Philippians 3:17 - 21
In all dispensations, the people of God were practically sustained by hope. Though the hope might be different in all, yet its power, as a principle of action, was similar in all; and if we study the mode by which we are led along from one pursuit to another, and are sedulous in any, it is simply from hope. You enter on the drudgery of learning a language with the hope of being able to understand it; you sow your field with the hope of enjoying the fruits of it; and thus also in the details of life, there is always something in the distance which buoys up the spirit and encourages you to advance. It is the principle which begets all enterprise and is always active in a man, and never satisfied till shown by the Spirit of God what eye hath not seen nor ear heard. No present blessing has ever shut out hope. There is always, at all times, to the man of God something better beyond, and, if his mind fed not on it, things around unduly engaged him, to the prejudice of what was more blessed. Man is engrossed by some hope, and the nature of the hope gives him character. If christians are not led on by their proper hope, there must be failure in their service, as well as in personal blessing; for they are taken up with some other hope which distracts them, and prevents them from being engaged with their proper one. This, I believe, has been the cause of the church's great departure from its proper character and path on earth. Abraham looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. This hope did not save him (that is to say, if thereby be meant the remission of sins), but it made him turn his back on the stately structure of Babel, in the land of Shinar, for the city of God, which glistened in the
distance. With his eye resting on it, he trod his weary way towards it through many a year, across this desert world. This made him a pilgrim and a stranger here; his hope was beyond this scene. Not so with Cain: his hope centred in his attempt to present this unredeemed earth pleasing to God by the fruits of his labour; and what have been the effects of his hope? Bitter disappointment on all hands, and worse! for with the same hands that gathered its sweet and beauteous fruits did he stain it with the blood of his brother. Philanthropist, he would mend the world and sacrifice his brother! How important, then, is it that we should ascertain distinctly the nature and range of our hope.
I fear the church has been looking for conversions and earthly extension, and the like, instead of that hope which, like a beacon-light, would not only encourage it to advance, but also guide it in its course. How seldom have christians examined into the nature of the place God has set the church in here below! Are we Jews? certainly not. Are we gentiles? Through God's grace, we answer, No! We are of the church of God. The Jews are displaced. Israel is broken off that we might be grafted in, and here is our earthly place; but the question occurs, 'How did we come there'? We were strangers to the covenant of promise. I believe the gospel of Luke is especially written to show us how God was preparing to disclose the mystery of the church. The language of Simeon is different from that of Hezekiah: earth is nothing to one as soon as Christ is seen, and he longs to depart. The prodigal son does not, on his reformation, get another living, but he gets a higher thing - even the father's house and the glories of it; also Lazarus in Abraham's bosom, for one who had been in no earthly blessings whatsoever; and, lastly, paradise opened out to Christ's last companion in this earth, too bad for the men of this world, the first to be with Christ in heaven! As a Jew, he asked to be remembered in
Christ's kingdom, but he is taught there is higher blessing before that, where it is impossible for a man to utter the glories that surround him.
God made the last trial of Israel when He sent His Son. In His cry, every offer should be made to them. Hence, even the apostles were not instructed as to the destiny of the nation; their hopes were Jewish, and all their early ministration was to Jews. The stoning of Stephen, the witness of the Holy Spirit resisted, gave the grand blow to Jewish things. Samaria then hears the word of God and, stranger still, an Ethiopian eunuch, as he "was returning" from Jerusalem, is owned and received. Notwithstanding, the apostles were not prepared for the entrance of the gentiles into the root and fatness of the olive tree. The natural branches we see are broken off, and God is now about to bring in the gentiles. This is detailed in Acts 10 to Peter in a vision. He is shown a sheet knit at four corners, as comprising the whole world, in which were all manner of beasts (clean and unclean). It came out of heaven, and was let down on the earth, and was received up again into heaven. All these minutia are important, as instructing us in the characteristics of the new body about to take the place of testimony on earth. They were to be distinctly heavenly in origin and heavenly in hope: they came from heaven, they reached earth, but they returned to heaven. True, they were to fill up the hiatus caused by the breaking off of Israel and this only for a season, as we see in Romans 11. The error which has seduced the church into the world, was the idea that it was to take the place of Israel in respect to hope as well as in respect of testimony. Now, Palestine was never given to the gentile, and it alone God had claimed in a peculiar manner, but yielded into the hands of the gentile king when His people ceased to be witness for Him in it. The great power given over the wide earth to the gentile is not yet reassumed, because He,
whose right it is, has not yet come. He is gone to seek for Himself a kingdom, but is not as yet returned, and until then no portion of earth could be claimed by the church now. Hence, the place given to them is in heaven: like the prodigal, it is to the Father's house and glories they are called. The word is ".. . blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ". Man on earth had dishonoured God, and it had been cursed on his account; and the man who, like Cain, attempts to make it a scene pleasing to God, not only subjects himself to bitter disappointment, but his spirit must be opposed to godliness. Man on earth has been tried: Jew and gentile, all are found wanting. He who is Lord of heaven and earth tarries for a little season ere He shows Himself as King of kings and Lord of lords; and during that season He is gathering out a people for His name, and heaven is His locality, for earth is yet unsubdued.
I am insisting on this point especially, because if we know not our present calling, we must be ignorant of the hope to which we are saved, simply because if our proper hope engaged us, it would put us in our proper place here. If I am actually now a heavenly man as to calling, and if all saints are so, my eye must rest on them as such, and my hope is not connected with earth or earthly things. The hope of a man now, holding citizenship in heaven, is to look for the Saviour who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like His own glorious body; Philippians 3. This is the first work of Christ on His return, and hence it is the hope of the saints, and it purifies them; 1 John 3. Christ is raised; then they that are His at His coming. He will manifest the sons of God. He will show the triumph over death in the thousands of His saints. Enoch, the seventh from Adam, the first in whom was arrested the power of death, at one and the same time gave Satan a presage of his final
catastrophe, and the people of God, thus early in their history, an assured prospect of deliverance. For three hundred years he walked with God, and his testimony and hope ever was, "the Lord cometh". He did not, like Cain, expect that anything could be produced from earth pleasing to God, or that he could by any process remove the evil and violence then gathering over the land. Cain had failed. Enoch left it for better hands. Daily the earth grew worse, and what Cain, with the best intentions, if you please, could not effect in its infant state of evil, how can we, who are now in the condition spoken of in Jude's epistle? If Enoch had need in his day to look for the coming of the Lord, how much more have we? It is evident that the coming here does not mean Christ's first coming, for then Jude would not have referred to it as it was past, and moreover, Christ's first coming was not with ten thousands of His saints. The object of the apostle is to connect the minds of the saints with the only hope which could sustain as well as satisfy in the midst of evil and perplexity. If Enoch had not been walking in the faith of translation, would his hope have been in the coming of the Lord?
Thus it is we see that ascertaining my place now has much to do with my hope. If I am not looking to earth at all for blessing, but offering blessing to men on it from heaven, then I am not looking towards earth, but looking from heaven towards its Lord; and thus is the argument of the apostle in Philippians 3. He says there are certain persons "enemies of the cross of Christ"; and the summing up of their character is, that they mind "earthly things". Christ has quickened us with Himself above all these - not delivered by Him to be again immersed in them, but risen with Him with our affections set on things above, not on earthly things. These are still the theatre where Satan acts, and they that set their minds on them are enemies to the cross of Christ. The spirit of Cain is
in them; alas! how it clings to us. Cain was a seeker of God, but in earthly things; and many a seeker of God nowadays, whom one could love and value, is found seeking and expecting blessings to spring up and flourish in this evil world. This being their hope, they are labouring for the extension of Christ's kingdom with an energy and assiduity which puts to shame the better taught. Cain's labour did not sanctify his service; and no amount of self-sacrifice or serving others can hallow such work. If it be minding earthly things, it is the act of the enemy, not exactly of Christ, but of the cross of Christ. Many a man would assert very positively that he was not an enemy to Christ; but is he an enemy to the cross of Christ? That cross put everything on earth to death. If you revive anything, and maintain that anything here is not crucified (Satan's great object), then you are an enemy. It matters little whether here, or there, or how I seek to produce an improvement in society, as making things and persons here more externally good and comely. If I am seeking for such a reformation either in a lesser or a greater degree, as bettering things here, I am minding earthly things; I am acting as a citizen of earth, and not as a citizen of heaven. The apostle says our citizenship is in heaven, and our hope is the return of Jesus. Let us not think of ourselves and the amount of good we are doing. So Cain thought. So said Saul, in sparing the beasts of Amalek for a sacrifice to the Lord. But let us honestly, in secret with the Lord, ask ourselves, 'Are we happily in the place of the Philippian saints, namely in heaven in spirit'? and is our hope as theirs, looking for the Saviour to change the body of our vileness into the likeness of the body of His glory? O, that it were, and the track of our footsteps would guide many to blessing.
Ephesians 4:1 - 6
This portion of Scripture contains two subjects, the one mainly affecting the christian himself, the other affecting the body of Christ through him. In fact, the deep interests of the church of God for one member, and all, are unfolded in this passage. Hence we can understand the emphatic manner with which the apostle presses them on the children of God. He beseeches them not as the apostle or the prophet, but as the prisoner of Jesus Christ; as one in whom was realised practically the fruitlessness of all earthly expectancy; a witness of what faithfulness to Christ in the world must suffer; and as one for whom the termination of earthly scenes would be a release and rest. Such is the character to give emphasis to the appeal he now makes to all saints. And, as such, he beseeches them to walk worthy of their vocation wherewith they are called. He had, in the preceding chapter of this epistle, opened out the nature and blessing of their vocation, and therefore, in this passage, he addresses the church as understanding it. It is evident that if one is ignorant of the nature and principles of his calling, he cannot walk worthy of it; a servant may be willing and obedient, yet he cannot fulfil the duties of his service unless he knows them; and, consequently, in every case in Scripture, we learn that our gracious God always establishes His servant in the practical blessing of his service ere he enters on it. Doubtless service deepens it, but the truth I am called to exhibit is my own strength and guide in the work, so that "he that watereth is watered also himself".
The Old Testament times were before the Holy Spirit was given as the witness of Christ's heavenly glory, the abiding unction of each believer, and the
power of the unity of the assembly on earth; 2 Corinthians 3; John 7:38; John 14:26; 1 John 2:27; Galatians 4:6; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 2:22. Then the nature and principles of the believer's calling, from which a corresponding service should flow, were explained in vision and inscribed on the soul of the servant, as by the finger of God, the deep truths he was to be a witness of; for God never left Himself without witness.
Moses learned in the burning bush (Exodus 3), the power and unchanging faithfulness of Jehovah to manifest Himself amidst the frail, contradictory things of earth, in wrath remembering mercy; and this scene sustained and instructed him in all his course, while conducting Israel from the iron rule of Pharaoh to the mount of Pisgah, where He should bequeath "the good will of him that dwelt in the bush" (Deuteronomy 33:16), as one who had largely experienced it. To Joshua (chapter 5) again, the captain, rather than the apostle of the Jewish calling, there appeared, with a drawn sword, the prince of the host of the Lord. Each had a vision suitable to, and characteristic of, his own peculiar mission. So, a live coal from the altar, in the circle of the ever holy glory, and the presence of the King, the Lord of hosts, touching the lips of Isaiah, not only set his heart ready for service but gave strength to him, and guidance in all the details of it. The nature and principles of that scene were embodied in all his testimony. The holiness and glory of the Lord, the uncleanness of His people, the purging of a remnant, judicial blindness of the mass, and the preservation and return of holy seed, were all comprised within the vision of chapter 6.
In the instance of Paul we have a remarkable sample. His first view of Jesus in the glory taught him the elements of all the great truths of which he was afterwards so faithful an expositor. He begins as unconnected with the earth; neither seeing, nor eating nor
drinking, the great links with earth; and so he ends his course: at first, a bondman by Christ's glory; and, at the last, a bondman for His glory. Peter, as it has been strikingly observed, might truly style himself a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. But Paul was the converse of this. Paul was a witness of the glory of Christ, and a partaker of His sufferings. That heavenly Christ, whose glory shone brighter than noonday sun on him, and on him only by sovereign grace (Acts 9:7), called the astonished convert to know and to preach that the Lord of glory was the lowly Jesus of Nazareth, and that the church was one with Him in glory. "Why persecutest thou me? .. . I am Jesus whom thou persecutest".
These examples will suffice to establish the necessity (if any should doubt it) of being truly and accurately instructed in the nature and principles of our calling, if we really desire to walk worthy of it, and that we readily will not, is not only evident practically, but from the marked manner in which the apostle presses it upon us. He knew, the Spirit knew, the many hindrances which arise to our walking worthily of our calling. But why no effort, desire, or response to this touching appeal of our apostle? Do we know, in any energy, the nature of our calling? Have we patiently, like Mary at the feet of Jesus, sought from the Word the momentous meaning of our calling? Has every christian by the unction of the Holy Spirit sought after a faithfully desired acquaintance with a subject so earnestly put before us? Or, are we content with the ignorance of Thomas (John 14) on a kindred and connected subject: "We know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?" I have said already, that the apostle, in the preceding chapters, gives a full and clear detail of our vocation, and as it must be first known ere practical effects follow from it, it may be well to ponder a little on it.
First, let us enquire whether our vocation, as taught in this epistle, is a new revelation, and demanding a new and peculiar path on earth; or such as all, in God's line of witnesses, from the creation to the cross, had known, enjoyed, and walked in.
When we have it once a settled axiom before our souls, that God has been always, though in very different and even opposite ways, unfolding the various rays of His own glory, at one time His creative wisdom, at another His power and government; here, as a righteous Ruler, who guards and exhorts a peculiar nation on earth, and there, as a Father who seeks sinners in electing, though indiscriminate, grace for heaven: when this is simply and clearly seen, it follows as a consequence that the calling and walk of believers are modified, moulded, and governed by these respective revelations of God's character.
I believe each and all of God's people, in every age, knew that all their springs were in Him, knew that His loving kindness was better than life itself, and that in His presence was fulness of joy, and at His right hand pleasures for evermore. They reckoned their blessings to flow from Him, and the power, and in whatsoever place He would be, there would be glory, unspeakable glory to them; and, therefore, it does not interfere with their enjoyment, rest and blessing, whether their hope reached forward to the epiphany of Christ in glory on the earth (of which we have many proofs), or to the simply heavenly glory and the full blessedness of the church as the bride of Christ. Of this latter we have no intimation, save such passages as "heavenly" country, and "a city", in Hebrews 11, be supposed to bear that meaning.
The saints, before Christ was rejected from the earth, expected and waited for the accomplishment of the promises in an earthly glory; not human achievement, but an irresistible and universal halo emanating from Immanuel - from God manifest in the flesh.
We do not indeed find that God had abandoned man in the flesh as irretrievable, until the Fairest - the Holy One of God - is allowed no place among them, but is cast out and dishonoured as an evil-doer.
We must not circumscribe our ideas to the narrow limits of human selfishness. Man was destined by God to fill a glorious place on this earth; he was made in the image and glory of God. Not only in Eden, but in the post-diluvian earth, and especially as an elect separated people in Canaan, did the Lord make trial of man. In all these cases man was set to maintain godliness and lordship in the earth. He had not fully proved himself as yet totally unfit for God's high destiny respecting him, for the destiny itself could not be rescinded. But now, every trial being made, and Israel under the power of Rome, "the fourth beast", the Son of God is revealed as one to repair all and to accomplish, through Himself, God's purposes respecting us. He glorifies God on earth. He proves himself fit and more than fit for man's high destiny, for He was, in truth, the brightness of God's glory and express image of His Person. But, while honoured of God, He is rejected and crucified by the very people to whom God had committed His oracles, and to whom He had been sending prophet after prophet to instruct and counsel - by the people whom He had chosen as His own peculiar people, from amongst all the nations of the earth.
The blessed Jesus who had as to manhood, and as a Man, accomplished all God's purposes and destiny respecting man, being rejected and crucified, rises to the right hand of the Father, not that God's great purpose in setting forth man as His image and glory, in this earth, has been frustrated, but to wait there till the period determined of God will arrive. Of that time and season there should be no disclosure. It is reserved in God. Yet the interval was not to be lost, for in this interval is the church being gathered, not
to any earthly standing, for all had failed, but as in union with Christ in heaven, manifesting the characteristics of such a union down here, and this is properly our vocation; the revelation of a secret as to which there was profound secrecy since the world began; Romans 16:25, 26. We can aver boldly that it was emphatically Paul's gospel -- "according to my gospel" -
though it was also revealed now unto the other holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. A Jew, righteously, ought to have sought to fill the place to which God's favour had called him, if apostasy had not deprived him of it. But of this there could have been no doubt, for the power once delegated to David had passed into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar, and was now swayed by his Roman successor over Israel; but yet they looked for a deliverer. Before the understandings of the disciples were opened to understand the Scriptures, they expected that Jesus would have redeemed Israel, that is, I suppose, by external power. They little expected that any power, not even death, could divert Him from this work. And again, after their understandings are opened, we find the apostles asking the Lord, as He was on the eve of taking His place above: "Wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?" Surely, up to this they had no hope of a purely heavenly glory, apart and unconnected with earth. Nor reasonably could they then, for the Lord had not made the last offer to Israel, of which we so largely read in the first chapters of the Acts.
We find the same thing in the penitent thief. With a Jewish hope, his eye rested (and it was eminent faith) on Christ's glory, in His kingdom, wherein he asks to be remembered. The Lord refuses it not, but He promises a still more immediate blessing, and this Luke alone of the evangelists notices, because, as the companion of Paul, and in all probability a gentile, he was led of the Spirit to every link however undefined, with the present hope of saints. Again, we can understand
the resistance and the difficulty as to receiving the gentiles, and the consistency of those who argued that they should be circumcised and keep the law of Moses, for into mere Canaan privileges there was no other passport.
To Peter, in a figure (Acts 10) is shown the calling of gentiles as well as Jews into the kingdom of heaven, whose keys had been given him (compare Matthew 16, Acts 2).
To Paul, in person (2 Corinthians 12) unconscious of everything but the consciousness of unspeakable glory, is revealed the present portion of men in Christ, the gospel of the glory, the nature and privileges of "our vocation".
Man in every trial has failed. The Holy One, rejected and crucified, is set down at the right hand of God, Head over all things to the church, His Spirit now gathering members unto Him, to be shown by and by, as also now in truth His body, the fulness of Him who filleth all in all. And as we realise His headship, and consequently our union with Him (on the Holy Spirit sent down from heaven dwelling in us), we understand our vocation. Not union with Him only, but also union with all the members of His body, however disjointed here or failing to witness the traces of this blessed oneness, which as of one body we must desire, and, when in the power of the Spirit, express.
I think it is not possible to trace any similarity between the common notion of our calling, as held even by evangelical christians, and that enjoined in this epistle. The one owns, and so far rightly, the doctrine of free grace; but with this great truth is added, without proof or consistency and in much confusion, a hope (it may amount to assurance) of heaven when we die, not a heaven the sphere of our citizenship now, but the final and beatic abode of the redeemed by and by. With death earth is to be totally abandoned,
and yet, strange to say, while we are on it (that is, christians) we are to embrace as much as possible of it under even our temporal rule, not only to propagate christianity in the hearts and affections of men, but to endeavour to induce the powers of the world to adopt it as the wisest governmental policy, or it may be, as the best political economy. Will any thoughtful person say that there is not great confusion and incoherency in this involuted notion? and, coupled as it is with the doctrine of free grace (glorious truth!), many are prevented from investigating the grounds for such ideas. The Reformation, in God's mercy, brought to light, as from the tomb, the doctrine of free grace and justification by faith. That was the first step, a grand stride, from the deep darkness and ignorance in which christendom was plunged; but, could there be no advance, no progress from it? In Ephesians 2 we are distinctly taught that grace confers more than life from a death in trespasses and sins. The argument of that chapter, in connection with the first, is that Christ, being risen and sat down on the right hand of God, is head over all things to the assembly, which is His body; that the power which raised Jesus and set Him there, forthwith fashions in continuance the members of that body, quickening us who were dead in trespasses and sins, raising us together, and making us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The means whereby this mighty work was effected we next trace, namely by the blood and death of Christ, who broke down thus the middle wall of partition, and reconciled Jews and gentiles unto God in one body by the cross. This new man, this one body, is called in Scripture, the church of God. It is not merely isolated believers here and there, but Jewish and gentile saints are now builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit. Hence, it is one body here below, where the Holy Spirit is sent down and abides. Still, its origin, its character, its privileges,
and its destiny, are of heaven and not of earth. United to the ascended Lord, the church's blessings are where He is, and where she looks to be manifested ere long with Him in glory. Now, this is all of grace, "that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace". And yet how few christians seem interested save but in one portion of "the exceeding riches"! I cannot deny that part of it is enjoyed, for, if it could be denied, christianity would be unknown; but I am convinced that we all seem to value one portion of the "exceeding riches of his grace", to the exclusion of the rest, or mainly so. But if it be granted, and it cannot be denied, that being raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, is a component part of the gift of grace, then evidently it is important and essential to know it as one part of it. Our selfishness may be quieted by so much of it as assures us that we are alive from death in trespasses and sins; but, surely, we are not at liberty, nor are we wise, to accept our portion of a gift of God and neglect the rest; and we cannot excuse ourselves on the ground that the part we have learned is so full and blessed that we are satisfied therewith, when it ought rather to have been, from its very blessedness, a pledge and a stimulus to us to learn the remainder.
