Hebrews 1:1 - 3; Hebrews 8:1, 2; Ephesians 2:4 - 6; Acts 2:1, 2; 2 Samuel 7:18 - 24.

I desire to say a word on greatness, because God would have us become accustomed to greatness. Our own destiny is great, for we shall move and serve ultimately in the presence of greatness in the fullest sense of the word. These passages bring greatness before us; the greatness of Christ, the greatness of God, and also the greatness of the saints as God's workmanship.

Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 8 refer to the greatness of Christ in a striking way, particularly the former. It is essentially the chapter of greatness as regards Christ. It brings Him before us as the One in whom God has spoken, and is speaking, because the speaking goes on. God has spoken "in Son", and the speaking is now from the place where Jesus is. It is not simply an historical matter; the scripture brings before us the place from which the present speaking comes. As it says "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the greatness on high". In this chapter the Scriptures, particularly the Psalms, are quoted extensively to bring out the greatness of Christ. The chapter brings out who He is in His Person. As it says lower down, "Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old

as doth a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed; but thou art the same". That is a title of Deity -- "Thou art The Same", although applied to the Lord in manhood. "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and for ever", chapter 13, verse 8. In His Person the Lord Jesus has never changed. He is the same whatever may be the circumstances into which He has come. He Himself is unchangeable in His unspeakable greatness, whether on earth, or going into death, or risen and ascended. His conditions have changed, but He in His Person has never changed. Though, truly, in His perfect manhood here He learned obedience in the things that He suffered (chapter 5), yet that does not affect the truth that in His Person He is unchanging and unchangeable. It is a great thing to get that into the soul. And yet He is truly Man. He has come into manhood in order that the whole mind and will of God as to man might be expressed, including God's disposition towards man, and the speaking involves these things.

The Son is said to be "the effulgence of his glory and the expression of his substance"; thus the One in whom God speaks is entirely in accord with the speaking. He could say when here, "I am altogether that which I say unto you". The expression, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all", implies that God is always what He purports to be; His word is a true expression of Himself. And so this blessed Person, in whom God has spoken, is the full expression and out-shining of God; and, at the same time, the expression of His pleasure in man. He is the

Man who can fill out everything for God. What a delight to God to have such a One, the One who is going to take up all things as the true Heir. But redemption was a necessity, and so it says, "having made by himself the purification of sins, he set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high".

I would like to commend that expression to you, because the Lord Himself is ineffably great, and yet as Man He has set Himself down at the right hand of the greatness. That word "the greatness" is the supreme expression of greatness in Scripture. The right hand is the most important seat. How great Christ must be, to be able, without presumption, to set Himself down at the right hand of the Greatness on high. We cannot measure what is involved in that expression "the greatness". It involves, no doubt, essential Deity, but how it magnifies the Lord Jesus that as Man He has gone in and set Himself down at the right hand of the Greatness on high. That is the blessed place He has taken as Man and it is from that point that the speaking comes at the present time. It comes from the very presence of the Greatness on high.

Before I pass on I would just say this: love enters into the whole matter. "Taking a place by so much better than angels". No angel could ever have that place, no angel could set himself down there. That was reserved for man, but only one Man. He is more than man, of course -- He is The Same. He Himself has part in Deity, and yet this is intended to magnify to us the great fact that a Man has sat down there.

Only One who Himself had part in "the greatness" could do it, but how wonderful it is that a divine Person has taken manhood, and as Man has taken a place that an angel could never take! But that Man is the Son. "To which of the angels said he ever, Thou art my Son?" We must not think that the thought of greatness shuts out affection. Love marks the whole position. "Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a son". That is how God regards this One who has set Himself down at the right hand of the Greatness. He is the object of the Father's love.

But now in chapter 8 it is Christ on our side. In chapter 1 we see Christ on God's side, the One through whom God speaks, and in that respect He must be alone in all His greatness, but in chapter 8 the apostle says, "Now a summary of the things of which we are speaking is, We have such a one high priest, who has sat down on the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens". It is what we have. In chapter 1 it is what God has -- His Son, through whom He can speak. Chapter 8 is what we have. "We have such a one high priest, who has set himself down (see J.N.D.'s note) at the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens; minister of the holy places and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord has pitched, and not man". He is there as our High Priest, our Representative. He is there as the true Aaron. We are in the position of Aaron's sons who were with him in the service. But how great it is that the Lord Jesus as the High Priest has set Himself down as our

Representative; He has set Himself down at the right hand of the throne of the Greatness in the heavens. What a wonderful contemplation! The Man, speaking reverently, who is our Representative has, without any presumption, set Himself down in the seat of the greatest honour and power, at the right hand of the throne of the Greatness in the heavens.

