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THE NAME OF GOD

Numbers 6:22 - 27; Matthew 18:20; John 17:26; Matthew 28:18 - 20

I wish to call attention to Numbers 6:27: "they shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them". I wish to say a word about the Name. The Name that is in mind in that passage would be the name in the Old Testament for which three cognate words are used. When Moses asked what he should say when they said, What is His Name? the answer was "I AM THAT I AM". That was the Name. But, in being sent to the children of Israel, he was to say to them that Jehovah, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, had sent him. Later in the scripture we are told His name is Jah; Psalm 68:4. Now those three words are cognate words in Hebrew, I AM, Jah, and Jehovah. Together they bring out the great truth of the Name in

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the Old Testament. It was intended to bring home to the children of Israel that the great self-existent God, the only One, had put Himself in relationship with them. Other names of God are names in the sense of titles, and they can, of course, wrongly, be applied to false gods. The greatest name in the sense of title is the name "El". It refers to God as the One who alone has strength. He stands alone in His own strength; all other strength is derived. Not only is He the Source of all physical or material strength, but He stands in His own strength of character and nature; nothing ever moves Him or changes Him. The fancied gods of man's imagination are fickle, but the true God (El) stands in His own strength of character and nature, nothing ever moving Him to act contrary to what He is in Himself. He is the Mighty One and it is He who gives strength and might unto His people; Psalm 68:35. But then the I AM made known to Israel, Jah Jehovah (see Isaiah 26:4), is the only true El. So that when the Name is proclaimed before Moses, the word is "Jehovah, Jehovah El", Exodus 34:6. "I AM" is God's own assertion of His self-existence. He says I AM. The creature in answer to that assertion would say "Jah", the One who is, the great and only self-existent One. All other existences are derived; all other things began to be, but He ever was. Jehovah is the One who is, and who was, and who is to come; that is, Jah come into time. He not only is, but He was, and He is to come.

I bring these things out because that is God's Name. That name belongs to no other. And He says, "I will put my name upon the children of Israel". The

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God that we have to do with is that same God, He is the only God. But He has now been fully declared I wish therefore to speak of the way "the Name" is referred to in the New Testament.

First of all I desire to speak of the name of Jesus. Jesus is no less than I AM. He is Jah Jehovah. Were it not so, His name could not have the place that it has in the testimony at the present time; it would be idolatry to give such a place to a mere man. The name that gives character to the present public testimony is the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is the name to which we gather and upon which we call. But the truth is that Jesus is I AM. In the beginning He was, and all things began to be through Him. And yet He has come into manhood. But His coming into manhood does not alter the truth of His Person; and, therefore, in this wonderful day, the name of a Man is the Centre of things testimonially. But it is so because of who He is. He is I AM; He is Jah Jehovah. Yet He is Jesus. He is the One we know. He says in resurrection, "thus it behoved the Christ to suffer, and to rise from among the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name to all the nations". In His name repentance and remission of sins are preached. It is upon His name that men may call for salvation. "Whosoever", Peter says, "shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved". The scripture he is quoting from in the Old Testament says, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of Jehovah shall be saved", Joel 2:32. The Person he was presenting is Jehovah. And so he says, "Repent, and be baptised, each one of

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you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". His is the great testimonial name, the name under which we go forward in the preaching. True, in Acts 2, because of the circumcision in Jerusalem, Peter asserts that He was Jesus of Nazareth whom God had made Lord, which is true. As Man He is made Lord. But He receives from God what is His by right as a Person of the Godhead.

The way His name is stressed in Acts is remarkable. In chapter 3: 16 Peter says, "By faith in his name, his name has made this man strong". When they charged Peter and John not to speak at all nor to teach in the name of Jesus, they said, "If it be right to listen to you rather than God, judge ye". Later when again forbidden to teach in the name of Jesus, he said, "God must be obeyed rather than men". And when they were beaten, they rejoiced to be counted worthy to be dishonoured for the Name. This is the Name in the testimonial sense. In Acts 10, Peter said, "He is Lord of all things". He did not tell Cornelius He is made Lord. That was needful for the Jews in Jerusalem, because the issue was between them and God; but when speaking to the Gentiles he said, "He is Lord of all things"; and he said "everyone that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins". And so they were baptised in the name of the Lord. Later, when Paul came to Ephesus, the disciples "were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus". That is an Ephesian title and corresponds with Adonai in Psalm 68:17, 18, "The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands

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upon thousands; the Lord (Adonai) is among them; it is a Sinai in holiness. Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive; thou hast received gifts in Man". And that is quoted in Ephesians 4:8. Who is this One who has ascended up on high in the right of His own Person? He is Adonai Jehovah. Adonai is a divine title of lordship, lordship in the right of Deity. That is the thought in Ephesians 4:10; He has ascended up above all the heavens.

Then it is not only that the testimony goes forward in His name, but His is the name upon which we continually call, in all our localities. It is our public profession, that we call on the name of the Lord. And so Paul says, "to the assembly of God which is in Corinth ... with all that in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both theirs and ours". I am seeking to prove to you that this is the testimonial name and that the name of a mere man could not be that. We are known in every locality as callers on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Not only so, but the Lord says, "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name". It would be dreadful idolatry to gather together to the name of a mere man. He says "There am I in the midst of them". His name is the very point of gathering. Not only so, but, when we have gathered, and at other times too, our requests are made known in His name. "If ye shall ask anything in my name", He says, "I will do it", and later, "that whatever ye shall ask the Father in my name he may give you". Think of the power of that name! Our praise and thanksgiving, is in that name. "Giving thanks at all times for all things to him who is God and

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the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ", Ephesians 5:20. And again, "Whatever ye may do in word or deed do all things in the name of the Lord Jesus", Colossians 3:17.

Peter said, "Neither is there another name under heaven which is given among men by which we must be saved", Acts 4:12. Even as to the Holy Spirit the Lord Jesus says, "Whom the Father will send in my name". Unless we are in accord with that name, and all that it implies, we shall never get the gain of the Holy Spirit. We may receive Him, but we shall not get the gain of Him. "The Comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things". Christians are not divinely taught unless they are in accord with the name of the Lord, subject to Him, acknowledging the rights and glory of His Person, for only then is the Holy Spirit free.

Now I speak about the Name of Father. The Lord Jesus said in the passage read, "I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known". It was a great feature of His mission here to make known the Father's name. The Father's name could not be made known until the Son was here. The Father's affections could not come into manifestation until there was an Object adequate for them. It is in the presence of the only-begotten Son that the Father comes into view. Those affections, of course, ever existed in God, for He created a father's affections, but they could not come into manifestation until the Son was here, and then it says, "the Father loves the Son". The Father's affections came into display. While the Lord was here,

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much of His service was to manifest the Father's name. He says, "I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world". I think you will find that the Father is mentioned over forty times in Matthew, and over one hundred times in John, showing how much of the Lord's conversation and teaching centred round the Father. He tells us in Matthew what the Father would be to us in our circumstances here; not only in our personal circumstances, but in the circumstances of the testimony. The Father is our ultimate resource, both as to our individual needs and as to our testimonial needs. "If two of you shall agree on the earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens", Matthew 18:19. He is the great resource. But in John the Lord unfolds what the Father is in relation to the realm of purpose. He says, "My Father worketh hitherto and I work", and again, "All that the Father gives me shall come to me" and again, "No one can come to me except the Father who has sent me draw him". The Father is operating in view of eternal purpose. The Lord speaks many times of the name in connection with His Father. He says in John 17, "Holy Father, keep them in thy name which thou hast given me". I have no doubt that is the Father's name. There is nothing like family affection to keep us. The enemy has always attacked the family; he did so from the outset because the human family is the most important unit God has made amongst men. But the truth of the family of God is of transcending importance. If we are not kept in the Father's name

