wondrous relations. We are in such a realm of liberty that we are not even engaged with the burnt-offering side of things. In relation to what is typified by the altar of incense we are in the realm of spiritual personalities. The Lord in John 17 would help us as to learning to move in our thoughts in that realm; He views the men given to Him by the Father as the fruit of the Father's work.
Romans 8:1; Ephesians 2:4 - 6; Colossians 2:8 - 10; Ephesians 3:14 - 21.
It is my desire to speak of fixed positions, because, if God is to recover souls to His own thoughts about the assembly, it must lie in recovering them to fixed positions which He has secured in Christ. This idea of fixed positions comes into the scriptures. The song in Exodus 15 says, "Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, in the place" (or fixed place, as it might read) "O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in". We are told that the idea of a fixed place there is the same as that which occurs in John 14. If God has a fixed or purposed place, we can be sure that nothing can ever disturb that place, and God's thought was to bring His people in to the fixed place which He had chosen to dwell in. The Lord Jesus says, "I go to prepare a place for you". Surely the place which He has prepared for us, in virtue of His going there as Man, will be in a supreme way, God's dwelling. It is a wonderful thing that God's purposed fixed place should become our fixed place.
These passages I have read bring before us fixed positions, the first from the Roman standpoint, "There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus". God would bring us into the reality of that fixed position. Ephesians 2 goes further, for it speaks of God raising us up together and making us to sit down together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That implies great elevation, and the idea of sitting down would suggest fixity. We are made to sit down now in heavenly places. In Colossians, we
have what we might call the fixed relationship between Christ and the assembly. It says "In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in Him". It is the church down here as in a fixed relationship with Christ. And then in Ephesians 3, the prayer is that Christ might have His proper place in our hearts -- not a passing place, but "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith" -- a fixed position again. I wish to touch briefly on these passages in this order, and I think it will be seen that they bear on what was before us this afternoon. In each setting we are made independent of man and his resources.
The truth of Romans is to bring us in our souls into this wonderful fixed position, as apart from any fleshly resource at all. In the flesh, we can never please God, or have any standing before God. This corresponds with the Lord's own teaching in John 3, "Ye must be born anew". No more sweeping remark can be made than that. All that we are as after the flesh gives us no standing before God. It is helpful to see that the Lord is not saying that to people who are not born anew. John 3 is really intended to bring home to those who are born anew the fact that they must be. It is a long history with many of us to accept that it is a necessity -- the man who realises that has finished with the flesh. It is really the lesson of Romans 7. John 3 is the Lord's own way of stating the truth, whilst Romans 7 is the way Paul comes to it experimentally. "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing". You see "Ye must be born anew" links on with the "Son of Man must be lifted up". It is the truth of the brazen serpent -- "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up". That is the only ground upon which we could escape condemnation. "There is now no condemnation". Why? Because the Son of Man has been lifted up.
Upon the cross He took the place that was due to us -- our old man was crucified with Him.
We are slow to realise that, in the eye of God and according to God's righteous judgment, everyone of us deserves to be publicly executed. Men decide that one of their fellows deserves public execution for certain crimes. But the very mind of the flesh is at enmity with God (Romans 8) and rebellion against God merits public execution. That is the condemnation. The cross of Christ means that. He was crucified for us, and our blessing lies in taking it up like Paul, "I am crucified with Christ" -- to accept the position. That is the way we arrive at the truth of which we are speaking. The flesh has been thoroughly judged and condemned in the cross of Christ, and now we have this wonderful fixed position of blessing, that there is no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. The foundation of our affection for Christ lies in understanding the truth of Romans. Our hearts are touched by the way He has come to our side in our dire need; and now He brings us before God in the position where there is no condemnation. As being brought into this fixed position of blessing, we are free to be engaged with the Person Himself and His greatness -- the One Who has brought us into such a position of liberty and favour before God.
I would link this truth with the word that the Lord speaks to the overcomer in Thyatira, "He that overcomes, and he that keeps to the end My works". What happened in the history of the church was that the Lord's own works lost their value in the minds of His people; all sorts of human works were substituted. The first step to recovery must be that we appreciate what Christ has done for us. I believe, amongst other things, it includes the truth of Romans. Our blessing does not rest upon our works -- "Not of works, lest any man should boast". It is a question of the Person and work of Christ. May the Lord help
us all to get on to this solid ground before God, a fixed position in Christ, freed from all the condemnation attaching to man after the flesh; and may we, as having received the Spirit, walk in the power of it!
This is not the full thought, however. We have to go to Ephesians for the full thought of everything. Romans does not develop fully what "in Christ Jesus" means. It involves not only a transference from Adam to Christ, but our being raised up together and made to sit down together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The love of God requires that we should be there. No less a place of blessing could satisfy the heart of God. He would bring us, even in these days, into a sense of it, for, in spite of the breakdown, in which we have part, these fixed positions abide. Nothing will alter them on the divine side. All is based on the work which Christ has done for us, and it is made effective by the work of God in us. He has quickened us with Christ, thus bringing us out of death, and has raised us up together and made us to sit down together in heavenly places.
I want to say a word as to "raised up together" because it conveys the idea of great elevation, of being raised to heavenly status. God says to Abraham, "Get thee out of thy country", etc. The first call in the gospel is to go out, but it is another matter when we understand that God has raised us up together -- think of the elevation of that! The word 'together' means Jew and Gentile. There was no greater natural distinction than that; but He has raised us up together -- lifted us right out of all these natural distinctions. I feel that it is an important matter at the present moment to understand and enter into our fixed heavenly place, so that we may be lifted out of our natural and national feelings and bias, and become a really heavenly people. God worked with Abraham to that end, because after he was called out, Melchisedec
met him, the priest of the Most High God. There is the thought of elevation in that. It was disclosed to Abraham that the Most High had blessed him, and the result was that he could accept nothing from the world. The Most High has chosen that our place in the economy of His purpose should be in heaven. The person who appeared to Abraham was typical of Christ, the One by Whom the Most High is going to take possession. "Having made known to us the mystery of His will ... to head up all things in the Christ, the things in heaven and the things on earth". He has a Man in His presence now in Whom He is going to head up all things -- God's Son, God's King, God's Priest. But we need to understand that our part in the economy of divine blessing is the heavenly part.
While we are raised up together and made to sit down together in heavenly places, it does not make us unreal as men down here. A heavenly man is a practical man; he can be more practical than any other man, because he is free from the current of things here. The Lord is introduced as the Son of the Most High in Luke, and we see Him as the most accessible of Men, social and natural distinctions did not affect Him at all. He gave to all their due, yet that did not influence Him in any way in His service. That should mark the heavenly man; he should be more practical, more approachable than others. In fact, the apostle freely addresses the saints according to their local setting as men here. He says, "O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged". We might think it was unsuitable to be addressed as Chelmsfordians, but the truth is that, if we are really heavenly, we shall be able to take a practical view of one another without fear of forfeiting our heavenly status.
So Paul looks at the saints at Corinth -- as belonging to that city. We become unreal if we detach
ourselves from the city to which we belong. In other epistles Paul addresses the saints as Galatians, Philippians and Thessalonians. I only refer to this to show that the more we are truly heavenly, the more we can take a practical view of our setting down here, without being coloured by it. As a heavenly people, we are intended to be in sympathy with our fellow men, moving as men amongst men. That is the way we can help people. The more we know of our fixed place of dwelling there, the more we shall be able to go about doing good, and as helped of the Lord to walk in His steps (1 Peter 2:21), healing those that are oppressed of the devil. Even from the glory, the Lord still calls Himself the Nazarene, "I am Jesus of Nazareth". How practical Christians should be! As set amongst men we feel the currents that are sweeping them away. God has set us where we are to help our fellow men, but we can only help others as we are overcoming all the influences and powers of evil that are governing the town and country to which we belong.
The Lord Jesus speaks to the Father of His own as being not of the world. As we know something of this elevation, it will enable us to be with God about things. We shall be enabled to dwell in the secret place of the Most High; to be in the secret of God's mind. As we noticed, that marked Abraham, he enjoyed communion with Divine Persons, and then God says, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?" Genesis 18. As we know this elevation and freedom from natural bias and influences, we become available to be brought into the Lord's confidence as to divine activities both in grace and government. May He help us to know more of this fixed heavenly position, so that we may be able to walk here sympathetically, yet free from all the currents which govern men in the world, and be able to enter intelligently into what God is doing.
The scripture in Colossians brings before us the fixed relationship between Christ and the church down here, especially applying to us in our local settings. If there is one thing we need, it is the teaching of Colossians 2. We need to understand the resources we have in Christ as Head -- "For in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are filled full in Him". While the first position makes us entirely independent of the flesh and free from its condemnation, and the second lifts us above all the currents of national and social feeling here, this third position means that we need not go outside of Christ for anything in our assembly life. The church is filled full in Christ, in Whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. How can we give thanks to God enough that such a One is Head of the church? The first chapter of the epistle enlarges on the glories of Christ to this very end, that we might be filled with adoration and wonder that we have such a Head. But the apostle says, "Beware lest any man spoil you", etc. We have to beware of bringing anything into the assembly which is not according to Christ.
The language of nominal Christians -- Christians in name only, in principle, is "I am rich and increased with goods, and have need of nothing" -- as the church of Laodicea says. Revelation 3:17. They can do without Christ really; yet they call themselves the Church of Christ, and the Lord says of such a state, "And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". That is what we are if without Christ. This bears on our local settings, as to whether we are prepared to go on without Christ even for one occasion. Beware of readings where we just come together to air our knowledge; beware of just being satisfied with right doctrine, lest in being satisfied with these things, we come to a state where we have no need of Christ. Is it a matter of concern to our hearts in coming together that Christ should be
there, or are we prepared to come away and say we had a good time if Christ was not there? "In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead". You may have right doctrine, but if you have not got Christ, you have nothing of the fulness of the Godhead. Right doctrine is a kind of framework which the fulness of God will fill out.
The apostle speaks of "The mystery of God; in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge". They are living impressions of Christ. The mystery refers to Christ's relations with the church. There is no mystery about His relations with Israel. Christ is the Head of the church -- what a privilege to have Christ among us! In that mystery are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They are treasures indeed. None of us would be satisfied to live in an empty house, we want it filled out with furnishings and treasures. So we want our meetings filled out with the treasures of wisdom and knowledge which come from the living Head -- "In Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are filled full in Him". This is the fixed relationship from the divine side. Let us abide in it. If we are filled full with Christ, there is no room for anything else. That is really the antidote to the Laodicean state. The Laodiceans had need of nothing, in the Colossian state we cannot do without Christ for a moment -- without Him our hearts are desolate, we feel we have lost everything. He is the only One that matters; we must have Christ. The blessed thing is that it is the divine thought that we should always have Christ. The church is complete in Him.
Now I pass on for a moment to the final passage which really relates to a fixed place for Christ and God, which is the greatest thing of all. The apostle prays to the Father that He would strengthen them with power by His Spirit in the inner man. These words would bring home to us what power is necessary to
bring this about. I think what is in view is first love, "That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts". Individual affection for Christ develops on the lines of which we have been speaking -- in the exercises of Romans, we learn to love Him for what He has done for us; that sets us free for the truth of Colossians, to love Him because of what He is in Himself; our hearts are taught to bow in worship before Him in His greatness in Deity and also in Manhood as Son of the Father's love. We are free to sit adoringly before Him, and we delight in the fact that He is the Head, and we are filled full in Him. In Ephesians 3 it is a question of appreciating Him as the Centre of the counsels of God. Ephesians does not speak of His Deity directly nor does it enlarge on His Sonship, but the prominent title is "the Christ". That title refers to His glorious Manhood as the Centre of the counsels of God. "That the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts". The Father would give us an impression of how much it means to Him that His Son should be the Christ, so glorious in His Manhood, the Centre of His counsels! All that God desires from man, He finds in His Christ -- the Father's heart rejoices in Him. The church delights too in the glorious Manhood of Christ, and the Father would strengthen us that He might have a fixed place of dwelling in our hearts. As this is so, our eyes are opened upon the whole realm of divine purpose. "That ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to apprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled to all the fulness of God". What a marvellous expression that is! It means that Christ and God have their place with us, and there is in result glory to God in the assembly throughout all generations of the age of ages.
May the Lord help us in connection with each of
these fixed positions -- first to face the truth of Romans and to know the blessedness of that position; then to understand our fixed heavenly place which divine purpose has given us. May He help us, too, to understand the relationship between Christ and the church as down here, and to hold fast the Head in our localities; and may we be strengthened to take in the whole realm of divine purpose with Christ as its Centre, He Himself dwelling in our hearts by faith, so that we may be filled to all the fulness of God -- for His Name's sake!
Acts 9:32 - 35; Romans 7:25 (last sentence); Joshua 24:15; Philippians 2:12 - 13.
One has been impressed of late, dear brethren, with the closing ministry of Peter, because for one thing it indicates the way the Lord co-ordinates the work done by His various servants. I am thinking of the three acts of service carried out by Peter in chapters 9 and 10 of Acts, in three different localities. --
In these three services taken up in different localities, the Lord was undoubtedly, through Peter, preparing the way for Paul. The early part of chapter 9 is engaged with the conversion of Saul of Tarsus right up to the verse we read. The Lord Jesus communicated to Saul the truth of the body, for He said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?", and Paul was the servant who was to bring in the present administration of the assembly in local companies. Up to that time, things had been somewhat centralised at Jerusalem, and there had been twelve apostles to do things for the brethren under the Lord's hand. That phase of things had drawn to a close, and the vessel through whom the Lord was to organise (if one might use the word) the feature of the dispensation which was going to continue right through, was already converted; it was to be his service to set up local assemblies; the assembly on earth taking the form of local companies, and those local companies would have to learn to do things for themselves. There was not even one apostle attached to each local company. There were twelve at Jerusalem.
I think you will find in these three incidents the Lord is making way for Paul's teaching; Peter laying moral foundations. Paul, in his ministry, confirms and develops these foundations but also brings in the heavenly side, the full truth of the assembly, and the doctrine of the body. Paul could say to the Thessalonians, "Ye, brethren, have become imitators of the assemblies of God which are in Judaea in Christ Jesus", 1 Thessalonians 2:14. Lydda and Joppa were two of these assemblies in Judaea, and Paul was not slow to admit that the assembly of the Thessalonians, which he set up, became imitators of them; they were founded on right lines.
Paul, in his teaching, develops the lines which Peter indicates in these incidents. Romans and 1 Corinthians develop the principle of doing things for ourselves. Peter says to Aeneas, "Rise up, and make thy couch for thyself", Acts 9:34; while Colossians deals with the truth illustrated in the raising of Dorcas -- the necessity for living conditions in our local settings; "Your life is hid with the Christ in God", Colossians 3:3. We must be concerned to maintain living conditions and not simply activity in service. Then, in Caesarea Jew and Gentile are brought together, Peter and those with him enjoying full fellowship with Cornelius and his house, upon whom the Holy Spirit had come even as upon believers at Pentecost. This links with the gospel of peace in Ephesians, peace between man and man. Peter says to Cornelius, "Preaching peace by Jesus Christ". The hatred between Jew and Gentile was annulled as it says in Ephesians 2:14: "For he is our peace, who has made both one ... having annulled the enmity in his flesh, the law of commandments in ordinances, that he might form the two in himself into one new man, making peace". If the greatest enmity (that between Jew and Gentile) had been slain, then every other enmity has been slain, and there should be nothing
to mar the peace of our relations together in our local companies. We are formed in Christ into one new man making peace.
What I had in mind was to dwell particularly upon the first incident which is basic, that is, the question of rising up and making our couch for ourselves. The name Aeneas means praise, and unless we are able to do this in some measure, the praises of God will suffer. People who, in faith have acted on the injunction Peter gives here, are the people who are free and available in the praise of God, and we all agree that every local company should be marked by the praise of God.
I wish to take up the thought of 'making our couch for ourselves' in three ways: --
First, with reference to our own bodies, our own persons. In that connection I read Romans 7:25, "So then I myself with the mind serve God's law".
Secondly, in connection with our houses; because if we have learned in some measure at any rate, to control our bodies, the next thing is to control our houses, and to take a stand like Joshua and say, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord".
Then finally, which is the main point, we should learn as local companies to make our couch for ourselves, ordering our local conditions for the pleasure of God and the comfort and prosperity of His people. This is indicated in the verses I read in Philippians, where we are exhorted to work out our own salvation. That is said to a local company. It is a question of the local company working out its own salvation with fear and trembling, because "it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to his good pleasure".
As to the first point it is remarkably illustrated in Paul himself, because in giving an account of his conversion before Agrippa he says, "The Lord said, 'I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: but rise up and
stand on thy feet'". One feels that is the call to each of us. How can we do it? Where is the power coming from? Peter gives the answer, he says to Aeneas, "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee: rise up, and make thy couch for thyself". He presents to him Jesus, the Christ, and, dear brethren, in Jesus, the Christ, there is every resource that our souls need. Jesus, the Christ, is the One who has endured the cross for us; God "made him to be sin for us, who knew not sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him", 2 Corinthians 5. He has endured the cross for us in order that as the Christ, the living Head, the new Head, He might have the wherewithal to meet every need of our souls. He can make us thoroughly whole spiritually. We are ruined and undone, but Jesus the Christ is available. What is there in Him for us? To begin with we have righteousness in Him, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who has been made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and holiness, and redemption", 1 Corinthians 1:30. We have no righteousness of our own. We could not establish our own righteousness; our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. But "from all things from which ye could not be justified in the law of Moses, in him everyone that believes is justified", Acts 13:39. What a great thing that is!
