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A CHRISTIAN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (1)

Romans 5:1, 2, 9 - 11; Hebrews 10:4 - 10, 19 - 22; Ephesians 1:13, 14.

This meeting, dear friends, has been convened with a view to God being pleased to help those of us who profess to be christians to understand better the ground of our profession. I trust that there will also be sufficient in what comes before us to make the way of salvation perfectly clear to anyone here who may not yet profess to be a christian, -- may not yet believe in the Lord Jesus. I trust there will be sufficient to be used of God to bring that soul to Christ so that we may all leave this room as professing christians and true believers, and, in some measure, established in the faith.

I would say at the beginning that there is nothing more important for any of us to consider than our personal relationship with God. Compared with that, other things fade into insignificance. Satan, the enemy of our souls, would endeavour to make you and me put that last, to make it the last thing that we should think about. Whereas if we face the matter soberly and sensibly, as I may say, we shall each one surely admit that it is a matter of the very

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first importance; far exceeding any other in importance. How we stand with man is of little account compared with our relationship with God. We all need God. We need Him for one thing because He is the Rock, the Rock of Ages. Everything else that we might trust in, or rely on, is going to fail us, heaven and earth even will pass away, so that if there is one thing we need, it is to know God. If I know God and have a link with Him, and have the consciousness that God loves me, that is of more value than if I possessed the whole world, and a thousand worlds. That priceless possession, the knowledge of God, and the knowledge that He loves you, can be yours.

What we are offering is better than a thousand worlds; the whole universe put in the scales against the knowledge of God and His love does not bear comparison. We all need God -- the essential need of every man, woman and child is to know God, and we have only a short time in which to get to know God, and we do not know how short that time is. Our lives here are short in any case and now is the time to get to know God, because our eternal position in relation to God depends on our getting to know God now. Everything depends on now -- this present time. "It is the portion of men once to die, and after this judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). It is too late then, but the great thing is now, -- now is the time to get to know God, to have the love of God shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, and

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to become established and certain in your soul as to how you stand in relation to God, and that is the question I want to raise with you. Have you certainty and assurance in your relationship with God?

You profess to be a christian, you have some respect for the name of the Lord and for the Scriptures, but I would like to ask you if you have certainty and assurance in your relations with God. God Himself is the Rock of Ages, and here in this book we have something that is abiding. The Lord Jesus says, "the heaven and the earth shall pass away, but my words shall in no wise pass away" (Matthew 24:35) -- they are in this book, the Bible. This book has been more attacked than any book, but it still stands: the truth of it shines with greater clarity than ever before. The oppositions of science, falsely so-called, at the beginning of this century, have faded away; men have found out more about the creation and those cavillings have come to nothing. The more the truth as to the creation is discovered, the more it proves the truth of this book. It is a great thing that we have this book, these living oracles of God. This book is the most precious thing and in it is the truth. It is the most precious book there is. I trust everybody here respects it. I can tell you this, the more you read it and experience what it says, the more you will respect it and be assured of the truth of it.

What I wish to speak of and enquire about is as to what measure of certainty and assurance you

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have in your relations with God. You are a believer, but perhaps you have not much certainty. It is not God's thought that you should be in doubt or uncertainty. God has nothing else in His mind but that you should be in certainty about the truth, more certain than of anything in this life. There is no reason why you should not be sure and certain, because your salvation does not rest upon anything that you have done, or could do. If my salvation rested in any degree upon my doings, I should be lost for ever. I might well be uncertain if I even had to do a part of it. If the Lord Jesus had done something and I had to do the rest, I might well be full of uncertainty, and the truth is it would all fail. If anything was left to me it would fail. But the great truth of the glad tidings of God -- these glad tidings that are meant to make you glad, and to be told you had to do something would never give you gladness or certainty -- these glad tidings of God rest upon a Person who can never fail. They all rest on the solid foundation of the Person and the redemptive work of our Lord Jesus Christ. The old hymn writer says,

On Christ the solid Rock I stand
All other ground is shifting sand.

We want to get you off that shifting sand. You may have had mixed ideas about the ground of your salvation, but we want to bring you on to the solid Rock, and the solid Rock is Christ and His finished work upon the cross; that is the Rock I am standing

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on. Nothing can ever move that Rock, and nothing can ever move those who stand upon it. My eternal salvation is complete and assured, and yours is the same if you are a believer in Jesus. God wants you to enjoy this assurance, this certainty; as trusting in Christ and His finished work. I put Christ first, and why I do that is because the Redeemer is a living Person. When we think of His work we are thinking of the work of a living Person. He says to John, "I am the first and the last, and the living one: and I became dead, and behold, I am living to the ages of ages, and have the keys of death and of hades" (Revelation 1:17, 18). He is living, but He became dead. No other man has ever become dead -- all others have had to die -- the Lord Jesus became dead, it was His own act. He came here to die, so that you and I might be brought to God, but He is living to the ages of ages. It was impossible that He should be holden of death. He tasted death, and all that death means, -- God's wrath and Satan's power. He says, "Before Abraham was, I am" (John 8:58). Jesus is the I AM, the Eternal God manifest here in flesh. He became dead, but He is living to the ages of ages as a risen glorified living Saviour, a living glorified Man, ever God, and yet Man in a glorified condition. Peter says, "This Jesus" (Acts 2:36). He is the same Jesus, and His final word in the Bible is, "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright and morning

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star" (Revelation 22:16). So that it is a living Person we rest upon, a living Person who is living to the ages of ages. But we would have no right to put our trust in Him, there would be no basis for it, if He had not died, so we trust in Jesus, a living glorified Saviour and His work upon the cross.

I want to say a few words about that wonderful work of Jesus on the cross. It is referred to in the passages we have read. We need to understand these passages to get the assurance and certainty I have been speaking of. The first says, "having been justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God". That is the first thing. Have you peace towards God? It speaks in Hebrews, in the chapter out of which we read, about the worshippers once purged having no longer any conscience of sins. If you have once known the purging power of the precious blood of Christ, your conscience will never trouble you again in this particular way in relation to God. If you go on carelessly you will lose communion and your conscience will trouble you in that sense, because you will feel you have grieved the One who died for you, but you will never be afraid of the wrath to come. If your conscience is once purged of that fear, it is a completed matter. You have no more conscience of sins in the sense of being afraid of their final consequences -- "justified on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God". The word "justified" comes from the same root as the word "righteous".

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"Just" and "righteous" mean the same thing. "Having been justified on the principle of faith" means that having been set up in judicial righteousness before God, on the principle of faith, we have peace towards God. There could never be any assurance of our eternal salvation if it was not based on righteousness. If it was not on a righteous basis, which nobody could ever challenge, we should never be safe. It is a most important thing to understand that we are set up in judicial righteousness before God.

The need for justification appeals to guilty people. "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). Then immediately it says, "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood" (verses 24, 25). We are all guilty. We deserve the wrath of God. Our sins deserve eternal judgment. What has God done to meet that position? He has not overlooked our sins. God sent His Son, and Peter says of the Lord Jesus, "who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree" (1 Peter 2:24). Jesus died as the Sin-bearer. He bore the judgment, He bore the wrath, He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1). He was bearing what was due to you and to me before God. If we had had to stand before God in our sins (and may God grant that none of us here may do so), it would mean eternal banishment from His presence. Not a

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soul with sin upon him can come into the presence God. But Jesus took our sins upon Himself, and God sent Him for that purpose that He should die and bear our sins upon the cross. Now He is set forth as a living Man in heaven for faith to lay hold of as a mercy-seat. The mercy-seat is where God meets us, where He will talk to us on most favourable terms. He says to Moses, "There will I meet with thee" (Exodus 25:22). The precious blood of Christ has been shed, and it goes on to say "whom God has set forth a mercy-seat, through faith in his blood, for the shewing forth of his righteousness, in respect of the passing by the sins that had taken place before" (Romans 3:25). All the sins God forgave in the Old Testament were forgiven on the ground that Jesus would come and be the Sin-bearer -- all the sins that will ever be forgiven are on the basis of the precious blood of Christ. There is no other basis on which forgiveness can come to any man or woman or child in the world's history. That is the truth, and God has shown forth His righteousness. God is going to save a vast multitude, but He is going to do it on an absolutely right basis, not by overlooking sins, but by glorifying Himself in His righteousness. How can God prove His righteousness in saving guilty sinners from their sins? Only by having "not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). All the offerings in the Old Testament looked on to this -- the continual sacrifices on the altar of old all foreshadowed the

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great truth that Jesus was to come -- that He was to be the Sin-bearer. It is a most marvellous thing that God has found a means, yet, of course, He foresaw this, the Lord Jesus was foreknown before the foundation of the world as the Lamb who was going to die - 1 Peter 1:20. But think of God conceiving a plan whereby He could free the sinner from his guilt and yet manifest His righteousness, not His laxity (which could never be) about sin. He is absolutely righteous in all that He does, and yet saves the sinner. That is where His love comes in. It is God's love that moves Him to act in this way to save the sinner. That is where glory comes in. People wonder what glory means. The glory that God has secured to Himself in this respect is that He has found a way of acting in perfect love, and forgiving the sinner, and yet upholding in an absolute sense His righteousness. The believer thus realises that, through believing in the Lord Jesus, He stands before God in judicial righteousness, absolutely clear from every charge on an absolutely righteous foundation. No enemy can accuse him. "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever" (Isaiah 32:17). The way we get peace towards God, and quietness and assurance for ever, is by understanding that the basis of our salvation is in righteousness. Therefore no enemy can bring an accusation against us because of Jesus and His blood -- "having been justified on the principle of

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faith, we have peace towards God". "Who shall bring an accusation against God's elect? It is God who justifies" (Romans 8:33). I trust these few words will help us all towards peace with God and assurance. A soul that rests on the righteousness of God can never be moved. He understands, in a true way, the love of God. Whereas a soul that rests on the love of God without understanding God's righteousness, is never sure, nor does he understand the true nature of God's love.

Sanctification is needed by defiled persons; justification is needed by guilty persons; but they are the same persons, and it is the same work. Although I am going to speak about three aspects of the work of Christ it is one work. The Holy Scriptures give us the various aspects that we might understand the work of Christ, but it is one work. Every guilty person must be a defiled person because sin defiles us. We may know our sins are forgiven, but still be doubtful about entering God's presence because we are conscious of the defilement of sin. But the very work that justified me has sanctified me. "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all". This is not progressive sanctification. "We have been sanctified ... once for all". He has taken my place upon the cross. God made Him to be sin for me, and the result is God no longer sees me as connected with my Adam state -- the state in which I was born in sin. In the

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death of Christ I can say, in faith, that I died with Him, and I live now in Him, the risen Man. I am in all His acceptance before God, so that not only is there no charge against me, but in God's sight none of the defilement belonging to the old order attaches to me. I have been buried with Him and raised with Him by faith of the working of God. That mighty work of Christ has not only justified me, but it has sanctified me, and Paul writes to the Corinthians and calls them sanctified in Christ Jesus. You do not have to wait for the Pope to make you a saint. We are saints by divine calling, we are saints because of the Person and work of Christ, and our faith in Him. That is how we have become numbered amongst God's holy ones, saints by divine calling. We are sanctified, set apart for Him, pleasurable to Him.

