In "reconciliation" -- everything removed, not merely justification. Few know the nature of the distance, though all admit it exists. For the reconciliation of two at variance, the cause of the distance must be removed. Sin -- me -- gone in judgement. "End of all flesh is come" by God; Genesis 6:13. I do not address a man in the flesh by God. God is the first relieved in the gospel. The first action of the Holy Spirit in the believer is the love of God known; Romans 5:5.
Coming to the living stone is not conversion. This is illustrated in Peter; Matthew 14. The first thing with a soul in earnest like Mary is, Where is He? The other side -- death; you must cross the water to reach Him. (Matthew 14 and John 6 are same time.) Affection leads to this, no circumstances in any combination could surpass "the Person".
All is to come out new. In Revelation 21 it comes out fully, but it is true for us in the Spirit. Christ is the beginning of the creation of God. There is to be nothing original -- it is all in Christ. He glorified God when atoning for my sin. Christ was not of the old order, though a real Man.
In Luke 15 the elder brother was a very good man, as they say, 'never transgressed', but as such he was not entitled to a kid; the prodigal was received on the ground of another Man altogether -- grace -- he gets everything on the ground of the "shepherd". You must change your man -- God has got a Man, man in Christ, a new creation.
In Ephesians you have more -- union. Nothing can be united to Christ but what is of Him. Christ would not be complete without His body. The church, His body, comes from Him. Every man's gospel is according to his idea of the church. Reduce 'light'
to a human level and you will be popular. For instance, the 'resurrection' is illustrated by a receipt for debt. The idea of two natures is wrong - nature is the characteristic of a thing. Scripture never supposes that you will be characterised by two things. The greatest power in the world is love. The work of the Spirit is to form you by the association in which the grace of God has placed you.
Our associations of life are in heaven; we belong to another country, though here on earth. As Englishmen in the bush endeavour to carry English life and things there and have their living associations in the Mother Country, so is it with the saints. We are not saved for earth, our joys come from the Father's house. The Spirit brings them into our hearts. There is the place and the Person; you must be in the place to know Him. It is not Christ where He was so much as Christ where He is. Where! Colossians 3:1! John 1:38. Over Jordan, the old corn of the land; Joshua 5. Whenever I have looked for blessing on earth I have always been disappointed; but when I have looked for it in heaven, never! (Hebrews 10). I am in a condition for heaven (2 Corinthians 3), glory also a condition. In one case it is being at home in the place, the other, with the Person.
As to testimony for Him here, John 16 is active, not passive. To be in companionship with the Spirit, I must be dead against the world. The way is not getting rid of everything round us that may be called 'worldly', but to know the place and get taste for heavenly things only. There is 'compensation' for loss of all things. There is very little taste for heavenly things! Compare Philippians 3 - "from whence",
etc., and Matthew 25. The hope of His coming was restored sixty years ago. Are we ready for Him? Rebecca was fitted and made ready before she was asked to go. Three trumpets of the Roman armies. Are you ready? We are ready! Self-renunciation is needed to be a true servant of Christ.
We are all Christ's bondmen, we and all ours belong to Him - wife and children, too. Hence an unbelieving wife is sanctified in the believing husband. It is a matter of righteousness, not of grace - we are His bondmen, bought with a price. There is a righteous foundation for the kingdom and for all else - so here.
Jonah's will (chapters 1 and 2) and his heart (chapter 3) are broken. Jonah is a student at college - Paul, in Philippians 1, a graduate.
It is our duty to serve Christ, but if I love my Master my duty will not be irksome. In Proverbs 31 the wife does the work; the husband (Christ) gets the credit. She provides food and clothing (for inside and outside), nourishing and cherishing.
Gifts are more connected with the assembly than we are aware; Acts 13; John 20. This was when in order, but I must know order (1 Timothy) to know how to act in disorder (2 Timothy). It is more now like the time of the Judges when the servant is prominent; there is a distance between the servants. Men of God and the gatherings - so different from Acts 13.
A thought gets expression in the assembly. In my own room the Lord may come to me, but it will be more in relation to my own affairs; but "in the midst" I get Him in relation to His own affairs.
Anything that pleases the Master is service.
All saints are over Jordan, though all do not enjoy it. In Colossians 2 it is enjoyed, in Colossians 3 it is accepted; after that comes conflict. Romans 6, the brazen serpent - the old man gone. Colossians 2, Jordan - the place of the old man gone. Jordan is, "hath abolished death" - no water there - all passed abreast.
1 Peter 4 is like Marah. Gilgal is the rolling off the old man who brought the judgment of God on Egypt. In the land failure came from lack of obedience and courage. Compromise with the Canaanite and you are victimised.
A Summary of Seven Readings at Scarborough, November 1892
No. 1. - SINS PURGED. - The first morning, part of Matthew 14 was read. Here we see that when the light of the world has been refused and rejected, He, blessed be His name, does not cease to shine; but though He is outside the world, "walking on the sea", He draws Peter (a sample of His grace) to Himself. This necessarily implies that by His death He opens the way for us to join Him where He is. John 6 unfolds this, and it is of special interest, for what is related there occurred at the same time as Matthew 14. It is, so to speak, God's side, and shows us how we can join the Lord, cast out of this world. He was refused by the Jews as "the living bread which has come down out of heaven", and then He gave His flesh for the life of the world. Hence, except we eat His flesh and drink His blood we have no life in us (verse 53). We appropriate His death to escape from the death, the judgment on us; and we live by Him; we have passed out of death into life. We are in Him on the other side of judgment, He, having purged our sins,
"sat down". The exaltation that He is in is the guarantee that He has removed everything against us. This is more specially insisted on in Hebrews 10:12. It is of all importance to apprehend in faith that all sins are removed from the eye of God for ever for the believer, because Christ has sat down; and hence, that the great blessing vouchsafed to His own, consequent on His rejection and exaltation to the right hand of God, is that sins are all removed; there is no remembrance of them before God; there is no more offering for sin. Where there is a recurrence to sins which have been put away by His work, as there will be in the millennial day (see Ezekiel 46), the believer is connected with the earth, and to this the Lord's supper is reduced by many; there is not a full and sure sense of the first blessing vouchsafed to His own who are in the place of His rejection, but are blessed by Him because of His exaltation.
It will be found that none of the blessings peculiar to christianity can be known but as the rejection of Christ from the earth and His exaltation to the right hand of God are strictly maintained; there is always a marked tendency, even with true believers, to a mixture of the earthly blessing with the heavenly. The earthly has not yet come, and is not of the same order as that vouchsafed to, and conferred on, christians. Thus, the first christian blessing is that sins are for ever removed from the eye of God. The second we can now consider.
No. 2 .- THE HOLY SPIRIT. - "Having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear", Acts 2:33. It is consequent on Christ's exaltation to the right hand of God that the Holy Spirit was sent down; so that the Lord said, "If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you". His leaving the
earth, being rejected of men, would indicate, as it did to the two disciples going to Emmaus, that all was lost; evidently the sun had gone down at noonday; but, by the grace of God, the Holy Spirit comes down to each believer in Christ from the place of His exaltation. Where there is faith in Christ there is, through His name, the remission of sins; then the Holy Spirit is given, as we see in Acts 10:43,44. "To him all the prophets bear witness that every one that believes on him will receive through his name remission of sins. While Peter was yet speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were hearing the word". In the type the blood was put on the ear, on the hand, and on the foot, before the oil was put on. It is not only that the blood had been sprinkled on the mercy-seat, but the blood is on the believer; you, personally, are under the virtue of the blood. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us", Romans 5:5. The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift which could be given to us, and He is given consequent on Christ's exaltation. In Christ's death all that was contrary to God in us has been removed; and by the Holy Spirit given to us, we are introduced into all that is according to God. The Spirit is given to us; He dwells in us; but if it is not apprehended that He comes from Christ glorified, there will be on every hand, and in every connection, an imperfect apprehension of His work and purpose. You must bear in mind that He is here for Christ, while He is absent, in order to apprehend His services and operation. He is here where man and the whole world are at enmity with God, for, as the Lord says, "Now they have no cloke for their sin.... now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father". The only One to connect us with Christ, and to enable us either to enjoy Him, or to stand for Him here, is the Holy Spirit; hence if we do not simply, and without compromise, rely
wholly and solely on Him for power against the world, the flesh and the devil, we shall be checked and hindered here.
No. 3. - OUR (THE CHRISTIANS') PRIEST IS IN HEAVEN. - Hebrews 7:23 - 28; Hebrews 8:1 - 4. It is plainly stated in Hebrews 8:4, that if Christ were on earth He would not be a priest; so that, being rejected here, and exalted to God's right hand, He is the Priest for all believers during the period of His rejection. It is of the deepest importance to seize in faith this great blessing. It is altogether and singularly from heaven; and it is only as the believer is drawn to Him where He is now, that he enters into and enjoys the priesthood of Christ. If you bear in mind that it is only in heaven that He is a priest, you are necessarily drawn to Him there. You must start with the assurance that your sins have been removed, and that it is not your salvation you are seeking, but that it is simply approach to God. The question of sins has been settled by your Saviour; now the point of interest is to enter into the presence of God. Hence, first, your infirmities engage the attention of our Priest. Hebrews 4:14,15, reads: "Seeing then that we have a great high priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin". Infirmities are not sins; they are weaknesses. Man is naturally liable to them. It may be pressure of circumstances, or bad health, or bereavement - any human weakness.
The word exposes to us whether we are set for the rest of God, and then the sympathy of Christ is vouchsafed to us, as to Mary of Bethany, to raise us above the pressure under which we are, into company with Him who has passed through all these sufferings, but
is now higher than the heavens. Though the pressure may not be removed, we are so supported by Christ under it, that we are borne above it; and we, in company with Him, enter into the holiest of all. We rise with Him into the spot of cloudless light. How blessed! Though our Lord has been refused where we are, we know His support in our infirmities here, and are conducted by Him to be in company with Himself - as Aaron's sons with their father in the holy place typified - in the holiest of all. And as we know Him there, we run on to Him.
No. 4. - OUR (THE CHRISTIANS') PLACE IS IN HEAVEN. - Hebrews 6 20. - "Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec". The Forerunner has entered within the veil. Christ, having been rejected here and exalted to heaven, has secured a place for us. The earth, or a city for the earth, was the portion of the saints before the ascension of Christ. Every christian, as a rule, accepts Christ's ascension to God's right hand, but there is not power in this truth except it be maintained in connection with His rejection here; for if the latter is truly apprehended you expect nothing from the place where He was rejected, but all your hopes and gain are from Him from the place to which He has been exalted. You have no place where He has been rejected, but you have a place assured to you where He is exalted to the right hand of God. If you look for anything here you are diverted from your true place; and here many christians suffer loss.
No. 5.-THE ASSEMBLY (THE HOUSE AND THE BODY) CHRIST'S ONLY PLACE NOW ON THE EARTH. - 1 Peter 2 1 - 9. The assembly as the house is first set forth in Matthew 16:18, when Christ had been rejected by Israel. He had been rejected by His own people, but He will have a structure on the earth built by
Himself. ".... I will build my church (assembly), and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it". He is supreme above all the power of evil and death. He is the Son of the living God. To be a living stone in that structure is more than conversion. In 1 Peter 2 we read, first, "If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious", then "To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious". The believer comes to Him, the only true foundation, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God. You must come to Him as the One rejected by men, but chosen of God, the Living Stone, the Son of the living God, outside of all the evil here, supreme. You accept your place as a living stone. If you were not converted you could not be a living stone, and you are convened with the purpose of being a living stone, but you have not found your place in Christ's building till you come to Him, the Living Stone; until you apprehend in your soul the true ground of the assembly which He builds. Coming to Him in His greatness, you become through grace material suited to Him. Take the man building the tower in Luke 14:28 - if Christ is not the material it cannot be finished. Each one is built in individually by Christ; and then, as we find in Matthew 18, the two or more are gathered to His name. It is very evident that if every saint had come to Christ as God's foundation stone they would have been placed by Him in His assembly, and then there would have been one united company - one church on the earth. The assembly was first formed in Acts 2. The Holy Spirit filled the house where they were sitting, and each one was filled with the Holy Spirit, according to the Lord's promise in John 14: 17. Thus assembled, as each was led by the Spirit, Christ was paramount.
The tendency, as we see in Corinth, is to be merely individual in the assembly; and where this is the case, those who take a part are only governed by the Spirit's
action on themselves, which they offer to the assembly as if it were intended for the assembly. And this has led to the idea that if you have anything, hymn or prayer on your heart, you are justified in presenting it to the assembly. When one is led by the Spirit for the good of the assembly, under the direction of the Head, there will be edification; but until the mystery is known, you will not be preserved from individual ministry; that is, a ministry where the individual is prominent, and not the assembly. Hence the knowledge of the mystery is a great addition to the knowledge of the assembly.
The mystery was not divulged until after the stoning of Stephen, when in reality the citizens sent the message, "We will not have this man to reign over us". The offer made to Israel, consequent on the Lord's ascension, was deliberately and wantonly refused in the murder of Stephen. In Acts 8, we learn the true state of things from Philip's mission to the Ethiopian eunuch. The scripture which the eunuch read declared it, "His life is taken from the earth". The believing eunuch accepts this great fact, which leads him to ask for baptism. As to earth, all the light has gone; hence in chapter 9 the light comes down from heaven to arrest Saul of Tarsus. The gospel from a Saviour in glory is revealed to him; and not this only, but the mystery was now divulged in the words, "Why persecutest thou me?" The mystery then is the church, the body of Christ. Not only is each stone built in by Him to form a temple for Himself, but each believer is a member of His body, set there by God, and united to Him where He is, by the Holy Spirit. It is not only that He has a house on the earth built by Himself, but each believer is in the closest tie to Him in heaven now. I do not say that all apprehend and enjoy this favour, but nevertheless it is true for one and all. The knowledge of the mystery is a great addition to the knowledge of the
assembly, the habitation of God through the Spirit.
It is evident that the Colossians did not hold the mystery, and many now genuinely seek to be true to Acts 2, who do not in faith apprehend the mystery. The part of the mystery presented in Colossians is the Head. If Christ is not known as the Head common to every believer, then the mystery is unknown. If He is known as Head of each member of the body, then the rest of the mystery easily follows. The mystery cannot be known unless you realise that you are complete in Christ (see chapter 2 10). If you are complete in Him nothing can be added to you, either from tradition or from learning. Then you are "circumcised with the circumcision not done by hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh". If "the body of the flesh" be cut off in the cross, it cannot in any way contribute to Christ. There is no opportunity for either rationalism or ritualism. As the body of the flesh is put off in the cross, then we, being dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, and risen with Him in His life, mortify our members which are on the earth; we practically embrace all that has been effected for us in His death; we put off the old man and put on the new; we exchange the old for the new; and now, apart from man of every class, Christ is everything, and in all. We know Him as our Head. If He were truly known as Head to each one in the assembly, if each were "holding the Head", it is plain that every service would be directed by Him, and each one would be consciously assured of His ministry. When He is known as your Head you are apart from all that suits natural life, you taste an out-of-the-world condition of things. He is your life, and now you are prepared, like Rebekah led by the servant, to rise to Christ where He is. When you are conscious of the power which wrought in Christ, you are brought by the Spirit to the place where Christ is; then you realise union with Him.
When union with Christ is known, then the qualities of this great position are made known to you. The Christ dwells in your heart by faith; you comprehend with all saints the range of His possessions; and you so know the love of Christ, that passeth knowledge, that you are filled unto the fulness of God. Now you come out in the power of the heavenly Man, first in the church, secondly in your own family, and finally, "strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might", you withstand all the force of Satan, the universal lords of darkness, and spiritual wickedness. Wonderful truly is our position on the earth where our Lord has been refused. Though we encounter every form of hindrance, yet as we walk in the Spirit we are made conscious of the greatness of our Lord's exaltation, in the very place of His rejection.
No. 6. - "THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN". - Matthew 13:18 - 48. - The kingdom of heaven is quite distinct from the church. Though the church is formed in the kingdom of heaven, yet it is quite distinct from it.
The kingdom of heaven is the rule of the word of God on the earth during the absence of the King. When Constantine accepted the christian religion he assumed to govern by the word of God, and eventually the rulers of the Latin kingdom avowed that the word of God was their authority. Very markedly it was so in this country, though of late there has been a grievous departure from the authority of the word of God. Romanists, Jews, and atheists are now admitted into Parliament. Every christian should be known as one who is ruled by the word of God in all his relations in life; while ever obedient to 'the powers that be', it should be evident that he is governed in his own life and ways by the word of God.
There are seven parables in this scripture; four of them are public, to be recognised by every eye; while three are private, only known to those who are in seclusion with the Lord.
The first is the parable of the sower. The sower is the Son of man; the seed, the word of the kingdom. There are four classes of hearers.
The second parable is that while men slept the enemy sowed tares among the wheat: professors are found amongst the real ones on the earth.
The third parable is the grain of mustard seed, "which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof" (verse 32). This is a great system which has grown as a tree - the glory of the earth.
The fourth parable is the leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was leavened. Everything is corrupted, distorted, and estranged from its natural simplicity. Thus far we have the so-called christian world described.
Now the Lord sends the multitude away and goes "into the house" (verse 36), and then explains to His disciples the parable of the wheat and tares. And then He enunciates to them three more parables. First, the treasure hid in the field. "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field" (verse 44). For the sake of the treasure the field is bought. The second is the pearl. "When he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it". And the third, "A net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away" (verse 48). The good fishes are separated from the bad ones by those who understand what the church is to Christ, as indicated in the two preceding parables.
I conclude that as each saint is in the kingdom of heaven now, so will he be in the future kingdom of God, that is, when the King reigns.
No. 7. - THE TRAITS OF THE COMPANY ON THE EARTH WHO WAIT FOR THEIR LORD'S RETURN AND HIS KINGDOM - Luke 10:33 to 18: 30. - The new company on the earth is introduced consequent on the inability of the Jewish or legal system to meet the case of the man who went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves; chapter 10: 30. The Lord is the Good Samaritan, despised and rejected by the Jew; and by Him is the wounded man cured, and carried, and cared for in the "inn" until He comes again.
Then the company who wait for the return of the Lord and will reign with Him here are described. There are seven traits, but they are not consecutive. A person has various traits, and these combined form the person; so it is here. They are not described in the order in which they are received, but in their moral order. The first is the word of God and prayer, set forth in Mary, who sat at His feet and heard His word (chapter 10: 39); and in the parable of the man who went to his friend at midnight for bread; chapter 11: 5 - 13. The true way to learn the word is to be really near the Lord, affectionately desiring His mind; and in prayer to be really cast upon God as your Friend, knowing that He can help you, and He only; so that you are absolutely confined to Him, assured that you will receive the greatest gift, thus indicating the immense gain from praying.
The second trait is more external - YOUR BODY IS LIGHT (chapter 11: 34). The lamp of the body is the eye; therefore when thine eye is single thy whole body also is light. The whole body, your external appearance, is a contrast to the darkness here. You describe a line of light in the darkness, but in order to do this, there must be no dark part within. The light
must rule within before it rules externally. The Pharisee is attracted by this discourse; "And as he spake, a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him" (verse 37). The Pharisees are all for appearances without internal power; they "make clean the outside of the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness".
The characteristics of the body of light are described in chapter 12. You do not fear them that kill the body (verse 4). You "take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on" (verse 22). But you seek the kingdom of God, "a treasure in the heavens, ... for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (verses 31 - 34). Your loins are girded about and your lights burning (verse 35); not only are you waiting for the Lord's return, but you are watching (verse 37); you are so vigilant during the night, and proving your assured expectation of His coming, that you are interested in the welfare of His household, and "give them their portion of meat in due season" (verse 42). In plain language, if you love Him that begat, you love them begotten of Him; 1 John 5:1. The more He is to you, the more His own are to you.