We are part of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man; we are in immediate proximity to the throne. We must not be geographical in our thoughts. The true tabernacle has its present application to the assembly here on earth and as belonging to the assembly we belong to the most holy place; in fact we form it, like the boards that surrounded the ark. At the same time we are also like Aaron's sons, who could go in with him to serve in the holy place. Not that they could go in in the fullest sense -- the way into the holy of holies was not then made manifest (Hebrews 9:8). But now it is fully manifested, for the very Person in whom God has made known Himself and His mind and thoughts is the One who has gone in as High Priest and who is over the whole service, and who links His brethren with Him in the service, in the presence of God Himself. As I said, I believe God would help us to become more accustomed to being in the presence of greatness -- the greatness of Christ, and then -- what is even more wonderful -- the Greatness; that which is beyond us to comprehend, and yet as in the presence of God we have a sense of it. We know God as revealed and yet we are in the presence of One who, though known as

revealed, is in His own Being beyond our comprehension. We know Him revealed as the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Father and our Father, His God and our God, yet there is always that which is beyond us, but it is the very sense of that, the Greatness, that gives the highest note to our worship. We are in the presence of "the King of the ages". Paul says, "to him be honour and glory to the ages of ages".

We are before Him as sons. The more we enter into the relationship of sons the more we shall cherish the thought of greatness, the greatness of the One we know as Father, His ineffable greatness as God.

But now there is the question of the greatness of the saints. In thinking of the greatness of the saints we need to be very careful always to maintain that Christ's greatness is outstanding. In a way there is no comparison. I love to make that clear for the joy of my own heart. Think of the ark, and then think of one of those boards. Yet the board was made of the same material as the ark, and the boards put together made a fit setting for the ark, they made the shrine where the ark was. In that sense the saints are great, although Christ's greatness is unique. Even the church complete cannot compare with Christ in the greatness of His Person, although as regards His manhood she is His fulness. The saints are great because they form an adequate setting for Him. We sing, "Of Thy body, Lord are we". We are a necessity to Christ, not only for His heart's affections but for the display of His glory and to be a fit setting for Him. We are a necessity to

God, too, for His habitation, because it is where Christ is enshrined, and all is in keeping with Him, that God can dwell complacently. It is a great thing to see that the assembly is a necessity to Christ and to God. God will never dwell with angels in that sense. God dwells with men. Man is the order of being that alone can satisfy the affections of the heart of God and provide Him with a habitation according to His own thoughts. His eternal purpose is in regard to man -- Christ, indeed, supremely, and yet -- I speak reverently -- the saints are a necessity to Christ in connection with the setting in which He is to be seen eternally, and the saints similarly are a necessity to God. Divine Persons are always self-sufficient, of course, but divine love and glory require the saints. It makes the assembly great in our minds, it makes the saints great, and yet Christ is ever outstanding. Yet in whatever setting we see Christ, in their measure the saints correspond with it. If we see Christ as the ark, the saints are the boards, of the same material; if we see Christ as the veil, the saints are the curtains, the same material. We think of Aaron -- we are the sons, clothed with garments for glory and ornament, though not so resplendent as Aaron's, associated with him in the service of God. "He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one". It is a wonderful thing to see that the saints correspond with Christ. In whatever setting Christ is seen, the saints, in their measure, correspond with it. "As he is, so are we in this world". And so when you come to the thought of sitting in heavenly places, Ephesians shows that

the saints are brought into correspondence with Christ in their measure. "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us with the Christ ... and has raised us up together" -- that refers to elevation -- "and has made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus". The Lord Jesus sat Himself down at the right hand. I love to think of Jesus going thus into the presence of the Greatness. The Lord Jesus could go in and take the highest seat without presumption. He set Himself down -- it was His right place. We could not set ourselves down, but it says that God has made us sit down. If we found ourselves in the presence of earthly greatness, in the palace of the king, we should stand, and if the king made us sit down how honoured we should feel! But that is what God does with the saints, it is what divine love does, It is "because of his great love". Love enters into this whole matter. We must not separate love and greatness. Because God loved us, He wanted us in the most exalted place, and He has made us sit down there. Love would not have been satisfied otherwise. We could not have set ourselves down there. But God has raised us up together and made us sit down together. A most touching thing! It would not satisfy Him if we were not perfectly at home there. There is no sense of discrepancy. God makes us sit down. We are brought into correspondence with Christ, and unless it were so we could not provide a fit setting for Christ. We are the very shrine where God is, where Christ is. How could

we have been the shrine, the temple of God, if we were not able to sit down? The Lord Jesus has set Himself down and God makes us sit down in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, and it is in this sense of restfulness that the service proceeds. In the Old Testament no priest ever sat down, and when the glory filled the house they could not even stand to minister. In Christianity our High Priest, the Minister of the sanctuary, has set Himself down at the right hand of the throne of the greatness in the heavens, and God has raised us up and made us sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, to provide a setting for that blessed Person.

