The Closing Ministry of J. Pellatt - Volume 2

TWOFOLD APPREHENSION OF CHRIST AS LORD AND AS THE LIVING STONE

1 Peter 2:1 - 9

NOTE that the words in verse 7, "He is precious", should read, "To you therefore who believe is the preciousness".

You must not expect anything like an exposition of the verses just read. We have no desire whatever to indulge in expository preaching, even if we had the ability. I can frankly tell you what our desire is; our desire is to speak to you about the Lord Jesus Christ. I am perfectly certain of this, that if the Spirit of God, who is here, who abides with us and dwells in us, if He has His way here tonight, it will be, in His power, a ministry of Christ to our hearts. In this way Christianity is very simple. The heart is not divided with a multiplicity of objects, neither is the mind distracted in attempting to grasp many different things. Christianity is Christ. It is Christ to begin with, and it is Christ to go on with -- it is Christ from first to last. I am sure it would be impossible to overstate the importance of our being engaged with Christ by the

Spirit. I am not going to dwell on the fact that God has revealed Himself in Christ -- in our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God, blessed as that is -- I am not going to dwell particularly upon the fact that redemption, with all that the word in its widest meaning may embrace, has been accomplished by Christ. But in the scripture I have read I desire to speak most simply.

The Lord Jesus Christ is presented to us here in a twofold way, and I conceive that the apprehension of Christ in this twofold way is most important. I only speak for the moment of apprehension; but you will find this to be true as we proceed with what we have before us. There are four A's with regard to growth in Christ. The first "A" is APPREHENSION; there must be apprehension. I do not see how anything like spiritual movement can take place or be accomplished in our souls apart from the apprehension of Christ. Then, following apprehension, there comes APPRECIATION. It is a very simple thing to say, but it is impossible to appreciate one whom you do not apprehend. We apprehend Him, and the light in which we apprehend Him becomes the measure of our appreciation of Him. What a wonderful thing to have, in any measure, an appreciation of Christ! And then there is another "A", and that is the "A" of APPROPRIATION.

You appropriate Him. I do not think, as we have sometimes been told, that appropriation is a function of faith. Appropriation is by love; it is love that appropriates. Faith apprehends, faith perceives, faith is really the soul coming into the light of Christ. God has only one object to present and that is CHRIST, and apprehension of Him is the light coming into our souls. Then there is appreciation. And there is a scripture that will help us as to that. You will find it in Galatians: "Faith worketh by love". That is how faith operates; it is faith working by love that appreciates, and then there is love -- affection for Christ. Let me go over it. When there is apprehension and appreciation of Christ, what marks the soul? Affection for Christ. If you apprehend Him and appreciate Him, you love Him. It is this affection for Himself that appropriates. And the result of appropriation is ASSIMILATION. You are assimilated to Christ; you become like Christ. That is what God's heart is set upon with regard to us all at the present time. It is to make us like Christ. Why? Well, Christ has been here; He was under the eye of God on earth for three-and-thirty years, and (I do not know how better to express it) those three-and-thirty years were for God's heart an unbroken period of feasting and delight. What must it have been for God after four thousand

years seeing man on earth according to the flesh? Well, I think you get an intimation of it in Luke 2 with regard to the Lord. There He lies a babe in the manger, wrapped in swaddling clothes, and there is the communication from the angel of Jehovah to the shepherds. Then suddenly there steps down from the plains of glory a multitude of the heavenly host. What do they say? "Glory to God in the highest". Ah, God's time is come! GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST! Put that against four thousand years of deep, dark, black dishonour to God! How it stands out! "GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST!" "ON EARTH PEACE!" And then -- "GOOD PLEASURE IN MEN!" Put that beside Genesis 6. God created man. We know what happened. God allowed man outside the garden to go on for about one thousand seven hundred years. There came a moment when God distinctly looked down and took account of man here upon the earth -- and what does the Spirit say of it? "It grieved God at his heart". "It repented him that he had made man upon the earth". Has there been any improvement since the flood? Alas, who can dream of improvement when man according to flesh is in question? The foolishness of this poor world is that they are all dreaming of improvement. The papers tell you things are going to get better; that they

are just on the turn; that some little change in the Government will make things all right. That is the old story. What folly! But listen! What did the angelic host say? "Good pleasure in men". God can look down on that babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger, and there is a point of reconciliation for the heart of God; and the angelic host exclaim, "Good pleasure in men", in Christ. When one begins to speak about Him where can one stop?

Now what I want to put before you simply is the twofold way in which He is spoken of. I repeat, it is not my thought at the present time to dwell upon the revelation of God in Him. "No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him". God has been perfectly declared, perfectly made known, perfectly revealed in Him who is the Image of the invisible God, who is the brightness, the effulgence, the outshining of God's glory, and the "exact expression" of God's substance. He has accomplished the work of redemption. He has taken up the question of sin. He has answered according to the glory of God, and God has reaped a revenue of glory from the atoning death of the Lord that He never could have reaped from an eternity of Adam in innocency. If one might venture to say it,

God is richer in glory since the cross than ever before. It is not only that there has been compensation for all the dark shame and dishonour of sin, but God is richer in glory than He ever was before. Christ died. God raised Him, and let Peter tell what we want to express, in the end of his discourse on the day of Pentecost when he said: "Let the whole house of Israel therefore know assuredly that God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ".

I want to speak of Him as Lord for a moment. He has not only been down here and revealed God and accomplished that wonderful work of atonement or redemption on the cross, in which God has been perfectly glorified and the whole question of sin has been taken up and definitely settled, but He has secured, so to speak, for man, all the grace that fills the heart of God. And now God has raised Him up, and exalted Him, and made Him Lord. What does that mean? It means this -- that God has made Him the Administrator of all the grace that fills the heart of God, and which God is so free to dispense on the ground, not only in the light of the revelation of Himself, but on the ground of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Administrator of that grace, and that is all gathered up in that beautiful expression in

verse 3 of the chapter which I have read: "If indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good". "The Lord is good".

Now, you will find in this first Epistle of Peter, all through the first chapter, culminating in the third verse of the second chapter, that the Lord Jesus Christ is presented as Lord. That is what He is on God's side man-ward in the administration of the grace of the heart of God. And so we get redemption and "being born again". Let me tell you, "born again" in 1 Peter is not the same expression in the Greek that is translated in John 3 "born again". "Born again" in John 3 is really "born anew", but in the first Epistle of Peter it stands for the whole work of God in the soul that constitutes a person a Christian. There is redemption -- the great work for them; and there is "born again", the great work in them. Chapter 2 opens in a very simple and yet a very instructive way. It says, "Wherefore". (That word "wherefore" is built up on what precedes, on all that comes out in chapter 1.) "Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings" -- five things. Wherefore laying all these things aside. Why lay them aside? Because they are the miserable workings and activities of the flesh. Although you are redeemed, although you are born again, there must

be the Work of God in you -- there is not a shadow of doubt cast upon that -- there is no question about it. Take the word "know" -- K -- N -- O -- W -- "forasmuch as ye KNOW that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things ... but with the precious blood of Christ ..." -- and so, as "born again", we are to love one another with a pure heart fervently, there is no shadow of a question -- no doubt upon either the work for you or the work in you. Then why are we to lay these things aside? Because it is a question of growth -- of spiritual growth; and if these things are allowed there can be no growth, no progress, no movement. I am solemnly impressed with this fact that a great many Christians are spiritually like the Galatians -- they are stopped! That is the word. He says "Ye did run well, who stopped you?" Well, you say, the Judaising teachers were used of the enemy. But how were they "stopped"? By the flesh. I am solemnly convinced that a great many Christians -- and they are Christians -- have been redeemed, they have been born again; there is the work of Christ for them and the work of God in them; unquestionably they are Christians -- yet I am impressed that a great many are "stopped". And a good many get stopped by these five things.

"Wherefore laying aside all malice". Come, we had better look into the looking-glass

straight. Look straight into it! Then it will show you up just as you are. Malice! Guile! What is guile? Guile is saying things that are true to hide the truth. That is guile. You cannot indulge the flesh in any way and go on with God -- you are stopped. Then hypocrisies! There is a difference between guile and hypocrisy. Guile is like the woman we are told about at the well. "I have no husband", she said. That was true, but it was not all the truth. The truth was she had had five husbands, and the man she had then was not her husband. Now hypocrisy is pretending to something that is not at all true. What is the next? "And envies". You have to guard against that. And what is the last? "Evil speaking". Are you going to spread slander and evil reports about your brethren? So much the worse. "Evil speaking" is a work of the devil and a great hindrance to growing up to salvation.

Now, lay aside these evil things and seek something else; you want something that will positively minister to your spiritual growth. And so, in the next verse, we find: "As newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word". What is the matter with our appetites? Here is a mother that has got an interesting family. Meal-time comes and she spreads the table with good wholesome food. The children are called, but one little

child says to her mother -- "I have no appetite". An inquiry takes place; there is an investigation. What is the matter with the child? What is the matter with some of us that we have not got an appetite for the pure mental milk of the word? We have spoilt our appetites by allowing the flesh. "As newborn babes desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation". Ah! that is the point, and is it not a definite point? I was going to say a climax. "If indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good". You know Him as Lord; you are in the good of His Lordship; you have tasted of His goodness. If you set an apple on the table and ask my opinion of that apple, I say, First let me have a taste of it. I taste it and I pronounce it a very good apple. How do I know? Because I have tasted it. So "If indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good", you know that He is good! That is in connection with salvation -- soul-salvation. You are in the good of it and you prove what a wonderful thing it is to taste that the Lord is good! Have you tasted today that the Lord is good? Tell me, what has happened today? Perhaps some of the children sick. Perhaps something went wrong in the house or in the business. You are tried here and there. How have you got through it all? Did you taste that the Lord

is good? Did you prove the reality of soul-salvation? Let me tell you, if you grow to salvation -- soul-salvation, you are on the top of your trials, and of your difficulties, and of all your circumstances. If your trials and difficulties and circumstances are on the top of you, you have not grown to salvation, you are not in the good of the Lord. "If indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good". It is a lovely word. It is very simple, because one finds this (and I am sure in speaking thus I am only expressing what every Christian in this room would express) -- as we go on in our life down here things do not become less real; they become more real to you, in that way, because you begin to take account of things in relation to God, in relation to the Lord Jesus Christ, and in proportion as you do, you find things very real. I may say that things are more real to me now since last Saturday. What about last Saturday? you say. Well, I just crossed the line of threescore years and ten last Saturday. Things are much more real to me now than they were twenty or thirty years ago. You take a more intelligent, a more sober account of things here than you did when you were younger, if you are growing up to salvation. It is a wonderful thing to grow to salvation.

In chapter 1 the apostle says: "Whom

having not seen, ye love; on whom, though not now looking but believing ye exult with joy unspeakable ..." My brethren and sisters, are you much acquainted with the joy that is "unspeakable"? I used to be a methodist parson, but when you get this kind of joy there is no use going to a class meeting. You could not tell the joy; it is unspeakable. "Joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving". What? "receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls". That is a wonderful thing to "grow up" to. It is not that my trials and difficulties cease. It is not that I begin to go to heaven, hovering about ten feet above all the ordinary things down here? No, no. Things become more real to us as we grow old. There is not one of us but is being tested day by day. Some days the test may seem extra strong, but never a day goes over our heads in our journey here but what we are morally tested. One would not wish it otherwise. When you find Christians chafing under their trials and circumstances they are all wrong; they are not tasting that the Lord is good. When you grow to salvation and taste that the Lord is good you can "boast in tribulation".

But I must go on. You have come to a wonderful point in your spiritual history. What about the next verse? "To whom coming". It is like crossing a line, and more

than that. We may speak of things in type in the history of the children of Israel, and they may in a way furnish an illustration; yet one feels they fall short of the greatness, the immensity, the importance of what verse 4 indicates. It was a wonderful day when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea; and a wonderful day when they crossed the Jordan! But what a wonderful day it is in our spiritual history when we have come into the good of what the Lord is! We have grown to salvation; we have tasted that the Lord is good. But what next? "To whom coming, a living stone". Who do we come to? To the same Person; you begin with Christ, you go on with Christ; it is Christ all the way through, all along the way; it is Christ everywhere and all the time.

But I wish I could indicate to you in a simple scriptural way what this fourth verse indicates. It indicates that there is a new apprehension of Christ in your soul. "To whom coming ...". Is it that you come to Him as a Redeemer, a Saviour? No. But to A LIVING STONE. That is the wonderful thing. We have been so slow. We have not all profited as we should have profited by what the Lord has given us for twenty years past. I remember a beloved brother -- now with the Lord, a devoted servant of the Lord -- whom the Lord enabled

at one time when the truth was in question to write a four page paper on the Person of Christ, in which he affirmed just one thing -- that in scripture Christ is sometimes presented as Man, distinct and apart from what He is as a divine Person. What he denied was that the truth of Christ's Person consisted in the union in Him of God and man, alluding to the theological doctrine: "Very God, very Man -- one Christ". He called attention to the fact that a great many Christians failed in their apprehension of incarnation, and he pointed out where the failure lay. The failure was to see that in incarnation Christ had taken a distinct place as Man God-ward. Having taken a distinct place as Man God-ward, He is the pattern of our blessing. What do you come to now? "To whom coming ...". Before it was Christ on God's side man-ward; now it is Christ on our side God-ward. It is a complete transition in the apprehension of Christ in your soul. And what a wonderful moment that is when we come to Him -- the Living Stone! when we begin to apprehend what Christ is as Man God-ward! It has often been said -- and I say it for myself under the profound conviction that it is true -- that we never learn truth of any sort outside of Christ. You may look at the saints, you may look at yourself until you sink down into doubt, and fear, and uncertainty;

there is only one way to learn the truth of God really, and that is, to learn it in Christ. Why is it that we are so slow even now to apprehend our proper blessing? I will tell you. It is because we are so slow to apprehend Christ in the place He has taken as Man God-ward. Take the truth of the assembly. We may have good believers' meetings on Sunday mornings, and we may thank God for what He has done, and anticipate all that is to come; but all the time we may be missing the truth of the assembly.

What is the reason? We are so slow in the apprehension of Christ as a Man having a special place God-ward; hence we fail to apprehend Him in what He is on our side God-ward; that is the failure. "To whom coming, a living stone, cast away indeed of men ..." -- but mark what follows! "But with God chosen, precious, yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ". I would like to state this -- God has got His present thoughts about His people. Let us leave the future out for a few moments. I know something about the blessedness of the future. I know what the scriptures say about it: that there is awaiting us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; I know it. But God has also got His present thoughts about His people down here, and they

have come out here. They are twofold. What is the first thought? WORSHIP. What is the second thought? TESTIMONY. "A holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ". That is worship. And then: "A kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, that ye might set forth ..." down here before men in testimony: what is set forth? Our own greatness? No! "That ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light". That is it. These are God's thoughts; we should answer to them here and now. But the secret of answering to them is the APPREHENSION and the APPRECIATION, and the APPROPRIATION and the ASSIMILATION of Christ in what He is as Man on our side God-ward. I have noticed (it is a very simple illustration, but I call your attention to it) Matthew and Mark are the only two who, in their gospels, give us an account of what followed the breaking of bread. Luke does not tell you, and Paul does not tell you; but there is twofold -- adequate testimony. "In the mouth of two or three witnesses", etc. Matthew testifies, and Mark testifies, and it just illustrates the point. If it is the breaking of bread the Lord is on God's side. Then the cup "This cup is the new covenant in my blood". That is not Christ on our side God-ward -- that

is Christ on God's side us-ward. What is the new covenant? It is the unfolding of all that God is in His love towards us. But, after the supper, according to Matthew and Mark, what did He do? He took His place on our side, i.e., with the saints. "When they" -- (I like that "they", because you see it is Himself and the company, they are all in that "they") -- "when they had sung an hymn". Do you think He sang? I think He led the singing, and they sang with Him. "And when they had sung an hymn". Christ comes over on our side God-ward. He says, "In the midst of the assembly I will sing praise unto thee". There it is. That is the principle of this passage -- "To whom coming, a living stone". If you and I apprehend Him thus we know what Christ is as Man in relation to the purposes of God. That is not what Christ is as Man on God's side in relation to our need, but that is what Christ is as Man on our side God-ward in relation to the purposes of God and all the thoughts of God. And so "To whom coming, a living stone;" you apprehend Him, you appreciate Him, you appropriate Him, and you are like Him. How do you know that you become like Him? Because the very same language is used. Is He the living Stone? Well! coming to Him we are living stones. Scripture does not deal in unrealities; it does not deal in mere dogmatic

statements. If the Spirit of God speaks of saints as living stones, living stones they are. There is a distinct connection that might be traced. It is the same man who wrote this epistle who in Matthew 16, when the Lord says, "Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?" replies, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona ['Bar' means 'son of']: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this, rock ..." -- the rock is the Father's revelation of Himself in Peter's soul. What is Peter? He is a stone. "Thou art Peter". He is of the same material; he is a living stone -- Christ, the Son of the living God, is the eternal rock upon which the assembly stands in all its impregnability, in spite of the gates of Hades. Yes, Peter is a living stone; and we are living stones. Have you apprehended Him thus? What a wonderful day it is when the soul apprehends Him in that light! Do you appreciate Him "chosen of God, and precious"? He is precious to God. Is He precious to you? "To you that believe is the preciousness". And is there the appropriation of Him in love? Is there really the eating of Him? When the Lord says, "I live on account of the Father", He does not hesitate to say, "and he that eateth me shall

live on account of me". We appropriate Him, and what is the result of appropriation? Assimilation. He is the Living Stone; we are living stones, and as such we are built up a holy priesthood, and as such we come out a royal priesthood.

May God be pleased to encourage us in connection with His thoughts of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ!

LOVING, BELIEVING, REJOICING

1 Peter 1:8, 9

What I have before me tonight is very simple and exceedingly blessed, and I want it to be a word of encouragement for all the Lord's people here; I do not think you can find any portion more encouraging than this. God has presented to us all the wonderful activities of His grace, mercy and love, etc., for His people from the very beginning, and here they are all gathered up for us, and for our encouragement, as Romans 15:4 puts it, "Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our encouragement", so this stamps the character of the instruction and throws it all open for us. It is a very simple epistle -- this first Epistle of Peter. Peter here writes to the Jewish believers "scattered"; the fact of their being scattered made no difference in the Lord's love to them. The Lord's love to us is a wonderful thing -- how He loves us all, and how His love takes account of all that may befall us in our path down here -- poverty or sickness -- blindness or deafness, whatever it may be -- He knows all about it, and we may still have shining hearts,

and be superior to it all. His love delights to cater for us, and to minister to our every need. Oh! it is very encouraging!

Now let us look at these two verses (verses 8, 9). In the end of verse 6 our trials are spoken of, and it is in connection with our trials and circumstances that the Lord says, "the proving of your faith being much more precious than of gold". There is an unspiritual way of being occupied with our trials -- a selfish way, but the Lord would have us to be exercised by everything. He would not have us indifferent to what He passes us through. Gold is at the top of the list of precious metals; and because it is precious it is subjected to the fire, so that every element of alloy and dross is separated from it, I have often been at a brother's house who is a goldsmith, and seen the sweepings from the shop brought in, which look like dust and dirt, but the refiner wraps it all up carefully in paper, puts it into the refining pot, opens the furnace door, and in it goes, and the fire immediately consumes all the rubbish; the refiner keeps watching, and at last he puts in the tongs and lifts out the crucible, and leaves it to cool; then with a hammer he breaks it in pieces, and then you see at the bottom a little piece of gold -- pure gold which has come out of the refiner's fire. Pure gold is precious to man, but here the trying of our faith is called

"much more" precious to God, Our very short-sightedness makes us often worry, and sometimes we are so short-sighted that we are positively mystified in our trials, but, oh, beloved, do we realise what God has in view? Do we take in that God is going to get a big revenue of praise for Himself through these very trials at the appearing of Jesus Christ? Saint of God, cheer up! you may be "put to grief" down here, you may have very real sorrow in your heart, but take courage, the harvest time is coming and God is going to reap a harvest; I do not know how it will happen, but I think He will say, as it were, "Look, here are the people that have been tried and tested by the fire; look at them now -- they are all shining!" Yes, He will get His revenue. Now see the point we have come to -- "the revelation of Jesus Christ: whom, having not seen, ye love". Are you really in the good -- the present good of being a Christian? Is your heart going out in affection to Him? We do not find a passive love in scripture; all true love is active; when He commands your affections they flow out to Himself. Look at my watch, the mainspring is the secret of its working; so with us, it is when the heart's affections are right that the rest corresponds. It is an easy thing to say -- "Whom, having not seen, we love", but I want the hearts of all

here to get really touched with divine encouragement tonight; God is set to encourage and comfort you. What could be more serious for us than anything that interferes with our affections; these saints to whom Peter wrote had lost everything down here, but the Lord had captivated their hearts. He commands their affections, and the Spirit could say of them, "Whom, having not seen, ye love". Ah, beloved, there is always one thing a Christian can do, and that is, he can love Christ. He can look that blessed One in the face and say, "Thou knowest all things, thou knowest I am attached to thee".

The next thing you get is confidence -- "believing". Do you remember His words to His disciples in John 14"Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me". They were troubled at the thought of His leaving them, because they loved Him, and thought they would lose sight of Him, but He reminds them that they had confidence in God, whom they had never seen, and would they not have confidence in Him? Do not let the devil worry you; he will if he possibly can; he will tell you that you are a hopeless failure, but you can resist him "steadfast in faith". Oh, do not give up your confidence in the Lord. Has He ever failed you? that is not His way. I believe I understand the Lord's

look on Peter! Peter had been cursing and swearing, and denying that he ever knew the Lord. What did that look say? Ah! I think it said, "Peter, I love you -- there is no change in me, I love you just the same". That is not the sort of look we should give! Oh, no! but that look of the Lord's just smashed Peter's heart all to bits -- he "went out and wept bitterly". Oh, beloved, do not give up your confidence in Him! is He not worthy of it? He has never given you any occasion to question His love and faithfulness.

Now what comes next, "joy unspeakable and filled with the glory" -- "glorified joy" is the real sense of the word. Think of it! if you could see inside such a believer's heart, you would see it fairly shining with "joy unspeakable and filled with the glory". Is it not wonderful? And that can be even now. He is coming to receive us to Himself, we are today another day nearer to that, but while we wait for Him, we may again be put to grief, the furnace may be hot, because the "proving of the faith" is going on, yet "believing" we may rejoice with joy unspeakable. I feel we are so little up to it; we are strangely shy of being happy, strangely shy of the road to joy, but "the joy of the Lord is our strength". The devil will turn us in on ourselves if he possibly can; he will make us miserable, and some try hard to be

wise (doctrinal) Christians, and some think it necessary to take low ground; that is just what the devil wants, and if we give him the chance he will get us to low ground and crush us. But oh, to be simple Christians, to see that it is all Christ, and that He is the One we believe and confide in. How simple it is! And then the "joy unspeakable" follows. The Spirit of God says it is "unspeakable". Peter is not writing to a company of advanced Christians. No, he writes to simple believers. Christ is enough for them.

Now comes the "salvation of your souls", and it is a remarkable salvation from the very fact of its being soul-salvation. Do you say, When shall I get that? Well, it either takes place now, in this life, or not at all. "Receiving" soul-salvation is when you are morally superior to everything here. I once went to see a sister in Colorado, and for three whole hours she poured out all her troubles; she had got right down under them and they were almost as big to her as the Rocky Mountains, which take forty-eight hours' travelling to get round. Now, beloved, where are we? Either our trials are on the top of us, or we are on the top of them; the Lord can put us right on the top of them all, and He loves to do so. The first link here is love, the second link is confidence, and then comes rejoicing, and receiving. These blessed

things are all linked together, they keep step side by side. The Lord knows the trials of each one of you individually -- you are proved by them -- but let Him have your heart. Give it up to Him, so that it may go out to Him without let or hindrance; there is no restraining needed with that. We have to keep our loins girded; in walking here we cannot allow our robes to flow, but I can let all my heart go out to Him unreservedly, and then I can be superior to my circumstances and trials. We have in this scripture lovers, believers, and rejoicers, all filled with glory. If we know the glory inside now we shall not feel strange when we actually enter those scenes of endless joy. Do you think that the end of your faith is only to get to heaven? Oh, no! The end of your faith is the salvation of your souls, and that is to be realised here and now. Oh, beloved, try it -- try it!

THE SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

Luke 8:1 - 3; Mark 15:39 - 41, 47; Mark 16:1; John 20:1 - 20

You will find in these scriptures a complete soul-history, and we have read it with the thought of bringing before you the spiritual history of a soul from the start to the finish. The history of Mary Magdalene is very instructive and comprehensive. I am not sure if I shall be understood in speaking about the finish of the spiritual history of a soul. It is necessary to eliminate all idea of time. There is such a thing as the present goal in Christianity -- a spiritual reality. The future goal is in actuality, The only difference between the present goal in spiritual reality and the future goad in actuality is the difference between the words reality and actuality. There is such a point as the present goal of Christianity to be reached here and now.

In Ephesians 4, the apostle presents Christ as the ascended Man; he by the Spirit speaks of gifts given by the risen and ascended Christ; he speaks of the end in view, and that is, "Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at

the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ". That, I understand, presents the present goal of Christianity. It in no way involves the termination of our life in flesh down here, and a very simple proof of your having reached the goal is that you disappear morally. When the goal is reached this disappearance takes place. It will be so in another sense with the whole assembly in the future. The assembly, as such, will disappear when the Lord takes us to be with Himself, and when the goal is reached in spiritual reality by any of us here we disappear. I feel even the statement of it to be very serious, because it tests every one of us, speaker and hearer alike.

It is beautifully illustrated in the history of Mary Magdalene. She first appears in Luke 8, and she disappears in John 20. She is not seen in John 21, or in the Acts of the Apostles or in the Epistles. Mary Magdalene is seen no more. She has disappeared. When she first appears it is as one completely dominated by Satanic power. She is indwelt by seven demons, and when she disappears she disappears in the Assembly. That is the disappearing place. It should come home to you and to me. Have we disappeared? If her first appearance is that which speaks of sin and Satan's power, her disappearance is lovely.

Most glorious! Who would not like to disappear in the brightness and glory of His presence?

I should like to trace the spiritual journey of her soul from the start to the finish. It is like starting on a journey, to speak simply. Suppose you go from Belfast to Dublin. You live in Belfast, Belfast is the starting-point, Dublin is the goal. You go to the station and get into the train. Your goal is before you, but there are stations between Belfast and Dublin. Luke 8 is the starting-point of the spiritual journey of the soul in Christianity. John 20 gives us the goal. The other scriptures give us the stations between the starting-point and the goal. I speak in this simple way in order that every one of us may take account of ourselves in connection with the spiritual journey. The starting-point is salvation. Many of us could state the doctrine of salvation very correctly, but Luke 8 does not present the doctrine of salvation, it presents the fact of salvation. I trust salvation is a fact with every one of us here. Unless it is a fact there is no start. It is important to get a good start in one's spiritual journey, and it is most important to get a true idea of the Lord Jesus Christ as Saviour. In Luke the Lord Jesus is presented as the anointed Preacher, and He preached the gospel of the kingdom; God is presented as a Saviour-God.

How wonderful to come under the influence of such a blessed Preacher! Mary Magdalene comes under this preaching, with the result (it is very simple) that she is saved, "Out of whom seven demons had gone". Not some of them gone and others left. They all went out, she is completely saved from the domination of Satanic power. A great many are clear about the doctrine of salvation, but it is much more important to have the fact. It meant much to Mary Magdalene. Up to this time demons had held undisputed sway in her soul, but the preaching of the Lord Jesus announcing the glad tidings of the kingdom in the power of the Holy Ghost resulted in her salvation, and seven demons had gone out of her. It was a marvellous fact to her. We need to be thoroughly stirred up, especially in a place like Belfast, where there are so many brethren and children of brethren who are familiar with the doctrine of the gospel. There is a very real danger of souls taking certain steps and assuming certain positions without real soul-history; but what about spiritual facts and spiritual history? There could be no doubt whatever as to the reality of Mary Magdalene's start. She had got a new object for her heart and a new path for her feet. She was with the Lord and she followed Him. Is salvation such a fact to us that the One who

has saved us is the object of our hearts? These women were with Him, and they followed Him, and they ministered unto Him of their substance. Sometimes people got converted, but it does not seem to affect their hearts or their feet. Mary got a new object for her heart (she was "with him"), and a new path for her feet (she "followed him"). The Lord in saving her has so touched her heart that He becomes the supreme Object of her affections. His path is her path. There is one prominent thing that characterises Mary Magdalene in scripture, and that is affection for Christ. This characterises her through every stage of her spiritual journey. Has He thus reached our hearts? When He touches our hearts we lose sight of everything else. As Mr. Darby expresses it in that beautiful hymn (139):-

"There is but that one in the waste.
Which His footsteps have marked as His own".

If He commands my heart, my eyes will have no difficulty in finding the path. Have we started in it? It is a wonderful start. Your conscience may be clear. Ah! but the question of conscience does not come in here, it is a question of the heart's affection. I have no doubt Mary Magdalene's conscience was quite clear. Conscience is a question of righteousness.

To turn to the Old Testament for a moment, the start for Israel came in when they stood on the Arabian bank of the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his warriors were behind them on the other side, but they were commanded to "stand still, and see the salvation of Jehovah". There was no fighting or no talking as to what was to be done; not a blow to strike nor a word to say. Jehovah fought for them, and on the Arabian bank they saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. "Then sang they this song to Jehovah". That is the first station.