The third trait is in chapter 13: 16. - THE BODY LOOSED FROM THE POWER OF SATAN. The attempt to amend man by culture, "digging and dunging", had proved ineffectual, but the body of the believer is the Lord's. In apprehending and acquiring each of these traits, we must keep in mind that we have to confront and overcome the Jewish or legal element. On the earth the kingdom of heaven is a huge system in which the fowls of the air lodge. It is this externally, while internally all that was pure and simple is leavened. It is a narrow path now. Jerusalem, God's city, the Lord says, is desolate - "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say,
Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord" (verse 35).
The fourth trait is THE GREAT SUPPER (chapter 14: 15). When one of the company said to the Lord, "Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God", the Lord, in reply, announced the great supper. The great supper is in the house; the Jew, and everyone with an earthly mind seeks for earthly blessings, and thus loses the supper. The work of the servant is to compel those in the poorest place and most abject circumstances in this world to come into the house.
The prodigal son in the next chapter (15), is the sample guest. He has been led by the pressure of circumstances in the far country to think of his father. The goodness of God leads to repentance; he comes, and his father kisses him. God has effected the reconciliation. He is clothed, made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light; he feeds on the fatted calf. The joys of the Father's house are made known to him; "they began to be merry".
The fifth trait is THE STEWARD (chapter 16). When Christ's rights on the earth are disallowed, no one can have divine title to anything. All property is the "mammon of unrighteousness". You have no divine title to any property here. It is really the Lord's; but if you are His steward, and make friends of it by ministering to those in need, you will invest for the kingdom, the day when Christ's rights shall be acknowledged. The important fact is that riches are of value now only in proportion as they are expended in making friends, that is, in rendering service to others. It is the Lord's will that the rich man should have every needed comfort; this is His love and care for each of us; but the more the rich man spends in serving others, the more he lays up for himself a good foundation against the time to come. "Ye cannot serve God and mammon".
The sixth trait - AN OUT-OF-THE-WORLD CONDITION. The world is the greatest obstacle to the saint. It is man's organisation, and with legal religion, or the Jewish element, it is still more difficult to overcome. Faith only can say unto this sycamine tree (the wild fig), "Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea", chapter 17: 6. Hence when the ten lepers are cleansed by the word of Christ, only one by faith overcomes the world, and rising above every influence within and without, "turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God, and fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks" (verses 15,16). He was led into his true place in relation to Christ on the earth. He was really a stone of Christ's building.
The seventh trait - SEEKING THE KINGDOM OF GOD. The snare in the present day is the same as in the days of Noah, and as in the days of Lot (chapter 17: 26); to be completely indifferent to the coming crisis. You cannot seek the kingdom of God if you are not expecting Christ to come and reign. There will be a very distinct separation between the two classes in that day; "the one shall be taken and the other left". The Jewish remnant will not be forgotten, as we see from the beginning of chapter 18. If you are of the kingdom, you are characterised in a twofold way: first, by being a little child (verses 16,17) - no antecedents, but absolutely dependent on God; the other, that you are not held by an acquisition here, but that you surrender all, even your own life, to follow Christ (verse 22). For everything which you have left for the kingdom of God's sake, you shall receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting (verses 29, 30).
Reading on Hebrews 10
You must get into the holiest before you can come to the Father; Ephesians 2. Hebrews gives liberty to go in - not what you find when you do go in. Conscience is the sense that God has a demand upon me. If you talk of sins it shows you are not clear of them. The assembly is not where you meet the Saviour (i.e., a believer's meeting), but where you meet the Son of God in the 'out-of-the-world' condition. Infirmity even - not only sin - may hinder us in the presence of God. Baptism is brought in to correct doctrine, and the Lord's supper to correct conduct, levity, laxity.
One side of the veil was inside the holiest - God's presence; and one side outside - Christ's flesh. "Having an high priest" (verse 21), i.e., you go in in company with the great High Priest.
The Supper is the remembrance of death, that is on earth. Millennial saints will remember His death as the ground of their benefits. We show forth His death, not sufferings - when death came the sufferings were over. In 1 Corinthians 10 the communion of His blood and body is that we are identified with His death. I go out from the Lord's supper and have to encounter sin in this very world where my Lord died.
Worship in Hebrews 10 is very much connected with the assembly. In John 4 worship is beyond.
John 17 gives me the best idea of what the holiest is.
Jottings of Reading on LUKE 10 - 18
Luke 10. Judaism is now useless, and a new company is formed on earth; its traits come out in chapter 10:38 to chapter 18:33. Judaism, the earthly religion, is to be dreaded; it is legal, Martha was
doing. The first thing is seen in Mary - they hear the word and take it in; prayer is the consequence.
Luke 11:5. He is my Friend and He is able to give, I am shut up to Him. In verse 33 the body is lost in judgment of death (Genesis 3); but the thief went to paradise, for Christ has died and given him a body, a heavenly, he has "in him" - he lost it in Adam, but now Satan is annulled. Our exterior is indicative of the interior - why do the clergy wear black coats and white ties? We must do so morally. A Pharisee invites Him, thinking He was like themselves - for the exterior.
Luke 12 is what we ought to be. There are two kinds of hypocrisy - covering up what you are, and pretending to be what you are not. Verse 13 is the natural element, having property here. Take no thought - no fear - no care. Verse 35, lights - and then serve. Watching is being occupied with His interests, what belongs to Him.
Luke 12. Do not expect to be anything recognised here on earth, to have an appearance here.
Luke 14:15 is what we get given us - he who does not seek eminence here gets blessing. Supper is in the house.
Luke 15:6 is the house and the joy of the finder. Chapter 14 is the joy of the found one. Supper is the celebration of grace. Chapter 14:26 - you hate all on the ground of nature, but take up the relationship in the new Man. See Ephesians and Colossians. A tower is defensive - an army is offensive - the question is, what have you in Christ?
Luke 15. The shepherd went out. The heart of God does what it likes with us (i.e., grace) on account of the work of Christ.
Luke 16. Earthly property is the Lord's - we can have no divine title to property here - stewards.
Luke 17:16 illustrates verse 6; He left the system and had approach to God.
Luke 18, a prayer. A child clings to its mother. There are four kinds of infant's cries, and a good mother distinguishes them-viz., cry of pain, hunger, want of sleep, and passion.
2 Corinthians 5:10 - 21
We need to know the Lord in order to understand Scripture - an acquaintance with Him in order to understand His sayings.
The judgment-seat (verse 10) will determine our place with Christ in the kingdom as regards earth - heaven is given to us by grace. Union is now, presentation (Ephesians 5) is in heaven; marriage (Revelation 19) is public and declares the relationship already established.
The testimony of this hour is preparedness for Christ's coming. It is devotedness that tells on people - and that is the result of acquaintance. Look at Him! One hour looking at Him, beholding His glory, will do more for you than two hours reading the word. We need "the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him... that ye may know", etc. (Ephesians 1:17). The queen of Sheba in the presence of Solomon, and David in Psalm 27:4, illustrate this. In an ecstasy to God; to the Hebrews it is entering into the holiest of all; to the gentile Corinthians it is "Beholding ... the glory of the Lord", etc.
The testimony now is in waiting for the Lord. In the letter to Thyatira - the last historical church - the morning star takes the place of the candlestick. It is not a restoration of the church here, a being something in christendom, but looking out for Him in devotedness.
From verse 16 we have the reconciliation: God has
removed the distance from His own side by death. The man is gone; the end of all flesh came before God. He has effected this by the cross and He feels about us according to it. In Exodus 12 their safety was assured, and in chapter 15 they were reconciled.
If you are in the power of the positive truth you do not need the contrasts. Worship (proskuneo) is expressive of a dog fawning on his master - you are absorbed. In the assembly we are "in Christ" and on the new ground.
2 Corinthians 5 17 - 21; 6: 1 - 10
In reconciliation it is that all is for God's own pleasure; it is from His side. We come under His eye for His satisfaction. Romans 5 only just touches the subject.
God's righteousness is ministered; this is difficult to illustrate. What if a landlord, instead of receiving rent from the tenant, changes places with him and pays rent to the tenant! The prodigal's reception is not understood by the elder brother - the good man; the ground of the father's dealings is the glorified Man Christ Jesus. The more you advance the better you are received, as in Dr. Doddridge's dream.
God works downwards from Himself, but man seeks to work up - as it were evolution versus devolution All the recent trouble about eternal life was from wanting to work man up. In the gospel it is Christ comes to me - in the church I go to Christ.
In chapter 5:21 sin is gone from the eye of God and Christ subsists - new creation. Do you prefer Christ to Adam? For this we have to depend upon God. God's feelings towards you, rather than, Are you happy now? is reconciliation, which many conceive to be a change in their own feelings towards God.
In chapter 6 we have the minister: verse 4 is the outside condition, verse 6 the inside condition and
verse 8 things from others, opposition, etc., but the minister is superior. Here are 'orders' to be taken - we all want the credit of being servants, or wish to be servants. The servant's path does not brighten towards the end - on the contrary. In Asia Paul did most work, yet "all who are in Asia... have turned away" - his sun set in obscurity. It is not pleasant rest in the evening of your days, but deeper trials rather.
In verse 2, Christ is the One heard and succoured in the passage quoted, but it is for us; as in chapter 3, "the Lord is that Spirit" so here. It is new covenant. If I say, I am not up to this or that, there is succour now for me; I must not cry, "I am undone" as did Isaiah in the presence of His glory, for there is help to be had - succour commensurate with what He received. He is accepted and we have stepped into His acceptance. Otherwise we should be receiving this grace in vain. (Compare 1 Corinthians 15:10, "by the grace of God I am what I am", etc.) Grace here is on our side,
Notes of Meeting at Hazelville, January 29th, 1895, to commend Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Edwards to the Lord
Psalm 107:23 - 32
What I specially desire to commend to our beloved brother and sister is verse 30, "Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven". The thought before me is, What is the desired haven? What is the paramount purpose of the heart of our beloved brother and sister? What is the thing you are looking for? What is the thing you have most before you? It is clear how the Lord comes in, He brings them to the desired haven. Many may be the trials, many the tossings and difficulties, but if your heart is set on Him, He will bring you to the place you desire to come to.
You get the principle in the manna. It was gathered before the sun was up. The principle is this, What is the purpose of the heart? It is not what may come in between, but what you seek you will find, you will get in the long run, In Ezekiel the Lord says to the people that He will answer them by their idols. If that is the first thing in your mind, your idols, you shall be answered by that. There are four classes in the Psalms: the first I think are natural difficulties; the next two are failure. There is a very true saying in the world; the things you try, try you - but I do not go into that.
Well, it is a terrible voyage; but you have the Lord with you in the voyage, and not only so but the Lord says, What port are you making for? Is it for earthly happiness? To enjoy yourself in the place where the Lord is not? Surely not; He bringeth them to their desired haven. The Lord grant that our beloved ones may have the Lord so simply before them and be able to praise the Lord for His goodness who bringeth them to their desired haven.
Jottings of Readings
Reconciliation is the beginning and union is the end. Reconciliation was typified in the deluge, the distance is removed, the man is gone for ever and he cannot be repaired. Next, you are "in Christ".
Know Him more in His exaltation and you will take a share in His rejection here.
He is the Head - death to the world in connection with that - Colossians.
A spiritual house - man is not the builder here. Christ is on the other side of death and I come to Him there by the Spirit. Christ is not here, but something of Him is here.
Saviour, Priest, Son of God, Stone.
The priesthood is to sever you from earth and draw you to a Person in heaven - the holy place is the sphere of life. In Matthew 14 Peter cries, "Save me", and the Lord drew him to His side - this is the priest's work. The epistle to Hebrews takes you up at the point of consecration (Leviticus 8), and you go in a consecrated company.
Christ's own ministry is declaring the Father's name and singing praises, etc. (Hebrews 2:12). See also John 17.
The gospel goes out from the centre - from Himself. It is the Lord Himself, and not the reading of Scripture, which transforms into His image. Effective service is through knowing His presence and your telling out what you know.
In the disorder of the church - Revelation 2 and 3 - Christ is the resource (Philadelphia). Abigail went contrary to Nabal - she is the remnant owning Christ's rightful place; a purged person will always find the purged company.
Our service and our testimony! Chapter 13 is the internal state of things in the church and chapter 14 is preparation for our service and testimony. Verses 21 - 23 are the only part that is individual; the rest is "ye", the company.
In chapter 13 Judas is the apostasy; man goes out and immediately the Son of man is set in the highest place - He is glorified. Peter fell through fear, but Judas barters Christ for earthly gain.
Chapter 14 is a provision for chapter 15; you get prepared with the Lord for whatever is to come, for a scene of contrariety. Verses 1 - 13 is faith and verses 14 - 26 is love. Verse 18, "I will come to you", is fulfilled in the assembly in chapter 20. Verse 20 enables me to understand Paul's doctrine. Your resources for your responsibilities are dwelt on by John. John 4 is like Romans 6, namely, life.
In chapter 15 fruit is something of Christ - your service for Christ in the earth,
John gives what is essential, hence you turn to it in the day of ruin. In verse 26 Christ is in glory and this is essential to Ephesians.
The Supper in Luke 14 is the celebration of divine grace: "Come in, that my house may be filled" - heavenly festivities before we go to heaven. Are you sick of the first man and sick of this place? Earthly favours divert us more than anything else. Sounds of joy awoke the elder brother.
In Hebrews 4 you are drawn by His Person away from this place and you run a race towards Him. The instances of faith in chapter 11 extend from acceptance (Abel) to the fall of Jericho's walls. When
He comes into the midst, He brings in the halo: "the holiest" for us; as to Him it is "heaven itself".
John 14:2 shows that we do not belong to the place where he was rejected, but to the place where He is exalted. In Colossians 2:20 we are dead to principles, and the Jordan involves being dead to things here. In Ephesians 2 we are united to Christ in heaven. No one can be heavenly in character till he knows union, heavenly tastes, enjoyments and power.
Christ dwelling in me: His interests are in my heart; Rebecca.
Christ in you: dead to sin on my side, and hope of glory on His side.
There was opposition before Christ came; then it was to turn them to idolatry. Now a Man has come who can dislodge and destroy Satan. We should know the present character of the opposition. He is a vanquished foe if you are in heavenly power. A 'dispensation' is whatever God is set for at the time.
Simply holding to the objective side and to what has been done for you, ignores the Spirit. Is the subjective side all attainment? No, what is wrought for me is arrived at in me, is enjoyed by the Spirit.
Light (objective) first - then the Spirit's work (subjective).
Faith (objective) is not appropriation (subjective).
Christ - Spirit
The Ephesians had lost the sense of union; the top shoot is the first to wither. You can never lose the Spirit's work. Appropriation is by love, and priesthood is a question of affections. Many have thought themselves in possession of what they only had a title to.
Colossians 3:1 - 4
What this scripture sets out is wonderful, but if you understand the glorified Man, you know how He brings it all in. He has overcome in righteousness - He is glorified in the setting aside of every man. One man is cleared away in judgment, another Man has introduced something entirely new - that is salvation - you cannot make it too simple.
I have had a good deal of helpful meditation upon the resource the Lord is when all around is darkness, weariness and temptation.
The impossibility of diverting a soul from the smallest touch of divine grace. If a soul is saved, it cannot be lost. How much time we have all lost in seeking to establish the fact of our election, instead of enjoying the bloom and freshness of it, seeking excuses for our unbelief, when we might have been walking in the power of it. "If ye do these things, ye shall never fall". (2 Peter 1:10). If we had spent the same time and anxiety that we have wasted in seeking corroboration of our salvation, in seeking instead that there should not be a shade or a soil upon it, how different our walk would have been! And when we walk worthy of it, we have the corroboration of it. The trial I have had was feeling myself in this place of soil and confusion - I thought, how can you talk of glory? But I found that glory is the most separating thing possible! Not a bit of the soil of this place sticks to me. It is all perfectly new - when you find out relief in this way, it establishes the power of the truth immensely.
If you have failed and are looking for restoration, where would you begin? (The Nazarite had to begin all over again.) That will not do - it is improving the old thing - you must begin at the other side of the
failure - get on another line, it is the line of the glorified Man, not the line of the failing Man. How do you apply that to Peter? He went out and spoke boldly - he was above his failure, he had got hold of the Man in glory and was occupied with him. See Acts 3:14, "Ye denied the Holy One and the Just" - just what he had done himself.
Well, where do you begin? With the good. And how do you go on? With the good. Well, that is where I am now - you have been there for a long time. Yes, but it is a very different thing to see a thing and to go the road - "Ye have not passed this way heretofore". Well, have you found out what you do when you have failed? Begin on a new line. Where does your new line lead you to? To where Christ is. Two things, power and place, you must have both; power leads you to the place, the power of the glorified Man takes you to the place of the glorified Man - Colossians 3
Brief Notes of an Address on REVELATION 3
It is inexpressibly strengthening and encouraging, it fills one with a sense of courage and calmness to see the Lord Himself coming on the ground as we have it in Revelation 1, covered as He is with all the marks, all the qualities and everything that distinguishes Him as the power of God - sufficient to carry right through the ages until the final moment. You need have no fear that things are going to break down in the hands of the Captain of the army of Jehovah.
There is absolutely nothing that has happened in the history of the church, or that is happening under our eyes today that is not fully and succinctly laid
open for us to look and see and then to contemplate in connection with each phase - the Captain of the army of Jehovah coming in to give His people in that day under the circumstances and with all those surroundings, that courage, that strength, that phase or aspect of the truth which will enable them to stand as the army of Jehovah.
What an immense thing it is to have our ears opened to the voice that speaks in connection with all; to get His estimate, to get His resources, to get His wisdom, His sufficiency and His power. The assurance of the victory comes in connection with the Captain of the army of Jehovah.
It is perfectly wonderful, perfectly beautiful to see how the Captain of the army of Jehovah keeps account and speaks in a voice that every consecrated ear can listen to, and recompense is coming to all in the kingdom.
What is overcoming? Standing and having done all, to stand. Men that are breathed into, that are able to stand shoulder to shoulder, that are able to keep rank, men that the Lord can take account of as men of God. The drifting goes on, but they stand - the testimony of the Lord is upheld.
What do you need in order to get the mind of the Spirit? You must have the circumcised ear, you must have an exercised heart, and you will get enlightenment as to the course of things around, and the Lord's judgment as to it all. We need the whole armour of God that we may be able to withstand, and having done all, to stand.
We shall miss it all, we shall be swept away ourselves, unless the eye is clear, the ear circumcised, and the heart exercised in deep love and affection for Christ to hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies.
Luke 5:1 - 11
I want to show you the progress of grace in our souls. Peter was lending his boat to the Lord, just as much as one who has come to Jesus does now; they are willing to serve Him. But after the miraculous draught of fishes, Peter comes to another point. He discovers that he had come to God. This makes him say, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord". This is a Jewish experience, perhaps, but he learnt two things: the holiness of God, and his own uncleanness. But after the Lord's word, "Fear not" - what a change! "When they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him". This is the effect of first love, we give up for the Lord. In leaving all they got the Lord's company. Peter had learnt what the Lord's heart was for him, and he never lost this, for it never changes. In John 21, when in the boat with the other disciples whom he had led astray, directly he knew that it was the Lord he girt his fisher's coat about him and cast himself into the sea; he knew the heart of Christ for him; although his love had failed, the Lord's love was the same - unaltered, and he knew it.