What does the understanding of this do for us? The understanding of this gives us boldness. As a guilty man I need justification, and the understanding of justification gives me peace and assurance; but the understanding of sanctification gives me boldness. There are many christians who think it presumption. But if I have not peace, assurance and boldness it is because I have failed to apprehend the greatness of the Person and work of Christ. You may think it is very humble to say you are not sure of your eternal salvation, but you are casting a slur on the Person and work of Christ. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering

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into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus". The holy of holies in the tabernacle was just a figure of the true. The High Priest only, dare enter there, and he only went in once a year. What a difference in christianity -- the Son of God has come. He says, "Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will". He has offered up His body. Sacrifices such as those prescribed in the Old Testament are no longer required, for this sacrifice has eternal efficacy. "By one offering he has perfected in perpetuity the sanctified", and if we understand that, we have boldness. Of old no one dare draw near except the High Priest once a year, but now every believer, "having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus", can enter into the holiest place in the universe at any time. We are not afraid to go there, it is not presumption. To suggest that we may not enter there casts a slur upon the Person and work of Christ, and surely none of us would wish to do that. We surely desire to magnify our Saviour and we do this by drawing near with a true heart, in full assurance of faith. We enter the most holy place, the very presence of God, and find a welcome there. We have boldness to enter by the blood of Jesus, not by our works; nothing we could do would have conferred this privilege upon us. It is by the blood of Jesus, by the "new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh".

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I wonder whether every believer finds his home in the presence of God? We have peace with God, and now boldness to enter into the immediate presence of God where Jesus is. Why should we not be bold to go there, for Jesus is there. He has won that place for us to enter into in faith now, and to be our home in actuality all through eternity.

Now I pass on to Romans 5. Another aspect of the death of Christ is brought before us in verse 10. "If, being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son" -- enemies need reconciliation. We were all guilty and defiled, and were all enemies, alienated from God. Every one of us needed justifying, and sanctifying; and similarly, each one needed to be reconciled, and the one great work on the cross has effected all. These are just aspects of it. It is one great work and the one who puts his trust in Christ comes into the gain of all these things at one stroke on the principle of faith. Reconciliation is received as we repent and believe in the Lord Jesus. This is a wonderful thing. "Being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of his Son". That is a most touching expression relative to the death of Christ, the death of His Son. How it brings out the love of God. Think of God acting like this towards His enemies. Guilty? Yes, He has compassion on the guilty and defiled, and would meet their state. But their very guilt lay in the fact that they were enemies. Men have turned their backs on God, are

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alienated in mind by wicked works, do not want God. Have you ever heard of anyone treating his enemies like this? "Being enemies, we have been reconciled to God through the death of His Son". The state of enmity came to a head at the cross. The Lord Jesus says, "they have both seen and hated both me and my Father" (John 15:24). The cross is an inexcusable crime on the part of man -- it cannot be whitewashed -- there are no extenuating circumstances, just because He was perfect goodness. Sin makes us like that, we hate what is good, and turn away from every mention of God, and if we pursue that course we shall go to hell because that will be our proper place. We could not go to heaven because it is the home of love, and a hateful person could not go there.

We were all involved in the crime of the crucifixion, both Jew and Gentile; and when our enmity was fully exposed we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. The very death that men imposed on Jesus, God made an atoning death. The great work of reconciliation was carried out, Jesus took the whole matter of sin upon Himself. Such grace and love has never been heard of, it is inconceivable, it could only be found in God. To know a God who treats His enemies like that fills our hearts with joy. This aspect of the death of Christ brings joy. How can we help boasting in a God like this? I do not know a worse enemy than myself. When I was an enemy I was reconciled to

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God by the death of His Son. No wonder I boast in God -- that is where real christian joy comes in. We know our salvation rests on righteousness and cannot be challenged. We have boldness because we know He has cleansed us from our defiled condition; but we joy in God because He has reconciled us (we who were enemies) and it has completely overcome us and has filled our hearts with unspeakable joy. We are making our boast in God, and we joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.

I hope everybody here has peace and joy and boldness. As you kneel down by your bedside tonight to pray, may you experience what it is to enter the holiest, conscious that it is your eternal home, and may you have the unspeakable joy of being consciously reconciled to God by the death of His Son.

I would like to speak very briefly about God's side of this matter. We joy in God, but Luke 15 shows God's joy in us as reconciled to Him. It shows how God loves to have us in His presence. The younger son says, "I will rise up and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee ... make me as one of thy hired servants" (verses 18, 19). But "while he was yet a long way off, his father saw him, and was moved with compassion, and ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses" (verse 20). That is

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reconciliation. That is the way God treats those who were in a state of enmity but now repent. He is just waiting for our return. He fell on his neck and covered him with kisses. It is love like this which led God to give His Son. He says, "Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it" (verse 22). It is a question of His own joy in having us in His presence. Perhaps another time we could speak about what the best robe means, the blessing into which God brings us. These reconciled persons are brought into His presence as sons. He says, "let us eat and make merry: for this my son was dead and has come to life" (verses 23, 24).

There is peace for the guilty through justification, boldness for the defiled through sanctification, and unspeakable joy through reconciliation -- the joy in which God excels as He must in everything. He loves to have us in His presence.

But you may say, how can I be kept in the enjoyment of these things? I am enjoying these things while you speak of them, but I am afraid tomorrow the joy will wane. As we rest upon that Blessed Person and His finished work as it says, "in whom ye also have trusted, having heard the word of the truth, the glad tidings of your salvation", we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. It goes on to say, "in whom also, having believed, ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise". If you are a real believer, God will seal you: God seals His own property, which He has bought at such

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tremendous cost, and He seals you with the gift of the Holy Spirit. He takes possession of us by giving us His Spirit to dwell in us; but that same Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance. The Holy Spirit is given to us to maintain us in the enjoyment of these things until the actuality arrives. There is no reason for your joy to wane, but there is every reason for your peace and boldness and joy to increase every day.

May God help us to be in the power and enjoyment of these things for His name's sake!

Finchley, London, June 1953.

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A CHRISTIAN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (2)

Galatians 1:3 - 5; Galatians 3:2 - 4; Galatians 4:4 - 7; Romans 8:1 - 10, 14 - 17.

The purpose of these meetings is to help us in our relations with God. The most important thing in our lives is the relationship of our souls with God. Tonight I want to go a step further and to speak of blessing, dwelling mainly on Galatians 3:14 which says, "that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith". I want to speak of these two things -- blessing and the promise of the Spirit through faith. Not only are we justified by faith but the blessing also comes to us through faith and we receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. All that we receive from God through our Lord Jesus Christ is on the principle of faith.

But you may say to me 'Surely those things you have already spoken about are blessings?' They are. Justification, sanctification and reconciliation are great blessings, but they are blessings that are a necessity to us because of sin. They are blessings which free us from the consequences of sin and put us right with God. What I wish to speak of now

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is the positive blessing that was in the heart of God, over and above those blessings which remove the consequences of sin. God's love is so great that it would not satisfy Him simply to remove the consequences of sin. He purposed blessing for man before the world began. It says in Ephesians 1 that He marked us out beforehand -- that means before the world began -- for sonship through Jesus Christ to Himself. That is the greatest blessing -- the blessing of sonship.

Sinners need forgiveness, the lost need to be found, enemies need to be reconciled: but who would have thought that those thus brought to God and cleared from all the consequences of their sins through the precious Person and work of Christ, would be given the place of sons. It is blessing beyond anything that could have entered into the heart of man. As the scripture says "Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:9, 10).

In Luke 15 the father falls on the neck of the returning son and covers him with kisses -- a practical illustration of reconciliation -- the way God delights to receive returning ones. But then the father says "Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it". Who could have thought of such a thing as that? "And put a ring on his hand and sandals on his feet; and bring the fatted calf and kill it, and let

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us eat and make merry: for this my son was dead and has come to life, was lost and has been found" (Luke 15:22 - 24).

You see, the saved sinner was a son in purpose even before he was a sinner in practice. God had this blessing in mind before the world began. Everything was prepared. He says, "Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it". He would make that returning one entirely at home in His presence, in His house. Who could be more at home than one who is clothed in the best robe? How thoroughly fitted for his place in his father's house -- a ring on his hand, sandals on his feet; it gives us an idea of the wealth of the blessing God bestows upon us.

And then, if we are sons, we are also heirs, as it says in Galatians 4:7, "So thou art no longer bondman, but son; but if son, heir also through God". I can conceive of nothing more blessed, dear friends. What could be greater than to be before God as His sons and heirs? How rich we are! So the blessing of God is sonship and inheritance, because God would give His sons the portion proper to sons: the inheritance.

So Scripture says "All things are yours. ... and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's" (1 Corinthians 3:21 - 23). What a wonderful thing! Paul says, "as having nothing, and possessing all things" (2 Corinthians 6:10). As christians in this world we have no part nor lot in it, and yet everything belongs to us. Why? Because we are sons of God. Everything

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belongs to God and therefore everything belongs to the sons of God. He has appointed the Lord Jesus, who is the Son, the Heir of all things. The time is coming when Jesus will take up the inheritance, it is all His by right. He is the Son and the Heir. We are sons of God and we are joint heirs with Christ, thus the time is soon coming when we shall inherit all things. If we understood this we should not long for possessions at the present time. Everything is ours, but we do not want to possess them until Christ is in possession. We do not want them while He is rejected and the usurper is in control. Yet all things are ours. We are sons and heirs of God. Such is the blessing with which God has blessed us.

I want to say a brief word as to what this has cost. It says in Galatians 3:13, 14, "Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us, (for it is written, Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree,) that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith". The curse is the very opposite of the blessing. They are opposites just as life and death are opposites. Jesus died for us that we might live. He bore the wrath of God that we might be justified. But there is nothing that can be more touching than this, that Christ has redeemed us out of the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. Have you thought of that?

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It is written "Cursed is every one hanged upon a tree", and Jesus was hanged upon a tree for you and for me. He bore the shame of public execution, and in being hanged upon the tree He became a curse for us; the curse that the law pronounced upon us fell upon Him. The law was given that man might earn blessing if he could, but it proved that man could only earn the curse. All the law could do was to pronounce curse upon us, because we are all law-breakers, and the Lord Jesus became a curse for us in order that the blessing might come to us. The love of God was behind it because "when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, come of woman, come under law, that he might redeem those under law, that we might receive sonship". The love of God was in this matter -- the blessed God who would not only have forgiven sinners in His presence, but sons.

I wonder whether we have all appreciated this great blessing. I am assuming we are all believers here, but have we laid hold of this blessing? "Ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). Have we laid hold of that? You may say, I am a believer and know my sins are forgiven and I am justified. But have you grasped the fact that if you are a believer you are one of the sons of God? It says so "ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus", and then it says in chapter 4: 6 "But because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father".

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The blessing is marvellous. Love has abounded beyond all our need. It is a love which not only forgives and reconciles, but also bestows the gift of sonship upon us. Think of the magnitude of it -- that we might receive sonship. We receive it as a gift, and how? By faith in Christ Jesus. Marvellous gift of God -- sonship. Much less would have satisfied me: like the younger son in Luke 15 -- "make me as one of thy hired servants". But it would not have satisfied God. That is the point. It would not satisfy God to have us in His presence on any level less than this -- sonship. It is to satisfy the love of God. What a God He is, that we are brought into His presence in the blessed relationship of sons clothed with the best robe. You cannot get anything better than the best. How miserable are the efforts of our hearts to work out our own righteousness! "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6). Our efforts to merit salvation -- how wretched and miserable and doomed to failure!

But think of the favour and grace of God -- "Bring out the best robe". If we could have kept the law of Moses and earned life on that basis it would not have been the best robe. We should just have been servants. But God says, "Bring out the best robe and clothe him in it". We are taken into favour in the Beloved. We share Christ's place as Man. He said when He rose from the dead "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God" (John 20:17).