Then we have life in Him, for "He is our life". Colossians 3:4. Further, we have grace and strength in Him, for whatever the trial, He understands. He has been right through the path of obedience here. He is the Leader and Completer of faith, and there is an inexhaustible supply of grace and support available in Him to support us in every trial and test. We need to fix our gaze upon Him, in whom there is every resource for us, Jesus, the Christ. Beautiful title! One who is Head, One who gives the Holy Spirit.
"Jesus, the Christ, heals thee". That healing is not only a question of what is available in Him objectively,
but it takes effect because He is the giver of the Holy Spirit; that is implied in the title, the Christ. The apostle says, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death", Romans 8:2. It is because every resource is available in Christ, including the gift of the Holy Spirit, that it is incumbent upon us, in faith, to answer to the command, "Rise up". Aeneas had been paralysed for eight years. He was like Paul in Romans 7. Perhaps all here have known something of paralysis, of feeling perfectly helpless. In Romans 7, what the paralysed man wanted to do he could not do, when it was a question of doing good. He had to say, "I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members". There he was, a poor helpless paralytic. What is the good of telling a paralytic to stand up? If Aeneas had looked at himself he would have said he could not do it, for he had not moved for eight years. Dear brethren, if our eyes are upon ourselves, that is where we shall be. But Peter directed his gaze to Another, to Jesus, the Christ. Do you believe there is all this resource in Christ for you? It is a matter of faith. He is presented to us in testimony, God bears witness to Him, and thousands have borne witness to Him in their lives. It is for me to appropriate in faith what is available in Christ, and to rise up as believing that all is available in Him; laying hold of Jesus, the Christ, the Healer. As long as I look at myself I shall never rise up, I am paralysed. God has brought in One to meet the whole situation, One who died upon the cross that sin in the flesh might be dealt with; the One who is the giver of the Holy Spirit. Aeneas rose up immediately: he moved in faith. As we rise up in faith in Him, we shall prove the reality of the Holy Spirit in us. The two things go together, "full of faith and the Holy Spirit", Acts 6:5.
The one who is full of faith will be filled with the Holy Spirit. The more Christ is my object, the more I shall experience in myself the operation of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. "The law" implies a self-acting principle; as for instance, the law of gravity in nature. It corresponds with the Lord's word in John 4, "a fountain of water springing up into eternal life". We could not make it spring up: as long as we do not hinder it, it will spring up. What are the conditions under which it springs up? My vision to be filled with Christ; as I am drawing upon Him for grace for every need, there is a pure holy fountain springing up in me, a fountain of living water, purifying, satisfying and giving power, so that I can stand on my feet.
The Lord said to Paul, "Rise up and stand on thy feet". The first thing we have to do is to stand upon our feet in connection with our own personal habits and ways, -- to make our couch in that sense, I take charge of my own person in the power of the Spirit. "I myself with the mind serve God's law"; he had taken a stand. He was resolved that the law of God should govern him, and chapter 8 shews that on the principle of faith in Christ, and the consequent operation of the Spirit in the believer, it becomes a practical proposition to serve the law of God not only with the mind but with the body. The flesh will always serve sin. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus sets me free from the law of sin and death -- the self-acting foul, corrupt spring. It is always there, but it is met by another spring, "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus", so that the believer has power, by the Spirit, to take possession of his body and use it for God. "If, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live", Romans 8:13. The Spirit becomes the power whereby the believer, according to chapter 12 can present his body "a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is
your intelligent service". A great victory!
I pass on to the household thought. From the standpoint of our own happiness and of the testimony, it becomes of all importance that we should regulate our households according to God's will. In that respect also we should rise up and make our couch for ourselves. Households are places where idols easily come in. Joshua refers to the gods of your fathers that were on the other side of the river, and the gods of the Amorite in whose land ye dwell, but he says, as it were, whatever other people do, I am going to regulate my house according to God, "as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah". I believe the Lord Jesus had this kind of thing in mind when he attended the marriage in John 2. It is a remarkable thing that in the gospel so essentially spiritual, the opening incident recorded of the Lord's public ministry should have been his attendance at a marriage. I think it shews, since John is writing for the last days, how important christian households are, and how much the Lord is concerned in securing households purified from idolatry, like Joshua's. He is so much concerned about it that He would attend the marriage to give the young couple a good start in relation to the testimony, and to indicate the way of true joy. He says, "Fill the waterpots with water", that is for purification -- they did the thing thoroughly, "They filled them up to the brim". That is what is needful in our houses. There were those there to help in the matter, the servants did it. The household began with the idea of purification as the way to true joy. A common thought is that purification leads to legality and unhappiness; but purification is the way to true and full joy, joy which no man takes from you; there is nothing legal about it. The Lord turning the water into wine adds to the joy of the occasion, but it is by way of purification. The Lord is concerned about this in the last days. Do not set up a
home with the motives that govern the unregenerate man, self-importance and self-indulgence -- Sihon and Og. They have to be met in a military sense amongst the saints generally; they are only met thoroughly as the inward motives are purified, so that the idols of self-importance and self-indulgence, with all the details they bring in, are dealt with. Then there is a basis for households to be established on the line of true joy. There is nothing in this to militate against natural affection and there is nothing legal about it. It is a question of the motives that govern the position. The link itself is of God and it is due to God that it should be enjoyed and taken up rightly for His pleasure. "For thy pleasure they are and were created", Revelation 4:11. Where does God find pleasure in it except amongst His people? So He wants it taken up in simplicity as from Himself, not in legality but in freedom; but, at the same time, with purified motives, having the Lord and His interests in mind. John's gospel begins with a marriage and ends with a home, a home available for the Lord's mother, a purified home where she could go. Further, this section of John's gospel ends with the nobleman, who came to the Lord at Cana of Galilee, with the result that he believed himself, and his whole house. The whole house was now on the principle of faith and in the liberty of sonship, "Thy son liveth", John 4:50. There were no idols there, nor "the weak and beggarly elements" of legality.
In relation to our households the Lord would say to each one of us, "Rise up, and make thy couch for thyself". You have the power to do it -- the grace of Christ and the gift of the Spirit; now do it, undertake it. So Joshua says, "As for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah". The word is to be full of faith and the Holy Spirit, to rise up, not looking at the weakness of the flesh, for there is nothing to be hoped for from the flesh, but looking to the Christ and going
forward, putting things in order so that our households stand definitely in relation to the testimony.
In Philippi itself there were remarkable illustrations of what I have been saying. The work began at Philippi, with individuals who knew how to regulate themselves for God's pleasure. Paul and Silas in prison were individuals who stood upon their feet and so knew how to regulate their spirits and bodies in prison. With backs scourged and feet in the stocks, they were in accord with the name of Aeneas, which means praise. They were praising God with singing. In Philippi you have Lydia's household; she was baptised and her house. She took up baptism as a real thing, according to the meaning of the water, and she says, "If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there". It was a house where Paul could stay as long as he liked. She was not afraid of what he would see there; she asked him to abide in her house. Then the jailor's house. How that man rose up and regulated his house at midnight. In the early hours of the morning there was a man putting his house in order for God. He "was baptised, and all his straightway". How he carried things before him, being full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Think of getting the children up in the early hours of the morning and having them baptised. There was no delaying with him. Then he lays the table. He did it himself; he washed their stripes. Those two households shew the beautiful mutuality of a christian home. In the first you have a woman -- sisters are normally engaged in household work -- free to attend to the things spoken by Paul; and in the second you have a man laying the table; a husband who did not shut himself away from household duties. It suggests the liberty and joy of a christian home. It says the jailor rejoiced householdly having believed in God. Acts 16:34. The water was turned to wine.
All this leads on to the local company. The local company is to rise up and make its couch for itself. It depends upon ourselves how well we get on. There is a saying in the world that as a man makes his bed so he must lie on it. Whom have we to blame for having poor times? Why have we not made the bed better? How are we to make our bed as a local company according to God? By being governed by the truth of the body in a practical way, which involves working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in us both the willing and the working according to His good pleasure. Corinthians gives the doctrine of the body, "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit", and the apostle says, "Ye are (the) body of Christ, and members in particular". Why do we not enjoy the truth of this more? Because in a practical way it involves that we work out our own salvation, with fear and trembling. We need to be determined to have nothing in our meetings that is inconsistent with Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The big man must be shut outside; no kings must be there. In Corinth they were reigning as kings; the line of Edom is full of kings and dukes. I may bring the big man into the meeting, the big man that wants power, but we need to 'work out' because God is 'working in'. In the body there are diversities of operations, but one God. The assembly is a sphere where Divine Persons are active, and there is no room for man as such at all. The Spirit distributes, the Lord administers and God operates. "There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all", 1 Corinthians 12:4 - 6. If we are to get the gain of the activities of divine Persons when
we come together in our localities, it means that man after the flesh is to be shut out; "Jesus Christ and Him crucified" must be the basis. It involves our being together in the spirit of fear and trembling because God is doing things: that involves our being very sensitive. If we are to have prosperity locally I believe it depends upon our being governed by the light and truth of the body in a practical way, particularly in our gatherings, but also when we are not together. It is part of the Lord's commandment in 1 Corinthians, that we should recognise the truth of the body and shut out all the greatness of man. That does not shut out God's rights in sovereignty, for it says, "God has set the members, each one of them in the body, according as it has pleased him", 1 Corinthians 12:18. Some may appear to be more conspicuous than others; some of the hidden members are the most vital, but God is operating in all. The truth of the body will help us to accept sovereignty and yet mutuality, enabling us to see what God has given each member, and enabling us also to move together and seek grace to support each member in functioning in the most efficient manner, unselfishly making way for each other. By so doing we make way for Divine Persons and Their operations in sovereign grace.
May the Lord help us in these matters. We need to take home to ourselves that if things are not what they might be we have only ourselves to blame, and who amongst us can say they are all that they might be? If things are not what they might be in our lives or in our homes, or in our local companies, we have only ourselves to blame. God has supplied all that is necessary and so the word to each one of us at this time is, "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee: rise up, and make thy couch for thyself". There is power to do it. May the Lord help us!
Romans 8:16 - 18; 2 Timothy 4:22; Hebrews 12:9 - 23; Psalm 73:26.
Each of the New Testament scriptures read refers to the believer's spirit. The Spirit itself bears witness with the believer's spirit that he is a child of God; Paul desires that the Lord Jesus Christ might be with Timothy's spirit; and God is called the Father of spirits in connection with the disciplinary training (or compulsory education), through which He passes each one of those He regards as sons. All this indicates how much Divine Persons are concerned about our spirits -- that they might be assured, sustained and then educated so as to be in accord with the Spirit of Christ.
God has spiritual ends in view and one object before Him in the present trial is that we may gain a spiritual outlook and so be in sympathy with Him in what He is doing. The natural heart sets its hopes on greater ease and comfort here -- the end of the war, retirement from business, etc. Its hopes do not go beyond such things. But the word "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us" indicates that the whole of "this present time" (i.e. the whole christian era) will be a time of suffering, and that the sufferings will not end until the dawn of the glory. We are to accept suffering as normal and not set our hopes on ease and comfort here, otherwise we shall have many disappointments and our wills may become rebellious. Our hope is to be fixed on the day of glory, "the revelation of the sons of God". God has "begotten us again to a living hope", 1 Peter 1:3 -- a hope which
does not fall short of the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ and our appearing in glory with Him. Hope is a most important feature -- often lacking amongst us -- and essential to our present salvation. "We are saved in hope", "as helmet the hope of salvation". "Now the God of hope fill you ... that ye may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit", Romans 15:13.
Scripture does not say that our circumstances bear witness that we are children of God -- they may appear to belie it. The natural heart always regards material comfort and prosperity as the evidence of divine favour. But we do not need circumstantial evidence, for "the Spirit Itself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God" -- and this in a scene of suffering. The Spirit's witness is far more important than anything material. We are to inherit even material things -- all things with Christ. We are Christ's joint-heirs. The whole world, in this sense, is ours, but in that day, with Him. Now we are privileged to suffer with Him.
Three kinds of suffering might be referred to:
that comes from being part of a failing vessel of testimony -- a dual reproach. As we confess the name of Christ, how ready men are to throw in our teeth the broken state of the church.
These three forms of suffering link with the first, second and third books of Psalms respectively. The third form especially tests us, and has been a special feature of the trials of the past few years, which have shewn the need for adjustment in our outlook. All three forms of suffering came upon Paul in surpassing measure. When we think of the persecutions he endured we might well think the suffering was sufficient for any man, and would be spared all others.
But he suffered in health -- had a thorn for the flesh to buffet him, and in addition calamities came upon him. He was shipwrecked three times (four times including the one recorded in Acts) and a day and night he spent in the deep. Further, he speaks of perils of robbers, perils of rivers, perils of the desert, hunger, thirst, cold, nakedness. The natural mind finds such things inexplicable. It would expect a chosen vessel to be shielded from all such things. Have we not in our time thought of ships as unsinkable because brothers were on board? Would we be prepared to accept the ministry of one who was shipwrecked three times? Would we not be inclined to think that the Lord was not with him? Such happenings are a test of spiritual judgment and outlook. Many turned away from Paul as a prisoner, but he says the Lord's prisoner. 2 Timothy 1:8.
We need to allow our minds to be governed by scripture in these matters. God loves us too well to consider merely for our ease and comfort, though the very hairs of our head are all numbered. These happenings we do not expect and cannot understand,
at any rate at the time, are really the result of love's calculation. It was when the Psalmist went into the sanctuaries of God that he understood. He no longer envied the wicked for he realised that the man most to be pitied is the man who lacks discipline. "Moab is at ease from his youth ... and hath not been emptied from vessel to vessel .".., Jeremiah 48:11.
The great result reached is in verse 26, "My flesh and my heart faileth: God is the rock of my heart and my portion forever". No adverse circumstance could now affect his assurance and joy for they were in God Himself.
A similar end was reached in God's dealings with Job. Calamities came upon him, blows which seemed pitiless. But, referring to him, James says: "Ye have seen the end of the Lord, that He is very pitiful and of tender mercy". At the outset, though outwardly serene, he knew no peace and rest of heart, Job 3:25 - 26, and the blows that fell on him were necessary according to the calculations of divine love, to teach him true joy and rest in God alone.
One has often thought of the circumstances of the incoming of our Lord. What a calamity the enforced journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem would appear to be at such a time! What hopes and fears Joseph and Mary must have had as to the possibility of finding accommodation! And then to learn that there was no room in the inn, only a manger in the public courtyard available at the birth of the Son of God. No ease and comfort there. Judging by outward circumstances there was no indication of God's favour and interest in that supreme event:-
The whole trend of scripture shews that God has greater ends in view than to grant the objects of His favour mere material comfort and prosperity. In us the end is to be conformed to the image of His
Son; and every form of suffering, "all things" indeed, work together for good with that great end in view.
In the light of this the christian is not doleful. He boasts in tribulation. James says "Count it all joy when ye fall into various temptations, knowing that the proving of your faith works endurance. But let endurance have its perfect work, that ye may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing", James 1:2 - 4. It is better to lose all here and lack nothing spiritually, as Paul when writing to the Philippians, rather than to possess the whole world without God.
The evidence that God is with a man is not seen in his circumstances, but in the fact that his spirit is maintained in joy and victory. This was supremely true of Paul. As subject to the Father of spirits we live. The very discipline is the proof of His love, for "who is the son that the Father chasteneth not?" And in the suffering the "Spirit Itself bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of God". And further, the Lord Jesus Christ will be with our spirits, 2 Timothy 4:22 -- a most precious thing. He has trodden the whole path and is the Leader and Completer of faith. He was "made perfect through suffering". No thought of ease and comfort prevailed with Him, but the acceptance of increasing suffering to the end. And it is ours to know not only the grace supporting us, but He Himself being with our spirits. How evidently true this was of Stephen! May God grant to us a spiritual outlook and a subject heart in accepting the "sufferings of this present time" so that we may prove in our spirits the love and support of Divine Persons and be maintained in joy and victory until He come!
Luke 22:14 - 20; 1 Corinthians 11:17 - 30
G.R.C. It might be well to state that the object of these readings is to seek to get help together as to what the Lord had in mind in instituting the Supper -- what the emblems are intended to convey to us. Last Saturday we looked at the 10th chapter of Corinthians, considering the question of the Lord's table, or the Christian altar and the obligations connected with partaking of that altar. Tonight, the thought is that we might look at the memorial side of the Supper, having the Lord's own love specially in mind and to get some help on the difference between the Passover and the Supper. The consideration of the cup is no doubt a thing by itself.
Perhaps the point mentioned, the distinction between the Passover and the Supper is one we might look at first, and to get clear on that if possible. They are closely linked together, yet they are not one and the same thing. Nor is the Passover exactly a type of the Supper. The Supper would link on more with the sacrifices connected with the altar than with the Passover Lamb. The Passover is really the ground on which the people are secured in redemption. It is more a type of redemption, and on that basis God secures a people He can express Himself to. It is interesting that it is called The Lord's Passover, conveying the way that He established His right to His people.