Now, the death, resurrection and exaltation of Christ at God's right hand is the foundation, as the mission from heaven and presence of the Holy Spirit is the efficacious agent, of the church; and we are even now one with Him whose glory is accomplished on high, and await a common appearing together. Does ordinary doctrine admit such a heavenly standing, even while we are here? I may be answered that christians generally believe that the spirits of saints will be raised to heaven after death and the dissolution of the body. But this, surely, is not what is taught in the passage before us; for if it were, their quickening
from death in trespasses and sins would not occur till then also, which is a manifest fallacy. Hence, if the one is true, and declared and enjoyed, so ought the other, and, therefore, the notion that we belong to heaven only when we die is not a correct idea of "our vocation".
It was, too, plainly recorded that heaven was the portion of believers to be utterly repudiated; but, as ever with Satan, when he cannot destroy the "meal", the food of souls, he will leaven it. And accordingly our heavenly standing is not denied but postponed till we quit this earthly scene; and this device has succeeded in engaging the mind of christians with earthly things, and led them to hope for a repetition of Jewish blessings, as the people of God set on earth. But Ephesians 2:5, 6, is plainly contrary to all this. It declares that believers now are raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. There is no idea whatever (but the reverse) that heaven is postponed to any particular period and nothing whatever as to an earthly expectancy, seeing we are distinctly instructed in the foregoing chapter that we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places, entirely apart and dissociated from earth, even in that place to which we are now called by grace. True, we are actually on earth, but not with the power and interests of earthly blessing. We are here alive from death in trespasses and sins, and ought to be practically exhibiting here conformity to the risen Jesus, who is our head, strangers to all earthly maxims, and manifesting ourselves as the body of Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, who witnesses of Him; and this is our vocation, however little we have learned it, or, alas! are disposed, because of our carnality, to learn it. "There is one body and one Spirit"
Again, I must repeat that it is not only important for us to know the nature and the principles of our vocation, because of our own blessing; but, furthermore,
unless we walk worthy of it, we shall not be able to express rightly or adequately that testimony to which God has called us, even that practical use to which the apostle so earnestly applies it; and how essential it is for this purpose we best arrive at by considering the nature and extent of the demand on us.
As walking worthy of our vocation, the first stage in this interesting course, we are exhorted to cultivate certain dispositions and habits, in order to produce a grand result, even the endeavour to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace". No self-denial is to be refused which may tend to the accomplishment of this great object. "With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love". A right eye or a right hand is not to be spared, if any barrier to the jealous observance of the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. This is the wonderful testimony to which christians are now called; and if it is little displayed and found difficult to be accomplished, it only increases the necessity of our acquiring proper instruction to enact it. It is one great point to know what ought to be our object here. There is a seven-fold oneness with which every christian has to do: "one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all" (verses 4 - 6); and, therefore, unity amongst themselves should be the manifest fruit of it, and would surely be testified if simply, and practically, and exclusively, enjoyed. I say exclusively, for it is evident that no division can arise if no other element but Christ engaged our hearts, for there is simple unity in each of the parts of that whole with which alone we have to do. Whence then arises division and the little manifestation of this duty? Firstly, I believe it is not felt to be paramount and all-important. Our real position around Christ and in Christ is not individually maintained and valued, and
hence no ability or interest to manifest the effects of it corporately. Popery has retained the shell of this truth when it requires all its votaries to adopt the same language in every nation, and to proclaim themselves 'the one holy catholic church'. But, alas! how little have believers declared they had the kernel of this assumed unity and catholicity. Christians may be careful about their own personal walk, either to avoid judgment and promote their own happiness, or, still better, to please God; but I fear with very few is it of the deepest interest and labour "to keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace"; and, consequently, we know the sad effects of this indifference. No believer now can individualise himself, for all are baptised by one Spirit into (eis) one body. This was not known of old. True, an open transgression, by any member of the nation, as in the case of Achan, and such like, demanded temporal judgment and expurgation; but who will say that the sin of any one individual affected all the rest spiritually? In former times, they were baptised in the cloud and the sea unto Moses; now, we are baptised by one Spirit into one body. The Spirit has something more to do with me than merely to lead me into joys of salvation. He has an ulterior object, adopting me into that wonderful system, the body of Christ, and making me feel my interest and sympathy in it. "If one member suffer, all the members suffer with it". How so? Surely, there could never be any natural intercourse or acquaintance maintained with all; and if not, it must be spiritual, flowing from a very real union, if unseen, for we are one Spirit with the Lord, and members of one another. And there is mutual blessing, even "by that which every joint supplieth", as such are led practically by the Spirit; otherwise, one is not walking according to the mind of Him by whom we are baptised into one body. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, present in the church on earth - His ultimate object,
for the body is the fulness of Him who filleth all in all; and we cannot walk in fellowship with Him unless we are agreed; and we cannot agree with Him unless we follow the same objects and interests with Him; and if we are not in fellowship, it is evident we cannot enjoy the strength, guidance and comfort which are derivable from Him. On the other hand, if we are, we participate in all the blessings which His presence affords.
It is important to ascertain why we have not more spiritual power. It is simply because we prescribe a limited selfish course for His operation, and not the large comprehensive purpose into which He would lead us. We cannot have one without the other, for He is one; and if we are deficient in one, we must be in the other. No believer, really labouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, but must know the power and comfort of the Spirit. It is vain to suppose that I can enjoy the power and comfort of the Spirit, and yet not aim to walk in sympathy with His desires. The object of the Holy Spirit is to edify the body of Christ - to build for the absent Jesus a glorious Eve, to be presented to Him by and by, but now curiously wrought in the lower parts of the earth; and this, assuredly, must be at least my aim and desire if I am in unison with Him, and, if not, barrenness must enter into my soul; my right eye shall be utterly darkened; my salt will lose its savour. There is no such thing now as simply singular blessing. No one, however exalted, is the body, and no christian, however weak, but is of it. You are elevated and advanced in proportion to your use to Christ's body; you are weak, as you are a mere drain on it. I can never view myself apart from it, unless I return to nature, and truly, as I widen my separation from the body, do I re-establish myself in nature.
The Jew expressed union naturally, we must spiritually. The temple in Jerusalem was the centre
of the one; Christ in heaven is the centre of the other. It does not lessen our responsibility, because there is failure, and a little expression of the Spirit's work; for if our responsibility can be lessened, then the Spirit may slacken in His purpose and object, which could not be true. Believers have been unwilling to submit to the sacrifices which the endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace inevitably entails. And if they have resigned the object and desire of the Spirit of God, they have accordingly forfeited the strength, grace, and cheer of Him in their own souls; and there is no way to obtain these blessings but by being renewed with purpose of heart, to be led by Him, and to fulfil all His counsel. Weakness, failure, and disunion are no grounds for our indolence or indifference to make the endeavours. I believe if a christian was cast alone on a desert island, that the energy of the Spirit in Him would lead him to seek the conversion of the natives, not only for the joy in heaven over one sinner repenting, but also that in communion with two or three, he might glorify Christ and fulfil the will of the Spirit, and it would assuredly increase his own strength and gladness. The Jew did not maintain the natural unity. The church has not endeavoured to maintain spiritual unity. But what was the strength and testimony of the faithful Jew, even in Babylon? Why, he prayed three times a day with his face towards Jerusalem. But where was Jerusalem? A heap of ruins! save in the mind of faithful Daniel, who could not forget Jerusalem, the city of the great king. And, in like manner, when the Jews returned from Babylon, Haggai admonishes them to go up to the mountain and bring wood, and build the house of the Lord, for the Lord would take pleasure in it, though that very temple was afterwards to be so defiled by Antiochus. A few walking in faithfulness could never forget or swerve from the object of God; whether, as with Daniel, there was no appearance of
the expression of it, or as with the rebuilders a temple with another failure. And so with us, neither non-appearance of the object of God now is to dissuade us from endeavouring after it, nor a fear of failure to discourage us from making the attempt. Similar is the instruction of Paul to Timothy, in the second epistle, which we may well characterise as the last words of Paul. If the great house (christendom) has in it vessels to dishonour, Timothy's course is, while purging himself from these, to seek still an expression of unity with them "that call on the Lord out of a pure heart", 2 Timothy 2:20 - 22. None others could express the unity of the Spirit. This is important as the alone ground for discipline and separation from professionists; but no failure of magicians ( "Jannes and Jambres" ) or similarly (chapter 3) to godliness, should lessen his exertions, but rather promote them. So, his only remedy for such a state of things was continuance (verse 14), as we find Moses aforetime, when encountering the same opposition before Pharaoh. In fact, as a faithful one, he was to do more because others did less. And again we have the same truth enforced in Jude's epistle, which contemplates christians in a very tried state, and subject to great disorder. Yet a course is plainly marked out for the "beloved". "But ye, beloved (verse 20) building up yourselves on your most holy faith" (simple dependence on Christ, not yielding to growing laxity and self-will), praying in the Holy Spirit expressing unity in the Spirit as touching all your need and circumstances, and forthwith strengthened and blessed, not to omit searching after members, who, from one cause or another, are deprived of their fuller blessing. So that the expression or manifestation of the unity of the Spirit was never to be lost sight of, but was ever to be the aim and object of the faithful in the darkest time. Hence, in the Lord's supper, as well as in our mere salutations, there was to be an evidence of it. Thus was
manifested, by the familiarity of the expression of affection, the great unity of christians. And this is simply what the church of God on earth was called to manifest. The Lord stir us up, and fill us with zeal for His house which lieth waste! But, alas! interest for our own things is mainly the cause of our neglecting the great end and object of the Spirit, which is a manifested counterpart on earth of that unity which is 'infallibly,' as another has said, maintained above, and this naturally follows from not understanding our vocation. For if conscious of our unity, there so unbroken and blessed, and if filled with the power and interest of it, we could not but endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Hence, in conclusion, is seen that if I do not understand the nature and principles of my vocation, my endeavours to keep the unity will only be right intentions wrongly attempted, and therefore ineffectual; and, on the other hand, I cannot have entered into the sweetness and power of my vocation. Thus, I must labour for a manifestation of that fellowship one with another, of which in "light" I am partaker. O Lord, revive thy work!
In the epistle to the Hebrews, an epistle peculiarly applicable to the saints nowadays, + the apostle warns us against a practice even then not without followers. And if in his day, when only the habit of 'some' called forth a censure, how much more in this day, when not only 'many' adopt the practice, but there are found among them advocates of it, "who seemed to be somewhat," Galatians 2:6. It is evident from the context (chapter 10), that the subject is connected with the care and service every soul which has drawn near to God must have for His brethren - followers with him in the same grace. We are not asked of God to serve others until we know how He has served us; for it is only as we learn of His service and grace to us, that we shall be able usefully to serve and care for others. "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet", John 13:14. "If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them", John 13:17. The Lord is no hard Master. He expects not usury where He has not given the principal. He looks not for grapes from His vine till He has removed every impediment to its growth. He fenced it and gathered out the stones thereof, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also
+It is evident that the Hebrew saints were suffering, not from ignorance of Scripture, but from wrong and imperfect interpretation of it; so that the apostle had to contend with errors both in doctrine and hope -- nay, even as to the assurance of salvation, which are not alluded to in the epistles to the gentiles. So much for learning Scripture imperfectly. Easier to instruct the entirely untaught, than to correct the self-sufficient master of inaccurate theories, however extended his knowledge.
made a winepress therein, and then He looked for it to bring forth grapes. God brings me into the circle of His own light and glory to meet my brethren. In the region of the mercy-seat, where my own soul sits happily before the Father in Christ, do I learn to care for my fellows in the same blessing (1 John 1:7), and know them as members of the body of Christ. The moment the soul gets into a lower region than this, that moment your service and care for the members of Christ must assume a lower character, for all my love for them I must acquire in Christ. The more I know that I am set in Him, the more I am for them. Religiousness apart from Him - even devoted religiousness - is but Cain's, and the brother is neglected; nay, worse, for he that gathereth not, scattereth.
Here the apostle had reached the climax, or rather result, of all his teachings in the preceding chapters. The soul has been carried through, and made acquainted with, all the services of Christ, and is now placed through the new and living way within the veil, in the bright and wondrous sphere of glory - in the holiest of all - in the presence of all the revealed majesty of God, fearful in praises, doing wonders. Yet it is from this height of bliss and wonder we are called to consider one another, to provoke unto love and good works, and, as a means to this end, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching". Now that the day approaches nearer, there is a manifest disposition to undervalue the custom of assembling together; at least, such an indifference to it as if it were but of secondary importance. It has been such an acknowledged custom for the people of God to meet together in all ages, that many have pursued the habit, not because they had learned it as imperative on them, but following the example of others; consequently, there is no principle in their conscience for doing so, and,
therefore, necessarily no responsibility following them as to the observance of it.
Let us, therefore, enquire into the value and importance of assembling together. The church is constitutionally an assembly, as the word in the Greek (ekklesia) denotes; and if there be no assembling together, there would be no composition of the church here. There is no question but that the Holy Spirit sets all the living members of Christ in Him in heavenly places; but also, He fashions us for our place there by varied exercises here. After we have suffered a while, He perfects or matures us. Here the talent is to be put to usury. How, where, and in whom death and the power of Satan were dominant, must life and the power of Christ be manifested; and this not by one witness, but by many, in one strict unbroken testimony, which was at first exhibited, and produced such blessed results; 'the people magnified them'; the power of evil was suppressed and overawed for a moment. But though that may be passed, yet by the church now the manifold wisdom of God is learned by the powers and principalities in heavenly places. I err much if I consider myself individually apart from the family of God. All saints now are baptised by one Spirit into one body. The moment I become alive to the glory of my position in the body of Christ, I seek not the desert, like John the baptist, taking a position peculiar and uncongenial to all, but, like the regenerate Saul of Tarsus, I assay to join myself to the disciples. Vitality demands sympathy. Relationship, even without acquaintance, has its charms and its claims. In nature, a brother I had never seen has a ready passport to my affections. The church I am in is not one member but many, and, as in our natural body, power redounds from the harmonious adjustment of all the members, and from the happy consent of each to its peculiar office, so is it in the spiritual body; and the readiness of a member to engage or return to its place,
nay more, to seek its place in the body, must be sought more earnestly and strenuously where there is spiritual life, inasmuch as the spiritual exceeds the natural, and, what is true of the natural must, after all, be but a faint representation of the spiritual.
Well, then, the principles of life draw us together. There is an immediate and necessary impulse, to be in association with saints, for our life, and power, and joy, are identical. But more than this - our benefits are contingent on one another. I am not only impelled to association from the power of a common life, but I find that in this association the varied powers of usefulness of the members towards one another are alone evolved. I cannot merely feel that I must associate with saints (which must be so, and could not be otherwise if I have any energy of life) but that my place is to receive blessing as well as to impart any. To every member there is given a gift of grace (Ephesians 4), not so much for himself but in his relation to the church "for perfecting of the saints." Where, then, can he exercise this gift, or be profited by another, but in or towards the assembly? If I sanction individuality, or even partition or multiplied sections, I must undervalue the gifts and services, through them, of those from whom I license myself to be absent. In the first enunciation of the church, the blessing of Christ's presence rests on two or three meeting together in His name. Now, those who argue for individuality or practise it, either disbelieve this or undervalue it - either bad enough. But it is with His gifts through the Holy Spirit His presence is known, so that even the unlearned may acknowledge that God is in you. He now is the messenger of Christ, the gift of the Father, giving power to one after this manner, and to another after that, to perfect the church unto the stature of Christ, of gifts for the perfecting of the saints. I shall not particularise any; but if gifts for this especial purpose are denied, then there must, as a necessary
consequence, be a cessation of the perfecting of the saints; or, let such a one say how is the perfecting to be accomplished otherwise. Is any bold enough to say he wants no perfecting, and that he derives no blessing from others of God's people? Supposing for a moment (which we must) that his heart is deficient of that quality in life which, like light, blends with all parts of itself, no matter how disproportionate the amount from any source; but then it will be allowed that gifts did at one time exist for the perfecting of the saints, and then there was no doubt of the blessing of assembling together, that each might learn and be comforted and then it was culpable to forsake the assembling of ourselves together; but now it is not so, for gifts are so weak and profitless, that the benefit is not proportionate to the sacrifice. But, says the apostle, you are to be more careful not to forsake assembling, as you see the day approaching. So that the darker grew the night (the more, as some would say, that the gifts decline, the less the personal benefit there would be attendant on association), the more necessary that we should observe it. We must not relinquish that the saints are to be exhorted in the assembly the more the day approaches; and let us put the question: Is it the more spiritual or the less who are unedified by a small amount of gift in the assembly? I think it is always the less spiritual. The more spiritual, of course, can see and feel irregularity or want of power more acutely, but I submit that they bear with it better than others, as the cruse of oil and barrel of meal which God increases. Healthy men may require much food, but they can endure with a very little longer than the weak. Jonathan but tasted the honey on the end of his rod and his eyes were enlightened. The hungry soul closely hunts for food where it ought to be found. The keenness of need sharpens his scent for it. A jawbone of an ass refreshed Samson.
Thus, then, if I depreciate the assembling together of the saints, I am disregarding the warning of the apostle, proving my little sympathy with the members of Christ's body; decrying, or at least undervaluing, the gifts for edification bestowed on the assembly, whereby the presence of Christ is known amongst them not only thus injuring myself, but also an injury to the church, for they lose my services; and, finally, I am unhesitatingly declaring that my spirit little blends in happy fellowship with saints around the throne, when I am so indifferent to them, and they so unattractive to me down here.
On the other hand, let us enumerate the blessings of assembling together. I am obedient to the word of the Lord, and obedience is greater than sacrifice, for it is the yielding of myself to His will. If Thomas had not absented himself from the first meeting of the disciples, he would not have been eight days behind the rest of the apostles in faith and knowledge. I am seeking the place where Christ meets with His people. At the supper table (John 13:14) He opened out the treasures of His grace to His disciples - the church in type - and where now, by His servants He edifies, exhorts, and comforts His saints, for that assembly is the proper sphere of the gifts of His grace; 1 Corinthians 14. I am joining with many witnesses to show forth His death till He comes; and the very act of my going to "one place" in company with others, is not only an evidence of my own appreciation of Christ in contrast to all around, but I am an example to others to do likewise. I go to feast, as well as to present myself before the Lord. Lastly, the more my heart rises into the glorious scene of the family group around the throne - ever praising, ever exulting in the Lamb that was slain, and yearning to take my place there - the more shall I value every even faint shadowing of it in this wilderness of sin and sorrow.
In conclusion. I shall add but one word. Practically, it will be found that the most spiritual are always less absent from the assembly, and that the one who begins to absent himself seldom ends well. O, may we all be admonished, for surely the day approaches!
The history of the Ephesian saints, from the darkness of nature up to the height of glory, and rest, apportioned by God's grace to the members of Christ's body, is evidently instructive to us, in order that we may ascertain how far we have consciously advanced in the same blessed path. We read in the end of Acts 18 that the apostle Paul had preached in the synagogue at Ephesus and subsequently that Apollos came to Ephesus, and he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John. That the saints in Ephesus had advanced no farther than John's baptism is evident from chapter 19. Then we read the apostle again visits Ephesus and finds certain disciples, whose progress he ascertains by asking them, "Have ye received the Holy Spirit?" to which they replied, "We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit". The apostle then traces their ignorance to the limited nature of their faith and profession by a second question "Unto what then were ye baptised? And they said, Unto John's baptism". Now we must remember that the things of the Lord can be taught diligently, knowing only the baptism of John, and that saints can be disciples and not have heard even whether there be any Holy Spirit (I suppose not simply hearing but understanding), ere we can form any just idea of the state of soul such limited acquaintance with the work of Christ must entail. John's testimony went no further than declaring the coming of one mightier than he, awakening consciences to the ruin of their condition, demanding of them to bring forth fruits meet for repentance, calling on them to repent, for God's reign was commencing and judgment was concomitant with it, but giving man no
new power to effect this change. The terror of coming and deserved judgments were pressed on the minds of all, while John himself as a witness of the judgment he pronounced, took a path in the world unfrequented by man and ate food not common to or provided by man. He led his disciples to confess their sins and express in the waters of Jordan their willingness to enter on another course, but surely there was no sense of forgiveness - of acceptance with God in the Beloved - of membership with Christ as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh - of adoption, the Spirit of the Son in our hearts crying, Abba Father, or of sealing with the Holy Spirit of promise, the earnest of our inheritance. All these are to be learned by the Holy Spirit of which the Ephesians had not as yet heard.