Now to turn to John 6:67, "Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will ye also go away? Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God". This connects itself really with Matthew 16, but it is very important to know that Matthew 14 took place at the same time as John 6. One gives our side, the other God's side. We have to go to the other side of death to reach Him. In Matthew 14 Peter says, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come". He had the affection to take the step. The proof of love is that it wants the
company of its object. Every one knows this. No service can take the place of company, or make up for it. Love must have company. This is the great blessing vouchsafed to us in the assembly. The Lord said to His own, "I will come to you", that is to the company, it is not individual there. If He comes to me individually, it is in connection with my own things, but when He comes to us in the assembly, it is in connection with His side of things. May the Lord give us to know these steps of progress in grace! Not only would I serve Him, but I love Him, and His company is the one thing my heart craves. When Peter had confidence in his own love to the Lord, he broke down, but when restored, the Lord placed confidence in him, and said to him, "Feed my sheep", and in the long run he gets the desire of his heart, that he would go to death for Him.
I wish to speak of what appears to me to be especially on the Lord's mind at the present time. Little one apprehends it; still we ought to be occupied with it. It may be that something good occupies us; but it does not follow that it is the right thing at this present time.
The knowledge of Scripture is not sufficient without knowing what the Lord is doing at this moment. "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth; but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you". (John 15:15) I trust every heart here bows to it. What is the prominent thought in my Lord's mind at this moment? I believe many a person would be set straight in his course if he were in the secret of the Lord's mind, and that you never can get, if you are not with Him. Gideon never told the multitude the order of battle, but to the three
hundred that could stand the earthly favour, the water, he committed the secret, "as I do, so shall ye do". It is simple devotedness that qualifies one for receiving this wonderful favour. "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends". (John 15:13) Well, if you would die for the saints, He would tell His mind to you. Tell me what is really your love for the people of God - Christ's interests? Are they dear to you because they are Christ's? I believe it would be immense blessing to us all, if in the very smallest circumstances we have before us what He is doing. I might be occupied with a very useful line of Scripture and still not be in His mind. I find there was always some one thing peculiarly before Him. One finds continually people are not up to it. The disciples, however true and faithful, were not travelling in company with His mind at all; and what He seeks is to lead them to it. They do not understand Him, but it is the thing He is leading them to. He told them of His death, and they did not enter into it; neither did they follow Him as to His resurrection; they were weeping because He had died. After His ascension the Holy Spirit was the great thing before His mind. After Pentecost the assembly was the prominent thing. What was the cause of their trouble? They had not His mind; they were not in the secret of His working.
I turn to the end of Revelation 3. The Lord leads His people to what He is about to do and doing. When I am watching for His mind, what He would do, I am not guided by circumstances. Supposing I heard of a great number of conversions, I should be thankful for it, but if I am in His mind I am not carried away by it because I know there is another thing more prominently before Him. Sincere people can go on in a great way of usefulness and yet be apart from His mind and therefore they are not told "the thing that I do".
Luke 23:39; 1 Corinthians 6:19,20
The blessed Lord by the sacrifice of Himself so thoroughly removed all the judgment of God resting on the thief that He can say to him, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise". From the deepest moral degradation here he is translated to the highest spot above. The thief has no hand nor act in his salvation. Jesus, blessed be His name, frees him from all the judgment on his body, and now his body is the Lord's, and He will raise it a glorious body like His own glorious body. The body of every believer who is remaining on earth is "the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own, for ye have been bought with a price: glorify now then God in your body". First, you are so freed, to God's infinite satisfaction, from all the weight of judgment which rested on your body in the sight of God, that you are raised from the lowest spot to the highest; and secondly, the body thus set free belongs to Christ, is a member of Christ to glorify Him by the Holy Spirit, marvellous grace! in the place where He died to redeem it.
2 Timothy 1:8, 15
The great failure of the church was giving up Paul. "All ... in Asia" did not give up evangelical truth but they gave up Paul; anything popular you may have, but not Paul. Why? Because he is heavenly.
Colossians 2:20 is "over Jordan". In Romans, "dead to sin" - dead with Christ - out of the man; but in Colossians you are out of the place where the man is. Gilgal is the actual spot: all of man goes. Many understand Marah who do not understand Gilgal.
Marah is that I refuse the thing that would draw me from the wilderness. In Gilgal you drop it all: it is cut off, and cannot be resumed.
The children of Israel ate the passover when they got over Jordan, and the day after they ate the old corn of the land! That passover was a type of the Lord's supper in which I can say, I have reached the consummation of His accomplished work; I begin a new day, and I eat the old corn of the land.
What has hindered souls from understanding the mystery is that they are not consciously on heavenly ground. No man gets clear of the intrusion of the flesh until he gets to Gilgal. We ought to be able to say to every offer of the flesh, I do not want your learning, I do not want your sanctimoniousness, I want nothing but Christ, for I am "complete in him" and He is everything and in all. I am looking up.
You know very little about a person if you only know what he was, and not what he is; and that is the difference between the manna and the old corn of the land.
There is nothing a man so revolts from naturally than to see that this scene is gone. But though this scene is gone for me I am supported down here by supplies from the place where my Lord has gone. By the Holy Spirit I walk the path He has trod to the place where He has gone; where He is. There are many who have for a moment tasted it; and I would ask, Had you your relatives, your property, there? No, I had only the Lord. And were you happy without them? Perfectly so! There are many in heart over Jordan who have never accepted it. Your acceptance of the new place necessitates dropping everything connected with the old place. Like a recruit brought to the barrack gate; he drops the old, the civilian, to get the new. The apostle said when he was caught up into the third heaven, he did not know whether he was in the body or out of the body.
They say that a man in a balloon loses first the sense of feeling, then the sight of things below, then his hearing and lastly consciousness. You do not get the right idea of sanctification until you come to this. In 2 Corinthians 12 Paul has come down from the place where he did not know whether he was in the body, and now he will have a crippled body. The more I understand the exaltation, the more I shall be crippled here.
Once you separate the church from the gospel, I am prepared for any departure, human subsidy, and carnal support of any kind. I have no doubt Laodicea springs out of this (carrying on christian things without Christ). How often the evangelist deplores the state of his converts: your converts are the pattern of yourself. No one ever understood the gospel thoroughly that did not understand the church.
I never saw the brother who left the heavenly ground who did not become Babylonish - not Egyptian, for Egypt is the gross world, but Babylon is the refined, or if you will, aesthetic world.
Laodicea is christian religion without Christ Himself. Do not give up the heavenly side! Do not give up Paul! Do not be ashamed of "the testimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner".
The better any one knows the Lord, and all He can be to one individually in one's own circumstances and need, the more one is ready and really longing to be with Him in His own circumstances, where, so to speak, He is at home. The disciples knew Him well, and when Peter said, "We have left all, and followed thee", the Lord answered him, "There is no man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this present time, and in the world to come life everlasting", Luke 18:29,30. Peter had received nothing but Himself; the Lord's company was his compensation.
The indifference we manifest as to seeking the Lord in the assembly, and our ignorance as to it, arise from our not knowing Him well individually. In John 14:18, when He says, "I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you", He refers to the company; but in verse 23 He refers to the individual. "If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him". How blessed that He and the Father should have an abode in our hearts!
It is the same word for 'abode' as for 'mansion'. Hence the Lord can say in John 16:22 "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you". They were to see Him in His glory. He has come to our side, and has endeared Himself to us, and as He is endeared to us, we desire to see Him in His exaltation.
The blessing to Adam was a garden. Mary Magdalene found the Lord in a garden, but it was Himself she sought. Now, it is not in a garden, it is Himself in glory. It was said at the first, "It is not good that
the man should be alone", (Genesis 2:18) and now we have been given One who can surely be everything to us so that each of us may say, Never less alone than when alone.
May we know this more and more, and as we know it, we shall rejoice to be with Him in His own place.
Hebrews 11:28 - 31
We must bear in mind that in this chapter we get the traits of faith, from Abel until we reach Canaan, which is figuratively heaven. It is one faith, whatever the circumstances. Christ Himself is the Leader and Finisher of faith. There is nothing original in us; all comes from Him, all is accomplished by Him.
"Through faith he (Moses) kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them". You have shelter from the Judge by the blood, and as a rule, in christendom the most devoted do not go further; there is faith in the blood of Christ, but, like Israel, they are not clear of Satan and the flesh (of Pharaoh and the Egyptians), and as has been said, there is always a large company spiritually at Pihahiroth; that is, not delivered from the power of the enemy.
Now comes the next step: "By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land". By grace they have found a way out of death through death - figuratively the death of Christ. Now they are out of Egypt, and if you are true to this, there is nothing for you on your own side but death; you got out of Egypt through death, and you can keep out of it only by death. When you accept that you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, you are spiritually over Jordan. The old divines looked on Jordan as simply dissolution. They could speak of standing shivering on the brink and fearing to launch away, The fact is that there is no water at all in
Jordan. In the Red Sea the water was a wall on the right hand and on the left - you are made conscious of the judgment due to you. Some commentators say that the passage was so narrow that Israel had to go in single file. Be that as it may, it is individual experience; and anyone who has passed out of the judgment of death, through Christ's death, appropriating His death as due to himself, knows that all has been removed from the eye of God - that death has been abolished. Any of us may have seen that the nearer a christian comes to the point of death, the less fear he has, for there is no water there, no indication of judgment. It is true that many christians are troubled when they come to die, and pass through much exercise of soul; but I believe it is with them the passage of the Red Sea - it is the death of Christ for them that they are occupied with, to clear them from death, and not simply the Jordan experience of their death with Christ. Stephen knew that there was nothing between him and Christ in glory. Hence, Jordan should be a known experience now; you cannot know the next step, you cannot be in possession in Canaan until you have crossed the Jordan. If you appropriate the death of Christ, you pass out of death into life; and as you feed on His death, and always bear about in your body the dying of Jesus, you are truly in the wilderness; and you are across Jordan when you, by the Spirit, accept that you are dead with Him. Then the next step is possession in Canaan. We do not fight for it, it is ours. We have to fight to keep possession, to maintain spiritual ground.
Hebrews 12:1 - 11
Consequent on knowing Christ in the holiest, and thus knowing access into the presence of God, you
run on here, your eye steadfastly fixed upon Christ on the throne of God. It was a strange thing to a Jew to suffer from circumstances when he was faithful, as hitherto when he was faithful he had been blessed in the basket and in the store. Now the christian has to run on to Christ, and to surmount every difficulty in the way. He must lay aside every weight, that is more outside things, some habit or taste, such as the love of music or a newspaper - anything which is a hindrance to you, or detains you in the race. And inside, the sin that is in you, not merely a besetting sin, but sin in its principle, not fully done with until you are dead. You have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin; you have not died as a martyr. Now the blessed God turns all your sufferings into discipline, all for your benefit. Do not 'despise' it, do not be indifferent, as man in his pride tries to be, when a blow falls on him; and do not 'faint' under it, do not be overwhelmed by it - endure the chastening as chastening and for your benefit. There are two kinds of chastening, one to correct you when you are inconsistent, the other to help you when you are faithful. Jacob suffered much at Shalem, he was very inconsistent. God told him to go to Bethel; and when he went there, and was in the path of faithfulness, Rebekah's nurse died, and he called the place "Allon-bachuth", the oak of weeping; he was not ready for the discipline until then.
When you are going on and come to any hindrance by persons or property, that is the stone before the wheel. God takes it away; He waits until the wheel, that is your inclination, is ready for the removal of the stone. We who live are always delivered unto death. A christian might think that he was all right because things were going on so smoothly with him; just as a horse, turned out to grass because he was of little use, might suppose that he was more favoured than the horse every day at hard work, simply because of
its usefulness. The discipline here is more to help you. The great end in view is that you should be partaker of God's holiness, apart from everything here as He is. "For their sakes I sanctify myself" (John 17:19); this sanctification is immeasurable. It is only as you are near God that you can understand anything of His holiness, and surely, as you are exercised by the suffering, you are occupied with Him, not to find out the cause of the affliction, but that He is your resource in it. If God is before you, if you are in the Spirit, you make God paramount; He is first; if not, man is first. It is here where many christians fail; they are devoted, but man is more before them than God, and therefore neither in deed nor in word can they rise above man's judgment and man's feelings.
Genesis 4:3,4; Genesis 5:21 - 24; Romans 5:5; 8: 2
The great end of the gospel is that all the offence has been so removed by the death and resurrection of Christ, that the love of God is shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Spirit. God testified of Abel's gifts. Under the law there was the sin-offering, but also the burnt-offering. In the one the sin was taken away, but the other went up to God as a sweet savour, typical of the resurrection of Christ. Noah was safe from judgment in the ark, as Israel was safe under the shelter of the blood; but consequent on the burnt-offering Noah knew that he was in favour with God. The good tidings of God's grace is that He can be just and the Justifier of him that believeth in Jesus; that He can receive the returning prodigal in the fulness of His love; and consequently, the first sense of the Spirit in our hearts is the love of God. The great end of grace is that God can make known His great love to us.
Many souls are hindered and delayed by trying to
feel happy and sure of their salvation, instead of first being assured of how God is towards them because of the sacrifice of Christ. All this effort to be happy hinders and obstructs true enjoyment. The gospel is that God receives the returning sinner with the gladness of His heart. You must first know this, and everyone does know it who has received the Spirit of God, because His first work in your heart is to assure you of the love of God. Now comes our side - our enjoyment of God's grace. When the prodigal was kissed he must own that his father was in full love to him, but he could not enjoy it until he was made fit for his father's house. We learn from Enoch how to enjoy it: "Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him" - he was translated that he should not see death.
The Holy Spirit who first assures you of the heart of God, which is the gospel, is the same Holy Spirit who assures your heart that you are free of all the distance between you and God - free from the law of sin and death. While you are trying to have right feelings in yourself as to God's grace, you will never succeed, you will never enjoy the gospel; but when you accept that the same Spirit who assures you of God's love is the one and selfsame blessed Person who assures your heart that you are free personally of all connected with sin and death, then you "joy in God", which is the true effect of the gospel. In John 4 our blessed Lord, in speaking to the woman of Samaria, takes up the second or the Enoch side; I suppose because, while the gospel in terms might be known, yet no one could really enjoy the grace of God but by the Spirit dwelling in him, Anyone who has in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life, will never thirst; and he will also know that he has passed out of death into life, that he is in Christ, and that in heavenly festivity he has begun to make merry. May we fully enjoy His grace!
Acts 7:54, 55
In the case of Stephen the Holy Spirit opens and inaugurates for us the way to Jesus in glory. Ezekiel 1:26 is fulfilled to Stephen. There the cloud of glory was departing from Israel because of their perverseness, but though it was going away, yet in the brightest spot there was a Man. Stephen sees the Man in glory. The glory never returned to the earth from Ezekiel's day until the scene in Luke 2, when it came to announce the coming of Christ to the earth. Now Stephen sees Him in glory, and thus he is prepared to suffer from the religious man here, man under the law, the council, the elite of Israel; at their hands he suffers a cruel death because of their unrelenting antipathy to Christ, the Man in glory. The more Stephen suffered from those who assumed to be for God here, the more he was established in the blessedness of being with Christ in glory.
The way is open now for us by the Spirit. Every christian knows Christ as set forth in Jonah, but when He is known as Solomon you are so entranced that you own that though you had heard you did not believe, until you had come and your eyes had seen, and, behold, the half was not told you!
Beholding the Lord's glory supersedes yourself, so that, as an individual, you would always bear about in your body the dying of Jesus. And beholding Him in the assembly, you are so interested in His interests that you come out to manifest Him where He has been refused, prepared by association with Him in glory to have fellowship with His sufferings down here.
2 Kings 2:9, 15; Mark 2:1 - 16
The work of grace is all of God. New wine must be put into new bottles; this is the secret of grace. Some think that they can begin and God will go on, or that God begins and they can go on. No, grace is all of God. We find in Luke 14:17, "Come; for all things are now ready", and the servant is directed to "compel them to come in", that is, not merely to come to Christ, but to come into the house, to the supper, to the enjoyment of your reception as brought to God. This is the first work of the Spirit, making you to know your acceptance and to enjoy it. There are two great marks of grace, one, that you are in the favour of God, the other, that you have the power of God to be so superior to yourself that men may see that it is the work of God. Elisha was conscious of his powerlessness here without Elijah, and he asked that when Elijah went away he might have a double portion of his spirit; he received it because his eye was fixed on Elijah taken up. Now he comes out in a new way, he rends his own clothes; he has done with old appearances, done with himself.
In Mark 2, we see that faith, the work of God, brought the palsied man to Jesus. "When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee". But this was not all. Many do not know the gospel beyond this; they do not get to the "fatted calf", the making merry with God, which is the first work of the Spirit in the soul. If you are not in favour in the Father's house, you cannot be in power in the sight of men. If you, through the Spirit, mortify the deeds of the body, you live; you are outside among men in quite a new way, you are superior to all your old tastes and habits, you are like Matthew, free for Christ (Luke 5:28), and every step you go you drop yourself more and more. You
begin as nobody, as a sinner; but when you get to the top, that is to union with Christ, your self is left behind altogether; you belong to Another. No one gets on who does not enter into what is the Lord's thought about him. Until deliverance is known souls have not an idea of what the Spirit's thought for them is. The mark of a man who is characterised by the Holy Spirit is his acquaintance with Christ's present ministry to His own.
The Hebrews were converted Jews, and though they had begun brightly, as we see from the end of chapter 10, yet they became discouraged. As the earthly people they had been taught that faithfulness to God would be rewarded on the earth. Now, as christians, they found that the more faithful they were the more they suffered. In this scripture they are told that not only will faith in God enable them to surmount every difficulty, but that their very sufferings would be turned to good account; they would be more separated unto God. "Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way"; pursue a straight and distinct course, that the lame may be helped (see Isaiah 35:3). "The path of the just is as the shining light" (Proverbs 4:18); there is no going to the right or to the left, but straight on. Lameness was a blemish which debarred the sons of Aaron from entering within the veil. Anyone now engrossed with his infirmity, his sickness, or his sorrow, is lame, and cannot be in the holiest. If he had found sympathy he would be above infirmity, because in Christ's presence he had found complete relief. Paul could say, "I take pleasure in infirmities" (2 Corinthians 12:10)
he had gained so much of Christ through them. Follow peace with all men, but without holiness you cannot see the Lord, you cannot come to Him; hence - "Looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God". Watch the beginning of evil, turning from grace; the root of bitterness is the flesh, whereby many are defiled. They are warned against apostasy. Esau for a meal sold his birthright - figuratively, grace - and there was found no place of repentance. In verses 18 - 24 we get the christian's portion in contrast to the Jew under law, We first have the right of entrance to the holiest, full approach to God; we come to our portion. A worldly man does not see our portion, but a christian who knows it, who has come to it by faith, bears in his walk and ways unmistakeable evidence that he has a full cup. The things here do not draw his heart, because he possesses far greater things in another place. Faith is counting on God, seeing things as God sees them. A great man in the world has faith in himself, he feels he can do something; he may be conceited and fail, he imagined he had an ability which he had not. They say a horse will not easily attempt a fence that he is not up to; this is faith in oneself. But faith in God is counting on Him; you have His word, and you go on cheerfully, you must succeed. In prayer there should be the consciousness that you are so near Him that you speak into His ear; and no one ought to give out a hymn or minister in the assembly until he is assured that the Lord will support him in it. We have to walk by faith (verse 25). We are warned not to refuse him that speaketh; the speaking is now from heaven. "Let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear". As there is no more offering for sin, if you sin and do not judge yourself, you are judged of the Lord. Our God is a consuming fire. The flesh you indulge is where you will suffer; the body of sin has been destroyed
for God in the cross, and if you return to it and do not judge it, He will judge it; the flesh that sins must be destroyed; either judged and condemned by you bringing the cross to bear upon it, or by the judgment of God falling on you.