The boards of the tabernacle were set in sockets of silver; that is redemption; but the pillars of the court were set in sockets of copper, which links with the
Altar. Keeping the Feast seven days and feeding on the Passover would affect the inward state of the saints and thus prepare us inwardly for the Supper, whereas the fellowship in 1 Corinthians 10 refers more to our outward links and having God's own judgment on what is around us. The Passover touches the inward working of sin in our hearts. Leaven is something hidden. It is not enough to have a right judgment of what is around, we need also to have leaven judged in our hearts. The Lamb is roast with fire. The feast of unleavened bread is connected with the seven days, it goes on during the week.
In Egypt the Passover was a household matter, but in the land it was to be eaten in the place where God put His Name. In that sense we bring the appreciation of the Passover with us to the Assembly. While the Supper is not the place to be occupied with the direct judgment of God upon sin, yet we bring that in our hearts to give depth. It seems necessary to have such an appreciation in order to get a proper sense in our souls of the love that dealt with what was against us; that is expressed in "My body for you". The appeal comes home to us in that way -- what could He keep back?
Ques. How would you distinguish between the Passover Lamb and My body for you?
G.R.C. The Passover Lamb is really the question of what meets the claims of God, the perfections of the One who accomplished redemption -- a sacrifice for sin -- Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us. The perfection of the Lord here, as apart from sin, would form us in relation to our own state and bring us to self judgment in a most definite way and lead us to appreciate a new order of Man -- perfection as seen in Christ.
"My body for you" links on more with the body prepared. "Lo, I come to do Thy will O God, a body hast Thou prepared me", Psalm 40:6 - 8. You have
the complete thought -- not exactly the head with the legs and inwards as in Exodus 12:9, but the complete thought of what was contained in that vessel in which the whole will of God has been expressed. It makes way for the headship of Christ so that the saints recognise that there is nothing outside of Christ at all. It is said that in Him all the Fulness was pleased to dwell, Colossians 1:19, and also that in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. It also involves our sanctification by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all, and our removal as after the flesh in our condition here, not only the judgment of sin but our being set aside and taken up in a new way.
The word memorial seems to involve that we already know Christ. No one can remember Him or call Him to mind unless He is already known. No unconverted person can partake of the Supper, because they do not know Him. We cannot remember the Lord beyond what we already know of Him. The idea of memorial is that it brings awakenings in our souls as to what we already know. In coming together we remember His death, but it is a living Person already known. The memorial is our real bond together; we assemble to break bread as knowing the Lord. The volume of spiritual power in the meeting is what is known of the Lord, so that as spiritual growth proceeds there should be greater power. There is a helpful note in Mr. Darby's translation as to the word translated "remembrance". It has the signification of calling to mind as a memorial. If in each heart the Lord is evidently present by the act of calling to mind, how wonderful that is! That would, as it has been said, prepare for Headship -- He would be everything to us.
The Supper is peculiarly an Assembly privilege -- it is connected with our history here as of the assembly, and it is in relation to the Supper that the assembly
exercises go on week by week. In remembering Him we get a fresh impression of this Person, which would govern us during the week. We break bread to call the Lord to mind, but He comes in from His own side. We cannot exactly bring Him in. The Supper is the Lord's appointment, and He is faithful to His own appointment. He was made known to them "in the breaking of bread", Luke 24:35. It is suggestive of manifestation.
Ques. Would it be a divergence to say a little on what it means to come together in assembly?
G.R.C. The expression "in assembly" does not seem to involve state, but rather gathering in the outward recognition of the Lord's authority. The Corinthians are spoken of as coming together "in assembly", although their state was not in accord with it. What existed at Corinth seemed to be contrary to the idea of the assembly -- in that sense a denial of love's authority. "The Lord" suggests love's authority. It is the Lord's Supper. As there were sects, they were not eating the Lord's Supper; His authority was not owned.
"The Lord Jesus" brings in the affection side very strongly -- that title has a great appeal. The loaf is an appeal for unity -- "We, being many, are one bread". It sets us practically together as one body. We need to recognise the Lord's authority in the assembly and the way He exercises it. Until the Lord's authority is fully owned we cannot understand Headship.
Ques. Referring to the scripture, "Each one taking his own supper before the others", do you think that has a meaning at the present moment?
G.R.C. The Corinthians were of course, actually making a meal, but the principle may come in in being on individual lines. The point we specially want help on in these readings is the way the Lord would have us move together. He loves to see us move
together as one. He would give that touch which we should be on the look out for. The Lord would give some definite touch on each occasion. Subjection would own love's authority and we should be prepared for the touch which might come through anyone -- we should not look to any particular brother.
Ques. Would you expect one thought throughout the meeting?
G.R.C. You cannot limit the Lord. It is a question of learning to move together with Him, but in moving and following the Lord there is usually a certain line. There is a suggestion in Ezekiel 46:9, "He that cometh in by the way of the north gate shall go out by the way of the south and he that cometh by way of the south gate shall go out by the way of the north gate". There would be order if we were with the Lord. Sometimes a hymn is given out and you feel instinctively it has touched every heart present, and at other times there is not that power. If we recognise the truth of the body we shall wait upon one another so that we can move together.
Rem. I suppose we may also wait too long and miss the opportunity?
G.R.C. If the Lord lays something on your heart you would seek grace to move. If we are in the spirit of waiting, we discern a time when the spirits of the saints seem to be vibrating in tune. Then we can go forward. The Lord intends, when we eat of the loaf, that the one body should become a practical reality to us. He would have one instrument that He can play upon, so unified that it is one instrument.
The drinking of the cup, too, brings about unity in the enjoyment of the love of God. There is nothing to set aside divisions practically like the enjoyment of the love of God. You cannot have divisions then. When we are unified in the love of Christ and of God, self-assertion and the assertion of the flesh is
entirely put out; then the Lord can proceed with what He has before Him. In partaking of the Supper, it brings us to Christ as being supreme, which is the great basis of the assembly. It is the power to meet the disintegrating efforts of the enemy. The assembly is the fulness of Him that fills all in all. It has the complete apprehension of the Person of Christ and of the mind of God. With others it is partial. The Lord's supreme delight is the assembly at one with Him in regard to the service of God. No vessel understands the Lord like the assembly. When the Lord was here everything for God was there in Him -- now it is extended -- Christ and the church are one.
The greatness of gathering together should increase with us. Simply to have a thought on one's mind and give it out is not spiritually taking account of the thing at all. The occasion demands silence -- we wait for the Lord to move. Someone used to say, "I looked for His eye" -- he came like a blank sheet of paper but he looked for His eye. The commencement of the meeting is different. We come together to break bread. The Lord is not going to break the bread, and we cannot expect the Lord to come in until it is done. I have sometimes thought that we are more on our own resources as it were at the beginning of the morning meeting than at any other -- though, of course, the Spirit is present to enable us to do what the Lord has asked us to do.
You have a different touch from each of the gospels -- Matthew and Mark are constitutional; Luke is memorial and John gives you the great manifestations. If we do not start with Matthew and Mark, we cannot have Luke and John. As someone has said, the Supper is the kernel of Christianity and the Lord knew fully in giving it that everything in connection with the assembly centres in the Supper.
Matthew 26:26 - 30; Mark 14:22 - 26; 1 Corinthians 11:25; 2 Corinthians 4:13 ("... made to drink into one spirit".)
We desire tonight to get help as to the cup; particularly as to why the new covenant is brought in in the Supper: what it is calculated to do for us as setting us free and preparing us for spiritual movement as indicated in the fact that they moved to the Mount of Olives. With regard to the new covenant being connected with the Supper, there are at least two sides to it -- one the "drinking into one spirit" and the other beholding the glory of the Lord as Mediator. Remembrance as connected with the cup which we drink would bring Him before us as the Mediator -- whose glory we behold.
In Matthew and Mark the blood is made prominent, "This is my blood, that of the [new] covenant". Whereas in Corinthians it is "This cup is the new covenant in My blood".
Throughout Scripture, when God speaks from His own side, He expresses Himself, and this is specially so in the new covenant; for in Christ the expression is complete and that is the portion of the assembly. The covenant governs the thought of approach. Through the death of Christ the way into the holiest has been made manifest. The added thought of the "cup" indicates our satisfaction in the love of God, and the intimacy of our links with one another as in covenant relations.
With regard to the "cup" the Lord is bringing before us what was His own portion as Man down here. He says, "Jehovah is the portion of my in-
heritance and of my cup", Psalm 16:5. So that in that way the new covenant for the church is entering into what Christ enjoyed as Man here with God.
God being fully declared in connection with the blood of the covenant means that all that is of the flesh is removed judicially from before God and that the declaration is in connection with the Person of Christ -- Who He is and what He is in His own Person, His unique humanity. His cup was perfect communion with God. You have God and man in perfect accord in the Lord down here, but if we were to draw near to God a way had to be dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say, His flesh. The life to which -- in us -- sin attached, has been laid down, so that the declaration might be available for us. So that the blood would give us the complete assurance that the covenant is on an infallible basis -- perfect love expressed and righteousness established.
In the loaf it is Christ's love brought before us -- "My body for you" -- but in the cup it is the love of God. "Perfect love casts out fear". Perfect love implies that nothing has been overlooked. God has met every question in accord with His own attributes and secured us in love for His own pleasure.
According to Hebrews the new covenant is to be made with the house of Israel and Judah, but before that was promised God said to Abraham, "In thee shall all the nations of the earth be blessed". We do not therefore limit ourselves in the cup, but take in, in our thoughts, the whole range of divine blessing. The assembly really understands and enjoys the new covenant in a way that Israel cannot. We have a greater apprehension of the love of God and the love of Christ. There is that which is common to Israel and the church; the remission of sins, for instance, and the covenant; but things in a way which Israel will not touch. The covenant involves for us the gift of the Holy Spirit.
By beholding the glory of the Lord the saints are formed in the new covenant -- changed into the same image from glory to glory -- it is a progressive thought. "All changed into the same image" -- unity of character is brought about by beholding the glory, and unity of satisfaction is brought about by drinking into one Spirit -- which is signified in the cup.
The first mention of the cup is in Genesis -- Joseph's cup -- and it is said of that "in which my lord drinks", in which indeed he divines, suggesting intelligence. The Lord has acquired glory in effecting the covenant -- He is the great anti-type of Moses. Moses goes up saying "Peradventure", Exodus 32:30; but there is no "peradventure" with Christ. So the glory of the Lord would bring in intelligence -- He has brought about all to the glory of God. "Let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth Me", Jeremiah 9:24. The covenant gives us understanding and knowledge of God in His nature and in all His attributes.
Ques. "Having sung a hymn they went out to the mount of Olives" -- would that be response to the covenant? It does not say the Lord went and they followed -- there seemed to be a mutual movement, with the Lord among them.
G.R.C. Does not that suggest the way the knowledge of Christ as Head works; you move with Him as they did? They could not help it -- the attraction of the Lord's presence was such to them.
Ques. Would you say that what follows practically in the movement is largely dependent upon whether the covenant has been apprehended in our hearts?
G.R.C. If the covenant is known, it really brings in the atmosphere of what belongs to the presence of God. The divine character has shone out; we are fitted to be there -- we are there in love -- in response. This gives boldness; we often lack holy boldness.
The blood of the everlasting covenant ever stands before God in all its efficacy; so if there is not that boldness it is due to our lack of apprehension. An individual has entrance into the Holiest -- but all that we touch individually, even as to the Holiest we touch in a far deeper way as together.
In appreciating the covenant, we understand one another -- we love one another. The movement together is dependent upon our common enjoyment, whether we are one heart and one soul. "It came to pass when the trumpeters and the singers were as one to make one voice heard in praising and blessing Jehovah ... the glory of Jehovah had filled the House of God", 2 Chronicles 5:13, 14. That comes out in singing a hymn together. We are in conscious unity in response to God. This moving together is where we are really tested. Sometimes a hymn is given out which shows that we have not moved together. This move to the mount of Olives is in the atmosphere of which we have been speaking -- "they went". Mr. Darby touches that in his hymn, "There Christ the centre of the throng" (Hymn 178).
A spiritual person would not move contrary to the Spirit. It is possible for even a babe in Christ to be spiritual. In that way it is a serious exercise if things are not in harmony, because all have the Spirit. Spirituality is not limited to those who have gone on a long time. John's babes know all things. A babe may give a touch -- an impression of God and a response of love.
It is a most difficult thing for us to get away from the individual idea; whereas, if in the good of drinking into one Spirit, one is not thinking of one's own part, but of moving with the company. Once the saints have moved on to Mount of Olive's ground with the Lord among them, it is unsuitable that a hymn should be given out taking us back to the Lord on the throne. We need to be educated. Apart from these
instructions we are going to carry on the meeting ourselves. In that case the meeting would consist in so many brothers taking part, and that is not the meeting at all. The saints should be conscious that there is something far greater than what is ministered in words -- what is going out from the hearts of the saints.
Leviticus 8:1 - 3, 6, 14 - 15, 18, 22 - 27, 30; 2 Chronicles 5:11 - 14; John 13:10, 16; Hebrews 2:10 - 11.
My desire tonight, dear brethren, is to speak of liberty in the service of God, and I think this liberty is largely bound up with three things. The first is an understanding of Leviticus 8, that is, an understanding of sanctification -- "He that sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one". I believe that lies at the basis of any liberty as serving God in His own presence. That is connected with the service of the Mediator. It was carried out by Moses in Leviticus 8 -- "The Lord spoke to Moses, saying ."... The Sanctifier is the Lord Jesus as Mediator. But then the Lord brings in what is additionally necessary in John 13; there is that which His own service has effected, which He speaks of as "he that is washed all over". There is also the service of love that is left for us to do for each other in washing one another's feet. We have been washed all over -- Moses took Aaron and his sons and washed them with water, they were washed all over. He that is washed all over still needs to wash his feet and that is a service of love left to us to perform for each other. And then finally, what is needed also is the attitude that is referred to in 2 Chronicles 5:12, where it says that the priests and the Levites were standing at the east side of the altar; they were standing as holding themselves in readiness to serve -- not coming to the meeting, as it were, with the idea of being spectators in what is going on. They come as standing -- they do not sit down -- at the east side of the altar, the side of expectancy,
expecting the glory to come in as thus all ready.
To return for a moment to Leviticus 8; I believe that is a matter all the people of God need grounding in -- sanctification. Before I speak of it in detail it will be well to say a few words on the service of God generally, and you will understand that what I mean now is the service of God as in Leviticus, that is, priestly service. In Numbers it is levitical service; in Leviticus it is serving God in His presence. The service of God has two parts to it; there is the service of God at the altar and the service inside the tabernacle.
Priestly service at the altar was a public matter; that is anyone could have come along and could have seen the priests serving at the altar; but inside the tabernacle no one saw what went on, only the priests themselves knew. Typically, they entered into a scene where all was of God. And you will find in Exodus 29 and 30 that those two sides of the service went on every morning and every evening; every morning the priests went to the brazen altar and offered the morning lamb, and every evening the evening lamb, with its meat offering and drink offering. But then the priest also went inside the tabernacle every morning and evening, and he trimmed the lamp and put incense on the golden altar. You can understand that when a priest went inside and looked around as entering in spirit a scene where everything was of God, what kind of prayers and praise would go up from him at the golden altar! Our prayers and praise must be affected by our environment, and the prayers and outgoings of the hearts of the saints at the golden altar -- that is in spirit in a scene where everything is of Himself -- are sweet incense to God. That is the kind of prayer the Lord prayed in John 17. He is there as Priest at the golden altar, serving in spirit in a scene where everything is of God; He views the saints from that angle -- "The glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may
be one as we are one". That is like the priest looking round and seeing the boards in the tabernacle, covered with gold, set in sockets of silver -- the saints as they are before God. And that was going on every morning and evening. What a blessed thing it would be to take that up!
To take up priestly service at all we need to know something of sanctification, but what I have in mind to occupy us tonight is the service of God in connection with the morning meeting, the Lord's supper. I believe that this matter of sanctification according to Leviticus 8 has an important bearing in connection with the cup. We have been occupied this afternoon with the truth of reconciliation. Now reconciliation refers to the way Christ has laid the basis in divine righteousness for this scene where everything is of God. Reconciliation does not only bear on the church, but on all things in heaven and in earth. You now has He reconciled, Colossians 1:21, 22. But reconciliation touches the whole scene of glory. We should be in liberty at all times in our spirits to enter into the immediate presence of God, without embarrassment, as a matter of enjoyment and contemplation. Luke 15 is a matter of enjoyment, Hebrews 9 and 10 a matter of contemplation. If we understand the work of Christ we shall be free at all times to go into the holiest as a matter of enjoyment and contemplation. Think of going into a scene where everything is of God, and that comes into the morning meeting. It is a question of going into the scene as a matter of enjoyment in the first instance, but then there is also the question of serving God actively, in a priestly way. It is one thing to be in the enjoyment of God's presence, and it is another thing to be free actively to serve Him in it. If we are to serve Him actively we must have something acceptable to offer. When it comes to a question of actively serving God in His own immediate presence, we need something more
than reconciliation, which is the bearing of the work of Christ in its wide and extensive character.