May we not fear that many disciples of the Lord even now have not advanced practically beyond the doctrines taught in the testimony of John the baptist? How many know nothing, at least almost nothing, of the forgiveness of sins, and as possessors of a new life and nature, accepted of God in all the excellence of the Beloved! If not, surely they too might answer, "we have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Spirit" - at least instructively so. But at this let them not be cast down, for such-like were the Ephesian saints, and yet after they believed they were sealed with "that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance".
Now it is as sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise that the apostle proceeds to instruct the saints of Ephesus into all the glory of their calling. He first prays that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened that they may know what is the hope of His calling, what is the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ,
when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in heavenly places. They had something more to learn than even being sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, some greater enjoyment to be partaken of in addition - an earnest of our future inheritance. The soul is to be carried on to the hope of His calling and the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and, as leading to this, to know what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe. This is more than sealing - this is more than the earnest of the inheritance. Have we attained to it? and are the eyes of our understanding enlightened? If not, it is evident they ought to be. If, however, we know anything of the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, it is according to the power which wrought in Christ and raised Him from the dead, and set Him at God's right hand in heavenly places. It is here the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe has reached its limit. It raised Christ from the death into which He entered for us and has set Him at God's right hand in heavenly places, and it is the same power which is to us-ward who believe, according to the same quality, reaching onward and proved by the same limit, to the heavenly places where it has set Jesus head over all things; and the church, which is His body, knows no less a quality. It is according to His mighty power which He wrought in Christ. If it were a lesser power, it would have a lesser limit and a lesser quality; but the power is the same, and the limit and the deliverance must be the same. There may be different extents of power given in the heavenly places, but it is the one and the selfsame power which has raised Jesus there, and that our eyes ought to be enlightened to know as to us-ward who believe - and which the apostle goes to show in the second chapter, is the same power (whether we know it or not) which has blessed us in every stage, from death in trespasses and in sins till it
accomplishes in us, even now in spirit, the same blessed result, as it has triumphantly in unquestioned majesty in the Lord Jesus Christ. The depths of our degradation have not countervailed. He has raised Jesus who entered into death for us, and having raised Him from the mire of our ruin, He quickens into the life of Christ, every member of His from the same scene, and raises them together with Christ and makes them sit together with Christ in heavenly places. It is the same power all through. The power which quickens is the power which makes us sit in spirit together in Christ in heavenly places. Not by and by, but it is now, the eyes of our understanding should be enlightened, to know the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, and it is now that we should know the results. If saints have not yet learned it, let us remember that it is from blindness and want of faith. The Ephesian saints were not left in this darkness, for they were willing to go onward. They were willing to be taught, their hearts were the good ground. In honesty and truth they heard the word. No one is straitened in God; but he who has a hard judgment of God will have a judgment according to it. Let us further take the evidence of Scripture on this point. What was taught in the crossing of Jordan? Was it not a full and complete deliverance from the wilderness into Canaan? No Israelite set his foot in Jordan till a clear and immutable path, an assured path of safety, lay fully before him. He entered on it rejoicing in the power of God which provided it, but that was not all. Mere faith in deliverance, wonderful and gracious as it is, is not fulness of our blessing. On Canaan's side of Jordan the memorial of deliverance was to be reared up. Where power was exercised, thence the material of the memorial was to be procured. Where the priests' feet stood, thence the stones were to be taken and set in the place where they lodged that night. Their first lodging-place in Canaan was marked by this memorial
- a memorial of what? Not that they had hoped for deliverance - not they had seen by faith, through the intervention of the power of the ark of the covenant, an inobstructable path, across the wide flowing river - but that they really had crossed over, and as a remembrance of the power which wrought it, did they rear up a remembrance at the first lodging in Canaan. It is evident Canaan is not the scene of complete rest but of conflict in the scene of future rest and glory. We are taught the same truth in the thief on the cross. He as a Jew had sought to be remembered in the kingdom, but paradise is given to him as his present portion. So now the world's rejected one is quickened with Christ, raised up together with Christ, accepted and made to sit together with Christ in heavenly places.
Again, in Lazarus (John 12) we get a type of the church now. In chapter 11 we had our condition because of death, our only hope in Jesus: the male representing power or the lack of it, the female actual condition; the one marking the conduct of faith, the other the state. The exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward, who believe in the Person of Christ, liberates Lazarus from the tomb, and thus quickened and raised up we find him sitting in happy communion with Jesus, denoting our calling, or that into which Christ has brought us; while the visible expression of the church on earth is symbolised by Martha serving and Mary pouring forth fragrance in reference to the death of Christ, from whence all fragrance to this evil world springs.
May our souls be more conversant with the wonderful mercies of our God, and we shall be prepared for still greater revelations of His unaccountable grace! Only let us prize what we do know, honour Him in our appreciation of it, and have readiness of soul ever to say when opening His word, "Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth".
1 John 5:2, 3
How many questions are resolved by rightly understanding the object of the Holy Spirit now on earth! What cause of misapprehension and diversity of judgment lies here! Some seem to make conversion the entire work of the Spirit, and they labour for it with great zeal. Others go a step further, and consider that converts should be edified and nourished in the school of God. Now, both hold truth, but neither in the large and glorious purpose of God. The prayer of Christ, when He surveyed the full accomplishment by Himself of all the Father's will, was, "That they all may be one", even "them also which shall believe on me through their word". This would be the most glorious expression of divine power, that as the Father and the Son were one, so all believing in the Son should also be one. And the Spirit in the apostle, in spite of all the apparent frustration (on earth) of this desire of Christ, lays it as a grand injunction on the saints to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, for there is oneness in all the highest blessings of the church.
Here, then, we have the object of the Spirit in the manifestation of unity, as members of one body. It is the witness on earth that the Father sent the Son. Natural selfishness and singular interests are lost in one common joy and glory; not as under the law, every man standing on his own rights, but "look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others". And I believe it is here that "love one another", the new commandment, has its force and place. This commandment, like all commandments, is given for an object, and that object is that
"by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples". The observance of the commandment would produce this effect; but we should remember that there is a mode for obeying. We are to love one another, not according to our sentimentality, but "as I have loved you" - with all the truth, and holiness, and self-devotion of Christ. Christ could denounce Peter as Satan. The loving sympathising Jesus, could remain two days in the place where He was when His friend Lazarus was nigh unto death. He could allow His disciples to pass into the dark gloom of despondency on the stormy sea, ere He appeared for their rescue. But I need not multiply instances of a like nature, where the blessing of His people is secured, though every former link be severed or forgotten. Christ had but one object, the glory of the Father, and He accomplished it. The Holy Spirit has but one object, the glory of Christ, and He will accomplish it. To be a member of Christ, for the body is Christ, is my glory; and the Spirit cares for me, and makes intercession for me, as baptised by Him into one body. He desires to glorify Christ.
It is not a question of conversion. Thus the evildoer in 1 Corinthians 5 was a converted person, as is evident from 2 Corinthians 2, but he would not suit the Spirit in His work and in His manifestation of Christ, constructing an habitation of God through Himself. Hence, the company whom the Holy Spirit could acknowledge and use, should come together, expressing unity of purpose, and formally disown any further union with one acting wickedly. It did not touch the question whether he was a believer or not, or whether he would be saved in the day of the Lord. He was not fit, in his present condition, for the Spirit's service in glorifying Christ, and he must be removed unless his soul were restored by a godly repentance. Thence I learn the principle, that it is not persons, but Christ and His glory, I am to consider, and,
following this rule, I arrive at the truth, that the course of the Spirit, however in appearance harsh and repulsive, is the surest way to remove-obstacles and promote the love which is of God. Have no company with the disorderly one. Why? To show your superiority? No: but "that he may be ashamed". Following the guidance of the Spirit, who is faithful to Christ, and of course to all who are of Christ, is ever the divine way to clear away offences; because, as one member is strengthened, all the members are strengthened, even though strength be obtained in the judicial treatment of one or more. The very member judged is receiving strength, it may be imperceptibly yet surely, by the faithfulness of his brethren towards the Lord and himself. For there is one body and one Spirit, and therefore it is seeking the mind of the Spirit, which is our blessing, as it is what God regards, helping us in our infirmities. This, therefore, and not persons, should be paramount to us. And so our service should be that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus; but ready to part company with any persons, no matter how honoured and loved, if they cause "offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned"; yea, even "avoid them", and simply because "they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ". Who so honoured as Peter? Yet, when truth was at stake, he is sacrificed to it; Galatians 2.
The trial, the difficulty, the heart-breaking of cutting through the longest and most cherished friendships, if need be, for Christ's sake, is admitted and felt. It was so when first we left all at the Master's call, and the same principle holds good the entire journey through. Following Christ never made, and was never meant to make, a smooth course through this world. If it be said, can a movement be of God which is attended by so much sorrow, shame, disappointment in its train? I can only reply, that such was the experience of him who was in nothing behind the chiefest apostles;
Philippians 2:20, 21; 2 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 4:14 - 18. He has warned us, that there must be also heresies in the church, that they which are approved may be made manifest. In this, as in all else, the only blessed place is to "walk by faith, not by sight". The Lord, when He comes, will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts; and then shall every man have praise of God. Our bodies should be a living sacrifice to Christ, and this is especially the Spirit's work. There is reciprocity: Christ gave Himself for us; the Spirit in us aims at nothing but that we should be the Lord's. Every consideration outside this, individually and corporately, is repugnant to Him. Not persons, I repeat, but power in the Holy Spirit can strengthen the saints. One saint, glorifying Christ in the energy of His Spirit and truth, would do more than thousands lukewarm to cheer the hearts of all saints, because it is but one Spirit after all, and one body. Sectarianism is ever looking at persons, which are everything in its eyes. Love for the church looks to Christ, and labours to present every man perfect in Him, but only associating with those who aim to serve not their own bellies, but the Lord in truth and holiness. Here it is well to remark, that fellowship with one another is only in the light, the summit of Christ's service for us and he that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no occasion of stumbling (either himself or others) in him. His love is in the light, holy and radiant with the presence of God. He learns to add to godliness brotherly kindness.
But, practically, am I to warn my child to avoid the society of a person whose conversation is pernicious, and does that child, if I love him, demand no reproof, no discipline, because, though he frequents the company I deprecate, he assumes that he has imbibed none of the evil? Who can touch pitch and not be defiled? But the temple of God is holy.
Genesis 10:10; Revelation 14:8
The attentive reader of the Revelation (chapters 14:19) must be led to enquire the meaning of a term such as 'Babylon,' used without any interpretation annexed, and yet so connected with the sense that, unless it be ascertained, there can be no understanding of the subject matter. To the christian student, there is one simple rule in such enquiries, that the Scriptures can alone explain the difficulties of the Scriptures. This necessarily must be so, for by them a man can be "thoroughly furnished unto all good works", and consequently anything from without is superfluous. Moreover, the attempt disparages the sufficiency of Scripture, and exposes the mind, guilty of such contempt, to be carried away by false unscriptural glosses of ancient or modern tradition.
To arrive, then, correctly at the ideas the word 'Babylon' embodies, and to convey how it is used by the Holy Spirit, it will be necessary to gather from Scripture its characteristics, and how it first came to be the centre or symbol of principles which were to be so largely dominant. Constantly, in Scripture, we find that either a person or place, which is about to occupy a prominent position in the development of God's purposes, is distinguished at its first notice with the traits and lines of the unmistakable qualities which maturity will disclose, be they for good or evil; so that old age is only a return in a matured and concentrated form to the first and simplest efforts of childhood. Thus, in the first notice we have of David, we find the elements of the shepherd, who would "feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance". We see the same as to evil in Amalek. With the self-same
spirit of envious opposition with which he encountered Israel in the arid plains of Rephidim, but only with increased bitterness and vindictiveness, did he in the person of Haman the Agagite, assail the remnant of the Jews in the palace of a king.
Accordingly, I think we are justified in looking for the embryo characteristics which Babylon embodies at its first introduction to us, or, as we might say, at its birth. In Genesis 10:10, we are told that the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom was Babylon and surely his cities were designed in the same spirit which actuated himself. He was "a mighty one in the earth", a man confident in his own resources, and daring in the presence of the Lord to pursue, in the proud eagerness of his own strength, wherever his pleasure or profit, as in the chase, might lead him. The irresistible excitement which bears the huntsman along in his course aptly depicts the spirit in which the world seeks the attainment of its desires. Both are intoxicated with their purpose and doubtless a city with such a founder must only have been a wider sphere for fuller display of his principles and tastes, even as much as the materials for it were increased; and all still "before the Lord". This shows that there was religiousness assumed, together with the most open avowal of human selfishness and lust.
Still further are we instructed in the spirit and constitution of this city in chapter 11, where the name Babel, or Babylon, is given it in consequence of a full-blown manifestation of its founder's principles. Here we learn that man's confidence in himself had reached such a height, that they forgot even the expression of acknowledgment of God, and endeavoured to establish themselves independently of Him. God then confounded their attempt, and hence arose the name Babel (confusion), which men have retained without remembering its etymology. The building is discontinued, not thrown down - the builders scattered,
not destroyed; hence the seeds of its origin were disseminated in the dispersion, and consequently we should be prepared to find the fruit of them in every man in every nation. In a word, whenever a man seeks his own gratification, even though he combines with it an acknowledgment, a religious acknowledgment, of God, there is the germ from which Babylon sprung, and from which will grow with proper culture the spirit which designed and built the tower. But let us trace through Scripture the varied features which the mention of this word, used ever so abruptly, conjures up before us, for unquestionably it is used in the Revelation as a word we should be familiar with, and consequently not needing an explanation there; so that he who needs one is ignorant of Scripture and to it alone must apply for instruction.
From the first notice of Babylon in Genesis 10 and 11 we have no allusion to it, till Israel's apostasy and failure as God's witness on the earth. Consequent on the confounding at Babel was the call and election of Abram to be as God's witness, seeking the city of God, in contra-distinction to the ripened purpose of the human heart, and accordingly we have no intimation of the revival of Babylon till the failure of the people (the children of Abram) who should have borne a testimony for God against its principles.
Until 2 Kings 17, there is no direct record in Scripture of such a place, for the word translated 'Babylonish,' as designating the garment abstracted by Achan from the spoils of Jericho, is Shinar, not properly Babylon, though of the country in which the city stood; and even this is far from militating against what I have asserted, namely, that Babylon only appears as the apostasy of Israel appears. Therefore, as the leaven of it was working in Achan, it is not wonderful to find there the shade of the forthcoming evil. But, in 2 Kings 17:24 - 30, after a long interval and in connection with the captivity of the ten tribes,
we hear of Babylon again, and as a place whence colonists were supplied to replace the expatriated Israelites. From it sprung, at least in part, the progenitors of the Samaritans. Israel's supplanters in Samaria were Babylonian.
Let the star of Israel, let its testimony set, and that of Babylon will be in the ascendant, and Babylon is not without its religion (verse 30). It has its god Succoth-benoth, though we do well to note the motives which influenced them to adopt and profess the worship of God. "The Lord sent lions among them, which slew some of them". In superstitious awe they seek acquaintance with what we may call, for uniformity, true religion, not from a sincere interest in the will of God, but simply to propitiate Him and thus uninterruptedly enjoy their own objects; and therefore we see, as is ever the case when God is only sought from fear and superstition, that though they are taught by priests "how they should fear the Lord", yet "every nation" (and Babylon the leader) "made gods of their own". Now, this is all instructive, as letting us into the very mind of Babylon, and in such plain characters, that if we read it here we cannot fail to trace its likeness wherever it is presented to us. Religion - yes, true religion - is adopted to subserve its interests; yet, it has gods of its own, professedly of God, positively idolatrous: Succoth-benoth (or tents of daughters) is the real object of worship.
In Isaiah 13 and 14 we have a prophetic announcement of both the rise and fall of Babylon, and it precedes by a few years the occurrences I have alluded to in 2 Kings. We read (chapter 14: 28), "In the year that king Ahaz died was this burden", that is, the burden of Babylon. Ahaz died in the third year of Hoshea, and the captivity of the ten tribes occurred in the ninth year of Hoshea's reign, and in the sixth of Hezekiah. Consequently, this precedes by six years the captivity of the ten tribes; but, even so, it is not
a whit less interesting to us. We have in 2 Kings, the initiative of Babylon on the apostasy of Israel, and here we have the prophetic utterance of Babylon's greatness and doom. The Lord is warning His people not to confide in, or fear the nations around them. That judgment on themselves is not a singular thing, but a much greater and an irretrievable one awaits the nations, however exalted and established they may appear. God alone can be trusted. Egypt is but a reed. "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah". It is not for us to enquire whether Babylon had attained this eminence among nations at the time Isaiah prophesied thus. God sees not as man sees; and the unmatured Babylon presented to the Spirit of God the manhood of its purposes and desires, and is thus shown to the prophet, and thus appears to every spiritual vision. I become natural when I travel outside the demonstrations of the Spirit, or seek to do so, and must expect to be deceived. My blessing is to stand with the prophet, and see as he saw, and not as I with carnal eyes might see. One is spiritual, and so I can judge all things; the other is natural, and thus I am judging after the outward appearance, which is unrighteous judgment.
These chapters also disclose to us that there shall be a king of that city who shall aspire to be "like the Most High" - who shall personify all the ambitious projects manifested at the first Babel; he will (in his heart) "ascend above the heights of the clouds", and yet at Jerusalem, and not Babylon, will he desire to be enthroned "upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north". Now, we read of no king of Babylon who considered the mount of Olives of such eminent celebrity as to aim to set his throne there. In fact, in general, the kings of Babylon executed their purposes against Jerusalem through their generals. Nebuzaradan seems more the victor of Jerusalem
than Nebuchadnezzar The latter does not seem to deem it as worthy of his royal presence. Yet the prophecy is very plain, and (may we not say?) it shall be fulfilled: a king of Babylon will purpose, yea aim, to set his throne "upon the mount of the congregation", to be king of Jerusalem; this has not come to pass; nor has the destruction here spoken of, to be consummated on the city of this king, been yet accomplished, for from Babylon is not yet "cut off from Babylon the name, and remnant, and son, and nephew"; and, surely, the time is not yet when it can be said in truth that "the whole earth is at rest, and is quiet, they break forth into singing". On the whole, I think the attentive, unprejudiced reader, will rise up from these chapters impressed with awe at the terrific proportions this mystic place and its king will one day assume. None of the world will be exempt from the ordination of its rule, for this king shall make the world as a wilderness, and all under the semblance of the Most High, as well as aim to set his throne on the mount of Olives, monopolising all religion in himself and leading us to the conclusion that this king, this mighty one, is not an ordinary king of Babylon, but the impersonification of its principles, and, in keeping with this, aiming at the sides of the north "the city of the great king", for his throne, and not as Nebuchadnezzar, who gloried merely in Babylon itself. If he were a real king of Babylon, then "the sides of the north" would not be such an object of ambition, for, as to external glory, the former surpassed; but, as to divine honour, the latter was alone distinguished.
We next hear of Babylon and its king, not prophetically but historically (Isaiah 39:1), when messengers are sent by Merodach-baladan, with letters and a present to Hezekiah, and with delusion so unseen but yet successful and perhaps unintentional, as far as the instruments were concerned, that Hezekiah is "glad". He interprets not their real objects, namely, "to
enquire of the wonder that was done in the land" (2 Chronicles 32:31), but, self-satisfied he receives honour from the court of Babylon. Israel is enslaved "The days come, that all that is in thy house, and that which thy fathers have laid up in store unto this day, shall be carried into Babylon: nothing shall be left, saith the Lord", 2 Kings 20:17. Great and terrible judgment this, for merely, as man would say, accepting graciously the polite attentions of a foreign court! Surely, there was some mystic evil in Babylon; surely, the Spirit of God detected, in the principles of that city, some deep-rooted enmity and malice against the counsels of God. He could see the direful effects and mourn over His people, who should suffer from them, as the prophet because of Hazael. He warned and denounced, when Israel's king (and he was a good one) consented to terms - to terms of intimacy with the king of Babylon! Israel forgot its election. The genius of Babylon was again dominant, and Israel is again in the Chaldee country.
Next, the book of Daniel gives us a view of Babylon and its king; the principles which govern it; how it uses them; how the people of God are circumstanced there, and what shall be the end of each. We shall, therefore, turn to it, and continue our examination, by noticing its general features.