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and thus in warm family affections for one another, the truth of the body will never prosper. Family affections are fundamental in Christianity. Paul's most elementary assembly epistle is addressed to "the assembly of Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ". We would not be Christians at all if we were not in the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the testimonial name. We come into blessing through Him. But they were also in God the Father, and the whole tone of the epistle shows how strongly divine family affections were developing among them. He desires that they should abound in love more and more towards one another and towards all. He does not bring the truth of the body into that epistle. He is concerned first to secure this strong foundation of family affections involved in being consciously in God the Father and thus kept in the Father's name in all the warmth and tenderness of that name. If such a condition exists amongst the saints, they will be prepared to accept the truth of the body, which is a testing truth. In the family we are all firstborn ones, all children of God, and all loved with the same love; but in the body we each have a different function. And I may not be satisfied with my function. I may want to do something that someone else is doing -- something that God has not equipped me to do. We shall not be prepared for the test of divine sovereignty in the body if we are not in the gain of the family. Thus John recovers us to Paul by bringing us into the warmth of the family in the knowledge of the Father, the tenderness of His love for the Son, and the way He has embraced us in those affections which He has

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for the Son. What could be more tender than the Father's love? And it would make us very tender with one another, like Paul amongst the Thessalonians exhorting them as a father his own children and cherishing them as a nurse her own children.

Furthermore, apart from the knowledge of the Father and His Name, we shall never arrive at the great divine end. The Lord says "I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them". This corresponds with Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3:14 - 19. He knows to whom to turn in this greatest of all matters. He bows his knees to the Father, "that the Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith", that He might be enshrined there, that we might take character from the Father in His love for the Son. The Father loves the Son and He will bring about a universe where all will love the Son. I believe it is right to say that the Father has devised, and is bringing to pass, a universe that shall be an adequate setting for the Son as the Centre. Such is His love for the Son. And He would give us according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man, so that, in so far as creature capacity permits, the Christ might have the same place in our hearts as He has in His; and that thus we might be able to apprehend that vast universe which centres in the Son. How important the Father's name is! "I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them". It involves the climax of Paul's ministry.

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Indeed the Lord's prayer in John 17 covers the whole of Paul's ministry, but in words which only the Son Himself could have expressed. No one but a Person of the Godhead could have put the whole matter in such compression. How blessed the Father is! How blessed His affections are! How tender His affections for the Son and how much He is doing for the Son! He has embraced us in His affections and given us to the Son, and the Lord Jesus says, "I am glorified in them". He will be so glorified through all eternity.

I have referred to the testimonial Name -- the name of Jesus, and to the Father's name. Now I proceed to Matthew 28, where we have "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit". Whenever we consciously reach the Father's presence we are not far away from the glory of this Name. In the presence of the Father and the riches of His glory, with the Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, we are not far from the fulness of God. As we are worshipping the Father and giving Him His supreme place in the economy of God, He would soon give us a sense that He desires us to honour the Son even as we honour Him; and that He would also have us honour the Holy Spirit. There is no selfishness with divine Persons. So it soon becomes a matter of this great name coming before us in worship and praise, "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", a name which speaks to us, on the one hand, of the economy in all its greatness, the Father supreme in it, His name coming first, therefore; and yet on the other hand a name which brings out the equality in Deity of the Three Persons. There is the economy

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in its order, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit and yet the great truth that God is one and His name one. The economy remains for ever, thank God, and in that great economy of love the Father ever has His place of supremacy. Yet the economy had a beginning. But God Himself had no beginning. So the ultimate in our worship is God. From everlasting to everlasting He is God.

Now I go back to Numbers 6:27, because God says, "they shall put my name upon the children of Israel". I believe, as applied to us, that would cover all I have been speaking about. The testimonial Name is ever upon us, the name of the Lord Jesus. The name of the Father is also upon us; we take character from Him in family affections and also in upright works; Matthew 5:16 But over and above all that there is the Name to which we have been baptised. Every professing Christian on earth has, I suppose, been baptised to that Name -- millions of them. To many it means nothing, alas! Think of all the children who are christened in this country to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Who knows when God will work with any one of them and they will become alive to the Fulness to which they were baptised? But then this Name is upon us all.