Sanctification refers especially to the bearing of the work of Christ on the church. It is not so much what the work of Christ has done for God in its vast and extensive character, but what the work of Christ has done for us in making us all of one with Him. If we are actively to serve God in His own immediate presence, we need to have a sense that we have part with Christ as entirely suitable, as all of one with Him. Many companies will come into the meaning of reconciliation, heavenly and earthly companies, but no company will come into sanctification like the church. They will have part in the universe of bliss, but no company will have part with Christ in the holy service of God like the assembly. What the Lord had before Him in a special way in going into death was that He should sanctify us by the offering of His body once for all to bring us in as a priestly company with Himself in the service of God. That is what is set out in Leviticus 8. I should connect reconciliation with the cup, and I should connect this also with the cup at the supper because it is the Mediator who does it. I suppose there was really no greater service that the Mediator did than this; it was probably the greatest act of Moses' service -- to sanctify a priestly company to draw near to God, to serve Him. That was the great end in view in the covenant. God had come out to man and made known the terms on which He would be with man. God is with us on the line of supply, and it is all in view of our being with God in His realm of things and in such liberty that we are free to serve Him as consciously having part with Christ and as all of one with Him. What a wonderful thought it is. What could be a greater act on the part of the Mediator than to secure for God this great return from the covenant, this great response, that there is a company
brought to God, all of one with Christ in God's holy service?
You will notice that the whole assembly is brought into it. What this means in Christianity is that all the saints take it up, we are all priests; we do not set apart a certain priestly class, but it is the saints moving together, all intent on God having an answer to His great thought, just as in Numbers the whole assembly move together to offer up the Levites. We are all in it on a priestly line. I would encourage even the youngest here tonight that what we are speaking of is your portion. There was no age limit to the priests. We have been sanctified by the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The Levite had to become 30 years of age before he was entrusted to carry these holy things. It needs maturity. But how are we to get maturity except by taking up priestly service? And when we grow to maturity how delighted we shall be to be entrusted with the carrying of holy things!
Let us look for a moment at this chapter to see some of the important things in it.
It says in Hebrews 2:11 that He that sanctifies and those that are sanctified are all of one. That is, the saints are entirely identified with Christ as a Man in the immediate presence of God. How has that been brought about? By Christ's wonderful service to us as the Mediator by the offering of His body once for all, typified in the sin offering, the burnt offering and the ram of sanctification. And so what has happened is that, through the work of God to begin with, everyone of us has a link with Christ through the service of Christ towards us as Mediator. We have all been washed all over. You say, why did Aaron need washing all over? -- Aaron is a type of Christ. The Lord said "I sanctify myself for their sakes". The Lord Himself has left flesh and blood conditions for our sakes. He need not have done,
but He Himself has gone through the waters of death; His position as Man before God is based on the fact that He died and has risen again; He did it for our sakes. Aaron and his sons were washed all over -- we are brought before God on the grounds of death, and that is the very same ground on which Jesus is before Him for our sakes, that we might be brought with Him before God; and the precious ministry of the Mediator as to His death has this practical effect of washing us all over. The Lord says in John 13, "He that is washed all over .".. The word of God, through the Mediator, through Christ, has come home in power to the soul, giving me a sense of a link with Him beyond death.
And then to go forward -- Aaron and his sons were all clothed; Aaron in his special garments -- Christ is unique in that -- but the sons also were clothed. The part I want to dwell on most is that Aaron and his sons put their hands on the head of the sin offering; they put their hands on the head of the burnt offering, and on the head of the ram of consecration. Following that, Aaron and his sons had the blood put on the right thumb, the right ear and the right toe, and Aaron and his sons had their hands filled with what was delightful to God. Aaron and his sons were anointed and were sprinkled with blood. Thus the sanctifier and those that were sanctified were all of one, brought before God on sacrificial ground as all of one. I believe that to have that in our souls is going to set us free in the presence of God. It is involved in the cup and the covenant because it is the work of the Mediator. We come into the presence of God conscious that the sanctifier has made us all of one with Himself. It is man going in to God -- not God coming out to man -- on the same ground before God as Christ is as Man. How marvellous the grace of Christ, that He is now before God on the ground of a sin offering having been offered! Aaron and his sons put their
hands on it -- we are identified with Christ before God on the basis of that offering. He is there on the basis of that offering, not because He needed it, but in grace, that we might be one with Him on that ground; the burnt offering similarly, and the ram of consecration. It is especially calculated to set us free. The sin offering has dealt with all that is offensive and put it away; the burnt offering is the sweet odour of Christ to God in which we are accepted, but the ram of consecration is a touching reference to the death of Christ -- consecration means the filling of the hands. He went into death to fill the hands of a priestly company with that which is pleasing to God. We have part with Christ, as all of one with Him, in the presence of God, and we come before God with our hands filled with that which is pleasing to Him. Moses put these things in the hands of Aaron and his sons -- Christ and the assembly presenting to God all that Christ was in His death and in His perfect Manhood.
The details of what was put into their hands speak wonderfully of the perfection of Christ in that precious sacrifice and of His precious Manhood; He would fill our hands with these things. How could brethren be silent if their hands were filled with these things? And they were all anointed; so that in every way "He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". I believe that has a very important bearing on what we may speak of as the transition at the supper from what God and Christ are to us to what we are to God as having part with Christ in the service of God.
When it comes to the practical working out of it, John 13 helps. Once the priests were sanctified, when they were washed all over, they were never washed all over again, but every time they approached to serve God they had to wash their hands and feet at the laver. We cannot wash one another's hands -- that is
a matter which we have to see to ourselves: "Let a man examine himself and so let him eat". We have to see that we have holy hands. But when it comes to a question of feet washing, in John 13 the Lord leaves that as a service of love which we can perform for one another. The truth of the body enters into that, it is a mutual service. John does not name things as Paul does, but the truth of the body is very prominent in the supper. The loaf reminds us that we being many are one loaf, one body, and we drink into one cup. We come together and sit down bodywise, in love for one another and recognising the fact that we are dependent upon one another. I have often come to the supper feeling as though everything depended upon me. The Lord does not expect us to bear that burden. You may come to the supper tomorrow morning feeling under some pressure in your spirit and you may not feel equal to the occasion, but what meets that is that we sit together bodywise. Instead of being disturbed because I am not feeling up to it, I come and sit down with the brethren. What I need is to have my feet washed. We cannot help getting our feet soiled, as it were, as we go through this world -- "The Lord having loved His own who were in the world", it says; that is why feet washing is necessary. The Lord Himself sets the thing moving even now. We come together and some brother somehow is free -- some sister; no doubt they have proved the personal service of Christ. The thing is for that brother to give expression to what has set him free. So we sit down together and wait upon one another, and someone who is free gives expression, either in a hymn or thanksgiving, to what has set him free, and that sets another brother or two free, and sisters as well. If you have come feeling unequal to things in your spirit and you sit down quietly, you thank God for the brethren; you are sitting bodywise; things do not depend upon you but on the body.
Soon someone is free; it doesn't touch you much. Well, wait a bit longer; it has set someone else free and he expresses it, and now you have the touch for your own soul, your feet have been washed. What are you going to do? You look around the room and think there are a lot of others better qualified than you are. You think, should I take part now? Five minutes ago I could not have thought of it. You are just the one to do it; your feet have been washed. Take that hymn, or phrase, or thanksgiving that washed your feet, and go forward with your bit. And so the service goes on, until the whole company are free, brothers and sisters all free in spirit.
You thus reach the service of the sanctuary in its true character; all enjoying part with Christ, all ready to take up this great truth of sanctification as consciously with Christ, one with Him. We thus come into the presence of God with our hands filled with what is delightful to Him. No question then of waiting upon one another, but of wisdom as to when to bring your part in, what will be best for the occasion. That is the great end in view in the service of John 13. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them". We have to remember that is said at the supper table. Feet washing in another setting takes place in our homes, but I am speaking of the supper. How often meetings have been spoilt because we have not done it. The part others have taken has washed my feet and yet I have held back and the service has broken down at that point with me, because I have had my feet washed and have not gone on to wash someone else's. We should all take up the obligation of being sent into this world by Christ as the Father sent Him; and the first specific thing he says about being sent is that we should wash one another's feet. "The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these
things happy are ye if ye do them". The first obligation of being sent is to learn to act bodywise with the brethren. I can only fill a little niche in any morning meeting. If I try to do anything else than that it would only mar the service of God, but the thing is to do my little bit.
That brings us to Chronicles, which I think illustrates the normal service of the supper. This is the service of the sanctuary. When it is acting normally, feet washing has taken place; everyone set free and everything going forward in liberty in the holy service of God. What it says in verse 11 is that all the priests present were sanctified without observing the courses. I have heard brothers say the priests should serve by course. So they should in certain aspects, but not at the supper. All the priests present were sanctified; that is the normal thing, every priest is free. That is how we should hold ourselves at the supper, all sanctified, all holding in faith the ground of Leviticus 8 and ready for the service. All the priests were sanctified without observing the courses -- they were all ready to take up the service of God. "The Levites which were the singers ... being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east side of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets".
As I said earlier, the service of God is divided into two parts -- the service of the altar and the service in the tent. The beginning of the morning meeting, and right through the supper corresponds with the altar, as 1 Corinthians 10 shews us. As the meeting goes on we experience the other side of the service. The altar is the public side -- anyone 'sitting behind', as we speak, can see a company of saints serving God by the Spirit, boasting in Christ Jesus and having no confidence in the flesh. What a sight for anyone who comes in with eyes to see what is going on! During the early part of the meeting the public side is the only
part there is, but as the meeting goes on the priestly company in their spirits pass into the immediate presence of God; the public side still goes on, the person sitting behind still hears the thanksgiving and praise but does not realise that that company he has been looking at have passed into a scene where everything is of God. That is the secret side. But on the public side it says here that the priests and the Levites were standing on the east side of the altar, arrayed in white linen. This is the third thing that I have spoken of as necessary for liberty in the service of God. It means that we accept the obligation of being prepared to take our part in priestly service. We are not only concerned as to washing one another's feet, but both brothers and sisters should be present as taking an active part -- not only what is audible -- we should all be present as actively engaged in priestly service. We should not come and sit down, but we should be standing, as it were. How God values those who come on this line in the way of response, standing at the east side of the altar and arrayed in white linen -- that is, there is no fleshly emotion or sentiment; white linen suggests purity and sobriety.
One has heard of brothers who take the ground, as to audible part, that they will only act on impulse. That is not white linen. It may be right to act on impulse, but not to limit one's actions to impulse. The idea of a priest is intelligence and sobriety; he knows what is suitable at the moment, he takes his part as wisdom dictates. That is what I understand by standing, clothed in white linen, at the east side of the altar. That is, as you function in that way and go forward in sobriety and intelligence, you believe that the glory will come in. "As the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord" -- that is when everyone is free, when the note of praise has
become unified. The priests were the trumpeters -- the trumpet suggests a clear intelligent note -- indicating the way the Lord is moving as singing praise in the assembly. There is the clear note of the trumpeters going on -- whereas the Levites, the singers, with their instruments, are the subjective side -- what is going on in the hearts of the saints -- hearts vibrating in unison with that clear priestly note. Then "Even the house of the Lord was filled with a cloud, so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of the Lord had filled the House of God". What a moment that is, beloved brethren! If we are prepared to take up the service of God in happy liberty, holding in faith the ground of sanctification -- what Christ the Mediator has done -- also holding ourselves in love one towards another as prepared to take our part in washing one another's feet, and finally as standing at the east side of the altar -- all having definitely before us that God should have His portion; then, once the thing is in unison and every heart is vibrating and this moment reached when the trumpeters and singers are as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking Jehovah, then the house is filled with the glory of God. What a climax! Formal priestly service comes to an end. You have reached the goal, the sense of the Divine Presence is filling the hearts of the saints; you can be free in every way, the glory filling the house, and the saints consciously part of that new creation scene where everything is of God. The saints who have been serving in a priestly way are now conscious of being part of the scene where everything is of God, in the immediate presence of the glory. What a blessed thing it is!
That is what is in view in Hebrews -- "For it became Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory .".. I think that links up with what we have in Chronicles --
"bringing many sons to glory". I do not regard that as the coming display, the glory of the Kingdom, but as being brought into the immediate presence of all that God is and being there perfectly at home where the glory fills -- consciously part of a scene where everything is entirely according to God for His pleasure. God is bringing us to that wonderful eternal scene where all things are of Himself; and that is the climax to have in view, beloved brethren, every time we come together at the supper. If we reached that scene, how different our expressions would be, not now so much occupied with the sacrificial side, what Christ was here and what He did here -- that is what filled the hands of the priests earlier -- but to be consciously part of a scene where everything is of God, where Christ as the Beloved, the Centre of all affection, has a peculiar glory, loved before the foundation of the world, and now in the place given Him in divine purpose, as Man, before the world was.
May God help us on these lines, that we may really know complete liberty in His holy service and thus touch increasingly what it is to be brought to glory now, for His Name's sake!
Matthew 14:22 - 29; Matthew 16:13 - 18; Matthew 17:5; Revelation 4:4, 6 (latter half), 11.
I have read these scriptures, dear brethren, because in those in Matthew, Peter is brought before us, and we noticed this afternoon that Peter is one of the New Testament writers who calls Christians priests; and I think this section in Matthew gives us Peter's education and experience in view of becoming a living stone in the spiritual house, and a member of the holy priesthood. The scriptures in Revelation are written by John. He is the other New Testament writer who calls Christians priests, and I think in his vision of the elders and the living creatures, he portrays certain features which God intends to mark His priests, features which will mark them certainly in the future, but which are written down in order that we may be exercised as to their marking us now, because we have to keep in mind that the elders and the living creatures are a priestly company. It says in chapter 5 that each one of them had "a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints", each one of them had those qualifications for priesthood.
I hope to return to them later, because I believe that is a side of priesthood in which God would specially instruct us in our present experiences and afflictions; but I want to begin with Matthew because we have there the normal side of priesthood in view, that is, assembly service -- or one might rather say, the service that attaches to those who form the assembly, because, as we noticed this afternoon,
priestly service is to be a continuous matter. It reaches its highest character when the assembly is convened, but God's intention is that those who form the assembly should be engaged in priestly service continually. You remember that of old the priests, after having been consecrated, (that is, their hands filled), were to keep the charge seven days, showing that it was to be their one concern. Their hands were filled in the holy service of God; they had no room for anything else; and that is God's intention for each one of us. We have our responsibility to fulfil in this world, but that being done, as consecrated, we have no other occupation but the service of God.
I think Peter in the gospel of Matthew illustrates the doctrine of his epistle. He exhorts us there to "desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation, if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good". And then he says, "To whom coming, a living stone, cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious, yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood". He had come that way himself. As companying with the Lord he had learnt to value the sincere milk of the word. A newborn babe wants nothing else, and that should mark a Christian throughout his course here, that he wants nothing else but the pure mental milk of the word. A babe will reject anything but milk; so should a Christian reject anything which is not the pure mental milk of the word; and if we are on those lines we shall indeed taste that the Lord is good, and grow up to salvation.
I think that in Matthew 14, Peter represents one who has grown up to salvation. It is illustrated in the incident which we read where he walks on the water to go to Jesus. I purposely did not read of his failure, although I may refer to it; but the great point in the
passage is that he did it: he walked on the water to go to Jesus. He did a thing which cannot be done in the power of nature. He made a mistake in looking at the wind and the waves; but in the power of nature it is just as impossible to walk on a calm sea as on a troubled one. The whole situation is outside the power of nature -- this walking on the waters to go to Jesus -- but it is what comes from feeding on the sincere mental milk of the word. Peter says in his epistle that we are born again of incorruptible seed by the living and abiding word of God. As feeding on it we shall receive strength to do what Peter did. It is because people do not pay enough attention to the word that so few have strength to step out and go to Jesus. Where the word of God is attended to with an honest heart, people acquire strength, even though their faith be small. The Lord said to Peter, "O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?"; still there was faith and affection and spiritual strength there to say to the Lord, "If it be thou command me to come to thee upon the waters"; and the Lord said, "Come"; and Peter did it; he walked on the waters to go to Jesus. I think the waters represent the adverse elements here. Unless we learn to be superior to them, we shall not be free in our spirits to function as priests.
This section of Matthew begins with chapter 13: 53. The various sections of Matthew's gospel are indicated to us, because each begins with an expression something like this: "And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables .".. Following that we get the natural view of Jesus: He came to His own country, and taught in their synagogue, "so that they were astonished, and said, Whence has this man this wisdom and these works of power? Is not this the son of the carpenter?" That is one of the elements that we have to overcome; it is one of the elements that is suggestive of the waters upon which
we have to walk. It is the natural view of Jesus, men regarding merely His natural origin, bringing Him down to the level of an ordinary man. There is a great deal of that going on in Christendom. Following that, at the beginning of chapter 14, we have the character of the world, the careless, godless world, seen in Herod. The world celebrates such functions, and professes to take a certain amount of interest in divine things, but they are really callous in heart, and prepared for the sake of vanity to murder the saints. We have to learn not to fear that element, but to overcome the world; and we must remember that today the professing church is largely a department of the world, and we have to learn to be overcomers. But then, all the time we are being helped and fed. The Lord feeds the five thousand. We taste that the Lord is good, and move with Him, and the result of it all with Peter is that he walks on the waters to go to Jesus. The Lord is looking for this movement with each one of us here tonight. He is waiting to hear us say, like Peter, "If it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters". The Lord is apart from everything here -- "Disallowed indeed of men", cast out as worthless by men, but chosen of God and precious. He loves to see souls who are prepared to step out to Him, and as we do so, even though our faith may be little, and we begin to sink, we can be sure of the strength of His arm. We shall never sink. The Lord has a perfect care for all who move in this way. So it was not only that Peter walked on the waters to go to Jesus, but the incident finishes with Peter walking with Jesus; they came up together to the boat. This walking on the water is what characterises the christian dispensation. If there is such a thing as a boat at the present time, we might apply it to the mercy we have in being able to walk together; yet the value of the boat position is dependent on the ability of each one in it to walk on the water to go to
Jesus, each one of us having an individual, personal history, and able to stand alone. This illustrates growing up to salvation.