The second of Daniel furnishes the dream of the great king Nebuchadnezzar, which was gone from him; and it is well for us, for a moment, to consider the position which this king now held in the earth. We know power is of God. We know that Israel had power directly from God. Whether we look at Joshua, or Judges, or the Kings, the drawn sword was with them, and God fought for them. No one could stand before them; but now matters are changed, and the goodliest of them, even their princes, are eunuchs in the court of Babylon, and to its king, Nebuchadnezzar, rule is delegated. "Wheresoever the children of men
dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all". Such is the king who is instructed in a dream, but it goes from him; he has no retention of the purposes of God, yet he would know them, and makes many efforts in vain. God alone could reveal. Daniel, even in Babylon, is superior to its allurements; he is separate from them, and consequently rises by divine strength above all the power and earthly majesty of Nebuchadnezzar; he rehearses the dream and interprets it. Now it does appear to me of all importance to ascertain the full accomplishment of this dream. We know, both from Isaiah and from the Revelation, that Babylon was to be an organised power, irresistible and widespreading in its domination; but from what centre, and where, and what it is, we should here get an outline to guide us. In the dream, there is but one image. Therefore, mean what it may in parts, it is still but one, and without the parts it would not be one; but then no preceding part can comprise the whole. This image, we know, exhibits the four great monarchies of the whole earth in one panoramic view; and though each successive one is deteriorated in quality, yet it embraces the same, or even more, territory and influence than the preceding one; and though all are here depictured in one image to the head of gentile power, yet one alone, and that successively, occupies the place of rule, and the last is only removed by the stone cut out of the mountain without hands, and thus effectually and entirely. Though only one part of the image has a prominent and visible action at any given time, yet the spirit of each preceding part is not lost to the succeeding. The principles and motives which were fostered in the head of gold are still alive in the feet of iron: so that while the expression is a deteriorated one, as iron is of gold, yet the image is one; the identity as to mind and purpose is the same; There is no return to a better expression which
has yielded to an inferior one; the head of gold never again appears characterising the power in the world. When anyone fails, it is not again restored. The Persian never was reformed again into the Babylonish, but again each continued till it was supplanted by another; so that if the successor is not manifested, then the predecessor still exists. We may, therefore, sum up that the fourth and last form of power, even the Roman, is still in exercise; that it is part of the image; that it is identical with it; that it has succeeded the other three forms of power, but still embraces all the principles and motives which were active in its predecessors; that it will continue till a stone is cut out of the mountain without hands, and breaks in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold. This stone will become a great mountain and fill the whole earth. Surely, this stone has not as yet smitten the image, for as yet there is gentile power, and while there is, there must still exist some of this image; and if the image exist in any part, it is evident that its successor, namely the stone, has not performed its great work in supplanting it. Nor need we have a resuscitation of the king of Babylon to ensure the development of its principles; for the image is but one, though it is variously expressed at different times, and consequently we cannot have a return to actual Babylon, though we have in Rome (as the feet have the life and action of the head) all the mind and spirit of Babylon. If the image was to be again in full exhibited, then it is evident that during the Babylonish kingdom there would be no Roman; nor actual Babylon, which some are so earnest in pressing, when we have the rest of the image; whereas, in the Roman which now exists, and which appears to me very simple, we have all the principles and identity of the image, though in an inferior form. Scripture gives us no ground for supposing that Babylon will be revived as the head of gold. It tells us that Babylon is the head of the
image, that all of the image will be destroyed together, but that consecutively the parts of the image were manifested, and that the fourth is the concentration of the preceding ones. All are represented in it, all are embraced in this the last; when it is destroyed, all are destroyed; but there is no return to a dynasty already expired, and, therefore, we may conclude that Babylon must emanate morally from the fourth kingdom. We shall more closely examine this point by turning to Daniel's vision of the same subject, though differently represented.
Daniel is shown what carnal power is according to God's estimate. Four savage beasts represent to God's servant the four forms of power which were to arise upon the earth; and we must remember that this was to a Jew, who knew that power had departed from his nation, and he is now, in God's mercy, shown the course it would take ere it would return into the channel of his nation again. Hence his great interest in it. Hence our interest in it, because Christ is the promised seed, the Bridegroom of our souls, a Prince and a Saviour of Israel His people. Now, we can gather from no allusion here the idea that the fourth beast was to assume the appearance of the first, even Babylon. We cannot doubt but that the fourth had all the ferocity and evil purpose of the first, but it is not said to bear any resemblance to any natural animal: it is diverse from all the rest, and is a strange heterogeneous animal. It combines the spirit of the lion, but is something more than the lion; and this leads me again to conclude that we must look for the development of Babylon outside of the precincts of the first Babylon, though in principle it will be found to exist very distinctly somewhere.
I now turn to Jeremiah 50 and 51. Jeremiah remained with the remnant in Jerusalem but sent with Seraiah the prophecy respecting Babylon to Babylon. I do not think we can glean much from this as to the
locality and nature of the future Babylon. It cannot be questioned that this prophecy had a prior fulfilment at the taking of that city by Cyrus, but yet it is evident that it takes a wider range than this, and instructs us as to that happy condition of Israel consequent on the downfall of Babylon which has not as yet been accomplished. Surely, they have not made with the Lord "a perpetual covenant which shall not be forgotten". Nor again (verse 45) could the prophet advise them, save in prophetic language, to go out of the midst of her, when in chapter 29 he had directed them to seek the peace of it, and in its peace they should have peace. So that I conclude from these chapters that another Babylon was in the eye of the prophet; and if it was not in the first form of power, it could not mean the material Babylon of the Chaldees, but its principles developed in another. As one of the remnant, he expresses in prophetic language their hopes.
In Ezekiel, we have no distinct prophecy with reference to Babylon; nor am I sufficiently instructed to say the reason of it. I merely mention the fact as it may suggest enquiry. The prophet's eye is Godward. I pass on now to Haggai and Zechariah, in connection with Ezra and Nehemiah. In these books we have Judah after the captivity returned from Babylon, their leader bearing the name Zerubbabel (i.e., deliverer from Babylon), but yet not with the power or in the high position which they owned prior to the captivity. Power still remained in the hands of the gentiles. An intelligent Israelite could not have been insensible to their lost glory. A gentile wielded the sword of power once committed by God to Israel. They reoccupy Jerusalem and rebuild the temple, thus shorn of a once unrivalled greatness. Though they might not there actually feel the oppressing arm of the gentile, yet humiliation brooded over their souls. Another had wrested and retained the headship which once belonged to them. Consequently, we find in
Zechariah (whose prophecy embraces more the internal, as Haggai does the external) a distinct allusion to the destination of lawlessness or wickedness; chapter 5. Israel's power ceased when it became lawlessness. The gentiles then became the fit instruments for exercising it, but, as we perceive, its limit is announced in the chapter referred to. Their wickedness is seen, in a concentrated form, borne along until it takes a final stand and establishment in the land of Shinar, a re-embodiment of the principles which were first developed there, and which gentile power will embrace ere it arrives at its full maturity. The reference to the land of Shinar seems to be figurative, as all the other features in the vision unquestionably are.
Now, bearing in mind this hasty glance at the ideas which the word 'Babylon' in Scripture evokes, let us turn to the Revelation and see whether it corroborates what has been seen. In Revelation 14 we are told that "Babylon is fallen, is fallen", as if the fate of it was pregnant with great and untold advantages to a harassed and suffering people; the Jewish remnant doubtless, because we must ever keep Israel and Babylon in antagonistic positions, the glory of one depending on the downfall of the other. And in this chapter we have the hundred and forty-four thousand catching up the heavenly anthem and consequently the doom of the earthly usurper is announced contemporaneously; for when the earthly family are in unison with the heavenly, then the hostile power must be judged and condemned. In chapters 17 and 18 we are still further instructed as to the course of evil which will eventuate in the direful form which Babylon represents. The relations of the ecclesiastical and civil forms of power are described in these chapters - christendom's declension to its ultimate immersion in the principles of Babylon. And what is Babylon here? She is arrayed in purple and scarlet, she is bedizened with gold and precious stones, far, far different from the modest apparel which
becomes the bride of Christ in this world. But what is all this to her abominations and the filthiness of her fornication? Her judgment is that of the great whore, "With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication; and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication". She was the mother of the harlots and abominations (or idols) of the earth, drunken with the blood of the saints and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. This is God's characteristic of Babylon, written on her forehead. All else is subsidiary. Idolatry is the grand evil: not merely ecclesiastical corruption, but an idolatrous virus. Long had she ridden the beast, but at length it and the ten horns desolate and devour her with implacable hatred. Babylon shall be burnt with fire. The beast may thereby aggrandise his power. But true and righteous are God's judgments, for He will judge the great whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and will avenge the blood of His servants at her hand.
Of this let christians, let men, rest assured, that the judgment of great Babylon has not yet taken effect. Checks have been given to Rome, the centre and advocate of this evil harlotry. But be sure that until Babylon the great is fallen, that symbol of corruption will neither be reformed in its character, nor be lessened in its malignant influence. The great moral Babel in gigantic proportions, as having rejected every light of God in Israel and the church, as well as the latter-day testimony, and following out the principles of its birth and growth, namely, pride and idolatry, will thus bestride the world for a season. Alas! it is to this all merely human efforts at amelioration, peace and temperance societies, world-wide trade and commerce, education movements, progressive improvements, are now tributary and what shall be said of the attempt to enlist all nations in a joint effort which tends directly to the glory of man? May the saints
be saved from the delusions which are abroad! No one will be carried down the stream which will yet swell into a mighty flood, and subvert all acknowledgment of God, but in part as he is carried must imbibe indifference to the ways and thoughts of God now. The evil is working; "the mystery of iniquity" or lawlessness doth already work. If Satan aids the ecclesiastical systems (even though men say we care not whence the aid comes, and we can use it beneficially), it must be borne in mind that Satan has an ulterior object, even the subversion of all christianity, and the establishment of lawlessness on its own base. Let us be warned, and walk separate from the evil principles which are everywhere afloat!
Luke 10:30 - 34; Luke 15:22 - 24
In the Bible only is the full nature of man's ruin exposed and depicted; and there only is a perfect remedy - God's remedy - revealed. If there be any limitation of the extent and depth of the ruin, there must be a still greater misapprehension of the remedy, because the remedy is not merely equal to the measure of the ruin, but, as the remedy is the gift of grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, it must from the mere fact of its source be divine, and far beyond the expectation or sensible requirement of man. It must be magnificent in every part.
Yet the remedy, however great, cannot be appreciated unless the need of it be felt. Hence the need of man because of his ruin must be the first sense, in some measure, in the awakened soul: "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom"; the awakening of the soul necessarily discloses to it its danger and its misery.
When the extent of the ruin is before the mind of the evangelist, when his heart is yearning for the good of souls, he would feel himself straitened and incapable did he not know that the remedy could in every detail meet the misery before him. If he see only a part of the misery, he contents himself with offering to and pressing on the sinner that portion of the remedy which will relieve that part. Hence the preacher must know the ruin not partially, for then he will present the remedy only partially. And very often the remedy known partially is, in the mind of the evangelist, that which indicates the ruin, instead of a knowledge of the ruin leading him to ascertain the divine remedy. It is when I am aware of the ruin that I look for the remedy; and, on the other hand, when I have true
and right apprehension of the remedy and its scope, I must soon see the nature and depth of the ruin.
Let us take some examples of this in Scripture. There the remedy in divine measure covers the ruin. The famished prodigal son is not only kissed and clothed, but he is feasted in the father's house. The evangelist must either leave him "a great way off", where the Father kisses him; or he must set him in the Father's house, beginning to be merry. Has his ruin been relieved - has the remedy reached the full measure of the ruin and the need, until he is in the Father's house? One might say he was safe from judgment when the Father had kissed him; reconciliation had been effected; the terrible distance between God and the sinner had been crossed by the love that had found a ransom; but the prodigal's ruin requires much more.
The question is, Am I at liberty to propose to a prodigal part of the divine remedy and withhold the rest?
Take another case; that in Luke 10 - the man who had fallen among thieves.
"A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, and went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him".
Here man's ruin is fully depicted, and here we shall find the remedy is in divine perfection in every part. Where the ruin is sensibly felt, where the sinner is
consciously awakened to his state, he feels he is painfully incapable to refuse any relief, and he feels he wants it. No state could be more deplorable. He needs relief, and yet he would refuse it if he could. If he were not so broken down he would not accept it, so that it is his very misery that makes him fit for grace. He has the wounds, and wounds only. He has nothing to commend him but his need.
And now he receives wine and oil into his wounds. Christ comes as the neighbour. Under the law, but not confining Himself to the limits of the law, He magnifies the law; and, while He meets man according to the measure of the law, He travels out beyond it into the depth and breadth of God's love. He makes the law honourable in the way He fulfils and magnifies it; whilst He meets with a divine remedy the entire state of the poor sinner. He not only pours oil and wine into his wounds, that is, cures him (this, of course, is the first thing; the man is cured), but were I to limit the remedy to this, while I admit much would have been done for the sinner, yet I should come very short of the remedy given me by God for him.
If I am sent to a suffering person with three or four distinct gifts which the mind of the donor (who is fully acquainted with the need of the sufferer) considers requisite, am I at liberty to give him only one, because that one gives great relief, and to withhold the others? Certainly not. I should err in a double way. I should not fulfil the commission entrusted to me, I should misrepresent the donor, and I should deprive the needy one of the favours given me for him. The remedy reaches not only to the cure of the sinner, not only to an assured rescue from judgment and unquestionable safety, but it meets him in his powerlessness, as we read, he sets him on "his own beast".
The ruin of the sinner is only partially relieved if he be only cured. It is undoubtedly most necessary, but
it is not enough for a perfect remedy, which God in His grace supplies. The cured one is set upon a new power - the power of Christ; he is now to be borne along by the power of Christ, entirely in a new way, not according to man's power or ways. He has tasted of the bitter end of all of man, and as a cured one he enters upon a new course - a new life and a new ability are given him. He may very partially avail himself of it, but this new power is as much part of the remedy as the cure is.
I must not limit it. The sinner should be impressed and convinced of the fulness and largeness of grace. Not only is a cure for the heart's misery sent through the work of Christ, but the life and power of Christ are also given to meet the powerlessness of his state. Otherwise, as we often see, a soul may be assured of cure - of forgiveness of sins - and yet have no idea of the power or walk which should characterise him now as a cured one. This part of the remedy may never have been made known to him. The remedy is one whole, though divided into parts, and I am not at liberty to insist on one part of it, namely, the cure, and be silent about the other parts of it.
Were I sent to minister medicine, money, and a home to any indigent person, should I consider I had properly executed my work because I had given the medicine? Surely I should, in such a case, have deprived the invalid of two very important items necessary for his state. No one with any integrity would excuse himself for so grievous a defalcation of service.
Now, in ministering to souls, there is not only the loss of the benefits of the remedy if any part be omitted or withheld, but there is a correspondent deficiency or lack of testimony to the grace of God in the life and ways of the convert.
Suppose I tell a sinner that Christ, through His work, will cure his sin-distressed soul, and he receives
this truth in faith, he is cured. But, if I say no more about the remedy, this cured soul seeks to drag on in his weak, powerless state, the only real improvement in him being that he has been relieved of the fear of judgment - the penalty of his sins. How differently such an one would feel were I to insist that the same One who had cured him would now confer upon him His own power. For his ruin would not be adequately relieved unless he were given new power.
And this power is not the power merely of restored health; such as might be the effect of the cure. It is an entirely new kind of power - a power unknown before - the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, which necessarily would lead him into His line of things, outside and apart from man, to walk here as Christ walked.
And this power is not only offered; it is conferred. Thus it is shown in this parable. The relieved sufferer is set on "his own beast", the figure of the power in which Christ walked here. He brings him to an inn and takes care of him. Then his miserable condition is entirely met: cured, carried, and cared for. If the ruin has been terrible, the remedy is most effectual in every point.
Every convert may not enjoy the greatness or perfection of the remedy, yet it is important to assure every perishing soul of the full nature and scope of the remedy, so that he may be convinced, at least, that there is no limitation on the part of God, though he have not faith to grasp it. There is a vast difference between the state of the soul of the one who, though converted, never heard of the fulness of the remedy as set forth in these parables, and the one who, though he have heard it, has not sensibly entered into it. In the former there is no exercised conscience; there is no sense of failure, because not enjoying what has been conferred upon him; but there is a sense of lack continually - a feeling of wanting something to render
him fully happy; for he does not know and has never heard of the fulness of God's remedy for him, and hence he turns to earthly mercies to fill his cup. But the one who has been taught the fulness of God's remedy, even though he do not enjoy it, is continually warned by his conscience of the greatness of the mercy vouchsafed to him. The one may not have, as far as his knowledge goes, the land from which he could produce all he requires; while the other knows he has the land, and that, if he would but till it, he would have all he needs.
How differently each must feel! The one craving and pining because he does not know what would fully satisfy his heart and relieve him of all the consequences of his ruin; the other knowing it, and as he uses the gift through Jesus Christ, appearing before men in a new and wonderful condition. Intensely happy, because not only cured of his wounds, but invested with the power of Christ; thus set in superiority to all that affects and overwhelms man here; and consciously, under the care of Christ while pursuing his pilgrimage through this dreary world, he is a beautiful testimony on the earth of what Christ has done, of God's remedy for man's ruin; so that every one seeing him will greatly marvel and glorify God.
Hebrews 2:11; Hebrews 10:8 - 22
The first thing to be assured of, in order to understand sanctification practically, is that we are, on believing, sanctified to God "By which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all", Hebrews 10:10. "Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren", Hebrews 2:11. If a believer died the moment after he believed, like the thief on the cross, he is sanctified and fit for the paradise of God, because in the act of death he would have been divested of all the old thing, and nothing could go into paradise but the new, and nothing else will at any time (no matter how long a believer may live here) go into paradise but what is new - what is of God.
When a believer is quickened he is born of God, and this is sanctification of the Spirit. But when he remains here, surrounded by the flesh, he learns practical sanctification. If he had died on believing, he would have been divested of all the graveclothes, but as he remains in the body he has to learn practically what it is to be divested of the influence of the old things, and to walk in the midst of them in the grace and Spirit of Christ; and, as he does, he is sanctified practically.
Now before there can be any step in, or knowledge of, practical sanctification, there must be a knowledge of what holiness really is. If a believer does not know what holiness is, he is like one looking for a thing of which he knows nothing at all - like a blind man trying to comprehend light before he can see. I cannot know any sentiment until I have been affected by it, hence
it is said there is no word in any language for an idea which has not yet been apprehended. If a thing is not apprehended, there is no want for the word or sign which would convey it.
Now the work of Christ lands the believer in "the holiest of all". He is rescued from death and judgment, brought from the deepest and darkest distance in one step, through His work, into the brightest place - "the holiest of all". We have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus. That blood certifies the believer's title to be there, and his place is there for ever. There only can he acquire a sense of holiness - of that separation from all defilement which suits God. As God's own righteousness only suits Him as to conduct, so His own holiness only suits Him as to associations.
The believer has not entered into it, has not tasted of the true effect of Christ's work for him, if he has not entered into the holiest of all. True, many quickened souls do not enjoy the holiest of all, and very often they try to be holy in order that they may reach an assured resting-place before God. The fact is, like the prodigal, their very approximation to God in the sense of His love in receiving them, only awakens in them the sense of their unfitness to be near. They would fain brush up the old clothes, instead of seeing that they, the old things, are passed away, and that in new things only can they be really at ease in the Father's house.
Thus it is as divested of an evil conscience, and by the separating power of the word cleansed from our own surroundings that we draw near, the heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and the body washed with pure water. It is here the believer first acquires the sense of holiness. An entirely new sense to him, and one which is wholly unique, even as no art of the apothecary could compound anything like unto the holy anointing oil.
Many are led away by a spurious article because they do not know the genuine one. Thus Romanism beguiles many a one by propounding a severe self-mortification for holiness. When the believer has once tasted of holiness, what it only is, he must be aware of what is contrary to it; and when he has left his place in the holiest. I can never lose my place in the holiest, Christ's blood has obtained it for me. I do, alas! constantly lose my enjoyment in it. But the place remains mine, as David's place at the king's table remained his though he did not occupy it.
Now, when my place in the holiest is assured to me and holiness is known to me, if I had no connection with the flesh and the world, there would be no departure from it; but seeing that I am in a body of sin, and that I am constantly liable to defilement and consequent deprivation of the enjoyment of the holiest, I should be unable to recover my place were it not for the Lord's present ministry washing my feet.
This blessed ministry is to restore me to a place that I have already enjoyed. When I am defiled I cannot resume my place in the holiest until my feet are washed. If I have never enjoyed my place in the holiest, even though my conscience is distressed because of my failure, I have not the feeling that I am deprived of it, because I could not feel that I had lost anything which I had never enjoyed.
Now the washing of the feet sets forth the great principle of sanctification. It is not merely a confession of the error and thus a removal of it. At conversion all our sins were forgiven, as they affected us in the eye of God: being forgiven we were sanctified; we belong to God in the holiest through Christ's work; any sin committed after conversion is a return to the flesh. But the flesh has been judicially terminated in the cross, and if not judged by the believer must be judged by the Lord: "Our God is a consuming fire".