Here we are described as we should be known among men. In chapter 10 we are inside with God; in chapter 12 we have, in hope, come to mount Zion. Before men we are content with our present circumstances, "for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee". The greatest blessing in the Old Testament was, "I will be with thee". This continues to us, but there is a greater - "part with me". Many seek and appreciate the former who do not seem to care for the latter, though this is immensely greater. "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle". We appropriate Christ in the holiest. It is as we know Him in His glory that we go forth unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. It is remarkable that though Moses had seen all the mighty works of God in Egypt, and in leading the people of Israel, his one desire is, "Shew me thy glory". (Exodus 33:18) In type Solomon is connected with Jonah: the latter sets forth the sufferings of Christ, the former His glory. Surely we should desire to see His glory. Only the back parts could be shown to Moses, but his desire was afterwards fulfilled on the mount of transfiguration. It is the deepest joy to us to behold His glory. We recall Him in death, we remember Him in the lowest place here, but at the same time we are in the Spirit with Him in the brightest place. If it were only His death we had before us it would be like a Romish Good Friday;
but we remember His death, and we know that we are with Him in the holiest of all. And as we are with Him there, no other place suits us here but to be with Him outside the camp. The better we know Him in the brightest place, the truer we are to Him in the darkest.
Many who believe in Jesus are not happy. They do not joy in salvation. Why? The reason is that, though truly converted, they have not learned what is between the sinner and God. Jonah had to learn it in a painful way. It was will, and this is the real cause of restlessness in souls; they do not see that all in them contrary to God has been removed. Will brought Jonah to the whale's belly. He had to pass through death in figure, and then he is alive without a will, entirely at the control of another, and this is the only place of happiness for a christian. No soul has real clearance in the sight of God who has not passed through this, and unless you know the greatness of the salvation, you cannot be in the joy of it. It is not only your sins that have to be cleared away, but your will. The Lord went through what we get in Jonah 2 - death. You have to appropriate His death. Israel had to walk through the Red Sea; they did not make the way through, but they walked it. There is no other way to be free of your will but to appropriate the death of Christ. That which caused the distance between you and God is gone in Christ's death. If you enter into the great reality of that fact you will say, "I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God", Jonah 2 6. In learning this a man
comes to say, "Oh, wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?" Romans 7:24. Then he finds the Deliverer, and he says, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord". Then he sees that Christ Himself has opened the way out of it. Saul of Tarsus was struck down by the light of the glory; and after three days and three nights of deep exercise of heart, he who had thought himself so incomparably good, but who, having a will against God, was the chief of sinners, found that through the death of Christ he was clear of that man altogether; that all of Saul was gone in the cross, and he had found Another - the blessed Lord; and his link with Him was the Spirit of God. It took him three days to learn this; some take thirty years to learn it, and some never learn it till their deathbed; but sooner or later, every soul must learn that it is by Christ's death he gets free.
Colossians 1:26, 27
There are two ministries, the gospel and the church. In the gospel we learn how Christ cleared away all that was against us. In the church - the mystery of His body - we have nothing of the flesh. The most beautiful quality of the first man is not acceptable to God; nothing is acceptable to God but Christ. He could love the young man so naturally amiable (Mark 10:21); yet the Lord said unto him, "Take up the cross" (come to execution) "and follow me". It is deep joy to every loving heart that Christ is in you the hope of glory; the more we are attached to Him, the more we rejoice that He is in us. I like the same things that He likes. I act as He would act. His glory is my hope. In Romans 8:10, the same expression, "Christ in you", is used, but there it is for your own side; the effect is, the body is dead because of sin. Christ
in you - He acts and not your own will. In Colossians "Christ in you" is His side. If you do not know this as it is taught in Romans, you cannot know it as we get it in Colossians. It is not trying to put off the old man: you have done it if you are established in grace. "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me", Galatians 2:20. Every knowledge of Christ has an effect of its own, which could not be produced in any other way. If you know His work you give to Him, like Jonathan to David. "And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him, and gave it to David, and his garments, even to his sword, and to his bow, and to his girdle", 1 Samuel 18:4. If you know Him as your life you suffer with Him. If you know Him as Priest you know where consolation is; the sorrow is here, the consolation is with Him, and there we are severed from the earth. When you know Him as Head you derive from Him according to His own life. Your acts, your manners, everything about you is of Christ. No human refinement can imitate this or apprehend it. It is as you are with Him that you grow into moral correspondence to Him. You cannot acquire His sense of things but as you are with Him. When you are with Him individually, you are learning Him for your own circumstances; when you are with Him in the assembly, you learn Him for His things.
There is no greater satisfaction to love than to be like Him; we shall be like Him to see Him. "When he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is", 1 John 3:2.
May each of us rejoice that our blessed portion is to have "Christ in you the hope of glory". The more you meditate or ruminate on it, the greater and fuller it will appear to you, and also the plainer it will become to you.
The Lord is seen in two positions here. He is rejected by man. He quotes this psalm in Matthew 22:44: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool". Christ was rejected after His public service, after setting forth the heart of God to man. Man had been always perverse and rebellious, but "now they have no cloke for their sin ... now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father". He is here called away to sit down at God's right hand, and His sitting there (see Hebrews 10:12) is a proof that the work for us is finished. But this is not all; His new position in heaven is that He is great Priest after the order of Melchisedec. As you accept Him in His rejection, you know Him in His exaltation. As your heart has any true sense of His rejection, that He died here, the shadow of His death is over everything. The more you feel His rejection, the more you rejoice that you know Him in His exaltation, and you will find that if any one (each one beginning with himself) does not feel His rejection down here, he does not realise His exaltation at the right hand of God. Any heart that had a true sense of His death would not look for any bright thing in the place where He died; even the cultivation of a flower would be incongruous.
In christendom the Lord's supper is reduced to 'remembrance that Christ died for thee', and thus they are diverted from the Lord's desire in asking us to remember Him. He counted on the eleven when He said, "This do in remembrance of me". (Luke 22:19) Even the natural man will share his joys with many, but he confides his sorrow only to his chief friends. If we are not in concert with the Lord in the one - His rejection, we cannot be in concert with Him as to the other - His exaltation.
Jacob can say, Rachel is dead; he looks for nothing here. How much more should we be able to say that we look for nothing here, seeing we have a compensation in knowing our Lord in His exaltation. In the assembly we remember Him in death, but we know Him in the holiest. We have the right of entrance into the presence of God, and there only can we worship. The deeper our remembrance of His death here, the more absolute our association with Him in glory. The past and the present are both before us in the assembly.
Exodus 3:8; Luke 14:15 - 23
In the gospel you are not only saved from judgment, but you are given a new place. Israel was not only delivered out of Egypt, but they had to come to Canaan. It is a great point to apprehend the fulness of God's grace. The Lord says to the thief on the cross, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise" (the third heaven), Luke 23:43.
The word to the servant is, "Compel them to come in"; not merely, as some say, come to Christ, but come to the new place. The prodigal did not enjoy his father's reception until he was fit for his presence - the best robe on. It is only in the Spirit we can enjoy our acceptance, and there we have new tastes and interests, and the more we make merry there the less we like mere natural things. No believer has answered to the heart of God who has not enjoyed his acceptance; he has not responded to the love of God. He may be sure of his safety, but he has not answered to God's desire for him; he has not entered into the joys of his Father's heart in having him, the prodigal, in His own house. It is of deep importance to insist on the new place for the believer. An evangelist has not
properly finished his work until the convert is brought to the house The Jews refused the great supper - heavenly festivity; they preferred, like many christians now, their earthly blessings, good in themselves, the land, the oxen, the wife; but these do not come from the house - the Father's house. When the believer is drawn away by earthly favours, he assuredly is not enjoying the great supper. "No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new". (Luke 5:39) The natural taste when gratified governs you, but great is the loss of blessing when it is so. The convert has lost his true place with God, he has not answered to God's pleasure, he has not reached the joys of the Father's house, he is not walking in the Spirit, he is not in liberty; he cannot be free of the natural man, because he is engrossed and pleased with the things and favours that suit the natural man. He is not in the hope of the gospel (Colossians 1:5), and all that is consequent upon knowing the gospel cannot be known if the gospel be not known; and the gospel is only known in part if the new place given to the convert in the Father's house be unknown. You may be out of Egypt, but you are not in Canaan.
Timothy is the pattern servant for the last days, and is especially fitted for this service. At Ephesus, where the church was most advanced, he is instructed as to the true order of the assembly. As God's witness among men Timothy was left at Ephesus. The end of the commandment is love, that is God's testimony to the world. The Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the world. The pure heart is the heart controlled by the Spirit of God. My hand or my eye when directed by the Spirit is for God, but the same
hand or eye directed by my own will would not be for God. Timothy would encounter much opposition from those who desired to be teachers of the law. The law addresses the man in the flesh. The first lesson we have to learn, and the one we have not fully learned as yet, is that the flesh profiteth nothing. The law is for the unrighteous; it condemns. Everything is unsound that is not according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. God's heart towards man is fully declared in it, and Paul, the minister of it, is in himself a sample of the grace of God. Timothy was to keep in mind that he was gifted by the Lord. It is important to see that a gift is some power specially imparted by the Lord. No one can tell what the Lord will impart, but he who receives it knows that he has received it; as was said to Saul of Tarsus, that he was to be a "minister and a witness ... of these things which thou hast seen" (Acts 26:16); as the burning bush was to Moses, and the man with the drawn sword to Joshua. The more you use your gift the more useful it is. It cannot be judged of by delivery or fluency of speech, but by spiritual power. The servant has to fight a good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience; he must walk up to his light. The greatest failure has occurred where there was much light, but where the conscience was not up to the light. A very conscientious person is afraid of light, because the more the light the greater the demand on his conscience. The servant who is progressing becomes more separate as he receives more light; things he may have tolerated last year he will refuse this year, because he has more light; he walks up to his light.
1 Chronicles 16:7 - 36
The ark of the covenant was the one great object of interest. David had failed in his first attempt to
bring back the ark (1 Samuel 6), but now he had learned that the levites only should carry the ark; the levites were the servants of the priests. No one who is not in communion can come near to minister Christ. He is the antitype of the ark in the tabernacle; the tables of the testimony, and the pot of manna, and Aaron's rod that budded were in the golden box. Christ is the fulfilment of all, and He should be the one absorbing Object of our hearts. If I look on the earth, His death is before me. If I look to where He is, I see Him now in the presence of God, crowned with glory and honour. It is not things that are given to us now, but a Person. No accumulation of things could be the same to me as a Person. "Honour and majesty are before him: strength and beauty are in his Sanctuary". As you know His love you are filled with the fulness of God. He is the fulness of God. He satisfies the longing soul, and filleth the hungry soul with gladness. At all times, and especially in coming to the assembly, the one absorbing Object before your heart should be the Lord Himself.
2 Corinthians 3; Exodus 3:2; Joshua 5:13,15
The law, the demand for righteousness, came from the glory of God. It was a ministration of death. Now in the gospel there is a ministration of righteousness from the glory. An amazing contrast! There was grace from the glory to Isaiah; the seraphim took the live coal from the altar, and touched his lips. This intimated that there must be judgment before grace, before it could be said to him, "Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged". (Isaiah 6:7) But now a Man, the Lord Jesus Christ, having glorified God in bearing the judgment on man, has been glorified, and the light of the gospel comes down from Him there. "If
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them", 2 Corinthians 4:3, 4. The light comes from the finish to the dark soul to enlighten it, though it may be long before that soul enjoys its acceptance in the glory. The burning bush is the emblem of grace, Moses gets his commission there, and he effects deliverance for the people of God. The man with the drawn sword in Joshua 5 sets forth the power of Christ glorified. There is grace and also the glory. You are not only delivered from all that which was against you, but your home is in the presence of God. The nearer you come to Christ in glory, the more assured you are that the righteousness of God is ministered from the glory. So the nearer you get to Him, the more assured you are of His finished work; and in the power of it, you are transformed into the same image. This is not the gospel, but it is the effect consequent upon knowing the gospel. The grace of the father to the prodigal made him feel his own unworthiness the more; but the work which enabled the father to receive the returning prodigal so fully is the same work by which the prodigal can be freed from his old state, and be brought into his father's house in an altogether new state. The believer in Christ can enjoy the Father's reception because the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the law of sin and death; Romans 8:2.
Hebrews 13:1 - 17
Here we have the christian's character among men. In chapter 10 we get the christian's place with God, in the holiest. In chapter 12 we get his prospects and
possessions altogether outside this world. His first characteristic among men (chapter 13) is brotherly love. "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another". (John 13:35) The more your heart realises that Christ has been rejected, and that He is not here, the more you care for everyone belonging to Him. Secondly, you are to be hospitable (verse 2). Thirdly, you are to be really considerate for your brethren, entering into their sorrows, if they are in prison or in adversity, seeing you are yourself also in the body. Marriage, God's ordinance, is honourable. Let your conversation or intercourse among men be without the love of money, content with your circumstances, "for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee". The widow (2 Kings 4) learned that only a pot of oil, where there is faith, can supply more than is required. Many are cast down by their circumstances, instead of looking to God to use the little He has given to meet their need. "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee". This was the greatest favour vouchsafed to the Old Testament saint; it remains true to us, but there is also a much greater favour for us, that is having "part with me". Christ truly has come to our side, but now He desires that we should go to His side. How few answer to His desire that we should have part with Him! In verse 7 the leaders are those who are gone before. In verse 17 the leaders are those who are present. "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace". Grace is the contrast to law and works. Grace is altogether apart from the man in the flesh, and every acknowledgment of the man in the flesh diverts you from the great supper, that is, from your portion in the Father's house. "We have an altar, whereof they have no right to eat which serve the tabernacle". To serve the tabernacle was religion after the law, your altar, your worship, indicates your place with God, you cannot rise higher than your altar. You may know
every one's state by his altar. Jacob at El-elohe-Israel is different from Jacob at Bethel. We are now privileged to come into the presence of God in company with Him who is a great Priest over the house of God, but as we are with Him there, we have to go forth unto Him without the camp here (the camp is any ordered system on the earth) bearing His reproach; instead of seeking or maintaining any position here, we are to be as unrecognised as He was. By Him we offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, praising God and doing good to men in general, and communicating to our brethren. Finally, obey them who guide you, because they must give account. There is no greater joy to a servant than to see souls prospering in the truth, while on the other hand, it is an ever-present sorrow to him when anyone is not thus prospering.
Luke 10:38 - 42
Here we have the beginning of the new company on the earth. In the history of the man who had fallen among thieves, Judaism is proved to be inadequate to meet man's need. These two women, Martha and Mary, set forth the beginning of the new company; one acts according to man's mind or human feelings, the other acts in simple attachment to the Lord. Mary studied His mind, literally she sat near Him, not on the ground as one now might suppose; she studied Him; Christ Himself was her attraction. Martha was trying to be useful, she felt her responsibility to her guest, but Mary was occupied with Himself, and not with all that she could do. If you do not understand Mary's gain in having chosen the "good part", which is the beginning, you will not
understand the "manifold more" of Luke 18:30, where the description of the new company ends. The "manifold more" is the company of the Lord Himself, and this is the "good part". Nothing can satisfy real affection but company. You get a touching instance of this in John 1:38. The two disciples want to know where He abides, and the Lord says to them, "Come and see". He ministers to their love, and when going to leave them He says, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you". Hence the season of the deepest joy to us now is in the assembly. Mark how Mary gained when she was in sorrow in John 11, because of the death of her brother. She was disappointed that Jesus had not come, but when she heard that He had come she rose up quickly to go to Him, and seeing Him she fell at His feet; she was quite conscious of His greatness. He walks with her, He endears Himself still more to her, so that in the next chapter, when His death is apprehended, she anoints Him for His burial. That which would have added most to her own distinction here she buries with Him. The alabaster box in Luke 7 was bestowed on Him to make much of Christ on the earth; many have done likewise, but few have acted like Mary. The love of the Lord culminates in this, that we should be with Him. He died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him. I find the one who is set on usefulness does not advance like the one set on personal affection to Christ. Thus we learn in Canticles the reciprocity of affection.
The Lord give us to be more personally attached to Himself; then we shall be useful according to His pleasure.
Leviticus 23:4 17; John 1:29 - 38
It is very interesting to see that the first feasts of the year for Israel were types of the grace of God. The death of Christ, the resurrection of Christ, and the descent of the Holy Spirit, are set forth in the passover, the wave-sheaf of the first-fruits, and the feast of weeks; while the "two wave-loaves", the new meat-offering offered after fifty days, typify the believing company all together before God.
Now in John we learn the grace; God does not abate His righteousness, but He provides the lamb Himself; He removes the offence from His own side. This is marvellous grace. He laid help upon One that was mighty, His own arm brought salvation, sin is taken away. Where there is a man after the flesh there is sin. There is no justification from sin but by death; he that is dead is freed from sin, sin is condemned. He bare our sins in His own body on the tree. This He did once when He offered up Himself. The moment He died (see Matthew 27:51) the veil was rent from the top to the bottom, the distance has gone from God's side. Christ has put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. All that is contrary to God has been removed for ever in the cross, but He who has effected all this on the cross has been raised from the dead. He is the wave-sheaf, and now from Him risen the Holy Spirit is sent down that we should be according to God here. There is no improvement in the flesh, but every act and thought is to spring from the Holy Spirit, the fountain which is in you, springing up unto eternal life. The two disciples who leave John (verse 37), the man under the law, not only follow Jesus, but true to the spiritual sentiment, they want to be with Him where He abides. Like the wave-loaves, they are gathered together in one.
Levi sitting at the receipt of custom could leave all to follow Christ; this is the great characteristic of the work of grace in the heart. In the language of Canticles the believer can say, "Draw me, we will run after thee". (Song of Songs 1:4) The more anyone surveys the greatness of Christ's work, the more he will see that nothing less becomes the recipient of His grace than following Him. It is not attaching oneself to any religious community, it is simply and wholly following Christ. John 10 opens with the great fact that Christ had entered the fold, He had fulfilled all that was under the law of God, He had come into the fold, not to remain in it, but to lead His sheep out of it. He calls them by name, the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. He is the door: "By me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture". He gives life abundantly, and He knows His sheep, and is known of them. This characteristic of grace, following Christ, affects all our history here. Peter and others left all and followed Him; John's disciples left him and followed Jesus. He loves His own; all His heart seeks and asks for is that you should follow Him. "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be". (John 12:26) The Lord values love more than anything; "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied". (Isaiah 53:11)
John 14:18 - 23
If you have the death of the Lord truly before you, nothing can solace you but to know Him alive; thus you can always judge of the measure in which His death is before you, because as it is, so your one thought is to know Him alive. Thus it was with Mary
Magdalene, and thus with the two disciples going to Emmaus. If we fully accepted His death here, we should not look for anything bright in the place where He died. This makes the assembly of such deep interest to us. He says, "I will not leave you orphans, I am coming to you"; this is collective, He would come to the company. In verse 23 you have the way He comes to us individually, "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him"; He will have a place in your heart. But in verse 19 He comes to the company, and He says, "The world seeth me no more; but ye see me". This is the first part, we are comforted. His own side is made known to us. We remember where He was in death, that is the past; but the present is to know Him as he is in the assembly. "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". The more you dwell on this, the greater and more deeply it will open out to you.