But then, the Lord had in mind that Peter should be a living stone in the full sense of the word. In chapter 16, Peter is developed so that the Lord can name him as such. In chapter 15, we have lifeless religion based on the traditions of men; but then at the beginning of chapter 16, it says, of the Lord, "And he left them and went away". That is another thing we have to do: we have to turn away and leave lifeless religion with its traditions and ceremonies. As we turn away from these things, and the leaven of them, we come into a position where the Father can bring us into the gain of the revelation which He made to Peter. The Lord Jesus says, "Who do ye say that I am?" It seems to me, dear brethren, that it is in this that we really become living stones to be built into the spiritual house. We come to the apprehension that Jesus, the One whom men have cast away as worthless, is no less than the Christ and the Son of the living God; and nobody can confess Jesus as the Christ and the Son of the living God except in the spirit of worship. Those who have the New Translation will notice that the pronouns Thou and I are emphatic. Peter says, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". I believe the emphatic "Thou" means that Peter said it in a spirit of worship. He realised that the Person before Him was God's King, the Christ, the One in whom God is shortly to head up all things, the things in heaven and the things on earth. God is going to head up all things in the Christ. Would to God that this great truth might enter all of our hearts, that Jesus is the Person in whom everything in heaven and on earth is about to be headed up! He is the Christ, and no one else. What a glorious Person He is! What a Man, the Man of God's counsels and purposes, the Man in whom God has purposed in
the dispensation of the fulness of times to head up all things! He is already Head of His body, the assembly, and Head over all things to the assembly. It is a great thing to apprehend the Christ!
But then He is the Son of the living God, another title which would bow the heart in worship. God is the living God, and Jesus is His Son. It means that Jesus would use His sway as Lord and Head to secure the worship and praise of God. He has in view that the whole universe should be vibrating with life. He knows that God is the living God, and that God requires living stones, living response, and living service; and He is the Son of the living God. It is His joy to bring all that to pass. The light of it had dawned on Peter: He is the One who can hold heaven and earth for God, and cause the whole universe to vibrate in praise and life. That in the soul constitutes Peter a living stone. How could one who had such an apprehension of Christ be otherwise than living? It is bound to make the believer's soul vibrate in worship, and praise. He becomes a living being in response to Christ and to God; and that is the idea of the assembly. The Lord said, "On this rock I will build my assembly". He delights in Peter. He says, "Thou" -- another emphatic pronoun -- "art Peter". How the Lord delighted to see another living stone come to light! There is a suggestion here of the reciprocal affections between Christ and the assembly. Peter says, "Thou art the Christ", and the Lord Jesus says, "Thou art Peter". His delight is in Peter. He goes on to say, "And on this rock I will build my assembly". That assembly is a living structure, because it belongs to the Son of the living God, and the supreme way in which He uses that assembly is in the praise of God. The assembly is used by Him in other ways -- for the filling of all things, "the fulness of him who fills all in all"; but you can understand that the living God's Son would
use that vessel in a supreme way for the pleasure of the living God; and He exultingly says, "Hades' gates shall not prevail against it", meaning that no effort of the enemy would ever silence the praise in that vessel. The living God would be served in that vessel, despite anything that the enemy could do. A priesthood was brought in which would never cease to function. Everything in Israel had broken down, but the Lord says, "My assembly". Here was something that would never break down. We know that it has broken down publicly, but as the assembly of the living God, and as Christ's assembly, there is no breakdown. The praises will never cease, maintained in the power of the Spirit in this spiritual house in which the holy priesthood functions. So Peter was a living stone.
I just refer to the verses read in chapter 17, because there we have the Father Himself taking in hand to put another and a most important touch to Peter's education. It is the privilege of the holy priesthood to enter into the holiest, and these three disciples had experience of the excellent glory, the very presence of the Father. That cloud of glory overshadowed them. What a privilege! It is ours, as belonging to the holy priesthood to enter into the glory cloud; but the Father instructs Peter. The Father's voice is heard -- "such a voice" as Peter says in his 2nd epistle; and the emphatic pronoun is again used. "This is my beloved Son". There is no other. I think that from a spiritual angle, though Peter had other moral lessons to learn, this completed Peter's education. The Lord Jesus is the Head of the corner. "This is my beloved Son". However great Moses and Elias might be, Jesus is supreme. "Hear him". What a qualification for the holy priesthood to hear such a voice from the excellent glory: "This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight; hear him". That gives us enough to fill our hands as priests
through endless ages. Official priesthood, I suppose, will not go on in eternity, but in "This is my beloved Son", surely we have material to fill our hands and our hearts with worship, as apprehending the Father's delight in the Son. So it says in Mark 9:8 "Suddenly having looked around, they no longer saw anyone, but Jesus alone with themselves".
Having said that about Peter and his education, seeking to indicate how he became a living stone and a living member of the holy priesthood in which we all are called to have our part, I want to say a word about Revelation. At the beginning of this book John says, He "has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father". That links us on with what we have been having; but I have an impression, dear brethren, that God would in these days bring us into priestly service in a broader way than, perhaps, we have been accustomed to come into it. He would widen our view. The side of things connected with the assembly as such, the highest and most blessed way in which we worship God in all the light in which He is revealed in Christ, and share with Him His pleasure in His Son. Yet there is another side of priesthood open to us, and that is to be able to worship God and vindicate Him, too, in the spirit of worship, in connection with all His ways and public dealings here. That is what marks the elders and the living creatures throughout the book of Revelation. You find they are able to ascribe praise and worship to God in whatever character He appears; and we need to remember this, that the elders and the living creatures refer to ourselves, because the saints of the assembly are included undoubtedly in the company represented by the elders and the living creatures. So that it is well to take account of the features that mark these elders and living creatures, for the features that mark them will help us in priestly service.
I will refer particularly to three features: firstly, the
feature of experience. The elders suggest that. I think it has been made clear today that the youngest believer who has received the Spirit is a priest, and can have part in his or her measure in the priestly service on the line on which we have already been speaking. But there is another side to priesthood which depends on experience, in connection with the ways of God. He passes us through circumstances here that we might get experience; and I think that you can understand that the worship of God that flows from experience is peculiarly valuable to Him. So if the elders worship in Revelation, their worship flows from experience with God in the character in which they are worshipping Him.
Then in the living creatures we have first of all the feature of life. We have already referred to that in connection with the living stone. These are living creatures. And then you have the feature of discernment. It says of these living creatures: "full of eyes, before and behind", and later it says, "round and within they are full of eyes". One feels that God would encourage our hearts with a view to these features being promoted with us.
If we take the feature of experience, God is passing us through experiences which are leading us to value Him in characters to which, perhaps, we have not hitherto paid much attention. They are to lead us to value Him as Creator. Surely the last few years have taught us to value God as Creator as never before. We may have thought of creation as an act of power in the distant past; but we are having to learn that God is operating all the time in creation. In Him we live and move and have our being. We have seen His ability to increase the harvest of the fields; we have seen His ability to use the elements to alter the course of the world war. We have had experience of God in His creation power and goodness. It is intended, no doubt, to give us confidence in Him
as Creator, if we are called upon to suffer for the testimony. Peter speaks of those who suffer according to the will of God committing their souls in well doing "to a faithful Creator". We must know and be assured of the faithfulness of the Creator to do that. We might have thought Peter would have said "to a loving Father", which is quite true, but he says, "to a faithful Creator". Surely we are learning God as the One on whom we can rely as Creator. So these living creatures are worshipping God as Creator. If the elders are doing it, they are doing it as the fruit of experience; and I believe that is one of the things which God is bringing about today. A wonderful ascription of praise comes before us in this passage; and I would like to challenge our hearts as to whether we have ever been as much affected as these elders and living creatures are. It says of the elders that they "fall before him that sits upon the throne, and do homage to him that lives to the ages of ages", and they "cast their crowns before the throne". All this shows that their whole being is affected as they worship God, and they say, "Thou art worthy, O our Lord and our God" -- this is the fruit of experience -- "to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created". Surely this gives us a theme for worship, dear brethren. Have we ever fallen down before God in the spirit of worship? And notice that their worship is "to Him that sits upon the throne". Have we paid enough attention to that? God is on the throne: He is "the blessed and only Ruler". He is so much the blessed and only Ruler, that in this book even when evil reaches its worst form, everything is controlled. It says that it was given to the beast to pursue its course 42 months. It could not do that unless it was given to it. What we have been passing through recently is intended to establish our hearts in this great fact that God is on the throne and has
control of everything; and if that lays hold of our hearts, it will lead out our hearts to Him as the blessed and only Ruler. We shall not acknowledge any other ruler in our worship. We would give place to rulers as set up under God, but so far as worship is concerned, there is only One, "the blessed and only Ruler", 1 Timothy 6:15.
In the next chapter, these same companies are portrayed in worship to God as Redeemer, and then to the Lamb. I think that in what is going on at the present time, God would enlarge our apprehension of Him as Redeemer; because this feature stands out in God's governmental ways, that though they may come in in judicial discipline upon mankind, God uses them to effect His rights in redemption. We all feel, surely, that at the present time in what God is allowing He has in view to bring to light the elect, as one might say. When the throne begins to operate in the book of Revelation, after the first six seals, all the elect are brought to light. It is a wonderful thing to think that in all this upheaval that is going on now, God is securing His rights in redemption. In chapter 19, we find this same company of elders and living creatures falling down and doing homage to God as Judge; and I believe that God would have us to be worshippers of Him in that relation. It is said that we have come "to God the Judge of all", Hebrews 12:23. You will find one of the widest ascriptions of praise in the book of Revelation in chapter 19, where God is celebrated as Judge: "True and righteous are his judgments". There is nothing more stabilising to the soul than to know God as Judge, because it gives the assurance that the right will prevail. The function of a true judge is to uphold the right; and we can trust God to do it.
But then, in worshipping God in these characters, if we are to get the experience that He would have us to get from what we pass through, we need discernment.
One would desire to raise an exercise with us as to how far we are in accord with these living creatures which are "full of eyes". One feels that there is peculiar pleasure to God in that feature. They were full of eyes "before and behind" -- able intelligently to take account of God's ways in the past and His ways in the future. And they are full of eyes "round and within". Let us be diligent, dear brethren, to be "full of eyes", not to miss anything in connection with what God is doing and what He would teach us -- full of eyes "round and within". That is how we are brought into accord with divine judgments. It says finally in this book: "God has judged your judgment upon her" -- that is, on Babylon. If this feature is present -- "round and within ... full of eyes", we shall come to God's own judgment of the great harlot. We find, sometimes, that people have a difficulty in discerning the principles of separation. We need, dear brethren, to be full of eyes, and to come to God's judgment, so that He judges our judgment upon her. Have we come to God's judgment about the great harlot? What is it? That she should be burnt with fire; or rather, that is the judgment which God executes; for it says, "God has judged your judgment upon her". Have we come to that judgment, that the great harlot, the faithless spouse that takes the place of Christ's spouse on earth, in all the principles of her make-up should be burnt with fire? If we are true priests of God, we shall come to that judgment; we shall have discernment.
One trusts that these two lines may be of service to us: first, our education and formation, so as to become living stones, and part of the holy priesthood, truly functioning in the assembly, and functioning at all times as part of the assembly in relation to God and His pleasure in Christ. Secondly, to be moving with God in what He is passing us through at the
moment, so that we might gain experience of Him in every character in which He is known, and that we may gain discernment so as to be wholly with Him in what He is doing in His judgments, and be able to worship Him at every move He makes. May God grant it, for His name's sake!
Acts 2:32 - 34; Psalm 45:1 - 16; Psalm 110:1 - 5.
I desire, dear brethren, to speak of the glories of Christ, particularly His kingly glories: feeling that this is a day when we need to apprehend His glories, because antichrist is near. John tells us that "even now there have come many antichrists", but the day when the man of sin himself will appear is near, and his working will be with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those that perish. People will be deceived by the fancied glories that mark man, for he will come here in a kingly way, according to man's ideal of a king. In Daniel it refers to him as "the king": "And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak monstrous things against the God of gods", Daniel 11:36. We need Christ Himself as the Object of our hearts in order to be fortified against even the beginning of the deceivableness of unrighteousness; we need to be versed in the glories of Christ, not only His personal and moral glories, but also His official glories, His greatness as King. The title King is not a prominent one in the New Testament; nevertheless Scripture does apply this title to Christ; He is spoken of as King of kings; the title not only conveying that when He comes forth He will be over all, but that of all kings He is THE KING! All that God values as truly kingly is set forth in Him, the "King of kings, and Lord of lords" Revelation 19:16.
The titles used normally in the New Testament are Lord and Christ, both of which bear on Kingship,
the title Christ especially so. The word 'Christ' means the Anointed, and anointing is essential for a king. Jesus is the anointed One. The title Christ covers other glories, but one glory is certainly His glory as King. The New Testament opens with "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ", it tells us who the King is! He is Jesus Christ -- Jesus, the Anointed. Peter in Acts 2 announces that, "God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ", verse 36. When a king comes to the throne, the first thing that has to be done is to proclaim the accession. What a wonderful privilege Peter had at Pentecost in announcing the accession of God's King! I have no doubt the coronation has also taken place, for when the Lord comes out of heaven it says, "upon his head many diadems", Revelation 19:12, and in Hebrews it says, "We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour", chapter 2: 9.
While lordship, in its bearing on us, is akin to kingship, in itself it is a wider thought, for it implies that Jesus has absolute authority. It is a wonderful thing to grasp that Jesus is Lord of all! His authority extends to heavenly, earthly and infernal beings. Every being in the universe, even the wicked, will have to own that Jesus is Lord. We need to know Him as Lord in order to have courage here in the presence of what is adverse. He is Lord of Satan and his angels; He can at any time curtail their power. Sooner or later they will have to own Him Lord, but we have the privilege of owning Him thus now, and coming under His protection.
The title 'Christ' is in some respects more limited, involving a sphere where He is Head, where everyone owns Him, and is willing-hearted. It is thus closely allied with kingship; for the idea of a king according to God, is that he is a beloved person, ruling over
subjects who give him their willing obedience; ruling with affection as well as authority, the beloved of his people.
Now I want to speak of the way we grow in the apprehension of Christ's glories; first, as learning to value Him in His authority and support in our circumstances in view of our salvation, then as set free to delight in His glories as with Him in His circumstances which Psalm 45 has in mind; and finally to see from Psalm 110 that the King is the Priest, in view of God having His portion.
I am sure all of us here would desire to know more of Christ in our circumstances. It is a great thing to apprehend that God has made Jesus, both Lord and Christ in view of our salvation. Peter reassures their hearts in this respect for he says, "being by the right hand of God exalted ... he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear". They had crucified Him and crowned Him with thorns, but He was now exalted at the right hand of God. What would He do? Would He take vengeance on His enemies? Peter says "having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this". Then he announces formally the accession of Christ to the throne, and brings home to them that what He had shed forth was for them, provided that they would own and enthrone Him in the way that God had done. All hope for man lies in that. Jesus is there, a Man for men, having received the promise of the Father. What a wonderful preaching! Peter says, "Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost", verse 38. I wonder if everyone of us here has come into practical salvation? -- it is in that exercise that your link with Christ will be really formed. As you learn what He can be to you in your soul need, and in practical everyday matters in your pathway, you will find
practical salvation. The more you know Him thus, the more you will exult in Him as Lord. That is the teaching of Romans -- you own Jesus as Lord, you give Him the place God has given Him, and by so doing, come into all the blessing connected with Him as Christ, including justification, acceptance and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
As Lord He has all power and authority to protect the believer. Peter says, "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved", verse 21. That becomes a daily matter: we learn to call upon Him moment by moment, hour by hour, and He never fails us: "the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him", Romans 10:12. He is rich and there is no need that He cannot meet. Further, as owning His authority, we are brought into the practical salvation of the assembly. That was in mind in Peter's preaching. They were to repent and be baptised, and would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and thus find their place in the assembly, the sphere of practical salvation down here.
Psalm 45 is a Song of the Beloved. All His service to us is in view of His becoming the Beloved of our hearts. I would like to stress that the King is the Beloved. David means "beloved"; Solomon's name Jedidiah, means "beloved of Jehovah". It is wonderful to think of that! So the Psalmist goes over His varied glories. The Psalm is divided into sections. Verse 2 is occupied with the moral glories of Christ, for they form the basis of everything. Official glories must be based on moral glories. Kingship, apart from Christ, always breaks down because there are not the necessary moral qualities underlying it. But of God's King it says, "Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee forever". The Lord having met our need, would draw us over to His own side, that we might be free to contemplate Himself in
His moral beauty. Think of a king like that! grace poured into His lips! There would be no harsh words, no ruthlessness there! "Therefore God hath blessed thee forever". That is the King in His moral perfection.