Acts 2 refers to the public position down here, corresponding with our place above. The saints were together with one accord in one place, and Christ was enshrined in their hearts. Some of them had seen Him go up, His hands uplifted in blessing. It was a company gathered in the light of Christ having gone up. And then it says, "There came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting". It was the glory coming in. Just as when the tabernacle was set up of old, the glory came in and filled it, so now. Who was coming in? A divine Person, the Holy Spirit. One feels how little we apprehend that we are in the presence of the Holy Spirit, that He is with us and in us; that a christian in that sense is always in the immediate presence of God. Here it says, "It filled the house where they were sitting". The glory came in. Of old when the glory came in the priests could not even stand to minister, but it

does not say that these christians stood. They were perfectly at home in the presence of a divine Person, they were sitting. Their actual position on earth, where they could be seen by men, corresponded with Christ's position above. He was in the presence of the greatness on high; they were in the presence of the Holy Spirit. He was sitting, and they were sitting. I only mention these things to show the greatness of the saints. As I say, not to belittle the outstanding greatness of Christ, but to show the greatness of the place that God has given to the saints -- how great is His workmanship! It is no credit to us. It is because we are God's workmanship, and all in view of providing an adequate setting for Christ.

I read the passage in Samuel as encouragement to us to be like David and to go in and sit before the Lord. One feels for oneself that one has hardly done this at all, and yet it is open to us. I know we do it to some extent collectively and there are wonderful manifestations. We hear His voice and we respond. But one would desire to encourage one's own heart and the brethren to come into this personally. David went in and sat before the Lord. It is the attitude of sitting. He was beyond his dispensation. It is really the christian position, to go in and sit before the Lord. We should be concerned that the atmosphere of the holiest should mark all our meetings, but it is a wonderful thing that it is open to the individual too. As we sit there we become impressed with a sense of greatness, we are in the presence of greatness, and so David says

here (verse 21), "For thy word's sake, and according to thine own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant know them. Wherefore thou art great, O Lord God: for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears". He had taken in divine speaking. There was all this greatness that God had made known. He says, "Wherefore thou art great and there is none like thee", and then he goes on to speak of the greatness of God's people, "And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and to make him a name, and to do for you great things?" So that in this interview that David had with God as sitting before Him, he made way in his soul for impressions of greatness. May we spend more time in the presence of divine Persons! We find time for other things, why not find more time for this? To be in the presence of the ark, as it were, as David was here, and in the presence of the God who dwells between the cherubim, and to let impressions of greatness come into our soul, impressions of the greatness of God -- "there is none like thee" -- the greatness of Christ and all that He has done, and the greatness of the saints as God's workmanship. May God help us in it, for His name's sake!

THE LOVE OF THE CHRIST

Exodus 21:5; Romans 8:35 - 37; 2 Corinthians 5:14 - 18; Ephesians 3:19 - 21; Ephesians 5:30 - 32.

Each of these scriptures refers to the love of the Christ (although the article is omitted in Romans 8 it is there in the original, "Who shall separate us from the love of the Christ") and one desired to say a word as to the Christ and as to His love. I suppose no theme can be more attractive to our hearts, in fact the place the 'love of the Christ' has in the Scriptures is remarkable; not only in the New Testament, but in the types.

It is a great thing to have some impression as to the greatness and glory of God's Christ: the wonder of the moment really is that God's Son is God's Christ. As we know, these two titles, to a large extent, sum up the truth of Christianity. John says "... these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God". (John 20:31). Peter says in his confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". (Matthew 16:16). It is not that the Christ has become God's Son; it could not be put in that order, for the Son of God is a relationship, whereas 'the Christ' is an office. The marvellous thing is that a divine Person in manhood, the Son of God, fills out the position of God's Christ -- the great official position, yet a position involving absolute personal excellence and beauty; otherwise there would be no qualification for the position. The Christ is the

greatest official position in the universe, and this place is given to the Lord Jesus; He is God's Christ. He is the Man of God's purpose, the Man of His counsels. All God's thoughts concerning man have been secured in a Person, and God has anointed that Person as having found His delight in Him, and has thus distinguished Him as equal to filling this great official place in His universe; distinguishing Him as the One who is qualified in every way to be the Head and Centre of the world of glory in which God will rest. He, the Christ, will give character to the whole system by way of the anointing. The types help us in these matters. The Ark was in the midst of the Tabernacle, an anointed system; and it was also in the midst of the house that Solomon built. Aaron, David and Solomon were each anointed. All these types converge on this great title THE CHRIST, although the Antitype goes farther than any type ever could.