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We are loved with the love which rests on Him and share the place which is His in the presence of His God and Father. How marvellous is the love of God!

Now it says "because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father". This is a wonderful thing because God intends the relationship to be real. God has blessed us. He has made us His sons and heirs. All things are ours, but we have not come into the inheritance yet. In the meantime He has given us the Spirit so that the things that are actually future might be real and present to us. The moment we realise that the Spirit of God is given to us we can never doubt the reality of christianity, because we cannot limit the Spirit of God. God Himself, in the Person of the Spirit, has come to dwell in the believer that we might enjoy the blessing now. The Holy Spirit is the Earnest of our inheritance, and brings home to us the present reality both of the relationship and of the wealth proper to it.

And so the greatest present blessing the believer has is the gift of the Holy Spirit, for He brings with Him the power and enjoyment of every other blessing. That is why the Scripture says, "that the blessing of Abraham might come to the nations in Christ Jesus, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Galatians 3:14). There is the blessing and the present enjoyment of the blessing by the Spirit.

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I would like to raise the question -- Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed? You say, I am not very certain about it. Ask the Lord to help you to make room for the Spirit. If you are a believer the Spirit desires to fill you. Ask Him to do so. It is a question of making room and giving place to Him in your heart and as you do so you will come into the joy of the blessing. "Because ye are sons, God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father". It makes the relationship exceedingly real. The Spirit comes into our hearts as the Spirit of God's Son, giving us all the feelings proper to the relationship.

"Abba" suggest the greatest nearness -- just as a child can nestle close to its father. "Abba" is a word even a child can lisp -- one of the most simple words in human language and I believe the use of it is intended to show what a sense of nearness we have to God in the power of the Spirit. Sonship becomes thus a very, very real and blessed thing.

Now I wish to say a brief word on Romans 8, because the question will arise -- How can I be sustained in the enjoyment of the blessing and the relationship that God has brought me into? The chapter shows how sufficient the Holy Spirit is to bring us experimentally into the enjoyment of sonship and maintain us in it. Everything depends on the Spirit and our giving place to the Spirit. Do not, however, mix up your joy with the gift itself.

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If you are a believer, God has given you the gift of sonship, whether you enjoy it or not. We are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Do not let your feelings rob you of the assurance of that. But then, if I am not walking in the power of the Spirit in practical deliverance, how can I enjoy sonship? The place and relationship are still mine, but how can I enjoy it? How could a soul in Romans 7:14 - 24 enjoy sonship? "I am fleshly", Paul says, "sold under sin", and he ends the chapter by saying "O wretched man that I am!" A man like that cannot enjoy sonship, and yet if he is a believer the verse quoted remains true -- "Ye are all God's sons by faith in Christ Jesus".

I would like to leave an impression on your heart that God has no thought of forgiving your sins; reconciling you to Himself; giving you the gift of sonship and creating in your heart all the longings to be in the enjoyment of these things, and then leaving you down here as a poor slave to sin in the flesh. If He had not given you the Spirit you would still be a slave, carnal and sold under sin, only able to say, "O wretched man that I am!" You would have the desire to do what is right and yet if you had not the Spirit you would not have an atom of power. Sin in the flesh would get the better of you every minute of every day and you would be indeed a wretched man. Unbelievers go along in the flesh and are undisturbed, though conscience may sometimes trouble them. But the believer cannot

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be happy if the flesh is active. He has forgiveness and knows the blessing of God and hates evil. But he still has the flesh in him, and were it not for the gift of the Spirit, he would still be led along as a slave by the lusts and desires of the flesh, however much he desired to do good.

But God does not save us from eternal judgment, bless us and create desires in us to please Him and then leave us to our own resources without any power. That would not be like God. I would like you to have as much confidence in the presence of the Spirit and His power to enable you to be here for God as you have in Christ and His work upon the cross. You should have the same confidence.

You say, 'I trust Christ for my eternal salvation'. But now go further -- rely on the Spirit for every moment of your responsible life here. He has come to dwell in you -- let Him have His way. If you are prepared to judge the flesh and give the Spirit His place and let Him lead you, the Spirit is perfectly capable of maintaining you here in complete deliverance from sin in the flesh, and in the full joy of salvation and sonship. That is what this chapter, Romans 8, brings out. As it says "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death".

Chapter 7 shows the terrible power of sin and it is in your flesh as well as mine. It shows we have no strength against it. But chapter 8 shows the complete victory of the believer because he has the

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Spirit, is subject to the Spirit, and has come under the leading of the Spirit. It has set him free. We can afford to have confidence in the Spirit who has come to dwell in us to give us power. Look to Him and seek His help in these matters. We seek the Lord's help in the face of the opposition of the world, but when it is a matter of sin in the flesh we prove what the Spirit can be to us -- how He can help us. Set your mind to walk according to the Spirit and He will lead you, and in Galatians 5:18 it says, "If ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under law".

Many christians, once converted, think it is their business to go back to the law of Moses and try to keep it. That is not christianity at all. A christian is never called upon to do that. He is called upon to walk in the Spirit and He will in no wise fulfil the lusts of the flesh. If you walk in the Spirit you are not under law. Why put yourself under law? If we walk in the Spirit we do not need the law. If you put yourself under law it means you are trying to keep the law in the power of the flesh; yet the fact that you came to Christ as your Saviour was really an admission of your helplessness. Why change your ground now? "Having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?" (Galatians 3:3).

I trust these remarks will help us in a practical way, dear brethren. Who of us has not tried to be made perfect in flesh? You think you are going to be a very fine christian man or christian woman,

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and can be such in your own strength. You are doomed to disappointment. You will lose the joy of your salvation -- not the salvation itself, but the enjoyment of it. There is no such thing as perfection in the flesh. As far as you walk according to the Spirit you will answer to God's word to Abraham -- "Walk before my face, and be perfect" (Genesis 17:1), but it is only in the Spirit. We may fail a thousand times in a day, but let us get back to walking in the Spirit so that we can walk before God's face and be perfect. No credit attaches to us. It is on account of the Spirit of God dwelling in us.

God Himself delivers us. "Who shall deliver me out of this body of death?" (Romans 7:24). A man in that state could not enjoy sonship. God delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord. Jesus bore the curse of the law for us -- all the judgment due to sin in the flesh -- in order that we might receive the Spirit. God thus delivers us through Jesus Christ our Lord by way of the gift of the Spirit. He would have us all delivered -- to be a delivered people walking according to the Spirit.

I would say we are filled with the Spirit in the measure in which we are filled with faith. They are put together in Acts 6. One man is said to be full of faith and the Holy Spirit. Paul develops the great principle of faith in Galatians. Those on the principle of faith are Abraham's sons and we need to continue on the principle of faith day by day. Paul says "I live by faith, the faith of the Son of

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God" (Galatians 2:20), and the more we are full of faith the more we shall be full of the Spirit. A man who is full of faith has his vision filled with Christ. Self is displaced. As the Son of God fills the vision, the Spirit of God fills the soul. Walking in the Spirit thus involves walking by faith. "In order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit". We do not put ourselves under law, yet the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us and we move along in communion with God. As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God, and thus we enjoy sonship in a practical and experimental way.

Sonship was given to us when we were first converted, but we come into the daily enjoyment of it as we give place to the Spirit and are led by the Spirit. What father would think of putting his sons under a code of rules? We expect it at school, but not at home. Sons do not need rules. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit of bondage again for fear [that is, we are not under the law], but ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father".

How wonderful it is in our daily path with its duties and sufferings on account of the testimony, or through ill-health or other causes, to be led by the Spirit of God and to have the Spirit of sonship whereby we cry "Abba, Father". What a difference

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this makes. It gilds everything with heavenly light as we pass through the circumstances, whatever they may be, able to cry "Abba, Father" in them. The Lord Himself used these words in Gethsemane's dark hour.

I trust some impressions will remain with us of the greatness of the blessing -- nothing less than sonship, and the inheritance of all things -- and the gift of the Holy Spirit to maintain us in present deliverance from the power of sin and in the practical enjoyment of the blessing.

May God grant it for His name's sake.

Finchley, London, June 1953.

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A CHRISTIAN'S RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD (3)

Hebrews 11:8, 29; Romans 6:17, 18, 23; Romans 12:1 - 5; 1 Corinthians 1:9.

I want to speak of the call of God; and in that connection I want to speak of two things -- the obedience of faith, and the service of God. All christians begin to think of service; they desire to serve God. It is of no avail to think of serving God until we are christians. The unconverted, religious man would serve, thinking that by so doing he would merit the blessing. Such works are dead works and offensive to God. Would Christ have died and would God have delivered up His own Son if we could have saved ourselves? Any such thought is offensive to God. But once we have accepted the Lord Jesus and His finished work, putting our trust in Him, and have received the gift of the Holy Spirit and are conscious of the blessing of sonship, then we shall desire to serve the God who has loved us in such a wonderful manner. Such service can then be very acceptable to God. There is a tremendous distinction between the dead works of unsaved people, who try to save themselves, and the good works of people who know they are saved

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through the precious Person and work of Christ and are serving God because they love the God who has first loved them. Good works are delightful to God. God says when bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt "Let my son go, that he may serve me" (Exodus 4:23). God loves to be served by those He has blessed. What father is there who is not delighted when his sons express their desire to do something for him? It delights a father's heart, and it delights God's heart. "Let my son go, that he may serve me".

The question arises as to what it means when it says "Let my son go", and what is meant when it says in Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed to go out into the place which he was to receive for an inheritance, and went out, not knowing where he was going". The gospel, as rightly received in the soul, involves the call of God out of Egypt. God would call us all out, and Abraham is the great example in the Old Testament of one called out and it says, "By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed". Abraham was living in a city, Ur of the Chaldees, and excavations have brought to light that the culture of that city was on a par with Paris at the present time. There were not modern inventions, but the art and culture of Ur of the Chaldees was of a very high order. But it was a wicked and idolatrous city. God said "Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, to the land that I will shew thee. And I will make of

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thee a great nation, and bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12:1 - 3). Stephen tells us that it was the God of glory who appeared to Abraham. One would love to think that the God of glory had appeared to our hearts even during these addresses. This blessed God of whom we have been speaking, the God who justifies sinners; who sanctifies the defiled; who reconciles enemies; who bestows the great gift of sonship; and who gives the Holy Spirit to dwell in us -- what a glorious God He is! Surely in some measure the God of glory has appeared to every one of us. Have not we some impression of the glory of this God? If so, you will have a great desire to enjoy, not only the blessing, but the company of the Blesser. If you are to have the company of the blessed God Himself, the only way is for you to move out, for you cannot enjoy the blessing, neither can you enjoy God's presence in the way He would love to be with you, while you remain in this world.

Scripture says, "Friendship with the world is enmity with God" (James 4:4). The world, as a system, is built up on the principle of leaving God completely out of account. It is a system of rebellion and robbery. It takes God's property -- the fulness of the earth and, without any reference to the Owner, it appropriates and uses it as it thinks fit. That is the great principle of sin -- leaving God out of

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account and ignoring His rights. It would be regarded as intolerable in human affairs if a man appropriated another's property without any regard for the rights of the owner. But that is what men are doing all the time. It is the principle of the world system. How different it will be when what belongs to God is used for God, when the Lord Jesus reigns! The oil found in the earth will not then be used to carry atom bombs. The manner in which men use created things is outrageous to God. But what else can we expect from a world that proved its enmity and hatred of God by crucifying Christ -- a sin of which it has never repented, in spite of its cathedrals and crosses? If you were to attend any great social function and made a speech in honour of Christ -- the greatest Man living -- you would be derided. The world does not want to hear about Him. It has not changed and has never repented of the crucifixion. Individuals have, but the world as a system has not.