Now to come to the next. It follows naturally on the first. When you get into the train all you have to do is to sit still. The train is moving on and you do not need to struggle. The next station comes naturally in the history of the soul. (See Mark 15:40, 41.) "And there were women also looking on from afar off, among whom were both Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of James ... who also, when he was in Galilee, followed him, and ministered to him". In the opening of Luke 8, the Lord is an anointed preacher, going about "doing good, and healing [or saving] all that were under the power of the devil", as Peter says in Acts 10. Nothing could stand before Him. Here (Mark 15) He appears in the light of a suffering, despised, scorned, cast out, rejected One, going up to Jerusalem

to be crowned with thorns, to be crucified. The cross is the culmination of His rejection. This is the test to souls. It is easy to follow a triumphant victorious One, but rejection is the test. To turn again to the Old Testament it is like Jonathan. David came out of the valley with the giant's sword and head in his hand -- the tokens of a complete victory. He had wrought salvation for Israel just as the Lord wrought salvation for Mary Magdalene. She was, as we have said, completely saved from the power of the enemy, consequently she found an object for her heart and a path for her feet. So Jonathan's soul was knit to the soul of David. It seemed very real. He stripped himself of his robe, his princely attire, his garments which distinguished him as a prominent man, even to his sword and to his bow, and to his girdle which he bore as a warrior. He stripped himself of what characterised him as a prince, a man, and a warrior, that he might place it upon David. But the test came. Jonathan's father sought David's life. There came the last good-bye -- the last kiss, and then they parted never to meet again. David went to the cave of Adullam and Jonathan went back to his father's house. What was the end? Jonathan's headless body, slain on Mount Gilboa, was nailed to the walls of Bethshan. How sad! How different to Mary's course. She

cleaves to the Lord through His rejection. You will not travel very far in His path until you find that He is the despised and rejected One here, but you will not be turned aside if He really commands your heart.

Mary is moving on. The next step in her history is indicated in the last verse of this chapter. He died on the cross, but three women remained with Him all through, and saw where His body was laid. They get as near as they possibly could be. Mary was "near by".

But I must hasten on. We come to John 20 and we find here the effect of the death of Christ on a heart that so truly loved Him. Mary goes down in early morn to the tomb and sees the stone taken away. She walks away -- no, she runs. Think of that lonely woman turning and running, in the early morning when it was still dark, clean back and coming to Peter and John and relating to them the story of the empty tomb. What details the Spirit of God gives us! Then Peter and John run. John gets there first of the two, but Mary had run back too, and she is there as soon as they are. How she loved Him! The two disciples (I will not say much about them) went into the tomb and came out of it perfectly satisfied that the Lord had risen, There was perfect order inside. The clothes were not

lying bundled together, but the handkerchief that was upon His Head -- folded up in a distinct place by itself. No confusion whatever. They therefore went away again to their own home. But Mary (what a contrast! how it testifies to the affection that was in her heart) stood at the tomb weeping without. There was not a spot on earth to detain her except that empty tomb "where the body of Jesus had lain".

"Farewell, farewell, poor faithless world,
With all thy boasted store;
We'd not have joy where He had woe --
Be rich were He was poor".

Now, let me ask you, has the death of Christ affected you? You may think about the doctrine of it, but has it affected your heart? Mary's affection was rewarded. As she wept she stooped and beheld what Peter and John did not see. Through her tears she beheld two angels. Angels seem to have the power of appearing and disappearing at will. Peter and John did not see the angels, but Mary did. Two in scripture is adequate testimony. What a descriptive testimony to the dignity of the One who had lain there. They did not sit side by side, but "one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain". They say to her, "Why dost thou weep?" This question drew out the expression of her

heart. But the angels knew who was near her, and the Lord in His question to her goes further than the angels. He not only says "Why weepest thou?" but "Whom seekest thou?" And then He says to her, "Mary". And she says to Him, "Rabboni". She has received Him in resurrection! It is one thing to believe in the doctrine of resurrection, but it is another thing to reach Him there. Are we identified with the rejected One? His rejection left Mary a picture of inconsolable grief without a spot on earth to turn to, and no home but an empty tomb. She went down to Jordan to the river's brink, but the ark had been there, so Jordan was dry. He had been there. It has been well said that nothing will ever lead a soul to cross Jordan but love for Christ, Mary reached Him in resurrection. Have you and I reached Him there? But there is more; some would stop at resurrection. But what does the Lord say to Mary now? "Jesus said to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended". What! ascended! If you have read the Gospel of John through to this point and have appropriated it you will be quite prepared for ascension. John speaks a good deal more of ascension than of resurrection. I have counted the passages one by one. Christ came from heaven in John and goes back to heaven. What comes from heaven

goes back to heaven. The Lord had been speaking all through John's gospel about going back to "my Father". I would emphasise that peculiar place and the affection that belongs to that peculiar place. John's gospel, from the outset, prepares you for the close of it, which is chapter 20. Read chapter 12: 24. The corn of wheat has died, and has brought forth much fruit. Therefore the message: "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God".

Well, Mary went and brought word to the disciples "that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her". What next? She has come into the assembly! She has reached the goal. The assembly of Christ's brethren in association with Him as the risen One. She disappears! She has reached the present goal. Who would not like to disappear like this? If you have started on the line we have traced, this is the present goal of it. Are you identified with the rejected One? It is into the midst of that company He delights to come. He comes there. Mary has reached it and she disappears.

May the Lord lead our hearts into it for His name's sake.

RESURRECTION -- GOD'S VICTORY OVER DEATH

Genesis 3:14, 15; 1 John 3:3 - 8; Romans 5:12; Romans 6:23; 1 Corinthians 15:21, 54 - 57

It is before us, beloved, as the Lord may help us -- and I am very conscious of my need of His help -- to say a few words on the subject of resurrection. I read the verses in Genesis 3 just to bring this point before you -- that the entrance of sin and death into this world was the work of the devil. Jehovah-God had spoken to the man and to the woman. He then speaks to Satan, and what He says is this: "Because thou hast, done this", etc. These are the words of the Lord God; He attributes what has just taken place (the entrance of sin into the world) to Satan.

Then I read the scripture in 1 John in connection with this in Genesis to call your attention to this fact, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might undo the works of the devil". The works of the devil were undone in man's heart by the knowledge of God which came to light in the Son of God, and the resurrection is the culmination of the purpose for which the Son of God was manifested.

In resurrection the works of the devil are completely undone, for that was God's victory over death, and hence the connection with resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:54, "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory". That "saying" is written in Isaiah 25:8, "He will swallow up death in victory".

We have often been reminded that 1 Corinthians 15, is that wonderful chapter on resurrection which emphasises the victory of God -- death swallowed up in victory. There was the allusion to it in type in the rod of Aaron, (Hebrews 9:4 or Numbers 17:8) All the apparent victory that death has attained for the last six thousand years is wiped out in resurrection. It is a triumphant word, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"

Satan was accused by God of having done this; he brought about sin, distrust of God and death, and of this Jehovah said, "Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life, and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel". Genesis 1 and 2 are purely creation -- there is nothing of responsibility in them; it is the

putting forth of God's creative power -- He looks over His creation, takes account of it all, and pronounces it "very good". In chapter 2 we have the introduction of human responsibility, God having put man under responsibility by His divine command. We find God deals with man according to the responsibility he has been placed under in relation to God, "By one man" -- the devil is not mentioned there -- "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin"; that is, sin and death have been brought in by one man -- brought in in connection with his breakdown and failure in responsibility. "And so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned". The necessity for resurrection lies in the fact of man -- one man -- having brought in sin and death, and the whole race has been involved in the consequence, "The wages of sin" -- not sins; if you put in the "s" there, you cannot account for the death of infants; fifty per cent of the human race born into the world die in infancy, Death is "the wages of sin" -- God has a fixed, righteous estimate and judgment of sin. The necessity of resurrection lies in the fact that one man brought in sin and death, death being connected with sin as the just judgment of God upon sin; and let me say here, in the most simple way possible, when death takes place that ends for God and for eternity the question

of sin. If you could conceive the most wicked man dying tonight, his death settles for ever the question of sin. There remains the question of individual responsibility, but that is never connected with "sin", and, with that in view, scripture says, "After death, the judgment" -- but not judgment in regard to sin. The necessity for resurrection is found in the entrance and the consequence of sin -- death. In 1 Corinthians 15, it says, "By man came death" -- the first man, Adam; "By man also the resurrection of those that are dead". The first man was out of the earth, made of dust, and his origin fixes his order; for origin and order in scripture always go together. It is a man made out of dust that is the earthly man. The second Man is out of heaven. That is the Man who has brought in resurrection of those that are dead. Scripture is very simple but very comprehensive. We need believing hearts to understand it. There is the first man out of earth; all the question of sin and death is attributed to that man in scripture, "By man came also the resurrection of those that are dead". How has this second heavenly Man brought in resurrection of those who are dead? In the first place He bore the judgment of God, which was due to the sin which He took upon Him, and then He died. By the grace of God He tasted death for every man. He died for

all. He is the propitiation for the sin of all the world. "He gave himself a ransom for all". He answered to God for the totality of sin. He glorified God in all the question of sin, and so He has answered to God; He has maintained all that was due to God. He has put away sin -- not anybody's sins, but sin, by the sacrifice of Himself. That side has been met, and now God has raised Him from the dead and has brought in resurrection of those that are dead. Let me say, He has brought in resurrection for every human being. His death, on the one hand, has covered the question of sin before God; His resurrection is equally wide, "By man came also the resurrection of the dead". I am not saying there is no difference in resurrection. In His death God has been glorified for the totality of sin, "He gave himself a ransom for all". He includes every man, He died for all, and the resurrection brought in by the second Man out of heaven is just as wide and extensive in its bearing as His death. "The hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation". (John 5:28, 29.) From Abel down through all the intervening centuries down to the end of time, all that are in the graves shall hear His

voice and come forth. There is scripture supporting all that I have said in connection with the second Man -- the heavenly Man.

1 Corinthians 15 is addressed to those who are really Christians, to those "sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints" -- constituted saints by divine calling, and it takes a divine call to make a saint. He says, "with all that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord". 1 Corinthians is addressed to Christians, and I do not see that we should depart from that when we come to chapter 15. In connection with this I read in Romans, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord". What I want to show you is that in scripture eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death, and my reason for pressing this point is that, being brought in in contrast to sin and death, it necessarily involves resurrection.

I note that in John, whether in the gospel or the epistles, eternal life is presented as a present thing. Every believer in the Son of God has a present title to it, and every believer is entitled to be conscious of it. These things have I written that ye may know. The word used in 1 John 5:13 is the word for conscious knowledge -- that ye may be conscious that ye have

eternal life. John presents it in the present; but other scriptures present it in the future. (Titus 3:7.) "That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life". What a man sees, he does not hope for. What then is the hope of eternal life? Where and how will that be reached? The end of 1 Corinthians 15 furnishes a complete answer to that. "The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed". That passage shows us when and where and how it will take place -- that should be enough for us. By one man sin entered into the world -- not into heaven. Where will resurrection take place? On earth! By resurrection or change we shall come into the reality of eternal life. "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" It is gone. God is going to bring us into resurrection down here. It is resurrection we have in this chapter, not the rapture.

There are several points of interest in this chapter, but I have not time to dwell upon them. First, there is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, relative to our justification. The apostle argues, "If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain ... we are found false witnesses ... ye are yet in your sins". I want

to trace as completely as my time will allow me, resurrection and its bearing upon us, Romans 6 does not speak of our resurrection; it speaks of Christ's death and His life, and that involves resurrection on His part. "In that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God". And He "was raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father". We are said to be buried with Him by baptism -- to have part in His death; and if we have been planted with Him in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. He argues also, that we respond by walking in newness of life and reckoning ourselves alive unto Jesus Christ. "For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies", (Romans 8:11.) There is only one passage that gives a present bearing to resurrection. In Colossians 2 we are said to be "raised with him through faith of the working of God who raised him from among the dead". There is a present moral application to Christians now; though of course not actual, it is through faith that we come into the good of it. His resurrection was actual, but we come into the present good of it through faith of the working of God who raised Him from among the dead. The resurrection

will take place at that time when "the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed". 1 Thessalonians 4 and 1 Corinthians 15 do not say that after the resurrection the rapture will follow. We have no doubt that it will follow, but what 1 Corinthians 15 sets before us is the celebration of God's victory in resurrection. What will it be when God brings in His victory over death! Think of all that death has done among the saints of God! Six thousand years the saints have been dying, and "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye", God will undo it all. (1 Corinthians 15) God will have His victory in a moment, and that victory will be celebrated where death has taken place -- on earth -- in the very scene of our sorrows, right down here. He is going to have His victory celebrated in resurrection.

Let me now say a word about the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation to God. It has enabled God to lay actually the foundation of the accomplishment of His purposes. In the cross of Christ God has been glorified as He never will be anywhere else, not even in eternity. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the antitype of the sheaf of first-fruits in Israel. It was the pledge of the coming harvest. "Christ the first-fruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming". (1 Corinthians 15) When

you speak of the purposes of God in regard to man, they are twofold. They apply to man here, and they apply to this scene. I think we are inclined to overlook the fact that God made this scene, and made man for this scene. The first man fell, but the second Man has perfectly glorified God with regard to Himself. He had a perfect title to live here, and He went into death to earn a title for His people, and He has earned it for them. We say how glad we shall be to get out of this earth, but do not think that God has given up His rights to this earth. What God is going on with down here at the present time is the heavenly part -- the assembly. That will be accomplished by-and-by, and then God will revert to the earthly side, and will bring His purposes as to it into accomplishment. Christians have a part in the earthly side. They have eternal life now, and you will find in scripture eternal life is connected with the earthly side of the purposes of God, not with heaven. It is never connected with heaven. In the resurrection we shall come into the actuality of it, but we shall come into it down here according to the end of 1 Corinthians 15. The rapture is connected with the heavenly side of the purposes of God, and the rapture applies to the assembly as such. It is the actuality. We get in Ephesians that the saints are raised up and made to sit

down together in the heavenlies in Christ. All that is true of the saints in Christ will be made actually true of them in the rapture. Caught up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The rapture belongs to the heavenly side of God's purposes. "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also". The earthly side is when all that is mortal shall be swallowed up of life. I am certain that God is going to have a celebration. He is to have a victory here, and He will celebrate it. In Isaiah 25 we find that God is going to destroy the covering that is over all nations. Look around, God has covered them all up with death. God is going to destroy the covering that has covered up the nations of the earth. The day is coming when He will remove the covering and bring in resurrection. The whole millennial earth will be established on the basis of resurrection, and maintained on that ground by divine power. (see Ezekiel 37) God will cause the dry bones to live, and they will stand up in the principle and power of resurrection.

Resurrection -- "risen with Christ" -- is not actual but through faith. The quickening work of God in you is to enable you to act in all the light of your faith as not only having died with Him, been buried with Him in baptism, but raised with Him.

ENCOURAGEMENT FOR REMNANT DAYS

Isaiah 7

I want to read one scripture from the New Testament, not in a way in connection with what I have read in Isaiah, nor to unfold what we are going to read in the New Testament, but I think you will see at once the force of what I am about to read in Romans 15:4, "For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning" -- it is instruction for us; we learn by being instructed, as it is said, "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope". So Isaiah 7 was written for our instruction, and the instruction is in view of giving us endurance and encouragement as Christians. It is a simple thing to say, but it is a blessed truth that every bit of scripture from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22 has been written for us; and I am sure, beloved brethren, of this -- I could not speak about myself with any assurance, but one can speak about the Lord with the greatest assurance, and I feel assured that the Lord has brought us together in this room, at

this time, for our encouragement; and I am sure, too, beloved, that there is abundant encouragement for us in the chapter I have read.

These seven chapters -- I mean those from chapter 6 to chapter 12 -- form a distinct section of the prophecies by Isaiah. And the great theme of these chapters is the remnant. It is a very complete and definite history of the remnant; it is very precise at both ends; that is to say, at the beginning and at the end; for instance, mark the definite way it begins, "In the year that king Uzziah" -- how the Spirit of God puts His finger, as it were, down on the exact time. And what is the next word? I -- Isaiah; I, the prophet, the writer of this book: "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord [Jehovah] sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple". Now there could not be a more precise and definite beginning than that. And what about the end? Turn to it for a moment: the end is in chapters 11 and 12. In chapter 11 it says, "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord ... . And

righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins ... The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them", and so on. Now then, see chapter 12, "And in that day" -- mark what a definite end, for, as I have said, we get a very definite beginning and a very definite end. And, beloved, what a marvellous finish it is! So far as the actual statement of these seven chapters is concerned Christianity is not mentioned; but then we have just read that "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our instruction"; and it is not for our instruction in ancient history or future history, but for our present instruction, "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope". What is the point? The remnant comes to light, and there are seven facts pertaining to the remnant brought out in chapter 7 which I want to call your attention to; but before I do so let me attempt to show you the bearing upon ourselves of what we have read.

There are two sides to the truth of the remnant as set forth in scripture. There is one which you may call a dark side; but if there is a dark side, there is a bright side also. The dark side is on the side of God's people. There was no remnant in the days of King

David and King Solomon. What would you want with a remnant then? God had just established His people. Whatever trouble there had been previously in connection with Saul, it was all wiped out, and now all the twelve tribes are there, and all are one, and we see the glory and magnificence of the kingdom as set up by God in the midst of His people. You do not want any remnant there; but another day comes. When does the remnant come to light? It comes to light in a day of failure, and breakdown, and declension. Did Isaiah live in that kind of day? Well, listen: "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord, ... they are gone away backward", God says, "from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and petrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.

Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire", etc. That is Isaiah's day. And what comes to light then? A remnant! But mark! There is the dark side, and there is, thank God, a bright side, and that is God's side; the bright side is always God's side; the dark side is ours, but the bright side is His. And if there is a dark side now -- and there is -- there is also a bright side; but if there is a bright side, I repeat it is not our side. We may bow our heads in shame and self-judgment and confusion of face as to our side, but we can lift up our heads on God's side, for His is a very bright side, and we get that in Isaiah's day. I am going to dwell just a moment on the beginning of the remnant.

Now, Isaiah, in chapter 6, describes his own experience; he testifies as a man can testify if he has seen anything; he can tell what he has seen, and if he has heard anything he can tell what he has heard. As John says: "That which we have seen and heard we testify to you". So Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and what then? He saw the seraphim, and he heard them, and then he witnessed of what he saw and heard. But my point at the moment is this -- Isaiah gives us here, in connection with his own experience, what he actually saw, what he heard, and what he was constrained, as the result of what he saw and

heard, to confess -- first about himself and then about the people.

But now (though it is not exactly right to speak about a remnant of the assembly), our own times are remnant times, and they have been remnant times for some time back, and that is the particular interest of this part of scripture on account of its application to us. The conditions and the principles of the remnant must be our conditions and principles, otherwise no matter what your outward position may be, and it might be that you would pass muster in a way; for instance, you are breaking bread; that is all right -- (and hold on, beloved); but we must have things in reality. That is the particular value of this scripture.

Now then, let us look at Isaiah for a moment. He begins individually, I saw and I heard; "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts". They said holy, not merely once or twice, but three times, and that gives a complete testimony -- "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory". There you are. And what is the

effect upon you? You learn this -- that if these are remnant times your individual history must be involved; for if your individual history is not involved you are not in it. If we turn to the New Testament -- to 2 Timothy 2, we find "Let every one" -- that is, every individual, not every two or three -- but "let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity, and if a man" -- that does not mean a male; it means a person -- an individual: "If one shall have purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour"; as Mr. Darby rightly says, it is "himself, not somebody else". "If therefore one have purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour". And now notice another thing about Isaiah, and a very important thing it is: What is the point of his experience here? -- he learns deliverance. Is it deliverance from what he has done? No, deliverance from what he is. He says, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips". And then being clear about himself, of course he is clear about his associations. You often find people finding fault with their associations. They grumble about others they do not like the sects and the systems; but they seem to like themselves pretty well. Such people are not in the remnant spirit. We touch here a very practical point. Ah, beloved, it

must be an individual matter, and it must begin with deliverance. Do not tell me that anybody can be right who is not in the experience of deliverance. It is not in vain that the Spirit of God puts it in the first person singular; the man in Romans 7 does not say, "for I know that in us dwelleth no good thing". No; he says, "In me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell". I do not want to be in a hurry, for this is a very important point. In our own day, there has been a wonderful movement of God going on for eighty years or more. The truth has been brought out with wonderful distinctness and clearness; and any one who knows scripture must feel that it has been brought out with wonderful intelligence. You can have tracts, and pamphlets and books on scripture, and if you have a mind you can read them, and assent to them as you see they are scriptural, and further, you believe them and adopt them, and so you hold the right doctrines. But ah! that is not it. It is only when we know deliverance -- deliverance -- that we get into the good of these things. That is how Isaiah got it. What was the outcome of it? He says, "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having

a live coal [or a glowing coal, as Mr. Darby's translation reads] in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon --". Does he say our mouths, and Lo, this hath touched our lips? No! but -- "he laid it upon my mouth [Isaiah's mouth], and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged". It does not say sins, it says sin. Sin is purged. Do not read scripture loosely, if you do, brethren, you will suffer. The hindrance with many of us when we come to scripture is that we have already got our heads full and our minds full, and oftentimes we come to scripture to help up our doctrines. Mr. Darby once, in a reading, turned on a young man, who was rather forward, and said to him, "Do not put your thoughts into scripture; seek to get God's thoughts out of scripture".

Well, to return to Isaiah, what does he say next? "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me". Ah, beloved, he was ready for it, and what do you find? The Lord says "Go". He sends him. And what next? "Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land he utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and

there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it [in the land] shall be a tenth". The tenth is the remnant, and chapters 11 and 12 give us the remnant. The remnant of Israel goes on to the end, and we have not come to the end of Israel yet, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance". Any one who thinks God has given up Israel is deeply mistaken.

Now I want to say a little as to what is God's idea in the remnant. Let me tell you what it is. God does not institute an organisation. No; when people begin to say, "We are the people", you may be sure that they are not in the remnant character. God does not bring in anything new in connection with a remnant. God's thought as to a remnant is that it is God's way of maintaining in principle that which He had established; that is maintained in the remnant, but it does not constitute the remnant. Now we are in remnant tines; and if there is enough of a remnant in Belfast as to have three little meetings, what have you got? You have got three companies of individuals, and they have been delivered, and through deliverance they have come into the remnant character. If you have not the remnant character, you are not in it though you may be breaking bread; and you may know a great deal of scripture, more than I do, and

you may be able to give me points and so on; but if you have not been brought into deliverance, you are not in the remnant character. What is deliverance? Look at Romans 6 - 8; the beauty of chapters 6 and 7 is, that though it is broken up into distinct elements, it is all one deliverance, but it involves complete deliverance from sin -- sin not looked at as in you. Then the question of law is taken up, and the moment that law is taken up, out comes the flesh; because, when the question of law is taken up, you get to the bottom; and then, in chapter 8, you are in the good of deliverance. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made" us? Oh, no; no wholesaling things now, it has to be an individual matter; if it is not individual in my soul and in your soul, it is not there. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made ME free from the law of sin and death". If you have come to that, the remnant character will come out in you.

I want to show you now what comes out in Isaiah 7, and I shall attempt to show it to you briefly. I have read the chapter, and let the reading suffice. But all these circumstances are brought before us, especially in the beginning of the chapter: "It came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king

of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it". Well, those are the conditions. Well now, in connection with all that, what do we get? I must not lose sight of it, because "they are they" (saith the Lord Jesus, speaking to the Jews of the Old Testament scriptures) "which testify of me". He said, You search them, because they testify of Me. You might select a chapter where you might say, "Well, I cannot see Christ in that", but any one should see Christ here. If you read Matthew's gospel, you find there the name given Him here "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good". There is Christ, and mark, it is Christ in identification with the remnant. Take the Lord when He was here; take His first public act; what is it? He goes down to Jordan and sees John baptising, and He is baptised of him. What is the great point in the baptism of the Lord? Identification with the remnant. He is with the remnant. But I drop that for a moment, for I want to show you what the prophet goes on to learn: "The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day

that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria". Then he goes on to declare all the things that come to pass in that day -- that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver pieces -- why did he number the silver pieces? To show the value and the preciousness of the vines. But what now? It shall be nothing but thorns and briers. As to the people themselves, they hired a razor; and what does the razor do? It shaved the head and the hair of the feet, and it consumed the beard. What do the hair of the head and the feet and beard signify? The points of distinguishing beauty that God had put upon His people -- all gone!

Now, beloved, that is a picture of the present condition of things. Look at what the church was at the beginning and look around now. Can you see anything like it? Why, the ruin could not be more complete than it is, as complete as it was in the land of Israel in Isaiah's day, Well, the desolation in that day was complete. And now, what about the remnant? Listen: "And it shall come to pass in that day". Ah! we get another side now. It is not the Egyptian fly now, nor the Assyrian bee; it is not the thorns and briers now, it is the remnant: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep". What is the meaning

of that? I think it refers to Solomon's day. When the temple was being dedicated there were offered in sacrifices two-and-twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep in one sacrifice. Think of that! Then think of a young cow and two sheep! It was in the very same land that a man is said to nourish a young cow and two sheep. That is a very small thing, especially a young cow. A young cow does not give so much milk as an older cow. She does not reach her full milking until she is five years old. "A young cow and two sheep" was a very small thing. There was nothing to show in the remnant of that day, and so it is now. When you come to Philadelphia (Revelation 3) what do you find? I speak soberly and thoughtfully. There is not very much to be seen. The Lord says to Philadelphia. Thou hast -- what? a great power? an abundance of power? No! He says, "Thou hast a little power". But that little power is wonderful when you look at the results. It is but "the young cow and two sheep". "And it shall come to pass in that day that a man" -- it is "one" here: the "man" taken up is only a symbol of the remnant, because you see it comes at last to this. "For butter and honey shall every one eat"; but who eats? Every one that is left in the land. I have no doubt that took place in that day; I have no doubt that a

great many Jews emigrated and left the land, and some were found here and some there. And in this day you can find that many Christians have migrated and have left the land. The point as to the remnant is; they are left in the land.

Let me say this -- When God set up the nation, He did not set up the nation in the wilderness, He set them up in the land, and He set them up in a wonderful way. And when God set up the church, He did not set it up in the wilderness, He set it up in the land. You say, What do you mean by the land? Well, what did the land mean for the children of Israel? It is very simple; if you want to know: read the scripture where He brought them out of Egypt to bring them in -- where? Into the wilderness? He does not say so. He brought them out to bring them in. There is so much in that; do not miss its meaning; the Red Sea and Jordan coalesce, they are bound to coalesce. If you separate them, you have separated what God has joined together; for He brought them out to bring them in. Look at that wonderful chapter 15 of Exodus. Where did they sing that song? On the banks of the Red Sea, and there is not a word about the wilderness in that song; it is all about the land. In our individual souls we may have a history that will answer to the

history of Israel from Egypt to Canaan; but if you speak of the assembly, God set the children of Israel in the land. Well, the land of Canaan was the sphere of God's purpose for Israel, and the land represents now typically the scene and sphere of God's purpose for us. That is it. Now, beloved, are we in the land? I would like to raise that question in a very simple way. Mark! you begin with deliverance; do not forget that you cannot go on without that. You say, perhaps, "I am in the land". Well, see the Philistines! -- they would never go and ford the Red Sea, they shirked it, and they are in the land, but they are still Philistines, they were not God's people, they were not in the land according to God, nor by God. I repeat, you must know deliverance to be truly in the land. You may have your head full of the doctrines of scripture, but you are not in the land; you could not be unless you know deliverance; and that is just as true of the one who is speaking to you as of any one else in this room. When you come to the truth of God, beloved, there must be no dodging it, no evading it, no exemption, no getting round it your own way; there is only one way. You must know deliverance to get into the land. Look at Romans 8You touch the land there; and what marks you? The Spirit marks you! You do not walk according to the

flesh, you walk according to the Spirit; you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit. It is only in the Spirit and in the power of the Spirit that we can touch the purpose of God, or reach those who dwelt here. The remnant are in the land, and mark! it is "in that day". What day? The day of desolation, the day of thorns and briers, the day of the Egyptian fly and the Assyrian bee; I have seen bees settle down on a bush until they almost covered it. That is the figure the Spirit of God gives. The evil things settle down and all the distinctive marks of the beauty of the people of God have disappeared. And yet in that day, in the very presence of these things, in the very scene of desolation, the remnant comes to light. "A man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land".

Now I call your attention for a moment to verses 14 and 15: "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good". We have read already "butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land". That is identity of food. You must not take scriptural figures materially. Butter and

honey simply stand as figures of the richness and fatness of the purpose of God. Look at the effect, "butter and honey shall he eat", it is that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. What was the matter with the Egyptians? They had no butter and honey. And what did Amalek lack? What does anybody lack that lives on Amalek (the flesh)? they will not know anything about the purpose of God; they will not know how to refuse the evil and choose the good. It is a solemn thing, a solemn fact but a true fact. How readily some Christians take up with any kind of movement and any kind of doctrine. It is a very solemn thing. I believe in being gracious, but I am suspicious of that kind of graciousness which will surrender the truth of God, and which will surrender good for evil, for that is what is at the bottom of it. I do not believe in that sort of graciousness. Paul said that meat belongs to those who are fully grown. That is -- when you are so in the richness of the purpose of God that you are able to refuse the evil and choose the good. I wish, beloved brethren, to speak in grace, but I would say that the Lord would have us to be very real. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself to walk as He walked. And how did He walk? He walked in the absolute choosing of the good and the refusing of the evil. Ah,

if we walk as He walked, we shall go in that way; He refused the evil and He knew how to choose the good. "Butter and honey shall he eat".