The more we ponder on the deluge, the more two great things come before us, the terrible nature of the judgment on man on the one hand, and the fulness of the salvation on the other hand. When the waters had abated and they had left the ark, they were all safe; but Noah is not satisfied with being safe, he seeks to know how he stands with God, he offers up a burnt-offering. The ark, a figure of the death of Christ, had sheltered them from the judgment. The burnt-offering is a type of Christ glorifying God. "I come to do thy will". (Hebrews 10:7) The effect of the burnt offering was that Noah was in the favour of God, and he is set up here in power. In the gospel not only has Christ died, but He was raised for our justification.
You are through grace safe, if you know that He died for you; but if your heart truly enters into His death for you, you desire to know that He was raised from the dead, and when you believe that God raised Him from the dead, you are justified. If you believe in Him risen, you must believe in His death; you see that your judgment has been borne by Him, and that He so glorified God that God has a Man to His own pleasure, and on the ground of His acceptance you are accepted by God. By Him we have access into this favour wherein we stand; and not only this, but the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which He hath given unto us. Not only is everything removed from the eye of God in the cross, so that He can now receive the returning sinner into favour, but the Holy Spirit, as the link and evidence that we belong to Him who saved us, is expressly to assure our hearts of the love of God. As the father impressed the prodigal with the assurance of his affection, so the Spirit's first work in our souls is to assure us of the love of God.
The Corinthians were occupied with spiritual gifts; the end of the commandment is love. We get the passive qualities in this chapter more than the active ones. We have love here and in John 13; the difference is that in the latter I remove from my brother all that hinders communion; in the former (1 Corinthians 13) I remove from myself what I am myself, and what interferes with love. I cannot act in love if I do not understand love. All service should spring from love; I cannot serve if I have not real love. I ought to be known as one who would die for the saints. We should look on one another as a gardener looks on his plants,
things to be watered and cared for. It is only as we advance in Christ that we become more practically clear of the flesh. The first lesson we learn is the one we finish with, that the flesh profiteth nothing. We never get on to another step until we have learned the one before it. The Corinthians were exhibiting their gifts. Edification is to meet the conscience; the great principle in ministry is, does it edify? A man who has love is more useful in a meeting than one who has a showy gift. It is wonderful how a man who has the welfare of the saints at heart gets on himself. There is great responsibility connected with the house of God. I have not merely to rebuke a brother, but to remove the defilement, I must wash his feet. All ministry is for the edifying of the body, so I have to consult the Lord; we are of Him. He is Head of the body. From Him we derive all that suits Him. We are members of His body; according to the type, she shall be called Ishshah, because she was taken out of Ish. This is the great mystery.
John 1:35 - 39
It is very interesting to see the simplicity at the beginning. The two disciples just follow Jesus, He attracts them; they not only follow Him, but they want to know where He abides. The heart set on Him is sure to come to this: "Where dwellest thou?" The place where He dwells is the goal of the heart. Most graciously the Lord responds to the true heart. He said to them, "Come and see". They came and saw where He dwelt, and abode with Him that day. It is only in company with Him that we know Him. There is a marked difference between the way His presence affects us individually, and in the assembly. In the former He influences us with respect to our
state, in the latter He makes known His own mind and interests as we are ready to receive them. As the queen of Sheba was entranced by the wisdom of Solomon in his own house, you can never get His mind for yourself individually, as you get it in the assembly.
The true aim and object of ministry is edification. If it be ever so little, so that it edifies the assembly: "I had rather speak five words ... that ... I might teach others also" (verse 19). If you do not understand the truth yourself, you cannot honestly and truly convey it. Exposition of Scripture is only effective so far as the minister himself has appropriated it; if he is propounding beyond his own experience, he cannot insist on it as knowing it himself. "I believed, and therefore have I spoken". (2 Corinthians 4:13) The Corinthians, with all their spiritual gifts, did not know Christ as Head. They were occupied with their gifts; they lacked the love which would have sought the benefit of their hearers. In the assembly everything should be done for edifying. In giving out a hymn, it should not be one which merely suits myself, but one which suits the assembly. I am so far the organ of the assembly. No one should come there intending to take a part, but every one should be ready, as every string of a harp is tuned before it is played on. Everyone may be ready, but the Lord may not call on everyone. If the Lord were known as Head, every one would be directed by Him, but if even there were true desire before the Lord to edify, there would not be the state of things that prevailed at Corinth. The assembly is a great test to each of us. No one is in power in any circle beyond what he is in the assembly. There you
approach God, you rise to your highest point. If you are lacking in any circle at home or abroad, the defect is in your altar You cannot rise higher than your altar. Jacob's altar at Shalem was El-elohe-Israel; he could say, like many now, that he was on the right ground, and had the right truth, but he confined God to himself; he was at the time inconsistent with his calling, for he had bought a parcel of a field where he was given no inheritance (see Acts 7:5). He suffered deeply, as we read, at Shalem. Eventually the Lord told him to go up to Bethel. It was more than twenty years since he had been there, but he so recalled it that he said unto his household and to all that were with him, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments". (Genesis 35:2) The nearer you are to God and the better you know Him, the better you can judge of everything in relation to Him. Inside we are a holy priesthood, and from thence we come out a royal priesthood.
Though the action is similar in these two scenes, the motive is different. The woman in Luke, having believed in Christ as her Saviour, seeks Him that she may publicly express her heart to Him. She follows Him into the Pharisee's house, her heart was full of His grace, she loved much, she was forgiven much; we all know something of this - of His work for us. Mary, in John 11, knew the Lord not only as her Saviour but as the solace of her heart. He was this to her in the hour of her sorrow. We have to know not only His work for us in death, but to be in His life, as He said, "Because I live, ye shall live also". (John 14:19) The first, His work for us in death, is incomparably great, and can never be forgotten. "Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends" (John 15:13); but it is only as you know Him at this present moment, where He is in the sphere of His life, that you can act as Mary acted. She does not make any public manifestation of her love, but that which would naturally contribute to herself she buries with Him. As He was about to die, the most valued of earthly distinctions had lost its attraction for her. Her heart is so set on Christ that all which would add to her own distinction here is buried with Him. This is always the effect of knowing Him where He is at this present moment. He is not here, and the effect of knowing Him outside this world, and rejected by it, is that He is so endeared to the heart in that other scene, that there is nothing attractive to us here where He is not. Every believer knows something of His work, but do we know Him as our life, all He can be to us at the present moment? It is this latter that we enjoy in the assembly.
John 20:11 - 17; Psalm 110:1 - 4
It is very affecting to see Mary Magdalene's sense of desolation because she does not know where the Lord is. "They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him". He does not resume natural or human associations. He says, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father". It is a great fact that He is not here. We may think of His work, or of His path as He was here; but He is not here now, and if you do not enter into this solemn fact, that He is not here, you arc not set on finding Him where He is. In this psalm He is called away from this place to sit down at God's right hand, and not only this, but He is to be there a great Priest after the order of Melchisedec. If you do not
feel that He has gone away, you do not know Him as your Priest in the presence of God. The attempt in christendom is to ignore His rejection, and to assume that everything is done to honour Him here. Hence they have no idea of knowing Him as Priest in heaven. They look on the minister as the priest between the congregation and God. If you do not know Christ as Priest in heaven, you do not know the blessedness of His nearness to God, you do not enjoy what we read in 1 John 4:17: "As he is, so are we in this world". It is not as He was, but as He is. God has no other standard, and if God's love shines in its reality into your heart, you would know that as He is, so are you in this world. But it is only as you are with Him now that you can know all He is to you. When you know union with Him, it is then you know the love of Christ that passeth knowledge. The more truly you accept the fact that He is not here, the more - as your heart is true - will you seek to find Him where He is.
Matthew 13:44 - 48
The Lord is now alone with His disciples. He had sent away the multitude (see verse 36), and now He tells them the three similitudes of the kingdom of heaven, as seen in His hand. The other three set forth the effect of the word in the hand of man. It is an immense help when we apprehend and enter into Christ's interest in the church, to know that not only is each of us an object of this great interest, but that we can be in concert with Him in His chief interest. He buys the field for the treasure. His treasure is on the earth. His delight is with the sons of men. After He rose from the dead He was forty days on the earth. His interest is with those who are still here. The similitude of the net sets forth that there is selection,
the good are put into vessels. If you do not know Christ's interest in the church, you will not be able to select for Him. The first parable, the sowing of the good seed, sets forth the preaching of the gospel. The more the evangelist knows Christ's interest in the church, the better he will do his work. The evangelist comes from the Head in heaven. Christ's centre of interest must be ours if we are working in concert with Him. We are to begin with the church. The eleven in John 15 were to "love one another, as I have loved you". Each was to begin there. The servant who is watching for his Lord's return cares for His household, giving them meat in due season. All service properly begins with the assembly, and it is there one is really enlightened to serve. You see the true order in Revelation 22:17: "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". Then the saints are before you: "Let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come". Finally the offer of the living water to every one.
It is most important to enter into Christ's interest in the church. He loved the church, and gave Himself for it. We often speak of His death for us, but this conveys much more. He gave Himself. In Psalm 16:3 we read: "The saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight". Note that it is to the saints in the earth; those who have passed away are in perfect rest. It is to those who are still here, as we see in John 20 how His heart lingers with His own down here; He does not ascend at once. We read in Song of Solomon 5:1, "I am come into my garden, my sister, my spouse: I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb
with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk: eat, O friends; drink, yea, drink abundantly, O beloved". But there is no response from the bride. She says, "I sleep, but my heart waketh". There is not a continued concert with Christ in His interest in His own, and as the heart is awakened to it, extremes are resorted to (verse 3), because there is not full restoration. The keepers took away her veil. At length she ponders on His personal beauty, and then she is restored. She can say (chapter 6: 2), "My beloved is gone down into his garden". We gain much when we are in communion with His interest and delight in His own.
The Lord said in the beginning of this chapter, "Glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee". He had declared the Father on the earth - God's heart to man; but now He would declare Him as He is in heaven. The Lord can say of His disciples, "They... have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me". Now He closes, saying, "I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". Every believer enjoying his acceptance with God has a sense of the love of God. God has commended His love towards us, but this is much more - the love wherewith the Father loved His Son down here, as we read, "Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again" - the Father's heart resting on the One who had drawn out His love. It is almost inconceivable that we should be objects of such love; but as we in any measure enter into it, we are so consciously favoured that,
with Christ in us, we can be morally superior to everything down here. The young men in 1 John 2 have overcome the wicked one, they are out of Egypt, and the word of God abides in them, but they are not proof against the world and the things of the world; if they love the world, the love of the Father is not in them: "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him". It is not that they do not know the Father; little children know the Father, but the love of the Father in them would draw them into a circle of things altogether outside of and apart from this world and the things of the world; it would not then be an effort to retire from things here, for the taste and joy of the heart would be in the Father's things.
The thought has been before me as to what characterises a soul who is out of Egypt. Many are safe who are not out of Egypt. There are two places, out of Egypt and in Canaan. For us this is heaven; the work of Christ is the ground-work of both for us. It is grace that delivers us from Egypt, and it is grace that takes us to heaven. What marks a person who is in Egypt is that he is occupied with Pharaoh and the Egyptians. There are three things which mark one who is out of Egypt. First, he celebrates the work which has brought him to new ground, to a new position before God: "I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea". All the enemies are sunk like lead in the mighty waters. Secondly, he is occupied with God; God's interests here are before him: "I will prepare him an habitation". If you want to know more about this, read the Songs of
degrees, Psalms 120 to 134, the steps by which they went up to the house of the Lord. Have you ever come to what the soul there comes to? "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, or slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for the Lord, an habitation for the mighty God of Jacob". This is the second mark of one who is practically out of Egypt. What interests him in this world is the house of the living God. The third mark is that he is going to heaven. Is this what you are set for? What tests us all is the journey between, we find out ourselves in the journey. We have left the port, and the haven is sure, but between these we have to learn that we are unmendably bad, that there is nothing for us but God. He is a happy man who has come to this. God will minister nothing to the man whom He has removed in judgment on the cross, but He gives manna, bread from heaven, to sustain us on the road to heaven.
There is a twofold ministry of the Holy Spirit in these two passages. We all know something of the first: "He shall .. . bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you". It is what Christ was down here, and this must be known first, for it is the first work of the Holy Spirit, and inexhaustible in its greatness as unfolded in the gospels. Very few know the second, in chapter 15: 26. This is the Holy Spirit testifying of what Christ is in glory, it is the second ministry of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter sent by the Father. You may take up books or hear people speak; they all tell you of the past or of the future, but they do not touch on the present, on what He is now. It is the present that I want to hear about, what Christ is occupied about. The difficulty is that
people do not like to drop their own things, and their own interests, and to be occupied with Christ's things and His interests. A person said to me lately, When I knew the Lord was caring for me down here, and His shelter and care over me, I was very happy; but now that I want to get to His side of things, I am not happy. The earth is man's sphere, and he does not care to leave it for God's sphere; that is the difficulty with us all. I own it is very blessed to know what He was on earth, and we could not do without it; but He is not on earth now, and I want you to know Him as He is, and His present surroundings. "We see Jesus .. . crowned with glory and honour" (Hebrews 2 9; that is what He is now, and what is the effect? If you know Him as He is now, you will be a witness here of what He is, you will reproduce Him here. You may be a friend or a disciple, but you will never be a true witness until you know Him where He is. May our hearts be led into this second ministry of the Holy Spirit, that we may be witnesses in this world of Him who is not here.
Our great expectation in coming together ought to be to enjoy Christ's presence. We remember Him in death - He died here where we are; but we know Him in glory, and there is a marked effect from His seeing us again. "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you". To know Him in glory in His own things must have a most wonderful effect, and the better we know the effect the more we should expect when we come together. There are two types of Christ found together in Scripture (Luke 11:29 - 32), Jonah and Solomon. Jonah is a type of the death of Christ, Solomon of His
glory. We remember Him in death, but we know Him in glory. In 1 Kings 10:3 - 9 we see the effect that Solomon's glory had on the queen of Sheba. First of all her individual questions were solved, and then she was introduced into Solomon's own circle. The first effect is that there is no more spirit in her; she is entranced with the blessedness of his presence. This must ever be the effect of being near Him who is greater than Solomon. To God we are beside ourselves. Christ so absorbs the heart that one's self is in abeyance. Next, as the wisdom and prosperity of Solomon absorbed the queen of Sheba, so we, as our hearts behold the glory of Christ, or rather, as we behold Him in glory, must declare with her, "Thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard"; and finally, like this queen, we are praising and blessing - we worship and we bless Him who has blessed us. The greater the sense of the blessedness of our portion, the more our hearts will estimate the blessedness of Him who has blessed us.
Every one admits that there is a distance between God and the sinner. Cain knew there was a distance, but he did not know the nature of the distance. Many are truly converted, turned to God; but they do not joy in God because they do not see that all the distance, and all that caused the distance between them and God, has been removed to His glory. Death, as the judgment of God, is on every child of Adam; nothing can remove death but death. There must be a victim, as Abel set forth, not chargeable with our offence, bearing the judgment of the offence, and at the time of bearing it having a personal excellency, as the type expresses it, "and of the fat thereof".
Man after the flesh must go in judgment, hence man cannot do anything to retrieve his position, he is entirely a debtor to grace. Conversion, turning to God, is the work of His grace. The gospel is that God has laid help upon One that is mighty, His own arm has brought salvation. He sent His Son, made of a woman, made under the law. Peter, in opening the kingdom of heaven to the gentiles, insists especially on the resurrection of Christ. Death is upon every child of Adam, and there cannot be any atonement but by blood, yet there is no new ground until Christ is risen from the dead. "Jesus who was of Nazareth: how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power; who went through all quarters doing good, and healing all that were under the power of the devil, because God was with him .. . whom they also slew, having hanged him on a cross. This man God raised up the third day, and gave him to be openly seen, not of all the people, but of witnesses who were chosen before of God", Acts 10:38 - 41. A man altogether to God's pleasure, who did all His will, has been put to death; for this end came He into the world. He, the Holy One of God, has in death judicially terminated the man who is according to the flesh. Therefore "through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins". For the awakened soul the great object of faith is the Man Christ Jesus risen from the dead, the Man who not only bore the judgment due to me, but who glorified God where I had dishonoured Him. The man after the flesh has come to an end before God in the cross; and when Christ, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, is before the eye of your soul, and as you believe in Him, you receive the Holy Spirit, the confirmation of your new position.
John 9:35 - 38
It is important to see when the man in this chapter becomes acquainted with Christ. He had received his sight, and he knew something of the work and the power of the light. The more he maintained that it was Jesus who had opened his eyes, and that it was the work of God, the more he was refused by his neighbours, the Pharisees, by his parents, and eventually by the Jews. He is cast out of the synagogue; he is outside everything of man; he is in the solitude of light. Divine light leads to this. Now the Lord comes to him, and says, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" and further, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped Him". This man knows Christ now, according to John 10:14, 15: "I ... know my sheep, and am known of mine". Verse 15 explains the character of this acquaintance or intimacy. It is of the same character as that which exists between the Father and the Son: "As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father". Hence it is by seeing Him as the Son of God that we are led into it. This man had never seen Him until now, and now he knows Him; he has come to the living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious; he believes and he worships. The greatness and the blessedness of the Person of Christ absorbs his heart, now that he has seen Him and known Him.
The sense of the immensity of His grace impresses you before you comprehend it in any degree; but the more you are occupied with it the more you acquire. In John 14:20 we read, "At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you". You may not understand much of this, and I could not explain much of it to you; but are you interested
in it? Is it before your heart? I commend to you two verses of a hymn:
And thus Thy deep perfections
There are two great subjects here, neither of which is correctly apprehended in christendom. The wages of sin is death; that which has sinned must die, there is no other way in which it can be discharged. Now many think, like Cain, that they can do something to commend themselves to God; they run in the way of Cain. They do not see that sin cannot be removed in any way but by death; the man who has sinned can only be cleared by death. Again, many who truly believe that Christ died for our sins look at His sacrifice as the pious Jew looked at the paschal lamb; they assure themselves that they are forgiven their sins, and, like the Jew, they seek to keep the law; in a way they enjoy natural things more than ever because they are forgiven, and when they sin they look for a fresh application of the blood. They do not see that in Christ's death the man after the flesh was judicially terminated before God, and that our old man was crucified with Christ. They confine or limit Christ's work to His death. When you believe that God has raised Him from the dead, you have a Man out of death, and then you are justified. He "was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification"; Romans 4:25. Then the Holy Spirit sheds
abroad in your heart the love of God; Romans 5:5. The first work of the Spirit of God in you is to make known to you the love of God, even that the One whom you had offended has Himself laid help upon One that is mighty, His own arm has brought salvation. To a child suffering in disgrace because he has broken his father's clock, the gospel I bring him is, Your father has mended the clock himself come to him. The prodigal found when he came to his father that he had removed the distance from his own side; the Spirit of God not only assures your heart, as you believe in Christ risen, of the love of God, but the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes you free from the law of sin and death. The Spirit is life because of righteousness; Romans 8. As natural life is in the blood, so is the eternal life in the Spirit, as we read in John 20:22: "He breathed into them, and says to them, Receive the Holy Spirit". The last Adam is a quickening Spirit. Eternal life is not merely perpetuity of existence, but "this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent". As we read in John 4:14, you will never thirst; the Spirit will be in you a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.