So the word is "Go out", and this brings in the principle of the obedience of faith. "By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed". Paul says he preached the gospel for the obedience of faith among the nations. Faith not only puts its trust in Christ and His finished work, but obeys the call of God. A man who really trusts in Christ and owns Him as Lord and Saviour could not, with a good conscience, remain in the world. The call has come to him, and it is for him to obey.

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Now, the obedience of faith is a matter of love. If you have accepted the gospel and let the light of this blessed God shine into your heart, the One who has justified, sanctified and reconciled you, made you one of His sons and put the Spirit of His Son into your heart -- you will love Him. "We love because he has first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The Scripture says, "Faith working through love" (Galatians 5:6). You cannot believe in such a God and Saviour without loving that God and Saviour. It is impossible. This is how God has secured human hearts. He has loved us into loving Him.

Love for God is the first love of a truly converted man. He will love his wife and children and others in their right place, but God is his chief love. It must be so. If God has so loved us, sparing not His Own Son but delivering Him up for us all, how can we do other than give God first place? But love cannot bear separation from its Object, and if my heart is moved in love to God, I must get into circumstances where I can enjoy His presence; therefore I must go out of the world. "By faith Abraham, being called, obeyed". The God of glory had appeared to him in Ur of the Chaldees, but God could not remain with him in that wicked city. But God was more to him than any city. He would go wherever he was directed so long as he could have God with him. That is what marks a real believer: nothing matters compared with God. I must have God as my everlasting and daily portion; I cannot

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do without God. I want Christ and I want His God. It is more to me to have the Lord Jesus Christ, to be in communion with Him, and thus to have His God and the blessing of His God upon me than anything the world could offer. I must move into circumstances where I can know the presence of God.

With Abraham and the children of Israel, who are types of us, it meant an actual geographical movement. It is not so with us today. You will still live in the same street and go to the same office or factory, but you are a very different person -- you are in the world but not of it. The Lord Jesus said "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world. I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil" (John 17:14, 15). The will of God in christianity is that we should remain actually in the world, but to be in it as not of it and not as wanting anything it can offer. You are not dependent on it for your joy and resources. They are all in God. Jesus as a Man here found all His portion in His God and so does the believer.

Abraham was drawn out by attraction. The God of glory appeared to him and out Abraham went, not knowing where he was going. That is what we all have to do -- we know not what the next step will be; it is sufficient to know that God is with us. We know what the end will be -- glory with Christ above. The end is certain. The details we do not know. One step at a time is sufficient with God.

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The children of Israel went out of Egypt. With them it was not so much attraction -- there were the task-masters and they were glad to go out. If you have really tasted what the world is and its moral character you will be glad to go out. It is not a fit place in which to find the home of your spirit. It is a hard place. It appears attractive to us when we are young, but it is all a great delusion. It is not a system of giving, like christianity, but of demanding until you have nothing left -- a system of slavery, like Egypt. It will use up your faculties and strength and leave you with nothing but bitterness. And, too, it is a sin system. Sin is viewed as controlling it, as the taskmasters did Egypt, paying its wages which are death. Come out to God and have Him with you continually. You will prove what the hymn says,

Garments fresh and foot unweary
Tell how God hath brought thee through. (Hymn 76)

The Red Sea, which Israel crossed, is a type of christian baptism as presented in Romans 6, and in verse 17 it says "Ye ... have obeyed from the heart". I trust this marks every one of us. I would like everyone to read Romans 6 at home. It is christian teaching corresponding with the Red Sea in Exodus 14. They "all were baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Corinthians 10:2).

I do not know whether everyone here has been baptised. In baptism we profess to have left the

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world in order to live to God. We take the ground of having died with Christ and having been raised with Christ in order to walk here in newness of life, reckoning ourselves dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus. It is a great thing to be baptised and to be in the truth of baptism. "Out of Egypt have I called my son" (Matthew 2:15). Baptism is the way out. We shall be tested as were the christians in Rome. But they had obeyed from the heart the form of teaching into which they had been instructed. Theirs was the obedience of faith. They had left the sin system to serve God -- "The wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23).

Now, I want to pass on to chapter 12, and to speak about service; and I am going to assume that we have all responded to God's call, this very night, if not before. We are thus not of the world, reckoning ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Now Paul is beseeching us. He says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service" (Romans 12:1). You may say to me, I would love to serve God. You cannot serve Him in the world. Some people have the idea that they must help others by moving on their level in the associations and fellowships of men. But you will never help people by going down to their level. The children of Israel had to go out. Having come

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out you are in the position where this beseeching applies to you and the apostle says, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service". Note the word "intelligent". You say, I would love to serve God; but would you not desire to serve Him intelligently? Many souls are desirous of serving God, but are engaged in activities which are not intelligent service. The Bible is written to help us to know what "intelligent service" is -- the kind of service God would like His sons to do. "Let my son go that he may serve me".

This is the first step of true service -- that you present your bodies a living sacrifice. It is open to all of us to present our bodies to God. It is the basis of all christian service. We begin by devoting our bodies. I have something that I can present to God -- my body -- and it is my intelligent service to do so. My body is now indwelt by the Holy Spirit -- it is said to be the temple of the Holy Spirit; see 1 Corinthians 6:19. True, I still have the law of sin in my members, but I need not serve sin, because the Holy Spirit is in me. Therefore it is possible for the believer, as having the Spirit of God dwelling in him, to present his body holy and acceptable to God.

In doing this the believer is in accord with the Lord Jesus our Saviour. We read in Hebrews 10:5 - 7 that, "coming into the world he says, Sacrifice and offering thou willedst not; but thou hast

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prepared me a body. Thou tookest no pleasure in burnt-offerings and sacrifices for sin. Then I said, Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will". The greatest favour that can be given to the christian is that he should be privileged, in his small measure, to hold his body for the will of God as following the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. The Lord Jesus came with only one object before Him -- "Lo, I come ... to do, O God, thy will". This meant for Him the offering of His body as an actual sacrifice for sins upon the cross, an actual sacrifice on the altar even to death and the bearing of the judgment and wrath of God for us. In the light of this the only intelligent service we can render is to present our bodies. How small we are in comparison with Him and what He did! What all believers have done from the beginning to the end of church history bears no comparison with what Jesus did on the cross. Nevertheless, we are privileged in our measure to be in the same path that Jesus trod. He held His body for God and offered it as a sacrifice even to death. We are privileged to present our bodies a living sacrifice. We may not be called upon to go to the stake. Some have been. But we would hold our bodies day by day for God. If we are doing this we are not of the world. The worldling does not do this. We are in the world but truly not of it.

It is in this way we are really brought into christian fellowship or communion. Christian fellowship

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or communion is spoken of in Corinthians as the communion of the body of the Christ. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10:16, 17, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ? Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf". That is a reference to the Lord's supper which is the expression of christian communion -- as based on the communion of the blood and of the body of Christ. That is, first, we are to be morally in our life in keeping with the holy requirements of the blood and the body of Christ; then we can enjoy together the holy privileges of the Lord's supper in 1 Corinthians 11.

In moving on the line of Romans 12 we are brought in a practical way into christian communion -- we are in communion with the Lord Jesus and moving in the same way in which He moved. His body was devoted to God's will; our bodies are devoted and held for God's will. Thus we are in the communion of the body of Christ in a most positive way. If we are holding our bodies for our own will, we are not in communion. His body was devoted to the will of God, and christian communion means that we are in correspondence with Him. Thus, if we answer to the exhortation of Romans 12:1 - 3, we are really brought practically into christian fellowship. If we have really presented our bodies how can we stand aside from

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the privileges and responsibilities of christian fellowship?

Baptism is done once for all to bring us out of the world. The Lord's supper is taken week by week in which we afresh dedicate ourselves to the will of God, because it is the communion of the blood of the Christ and the communion of the body of the Christ. It is wonderful that it should be a weekly matter. We need a weekly re-dedication to this blessed path of intelligent service to God. What can be more blessed than to move in our small way in the path which Jesus trod in the power of the Holy Spirit? So, week by week we are strengthened as we partake of that which represents His body. He says, "Take, eat: this is my body" (Matthew 26:26). We are strengthened for the path of God's will.

Then it goes on to say "Because we, being many, are one loaf, one body; for we all partake of that one loaf" (1 Corinthians 10:17). This links with Romans 12:4, 5 which says, "For, as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office; thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other". This is further help as to intelligent service. Our bodies are to be presented to God for His will and the very first element of the will of God is that we should find our place in the one body, the body of Christ. "We, being many, are one body in Christ". This is the body a christian belongs to. A true christian does not belong to worldly associations

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and fellowships. God has called him into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord -- this is holy communion, involving our walking, in our measure, in the path which Jesus trod. But then God makes every believer a member of the body of Christ. You cannot become a member of the body of Christ by applying to any man to be a member. God Himself reserves the right to grant membership of the body of Christ, and every believer who has received the gift of the Holy Spirit is a member of the body of Christ. He has come into the greatest body that has ever existed on earth. There are all kinds of bodies on earth, parliamentary, social, educational, but this is the greatest body that ever existed on the earth -- the body of Christ. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit the believer becomes a member of this body. What an honour conferred!

God confers the honour, no man could. God has called you to this. This is part of the calling of God. "Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body" (Colossians 3:15). So that while He has called us out of the world and all the bodies of men, He has called us into a great body -- the body of Christ. It is the body of Christ, which is the true church of God, we have been called into, and the greatest favour that could be conferred upon any man, woman or child is to be a member of the body of Christ. Thus our intelligent service, if we are believers and have received the Spirit, lies in presenting our bodies a living

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sacrifice and using them, as they should be used, by those who are members of the body of Christ.

The body of Christ is formed by God, in such a manner that every member in it is to be an active member. God will show you what your place is in that body, what your function is, and our intelligent service is to wait upon God and find out what our service is in this wonderful body of Christ into which God has brought us. "For ... in the power of one Spirit we have all been baptised into one body" (1 Corinthians 12:13).

I have only touched the first elements of divine service -- how we begin to take up intelligently the idea of serving God. Surely we would all like to do so! "Let my son go, that he may serve me". God has blessed us with unspeakable blessing and if we want to enjoy the company of the Blesser we must be marked by the obedience of faith; He has called us out of the world which crucified His Son, and into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. If we answer to the call, we shall be in circumstances in which we can have and enjoy the company of the Blesser unhinderedly. In 2 Corinthians 6:16 it says, "Ye are the living God's temple; according as God has said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them". We have the company of the Blesser -- the blessed God Himself -- as we move in the obedience of faith answering the divine call.

The blessings are marvellous -- beyond description. What is more wonderful than all the

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blessings, is to have the company of the Blesser Himself -- the blessed God Himself says, "I will dwell among them, and walk among them". Would you not like to be with those amongst whom God is dwelling and walking, where you will get a foretaste of heaven every day? It is God's mind for every one of us. May you move in answer to His call and move in answer to the beseeching. "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice".

May He grant it for His name's sake.

Finchley, London, June 1953.

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FELLOWSHIP (1) - THE TABERNACLE -- HOLINESS AND BEAUTY OF GOD'S HABITATION

Exodus 26:7, 10 - 12; Exodus 27:1 - 6, 9 - 11, 16 - 19; Exodus 30:17 - 20; 1 Corinthians 1:1 - 9; 1 Corinthians 10:15 - 19, 21, 22.