"They shall put my name". I trust I have made myself clear that, in Christianity, it involves the name of the Lord Jesus, the name of the Father, and the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And it is for us to comport ourselves in accord with the Name. That is what is in mind at the beginning of Numbers. God had set up His tabernacle;

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He was dwelling in it. He called out of it according to Leviticus 1, and He spoke in it according to Numbers 1"Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting". When it is a question of approach, God calls out of the tent of meeting; He wants us to draw near. But in the tent of meeting He would tell us what He looks for as to our conduct outside. When we have been inside we are ready for the outside. Numbers is the ordering of the camp around the tabernacle. "Our God the centre is", we sing, and we think of a scene that is yet to come. But that is the truth now. That is Numbers. God is dwelling here in His habitation, the tabernacle of witness. He must be the centre; all the tribes were to encamp around the tabernacle and all their interests were to be in relation to the tabernacle. "Our God the centre is". How could He be anything else? Is He the centre of your life? If not, you are out of the matter as to anything vital. It is a question of God being your centre all the time, every day. That is what He would tell you if you go into the tent of meeting. He would say, When you go out, I want you to order all your circumstances in relation to Me. He says, I call upon you for military service. You are all soldiers. Pitch your tents, as soldiers, around My dwelling. That is what He expects us to do. If we have not done it before, let us do so now. Let each householder, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ, see that he himself and his house are set for the defence of the testimony. The next thing is He calls upon the Levites, who were nearer to the tabernacle than the soldiers. He would say to us,

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You are not only soldiers, you are also Levites. You have levitical obligations. You have to be prepared to carry, to take down, to put up, and to care for the tabernacle. Yet that is not all. He would also say, You are priests. The priests were nearer still, on the east side, close to the tent of meeting.

So God calls upon every one of us to orient ourselves and our households, in relation to Himself and His dwelling-place, in these three ways; first in military formation, secondly in the acceptance of levitical obligations, and thirdly as priests. It is not a static affair, and there are no days off duty. There is no thought of a holiday in the Acts. In the divine scheme the only holidays were the holy days -- the feast days. According to Acts, the apostles taught daily in the temple and Paul taught daily in the school of Tyrannus. If you took a day off at Ephesus you would miss something of Paul's ministry. The enemy is attacking all the time, the military are needed; there is service to be rendered at all times to the saints, the Levites are needed; and there is the service of God, which is the most important, the priests are needed. Following the ordering of the camp in chapters 1 - 6, every leper was to be put out of the camp; that is, discipline was to be rightly exercised. Then, in the trial of jealousy, pure affections were to be preserved, and then the Nazarite brings in the devotion in which all these obligations are to be carried out. It is at that point that Jehovah says, "they shall put my name upon the children of Israel". His name was not to be put upon a disordered crowd, but upon a holy nation in proper order around the tabernacle. He says, "they shall

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put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them". You cannot expect blessing if you contract out of the scheme. I call upon the brethren to be wholly in it; not half-heartedly, not with reserves, but wholly in it. What right have we to do our own will and go our own way? Look at the price that has been paid! This glorious Person, whom we contemplate in the holiest, has been to the altar of burnt-offering for us and has suffered outside the camp as the sin-offering. Are we to claim any rights for ourselves? Shame on us if we do! I look round upon my brethren, "redeemed from Adam's race and ransomed from the fall". What are we going to do with the rest of our time? Let us wake up to righteousness and sin not. To be dilatory about these things is sin. Let us wake up to the claims of God upon us, as redeemed and ransomed people, and let us be set in our right position, relative to God as the Centre, at the present time.

He says, "They shall put my name upon the children of Israel; and I will bless them". You will not lose by it; you will be blessed. It is the blessing of the priests. We are to be in the spirit of blessing as we look at the saints in divine order. Jehovah says, "Speak unto Aaron and unto his sons, saying, On this wise ye shall bless the children of Israel: saying unto them, Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee; Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee; Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace". I have no doubt, as others have suggested, there is a veiled allusion here to the Holy Trinity, which bears on what we have been saying

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tonight as to the Name. "Jehovah bless thee, and keep thee", no doubt a veiled allusion to the Holy Spirit here amongst us in blessing, the One who keeps us; the Paraclete: "Jehovah make his face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee", the Lord Jesus, whose glory we behold with unveiled face; "Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee" the sense of the Father's countenance, His favour resting upon us as it rests upon Christ. "Jehovah lift up his countenance upon thee, and give thee peace".

Birmingham, June 10th, 1957

(From Words of Grace and Comfort 1958, page 13)