It is interesting to note the difference of effect when there was only a cloud of glory, and of beholding the Lord's glory. The psalmist, bewildered by the state of things here, goes into the sanctuary; he expects an effect. Do we expect a distinct effect from being in the presence of the Lord of glory? The effect on the psalmist was very marked, the first was that the greatness of God so occupied him that he saw everything in a new light, everything in relation to God. The
second effect was that he was conscious of his own littleness. "I was as a beast before thee". Thirdly, he never was so sure of his place and acceptance with God; he says, "Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden me by my right hand". And fourthly, he can now say, "Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee", or more literally, With Thee I do not want anything beside. This was from the cloud of glory. The glory of God is that all His attributes, love, righteousness, truth, etc., are rightly expressed. It could not be shown to Moses, but now the light shines, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now beholding His glory, no veil on Him, mark the effect! This scripture tells you the effect of beholding the Lord's glory. If the effect of coming where the cloud of glory was, was so great, surely beholding the Lord's glory now will have a much greater effect. The queen of Sheba said to Solomon, "It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it". (1 Kings 10:6,7) Many are like her; they have read about beholding the Lord's glory and the effect from doing so, but they have not come, and their eyes have not seen Him and His glory. If they had they would be able to say with her, "The half was not told me". They think that they will come to it by reading the Scriptures, but they will not. The Scriptures tell you the effect of beholding the Lord's glory; if you behold it you will be transformed into the same image, you will gain all that was conferred by the cloud of glory, and much more, you will be transformed into moral correspondence to the Lord at the time. Who could be near Him without being influenced and formed by Him? If we knew more of beholding Him in His glory in the holiest of all, we should know better the blessed effect produced by being in close association
with Him. The Spirit of God tells us in the Scriptures the goodness of God to us, and as we walk in the Spirit we are led into the blessings which through grace are ours. May we not only read of them, but know them for ourselves.
Genesis 8:16; Genesis 9:1 - 3
Noah was safe from the judgment when he was in the ark, and this safety was confirmed to him after a year and ten days. He was on the earth in full safety, but assurance of safety was not enough for him; he desired to be assured of the favour of God. He offered a burnt-offering - typically, Christ offering Himself to God and glorifying God. Hence He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. In consequence of the burnt-offering God smelled a sweet savour; Noah is now in favour and in power. Every christian believes that Christ died, and they rejoice that they are safe, but many do not know that they are in the favour of God, and in the power of the Holy Spirit. They are not in the acceptance of the burnt-offering, that is, of Christ raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. The resurrection of Christ is not denied, but He is not the Son of their hearts. His death is not lost sight of because the eye is fixed on Him risen, for if He be risen, He must have died; and if you do not believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you are not assured of your justification and of your acceptance with God. You do not see that there is a Man now before God, who so glorified Him where you had dishonoured Him that, on the ground of that Man, God can receive every believer in Jesus. If you believe in Christ risen you are justified, you are in the favour of God, and the Holy Spirit is given to you to shed abroad in your
heart the love of God. The first work of the Spirit in the heart of the believer is to assure him that God, whom he had offended, loves him. This is his first impression; then he knows that his eye, the eye of faith, is resting on Christ as the burnt-offering, and not this only, but the same Holy Spirit (as we read in John 4:14) is in him a fountain of water springing up unto eternal life. Where there was wrath righteously, there is now love righteously; and where there was sin and death, because of the fall, there is now by the grace of God, through the work of Christ, entrance into the life of Christ. The more you enter into it the better you will prove that you are wondrously blessed, that your cup is full, that you can never thirst again, nor have a sense of deficiency.
Joshua 5:10 - 13
It is interesting to see the difference between the passover here and in Exodus 52:8. In the latter it is not remembrance, it is appropriation; Israel was not yet out of Egypt. In christendom it is said, 'Take and eat this bread in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on Him in thine heart'. It is the benefit of Christ's death that is before the mind, and not simply the Lord in death. "This do in remembrance of me". We come to remember Him. In Joshua 5 you are over Jordan, on the heavenly side. You are there in the full benefit of His death; the passover is kept at Gilgal, where the twelve stones taken from the bed of the river were placed. It is in remembrance; you cannot remember anything if you do not know it. I remember the Lord in death, I know Him in glory; and remembering Him in death puts everything here in its true place. You could not look for enjoyment where your Lord died. Jacob in
his last moments worships God and blesses Joseph's sons; but he seeks nothing here; he says, "As for me .. . Rachel died by me". (Genesis 48:7) If we in heart remembered Christ's death we could not seek anything in this world. "As he that taketh away a garment in cold weather, and as vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to an heavy heart" (Proverbs 25:20); you feel your sorrow the more. Hence an idolater is one who can enjoy himself here in the absence of Christ. "The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play" (Exodus 32:6); not a word is said about the idol, but the manner of life indicates that you have an object for your heart besides Christ, as Israel could enjoy themselves in the absence of Moses.
If you remember the Lord in His death you call to remembrance that which has been. Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us; we pass through His death to the heavenly side of death where He is our life. In remembering His death we are thinking of Him, we are in His presence in the full benefit of His death, and in order to see everything in its true character here, we begin with remembering Him. The next day is a new day, and they did eat of the old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover; we first remember Him where He was on the earth, and next, we know Him as He is. The very remembrance of His death enhances to us the greatness of the new day that we have entered upon. The passover was in the evening; the old corn of the land next morning.
Isaiah 6:1 - 7; 2 Corinthians 3:7
Under the law there was a demand for righteousness from the glory of God on mount Sinai. From Christ in glory there is a ministration of righteousness. There
was grace before Christ came, as we see in the case of Isaiah, who was a prophet, but he could not endure the sight of the King, the Lord of Hosts. Then he received grace: "Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand ... and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged". There was grace - he was forgiven; but there was no righteousness ministered to him from the glory. He did not know a Saviour there, and he was not at home there. The light now shines down from the finish from Christ in glory. "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them". (2 Corinthians 4:3,4) The first light which reaches the dark soul comes from the finish, that is from Christ in glory, and you are not in the fulness of the gospel until you have come to the finish. The great delay in souls is that they do not see that all that is contrary to God has been removed in the cross - the flesh, that which the live coal refused and repelled. Man after the flesh was brought to a judicial termination in the cross. "In that he died, he died unto sin once". (Romans 6:10) He bore the judgment due to me, but He not only bore the judgment due to me, He glorified God where I had dishonoured Him. God is indebted to a Man for glory! All the attributes of God were declared and met in the Man Christ Jesus - love and righteousness, truth and holiness - all. He so glorified God that He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. There is no live coal in the glory now for the believer in Jesus; on the contrary, the nearer you come to the glory of God which shines in the face of Jesus Christ, the more assured you are that you are not only justified, but that the righteousness of God greets you in the light of the glory. You are not only
justified, but you are in the justification of life, in the righteousness of God where there never was a stain. As the prodigal found that the nearer he came to his father the more assured he was of his father's reception, so the nearer you are to Christ in glory the more assured you are of your place there with Him. The gospel is that as He is, so are we in this world, but beyond the gospel or the fruition of the gospel, as you behold the Lord's glory - He is without a veil - you are transformed into the same image from glory to glory; so that not only are you at rest as to heart and conscience with Christ in the glory - which is the gospel - but as you behold His glory, you come out here in a way suitable to Him, to be for Him in this world.
This is a quotation from Psalm 22, the first part of which describes the sufferings and death of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we have come to remember His death, and we are in His presence, we know His present work. We learn from John 17:1 that when He was glorified He would glorify the Father. In His service on the earth He had glorified the Father, He had finished the work that the Father gave Him to do. All that was required to declare the heart of God for man had been accomplished, but now in glory He would make the Father more fully known. As we read in the last verse of John 17"I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them", etc. In Hebrews you have entrance into the holiest, you are in the place where you can worship the Father, though you do not get so far in this book.
In Ephesians 2:18 we read, "Through him we
both have access by one Spirit unto the Father". This is known when union with Christ is known. In Ephesians 2 our calling as united to Christ is described. When we take into account all the blessing which accrues to us when we are in conscious union with Him, it as indicative of how little personal affection we have for Him, that we are not set in full purpose of heart to know our union with Him. Once we were set to know salvation, and now we ought to be set to know union with Him who saved us. United to Christ we know that we are in the presence of God as He is there. Through Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father, a new sphere altogether. A child understands the difference between the nursery and the parlour. In the nursery we have all we ourselves require, while, as if in the parlour, we are shown the Father's things, apart from all temporal things. The young men in John, though they have overcome the wicked one, typified by Pharaoh, yet have to learn not to love the world, nor the things in the world. If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him. It is inconceivably blessed to be loved by the Father as Christ is loved. I can in some measure comprehend God's love for a sinner saved by grace, but I feel that if I knew His love as He loves Christ it would impart to me a calm dignity which no other possession could confer. As we know Him we adore Him, our hearts can rise and bless the Father.
1 Samuel 17:57; 1 Samuel 18:1 - 4; Luke 5:4 - 11
In the type we see that it is not so much the work which David had wrought that occupies Jonathan, but David himself. Many believe in the work of Christ who are not in the fulness of His grace, because they have not come to Himself It is remarkable that all
through Luke's gospel, from the first announcement to the shepherds in chapter 2, on to the thief on the cross in chapter 23, the main point, the moment of assured blessing, is when the believer has come to Himself. Himself is the "good part" which shall not be taken away, and Himself is the "manifold more" for every loss in following Him. Peter was very exemplary in placing his ship at his Lord's disposal and subject to His word. At Christ's word he let down his net for a draught, and so great was the take that their nets were broken, and the ships so filled with fishes that they began to sink. Peter, instead of being entranced with delight at the great earthly favour shown to him, falls down at Jesus' knees and says, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord". (Luke 5:8) He realises that he is in the presence of God.
Now Peter had the two marks of a godly Jew; his conduct was excellent, and he was highly favoured by God. But he so felt his unfitness for Christ that he asked Him to depart from him. Peter has now come to Him, and the Lord says to him, "Fear not"; he now knows the heart of Christ, perfect love casts out fear. It is like Jonathan to David, but Peter does more than Jonathan did; he leaves all and follows Him. In the gospel the main point is that the man, the child of Adam, who had dishonoured God, is displaced by the Man Christ Jesus, who has glorified God where the child of Adam had dishonoured Him; and when this is absolutely known, you are in the fulness of the gospel of God.
There are three great steps. The first is Romans 3:25, Christ is the mercy-seat; and as you believe in Him, have faith in His blood, you have forgiveness of sins, typified by Exodus 12. Secondly, you believe that God has raised Christ from the dead; now you are justified by faith, you are in the favour of God, and you have received the Holy Spirit. Thirdly, you have so appropriated His death, you are so cleared of
the flesh in His death, that in His life you approach Him in glory; and you find that the nearer you come to Him, the more assured you are that there is a ministration of righteousness from the glory; that you can be in company with Him in glory, and then you are free from yourself. You are beside yourself; "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty", (2 Corinthians 3:17) and the effect of this is that beholding the Lord's glory you are transformed into moral correspondence to Him; you are so far like Him. Thus you can see the importance of having the Lord, the Saviour, personally before your heart.
MATTHEW 8:24 - 27; Matthew 14:25 - 31
In this first scene we have our Lord in the ship with His disciples, which sets forth His being with us in our circumstances; though there was a great tempest He was so restful in His confidence in God that He was asleep. But "his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.. .. Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm". If they had had faith they would not have been afraid while He was with them. He is not here now, but we see the way He behaved in the tempest, and we cannot be like Him, but as His power works in us. "Without me ye can do nothing". (John 15:5) It is only as He lives in me that I can do as He has done. But in the second passage (Matthew 14) we see that He has taken a new place supremely above all the winds and waves here, and now what we have to do is to leave the ship and join Him where He is. When Peter cried, "Lord, save me!" the Lord did not quell the storm, but immediately stretched forth His hand and caught him, and drew him to His side, where there was unbroken calm. So He draws us
to His own side, where we are not only consoled for every pressure and infirmity here, but we are conducted individually into the holiest, where, as the consecrated company (Leviticus 8:33), we appropriate the blessedness of His nearness to God. When we have part with Him we know that "because I live, ye shall live also"; and then the tempest here, which would overpower us, makes Him indispensable to us; and as we are drawn to Him, we are not only consoled, but looking up to Him, the Author and Finisher of faith, we surmount every difficulty which was between us and Him.
Song of Solomon 5; Song of Solomon 6:1 - 3
The thought before me is that unless you have known the Lord's presence you do not know when you lose it. Many have never enjoyed His presence, hence they do not feel their loss. When you have known it in the most elementary way as it is here, you realise your loss. It is only in the Lord's presence that we become divinely sensitive, so that we know we have lost that which we had enjoyed. He had come into His garden, and it was after having had a happy time with Him that the bride declined. "I sleep, but my heart waketh". When you decline, the brightest joy is clouded, the top shoot is the first to fail. Hence we read, "Whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing". (Philippians 3:16) When you decline, the best part goes first, and there is no advance until you are restored. The great thing is to know His presence; if you do not know it in a day of difficulty, you do not know your resource. You must purge yourself first, before you can follow with them who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. If you are not right yourself you cannot discover that which is right.
The more you are in Christ's company the better you will know that which suits Him. Jacob has an altar at Shalem, El-elohe-Israel, but there every kind of worldliness could be tolerated. God tells him to go up to Bethel, and now he says to his household, "Put away the strange gods that are among you, and be clean, and change your garments". (Genesis 35:2) He remembered the character of the place, and what suited God; and it is thus we are taught, even as to our dress, to turn away from that which is unsuitable to the Lord. We may not be able to give a text for every change we adopt, but the more we know of the Lord in the assembly, in His garden, the more we are according to His taste. We shrink from the influence of the world; we not only purge ourselves from mere professors, but we fear even more those who are nearest to us if they are not with the Lord. To babes it is said, "Ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things". (1 John 2:20) They have an inward consciousness of what is right. Now after decline, you may go into extremes like the bride here before you are restored; you may offend against constituted authority, you may suffer from the watchmen, your veil taken away. The only way to recovery is occupation with the Lord personally. It does not help you to be occupied with your failure; occupy yourself with the Lord, get His portrait morally before your heart; then you will be like the two disciples at Emmaus, who followed Him to Jerusalem, where His people were. You trace Him to His garden, and thus restored you will be nearer to Him than you were before, and then your joy will be, "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine".
Luke 10:29 - 35; Luke 15:11- 24
You have in this first scripture the misery of the sinner, his state, how he has suffered here; he fell
among thieves who stripped him and wounded him, and left him half dead. This is man's state as a sinner; the grace of God that bringeth salvation is described by the Samaritan, who, as he journeyed, came where he was. Christ came to the place where the sinner is, He was beside the thief on the cross. The light from God shone into him, and he could see in Jesus One who had done nothing amiss, and that He could deliver him from all his misery. The sinner is not only relieved, his wounds bound up, and oil and wine poured in, but the very power which brought Christ into the place of our misery carries the sinner out of it; he is brought to an inn and there cared for. This is the grace to the sinner respecting his own state; he is relieved, he is carried by a new power, and he is cared for all through his pilgrimage. "Be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee" (Hebrews 13:5); he is to be taken care of as a traveller in an inn until the Lord returns; there is nothing for him on earth till then.
Now in chapter 15 we are taught that where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Many confine the gospel to the sinner's side, to the relief of his misery. The cause of all man's misery is that he has offended against God. "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin". (Romans 5:12) The younger son is man in his natural state; the greater his abilities the more abandoned he has become. At length grace works, all his resources as a man have failed, he is compelled. No one is converted easily - he is reduced to the lowest point, death stares him in the face - no one is converted who is not made conscious that he cannot stand before God. He comes to himself, he counts on his father's goodness, for he has not a word to say for himself; he comes, but when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and ran and fell on his neck and covered him with kisses; all the
offence has been so fully removed that the heart of the father can fully express itself. We must bear in mind that if the shepherd had not gone out and given his life for the sheep, the father never could have come out in righteousness, and if the light that fell on the silver piece had not shone into the prodigal's heart, he never would have come to his father.
All has been so fully removed by Christ, who followed the lost sheep to the dark mountains whither it had wandered, that the love of God in all its mighty volume can flow out righteously to the returning prodigal. And it is not only that all which offended Him has been removed from the eye of God, but He fits the returning one for Himself, He enables him to enjoy His own presence. Not only is His love shed abroad in your heart, so that you know the heart of God as it is towards you, but the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes you free from the law of sin and death. You are in Christ, and you have begun to make merry.
Genesis 24:63 - 67
It is very interesting to note the steps which lead to union - the knowledge of it. We know Christ first as Saviour; until you know Christ as Saviour fully you do not seek His company; you must be so assured of His love that nothing can satisfy your heart but company with Him. The heart assured of His grace and love soon realises that He is not here, and earnestly enquires, Where is He? Then you know Him as "great priest over the house of God" (Hebrews 10:21); you are with Him in the assembly. You can be with Him in the assembly and not know Him as Head. You are not consciously united to Him until you know Him as Head. We ought to take it much to heart that so few
consciously know the blessedness and climax of God's love, even that we are united to Him who has so loved and served us. No one learns Christ as Head until he is outside of this world.
We do not get the gospel in this chapter. Abraham's steward is sworn to bring a bride of Abraham's lineage; no one can be of the bride who is not of Christ in life and nature. The steward found out Rebekah by her grace; when he asked for a drink for himself she volunteered to give drink to his camels also. Next, she had to break from her family; they would have detained her ten days, but she was decided, she said, "I will go". This is a great step, but it is not all. There must be also continuance. Rebekah journeys through the wilderness. You may have broken from your family and yet not continue in the weary journey through the wilderness, leaving everything here behind, dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world. When your heart is set on Him, the more you know Him the more you will seek to be near Him. Rebekah continues; at length she sees Isaac. This is a great moment. The Spirit's power has opened the heavenly door. Rebekah has now a new and absorbing interest. The first great effect of union with Christ is that "the Christ" dwells in your heart by faith. This is not the same as "Christ liveth in me", (Galatians 2:20) this latter is your state. The Christ dwelling in your heart by faith is your new interest - all that concerns Him. Isaac brought Rebekah into his mother's tent. The church is in the place where Israel was; Isaac loved Rebekah. It is when you know union with Christ that you know His love which passeth knowledge, that you may be filled with the fulness of God. Finally, as Isaac was comforted after his mother's death, so will you, when in union with Christ, be a comfort to Him where He has lost Israel. May each of us be more set on being to Him according as His heart desires.
Acts 9:1 - 17
There are three accounts of Paul's conversion given in the Acts this, the general one; chapter 22, to the Jews; and chapter 26 to the gentiles. The gospel of the kingdom and the gospel of the resurrection had been preached. Now it is the gospel of the glory of Christ. Saul was at the height of his reckless course, when a light out of heaven arrested him, and he fell to the ground. This is God's work. The Lord reveals Himself to him - "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest"; he is blind because of the glory of that light. The beginning of every conversion is fear and distress; he was three days without sight, and did neither eat nor drink. In those days he learned that through Christ's death there was a way out of his own death, out of the judgment that lay on him. He had met Christ in glory, he knew that Christ was risen and in the presence of God, but now he knows that through the death of Christ he, Saul, is clear of the flesh in which there is no good thing, and hence he prays; he turns in confidence of heart to the One whom he had persecuted. He believes that He is, and that he can count on Him.