One speaks with all holy reverence of Christ. That wonderful scripture is about Christ: and it is most searching, and at the same time a most encouraging scripture for us; it is, indeed, because it says also, "butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land ... and on all hills". You are maintained though there are briars and thorns. What is the remnant going to do? I will tell you what is left for the saints now; the mountains are left for the saints; "and on all mountains that shall be" -- what? -- "digged with the mattock". Oh, my brethren, have you learned to dig with the mattock? I know why the creeds are so popular; it is just like some who like to go to the ready-made tailors. We try the garments on. The garment seems to be the right size, down goes the money for the suit, and there is no question about it. So some like creeds and doctrines, and think they are fine clothes, but such do not know how to dig with the mattock. They have not soul exercise. "On all hills that shall be digged with the mattock [i.e. where there is individual exercise, there shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns". And

what kind of place will it be? A place of soul prosperity: "It shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle". My beloved brethren, it is marvellous; it ought to encourage us. May the Lord really enable us to take up what we have had before us, in exercise of soul with Him, so that the result may be endurance, and encouragement for our souls. Endurance means that though I know "the land shall become briars and thorns all around", still, no other place for me but the land, for oh! if I have found out the mountains -- the elevated places in the land -- the heavenly heights, and the digging of them with the mattock, how blessed, how wonderful! That is the portion of the remnant!

May the Lord bless His people; may He encourage us greatly.

THE GOSPEL OF ETERNAL LIFE

John 3:14 - 17; John 17:3; 1 John 5:6, 8 - 21

Although this meeting is given out as an address to believers, yet we propose to preach the gospel -- to you believers -- so we begin with John 3.

It is to be regretted that the question of eternal life should not only be thought difficult by many Christians, but should be a matter of controversy and discussion. Surely we cannot think that the Son of God would have set before Nicodemus matters of difficulty or controversy! I do not forget what the Lord says in verse 12; but mark, He does not say "understand", but "believe". I want to face that verse with you, because while the Lord uses the term "believe", it is often read as if it were "understand". How could the Lord Jesus, the blessed Son of God, set difficult things before Nicodemus?

Now these words of the Lord I call the gospel of eternal life, and we all need it; this is the gospel -- the good news as to eternal life. (Chapter 3: 14 - 16.) I say it freely -- there is not another scripture like this from Genesis to

Revelation, and if we take account of it, it will go far to divest our minds of false ideas.

What a moment in the world's history when the heart of God for the world is shown out! "God so loved the world". Did God know what the world was morally? Surely He did! And regardless of its condition, God's love is expressed towards the world -- not the world of space, or creation, or nature, but the people in it. If a person asserted that God loves the world now I should want the scripture for it; it is not the world now that "God so loved". This present world is the world subsequent to the fact noted in verse 17: "God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him". At that moment "God so loved the world", and God's love came out, and the thought, the intention, of His love came out, that man -- the world -- "should not perish". "Whosoever" will not allow of any exception, or any kind of restriction: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal". In the Old Testament God avowed He had not pleasure in the death of him who died; under no sort of circumstances has the perishing of a human being afforded pleasure to God. No, never; and now here we get the wonderful moment

when the love of God for the world is expressed by the fact of God sending His beloved, only-begotten Son into the world. The gift and the sending were alike expressions of God's wonderful love to the world. What God had before Him, without making any exception -- Jew, Gentile, black, white, rich, poor -- was that whosoever believes on Him may not perish. God's love would not have any one to perish. It is not according to the purpose of His love that any should perish, but that they should have eternal life. Eternal life expresses the thought and intention of God's love in the most world-wide character. The Psalmist said: "The entrance of thy words giveth light, giving understanding unto the simple". We lack simplicity. If His words are not clear to you, depend upon it you are not simple. Read verse 17. What is eternal life in view of? Salvation. By salvation I do not mean acceptance, or salvation from judgment, but soul-salvation from what has come into the world. What is that? Sin, and in connection with sin, lawlessness. "By one man sin entered into the world". Sin took two distinct forms before the flood, lawlessness and hatred. Sin as hatred did not come in by Adam, but sin as lawlessness -- independence of God -- came in by Adam. Cain was the firstborn of the lawless man, and Cain hated his brother. Then

what do you get in Genesis 6? Corruption and violence as characterising the antediluvian world, the result of lawlessness; and after the flood what is it? Idolatry. And now God wants man saved from lawlessness and idolatry. Israel was to have one God, we get that in the first two commandments, and then what follows is about lawlessness. Now how is deliverance from lawlessness and idolatry to be effected? By eternal life. What gives a man title to live? and what saves man from what sin has brought into the world? Eternal life.

Well, what is it? Let the Lord speak. "And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". (John 17:3.) That is it; listen to the Spirit of God. Some say it is the knowledge of divine Persons. What do you mean by that? Scripture tells us there are three divine Persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Ghost -- and all the three are God; we baptise into those names. God is fully revealed, not only as light and love, but as Father, Son and Holy Ghost; but what do you mean by the knowledge of divine Persons? Do you mean the knowledge of the Father as a divine Person, and of the Son as divine? Matthew 11:27 tells us that the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking of Himself as a divine Person, said: "No one knows the Son but the Father".

And do you say that you know the Son as a divine Person?

The Lord Jesus Christ says: "This is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". That ought to show us that it is not a question of divine Persons in the Godhead as such. No, it is the way that God has been pleased to come out in the revelation of Himself. It is not as a divine Person in the Deity that He is presented here, but God in the revelation of Himself, and this we know came out in Christ, and thus the only true God can be known. We know too -- Jesus Christ, whom He has sent; and in this knowledge of the Father as the true God and Jesus Christ the sent One there is salvation from idolatry and from lawlessness, complete salvation, and this is eternal life. How one longs to know more of the reality of it!

Now I want to set forth the gospel of eternal life. One longs that all the saints might know it, and also come into the consciousness of it -- that is what God intends. Turn to 1 John 5:6. The statements are first in historic order -- Christ died, and the water and the blood came out of His side, and subsequent to that the Spirit came; but when you come to the order now (verse 8), it is the Spirit, the water and the blood. Speaking of the Spirit, we should

speak intelligently. He has never been sent to the world. The Lord says He shall abide with you, and be in you; the Spirit of God has no sphere of operation outside the saints, so -- "He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself". So the order is now -- the Spirit and the water and the blood, and these three agree in testimony that "this life is in his Son". God intended that this should be a divine reality in our souls. Oh, the power of the knowledge of "the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent"! The knowledge of the Father as the only true God and of Jesus Christ has not failed. People "perish" in connection with idolatry and lawlessness. In Psalm 16 we read: "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another". That is idolatry. What shuts out idolatry? The knowledge of the Father as the only true God. Do you know Him? That knowledge is exclusive of every idol. When we speak of idolatry we are not speaking of idols of wood and stone. Covetousness is idolatry, but if you have the knowledge of the true God and of Jesus Christ His sent One you are not covetous. That knowledge is exclusive of idolatry in every form.

The possession of eternal life enables a person to "keep himself". As John says, "He that has been begotten of God keeps himself,

and the wicked one does not touch him". "Children, keep yourselves from idols". Eternal life involves that; it shuts out idols; that knowledge involves the abolition in your souls of all idolatry, and the abolition of all lawlessness. Christians almost say, "We have got to sin;" but scripture says, "He that abides in him does not sin". Alas! we labour to bring about the frustration of Christianity -- to have some corner where we can have an idol, or where we can do our own wills; but eternal life shuts out all idolatry and all lawlessness. Let me say to you, in the name of the Lord, Christianity is not a failure; Christianity is the greatest success; it is the revelation of the Father. The Father comes out to reveal Himself as the only true God. "To us there is one God, the Father". Outside in the world there are "lords many and gods many", but inside, "one God, and one Lord Jesus Christ". Eternal life involves not only the knowledge of God, but the knowledge of Jesus Christ as sent by Him, and it involves complete deliverance from lawlessness. So in Romans 8:3 we get: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who

do not walk according to flesh but according to Spirit". What is the righteous requirement of the law? To love God with all your heart, and your neighbour as yourself. That is eternal life, and in this way God would effect salvation for us; and if by the Spirit you know the Father, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, you will be in eternal life: you will not only have a title to it. In John 20:31 we get: "These are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name". John's epistle picks you up where John's gospel lands you; the epistle picks you up as believing, and tells you that you may know that you have eternal life. It is wonderful to be in the good of it; it is not only that we have the title, like having title deeds to an estate -- what is the use of that if you have never been there? The first thing is the title, but you are not only to have title but consciousness. The one who believes has title. Have you been brought to believe? Do you want the consciousness of eternal life? It is your privilege. "We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren". Ah! you say, I like some and I do not like others. You are not in the good of eternal life. If you believe you have title to it, but you are not in the good of it. Wake

up! Stop discussing it, and go in for the real thing!

What is the gain of believing on the Son of God? In John 7 at the feast of tabernacles the Lord cries: "If any one thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water". How magnificently it flows! and it is they who believe on the Son of God who receive it. That is the gain. It is not only the upspringing well of John 4, but it is the out-flowing well of John 7. Flowing wells do not need pumps. If you need a religious pump, that shows you are not in the good of eternal life. In John 4 the well is to become a fountain of water -- that is the spontaneity of the Spirit of God in the believer. The great gain of the Spirit is to make you know. What do you know in the consciousness of eternal life? You know the Father as the only true God, and Jesus Christ as the sent One. You get the light of the only true God in your soul and the idols are all gone. It is the spiritual reality of what will be actuality by and by; Christ, the "Sun of righteousness", the sent One of the Father, has arisen in your heart "with healing in his wings"! Where do we get the light of the Father? Only in the Person of the Son of God. And where do you get the knowledge of

the sent One? In the Son of God. He is come, and the effect of His coming abides, and that is true Christianity. "And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us an understanding that we should know him that is true; and we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ". Not in the eternal Son, mind you. We are not in the Godhead, but in His Son Jesus Christ; He is the true God in testimony and expression. The Father in true light has come out in revelation in the Son of God, and He has given you the light of it. One side of the incarnation is the revelation of God, the other side is the place the Son has taken as a Man God-ward; and that is where we come in, and so we come into eternal life.

I was going to speak of verse 14, but the time is up. That verse speaks about the boldness we have towards Him, that if we ask we know that we have. Do you know what confidence is? It is the result of knowledge. If I know a person I have confidence in him; you do not confide in people whom you do not know. What is the basis of your confidence here? You know you have eternal life, and you know the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ the sent One, and then you pray. May the Lord grant that our souls may be in the consciousness of eternal life.

THE SPHERE FOR THE SHEEP AND THE "DOOR" INTO IT

John 10:2 - 4, 7 - 9, 11, 14 - 18, 27 - 38

I would begin by saying that the division between chapters 9 and 10 of this gospel is not correct. The paragraph begins in chapter 9: 35 and goes on without a break to the end of chapter 10. I wish to call your attention to chapter 9: 35. I am increasingly impressed that in reading scripture it is most important to take account of the Lord Jesus Christ as He presents Himself in each passage. It is evident that He presents Himself in this scripture as the Son of God, and if He is not thus apprehended, the meaning of all that comes out in chapter 10 can never be understood. In John's writings the Lord is presented in two lights -- as Christ and as the Son of God. When we come to the close of this gospel, chapter 20: 31, we read, "that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life in his name". In this portion of scripture He is clearly presented as the Son of God. Previously the Jews had asked Him, "How long dost thou make us to doubt?

If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly". He had been presented to them as the Christ, but they had not believed. He does not repeat what He told them; the Lord never encourages unbelief -- that part of the testimony is, so to speak, not repeated. So now the Lord presents Himself as the Son of God: I wish to emphasise this particularly, for the Son of God has a wonderful place. In the first Epistle of John 5:11 we read. "And this is the witness [or record], that God has given to us eternal life; and this life is in his Son". We cannot understand anything about eternal life apart from this.

I want now to speak a little about the sheep of Christ and to point out the sphere that belongs to them. They occupy that sphere, there is that about them which marks them out as His sheep: they hear His voice, and the voice they hear is the voice of the Son of God: and He knows them. So the sheep of Christ are marked as being known in a particular way by Him. They are known by Him personally, individually, and they follow Him; they follow the Son of God. His path is a wonderful path, a peculiar path, and the sheep are found following Him in it, and He says, "I give unto them eternal life": eternal life is given by Him to the sheep -- to those who follow Him as the Son of God, and who hear His voice. Eternal life

is the characteristic blessing of the sheep. And in verses 14, 15 we find that this characteristic blessing of the sheep lies in knowledge. "I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father": this knowledge is the characteristic blessing of Christ's sheep. Then in verse 28 eternal life is given to the sheep as security. "I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand". There is perfect security there from every form of opposition or power of evil. No one is able to pluck them out of His hand. I do not apprehend that security is spoken of here for our comfort, but let me tell you, in a day like this we do need the comfort of it. Absolute security is guaranteed, "they shall never perish". The sheep are in the hand of the Son of God -- a place of greater security than any you could possibly conceive, and the result of being there is -- they do not "perish".

Now I want to speak a little as to the sphere of the sheep. Many have difficulty to adjust in their souls what belongs to them down here and what belongs to them in heaven. They connect eternal life with heaven instead of earth. The sphere of the sheep, then, in the first place, is connected with the truth of Jesus as the Son of God. You get the revelation;

that is -- the way God has revealed Himself in Him. The Son of God having been here, there has been the revelation of God -- the only true God -- and of what the Son of God has brought in by the revelation of Him. The incarnation becomes increasingly precious to me. A wonderful sphere has been formed down here, to be entered into while we are on earth, though it is not of earth. It is no question of heaven. We know, of course, and rejoice in it that we all -- all Christ's sheep, are going there; but God has not come out in the revelation of Himself in heaven. No! the wonderful thing is that God has revealed Himself down here in the blessed Person of His Son, and there is a sphere on God's side where He has come out. That is the sphere open and available to us. A wonderful thought -- a sphere down here into which the sheep are entitled to enter. I fail to see how it could be connected with heaven. It is not earthly, but it is for us while we are on earth. In this chapter the "one flock" is the great point. God has come out in revelation; He has come out in a Man -- in the only-begotten Son, and in the revelation of Himself has formed a sphere down here, though outside all here, and it is ours to enter into it. It is the characteristic blessing of the sheep, and it lies in the knowledge of the Father and the Son. Is it possible

to have that knowledge down here? Yes; not the knowledge of divine Persons in the Godhead, but in the sphere where the Spirit of God has come out, and you can enter into that sphere here, and now. The knowledge is, of course, in different measure to the knowledge between the Father and the Son, but it is the same kind or character of knowledge as that between the Father and the Son as Man down here. The Lord says, "And am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father". Surely if we were able to take in all that this involves our souls would be exercised as to how far we enter into that sphere, and if we know experimentally this -- the characteristic blessing of the sheep. When the Lord Jesus Christ was down here, He was in relation to the Father as the only true God, and we are entitled to know the Son of God as the Father knew Him down here, and as He as a Man knew the Father. This same kind of knowledge is open to us, but not that which belongs to those relationships between divine Persons; that cannot be known or entered into by us. Incarnation has brought Him into revelation, has brought Him, so to speak, within our range.

In the end of chapter 9 the Lord heard they had cast the man who had been born

blind out of the Jewish fold, and having found him He said to him, "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?" and He goes on to unfold what is really the truth of Christianity.

We read in John 1, "In the beginning". That is not the outset -- the creation; it is the starting-point; it is incarnation. F.E.R. said that "the truth of incarnation is entering into a condition in which He was not before". There was no change of Person -- it is not a term of personality, but a term of condition. The sphere of the sheep is connected with the thought of the revelation of God as the only true God. In that one Person -- Jesus Christ, the sent One -- two things are perfectly expressed -- the perfect revelation of the Father, and Himself -- the Son of God -- the perfect answer to that revelation.

There are three points in which God's people are poorly established: (1) the place the Son of God as Man has taken to God; (2) the new place man has been brought into God-ward; (3) the knowledge of the Father God-ward, and that also involves the knowledge of "Jesus Christ" as the sent One, and what characterised Him as the Father's sent One. He has not been "sent" to heaven. He was sent to earth. When He says of the sheep, "I give unto them eternal life", what does He give them? The knowledge of the Father as He, as man, knows the Father, and as

the Father knows Him, and this is that wonderful sphere -- the sphere of eternal life. He is "the door", and entering in by Him involves three things: (1) salvation "he shall be saved", (2) liberty, (3) pasture -- all that you need to nourish and support you in the life into which you have entered. All this is reached by Christ as "the door". But mark! the sphere is, as I have said, down here, but it is necessarily an out-of-the-world sphere, connected with Jesus as the Son of God. "Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God", 1 John 5.

Well, the Lord presents Himself to the man who had been blind as "the Son of God". The man gladly believed on Him, and did Him homage. He submitted his whole being to Him as the Son of God. That is how we "enter in". We begin with Jesus as the Christ -- that is the beginning. Then we recognise Him as the Son of God. Many are what I call doorstep Christians -- they remain on the doorstep of Christianity and never go in. They believe in Jesus as the Christ, but do they believe on Him as the Son of God? The sphere where He is known as the Son of God is an out-of-the-world sphere, and if the sheep know Jesus as the Son of God they have entered that sphere, and it is the sphere of eternal life, of salvation, liberty and pasture.

He is the door (if one may so say) of egress and of ingress. His death was the door out from the Jewish fold. But now He is the door in -- for ingress. It is, "If any man enter in", etc. We have the Lord in resurrection as the door of ingress, so in verse 9 it is the Son of God in resurrection. He is marked out as the Son of God by resurrection from the dead. His resurrection took place down here. It did not take Him to heaven, and when our resurrection takes place it does not take us to heaven. We await the rapture for that, but I wish to emphasise that while this sphere which I have spoken of is down here, it is on the other side of His resurrection. We stand connected with the purpose of God; the sheep of Christ, though here in flesh, are not seen in flesh in that out-of-the-world sphere because it is connected with Him as the Son of God risen from the dead, and that brings in the characteristic blessing of the sheep which is eternal life, and which consists in the knowledge of the Father as "the only true God", etc.

My conviction is -- we are near the close of things here. Everything will get worse and worse. Many saints have asked me recently if I think the rapture is near. I think it is. But have we soberly weighed the condition of things here? They are now exceedingly difficult

and trying for many of the Lord's people, and they will become increasingly so. When the rapture takes place how we shall rejoice to be with Him, but things here are becoming so bad there will presently be no place for us here. When Enoch was taken the state of things here was awful -- wickedness on every hand just before the flood. So God took him. But listen! you are in the hand of the Son of God and in the Father's hand, and you "shall never perish". If we are settling ourselves comfortably in our circumstances here, this passage loses its force for us, but I believe the days are not far off when every statement of the Lord in regard to our security will be realised. "No one shall seize them out of my hand". You are perfectly safe in the hand of the Son of God. What a wonderful place that is to be in! "No one" -- none can touch you there. Is the wolf coming? You are perfectly secure and safely guaranteed against "perishing"; you have the blessed sense of security from all that transpires here.

But it is not only security. The sheep have the wonderful privilege of knowing the Father in the kind of way that Christ as Man knew Him. I wish I could open it up to you. Oh, to know Him now as the Father knows Him, with the same kind of knowledge! and the sheep are characterised by this knowledge.

In heaven there will be no question of "perishing", and the term "eternal life" will have no force. Let us receive the truth as scripture presents it. We are finite creatures now, and we shall remain so all through eternity. There is no confusion in scripture. God will ever remain God, and the creature will remain the creature. In 1 Corinthians 15 we get the end of the mediatorial kingdom of God the Father. The Son delivers it up to Him, and Father, Son and Holy Ghost become all in all. That is the end -- the final.

Now I have only a simple, practical word to add -- Where are we, beloved, in relation to all this? Have we the light of Him as the Son of God? It is a wonderful thing to know Him as the Christ, but it is still more wonderful to know Him as the Son of God. Have we that light, and are we in the faith of Him as the Son of God? I might again refer in this connection to the Epistle of John -- "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God"; but when you come to believing that He is the Son of God you are carried on farther: "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" Oh, beloved, where are we? Have we availed ourselves of Him as the "Door", "I am the door"? It is not a shut door;

it is an open door. "If any one enter in by me he shall be saved, and shall go in and shall go out and shall find pasture". It has all been made available in His resurrection and ascension. Well! it is in the measure that we "enter in" through Him into the knowledge of God, that salvation, security, liberty and pasture are made good to us. There is a boundless and inexhaustible provision for us. We "find pasture", and how wonderful is the character of the pasture! There is for us the "bread of God come down from heaven". We really feed upon the knowledge of God.

I feel that there is everything to encourage us. If we know Him in the wonderful way He presents Himself to us here -- "I am the door", we shall prove the truth of His words; it will lift us above the discouraging elements, that we may see all around us, and it will set us in the joy of salvation, in the joy of liberty, and in the satisfaction of enjoyed pasture -- rich pasture -- from the hands of God.

May the Lord supplement and bless these fragmentary remarks, and make good to our souls what it is to be the sheep of Christ

"ONE IN US"

John 17

I have no doubt, beloved brethren, that every Christian here is conscious of the peculiar character attaching to this chapter. I think it might be said freely that this chapter stands alone in the Bible. There is no other chapter just like it. I think a peculiar sacredness belongs to it. I do not know how Moses felt at the burning bush; or how Joshua felt when the Captain of Jehovah's host addressed him; but both these great servants were told to remove their shoes from off their feet, because the ground whereon they stood was holy, and I think, beloved, that if one's soul is with God one feels in looking into this chapter a sense of the importance of approaching it with holy reverence.

All the closing part of the Gospel of John is intensely interesting. In chapter 12, what we might speak of as the Lord's public ministry -- His ministry as regards the world -- ceased; and it ceased in a very striking, solemn way. The words are these: "These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from

them". And from that moment to the present the Lord has been virtually hidden from the sight and gaze of this world. Then we find the Lord, in the opening of chapter 13, exclusively engaged with His own. He has them in separation from the world; He gathers them about His own Person. It is the scene of the "upper room". Ostensibly, and really too, the Lord and His disciples are gathered together for the celebration of the passover. In the opening of chapter 13 the Spirit of God brings very vividly before us what occupied the Lord's heart. "Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father". Mark: "the hour" The knowledge of it fills the heart and mind of the blessed Lord. Then it goes on to say (and how it ought to touch every one of our hearts), "having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end". In those words we find the Lord's heart, the Lord's love for His own, deeply stirred; His heart is thus engaged with His own. It is remarkable and well worth our attention, that what is on the Lord's heart, on the point of His departure out of this world to the Father whence He came, is to set His own in right relation, and in right adjustment to each other. We sometimes, perhaps lightly, carelessly, say -- Never mind the saints; let us be occupied with the

Lord. That is not like the Lord. He is occupied with His own, and, I am bold to say, that His occupation with them here is in the way of adjusting them in right relation to one another.

He laid aside His garments. It is during the supper ("during" is the right word, not "at the close" ), during the progress of the supper He rose; He laid aside His garments; He poured the water into the basin, and, girding Himself with a linen towel, He proceeded to wash the feet of His disciples. I would just dike to ask you to contemplate this! Look at Him, beloved! His garments laid aside! Garments in scripture are very significant. They are distinguishing and characterising. And at this moment the Lord laid aside His garments. We like to wear our garments and are fond of showing them. I wish we knew more how to lay them aside. Look at Him! There He is -- the Lord and Master! He says, You call Me Lord and Teacher, and that is what I am. Look at Him -- the Lord and Teacher! Look till your heart catches fire! His garments laid aside and with the linen towel girding Him, the water in the basin; He proceeds to wash and then to wipe the feet of His disciples. Look at the wonderful ending of it! He finished His service to them; He both washed and wiped their feet:

and now He sets down the basin, ungirds the towel from His loins, puts on His garments and resumes His place. Then He says, "I have done this for an example to you, and you must do to one another what I have done to you". You ought. It is the moral obligation put upon every one of us by our loving Lord and Teacher, who is none other than the Son of God. He says, "Ye also ought to wash one another's feet".

Now that is the beginning, and you know how the chapter closes. It closes with that wonderful new commandment. He says, "A new commandment I give unto you". Yes, He commands. Are you conscious of it? Does your heart rise up with divine delight and alacrity to obey His commandment? "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another". But that is not all. Of course we ought to love one another. But what He says is, "That ye love one another; as I have loved you". And how had He loved them? "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you". There it is. See how it comes down like a divine chain, link in link; down from the heart of the Father it comes to reach your heart and mine. He says -- As the Father loved Me, that is how I have loved you; and you are to love one another just as I have loved you. Well, beloved, there we are! Our feet washed

and wiped; not a spot upon them; not a shade of distance between our hearts and Himself. What is it all for? That we may have part with Him. Peter says, "Thou shalt never wash my feet.". And what does the Lord say, so gently, so graciously? "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me". Then Peter says, Wash me all over; "not my feet only, but also my hands and my head". But Peter was as far wrong there as when he said, "Thou shalt never wash my feet". You have absolutely to surrender your own thoughts and will, and to put your feet in His hands, and let Him have His own blessed way with you.

But I must not tarry on this, or I shall not get to chapter 17. If washed and wiped perfectly clean, they are now under His new commandment; they are to love one another as He loved them. Now He is free to minister. Do you say -- I wish we could have some good ministry among us. It is His teaching we want. It is the blessed ministry that comes from Himself. Look at chapter 14 -- there is His ministry! He had set them in right relationship with each other, and in relationship with Himself in respect of the new commandment. What is to hinder now? What an opening of ministry there is from Himself to His own in chapter 14! I do not know how it strikes you, but the very first note of John 14

starts up music in my heart, "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told, you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also". How lovely! What a beginning! Let me add this practical, simple word -- if we are in line with chapter 13, we may expect from chapter 14. Show me a company of saints that are rightly adjusted with each other, who are really going on in the power of the new commandment, and I will show you a company that are enjoying His ministry; it does not matter where the meeting is -- Glasgow, Indianapolis, or any other place; it does not matter whether the meeting is large or small, it is not quantity, it is quality that the Lord looks for, and if the quality is what it ought to be amongst the saints to each other, you may depend upon it ministry will come.

Then in chapters 15 and 16, He is still engaged with His own. In chapter 15, it is in respect of fruit-bearing, and in chapter 16, it is in respect of testimony. You may distinguish each of these chapters, but the two are inseparable. There are two sides in these chapters -- one is God-ward and the other is man-ward. Fruit is for the Father, "Herein is my Father

glorified, that ye bear much fruit". Fruit is God-ward; testimony is man-ward, and where there is the one there is the other. Where there is no fruit there is no testimony, or very poor testimony, but where there is fruit for the Father you will always find testimony.

In chapter 13, as we noticed, the Lord is done with the world, and in chapter 16, in the way of His ministry, He is done with His own. He has nothing more to say to the world; He has nothing more to say to His own. But, oh! where did He come from? He came from the Father; He could not finish with the world, nor could He finish with His own; He could only finish with the One from whom He came, the One to whom He is about to go. And so chapter 17 opens: "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven". He turned those eyes of grace away from the world; turned those eyes of love which were upon His own in that upper room, and He now turns His eyes heavenward. He lifts up His eyes to heaven, and says, "Father!" And then what an outpouring from His heart to the Father! Is it not wonderful that the Spirit of God has put it on record in the scriptures, so it has come down to us, and it is our privilege not only to read it, but to ponder it, to listen to the very utterance which fell from the lips of the

blessed Lord which are found in this chapter? What a holy privilege to be permitted to stand by, as it were, and listen; to hear, and by the Spirit, to understand this marvellous outpouring of the Lord's heart to His Father! It is indeed wonderful. How one loves to linger over this chapter! How often do you read it? I want to read it very often. I have prayed and wept over it; my heart has been ravished as I have read it. What an introduction that is -- what an appeal! "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son" -- what for? -- "that thy Son also may glorify thee". Then, "As thou hast given him power [authority] over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal". It is often asked, What is eternal life? Listen! not to me, but to Him. Let every other mouth be stopped and every tongue be still; but open wide the ears of thine heart and hear Him. Many dear Christians think themselves into a tangle -- into a fog of uncertainty and doubt. It is not a question of thinking, but of listening. What we have to do is to listen to Him. Well, He says, "This is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent". That is His wonderful introduction. And on what ground does He base His appeal to the Father? "I have glorified thee on the earth,

I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it; and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was". He can appeal to the Father to glorify Him that He may further glorify the Father in all that the Father has given Him to accomplish -- and what is that? -- to give eternal life to those given Him of the Father. And He grounds this appeal on the marvellous fact of His having glorified the Father on the earth.

Then He turns to speak of the "men" whom the Father has given Him out of the world -- the disciples. There are eleven of them. One, as we know, had gone out -- the son of perdition; Judas was ever that, but now it had all come out; the exposure is complete; he "went out and it was night"; he went out into the night that yet lingers and remains with its deep darkness over this world. There are only the eleven with Him, and He privileges them to hear the desires of His heart poured out to the Father. That goes on to the end of verse 19.