Verses 3 to 5 speak of His military greatness. Every king needs to be a warrior. The idea of a kingdom supposes that there are enemies to be met, and that what is precious is to be protected. What a wonderful warrior Christ is! "Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king's enemies". Men are greatly occupied at the present time with martial prowess: they are looking for skilled warriors; but the Lord Jesus, the great warrior King, stands out unique before our hearts. In Exodus 15 it says, "The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name", verse 3. Think of Christ coming into manhood to meet all the forces that invaded mankind. Satan came into the garden and brought in darkness and the lie. As a result of that, sin came in, and death, "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death", Romans 5:12. What an invasion! Where was a warrior great enough to roll back those forces? There can never be peace on earth until they are defeated. True peace can only be based on victory. The Lord is shortly to come forth publicly in majesty and splendour as we see in Revelation 19, as King of kings and Lord of lords, and He will actually remove by His power those terrible invaders from the earth. Satan will be bound and sin and death will be held in check for a thousand years. What a reign it will be! Finally death will be destroyed; "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death", 1 Corinthians 15:26. What a Warrior the Lord Jesus is! Where was the victory
really won? On the cross -- as we sing, "His be the Victor's name, who fought the fight alone". Think of the Lord Jesus in the way He met the foe, with what divine strategy He moved. We love to contemplate His military greatness, the One Man great enough to meet that tremendous invasion of sin and death and woe. It was a wonderful military plan -- a plan which Satan could not foresee. The Lord took all his armour away by which he kept men in bondage through fear of death. As Goliath was slain by his own sword, so the Lord took Satan's weapon out of his hand and in principle slew him with it. "Through death he might annul him who has the might of death", Hebrews 2:14.
The Psalmist looks on to the future, and we too, need the day of glory shining in our hearts. Nevertheless, we can see these qualities in the Lord when here in humility. He knew how to gird on His sword; He knew how to handle God's word, how to silence men, and yet in what grace He brought it to bear, having in view their repentance if only they would listen. What majesty and dignity marked Him as He moved on to the cross, facing it alone, saying "if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way", John 18:8 -- dying for His own, not asking them to die for Him. How kingly He was! -- a king, against whom there is no rising up, Proverbs 30:31. Even here in His path of humiliation, who could stand before Him? None! Sin and death could not stand before Him; going into death He "abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel", 2 Timothy 1:10; What a warrior He was! "In thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness". Meekness and righteousness marked the Lord Jesus right through to the cross; and all that marked Him in kingly grace and dignity then, is soon to shine out in Him publicly as He comes out of heaven, sitting on a white horse,
with many diadems upon His head. In those closing moments at the Supper, in Gethsemane, at the trial before the high priest and before Pilate, in His acceptance of the crown of thorns, and the purple robe -- what unsurpassed glories shine in Him! To have His glories in our hearts would surely eclipse all the official glories of men here.
Verses 6 and 7 deal with another side of kingship, the throne and sceptre. How great He is in this connection. The war is over, so to speak, and the King is seated on His throne -- "Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever". Think of the majesty of that throne! The Psalmist worships before it owning Him as God, as our hymn says, "God, ever blest, we bow the knee, and own all fulness dwells in Thee" (Hymn 328). God's King is in Himself a Divine Person! Think of the greatness of His throne! At present He is on the Father's throne, "Who ... having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high", Hebrews 1:3. But we can anticipate the day when He will take His own throne, and delight to salute Him as God: "Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever". Righteousness and justice are the foundation of the throne. There the King sits in majesty and dispenses justice and righteousness. No one oppressed need fear to come to that throne. There is protection for the weak, and support for the widow. But there is also the sceptre, "a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom". This refers to the rule of Christ which extends to the utmost parts of His kingdom -- a rule of righteous grace. The whole realm, too, is filled with gladness, in which the King Himself is pre-eminent. "God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions", verse 7. What a joyous kingdom! What a glorious King!
The next section refers to the king's glories inside
the palace. We are passing from glory to glory -- the glory is increasing. You may see a king at the head of his army in the human sphere, you may see him in connection with the throne and sceptre, but what about inside the palace? -- only privileged persons can see him there. The section begins with the idea of nearness to the king, sufficient nearness to smell the odour of his garments. "Myrrh and aloes, cassia, are all thy garments". The Song of the Beloved is working up to this point. We have been engaged with His moral and military glories, with His greatness in connection with the throne and sceptre, but now as in the palace, we are near enough to Him to breathe the odour of His garments. In the Song of Solomon the Beloved is the King. The fact that He is King enhances His love. Think of being loved by One so great! He is the King, and yet He loves us! What will stimulate bridal affections like that, dear brethren? The more we apprehend the greatness of Christ, the more we shall marvel that He could set His love upon us. It suggests nearness here, as in the Song of Songs 1:3. "Thine ointments savour sweetly; Thy name is an ointment poured forth". She is near enough to him to get the odour of his ointments. Then in verse 12 it says, "While the king is at his table, My spikenard sendeth forth its fragrance": it brings in what is mutual. The bride is near enough to the king to detect the sweetness of his ointments, but then, there is the response from her: "My spikenard", that which gratifies the king's heart. Mutual expressions of affection and appreciation between the Bridegroom and the bride follow, until she says, "His left hand is under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me", chapter 2: 6 -- the setting of all that is within the palace. So in Psalm 45 we have the palace, and the queen at his right hand in gold of Ophir. What glory belongs to her as inside the palace with the king, the object of his heart!
It is wonderful to think that He desires to be everything to us in our circumstances, in order that we should be drawn over into His circumstances, to be available to His heart, to be engaged with His glory. She is not unsuitable to be there, for "All glorious is the king's daughter within"; i.e. in the royal apartments. She is fitted to be there as companion to the king. But if we are not subject to the Lord in our circumstances, we shall never be free to pass over into His. There is no insubject will in the palace of the king. If we are to enter into the blessedness of our part there, it implies complete subjection to the Lord in our circumstances here. If this subjection exists we shall experience the joy and gladness in verse 16. "With joy and gladness shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king's palace". It is in that glorious setting that bridal affections -- the affections of the Bridegroom and the bride are satisfied; the Beloved is the King.
Now just a word as to Psalm 110. It is necessary to say before speaking of this Psalm, that Hebrews, which particularly develops the glory of Christ as the anti-type of Melchisedec, emphasises that God's King is God's Son. We have spoken of the Lord's moral glories and of His official glories as King, as Warrior, in connection with the throne and sceptre, and lastly, within the Palace. What He is personally enters into all that; what underlies all is His personal glory in Manhood as Son. God's King is no less than God's Son.
Another truth stressed in Hebrews is that God's King is God's Priest. The kingly and priestly thoughts are not separated even as regards the saints, for in Revelation 1:6, we read "And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father". What a wonderful contemplation, that God's King is God's Priest! It ensures that God will get His portion. So that everything the King does in a military way, and
all that He does as occupying the throne and wielding the sceptre, is in view of God getting His portion. We are told that at the end "he gives up the kingdom to him (who is) God and Father ... that God may be all in all", 1 Corinthians 15:28. That is what you would expect Him to do, because the King is the Son, and the Son ever considers for the Father. Everything the King secures is for God's pleasure. He always has that in mind. It says in Hebrews 1:5, "I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son". How wonderful for God to have His Son as King and Priest upon the throne!
The Lord Jesus, in securing us down here under His authority, and then bringing us into His circumstances, into the glory and blessedness of the palace, has always in view that God should have His portion. The opening verse of this Psalm particularly applies to the present time. "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool". The Lord has not yet taken His own throne, but is sitting at God's right hand. Hebrews views Him there and shews that His great occupation is to lead a priestly company in to God. He secures us in our affections as worshippers of Himself, for "He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him", Psalm 45:11, with a view to leading us in to God, and this Psalm brings out the attractiveness of the position in this respect.
"Thy people shall be willing -- (or 'voluntary offerings!' see footnote) -- in the day of thy power in holy splendour: from the womb of the morning (shall come) to thee the dew of thy youth", Psalm 110:3. We anticipate the day of His power, as He secures our affections wholly for Himself, and it is His delight then to turn our hearts Godward, so that we become 'voluntary offerings' in the day of His power, in holy splendour. What a conception! Christ leading His own in to God, in holy splendour!
The whole scene is marked by perennial freshness "from the womb of the morning (shall come) to thee the dew of thy youth". It speaks primarily of Christ Himself as coming out of death, for His death is the womb of the morning. He goes in to God with the dew of perennial youth upon His brow, as leading all those who are the fruit of His death. "Except a grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit", John 12:24. So the whole scene is marked by youthful freshness. As Christ's brethren we never grow old; the dew of perennial youth is on His brow and on ours, as in holy splendour He leads us in to God. So the Psalm goes on, "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec", verse 4. The One who can lead a company in, is "made ... after the power of an endless life", Hebrews 7:16. I think we need to give attention to Christ as of the Melchisedec order of priesthood. Melchisedec is the first priest mentioned in Scripture. In the chapter where he is introduced kings are mentioned for the first time -- four kings against five, Genesis 14. But God brings forward His King, -- King of righteousness and King of peace -- Priest of the most high God. He is the summing up of what we have had tonight.
Luke 1:32 says "He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest". The Lord Jesus is the Son of the Most High, of whom Melchisedec was a type, and at the end of Luke He leaves a priestly company praising and blessing God.
May the Lord help us to see His glory.
Colossians 1:15 - 20 (first clause); Colossians 2:9 - 10; John 1:1 - 4, 14, 18; Hebrews 1:1 - 3.
I desire, as the Lord may help, to speak of a feature of Christ's glory in each of the three passages read, which bears on our position as belonging to the assembly. These chapters portray the greatness of Christ more fully than any other passages of Scripture. They are each unique; but there are certain features of correspondence about them. Each of the chapters stress that in Person He is God, none less than God; although each refers to His Deity in a different way. Each also makes it clear that He is the Person of the Godhead who brought this world into being -- indeed the whole universe. Each refers to His Sonship as in manhood; and finally each refers to the universal bearing of His vicarious death. Colossians says "In him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell, and by him to reconcile all things to itself". John speaks of Him as "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world". In Hebrews we have "having made by himself purification of sins", not simply our sins, but the whole question of sins.
But while the chapters have features in common, I wish to bring before you tonight the particular feature stressed in each passage. In the first passage we are told "He is the head of the body, the assembly" Colossians 1:18. This glorious Person is the Head of the body, the assembly; and, for a type, we must go back to Adam. Christ, in Colossians 1, is presented as One who entirely supersedes Adam, for
He is "firstborn of all creation", in virtue of His being the Creator, and as such He is presented as Head. In the second passage, John 1, He is presented as the Word, and what is in view as in John's gospel generally, is dwelling conditions for Divine Persons -- home conditions. So He is introduced as the Word; the One who is the expression of all that is suitable to Divine Persons, the whole mind of God. For typical teaching we have to turn to Exodus. All types fall very far short, and a great deal has to be learnt by contrast, as in John 1:17 "For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ". Nevertheless Moses secured dwelling conditions for God by bringing in the mind of God -- God's word -- so far as it could be known at that time. But in Jesus, "the Word", we have the mind of God in a perfect way. All that came in previously pales into insignificance beside Him, yet it is valuable as a type.
Hebrews 1 particularly stresses that He is the Son, "God ... has spoken to us in the person of the Son". All the early part of the chapter emphasises that: "For to which of the angels said he ever, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee? and again I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son?", verse 5. What is specially in view in this epistle is to secure the service of praise; what we might speak of as public, priestly service worthy of God, worthy of the One who has spoken "in Son". So that Hebrews stresses that God's King, and God's Priest is God's Son: Put those three thoughts together, the priestly and kingly offices now held by the Son, and you can be sure that public priestly service will be secured. For a type we must go to Solomon.
I believe the first passage is basic, having to do with the relation between Christ and the assembly; and unless that relation is entered into by the saints, dwelling conditions will not be secured for God, nor
conditions for priestly service. It is a great thing to see, dear brethren, that in securing and establishing the relations between Christ and the church, God secures all He is seeking for Himself. So that, at the end, when John "saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband", Revelation 21:2, he heard a loud voice saying "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men". In that vessel "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband", and thus presented as primarily for Christ, God has secured dwelling conditions for Himself. Then when the city is presented in its glory as "the bride, the Lamb's wife", verse 9, we are told "His [i.e. God's] servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face; and his name is on their foreheads", chapter 22: 4. It refers to priestly service worthy of God's great name. It shews how important it is that we should understand in some measure the greatness of Christ as Head of the body, the assembly.
The Spirit of God has in mind in Colossians 1 to bring the greatness of Christ before our hearts in such a way as to exclude every other object. If we are to know the blessedness of the relationship between Christ and the assembly, He Himself in His greatness must be before our hearts so as to exclude every rival. In Luke 22:19, He says "This is my body which is given for you", a presentation calculated to secure the church wholly for Himself. If we entered into it we should never look to any other source for wisdom, light, food or for anything we need spiritually. That is one great point in Colossians, to save christians from looking anywhere else for the satisfaction of their souls, or for the meeting of their spiritual needs.
Christ is presented as "image of the invisible God". Adam was created in God's image, and after His likeness, but here we have the One of whom Adam was but a figure. God is perfectly expressed in this
blessed One who is "image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation". Christ is firstborn in rank, far exceeding any other man who ever has been or will be, born into this world, and for this reason, that "all things have been created by him, and for him". Think of the marvel of it! The One in whom all things were created. "In him" suggests that they not only exist by Him, but that He maintains them (verse 16 first clause, see note N. Trans.). One so great as that, coming into the creation, must necessarily be firstborn, "because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and invisible". I want you to contemplate the greatness of Christ as Creator. The creation came into being by His act, and only subsists by His power. To secure His church He stepped into His own creation, and He must be firstborn of it. It is not only material thrones or lordships, or principalities or authorities: "all things have been created by him and for him". Great positions of authority are occupied by men and by angels, but Christ created those offices and positions. Christ created kingship: He created every form of authority. It is wonderful to think that there are lordships, principalities and authorities created by Christ and for Him. And He will yet fill them out as the Head of all principality and authority. He only can fill them according to God.
Another marvellous thing is, that since sin came into the creation and marred, not only the visible things, but the invisible also, the Lord Jesus, of whom it says, "in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell", went into death, that by the blood of His cross everything that he had created might be reconciled to God. He effects reconciliation in order that He might fill the whole scene and every office Himself. What a marvellous Person! Reconciliation has been carried out by Him in accordance with all the fulness of the Godhead, which dwelt in Him. Public re-
conciliation is still to come, but we have already received the reconciliation: "And you ... now has it reconciled". He is, even now, "head of the body, the assembly", and He is Head of all principality and authority, although He has not yet taken up that headship publicly. The great truth of the moment is that "He is the head of the body": there is a company on this earth who already know Him as Head. They know Him as no other company ever will, or can do, because they are His body.
Now as I said earlier, in Adam we get a type of this. God created him in his image, and in one sense, he was firstborn of all creation. He was given dominion over every form of life, but he was head of Eve in a peculiar way for, as the woman, she was really his body. "This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called woman, because this was taken out of a man", Genesis 2:23. His headship of the woman was different from his headship of any other part of creation, because she was his body. The presentation of Christ as Head of the body, the assembly, is intended to exclude from our minds every other object. I am not referring to the objects of our natural affection, but to any object which might dominate our affections, or to which we might look as a source of supply. Having Christ as Head, the assembly is independent of every other source of spiritual supply. In Colossians 2:9 we read, "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him", or 'filled full' in Him. Saints in the gain of that could not turn to any other source, for they would be full. This is normal christianity. The assembly is filled full in Him, so that there is room for nothing else.
Eve is a warning to us. She was complete in Adam; her safety lay in not going outside of Adam for advice or counsel, or anything else, but she turned aside to listen to Satan's advice which was, in principle,
"philosophy and vain deceit", and she did not hold fast her head, and the result was the fall. In christendom a similar thing has happened; the church has departed from "the simplicity as to the Christ", and has relied on human ability and turned to great men and their counsel. What a disaster has come into christendom! What an awful state of things it is! That which professedly has Christ as head, has come to such a point that, in general, Christ is the last Person they turn to. It speaks of being deluded by "persuasive speech", verse 4; indeed all the things mentioned in this chapter by way of warning are rampant around us today and Christ is displaced. Men have become vainly puffed up by the mind of their flesh as a result of 'not holding fast the head'. We have to guard that nothing outside of Christ should have place in the minds and affections of the saints in our localities. This presentation of Christ should so fill us with Himself and His glory, that we could not tolerate the thought of going outside of Him for anything. What could we need or desire that cannot be found in Him in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily? And we are filled full in Him. This is a vital point in our assembly relations. It involves the truth of the mystery. It is mysterious to nature; man in the flesh cannot understand it at all. It is the mystery "in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge", verse 3.
The relations between Christ and the assembly are foundational and continuous. As we yield to Him, and He becomes exclusively our Resource as Head, we may be sure God will secure His portion. As it says in Ephesians 3:19, "to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". And the result is glory to God in the assembly, "unto all generations of the age of ages!". God secures His end.