Now Ananias is sent, who tells him, "The Lord has sent me, Jesus that appeared to thee in the way in which thou camest, that thou mightest see, and be filled with the Holy Spirit". Saul's sight was restored in the power of the Holy Spirit. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in a special way was made known to him, he was the apostolic channel of it. Next we read (1 Corinthians 2:2) that he determined to know nothing among them (the Corinthians) save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This is often quoted as if it were Jesus Christ crucified, and thus the distinction between Him as He is and as He was is lost. If we turn to 2 Corinthians 3:7 we learn there
the gospel of the glory of Christ and the effect of seeing Him in glory. The great characteristic of this gospel is that it is in contrast to the law on mount Sinai; it is a ministration of righteousness from the glory. The law was a demand for righteousness from the glory; there is now a ministration of righteousness from a Man in glory. There is not only grace as in Isaiah's day, but now the righteousness of God is from the glory, so that the nearer you are to Christ in glory, the more assured you are that through grace you are entitled to be there. I have heard of a landlord forgiving his tenants all rents due, but I never heard of greater grace than that, until I knew the gospel, which is that God has not only forgiven those who believe, but as it were He says to them, You are no longer tenants, I do not claim anything from you; you are sons, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.
Luke 5:1 - 11
It is interesting to trace the progress of grace in Peter. In the beginning of the chapter we see his readiness to lend his ship for the Lord's service. This is very exemplary. Again when the Lord said, "Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught", Peter, contrary to his own judgment, obeyed, saying, "We have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net". We see here how much the believer can do though knowing Christ only as Jesus. Next, we read, they enclosed a great multitude of fishes; but Peter, instead of being delighted with this special gift from God, falls down at Jesus' knees, saying, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord". He is now consciously in the presence of God. It is a wonderful moment when we know that Jesus is Lord.
No man can say Jesus is Lord but by the Holy Spirit. Now the Lord's words, "Fear not", have the most blessed effect on him; he knows now that Christ cares for him. Perfect love casts out fear, hence they forsake all and follow Him. When the heart knows His love, nothing can satisfy it (the loving heart) but His company. In John 6 we find Peter saying, in answer to the Lord's question, "Will ye also go away?" - "To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God". John 6 happened at the same time as Matthew 14 and Matthew 16. In Matthew we read that when John was beheaded, the Lord went into the desert; and next we see Him in a new place, walking on the water; figuratively, He is supreme above everything. Peter sees Him, and true to his first love, he would join Him, hence he says, "Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. And he said, Come". (Matthew 14:28) First love will forsake everything for company with its object. Here you get the first works, and in John 6 you get the light from God which establishes his heart. We know that after this Peter denied the Lord, he was too self-confident in his own love to the Lord. But he could so count on the heart of Christ that in John 21, though he had led some of the disciples to go a-fishing, yet when the Lord was recognised, he girt his fisher's coat about him, and cast himself into the sea. And eventually Peter, when restored, was to strengthen his brethren. The Lord has full confidence in him, saying to him, "Feed my sheep". (John 21:16) The Lord also signifying by what death he should glorify God, concludes by saying, "Follow me" (John 21:19).
It is evident from this scripture that there are two companies, both saved by the blood of Christ, one company on the earth, and the other company within the veil. Christ's work for the one company is represented by the two goats, the blood of one goat carried into the holiest and sprinkled on the mercy-seat, while the live goat, as representing the effectual sacrifice of the first goat, bore away their sins into the land of forgetfulness. This is always and for ever the beginning of divine grace, but this is the measure vouchsafed to God's earthly people. There is more given to those who are Christ's own in the day of His rejection; they are represented by Aaron and his house. Christ's work for His own is represented by the bullock which Aaron offered for himself and his house. Now while Christ's work, represented by the two goats - for it was all one work, the greater included the lesser - sets the believer on the earth in full forgiveness and in peace with God, the work of Christ as represented in the bullock gives every one of His own a place with Him in the holiest of all. This is the day of His rejection, and blessing for man on the earth has not yet come, though in christendom, as a rule, there is no apprehension of grace beyond forgiveness of sins, or what is typified in the two goats. The fact that Christ has been rejected here is overlooked, hence that all His own must be blessed with Him where He is, exalted to God's right hand, a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec, is also overlooked. Because His rejection is not seen, the gospel is limited to the work represented by the two goats. But when His exaltation consequent on His rejection is seen, then the gospel of the glory is the rest and delight of the believer's heart - that He has not only cleared us of everything that was against us, but that we have boldness through
His blood to enter in, to share with Him in His own blessedness in the presence of God. Every one who has seen His glory inside the veil will be so transformed in taste into moral correspondence to Him, that it would be ever inconsistent with his feelings to be found here in any place but going forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. In the type everything was effected before the carcase was burned. We must begin with God, and then we can truly bear the reproach of Christ here. We can have no sense of the blessedness of Christ but as we are in the holiest. When we are defective in the lower circle, it is because we are not fully in the highest. We have no power in the lower circle but as we are furnished from the highest. No man ever rises higher than his altar, that is, he can only be for Christ here in the measure in which he knows Christ where all the glory of God rests on Him. If you are inside the veil with Him, you must be outside the camp for Him.
John 20:19 - 22
Here we have the first assembly meeting, and we get here the chief characteristics of the assembly. Personal attachment to Christ brought them together. Mary Magdalene describes to us the true heart for the assembly. She is inconsolable without Him. Neither angels nor disciples can make up to her for Him. Her tidings to the disciples had the effect of drawing them into the one place. I suppose they counted on His coming to them; He came and He said, "Peace be unto you". He, risen from the dead, can declare to them that there is not an element of disturbance between God and them. It is not merely forgiveness of sins, but every element of disturbance is removed; as a soldier would say, We have crushed
the foe! Then He showed them His hands and His side, and now the chief characteristic of the assembly is known: "Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord". The more your heart is drawn to Him, the more you must desire to see Him. The more deeply you are affected by all He has suffered on your account, the more you desire to see Him on the other side of death. Now is fulfilled to them, "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you". (John 16:22) This joy is ours only as we know Him risen from the dead. He has been rejected here by man. The desire in christendom is avowedly to build a house for Him; but they have no sense of the great fact that the world sees Him no more, yet that in His love He comes to His own, who have come to Him, the living Stone, and are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, etc. This is now the only spot on earth where He can be seen again. He said to them, "Peace be to you as the Father sent me forth, I also send you"; and then He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit". Surely they were conscious of receiving from Him a sense of His life which they had not experienced before. Romans 8:6 answers to this, for "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death"; you could not be with Christ risen but in His life. In Matthew 14 we see Peter leave the ship to join Him, supreme above all the power of evil here; we learn from John 6, which occurred at the same time, that as you feed on His death you are in His life. It is only by the Spirit that you can come into His presence. Are you conscious of the great change in you on entering His presence? No one can know it until he comes into His presence. In Romans 8:6 we read that the carnal mind is death, but the Spirit's mind is life and peace. In John 20 you have first peace and then life, the order in which
they were brought to light, while in Romans they are in the order in which you enjoy them. If you are in Christ's life His peace will rule in your hearts. May we have a deeper sense of the blessing and joy of being with the Lord in the assembly, where we are moulded by Himself into His own mind, so that we are the more enlightened by His word.
Exodus 15:12; John 7:37, 38; Acts 7:55
The gospel, the good tidings from God, sets forth that by the work of Christ the believer is delivered from the judgment of God which rests on everyone in this world, so that there is peace with God. Next, that the Holy Spirit is given that the believer should be here in this world without any lack, never thirsting, but more - out of his belly should flow rivers of living water. And thirdly, that by the Holy Spirit he could anticipate his portion with Christ in glory. First, like Israel in Egypt, every one in the world is involved in the judgment of God. As the blood of the lamb sheltered Israel from judgment, so now every one believing that the blood of Christ is before the eye of God is sheltered from the judgment. But as Israel was oppressed by Pharaoh and the Egyptians after they were sheltered from the judgment, so is the believer oppressed by the power of Satan and the flesh, for there is no peace until he appropriates the death and resurrection of Christ, typified by the passage through the Red Sea. The only way out of death, which is the judgment on man, is by the death of Christ. God made the way for Israel through the Red Sea, and God gave them the light to see the way; and when they had walked through it, they not only knew that they were out of it, but they could sing, "The Lord... hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider
hath he thrown into the sea". Now there is peace with God. When you believe that God raised Christ from the dead you are justified by faith, and then you know that you have peace with God. Next, believing on Christ risen you come to Him, and you receive the Holy Spirit. "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given unto us" (Romans 5:5); you are in the power of God. Who can describe the magnificence of the grace of God; made free from all that is against you, and now in the Spirit fully according to God! Thirdly, by the Holy Spirit you can see Christ in the glory of God. When the glory was departing from Israel, Ezekiel saw it, and in the brightest spot there was the figure of a Man. Though the wickedness of man was driving away the glory from the earth, yet in the grace of God there would be a Man in the glory. From that day the glory did not return to the earth until it came to the shepherds in Luke 2 to announce the good tidings of great joy - "Unto you is born this day .. . a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord". (Luke 2:11)
John 9:35 - 38
It is very affecting to note the Lord's interest in the man who had been blind. This man knew the work of His grace, and had suffered much for his faithfulness; he was refused by every class of society - by his neighbours, by the Pharisees, by his parents, and eventually by his nation. Cast out of the synagogue, he was outside all that is esteemed and respectable among men, he is now in the solitude of light, but the blessed Lord finds him, he is now to be made acquainted with the Lord. When the Lord had found him, He said unto him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" Does your faith rest on the living Stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious? Does our faith rest on Him risen from the dead, declared to be the Son of God with power? Now verses 14, 15 of chapter 10 are fulfilled; in fact chapter 10 mainly sets forth the new ground on which the sheep, set forth by the man who was cast out of the synagogue, are set. In christendom they attempt to find room for the christian in the Jewish system; this scripture is not apprehended, and hence these two verses are not understood. The meaning of them evidently is that Christ and His sheep should be in the same kind of intimacy as that between the Father and the Son. Most blessed and inconceivably great! You enter on a divine sphere. This man, who was in the solitude of light outside everything of man, was ready for this great grace. Many seek to be separate from system and the like, but they are not absolutely outside and apart from man, for if they were, the Lord in His unfailing interest in His own would not leave them solitary, but would come to them, and make Himself known as the One "chosen of God and precious". (1 Peter 2:4) The answer of this man was, "Who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him?" He was ready for it. Blessed moment when we make acquaintance with the Son of God! no longer in solitude, but in company with Him who can fully satisfy the heart. Wonderful moment when you hear the word, "Thou hast both seen him, and it is he that talketh with thee". This blessed intimacy has begun for this man, for he says, "Lord, I believe", and he worships Him. He had been cast out of the place of worship, but he has found the One who draws forth the worship of his heart. He is detained by the Object that controls him, and his delight is in doing homage to Him.
1 Corinthians 2:2; 2 Corinthians 3:5 - 15
Christ personally is presented, as well as His work. In christendom it is generally read as if it were Jesus Christ crucified with no 'and' between. The meaning of the scripture is, Jesus Christ (personally) and Him crucified, that is, seen in another aspect; as crucified He bore death judicially, but as Jesus Christ He is risen, and hence your blessing is as you see Him. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth". (Isaiah 45:22) Does your eye rest on Him? If you see Him in death you see the sacrifice for your sins, you are sheltered from judgment. All is accomplished in the eye of God, but you do not enjoy the fulness of the gospel yet. You have assurance of your salvation; God testifies of the excellent sacrifice; you are like Israel, under the shelter of the blood in Egypt, but still exposed to Pharaoh and the Egyptians; you have not peace. There cannot be peace until every disturbing element between God and you has been removed. There is often an attempt made to approach God through ordinances and religious services as under the law; but in order to enjoy peace with God, you must believe that God has raised Christ from the dead. When our blessed Lord came into the midst of His disciples after His resurrection, He said, "Peace be unto you". (John 20:19) When this point is reached, peace is known and the Spirit received; but there is yet another hindrance, the tendency is to be like the Corinthians, that is, being now at rest as to your salvation you may become engrossed with your own blessings; Christ personally not being before your heart, your own mind is in the ascendant. The greatest light is overlooked, and hence the natural light gets a place. When we come to the second epistle and find that the Corinthians were restored, we learn where they had been lacking. The apostle had not been at Corinth between writing
the first epistle and the second, but they are restored, and hence in 2 Corinthians 3:5 - 17 he dwells on the efficacy of the gospel of the glory of Christ, not merely His death nor His resurrection, but that the glory of God rests on Him. There is now, because of Him who had glorified God where we had dishonoured Him, a ministration of righteousness from the glory. Isaiah, in chapter 6, was afraid when he saw the King, the Lord of hosts. Grace is shown to him, but the live coal is an evidence that the judgment had not been borne. Now, on the contrary, the nearer you are to the glory the more you are assured that it is your place according to God, and the effect is that your heart is absorbed by Christ personally, more than the queen of Sheba was by Solomon. It is not your own blessing or anything about yourself which now engrosses you, it is Himself. Further, you behold the Lord's glory; the glory is the expression of God's satisfaction according to all His attributes. That satisfaction in Moses' time had not yet rested on a man, but all has been met in the Lord Jesus Christ, and as you behold His glory you are transformed into moral correspondence with Him.
1 John 1:1 - 4
It is deeply interesting to us that the blessed One who was on the earth and who died for us is our life. The eternal life that was with the Father had been manifested to the disciples - "That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ". It is not merely that we live for ever, but that in eternal life our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. We belong to the divine circle, we
are translated from the human circle to the divine one. Here on the earth we are cared for like children in the nursery or schoolroom, but it is new and pleasing to children when they are brought from the nursery into the company of their parents, into their circle. No one could have an idea of the divine circle until he had been in it. Fellowship with the Father and His Son is the crown and climax of all blessing. It is not so much the measure of your apprehension as the simple fact that you are there. We know life in Christ first for deliverance. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death". (Romans 8:2) Next, in His life we know Him as Priest. In His life only can you know Him in the assembly. In His life only are you in the wilderness, that is, this world is a wilderness to you. In His life you cross over Jordan; you are then in the sphere of His life, you know Him as your Head; and next you are in fellowship with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. Now you know union with Christ, and your joy is full. Most blessed!
Numbers 21:9 - 16; John 3:14,15; John 4: 14
It is of great importance that we should learn from Scripture that while the gospel is largely proclaimed, and many receive a measure of the good tidings, yet there is little or no sense of the greatness of the blessing as a present possession.
Israel, as we learn from Exodus 12, had known the shelter of the blood, and were ever secure under the eye of God through the shed blood; still they were harassed by Pharaoh and the Egyptians. They were not free from Satan and the flesh until they walked through the Red Sea, figuratively the death of Christ; Exodus 14. His death has made a way for the believer
out of the death of judgment which had rested on him. In Christ's death he knows that the one who had the power of death has been destroyed, and now he can sing, The Lord hath triumphed gloriously, all our enemies have sunk like lead in the mighty waters. It was after all this was known and experienced that Israel was taught that the flesh was the great and persistent obstacle to their joy and progress in divine blessing. No one can enjoy the great supper, the celebration of grace, who has not learned Christ in John 3:14,15, or as typified in Numbers 21. We see in the prodigal son that he was not satisfied with the greatness and love of his father's reception, but he wanted to enjoy it I think this accounts for John beginning at Numbers 21 instead of at Exodus 12; the one great obstacle to anyone's joy or progress is that he has not deliverance or liberty. God's grace is listened to and often accepted, without the heart exercise or experience described in Numbers 21. When in distress because of the serpent's bite the sense of innate sin that is in me, that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing - you look to Jesus, He who knew no sin made sin for you, the holy, spotless One, the delight of the Father, made sin. God, sending His own Son in the likeness of flesh of sin, condemned sin in the flesh. He, the holy, immaculate One, bore the judgment due to man. He died, the man under judgment has been judicially terminated on the cross, so that there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. When the prodigal gets the best robe on - figuratively is in Christ - he can make merry and can joy in God through Jesus Christ. Many have supposed that because they have accepted the grace of God by faith that they can reach deliverance in the same way; they overlook the fact that the work of grace is God's work, and His work is perfect and lasts for ever; whereas on our side it is only as we walk in the Spirit that we do not fulfil the lusts of the flesh.
2 Kings 2:9 - 14; John 14:15 - 17
When Elijah was about to be taken up he said to Elisha, "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee" - a great offer. Elisha can ask the full desire of his heart. If such an offer were made to us, would we answer as Elisha did? Elijah was going away, and Elisha would be left alone on the earth, and the one thing he desired was that a double, that is a full portion of Elijah's spirit might be on him. He so realised his loss in the absence of Elijah that he felt nothing could compensate him for that loss but a double portion of his spirit. Love desired this more than anything. Hence our blessed Lord when going away said, "If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide (or remain) with you for ever". There are two activities - faith and love. Faith acquires things; love seeks personal nearness. Elisha gets the desire of his heart, and immediately he rends his own clothes, and takes up the mantle of Elijah. When we are in the Spirit and thus near the Lord, we are severed from our own things, and we are transformed into the same image, into correspondence with Christ. He does not leave us orphans, He comes to us as a company and even to us individually. He says, "We will come unto him, and make our abode with him". The more our hearts are attached to Christ the more will the gift of the Spirit be enhanced to us. Though He is absent He has given the Spirit as the closest bond between Himself and us. May we realise more to the full satisfaction of our hearts that we have received the Holy Spirit and that thus we can be in unbroken nearness to the Lord, and do His pleasure though He is not here.
Job 42:5,6; Matthew 15:21 - 28
In every soul that turns to God there is a twofold sense awakened, which continues and is ever deepening throughout all your history here. The twofold sense is that you are evil and that God is good. They are simultaneous; you see this in the parable of the prodigal son. When he comes to himself he has the sense that he can say nothing for himself, but he has confidence in the goodness of his father; he will arise and go to him. If we look at the thief on the cross we also see this; he said to his comrade, "We indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss". (Luke 23:41) Then he says to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom". (Luke 23:42) It is supremely blessed to see that when the soul is near God, when the light of God has shone into it, while on the one hand one's own unworthiness is most patent, on the other hand the goodness of God gives confidence to the sinner in his deepest misery. Thus Jonah, though a prophet, was cast into the sea in order that he might practically learn this twofold sense; he said, "I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple". (Jonah 2:4) No one is absolutely for God until he has learned that God is absolutely for him, that it is all grace. This we see in the woman of Canaan. There is the pressure of Satan on the one hand, but she has confidence in the Lord, she accepts that she is entitled to nothing, and yet she can count on His grace. This confession obtains immediate relief from the Lord. "O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt". This twofold sense is expressed in Scripture by "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ". (Acts 20:21) Job was approved of God, but when afflicted by Satan he was disappointed that God did not appear on his behalf. Eventually
he learns to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes, and at the same time his confidence in God is in the ascendant; he prays for his friends, and the Lord turns his captivity. Many will admit that they are sinners, but they are not near enough to God to have the sense that the goodness of God leadeth to repentance. If you go on with God this twofold sense will deepen throughout your whole history here. And while the outer man perishes, the inner man is renewed day by day.
Luke 9:28 - 36
It is very important that we should apprehend the Lord's presence. He is now in glory. When we behold His glory He is exclusively before us, as set forth in this scripture - Jesus only. So when we apprehend His presence in our midst He exclusively absorbs us. You must be in His presence to understand the peculiar blessing of being completely apart from yourself, and from everyone else, but rejoicing that you are with Him. I turn to 1 Kings 10, where we get in type our present portion. The queen of Sheba is introduced into Solomon's private circle; she was not occupied with his great works, but with his home circle. In the assembly we are in Christ's home circle, and there His wisdom is seen in detail. It is in that circle we properly learn everything. It is in the assembly you learn your gift or your service for Him, and the effect on you is the same as on the queen, "There was no more spirit in her". (1 Kings 10:5) All on our side is in abeyance, and a greater than Solomon commands the homage of our hearts. It is very blessed to see that to the end, in the darkest day, the Lord is the light and joy of the assembly. As the remnant of Israel in their darkest day looked for and found the
house of God, as we learn from the fifteen steps, Psalm 120 to Psalm 134, so the Lord is our resource, as we see in Philadelphia. The two or three who have come to Him, the living Stone, will surely find Him in their midst, and the darker the day the more will He be to them, as at the close. "I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star" (Revelation 22:16) - not only the morning star, but He is bright, so that the Spirit and the bride say, "Come". He is exclusively the resource and attraction of His own, and they know that He is so.