Then in verse 20 He says: "I do not demand for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word". That means that the Lord now bears up in the desires of His heart to the Father every one who believes on Him -- on "Jesus, the Christ, the Son

of God". What is all this Gospel of John written for? John says in chapter 20: 30, 31: "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life in his name". That is the divine standard. Do not pull the standard down. It is like that passage in Ephesians 4"Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God". I should like to have heard Paul's first preaching. What did he preach? He announced as glad tidings that Jesus is the Son of God. The "light from heaven" revealed that to him.

I am quite prepared to speak of all believers in the widest way, and to go with anything that can scripturally be said about all believers. But seeing that the scripture itself makes distinction between those who believe that Jesus is the Christ and those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, feel we do well to take account of these distinctions. "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ" -- what about that one? -- he "has been begotten [or born] of God". But it is said further -- "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he dwelleth in God". And again -- (I like J.N.D.'s translation of this

passage) "And this is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world". Who gets the victory? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. If we are worldly we need not speak about believing that Jesus is the Son of God. If we truly believe that we shall be clear of the world.

I think there are a good many of us, as well as myself, who need a divine lift. Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? If you do I give you my hearty congratulations. But do you believe in your soul that Jesus is the Son of God? What is the Lord's prayer for all who believe on Him through the apostles' word? "That they may be all one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". Listen to His words: "That they may be all one". Is that oneness dogmatical, ecclesiastical? Oh, no! What was the oneness between the Father and the Son? It was the oneness of holy, divine, reciprocal affection. The Father loved Him, and He loved the Father. What a place He had in the Father's heart; what a distinguishing place! The Father said of Him, "This is my beloved Son, in whom is all my delight". He was God's only One. The expression in the authorised version "only begotten" means in the original "God's only one". It is the

same expression which is translated in Genesis 22"Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest". Again, Psalm 22, it is translated "my darling"; and in Proverbs 8"I was daily his delight" -- the literal translation of the same word is "The nursling of his love". He had that place in the Father's heart; He was the Father's delight -- His "only one". He was the One whom the Father, in that peculiar sense and way, loved. And He loved the Father. The Father was in His heart -- in His affections. The Father commanded, controlled the affections of the Son. He absolutely reigned supreme in them, "That the world may believe that thou hast sent me". He said to His own disciples -- "Abide in my love. If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love". There was that blessed mutuality of holy, divine, reciprocal love. Love in the Father answering to love in the Son; love in the Son answering to love in the Father.

Well, what does He pray for these? "That they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee" -- I need not say that no one would think of attaching to that word "as" the idea of degree or measure, but who would dare to detach the meaning "same kind" from it. In what measure has God wrought in your

heart and mine to produce that? That is the desire of His heart for us. "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us". I want to emphasise this -- Wherever there is breakdown and failure from the manifest unity contemplated by the Lord's heart here and expressed in this desire to the Father, wherever there is breakdown and departure from it, let me tell you it is because we are not one in the Father and the Son. Oh! I wish I could dare to utter all that is in my mind and heart as to this. For His glory and for the gratification of His heart I will say this -- it is only as this holy, divine, reciprocal affection exists in our hearts -- in yours and in mine -- that the truth will be maintained in every particular. I am so thankful for that one utterance of the Spirit: "Love never faileth". NEVER! NEVER! It never has failed and it never will. As the truth of God, IT STANDS! And it is unimpeachable: LOVE NEVER FAILETH.

The Lord lifted up His eyes to His Father, and said: "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us". The Son's love for the Father will hold you as true as steel to the Father, and the Father's love to the Son will hold you as true as steel to the Son. We think a great deal of circumstances and details. I wish we thought more of

causes and divine principles. The devil is always at the bottom of everything that is wrong, and we know how it will be by-and-by, because scripture has foretold the apostasy -- has foretold what is coming to pass in the area of Christendom -- where we are tonight, Glasgow included: THE OPEN PUBLIC DENIAL OF THE FATHER AND THE SON. We read in scripture that Antichrist is coming, and Antichrist will deny the Father and the Son. The devil is on that line now -- he is.

But I want to speak a word about this fourfold desire of the heart of Christ. There are the first two desires, and there are the second two. The first two have a bearing upon the world; the first one is that the world may believe; the Lord says in verse 22: "And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one". That is not like the oneness of verse 21: the oneness of verse 22 is quite distinct from the oneness of verse 21. You must read carefully, closely. The Lord says in, verse 22: "That they may be one, as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me". Now, the oneness He prays for in verses 20, 21 is for the present time, it is now. "That they may be

one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me". May the Lord draw up our hearts and exercise our consciences as to this -- my heart and conscience is deeply exercised tonight as to this desire of the Lord. Remember it! You will leave this room tonight, you will go home and lie down to sleep; but, remember, you are under all the responsibility of that desire of Christ for you! How are you answering to it? One in the Father and in the Son. "One in us". One in the Father's love to the Son and in the Son's love to the Father. Is that made good in us? In us, mark! Not to us. It is not something presented to us; it is something effected in us. "That they also may be one in us". If your soul gets hold of this you will not brook for a moment any attempt to dishonour the Father. Why? Because the Son's love to the Father is made good in you; and you will get equally indignant over every attempt to dishonour the Son. Do you ask, What do you mean? I mean what I say, Christ as the Son is over God's house. Will you stand by and see any one trifling with the prerogative of Christ as the Son over God's house? You will indignantly refuse it; you will wash your hands of it. Then there is the other desire, which is

future. Verse 23: "That they may be perfected into one"; that will be in the glory. "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory". Then the world will K -- N -- O -- W -- will know. "That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me". That is the future.

Then there are two more desires. The first two have respect to testimony, and the world is in view -- the first one that the world may believe, and the second that the world may know. But the last two desires belong to the inside -- no question of testimony. It is a question of privilege conferred upon us, and that privilege can only be measured by the Father's love to the Son and the Son's love to the Father, which is inside. The first one is -- "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world". Now, do you expect me to explain this? If you do, I must decline. It is too deep for me to explain. But most devoutly I believe it. We are going to behold a glory which He calls "My glory". That is a glory that will never be shared by any others. Why? Because it is a glory that will express the love that the

Father had for Him before the foundation of the world. That is going to be expressed in the glory the Father gives to Him as Man. And you and I are going to be with Him where He is. What for? That we may behold His glory. I wish I could say more; I cannot say much on this wondrous fact, it is beyond me; but I believe it. The moment is coming when we shall be there with Him, and then we shall behold that glory.

The other desire belongs to the present, and I shall finish with that. It is in the last verse. He says, "I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them". That is here and now; the other desire is there and then. "Father", He says (and how beautiful that is!), "as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world". Where is that to be known? In the Father's house of many abodes, as to which He says, "I go to prepare a place for you". It is in the prepared place in the Father's house. That is not exactly heaven; it is the universe; but this desire, has regard to the heavenly side of it. "That where I am they also may be". That applies to there and then; but the last verse is

to be known here and now -- I have declared, "I have made known to them thy name, and will" (the verb is in the future tense, and looks on, doubtless, to what we get in John 20:17) -- "make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them". Oh, how marvellous this is! Just think! The hearts of the saints are the present home of the Father's love for the Son; and the present home for the Son of God Himself. "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them".

May the Lord add His blessing to my feeble words and make these wonderful things good to us, for His name's sake!

CHRISTIANITY IS CHRIST

Philippians 2

No intelligent believer would claim inspiration as to the order of the books of the New Testament; at the same time it has been felt to be striking that the Epistle to the Philippians should follow that to the Ephesians. It seems fitting and right that it should be so, for Philippians gives you a practical illustration of the truth which is so characteristic of Ephesians. Without going into detail I would remark that what is so prominent in Ephesians is the heavenly side of our calling. When Paul was writing to Timothy he said, "Thou hast fully known my doctrine and manner of life". Paul was the living embodiment and exemplification of his teaching. It was Paul who wrote Ephesians, and Paul, as seen in his Epistle to the Philippians, is the embodiment of his teaching in that epistle.

There is no epistle, of all those written by Paul, that gives you such an insight into his experience as a Christian as Philippians. It is not, strictly speaking, an apostolic epistle. Paul does not write to them in the

character of apostle. In the beginning of it he says, "Paul, bondman of Jesus Christ", and he associates Timothy with himself in that word -- "bondman". In this respect it is in accord with Revelation 1:1, which was written by John, as "the bondman of Jesus Christ". So the Epistle to the Philippians has been spoken of as an epistle of christian experience, and we do well to recall what has been said by our brother (T.H.R.) "Christianity is Christ!" That is a beautiful statement! The more you think of it the more it will impress you! "Christianity is Christ", so if this is an epistle of christian experience it must set forth Christ, and so it is all Christ and that in a wonderful way!

It has been spoken of in different ways:

Chapter 1 -- Christ our life.
Chapter 2 -- Christ our pattern.
Chapter 3 -- Christ our object.
Chapter 4 -- Christ our strength and sufficiency.

It would be easy to show how each of these characterises each chapter.

Then again we may look at each chapter in another light:

Chapter 1 is encouragement.
Chapter 2 is humility.
Chapter 3 is energy.
Chapter 4 is satisfaction and contentment.

In chapter 1 Paul says, "For to me to live is Christ"; he says this as a "bondmen" of Christ. If you make any of his experience as expressed in this epistle apostolic, you put a distance between the writer and yourself. Beloved, we are bondmen of Jesus Christ. It is a great thing to see that Christianity is what we are. There is a great deal of self-occupation in Christians trying to be what they ought to be. One would not like to be cold-hearted but it is a great thing to take account of what we are in God's mind, and then we can be exercised that the Spirit may work in our souls so as to bring us into correspondence with it. In 1 Corinthians 7 there are two classes of believers as to their social standing -- there are slaves and freemen. Now Paul says to slaves, "As redeemed you are Christ's freed-men". Then he speaks to masters and says, "Ye are Christ's bondmen". We are bondmen of Jesus Christ, He has bought us with a price.

Well, see chapter 2 -- "If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and compassions, fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing", etc. How these words should appeal to our hearts as to what is available to us as Christians. Paul and Timothy had no comfort in Christ that you may not have. For years it

has been an encouraging thought to me that the best things of Christianity are open to us all, and that the very best things remain -- the best things that were here when the apostles were here. They were official servants but they had not any blessings better than what we have. How the Spirit seems to delight to spread these things before us, and to engage our hearts with them!

This epistle is not doctrinal. There is in it something better than correct doctrine and order, and that is an experience of Christ. It is not a doctrinal but an experimental epistle. The stamp on it from beginning to end is christian experience exemplified in Paul.

There is a wonderful link between Paul and the saints in Philippi. He is free to let his heart out. He says: "fulfil my joy". How happy he was about them! He says in chapter 1: 3: "I thank my God for my whole remembrance of you, constantly in my every supplication, making the supplication for you all with joy". He had no anguish and tears in writing this epistle; when he wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians his heart was at breaking-point. Not so here, but now in chapter 2 he says: Do you want to fill my joy full, I am very happy about you, but do you want to fill my joy up?

Now notice how he expresses his desire

for these saints. Some of us have a scolding way, but look at the lovely way in which Paul begins. I commend it to you: "If then there be any comfort in Christ, if any consolation of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit". There are two expressions about the Spirit. In chapter 1: 19 we get "the Spirit of Jesus Christ". In chapter 3: "Worship by the Spirit of God". When it is a question of worship it is the "Spirit of God". But when it is a question of what is experimental which is unfolded in this chapter, it is the Spirit of that Man; and He will make us like that Man, there will be an answer in us to what He is.

"For to me to live is Christ". But what is it to live? To live largely depends on the heart and the mind, "As a man thinketh so is he", "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life". We speak of a man as characterised by this or that; it is all a question of the heart and the mind, so if we are to "live Christ", it is a question of our hearts and our minds. In this passage it is the mind that is prominent. When Paul says, "Fulfil ye my joy", his desire is that they should "think the same thing". Just imagine thirty or forty saints at Norwood all thinking the same thing! They would begin to touch the confines of unity! That was Paul's desire. Then he appeals to the heart; he says: "Having the

same love". Is not that beautiful? I call that a divine touch. You not only think the same thing, but you have the same love. "Joined in soul". Soul is a distinct component part of man. There is spirit, soul and body. Soul is the appetite -- desire, hunger, thirst after God. "My soul thirsteth for ... the living GOD". We are to be "joined in soul" -- in all our desires, spiritual appetites -- hunger and thirst, to be one.

What a wonderful putting together of saints that is! It is not an external adjustment. I do not care about any kind of external unity: if we get the inside adjusted, the outside will take care of itself. When the saints cannot get on together it is always the inside that is wrong. Here it is thinking one thing, and then "let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vain glory". "Let NOTHING", but -- "in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves". This must be real. We must not pretend to it; the Lord will pull you up if you are a pretender. It is "in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves; regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others". To give yourself up is a fine way of being a help to your brethren! Do you ask, How can this be brought about, how can we answer to this practically? How can we think

the same thing, and how can all this be? Here is the answer for you: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus". In the end of 1 Corinthians 2 Paul says, "We have the mind of Christ". That means the thinking faculty, but here it is a different thought. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus". What kind of a mind governed Him? Men have their minds set on certain things, perhaps on making money. I know a man who set his mind on making money, and he became the richest man in the world. The minds of different men are set on different things. But what was the mind in Christ Jesus? This does not refer to His mind as now risen and glorified; it is the mind that was in Him when down here. We often try to practise Christianity, and we may be sincere and upright in the attempt, but we attempt it in ourselves. That cannot be; we must have Christ only before us, it must be -- "to me to live is Christ". There is only one mind in which we can carry out Christianity practically, and that is the mind that was in Christ Jesus. That mind is to be in you and in me. It is a question of what is in us. We charge our difficulties on our circumstances. Things and persons are trying, and so forth. All that is not the question; the question is -- what is in you? Is this mind which was in Christ Jesus in

you? Christ Jesus subsisted in the form of GOD, and thought it not an object of rapine to be equal with GOD. Of course He did not. He is, and ever was God equal with Father and Spirit; but if these heights of His divine Person are brought before us, it is only to intensify what follows -- "made himself of no reputation". If any of us take the lowest place it is good, but it is no credit to us. Who are you and who am I? But, beloved, think of a divine Person subsisting in the form of GOD, emptying Himself, taking a bondman's form, etc. Adam thought it an object of rapine to be like GOD, but here is One who thought it not "an object of rapine to be on an equality with GOD", and from these divine heights He "emptied himself". He made Himself of no reputation. If you and I make anything of ourselves as Christians, it is not the mind of Christ Jesus, but the mind of the flesh. Alas! what strife, what vain glory there often is! It is our common shame. I speak in the sense of the reproach it is to Christ. What marked Him? He emptied Himself, taking a bondman's form. How it ought to touch our hearts that One who subsisted in the form of GOD should take a bondman's form! If we had spiritual apprehension as to His path, we should accept it as an honour to be His bondmen. Paul gloried in calling himself "bondman of Jesus Christ".

If you and I in the spirit of our minds are in the form of bondmen, we are in touch with Christ. When saints take an opposite form they are in touch with the devil. We touch Christ when we take the bondman form.

Then we get "taking his place in the likeness of men". J.B.S. illustrated it by saying: Suppose a high-born and wealthy man determines to take the place of a servant and to live it out for a certain time, and never flinches or varies in the path; so the Lord when He took His place in likeness of men and humbled Himself. That is the true path; that is the "mind in Christ Jesus". It is expressed in His "taking a bondman's form", "taking his place in the likeness of men", and then humbling Himself further to death -- the death of the cross. It was down, down, down all the way. In Luke's gospel in the first nine chapters the Lord goes up till He reaches the top of the holy mount, and from that He goes down till He strikes the bottom on Calvary's cross, becoming obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross. That was what expressed the mind of Christ, and -- listen! -- "let this mind be in you". You can only find this mind in Him. It expressed itself in these downward steps till He was obedient unto death.

Then there is the answer: "Wherefore also

God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow". That is not yet; that day is coming.

The wonderful opportunity for us of the present moment I do not know how to speak of! The opportunity to let this mind be in us that was also in Christ Jesus. What a strange hallucination if we think the present is a time to go up! This is the time to go down -- down. To be in accord with our Lord Jesus Christ is true Christianity, and if we suffer, we shall reign with Him. I would not speak of this (as one feels how short one comes of it) only that I desire to impress on your hearts the wonderful privilege and opportunity of the present moment.

DELIVERANCE AND ITS RESULTS

Romans 7:24, 25; Romans 8:1 - 11

We desire to present to you a few simple thoughts in connection with this scripture. I think there is common agreement amongst God's people who have a measure of light and understanding, that the Epistle to the Romans lays the foundation of Christianity. It presents the foundation in a twofold way -- the foundation for faith which is objective, and the foundation subjectively. What we mean by subjectively is that which is connected with the indwelling and work of the Spirit of God in us. Speaking of this epistle, in the order in which the truth is presented, we have first -- faith. From chapter 3 to verse 11 of chapter 5 you cannot fail to see that faith is very prominent; "believing", that is, faith, is constantly spoken of. That is objective; it is what is presented from God to us. Then from the beginning of verse 12 of chapter 5 we do not hear any more about believing. From thence we get the subjective side.

There are two dangers from which we have suffered. The first is confusion; we have

failed to distinguish between the two sides of Christianity, and that is serious, but it is equally serious to separate the one side from the other side, and that is the second danger. We may suffer from confusion -- the lack of distinction -- and we may suffer from separating one part from another. In scripture the two sides are never confounded and never separated.

Now this portion I have read is manifestly on the subjective side. In the first eleven verses of chapter 8 the Spirit of God is spoken of eleven times. There we are on the subjective side. It is no question in Romans 8 of receiving the Spirit, that is settled in chapter 5, where the Spirit is brought in. The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost. But what is brought before us in chapter 8 is the good of the Spirit. It is not only that we have the Spirit abiding, and indwelling us, but we have the activities and workings of the Spirit within us. Do you ask, Can any one have the Spirit and not be in the good of it? The first Epistle to the Corinthians is an answer to that. There is no doubt according to that scripture that the Corinthians were indwelt by the Spirit. It is positively stated that they had the Spirit, but they were not in the good of the Spirit. Paul said he could not speak to them as unto spiritual but as carnal. The Galatians also had the

Spirit; the apostle tells them they had received the Spirit, not by the works of the law, but by the hearing of faith, yet they too were not in the good of the Spirit. If you are in the good of the Spirit you are not "stopped". The apostle says, "Ye did run well; who stopped you?" If you are in the good of the Spirit you are moving on. I have no doubt there are souls now-a-days of whom the question might be raised: "Have ye received the Spirit?" for there is so little sign of it; but it is one thing to have the Spirit, and another thing to be in the good of the Spirit. The portion I have read shows what is involved in being in the good of the Spirit. Our souls cannot be built up in the superstructure of Christianity apart from the foundation being laid in this twofold way. We have spoken of what is laid with regard to faith, and it must also be laid with regard to what the Spirit would effect in our souls. God can only build us up on the foundation which this epistle presents. Hence its great importance. You may study Colossians and Ephesians, which are superstructure epistles; but unless you have the foundation -- the twofold foundation which we have spoken of -- though your mind may get occupied with what is in those epistles, you will not be able to appropriate it. One of the most disappointing things I have known is that I have got engaged

with doctrines in various parts of scripture, and I have thought that I understood them; and then something happens and down one goes, and one finds out there is more foundation-work to be done in one's soul before one can truly reach the superstructure. There is great need that the scriptural and moral foundations in Romans should be made good in our souls.

I read the closing verses of chapter 7 to show you that there is no division between chapter 7 and chapter 8, not even a paragraph. Now you must go through chapter 7 to reach chapter 8. I have met with those who said to me: "Oh, I am in Romans 7", and I am inclined to reply, "I wish you were". If you were ever really in Romans 7 you would not build your nest there. I have found people saying that who are fast asleep. You cannot go to sleep in Romans 7, but you must go through it before you reach chapter 8. You may listen to ministry, and read ministry, and as you read, it may command the assent of your heart, but all the time you may never have come to -- "O wretched man that I am!" If you are trying to go on wholesale, as it were, you are not going on at all. Who does "I" stand for? It stands for Joseph Pellatt and for you. Do not say that good does not dwell in others. Do not get occupied with the flesh

in others. What you must be brought to is the solemn consciousness of: "I know that in me ... good does not dwell". Do you know it? "O wretched man that I am!" is the cry of a soul that has got to the end of itself. It is something like the woman in the gospel who had the issue of blood. She had means, and had spent it all, and was now worse instead of being better; she has come to the end. You can always tell when you get to the end of self, for when you do get there you will turn to Another. There was no difficulty in the case of that woman, she said, "I will go to Jesus, and touch the hem of His garment". Why did she not go sooner? Because she had still money and doctors around her. It is a great thing when you come to the end of self and say, "Who shall deliver me?" The passage reads strangely, as if uttered in one and the same breath. The soul looks out from itself for a Deliverer, and answers its own question -- "I thank God". We do not get through chapter 7 until we have got to the end of self. I only yielded when I could not hold out any longer. "O wretched man ... who shall deliver?" Then I can say, "I thank God". Certainly, He is the Deliverer. He can deliver you. He is able to deliver you, but the question is -- have you got there? Is your eye off every one else? You are not then occupied

with others; it is your own case. You are in earnest. In the last sentence of verse 25 we have an epitome of what is in the chapter, and what is true of every one who travels this road. Before that he tells us that his mind was all right, his will was right. What then was the matter? That miserable flesh was working -- "I see another law ... warring against the law of my mind". Though he was right in mind, this other law was too much for him, and he was conscious of it. The law in his members was too much for him, and it issues in the cry, "O wretched man that I am!" It is like a man going through a tunnel. I think he sees the end of the tunnel when he says, "I thank God". But he is not out of the tunnel yet though he sees a point of light and is encouraged. But when he is out of the tunnel he bursts forth -- "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus".

Now this is the first effect of being in the good of the Spirit. Many of us know the doctrine; we have heard so much preaching about it that when we hear of people being "in Christ", we say, "Of course". But do you know what it is for the first time to apprehend spiritually in your soul what it is to be in Christ? The doctrine of it will not help you. We may be well posted in doctrine without

being in the spiritual good of it. I remember the time when the Lord actually brought me to the end of myself, and to apprehend that I was in Christ. I hardly knew whether I was in or out of the body when I first knew it. The point is, "It is no more I". You are always condemning yourself, but God is not condemning you. You say, "O wretched man!" but if you have been brought into it really, you are prepared for this -- "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus". That is the first result of being in the good of the Spirit; you come to know what it is to be in Christ.

That does not take place doctrinally. It is not that the preacher makes his point clear to you, but it is a real exercise of soul that you pass through, and then you come into the good of the Spirit, to the apprehension of being in Christ. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free". (verse 2) The man personified in Romans 7 is not free, he is in captivity to the law of sin. But the captivity is all passed when he is under the law of the Spirit of life. The Spirit of life hath made you free. You are in Christ, you have life in Christ; not in yourself, but in Him. The law of the Spirit is not a legal enactment, but a divine operation, and you are delivered, and positively in freedom -- in liberty. If you

have truly come to the Deliverer, you breathe the air of freedom, and then how little external circumstances amount to, how little it matters where I live, whether in a mansion or a hovel, whether I have a position in society or none. How insignificant everything becomes in comparison with this blessed liberty! Can you say, "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me FREE"? Oh, thank God for what was done on the cross! "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with him". That is spoken of as common christian knowledge, chapter 6: 6.

Now look at chapter 8: 3. What a wonderful statement! It is what was done by God in connection with the death of His own Son, "God, having sent his own Son". How the Spirit would impress us with the dignity of the One who hung on Calvary's cross! "God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, has condemned sin in the flesh". What did He send Him for? "In order that the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us" -- in you and in me. You must not divorce the work of Christ for us from the work of the Spirit in us. "What God hath joined let no man put asunder". And you must not put asunder the work of Christ and the work of the Spirit of God. What did God do through the work on

the cross? He condemned sin in the flesh. At the cross sin was dealt with and condemned once and for ever. What for? "That the righteous requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who ... walk ... according to Spirit". By the death of God's own Son God has condemned sin in the flesh, and what God had in view in doing this is now effected in us. We walk according to the Spirit, and fulfil the righteous requirements of the law.

God once took up man in the flesh. What does scripture say of man at the end of one thousand six hundred years of testing? "None righteous, no, not one". Now God has ended that order of man, and He has given us the Spirit, and by the Spirit the righteous requirement of the law is to be fulfilled in us. What is it? LOVE. Now you can love God with all your heart and your neighbour as yourself. What a marvellous change! Have we troubles? Are there difficulties among the saints? Yes, and nine out of ten cases might be traced to the righteous requirements of the law not being fulfilled in us because of our not walking according to the Spirit.

Oh! these are the days of doctrines! Heads big as a bushel with inflated doctrines, and hearts shrivelled up. I do not want a big head, I want a big heart. When the righteous requirement of the law is effected in me by the

Spirit of life in Christ Jesus there is no hindrance, the love of God is there.

I shall never forget hearing 1 Corinthians 13 spoken of by a dear brother. The suggestion was made, Put yourself, instead of love, "I suffer long and am kind", etc. Oh, I went down on my knees and turned to the Lord. It would do you good to go down; we want the righteous requirement of the law -- LOVE, fulfilled in us. There is that blessed One -- the exalted Man, look at Him! There He is in glory, and in Him I see the accomplishment of all that God requires in man, and I long to touch even the confines of moral correspondence to that Man, He has been here, and He could say, "Thy law is within my heart". The Spirit of that Man has come down, and would like to control us, and to lead us into correspondence to that Man. We are going to see Him. I might never cross the Atlantic again to see my wife, but I am going to see that Man. I am going to see Him. Are we cherishing that blessed hope? And when He is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is; but the Spirit would bring us now into moral correspondence with Him. He was the true ark of the covenant, and God's law was written in His heart, and He answered to it in every thought, word and act. What an embodiment that Man was of the

righteous requirements of the law! In every way God could look down with delight upon Him. No wonder that God should open the heavens upon Him and say, "This is my beloved Son", for that beloved Son could say, "I do always those things which please him".

It is our privilege to walk, though amidst much weakness, according to the Spirit, and not according to the flesh, and if we do, we shall walk in moral correspondence to that Man who filled the heart of God with delight, and who is now in His presence, to the ineffable delight of His heart.

Some people suppose that to be spiritual is something super extra. If you are not spiritual, you are according to the flesh; there are only two orders, "The mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit life and peace". We may have life and peace before us in a doctrinal way, but God's thought is to make it real to us. He would have life and peace to be the spiritual atmosphere of our being, so that we might say -- In the midst of death we are in life. In the midst of trouble we are in peace. The beauty and charm of eternal life is its contrast to sin and death, and while we are still in this scene of sin and death we can live in the sphere of eternal life. In all our circumstances here, and God's people have many sorrows, the minding of the Spirit is

life and peace. At home, not in the meeting only, but amid all your cares, spiritual condition makes you independent of all circumstances. You need not mind contrarieties or seek relief in recreation or pleasure. Life and peace is established by the Spirit of God in you, and is independent of all circumstances.

And what is the climax? "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from among the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from among the dead shall quicken your mortal bodies". (verse 11.) It ends in the eternal actuality of Christianity.

May the Lord make it good in us!

PHILADELPHIA -- THE TRUTH OF THE ASSEMBLY MAINTAINED TO THE END

Revelation 3:7 - 13

I am not going to give an exposition, but only a little word of encouragement. I believe the Lord would encourage the hearts of His people in connection with the truth of the assembly. I think we have been slow to take account of the relation of the assembly to Himself; if its relation to Himself were more vividly present to our spirits, we should take a much greater account of it. It has been thought by some that to speak much of the assembly detracts from the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, but it is the very opposite to that; we could not think so if we really understood the relationship of the assembly to Christ.

The assembly in Revelation 2:3 is seen in the completeness of its local character. Seven is the number of completeness, so seven assemblies figuratively speak of the church in its completeness, yet the seven assemblies in these two chapters are seven local assemblies, and hence they speak to us of the completeness of

the assembly in its local character. The Lord has established the assembly, in the character of which I speak, to be in testimony for Himself. The idea of a lamp or candlestick is light, and light is testimony, and the assemblies here are spoken of as on the ground of responsibility. The character of responsibility attaches to them; the responsibility is to be here in testimony for Himself.

Now if the Lord has established His assembly in this way and character, and it is incontrovertible from this scripture that He has, we cannot conceive of the Lord failing to maintain here a testimony for Himself in connection with the assembly, however great the ruin.

We all know that the first assembly of these seven -- Ephesus, is marked out as the beginning or starting-point of declension, and, speaking generally of these seven assemblies, they set before us a downward course of declension and failure. They go from bad to worse, and when we reach the last, things have gone to the very worst; so much so, that the Lord says to Laodicea, "I will spue thee out of my mouth". That is final and decisive; the Lord actually and absolutely rejects it; there is no hope of recovery held out to Laodicea.