But if we consider the greatness, the excellence of this blessed Man, the Man Christ Jesus, how wonderful it is to think of His love, the love of the Christ. What a love that must be! So the type in Exodus 21 is a wonderful one. "I love". It is really Christ speaking in Spirit. "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free". It is a Man that speaks; he has a wife and children, a Man speaking with all the feelings of a Man. He says, "I love". It is one indivisible love flowing in all directions, upwards, horizontally and downwards, "I love my master, my wife, and my children"; an expression, as far as affection goes, of perfect manhood, love flowing in all directions in a perfect way, love of

such a character that he says, "I will not go free". What I want to bring to your attention is the present character of the love of the Christ. The scriptures we read are not exactly referring to the past; there is a good deal in Scripture about the past where He expressed His love beyond measure, "The Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us". Ephesians 5:2. "Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it". Ephesians 5:25. But the love expressed in the giving of Himself remains and must remain if the system, of which He is the centre, is to be a living system of response to Himself and to God. The love of the Christ expressed there must be a living, abiding, eternal force; and so it is. So the scriptures we read are treating of the power of Christ's present love. What power can be greater than the present love of the Christ? So it says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children". Hebrews chapter 2. speaks of the children, "Behold, I and the children which God has given me" (verse 13), and also of the assembly. (verse 12). It says, "Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same". Think of the love of the Christ! He is the head and centre of a world of glory, for God purposed it should be so. But how fully He has considered for us as the children. "Children" refers to what we are down here -- our actual condition. The love of the Christ has taken account of this condition. We are partakers of flesh and blood at this very moment, and because we are in these conditions, "He also, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death he might annul him who

has the might of death, that is, the devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage". Think of Christ in His love, taking account of our position as children and of our need of deliverance during our life-time in order that we, as children down here, might be completely set free at the present time; not waiting for the enjoyment of that scene of glory until we are actually there, but free to be in spirit there now. What a marvellous thing, that He should come and deal with the enemy's power in order to free us during our life-time. Let Him have His way. Let us be free from every form of bondage so as to revel already in the joy and blessedness of that scene of which He is the Sun and Centre. He came that we might be in the joy of it now. How He loves the children! "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free".

Then it says, "For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". Hebrews 2:11. Have you ever thought what was involved in that expression? What it meant to Jesus? It says, "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all". Hebrews 10:10. What it cost the Lord! How much that statement means -- "He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one". How the Christ has loved us as His brethren! He has set us free as children in order that we might be in liberty in a higher sphere, in relationship with Him as His brethren, "All of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren"..

Then it goes on in that passage, "In the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises". We come, one might say, to the wife. In the midst of the assembly, no doubt, involves the truth of union. The Christ is not in Zion today: He has left other interests to be united to the assembly. In a supreme way today you will find the Lord in the midst of the assembly. "I love ... my wife". The Lord Jesus has secured the assembly.

I am not only concerned that we should have a fresh impression of His love in the way He expressed it in the past, but His present love for the assembly. His love to the assembly was expressed in that He delivered Himself up for it, but think of His present love. It is incomparable. We not only look back to the way He expressed it, as He says, "My body for you", -- wondrous expression of the love of the Christ -- but we also have the consciousness that that love lives. It is a present love, so much so that it says, "Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be united to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh". Ephesians 5:31. That scripture is not referring to the time when the Lord delivered Himself up, but to His present attitude, indicating His marvellous affection for His assembly now. In this passage the love of the Christ is seen as attracted to an object equal to His affections, an object adequate for them; for it says, "We are members of his body; we are of his flesh and of his bones". How does the love of the Christ react to a vessel that is adequate for such affection? He leaves all else to be united to His wife. He has precious interests as Son of Man, Son of David and

Son of Abraham, but it says, "Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother". What marks the present dispensation is this very movement of affection on the part of the Christ. He leaves father and mother to be united to His wife, and "the two shall be one flesh". Union is a present truth, to be displayed in the future. The Lord will not take up His other interests until His wife, the assembly, is with Him in them; but at the moment it is a question of His leaving things to be united to the assembly. Would that we had some sense of the love of the Christ! It would draw our hearts to Him! If only we had a sense of the greatness of the Person, of the surpassing affections that mark Him as the Man Christ Jesus, and of the fact that in the assembly He has a vessel so adequate for those affections that He leaves other things to be united to her, we would not hold back. We should be stirred in the depth of our souls, dear brethren, to be for Christ and to be to Christ.