In the gospel of John the Lord Jesus is presented
as "the Word" and the whole setting is fraught with the most tender affections. What we might almost call the 'home-life' of Divine Persons is brought into view, God having in mind that we should come into it and that He would thus secure dwelling conditions down here. If these dwelling conditions are to be secured, we need to appreciate the Lord Jesus as the Word, that is, as the One in whom all that is precious to God, the whole divine mind about man, is seen. If He is to have dwelling conditions amongst His own, it must be in conditions suited to Him, and we see that which delights His heart set out livingly in Christ. The greatness of the Person is brought before us: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". This presentation is intended to impress upon us His perfect ability to declare all the mind of God, for He was with God and was God. He makes the disclosure from the place of infinite affections into which He has come as Man, from the bosom of the Father; "the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". The apostles beheld his glory, "a glory as of an only-begotten with a father", with a view to their coming into the circle of divine affections in their measure. His place, of course, is ever unique.
In connection with His work, the chapter speaks of "the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world", an expression intended to call out our tenderest affection. It corresponds with what we get in Exodus -- a lamb for a father's house. The passover lamb had dwelling conditions for God in view, and God had His House, the Father's house in view, in giving His Lamb. As the two disciples of John followed Him, verse 38, they say, "Where abidest thou?" He says, "Come and see". "The Word" in John's gospel implies that every feature delightful to God is to be seen in Him. He would
invite us to come and see where He abides; to see Him in His relations with the Father, so that we might ourselves be brought into accord with the dwelling place of Divine love.
To refer again to Moses, in the measure in which God could be known at that time Moses had declared Him and revealed His mind, not only in the covenant, but also in communicating the pattern which he had seen on the mount. He had seen expressed typically, conditions suitable for divine dwelling, and he communicated what he had seen to the people, in order that those conditions might be found amongst them; and that God might dwell with them. Now the Lord Jesus has come Himself; He is Himself the great pattern of all that is delightful to God. What is in mind in this gospel is that what is expressed in Himself should take effect in us, according to 1 John 2:8, "which thing is true in Him and in you", so that God might dwell with us now, having in view the final state of which it is said "the tabernacle of God is with men".
To pass on to Hebrews 1 and 2, these chapters have in view our serving God in great and glorious conditions. It says of the Son, "having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high". Colossians speaks of 'fulness' -- that which can fill our hearts -- which will fill a universe; but here it is the 'greatness', another expression relating to Deity, suggesting the majesty and glory connected with it. The Lord Jesus is presented in chapter 2 as the Leader, bringing many sons to glory. It is not so much sonship in the home circle -- dwelling conditions -- but what sons are to God in their ability to serve Him according to His greatness as God. A human illustration of the two sides is seen in an earthly royal family. There is what the son is to his father in the home circle. That is the private side, and the more it is entered into, the
more the son would desire in public conditions to serve his father worthily, according to his greatness as king; to bring him the honour due to him. I believe that is the way it would work out with us. The more we know of home conditions, knowing God as Father, the more we would desire ability as true sons to bring to Him all that is due to Him as God. Our Father is God -- the God who inhabits eternity; and the more we know Him in the inside place, the more we shall desire to serve Him acceptably in public priestly service. Revelation 21:3 says "the tabernacle of God is with men", yet it goes on to say, "I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son", verse 7. Revelation, as a whole, has in view that the saints are to God as kings and priests. Even an earthly father desires his son to be worthy of him in the public position. He loves him in the secret affections of the home, and desires to see a corresponding answer publicly. So in the spiritual sphere there is the family side, but there is also what is due to God in public priestly service; the one underlies the other. Hebrews does not mention the name of Father, yet it is implied in that a Son is the Speaker. The point in Hebrews is that God is speaking in Son; God has such a Son as this. What satisfaction God must have in that His King and His Priest is His Son! It is as such He brings many sons to glory, saying "In the midst of the assembly, will I sing thy praises". Hebrews 2:12. I understand the singing of praise to imply public priestly service. It is meant to be heard: "Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me". Psalm 50:23. Solomon is the Son, in type. He built the house, and established the public service of God, and when the trumpeters and singers were as one in praising Jehovah, the glory of Jehovah filled the house of God, 2 Chronicles 5:13 - 14.
While the service Godward in its highest character belongs to the assembly as convened, yet we are exhorted to offer the sacrifice of praise to God
continually, Hebrews 13:15. The more we know of home conditions, the more we shall desire to give to God, as God, the honour due to His Name, morning, noon and night, in prayer, praise and thanksgiving as a holy priesthood: and in speaking to men of His excellencies, as a royal priesthood. All this was in view when the Lord Jesus "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high". He has secured for God sons serving Him as kingly priests both in assembly service and "continually". We have had brought before us of late, the importance in our priestly service of holding in our affections every name by which God is known. That enters into this matter. Those who truly love Him will desire to give Him what is due in every respect. It says "God ... spake in time past ... by the prophets". What was spoken "in time past" is not ignored, but is gathered up now in the Son, who is "the effulgence [or out-shining] of His glory, and the expression of His substance". The outshining of God's glory, and the expression of His substance in the Son fills out the names by which He made Himself known in the past, in a marvellous way. The outshining of His glory is more connected with His attributes. Glory enlightens, it makes everything plain. His righteousness, mercy and grace, as also His power, came to light in the Son who is the outshining of His glory. But then He is "the expression of His substance", the expression of what He is in His essential Being, and that is Love, for God is love. I commend that to you, that He is the expression of His substance. The name Jehovah means the Eternally Unchanging One, the "I am that I am"; but He did not tell them what He was. But now that the Son has come, who is the expression of His substance, Jehovah, for us, means One who is eternal, unchanging Love. Similarly the name Almighty now conveys Almighty Love. So if we think of Elohim, the Creator, or the Most High -- what might be
termed God's political title, the expression of His substance in the Son gives these names a fulness which they could not possess in earlier times. Whatever way He spake in time past is now filled out by the coming in of the Son, and God looks to us who are brought into relationship with Him through the Son, to give Him His due in every way in which He has made Himself known. The more we enjoy sonship, the more we shall desire to do it. May the Lord help us for His Name's sake!
Psalm 133 and Psalm 134; Ephesians 4:1 - 3; Ephesians 3:9 - 12, 20 - 21.
I wish to say a word, dear brethren, on unity; first, the unity of brethren or, as we might say, unity in the family. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity". If we do not know how to dwell together, how can there be conditions for God to dwell among us? He does not dwell in conditions of disorder.
The crowning blessing we can know is God dwelling with us. Of the eternal state it says, the tabernacle of God is with men and He will dwell with them. What could be more blessed, yea wonderful, for the creature than to be so loved that God made His abode with him? God has set His love upon men in Christ and has purposed to dwell with men all through eternity, to make His abode with men and that because He is love and He will live forever with those He loves. Those upon whom His love is set supremely are those who form the assembly, those who are the tabernacle of God and will be all through eternity. We need to keep in view the great objective; God dwelling in a unified vessel where no element of discord will ever exist or can ever come. This means supreme blessing for us and supreme joy for God. How we should love to find our home in God's presence at the present time! It says "He will rest in his love; he will exult over thee with singing", Zephaniah 3:17.
Jude, verse 24, says "To set you with exultation blameless before his glory". For God exults in this matter and He would have us exult in it. Let us come into His presence with exultation. God exults to dwell with men; God takes the lead in it. Think of God
exulting! He so values this, His love is so set upon it, it is so necessary for the satisfaction of His heart, that He exults and does call upon His people to exult, Zephaniah 3:14, and we are to experience this at the present time. God loves us too well to wait for eternity. His love is so great that He comes and dwells among us now, where we are, in the unholy cities of men. He loves us so well that He will not put off the dwelling. An appreciation of His wonderful love will make us careful to avoid all discord amongst ourselves. God cannot dwell where there is discord.
So the first thing is for the brethren to dwell together in unity. The previous psalm, Psalm 132, refers to God's habitations. How blessed they are! Think of David as a young man, perhaps a boy, making a vow to God: "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the mighty God of Jacob". This is a word for young people. David was a boy, perhaps in his teens, when this happened. Think of a boy like that, making such a vow! God would look for us to make vows as knowing the divine objective, for which He would love to see us set through the whole of our career. The only career worth going in for is to be set from our earliest days, to find a place for God -- present dwelling conditions for Him now in the localities where we are set. David said he would not give sleep to his eyes nor slumber to his eyelids until he found a place for God. Where are we to find it? In our localities. He says, "We have heard of it at Ephratah, we found it in the fields of the wood. Let us go into his habitations, let us worship at his footstool".
David knew of nothing more blessed than to go into the presence of God. "Let us go", he says. That is what we would say to one another. "Let us go into His habitations, let us worship at His footstool" -- no more blessed exercise for the creature than
that. In doing it we give the heart of God what He is looking for and has paid an unspeakable price for. Later, David was able to say, "Arise O Jehovah into thy rest, thou and the ark of thy strength!" If we make that our concern, what blessing we shall prove! "Let thy priests be clothed with righteousness, and let thy saints shout for joy". And the answer is "I will clothe her priests with salvation, and her saints shall shout aloud with joy". If we consider for God, we shall be surprised at what joy and blessing will be our portion. All that is set out in Psalm 132; but then it continues: "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!", Psalm 133. What is in the previous psalm can never be realised unless the brethren are dwelling together in unity; there will never be a place for God and therefore these joys will never be experienced by the saints. They are not known in christendom. God has in mercy recovered some of us to the truth, and it ought to completely govern us as it did the sons of Korah: "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God", Psalm 84:2. So God has recovered the truth to us and us to the truth. It is all with a view even in outward smallness, to conditions being secured in our localities where God can find His rest. I would again call upon the young men and women here to make this their career, as David did. The fact that he became king was but incidental to the great end in view. He did not choose to be king. We do not have to choose our personal careers. God will do it for us. Make this your career. Let all your labours centre around a place for God, God and the Ark of His strength. Unity in the family is basic to all this and everything else. There are other things to be built on to it, but we must begin with unity among brethren, unity in the family of God. John's epistle is written to help us on this line.
The history of Joseph and his brethren is also written to help us on this line. Jealousy and rivalry and all sorts of things are apt to come in and, if allowed, hinder brotherly relations. They may even go so far as to bring in hate; but, as John's epistle says, we either love or hate. It does not suppose a middle course. "Everyone that hates his brother is a murderer". God does not wait for you to do anything, but He sees your heart. John's epistle is written that we might love our brother. "Hereby we have known love, because he has laid down his life for us; and we ought for the brethren to lay down our lives". Whatever difficulties exist among brethren, if we begin to get the idea of laying down our lives for them, things will soon get right. "Love one another as I have loved you". He laid down His life for us and that is the level of divine love. The last thing anyone will do is to lay down his life; therefore if you are prepared for that, you will do anything for the brethren.
If this is brought in, any discord will be removed. Joseph had experienced much hatred from his brethren, but he did not bear them any grudge. It did not once make him hate them. It did not make him the less prepared to lay down his life for them. He dealt with them in faithful love. He got them all to open their sacks and search. That is what is needed -- a search. If there is not this kind of unity, a search is needed. The Lord is operating tonight to bring about a search. "But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin". So however you have sinned on this line, the precious blood of Christ can meet it. We are not afraid of a search. If it were not for the blood of Christ, we should be afraid. The thing is to be prepared to walk in the light.
Discord always comes from dark motives, motives
which we would like to cover up. We would like to justify ourselves by all kinds of excuses, but the search exposes the real thing. Joseph's brethren had to turn out their sacks and that is what we need to do, turn ourselves inside out, as it were. Let everything come into the light. Let the all-searching light of God search to the very depths of our being to see if there is anything there contrary to the Divine nature.
If we are born of God, we have the capacity to love; we have the Spirit. Motives contrary to the Divine nature bring in the discord. Walking in the light involves judging every motive except love. There could not be anything but love in God's dwelling; and if I am to be with God in His dwelling, I must bring nothing there but love. When other motives begin to work, we fail to have the sense of the presence of God, and no wonder, for the Spirit of God knows well what is now working. The Lord would help us, each one, to accept the searching; and from now on, from tonight onward, to learn to walk in the light as He is in the light. There is an old verse:
How pure the soul must be --
When placed within Thy searching sight,
It shrinks not, but with calm delight,
That is what God has in mind for us. We are going to live in His presence eternally which means we shall always be in the all-searching light of God. How pure our souls will be in that day! There will not be a mixed motive then. When placed under that light, we will not shrink, but live and look on God, God known in Jesus. That is to be anticipated now, 1 John 1:7. We shall be there eternally on the ground of the blood of Christ, but we shall no longer need a present application of it. We can walk in this light now in spite of flesh in us and sin in the flesh,
because, as we make discoveries in the search -- and the search goes on day by day -- there is the efficacy of the blood. We are not turned out of God's presence because of discoveries. What would cause us to leave God's presence is the fact that we are not prepared for discoveries. We refuse to be searched. If we are prepared for the search and if we face the discoveries which the search brings to light, then the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses us from all sin. This then is the way for us. This is the only way for brethren to dwell together in unity.
In most meetings there are always little difficulties coming up between the brethren, and it is because the search is not maintained, the all-searching light is not allowed into our souls. So this is the only way to bring about this verse: "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!" This is a basic matter. That is why Paul, wherever he went, laboured first of all to bring about family conditions before he spoke about the assembly. We cannot have the assembly functioning without the family. You must have the family affections functioning as the basic thing. You will find after Paul comes on the scene in the Acts it repeatedly speaks of the brethren. Before Paul comes on the scene they are called disciples. In Philippi he came to Lydia, to "the brethren", and at Thessalonica, "the brethren". You can see clearly that Paul laboured everywhere to bring about family conditions. The Thessalonians were a young company, but they were "In God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ". He left them united, having himself been a nursing mother and a nursing father among them.
If we have these conditions of unity, the Psalm indicates the blessing that follows. "Like the precious oil upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, upon Aaron's beard, that ran down to the hem of his garments". There are no loose ends to the garment,
no unsettled questions among the brethren, but, as suggested in the hem, all are tied up and finished. There is nothing to hinder the oil from flowing. We get the gain of the anointing and then "the dew of Hermon that descendeth on the mountains of Zion". We are ready for the ministry that comes from our glorious Head who has ascended above all heavens. Mount Hermon is three times the height of Mount Zion and the dew of Hermon falls on the mountains of Zion, and the ministry of Christ comes from the place to which He has ascended, above all heavens. We cannot go there but the ministry comes from there. He has "ascended up above all the heavens, that he might fill all things ... with a view to the work of the ministry". But it is only those in these conditions of unity who get the benefit of it, who get the grace of the anointing from the ascended Christ and the dew of Hermon. These are blessings little known around us in Christendom because unity is not there. "Jehovah commanded the blessing, life for evermore". Marvellous thing! God delights in these conditions and grants the blessing. What marvellous blessing we prove in these days! We know what it is to enjoy eternal life. All this is necessary if God is to have His portion from us.
The next psalm brings in active priestly service. Psalm 132 says "Let thy priests", but what must come in between is unity. Once this is secured it says "Behold, bless Jehovah, all ye servants of Jehovah, who by night stand in the house of Jehovah", Psalm 134. Now the priests are functioning. Our concern should be that we should all be among the functioning priests. These are the priests who are clothed with righteousness, these are saints who shout aloud with joy; these are in the gain of eternal life, the precious oil and the dew of Hermon. The New Testament gives us further light. The habitations of God that David had to do with, though God's presence
was known there, were but type and shadow. While we must have unity as brethren basically, it is the foundation for other things.
The next thing is the truth of the body. This involves the unity of the Spirit and is a testing truth. It tests our wills because it involves the sovereignty of God in the position in which we are set and, therefore, if we are not found in family affections, we shall find ourselves unable to take up the truth of the body. It is not taken up in christendom. They say you cannot work it out, and of course you cannot if you are not in unity. The truth of the body involves stresses and strains which only a thorough foundation of family affections will stand. If I am founded in family affections, conscious of being a child of God and one of the sons of God and loving my brethren upon whom the same honours are conferred, I value these family relations in which we all have equal status. But in the body it is different. The body is a living organism and God has set the members in the body as it has pleased Him. So the truth of the body is the test for every Christian. The family is a test in its measure, but assuming there are happy family conditions, the next test to face is the truth of the body. That is the order in which it is put in Romans. Sonship is introduced in chapter 8 and the body in chapter 12. Paul exhorts us to "think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith". Do not quarrel with the sovereignty of God. Be wise. Accept it. God has dealt to each a measure of faith for action; faith which qualifies us to act and fulfil our function in the body. God does not place us in the body without giving each member a measure of faith which equips him. The fact is that God has had dealings with every one of us and has dealt a measure of faith which the recipient, accepting it and ready to use it, will be enabled to fulfil a certain function in the body which no one else can fulfil in
the same way. If you contract out of it, others will have to do their best to fill your place. If I lose an arm; the other members have to do their best to fill the place of the missing one. Nevertheless, that particular function cannot be carried out by any member in the same way it could have been by the member to whom that particular ability has been given.