My desire tonight, dear friends, is to speak a word on christian fellowship, especially in relation to the metal copper, which is referred to in a number of scriptures we have read. Before I refer specially to that feature, I would like to say a few words as to the fellowship to which we are called in a general way. Paul speaks of it in 1 Corinthians 1:9. He says, "God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord". Now there are two aspects of the christian calling. One is that we are called to heaven like Abraham, to a land that God will show us, (Genesis 12:1). We are told that that land is a heavenly country (Hebrews 11:16). Nothing can give a man such dignity as the consciousness that he has been called by God to heaven. In some ways, this is the most important side of the calling. It is the calling on

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high of God in Christ Jesus. If we are called to leave our country, kindred and father's house, we are called into something infinitely better. We are called to Christ's country, Christ's kindred and Christ's Father's house. We are saints, that is set apart for God, by calling.

The other aspect of the calling is what we get in the scripture, "Out of Egypt have I called my son" (Matthew 2:15). God has called us to provide Him a habitation here in this world. God has called us out -- "Let my son go, that he may serve me" (Exodus 4:23). That is the aspect of the calling that Paul is speaking of in 1 Corinthians. That is something which is down here. While we are on the way to heaven, we are called to something that is very important down here on earth, and that is the fellowship of God's Son. Fellowship implies partnership -- like a partnership in business, you expect to share in the profits and you share the responsibilities. There is also the idea of common interests, common joys, answering to the way men get together in their social life. God has His fellowship in this world, and it far exceeds anything that can ever enter the mind of man. With all the fellowships that men set up, they seek a figurehead to adorn it. In connection with the divine fellowship we have the glorious Person of the Son of God. It is His fellowship, He is over it. How that gives you an idea of the joys there are connected with that fellowship! God's Son -- He gives character to the whole fellowship.

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All the wealth of it can only be measured by the Son Himself. He is the Centre and Sun of it. Where His rights are owned, He is always present at its functions. The Son of God can always be there, and will be there if His rights are owned.

Just as in an earthly fellowship there must be rules, there must be something to bring in order and regulation, so there is with the divine fellowship. That is implied in "Jesus Christ our Lord". Every member of it, in an unqualified way, owns the lordship of Christ. He gives the Lord unquestioned control over his life, his business, his everything. Our Lord is a jealous Lord. Anyone who is not jealous, has not much affection. Think of a fellowship like that! No one will do anything that displeases the Lord. Nothing will be allowed in that circle that the Lord disapproves of. In case one might fear to have to do with such a fellowship, Paul says, the God who has called you to it is faithful. It is God Himself who wants you to be in it. All the capital is supplied by God. He is prepared to supply everything and is entirely available to everyone who commits himself to it.

Now you may say, 'What bearing has the fellowship on God's habitation?' It has a very close bearing, and the importance of the christian fellowship lies in this, which is why the enemy has launched his attack on the principles of the fellowship for nearly 2,000 years. Outwardly, he has had a large measure of success. But first of all we want

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to see the fellowship in its normal setting apart from any question of the public failure of the church. The first thing is to see the thoughts of God. However much the general body has departed from them, there is always a way for the individual who desires to walk in accordance with those thoughts. God has not changed, and the Lord has not changed. If, as individuals, we can get the light of those thoughts into our hearts, and say, 'I am going to stand', that blessed God will be faithful to us. But as I say, the first thing is to see the thing in its beauty. It may not be clear what bearing this fellowship has on the habitation -- God dwelling and walking among His people. If that is to be known, then christians must be together in accordance with this one fellowship to which we are called. In the tabernacle God has given us detailed pictures of what is set out in the New Testament. Having the teaching of 1 Corinthians and taking it back to Exodus, we get light on the whole position. In Exodus, God had called His people out and He wanted to dwell among them, and the tabernacle was to be His dwelling place. What we can see in the tabernacle system is this -- if God is to dwell, it all rests on the saints being true to the fellowship He has called them to. There are some aspects that are hidden, and there are some aspects that are public. What was inside the tent was never seen by unholy eyes. We christians ought to be careful about talking of holy things to unholy men. What was inside? The

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priests saw the boards standing up covered with gold, and all in bases of silver, and round these bars holding them together. I should like to point out that this is one view of those called to the fellowship of God's Son -- one way that God looks at the saints. We are all in bases of silver. We are all standing before God on the basis of redemption. Shittim or acacia wood speaks of Christ's order of manhood. Covered with gold -- the divine glory upon us -- we are all standing in the virtue of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, represented by the bases of silver. That is not the public view. That is how God looks at us. We were never meant to talk to men about that. That is one of the hidden things of the fellowship. Then there were the curtains. These again were never seen -- referring to the saints as the work of God, fashioned after Christ and displaying the beauties of Christ. Christ is there too, as seen in the ark, and that is the greatest thing and everything around is in accord with Christ.

Then there are other features of the tabernacle which speak of the outside. Those are the passages I read. One of these public views is in the curtains of goats' hair. It was the protection for the dwelling place, (Exodus 26:7), what the saints are as protecting the hidden and holy things of God. Goats' hair speaks of entire separation from evil. The goat lives alone on the mountains. Every brother and sister in Chelmsford should know what it is to be alone with God. You learn to judge with

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God. The result is that you can spin goats' hair. You, at any rate, are going to be clear of evil; you are allowing nothing in your home. The curtains are held together by clasps of copper, so that the tent might be one (Exodus 26:11). I would desire to raise the question -- are we entirely one in our idea of our separation from evil? The point at Corinth was that they had different opinions. Whose opinion should it be? -- God's opinion -- so that the goats' hair might be there in every home and in every heart, and that they might be one. One thought, one opinion, exactly the same standard; then the enemy will never get in to touch those holy things and the saints will enjoy the presence of God, the presence of Christ.

Now to touch for a moment on the question of the copper. It connects in the main with the altar. That is really the side of the fellowship I want to leave on your minds tonight. It is the foundation of public christian fellowship. The altar is the basis of everything publicly. The only reason that God can go on with us at all is because of the altar and what has been sacrificed on it. If you think of Genesis 22:9, "Abraham built the altar there". That is the foundation truth, showing how God and Christ have moved, and have gone to the altar to lay a foundation for God to have a people here in this world for His pleasure. It was on that ground, (mount Moriah, 2 Chronicles 3:1) that the house was built by Solomon. It is the foundation for our

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blessing and fellowship. What do you see in the altar? It is overlaid with copper. Now I desire that each of us might get the importance tonight of what copper is. There are three metals used in the tabernacle -- gold, silver and copper. A metal has a lustre -- it is the outshining of God and therefore the outshining of love. Gold is the way love shines out in a scene where everything is suited to it. Inside the tent all is gold -- all is of God, the saints viewed as redeemed to God in Christ Jesus, where there is nothing to hinder. Silver is love acting to secure its objects. When we look at polished silver, how bright it is! It suggests the purity and holiness of the way love has acted to redeem. We stand in the silver. It is the outshining of God in redemption -- the way love has moved to remove all that lay upon us. The copper is the way the same love acts in the presence of evil. Copper has an entirely different appearance from the other two metals. How will love act in the presence of evil? Jesus is the altar. Here in this world, we see Him moving as the altar. He shone in the lustre of copper here in this world. How did love act? Love will never tolerate evil. It is not love that passes by evil. If evil is allowed, love is killed. What is love going to do in the presence of evil? Love is not going to give up one divine principle. Christ surrendered nothing. In a world of sin He upheld everything. What many christians call love is simply cowardice -- they are afraid to suffer for the truth. True love will never

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condone any evil. That is the copper -- copper can suffer -- it can stand an enormous amount of heat, an enormous amount of suffering in that sense. Jesus maintained in this world the divine standard. Every other man was condemned. If you stand by divine principles, you condemn others who do not stand by them. In that way, every man stood condemned -- "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:23). It was the outshining of God's glory in a copper character. If you measure yourself by Christ, you will find you are short. But then He died, rather than that one divine thought should fall to the ground. Simply maintaining divine principles would not have maintained divine thoughts. The only way love could act was for Jesus to die in order that God's thoughts of blessing for man might be secured. One would desire that our hearts might be directed to Christ. This network of copper was like the heart of Christ in which burned the holy feelings of God about sin and yet He could offer Himself on the altar. Now if you and I have come into blessing, it is because we have partaken of the sacrifice. That is the first idea of christian fellowship -- eating and drinking together, and where they ate together was at the altar. The peace-offering means this -- that Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. That is the aspect of the peace-offering -- and as christians we have all partaken of it. You may not have partaken of the Lord's supper -- that is the memorial. But I must

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appropriate for myself that He gave Himself for me and accept Him as my Saviour -- otherwise I am not a christian at all. In this way we have all partaken of the sacrifice.

Now in 1 Corinthians 10:18 the scripture says, "Are not they who eat the sacrifices in communion with the altar?" That is the point I want to come to. If you have eaten of the sacrifice, i.e. owned Christ as your Saviour, you are in communion with the altar. The altar was overlaid with copper, therefore my standing will be in copper in this world. I am coming to the public side of the fellowship which is connected with the altar. I have partaken of the sacrifice, then I ought to be in accord with Christ as the altar. And so the pillars around the court stand in copper -- everyone on a base of copper. It is because we are such cowards and unfaithful to Christ that we reverse things. We bring into public our standing in silver. It was never intended that we should parade our standing in silver. It was never intended that we should parade before men that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and on that ground allow all manner of looseness in our associations together as believers. It is a terrible thing. That is the inside view, but the public view and qualification for fellowship is that we are standing in bases of copper. The basis of our public walking together in this world is that those who call themselves the people of God should be here standing in bases of copper. I want to raise this

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exercise with you -- the importance of my standing here in this world as in accord with the altar. We have said that Christ is the altar. He would not give up one divine principle. That is the idea of the saints standing in bases of copper, that we stand in this world true to divine love in a scene of evil -- that we would rather suffer than condone evil. We will stand in bases of copper. Then there is the thought of purity in the twined byssus round the court. Men do not like purity. Our links with the brethren are on the ground of redemption and so the connecting-rods were of silver (Exodus 27:10). But our public standing -- what would qualify us to be known as the people of God in this world -- is that our feet are standing here in bases of copper.

There is one point that may trouble souls. If I stand firm for divine principles, is that really showing love towards my fellow christians? Brotherly love is not quite the same as love. Scripture distinguishes between the two. I love all the brethren wherever they are, but if evil is there, I may have to gird brotherly affections -- as the Lord in the Revelation was girt about the breasts with a golden girdle. One would desire to encourage our hearts to be in communion with the altar. Let us seek grace that our standing here publicly in the world may be in complete accord with God's judgment of things. God would help us in that way.

When the laver of copper was made, it was made with the mirrors of the women (Exodus 38:8). If we

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are judging on the lines of our natural minds, we shall so judge evil that we judge everyone else and leave ourselves still in the picture. I am looking at myself in a mirror -- that is not the way of love. They gave up their mirrors. They gave up their mirrors to form this vessel which was to wash the last traces of defilement from the holy priests. I love that thought.

One desires that the thought of copper might remain in our hearts, and that we might be marked by it, and thus be in communion with the altar.

Chelmsford, November 1936.

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FELLOWSHIP (2) - OUR CONFORMITY TO CHRIST'S DEATH

Matthew 18:20; 2 Timothy 2:11 - 26; Ezra 8:27.