But then it says, "I love my master", the perfect Man, the Man Christ Jesus in His affection Godward. If He is united to His assembly, what is the next thing? He uses that vessel in the service of God. That is the force of Ephesians 3, "To know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge"; it involves the truth of union, and in the power of union with Christ the assembly is capable of being filled to all the fulness of God. How else could it come about? We would not have strength for it apart from the truth of union. "To know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". In union with Christ the assembly

is capable of this. The result is, "To him (to God) be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus". What a response in this vessel, in conscious union with Christ, to God, as God, in all His greatness! "I love my master, my wife, and my children", the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge has this great final result.

Now I come back for a moment to Romans; it touches the first point I mentioned, the way the love of the Christ comes down into our circumstances here to free us for these great things. He has thought of us as children. If He had not done so we would not be free for these things; we would be held by the pressure that marks our condition down here. So Romans shows how the love of the Christ comes down into our circumstances. It is the love of a Man with all the sympathies of a Man, a love which surpasses knowledge and will yet fill the universe from end to end, "the breadth and length and depth and height", and yet coming down into our circumstances here! So it says, "Who shall separate us from the love of the Christ?" Romans 8 has to do with us as children, but it speaks of sons as well, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God", verse 14. In the full sense of the chapter we are awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body. Although already in our souls in the dignity and joy of it, our actual position is children, "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God", and in this suffering position here the Christ is occupied with us. "Who is also at the right hand of God". He was occupied with us on the cross. This is not at the cross

but the right hand of God. That is where the love is now, "Who also intercedes for us". So the love of the Christ is active at the right hand of God. Hebrews 7:25 says, "Always living to intercede for them". We are always on His heart and on His shoulders, day and night: He never forgets His own. He is living for that very purpose. He is devoted to the assembly at the present time, and, in order that He may have us with Him on the highest plane even now in our spirits, He serves us on the lowest plane. He serves us in all the practical matters of the pathway here. He ever lives to intercede for us. According to this chapter, if we know this love we shall be overcomers. We need to be overcomers. If we are overcome how can we enter into the relationship that He so longs that we should know, the wifely relationship attaching to the assembly? We must be overcomers on the Romans' line. Christ is active at the right hand of God to sustain us so that "We more than conquer". It is not that we just get through, but we are easily superior; more than conquer. If we knew the love of the Christ we should be easily superior to every difficulty that can arise. "We more than conquer through him that has loved us". What a marvellous thing it is to be easily superior to everything here as knowing the love of the Christ! We have seen it in others and have read about it too. We have read about the martyrs, that when the greatest test came they were easily superior. Marvellous! -- the power of the love of the Christ known in circumstances here!

Then in 2 Corinthians it says "For the love of the

Christ constrains us". He is not now sustaining us so that we are easily superior, but constraining us so that we come to a right judgment. One of our greatest hindrances in moving on to the height of our calling and privilege is a wrong or mixed judgment. So he says, "The love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this". If we allow the love of the Christ to constrain us we shall come to a right judgment and not be detained by the old things. "The old things have passed away". Christ is not connected with the old things at all. We have no links with Him in connection with the old things. His love has operated even unto death to lift us right out of the old things and bring us into the new things. We cling to the old things and we are hindered, and Christ fails to get His portion; but the "love of the Christ constrains us" to come to a complete judgment of the old things. The Lord says in the gospel, after speaking of the new garment, the new skins, and the new wine, "No-one having drunk old wine straightway wishes for new, for he says, The old is better". Luke 5:39. That is a wrong judgment, an absolutely false judgment. If we give way to what is old our judgment will be perverted. Apart from the fact that the new is intrinsically better, the old is spoilt in any case. In the Revelation 21:5, it says, "Behold, I make all things new", and in verse 4, "He shall wipe away ... for the former things have passed away". Look at the disabilities connected with the old! But, apart from that, the new is infinitely superior. Yet we are so often held by the old things. We try to find our life in the world, yet the world is judged. We may seek to find