When my feet are washed I am made sensible not only of forgiveness, but of the removal of the defilement which I had contracted. In Numbers 19 the defiled one was sprinkled with the water of separation, in which were the ashes of the sin-offering. The Spirit of God brings before my soul the ashes, the token of accomplished judgment. I am made sensible that I have gone back to that for which Christ suffered at the hand of God; so that it is not merely the offence which is forgiven, but the deeper work of judging the flesh, reaching the root from which the evil springs that is before me. When it is only the offence that is before the conscience, it is more the disgrace to oneself; but when it is the defilement, it is one's loss or estrangement from God and our true place with Him.
I have said we have the true principle of all sanctification here; it is not merely the stopping of an offence, but it is the supplanting of the flesh in its root by Christ, and this is real practical sanctification. Let us examine the mode by which this practical sanctification is produced.
If I had died on conversion I should have been divested of every atom of the old, and perfectly fit, because of Christ's work, to enter into heaven. If I am fit the first moment, I am fit every moment. I do not get more fit by living in a sinful body in a corrupt world; but as I should have dropped every atom of the old man had I died on conversion, so, if I remain here, the power of Christ's life in me is to supplant the old man which is corrupt. As I live in the Spirit I do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh - Christ lives in me. All depends on the garden I sow in. If I sow to the flesh, of the flesh I reap corruption; but if to the Spirit, life everlasting.
In John 17:17, the Lord desires for His disciples that they should be sanctified; and the measure which is to be effected is: "Sanctify them by the truth:
thy word is truth". Now this refers to the new order of which they were as of God. The word here is the counsel of God; an entirely new order of the Father was now to come out. 1 John 3:1, explains it. "The world knows us not, because it knew him not". The sanctification resulting from this would be the manifestation here of the new order; not any improvement in the old, but a displacing of the old; as a tree when it grows displaces the soil by which it is surrounded.
I have real liberty when the flesh has no place, when Ishmael is morally cast out and kept out. There is a new growth in me. Christ lives in me, and as He increases I am practically more sanctified; the old tastes, the weeds that grew in the old soil, are overpowered by the new thing, like the way an aged evergreen shrub by degrees monopolises a plot in a garden. The soil that would ordinarily grow weeds is so completely overshadowed by the shrub that no weeds can grow; not that the soil is any better, but that there is no room for them.
Now in order to promote the growth effectually, the Lord adds: "I sanctify myself for them, that they also may be sanctified by truth". The heart of the believer drawn away from the things here to Christ where He is, would be practically dissociated from the hindering influence here; setting the mind on things above and not on things on the earth. The more I am of the divine order, the more I should be distanced from the men of the world; and the more my heart is drawn away out of everything after Him who had left everything here, the more detached I should be from the things on the earth and the scene of them. For practical sanctification I require both to know that I am of a new generation among the old, as a butterfly among caterpillars; and I require to be removed from the leaves on which caterpillars feed, in order that my old tastes should not be ministered to, and I should
sow to the flesh. This then is the nature of sanctification.
Finally, there are two ministries by which it is promoted. One is the word, Ephesians 5:26, "That he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word". The other is discipline, Hebrews 12:10: "In order to the partaking of his holiness". Now these two ministries work hand in hand, one inside, the other outside. I do not speak of the chastening here for the works of the flesh; doubtless that is to silence the root that has not been judged.
There is then the ministry of the word by which the Lord leads our hearts into such enjoyment with His glories and interests as the queen of Sheba had with Solomon, so that there is no spirit left in us. There is a sensible dropping off of the old things. To God I am outside myself, so that things once thought indispensable and fascinating are now superseded. The graveclothes are for the moment gone, and I breathe freely in a holy atmosphere. The wonder and beauty of His mind and thoughts quite surpass the small selfish enjoyments of my poor heart. I am drawn nearer to Him; and the nearer I am, the more distinctly do I become suited to Him. Like Rebecca, who, when she saw Isaac, lighted off the camel and threw a veil over herself, so, as I see Christ by faith, I lose sight of myself; Christ's presence makes me suited to Himself. He refuses all that is not of Himself, and gives prominence and countenance to all that is of Himself: "While the king is at his table, my spikenard sendeth forth its fragrance". When I see Him I shall be like Him, and the more I behold the glory of the Lord, the more I am moulded into its likeness. His word instructs me in the greatness and beauty of His things.
This ministry is within me, but discipline is from without, and concurrent. "All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are
called according to purpose". There is chastening or discipline for unjudged failure, "On this account many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep". The flesh unjudged is judged; but I refer more to the discipline, which promotes holiness. The earnest soul drinks Marah, refuses the things which minister to the flesh, looks not upon the wine when it is red, but seeks to be always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus may be manifested in the body.
Discipline helps in order to this. "We who live are always delivered unto death .. . that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body". It is to help those who are progressing; something like pruning to bring forth more fruit; but it is constant and unremitting, indicating that one is an unceasing object of interest. The cloud of witnesses in Hebrews 11 all suffered for righteousness, but their sufferings tended to detach them from the world, and connect them more absolutely with God. As it has been said, every blow Stephen received was loosening him from all here, liberating him from all of man, that he might the more fully enter into all that is of God. Thus suffering is not only a testimony, but a help to holiness to the sufferer.
The aim of all discipline is to free me of everything which hinders Christ in me; so that, while the ministry of the word opens out to me the beauty and glory of my portion in Christ, the discipline through circumstances detaches me from the weights which hinder me here. It is ever where a believer has most vanity or self-confidence that discipline makes its mark. If Jacob be a very active man, he becomes lame. If Moses be a muscular man, he must learn by forty years in the wilderness not to trust in himself. And Paul is crippled where he feels it most. God will stain the pride of all men.
The sanctified man is a body of light, as when the bright shining of a candle gives its glow; every dark part driven out, and Christ reigning in the heart; the body simply His vessel, or medium, for expressing His own will and pleasure.
Exodus 15:26; 1 Corinthians 11:31, 32
Faith in the blood of Christ shelters me from the judgment, as Israel was safe from the destroyer because of the blood sprinkled on the lintel and the door-post. The worshipper, once purged, has no more conscience of sins. Judgment because of sins is passed over for ever. The blood has acquired for us this new footing, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more"; therefore there is no more offering for sin. Israel left Egypt under the shelter of the blood. That shelter could never cease; they are a redeemed people. The believer now is placed in an entirely new standing, because of the blood of Christ. He is our mercy-seat, in whom is concentrated the full revelation of God, according to His power and glory. He is that ever for us, through faith in His blood. There is no more shedding of blood. By one offering He has perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
This being accepted and held to in faith, there comes the question, What about the sins after conversion? It will not be asserted that there are none. True it is, that earnest souls have tried to escape from the sorrow and shame of sinning after conversion, by assuming and attempting to reach a state of sinless perfection. In this case, always, there is a lowering of the sense of holiness, in order to relieve the conscience of the sense of sin. It is like damaging one's sight, so as to have an excuse for not seeing.
The truth is, that, on believing in Christ, we are, through God's grace, on entirely new ground, ever under the shelter of His blood, and, once purged, there is "no more conscience of sins". God, in His perfect grace, has not only forgiven our sins, but He has terminated judicially in the cross the old man,
from whence the sins come. In the life of Christ we are "free from the law of sin and death". If we walk in the Spirit, we shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh, for the Spirit is stronger than the flesh. When the believer sins, he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. "The thought of foolishness is sin".
We have boldness for entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, where we enjoy the sense of being without a spot. Now, when we are defiled, when a spot occurs, however small it may be, there is a return to the flesh. We have returned to what God has set aside in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are sensible of the defilement, for communion is interrupted; there is no enjoyment of the place or the part where Christ is. I need not say here that you must, of course, have known and enjoyed this place of nearness before you could lose it, or before you would seek restoration. I am supposing the case of the worshipper once purged; he has tasted of the ineffable blessedness of being in the holiest; his heart was sprinkled from an evil conscience, and his body washed with pure water. But he had lost it; he has been drawn away of his own lust, and enticed; he is sensible of his loss. The greater his love for the Lord, the more he feels it; for affection is not communion, but affection makes one long for what can only satisfy itself. Peter had affection, and had tasted of the Saviour's love, before he was restored to communion.
The course of grace now is, as in his case, that the feet are washed. It is not merely forgiveness, though that is included or connected with the washing. The forgiveness does not refer in any way to the safety of the soul, because God does not impute sin to anyone under the shelter of the blood of Christ; and yet with God, always, "the soul that sinneth, it shall die". God is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity; sin is of the devil. The washing is not in any sense a propitiation. The washing is to expose the root, or source, of
the sin, and thus to free the believer of its working and defilement. It is the light of the word exposing the evil by substituting the good. This is done by the word, through the Spirit searching our conscience, often in much distress and confession; the latter (confession) because Jesus is our Advocate. The flesh having been judicially terminated in the cross, were it not for the advocacy of Christ, a returning to it in the believer would entail on him immediate excision from the life here.
Now, when the word has exposed to me the root of the sin which I have committed, I am in practical abhorrence of it; and the Spirit relieves me, by presenting to me what the ashes of the red heifer in the running water (see Numbers 19) typify; namely, that Christ bore the judgment of God for my failure. It is not fire now, but ashes, the token of accomplished judgment.
The effect on me of the washing is that I am cleared of the source of the sin; the root from which it came has been disclosed; the spot is gone, because the root is judged. "If we judged ourselves, so were we not judged. But being judged, we are disciplined of the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world". Flesh must go wherever it is; we are not to be condemned with the world, but if we do not judge ourselves, we are judged of the Lord; hence it is, "many among you are weak and infirm, and a good many are fallen asleep". That is, there are cases when the works of the flesh are not forgiven; the flesh suffers here because it has not been judged. The flesh cannot be tolerated, and the more godly we are, the less can we tolerate it, or the more quickly is it judged. Real liberty is walking in the Spirit; for if I walk by the Spirit, I mortify the deeds of the body. The true course is, as Marah typifies, that I refuse everything for which Christ died; this is my real freedom. Hence, the man who has the greatest opportunity of gratifying
himself, is the one who most distinctly feels that this is indeed a wilderness, where he cannot enjoy what he possesses, and what would so minister to him as a man.
Now it is evident that sickness may fall on us here because of sins that we have not judged; that is, that God will, in some way, silence the flesh in the activity in which it has exposed itself, unless it is judged. When it is judged, it is disallowed, and here real repentance comes in. Thus "grief according to God works repentance". "I .. . repent in dust and ashes". I loathe myself, and my one relief is to see myself crucified with Christ, and thus the flesh as far from me as, through grace, it is from God. Hence it is that, when one is sick, it is said (James 5:15), "and if he be one who has committed sins, it shall be forgiven him". Up to that moment they had not been forgiven him, and this forgiveness related exclusively to his sickness.
I do not say that every sickness is because of sin, for I read about one being "sick nigh unto death .. . for the work of Christ"; again, a man may have inherited a weakly constitution; or may have shattered his health before his conversion. In this case I suffer the consequences of my unrighteousness after I am converted. The thief on the cross, though going to paradise, dies a felon's death. And constantly, in the Old Testament, the expression occurs, "and it shall be forgiven him". This does not relate to future, but to present things. There are instances when there is not present forgiveness. This I have adduced; and again (1 John 5:16): "There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it".
Well, now that we have seen that the flesh must be practically set aside in the believer, let us examine briefly the difference between the discipline to promote holiness, and the discipline because of unholiness. I do not see how any one can determine for another which of the two he may be passing through. It is
evident that the more anyone walks in self-surrender, the better he understands in himself the cross, the more he enjoys the Lord. And it is often because saints will not deny themselves that they pass through human sufferings; as it was said to Israel, in connection with "Marah" (Exodus 15:26), "If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of Jehovah thy God, and do what is right in his eyes, and incline thine ears to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the complaints upon thee that I have put upon the Egyptians: for I am Jehovah who healeth thee".
We all have to learn, when it is not at all a matter of sinfulness, that the less the flesh is given a place, the more of the power of Christ we have. This Paul learned when he came down from the third heaven, so that he can say, "I rather boast in my weaknesses, that the power of the Christ may dwell upon me". It is thus the apostle can say, "always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus"; nothing for which He suffered is to be allowed in me, "that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body".
Then follows, "we who live are always delivered unto death on account of Jesus". No doubt it was persecution in that day, for it checked and cut down the flesh; but very often, now, sickness is sent to produce what persecutions effected then. I can understand how when one is suffering sickness instead of persecution, one becomes sensible of being made more practically fit for the service that one has at heart. When a believer dreads any tendency of his nature, when he looks not upon the wine when it is red, the Lord comes in to assist him by bringing in death in some way. For instance, if he has a love for music, by spoiling his ear; but in such cases the heart is always conscious of favour in the discipline, and not of rebuke. It is a very different thing when there is rebuke for self-gratification, from what it is when the
self-surrender begins with oneself, and the Lord rolls in death, to confirm and establish the longing of the true heart; like the man who determined to give up his jewellery for the Lord, and when he had done so, a burglar broke into the house and stole it. He was not sorry for the loss, but he was kept up to his desire by the Lord.
On the other hand, if any goes on gratifying the flesh, sooner or later his sufferings will spring from his gratification, just as Sodom became suffering to Lot. While, as with Isaac in Gerar, he not only reached Rehoboth, but, when he came to Beer-sheba, the Lord appeared to him that night. The Lord not only makes me glad of the surrender, but He more than compensates in Himself for any loss on my side: "manifold more in this present time".
Thus I have endeavoured to open out a little this interesting subject, assured that we do not sufficiently seek light from the Lord as to the bodily sufferings to which we are subjected. As I have already said, I do not think that one can interpret for another, but I am sure that if there were more exercise before the Lord because of our afflictions, we all should bear them better, and derive real blessing from them. Surely, when anyone is rendered thoroughly incapable here in mind or body, there must be something in it of the rebuke to Lot's wife, when turned into a pillar of salt. The Lord is full of compassion, and often one is allowed to go on in a carnal way for a long time, because one has no sense of the evil in one's conscience; but, assuredly, the day must come when all that selfishness will pass away by the stroke of His hand: "Our God is a consuming fire".
2 Corinthians 5:15 - 18; Colossians 3:10, 11
A newly constructed man, which the term 'converted man' generally implies, is a man for earth. It is interesting to learn from Scripture that there will be a man of this order on the earth in the millennium, and the better we apprehend his status, the easier it will be for us to discern the difference between him and an entirely new man; for doubtless many a devoted saint mistakes the former for the latter. First, then, the converted man is "born of water and of Spirit"; he believes in Christ, as typified by the two goats; Leviticus 16. Eternal redemption effected for him in the presence of God, and all his sins carried into the land of forgetfulness, and he is assured by the presence of Melchisedec that God has given to him the things on the earth to possess. Besides this, the law is written in his heart: "I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them".
The converted man not only delights in the law of God but it is his nature; the resistance within has been removed and there is no opposition from without, and the Holy Spirit in him maintains him therein. The converted man loves God with all his heart and his neighbour as himself, while touching all the commandments and ordinances of the law, he is blameless; he is free of any fear of death or judgment; assured by the presence of Him who has the keys of death and hell. Deuteronomy 26 describes him; he traces all his blessing to the grace of God; he worships God; and he rejoices in every good thing which the Lord has given him. In all the sacrifices he calls to mind the death of Christ as the only ground and warrant for all his blessing; he is "like a tree planted by the
rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper", Psalm 1:3.
When we have a true idea of a converted man, we are ready to say that there cannot be anything more, and, in fact, with christians generally, nothing beyond it is aimed at or expected.
Now the christian at the start is a man of a different order and type altogether. Here lies the great distinction or difference. The christian is not after the flesh, he is not earthy; he is heavenly and spiritual. "As is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly". He has put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of Him that created him, where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all; Colossians 3:10, 11. There is nothing of the first man of any nature or quality; Christ is everything and in all. No one can comprehend the nature and qualities of the christian but as he apprehends the nature and qualities of Christ. We know that because the children were partakers of blood and flesh, "he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil". As Christ died for all, then were all dead, ".. . that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.. .. old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God". "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature". "No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven". The Son of God became a man, that through death He might make in Himself of twain
(Jew and gentile) one new man, so making peace. The christian is a man of new and different tastes and order. The great exercise of a christian is to discern good and evil. There is nothing to correct or improve in the new man; as we put on Christ, we put on the new man; and the christian finds that even what was gain to him, as of Adam, he must count loss for Christ. Amiability or the best natural virtue is surpassed by Christ; and it is only as Christ is formed in him and he is kept by the power of God, that he resists the flesh. The flesh in the christian is unaltered, and hence, if he does not walk in the Spirit, he is carried away by the flesh. As Christ is in him, the salient traits of his nature are kept in abeyance, and as his conscience is good; he is sanctified, but he is the same person still. If the Spirit be grieved and hindered, he acts and behaves as he naturally would; but on the other hand, a christian led by the Spirit is an imitator of God; he surpasses the converted man; he magnifies the law of God. All the duties devolving on the man in the flesh, and all the ordinances of God are better fulfilled by the christian than by the converted man (the man as God required him to be). Under the law there is very little direction as to the domestic duties, save that children should obey their parents; while the man in Christ is most exemplary in the home circle, as we see in Ephesians 5 and 6. It is clearly shown that the nearer we are to God, the more we answer to every desire of His heart, and this, thank God, for the christian is par excellence.
I need not add that the christian is a man altogether suited to God; as the Son who is in the bosom of the Father is the Man of God's pleasure, so we, through the infinite grace of God, are of Him - we are of the new man, and as we walk in the power of the Spirit, we glorify God in our bodies which are His.
Hebrews 1:1 - 3; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 12:1, 2
I sought on a former occasion to show what justification is. Then we saw in Corinthians how those who had departed from the true standing, as set forth in Romans, were corrected. They had given rein to the natural mind, consequently they were dependent on earthly things.
"Ye have reigned as kings without us", the apostle says to them.
There are two things that always go together, earth and flesh. A man who is earthly-minded is carnally-minded.
Then we went on to Galatians. There we saw another thing that keeps you on earth - the law. If you make the law a standard you give the flesh a place. I turn tonight to the pilgrim path. The great point of the book is how a saint may be preserved from settling on the earth. It is not a matter simply of salvation. If a man is not settled about salvation he cannot be occupied with the Lord. You must learn John 14 before 15.
I have read three verses in Hebrews 1, as in a certain sense they embrace the book. I hope to present to you the way by which a saint is preserved now from settling on the earth. Hebrews is written to Jewish saints who are naturally linked with earth. They had certain excuses that we have not. They were drawn to earth. If you are drawn to earth you lose the priesthood of Christ. He was not a priest on earth. The great thing to start with is that our sins are gone. It is not a question of sins. "When he had by himself purged our sins, sat down". It is not, as in the types, a constant repetition. If sin has been
disposed of on the cross, how can you go on with it? Chapter 1 is that having purged sins, He is gone, He has "sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high". In the second chapter we see how we are associated with Him (Hebrews 2:11), "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one".
Now, beloved friends, it is not only that your sins are gone, but you belong to another order altogether. You cannot understand this book at all if you are not on resurrection ground. This verse gives you your true position - "all of one". If you do not have oneness you lose the idea. "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". It is not brethren after the stock of Israel, but as you get in John, "Go, tell my brethren," etc. Here was the Lord in His unique position, so delightful to the Father. He says, I shall abide alone if I do not die, but if I die, I shall bring forth much fruit, that is, many grains. If you sow a grain, you get many grains from it. When the Lord rose He said to Mary, "Go, tell my brethren", etc. He has brethren now. If you do not understand the position you are in you will never understand Hebrews. People say, Give us something for the wilderness.
In verse 12 he quoted Psalm 22:22. If you look at Psalm 22 you will see that it is taken up with our side of the matter. There are seven giants from the cup of judgment down to the horns of the unicorn - death itself. He is heard. What now? What does He connect Himself with? His own. He visits them first. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren"; that is the new company, not Israel, but brethren connected with resurrection. If you do not understand that you will never understand Hebrews. Here we get our relation to Him. "I will declare thy name unto my brethren". Then, "In the midst of the congregation will I praise thee", i.e., in the house of God, God's dwelling-place. Hebrews 3 opens with, "Wherefore,
holy brethren.. . consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus", etc. He is both Apostle and High Priest, both Moses and Aaron. In verse 6 we get "Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we", etc. That is, we are not drawn to things here. Then he comes to the day of "provocation". "When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years". I believe that a christian is uncommonly little acquainted with his own history if he is not conscious of failure in the day of provocation. It is the day of difficulty. Israel took but one journey (Numbers 10), then they fell a-lusting and had a longing for the leeks and onions of Egypt. How many of us have failed there! We have longed for something from this world. Here we get a warning about the day of provocation. What made them turn back? There is the lusting first and then the actual refusing to go up. The spies praised the land immensely, but ten say, "We are not able to go up". That is the day of provocation. "For we are become companions of the Christ" (verse 14), "called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ", 1 Corinthians 1:9. Communion is the same word. Communion would occupy you more with things outside the world. We have got company. "We are become companions of the Christ, if indeed we hold the beginning of the assurance firm to the end". What do you understand by that? That you put your foot down solidly. Do not give that up. People are drawn back. The moment you begin to fail, you give up your brightest thing - the top-shoot - not the root. A person says, I am a christian. Yes, but you are like a forest tree in a flower-pot. There is no advance, no freshness and vigour about it.