Isaiah 38:1 - 5; Luke 2:25 - 38; Acts 7:55
It is interesting to see that while Hezekiah had faith in God - "The just shall live by faith" - yet he was distressed at the thought of dying. He had been in active service here, and as he had no prospect before him at the other side of death, he wept sore at the thought of leaving the earth. The first tabernacle was still standing, and hence the way into the holiest was not as yet made manifest. Christ had not yet risen, the first-fruits of them that sleep. Many who have faith in God and through His mercy are eternally saved, prefer the earth to heaven, because they do not see that to die is gain. Paul could say that he was "in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ; which is far better: nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you". (Philippians 1:24) If not with Him, Paul would be here for Him. Now in Luke 2 we learn the blessed effect on Simeon when he saw Jesus; he is a pattern to us. "Then took he him up in his arms" - do you embrace Him in faith? - "and blessed God and said, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace .. . for mine eyes have seen thy salvation". He is in faith at the other side
of death, he sees Christ in resurrection glory, "a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel". The prospect and joy of the heart is to be with Christ. The Lord said to the thief, "Today shalt thou be with me in paradise". (Luke 23:43) His desire is to have His own with Him, that whether we wake or sleep we might live together with Him.
As Simeon is a pattern of the heart resting on Christ in faith, so is Anna the prophetess a pattern of those who are here for the Lord, until they are with Him.
Finally, in Stephen we get the fulness of the gospel; he had believed in Christ risen, and had received the Holy Spirit. Now, being full of the Holy Spirit before a stone was thrown at him, he looked up stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God and Jesus. The new line is open, he saw his bright home with Christ; and now he is able to bear unswervingly all the violence of the enemy, and to enter death as a stepping-stone to cloudless light with Christ for ever. He is so superior by the Spirit to his sufferings that he can kneel down and with a loud voice cry out, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge"; he had overcome evil with good.
Joshua 5:10 - 12
It is important to mark the difference between keeping the passover here and in Exodus 12. In christendom, as a rule, the Lord's supper is looked at in the light of Exodus 12. There it is not remembrance; it is appropriation, entering into the great fact of the death of the substitute; whereas in Joshua 5 it is plainly remembrance. In type you are at the other side of death, and you recall the wondrous way by which all has been accomplished for you; but morally you are at the heavenly side of Jordan, you eat of the
old corn of the land on the morrow after the passover. A new day is opened to you, you are in the sphere of eternal life. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him". (1 Corinthians 2:9)
This psalm describes the experience of the individual in the presence of God, while 2 Corinthians 3:18 sets forth our collective blessing in the presence of Christ. It is not merely that one has the sense of his unfitness for God, but here you are transformed into the image of the Man in the glory of God.
1 Peter 2:2 - 5
It is a solemn and blessed fact that every christian is called to be a component part of God's house. As the stones were taken out of the quarry to build the temple, so every christian is a stone. I do not say that every stone is built in. I just call attention to the great fact that each christian is called to contribute a part to the spiritual house. Christ has been rejected from the earth, and He has no place in it now but in the assembly built by Himself. Each one is called to share in forming a place for Him. This is the first point; the next is that each one is built in, and this is by coming to Him, the living Stone. This is the step we learn from Matthew 14; Peter desires from affection to join the Lord on the water at the other side of death, above all the power of evil; in doing so he learns his own weakness, and then the Lord stretches forth His hand, and draws him to His own side. He does not calm the sea as in chapter 8. It is
a wonderful moment when we come to Christ at the other side of death. You received the Holy Spirit when your faith rested on Him risen from the dead; but now you join Him there, and like the man in John 9, who had been blind, and who was brought into the solitude of light, you know Him as the Son of God. The history of the queen of Sheba illustrates this coming to Christ in glory, and it has the same effect on us as seeing the glory of Solomon had on her; there was no spirit in her; she was introduced into Solomon's private circle; you cannot know Christ except in His own house. In christendom the most pious go to church to thank God for their salvation; they have no idea of the favour and blessing of being in God's house. Jacob had to learn the great moral difference between El-elohe-Israel and Bethel. At the latter he knew something of the presence of God.
It is inside with Christ as in John 14, that we acquire ability as the royal priesthood, to show forth the virtues of Him who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous light.
David, chanting Psalm 34, leaves Achish and escapes to Adullam. He is once more in the land, though it be but a cave; and there not only his own house, but all that were in distress or in debt congregate to him. Having learned the place of dependence for himself, he can become a centre and guide for the poor of the flock, whose heart did not own the rule of Saul; and they can follow his faith, considering the end of his conversation. Why David placed his parents with the king of Moab I cannot say, unless he desired to escape from their influence and fears. (We know how our Lord had to rise above His parents'
counsels.) While in this cave he utters three psalms (Psalm 142, Psalm 57 and Psalm 52) - the latter, I think, after he was joined by the prophet and priest. He expresses full confidence in God, "until these calamities be over-past", (Psalm 57:1) though at the same time sensible of the dangers with which he is surrounded. His heart is prepared, therefore he will "sing and give praise". We naturally shrink from trials and sorrows, but where we find ourselves, like David, enjoying the resources that are in God, which our trials have caused us to have recourse to, we remember no more the path of affliction which led us thereto.
Psalm 52 is David's utterance when he hears of Doeg's conduct. He sees God's discipline in all his sorrow: "I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it ". How the Spirit of God was converting every trial into an occasion for engaging his soul with the deep chords of spiritual song and the day of glory. If Paul in Arabia was caught up to heaven, surely in the cave and the wilderness the outcast David was hearing in his soul the sublime strains of God's victory over every foe. He not only heard the harpers harping with their harps, but his own heart was attuned of God; and the divine music cheered the spirit of the rejected king.
Keilah is the next page in this interesting history; chapter 23. Whatever be the pressure or trial of our own position, if we are in the spirit and condition of soul answering to Psalm 57, we could not hear of the distress of any of God's people, which we could alleviate, without being ready to aid them. Consequently, when it was told David, "Behold, the Philistines fight against Keilah, and they rob the threshing-floors", he inquired of the Lord, saying, "Shall I go and smite these Philistines?" And the Lord says, "Go, and smite the Philistines, and save Keilah". The man of real might and experience in God's succour appeals to God before he embarks in
anything . David's men try to discourage him from it, and after he has mastered his own heart and its sorrows, he must learn to be superior to the unbelief of his associates. He inquires yet again; and a further assurance being given him from the Lord, he goes down to Keilah with his men, and is completely successful; he saves the inhabitants. But this was only to bring about another order of trial and exercise of heart for him. Once more his services are unrequited. Saul goes down to besiege Keilah, and David inquires of the Lord as to whether the men whom he had just delivered from the Philistines will deliver him up; and the divine answer is that they will. And here let us mark the difference in David's mode of inquiry in this and in the first instance (verses 1 - 4). It does not appear that he made use of the priest when seeking counsel as to relieving Keilah; but here, when he "knew that Saul secretly practised mischief against him", and he wanted to know what should be his own line of action with reference to it, he says to the priest, "Bring hither the ephod"; and thus he makes the inquiry. This difference is interesting. In the first instance, it was a simple question as to whether he should or should not serve others, and, without questioning his motives, he has only to turn to the Lord for direction. But when our own interests are concerned we are much more likely to be led by our own will and to lack singleness of heart and purpose; and thus we need the more to realise our full acceptance and to sift our motives; and here the priesthood comes in. But in either case the answer is prompt and distinct; and it is most instructive to note the manner of the intercourse between David and the Lord - what confidence and simplicity there was between them. David asks his plain, simple questions, and the Lord answers as plainly and distinctly. He had no resource but in God; and this he was learning more and more in each stage of his life. Any soul in
the Lord's presence, and truly reliant on Him, would experience the same. The simpler such a soul is, the more it is qualified for great and exalted service. The one great with God is he who can devote all his energies according to God's counsel to aid and serve others, but whose dependence is entirely on God, proving that his resources place him above recompense from those whom he serves. It is plain that we are not told all the services which David rendered, or the experiences which he passed through. I suppose a specimen of each particular line is recorded for us. That of Keilah I should designate, how the rejected king serves this people without requital, and this is necessary discipline for him, for any one who will walk with the true David through this evil world.
The more intelligent and impressed the mind of man is with the purpose of God, the more does it need subjection to God, for otherwise it will seek to accomplish, by natural means, what ought to be left to the ordering of God, and this produces restlessness. When this is the case the Lord allows His servant to find by sorrowful experience the fruits of his own plans. Jacob is a remarkable example of one appreciating blessing but ever and anon intercepting and anticipating the ways of God by his own plans.... The possession of the birthright failed to give Jacob that assurance of the blessing which it represented, for if it had he would not afterwards have so readily complied with his mother's unworthy expedient to secure it for him. And why? The desired mercy had been grasped by him in a natural way, and he derived none of the satisfaction from it, which he would have experienced
had it reached him in a divine way; for a divine way always connects the soul with the Lord.
If a mercy is not connected with the Lord it may often make me more miserable, but if it is, if I know that it flows from His love, the heart receives it in tranquillity and confidence, for I know that though I may lose the proof of His love, I cannot lose the love itself, and that the love cannot exist without declaring itself.. .. The Lord in His grace will teach us sooner or later to connect all our mercies or services with Himself, because He knows that without this we cannot reckon on His strength in supporting us. Jacob was one seeking for blessings, but too unsubdued to confide the ordering of them to the Lord alone.
"Behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of .Achor for a door of hope and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt". It is very interesting and encouraging to remember all the way the blessed God has led you, so that eventually you shall sing in all the fervour of first love; I have learned this practically. For many years I asked the Lord that I might serve Him; at length I was brought into the wilderness. This world is a wilderness to you when you enjoy Christ in glory. Sorrow and disappointment do not make the world a wilderness to you. ''Tis the treasure I've found in Thy love that has made me a pilgrim below'. When I know Him in the holiest, as my resource in the presence of God, I am as one out of my element in this world; it is a dry and barren land to me, where no water is, but He sustains me to
do His pleasure here. I may add for your encouragement that now, through the unaccountable goodness of God, I have more joy of heart than in my brightest day. The sense of His favour is better than life itself. Be assured that the highest and brightest desire of your heart will be more than fulfilled, but it will be in the wilderness that He will "speak comfortably" to you, and then He will be more to you than your heart could ever have desired.
May this greatest blessing be yours, so that you may enjoy His favour with unhindered delight.
She enters the land of Israel, inseparable from the once Naomi (pleasant) now Marah (bitter), but resigned to her circumstances, nay, content in them; she addresses herself to the smallest opening which is presented to her, which is always an evidence of a healthy and vigorous soul, and without hesitation or demur she embraces it. She says, "Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn after him in whose sight I shall find grace". (Ruth 2:2) It is the most unequivocal proof of true energy, where in any strait we are not only resigned, but ready to embrace any little opening to us, able to humble ourselves thereto, and testify to every one, even to our own souls, that God has not forgotten us, and that what is directly before us is quite sufficient to meet our necessities. We only require to be humbled to find it so. If we were to say or feel otherwise, we should impugn His care or interest on our behalf. Ruth sees that there is no opening for her but in gleaning, and to gleaning she addresses herself, and this was the Lord's opening for her. Very humble, inconspicuous labour no doubt, but He sees not as man seeth, and He led her by the right way. "The meek will he teach his way", (Psalm 25:9) and therefore "her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz, who was of the kindred of Elimelech". (Ruth 2:3) "He that humbleth himself shall be exalted". (Luke 14:11) When we are docile we are led to fulness of blessing. Unless we embrace the humble opening presented to us, we shall never reach the goal of blessing.
"If thou knewest the gift of God". (John 4:10) No one could have apprehended the greatness of the gift, that it should be in him; not like the wine, outside of himself; and instead of running out, it should be "in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life". (John 4:14)
Next, let us look at the nature of the gift; it is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is given to every believer in Christ. "In whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise". (Ephesians 1:13) "Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own?" (1 Corinthians 6:19) We do not dwell sufficiently on the simple fact that we have received the Holy Spirit. If you have not received the Holy Spirit, you have not believed on Christ personally. In that sense you have not come to Him, I do not say you have not faith in His work, but as in the case of the ten lepers (Luke 17) all were cleansed, but nine of them went back to ritualism to find approach to God. Many converted are here; only one of them came direct to Christ, he had now a living link with Him: this in pattern is sealing by the Holy Spirit. Not only has Christ saved you, but you are of Him, "If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his". (Romans 8:9) I press on you that it is His gift. I could not exaggerate this grace. It is surely marvellous that God has not only effected the greatest work, the work of our salvation, but He has given you the greatest gift which you are to enjoy now on earth. If we were more cast upon the Lord as indispensable to us, we should receive more. You should ever be able to say, "Thou anointedst my head with oil; my cup runneth over". (Psalm 23:5) We are very often counting up our mercies, the different ways God deals with us, and we say, Well,
we are happy. There is a great deal more for us. "Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in the time that their corn and their wine increased". (Psalm 4:7)
We read (Exodus 33:11), "Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle". He had learned what it was to abide in the secret of the Almighty, and though the service of Moses might call him to go to and fro, this young man, whom God was instructing, knew it better for him to remain with God in the separated tabernacle. Service did not call him to the camp, and therefore he remained entirely apart from it with God. Moses has a service to render, and he enters the camp. But if there be no room for service, let us be as separate as possible, for the separation will prepare us for the most effectual service when we are called to it. Mere knowledge of God's will and counsel is not the full effect of nearness to Him, but the sense of what suits Him and meets His mind: in fact holiness, and this is the great end of the Father's discipline.
But Joshua is still a learner. The next notice that we get of him is in Numbers 11, where he misapprehends the mind of God. That very truth which had before saved him from defiling association, and preserved him in unison with God's mind, he would now make use of to circumscribe God. It is very important to remember that it is God Himself who is to counsel me and determine my judgment, and not any single line of His truth. To remain in the separated tabernacle was plainly the way of truth and blessing when Israel was in apostasy, but when Eldad and Medad prophesy in the camp, God's Spirit must be acknowledged, though they do not come to the tabernacle.
So Moses rebuked Joshua as savouring of the things of men and not of the things of God.
The heart is right, but it has taken counsel from the flesh, and must be rebuked. This is necessary and bitter discipline, but effectual in preparing one for the entirely new and divine way in which God leads His people.
When you are faithful you will find that the Lord does not remove the pressure from off you until you are asleep in it, until you are able to take it quietly. You learn His grace first, and then His mercy. Look at Paul and Silas at Philippi singing praises. Look at Peter asleep in the prison. People seem to forget Deuteronomy 8:2, "Thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee". You remember the mercies, you forget the trying of your faith. You are troubled and have no faith, then you cry to Him and He relieves you, for He is full of tender mercy. You may awake Him as the disciples did when they cried, "Lord, save us", (Matthew 8:25) but then you lose His power, which would have sustained you in the trial.
I do not think it necessary for a christian to suffer bereavements in order to learn sorrow. It is true that bereavement gives a very positive impression to the soul; but I am sure if our consciences were more exercised, the daily failures and small incongruities of
life would greatly solemnise and impart to us a holier depression than any amount of personal grief. There is nothing more important than to mark how differently things look according to the light they are seen in. If we were to walk in the 'beam of light', how we should judge and feel about everything down here!
I was cheered today in seeing that the light of the glory (Mark 9) concentrated the vision on the Lord. And I think that is the light that enables us to see "every man clearly". The light that shows Him will show every other in his true place.
How the Lord was disappointed in the fig-tree, which illustrates that nature could never meet His expectations; but God will! "Have faith in God", and whatever you desire, if you believe you shall have!
The exceeding great, precious promises are given through "glory and virtue", the former the consummation, the latter the habit of soul in which we are progressing thereto.
All the promises are fulfilled, either in the glory or in the energy of life leading us thereto. It is evident then, that in proportion to the virtue, or energy of life now, so is the conscious apprehension or entrance into the consummation or the glory, but it is from realisation of the glory that there is vigour and inclination to act down here with reference to it. The root must be in the glory, on this principle, they that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God; (Psalm 92:13) If divine life in me, though rooted in Christ in glory, is not manifesting its abilities, developing the divine nature in me down here, it is plain that I cannot be realising the vigour and gain of my roots being in glory. I am not sensible of their
living there. Whereas if the energy of life is constant and consistent to itself in manifestation here, there must be a daily deepening conviction of my grasp and portion in the glory. Elijah manifested much energy of life the last day before he was taken up. Thus an abundant entrance was ministered to him. So with Stephen the "virtue" was most vigorous, and surely the entrance was most abundant. So with Paul, "I am now ready to be offered .. . I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course .. . henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness". (2 Timothy 4: 6 - 8) The more the vigour of that life down here, the easier and the brighter the transit; for it is only the one and selfsame life in different regions. The products of virtue assure the soul of three great blessings first, not barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of the Lord; second, election sure; third, abundant entrance into His kingdom and glory.
I have been contemplating the earth as formed by the Son, and man on it, as the reflex of God. Everything in it boundless and various, a correlative to the mind of God. The creation as a whole expressed God, and for a moment the one vast whole in daily worship offered incense unto Him, was very good.
Then sin entered, and overcast all like a funeral pall; constructively it seized the whole globe as an atmosphere, or rather, man breathing the impure atmosphere grew into a consolidated confederated mass which is the world. Now the blessed Son of God comes into this world, into this scene where all is against God, though once expressive of Him and for Him, to remove this incubus, this hindrance to the full expression of the heart of God. He comes in asOUR PLACE IS IN HEAVEN
SERVICE
JORDAN
CHRISTIANITY CONSIDERED
THE HOLIEST
THE NEW COMPANY AND ITS TRAITS
ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHRIST AND RECONCILIATION (1)
ACQUAINTANCE WITH CHRIST AND RECONCILIATION (2)
THE DESIRED HAVEN
RECONCILIATION LEADING TO UNION (1)
RECONCILIATION LEADING TO UNION (2)
RECONCILIATION LEADING TO UNION (3)
RECONCILIATION LEADING TO UNION (4)
RECONCILIATION LEADING TO UNION (5)
THE GLORIFIED MAN
"CAPTAIN OF THE ARMY OF JEHOVAH"
STEPS OF PROGRESS IN GRACE
THE LORD'S PRESENT VOICE
WITH CHRIST AND FOR HIM
HEAVENLY GROUND
NOTES ON SCRIPTURE 1895
'Yet sure, if in Thy presence
My soul still constant were,
Mine eye would, more familiar,
Its brighter glories bear.
Much better should I know,
And with adoring fervour
In this Thy nature grow'. (Hymn 51)NOTES AND JOTTINGS
SIMPLE OBEDIENCE AND INCONSPICUOUS TOIL SEEN IN RUTH'S HISTORY
THE GIFT OF GOD
TWO LANDMARKS
PETER SLEEPING
'O child, my heart's beloved! sweet to me
As psaltery and as psalm
The voice of him, who on the midnight sea
Can praise through storm and calm'.THE LIGHT OF THE GLORY
GREAT PROMISES
GOD EXPRESSED IN CREATION, AND IN THE SON