We referred last week in the main to the altar. It was a thing that could be seen. The altar refers to Christ as He was here, as the One that upheld all that was due to God. The public side of christian fellowship is connected with the altar. Those who have eaten of the sacrifice are in communion with the altar. Every true believer has eaten of the sacrifice. If I can say that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, I have partaken of the sacrifice of peace-offering -- that sacrifice in which all can have part. God had His part -- the fat; the priests had their part in the breast and shoulder, and every christian, as a clean person in the sight of God, has a right to eat of that sacrifice. The responsibility attaching to it is to be in communion with the altar. The public view of the saints is seen in those pillars around the court -- each standing in a base of copper. The altar was overlaid with copper, and every pillar stood in copper representing believers as in accord

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with the altar. That is the public aspect of the christian fellowship. The enemy has induced christians to bring out into public view their standing in bases of silver. He would say that because we are all redeemed, therefore we can go on together as loosely as we like. But our public standing and fellowship is not in redemption. It will be in the day to come when we have glorified bodies -- our bodies will then have been redeemed. The joy of our standing before God now is a secret matter. I trust this is plain to everyone here. We never give up the thought that we are redeemed, and we are held together in those holy bonds, as redeemed, as indicated by the silver connecting rods linking the pillars, but our base is in copper -- we are in accord with the altar. Unless the outward responsibilities of fellowship are maintained, we shall never enjoy those secret things. Unless we are in accord with the altar, we shall never be able to go into the tent. As we stand true to the altar, then all those inner things can be enjoyed by us. It is most attractive to be in accord with the altar. Think of being in accord with Christ as He was here -- walking as He walked -- and so on. I think we can see that at the beginning of the christian era, all that was a living reality. They were all together with one heart and with one soul, eating their food with joy. The heart of the whole multitude was one. At the outset, the christian company was in the full joy of the blessing of God. They were conscious of God dwelling

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among them. But the outward side of things was commensurate with the inner. They were in accord with the sufferings of Christ. So when evil raised its head -- Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with -- "but of the rest durst no man join them" (Acts 5:13). Unless people were real, they dare not join themselves to them. The joy and blessedness of the company was manifest to all, though none could understand the secret unless they were christians themselves. No one dare join them unless they were prepared for the obligations of the fellowship. Think of those early christians all set in bases of copper -- they were true to Christ in public.

If you come down to our day, I believe if you read the addresses to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, you will see there how the copper was given up. In Ephesus, there was decline. The Lord says, "Thou hast left thy first love" (Revelation 2:4). He alone could see that. Outwardly, they were correct, but unless you are maintaining your first love, in virgin affection for Christ, you will never be true to the altar. Christ should be everything to us. In the next church, Smyrna, the Lord had allowed persecution, and the copper had come to light. That cleared away the dross that was coming in, and preserved to some extent the integrity of the saints. In the next phase He speaks of the throne of Satan and the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam showed that the way to corrupt the saints was to encourage them to go after this world and so this church corresponds to the period

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in which the world began to patronise the church. In Thyatira, you get the depths of Satan. They were allowing a system of iniquity, which brought iniquity into the things of God. It was not the mind of God at all. A system has grown up which calls itself christian -- "who calls herself prophetess" (Revelation 2:20) -- that is, professed to have the mind of God, when actually it is not the mind of God at all. You find the copper is lacking completely in the allowance of Jezebel. In those dark middle ages when iniquity had such a great sway in christendom, there was no outward escape from it. Tens of thousands of those that were faithful died at the stake. But Sardis speaks of the time when God opened up a way out. We should thank God for His mercy, that today the religious and secular powers are no longer working together, and everyone is at liberty to withdraw from the iniquity that has come in. God has brought in a way of escape. You get in Philadelphia a return to the conditions where copper is brought in. Philadelphia means brotherly love. In those conditions as keeping His word and not denying His name we are recovered to the idea of the copper, and are thus in accord with the altar in these last days. I am sure that is what the Lord Jesus is looking for in these days. He has made a way of escape. It is open to every heart in obedience to be true to His name.

That brings me to the scripture I read. In coming to this, there is one thing that greatly touches my

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heart, that is, that God should have looked down the ages, and should have considered for the very day in which we live, and made provision for it. The Lord Jesus in the gospel of Matthew looked on to our day, and speaking of the assembly, He goes right down to two or three -- "there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20). As much as to say, 'If you can only find two or three on earth who are prepared to stand on bases of copper, I am there in the midst'. What a marvellous word! How it speaks of the faithfulness of Christ! -- "where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them". Gathering to His name means that we refuse everything that is not consistent with His name -- everything not consistent with the altar. Jesus surrendered no divine principle. He died to put sin away from before God. He never lowered the divine standard, He was the true altar. To be gathered to His name implies, that thou "hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name" (Revelation 3:8). To keep Jesus' word means that I am a lover of Jesus, and allow nothing inconsistent. Well, it speaks of two or three. Those two or three have to begin as individuals. It has become an intensely individual matter to be true to the Lord in a day like this.

In writing to Timothy, the apostle marks out the path of faithfulness for the days in which we live. In this chapter in Timothy, he brings in the name of the Lord. He says, "The Lord knows those that are

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his; and, Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity". I believe that is the great test of faithfulness in the present day -- how much you love Christ. If you name the name of the Lord, the word is, "Withdraw from iniquity". How can I withdraw? Am I justified in separating from fellow-christians? As you think of those bases of silver you need not fear that any of your brethren will be lost. In the end every believer will be seen in his place before God. But if we are to enjoy things at the present moment, we cannot base our public fellowship on the bases of silver. The word to us is, "Let every one who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity", in other words, let everyone stand upon bases of copper. At Pentecost everyone was standing like that, they were feeding on the sacrifice and were true to it; they were in accord with all that He was here on earth; they were true to the fellowship. The standard has never been lowered. God calls upon everyone of us to take our stand on divine principles, to withdraw from everything in the nature of human innovation in the things of God. Iniquity is lawlessness in the things of God. Lawlessness means doing our own will. Most of us here have houses of our own. What should we think if someone came into our house and began to criticise the way we governed it, and to insist on bringing his own ideas into it? That is what man has done in the house of God. God has made it perfectly clear what principles should

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govern the service of His house here on this earth. The word of Christ and the word of God have made it clear what God's thought is for us in His house. But men have said 'No -- We know better' -- they have brought their own thoughts and ideas into the things of God. We have the vast profession not governed by the word of God, but the service of God being conducted in the way men think right. The government of the church publicly is according to what men think is expedient. All that is iniquity. If I conduct God's affairs in my own way, it is an intolerable thing. The Holy Spirit calls upon you and me to have nothing to do with human thoughts, but to get right back to the word of God and to the word of Christ. If God has shown us His mind, then if anything else is brought in, it is iniquity. The enemy will do all he can to prevent you from acting like this. If you have withdrawn from iniquity he will still attack you. In 2 Timothy 2 the Lord has looked right on to our day. He has provided all that will meet the enemy's arguments. Satan has come to me and said, 'Well, these christians in those sects and systems seem to get a certain amount of spiritual food'. The amount of spiritual food is very little indeed, but still they do get some. Then the Lord uses them in the gospel, souls are blessed, and the enemy will come along and say -- 'Can the systems be wrong?' This scripture answers that, "If we are unfaithful, he abides faithful, for he cannot deny himself" (2 Timothy 2:13). The Lord is

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not going to be deterred by the evil that comes in. The Lord is not going to let His own starve. He is not going to be restrained by any power of evil. "He cannot deny himself". His love for His own is such. But because He abides faithful, is that an excuse for us to be unfaithful? No! We should withdraw from iniquity.

The enemy in his next argument would say, 'You have these things very clearly in your mind, you ought to stay there and help them'. This passage answers that. In speaking of those human thoughts that are coming in, the apostle says, "Their word will spread as a gangrene". If anyone is ill, the physician gives up attempting to heal when gangrene sets in. He calls in the surgeon to cut off the affected limb. That is the actual position that the minds of men have brought to pass in the christian profession. If you keep in touch with it, you will become infected by it. The only safe thing is to cut yourself off from it. Some of us have seen people led away by that argument. The way to keep free is for us to be obedient, then you may be able to help others. Thirdly, what the enemy would challenge us with is this -- 'Look what a narrow path it is. You will be of no use to the Lord'. This passage answers that. It says in verse 21, "If therefore one shall have purified himself from these, (in separating himself from them), he shall be a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work". Every good

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work -- does that look like restricted service? The vessel to dishonour is still a vessel, but not for every good work. The vessel to dishonour is a christian who remains in unclean associations. The Lord will use him as far as He is able to use him. But prepared for every good work means firstly service Godward. Most people who speak of restricted service are only thinking of serving men. The highest service that christians have is that they are priests. How much do we know of that service? Every good work, God's service, Godward, saintward and manward -- how blessed to be available to the Lord in all those ways. Wherever there is departure from the thoughts of God, the service Godward comes to nothing. Yet that is the most important of all. But where there is readiness to obey, the person becomes available for every good work. How can anyone who is not in communion with the altar truly minister to the saints of God? How can anyone fully preach the gospel who is not true to the principles of the gospel? "Youthful lusts flee, and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart" -- that is God's provision for our day. It is available to every christian. The powers that be are favourable; it is just a question of my own love for Christ. If we keep His word, we shall be true to His name, and we shall withdraw from iniquity. We shall become vessels sanctified and fit for every good work. You will be a true vessel meet for the Master's use. What

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encouragement there is to move on these lines! It is an intensely individual thing, to say, 'I can see God's thought, and if no one in the world will go with me, I am going that way'. As going that way, you find others who have come to the same decision, who will -- "pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart". I find others, and that brings me to the two or three in Matthew. I find two or three in Chelmsford, and we can gather to His name -- with no one but Christ before us, and in the light of the scriptures we can have things according to what God desires in His house. Wherever there are tabernacle conditions, God will make His presence felt. The point is, are we faithful? If so, we shall always have God's presence with us. How blessed! So it says, "Where two or three are gathered together unto my name, there am I in the midst of them".

I just read from the scripture in Ezra because it is a striking thing that after the return from captivity, those two shining vessels are mentioned. The holy vessels refer to the saints of God themselves. The enemy had carried them away to adorn his world in Babylon. God came in and made a way of escape. In the day of return from captivity, there is this additional idea of two vessels of shining copper precious as gold. To work out assembly thoughts in our day, you must have at least two or three vessels of shining copper, precious as gold, who have departed from iniquity, and have decided to

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be true to God's thoughts and Christ's name. Two or three gathered unto my name -- we can all be amongst those two or three. How precious to the Lord are those that keep His word, and do not deny His name!

May the Lord help us to answer to it, for His name's sake!

Chelmsford, November, 1936.

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FELLOWSHIP (3) - GOD'S DWELLING AMONG HIS PEOPLE

2 Corinthians 5:21; 2 Corinthians 6:1, 2, 11 - 18; 2 Corinthians 7:1; Exodus 29:38 - 46; Exodus 30:1, 7 - 9.

I want to speak tonight of the end God had in view in establishing the fellowship, and that is that He would dwell among His people. I would like to speak of the immense joy and blessedness connected with God dwelling among His people. If God is to dwell with us it must be on His terms and His conditions. If any are willing to act in obedience to His word, He will dwell with them and the joys of His house can be known. Paul had that in his mind in 1 Corinthians. All sorts of evil had come in at Corinth -- in the meeting, in the homes, and in their businesses. In the meeting there were divisions and party leaders, in the homes there was moral evil, in business some were going to law with their brethren, and some were even entangled in idolatrous associations. Paul unfolds in that epistle the Lord's mind and what copper really means. He touches all points and brings them back to faithfulness to the altar. Then, in the second epistle he can

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speak of what God has in view, "Ye are the living God's temple; according as God has said, I will dwell among them, and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be to me a people". How marvellous that God has set up the christian fellowship in this world that He might dwell among His people! The saints themselves are the temple. That word for temple means the shrine itself. I would like you to think of this for a moment, that God regards His saints as the inner shrine in which He dwells. That is God's thought for His saints in Chelmsford, that they should form His shrine. Men have built their shrines -- material shrines -- "but the Most High dwells not in places made with hands" (Acts 7:48). His thought is that His saints should be the shrine in which He dwells, "I will dwell among them, and walk among them". What a holy people we should be if we were in the sense of that.