Now we come to chapter 4: 11. How are we to meet it? We are on the pilgrim path. I do not deny there are difficulties, but the question is, do you set out as a pilgrim? A pilgrim is one who is going home.
"Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest", etc. You are going on to that rest. They failed to enter into Canaan. "Harden not your hearts". Mind you are on the pilgrim path. Do not be too confident. I never yet through grace sought to move on, but something was not thrown on my path - a leek or an onion - something to turn one off the path. I am a companion of Christ. I am on a journey. They declared they were strangers and pilgrims. You are on the way. It is not like Ephesians; you are seated there already. There is something that tells you are going on. Not like a tourist: a tourist tries to get the best accommodation here; but a pilgrim is set on where he is going: his object is to go on. Now the question is how you are affected by it: "lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief" (verse 11). Do not be too self-confident. The wilderness path is not the path to settle in, nor to make a place for yourself. You are going on and you are bearing testimony for Christ, "bearing his reproach". Just turn to verse 12: "For the word of God is quick, and powerful", etc. Now there are infirmities. The word of God will discover all your motives. In John the word used is 'sin,' here it is "infirmities". It is to correct you that you may receive support from the High Priest. It is not that you do not come to Him for grace, but you get sympathy from Him. A man might be aggrieved; he could not expect the Lord's sympathy because his vanity is hurt. The question is, How do you feel about the pressure you are in? The word will detect you when you are on the road. They would not go on. They would not receive the word mixed with faith. If a person were going on he would not mind how this one or that one offended him. He is going on. I am hindered by the rudeness of man. Yes, no doubt. "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens .. . let us hold fast our profession".
What do you expect from the sympathy of Christ? The word of God brings you into the light and you see where you are. The word is to correct you; what do you expect from the sympathy of Christ? What I find is that people do not know what to expect. He knows the way you suffer as a godly soul. It may be pressure of circumstances, sickness, bereavement. What do you expect? That He will remove it? That is not sympathy. Sympathy is that He bears you company in the trial, as He did to Mary in John 11. He uses the blank to make His interests more known to you. He "was in all points tempted like as we are". He is interested in me. I know He is. I do not find anyone enters into my sorrows as He does. He says, as it were, I use this grief to make you know that you have One who sticketh closer than a brother. See the effect of that. When she lost her brother she thought she had lost everything. If a woman had not a man to provide for her, her hope was gone. What does she find? In chapter 12 she finds that the Lord is going. She has found Him and a friend found in sorrow is never lost. She says, I know what you are; and I know you are going to die. I give up the brightest thing I have. She anoints the Lord for His burial. That is an example. What we get here is the Lord's sympathy; not as one who is on a level with me. He has been down here. Look at a verse in chapter 7. If we were better acquainted with the sympathy of Christ, our hearts would be more attracted to Him. "For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled", etc. (chapter 7: 26). He says to us, I see you under pressure of sickness or bereavement, I have been there and I will support you from heaven. See what companionship that brings you into. "Made higher than the heavens". It is not that you know something of the sympathy of a friend: he must know something of the sorrow himself, or he could not sympathise. He thinks of me. Sorrow always puts
you into solitude. There is many a mother who would slave for her child, but she would not like to have the same malady as her child. The Lord says, I can bear you out in it.
I just add a word on chapter 5. The great difficulty with christians is, they have to do with milk - they are unskilful in the word of righteousness. It is that you have not got on to christian ground. Perfection is Christ glorified. I trust in a measure that a soul that is really waiting on the Lord for sympathy, is led to be clear from everything that would prevent Him from sympathising. When he comes to understand it, he will find what a resource he has. I believe he will catch the interest of Christ. I sometimes say to parents, You seek the love of your children; if you seek their interest you will get their love. It is not that He will allow anything that is contrary to Himself, He cannot, but He gives you sympathy.
Chapter 8: 1, "Now of the things which we have spoken this is the sum", etc. See what a wonderful thing you have, the Lord in the midst of His own in the church. He is a Minister of the sanctuary, etc. You say, The sanctuary is in heaven. I do not deny it, but you have the greater thing in Himself.
I pass on to chapter 10: 19. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest", etc. Beloved friends, now you have the High Priest in another relation - a great Priest. I used to wonder why chapter 10 did not come before chapter 4; that the relation of the priest to God, was not before the relation of the priest to man. If you are bowed down by circumstances, you do not enjoy the Lord's company. People say, We had a happy meeting. Yes, but were you in His presence? What Aaron could not do for his sons the Lord does for us. He removes the pressure, but whether it is gone or not, I have Him. He is my resource along the road. That is the High Priest. Chapter 8: 1 brings out the priesthood for us.
Now in chapter 10 it is a great Priest over the house of God, who sustains us there. You are always in His presence, but the question is, are you always enjoying His presence? It is not that I am relieved from the pressure of my circumstances, but He makes me to know that I have passed within the veil, His own presence. By the Spirit you are there, but what you have to understand is that if you are not fit for Him you will not enjoy Him. If there is a shade of distance between Him and you, you will not enjoy Him. It is like this, I am going on a journey and the One who supplies all my resources is not here at all. He is in heaven. I am brought to approach God, where there is not a single thing to hinder, the holiest of all. I would like now to go on to it. You are looking for Him to come. In the meantime what are you doing? Running on. Chapter 11 is not examples of faith; it is what faith can do. The Lord is the Author and Finisher of faith. "Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith". It is joy to look out for Him. He is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. He is there to sustain me here; the effect on me is, I must go on to Him. I am so drawn out of things here, and drawn to Him there. As Ruth says, "Where thou goest I will go". I cannot part company with the resource there. It is not saying we ought to do this or that, but I will so attach your heart to the One who is there that your heart will run on to Him.
Chapter 12. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses", etc.
I am going on, it is not looking at what I am going to leave, but I am going on. Why? Because my heart is drawn there. You have found out what He is to you here in the place where you are, so that you can run on to the place where He is. Just turn now to chapter 13 to show what our position would be here on earth. There are two kinds of discipline, the one
to correct; the other to help. In chapter 12 it is all to help. "Partakers of his holiness" - that is what God is in His nature. Chapter 13 shows what sort of people it will produce and what sort of people we are. It is, "be content with such things as ye have", and then where you are for Him, "Let us go forth therefore unto him .. . bearing his reproach" (verse 13). "Wherefore Jesus also .. . suffered without the gate" (verse 12). I do not know if you understand it, but a Jew would understand it as a very severe demand on him.
"Bearing his reproach" is that He was on the cross. How are you with regard to that?
What are you doing? "By him, therefore, let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually". You are doing good to all men. You are praising God and serving man. I know He takes an interest in every worry and anxiety that crosses my path. Come down to the reality of it! Not merely is He touched by the feeling of my infirmities, but I am out of it. The apostle says, "I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me". I do not think anything is so misunderstood as Christ's path here. He was able to bear up in every circumstance He was in here. He did not get out of the circumstance. Look how He was sustained in everything here. He slept in the storm. The Lord grant we may understand better what an interest He takes in us. It is not only to remove our infirmities so that we may run the race but that our hearts may be so attracted to Him that we may run the race keeping our eye on Him, so that we may get to Him. The Lord grant we may know it better for His name's sake.
Ephesians 3:8 - 12
It is a very serious question - a question of great interest to oneself, but of still greater interest to the Lord - What are we here for? He was here for us. Now we are to be here for Him. It is a great moment for your soul when you apprehend that you are here for Christ as a member of His body, that you belong to Him. Paul understood it when he said, "That I should preach .. . the unsearchable riches of Christ" - Christ and His body. We are left here to be descriptive of Him in the place of His rejection, to represent Him here as members of His body. As sons we are in the highest relationship; but as united to Christ we are in the highest position, and not only that, but we are brought into the fellowship of the counsels and interests of God.
If I look into the Old Testament history I see that God always had a testimony on earth. With Noah it was power in government; Abraham's testimony was as the man of faith - called out; Joshua's to bring the people of God into the land; David had the city, Solomon the temple. Christ came, and He was on the earth a complete testimony. Every effort was made to get rid of Him. Rejected here He is called to sit at God's right hand; and what comes out now is the mystery - that His body is here. It was revealed to Paul. It was made known to him at his conversion in the question, "Why persecutest thou me?" Until Christ was in glory the truth of the body was not made known, but when He was fully rejected (Acts 9) it was disclosed. It was the most signal defeat of Satan; and if you get hold of the simple fact that Christ was refused a place here, and that His body is here, it will alter the whole complexion of your life. They send a message after Him in the person of Stephen, "We
will not have this man to reign over us", and Stephen delineates this new testimony for us. He says, "I see.. . the Son of man standing on the right hand of God". That is the Man I want to maintain down here. One believer or two could not set forth Christ down here. It must be the whole body - all the saints; but the feeblest member is necessary to the full description of Him here. All may not be walking consistently, but every member of the body is necessary to set forth the exalted Man here where He is refused. It is an immense thing for the heart to get hold of it. Paul tells us that he would have all men see what is the administration of the mystery. It is a thing which should be seen here. He preached among the gentiles the unsearchable riches of the Christ - the Head and the body. I have never found a man in power who was not occupied with God's present interest and testimony. If he is diverted from it he becomes feeble. You are not happy, and you are not in power if you are not set to be the expression, in the scene of His rejection, of the heavenly Man who is at the right hand of God. That is my chief interest. There would be no interest for me in this life if I did not know that I was a member of the body of Christ. What can affect our hearts like the fact that we are called to be descriptive of the exalted Man in the place where He is rejected - Christ in heaven, manifested on earth by His body? That is what calls forth all the opposition of Satan. If he opposed the Lord when He was on earth in humiliation, how much more now in His exaltation? What can move your heart more than that this blessed Man should be set forth in all His beauty by His members here where everything is against Him? Would you not like to be in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, testifying of Him and setting Him forth here? It is God's purpose for you. But you cannot be descriptive of Him here if you have not been in spirit with Him where He is.
I desire to get definitely before your souls that the Holy Spirit is here for a special work - a special purpose.
John 14:26 refers to what He is for us. But there is another side which I get in chapter 15: 26. There the Lord says, "He shall testify of me", that is, of Christ in heaven. Saints like to think only of what He is to them, and thus they separate these two; but I ask, Are you here for Him? All your blessing and spiritual prosperity depends upon how you are here for Christ. This is chapter 15. The Lord first sets us as He is in the presence of the Father, and then He sets us as Himself in the presence of the world. It is inconceivable delight and blessing to me to be before the Father as Christ is, and then to be as Himself in the presence of the world; that involves suffering - but it is the greatest privilege to stand here for the Lord. If you want to prosper in soul you must have both, you must be much in the first, or you do not advance in the second.
The Lord has an interest on earth, a chief interest, and if that is not your chief interest, if you are not set on it, you are not prospering in soul. Prosperity is a very interesting word in Scripture. In Psalm 1:3 we read, "Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper". The peace-offering is called the prosperity + offering. The Lord has a chief interest on earth, and if that is my chief interest, I have divine prosperity.
"He shall testify of me". It is the Holy Spirit's work to testify of Him in glory, and I have the power
+Shahlom -- peace-offering -- is the same root as Shallom, the Hebrew salutation, meaning 'peace' or 'prosperity to you,' and often translated 'prosperity' (Psalm 35:27; Psalm 30:4 - 7; Daniel 8:25).
if I am in company with the Holy Spirit. We often say, The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit; 'and' means distinction. If you are going on with that power to testify of an exalted Christ, you will know what fellowship with the Holy Spirit is. John's gospel was written after all the confusion had come in, and we read there that the Holy Spirit is down here to "testify of me". Paul says, "God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord".
If the Holy Spirit is here to testify of Christ, there is a vessel through which He does it. The church is the vessel. What we have to lament is that the vessel is defective, but there is no defect in the power; we must maintain that the power is the same. It was always the case that the prosperity of every saint was in keeping with his having God's chief interest before him. I see it in Abraham; he was called out of Chaldea to have no position here; so also with Jacob, and with Israel; 600,000 came out of Egypt - only two got into the land! These two say, We will adhere to God's calling. "If the Lord delight in us then he will bring us into this land". These two are singled out, and they went up to take possession. We see the same in Samuel, in Ezra, in Daniel. Daniel prayed three times a day with his window open towards Jerusalem, even when he was in Babylon, for God's chief interest was before him; Jerusalem was a waste, but he says, My heart is where God's chief interest is! And look at his prosperity! "So this Daniel prospered", chapter 6. "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem.. .. If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy", Psalm 137:5, 6. Can you speak thus of the church of God? Oh, to think that we may have as our chief interest in this poor world what is the dearest object of the heart of Christ. His treasure hidden in it! I see the same
in the times of Haggai. The Lord says, "From this day will I bless you". There are many who would be entranced at the thought of being as Christ is in the presence of the Father, who lack the other side - to be as Christ towards the world.
It is very beautiful to see the Lord in the temple in John 2:15. He makes a scourge of small cords, and drives out those that sold in the temple, and says, "Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise". Could anything be more broken up than that was? Yet He called it His "Father's house".
Again, in Luke 21, the Lord was going out of the temple for the last time, going to die. He sees among the many who cast into the treasury one poor widow who cast in all she had. How beautiful to the Lord's eye, to see a person giving all she had for God's interests!
Now what is your chief interest on earth? Christ's interest is my chief interest. I say it boldly, and I am well supported, because the Holy Spirit is here. What is Christ's chief interest? Read Ephesians 5:25 - 27. There it is. In John 13 we get "his own". In Acts 9 He says to Saul, "Why persecutest thou me?" You see the Holy Spirit is here to testify of an exalted Christ, so there is no lack of power; but what is needed is that saints should be devoted to Christ. What is the defect with us? It is want of heart. If every one of you were able truly to say to the Lord, I am willing to stand for Thee, there is the Holy Spirit to back you up, He is the Spirit of power. None could carry out the thoughts of Christ but "his own". His body alone could truly express Himself, and in John 15:26 He announces that He would send the power to do it. The Holy Spirit is here, whether I avail myself of Him or not, and He is here for this express purpose to maintain the testimony of our Lord. The great mark of a person who is waiting for the Lord is that he is looking round to see that others are ready
for Him. As a wife whose husband is absent looks round and says, Get ready, he is coming today; so the bride says, "Come", and turns round to another and says, You say, Come! and to another who is athirst, You are not happy, you come, come to enjoy. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely". If you begin at the top you will work down. You ask the Lord to come; you see someone not saying, Come, and you say to him, Say, Come; to another you say, Get happy, and lastly, you say, Whosoever will, let him come; you sweep the whole earth, you are going to find out all who belong to Him.
The Lord lead our hearts to say, "Come", practically. The Holy Spirit, who testifies of Him, is sent of the Father for this special work and purpose to make us acquainted with Christ in glory; and there is no fear but that you will grow if you are in company with the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 12:1 - 29
The epistle to the Hebrews has peculiar interest for us, because it was written to prevent the Jewish christians from settling on the earth. If you settle on the earth you must have an earthly system. This book is therefore of great service to us, who have been more or less connected with an earthly system, to detach us from it through grace, and to help us to recover lost ground.
Hebrews does not take you to heaven as Ephesians does; it does not treat of union, but it draws your heart away from earth to a Person in heaven. In Ephesians we have to go to a place to understand our relationship to a Person. Union is then known in the power of the Spirit. In Hebrews we are seen as the congregation of God - the consecrated company.
Christ has sat down at the right hand of God, having "purged our sins"; that is the first thing you must know in order to come to your place with God. If you are occupied with your sins, you have not yet found the place in which Christ's work sets you in the presence of God. True, I must reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, and alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and I have to bear in my body the dying of Jesus; there must be death to everything that is set aside in the cross. But I start in the assembly of God with sins gone. The moment I introduce sins into the assembly I weaken the sense of His work that put me there. Many hymns are beautiful breathings, but are not fit for the assembly. The fact of His coming into our midst, puts us into the moral atmosphere of heaven. We have boldness to enter into the holiest
by the blood of Jesus. This must have a great effect on us. May we know it more!
In chapter 2 we have, "Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". The assembly is a new family altogether; none of the old things is there. The corn of wheat has died and brought forth many grains, all of its own order. This is the character that belongs to us as the congregation of God; we are of the same order as Christ. Therefore in chapter 3 we have, "Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus". With a greater than Moses and a greater than Aaron, we come in as a company of priests. Christendom has lost all idea of the company of priests, as you get it in Hebrews. Christ is both the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. Moses proclaimed the mind of God, Christ declares the Father's name, and we go in with Him into the holiest as Aaron and his sons.
Now in chapter 4 we come to what is the great check in all our histories - the day of provocation. Happy is the man who has been able to rise above that day. Israel would not go up; they were intimidated by the report of the spies; they said, "We are not able to go up". With them "God was not well pleased". So it is with many now; it is not that they are not saved, but they are not racing to heaven. Every christian has been saved out of Egypt, but he is either set for Canaan where Christ is, like Caleb and Joshua, or he is looking back to Egypt. If by divine grace your purpose is to go on, you can say, The Lord delights in us and He will bring us in. We know now that the Lord does delight in us, and that in His own purpose He has brought us in. Caleb inherited the very place that frightened them all; Hebron, the city of the four giants, was his possession, and he was as fresh forty-five years after, as he was that day. But
there is a day of provocation for every one of us, and if you have not passed and surmounted that test, you are not running the race.
In chapter 4 we have a great High Priest who is passed through the heavens; we approach the throne of grace with boldness. There is now no question of sins to settle, but we have infirmities. Well, He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities, and is able to sympathise. May we look for His sympathy! I believe we only get this support in order to free us for the company of the Lord. He sympathises with me in order to bring me to this. This is the difference between the effect of getting relief, and getting His support. Mary in John 11 got support before she got relief. This is the divine order. We are all looking to be relieved, and often we are relieved; but His support is something that you can never forget. It does not merely make you resigned. Many say, I see it is the will of God and I submit; but when I have His support I am led in triumph. In John 11 the Lord walks beside Mary, makes her sensible that He fills the blank; He carries her heart from the sense of blank to Himself. He so supported her that her heart is occupied with the Supporter, and though she obtained relief in the restoration of her brother, she never lost the sense of the support she had in the company of the Lord, as He walked beside her at that moment. In the next chapter at the supper table with Him, her action astonishes everyone. The great charm about love is that it does something unprecedented, and perfectly suited to the moment.
Therefore the Lord says of her act, "Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached .. . this also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her". How did she learn what was suitable to do at that moment? By the support she had found in Him - by the way she had learned His sympathy in the time of her sorrow. I do not think that any servant can speak
of it until he knows it, and can look back to the moment when that hand was reached down from the highest heaven, with the assurance to his heart, I know what you are passing through, take My hand. When you know that, you rise above the pressure to Himself; that is support which you never lose the sense of having known. The more the pressure, the more your heart is drawn out to the Person who had supported you through it, and you are in company with Himself.
Then in chapter 10: 19 we see how this is fulfilled to the company; we go inside as His companions. The blood that has saved us from our sins has opened up the way into the presence of God. It is the same High Priest who has been touched with the feeling of my infirmities whom I find in the holiest - inside the veil, a great Priest over the house of God. You have travelled with Him from the deepest pressure upon yourself, up to the spot of inconceivable glory and beauty - the holiest of all. Were you ever there? You come in with your body washed with pure water, it is only as priests - the consecrated company, that we are there, and there is only one way to come in, and that is through the veil. Many saints never go in; though they eat "the bread of his God", they do not go inside (see Leviticus 21:22, 23). A blemish unfitted one of "the seed of Aaron" from going in; that was external, now it is moral. I have infirmities, but He has so supported me that I have risen above them into company with Himself, so that I find my infirmities have really endeared Him to me the more, and I can go in with Him as one of the consecrated company. This is a wonderful moral journey. You cannot plead that you are too weak. Has not the Lord met your weakness? He has gone before and He leads you in company with Himself, from the lowest place among men to the highest spot with God. We thus see how acquaintance is formed, how the heart is attracted to
Him, how the Person attracts me from this place to His own place.
Chapter 10: 34. They had begun very brightly but they had been checked. How many of us come to a great check and do not want to go up! I see great eagerness to get out of Egypt, but great slackness to get into Canaan. They despised the pleasant land. Many who stop thus, say, The Lord is coming, and they think nothing of the race. I never like to hear a man praying or singing about the Lord's coming unless he is preparing for Him. The slothful servant prepared not himself. Are you prepared for Him? You ask the Lord to come. Are you really looking for Him? Do you trim your lamp and go forth to meet Him? I do not believe that anyone is truly looking for the coming of the Lord who is not walking in His pleasure here and who is not in spirit in His company now.