We have to face up to body exercises. Sometimes when we try to work out the truth of the body we get upset and that disturbs family relations, because the truth of the body involves divine sovereignty. We are to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith, and we should look at the brethren to see what place others have and then take our own place. We are not to be marked by that pride of false humility which would lead us to say we are not fit to take the place God has given us. Is that pleasing to God? Of course not. If He has given us a place in the body, He intends us to fill it out. The functioning of the body is God's supreme concern. Nor are we to be marked by the pride of place-seeking, wanting some position that we have not been given. In unselfish love we are to encourage everyone to fill out his place. By one Spirit we have been baptised into one body and the Spirit manifests Himself through the members of that body. The way I can maintain the unity of the Spirit is to seek humbly to be then available for His manifestations in the position that has been given to me in the body and in love to encourage everyone of my fellow-members to fill out theirs.
The 12th of Corinthians gives the manifestations of the Spirit and the 13th gives us the way of more surpassing excellence. If love is operating according to 1 Corinthians 13, no one will be discouraged but each encouraged to fill out his place in the body. It is thus that we keep the unity of the Spirit. Ephesians 4
says "with all lowliness and meekness", that is the suitable attitude toward others. One should take account of what God has given to the other rather than what God has given to one's self. "With long suffering, bearing with one another in love; using diligence to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace".
We cannot comprehend how much for Christ and for God depends on these body relations. The ultimate end in divine workmanship is not only the family but a corporate vessel to be, first of all, the body and fulness of Christ. "Head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all". This corporate vessel is needed for that, as loving Him in bridal and wifely relations. If we are not maintaining unity as brethren, and keeping the unity of the Spirit bodywise, bridal response to Christ will be lacking. Then God Himself requires this corporate vessel, this tabernacle. John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband, but heard a loud voice saying, the tabernacle of God is with men, showing that this vessel is the tabernacle of God. God needs this vessel for His dwelling. That vessel is the joy of Christ and therefore Christ is enshrined in it. It becomes thus the habitation of God. If Christ is enshrined as the ark was enshrined in the tabernacle, everything must be pleasing to God. Everyone in that tabernacle is a first-born son; for what we begin with familywise continues through eternity. Then it is in that vessel, the tabernacle, that the sons find their scope and service. Therefore we need to face the matter of body relations, and not shrink from the exercises involved. As they are faced, we come to the final thing which is the tabernacle of God.
In Ephesians we see the assembly functioning in relation to God at the present time. The apostle says
in chapter 3 "to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery". What I have been saying as to the body is part of the administration of the mystery. The body is mysterious in its working. It goes on to say "who has created all things, in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord". God had a purpose about the present time, that is, that "now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God". This is the assembly functioning under the headship of Christ according to God's own mind, functioning in service Godward and in administration manward. How can this be if there is discord among brethren? How can it be unless being right familywise we are prepared to face body exercises and function bodywise? These things are to be faced if God is to have a present portion according to His own purpose. If these things are faced, the assembly functions in all her dignity under the direction of her glorious Head as endowed with the unsearchable riches of Christ. The Queen of Sheba came and saw Solomon's wisdom, especially culminating in his ascent to the house of Jehovah; and so today, if we move on these lines, there will be some expression in our localities of the heavenly service proceeding under the headship of Christ. It says "in whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him". This is service proceeding in the assembly, the saints having boldness and access in confidence to God. The heavenly principalities take account of it.
So in verse 20 it says, "to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think, according to the power which works in us, to him be
glory in the assembly". How wonderful that this ascription of glory already begins at the present time! It involves unison. We cannot have unison without unity. The great climax is unison in praise to God. That would link with Psalm 134. Then it goes on in Psalm 135, "Hallelujah! Praise the name of Jehovah; praise, ye servants of Jehovah, Ye that stand in the house of Jehovah, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise ye Jah; for Jehovah is good: sing psalms unto his name; for it is pleasant. For Jah hath chosen Jacob unto himself, Israel for his own possession". There you have the idea of unison in praise. That is the great testimony of the moment -- testimony to angels, angelic principalities, and testimony to men, that a company should be so unified in God's praise. May the Lord help us, for His Name's sake!
Colossians 1:25 - 26; Colossians 2:9 - 10; Ephesians 3:14 - 19; Revelation 3:2.
I desire, dear brethren, to speak a brief word on 'completion' -- the idea occurring in each of the passages read. In the first passage Paul says it was given to him to "complete the word of God". In Colossians 2, it says, "Ye are complete in him", that is, the church is complete in Christ, "who is the head of all principality and authority". In Ephesians 3, Paul bows his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying that the saints might arrive at completion, in the sense of being "filled even to all the fulness of God". Then in the addresses to the churches we have a solemn word to Sardis -- "I have not found thy works complete before my God". In each of these passages the word implies being "filled full". It was given to Paul to fill full the word of God; the church is filled full in Christ; we are to be filled to all the fulness of God; and then in Revelation, the force of the expression is the same, the works were not "filled full". One is confident that the desire of our hearts is to go on to completion, to arrive at the fulness of things; and that, as a result, our works might be filled full; that they may not be unworthy of the dispensation in which we are, but that the Lord may be able to say something about completeness in connection with them.
The first thing to notice is that it was given to Paul to complete, or fill full, the word of God, "the mystery", as he says, "which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but has now been made manifest to his saints". We shall never know anything about completion unless we understand the mystery
of the Christ. In the last chapter of Colossians Paul asks the saints to pray that he might have utterance "to speak the mystery of the Christ" (as it should read) and, in Ephesians 3, he writes that they might "understand my intelligence in the mystery of the Christ". It is really in the unfolding of the mystery of the Christ that the word of God has been completed, and it was given to Paul (we have to note that) to unfold the mystery, and thus "fill full" the word of God. It shows the importance of Paul's ministry, for it was not given to any other apostle or servant to do that. If we miss Paul's ministry we shall never come to completion. It is he who unfolds the distinctive feature of this dispensation, and that is the mystery of the Christ. We are not to be afraid of the term "mystery", because it is given to us to know mysteries: the whole idea of a mystery is that it is known to those initiated. Every Christian should thus have a knowledge of the mystery, for it says "... has now been made manifest to his saints". If I number myself among the "saints" I do well to challenge my heart as to whether the mystery has been made manifest to me. God manifested it through Paul.
There is no mystery attaching to Christ's relations with Israel; prophetic testimony makes it clear that He is their Messiah, the Anointed One of God, the King of Israel, the expected One. But what came out in Paul's ministry is far greater than Christ's relations with Israel. He unfolded that the Christ is the centre of all the counsels of God. The title "the Christ" is one we need to consider, dear brethren; it speaks of His official position, if I may speak of it thus, in the counsels of God; His Headship, the greatness of His Manhood. There is the greatness of His Person in Deity, He is the Creator, co-equal with the Father. There is also His unique relationship in manhood, He is the Son. These personal glories, of course, underlie all that He is as Man. But the title "the Christ"
brings before us the glorious character of His Manhood, the One in whom every thought of God as to man is fully established, and who is great enough to fill all things, thus effectuating God's pleasure in a universe ordered in every way according to the counsel of God's will. Any bride or wife delights in the glory of her husband, and this title is therefore especially attractive to the assembly. In fact it is as the Christ that she is united to Him. It is always Christ and the assembly. It is in His glorious Manhood that the assembly is united to Him, as the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. True we are associated with Him as Son, having our place with Him as sons before God, but union is between Christ and the assembly. So Ephesians is full of that title; it is referred to about twenty times. While, of course, the sonship of Christ is implied throughout the epistle, the title "Son" is not used, except in the reference to the Son of God in chapter 4: 13; and there is no direct reference to His deity. Ephesians, which brings out truth of the highest character, is occupied with the glorious manhood of the Christ as the centre of the counsels of God. It was given to Paul to unfold this mystery, purposed before the world began and only made known in the present dispensation. It is a great thing to have an appreciation of His glorious Manhood and the assembly's place as united to Him, sharing with Him the place of glory in the system of Divine purpose and counsel.
The mystery of God's will is referred to in Ephesians 1:9 -- "Having made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself for the administration of the fulness of times; to head up all things in the Christ, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth". In such unfoldings of the truth Paul completed the word of God. It is important to understand what that means (See J.N.D.'s notes on Colossians 1:25, and
Matthew 5:17). It does not mean simply that Paul's epistles added to the word of God, complete the canon of scripture, but the force of the expression is that Paul's writings fill full and make understandable all that has gone before. It was given to him to complete, in that sense, the word of God. So that Paul's ministry becomes a key which opens up the truth of the Old Testament, and we can see now that the One in whom the mystery was hidden through the ages and generations, God Himself, in inditing scripture, put the impress of His thoughts upon every type and shadow. We thus find that the word of God is filled full for us. If we go back to the beginning, how could we understand Adam and Eve as a type if we had not Paul's ministry as to Christ and the assembly? So with regard to the other types; Isaac and Rebecca; Joseph and Asenath; the tabernacle; the temple; David; Solomon, etc., we need Paul's ministry to fill them out. The mystery of the Christ throws light on the whole of scripture. I wonder if the word of God is filled full for you. Do you find the scriptures full of interest, filled full with instruction? If not, it is because you have not this key to it, you have not given enough attention to Paul's ministry. There is no lack on God's side; full provision has been made, the word of God has been completed.
In the next passage read it says of Christ, "In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily". You could not think of a greater idea of completeness than that. All that can be known and displayed of God dwells in Christ bodily -- all of it! What a wonderful Person He is! What a privilege to know such a Person! Then it says of the assembly, "ye are complete [or filled full] in him". What more could the assembly desire? What a marvellous position! It means that she lacks nothing, she is filled full in Christ -- God, as it were, could supply no more.
That is the truth from God's side. But then, it has to be arrived at from our side, and so the apostle says, "Beware". He warns us against going outside of Christ for anything. What havoc has resulted from not abiding in Him -- not holding fast the Head! So Paul in Ephesians prays to the Father that He would strengthen them "with power by his Spirit in the inner man, that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts". He prays that this glorious Person in His glorious Manhood, the centre of the counsels of God, might dwell in their affections. I believe it involves what the Lord speaks of as "first love", the proper affection of the assembly for Christ. "First love" does not mean the love that we begin with when we are converted, although the germ may be there; first love is what marked the assembly at Ephesus after the whole counsel of God has been declared to them. The Lord Jesus says "Thou hast left thy first love". It was the kind of love that marked the company to whom Paul had announced the whole counsel of God.
I believe our affections for Christ develop in three ways. Firstly, on the line of Romans, like the woman in Luke 7, who loved much because she had been forgiven much. The foundation of affection for Christ lies in this that He has come to our side of things to meet every need of our hearts and souls. But then, the Lord has come to our side and met our needs in order that we might be set free to be engaged with Him in the greatness of His Person, and Colossians brings this out. Chapter 1 refers to Him as the Son of the Father's love and also stresses His Deity -- "all things have been created by him and for him. And he is before all, and all things subsist together by him. And he is the head of the body, the assembly". Such language as that can only be taken in by a soul who, in some measure, has been relieved in his own side of things and can now sit down in
the presence of the One who has met his need, and contemplate the greatness of His Person, his heart bowed in adoration as he realises that such an One is Head of the body, the assembly. Then the further stage, the development of full assembly affection, lies in apprehending Him in relation to the whole counsel of God, as set out in the epistle to the Ephesians.
Paul prays to the Father that the Christ (Note, he does not say "the Son") might dwell in our hearts by faith. He would have our hearts enter into the joy the Father has in the fact that His Son is the Christ, filling out so gloriously the place the Father has given Him in the counsels of His love. As the Christ thus dwells in our hearts, true affections are fully developed, and we are able to look out on the whole range of things centred in Him, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. The greatness of Christ only enhances His love; that we should be loved by One so great! In the Song of Songs the Beloved is the King, and the effect of that is only to enhance His love to the bride. The realm of glory would not be complete for Him if the assembly were not there by His side. But it is all to the end that we might be filled even to all the fulness of God. The fulness dwells in Him bodily and we are filled to all the fulness of God.
Now just a word on the Lord's remark to Sardis, where He speaks of works. He says, "I have not found thy works complete [or filled full] before my God". It is the Christ speaking, and it is His God whom He is considering. That is what marks the Christ, He ever considers for God. It is He who has brought about all the counsels of God, every thought of God, and He measures things from that standpoint. This is a solemn matter, and I believe the reason for incompleteness lies in failure to give heed to Paul's ministry as filling out the word of God; failure to accept the truth that we are filled full in Christ, and
thus failure to develop first love. To Ephesus the Lord says, "I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love. Remember therefore whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works". I believe first works are complete works, works filled full for God's pleasure, works which flow from first love. They were doing wonderful works at Ephesus: I do not think we would have found anything wrong with them. But the Lord says, "Do the first works". He could see that the works were not filled full, there was not that fulness about them which gives pleasure to Divine Persons, the fulness which flows from first love. Incompleteness has especially marked Protestantism, which Sardis represents. There has been failure to recognise Paul's ministry, and therefore failure to recognise that Christ is Head of the church. In this country the King is called the head of the established church; and the Prime Minister appoints the bishops on the King's behalf. That kind of thing has marked Protestantism as a whole, that is, failure to recognise and own Christ's place as Head of the church, and that we need nothing outside of Him; and consequently failure in affection for Him. No one can say that what marks Protestantism is first love; what marks it today is a Laodicean state, indifference to Christ. It matters not to them where Christ is; He is outside knocking, but it matters not to them, they are not at all interested. "Behold, I stand at the door and am knocking", but they say, "I am rich, and am grown rich, and have need of nothing". If God is disciplining the English-speaking world, it is His mercy to them; He is disciplining the part of the earth most favoured during recent centuries. But where the most favour has been bestowed, utter indifference to Christ has resulted. If the Lord's voice of discipline is heeded, we shall have to own that this part of the earth in which, perhaps, we ourselves have had a certain measure
of pride, is the "wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked". For if you have not Him you have nothing: the church is only complete in Him. You may have the riches of the earth, the trade of all nations like Tyre of old, but if you have not Christ you are "the wretched and the miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked", Revelation 3:17.
But still, the voice of the Lord is saying, "Be watchful, and strengthen the things that remain, which are about to die", and He finds an answer. In the dead state of things which followed the Reformation, there were some who gave heed to His word, and a Philadelphian condition, to some extent, developed, for He says to Philadelphia "Thou hast a little strength". They had strengthened the things that remained; and while it could not be said that they had much, yet they had a little strength. Even this, however, does not suggest completion. What I think I can see is this: that there is no real completion in works except in an overcomer. Even if you think you are attached to something Philadelphian in character, do not suppose that that, in itself, means completion. It is happy if a Philadelphian state exists, although we have to be very careful not to credit ourselves with it, lest we become complacent. But even if such a state were present, it would not follow that our works were complete before Christ's God; I doubt if it is true of anyone except an overcomer. So we are all challenged, for overcoming means continual conflict. No one marked by complacency or self-satisfaction will ever reach completion; even Paul said, "Not that I have already obtained the prize or am already perfected; but I pursue ... looking towards the goal for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus", Philippians 3:12. That was Paul at the end of his life! We need to beware of complacency, for it leads to a Laodicean state. But the Lord would stimulate us to go on to completion in our works, and I think
the way to it is on the lines of which I have been speaking. Complete works can only come about in the measure in which the Christ is supreme in our hearts. It is as the Christ is supreme in our hearts that His God becomes supreme. "I have not found thy works complete before my God". The more attractive Christ becomes to you the more attractive His God becomes to you. What a God He must be to be His God! "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ .".. --the God and Father of such an One.
And further, as the Christ, the One in whom every thought of God has been established, dwells in our affections, there will be in some measure, an answer to these thoughts in us. It was ever God's thought that the assembly, which is His body, should be a continuation of Christ down here. The Lord referred to His own body when here, as being the temple; and now the assembly is "temple of God", 1 Corinthians 3:16. The Lord could speak of the Father abiding in Him, and now the saints are builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit, Ephesians 2:22. The fragrant graces of Christ's Manhood mark the new man here and are to find expression in our demeanour towards one another, as Colossians indicates. Then in our testimony towards men, according to God's thought, there is to be correspondence with Christ. Paul speaks of the testimony of the Christ being confirmed in the saints. The Lord does not care for testimony that does not flow from first love. We may not be much concerned as to the kind of testimony we render -- we feel we ought to say something; but the Lord says to Ephesus, "I will remove thy lamp out of its place, except thou shalt repent"; as much as to say He does not care greatly for testimony which springs from anything less than first love. There is a ring about testimony which flows from first love which cannot be imitated; like the woman in John 4,
"Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done; is not he the Christ?THE SIN OFFERING IS THE BASIS OF THE ECONOMY OF GOD
FIXED POSITIONS -- FOR SAINTS, FOR CHRIST AND FOR GOD
POWER TO DO THINGS FOR OURSELVES
THE BELIEVER'S SPIRIT -- SUSTAINED IN PRESENCE OF SUFFERING
"O strange yet fit beginning
To all that life of woe". (Hymn 188)THE LORD'S SUPPER IS THE KERNEL OF CHRISTIANITY
THE LORD'S SUPPER -- SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES
THE LORD'S SUPPER LEADING TO THE SERVICE OF GOD
EDUCATION AND FORMATION FOR PRIESTLY SERVICE
THE GLORIES OF CHRIST AS GOD'S KING, SON, AND PRIEST
THE GREATNESS OF CHRIST SECURING RESPONSE TO GOD IN THE ASSEMBLY
UNITY
COMPLETION