our life in what marks the flesh, yet every movement of the flesh is sin. Or we may seek to find our life in nature, in what is right in its own place. There was nothing wrong in knowing Christ after the flesh, but it says, "Yet now we know Him thus no longer". The love of the Christ led Him to go into death to bring the old to an end vicariously for God's complete satisfaction and glory. Why? To bring us into something infinitely superior in connection with Himself. Why not let us live where we belong? If we are born anew, we belong to the new; we do not belong to the old order. Do not let the old order claim you. We are new skins; we have tasted the new wine. Do not go back to the old. Let us look at things from God's standpoint. "Old things have passed away". God is not looking at us as in the flesh but as born anew, born of God. God has before Him a scene of glory centering in Christ, and for Him old things are passed away and all things have become new. Why not for us? The love of the Christ constrains us to come to this judgment. I am not preaching death to nature. The remarkable thing is that if I live in nature I shall fail in nature, and nature will fail me; but if I live on the other side, in what is new, I shall carry out everything in connection with nature to God's praise and glory. In the most spiritual gospel the Lord attended a marriage because He wanted a home to be set up here for God's testimony. In the power of what is spiritual, what is of nature can be held contributory to the testimony at the present moment. If you live on the other side of death with Christ you will fulfil natural relationships to God's praise and

glory:

The power of Christ's love, according to Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5, would deliver us from every disability so that we should move on to Ephesians. Corinthians does not develop new creation, but it is developed in Ephesians. We are told about it in Ephesians so far as it can be written, but we need the Spirit to bring us into it. What wonderful relationships exist there! Brethren of Christ, sons of God and, what is less known, the peculiar relationship of the church as His body, His bride, His wife. All these things belong to the new creation sphere which we have been brought into. What a marvellous place the church has in union with the Man who is the very centre of the whole scene of glory! If we appropriate the love of the Christ according to Romans and Corinthians we shall be free to live in Ephesians, and thus the Lord Jesus will have a present answer to His love, and we shall know His love in all its blessedness in its own sphere. It is blessed to know it in the sphere of testing; it is far more blessed to know the love of the Christ in its own sphere. That is what is in mind in Ephesians 3:16. "To be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". How wonderful, as knowing Christ's love, to be filled into God's fulness! and the result is, "To him (i.e. God) be glory

in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages"

May God grant that we may, through this occasion, have a deeper impression than ever before, of the greatness of God's Christ, and the greatness of the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge, for His Name's sake!

LOVE

Luke 7:40 - 42, 47; 1 Corinthians 12:31; 1 Corinthians 13:1 - 3, 13; Ephesians 5:1, 25; Ephesians 6:24; John 14:23.

I wish to say a word, dear brethren, about LOVE, and I realise what a poor sort of vessel I am to speak about such a matter, but I believe the Spirit would help us because I am assured He is concerned that we should judge of and approve the things which are more excellent. The passage we have read in 1 Corinthians 13 speaks of many things, but the apostle says at the end, "And now abide faith, hope, love; these three things; and the greater of these is love". I think we need to be reminded that, however excellent other things may be, love is greater. He says at the end of the previous chapter, "desire earnestly the greater gifts". We are not to despise other things; there are many things which are excellent, in fact most of the things attaching to christianity can be called excellent, and we are to desire earnestly these things, and especially to prophesy. But the apostle adds, "yet show I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence". I feel certain the Spirit of God would direct us to the more excellent way, and the importance of it is seen in the verses which follow. We are apt to attach much importance to what is external and also to what may be received from God in the way of gift; we tend to measure persons by what they have been given. There are the gifts; the Lord Jesus has ascended up on high and He has given gifts to

men, and there is a measure connected with that, "according to the measure of the gift of the Christ" (Ephesians 4:7). Again, "God has dealt to each a measure of faith" (Romans 12:3). But love is not a thing that is given, it is a question of what a man or woman is. No matter what you have been given, if you have not love you are nothing; and you cannot be less than nothing. We do well to take account soberly of what the apostle says. "If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and I have all faith so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing". As regards what he is himself, a man's measure is the measure in which he has love. "If I deliver up my body that I may be burned, but have not love, I profit nothing". Great things may be done but to no profit unless there is love, because God always looks at the motive, and values the act accordingly.

It is most important to understand that we have come to a love system. You may say that christianity is a faith system, so it is; and a great system of grace and glory, so it is; but the most fundamental matter of all is that we have come to a great system of love. It has been devised by love, and could not have been devised in any other way. Love alone could have conceived such thoughts and love alone could have carried them out.

"Love, only love, Thy heart inclined,
And brought Thee, Saviour of mankind,
Down from the throne above".

"Love made Thee here a Man of grief,
Distressed Thee sore for our relief --
O mystery of love!"