The passage in Corinthians is not intended to connect in our minds with Solomon's house, but with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was just as much a shrine. God did not walk among them when Solomon had built the house, for the house was a fixed dwelling; but in the wilderness God walked among them. He guided them in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. It is most touching to consider that as we go through the wilderness, God would walk and dwell among us. But to experience this we must walk in a holy way. How we often use

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the word, 'saint' in a loose kind of way and forget its meaning. It means a sanctified one, that is, one set apart for God. We are saints by calling, for our calling has set us apart. We are called to be part of this sanctuary or shrine of which I have been speaking. As sanctified ones, we are each intended to be a board in the sanctuary. One would greatly desire that a conception of this might lay hold of our hearts. Love cannot bear distance -- God desires to dwell with us and has called us to be saints. How blessed to see two or three christians walking together, so as to form a shrine for God, as in the light of His temple.

Now one might have thought that Paul, in bringing forward these great thoughts, would have emphasised the truth of redemption. But instead he says, "Come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you". I want to say a word on that before I go further. Think how sweeping it is! Earlier in the chapter he has raised the question, "What participation is there between righteousness and lawlessness? or what fellowship of light with darkness? and what consent of Christ with Beliar, or what part for a believer along with an unbeliever? and what agreement of God's temple with idols?" And then he says, "Come out from the midst of them, and be separated". He wants them to be expanded (verse 13). You may say, 'If we act like that, we shall be narrowed up'. The truth is that if

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we are going on with the world we shall indeed be narrowed up; but the way to be expanded is to tread a narrow path and have God with you, and God is holy. In the early days these things were outside the christian company, but in the history of the church they have come inside. There is Beliar inside the professing church today -- that which is the positive lie of the enemy. The darkness of the human intellect has come in and there is idolatry in the professing church -- the worship of man and his greatness. These things are all inside today. And so this separating entails separating from vessels to dishonour -- that is professing christians who are in touch with what is unclean -- do not so much as touch it. If I have fellowship with one who is himself in touch with the things then I have touched them. See how far-reaching this is. If I even greet one who holds evil doctrine, I partake in his wicked works (see 2 John 11). If we think of the holy presence of God amongst His people, we can understand why this is necessary. "Him who knew not sin he has made sin for us". Such is the ground of His dwelling amongst us. I could mention many unclean things, but it is not profitable to be occupied with evil. Suffice to mention one or two. The doctrine of a clergy and laity is not according to Scripture; for Scripture makes it plain that every christian who has received the Spirit of God is a priest. The idea of a clergy is therefore a very wrong thing and we are not to touch it. Similarly, any lie

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or working of the human intellect, as in contrast with the truth that came out in Christ, is not to be touched. If we are to know the presence of God amongst us, that is the standard we must uphold.

And so in the next chapter the apostle says, "Having therefore these promises, beloved, let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God's fear". Perfecting holiness means that we correspond with Christ where He is. He is the measure of our sanctification. Our old man was crucified with Him. Could any honest heart want to go on with, or touch, anything connected with the man who was crucified with Christ? No real lover of Christ would desire to go on with it. When we are with Christ in heaven we shall not touch any of these features of sin. The very basis of our salvation is that He has delivered us from all these things. Why not maintain now a walk and a path that is in accord with Christ and His precious death? That is the burden of this passage -- having these promises, let us be true to His death; let us be free from all that He has died to deliver us from.

Now this chapter (2 Corinthians 6) is, in a way, a negative chapter. While it gives us the promise of God dwelling among us, it is largely occupied with the evil from which we are called upon to withdraw. It, however, gives a word of encouragement in connection with this side of things. The enemy, when we think of taking a stand for what is right,

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would seek to terrify us. We may be fearful of losing our employment; but God says, as it were, 'I will look after you'. "I will be to you for a Father, and ye shall be to me for sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty". This indicates how God regards us down here in the practical circumstances of life. He knows the fears that beset the heart of man or woman. Think of the days of martyrdom and what it means for women to tread that path. And so the word is sons and daughters, and the One who cares is the Lord Almighty. The scripture in Exodus links with Corinthians in that God says, "I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel, and will be their God;" but it develops the positive side of things in connection with the divine dwelling. The promise to dwell is connected with the continual burnt-offering and the continual incense. If we are to know God dwelling among us, we must separate. But, having done that, there is the positive service connected with the altar and the tent; every morning and every evening; the continual fragrance of sacrifice on the brazen altar, and the continual fragrance of incense on the golden altar. I can say this without any doubt, that unless there has been this separation -- unless we are truly in communion with the altar of burnt-offering -- we shall be disqualified from having a part in this holy service. We are not only the shrine but are also the holy priests, and are called to serve in the presence of God. "I will hallow the tent of meeting, and the

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altar; and I will hallow Aaron and his sons, that they may serve me as priests. And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel" (Exodus 29:44, 45). The Lord Jesus has died to hallow or sanctify us as priests. Exodus 29 gives details as to how the priests were sanctified. By His death on the altar, He has made us all of one with Him -- "He that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one" (Hebrews 2:11) -- in this holy priestly service. Aaron and his sons all laid their hands on the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the ram of consecration; and were thus "all of one" in the presence of God on sacrificial ground. They were also all washed and clothed. It typifies how we have been brought on to the same ground before God as Jesus is, as Man. Surely no one here wishes to be disqualified from that high and holy service. We need to be free as priests and as we maintain this continual burnt-offering on the altar, God says, as it were, I will dwell among you. How worth while it is to separate, in the light of this from all that is unclean. Every day, morning and night, we begin the day and end the day at this altar. Think of the blessedness of it! -- to bring to God an appreciation of the precious death of Christ. How can I come before God, telling Him how I appreciate that gracious Lamb, if I am going on with something not in accord with Christ? There was the lamb, and, in addition, the meat-offering of fine flour -- speaking of the perfect humanity of Christ -- and also the drink-offering,

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poured out in the sanctuary, suggesting the deep feelings that are produced in the heart as we contemplate the death of Christ. Feelings that are poured out before God and yield gladness to God; and in the power of which, the priest goes into the tent and puts down the incense upon the golden altar. It is there, as thus drawn into the holy presence of God, that our hearts are bowed in worship.

In addition to the daily and individual side of this service, there is a great deal of instruction in these scriptures for those who value the Lord's supper. All that we enjoy individually can be enjoyed far more when we are together. And so we take things up as those who are in communion with the altar -- "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of the Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of the Christ?" (1 Corinthians 10:16). As having in some measure maintained this communion -- the bases of copper -- we come together, and are free to approach the altar and to take up the holy service of God at the altar. I am not saying that the Lord's supper is exactly the altar; but in the early part of the morning meeting the service is of that character. We feed upon the sacrifice and, in the consciousness of being a sanctified company, our hearts are filled with joy and we pour it out before God. There is the pouring out of our emotions to God as we are affected by what Christ has done for us, and we pass into the inside realities

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which are depicted inside the tent. We go into the immediate presence of God -- into the scene where all is of God. That is the idea of what is inside the tabernacle; there is gold all around; and every item of furniture sets out some feature of Christ's glory as the Centre and Sustainer of that scene. Think of the blessedness of coming into a scene where everything is of God. The stranger, who may be present, does not know that we have gone in there. He can see people at the altar and hear the praises, which rightly connect with the altar. This shows how important the bases of copper are: for if he knows that I am connected with evil, he will soon say that I am not suited to that holy occasion -- that I am a hypocrite. But he cannot know that those people have gone inside the tent. In their spirits they are in a scene where everything is of God. They see Christ as He is before God -- as the Ark, the Golden Altar, the Pure Table, and the Candlestick -- and the saints according to the thoughts of God. Think of the saints in Chelmsford passing in spirit into such a scene as that. What can you do there? All that you can do is just to pour out your heart in worship. You cannot describe it. You are lost in God. That is true worship. The outsider does not realise that you have been inside. It cannot be told, what you have seen and heard and touched in that scene. But the response has gone up to God like incense from the golden altar -- corresponding in a little way with what went up to God from Christ personally as, for

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instance, in John 17, when He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, "Father". Christ dying in love and obedience -- that is the sweet savour that went up from the brazen altar; but in addition to the sweet savour of His love in death, there is the savour of what He is personally, which is typified in the incense ascending from the golden altar. And so if we go inside we are there as God's sons, in the Spirit of God's Son, our hearts filled with worship, and there goes up from our hearts some little expression of what went up from Christ as we say, "Abba, Father".

That is the positive side, dear friends. I can assure you that these things are so immense that it is well worth while coming out and being separate. You will be marvellously enlarged, for God has a heart that can encompass eternity, and in His presence we touch a scene where time has ceased to be. May God help each one of us to answer to His thoughts. The God we know is such a wonderful God. Even if there are only two or three who are prepared to stand by His thoughts about things, He will grant them these privileges; and if there be but one, the privilege of John 14:23 can be known by that one. May God help us to be faithful on our side, so that we might prove these things for ourselves, for His name's sake!

Chelmsford, November 1936.

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FELLOWSHIP (4) - FOUNDATIONS -- THE FATHER AND THE SON LAYING THE FOUNDATION

Genesis 22:1 - 3, 5 - 11, 15 - 19; 2 Chronicles 3:1; Exodus 12:1 - 3; Exodus 25:4 - 12; Romans 8:30 - 39; Romans 12:1 - 3, 5.

I want now to speak of the foundation upon which God has formed this fellowship and built His house. I want to speak of it first from God's side. If God is going to form anything, He will lay good foundations. I want to speak of it also from our side. If we are to know the blessings, we must come to God's foundation. I believe Genesis 22 is a great foundation chapter. This is the first time love is mentioned in Scripture. God says to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, Isaac, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and there offer him up for a burnt-offering". There is no doubt at all that God was looking on to the time when He would act in that way. Actually we know that Isaac was not the only son, but he was unique in the affections of his father. God was

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looking on to the time when He would send forth His Son, when He would not spare His only Son. That is the marvel of the gospel, that God has surrendered His only Son into death to redeem us, and that we might receive sonship. You can see in that that it means God will secure His house. That is all you need to make up a house, if the father has sons.

You also get worship mentioned for the first time. "Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship". Love and worship come in for the first time. Love is the foundation of everything for God and worship is the end in view. Here we see love moving in its purity -- without reference to hostile conditions. We see the Father and the Son moving together to lay a great foundation. The end is that God can swear by Himself to bless. Here we have a picture that the Father and the Son have moved together to lay a foundation for blessing -- "Because thou hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, I will richly bless thee". Thus untold blessing has come out because God has not withheld His only Son. On that ground, God can swear by the oath. "I will richly bless thee, and greatly multiply thy seed, as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies". Do you understand something of what that means? There is such a foundation laid here that it brings into view the whole universe filled

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with blessing. You see the heavenly saints as the stars of heaven, the earthly companies as the sand upon the seashore, and this earth freed from every enemy, and the whole scene filled with Christ. Abraham's seed speaks of Christ typically. Christ is going to fill heaven, for the saints will all be like Christ. The earthly families too will be of His order, and every hostile element will be cast out. Isn't that wonderful? We can look on to a day, which is most certainly coming, when heaven and earth will be completely filled with people like Christ. The foundation lies in divine love and in divine righteousness. Love has acted in a way that has not surrendered one item of righteousness. God has laid a foundation which can never be overthrown -- love acting in righteousness. What a foundation! It was laid by the Father and the Son. You and I had nothing to do with it -- poor sinners and undone, we could do nothing. The Father and the Son moved entirely from themselves to do it. That is what you see in the gospel of John -- how the Father and the Son moved here in love to lay a foundation for blessing. How God felt the cost! What love was told out in it!