I want to speak about Philadelphia -- the last but one of the seven of these local assemblies. Now Philadelphia stands for that which is perfectly

suitable and agreeable to the Lord; it stands for that which He can approve of and encourage. I would like simply, without any attempt at argument, to bring before you the fact that Philadelphia was literally an assembly, and hence it furnishes a suitable representation of the truth of the assembly, and Philadelphia goes on to the end. I want you to see this because the question is raised sometimes -- Will the Lord sustain to the end the truth of the assembly, will He maintain it, will it be here, or must we give up faith with regard to it? Must we abandon ourselves to the alternative of trying to do the best we can under the circumstances? I think the Lord's message to Philadelphia provides a very clear and distinct answer to that question. It encourages us in the assurance that the Lord will sustain the truth of the assembly down to the very close, so we need not give up.

Things must be stated clearly. To speak of the truth of the assembly is not pretension or assumption! No, the Lord never did sustain pretension. To say He does not is nothing peculiar to the present moment, for He never did; but I cannot conceive of the Lord giving up the truth of His assembly, I mean in the sense of having the truth of it maintained down here in testimony to the end.

If you have given up all thought of the truth

of the assembly being maintained at the present time, I can only say that I am not a bit in sympathy with you, and if you do not treasure in your soul the truth of the assembly, I am sorry for you.

Let me emphasise this -- The Lord is not taken up with certain persons or individuals as such. I will tell you what He is taken up with -- with the truth of His assembly, and that because of its relationship to Himself. I cannot conceive of the Lord not being interested in that which so closely concerns His own honour and glory. I can understand ourselves not being interested in it, though it is to our shame, but I cannot conceive the Lord becoming indifferent to what involves His honour and glory. If He encourages Philadelphia, it is because the saints there are found identified with the truth of what His heart is set on.

Now as to what involves the Lord's glory down here, we get three things mentioned -- "My word, my name, and the word of my patience". Just think soberly before the Lord of those three things. The Lord is not here. From the standpoint of this book He is absent, but His word, His name, and the word of His patience are here; and those three things involve His honour and His glory. The Lord approves those in Philadelphia, and encourages them because they have kept His word and have not

denied His name. That was true locally in regard to that local assembly in Philadelphia, but speaking of that assembly, which existed, one thousand nine hundred years ago, is not enough, the message of the Spirit to that assembly must have an application to the very end, because it goes on to His coming. He says to Philadelphia, "I come quickly: hold fast", etc. The whole construction of the message supposes that this assembly continues to the close. No one dies in Philadelphia, there are no deaths, Philadelphia is here till the rapture, hence it is He says, "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee". How does He keep them out of the trial? Just the same way that the Lord kept Enoch out of the flood by taking him away before it came, so He will "keep" Philadelphia by taking her away before the hour of trial comes. Enoch was never in the flood, God took him before the flood came, and so it is here; Philadelphia goes on to the end, until the Lord comes to take His assembly to Himself.

Pressure may have come upon you to let go, to give up the truth of the assembly, but this message is most encouraging, for this message of the Spirit is the assurance that the Lord is going to maintain the truth of His assembly to the very end. I am in sympathy with Him about it, and I would like to be in the testimony

of it. Would not you? God maintains it. Philadelphia presents that which the Lord approves, and which the Lord encourages, and which the Lord vindicates. It is not a question of the Lord approving you and me, but that He will maintain the truth of His assembly to the very finish, and He encourages our hearts to be in accord with His heart. God's people often get their eyes on themselves, or on some one else, and they get into confusion and trouble -- doubting and fearing. We want to get our eyes off ourselves and off others, and to have our eyes fixed on Him and to get back to first love and hold fast the truth as involved in My word, My name, and the word of My patience, because in keeping those three things we hold fast the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ at the present time.

Then another point in Philadelphia -- there is no trace of publicity; there is no trace of anything that men as such can take account of, no indication of anything that lies under the eye of man. There was once, for instance, in the assembly at Corinth, as we can see in 1 and 2 Corinthians. If you had gone down to that city they would have told you there were three classes of people there -- Jew, Gentile, and the assembly of God. If you had asked -- Where is the assembly of God, an intelligent Corinthian might have answered, They have a meeting

and break bread and you can go there next Lord's day. Publicity was there and there was what men could take account of; but in Philadelphia there is no publicity. Failure and ruin has come in in regard of all that is public, so that the day for that has passed by.

There is more involved in this than you might think. We like publicity, we are slow to give it up, we linger around it. Some of us were trained to publicity and had public religious positions, but I call your attention to this -- there is no publicity in Philadelphia, and I say beware of publicity; it is connected with what is outward, and formal, and perhaps material; but what I understand by Philadelphia is that it embodies the truth of the assembly, not publicly, nor outwardly, but inwardly and spiritually and vitally.

All power is connected with the unseen presence and operation of the Holy Ghost, "Whom the world cannot receive". He was never sent to the world, the world cannot receive Him, it is impossible, because it "neither seeth him, nor knoweth him". All power in Christianity is connected with the unseen Spirit. Verse 8 should read: "thou hast a little power". Why is it little? Because of the ruin that has come into all the sphere that is under the eye of men, but there is a sphere under the eye of Christ. "Keeping his word

and not denying his name" is predicted of Philadelphia in connection with the "little power", so I would warn you against publicity. We are going to be public enough by and by, when Christ comes out and all the saints in glory. We shall have publicity then, but beware of it now. It is the rock on which all the terrible wreck has taken place, organising churches, etc. Why do they like steeples, painted windows and architecture? For its publicity. What have such things to do with the assembly of Christ? Nothing. The more these things abound the further you are away from not denying His name. Philadelphia is not an outwardly organised company of saints; that is the force of the Lord saying, "I know thy works"; they are under My eye, I am acquainted with them. It is sometimes said as a taunt -- you people do nothing! Well, you are not trying to do, you are on the line of keeping His word and not denying His name. Those two are the grand considerations in your soul which profoundly exercise you and move you in your inmost soul before the Lord.

If Ephesus is the point of departure, Philadelphia is the point of recovery, because those in Philadelphia have been brought back to the point which was left in Ephesus, and that point is "first love". First love involves

Christ's love to the assembly; it is said to Ephesus, "Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen". They had fallen from the top -- it was not a little fall -- they had fallen from the very top, and Philadelphia is recovery. There is first love in Philadelphia. How do you know? Because the Lord can say, "Thou hast kept my word". And He has told us -- "If a man love me he will keep my word". Philadelphia is keeping His word; the fruit of love is there. He is loved and the proof of it is His word is kept. Then there is the second proof: "thou hast not denied my name". When "name" is spoken of it supposes that the person is not present. If I am a thousand miles away from my children I think a great deal of their keeping my word, not denying my name, and when Christ is absent it is a wonderful thing to keep His word and not to deny His name. In Philadelphia they have come back to the point of departure. J.B.S. used to say "a remnant means a bright bit of the original". If you look at Exodus 14 you will see what marked the Israelites on the Arabian bank of the Red Sea. They "feared the Lord", the Lord had got His place with them. There is plenty of failure with them all along the line, but when we come to Malachi 3:16 we find, "Then they that feared the Lord". Oh, that was a great deal to the Lord. The Lord expresses

His appreciation of that company: "they shall be mine, saith the Lord". So I think if I want the brightest bit of the beginning of the assembly I would go to Ephesus, that is where the top was realised. It is in the Epistle to the Ephesians that you get the love of Christ to the assembly; it is properly there, "it passeth knowledge", and there is the answer to that love in the assembly. I believe the apostle's prayer (chapter 3:) was answered in those Ephesian saints, "and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God". Ah, from that point they fell, and from that point the Spirit has wrought and recovered the saints in Philadelphia. I believe the mark of the operation of the Spirit is the recovery of saints to "first love". Have you been recovered? You need not tell people who are recovered what they ought to do; it is people who are recovered who keep the word of His patience, they are under the mighty power of the love of Christ and there is an answer produced in them; they are recovered to the love of Christ -- His love for His assembly. Give me the recovery of Philadelphia, let me be recovered to first love to Christ in the assembly, let me respond to the love of Christ -- that is what He approves and supports. And He says, "They shall know that I have loved thee". How glad

the Lord is to tell out His heart to those who keep His word, and do not deny His name. I would like to speak so that the Lord's people might be encouraged on that line. I do not mean any little section of the so-called Plymouth Brethren. I mean the whole of the Lord's people; we all want a stirring up in the direction of being agreeable to the Lord. I want to be agreeable to Him. Do not you? Those in Philadelphia were agreeable to Him and they maintained by the power of the Spirit the truth of the assembly.

It is the truth of the assembly, while it is made good in each soul individually. Some have a difficulty as to what is individual; the truth of Christianity must be made good in each individual soul. If it is not made good in your soul, as far as you are concerned, you are not in it. I may break bread, but if the truth is not made good in my soul, I have no vital part in it. But what kind of truth is it? It is the truth of Christ's love to the assembly. Now and then you will find some one taking the ground that Elijah took when under the juniper tree. He said: "I am the only one left". There is nothing in that but unbelief and self-occupation. What did the Lord say to Elijah? He put seven thousand before the "one" -- seven thousand and one. Was not that quite a nice little company? The Lord is

still maintaining the truth of His assembly; you will never be reduced to one like Elijah; you will find others there too, and you will be able to go on. And you will find that the Lord will maintain the truth of His assembly to the end for His own glory. If you look on three hundred years from Malachi, you find Simeon and Anna looking for redemption in Israel, and it was to those and not to the Pharisees to whom the Holy Ghost had to say. In that little company there was maintained the truth of that dispensation.

The Lord would encourage our hearts in what He is doing. I would like to say more, but the time is gone. Turn for one moment to Revelation 22, the last chapter in the last book of the Bible. At the very end of the present time -- the end of Christianity -- the Lord presents Himself as "I Jesus", etc., and "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". (verse 16.) If you and I had written that verse, we should have said -- there are perhaps a few brethren saying, "Come". No, it is "the Spirit and the bride". That is the end -- the finish -- the Spirit and the bride say, Come. The bride is here, she is duly represented in all her bridal affections and she is longing for Him. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come". The Spirit of God has written it down in these last few verses of the Bible. I want to be in that. Do you? Is it not cheering

and inspiring in these last few moments to have such words as these? Oh, He is coming in the eventide -- the heavenly Isaac. Eleazar has brought Rebecca to Him. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come".

May the Lord greatly encourage our hearts. I am encouraged. Are you?

I remember one of the last messages F.E.R. sent to America was, "Tell the brethren never to give up".

Beloved! we are not going to give up. ARE WE?

"THE FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK"

There are four scriptures I would like to read.

The first one you will find in Revelation 1:9, 10, "I John, who also am your brother", etc.

The second is Acts 20:7, "The first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread", etc.

The third is John 20:19, 20.

The fourth is 1 Corinthians 16:1.

I think that in these four scriptures you will find that we have a complete testimony with regard to the first day of the week, or the Lord's day. I apprehend that in the expression "the first day of the week" we are reminded of that which is entirely new. "The first of the week" (for the word "day" is not literally there) is involved in the expression "the Lord's day". We have the same day, but the day brought before us as specially connected with the Lord, and as marked or characterised by those things which belong to the Lord.

I have no doubt that in these four scriptures we have a very comprehensive expression of what belongs to and characterises Christianity. There is only one day mentioned in the New

Testament in respect of Christianity, and that is the first day of the week, or the Lord's day. There is no mention of any other day, and in this respect Christianity stands in striking contrast to what preceded it. In connection with Judaism we not only have different days, but we have different times of different days, we have hours, minutes, moments. We have days, many days, different days, and then we have weeks, months, and years, even going so far as fifty years. But in Christianity we have only one day.

I think the way Christianity is presented to us in the New Testament scriptures gives us only a week at a time. There is the "first day of the week", and whatever belongs to that day is characteristic of Christianity. So that it is a question whether the Lord will tarry through the week; if He does not come during the week (and He may come) -- that is how the truth is put before us, for there is no scriptural ground for delay or putting off the coming of the Lord. He may come this week -- but if He tarry, if He does not come this week, we begin again next "first day of the week", that is how it is presented. The point I want to press upon you just at this moment is that the "first day", or the Lord's day, is the characteristic day of Christianity; hence it characterises all the days that may follow. I think you will

find I have read these four scriptures in their proper order. It is remarkable that the scripture in Revelation brings before us an individual Christian. You say, perhaps, "But John was an apostle". We know that he was. But it is not as an apostle that he speaks in the verses I have read. But mark! he says, "I John, who also am your brother" -- your brother -- "and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience in Jesus". That is, John comes before us as a Christian, and further, he comes before us as a Christian in fellowship. "I John", who speaks of himself as "your brother" (the brother of every Christian) "and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus". And what follows? "I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". There is perfect order. John is here brought before us as a Christian, an individual Christian who is in fellowship. And then he speaks of the Lord's day. He says, "I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". That is the beginning. We shall come to the assembly presently, but there is something that precedes the assembly, there is that which is individual which underlies and precedes everything that is collective. We participate in the breaking of bread, which may be spoken of as privilege. But even in

connection with the breaking of bread you find a double responsibility. There is a responsibility belonging to the assembly as such, and responsibility belonging to every individual who has part in it. But what precedes it? Why just what John expresses about himself -- "I John, who also am your brother and fellow-partaker". What precedes our coming together to break bread? You have to be ready for it individually, you have to be in fellowship for it individually. It is a poor thing to be connected with Christianity only in the way of responsibility. There is responsibility, but you will find in scripture that there is a basis upon which responsibility rests, and that is, that you are in the reality of christian fellowship. I allude for a moment to a scripture just for the sake of making that point clear. At the end of Acts 2 after an account of Peter's testimony is given and the wonderful working of God when three thousand people were pricked to the heart, and cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" They got a very plain answer through the lips of Peter, who says, "Repent, and be baptised, each one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit". They responded to that answer. And what is said about them then? "They persevered in the teaching and fellowship

of the apostles". I just want to emphasise that point -- they persevered in the apostles' teaching and fellowship. The truth had been presented and taught, and they who responded to it persevered in the apostles' teaching and fellowship. Then it goes on to say, "and in the breaking of bread and prayers".

I want to press this point upon you a little as the Lord may help. I apprehend that when you come to the Lord's day the first question is -- "Are you in fellowship?" What is the point of fellowship? The point of fellowship is the death of Christ. But mark! it is not the death of Christ as in the Lord's supper. It is the death of Christ as our Passover. In 1 Corinthians 5 we read, "For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed" (or slain). Now what is the import of Christ as our Passover? It is the death of Christ as the expression of the judgment of God upon sin, on evil -- on all that is contrary to God. If you go back to the type, the literal Passover in Exodus 12, what characterised that night? JUDGMENT! Jehovah, through Moses, said: "I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will SMITE". Mark that! He does not speak about blessing there, He speaks about smiting. "And will SMITE all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast ... I will execute judgment: I am Jehovah".

It was a night of judgment -- the judgment of God. He took account, and solemn account, of everything in the land in relation to Himself, and all that was contrary to Him He smote. He executed judgment upon it. That is the death of Christ as our passover. It is a serious question, beloved! Are we in the fellowship that is based upon the death of Christ as the judgment of God upon evil? Do you ask what has come under the judgment of God? We might sum it up in three terms. The flesh, and the world, and Satan as the prince of this world; all these have come under the judgment of God. Well, then, what does it mean to be in christian fellowship? It means that you and I are morally in accord with what is expressed in the death of Christ as our passover. BUT ARE WE?

You know there are two things enjoined on Israel. (Exodus 12.) There was the passover, and based upon it, and you might say formed by the divine judgment as expressed in the passover, there was the feast of unleavened bread. What was that? It was the practical answer on the part of Israel to the judgment of God which was expressed in the Passover. Hence every bit of leaven was to go: and to go, not only out of the bread but out of the houses -- "The very first day ye shall put away leaven out of your houses". Now look at the application

of it by the Spirit to Christians in 1 Corinthians 5. All is based upon Christ's death. Christ our passover has been sacrificed. What have you had to do with that? You have had nothing to do with it unless you have accepted it in the faith of your soul. The question is -- Are you in accord with it? The trouble at Corinth was that they were not practically in accord with the death of Christ; they were practically allowing that which had really come under the judgment of God in the death of Christ; that was the cause of all the trouble. The Lord never instituted the Lord's supper or the breaking of bread and called us to it that we might eat and drink judgment to ourselves. But that was what they were doing at Corinth. And why? Because they were not in the reality of fellowship. They were responsibly in fellowship. Every Christian is responsibly in fellowship. But, oh! what a poor thing it is simply to incur the responsibility without the spiritual reality of it. That is how it was with those at Corinth, and that is where we come short. We are not ready in spiritual condition to come together on the first day of the week to break bread if we are not in fellowship with the death of Christ, and that means that you are in accord with it, that there is that in you which morally corresponds to the judgment of God as

seen in the death of Christ. What is that? SELF-JUDGMENT! There is the disallowance of the flesh and the disallowance of the world and the disallowance of Satan.

These are simple things to speak of. We know something about the breaking of bread; some of us have known it for a good many years. I ask, Did you ever hear of any trouble among the saints who break bread together? We know there has been trouble. Why does trouble come upon us? Is it not because we are not truly in Christian fellowship? We are not in accord with the death of Christ. Responsibly every Christian is in fellowship. It is not a matter of choice. "God is faithful, by whom ye have been called to the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord". Every Christian is under that call. Each one is under the responsibility of it too. There is no such thing in scripture as a Christian not in fellowship. Of the three thousand converted in Acts 2 every one of them persevered in the apostles' teaching and fellowship. There was no Christian in those days that was not in fellowship, and there would not be now if things were right. Well, you cannot set everybody right, but there is one person you can see to, and that person is yourself. You can at least do what Paul said to Timothy: "Take heed to thyself". The question for me is:

"Am I really in fellowship?" The beginning of all Christian fellowship is that you are in the fellowship of Christ's death -- that there is the answer in you to the judgment of God expressed in the death of Christ. Then you walk in habitual self-judgment, in habitual refusal and disallowance of the flesh in you, and of the world around you, and of Satan. I am bold to say that not one of us Christians is going on according to God unless we are thus in correspondence with the death of Christ as the expression of God's judgment.

Well, now, to revert to Revelation 1 John says: "I John, your brother and fellow-partaker in the tribulation and kingdom and patience, in Jesus, was in the island called Patmos, for the word of God and for the testimony of Jesus. I became in the Spirit ..." How did he "become". Things do not happen accidentally or incidentally in Christianity. My beloved brethren, it is a wonderful thing to become in the Spirit. It is not a question of having the Spirit. It is a question of coming into that condition where you are under the control and power of the Spirit of God. That is where the Lord's day begins. It begins with us individually. There was John! He could not have gone to a meeting for the breaking of bread on that Lord's day, for he was in the "island called

Patmos". I have no doubt that Satan at the back of the Roman power triumphantly said, "I have stopped that man; I have got him banished". But has he defeated and stopped him? Oh no! John is there in the Spirit. John is in fellowship. I would say to you, Are you in fellowship? You say, perhaps, I have had to move off further and I cannot get to the meeting. I do not ask if you can get to the meeting, but ARE YOU IN FELLOWSHIP? John though banished from all the saints was in fellowship because there was the answer in his soul to the death of Christ. John had tribulation, and you will have it if you are in the fellowship of Christ's death. If you allow the flesh, the world, the devil, you can have an easy, a smooth-going time -- but do you want to have such a time here where HE was rejected? Ah no! we want to be in "the kingdom and patience of Jesus".

I know, alas! that it has come to pass that many are just Sunday go-to-meeting Christians. Excuse me for putting it in that blunt way, but I want to press on you the way to begin the Lord's day. The first thing is, You are in fellowship -- in the reality of it, in the truth of it. There is response in your soul to the judgment of God expressed in the death of Christ. You are keeping the feast, not with the old leaven of malice and wickedness, but

"with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". You are morally transparent. There is nothing to hinder the sunshine of His love if we are keeping the feast of unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. I do not want to be in concert with the world or the flesh. I want to be in concert with God, and if I am it does not matter about my circumstances. Let me be on the island of Patmos or wherever He wills me to be, but let me be found in correspondence with God.

Well. John "became in the Spirit on the Lord's day". Now we are on the line for the next scripture that I read -- Acts 20:7, "And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread". Who came together? All those who were in the reality of christian fellowship. I know where they put the breaking of bread in Christendom. But what thought have we of it? I was taught once that it was a "means of grace" -- that we come to partake of the Lord's supper as a means of grace -- that if you do not know that your sins are forgiven the sacrament is a good place to be at. That is all wrong. I will tell you what the breaking of bread is -- it is the divinely appointed expression of christian fellowship. The breaking of bread does not manufacture the fellowship, it supposes it to be there. If it is not there, if I am not in the

fellowship of Christ's death, what is the breaking of bread? It is eating and drinking judgment, that is what it will prove to be to me; that is what it proved to be at Corinth. Why did it prove to be eating and drinking judgment to themselves? Because they were not in the truth of fellowship. They were not keeping the feast of unleavened bread. They were not morally and spiritually in correspondence with the death of Christ as the expression of God's judgment on sin. And I would emphasise this; I would that the Lord might be pleased to bring it home to us. I do not want to surround the wonderful blessings and privileges of Christianity with an atmosphere of fear and trembling; God forbid! I do not want to frighten anybody's soul, but we are entitled to take account of these things in all their seriousness. If you are in fellowship with the death of Christ you are ready, you are eager for the supper. You will be in a spirit something akin to the spirit of the Psalmist in Psalm 122 when he says, "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah". Do you know what it is to feel glad when you are going to the breaking of bread, your heart full of joy, holy gladness filling your soul? Where am I going? I am going to meet with the saints to break bread. Some say that if you

break bread so often it will become a formality. Did you ever get afraid of eating your regular meals? So long as you have got a good appetite you need not be afraid of its becoming a form. I am not afraid of its becoming formal, I am "glad" like David to "go into the house of Jehovah". David was glad when he heard the invitation, "Let us go up".

"The first day of the week, we being assembled". The point is, I repeat, Are you ready to come together? If in every believer there was moral correspondence with the death of Christ, if the flesh and the world were disallowed in coming together we should know something about having a feast, and there would not be trouble among us. When Paul heard there was trouble at Corinth he put his finger on the spot. He said, "You are fleshly". What does that mean? Is it that you have got the flesh? No, but that you allow the flesh. The Corinthians were allowing the flesh and Paul puts his finger on the spot; he says -- "Whereas there is among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal?" Do you ever have such things where you meet to break bread? If all like John were in the Spirit on the Lord's day there would not be trouble. When the Spirit is in power in the saints there is no trouble.

When we come together to break bread, the first thing for you is to be individually

right. If you are, when the Lord's day morning dawns upon you it finds you ready for it. Just try it. On Saturday night, before I go to sleep for the night, I like to say to the Lord, "Lord, I want to become in the Spirit on the Lord's day". John became in the Spirit on the Lord's day, not when he was at a meeting, but when he was in Patmos. You may say how could he be in fellowship where there were no saints. John was more truly in fellowship than are some of us with meetings all about us. He was in the reality of fellowship, and if you and I know what it is to be in the reality of fellowship we shall know what it is to become in the Spirit on the Lord's day; we shall come under the active control and power of the Spirit of God.

Take a scripture like Galatians. "But the fruit" (not fruits, it is the one undivided fruit) -- "but the fruit of the Spirit is love". That is good to begin the Lord's day with -- love. The blessed activity of the heart going out in love to God and Christ and to all the saints. "Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control". Do we know anything of that?

When John became in the Spirit on the Lord's day, what happened to him? He heard a voice. I know that was a special revelation to John, but in principle the moment you become

in the Spirit you will find yourself in touch with Christ -- the Spirit will put you in touch with Christ. Is it not wonderful, to be in touch with Christ in a living way by the Spirit? When a man gets in touch with Christ by the Spirit all the enemy's schemes will be overthrown for him. If we come together in the reality of fellowship the Spirit will put us in tune and in time and in unity. He will put the saints together, and bring about the most wonderful unity and harmony.

Now a word as to the breaking of bread. There are the two sides to it. There is the Lord's side and our side. What is it on His side? It is all love; it is nothing about the judgment of God, nothing about demand. That does not belong to the breaking of bread. What does belong to it? Let Him speak, and let us listen. He said: "Take, eat; this is my body given for you". That is the language of love. That is the way love takes; that is the way He would bring His love right home to our hearts. And then of the cup He says: "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you". It is all love on His part -- no judgment. On the other hand, "Christ our passover" is all judgment, the judgment of God, and that is where we want to begin in our souls. We must be in accord with God. Everything that is contrary to God

must be judged. That is where we begin. We are in the fellowship of His death as the expression of the judgment of God, but being in that fellowship there is nothing now to hinder the Spirit from putting us into accord with all the love that fills the heart of God, and that was told out when Christ gave His body for us and poured out His precious blood for us. Now then, that is our side. And we respond to His love. "We love him, because he first loved us". How simple it is! It is not that we try to love Christ. Christ brings His love to bear upon our hearts, and there is an answer to it. That is our side of the supper. We are responsive to Christ's love, and to God's love, for the love of both comes out in the supper. "This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you". Oh, how the love of the heart of God is expressed! Is your heart touched by it? It is very simple: you drink in Christ's love and God's love and there is the response to it in your heart. That is the Lord's supper, that is the breaking of bread, and let me warn you against your minds, as such, becoming entangled with points about the supper. See to it that you are in the reality of fellowship and in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and then the love of Christ will have full control in your heart and you will respond to His love. With your heart thus

responding to Christ's love and to God's love you will never find a locked door to whatever spiritual heavenly privileges belong to the assembly, you will find every door wide open.

I like what Mr. Raven said in one of his later readings speaking about the Lord's day morning, "It is the meeting-place, and I would not like to go away from the Lord's day morning meeting with a feeling of disappointment in my heart". If you get a sight of Him you will do what they did in John 20, "They rejoiced". Why did they rejoice? "They rejoiced, seeing the Lord". Your heart will rejoice, it will be ravished. Do you know what it is to have your heart ravished? My heart has been ravished in connection with the breaking of bread. In John 20 they have not come together there to break bread. They have come together as His "brethren" in resurrection and in the light of His ascension. That wonderful message had been brought to them, "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". They are there as His brethren. What does that mean? That they are derived from Himself, "Both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". The blessed, holy grain of wheat has fallen into the ground, it has died, it is no

more "alone", there is "much fruit". There they are gathered as His brethren, and what happens? "Jesus came and stood in the midst, and says to them, Peace be to you". What then? "The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord".

Let us not be content with anything less than all the reality of Christianity. Is not the Spirit here? Do not be content with simply breaking bread; do not, I beg of you, become a mere bread-breaker. Do not be satisfied with anything short of the divine touch of His love. Let your soul know what it is to be thus in the light of what you really are as one of His brethren -- in the light not simply of His death, and not alone of His resurrection, but let your soul know the light of that heavenly place into which He has gone. "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".

"From thence He comes within our midst in heavenly grace
To lead our holy praise, who 'Abba, Father', cry".

Brethren, I long to know more of it myself. I long that we might all know it. Do not be satisfied with anything less than a full Lord's day portion. Do not be content to touch the fringe of christian privilege, but seek to know it in all its divine fulness. He delights to come

to us. What it must be to Him to have a company down here of which He is the centre. He has been here. He was the centre of a company when He hung upon the cross. There were those around Him who loved Him. But He has got another kind of company now, and into the midst of that company it is the infinite delight of His heart to come.

May we know the divine reality of being in that place, and of rejoicing (as they rejoiced) "having seen the Lord".

May the Lord be pleased to add His blessing.

APPENDIX ⁺

The breaking of bread takes place in the scene where the Lord is absent. It would have no significance if the Lord were here. He was forty days here after His resurrection, and they never broke bread. It would have no meaning. It is during His absence and in the scene of His rejection that we call Him to mind in the breaking of bread; and it is,

⁺The above, given here as Appendix, is the conclusion of an address of Mr. Pellatt's on the same subject as the foregoing address, but given on a different occasion. The former part of it is so similar to the previous address, that, to avoid repetition, it has been deleted and the valuable conclusion only given here.

"Till he come". What is the great point as to the Lord and as to the saints in the breaking of bread? As to the Lord, it is divinely lovely. It is His love for us -- "Take, eat ... this is for you; this is poured out for you". The Lord seeks to concentrate all His love in our hearts. The great point on His part is love, and the great point on our part is responsive love to Him. The only thing that can satisfy Him is response to His great love. We have rightly been taught that the breaking of bread is introductory to the assembly -- not the assembly that can be taken account of locally, but the assembly in its own proper heavenly character. The great question for you in the breaking of bread is, Did you meet Him? Did He manifest Himself to your affections? If the Lord leads you to take account of Himself in the heavenly scene, that is blessed; but that is not, "Then came Jesus and stood in the midst". Where did they see Him? "In the midst", and "they rejoiced". What a privilege! Our hearts touched with His love and responsive to His love. And then we find the door to all heavenly privileges wide open. The privileges of Christianity are not locked up. You can go through the door into all privileges. Do you say to me, "Describe what it is"? No, I could not -- it cannot be described, if any company could have conveyed to another

what it was to see "Jesus in the midst", the company of John 20 could. But when they told Thomas he said, "I will not believe it". It is a reality, but it is indescribable. There is a glory in Christianity that is "unspeakable and filled with glory".

There is only one thing more I would say, and that is -- the more you know what it is by the Spirit to "see the Lord", the more your heart will turn with affection to the saints. That is Christianity! "I became in the Spirit on the Lord's day"; then flesh is refused. Then we break bread, and our hearts under the power and control of the Spirit will be touched by His love, and will respond to it. Responsive love delights to own -- "All praise to him is due". You catch His notes when He sings praises in the assembly. You "rejoice, seeing the Lord", and you come out with His love to the saints.

We shall soon see His face, but, oh! for one touch of the divine reality of seeing Him by the Spirit now before we see Him face to face!

THE LORD JESUS AS SEEN IN THE LIGHT OF JOHN'S GOSPEL

John 14:1 - 3, 15 - 20; John 16:7 - 28; John 17:24

We desire, beloved, to call your attention to the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ, especially in the light of this gospel -- the Gospel of John. I can only briefly rehearse the points which we attempted to bring before you last week.

We called your attention to the wonderful fact (one might almost call it the basal fact) of incarnation. The scriptural statement of incarnation is in chapter 1: 14 of this gospel: "And the Word became [not was made] flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth". Then we reminded you of verse 18, and how in that verse the full truth of the Person of the One who became flesh is unfolded, and the moment the full truth of His Person, as the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, comes before us, the Father is declared.

We attempted to bring before you from the Gospel of John what incarnation really involves, and one feels it to be so great a subject

that one is conscious how little one can rightly speak of it. It was the way which God took to make Himself known to man; it was the necessity for the desire on the part of God to reveal Himself; there was no other way to reveal Himself. In incarnation God has brought Himself into revelation, and thus He has brought Himself within the range of man's apprehension; and if we look at it on our side it is equally true that we could never have known God apart from incarnation; He must have remained the invisible God dwelling in unapproachable light that no man hath seen nor can see; not but what He is still that, but He has come out in the revelation of Himself in Christ.

We tried to show you that the revelation of God is connected with two thoughts; there is the nature of God as light and as love -- putting the statements in the order in which the Spirit gives them in the first Epistle of John. There we read "God is light" and then "God is love". But there is more than this in connection with incarnation, for in the revelation of God we have divine Persons revealed. When I say divine Persons revealed, I am not forgetting what the Lord said in Matthew 11 about Himself, "No man knoweth the Son but the Father", but I mean that we have divine Persons so far declared that we can speak of the

Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and this belongs to the very foundation of Christianity. We all know that christian baptism is into the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost; and in that there is a certain revelation of the affections which subsist between divine Persons in the Godhead. In chapter 1: 18 the declaration of God is spoken of as an accomplished fact: "He hath declared him", not "He is declaring him". We do well to consider that the gospels not only cover the life of the Lord as Man down here, but they cover His death. No one can understand any one of the gospels excepting in the light of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. I make this statement in order to show that the revelation of God really covers, not only the Lord's life here in flesh, as a Man, but it covers His death, so we might say that the revelation of God culminates and finds its completeness in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This leads us to speak of His death, and remember we are speaking from the Gospel of John; indeed, in a sense, we need not speak of it -- we do well to call your attention to His own speaking about His death, and He speaks of it definitely twice in this gospel. He speaks of it in chapter 3: 14, 15. He says to Nicodemus: "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up,

that every one who believes on him may have life eternal". The words "may not perish" are doubtful in verse 15, they are not doubtful in verse 16. So that the Lord speaks of His death as the antitype of the lifting up of the brazen serpent in the wilderness, and the great point is that the one believing on Him should have life eternal. But what is the connection between His being lifted up and the one believing on Him having eternal life? I apprehend it is this -- eternal life belongs (and you have only to look into scripture to see it) not to man according to flesh, viewed as in responsibility, it is connected in scripture with the purpose of God, and the believing one may have it; all that has been connected with man in the flesh must find its judicial termination under the judgment of God, and that took place on the cross -- "God, having sent his own Son, in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin [that is, as a sacrifice for sin], has condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3) -- so that all my history as a man in flesh is no hindrance to my having life eternal, for whosoever believeth on Him has life eternal.

Now there is the other passage in John 12:24, where the Lord again speaks of His death, and He says, "Except the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit". In chapter 3 it is a

question of the removal of that which is contrary to God, but in chapter 12 it is the other side, it is the question now of the grain bearing fruit -- of bringing a new generation into existence; so that the believing one is not only connected with the death of Christ as ending the history of man according to flesh, but he becomes part of a generation that had no existence prior to the death of Christ, save in His own Person ...

Now I want to speak a little of His resurrection, and also of His ascension, and of what is connected with each; and then I want to touch on His coming. Let me again remind you that we are speaking from John's gospel. The first mention of the Lord's resurrection is in chapter 2, when He went into the temple and found there the sellers of oxen and sheep, etc., and He drove them out. Then they challenged Him to give them a sign, and He gives them a sign. He says, "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"; that was the sign. I would call your attention to the wonderful significance of that sign: "He spake of the temple of his body". His body as a Man here was the true temple of God -- of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit -- the trinity are presented in Him in John's gospel -- three divine persons. John bears witness (chapter 1: 32) of having seen the Spirit in the

form of a dove descending upon Him, and the peculiar expression of John is -- "it abode upon him". One could quote a good many passages from this gospel where the Lord speaks of the Father dwelling in Him, and, beloved, He Himself in His own Person is there presented as the Son -- "the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father"; so the truth is brought out that He was the temple of God, God dwelt in Him abidingly. With the exception of this passage (where He says, "Destroy this temple"), you find everywhere in John that His death is His own act: "No man", He said, speaking of His life as a Man here, "taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself". Again -- "I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep". ...

Then -- as to His resurrection -- the first significance of it is that it is His own act; even in chapter 2 He says, "I will raise it up". It is in a sense the rebuilding of the temple of God. He laid down His life, but in resurrection He takes it again as Man; He takes it up in a condition perfectly suitable to all the purpose of God, and He takes it up, may I say, in a condition that places Him -- His precious body -- beyond all the reach of Man; He lives after the power of an endless life; death has no more dominion over Him. His body was the alone

point where the enemy could touch Him; Satan persuaded himself that he would destroy Him by bringing His body into death, and that would end everything! But did it end everything? No; it was the beginning of the accomplishment of the eternal purpose of God. In it God was declared -- the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost were made known. Those Jews, led on by the enemy, might in a sense "destroy" His body, but they could not destroy the light of the revelation of God; that was beyond the power of the enemy to touch. He builds His body again, and He builds it in a condition that is indestructible, beyond the reach of man, and beyond the reach of death for ever. One would speak carefully and reverently; He died on the cross under the judgment of God. He died as Man; He cried, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Man nailed Him to the cross and heaped every indignity upon Him, and He bore the judgment of God; but in dying under the judgment of God He exhausted that judgment perfectly and for ever. He has built His body; He is raised from the dead.

Now there comes to light a very interesting thing in connection with the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ; you find Him risen in chapter 20, and with the exception of what He had to say to Mary personally, the first

words that left His lips were "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". But it is not His resurrection that has made us His brethren. Let me quote Hebrews 2"For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren" -- "all of one" -- of the same origin, derivation. Where did that take place? In His death. The "grain of wheat" fell into the ground and died, and in His death that took place which answers to what takes place in a grain of wheat which falls into the ground and dies. The many grains come forth, and so it is His death and not His resurrection that makes us His brethren. The term "brethren" involves our being "all of one". Before His death He was alone; now there are "many" who are of His nature as a Man, and the first thing that comes to pass in resurrection is that they are brought to light; He owns them; He recognises them; He says, "Go to my brethren". They will share all that belongs to Him, though that does not come about yet. He had been alone, but He is alone no more; He is still the heavenly One, but there are heavenly ones with Him now, the beginning of whose spiritual being was in His death, and they are brought to light in resurrection.

There is another aspect of the Lord's resurrection in John. We find there two things as to the disciples -- the eleven; they are the Lord's disciples -- His peculiarly chosen ones, and we find them in association with Him. I am anticipating a little, for association is chiefly with the Lord in ascension, but we find them also in association with Him as risen, and though you may take account of them as in association with the Lord as risen, remember resurrection does not take anybody to heaven; I speak reverently, it did not take the Lord to heaven. Speaking of it in the broadest sense, resurrection is God's victory over death down here. In the moment that is coming, when "the dead in Christ shall rise first", God's victory over death will take place down here, where all the death, and all the sorrow has taken place, and in one moment the power of Christ will undo all that death has ever done for the saints of God. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is the pledge and anticipation of blessing here upon earth, and God is going to return to that side for His earthly people; He is going by-and-by to take things up down here for blessing, and when He takes them up for blessing the order of God will be -- first, the remnant of Israel, and then the blessing will spread out, not only to the nations -- those particular nations found in prophecy connected

with Israel, but it will go forth to the ends of the earth ... .

Now I must pass on because I want to speak a little of His ascension -- I might have spoken more fully of resurrection if time had allowed, but I trust I have said enough, so that I shall not lie under the suspicion in any Christian's mind that we want to minify the resurrection, but it is clear that the terminus in John's gospel is not resurrection. Ascension is the terminus, because John presents Him as the divine Man, the second Man out of heaven; and the second Man out of heaven could not find His terminus (if I might use such an expression) in resurrection; although His ascension is not actually given in John -- his whole gospel is in the light of it. He says, "I came forth from the Father and have come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father". We might cite many such passages in this gospel, but I only note one more. In the message which He sends to His "brethren" in chapter 20 He says, "I ascend", so we are bound to take account of His ascension.

Now the first thing in connection with the Lord's ascension is the association of sons with Himself. Ascension is the point of association. Association in the New Testament scriptures stands connected with Christ as the ascending

or the ascended One. Hence He says to Mary Magdalene: "Go to my brethren [there are the brethren -- the 'much fruit'] and say to them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". If I understand scripture those words denote association, and the point of association is His ascension. His death is the womb of our new existence; in His death we have been brought forth of the same nature with Himself as Man, and He owns us; He calls us His brethren. In His resurrection we have come into view, and then in His ascension we are placed in association with Himself. In the Gospel of John everything is attributed to Himself, so to speak. It is in His death that we are brought forth as the "much fruit"; we come into existence as the "much fruit" of the heavenly Man -- the second Man out of heaven. In John His resurrection also is His own act, as I have said. In Romans it is attributed to the glory of the Father; in Ephesians to the surpassing greatness of God's power: but in John's gospel He raises the temple of His body in three days. He not only has power or authority to lay down His life, but He has the same power to take it again. Then we are brought to light as His brethren, and now He places us in association with Himself. You will bear with me in repeating these truths, but I think there is a very

widespread defect amongst us in that we do not seem to have the sense that we are entitled to be heavenly, and that we belong to heaven. If we speak of association with Christ the very thought of association connects us with heaven.

Another point in connection with ascension is this -- I read from chapter 14 and also from chapter 16, and in chapter 16 the Lord positively declares that "It is profitable for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go I will send him to you". The coming of the Comforter did not depend merely upon His death or upon His resurrection; it depended on His ascension and glorification. In John 7 we are told: "For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified". So that the coming, and the abiding and indwelling presence of the Spirit of God stands connected with His ascension. I trust that is clear. I am sorry to pass over the points so briefly, because, in one sense, everything practically in Christianity hangs upon the abiding, indwelling presence of the Spirit of God. Christianity lies within the region or sphere of the Spirit of God; outside that sphere, in this city of London, vast as it is, there is not one bit of what God takes account of.

There is one more point I want to speak of in connection with ascension, and that is the

scene brought before us in John 20. We most of us understand Pentecost in a certain way; it was on the day of Pentecost that the Holy Ghost descended, but I do not know that we all understand what we get in John 20. We find there that Mary Magdalene went with the message (to which we have referred) from the lips of the Lord; the "brethren" were together, and they received His message; so they were together not only in the light of His resurrection, but they were there in the light of what was involved in His words -- "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God". On that day in the evening He appears in their midst, and the point I would refer to is this -- it says in our authorised version, "He breathed on them", but that is not right, "He breathed into them", and He says to them, "Receive Holy Spirit". It has generally been stated that in John 20 we have the divinely-given pattern of the assembly, not the assembly as coming together for the Lord's supper, or the breaking of bread as in 1 Corinthians, but a pattern of the assembly viewed spiritually, and viewed in relation to the heavenly privileges of the assembly ... the Lord breathed into them and said, "Receive Holy Spirit". Now I think that in the light of the fact (of which we are pretty generally agreed), that John 20 is a

divinely-given pattern of the assembly in the way in which I have spoken, and in view of the Lord's words to Mary Magdalene preceding, that we are entitled to regard the Lord here in the light of His ascension, although His actual ascension was not until forty days after that time. But the time and actuality of things do not appear in John; it is the divine pattern that he gives, and so according to the pattern we are right to regard the Lord in this scripture as in the light of His ascension. He is acting in that light, and so He breathed into them. I am sorry I cannot speak at greater length, but I would say this (it may help you to understand it), that the close of Luke and beginning of Acts give us the truth as to the Holy Ghost outwardly, and in connection with public testimony. The Lord says to them, "Ye will receive power, the Holy Spirit having come upon you, and ye shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judaea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth". But John does not give us the Spirit in those connections, he gives us the Spirit inwardly. It is not the Spirit in relation to outward testimony, but in relation to the enjoyment of heavenly privileges.

Now I want to speak of one more point before I close, and it is this -- The Lord is coming again; as He says in chapter 14, "Let

not your heart be troubled; ye believe on God, believe also on me. In my Father's house there are many abodes; were it not so, I had told you: for I go to prepare you a place; and if I go and shall prepare you a place, I am coming again and shall receive you to myself, that where I am ye also may be"; and in perfect keeping with this in chapter 17: 24 He, speaking to the Father, says, "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before [the] foundation of [the] world". We often speak of the rapture, but the revelation of the rapture in 1 Thessalonians 4 is from the standpoint of the sorrows and needs of the saints. Paul's last word there is: "So encourage one another with these words". And what a wonderful word of encouragement and comfort for the saints that has been from that day to this! But in John 14 it is not from the point of view of our sorrows in a scene like this, where death is, and all that it involves; but the Lord is speaking in the light of His own love, and you cannot have anything higher than that. He is not thinking for the moment of the sorrows and needs even of His people -- though He does take account of every sorrow that touches His people -- He is touched with

the feeling of our infirmities, but He is speaking there from the standpoint of His own love. "I go to prepare a place for you", and it is the necessity of His love to do so. He says, "I am coming again and shall receive you to myself". It is as though He had said: I know that wonderful place -- the Father's house -- I go to prepare a place for you in it, and He has prepared it -- His entrance there as Man prepared it for His people. He says to them, "I must have you with me where I am" and He says to the Father, "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory". I cannot speak as fully as I would like, but there are two sides. One is, that we are to shine in manifested glory with Him -- as it is so beautifully put in Colossians "When the Christ is manifested who is our life, then shall ye also be manifested with him in glory". That is the display -- the manifestation side. But there is another side, there is being with Himself and beholding His glory -- "My glory". There is a glory given Him which we are going to share with Him; but there is a glory peculiar to Himself, and which is connected with Himself as the One who is the peculiar Object of the Father's love from before the foundation of the world, and we are to see it. One can understand limitations to

the manifested glory, but to that which He speaks of as "My glory" there are no limitations -- it will never end.

May the Lord endear Himself to our hearts in connection with these wonderful facts about Himself. I am sure He is seeking at this time, in a very especial way, to engage the affections of His people's hearts with Himself; and may it be thus with us, that our hearts may be drawn out to Him, and that we may learn increasingly to appreciate Himself and to make everything of Him.

THE PURPOSE OF HIS LOVE

1 Peter 1:1 - 9

I have no doubt the Spirit of God had in view the encouragement of the saints to whom this epistle is addressed, but my thought is that this morning we might gather up a little encouragement to ourselves. These believers had lost everything that belonged to them as Jews; they were dispersed and scattered as strangers, but the Spirit takes account of this and seeks to encourage them. Everything is brought out in the chapter in the way of contrast -- designed contrast -- all that had belonged to them as Jews, even the smallest particular is brought in as contrast.

Ques. They were taken account of personally?

Yes, and in a wonderful way; the very first utterance is "elect" -- they were taken account of in the purpose of God. Election would not be a new thought to a Jew; as an earthly people they had been chosen -- taken out -- but mark the character of it here, they were "elect according to the foreknowledge of God"; that is

a wonderful statement. We are very apt to take account of ourselves according to our circumstances and surroundings; circumstances are by no means to be despised, or thought lightly of; many of us are very conscious of weak physical conditions, but here is a thought full of comfort -- "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God" -- that takes us right back to God. I often think of the way in which God seeks to encourage His people; we seek to encourage each other by meeting need, or such like, but God's way is to lift you up and take you in mind clean out of the whole thing; you cannot bring one thought of your circumstances into God's election. It antedates them all. Romans 8:29 begins with foreknowledge too, on the part of God.

Peter here, by the Spirit, takes you back to the very beginning of the chain of God's sovereign love; it is all the purpose of His love, and it is a great thing to have the sense of that in our souls. "The foreknowledge of God the Father", that is -- the revelation of God as He has come out in the Person of His Son; it is not Jehovah, nor the Almighty, but God as Father; that is distinctive Christianity. The Father has got His own purpose, the purpose of His love from all eternity for His own satisfaction, and the Spirit sets us right down in those counsels. Then comes "sanctification

of the Spirit" -- this was no sanctification by external rites which a Jew would know all about, but this is something new. "Sanctification of the Spirit" -- a real work of God affected in us by the Spirit. That sets the soul apart in a living way, and mark what it is "unto" -- "Unto the obedience, and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ". To the Jew it was obedience to the law; Moses sprinkled the blood, and the people were bound then under penalty of death to the obedience of the law; but now it is the obedience of Jesus Christ -- that is, to obey as He obeyed; it is a new character of obedience, and it involves having no will -- it must involve that. Look at the Lord Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane -- that supreme test! What does He say? -- "Nevertheless not my will". What does He cry? -- "Abba, Father"; that was the obedience of true Sonship.

Rem. For "sonship" to have its place with us grace must subdue our hearts first.

Yes, I like what you say about the subduing of our hearts. With the Galatians and the Corinthians there were two things working against grace, leaven was in both in different ways. The Corinthian leaven was lawlessness, and the Galatian leaven was legality; we have the root of all in us -- in the flesh. But here it is the obedience of Jesus Christ, we are to

be set apart to obey as He obeyed, and His obedience was the obedience of a Son. He comes out wearing the yoke of Sonship. Look at Him in Matthew 11 when all is, as it were, against Him. "At that time, Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father". Oh, it is a wonderful expression! There is the yoke -- there is your divine Leader. He says, "Learn from me". He is Leader of salvation of the "many sons" whom He is bringing to glory.

This obedience would gather up your hearts into all the love of God, and the sprinkling would set you in the presence of God with a perfect conscience. Oh, that is a wonderful start! We want to carry these things into our pathway here; if the Spirit makes them good to us, it would be much better for us than any change of circumstances. We spend time fretting and worrying over our trials and circumstances, but God would change us by putting the light of these wonderful things into our souls. J.B.S. used to say that there are three trials that come on saints -- bereavement, loss of health and poverty. How many of God's beloved people find themselves thus! We need to do what Peter tells us here, to get our hearts into the thought of God's purpose, and not worry to get our circumstances changed.

Then the apostle ends the introduction with the words, "Grace and peace be multiplied".

If you take account of what has gone before, it is lovely -- the blessed source of the grace and peace in God Himself, it is a river ever flowing -- yes, ever flowing.

Now mark the wonderful statement that follows: "God ... has begotten us again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ". It is not now a question of the "foreknowledge of God"; it is something that has happened in time -- a fact. If we look at death we do not see exactly the same side that we see in resurrection; for instance, look at the cross, it was a scene of judgment, darkness, everything indicated divine judgment, but when God raised His blessed Son from the dead, we see His purpose beginning to take form; hence in Christ risen we have a platform raised for us, and we occupy it -- "a living hope". It is touching to see in Luke 24 those disciples reduced to hopelessness by the death of their Lord. Look at those two going to Emmaus; when the Lord joined them, how do they talk -- no hope now! Oh, no, it is all sadness; but look at the end of the chapter -- what a difference! They see that something has happened -- what is it? The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ from among the dead; they really loved Him, and Peter cannot speak about it without bursting forth into "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has begotten us

again". I like that little word, "begotten us again"; it was not restoring them back, no, it is connected with One who is living in the power of an endless life -- One who became dead, but who is alive for evermore; so it is a living hope. Paul thought it worthwhile to say to Timothy, "Remember Jesus Christ raised from among the dead", and we need that word too. Oh, it will help you, beloved, it will stay your tears, it will help you in trial as nothing else will, to remember Jesus Christ; we do want to have our hearts tuned up into Peter's chorus here.

The next is a long sentence but a wonderful one; the hope Peter speaks of is something very definite; it has a heavenly form, and that inheritance eclipses all the earthly ones in their brightest day; it is "incorruptible" -- that is, it is not capable of being corrupted. Try to think of these things, beloved! Oh, how you would turn round with beaming faces and feel -- "We are better off than ever". The power was equal for the inheritance up there, and for the saints down here, but it is "through faith". If you give way to unbelief, the devil will have his fling at you. When scripture says "kept by the power of God", there is an end of fears and trouble; you are kept guarded by that power. Then the salvation is "ready to be revealed", that is the wind up of it all, that

will introduce you actually into the inheritance.

Now comes a wonderful drop down: "Wherein ye exult, for a little while at present, if needed, put to grief by various trials"; the drop down is to actual circumstances here, but note it is a "little while"; it is a comfort there is no little while about the inheritance, but when the Spirit of God touches present trial, it is for a "little while" only. If you know a thing is only for a little while, you can endure it. You know it will not last. You can put that label "little while" on all that puts us to grief here, on every trial. It is not that the trials are not real -- they are very real to us; grief was very real to the Lord; He felt it all, but He "endured the cross, despised the shame". He was looking onward, and that is our position regarding all that lies before us. Oh beloved, are you pressed? Have you a book full of cares? -- just open your cheque-book on the bank of heaven and draw from that. Oh the sympathy and succour that is there! the heart of the Son of God touched with the feeling of your infirmities, and how good to know it all. I would not be without it for anything. Did you ever think of your trials as they affect God? What God will get out of them? Look at it here: "Be found to praise and glory and honour in the revelation of Jesus Christ". God is going to

get praise out of all your tears and sorrow. He will get a good revenue out of it. The crucible with the gold is put into the fire and heated till all the dross is consumed, and the pure gold only left. God will lift His saints out of the fiercest trials with nothing left in them but that which is for His praise. Are we willing to be burned up so that He may get the glory? May He encourage our hearts.

ETERNAL LIFE

Romans 5:20, 21; Romans 6:22, 23; 1 John 5:6, 8 - 21

J.P. I think the first important thing is to recognise the fact that eternal life is brought in in scripture in contrast to sin and death. "The wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord".

Ques. Does not eternal life refer to where sin and death are not?

J.P. I think not. It refers to where they are. I do not see what force eternal life would have where there is no sin and death. Hence in scripture you do not get eternal life connected with heaven.

Rem. But you get it connected with the Son of God.

J.P. "The Son of God is come". You must not put time into that. It is important to recognise that in scripture eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death. There is more in that than we may think, "The wages of sin is death; but the act of favour of God, eternal life" (not through but) "in Christ Jesus our

Lord". "In" is the characteristic word in chapter 6, while the characteristic word of chapter 5 is "through".

Ques. Why?

J.P. Because in chapter 5 Christ is the "Lord" -- the great Administrator, and you get what He administers -- seven things, and they are all through our Lord Jesus Christ, so eternal life is through our Lord Jesus Christ in chapter 5. But chapter 6 presents Him as the second Man out of heaven, so that what is true of Him personally is true of all those who are in Him. Ponder that! The more you ponder it, the more it will dawn upon you. Eternal life is primarily connected with "the world to come"; sin and death will not reign then.

Sin; death; that is the order. "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death". Then eternal life is brought in by Christ Jesus, and He is the Son of God. There are two questions involved in the question of eternal life -- the questions of sin, and of death. The only thing that meets sin (which is lawlessness) is righteousness, and the only thing that can meet death is the One who is the Resurrection and the Life, who has abolished death and brought to light life and incorruptibility. You have to face the questions of righteousness and life. God can never give up

His rights or claims as God; and anything in which He sets forth His rights and claims in regard of man can never be set aside. So that the answer of the Lord to the lawyer in Luke 10 is more direct than we might think from a cursory reading. The lawyer's question -- What shall I do to inherit eternal life? is simple and direct, and the Lord's answer is -- "What is written in the law?" The lawyer said, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart", etc., and the Lord said, "Thou hast answered right: this do and thou shalt live". Why? Because God gave the law, and it was the embodiment and expression of God's claims in regard of man. Hence the language of the law was "This do and thou shalt live". Man's title to live is found in that connection. You cannot set it aside. The law as given amounted to a test; the question raised by it was a question of righteousness -- the rights of God. Israel broke down in it, and so in Romans 3the summary is "there is none righteous, no, not one".

But has God set aside His own rights and claims? It is impossible. That shows that if it is a question of eternal life you have to take account of the question of sin and of righteousness. So if the wages of sin is death, the act of favour of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. "This is the record, that God hath

given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son".

Every believer has title to eternal life, but one's desire is that we may know that we have it, and be practically in the good of it. The point is eternal life is brought in in contrast to sin and death. The two (sin and death) must be reckoned with; and they have both been met in the righteous One. (See verse 17 "reign in life".) You could not think of life apart from righteousness; it would compromise the character of God. "Reign in life", by One -- who? -- the righteous One. If the lawlessness of one man has entailed death upon all connected with him, so the righteousness of One brings in life for those connected with Him. We want to get our eyes off ourselves to see that eternal life is the act of favour of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, or (as it is put in 1 John 5) "in his Son". This question was brought out in the life of the Lord here. He did not set aside the law and the prophets. He came to fulfil them, to establish the fulness of all the rights and claims of God. "Little children, let no man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous". That does not refer to His atoning death. In that He is alone. It refers to Him as the Man here -- the righteous One. At His baptism when John objects He

says, "Suffer it now; for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness". In the temptation in Matthew He takes and maintains the ground of the rights of God and refuses to be moved one hair's breadth. He asks, "Which of you convinceth me of sin?" There He stands the righteous One. And in 1 John 2 -- who have we as advocate with the Father? "Jesus Christ the righteous one". He established the title of man to live; He has brought in righteousness in the very scene of sin. It is wonderful to see the Lord in that light -- how as Man He took up in His path here every feature of man in responsibility and met it all. He was perfectly righteous; I am not speaking of atonement, or of His bearing the wrath of God against sin, but of Him as the righteous One in His path here. It has been said that God met the two worst things in the world by the two best things -- lawlessness and hatred by righteousness and love.

"Son of God" describes Him as Man born in time, "That holy thing ... shall be called the Son of God". Then resurrection is the attestation, the marking out, of the fact that He is Son of God. (See Romans 1:3, 4).

Then there is the other question -- that of death. "By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death". Eternal life involves the establishment of the opposites. Sin and

death are set aside and righteousness and life are brought in. There is only One who was competent for that -- the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Going into death He abolished it, and brought life and incorruptibility to light. Now, you have not only righteousness, but a Man of another order, out of death. Eternal life is in the One who is perfectly righteous -- in that Man as out of death.

Rem. As the righteous One, He has established the right of man to live.

J.P. Yes; it is wonderful. Scripture goes back before His death, where it says, "He that says he abides in him ought, even as he walked, himself to walk". He has established righteousness, and gone into death. Then it is available to those who believe. In Himself, He has established the right of man to live.

Ques. As to the thought of "the true Man"?

J.P. We get in scripture "The same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him". (John 7:18), "We are in him that is true". (1 John 5:20.) "These things saith ... he that is true". He is true; never was there a claim of God that He did not answer to. He has established His title as man to live here, being clear of death here, and God has brought in eternal life for man in His Son. I do not care about definitions, because I do not know

them; but the Lord says of eternal life, "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent".

As to love, "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love". If you do not love, you do not know. Can you be in the sunshine, and not be bright and warm?

Ques. When did the Lord establish man's right to live?

J.P. When did He fulfil the law of God? He could say, "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart". He was the ark of the covenant. When did He establish righteousness? When He was here. All that was in Him becomes through His death available to us in resurrection. That brings in the thought of headship. In Romans 5 there is Adam, and the effects of his act, and then there is Christ and the effects of His act. We cannot separate righteousness and life. In His death He established righteousness; in His life here as man He took up the responsibilities of man here, but at the cross He took up man's liabilities -- death and judgment; He did not take up responsibility at the cross. There He took up the question of what rested on man -- judgment and death. It was in His life here that He was the righteous One. His resurrection did not constitute Him the

righteous One. I see in His life here righteousness fulfilled, the conditions of life as established for man, and I see in Him, as the risen One, that righteousness and life are available for man. So in that One there is eternal life.

Rem. The difficulty of some is that eternal life is said to be in Him, and as He is in heaven, eternal life must be there.

J.P. But forgiveness of sins and justification are in Him, and we enter into that here. I ask for a scripture as to eternal life being in heaven. I asked F.E.R., in Chicago, "Do you know any scripture which connects eternal life with heaven?" and he said "I do not".

Ques. Is there no sense in which eternal life goes on to heaven?

J.P. I do not think so. I say it humbly, not dogmatically. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God". I cannot see the force of that in heaven; I can understand it here. Then He goes on -- "And Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent". He was sent from heaven, not into heaven, He is the second Man out of heaven.

Rem. You said the former was to abolish idolatry, the latter lawlessness.

J.P. Yes; it is where these things are that we need eternal life; there are no idols in heaven.

Eternal life is not the knowledge of divine

Persons as such. We can speak of the divine Persons -- Father, Son, and Holy Ghost -- but eternal life is not that; it lies in the knowledge of the only true God, and of Him (the sent One) who addressed Him as "Father". He always addressed Him as Father save on that one occasion when He was the sin-offering. Then it was, "My God".

So, "These words spake Jesus ... and said, Father ... and this is life eternal", etc. He is speaking of the knowledge of God, who is His Father, and of knowing Him down here as the "only true God". That is salvation from idolatry; the knowledge of God will abolish all idolatry from our hearts.

Ques. What about "He is the true God and eternal life"?

J.P. We must not mix John's epistle and his gospel. Here (chapter 17: 3) it is to "know the only true God". It is a question of knowledge; it is not feelings, but what you know. You know the "only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent", and in Him you are perfectly righteous and saved from all lawlessness. "He that abideth in him sinneth not". We want to know the reality of it.

In the last part of John's epistle it is a question of testimony; not of His person, but of what is set forth in Him. He was the perfect setting forth of the true God and of

eternal life. So (as J.N.D. has said) that whatever was true of Him here, He is never spoken of as eternal life till risen and in glory, in His condition here He was not the expression of eternal life.

Ques. What of 1 John 5:12, 13, "That ye may know that ye have eternal life"?

J.P. That is that we may have the consciousness of it. Verse 12 is objective; eternal life is not in you, but the consciousness of having it ought to be in you. There are three Greek words translated as "know". John 17:3 is not consciousness, it is objective knowledge; it is so certain that there is no question about it, no doubt remains in your mind, you are perfectly certain. It is knowledge in that sense, but in 1 John 5 it is consciousness. The point in John's epistle is how we are to arrive at this consciousness, and in John's gospel it is "that ye might believe" on the One who has brought eternal life in. The epistle is written to those who have the faith of His person and have to be brought into the consciousness. We have been speaking of the title which every believer has, and of the consciousness, which every believer does not have.

There were two or three points which came before us this afternoon which I think might be opened up further.

(1) The sphere of eternal life. Many think sphere means another place; but if the term is understood morally and spiritually it is very helpful. Scripture speaks of our passing from death into life. The Lord says (John 5:24), "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed out of death into life". There is such a thing as the sphere of eternal life. It has been described as an out-of-the-world condition; many think that means actually going out of the world, but that is a mistake. If eternal life "is to know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent", it involves that the One who has this knowledge passes into another sphere -- a moral sphere. In the consciousness of eternal life we are no longer morally in a sphere of death, but have passed from death into life, from darkness to light, we are in a sphere of light and love. "We know we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren". It is an out-of-the-world condition, because the world is marked by idolatry and lawlessness. Eternal life consists in knowing the Father as the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.

Ques. How can we who are supposed to be believers on the Son of God come into the consciousness that we have eternal life?

J.P. I think that question might be answered by Romans 6:22 (N.T.) "Having got your freedom from sin, you have become servants to God ... fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life". The "end" is not the end of your course here; not the end as to time, but the moral end. That scripture is helpful as indicating the spiritual steps one takes in coming to the consciousness of eternal life. If you have been brought to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; if you have really been brought to this, you have eternal life in title and as gift; hence the kind of person who is said to have eternal life is "whosoever believeth", but our entering into it supposes the Spirit, for in John 4 the Lord says to the woman, "Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but ... shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life". Then in Galatians we get, "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting". These scriptures show that eternal life is connected with the Spirit as dwelling in us, and with the moral course followed by the soul -- with the moral steps which the soul pursues in the power of the Spirit. You

cannot conceive of any one having the consciousness of eternal life if he is at all under the power of sin; for sin and death have furnished the occasion for God to bring in eternal life in contrast to sin and death. As to the moral steps -- first you have freedom from sin and have become servant to God. (Romans 6) Then you have fruit unto holiness, and then eternal life. We dispute no one's title. You cannot tell whether a person has really come to the faith of the Son of God; but you cannot conceive of any one having the consciousness of eternal life being mixed up with the world or sin.

Ques. Does scripture present eternal life in view of the future?

J.P. Yes, in Titus 3:7, we read -- "Having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life". That looks on to the future. Where and when shall we reach it? Scripture is plain. It is in resurrection, or the equivalent change, when the Lord comes for His people. "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye". Well, I believe we shall all come into the actuality of eternal life at that time; those who are now asleep will reach the actuality of eternal life in resurrection, and we -- "the living", shall reach it in being changed. We

shall reach it here, and if we have fallen asleep we shall be raised here.

Rem. Resurrection only puts you as risen on the earth.

J.P. Resurrection did not take the Lord off the earth. It was ascension that did that. What will take us up? We shall be caught up; that is the rapture; that follows the resurrection and the change.

Ques. Did not the Lord leave the earth during those forty days?

J.P. Scripture does not tell us. I want to be a believer, not a thinker.

Ques. What is meant by "inherit eternal life"?

J.P. That is always found in the synoptic gospels.

Ques. Does eternal life cease at ascension?

J.P. I do not think that we shall lose when in heaven any blessing that we have here; but scripture never predicates eternal life of anybody in heaven, and the term does not stand connected in scripture with the eternal state. We ought to take account of that. But while the term ceases, the thing does not cease. Before slavery was abolished in America, there were two classes of people -- freemen and slaves. With the abolition of slavery the terms necessarily cease, for every man is equally free. I adduce that as an illustration

to show that there is no force in speaking of eternal life in connection with heaven and eternity, which is wholly a scene of life; no sin or death there. So the term eternal life ceases where death ceases. The last enemy is destroyed and then comes the end. What marks the end -- the eternal state is that God's Son as Man will deliver up the kingdom to the Father. Till then He has all authority in heaven and in earth, and has exercised it in bringing everything into subjection; not one insubject thing will be left! Then, as Man, the kingdom having served its end of bringing everything into subjection to God, He delivers up His stewardship, hands it over to the Father, and takes the place of subjection as Man -- He, to whom all power in heaven and in earth had been given. In Revelation 21 the kingdom is at an end; there is no longer the Mediator; Christ, in the character of Lamb, is no longer there, There is no need of Mediator or Lamb, for all has been settled, the universe has been cleared of every enemy.

Israel will come into eternal life in the world to come. In Ezekiel the question is raised, "Can these dry bones live?" God will make the new covenant with them, but I do not think that goes beyond righteousness. He will write His law in their hearts and minds, all shall know Him from the least to the greatest,

and thus they will come into the blessing of eternal life. They will have righteousness and life, etc. "They that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake ... to everlasting life". (Daniel 12:2.) Israel will come into it in the flesh, not in the moral sense of the term but in the literal sense; and the Gentiles also come into it. (Matthew 25) They are those on the right hand -- the "sheep". The Jews are another class -- "My brethren". These shall "go away into life eternal".

Then there is the prophecy that God will remove the veil that is over the nations, and they will enter into eternal life. Eternal life will obtain here, upon the earth, and men will enter into it.

APPENDIX ⁺

Eternal life has conditions suited to it, just as natural life has certain conditions proper to it. These conditions are light, atmosphere, and rule. A new-born babe cannot thrive in darkness -- that condition is not favourable to

⁺The above is the latter part of a Reading with Mr. Pellatt on the same subject but in a different locality. As there are fresh points in it which are not brought out in the foregoing Reading, it is given here in the form of an Appendix.

it, Another natural condition is atmosphere -- it must have air. And then there must be rule, or it has no protection.

Ques. How do you apply that spiritually?

J.P. Light, righteousness and love are the conditions of eternal life in the order of John's first epistle. I suppose the atmosphere is the love of the brethren, and "rule" is abiding in the Son. If we abide in Christ we abide in righteousness; we do not sin. "He that is born of God sinneth not". These are the conditions of eternal life in those who are born of God; they are all unfolded that we may have the consciousness that we have eternal life, and when we come to consciousness there is an end of opinion, an end of disputation.

Ques. Is it for us then to live in these conditions?

J.P. Surely it is.

Ques. Is eternal life the result of believing in Him?

J.P. Well, it just depends upon what you mean by "result". We do not get eternal life by believing, but it is only believers who have it; faith is the title to it, no one can have it without faith; those who believe not have no part in it. There is a very straight line drawn in chapter 3: 36 between the one who believes and the one who does not believe. Your faith is your title; there is no title but in the faith

of that blessed Person, but you must have the "living water" to enter into eternal life. "The water that I shall give him shall become a fountain of water springing up into eternal life". So in Galatians, "He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting".

Ques. What is the meaning of the fountain? Is it life in the power of the Spirit?

J.P. Yes, the thought is -- there is activity -- it is "living water" not a stagnant pool. It is like what we call in the West "a flowing well", the water is a long way down, but when it comes to the surface it rises four or five feet into the air.

Rem. I believe the word "springing up" is the same as "leaping" in Acts 3 as to the man who had been lame.

Rem. You said just now that we do not get eternal life by believing; why?

J.P. You get it by the Spirit, you acquire the title to it by believing. It does not say "hath" in verse 16 but "have". You have it as title, but you come into the good of it by the Spirit; so you are brought to what is stated in Romans, "Having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life". What gave offence at a brothers' reading in the

spring of 1888 was that Mr. Stoney insisted that unless Christians are in the good of deliverance they know nothing about eternal life. In reply it was insisted -- He that believeth hath. Scripture does not put it so. Take John 5:24: "He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life". That is a statement by the Spirit showing the kind of people who have it. That implies moral condition.

Rem. As we had last night, the objective and subjective go together. One is thankful through all the exercise we have had to be awakened to the truth in its fulness -- the objective and subjective.

Rem. This would correspond with the end of Romans 6.

J.P. It is God's desire that we should have eternal life. In John 3:16 it is not our experience; it is God's gift, God's purpose. John 4 is our side: the living water springing up into everlasting life -- we want both sides.

Ques. What about "rivers of living water flowing out" in John 7?

J.P. That goes with John 4, only the one is "springing up" the other "flowing out". One springing up towards its source -- divine affections, and the other flowing out in a testimony descriptive of the Man in glory.

Ques. Would you say eternal life is the

region of divine affections? Are not divine affections connected with it?

J.P. "God loved the world", that is enough. There are affections connected in scripture with eternal life, but we must keep things distinct. Eternal life in scripture is never confounded with sonship. With me this has been a very important exercise, and we learn slowly; we can afford to have patience with one another. The expression "divine affections" gives the thought of affections between divine Persons, and conveys the thought of sonship. God loved the world, there is no mistake about that.

Ques. Why do you connect eternal life with children rather than with sons?

J.P. Scripture connects eternal life with children and never with sons. "This life is in his Son", not in sons.

Ques. Would it not bring in the thought of sons?

J.P. That is a very interesting question. I would like to answer it from scripture. The Lord in John's gospel uses two expressions as to the Father. He speaks of "the Father" and of "my Father". Now these expressions are not interchangeable and must not be confounded. Eternal life is connected with "the Father", sonship with "my Father".

How do we take account of the Lord Jesus

Christ? Nothing is of more importance than having a definite and clear apprehension of His person. I do not mean simply as divine -- He was ever and always that, but looked at as Man born in time the greatness of His person is wonderful. He as Man is Son of God, "I will be to him for Father", there He is looked at as Man born in time. Then you find the Lord still as Man in a special relationship -- that of "My Father". Let me suggest a change. If it were "in the Father's house are many abodes" -- Do you like that change? No; it is not as good as "My Father's house". Then how would you like Mary's message changed to -- I ascend to the Father? No! He says, "My Father and your Father, my God and your God". Then in John 10:14, 15, would you like a change? "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine, as my Father knoweth me and I know my Father". No! that will not do, it must be "the Father" there. We must leave scripture as it stands; the Lord puts it perfectly; He never makes a distinction without a difference.

Rem. Matthew 11 bears out what you say, "All things are delivered unto me of my Father".

J.P. It is very interesting to read J.N.D.'s translation taking account of these distinctions. Take 1 John 3"Behold, what manner of

love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God". You will find nothing about sons in the first epistle of John, but the epistle is brimful of children, and that epistle gives a great place to eternal life in its unfolding and details; you never find it connected with sons, always with children.

Ques. Is the thought of children connected with what is down here, and hence with eternal life?

J.P. Yes, One would not separate the two thoughts -- children and sons, but we must distinguish them. Parallel lines go side by side -- you get a beautiful instance of it in Romans 8:15: "Ye have received the spirit of sonship", and in verse 16, "The Spirit beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God". Here we have children and sons side by side. But there is a point where the two merge in one. In verse 21 the apostle speaks of the liberty of the glory of the children of God, and in verse 19 of the revelation of the sons of God. There we have the two together. We do not wait to be children, we are just as much children as we ever shall be, but we wait for sonship in actuality.

Rem. We wait for the redemption of the body.

J.P. Yes; adoption is the same word as sonship.

Ques. Are we not looked at in Galatians as sons now in contrast to servants?

J.P. "Child"in Galatians gives the thought of minority. In that epistle we are "sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus".

It is most beautiful the way the consequences of eternal life are traced out in John's first epistle.

Ques. Did you say that eternal life is connected with children and not with sons?

J.P. I cannot find it connected with sons in scripture. We have the spirit of sonship now, but sonship is proper to heaven. The final overcomer, in Revelation 21:7, shall inherit "these things" -- the things just mentioned that characterise the eternal state, and "I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son". Sonship goes into the eternal state. So in Ephesians we are marked out beforehand according to His eternal purpose (chapter 1: 7), and Romans 8:29, "That he might be the firstborn among many brethren".

Then there are the consequences of eternal life -- walking in the light, righteousness, the activities of righteousness and love in the saints. Walking in these we have the consciousness of eternal life. It is a great mistake to think that the Christian may walk independently in the domestic, social, or business circle.

Rem. At one time we had the idea that if our sins are forgiven we have eternal life.

J.P. That would simply mean eternal existence, and the wicked have that. The doctrine of annihilation is abominable -- the enemy is at the bottom of it. People want to get rid of responsibility because it makes them feel uncomfortable. We have an absolute guarantee of present, perfect, and eternal satisfaction, "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst for ever". Have you got it, or are you seeking something here?

A purged conscience, a satisfied heart -- that is Christianity.

SONSHIP

John 1:14; Romans 8:29; Galatians 3:26; Galatians 4:6; Ephesians 1:3 - 5; Revelation 21:7

J.P. In seeking to learn the truth from the scriptures, the first thing must be Christ; every part of the truth of Christianity is set forth in Him, and the only way we can learn it is in Him; we must see it in Christ. So with Sonship. That is why we read John 1:14: "And the Word became flesh" -- (not "was made") -- "and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a Father". There is the beginning of Sonship! In the light of Romans 8:29 and Ephesians 1, it is plain that to have sons was God's primary thought from all eternity in respect of man, and Revelation 21:7 shows conclusively that in the eternal state that will be that relationship between God and man. "He that overcometh shall inherit these things". The seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 give the overcomers in various lights, but the overcomer in this verse (chapter 21: 7) is the final

overcomer; he is the overcomer when all the dispensations which God has appointed and established have run their course. The kingdom -- the mediatorial kingdom, has come to an end and the eternal state has set in. "He that overcometh shall inherit these things", and God says, "I will be to him for Father, and he shall be to me for son". That is the relationship in eternity between God and man.

I think we need to consider the Lord as MAN. One would speak reverently, though confidently, for I am sure the more He is before us, and that we are engaged with Himself, the more the Spirit of God will help us. "The Word became flesh". It has been said that human definitions and statements about incarnation are to be very much avoided -- they are very misleading -- "Very God, very man, one Christ" is one of the definitions, but that is outside the Bible. The scriptural statement is: "The Word became flesh". A divine and eternally existing Person entered into a condition in which He was not previously. For the term "flesh" is not a term of personality, it is a term of condition; for instance -- "Who, in the days of his flesh, having offered up both supplications", etc. Take another statement: "But if even we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him no longer". It is plain from these scriptures that "flesh" is

not a term of personality but of condition. One does not forget the first verse of the chapter: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". There are three things affirmed there -- eternal existence, distinct personality, and absolute deity. Here is a divine Person -- One who is God, He has become flesh, and the writer associating others with himself, says, "And dwelt among us". In that lovely little parenthesis he further states: "And we have contemplated his glory". What a wonderful thing incarnation is! It brought a glory within the range of human contemplation that had never been seen before. He is the brightness, or effulgence, the outshining of God's glory, according to Hebrews 1, and He is the expression of divine substance. "We have contemplated his glory". "A glory as of an only-begotten with a father". That, I apprehend, gives you the first great thought of Sonship.

I am no scholar, but our brethren, who are scholars, tell us that the expression translated "only-begotten" has no thought of begetting in it, but that it means "only one", the same expression occurring in Genesis 22, where God says to Abraham, "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest". Whether in the Hebrew or the Greek, it is the identical expression that is translated in John 1:14

-- "only-begotten" -- God's "only one". There we get Sonship. There is Christ -- the Son as Man. There is a Man in relationship with God as an "only-begotten [an only one] with a Father", and there He is as Man, and as such, He is the peculiar and distinctive object of God's love. God said to Him: "Thou art my beloved Son". And at His baptism, as He comes up out of the water, the heavens open and God's voice is heard: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found all my delight". Then there is another thing that God said about Him, as He brought Him into the world -- "I shall be to him Father: he shall be to me son". There is the relationship of Sonship! God says of that One: "Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten thee".

Then there is another thing which belongs to sonship, and that is "holiness". The angel Gabriel said to the Virgin Mary, "The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God".

So in these passages we see Him as Man in this wonderful relationship with God, the object in a peculiar way of divine affection; and it is also Man in holiness. Adam as created was man in innocence. But here it is Man in holiness -- holiness as to His origin, as

to His nature, as to His very being. "That holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God".

Now what I desire is that we might get a conception in our souls as to what Sonship is, and for that we must look at it entirely apart from ourselves.

Rem. I suppose that is why you have referred to Christ so much.

J.P. Yes. I know that we are all prone to look at things and consider them in relation to ourselves. And that is why many of us remain in a fog instead of being in the sunshine. We are never able to think truly about the application of truth to ourselves until we have learned it in Christ. Many of us undertake to learn truth in connection with our experience, but we never learn truth really in that way; we must see it in Christ. So with Sonship. He is the Son of God. He will always be the Son of God to us pre-eminently; and He is the pattern of the heavenly family. He is the pattern of the many sons whom He is bringing to glory.

We might add another word or two about Christ. You find He is a different order of man, and that is a great point. In 1 Corinthians 15 you have two men -- the first man and the second Man. The point is there is contrast as to the origin of the two, and you will find in scripture that origin and order go

together, Your origin fixes your order. The first man is out of the earth, made of dust -- that is his origin. And what is the order? Earthly, of course. His order agrees with his origin. What about the Second Man? "The second man is out of heaven". And, if so, what is the order of His manhood? HEAVENLY! "Such as he made of dust, such also those made of dust; and such as the heavenly one, such also the heavenly ones". Sonship was never set forth in the man out of the earth. It belongs exclusively to the second Man out of heaven.

We may see the Lord Jesus Christ as second Man in two conditions. I can give you one verse that embraces the two. Read Hebrews 2:9. There He is made "some little inferior to angels", that is His condition; and then, at the end of the verse, it says He is "crowned with glory and honour" -- the same Man, the Second Man, the heavenly Man.

Sonship is not connected in Scripture with man in innocence, and surely it is not connected with man according to the flesh. If you and I are to come into sonship there must be new creation -- that is obvious.

Now I would ask, Have you and I got the light of Sonship? Are we talking about Sonship without having the light of it in our souls? The light of Sonship is a wonderful thing.

Ques. Where is the light of it?

J.P. The light of it is wherever the faith of it is found, We are all the "sons of God", but do not leave out the next few words -- "by faith in Christ Jesus". Your faith does not help me; have I the faith of it myself?

Ques. Do you get the thought of where He is the Firstborn among many brethren?

J.P. Yes. And we might look now a little at our birthplace. Where is the origin of the sons?

Rem. "If one died for all, then were all dead, that they which live", etc. Is that the beginning of it?

J.P. That is the object. "That they which live", etc., but it does not tell you how they live. Look at John 12, where the Lord said, "Except a grain of wheat ['corn' should be 'grain'] fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit". The "much fruit" is "the sons". Hebrews 2 gives you a kind of account of it -- "For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one". Note that little word "all". That is the derivation -- the origin, the order. "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". Now in what scripture does He first call them brethren? In John 20. There He appeared to Mary Magdalene -- to one person. It is quite a private affair there. Paul will give you a meeting in 1 Corinthians 14. But in

John 20 it is to a woman He appears. He appeared to her and said, "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go ..." To whom? To "my brethren". There it is -- "For which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". The grain of wheat has fallen into the ground and died. There is the origin of sons -- the death of Christ. "If it die, it bringeth forth much fruit". There is where we have sprung from -- His death.

"Brought into human bounds by incarnation's grace,
The holy One of God must still abide alone;
Until His death has formed the suited place,
For the 'much fruit' -- Himself and they 'of One'".

There is the new order and the new origin. The point of derivation was His death. Take Ephesians. There are two things predicated of Christ in Ephesians 2, and three things of the saints. Christ is not said to be quickened: He is said to be raised and seated. The saints are quickened; raised and seated. That is the order -- quickened, raised and seated. Raised up together takes you away from where you have been quickened. When you get up there in the heavenlies you are raised up and made to sit down; you are at ease; you are at home, "Made to sit down in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus".

Continuation of Reading in the evening of same day.

J.P. I thought that we might proceed with the point we reached this afternoon in regard to our origin.

Let us look at the scripture which we read in Galatians 4. It is an advance really upon chapter 3 -- the fact that we are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus. We have seen that we could not be sons of God in connection with the flesh. But we might advance on that and say that we could not be regarded as sons of God in connection with our actual condition down here. Sonship could not be predicated of us in our actual condition. It can be predicated of us while our actual condition remains, but it could not be predicated of us in our actual condition.

Then in chapter 4 there is a further advance. "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father". That is the spirit of sonship. It is not only the present light of it in connection with faith, but there is the spirit of sonship. We are not constituted sons by the Spirit. It is because we are sons that God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying,

Abba, Father. In connection with the Lord Himself it is very beautiful. The first time the expression "Abba, Father", occurs, it is as used by the Lord Himself in the garden of Gethsemane.

Then we may look at sonship as it affects us here and now. I think there is great instruction as to that in the Epistle to the Galatians. It is very striking and interesting to see how the Spirit of God, through the Apostle Paul, brings the truth of sonship to bear upon those Galatian saints. We are exposed to the working of leaven, not only in the Corinthian form, but in the Galatian form. It is a very subtle thing, and I think that, if we have been in any measure touched by leaven as it is presented in the Epistle to the Galatians, our recovery, our deliverance from it is by the spirit of sonship. The apostle brings in the light of sonship and the spirit of sonship. It was brought in for the deliverance and correction of the saints in Galatia. You remember how in that epistle the Spirit of God speaks of the Jerusalem which is down here, and what characterises those who are in any way connected with it is bondage. And in contrast to that we have the statement about "the Jerusalem above", which is our mother, and free. I suppose many of us, by virtue not only of our lifelong associations but perhaps the training we have been brought

up under, would recoil from anything in the shape of the Corinthian leaven. But the leaven in Galatia had a distinctly religious character, and many of us, while on our guard against what is called immoral, might be taken in by leaven when it presents itself in a religions form.

There is a very beautiful illustration in Matthew 17 of how sonship works in this connection, and where Peter is asked the question, Does your Master pay tribute? Peter says, "Yes"; he thought a great deal of his Master. Then the Lord asks Peter the question -- when the kings of the earth levy tribute do they levy it on strangers or on their sons, and Peter had to say, "On strangers". The idea of the king's sons paying tribute! And the Lord answers, "Then are the sons free". That shows that sonship sets the soul in perfect liberty, and it is liberty connected with Christ. In Galatians he says further on: "Christ has set us free in freedom; stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage".

In connection with the statement that when some heard Him say certain things they were ready to take the place of being His disciples, the Lord said: "If ye continue [or abide] in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed [or truly]; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free". If you read the text you will find

that the freedom spoken of there is freedom from sin. But the Lord goes further. He speaks about the "house", and how the servant does not abide in it for ever, but the son abides for ever. Then He adds: "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed". The knowledge of the "truth" will set you free from the bondage of sin, but the Son sets you free in connection with the house -- He sets you in the freedom of the house of God. In sonship you have a permanent place in the house of God, and you are in perfect liberty.

Ques. Is the idea of the spirit of sonship formation in us?

J.P. Of course. "He hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts". That is where the Spirit of His Son is sent -- the spirit of adoption. Romans expresses it thus: "Ye have received a spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father". I do not object to the expression "formation", because it is something in our hearts.

Ques. Crying "Abba, Father", is response, is it not?

J.P. It is. That is what sonship involves. It is not only on God's side as expressed in what God said to Abraham -- "Thine only son whom thou lovest"; and what God Himself expressed when Jesus was here -- "This is my beloved Son" -- not only that, but it is the

response to it -- "Abba, Father". The response to the love of God known and enjoyed. That is where we want to get to; then we shall be in real liberty.

Rem. It is the outgoing of the sons to the Father.

J.P. Yes. We might add the remark -- just to keep the distinction clear -- we are brethren in relation to Christ -- He is not ashamed to call us His brethren, but we are not brethren of God, and we are not sons of Christ. We are brethren of Christ and sons of God, "Son" expresses the peculiar relationship in sonship between the soul and God.

Ques. Does the first come out in Galatians 4 -- "God has sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts"?

J.P. Yes. We can only receive it on the ground of redemption. Redemption was necessary. God created man in responsibility, and God will never ignore the responsibility of man, so redemption came in, that He might redeem those under the law, and that we might receive adoption -- sonship.

Ques. Is sonship for God's pleasure?

J.P. It certainly is, according to Ephesians 1.

Ques. What is the difference between sonship as it is presented in Galatians and in Ephesians?

J.P. In Galatians sonship comes in for

recovery; in Ephesians it is no question of recovery. Sonship comes out in Ephesians normally and for the pleasure of God.

Ques. The thing itself is the same in each epistle, is it not?

J.P. Sonship is always sonship. But then you have it presented in scripture in different ways and connections, and we get instruction by observing the different way in which things are presented in scripture. It is no question of recovery in Ephesians. Some one has said that the two great normal epistles are Romans and Ephesians. But Galatians is evidently corrective and for recovery. Ye did run well; who stopped you? That is Galatians. "O, foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you?" Sonship will put an end to the bewitchment and start you going if you have been "stopped".

Ques. Why is sonship brought in in Romans 8?

J.P. Because the great theme in Romans is the Spirit, and everything lies in the good of the Spirit. Sonship is alluded to, but it is not opened out in Romans. It is wonderful what breadth there is in Romans 8. The question there is not to receive the Spirit; it supposes that you have received the Spirit. The question is -- Are you in the good of it? That is Romans 8. And so it goes on; it touches sonship; it

touches the purpose of God, for all that lies within the good of the Spirit. But if you are intelligent, you would not expect to find in Romans the unfolding of new creation, or what it is to be in Christ; it is there, but you will go elsewhere for the unfolding of it.

Ques. How do you fit in what you spoke of in the afternoon -- the quickening and raising -- in relation to the way you speak of it now?

J.P. It is very interesting to take account of quickening in the New Testament scriptures, especially in the epistles. "Quickening" in Romans is not present, it is future. See chapter 8: 11 -- "He ... shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you".

Ques. Does resurrection give us the position?

J.P. Resurrection in Romans is future, not present. When you come to Colossians you are "risen together with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead".

Ques. Ascension then would give us the position?

J.P. I should say so. Resurrection is a new condition in the old place; ascension is another place. The Lord stayed down here for forty days after He was risen -- a Man actually risen on the earth; in the old place, but in a new condition.

Ques. What about quickening in the other epistles?

J.P. You must take account of the difference between Colossians and Ephesians.

Ques. Would quickening come in relation to the grain falling into the ground and dying, and we associated with Him in life?

J.P. No doubt. The order of Colossians is reversed in Ephesians. The last thing in Colossians is the first thing in Ephesians, and the first thing in Ephesians is the last thing in Colossians. Quickened, raised, seated; that is Ephesians. But Colossians is -- dead, buried, risen, then quickened. You are buried in Romans, not because you are dead, but you are buried to have part in His death. You are buried in Colossians because you are dead.

Rem. We want to know something more of the spirit of sonship.

J.P. We all need to know more about it. We have lectures on sonship and readings on sonship, but there is nothing like having the Spirit of God's Son in your heart, crying, Abba, Father. It is because ye are sons (not to make you such) God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

Ques. Does the spirit of sonship in Galatians bring in activity, while in Ephesians we get the place of sonship?

J.P. I think it does. It brings in activity where most of us need it, and where many of us lack it. There is activity in your affections God-ward when you cry Abba, Father.

Ques. What kind of activity?

J.P. Ah! we want more of the activity of love -- the spirit of sonship; it would greatly affect us. Individually and in our meetings we go sometimes as I imagine Pharaoh's chariots went in the bottom of the Red Sea when the wheels came off -- they drove heavily. Part of my early days in London I was familiar with what is called hyper-Calvinistic Baptists. You could hear of election and pre-destination and fore-knowledge by the hour, but I never was amongst such a dead-and-alive lot. It is the spirit of sonship, crying, Abba, Father, that awakens your affection; there is freedom "Jerusalem which is above is free". It connects you with God's centre where He is, and with all that wonderful system of things -- the heavenly system -- which finds its centre in Himself. FREE! When the Son makes you free you are free indeed.

Ques. Is there any connection between spirit of sonship and worship?

J.P. No doubt of it -- a most intimate connection.

Ques. Crying Abba, Father, is worship, is it not?

J.P. It might be said so.

Rem. In the spirit of sonship you would have perfect liberty in the presence of the Father.

J.P. You have the best kind of freedom. In His presence you are free in the sunshine of His love, and your heart is responsive to His love. Worship must be connected with that.

Rem. "Let my son go, that he may serve me" -- that is the principle.

J.P. Yes. Many a beautiful statement in the Old Testament scriptures gives the principles of sonship.

Rem. What God wants is worship.

J.P. We have too much missed the true thought of service in these last days. We have been brought up to talk about activities man-ward being service, but the idea of service in scripture is very largely worship God-ward. So with the young Thessalonian converts, there was not only the work of faith, but there was the work of love. They served the living and the true God, and they served in the activities of love.

Rem. They must have learned God in the Son.

J.P. Yes; we learn it all in Him.

Ques. Is it brought out in Luke 15, where the sinner is brought into the house?

J.P. Certainly -- he is brought in with the sandals on. If you went into a well-appointed Eastern house and saw a young man barefooted, you would say that is one of the servants; but if you met a young man in that house with sandals on, you would say that is one of the sons. He was brought in with the best robe, and the ring, and the sandals, too, were not lacking. God brings you into the house and puts the shoes on. "Put shoes on his feet".

Ques. It says in Galatians, "Jerusalem which is above is our mother". What is the thought in "our mother"?

J.P. It is the heavenly system of things connected with Christ that is your mother. The earthly system, which was the mother of a good many people, was represented by Hagar, who was bondservant. So Jerusalem is in bondage with her children; but the Jerusalem which is from above is in freedom with her children, and the children are in freedom with her.

Ques. The spirit of sonship is connected with a heavenly system.

J.P. Certainly. We are speaking of being in the good of it now, as it affects us here. But sonship belongs to heaven and to eternity. It is our calling on high. Our Authorised Version gives "high calling", but it is our "calling on high"; that is sonship -- our

heavenly calling, "Holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling". All goes together.

Rem. Its home is future; it is active now.

J.P. Yes. Romans puts all these things in the future. We wait for the adoption in Romans; to wit, the redemption of our body. Meanwhile we have received the spirit of sonship, but the actuality of it is future and involves the redemption of our body -- "shall quicken your mortal bodies", etc.

Rem. Then you make a distinction between reality and actuality.

J.P. A great distinction. Some one said a few years ago that Christianity is not a system of actualities, it is a system of divine spiritual realities. The actualities of Christianity belong to the future.

Rem. Referring to the spirit of sonship again, the measure in which one takes in the revelation of God in the Son would be the measure of the response formed in us. Is that right?

J.P. Well, it is in a way, But when you come to sonship you have to emphasise not simply the broad statement of the revelation of God, but you have to emphasise the point of divine love and relationship according to that love. I think that is what I would emphasise in regard to sonship. If it is simply the revelation of God as such -- the only true God and the knowledge of the only true God, that stands

more connected with the question of eternal life than with sonship. I am sure that sonship gives great prominence to the thought of God's love; it is a relationship in love. "Thou art my beloved Son". Sonship is in the "Beloved". The Spirit of God does not use these terms at random. We are accepted in the Beloved, graced in the Beloved. If you say, Why use that term there? I reply, You had better be simple about scripture, and what you do not understand the Lord may give you to understand; you may depend upon it that the right word there is -- "BELOVED".

Rem. The expression, "Abba, Father", is the response to divine affection.

J.P. Yes; it is the response of affection in your heart to God's affection. It is "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father". You may know more as a son than I know; that there are varying measures of spiritual intelligence no one would deny; but I do not see that these varying measures touch the question of sonship.

Rem. Then it is not a question of degree; it is a question of character.

J.P. It is a question of being a son. Then, if you are a son, it is a question of God sending forth the Spirit of His Son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father.

Ques. Do we get a divine principle in looking at Abraham when Isaac was weaned; he made a great feast?

J.P. Yes. Mr. Stoney used to speak of it as "coronation day". That is a great day in your soul's history. But on that day what an evil thing happens! Ishmael mocks! The flesh may mock, but, nevertheless, the coronation day is a great day in your spiritual history.

Rem. That comes out in Galatians.

J.P. It does indeed. The truth of sonship is wonderful and intensely practical. If we were in the good of it, I am sure that it would make a great change with us individually, and also when we come together. Alas! our meetings are not always marked by the dignity and liberty of sonship. They ought to be.

Ques. Do the sons say anything more than "Abba, Father"?

J.P. What do you mean by "not saying anything more than 'Abba, Father'"? It is a simple expression, but a very wonderful expression. "Abba, Father", is response to the heart of God. Think what that must have been to God's heart when those words went up from that blessed One in the garden of Gethsemane. What an hour of agony that was! We are so occupied with our difficulties and trials -- we do, not give time to think of what His sorrows were when He said "Abba, Father".

"For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God". God is love, and He has come out in the revelation of Himself, that He might be known, and when He gets to be so known our hearts are responsive, and I am sure that divine delight fills the heart of God when He gets response. We have thought a great deal of activities. But that is not it. It is "Abba, Father". That is the music that delights the heart and ear of God.

We have not said much about the future; that is the end of everything. But I would like to speak a little about the rapture. I think the rapture is in a peculiar way connected with sonship. It is the taking of the sons to the place to which they belong. Do not think that one wants to make little of the resurrection, which is God's victory over sin and death here upon the earth; but the rapture -- the sons going home (as the Lord said, "If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself") -- is that wonderful moment.

Ques. Is it the bringing of the many sons to glory?

J.P. That is Hebrews 2. But I think the rapture is peculiarly connected with the truth of sonship.

Ques. Is there no responsibility?

J.P. It is altogether a love affair.

Rem. They are wanted at the top.

J.P. They belong to the top. He has gone to prepare a place for us.

Ques. Is it the rapture in John 14?

J.P. Well, it is the same point, but the other side of it. John and 1 Thessalonians 4 are in accordance, but it is the lowest side in Thessalonians and the highest in John. It is from the point of His affection in John; it is from the point of their sorrow in Thessalonians -- "Wherefore encourage one another with these words". There is nothing like it for encouragement now under such circumstances.

Rem. There was sorrow in the hearts of His disciples when He said "I will come again".

J.P. Yes. So He says, "Let not your heart be troubled ... I go to prepare a place for you". We are His companions, and we shall be His companions in heavenly glory. Of course it involves resurrection, because sonship in its completeness involves the entire person of the saint -- spirit, soul, and body; all are embraced in sonship. There is first the resurrection or change. The rapture is not brought in in 1 Corinthians 15, there it is the victory of God down here over sin and death -- "Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting?

O grave, where is thy victory?" It is the same word in both in the Greek.

Ques. Does sonship extend beyond the assembly?

J.P. There is an expression I wanted to speak of, and what you say recalls it to me. I wanted to call your attention to sonship as characterising the assembly. We are familiar with the assembly as the body of Christ, the house of God, and all that. But there is a beautiful expression in Hebrews 12, which speaks of things we have "come to", and one is -- "we have come to the assembly of the firstborn". That is the assembly viewed as composed of the sons.

Ques. Is it the firstborn sons?

J.P. Yes, it is plural. "The assembly of the firstborn". Then mark! -- "Who are enregistered". Where are they enregistered? In the place they belong to. When the Roman emperor called for a census Joseph had to go down to a certain place where his name was enregistered. We are going directly to where our names are enregistered -- the sons are going home.

I think that you will find that sonship in its ultimate results is not so much connected with display down here as it is with enjoyment up there. "Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where

I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world".

Rem. The whole creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.

J.P. In Romans 8 we have, "For the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God". That is one thing. Now we will look at the other: "For the creature has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by reason of him who has subjected the same, in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God". The liberty of the glory of the children. The liberty of the revelation of the sons. The sons are the children. They are the same persons; it is only the difference in the way in which the Spirit of God speaks of them.

Things are set in certain distinctions in scripture, and those distinctions at the present time are important. But lines that are distinct now converge in the future; they come together, and the line of the children and the line of the sons converge by-and-by. Anybody can observe the distinction, and it is not a distinction without a difference. We are all the sons of God in Christ Jesus; but can you find me a passage where we are said to be the children of God in Christ Jesus? There is not one.

Sonship was God's primary thought for man, and so at last, when all the dispensations have closed, we find, when we come to the eternal state, man in that relationship with God. God says, "I will be to him for God; he shall be to me for son". There is sonship at last and for ever.

Rem. You said that sonship was more connected with enjoyment than with display.

J.P. I think it is primarily, but we get also "the revelation of the sons of God".

Rem. In Ephesians we have, "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Jesus Christ". That is display, is it not?

J.P. Yes, "To show the exceeding riches of his grace".

THE ASCENDED MAN AND HIS ASSEMBLY

Ephesians 4:7 - 16

I thought we might find encouragement in considering the scriptures we have just read. We need to take account of the setting of Scripture. I think the Epistle to the Ephesians has its own peculiar character. In this epistle we find ourselves in the presence of perhaps the largest scope of divine things found in any epistle in the New Testament, both with regard to Christ personally and with regard to the Assembly -- the church, His body. While the heavenly side of things is prominent and emphasised in the beginning of the epistle, the scope of it cannot be limited even to heaven. Nothing less than the universe is in view in it, and I believe it is a matter of great moment that we should be able in some measure to take account of the largeness of it. I have no doubt we all suffer more or less from smallness. If we take sober account of ourselves in the presence of God, we are obliged to admit that we

are very small. We never can become great in ourselves. The only possible way of becoming in any sense great is to be occupied with God's great things.

Our time would not permit us to go into much detail with regard to the body of the epistle, but we can readily see that we find ourselves in the very opening of it in the presence of the counsels or purposes of God. Indeed, so far as the saints are concerned, the highest note is struck. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ". And this is according to His choosing, or His choice of us -- "according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world ... having marked us out beforehand for sonship" (or adoption). Our Authorised Version has wrongly put the adoption of children, and in this way the current doctrine in Christendom is that we are children of God by adoption. But this is not the truth. If we are children of God, we are so by virtue of having been begotten or born of God. What we get in the original is, "having marked us out beforehand for adoption" -- adoption and sonship represent one and the same word in the Greek.

As to our Lord Jesus Christ, this epistle views Him distinctly as Man. I do not think

you could find one single statement in it that speaks of Him as a divine Person. He is a divine Person. He is always and everywhere a divine Person, but Ephesians views Him distinctively as Man. The first sight of it will speak to us as to this in a very simple way -- He is viewed as having been dead. We are not told about His death or the manner of it; but as having been dead, He is raised up and seated in the heavenlies, and in connection with His being raised up and seated we have the most wonderful expression of the power of God to be found in scripture. It far exceeds creation -- it is the climax of the power of God. He is raised up and He is seated, and the Spirit of God labours to set forth the greatness of His exaltation. In the end of chapter 1 we get -- "and what the surpassing greatness of his power ... above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come". Marvellous statement! Then, with the Lord looked at in this wonderful place of supreme exaltation, we have the church -- the Assembly -- brought in. "And has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all". You only get a right thought of the Assembly as His body as you

connect the Assembly with Himself in His place of exaltation as Man.

Ques. Is not that necessary in connection with what was suggested at the beginning -- that the epistle takes in the universe?

J.P. Yes. It says in the next chapter, "Above all the heavens, that he might fill all things". But here it is the wonderful position of the Assembly in relation to Him as thus raised and seated in the heavenlies in Him, as this scripture describes.

Ques. Is the Assembly viewed here on the privilege side?

J.P. Surely; the force of the word "fulness" is "complement", just as Eve was the complement of Adam, and was adequate to set forth all that marked and characterised Adam in the place which God had put him, so the Assembly is the fulness of Him that fills all in all and is viewed as adequate to set forth all that characterises Him. I think we do well to take note of what the Spirit of God sets before us in this epistle. It is just what God has in view in the administration of the fulness of times, when He is going to head up all things in the Christ, both in heaven and upon the earth. God has in view the marvellous display that will characterise His universe at that time. I think it is so important that we should have these things distinctly before us. The tendency amongst us

is to drop down to something more contracted than what God has before Him.

Ques. What comes out in the Assembly now?

J.P. This epistle is not much occupied with that; it is more occupied with what is to come out in the Assembly by-and-by. So, if we are quickened together and raised up together, and made to sit down together in the heavenlies, what is in view? "That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus". I think that Colossians gives us more what is to come out in the saints now, not in the way of testimony exactly, but what is to come out in the saints now for the satisfaction of the heart of God.

But the verses we have read in Ephesians 4 (7 - 16) are very largely connected with what is present. There will not be any need for gifts by-and-by; it is here and now that we need the gifts, and that we ought to be affected by the gifts; but it is all in view of what is coming. What I mean is that it is so important that our souls should come into the largeness of this epistle. We often go in for present results, and rightly, in a way, and the Lord, of course, helps us on every line that it is possible for Him to help us on, but we do not go in much for the largeness of what God has in view.

Ques. Do you mean we are qualifying now for the future?

J.P. Exactly. That is what makes the present so important. The tendency is always to drop down to ourselves. See the defective gospel that is preached. Why? Because it only regards the need of man. And we do not get over this tendency easily; it hangs on us many a day. Even as to truth in regard to the Assembly, we take it up too much in regard to ourselves. That is the dead fly in the apothecary's pot of ointment which hinders.

Ques. Why do you say that Christ in this epistle is presented as Man?

J.P. Well, the first thing is to be sure that it is a fact. Then look to the Lord, and He will give you understanding of the fact. I do not want you to take it because we say so, and if you look to Him, I think you will find that it is so, that this epistle presents Christ pre-eminently as Man, and that in the largest way known even to scripture.

Rem. Looking at Him as a divine Person, there is no need for a helpmeet.

J.P. Of course not.

Rem. It is in regard to Him as Man that the position of the Assembly is marked out.

J.P. It is. As a beloved servant of the Lord (now with Him) remarked a few years

ago, there is a great deal of confusion in the minds of many of the saints between union with Christ looked at distinctively as Man and association with Him (the same Person), but looked at as Son of God.

Ques. Which do you get in this epistle?

J.P. You get a bit of both. You get sonship in this epistle as well as the truth of union with Christ, and you get the bride. But still there is distinction.

Ques. Is sonship communion with the Son of God?

J.P. Sonship is association with the Son of God. We shall be His companions in heavenly glory. There are two things (I do not mean separate, but distinct), there is the bride, the Lamb's wife -- that is the Assembly; but then there is the Assembly of the firstborn ones -- "that he might be the firstborn amongst many brethren".

Well, to come to the verses we have read, the first point is -- Christ is seen as having ascended. There is a certain difference between the way the Spirit of God speaks of Him in chapter 1 and in chapter 4. It is, as the Spirit tells us in chapter 1, the surpassing greatness of God's power that raises Him, and then, being raised, He is seated. God sets Him down at His right, hand in the heavenlies. But in chapter 4 He has ascended. If God makes a distinction, you

may depend upon it there is a difference, and there is spiritual profit in being able to take account of it. The language and the manner of it employed in the epistle almost touches the Gospel of John. We all know that what is peculiar to John is that His death is presented as "commandment" on the part of the Father and of obedience on His part; for He is sent here not to do His own will, but the will of Him that sent Him, and that goes on to His death. He lays down His life -- no one takes it from Him. He has power -- authority -- to lay it down and to take it again. He says, "This commandment have I received of my Father ..." So His resurrection there is His own act. You get three statements in the New Testament about the resurrection of the Lord. One we have just read in Ephesians 1, it is the surpassing greatness of God's power. Then in Romans 6 He is "raised from the dead by the glory of the Father". And then in John He raises His own body. (Chapter 2: 19 - 22.) And so with ascension. While you get ascension in Mark and Luke, there is no ascension in Matthew. In Mark and Luke He is carried up, He is taken up; but in John He is not "carried up" or "taken up". He tells Mary Magdalene, "Go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend".

I know that this is commonly accounted for

on the ground that He, as a divine Person, had a perfect right to ascend. Of course He had as a divine Person. He is God, equal with the Father and with the eternal Spirit. But I venture to think that in thus accounting for His ascension there is a point missed.

Ques. Is it not as a divine Person He raises Himself from the dead?

J.P. I do not think that is just the way scripture puts it.

Rem. We are waiting for the point that you say is "missed".

J.P. Well, it is as to the statement -- "I ascend". Here in chapter 4 we find that there are three things predicated of Him as to what He has accomplished: first, He has "ascended up on high"; secondly, He has led captivity captive; thirdly, He has given gifts to men. Of course He is a divine Person; but I think what is set forth of Him in Ephesians is more the wonderful place He has as Man, I think that is the point of the Spirit there.

Ques. What title would you give Him in that connection? I mean in connection with Him ascending as Man.

J.P. He is the second Man out of heaven. He was that when He was here; He is always and ever that. God created the first man here in innocence. But God has brought in a Man down here who has not only glorified God as

God, who has taken up every responsibility that ever attached to man here, and has perfectly met every claim of God and glorified God; but over and above that God has brought in a Man who belongs to heaven, and after that Man had met every claim of God down here and filled up everything in respect of human responsibility, He has a perfect right to heaven.

Ques. Then the second Man out of heaven goes into heaven, whence He came?

J.P. He does. That is what one has always felt about John's gospel; one has always felt that resurrection could not be the terminus of things in John's gospel. The One who is seen in John's gospel is the second Man out of heaven, and He is bound to go back there. So if you read the gospel carefully, you need not be surprised to find twenty-one mentions of the ascension of the Lord in it, "What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?" "I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father", etc.

These five chapters in John (13 - 17) are all in the light of His ascension. Take chapter 13: "When Jesus knew that his hour was come" -- that what? That He should go to the cross? that He should die? that He should be raised? He does not say so, but that

"he should depart out of this world unto the Father". That is the great terminus in John. It belongs to Him, it is part of His glory. So He said, "I ascend". So the Spirit says here, "he ascended", "he led captivity captive", "he has received gifts for men". Then the Spirit tells us of the gifts He has given from the wonderful place that He has.

Rem. It is from that place the gifts are given.

J.P. Yes, it is from that position they are given, but they are given in view of the Assembly being seated together with Him, We are made to sit down together in Him now -- a present spiritual reality. But what is present spiritual reality is going to become an eternal actuality. We shall be seated with Him. It is in view of that and the wonderful position of the Assembly in relation to Him, when the Assembly is found actually in the heavenlies with Christ. In Revelation 12, there is war in heaven, Michael and his angels fight against the dragon. Satan is cast down. What now? The moment has come for the church -- the Assembly -- the complement of Him that fills all in all. Then there is the song -- "Now is come salvation, etc". That is to say, when the Assembly actually goes into the heavenlies with Christ that will be the inauguration of that marvellous day -- the administration of the fulness

of the times, everything headed up in heaven and upon earth in Christ. It is all in view of that, I think that much spiritual enlargement results to us in the apprehension of it, and we get great spiritual encouragement in the contemplation of it. We sometimes think things are going to the bad; no, they are going to the good! When you get an Ephesian view of things it is simply glorious, and we need it, beloved.

Then the Spirit tells us the kind of gifts which the ascended Man has given. He has given some prophets, some evangelists and some pastors and teachers. Wonderful gifts! I do not think it is too much to say that we are in the good of all the gifts now. In this way, I mean -- Has not the Spirit given us the record of the ministry of the apostles and prophets? And then there are, thank God, still some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers. What for? For the perfecting of the saints, with a view to the work of the ministry, with a view to the building up of the body of Christ; He has given them. And what is the goal? "Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God". That is a wonderful statement! The gifts are given, and as far as they are in operation, in the power of the Spirit, the saints are being brought to this point -- "Until we all

arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God". Do not let us miss the truth. We have been so slipshod in our reading that we have failed to distinguish between the Son as a divine Person in relation to the Father and as a divine Person as the Son of God.

Ques. What importance do you attach to the title "Son of man" in John 3:13?

J.P. It is very beautiful how the Lord speaks of Himself, especially in John's gospel, almost invariably as the Son of man. Indeed, there is only one instance in John of His declaring Himself fully to any one as the Son of God and that is in chapter 9: 35. But almost invariably He speaks of Himself as the Son of man. The Son of man is the Son of God, and the Son of God is the Son of man, one and the same Person, both viewing Him as Man, one in relation to God and the other in relation to man. It is very beautiful and very instructive to take account of how He is spoken of. I think there is nothing, perhaps, in all the range of scripture that ought to demand and engage our attention and interest us as the way that Christ is spoken of.

Ques. Tell us the difference; here it is the knowledge of the Son of God, and in Peter it is the knowledge of Jesus our Lord?

J.P. Peter's line is the saints down here in

relation to certain things that belong to their responsible life and path down here, and that is all covered by the expression, "Grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ". It is not that Peter did not know Him as the Son of God. I am sure he did, but while he does not in exact terms speak of Him in that way in his epistle, yet he does speak of Him as the "living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious". Who is that One? That is Jesus, the Son of God; He is the living stone, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God". The Lord said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven".

Rem. There are four things in that verse you refer to. One is, the unity of the faith; next, "the knowledge of the Son of God"; then a perfect man, and then the fulness of Christ. What is your thought in connection with these four?

J.P. The full-grown man is a man who has every faculty and member developed. He is a man in whom there is nothing lacking. The saints are to arrive at the stature of a full grown man -- that is, there is to be in them the expression and the answer to everything that characterises Him -- "at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness

of the Christ". You see it is a qualifying process now. With such stress laid on this point there cannot be perfect answer to it now; that can only be answered to fully in view of the wonderful place of the Assembly in relation to Christ and in relation to His filling all things. Christ will fill all things in and through the Assembly, and it is in view of that. I think a different sense of things will come into your soul when you lay hold of the fact that what is going on now is with reference to that coming day. It will impart a heavenly dignity to everything you do here, because you are not achieving results for earth nor for man, nor for time; you have got something before you much greater than all that. You have before you the coming ages -- the administration of the fulness of times. You have before the vision of your soul Christ as the One who has ascended above the heavens and who is to fill all things, and you have the saints as united to Him. And then we have the operation of the gifts now until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God. One has often been asked -- Is this arrival now or in the future? Well, if you speak of all the saints, it is in the future; but for you and me it ought to be now.

Rem. It is meant for all the saints now.

J.P. It is the one divine standard, for all

the saints, the great ultimatum for every saint at all times, nothing less. We ought to have nothing less before us than arriving at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Rem. In that way there would be the formation of the helpmeet morally.

J.P. Yes, it is so. It may seem a little difficult for our minds to take this up as applying to ourselves now, and here, though as to all saints we have to take it up in relation to the last moment.

Rem. The point is that there is a divine standard set up and we have to reach that.

J.P. Yes, it seems to me that the worse things get in an outward way, so much the more important and precious this becomes.

Rem. It is all the more needed.

J.P. It is on the principle of that wonderful statement in Isaiah. When the enemy comes in like a flood the Spirit of Jehovah will lift up a standard against him. Is there anything around us that seems to indicate the enemy coming in like a flood? That is the time to look for the standard, to look for the banner which the Spirit of God has lifted up -- a divine standard, a rallying-point for the saints, when the enemy comes in like a flood. Do you think there will be more conflict? There may be, but that is not the point. The point is

the divine standard. I know we are great hands for details and persons, and often, in those times when the enemy seems to becoming in, we look round at that one and the other one. But what we want is to keep our eyes on the divine standard, the divine banner. If you hear of this one or that one having gone off into a division, it is for want of this unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God.

Ques. Have you anything to say in connection with hearing the voice of Christ, because the standard that you have been referring to is brought about by the ministry of Christ through the gifts?

J.P. I think the test is what is stated here. There are three things stated in connection with the gifts. There is ministry among you -- is it for the perfecting of the saints? Is it with a view to the work of the ministry? With a view to the edifying of the body of Christ? That is the test; it must be the test. Every man who takes any kind of a place in the way of ministry among the saints of God must come under that test.

Ques. Would you say the evangelist is for the saints?

J.P. Yes. The apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers are all in it. The test of the evangelist also is the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry

the edifying of the body of Christ. Some have got wrong ideas about evangelists. I am not an evangelist. I have been trying to preach the gospel for forty-six years, but I do not claim to be an evangelist. But one has sometimes to do the work of an evangelist, like Timothy; a kind of maid-of-all-work. The idea of an evangelist now is a man thoroughly independent of every other man except himself!

Rem. That, is not the unity of the faith.

J.P. No, indeed; every man's ministry, whatever his ministry may be, must come under the test. The best proof that I can give to any one that I have a gift from Christ is the fact that I so regard Christ, that I regard all that is so near and dear to Him. There could be nothing nearer to Him than His Assembly -- it is His complement. It is as near to Christ as Eve was to Adam. "Ishshah" was derived from "Ish"; and so with the Assembly; we are members of His body (flesh and bones is put there but should not be there), we are quickened together with Him. That is a wonderful statement -- raised up together, made to sit down together. We could not be His body if we had not been quickened together with Him, raised up, and made to sit down in Him.

Ques. Is each one of the four gifts referred to here for the perfecting of the saints?

J.P. Every one, and for the edifying of the body. If God converts a sinner now, He converts him in view of putting that sinner in the body and building up the body. I can speak more feelingly, perhaps, than you can about these things. I have been a parson, and have been sent here and sent there, and have been told: "Now, remember the great interests of our church; we want to build up our church". Our humbug, I say now! It is HIS body. The best proof any one can give that he has got any gift from Christ is that he is concerned about Christ's body, interested in and devoted to the interests of the saints, and the ministry, and the edifying of the body of Christ.

Rem. Paul was the great evangelist: "That I might preach him among the nations".

J.P. Whatever marked Christ in connection with the glad tidings, or with the church, must in some measure mark us; if not, there is something wrong. He loved the church and delivered Himself up for it.

Rem. The shepherding spirit should be in every saint.

J.P. Yes, it should be; but especially in those mentioned here as gifts given by the ascended Christ.

"A full-grown man". It is in order that we may be no longer babes, tossed and carried about -- like a little child who cannot stand

very steady; you would not set it in a windy place where the wind might strike it and blow it over, though you might be able to keep your own feet there. We are exhorted to grow up in order that we may be "no longer babes, tossed and carried about by every wind of that teaching which is in the sleight of men, in unprincipled cunning, with a view to systematised error". We do well to ponder these words. Some of us have lived long enough to see saints blown over, carried about by this wind and that wind -- this or that teaching "which is in the sleight of men". "But" (the Spirit of God always presents the other side) -- "but, holding the truth in love". What a great thing that is! You do not want to hold it in anything else, do you? Well, how are you holding it? Are you holding it in a harsh, ungracious spirit, or are you holding it in love? Love is not making friends with everybody. Love rejoiceth not in iniquity, it rejoiceth in the truth. Speaking morally and spiritually, there is nothing that has such a backbone in it as love. It is not soft, gushing sentimentality. "Holding the truth in love, we may grow up to him in all things". That is the standard. "Who is the head, the Christ: from whom the whole body, fitted together, and connected by every joint of supply, according to the working in its measure

of each one part, works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love". So there are two forms of edifying. There is the edification by the gifts, and there is the edification in the way just described. The saints, holding the truth in love, grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head. Then they edify themselves -- "to its self-building up in love". It is self-edification in love.

You may find a few saints here or there where there is no gift. You may ask them, Have you got any shepherds or teachers? No. Any evangelists? No. How, then, are you getting on? I know how some of them get on. Meetings are not so thick in America as they are in Great Britain in some places. But in many there is edification. They not only hold on their way, but they are being built up, they are self-edified.

May the Lord be pleased, beloved brethren, to give us the light of these things in our souls, and to give us the encouragement of them in a day like this!

FIRSTBORN AMONGST HIS BRETHREN

The Father's bosom was Thy place,
E'en when a Man below;
Thou didst come down, O wondrous grace!
That we that love might know.
The Father's name Thou hast declared --
That with Thine own all might be shared.

The lustre of Thy love in death
Shone forth in glory there;
Thou dost impart the living breath.
Thy peace, Thy joy we share --
Thy blessed voice delights to raise
The song of triumph and of praise.

And Thou hast brought us to the place
Where we can sing with Thee;
Where -- "all of one", surpassing grace
Distance nor fear can be.
The Father's love for Thee is known,
Thyself supreme -- we gladly own.

Not "orphans" are we left below --
For Thou to us doth "come",
And we Thy blessed presence know,
And find ourselves at home.
Where peace and joy and love abound,
Within th'assembly's holy ground.

Thy love has triumphed, Lord, down here!
Where Thou didst die for us;
For Thou hast formed a heavenly sphere
Which sin nor death can touch.
In vain the gates of Hades rage,
Th'assembly stands throughout the age.

O scene of privilege and joy,
O holy, heavenly land!
Where bliss divine without alloy
Is shared by all the band.
Firstborn amongst His brethren, He --
Now sings in praise, our God, to Thee.

Forth from Thine assembly, Lord, we go
In peace, to be for Thee --
Here, where Thou tastedst pain and woe --
Till we Thy face shall see;
With longing hearts we bid Thee "Come",
Then we shall share Thy heavenly home.

And as the holy city bright
From God in heaven come down --
The vessel of all heavenly light --
Thy bride shall then be known --
Fulness of Thee, whose light shall shine
Through her, in blessing all divine.

J. Pellatt.