Chapter 11 is a parenthesis, showing what faith is. It has two qualities - power and patience. If there is faith there is power. "By my God have I leaped over a wall". I have power and patience to run a race. Where am I going? I am going to where Christ is. There are difficulties in the road, but I look across to that mansion yonder. A Person is there to whom I am indebted for everything; I must get to Him. You may have said, My sorrow lies too deep for human sympathy. Well, what did you do? You told it all out to the One who is higher than the heavens, and your heart is so drawn to Him that you are going to leave everything to go to Him. That is the race. This chapter (chapter 11) shows me how I am set "on his own beast" (Luke 10:34) in His own power. It is not here examples of faith but traits of faith. If Noah were in Abraham's circumstances, his faith would act like Abraham's and so on. Jesus is the Author and Finisher of faith. He is not here, I am looking off unto Him, I am going to Him; chapter 12: 2.
I know that He has gone the road before me. "When he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them and the sheep follow him; for they know his voice". "Consider him .. . lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds". We are not to be upset by difficulties. "If thou faint in the day of adversity, thy strength is small". God's discipline is to remove the obstacles to our progress; He does not roll away the stone from the wheel until we are up to the stone. "We who live are always delivered unto death". God helps us by rolling in death. You turn out a horse to grass when you do not want to use him, but a useful horse is kept hard at work; all the time he is in favour he is kept in harness. The object of chastening is to make us "partakers of his holiness" - absolute holiness - immeasurable; it is a word only used twice in Scripture, and is in keeping with the passage in John 17"for their sakes I sanctify myself". It puts you clean outside of everything connected with this world, in company with God Himself. The more I think of it, instead of being reluctant to be on this road, the more I find what a wonderful road it is, and the more I long to be in the power that has borne Him there.
Chapter 13 is the appearance you should present here on earth. You are a witness, and this is your character. The angels ought to see christians like stars in the darkness of this world - as lights travelling through it, their Object completely outside it, detaching them from earth. The appearance which you show is that of the highest service - "brotherly love" - "perfect in every good work to do his will". Inside you are praising God; outside you are doing good to man. You do not forget man while praising God. If you suffer for Christ you will reign with Him. Ruth owned the field she had gleaned in. May we know the Lord's own ministry, to each of our souls, leading us to be witnesses to the heavenly One who has gone before, while running on to Him. If you have any weight,
throw it off. Even if it be a harmless thing, if it hinders you, let it go. We are not to be discomfited by obstacles; they only become the test of His power. The "proving of your faith" works endurance. We have to count it all joy when our faith is put to the test, and to go on with more endurance and better ability for every step of the path down here on earth. There are two things which the servant of God is called to - to be a minister and a witness. Witness and martyr is the same word. We have all to be witnesses. Nothing has such moral effect on our associates as our testimony.
2 Kings 2:11, 12
The Lord Jesus is not now on earth. He has ascended up into heaven. What a very peculiar position then is mine here! Sensible of the worthlessness of the first man, and of the absence of the Second. My own life - that of the first man - I hate; the One I love - the Man who has glorified God upon the earth - I find no longer here. How can I get on? Only as united to that One in glory. He is my life. Once with Him I can walk here, not to cultivate my own life, but to manifest His, which is mine in Him. Thus the Lord says, "for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth". His sanctification as expressed in those words is positional. He has ascended up into glory, and is wholly apart from this scene, that we might by the Holy Spirit be associated with Him there, and this is our moral sanctification. But how am I led into this association? See Acts 7:55. Stephen, "being full of the Holy Spirit, having fixed his eyes on heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God". Now there was a new and distinct action of the Holy Spirit, enabling Stephen's soul to penetrate through everything, and to find Jesus where He is, even in the glory of God. It was a new thing brought out at that moment. It was, in a sense, contrary to Stephen's own preaching, for he had been preaching that Christ was to come down - to return. In chapter 1 the disciples were distinctly told not to gaze up into heaven, but now Christ's rejection was completed, and there was no longer any present possibility of His return to earth to take His rights, and the Holy Spirit takes a new line of action. He finds Jesus in the glory
for the saint, and links the soul of the saint with Him there, all hope for the earth being cut off. For Stephen, it was the preparation for his own dissolution, and raised him completely superior to all the tribulation of the scene here. Rivetted to that scene, linked with the One whom he saw there, he has only to bear his simple testimony, and to pray for his murderers - grand testimony to the mighty power of Christ, thus placing His disciple above all the misery here.
Now every new revelation determines the character of the action of the Holy Spirit during any given period. When everything has failed on earth, He directs me to where there is no failure, He turns my eye to heaven. He accomplishes in me the very same action that He did in Stephen.
In 2 Kings 2:11, 12, we get an illustration of the very same thing, that is to say, of the way in which the Holy Spirit leads the soul of the believer now, turning the eye upwards. Elisha asks for a double portion of Elijah's spirit. The answer he gets is, "Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee; but if not, it shall not be so". Do you not think Elisha kept his eye fixed upon his master after this intimation? Gazing on the one who went up, the one who remains gets a double portion of his spirit. And what is his first action? He rends his own clothes; he has done with himself; he has the mantle of the one who has gone up, and in the power of that he can walk through the scene here. "Have your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth; for ye have died, and your life is hid with the Christ in God". It is the strangest of all anomalies that we should be left here to live, where our life is not. Tell me where your eye is, and I will tell you what your conduct is. We all, with unveiled face beholding the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord
the Spirit. There we get the moral consequence. One spirit with that Lord, the glory claims me as its own. It must, for when I am in company with Christ, I am in the very same order of things as Himself. Moses had to veil his face, but now, on the contrary, I can behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, and be transformed thereby into the same image. I have no shrinking from the glory, my heart rests in it. I can look up into that glory as one with the blessed One who is there, and who has made for me a free entrance into it by the ministration of righteousness and of the Spirit.
John 14 gives us the normal state of the saint now; the Spirit of truth is given to comfort us during the absence of Christ. But is that all? No, the Lord says, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". Aye, "know." How wonderful! It is "that day", the Spirit's day, that we are now in, the day of the distinct and peculiar action of the Holy Spirit.
If I am not in conscious union with the One who is there, I cannot 'hate' the life that is here. I must be in His life in order to turn from my own. He has ended the first man in His cross where He met every claim of God's righteousness, and endured God's righteous and terrible judgment, and having exhausted it, having borne the whole penalty of sin, He declares the name of the One whom He glorified when bearing the judgment to the uttermost. In resurrection He declares the Father's name: "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee". We are freed from the judgment which He bore and, in the life of the blessed One who has borne it, we can sing praises with Him.
Genesis 28:10 - 17
God is not a respecter of persons, but for that very reason He is a respecter of states. It is no question how Jacob has got into the state in which we find him at Bethel, not by any worthiness of his own certainly. But there he was, in a scene of utter desolation, the stones of the place his pillow, and he quietly asleep and receiving therein a revelation from God. He is not distracted by the desolation, but he sleeps; he is in a state of self-insensibility, the highest condition morally that one could reach, and the only one in which God could reveal to us His purposes.
If my self has been set aside in the cross, shall I hold to the nature which God has judged, or shall I let it go, and enjoy that which He has obtained for me? "He that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal". My old man is ended before God, because Christ was judged for it on the cross. How can I practically get rid of that which God has judged? By having that blessed One, who has judicially put my flesh away, morally before my soul. He who put it away judicially before God, puts it away morally from me - displaces it. God is in cloudless rest about me, unchangeable in the satisfaction of His boundless thoughts. If Christ be before me, self is as effectually displaced with me morally, as it is judicially displaced before the eye of God. And then I am prepared for His fullest revelations. I am in a state of self-insensibility. There is no hindrance to the Displacer, and the Displacer can declare Himself.
God in glory manifests Himself to Jacob as he slept. Sleep represents death - insensibility. Marvellous
grace of God! He comes to make the poor, homeless, friendless wanderer learn His heart, disclosing to him what is the purpose of His grace, because he was in a condition to receive it. "And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven". There is nothing equal to the revelation of God in glory in this scene of desolation and sorrow. But I must be asleep, not affected by the scene, and self set aside, in order to get the revelation.
The reason we enjoy so little what God has provided for us, and are so little prepared for His revelations, is that we are not in a state of insensibility. I must be conscious of the desolation here, but in quietness as to it, not occupied with it. I must be laid on the pillow when God comes to speak to me. I must have on the one hand the sense of perfect acceptance with God, and rest in His presence; and on the other, of quietness of spirit as to the desolation around, in order to enter into what He reveals. Who gets the revelation? The 'perfect.' "We speak wisdom among them that are perfect". When the natural man is set aside, the deep things of God are revealed to the spiritual man by the Spirit. "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.. .. But we have the mind of Christ".
Exodus 12:13; 14: 30, 31; Luke 15:1 - 32
The grace of God as brought to us in the gospel may be divided into two parts: first, what we are brought out from, and secondly, what we are brought into. Many converted souls know something about what they are brought out of, but very few have the least idea of what God has brought them to, and no soul is entirely off the old ground until he knows what it is to be on the new. Moses' commission was to bring the people out of Egypt and into the good land. As soon as a soul knows he is on the new ground, he is out of the old. The gospel is that God has brought you out of the land of darkness and shadow of death into the land of light and glory. The defect in many souls is that they do not know the nature of the distance between God and the sinner. Only one Man ever knew that, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ. Everyone, even a pagan, knows that there is a distance between the Creator and the creature, but how few, comparatively speaking, understand the nature of the distance. Cain did not know it; he, like a bad physician, tried to cure the disease not knowing what it was, not understanding the nature of it, and there are a great many people who do likewise. The gospel from God's side shows us how God has removed the distance! Abel had faith in God, and knew that nothing could remove the distance but a victim not personally chargeable with the sins for which he suffered, and he offered of the firstlings of the flock and the fat thereof, but there was no resurrection in that type. The victim dies, and the sins are gone.
Here nine-tenths of those who preach the gospel stop. The gospel usually preached is forgiveness of sins, but not resurrection. There is no resurrection in
the sacrifices of the Old Testament. No victim that was offered was ever raised again. And if resurrection is not preached there can be no real sense in the soul of the distance being removed. Death alone could remove the distance; the victim must be one not chargeable with the offence at the time of death, that is, there must be personal excellency in the victim; but it is in apprehending the resurrection that the soul gets the sense that that which caused the distance is removed. The thought of some is that the sinner can do good works, so as to please God, and that Christ's righteousness comes in as a set-off for his unrighteousness. But there is no victim there; you must come to own that you cannot remove the distance yourself, and when you take that ground you find that God has removed the distance, and from His own side, too: "Mine own arm brought salvation". To illustrate this, suppose a child broke a clock and was told to go to his room until he mended it. Could he mend it? How long would he try to do so? Why, the more he tried the more he would injure it. Then his father comes in and says, I will mend it myself. Now, this brings out two things: first, the love of the father, who does not like the distance to continue; and secondly, that as the father has mended it himself, he must be satisfied as to the way in which it is done. Thus the grace of God has come in, and God has removed the distance from His own side. He has done it. Every sinner is under the righteous judgment of God, because he has the nature of a sinner. You see it in a baby, the nature shows itself. When God addressed Adam, what did He say? Not, What hast thou done? but, "Where art thou?" Adam hid himself because of what he was; he said, "I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself". God said to the woman, "What is this that thou hast done?" She had believed the lie of the devil when he told her, "Ye shall not surely die". To man's eye
they did not die, but in God's sight from that moment man was morally dead. How slow all our hearts are to accept the place of death!
We will now read Luke 15:24: "This my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found". You see, it was not only that he was lost, but he was dead, too. "The wages of sin is death". The man that is lost and dead must go from before God's sight. Let me ask, Are you going to keep that man, are you going to dress him up and make him important? Never. Christ gave up His life that He might blot out that man from before the eye of God. That man is morally dead, and in the cross of Christ he has come to an end judicially before God.
When the children of Israel walked through the Red Sea they were out of the place of judgment. The first part was done, they were brought out, but not yet in. A person who is not out knows that Christ has died for him, but he is occupied with the difficulties of the way, though he knows that as to the past all is settled for him. But when he is out he is occupied with God, he is able to take up the song in Exodus 15, which is all about God, and it could not be otherwise: "Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed".
To return to Luke 15. We have there a parable in three parts, and each one is all about the joy of the finder. The shepherd goes out and seeks his sheep up and down upon the mountains until he finds it; and when he hath found it he bears it in triumph on his shoulders and carries it to the house (not home) rejoicing. The point is not so much the safety of the sheep, but his own joy in finding it: "He calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost". Then you get the woman sweeping the house, and seeking diligently for the lost piece of silver. This is the Spirit of God in the evangelist
seeking for everything that belongs to Christ in the world. She too rejoices, and we read, "Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy" (not of the angels, but) "in the presence of the angels".
Now we come to the third. A father has two sons. One of them gathers up all that belongs to him and goes into a far country, and you know the rest. We find this continually in the history of man, his soul starves, and he tries to satisfy himself with husks. Every man who is saved has been converted against his will. In chapter 14 you find God sending out His servant to compel them to come in, that His house may be filled. Suppose a sovereign saying, I throw open my gates to the needy, and not only so, but he sends out his soldiers to compel them to come in, you would say that is very fine; but the gospel surpasses all this because the spring of all is love. What makes a man turn to God? The fact that death stares him in the face. No man ever got saved till he knew he was lost. The thief found this out, he turned to the Lord and went to paradise; his body did not go there, the old thing was left on the cross. Of course we get redemption of the body through the work of Christ, but that had not come out yet. When Adam sinned he felt the difference in himself and hid himself among the trees of the garden; he knew what taking the fruit of the tree of good and evil involved. Death came in. What then? God says you must put the blood on, and "When I see the blood, I will pass over you". This we get in Exodus 12. It is a great thing to get hold of the fact as to how God looks at the blood - not how you look at it, but how God looks at it. It is a wonderful thing when a soul learns that God has His eye on the blood of Christ. That gives you shelter, but you are still in the doomed place; you are safe, you can say, I know I shall not be lost, but you are not happy, you are still in the place of death, and what occupies you is the power of evil. You are not out of Egypt. Now,
in chapter 14 you will find that the children of Israel had to walk through the Red Sea before they enjoyed assurance. I do not say acceptance, but the assurance of salvation. You must get assurance before you get acceptance. A man might preach the word of God for years, and study what is called divinity, and yet he may never have learned acceptance. He may have assurance without having acceptance. You will not find acceptance in any book of divinity. You say, Where then can I find it? Where God finds it - in Christ. There is a great difference between assurance and acceptance. God says to Moses, Open the way through the Red Sea, let the waters become a wall on the one side and on the other! It was a wonderful way, but they walked right through, and they could look back upon it as a journey they had taken. I do not believe that anyone can understand what acceptance is unless he possesses it. God Himself has made the way through; I must travel that road. I had death on me, therefore Christ died for me. The fear of death is a right feeling. Look at Hezekiah, how he feared it; he was afraid to lose his body. We all shrink from death. What is to be done? The Lord comes. One born of a woman removes the sin. He bruises the serpent's head. "That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage", Hebrews 2:14, 15. The Lord died. What followed? He "has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility (not immortality) by the glad tidings", 2 Timothy 1:10.
Do not think you can slip easily into these things. I never knew a bright light shining for God yet without there being previously what I would call a severe conversion. God always begins with the bass note, and He never asks you to sing till you learn that note. Then you get higher. The real practical difficulty
with souls is to find out that they have not only shelter and enjoy a measure of relief, but that God has something infinitely more for them. The ten lepers (Luke 17) were all cured - converted, if you will - but only one of them got to the Curer. The other nine were satisfied with the blessing, and they never reached the Blesser. Immediately the prodigal turns his eyes towards the father's house the father sees him. Now what I want to know is, not how I feel, but how the Father feels. When the prodigal said, "I will arise and go to my father", he was not far away, he had only to turn the corner. The prodigal felt it a great way off - it was the far country to him - but the father quickly ran over the distance. He "ran, and fell upon his neck, and covered him with kisses". Now this is a pattern of the grace of God.
We have to learn what is in the heart of God for us. In Matthew 27:50, 51, we read that the veil was rent the very moment Christ died. God rent it. God's heart was relieved, so to speak, and could come out to man in all the riches of His grace. If you have not got hold of that you can never be really happy. You must see that God can now be just and the Justifier of those who believe in Jesus. What did the prodigal learn when the father ran, and fell on his neck, and covered him with kisses? That his father was on the very best terms with him. And I can tell you here tonight that everything which stood against us has been so removed from God's side that the Father can come out and embrace His son in all his rags. In Matthew 27 God rends the veil and comes out. In Luke 23 the thief goes in. People speak of the thief as if he had something like a deathbed repentance. It was not that at all: he went straight from the cross
into paradise. "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise". What I desire to press is that God's heart is set upon blessing us, and how the Father can receive the sheep on the ground of what the One who brought it back has done. And Christ's work on the cross has so removed everything from the eye of God that caused the distance, that He can receive the prodigal, fall upon his neck, and cover him with kisses. That is really what is stated in the original. The translators have given it "kissed him". The elder brother knew nothing of grace, either as to salvation or restoration. I never saw a man yet who was truly restored after a fall who did not get a step higher. No one ever understood fully the heart of God but the Lord Jesus Christ; therefore He meets the poor woman at the well, gives her the living water, and says, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work". Not her work, but His. God grant that we may all take a deeper interest in the gospel, that we may know more of His grace, which is bringing many sons to glory, and that each one here may see the nature of acceptance. You may say that you do not enjoy it - that is another thing. Well, if you do not enjoy it, you are entitled to it, and you cannot deny that there are many who do. God has removed everything to His own satisfaction, and you learn in the first eleven verses of Romans 5 the terms He is on with you. It is a great delight to the heart of a sinner saved by grace to know that he is received on the ground of another Man who perfectly glorified God. We are accepted in Him, the Beloved. In Romans 5, from verse 12, it is no longer Adam, but Christ.
The gospel is that God has sent His own Son, and He came and bore the judgment in such a way that man in the flesh is terminated. One man has gone out, and another Man has come in. May God give each heart here to understand the greatness of His grace for His name's sake.
John 13:1 - 20
When Christ had risen and the Holy Spirit was given, one might have supposed that everything would now be on the new line as it is with God - the Man in glory, the accepted Man, and the Holy Spirit the power, and the bond with Him. "He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit".
But because the necessity of the feet washing is not seen, even by those who accept this truth in a broad way, there is much confusion and weakness in the saints everywhere. So that it becomes a question of great moment - What is neglected? The secret of it is that the necessity of the feet being washed is overlooked. The Lord is risen indeed, and the Holy Spirit has descended. These are established facts; but where the great deception and loss prevail is in ignoring the solemn fact that you cannot now have part with Christ (though you admit that the Holy Spirit has come) while there is a shade of distance between you and Him. The distance on God's side has been removed on the cross; you are reconciled by His accomplished work; but you cannot have part with Christ or conscious association with Him on the new ground on which He has entered, unless you know His present service in removing from you practically what is unsuitable to Himself on the new ground.
In John 13 the Lord opens out to His disciples the new ground, and how He gathers them to Himself on the ground that they are to share with Him where He is. When sitting at the supper table He rises and pours water into a basin, and begins "to wash the disciples' feet". We learn from this scripture the all-importance of the washing - the removal of that which causes any
shade between us and Christ. If this shade or distance, which is caused by the feet not being washed, did not occur, there could not be the confusion and weakness which now prevail. The Lord has entered on resurrection ground, and He would conduct His disciples to this same ground. But though they had known Him in an earthly way, they could not share with Him on this new ground while they were soiled by connection with the corruption which He had put away in His death and resurrection. Hence, it is deeply interesting to note that He introduced the water as a necessity to ensure conscious maintenance on the new ground; He had been intimate with them here on earth - the place of their sin, but now they are conducted outside of everything that once barred them from Him.
It is a deception of the worst kind to suppose that I can have part with Him in the scene where He is, while I am in a scene where everything defiled by sin has been removed by His death, except as I am free from it by the washing of the water, which is emblematic of His death. In Christ's death, that which caused the distance, or any sense of it, was removed before God. This is brought home to the soul through the word, and is what is so little practically accepted. It is not that the scriptures are not read, and in christendom gospel work is insisted on, but there is no sense that, in association with Christ, we belong to a new place now, which we cannot enjoy while we are in any wise tainted with the things of this world, so that even in our daily life we should always be bearing about in our bodies the dying of Jesus.
It is of the deepest importance to see how the church began on earth. Though the Lord knew His disciples in the greatest nearness here, as we learn from chapter 10: 14, 15, yet now that He was going to the Father they could not enjoy Him there, but as they were in the moral benefits of the cross. Hence the church, which began in communion with Himself, is
now one great mass of worldliness. Great truths are not denied, but mere professors assume the most prominent places. How differently the church on earth would be seen if we were morally true to the virtue of His work!