At the end of this three days journey, after they had left the young men, Abraham took the wood and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and the knife. From the beginning of Christ's journey here in this world, the Father was moving with Him, and it was ever present with Him

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that that journey was to end in Him using the fire and the knife. Abraham, all the way along as he looked at his son, would have thought -- 'at the end of this journey I have got to use this knife against him'. What that would mean to a father's heart! It is just to give us some little idea of what it meant to the heart of God. Isaac was not in the secret as Christ was -- the Lord Jesus knew perfectly well what the end would be. He went that way to save you and me, to lay a foundation for you and me. There was unbounded love on the part of both the Father and the Son.

Abraham built an altar. We have had before us how that altar is the foundation of everything. Here we have Abraham building this altar knowing that his son had to suffer upon it. The life of Jesus here was really the altar. It set up the divine standard. The only way for blessing to come to you and me was for Jesus to die upon it. When you come to Chronicles, this was the foundation on which God was going to build His house. If God was to be worshipped He needed His house here in which to be worshipped. Solomon built it on Mount Moriah -- the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac. In figure Abraham received back Isaac from the dead, but God actually received Christ back from the dead. He has risen and ascended. What a foundation Christ is as the risen and ascended Man. It is upon that foundation -- the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, that the house is built. David

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had to come to that experimentally, but I won't go into that. David had to arrive at God's foundation for the house of God. If that house was to be built, it could only be at the place where Jesus died. David had to learn by sad soul experience where that foundation was.

Now I want to touch briefly on our side of the matter -- as to our coming to the foundation of the blessing, and coming in our movements foundationally to the house of God. I think we see this in the scriptures in Exodus and Romans. They bring in our side. The first point in Exodus is that they shall each take a lamb. In Genesis, Abraham says, "God will provide himself with the sheep". The Father and the Son moved on together to lay that foundation in His death and resurrection. Then we have to come to that -- for me to come to that foundation, I have to take up the word in Exodus 12 -- let each take a lamb. If I am to come into blessing, I must take Christ for myself as my own personal Saviour. Nobody comes into this blessing unless they can say, "The Son of God, who has loved me and given himself for me" (Galatians 2:20). I can see this beautiful picture presented, but unless I can say, "The Son of God, who has loved me", I am still outside of it. I wonder if everybody here has done that. I come to this, that there is no hope of my being saved or of my securing blessing by anything that I can do or anything that I am. That is coming to foundations. Do you think that if there was any way in which I

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could save myself, the Father and the Son would have taken that journey? The knife was used, which meant the cutting off of life -- the death of Christ; and the fire came into it, because Jesus knew what divine wrath was against sin -- during those three hours of darkness. He suffered the Just for the unjust. It speaks of this lamb as "roast with fire". I am to take Christ as my Saviour, fully realising that for my sake He bore the judgment of God. There are many in christendom eating the lamb raw. They say that Christ came here as a Teacher to help mankind to live a better life, but that we do not need His death; we are not really hopeless sinners, and we shall be able to work our way to salvation. That will not do. I have to take Christ as my Saviour, as the One who bore for me the unmitigated judgment of God. I recognise simply that I am guilty before God, God has a right to my heart, soul, strength and mind, and I have robbed Him of it. Has anyone here lived for themselves for one day? Jesus lived here wholly for God. Against that standard, we have all come short. I do trust no one here thinks he can in any way stand before God in his own merits. It meant that Jesus had to die. You say, 'Why should that be necessary?' To lay a right foundation. God is love, and He desires to bless us, but He would do it on a right foundation. Someone who was here last time said he could not understand that it was right for one to suffer for another in order to appease God. Genesis 22 shows

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us it is nothing of the kind. The Father and the Son moved together -- both willing to go that way for my sake and yours -- the Father and the Son both willing to suffer. No one can say that God has overlooked sin -- that would bring His throne into contempt in the whole universe. Scripture speaks of angels, principalities and powers -- the majesty of God's throne had to be upheld without sacrificing any principles, for God to come out in blessing. As I say, we have each to take to ourselves the lamb, and it is not to be watered down in any way. "Ye shall eat none of it raw, nor boiled at all with water, but roast with fire". It is a most blessed thing to accept the Lord Jesus Christ just as He is, and to realise now, as risen from the dead, I can have my standing and acceptance in the risen Man. I am justified in Christ by faith. That is a foundation which nobody can move.

Romans 8 connects with that. If we take to ourselves the lamb, it will bring us as we go on to be able to use the provision for us of Romans 8. We have to learn more and more fully what the death of Christ means. What a foundation of blessing there is in the Holy Spirit when a soul has really got down to foundations in the fullest sense! The apostle Paul had reached that. Nothing in heaven or in earth could disturb him -- "I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any

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other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord". That is a man who had thoroughly gone down to the foundation of the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

I want to touch briefly on what he goes over in these verses. He begins with this, that God called us. He says in verse 30, "Whom he has called, these also he has justified". That is, God calls us in the gospel, and if we have obeyed His call, He has justified us, that is, He has put us in those bases of silver. "Whom he has justified, these also he has glorified" -- that is, He has covered us with gold, like the boards of the tabernacle. That is how God looks at us, He looks at every believer like that -- in bases of silver -- redeemed in Christ Jesus, and covered with gold -- glorified. We await the redemption of the body, but we are entitled to look at one another like that. The spirit of glory rests upon us. "If God be for us, who against us?" As he looks at what we are in the presence of God, he bursts out "What shall we then say?" He goes right back to Genesis 22, "He who, yea, has not spared his own Son". In his mind, he goes right back to that great foundation in Genesis 22 -- the Father and the Son moving together. That is the foundation of blessing. Then the range of blessing comes into his mind -- "I will greatly multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven" etc. What has God not given us? If God gave His own Son, what would He withhold

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from us? God would save us and redeem us that we might receive sonship. We are not only sons, but heirs, which means that He has given us all things. "How shall he not also with him grant us all things?"

Now, having reached the foundation in that way and the blessing connected with it, he touches on details connected with it from our standpoint. It is wonderful blessing, but can I be sure of it? What if someone accuses me of some sin which appears too great to be overcome? Paul says, "Who shall bring an accusation against God's elect? It is God who justifies". What a foundation to come to -- the Father and the Son moved together to that altar of sacrifice, and God has taken it in hand to justify us. If the One we have all wronged has moved to clear us, who else can make an accusation? "Who shall bring an accusation against God's elect?" That brings us to the altar -- "Who has been delivered for our offences and has been raised for our justification" (Romans 4:25).

"Who is he that condemns?" This is another point, and a deeper point. I may be quite clear that the death of Christ has met the question of my sins, and that I am forgiven, and I know what a christian ought to do, but I have no strength to live up to it, and am in a sense of condemnation. Instead of being joyful, I go about in a sense of condemnation. The great condemning principle was the law. The law tells me what I ought to do, but it does not give

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me the power to do it. But Christ bore the condemnation -- the law has exhausted itself in Christ. He bore the cross for me, therefore there is no condemnation. "It is Christ who has died, but rather has been also raised up; ... who also intercedes for us". I feel very deeply this question of condemnation, and I think it is a thing that holds us up a lot. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin and condemned sin in the flesh, that we might receive the Spirit, so that the whole question of condemnation might be settled. We have Jesus at the right hand of God, always living to intercede for us, and we have the indwelling Spirit. We need to rely on the intercession of Christ. He is not condemning but interceding. You can write over the end of Romans 8, 'No accusation, no condemnation, no separation' -- three great foundational principles of blessing through the precious death and resurrection of Christ. What a place of blessing divine love has brought us into!

The outcome of all this is in Chapter 12 -- "I beseech you therefore, brethren, ... to present your bodies a living sacrifice". I would desire to beseech everyone of us here to give our bodies a living sacrifice. What else can we do, if we have entered into this marvellous blessing that flows from God? The least I can do is to give my body to Him. That brings us to the practical foundation of the house of God from our side. If there is to be a practical

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answer to what God has in His mind as to His house here in this earth -- the saints must surrender their bodies to God as a living sacrifice. God's house is composed of His people. We are set together that God might dwell amongst us. The epistle to the Romans shows how God has wrought that the believer's body might be acceptable.

I linked that with Exodus 35. God had brought them out. He asks them to bring a heave-offering -- to be taken from the willing-hearted. God is not saying, you must give your body. He has come out in the gospel that our hearts might become willing. God does not want slaves, He wants willing-hearted people. In Exodus 35, the people are heaving up their offerings before God. All their strength is implied in it. It suggests a people with willing hearts giving all their strength to what is for God here on this earth. We should come willingly and gladly, in the sense of the blessing that has come to us, and give our bodies a living sacrifice. It means that I am in accord with the altar. Christ gave His body into death. At the present moment, none of us are called to death, but to a living sacrifice -- what a wonderful privilege! If I offer my body to God, I own His rights over every part of me. God has put me in bases of silver, as redeemed in Christ Jesus, but if I have given my body to Him, I am in accord with the altar which was overlaid with copper. I shall not be in accord with the altar unless I am in those bases of copper, like the pillars around

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the court, that is, standing here for what is due to God.

Exodus 35 gives us details as to what the people brought. If I give my body to God, does that mean that I bring gold, silver, copper, etc., to God? These things all have a spiritual meaning. If you and I surrender our bodies to God, we shall actually bring all these things with us. Every believer in Jesus, if he has surrendered his body to God, has some of these things. The gold means that I know something of the love of God in its own sphere. Paul has been speaking of the love of God in Romans 8. Some of that love was in Paul's heart. That means, he had some gold -- the gold would shine out in Paul. He would bring gold with him. Romans 8 also shows us what an appreciation Paul had of the silver -- what redemption glory is -- and he would bring a sense of that among the saints. The copper -- Paul also knew about that -- how love has acted in the presence of evil -- how love has suffered to maintain divine principles. We all know something of that. Then we all have some appreciation of how lovely in character our Saviour is. That is set out in the coloured fabrics. The heavenly Man is the "blue". The "scarlet" is Jesus in His kingly dignity -- every believer in Jesus knows that He is the only true king. The "purple" is the imperial colour. The "byssus" is the perfect purity and spotlessness of Jesus. We bring all these things. We are set together in relation to these precious things. As having

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surrendered our bodies to God, they become vessels in some little measure in which these things are displayed. I can display in some little tiny way the gold, silver, etc., I can display Christ in that way. I move in this body which has been surrendered to God. That is the way christians bring these wonderful things to the assembly where God delights to dwell. These all go to make up the surroundings in which our God delights to dwell. May God help us to answer to His thoughts!

I cannot go into the details of Exodus 35. May God grant that everyone of us here might come down to foundations, as to the blessing of our souls. Then might we come down to foundations in our practical lives, by surrendering our bodies as living sacrifices; for His name's sake!

Chelmsford, November, 1936.