I believe it would greatly affect us if the truth entered our souls that we have come to a system of love, because nothing moves us like love. We speak of being in the current of the Spirit and it really means being in the current of love, for the Spirit is not leading people on lines of legality. We may try to follow on legal lines, but we have been brought to a love system, and we need to be in the current of love -- it is the only thing which matters. We have spoken this afternoon of joy, peace, and so on -- love must be first. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us" (Romans 5:5), in order that we may be brought into the current of love; and if we are fully in the current of joy and exuberance, we shall influence our households like the Philippian jailor, we shall speak like Moses who said to Pharoah, "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters; with our flocks and with our herds will we go". Love requires them all, not only ourselves but also our children. God needs the children. Christ needs them, and the Spirit needs them too. We will not leave them behind, we will carry them over in this current of love; neither will we leave behind our flocks or our herds. How could Levi have made a great entertainment for the Lord if he had not used his material substance? Everything we have is to be available. God intends to bring us into love's current -- individually, householdly and assembly-wise --

and as in love's flow we are freed from all reserves.

"Love that transcends our highest powers,
Demands our souls, our lives, our all".

God Himself has led in the way of love. If we want to see the thing working out we have to look at Himself: "God is love". We think of the glory of God's grace and the riches of His mercy, but what lies behind all is love. "God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us" (Ephesians 2:4). We see it expressed in the Lord Jesus; in Him love has come into manifestation. "Hereby we have known love, because He has laid down His life for us". The Lord Jesus went through deepest sorrows and sufferings because of the joy that was set before Him -- it was love's way, love's service. He drank the cup in all its bitterness; yet He was moving according to the dictates of love and that carries its own satisfaction. He loved us and gave Himself for us. "He loved the assembly and gave himself for it". How fully love has been expressed in Jesus! Then think of the Holy Spirit! His service is going on at the present time, even at this moment; His continuous service is a wonderful witness to love, it is a self-less service. Scripture speaks of the love of the Spirit, and the love of God, and the love of Christ, in fact, God is love. So we are brought into love's system which has its source in God Himself.

What I wish to show next is that if God has moved in love -- expressed in Christ and made good to us by the service of the Holy Spirit -- nothing but responsive love in us is an adequate answer; for nothing but love can satisfy love! This may be a simple

statement but it is very profound. In Luke 7 the Lord Jesus says to Simon, "There were two debtors of a certain creditor: one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty; but as they had nothing to pay, he forgave both of them their debt: say, which of them therefore will love him most?" Thus, one may say, the Lord Jesus lays bare His own heart. It is a beautiful expression coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus showing what He was seeking, and I believe the Lord Jesus is looking around a company like this, brothers and sisters, young and old, including the children, with this kind of enquiry, "Which loves Me most?" It is not a question of who is most active or most able, but "Who loves Me most?" His is love supremely, He has given Himself: Why? in order to get love in return. So His concern is who will love Him most, and He sees this woman and He says, "she loved much". I would like a commendation like that! What is encouraging is that she had not been long on the road, she represents a newly converted person; and yet the Lord could say, "she loved much". It really means it is not beyond the reach of anyone to give the Lord what He seeks. You say, 'Wait till I am grown up!' But why not give joy to the heart of Christ tonight? It is the privilege of each one here to give the Lord what He values most -- He wants love. No amount of activity will satisfy Him without love; and He says of this woman, "she loved much".

"Teach us by loving much to serve Thee well".

But this woman proved her love by what she did. It was within the reach of others, but we do not read

of any other at this juncture acting in this way. The foundation of love in us is the deep sense of what the Lord Jesus has done for us in love. The greatest lover from this standpoint is the one who has the greatest appreciation of the Saviour. Think of Saul of Tarsus, what a lover he was! He had been the greatest hater of Christ and he expressed it by seeking to kill or put in prison all the members of His body: he would stamp out the name of Christ from the earth. But he becomes the greatest lover, and he says, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first" (1 Timothy 1:15). One has thought sometimes if you had met Saul of Tarsus you might have said to him, 'You were always an upright man according to man's estimate, you must be a fifty pence debtor', and he would have said, 'Man, you do not know what you are talking about, you are completely out of reckoning. It is not a question of another fifty or five hundred pence. You could not measure the debt I owe'. The way we get a right measure of the debt we owe is not by looking at ourselves but by looking at the cross and bearing in mind that if I was the only sinner in the universe it would have needed the Lord Jesus to give Himself to save me. Fifty pence or five hundred? Think of what it cost to redeem one soul! It says, "who gave himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6). That is the price He paid, that is how the debt was paid. It is a fact that if I was the only sinner in the universe there would have been no redemption for me if Jesus had not given Himself. How much it cost we cannot measure. If you weigh things up like this you will

understand the Lord's question, "Which of them will love him most?" If He gave Himself for me how can [ have reserves? This woman had no reserves; she loved the Lord with all her heart, she threw her reputation and her fears to the wind. I would like to make an appeal at this point to each one as to whether you have expressed your love to Christ? He does not ask you to do much: it is a question of your love to Him. He says, "This do in remembrance of me". I leave that appeal with every one of you. I do not know where you are in your soul's history but I would like to ask whether you are in any way answering to the desires of Jesus, of His love: it is within your reach. "We love him because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19).

Now I shall say a few words about what it means to us to be in the current of this love. If we think of the epistle to the Ephesians it ends by saying, "Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption". How easily our motives become corrupted unless we are unceasingly vigilant. There may be love for Christ but our motives may not be pure. How soon the assembly at Ephesus left its first love! They were doing works which the Lord could commend, it was the best meeting in the world -- zealous, diligent in all assembly matters -- but He says, "I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4). No one but the great eternal Lover would have known that. Love is so sensitive, love detects any decline. The activities may be just the same and no outsider could discern a change: but "I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love". There was some mixed motive. The only

thing that can satisfy Christ is love in incorruption, love in first degree, love without any mixture; and the epistle to the Ephesians shows that spiritual progress depends on love like that. You may not think so; you may think it depends on study of the word and attending meetings (and if you love you will study the word and attend the meetings); but no amount of studying the word nor attending meetings will profit you unless it is accompanied by love. Nor is a powerful natural mind required, for you may have all the terms of the truth and know nothing of the truth. Natural intelligence cannot give the truth. The fact is that only love can take in the thoughts that love has conceived. "I ... do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you at my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart". (Ephesians 1:16 - 18). You see, it is a heart matter; we must have a heart to understand divine things and a heart which has eyes. The Lord opened Lydia's heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul, it was her affections that were engaged. If your affections are in the thing you will become enlightened; and the verses that follow give the great scope of conscious knowledge which the Father of glory would bring us into.

Again, in Ephesians 3, verses 14 - 19, the apostle bows his knees "to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ... that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love". It is a question of Christ dwelling in the heart, and of

being rooted and founded in love, "in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height: and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God". It is love that gives the capacity to apprehend. That explains why elderly infirm sisters who are debarred from normal activities are sometimes found in the apprehension and enjoyment of the great love system far more than those who have all the privileges. Such souls may not have the ability to express themselves in words, and, in any case, power of expression depends on gift. Yet, as "rooted and founded in love", they apprehend and enjoy the scene of love and glory more than many of those who have gift. Thus spiritual intelligence is within reach of all who are "rooted and founded in love". This brings me to the last point.

I have spoken of the Lord seeking love and also what it means to us to be in the current of love -- that it is the way of intelligence and enjoyment. Finally I would speak of the way love would move us. Our love for Christ is bound to come into expression. Paul is the great example, because he loved Christ he could not do too much for the members of His body, he was entirely devoted to the saints. "I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly" (Colossians 1:24). "I endure all things for the sake of the elect" (2 Timothy 2:10). "Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved"

(2 Corinthians 12:15). Even, though, if he had no return for his love he would go on loving and serving the saints. That is how Paul proved himself to be a lover of Christ. Again, Jesus says, "if any man love me he will keep my word". It is a test to us as to whether we know His word. "Word" as used there refers not only to what may be expressed but to what is in a person's mind. It is only a person who loves who really knows what is in the mind of the loved one. Commandments are expressed requirements and the lover of Christ will cherish these. But in addition, "if any man loves me he will keep my word". With all the intuition of love he will know what the Lord's thoughts and desires are, and these will become his chief concern. It involves providing "dwelling" conditions for Christ and for God, and he will not rest until such conditions have been secured. You see this kind of love working even in the Old Testament. David said, "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the mighty one of Israel" (Psalm 132:4 - 5). What a lover David was! His name means "Beloved". He was a man after God's own heart and who should do all His will; yet a man of like passions as ourselves. His one object was to find a place suitable for God. That is what a lover of Christ has in his mind. How skilful love is! The lover of Christ makes a place for Him down here. "If any man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him". (John 14:24). How much is involved in that for love's satisfaction; and,

as in love's current, we can move together on these lines. What a precious favour this is, for we can all be in it, young and old! As receiving the Spirit we all have the capacity to love and to move in love's current without reserve. As we do so we shall acquire spiritual intelligence and enjoyment, and our love will manifest itself in serving the saints, the members of His body; and also, supremely, in working together to provide a place for God. Love alone can provide the furnishings suitable to Him.

May the Lord grant it, for His name's sake!