He surrounds Himself with us on this ground: every element which might be brought in from the world which would cause distance or reserve He provides for the removal of, in washing the feet.
It is very simple if you look at their place of nearness to Him here on earth. "While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name". It was necessary when He gathered them round Himself, in view of the new ground that He was about to enter on, that they should be perfectly clear of that which would cause any sense of reserve. Hence He poured water into a basin to wash their feet. No one is troubled by a sense of distance or reserve who has not known the intimacy of love. If each one of a company surrounding Him was exercised as to the removal of anything that would cause a shade of distance, how blessed it would be! Who can conceive what a different state the church would be in if every member lived in the sense of his susceptibility to contract defilement in the scene through which we are passing, and that we thus require the present service of Christ, which is expressed by washing the feet - the entire removal of any sense of distance, before we can enjoy to our hearts' delight the intimacy of His love. The fact is that there could be no sense of distance unless there had been a sense of nearness. The exercise indicates simple truthfulness of heart that will not go on with any interruption of the sense of nearness.
The feet-washing is the Lord's own doing, not ours. We often know that there is distance, but do not know the cause of it. If everyone was in the solemn consciousness that only the washing of his feet could remove that which causes the distance, there would be
more intimacy with Christ in the joy of the Holy Spirit. How different the whole church would be! If every one realised what it is to be cleared by His present service from what is unsuitable to Him, what joy it would be to Him, and what unspeakable gain to us! He in His grace fits us for the enjoyment of Himself. If we are not with Him where He is, we cannot be for Him where He is not. We must be inside the veil to be outside the camp. Instead of the church being on this ground - association with Him in His own sphere, it has become a great system, with orderly appearance, and satisfied with character among men.
Revelation 3:7 - 13
The point in the verses before us is to see what the remnant is, and what characterises the remnant. The scriptural idea of a remnant is quite different from the human idea. In man's mind the remnant means an old, worn-out part, or simply what is left of the original; but in Scripture we see that the remnant is always characterised by the very brightest traits of the original. The remnant is really the tithe, or tenth, and is the conquerors' portion (see Genesis 14; Isaiah 6, etc.). God is the Conqueror through Christ. The remnant is peculiarly Christ's, and all that is of Him characterises it.
Look at Simeon and Anna. They present to us two prominent features found in the remnant. They were not all the remnant of that day, but, being two, they present a competent testimony as to the whole remnant as seen of God. The woman sets forth the truth of a condition, and the man the energy of the condition - the man the strength, the woman the affection, of the remnant. How brightly those two shine out in the dark day; and it was a dark day indeed, on man's side, in which their lot was cast. Simeon took Christ in his arms and blessed God (beautiful picture of the worshipper inside with God); Anna spake of Christ to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem (beautiful picture of the worker outside with man). This shows us what occupied them - Christ, before God and before men. We must know what it is to go in to God before we can come forth from God to be here for God.
Now what is the first mark of the remnant? What characterises them here in Revelation 3:8? They have "a little power"; that is a trait of the original;
only at the beginning it was great power. Three things are said commendatory of them: (1) They have a little power; (2) they have kept His word; (3) they have not denied His name. All this might not appear to be much in man's estimation, but, at such a time, it is everything in His estimation. The power of the Holy Spirit surmounts every difficulty; that is what we now have to learn. Under the Jewish order difficulties were removed for the people of God. Now they remain, and power is manifested in overcoming - surmounting the special obstacle that lies in our path. "He .. . set him on his own beast", Luke 10:34.
What is a Philadelphian? One who does not fail in the day of adversity; he has a little power. It is a solemn thing, though. There are five or six companies now claiming to have the Lord's presence: there can be only one right. If I were to come as a stranger to M - and ask to be guided to the company where God is, where would I find myself? Where is the company that is known and characterised by God dwelling among them of a truth? It is not what we say but what weare that carries weight. We have in these verses - what the Lord is; what He has; what He does; and the great point for us is that we should be in correspondence to Him. He is the holy, the true; holiness and truth should mark us: He has the keys of the King; we should seek His kingdom; He opens the door and none can shut it; we are to use the privileges that are ours. There will be imitation, opposition, difficulty; we are to overcome - and hold fast.
Romans 6:1 - 14
The Holy Spirit has come from the glorified Man at the right hand of God, to "testify of me", that is, of Christ in glory. He is against the man in the flesh - but "He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you". This was fulfilled in Acts 2, when He sat upon each of them and filled all the house where they were sitting. He belongs to the company. My proper portion now is to have conscious knowledge - possession of eternal life by the Spirit. Every believer is clear about getting eternal safety through the work of Christ, but every believer is not clear about the excess of grace - that he has passed from death into life. Are you living the life of the second Man? That is the excess of grace. If your soul is not learning what it is to be dead to sin you are making no progress. You can make no acquaintance with Christ until you learn what it is to be dead to sin. You must become acquainted with Him on the other side of death. You have to travel through death as they travelled through the Red Sea. Paul was three days there, and now in your own individual path each soul must pass that way. You get it experimentally in Marah - you find death to drink, and the only thing that makes it palatable is the cross; arm yourselves therefore with the same mind. You see the apple, you would like to take it. It is sin to wish for it, but if you do not take it you have suffered in the flesh. No christian ever went astray yet but at that point. I have to die to sin in order to live in the Spirit, practically I die to reach life. Christ's death is the measure of your death, Christ died for that desire, His death alters the whole thing and practically you cannot allow in yourself anything for which Christ died. It does not change the circumstances, but it
changes you; this is the way in which the cross is the power of God, it gets rid of your selfishness, makes the bitter water sweet. If you know what it is to be dead to sin, you come to Him, and the practical result is bearing about in your body the dying of Jesus. You do not give place to that for which Christ died, for He "loved me, and gave himself for me". Some of us know what it is, but we do not live up to it, and the result is there is no personal intercourse with the Lord. Christ died for us, that is the first thing. The second is we died with Him. He has opened the way through death for us. He is in resurrection outside of death; Romans 6. Death with Christ, dead unto sin (not sins), you have to accept by faith the fact that you have died with Him and to travel by faith through death to reach Him where He is, to take the journey that Elijah took. Elisha tears his own coat in two, because he is going to have another, he gets rid of the old one first. We have to walk about refusing the things that invite us, learning always to refer to the Spirit of God, proving that you have no friend in this world but the Spirit. If you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. He has the Lord before Him and nothing else. Now do not sow to the flesh. If you have been made partakers, companions of the Holy Spirit, and leave it, there is no hope for you; the christian has everything against him in this world, his only help is from the Spirit of God, and if he does not walk in the Spirit he is worse off than a good moral man of the world. You have to refer to the Spirit of God for everything, the moment you want any other help you are in danger. But if I know the love that the Lord has for me, I am seeking personal intimacy with Him in accordance with that love. May we desire it more for His name's sake!
Neither attainment, nor devotion, nor service gives rest to the soul. We must do two things: "take my yoke upon you", and "learn from me". For the first, the great difficulty lies in our having a will of our own; and the more our intelligence increases the more our own will asserts its right to dictate; but this is not Christ's yoke. He, with unbounded and correct intelligence, sought and accorded to His Father's will. He did not reason that results ought to correspond with work efficiently done. This is our way, and therefore, strange to say, we are often in well-doing further from the yoke of Christ than when sensible of failure. The yoke of Christ is looking for God's mind and purpose irrespective of our own works, be they good or bad. No one worked so efficiently as Christ did, yet when He sees it unproductive, He is not only resigned, but He gives thanks! The Father's will is more grateful to Him than the result that He might have righteously expected. He bears to see all His work in vain, and rests Himself in the will of His Father. Now we go through many humblings before we take His yoke upon us. If we do right, Jonah-like, we think we do well to be angry. We have no rest to our souls, because our work is not attended with the deserved result. Jonah must go through the sorrow and humbling of the loss of the gourd before he will take up the yoke of Christ. Either I think God is not just in not requiting my deserts, or, that He is so righteous that He cannot have a gracious purpose towards me. In either case it is myself that is before me. It is plain that in both cases I only need to find His mind - the yoke of Christ - and I should be at rest. The more we feel that we are suffering for righteousness,
the longer we are before we submit to the yoke of Christ. How often is the soul detained longer in trial when there is a feeling, possibly a just feeling (as Joseph had), of self-righteousness, while another is humbled and broken down at once in the sense of his sin as David was, or Peter. Joseph is detained in prison for two years, probably to teach him that in God, and not in his own righteousness, he must depend and wait His will.
When once you have submitted to the yoke, the learning begins - "learn from me". How blessed! God's counsel is opened to you, as to Jacob, to Jonah, and even to a David and a Peter. How each one is taught the counsel of God, and learns at length to be thankful because of it! a sore, and a death-like struggle in every case, crushing and death to one's own will and feelings, before ever the soul enters with Christ into the counsel of God. But once it is there it is at 'rest' - it must be satisfied.
"Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls".
Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10
In seeking light from the Lord on this important subject, we must first be absolutely clear of the thought which is so general in christendom, that God's Son became a man in order to repair and rehabilitate the first man - the Adam race. Many years ago it was said that man was broken china, but that Christ was like perfect china. This was absolutely denied by the most godly man of the day. Christ was not china at all, but unique, a man of His own order, and in His death the first man is clean set aside in judgment, and the new man is therefore according to God. Consequently we must not be deceived by thinking that the human mind can form an idea of any trait of the new man, or that it can imitate Christ, though many read the gospels with this object. Thus we start on this inquiry, looking entirely to God in order to understand the Man of His pleasure - "The holy thing also which shall be born shall be called Son of God" - "the expression of his substance" - "the beginning of the creation of God". As another has said, the difference between Him and us is that with Christ all His springs were in God, whereas our springs are in ourselves.
We know from the types that in the meat-offering the fine flour was not only anointed with oil, but it was mingled with oil, the Spirit of God, for Christ the One typified was conceived by the Holy Spirit. "Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death he might annul him who has the might of death". He bore the judgment due to the first man and righteously removed him from the eye of God; so that it is not in Adam that the believer appears before God, but in Christ.
Now our inquiry is: What is the new man? We have seen what it is not; we have already seen that it cannot be learned by any effort of the human mind, that its structure and nature are entirely beyond the conception of man, and the next question is: How do we learn it? I believe it is not by reading or by the mere study of Scripture that we learn it, but by association with Christ, by beholding the Lord's glory, and being changed into the same image. You could not explain what you get, but you get that which corresponds with Him; as you are with Him you acquire it. "Having put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24), is addressed to a believer who is in conscious union with Christ, seated in the heavenlies in Him. Now He comes out here in a new way, beginning with the mind, "renewed in the spirit of your mind" - not making works prominent, but in the renewed mind which is able to judge of the works that suit Christ. As we read in 1 Corinthians 2:16, "We have the mind (nous) of Christ" - we "put on the new man, which according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness". A believer realises the tastes of the new man by association with Christ. It is important to see that we derive from Him, we are in Him and He lives in us, He is altogether sui generis - of His own order, and it is only by association with Him that His nature and mind become experimentally known to us. It is so little known because association is so little sought.
We get an idea of what His grace is, in what He says to the church of Laodicea; He offers association with Himself for restoration. "Behold, I stand at the door, and am knocking: if any one hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in unto him, and sup with him, and he with me". No one can tell what he acquires by association; but he knows that he has acquired a taste for the company of Christ, and that when not in His company he has not that which suits his new taste: he finds it very partially here among His own and he is glad to return to His presence, and he knows the benefit of it.
This draws the great line of difference between mere students of the word and those who enjoy His presence, beholding His glory; the latter can form a conception of what suits Him which the former cannot. We see from Colossians 3:10, "Having put on the new, renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him" - that we cannot be with Him without getting enlightened; the word comes with more definiteness to our souls; we are "renewed into full knowledge", etc. Thus we see that as we become like Him by being with Him, we also get more intelligent in His mind, we know Him as Head and put on bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, etc.
The Lord give us to seek His presence more. Moses could say in a comparatively dark day, after he had seen all the mighty works of the Lord, "Shew me thy glory".
May our hearts have the rich enjoyment of being in spirit with Him in glory. Every one likes to think of Him as known in His great works, but how blessed the consummation of being partakers with Him in His glory!
Psalm 22:1 - 31
There are two things that characterise the Saviour, and unless these two things go together in your mind you have an imperfect idea of the Saviour. One is, that He bore the judgment on man; the other, that He declared the Father. No two points are more remote from one another, but the very distance between them gives you this great idea of the Saviour. The One who went down into the lowest depths (of judgment and distance from God) is the One who communicates to you the highest blessing - all that was in the Father's heart as He alone could know it. If you do not know how deep Christ went down, you do not know how high He can take you up.
Truth exposes what man is, and it discloses what God is. And who brought out this truth?
The Son of God: "For this cause came I into the world". This is the blessed One who can span the depths of misery and human ruin, and yet can reach to the infinite goodness and greatness of God. Is there one here who, like Zacchaeus, wants to see the Saviour? One who has a sense in his soul that he is looking for this blessed One?
But have you thought what Christ underwent for you as a Man? Have you fully understood what He bore the judgment of? And can you allow that thing to be an object to you, for which your Saviour was judged? Those tastes, those likings, that nature of yours? Can anything come with more condemnation to you than that you are allowing it and enjoying it? Are you afraid to die? The nearer a sinner approaches to death, the greater his fear; but as a saint approaches death his fear vanishes, because he is finding out that he has a life superior to it; he is able to say, "Thanks
be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"; and so it is morally with us all. Here was Satan's malice, he knew that God must judge a disobedient creature; so he says, I will bring sin in; I will alienate man from God. He shall come down and judge His own fair creation; He will have to lay His hand on the brightest spot in it - the one made after His own image - and if death supervene without the judgment being arrested, there is a perpetuity of it.
Now the fact of a sacrifice shows that there must be a substitute. The Son of God is come, the One who made everything, by whom all things consist, the One who was always the Expositor of the mind of God, who propounded the law as the expression of His claim, who attached a penalty to every infringement of it; He, in the fulness of time, is the One to come forth to bear the whole judgment of every penalty. He walked through the world as the only perfect One in it, the wonderful Expositor still of the mind and heart of God. He surveys all the ruin of man, all that is unsuited to the righteousness of God, and He says, I will be the Substitute - "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone". He was the solitary One, perfect, unscathed, spotless, holy, passing through the ruin here, and amid all the soil, the One unblemished Man in every relationship of life - subject to His parents, the delight of God, who had closed His eyes to all that was of man in his distance and moral death - now God's beloved Son comes in the weakness of man down here, manifesting God as Good in the midst of evil, ever triumphing over it; never allowing the smallest natural claim save in subjection to the will of God. But He did not deserve judgment in any wise. Did that lessen His suffering? No, it aggravated it beyond all comprehension! He who had never known a shadow on His soul even as a Man, who had never deserved the slightest reproach from God or
man, who had lived in the sunshine of His favour, He is put into the place of deepest reproach. He takes it, "The reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me". The deepest shame, and distance, depths that none could fathom, were all spent upon that blessed One. He trembles as He touches the cup. "Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour". He puts Himself into the sinner's place, where He is treated as if He had done all the wrong, where He had the sense of all the sinner's distance from God. He had surveyed it all, and none knew as He did the righteousness of God. He knew what it would be to be forsaken of God, the only One He had ever had communion with, the only One He belonged to, in whose love and favour He had lived, whom He had trusted from His cradle. What was it to Him to be brought down into the dust of death? If I say to a saint, Suppose darkness come between your soul and God - what a place for you! Yet that is not a sinner's distance - Christ alone bore that! And mark, the moment the Lord touches the point of giving His life (John 12:25), He says, "He that loveth his life shall lose it". He would say, If I am going to give up My life in judgment for you, you cannot live in it, you cannot love your life. And is there a heart in this room who knows Him as the Saviour, who would say, I love this life for which my Saviour was judged? But practically we do not know the extent to which He was delivered over to judgment - the place of distance that He took - and hence we are slow to learn the place of nearness and blessing into which He has introduced us. Having borne all the judgment, He says, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren". It is for Him now to bring out what God is. As the risen One, He says to Mary, "Go to my brethren". He is "the beginning of the creation of God"; and He announces that He has "brethren" after a new order, that He will not now abide alone,
but that "corn of wheat" will bring forth much fruit - He will bring many sons to glory.. ..
Is this the One that you are connected with? who has disclosed to you, not a paradise on earth, but heaven itself; who speaks of "my Father, and your Father; .. . my God, and your God" - and this it was the purpose of His heart to accomplish, cost Him what it would. Who could tell out the Father's heart as He could? The greatest joy His heart had in this world was in preaching to those poor ones in Luke 15, of the Father's reception of the prodigal! He was the One fit to tell it, He whose heart was straitened till it was accomplished, and this is His chief work - the work He delights in. May your hearts understand what a Saviour He is!
Without separation you cannot know the presence of the Lord. At Beer-sheba, the well of the covenant, the Lord appeared to Isaac. To obtain such revelations we must give up, we must give the world its own way. There are certain stages through which the soul passes. Isaac digged three wells; the first he called contention; the second hatred; the third room. Then came Beer-sheba, and that same night the Lord appeared to him, and he built an altar there - he had reached the place where he could build one, and where God could bless him. "Come out from among them, and be ye separate .. . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you". That is the Lord's word to every soul, and one who does not respond to it, though he may be converted, is not in the line of the Spirit of God, and he does not know the presence of the Lord.
We may know God's care of us without knowing His appearing. His manifestation to us is a wonderful thing! There is great significance in the promptitude of His manifestation to Isaac at Beer-sheba - that same night the Lord appeared to him! Why? Because he had reached the right spot - the place of separation where God can receive him. Now you may be a converted soul and yet outside all this. Has the Lord appeared to you? Are you conscious of Christ's coming to you? If souls knew more of it they would not regret isolation, they would rejoice in separation from all that is not Christ. But you can only know what the manifestation of Christ is by having experienced it. Nothing is more difficult than to describe a moral acquisition that you have no idea of, or to explain to you a feeling that you have never had. God moves in a certain line, and you must be on that line to be
with Him. He will not appear to you on any other line. He could not reveal Himself to Lot. He could to Abraham. He sent an angel to Lot; He came Himself to Abraham and told him what He was going to do.
Souls are prepared for disclosures from God by discipline, but it is the act of faith that puts you in the place where God can reveal Himself; you can only reach that spot by faith. People say sometimes, How is it that I do not get the enjoyment that another does? Because you have not reached the spot where it is found, that is the answer. Melchizedek met Abraham after his return from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him. The activity of faith worked first. But it was after the offering up of Isaac that Abraham got the fullest revelation. Why? Because he had reached the highest point, the place of greatest faith and the place of the largest disclosure of God! If you long for light you must take the landing where it is found. To be in this place of faith we must be wholly cast on God. Where did Paul write the fullest revelation to the churches? In prison at Rome, where he was wholly cast on God. Where did John receive the revelation of Jesus Christ? In the isle of Patmos, when he was cast out for the testimony's sake. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him; the meek shall He teach His way. Scripture is very definite as to these manifestations of the Lord to the soul. Do you understand them? Are you walking so that He can visit you? He says, "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you". He knows that the joy of His presence is such that it takes away the sense of orphanage, and it is no small thing that delivers a bereaved child from the sense of bereavement!
But the sorrowful fact is that saints neither look for His presence, nor are they prepared to give up what hinders them from knowing His presence. They do not take interest enough in the Lord's thoughts, theyTHE CHURCH'S CALLING - ITS PRACTICAL EFFECTS
"SO MUCH THE MORE, AS YE SEE THE DAY APPROACHING"
GOD'S PURPOSE
THE OBJECT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT NOW ON EARTH
BABYLON, WHERE IS IT? OR WHAT IS IT?
GOD'S REMEDY FOR MAN'S RUIN
SANCTIFICATION
SINS AFTER CONVERSION
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A MILLENNIAL SAINT AND A CHRISTIAN
HOW THE SAINTS ARE PRESERVED FROM EARTH-DWELLING
TO BE DESCRIPTIVE OF CHRIST IS THE PRESENT TESTIMONY
DIVINE PROSPERITY
THE HEART DRAWN TO HEAVEN, FOR WITNESS HERE ON EARTH
ASSOCIATED WITH CHRIST IN HEAVEN SO AS TO BE FREE UPON EARTH
THE STATE FOR RECEIVING GOD'S REVELATION
ONE MAN GONE OUT - ANOTHER MAN COME IN
'Returning sons He kisses,
And with His robe invests;
His perfect love dismisses
All terror from our breasts.' PART WITH CHRIST
THE REMNANT
DEATH
REST
THE NEW MAN
'Yet sure, if in Thy presence
My soul still constant were,
Mine eye would, more familiar,
Its brighter glories bear.
And thus Thy deep perfections
Much better should I know,
And with adoring fervour
In this Thy nature grow.'THE SAVIOUR
THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD