Gathering Up the Fragments

Mr. Walter Potter wrote very little, most of his ministry being preserved through those who took addresses or notes of addresses in shorthand and through personal letters to saints in other places. Our late sister, Miss Grace Campbell of Iowa Falls, Iowa, was much used of the Lord in the taking of notes of general meetings, and in this way much of his ministry has been preserved for blessing to others.

He had the rare but God-given ability to detect the spiritual needs of those who came in contact with him, speaking a word in season, a word of exhortation, or a word of correction. All was done in a spirit of humility, but also with sternness on occasion.

My first memory of him was in our home (where he often visited) at about the age of four. He loved children and to me. was "Grandpa Potter." In later and more mature years, one learned to value the spiritual wisdom of a beloved brother in the Lord.

Mr. Potter was brought to know the Lord early in life, and as a young man worked at his bench as a cobbler. As he worked, he had his Bible with him, his constant companion. Thus he acquired an intimate knowledge of the Word of God and of Him who is its Subject and Object. His knowledge of the Word and his ability to apply it practically were early recognized by his brethren. Due to feeble health, which stayed with him for the rest of his life, he was persuaded to visit England, where he spent some little time in Mr. Darby's company. On returning to this country, he devoted his full time in the service of his Lord.

"Remember your leaders who have spoken to you the word of God; and considering the issue of their conversation, imitate their faith." (JND Trans.)

Hebrews 13:7.

M. Wilbur Smith

Chapter 1

God Came Down to Deliver
Exodus 3:1-8

The compassionate love of God is one thing brought before us in Exodus 3. We find Him coming down and what has brought Him down. Oh, He has heard some sighs, some groans; He has looked upon some burdened ones, and He has been moved with pity and has come down to deliver. We know how fully that is seen in God coming down to this poor world—sin-stricken and under the burden and bondage of corruption where there is a continual groaning. We know what led Him to come down: it was the compassion of His love—"God so loved."

In what way did He come down? In what way did He appear to that servant to whom He came to communicate the great truth that He had come down to deliver, and deliver in love? Where was that servant? He was in an out-of-the-way place in this world—in the backside of the desert. And, dear friends, the secrets of God are learned, in principle, outside of this world.

We know from His Word that we must be in a state spiritually to receive His communications; that is, our spirituality not deadened by unholy and unnecessary intercourse with this world. In a way we must have intercourse with this world, and that is why I say "unholy and unnecessary intercourse." We have our callings to attend to, and those callings are to be attended to in communion with God; but Satan is ever ready to deceive.

One naturally connects Exodus 3 with Luke 2. Perhaps we wonder why. In Exodus 3 Moses is in the back side of the desert where he had led the flock. In Luke 2, wonderful things had taken place—an event that brought even the angel of the Lord down from heaven, "and the glory of the Lord shone round about," and it brought a multitude of the heavenly host, who praised God. That angel of the Lord appeared to shepherds keeping watch over their flocks by night. What did Jerusalem and the great ones of this world know of what was going on out there on the plains of Judea? Nothing! I believe we can find a certain principle there of the ways of God: in order to be in communion, there must be the spirit of separation from the world.

Here we get a blessed picture of the nature of God— He came down from heaven! He had been looking down on the earth. He had been seeing, and He had been hearing something that moved Him and moved Him with compassion. Has that a word for us? Ah, yes; for God looks down on the whole world, as He did then over His people in Egypt, and this poor world is, in God's eyes, an Egypt. One phase of the world in the eyes of God is that it is one vast Egypt.

There are several country names that bring the world before us as God sees it; Egypt, for instance, is a type of the world in its power and independence of God, not depending upon Him for its power. In our chapter here we see Egypt acting independent of God and oppressing God's people.

Babylon represents the world in its glory—Babylon was a glorious kingdom. Tyre is a type of the world of commerce.

Dear friends, how thankful we should be to God for His letting us know what this world is in its various aspects before Him. We should thank Him for showing us that the place of His people, and the place of intercourse with Him, is outside of it; that is, outside of it in spirit.

Exodus 3:1-8 9

Here God is about to call Moses into the place of service. He takes him out to the back side of the desert for a lesson—a lesson that He has to teach all of His servants. Moses sees a burning bush there, and he watches it a little while. He expects to see it consumed, but it burns and burns and is not burned. He says, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." And as he turns aside there is a voice which calls him by name, "Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I." What is the burning bush to that one whom He is now calling into His service? "Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground."

God is ever trying, in some way or other, to remind us of what is due to His presence. The presence of God made that ground holy in the back side of the desert, and quite at the beginning of Moses' history as a servant of God. It is a good thing to learn that at the outset, though God may have to remind us of the truth of it repeatedly. That truth goes a long, long way and grows more and more into our daily lives.

We may ask why God appeared in that burning bush? I believe the scriptural interpretation of the burning bush to be in the prophet Isaiah. Now let us connect Isaiah 63:9 with the burning bush in Exodus 3. It says, "In all their affliction He was afflicted." v. 9. Ah, that's what the burning bush is. God has come down from His dwelling place after having long looked upon the afflictions of His people and hearing their groans and cries.

Oh the beautiful compassion of that—the mercy of it—"come down to deliver." It does not say, "I am come down to judge their enemies," but "I am come down to deliver." That is very comforting to one's heart. We read in the 7th verse, "I . . . have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows." Is there not One now in the glory who knows the sorrows and afflictions of His people here on earth? Yes, there is. There is One who hears every sigh and groan and sees every burden, and more than that, He is One who shares all with them. "The place whereon thou standest is holy ground." God's presence made it holy.

Now I would address a word to those who by grace are gathered to the Lord's name and rejoice in that word, "Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I." Just think of the grace of that! Who is it that says, "There am I in the midst of them"? It is the Son of God; it is the Lord Jesus. And I have often thought that if the Lord were there in bodily presence, how we should be mindful of what becomes His presence. He is not there in bodily presence, but though the sight and sense are not affected in that way, He is surely as really there—"There am I." That presence claims holy and loving reverence. Don't we very, very often lose the sense as to the presence of the Lord in the midst and what is due to that presence? And we suffer the consequences.

God encourages and delights in the intimacy of His people, but He never allows familiarity. There is a difference between intimacy and familiarity. With this thought before us, let us see the third verse: "And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt." Now let us mark a point of great importance. "And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, GOD"—it is not the Lord now, but God—"God called unto him out of the midst of the bush." Why is there a change from "LORD" to "GOD" there? God never forgets what is due to His presence, however precious and great the grace through which He makes Himself known to us. I believe that is a very valuable lesson. He is God—that is what He is in Himself. The Lord Jehovah is what He is in relationship. It is solemnly beautiful when we see Him as He comes down to deliver. But He never forgets, He is God. That little change there from "Jehovah" to "Elohim" is full of instruction: "God called unto him out of the midst of the bush." The first thing for a servant to learn is what is due to the presence of God Himself.

There is an important verse in Psalm 89:7. It is not to sinners, but to saints. "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." This is a word in season. It is a word to the heart and conscience of all those that love the blessed Lord.

This is a day of lawlessness, and increasing lawlessness—a day of disregard of all authority and all source of authority. It is just the forerunner of what is coming, and coming in a dreadful form, when a vast part of this world will be under the dominion of a man who knows no will but his own. He will do according to his will; he will exalt himself above all that is called God—that is what is developing. In spite of all this sad failure of the world, God will be God; we learn from His Word that those conditions shall not be in full until He allows them and that lawless one is revealed. And these conditions are developing. In a certain place recently I witnessed an incident that reminded me of the way these things will be fulfilled—the wife had prepared in a stove everything for a fire so that when a fire was wanted, she had but to put a match to it. Ah, God is preparing the fire; but He will never put a match to it while His beloved people are here. "Because thou hast kept the word of My patience, I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation, which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth."

The love of God is a compassionate love, but when we realize whose love it is—the holiness of that One who loved us—the more should we drink in its true character. But what is especially on my mind is that we must ever remember the reverence that becomes us in the presence of God. Suppose I take up the Word of God and read it. If I am going to get profit from it, I must have, in some measure, the unshod foot. There is no other book like the Bible in the world, for the Bible is God's Word. If we would have Him communicate His thoughts to us from that Word (and unless He does communicate His thoughts to us from it, we will never get them—vain is human learning as to getting the mind of God from His Word), we must have the unshod foot. Do you know anything of dependence upon Him in reading His Word; that is, in its character and nature of the unshod foot?

Joshua is another servant who entered upon His service, and the Lord had to deal with him in the same way. In Moses we have the man of communication; but in Joshua we have the man of conflict coming to the "captain of the host of the LORD." He is, as it were, Just beginning the conflict. In Joshua 5 he comes to a man with a drawn sword and says to him, "Art Thou for us, or for our adversaries?"—a right question. "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked," (there is not a burning bush here) "and, behold there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand: and Joshua went unto him and said unto him, Art thou for us or for our adversaries?"

What has that man with the drawn sword to say to him? Read the 14th and 15th verses of Joshua 5. What do we learn from that? Ah, friends, the unshod foot— not the energy of the flesh—is needed for service, for conflict. Is not that the lesson we should learn from what the Captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua? Joshua said, "What saith my lord unto his servant?" Oh, he said, You must have the unshod foot—"Loose thy shoe from off thy foot"—and Joshua did so. Are you prepared to receive the communications from God, to enter the path of warfare? Such, I take it, is the lesson God had for us in telling of these remarkable servants, and His ways with them.

"Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet; for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground." Ex. 3:5. God has now brought Moses into a condition or position where He can communicate to him; and now He gives him communications, but let us not forget the way He took to prepare His servant to receive the communications—those communications found in the 6th verse: "Moreover He said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob."

How welcome that word would be to His servant— God appearing as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That, as it were, puts him in the path of the presence of God for the unshod foot lesson has been learned. God tells His people and His servants to feel at home in His presence, but in the sense of what He is.

A good word comes to mind now: "He is not a man, as I am." The principle of that is very important. God is God—the gracious, blessed God, but He is God, and I am a man—and if I give Him His place in my thoughts and actions, I will get my true place before Him. Observe the 7th verse: "The LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows."

I think that shows us the nature of God: to deliver them, but delivering them is not all He does for them; that is where God begins but not where He ends. God did not deliver that people of old from their burdens and groanings and leave them where they were. The gospel not only delivers the believer from the burden of his sins, but it does something more—it delivers us from the very place where these burdens were made. "Bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey." Do we know anything of that deliverance, not only from the bondage of Egypt, but from Egypt; that is, the world? God's people are not only a forgiven and saved people, but they are a separated people.

In Numbers 23, what is the second thing that God speaks of in connection with His people? "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." God's association with His people is in their separation from the world. "I have chosen you out of the world." That is what He has delivered us from and what He would keep us out of; but that is not all. How good it is to know not only what God has delivered us from but what He has brought us into. He goes on to bring us unto a good land and a large. That is what He has done for every believer in His Son: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ" (JND Trans.)—"a good land and a large"—"every spiritual blessing." That is the character of the Christian's blessings—they are not temporal; they are not physical. When God saved us, He left our purses and our bodies where they were—our blessings are spiritual. Israel's blessings were temporal and physical and will be again, but the Christian's blessings are spiritual. Israel's blessings were, and will be, on the earth; the Christian's are in heaven.

What is the measure of the blessing? To Christians, He has "blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ." The believer who enters into that with some little degree of comprehension knows that his place is in Christ, and in heaven—that is the measure—"a good land and a large."

How one feels his spiritual poverty when brought into the presence of the riches of God's grace! One great cause of spiritual poverty is a lack of the unshod foot—lack of the sense of having been with Him.

"Holy and reverend is His name"—"to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." The blessed Lord is grieved when there is not the conduct that becomes His presence—the reverence—the holy, loving fear. This is the character of reverence He means when He says, "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about Him." That does not mean judicial fear—it is spiritual fear, a happy kind of fear. The Lord give us then, dear fellow-Christian, to cultivate it.

May the Lord bless these scriptures to our souls, and may the truth of His Word teach us to shun something that is increasing—that which men call "liberty." The children of God are brought into liberty; it is the Spirit of God's liberty, but the flesh would turn that liberty to its own account. With the lesson of the unshod foot, God would teach us that we may guard against this false liberty.

Chapter 2

Redemption
Exodus 3

Exodus 3:7-8

"And the Lord said, I have surely seen the affliction of My people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;

And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites."

Exodus 15:1-3, 13

"Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea.

The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt Him.

The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is His name."...

"Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed: Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation."

Exodus 40:18-19, 33-35

"And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars.

Exodus 3 17

And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the Lord commanded Moses." .. .

"And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.

Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle."

For the children of God the book of Exodus has a certain charm because of the character of the book and its contents. Redemption is the great outstanding feature of the book of Exodus. The subject of the next book, Leviticus, is approach to God by a redeemed people. Numbers presents redeemed people being conducted through the wilderness to the rest that remains. In the third chapter of Exodus we learn about the source of redemption. Further on in the twelfth and fifteenth chapters we learn the way of it.

In redemption God is known in a way in which He delights. There is a certain class of creatures which have and always will have a joy peculiar to themselves, and that is the joy of redemption. We learn God in redemption in a way He is not known in creation.

In the verses we read from chapter three, we get a most marvelous thing as to the character and nature of God. We find that He is a Spectator, and an interested Spectator, in all that is going on here below. Certain characteristics brought God into exercise—into play. Thus, for instance, we find Him moved in His nature, moved by what He sees here below: a burdened, suffering, sorrowing, oppressed people. He had seen, He had heard; and His seeing and hearing have moved Him to action. He is come down (another blessed feature of the book of Exodus) to deliver.

God delights in the confidence of the poor sinner; such is His nature, His character. Hear Him saying, I have heard; I have seen; I know their sorrow. Has not God wrought marvelously, and is He not working marvelously in this poor world today? Oh yes, He is doing a work in which His whole nature is engaged, a work He has been doing for long, long centuries that shall be to His eternal praise and glory. He saw a certain class of His creatures in certain conditions and He was moved by those conditions. It is most touching to know God as the One who not only looks down in compassion upon this sin-burdened scene, but as the One who has also come into it in compassion. "I am come down to deliver."

His work in the earth today is that of a mighty, blessed Deliverer—One whose love, pity, compassion and mercy have moved Him to action and still move Him. The compassions of His love sustain God in the work He is doing today which meets with such opposition here below. To nothing are we greater strangers than to the very nature of God Himself. Indeed it is in redemption, what He is doing on behalf of a sin-burdened people, that we learn what that nature is.

You and I and every redeemed one have a joy in God that we will have eternally and that no other creature of His will ever know! There is no joy in heaven so great as the joy of redemption. There is nothing God Himself has greater joy in than in the work of redemption.

So He says, "I am come down to deliver them...and to bring them out," and not only to bring them out, but to bring them in; and blessed be His Name, He is working according to the fulness of His own nature and character and love. He has seen our sorrow and heard our cry, as it were, from the lash of the taskmaster here below and Satan is a hard taskmaster. What is the ultimate reward of those who are undelivered from his authority? "The wages of sin is death." "The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

We feel, and feel increasingly, in communion with God, the groan, the burden of creation, the burden under which all here below labor. We witness the many efforts in different ways by which poor man seeks to hush the groan, but still there is the groan. There is but One who can meet the need—the blessed God Himself, and He would have us know our need. The gospel tells the wonderful message of God come down to deliver; and the God who came down to deliver is the God who has seen and heard above and says very sweetly, "I know their sorrows."

"What brought the Son of God from heaven?" we sing sometimes;

"Not sinful man's endeavor,
Nor any mortal's care,
Could draw Thy sovereign favor
To sinners in despair;"

(We like to change a word there and say, "Did draw Thy sovereign favor")

"Uncalled, Thou cam'st with gladness
Us from the fall to raise,
And change our grief and sadness
To songs of joy and praise."

Did our crying bring the Son of God down here? No, it was our burden and our condition. There was no cry going up to heaven for deliverance; there was an effort to make the best of our circumstances and that is still the case today. Where is the eye and the heart that looks to heaven for deliverance? Where is the confidence in God and in His love? How few there are who lift up their voices in thanksgiving and praise to God for coming down here in the Person of His Son to deliver. To see, or hear Him saying, "I know their sorrows" is most touching. There is One far away up in heaven who knows our sorrows and feels for us in them and proclaims to us a Deliverer—Himself come down in the Person of Christ to deliver. Most blessed it is to see God Himself moved to action by the compassions of His own nature for His fallen creatures.

The source of that redemption that the gospel speaks of is mercy. "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people" (Exodus 15:13). The means of it is the blood of Christ. Let us ask ourselves, what is the measure of our acquaintance with God as the One who came down to deliver? How many of us can sing with joy and reality,

"We joy in our God, and we sing of that love,
So sov'reign and free which did His heart move!
When lost our condition, all ruined, undone,
He saw with compassion, and spared not His Son!"

Do you join in that song? How God delights to hear it! What a welcome that song finds in His ear. God's joy is in redemption and His people's joy is in the God of their salvation—the God of their redemption.

In Exodus we have Him come down for a certain purpose: to deliver and to bring into blessing. He blesses us according to His nature, and He blesses with no meager hand. All is typical, and so He blesses His people of old to bring them out of the Land of Egypt into a good and large land. How good and how large is the blessing into which the redeeming love of God brings us! "A good land and a large." Shall we endeavor to know something of what that good land and large is for us now? We shall enter fully into it when Christ comes, and we go into eternity. "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people."

It is a reality that there is a redeemed people on the earth. "Forasmuch as ye know...ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold ... but with the precious blood of Christ." There is a certain people here that are God's redeemed people and they know it: "Forasmuch as ye know."

I wonder if there is a reader who does not know himself as one of the redeemed of the Lord—who has never known what it is to sing to the Lord the song of redemption for the first time. That song begins here on earth. It is continued in heaven in all its fulness, blessedness and joy, but it is begun here on earth. "Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed." What a note that is, and its source is "Thou in Thy mercy." "But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us." Ephesians 2:4. What has brought the mercy of God into play?. I do not say into existence; it was always there. But what brought it into play? into action? Your need and mine as sinners brought Him down to deliver—to make Himself known in a new and most glorious character as Redeemer-God. It is this that God proclaims in the gospel. Blessed be His Name!

There are thousands in lands far and near, in tongues so different, in circumstances so varied, who have this day joined in the song of redemption. Have you? How do you know God? What is your relationship to Him? Is it the relationship of a sinner separated from Him by your sins—far from Him—or is it the relationship of one who knows Him as the One come down to deliver, to save and to bless? That word in John 3:16, "For God so loved the world" is the compassionate love of God.

"Thou hast guided them in Thy strength unto Thy holy habitation." How different are the circumstances of those people in Exodus 15 from those we read about in Exodus 3. "Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation." No song like this had ever gone to heaven before. He had broken the power and delivered them from the bondage of the taskmaster, from Egypt.

God has deep, deep joy when a soul in the knowledge of Himself in redemption makes Himself his song. "The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation." How very simple, full and blessed that is! "My father's God, and I will exalt Him." That is what redemption does. It makes God Himself the portion of the soul, and the soul finds its strength and its joy in exalting Him.

One has to fear for the very fundamentals of the gospel. The fundamentals of our soul's relationship to God are being fast given up. The joy and power of them, where not given up, are lost, but it is the song of redemption that God has put into our lips. The God that came down to deliver, the God that has delivered, is a God that is comparatively little known even in these Christian lands because of the adulteration of the Word of God, of the truth of God.

But thank God! While one sees and feels that the blessed and essential truth of redemption is being forgotten and the song of redemption is being raised to God less and less, by His grace there are those who do cleave to it. May the truth of it become more and more precious to us: redemption by the blood of Christ.

"Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth the people." God's people are no longer in the land of bondage. I refer now to the state of their souls; they are redeemed; His power and love redeemed them and led them forth. On the journey none of us is at a standstill point; all are on the move, and the end draws near. What a bright and glorious end for the redeemed people of God, but what an awful end for the unredeemed one. If one passes away unredeemed, who is at fault? Is there not a voice that says today, "Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom"? Who says that? Who is it that escapes that pit? What is the ransom? "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ." How many have passed this day, and pass each day from time into eternity? In passing from time into eternity they are either redeemed or unredeemed. There are just two classes. Were you and I to pass away tonight, would it be to pass away redeemed or unredeemed? We're getting very personal, but it would be either one or the other, and we know how suddenly, constantly these changes take place. One and another are swept away in death—gone never to return. It all depends on whether one knows God as the One who in mercy came down to deliver—God known as the Deliverer.

Redemption makes God Himself the boast of the soul. "He is become My salvation . . . my father's God, and I will exalt Him."

Redemption ends in glory. That is why we read a little from chapter 40. In the third chapter we saw God come down, moved by His mercy for a certain purpose—to deliver them out and to bring them in. I have put together the opening and the closing of Exodus to the joy of my own soul. God has surrounded Himself with His redeemed people! He told them to build Him a tabernacle that He might dwell among them. In the end of the book we find that that dwelling place has been completed. Think of the joy of that, the blessed God surrounding Himself with His redeemed people!

Faith anticipates that. When Christians meet together in a Scriptural way, they find themselves "Where two or three are gathered together in My Name." He is in their midst—they surround Him. That is just where God at the present has led us. He is guiding us in His strength to His holy habitation; He will "bring them in and plant them in the mountain of their inheritance," (Ex. 15:17) but already He has a dwelling place in the midst of His people, and it is joy to find Himself surrounded by His people.

So we find in the third passage we read that Moses rears up this tabernacle as the Lord commanded, and now it is not God come to deliver but the blessed fruit of His having come down to deliver. He has come down to dwell in the midst of His people. Such are the blessed effects of redemption. All is in anticipation of that great day which draws near, when God once and forever will surround Himself with His redeemed people, from every land, from every tongue and condition. What delight God will have as His eyes survey that vast innumerable company of redeemed ones, each individual of that vast company knowing himself to be a redeemed one. Each one individually will have his own personal joy in God as the God of his salvation.

The dwelling place is set up, and there He is in the midst. He is not come down now as moved by sorrows, but come down as it were in relationship with a redeemed people surrounding the blessed God Himself. It is in this way that the book of Exodus has its own special charm! God is known in redemption and it is in redemption that God rejoices rather than in creation because redemption tells out what He is in His own nature—in His moral nature, in light, in love, in holiness, in goodness, in truth. Creation tells what He is in power. Redemption tells what He is as rich in mercy, great in His love.

Chapter 3

The Passover
Exodus 12:1-4
Leviticus 23:4-8
Numbers 28:16-25
Deuteronomy 16:1-8

In each of the four passages read we are given different important details about the passover. In Exodus we learn the origin and how it was to be kept. In Leviticus we find that it is one of the offerings that God was pleased to call "My offerings." In Numbers we're told what was to be offered when the people were in the promised land. And finally in Deuteronomy we're instructed where the Lord had chosen for the passover to be kept.

The "passover" is a memorial—something to remember something by, a memorial of our redemption. In a certain way these people were God's people before He redeemed them; that is, they were His people in purpose, but not in actuality. They were His people in actuality after He had redeemed them, and only so could they be His people. If God is to have a people for Himself, taking them out of the midst of a fallen, ruined, sinful people, it must be upon the ground of redemption. That is blessed and very important to remember. As the people of God we are a redeemed people: "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" (1 Peter 1:18, 19).

This feast was a memorial of that, and the way in which this first passover was kept is the way in which God's people always begin the keeping of the pass- over. They were in the land of Egypt where the sword of judgment was about to fall. Egypt is a well-known type of the world in power and independency of God; it was not dependent upon the God of heaven for rain. They watered their fields by foot—irrigation. There is a good deal of irrigation today. It tells of man's independency of God.

Though they were there, they were secure from the stroke coming upon the land. God was about to smite. He says, "I will smite the land of Egypt," etc. That is one simple, solemn lesson for the Christian. He is in the world upon which the judgment of God is coming—a very difficult thing to keep in mind, especially in days like these when there is a great amount of human energy, schemes of men and exclusion of God. How much there is in every way to blind the soul to the truth of the real state of things in this world before God.

There they were, and here we are—in the world as much as anyone. I do not mean as to the state of our souls, but as to our actual bodily presence, in the world, but not of it. We are secure from the stroke that is about to fall. The Israelites also were secure from the stroke of judgment that was about to fall. Their security was just one thing: they were under the shelter of the blood of the lamb. There was just one thing that secured them from judgment and that was not the shed blood, but the sprinkled blood.

God gave the shed blood, but God did not sprinkle the blood! Christ has died for all, and the death of Christ for all is God's provision for all. "Who gave Himself a ransom for all" (1 Timothy 2:6), but it is only those who avail themselves of the provision made who escape the stroke. Further than that we do not go in the 12th of Exodus. We see there security from judgment.

The young Christian begins there as he partakes of the memorial of redemption, called the "Lord's Supper." "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us" (1 Corinthians 5:7). The young Christian says, "I am sheltered from the judgment that is coming upon this world by the blood of Christ."

There they are, and we picture to ourselves, as we should, how they kept that passover. They were under the shelter of the blood, secure from judgment, just what the Christian ought to be doing: feeding upon the One who secured him from judgment. They were feeding upon Him "with shoes on their feet and staff in their hand." What a peculiar but instructive sight we would have seen if we could have looked into one of those houses where the two side posts and lintel were sprinkled with the blood of the passover lamb and have seen them keeping the passover according to instructions! We would not have seen them seated around a table, but standing, their loins girded, their staff in their hand, shoes on their feet and eating in haste! It is a peculiar feast, is it not? All that is solemnly and blessedly typical. How far we are answering to it is another thing! But that is one attitude of the Christian's position in this world.

As they fed, as they ate that lamb, under those circumstances, they were waiting for the signal to move! How solemnly blessed to see God giving us all this in those ages past: waiting for the signal, and that signal was for them to be gone!

The Christian is here in this world, secure by the blood of Christ from the judgment that is coming. The Lord's own word is, "Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding . . . Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching" (Luke 12:35-37). That is a simple happy picture of the Christian's position.

There is another thing given us as to the passover lamb which is equally solemn and precious, (vs. 8) "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof." What are we to learn from that? "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." "Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water." What are we to learn from that? There is no redemption in a living Christ, or in Christ the other side of death, infinitely precious and perfect as the life of Christ was, a sweet savor continually to God. God's redeemed people now share with Him that sweet savor as the other types tell us, and our redemption was accomplished by the death, not the life, of Christ. The very fact that the blood was there tells that too. I call attention to this because one mark of the day and of the apostasy is forgetting the truth that "the wages of sin is death" and "without shedding of blood is no remission" (Romans 6:23, Hebrews 9:22).

"Nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire." How solemnly blessed that is! What is typified by that is this: it is Christ our passover bearing the judgment of God without the least mitigation—nothing coming between. "Roast with fire"—no water—nothing coming between. It is the consuming fire of the judgment of God. The soul meditates upon Christ as his Redeemer and upon the way in which He is his Redeemer. "And hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood," etc. (Rev. 5:9).

"His head with his legs, and with the purtenance [inwards] thereof." That is all the intelligence and all the ways and all the affections. Intelligence is the head; ways are the legs; affections are the inwards. All has been tried by the judgment of God and found perfect!

It is instructive too that the Israelite was not left to his own mind or judgment as to how to keep this pass- over, v. 11: "And thus shall ye eat it." Christ under those conditions was before them, or is before us when the memorial of the passover is before us. "And this day shall be unto you a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever."

That is where we begin. God starts His people out on their heavenward journey with the knowledge that they are a redeemed people. Redemption is a wide and blessed word for the Christian. There are different phases of it and truths connected with it, but here it is the general truth, "Forasmuch as ye know" (the Christian knows he is a redeemed person) "not with corruptible things, as silver and gold . . . but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." God starts us on the journey in that way.

"And the blood shall be to you for a token." When God passed through the land with drawn sword, He did not look inside the houses at all. He took no notice of what was going on inside. That had its place. What He looked at was the outside—the two side posts and the lintel—and if they were sprinkled with the blood of the lamb, He passed them by. It is presented in another way sometimes: "And will not suffer the destroyer to come in unto your houses to smite you." It is as though God passes the judgment and there is the actual executor. "The blood is sprinkled there; do not touch that one. There is no blood on this one, smite!" Why pass over one and smite the other? It is simply because the blood was not there! It was a stroke of judgment and the only thing that could shelter from judgment was a Substitute. The blood told of the judgment having fallen on a substitute, and that was the security of all that were beneath it and the peace of all that believed what God said about it.

It is well to remember that security and peace are two different things. I have tried to illustrate it by calling attention to three families in the land of Egypt; two of the three families are under the shelter of the blood of the lamb. Inside the house of one the whole family is calmly and solemnly keeping the passover. They are so calm and peaceful, knowing as they do, that at midnight the stroke of judgment is to fall but they are under the protection of the sprinkled blood. I do not say shed blood. Their next door neighbor is keeping the feast too. The blood is sprinkled, but all the faces of this family are pale with fear and they are all trembling. The one family is calmly, peacefully and thankfully keeping the passover. The one doing it and trembling from head to foot is as secure as the other. The difference is that the one believes what God says about it and the other is not so sure. One would question that family keeping it calmly and peacefully, "Are you not afraid for that firstborn? Do you not know that God is going to smite the firstborn in the land of Egypt tonight from the firstborn of Pharaoh on the throne to the captive in the dungeon?" "Yes, we know it," they reply. "Are you not afraid?" "No." "Why not?" "God has said, 'When I see the blood I will pass over you.' We sprinkled the blood, and we know God means what He says."

Of those two houses one is as secure as the other. You ask the other family, "Why are you trembling so—so full of fear?" "Oh," they say, "do you not know that at midnight God is going to smite the firstborn?" "Yes, but have you not sprinkled the blood?" "Yes." "Has not God told you when He sees the blood, He will pass over you?" "Yes." "Then why are you so full of fear?" "Oh, but—" Oh, but what a difference there is in their faith in what God has said. That is the difference between peace and security—the difference between the unbelieving believer and the believing believer.

But there is the third house. There is no blood sprinkled; you look inside and there they all are keeping the feast in perfect order, not the least concerned—not the least afraid! You say to the head of the house, "Do you not know that at midnight God is going to pass through and smite the firstborn? Are you not afraid?" "Oh no, we are keeping the passover just as God commanded." "Has God said, 'When I see the blood, I will pass over you?' " The answer is, "We do not put so much stress on the blood; we are keeping the passover." When the destroyer comes through, both the sheltered houses are passed by, but the unsheltered one is smitten. Why? The two are under the shelter of the blood and the other is not! Keeping the passover unsheltered by the blood is dishonoring to God.

There is a fourth house: that will take in our own Egypt. There is no blood, and there is no eating the passover. You seek to warn and alarm. They say, "Oh, we do not believe any such stuff." When the midnight hour comes, the firstborn is smitten. One of the two smitten houses is the house of the ritualist and the other the house of the rationalist. The firstborn in each falls. One is keeping the passover perfectly as they ought to, but there is no blood there. The ritualist is no more sheltered by the blood than the rationalist!

God starts the believer out as Romans 8 says, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." But we must not stop by simply keeping the passover as it is kept in Egypt. We must go on to learn more and so we get other passages, especially the passage in the 28th of Numbers. This is the way we Christians should be keeping the passover not merely with a knowledge of security from judgment.

Read the firs, verse of the 28th of Numbers. These Scriptures suppose the children of Israel out of Egypt; they suppose them in the land really.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto them, My offering, and My bread for My sacrifices made by fire, for a sweet savour...shall ye...offer unto Me in their due season." Then we get the daily offering, the sabbath offering, and the new meat offering. I think it is sweet there as God claims these offerings. He says, "My offerings and My bread." God's food is that by which the Christian is redeemed. All these sacrifices speak of Christ and the work of Christ. They are God's offerings and the bread of His offerings—what He Himself feeds upon. We know from other types He calls us to share with Him in His offerings—the offerings that are His.

In Leviticus we have the same thing: "My offerings"—"My sacrifices." After the daily offering, the sabbath offering and the monthly offering, we come down to the 16th verse, the passover. Read verses 16-22. How instructive that is! Not merely is Christ known in His death as the security—the hiding place— for the sinner, but he is sheltered from judgment because redemption is found through His blood. These offerings tell of every aspect of the work of Christ.

What does the "burnt offering" speak of? Why is it called "the burnt offering"? Just simply this: the whole was consumed except the hide which the priest got who offered it. It is Christ wholly devoted to God. It is the claims of the glory of God in connection with sin rather than the sinner's need as the first thought; God's glory is made good by the offering of Christ as the burnt offering. That offering was an offering of a sweet savour.

There are five offerings. In Leviticus we have the way in which God's redeemed people approach Him, so that book opens with five offerings. Three of those offerings are sweet savour offerings; the others are not, but what is said about the two others is not said about the three, or at least about two of them. The sweet savour offerings are the burnt offering, the meat offering, and the peace offering—all are sweet savour offerings. The other two that are not sweet savour offerings, or are not said to be so, are the sin and the trespass offerings. First, the glory of God is made good in the life and death of Christ. That is chapters 1 and 2. The third is the peace or communion offering—the believer in communion with God about that death of Christ that has glorified Him.

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." We do not stop there. We go on and learn, not what there is not, but what there is! We start out with what there is not, but we are learning all our lives what there is in Christ Jesus—first, under the shelter of the blood and then feeding upon the Lamb as the One roast with fire, but we do not stop there. We see what we have as security in Christ through His death and go on and see what God has.

There is another thing about the 12th of Exodus. Nothing was to be allowed to remain until the morning. If it were not eaten, it must be burned with fire. We find that all through Leviticus in different ways. After the set time, which was a little longer in connection with the peace offering or thanksgiving offering, it was not to be eaten, but burnt with fire. The peace offering was good for three days; the thanksgiving offering was not so long.

We are to learn a very solemn lesson from that space between the time when it was sacrificed and when that which was sacrificed could be accepted by God, really a sweet savour to Him, after which time to eat it was sin. Do not separate worship too far from the death of Christ, or it will lose its sweetness. Suppose we leave out the sacrifice of Christ in our praise, or it is too much separated from it? That is another solemn mark of this day. Observe in the most popular hymns how little there is of the sacrifice of Christ. We must keep the sense of our relationship in our souls founded upon the death of Christ and not separate our thanksgiving and praises from it, forgetting the ground of our relationship. The death of Christ is the ground of communion with God—peace with Him and communion with Him.

The first little hymn in the Little Flock Hymn Book:

"Of all the gifts Thy love bestows,
Thou Giver of all good!
Not heaven itself a richer knows
Than the Redeemer's blood."

This hymn does not separate praise too far from sacrifice, does it? That hymn of Watts':

"Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.

"Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear
When hanging on th' accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there.

"Believing, we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
And bless the Lamb with cheerful voice
And sing redeeming love."

This hymn does not separate worship too far from the death of the victim.

Although the sin and trespass offerings are not said to be offerings of a sweet savour (the meat offering is), what is said about the meat, sin and trespass offerings is not said about the burnt or peace offerings. "It is most holy" is said of the meat, trespass and sin offerings. The meat offering is the Lord in His own holy nature—Manhood—most holy. When we see the Lord Jesus in Manhood, we see a most holy Man. Then when we see Him made sin and bearing sin, forsaken of God, we see One who is in that position who is most holy. God has guarded the Person of Christ in His Manhood and in His atoning work for sin and sinners by adding those words: "It is most holy." These types become exceedingly precious.

As the saint is meditating upon the Lord as the One consumed under the fire of God's judgment,-he says, "It was for me." That is the bitter herbs. The unleavened bread is separation from what is not agreeable to that truth. Leaven in Scripture is always evil. We read of the "leaven of the Pharisees which is hypocrisy." We get leaven morally in the 5th of 1 Corinthians; doctrinally in the 5th of Galatians; then another kind of leaven of Herod. That was a mixture of the world and religion. The Herods were neither Jew nor Gentile. They were Idumaean; they came from Esau.

Deuteronomy 16 practically covers all. In a general way we read from Exodus 12 how the passover was to be kept and where it was to be kept. It was to be kept in the place in which God had been pleased to place His Name. That was in Jerusalem. All their males after a certain age had to go to Jerusalem three times a year. The first time was the passover; the second, Pentecost; and the third, the feast of tabernacles. They all come in this chapter.

Are you and I exercised—concerned—about where we keep the passover? not how, but where? There is a great deal of latitude about that thing. In how many places has the Lord been pleased to place His Name or in how many companies?

The Lord has been pleased to place His Name where the company makes His Name the center of their gathering. The Lord's presence is where the Lord's Name—the Lord Himself—is the Center. The test as to whether the Lord is with us personally is, is what is due to His Name maintained doctrinally and morally? First, who is He? He is the eternal Son of God. The Word was with God, and was God, by whom all things were made and without whom was not anything made that was made. The next thing is "The Word became flesh," the Deity and Manhood of Christ, the Deity and Humanity of Christ. The Everlasting One made flesh: that is to be maintained—the truth as to His miraculous birth. Those who deny that, deny His Name. Those who deny His divinity deny His Name. Those who deny practically or otherwise, the Headship and Lordship of Christ, deny His Name—what is due to Him from every point of view.

Deuteronomy 12:10-15 presents a most important principle as to the where as well as the how. It may be difficult to find the place in these days where one's soul can be sure the Lord has been pleased to place His Name because there are many influences and many places but there is that portion in John's gospel: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." The first necessary thing is, Do I really want to know where the Lord has been pleased to place His Name?

God chose to place His Name in Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not in the center of the land. The tribe at the extreme north of the land was much farther from Jerusalem than those at the south of the land, not east and west, for that was comparatively short; the land of Palestine is a strip. Ephraim and Benjamin are right around the temple, but look up where Naphtali and Zebulon are! What a journey they have to make! But they have to make it; they cannot bring Jerusalem to their tribes. That is important. It has cost those at the extreme ends of the land to come, and God takes that into account. There might be a number of persons in a meeting, and for some of them it is quite easy to get there and for others it is very difficult. The Lord notes as each one comes, where he comes from, and what it cost him to get there. That is very encouraging. In the 84th Psalm it says, "They go from strength to strength, every one of them in Zion appeareth before God." The margin says, "from company to company." As those from the extreme ends of the land start out, there are just a few, but they join others on the way, and as they near Jerusalem the company becomes larger; they go from company to company, and every one of them appears in Zion before God. That is the way I take that passage in Psalm 84.

As we consider all these things, we think how much time those people spent in the things of God: all those offerings and feasts three times in a year. We get these three feasts brought together in the 16th of Leviticus. Two of them the church of God is keeping: the feast of unleavened bread—"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us," and Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. The church too is waiting to keep the feast of tabernacles when the Lord comes, sometimes called the feast of ingathering.

Chapter 4

The Curtains and Boards of the Tabernacle
Exodus 26

The way in which the Lord Jesus is brought before us in these curtains that were to form a tent and the curtains that were to form a covering for the tent is very sweet and blessed. We find the Lord brought before us in varied ways in Scripture because His glories are varied and many. It is part of the joy of the Holy Spirit as come down from heaven to take of the glories of Christ and unfold them before our eyes for the nourishment and sustaining of our souls.

Here we have this tent formed of ten curtains, each twenty-eight cubits in length and four cubits in width. Then we have eleven other curtains. They formed a covering for that which is called the tabernacle. These first ten curtains bring the Lord Himself before us in certain traits of His character and ways.

The fine twined linen brings the Lord before us as the Holy One of God; the One who knew no sin; the One without a spot in His human nature. Such is the Lord Jesus in His own Person, spotless and pure, the righteous One, the One who knew no sin, the One who, at any time, could have gone into the presence of God. He could have gone back to heaven without doing anything and could have gone back as the holy and the just. What is brought before us in the fine linen is human nature in its spotless purity. Consequently, that is first—Himself in His own Person.

We find further on in the book these same colors and materials brought together in the making of the garments of the high priest when the high priest was consecrated for his place before God—his relationship to the people as their high priest. The first thing was that which was underneath all—holy linen garments. Next came a robe of blue, and so we find here the blue.

That holy, spotless Man came out of heaven as the second Man. That is where He came from. That holy, spotless Man, the One upon whom the eye of God looked with delight because of Who and What He was in His own Person—the One who could and did seal with His Holy Spirit, that One who came from heaven, that is what the blue speaks of. The 15th of 1st Corinthians says, "The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." That is what we have here: "The Lord from heaven." So the Lord Jesus says in the 6th of John, "I came down from heaven." One asks again with a measure of joy for it refreshes one's soul, not only who and what is our Saviour, but where He came from. That Holy One came from heaven. That is what the blue speaks of. How precious it is to get the Lord brought before us in this way!

Next thing we see the purple and the scarlet. If the fine twined linen tells us of His holiness and purity—the holy and the just, and the blue tells us of His heavenly nature and character—where He came from, a Man from heaven, the heavenly Man on earth, what do the purple and scarlet speak of? Very beautifully here, the purple speaks of royalty—He is the King of kings; and the scarlet, of glory—human glory, but not in its sinful connection. Who is the One on earth represented here by this fine linen, blue, purple and scarlet? God is speaking to us of His dear Son, our Saviour, in this simple and blessed way.

I wonder if we have as much joy in learning about the Lord, as God has in giving us the types of Him. Page after page and theme after theme in God's Word tell how Christ was ever before Him in some shape or form.

Here, then, we have this purple, speaking of royalty. In His own Person He was the descendant of a royal line, the Son of David. "Rabbi, Thou art the Son of God; Thou art the King of Israel." But that purple takes us outside the range of the Lord Jesus as the Son of David and outside the range of the Lord Jesus as the son of Abraham; it takes us into that wide range of glory which He inherits as the Son of Man!

Simply and sweetly we have the Lord brought before us in this way in these ten curtains. Ten is the measure of human responsibility, and all has been found perfect in the Lord—His responsibility God- ward and His responsibility manward. There was a Man on the earth who loved the Lord His God with all His heart, soul, and strength, and His neighbor as Himself: He was the only One who ever did.

Glory is typified by scarlet—that brilliant color— and we love to think of Christ, not only as Israel's King, and King of kings, but of all the glories that belong to Him as Son of Man. That is what is brought before us here. "It shall be one tabernacle." As we look at the Lord Jesus as represented by these different materials and different colorings, we find in Him what is typified in them.

These curtains, which must have been very beautiful, had cherubim embroidered artistically on them. Cunning has another meaning in our day, but here it means artistically. They speak of Him who is so holy and just in His Person and is Heir of all as typified in the blue, purple, and scarlet. That One is the One to whom God has committed all authority. The 5th of John tells us, "The Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son" because He is the Son, not of God there, but Son of Man. The same chapter says that the "dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God," but when it comes to the execution or carrying out of government and administration of judgment, it is the Son of Man. The Lord Jesus is not only Heir of the glory of the world, but He is the One who executes government, and He executes it in righteousness and according to the mind of God.

Sometimes we see pictures of the tabernacle with these various colorings displayed. We have no objection because the thought of those who draw them and represent them in that way is to bring before us the One typified in them, but as that tabernacle stood there in the wilderness, colored curtains were covered up. Not concealment, but protection was the thought of God in the curtains which covered it.

There were eleven curtains of goats' hair thirty by four cubits telling us how completely all beneath was protected by this covering. That covering of goats' hair tells of that practical separation from this world which secured everything under it. Similarly the life of the Lord Jesus in holiness and separation to God formed a protection. Why give it that peculiar covering of goats' hair and what beauty was there in such a covering? Because in it we see the truth of "When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him." Yet holiness and separation to God is that in which God sees every beauty. Humanly speaking it is our security as it was the Lord's. It is anything but attractive to the eyes of this world. Walking in separation from the world is what condemns it; the world feels it.

Then we see another covering of which no measurement is given: rams' skins dyed red. What God would teach us about rams' skins dyed red is Christ's devotedness, His consecration unto death in obedience to the will of God. The ram is called "the ram of consecration" in Leviticus. The burnt offering and the ram are pretty much together. This is another theme as it were, another view of the Lord Jesus, as represented in the fine linen, blue, purple, scarlet and cherubim—consecration to death! What a wonderful theme is Christ if we have the opened eye and heart to receive Him!

There is another covering—badgers' skins—and no measurement is given for this covering. By the fact that no measurement is given to the rams' skins dyed red, and the covering of badgers' skins, God would teach us that He sets no measure or limit to the obedience or separation of His Son. Perhaps we do not know much about the badger as referred to in Scripture. We know it was this exterior covering, that which protected all underneath; and it represented what that devotedness to God is in the eyes of this world. It was nothing inviting, nothing attractive. The anointed eye sees beneath the covering of badgers' skins; it sees the rams' skins dyed red; it sees the curtains of goats' hair. We learn who that One was who was so separated and devoted to God, the Holy One of God, the heavenly One, the royal One, Heir of all glory. The anointed eye sees through these outer coverings which do not represent exactly the Person of the Lord Jesus, but His walk, His life, His manner of life.

These curtains were linked together. They were all of the same measurement and formed one tabernacle. That too has its own instruction. There was no unequalness in Christ; all was perfection; one thing as much as another; as much the holy and the just as the Man from heaven; as much the King of kings and Heir of the world's glory as the other. Those curtains had to be one measurement. They were linked together with loops of blue and taches of gold. Think of that tabernacle being made there in the wilderness by a people journeying to the rest that was before them. Blue tells of what is heavenly and gold of what is divine, and there is divine and heavenly grace; all is linked together in the Person of Christ.

The external curtains were not linked together with blue and gold! They formed the covering, and their taches were brass. We understand gold is what is divine. We do not limit it, and never have, to divine righteousness. Brass brings before us divine righteousness in activity; that is divine righteousness judging.

Inside the tabernacle there were just four things: inside the most holy place, the ark; in the holy place, the golden altar, the golden candlestick, and the golden table. Outside the tabernacle was the brasen altar with those sacrifices, all telling of Christ and the work of Christ, and the laver of brass, containing water. At that laver the priests washed their hands and feet each time they went in to do the services of the tabernacle, speaking of the application of the Word of God to our ways here. All inside was gold; whereas all outside was brass. We believe brass is simply divine righteousness in action and divine righteousness or divine nature in action, judging what is contrary to it, or satisfying itself with sacrifices which meet its requirements. Brass is divine righteousness at work and meeting what divine righteousness requires. Gold is what is divine, and in particular divine righteousness, though not limited to that. Brass represents divine righteousness acting in judgment in dealing with what is according to it and receiving the sacrifices that meet its requirements.

Let us consider now the boards forming the walls, as it were, of the tabernacle. We do not so much see Christ in the boards; they typify the people of God. Each one is the same measurement, each one is of shittim wood covered with gold, each has two tenons, and each tenon rested in a socket of silver, silver speaking to us of redemption. How sweetly beautiful that is! The individual believer stands before God in divine righteousness upon the ground of redemption. There they are so many units. Our being made the righteousness of God in Christ is individual, and it is true of each individual. Shittim wood represents human nature, and all that I am, a poor sinful man, is covered by the robe of divine righteousness in Christ. My individual standing before God and your individual standing before God in righteousness is a righteousness that redemption gives us. Sweet and simple it is to see this. Gold and silver are all that are seen: precious truth of redemption and divine righteousness.

There were forty-eight boards. Each had its own standing as an individual. We do not think Scripture sustains us in saying the individual believer is the temple of God; his body is, but the house of God and the temple of God is collective truth, not individual. In 1 Peter 2:5 we read, "Ye ... are built up a spiritual house." The fourth verse says, "To whom coming, as unto a living stone" [Christ]; "Ye also as living stones are built up a spiritual house."

God takes those forty-eight boards and stands them up in their own standing individually, as it were, independent one of another; He runs a bar from end to end and links them together. Those boards covered with gold and their sockets of silver show us our individual acceptance and standing before God. We have in them all joined together and held together by bars running from end to end the end of the 2nd of Ephesians, "In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit." It is not 1 Cor. 1:30 "Of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." We learn we not only have our individual standing before God in righteous- ness through redemption, but we must go on to learn that while this is true of each one, God had builded all together for an habitation through the Spirit.

That is a little of what we have as to the Lord in the tabernacle and the covering and of what we have in the boards. "And it shall be one tabernacle." It is not exactly Christ and the church, the body of Christ, but the house of God "Builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."

We must learn this: if God is a slow Teacher, He is a thorough Teacher and what He looks for is diligence and patient waiting upon Him, and if we take that position before Him, His Word unfolds before us, and His glories are unfolded to us. Each believer individually and the whole collectively get that standing in righteousness before Him which abides.

Chapter 5

The Queen of Sheba's Visit to Solomon
2 Chronicles 9:1-12

In the Old Testament we have instances of the work of God and of God's grace and that outside of His own chosen people. It seems we have one of those instances here.

What brought this Queen and all her wealth from what the Lord Jesus calls "The uttermost parts of the earth?" She came with evidence of her wealth and glory—"a very great train." She had heard the fame of someone far-off, and that fame had attracted her and wrought mightily in her soul. The proof of that is the journey she undertook.

She heard of the fame of Solomon. Solomon is one of the types of the Lord Jesus in the Old Testament. It is not a type of Him as the Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief—not in that low path of His service to God and man on the earth—not as a Man of conflict and warfare, but a type of the Lord Jesus in His glory as He will be known in this world, His fame spread abroad but not from heaven.

God has His servants abroad in the earth now and will have His servants abroad in the earth after the Church is taken to heaven. Those servants which God will have after the Church has been taken to heaven will proclaim what the Lord Jesus and John the Baptist proclaimed, and which His disciples did at first: "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." It is Christ coming to take His earthly kingdom and to inherit His earthly glory. As we know, those beloved servants will suffer greatly; many of them will give up their lives. But after that, God will have another class of servants. They will not be Jews, but Gentiles. They will go out and say, "The kingdom of heaven has come!" They will be messengers of Christ's glory on earth.

Isaiah 66:18 says, "It shall come, that I will gather all nations and tongues." There is nothing about heaven there; there are no nations in heaven, "and they shall come, and see My glory." There is nothing about death and resurrection. Verse 19 continues, "And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither -have seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles."

The Queen of Sheba is a foreshadowing of that. That is not Christ's fame as we know Him as the Saviour of sinners. (That is His fame, too.) However, this is His fame as typified by Solomon and all his glory.

Verse 20 tells us "they shall bring all your brethren for an offering unto the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, saith the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel unto the house of the Lord." They will go and bring those Jews that have not heard. Solomon in all His glory as we have him here in Chronicles is just a type of the Lord Jesus in that way. It is well for us to see the different glories of the Lord Jesus.

She heard his fame; God has those in the world today who tell the Saviour's fame—His fame as Saviour. The evangelist who goes out and says, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest" is proclaiming the Saviour's fame. Thank God for every voice that tells of the Saviour's fame, and that is God's way of attracting.

The Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon and it attracted her. How powerfully it must have been brought to her soul. How definitely she speaks!

What a journey she has to take! When we tell of the Saviour's fame to poor sinners now, we tell one phase of His fame as He came from afar. The Saviour of sinners came from heaven. That is part of His fame. He came from heaven, and we do not have to take a long journey to go to Him. We proclaim Him as the One who came, and came from afar—mighty to save. He is the One who stood in this world and said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me, and drink." What He said was true. What a fame! And it does not say his thirst would be satisfied, but that "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water," a blessing flowing out to others from the thirsty one coming to Christ and drinking.

One sometimes thinks, what a strange kind of being, in one way, the Christian is. The world does not understand him. The Christian is in the world out of which he has been taken and to which he does not belong. A hymn we used to sing many years ago goes as follows:

"How happy ev'ry child of grace
Whose sins are all forgiven;
This earth, he cries, is not my place,
My happy home's in heaven."

He is here in this world but all that he has is in another world.

This fame, the Queen of Sheba says, had been told her, but she says that the half of it was not told. We always feel, after we have been allowed to speak a little of Christ, how little of His fame we are able to tell. The report she heard came from afar. There is a report from heaven going abroad in this world. That report is the fame of One in heaven. How blessed when that report so heard begets desire in the soul. That is the way God converts people; He begets a sense of need and desire in the soul. We sometimes think, too, of what she says about the report being true, but not half had been told. Let our testimony and proclamation of the Saviour be ever so feeble, but let it be true. "It was a true report I heard in mine own land."

She comes and her heart is full of hard questions, enigmas, and puzzles. She had heard of his wisdom and now she comes to prove him. When the poor sinner comes to prove the Saviour's fame, how delighted that Saviour is! What joy the blessed Lord has! Indeed, it is part of His fame to answer every question—the hundred and one questions which our hearts and consciences raise. The answer to them all is Christ and found in Christ. There is not a difficulty our souls come in contact with but what the Lord can answer; such is His fame!

Judging from the nature of the things she brought, likely this Queen came from some part of Abyssinia. Think of 120 talents of gold, an enormous sum. The displayed magnificence, honor and glory in this poor world pales into insignificance in the presence of some of the wealth mentioned in Scripture, in a certain sense. That is a great thing for our poor proud hearts to know.

Where do you ever hear of a feast lasting six months now? Think of that mighty monarch reigning over 127 provinces, all the known world at that time. Think of the magnificence of Belshazzar's feast. Here this magnificence of the Queen of the South, as the Lord calls her, must have been very great. When she comes to Solomon, where is her greatness and majesty? It is lost in the presence of what she sees and hears. She comes in a very great company that bears spices and gold in abundance and precious stones; and when she came to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. "And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not."

"And when the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cup-bearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord" all her magnificence paled into nothing; there was no spirit left in her. That was the happiest moment of her life. It is a great thing to be stripped of everything we have. We learn our nothingness in the presence and glory of another. Think with what importance she must have come to Jerusalem as she looked at her great train. When we learn a little of the fame of Christ the Saviour, it is our joy to lose our fame in Him. Happy is the soul that loses itself in Christ and in the sense of His fame. As one thinks of the fame of Solomon in connection with Christ, how he feels his inability to speak of it. It is a good thing to feel; we are happy in feeling it because it magnifies Christ, and that is always the work of the Spirit of God to take of the things of Christ and show them unto us, whether it be in the gospel or ministry of the Word to the household. If it is in the power of the Spirit, it is the ministry of Christ.

We do not know that the ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord could be defined, but at least we could make this application of it: what it will be to meet the Lord in the air, every redeemed one from the earth and the tomb, with glorified, clothed bodies in immortality and incorruptibility—one magnificent, innumerable throng—to meet the Lord and go up with Him to the Father's house!

There was no more spirit left in her and what does she do? She thinks of the happiness of others, and who are they? "Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom."

Our real happiness now is in the presence of the Lord, there occupied with His magnificence and His fame. Can we not also understand how she lost herself in the happiness of others? And what happiness is like deliverance from self! Happy are thy men, thy servants. Then she goes on: "Blessed be the Lord thy God," (that is worship) "which delighted in thee to set thee on His throne, to be king for the Lord thy God, because thy God loved Israel."

Let us apply that to Christ and His fame. Do we not bless God for the fame of Christ—the Saviour's fame? It was the grace of God working in that soul of that far-off land. The same grace wrought hundreds of years later in another in the same part of the earth, perhaps, that eunuch of the 8th of Acts. He had come to Jerusalem to worship, a poor stranger. The grace of God led him to do that.

What a different Jerusalem he found than what the Queen of Sheba found! It is the same Jerusalem, not in her glory but in her guilt. She had crucified her Messiah. The God Who had brought that eunuch to desire to come up to worship met that desire but not in Jerusalem; it was after he had left Jerusalem, "was returning." He causes that one to hear the Saviour's fame from the lips of Philip not in that Solomon glory but as One despised and rejected—a Man of Sorrows and acquainted with grief, the same blessed Saviour. That also is part of His fame.

"I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip . . . began at the same Scripture, and preached unto him JESUS." This servant of the Lord was telling out the fame of Jesus, but how different, and we have to present the Saviour's fame in many different ways. As it were, His fame covers a large territory. Who can tell the glories of Christ! There is another little hymn that reads:

"Jesus, in Thee our eyes behold
A thousand glories more
Than the rich gems of polished gold,
That the sons of Aaron wore."

Oh yes, "In Thee our eyes behold a thousand glories more." May God teach us more of the fame of Christ. The Saviour's fame is proclaimed less and less in this poor world. What is displacing it? Man's fame; what man has done and is doing. May God enable us to proclaim the Saviour's fame more faithfully and more fully too.

"Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on His throne, to be king for the Lord thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore made He thee king over them, to do judgment and justice." That is very beautiful. The throne is God's, and it is the God of Israel that set him there. That is a divinely taught soul and there is not a trace of envy or jealousy but just the heart won. A soul taught of God always takes in the people of God. "Because thy God loved Israel." How much does she give Solomon credit for? Nothing. It is all the Lord his God had given him. The owning of that is happiness. That is one evidence of the soul being taught of God.

"All that we were—our sins, our guilt,
Our death—was all our own;
All that we are we owe to Thee,
Thou God of grace, alone."

May we appreciate the sovereign grace of God. Our happiness deepens as we realize all is grace; it is worship.

"Thy mercy found us in our sins, And gave us to believe;

Then, in believing, peace we found; And in Thy Christ we live.

"All that we are as saints on earth, All that we hope to be

When Jesus comes and glory dawns, We owe it all to Thee."

That is true worship—the sense of our indebtedness to God and His grace.

What filled that Queen as she returned to her home? When she left her home, she had her heart full of hard questions, but she got them all answered. What occupies her as she returns? What absorbs her is what she had seen at Jerusalem. That is just the way of grace in presenting Christ. How happy it is when we can lose ourselves in Christ. That is a very difficult thing to do, and it is only as His fame is learned, really learned, that we are able to do it.

God from heaven above is proclaiming the fame of His Son as the One in whom alone salvation is found and who made atonement for sin and sinners. God delights to tell the fame of Christ.

The Queen of Sheba became a receiver too. She took back what the King gave her. How sweetly it tells of grace, "And King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, besides that which she had brought unto the king. So she turned, and went away to her own land, she and her servants." There is not a desire of the heart that Christ cannot satisfy. If we have Christ, we have the answer to every difficulty. Who is it that will engage us when we get to heaven? Christ. In one way heaven is a continuation of a certain line of things here on the earth.

"On earth the song begins;
In heaven more sweet and loud."

So she returned with her heart full, but not of her own importance or magnificence.

Chapter 6

Forgiveness of Sins

Forgiveness of sins is brought before us in different ways and in different connections in Scripture; there are different kinds of forgiveness of sins. We may divide them into four, certainly into three. The first we may call judicial forgiveness; the next, administrative forgiveness; the next, governmental forgiveness; and the last, brotherly forgiveness. All have their distinct place and character in Scripture, but sometimes they are sorrowfully mixed up in the minds of God's people.

Judicial forgiveness is that eternal, absolute and complete forgiveness that we have once and forever when we receive Christ as our Saviour, when it becomes true of us what is said in Psalm 32:1: "Blessed in he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the mar. unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity." We are included in that class by God Himself in other Scriptures. For instance, Ephesians 1:7 says, speaking of Christ, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace." "Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever." Revelation 1:5, 6. "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." Hebrews 10:17.

When we receive judicial forgiveness from the hand of God, we never have to meet God about the question of our sins. We cease to be sinners in His sight when that absolute and eternal forgiveness is ours. We are then what we were not before; we are children of God and we are placed on a platform where we will never again have to meet God in judgment about our sins. Morning, noon and night, it is true we stand in the forgiveness of all our sins according to the riches of God's grace. Nothing can change it. We don't have to meet God twice about our sins. It is always true of us, "God" in Christ—or "for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." "I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake." 1 John 2:12.

The platform we have referred to in Ephesians gives us the ground and measure of this forgiveness. That ground is redemption through His blood. The measure is the riches of God's grace. There we stand as to our sins before God, unchangeably so. Is that not very blessed? Now that the whole question of sins has been eternally settled, as it has, grace in its fulness can flow.

Think what it is to be before God as an unforgiven sinner. Suppose I had the sins of eighty years to answer for. What then? Suppose I had the sins of one year to answer for. What then? Suppose I had the sins of one day to answer for. What then? Oh, they would sink me under the weight of God's judgment. If you are an unforgiven sinner, may you realize what it is to be an unforgiven sinner in the sight of God. Receive Christ as your Saviour and your sins are forgiven once and forever.

That is judicial forgiveness of sins in having to do with God about it. God came out in judgment against sins at the cross. There He judged sins according to His estimate and judged them in the person of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and on the ground of that He preaches forgiveness. Forgiveness is preached in His Name: "There is none other name . . . given among men, whereby we must be saved." Acts 4:12.

Let us now consider a few passages which bring before us administrative forgiveness, a forgiveness that is placed in the hands of men: John 20:23, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." Acts 22:16, "And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins." 2 Corinthians 2:5, "But if any have caused grief, he hath not grieved me, but in part: that I may not overcharge you all. Sufficient to such a man is this punishment, which was inflicted of many. So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow."

God in His wisdom has committed nothing that is vital unto man's hands. He knows him too well. In administrative forgiveness there is nothing vital. What does it mean in that passage, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins"? How can sins be washed away by baptism? Saul's case involved a name he had hated and a people whom he had persecuted. He identifies himself outwardly with those people he had persecuted and confesses that name he had hated. Outwardly identifying himself with that people who called upon His Name washed all away. After the Lord had smitten him down when he was near Damascus, appearing in a glory above the brightness of the sun at noonday, He called him and spoke to him in the Hebrew tongue, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?"

The question was asked, "Who art thou, Lord?" "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "Arise and go into the city." He asked what he was to do. "It shall be told thee what thou must do." Acts 9. And he goes. And for three days and three nights all is darkness. He is blinded before God. He neither eats nor drinks. He is passing through some deep exercise of soul before God and he learns there what judicial forgiveness is in its character. He learns there what we have in the first few verses of the 15th chapter of 1 Corinthians, "I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received." What about baptism? Not a word. He had received the forgiveness of his sins. He tells there what he preached, how that Christ died for our sins. Wonderful, blessed truth: Christ died for our sins and was buried and rose again the third day. Paul learned that in deep exercise of soul, and he says, "That is what I received and what I preach." And that is what God tells us in connection with judicial forgiveness. "How that Christ died for our sins and that He was buried." Meditate on that in His Word, the solemn truth of a dead and buried Christ, but the blessedness of a risen Christ! That is all vital.

The three days and three nights came to an end. The Lord has a beloved servant in Damascus named Ananias and tells him to go to his servant Saul; he is not yet called Paul. He says to him, Go to him "for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in." And when Ananias does go—oh it is exceedingly sweet—that man expressed fear: "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to Thy saints at Jerusalem; and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on Thy Name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear My Name before the Gentiles, and kings and the children of Israel." As Ananias enters that chamber of the blind, praying, repentant man, he says to him, "Brother Saul." Oh, the precious grace of God! "The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost."

Oh, that is precious! And he arose and was baptized. He received not only judicial but administrative forgiveness.

There is nothing vital in the two ordinances committed to man, the ordinance of baptism and of the Lord's supper. Do you want a proof that there is nothing vital? A solemn proof is that there are many baptized persons in hell and many persons in hell who have partaken of the Lord's supper. There are, contrariwise, many in heaven who have never been baptized and who have never partaken of the Lord's supper. How important to see this, especially in this day when ritualism and rationalism are on the increase.

Administrative forgiveness is the same kind of forgiveness as is spoken of in John 20:23, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained"—forgiveness committed into the hands of men. And when they received one among themselves in a definite pointed way, they remitted his sins. That was individual. There was nothing vital.

In 2 Corinthians 2, there is a company of people that have forgiveness of sins in their hands, and they are refusing to administer it. What is it? There is a church at Corinth, and they have had to bind the sin of one upon him. Now he is a forgiven man all the time, judicially, a saved man, but he had fallen into sin, and they have bound that sin upon him. It is only they who can release him. God has forgiven that man. He is being swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. He has what you might call governmental forgiveness but not administrative. The administrative forgiveness is in the hands of those who had bound it upon him, and they were responsible to release him. That is important in this day. An assembly which binds a sin upon one is the only gathering which can release. That is administrative! There is nothing vital about it. The apostle had fellowship with them and it was his exhortation that led them to put him out, but it is the same assembly that must restore him. He beseeches them; he says "ye ought . . . to forgive him ... lest such a one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow." But it is the repentance of a saint who had sinned.

We press that point a little of what administrative forgiveness is. Ananias exercised administrative forgiveness. The assembly at Corinth exercised administrative forgiveness in putting that man out and receiving him again. Administrative forgiveness is with the saints that are gathered to the Lord's name. They are responsible to exercise it, both in binding and in loosing. A little meditation on the difference between judicial forgiveness and administrative forgiveness is very helpful. Sad is the work of putting away, if done in the fear of God and in a sense of responsibility and obedience. Happy is the work of receiving, but the whole thing is in the hands of the assembly. The principles of the Church are just the same as they ever were. If we take the ground of the assembly, we must act on the principles of it.

Let us now consider governmental forgiveness. We will have to turn to the epistles of James and John. Remember, this is not administrative but governmental. James 5:13-15: "Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." 1 John 5:14-16 says: "And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him. If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it."

In these passages we have governmental forgiveness. Here in James is a brother or a sister who is sick. It may or it may not be because they have sinned. "And if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him." He will forgive in what way? The Lord shall raise him up. It is governmental, not judicial, forgiveness. He may have been saved for years; he received that eternal and judicial forgiveness once and forever.

Some of us have had to do with such cases. Some of us have known what it was to have the governmental hand of God removed through confession and prayer. There has to be the confession' Both principles remain true! There is nothing miraculous about the prayer of faith. It becomes us to search ourselves when we find ourselves in these circumstances to see if it is for sin. It may not be—"And if he have"—it comes in by and by, "the Lord shall raise him up."

In 1 John is a saint in communion who knows he has the petitions that he asks. God's grace is given to him to use that intercession that he has with God on the behalf of a brother who has sinned. If he sees a brother sin, a sin not unto death, he shall ask. Who shall ask? The brother who has not sinned. "And the Lord shall raise him up."

On the other hand, "there is a sin unto death; I do not say that he shall pray for it." That is what perplexes. We may sometimes be asked, What is the sin unto death? It may be with one some kind and with another something else. It has long been thought that a sin unto death is the result of a course. God bears with it for a while, but at last He says that is the end.

Many years ago we had an earnest brother and lover of souls in Chicago. He went away and we lost track of him for awhile. However, at last he was found in a hospital. A brother said, "Do you wish some of the brothers to come to see you?" "No," he said, "it is unto death and I do not wish to lighten the stroke," and he died.

In both cases in James and in John it is the natural life, not eternal. It is the governmental hand of God. Many a saint has died under the governmental hand of God. I do not refer now to Ananias and Sapphira. There is nothing to indicate that they were not saved people. But their sin was so deliberate and willful. They were not overtaken in a fault. Many a saint has died under the governmental hand of God since that but not in that direct way. What an awful thing sin is! Theirs was a deliberate sin! They had agreed together. They wanted credit, like the others, for giving all. Ananias did not tell a lie; he acted one. His wife told one. But both were alike in the sight of God. God sees as well as hears.

Notice one more important principle concerning governmental forgiveness. Take what is called the Lord's prayer—a wonderful prayer and only the Lord could teach it. The Lord said to His disciples, when ye pray say, "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed [sanctified] be Thy name, Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." What a wonderful prayer! Think of the scope of it! That prayer will never be answered until there is a new heaven and a new earth. Then "God's will" will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And when the Lord was teaching them to pray, He could not give them anything short of that. But now observe what He says, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Do you think for one moment that God forgives judicially the sins that we forgive others? Not a bit of it! It is governmental forgiveness, as we forgive others.

Finally, what do we know about brotherly forgiveness? We shall look for that first in the 11th of Mark, the 25th and 26th verses, "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also...in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses." There are many other trespasses of that kind. Look at Matt. 18:22: "seventy times seven." We have in another Scripture if a brother sins seven times in a day and seven times comes and says, "I repent," you are to forgive him.

But mark, when ye stand praying if ye have ought against any, don't stand there praying with an unforgiving spirit and holding something against a brother. "Forgive...that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you." But for that we shall have to turn to that other passage "And seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent." That confession is necessary.

A few years ago some brothers were at strife. They could not settle their difficulty so they called some other brothers to help them, but the other brothers could not do anything with them. All at once one brother, who was really in the right, said, "Brother, I forgive you." It angered the other brother and he said, "I don't need your forgiveness." The other brother, while in the right, should have waited until he said "I repent." If a brother comes seven times in a day and says "I repent," we are to forgive him. We are to bear with him and forgive him. If we harbor an unforgiving spirit, we lose the sense of the Father's forgiveness in the soul.

Many years ago there were two brothers, related by nature, and of very different characters. One was the Jacob type and the other the Esau type. It is better to have to do with Esau than Jacob. These two became very separated in spirit. We were walking with the Esau brother—Esau is a righteous man; he said, "They shall not come out -until they have paid the last farthing." We said, "that is what you are doing."

The government of God in that way is very stern. You have something against your brother in an unforgiving spirit, and your Father in heaven will hold something against you. We don't mean judicially. How important that is. "When ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any; that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you."

Another case comes before us which was also long years ago and very sad also. In a certain state there was a man who was a widower, and he had a son grown to manhood who became engaged. The father and mother of the daughter opposed it and so did the meeting, but there was no Scripture to hinder them and they were married. The mother died. She was the most bitter. The father was still unrelenting. He went to Switzerland without a letter—did not ask for one— and it was five years before he came back. He found he was out of communion with the brethren and said, "Oh, brethren, it seems as if there is a wall between God and myself." One brother quoted, "Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer." He sent for his son-in-law and confessed his failure. The wall was broken down and he departed in peace.

What a lack there is of brotherly forgiveness! "Forgiving...as God also for Christ's sake hath forgiven you," but don't forget also the need to get the confession. "When ye stand praying forgive."

Well, now we will look at it in another way. Five or six times you have come confessing to me. I say, I don't know. You must be a hypocrite. "Thou shalt for-give." That kind of thing is dwelt very largely upon in Scripture—brotherly forgiveness. Another passage states, "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thine heart: thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbor, and not suffer sin upon him." Lev. 19:17.

In summary, we have God's eternal judicial forgiveness of sins through the redemption in Christ Jesus. To the assembly the Lord has given the administrative responsibility to put away from its midst wicked persons and to forgive and restore to its midst those who repent. This authority does not imply perfection in action nor is it eternal in character. God Himself may lay His governmental hand on the life of one of His children because of sin in his life. He may forgive and remove His hand of chastening, or if needs be, He may remove the believer through death. His governmental ways have to do with this life, not with life eternal. Finally, we should remember that if we are to have God's forgiving hand upon us, we must as brothers and sisters in Christ have a forgiving spirit toward one another.

Chapter 7

The Soul Longing for Closer Communion With God
Psalm 84

Our proper condition and position in this world is presented to our hearts in this Psalm. Does it not show to us one whose heart is where he is not, and he is where his heart is not, as our hearts are in heaven and we are here. "My soul longeth, yea even fainteth for the courts of the Lord." What a beautiful picture of the state of the affections of one whose heart is not here!

How much do the attractions of our Father's house have control over our own souls? My Father's house—what an affectionate term! The home of the children. The scene we get in Revelation is not the "Father's house." There we have the twenty-four thrones and the elders, and kings and priests, all blessed and dignified; yet it is not the Father's house; it is another line of things. There is nothing about it to draw out the affections as the Father's house does.

This second verse expresses a deep longing, "My soul ... fainteth." It is a great thing to have our hearts precede us to heaven. That is where our hearts ought to be. "The courts of the Lord" is evidently the place of His presence. We get the same desire in Psalm 63 where in the first verse the Psalmist says "O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is."

The state of this 84th Psalm is very beautiful. In verse 10 the Psalmist asserts that "a day in Thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness." We have nothing today that answers to a "doorkeeper in the house of my God." It was a Jewish term, and all went with the law. The characteristic of the law was that they stood afar off, while with Christianity the term is "house." In John 13 we get the Lord Jesus taking a place as doorkeeper; that is, the doorkeeper would meet you at the door with water to wash the feet. So we get Him in this place.

As to the desire for the coming of the Lord, would His coming be the satisfying of a desire as we have here in this Psalm, or simply relief from distress? Tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope. We are under the flail to keep our hearts out of this scene. Glorying in tribulations is to boast in them.

In the third verse the Psalmist speaks of the sparrow and the swallow. What are the sparrow and swallow counted for? Generally speaking, worthless. This is the place the Lord took when He was here—worthless. We need to guard against accepting this world's estimate of worth. We see David in Psalm 73 occupied with the wicked's prosperity, but when he went into the sanctuary of God, then he understood their end. Along a similar line, we read in Job 9:24 that "the earth is given into the hand of the wicked." That is judging it without seeing God's hand in the overall picture.

We read in verse 6 that we are passing through the valley of Baca, a valley of weeping and tears. We are to make of it a well, and God will fill the pools. Rain filling the pools is blessing coming down from above. Wherever you go, you find yourself in the valley of weeping and tears. Everything has the shadow of death upon it. In Revelation 21:4 we get a negative statement about it: "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain." These all characterize the valley of Baca and time, whereas eternity for the Christian will have none of these characteristics.

The expression, "from strength to strength" or "from post to post" in verse 7 probably refers to their going to the feasts at Jerusalem. Some of them have quite a long distance, but every one of them in Zion appeareth before God. There is not one of God's children who will fall away, but every one of them shall appear in the heavenly Zion before God.

Of what significance is the term "God of Jacob" and "Lord God of hosts" in verse 8? In Psalm 46:7-11 we read, "The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." The Lord is with us and are we not all Jacobs— poor, erring, crooked ones? God is the God of such an one who made such a checkered career. Jacob's history is but the history of our own. God tells Jacob in Genesis 28 what He is going to do for him. And immediately Jacob wants to make a bargain: if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I go and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, when just before, God had promised much more than that. This is something we as saints lay hold of so slowly. It is so difficult to get the legal spirit out of us.

Consider verse 10 as to our gathering together. How little it takes to keep us from the meetings. There ought to be a sense of His presence there. We ought to act on this principle and not be as some of the disciples when they met the Lord in the mountain in Matthew 28:17: "and when they saw Him they worshipped Him, but some doubted." He was there but unrecognized, and they were not worshippers. There is a danger of saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" as some in Israel did. We ought to say, "Surely the Lord is in this place," and if we have faith, we can enjoy His presence. We ought always to act on this principle. Is not faith in His presence, power? We sometimes hear of a barren meeting. Might not the cause be that we go there to get something instead of to give, especially on Lord's Day morning? We lose so much by being in an unthankful condition. The Lord's Table is a place for thanksgiving. In everything give thanks, It is the meeting as such that is pleasing to the Lord and not the individuals. He may use whom He sees fit. In giving out a hymn, is it because I like it, or is the Lord leading me to give it out? If we have the sense of the Lord's presence, the Spirit will surely guide us.

Chapter 8

The Person of Christ in Isaiah 53

The Person who is the subject of Isaiah 53 is referred to more than forty times in the chapter. He is brought before us in various ways. He was One that grew up "as a root out of a dry ground." Of this One spoken of many times in these various ways, there is one thing that is said about Him that is very striking: "When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him."

It is that One that grew up in this world before God "as a root out of a dry ground." In this One spoken of so, in Him God saw every beauty: the One in whom from first to last, God had delight, and from whom continually a sweet savour rose up. That savour was the savour of obedience. It was not a savour of legal obedience; that was not the kind of obedience that the Lord rendered. The kind of obedience He rendered that caused such fragrance to God was the obedience of love. "That the world may know that I love the Father."

How is it that in this poor world, this vast world, if you please, there are here and there a few, though when gathered together there are a good many that do see beauty in Him and that do desire Him, whom the beauty of the Lord attracts? What has made it to be thus with you and with me and with every believer far and near? Who gave us the anointed eye, the opened ear? Who gave us the receiving and understanding heart?

Oh, "To Thee our all we owe;
The precious Saviour and the power
That makes Him precious, too."

How precious that sovereign grace becomes to us as we go on and learn more of its sovereignty, its righteousness. It is no longer, through that sovereign grace, true of us, "When we shall see Him, there is no beauty that we should desire Him," but we learn how little we see! Perhaps we see little beyond the fact that He is our Saviour, but that is beauty, and God gives us in some measure to share His joys and thoughts of Him who grew up before Him "as a root out of a dry ground."

What an Object there was on earth for God when Christ was here! On that Object His eye rested, and to that Object now His sovereign grace attracts.

There are several things among the many things said about Him in this short chapter to which really the last few verses of the preceding chapter belong, which tell out His glory in a special way. One is in the words: "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all." How that tells out the infinite glory of that same One. Here is One, sinless in Himself, this "root out of a dry ground"; here is One upon whom God can lay the iniquity of us all. How it tells, does it not, the glory of that One.

The memorials of His death bring Him before us in a special way as the Bearer of our sins in love to us and in love and obedience to God His Father. What a theme for praise is Christ when the eye beholds His beauty or a little of it when He becomes not simply an Object of faith (that is first), but when He becomes an Object of love! It says in Peter, "Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory."

In one of our hymns we sing together,

"Perfect soon in joy before Thee,
We shall see Thee face to face."

How these words refresh and strengthen us. Who can conceive what the perfection of joy and glory will be in His presence! We shall see Him face to face.

May God in His grace make Isaiah 53 exceedingly precious to us all.

Chapter 9

Meditations on Malachi 3:16-18 and Revelation22:16,17

"Then they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and'a book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon His name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not." Malachi 3:16-18

"I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Revelation 22:16, 17

Our verses from Malachi begin with the word "then." We need to emphasize this word to get the force of this passage as it connects with what has gone before. The day is coming when all will be manifested. Who is who, and what is what. "In that day" (Mal. 3:17) connects with chapter 4:1, "Behold the day cometh, that shall burn as an oven," etc.

Both the scriptures in Malachi and in Revelation speak of Christ's coming. In Malachi it is His coming to earth for His earthly people and in Revelation 22 it is His coming in reference to His heavenly people. "I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come." (Fellowship, companionship, or responsive desire) "Surely I come quickly: Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus." (v. 20) How far do our hearts respond with heartfelt desire, and say, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus"?

In the history of Israel there were two revivals: one under Josiah, and the other under Hezekiah. The analogy to the Church is similar. There have been two revivals. The first was the bringing to light of the truth of the soul's relationship to God and justification by faith. The second was the recovery of the truth of the Church of God in its proper heavenly character, which was about 150 years ago, and was of a more corporate or collective nature.

Another analogy would present what was the state of the people in Malachi's day, the time following their captivity and bondage, brought on by the government of God. They should have been a testimony against idolatry, but instead, they were the most idolatrous people in existence.

Let us look at the present testimony of the professing Church. Read the second and third chapters of Revelation to see how the professing Church has sadly failed.

The people in the days of Malachi were characterized by ignorance of their true state. We find repeatedly these words, "And yet ye say," showing ignorance of their state. What is the last state of God's witness on the earth? It is found in the last epistle to the seventh Church, Laodicea: "Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing." They were boasting of their riches. Poor Church, there is One that pities you. "And knowest not that thou art . . . miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed." It was not evil doctrine or bad conduct that was charged to Ephesus but, "Thou hast left thy first love," and to the last Church, Laodicea, ignorance of where she had fallen. They thought they were rich and needed nothing, yet in God's sight they were miserable, poor, blind and naked. "And anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see." The Word of God is that which opens the eyes of the soul to discern the mind of God.

The charge is lukewarmness, neither cold nor hot. May the Lord preserve us from that state. Lukewarmness in a Christian is a heart divided between Christ and the world. "I would thou wert cold or hot," and because she was neither, she was rejected. It is an important thing for us to remember that we belong to and are part of an unfaithful Church, taking it as a whole. Revelation 17 shows us the state of the professing Church when she joined hands with the world. What pomp and glory! But in chapter 18 we see what an end is hers. How sudden and complete was the overthrow! While that time of wailing and mourning is going on on earth, chapter 19 describes the joy in heaven over that overthrow.

It is instructive to see how both parts of God's Word, Malachi and Revelation, end in speaking of the coming of the Lord. The book of Malachi speaks of Christ's coming as the Sun of Righteousness, with healing in His wings, and it will be to put down His enemies also. But in Revelation 22:17, while the Lord comes to take His bride home to glory, it is to clear the scene righteously of all its defilement in swift destruction.

At the moment of the apostasy of the nation, described in Malachi 3, there were a few who "feared the Lord," and who "spake often one to another, and the Lord hearkened and heard it." Let us apply these things to ourselves. We are in danger of lukewarmness and apostasy. The Lord is seen in Laodicea on the outside of the door knocking on the heart's door of a lukewarm Church and, may we not say, of a lukewarm Christian. We wait for the Lord as He presents Himself in the last chapter of the Revelation, the Bright and Morning Star. The earth looks for Him as the Sun of Righteousness, but to us He will come as the Bright and Morning Star. "I Jesus have sent Mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star."

Chapter 10

Gospel From Four Similitudes of the Kingdom of Heaven
Matthew13:24-30,36-43
Matthew 13:47-50
Matthew22:10-14
Matthew25:1-13

These scriptures are some of the most solemn in Scripture. Each of them brings before us eternal issues; that is what makes them so solemn. One passage from the Apostle Paul comes to mind in connection with some of these verses: "The Lord knoweth them that are His." The profession had become so large and so mixed, even in the Apostle's day, that the house of God had become "a great house" with vessels of honor and of dishonor. "The Lord knoweth them that are His" is, in substance, the Apostle saying, "I cannot undertake to decide who are the Lord's and who are not. I know my path in the confusion and mixture and that is, 'Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.' " 2 Timothy 2:19.

These parables are all about the kingdom and different phases of the kingdom of heaven save the last one which is the kingdom of the Son of man. In that first passage you see we get the Lord Himself going forth as the Sower: "He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man." In Luke, in connection with the same parable, we learn that the seed is the Word of God; and the Word of God has been sown abroad in this world from the day the Son of man began to sow.

Whenever God is working in mercy and goodness, there is that ever watchful enemy. Those who ought to have been watchful in the realization of the watchfulness of the enemy, are asleep, and the enemy taking advantage of that, sowed tares among the wheat and went away. He got his seed in! His work was unperceived until it sprang up. The seed sprang up and brought forth its fruit. One thought before me in connection with the expression "sowed tares among the wheat" is that Satan is a good imitator and a good counterfeiter. Hence the Apostle had to say, "The Lord knoweth them that are His."

Here when these servants come to the Lord, they say, "Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in Thy field? From whence then hath it tares?" The Lord says, "An enemy hath done this," to which his servants respond, "Wilt Thou then that we go and gather them up?" Oh no, "lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them." They would not be able to determine or distinguish between them all the time. The seed is in and brought forth fruit and henceforth the two have grown together, the tares and the wheat. The possessor and the mere professor go on side by side in company one with the other. Who of us can tell who is a "tare" and who a "wheat"? There is one blessed and sure test if we only know how to use it, but alas, few know how to use it or know what that test is. What is it? The truth as to Christ. "Let both grow together," tares and wheat, in the vast field of this world.

Tares and wheat are not to be together forever. There is a day of separation coming as we get in the 24th of Matthew. The good seed are the children of the kingdom, that is, children of God. The tares are the children of the wicked one. Both are in the same household, a dreadful thing in the sight of God. Let us say here, though it need not be said, there will be no tares in heaven, mark that!

How may I know I am not a tare? Ask yourself the question and get it settled. How may I know I am not a child of the wicked one? It is very easy and simple to decide; and it is a solemn thing to have decided, and needful for the peace of our souls.

What is your soul resting upon for its salvation? If you answer that question we shall form our judgment as to whether you are a child of the kingdom or of the wicked one. All depends upon whether you have learned as a poor wretched sinner your need of Christ and the work of Christ in order to save your soul. If you have learned that outside of Christ there is no salvation, have learned the solemn and blessed truth that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin and that is all that can cleanse the sinner and make him meet for the presence of God—if that is your faith, you are not a tare. We may know definitely for ourselves, and the Lord would have us know just where we stand in relation to Him in this day of easy-going Christian profession. There is to be a separation, an everlasting separation, a separation as far as the heaven is from the earth and as far as heaven is from hell.

Presently we will find ourselves either in heaven or in hell. "In the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn." One will be gathered for judgment, the other for blessing, and with each it is eternal. The blessing is eternal and the judgment is eternal. See the mighty contrast here. "Gather . . . the tares . . . in bundles to burn; .. . gather the wheat into my barn." People don't like this kind of thing. They say it might do for a by-gone age, but the Word of God doesn't change with ages. What the Word of God was when given, it is today, and the Lord speaking of these parables looked on down to the end. That is what we get in these, the full course of this age.

"The Son of man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; and shall cast them into a furnace of fire." The Son of God is speaking. "There shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." There it stands, and He whose blessed lips spake as never man spake, speaks these words. "They wondered at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth." "Furnace of fire, wailing and gnashing of teeth!" What a contrast to that song of joy! We will have part in one or the other. Such is the fact, and we do ourselves a service in this day if we remind ourselves of these searching scriptures.

"Then shall the righteous shine forth"— "righteous, " mark you—"as the sun in the kingdom of their Father." "The kingdom of their Father" is that upper heavenly part of the kingdom in the coming day of glory. A little further on in this gospel, speaking to His disciples there in connection with the passover supper, He says, "I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in My Father's kingdom." That is that day when He will share the glory of the Father's kingdom with His disciples. The kingdom is one but has two parts or spheres, if you please: the heavenly sphere and the earthly sphere. The upper sphere is "the kingdom of their Father." What a separation. One gathered for blessing, the other for judgment.

Next, the net is cast into the sea. What is that?

That is the gospel net cast into the sea of nations. Good and bad are gathered, but a separation takes place. Good and bad won't live together in heaven, and we need not say they won't live together in hell. The main point before us is the great truth of separation, and it is a searching truth. What becomes of the separated? "The good into vessels!" The bad are "cast away!" "So shall it be at the end of the world." Let us remark here, this is not for the outside world. It is in that "great house." The net has caught both good and bad in some way. They are separated just as the wheat and tares are separated; divine judgment will make an awful separation.

In the second passage we find another parable of the kingdom of heaven and many guests have been gathered. The wedding is furnished with guests. The king comes in to see the guests and detects a tare there, one there naked of a wedding garment, naked of Christ. That is what we have to see to. You may deceive those about you, but there is One we cannot deceive and sooner or later that One is to be faced. "And the King came in to see the guests." He has only one question to ask him: "Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?" Perhaps that poor man didn't know his own nakedness in the sight of God. "And knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked." That is all inside the Christian sphere of profession. What has the man got to say? He had heard the gospel and accepted it but had never learned that in order to be at that marriage feast, there was but one garment which became all that were there. He is in without it. The wedding garment is Christ. What a sad thing to be a professor of Christ and naked of Christ. That is very possible and, one fears, very common. Very, very few say "Christ is mine." One sometimes gets a confession of Christ after he has called attention to Christ and has had to call attention to Christ because the one spoken to didn't name Him. There is just one thing. "How camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment?"

In the address to the church at Sardis, that gracious work of the Reformation, we get a very solemn word. "Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead"— profession without life. That is the characteristic feature of Protestantism as an "ism." No charge of evil doctrine but that state of spiritual deadness while professing of Christianity. What is the answer of this one? Speechless. What is said as to him? "Bind him hand and foot." That is one feature of the lost. What is the next thing? "Take him away." Who says this? The King. Who is He? CHRIST. In Revelation we read of Him: "From whose face earth and heaven fled away." It is the same Christ. "Take him away." He is banished into outer darkness. There is no ray of Christ. It is well to face these words of the Lord Jesus Himself: "Weeping and gnashing of teeth." There are no tears of repentance. There is no repentance in hell, only remorse and rage. Being in hell doesn't change the enmity of man's heart to God. Grace and mercy do that. "Bind him hand and foot...take him away...outer darkness...weeping...and gnashing of teeth."

The next parable is marked by profession. All go out to meet the bridegroom. There is a vital difference in those ten. All look alike. All have vessels of profession, torches of profession. We couldn't have told any difference. Five of them were wise and five foolish. They go on hand in hand as it were, the foolish and the wise, and they all go to sleep alike too. Not only the foolish went to sleep, but the wise too. "They all slumbered and slept." We know from history that there was a long, long sleep. For ages and ages those represented by these virgins had forgotten their calling. They ceased to go forth. They were not on the move at all to meet the bridegroom. They had settled down in the world. At midnight, when they slept most soundly, naturally the best time to sleep, a cry is made: "Behold the bridegroom." That cry startles them, wakes them, sets them all on the move. All those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps.

One can hardly speak to a professing Christian now who doesn't believe in the coming of the Lord in some way. There was a time when the truth of the Lord's coming was comparatively little known. Not so now. The enemy of the truth has corrupted the blessed truth of the coming of the Lord Jesus.

All those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish say to the wise, "Give us of your oil." They took their lamps but no oil, nothing to sustain the profession they made. They say to the wise, "Give us of your oil for our lamps are gone out." They tell out their own tale. They had never learned they have to get the oil from them that sell; that is, that each one has to do with God for himself. You can direct them to the One from whom the oil is to be had. The very fact of their asking the wise to give them of their oil shows they had never learned that each one must come himself to God, each be saved for himself. Salvation is an individual thing. You can't trust Christ for another. Each must trust Christ for himself, and trust Him individually in the personal conscious knowledge that one must have Christ for his or her own Saviour.

There is another one at the end of the chapter. That is another tale but a very solemn one that takes us really outside of our own dispensation or age. Mark this, there is a day coming when millions will never die. God has appointed Christ judge of living and dead. Scripture speaks a good deal more of judgment of the living than of the dead. The judgment of the living takes place before the judgment of the dead. God "hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world [earth] in righteousness by that Man whom He hath ordained." In view of that day of judgment of living men, God commandeth all men everywhere to repent. There they are. It takes us beyond our own day, but we find the same truth as to the eternal issues. "When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory." Mark it is the Son of man. He shall separate the sheep from the goats, the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left.

There will be two classes of living men: nations (Jews not included) and "brethren" (here—"least of these My brethren"). I know of no more solemn word in Scripture than what we have here. We hear the Son of man speak sitting on His throne of glory, as that division, that separation, takes place. "Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." It is all on earth, in the earthly part of the kingdom. They had been sufferers but they had received those messengers—those persecuted messengers—bearers of the gospel of the kingdom.

Let us consider. Now notice, "Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels." The same One says that, who says, "Come ye blessed." "While they went to buy, the bridegroom came." Where did they go? God's grace brings salvation. All they had to do was to receive it without money and without price. They that were ready went in. All alike had gone to sleep. The man in the 22nd chapter lacked the wedding garment. Those foolish virgins lacked one thing—oil. There was just one thing lacking in both cases. If you have Christ, you have the Holy Spirit, and if you have not Christ, you have not the Holy Spirit. "These shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Matthew 25:46.

Chapter 11

Gathered to the Lord's Name
Matthew 18:20

Matthew 18:20: "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them."

Some of us have had to learn through quite bitter experience what it is to be gathered to the Lord's Name, and what it is to be gathered upon the ground of the church of God. God's people are His house, His dwelling place.

The division took place in Montreal in 1884 and reached us in 1885. For four or five weeks some missed the path entirely. It no doubt was affection for certain ones that had a great deal to do with it, but there was real stirring up about the way things were going on, which led some to the wrong position, and in that position some remained four or five weeks. What one got to see was this: you can never leave a meeting that is divinely gathered, gathered to Christ, upon the ground of the church of God, to His Name, until you can say that it has ceased to be a meeting that the Lord owns. There may be a great deal to bear with, humbling too, and we may know it is grieving to the Lord, still you are to go on and look to God, and persist in it.

The Lord is there where two or three are gathered together in His Name. There is no such thing in the things of God as voluntary association. We cannot choose our company. Voluntary association is as human as it can be, and nothing but human.

There is a Gatherer here in this world, and there is a Person to whom that One gathers. Just as truly as the servant of Abraham went down to get a bride for Isaac, just so we have the Holy Spirit down here. He unites to Christ and gathers to Christ, as Head of the body; then they are gathered as God's house, and Christ as Son over it.

If you consider the first ten chapters of the first epistle to the Corinthians, you will find continually, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord, the Lord Jesus, and Lord Jesus Christ because of His authority over the house of God. It is very remarkable how continually His Lordship is spoken of in the first ten chapters. When you come down to the middle of the tenth chapter, you begin a new line of things. Until then it is the house, but the house is His body and His body the house: the one in relationship to Christ and the other in relationship to God. We are speaking of the house as built by God, not simply as God's lightbearer here in the world.

Another sad thing about missing one's way is that you are very apt to lead others, but you seldom can get them to follow you back. You can retrace your steps, but they won't follow you. That remains a kind of thorn in the flesh.

Suppose this gathering got into a terrible state. The thing to do is to humble ourselves before the Lord, not to get out of it. I feel it important to bring before us what gathering to the Lord's Name is. This passage is dreadfully abused.

If Christians are gathered in system without knowing their wrong position and counting upon the Lord being present, isn't He in a way present too? He graciously grants blessing but is not there personally. He blesses everywhere and no doubt gives individual souls enjoyment of Himself and His love. Suppose the Lord gave His presence now to the different denominations, what would He be doing? He would be sanctioning what is contrary to Him. He can't do that. In His sovereign love and pity He grants blessing. It isn't a question as to whether there is blessing here or there but the question is, "Am I where I am in obedience to the Word of God?" It may be a most trying position, and you may see others getting blessing and you feel the lack of it, a thing that is very important. People say, "Why don't you join some church?" Which one would you have one join? One takes that ground with them.

Of course, you will say you want me to join the one you are in. Why? And why are you where you are? It is only optional with them and you can do as you like. That is a problem with many evangelists. The converts are left to choose their own place in the various denominations and never get to know what the church of God is, that truth so precious to God and to Christ.

You see, people say, "We are gathered to the Lord's name." Let us see if you are. How came you to be gathered to the Lord's name? To go back a number of years (to make it as simple as I can), when we were first gathered here in Chicago, there was but one meeting, not even a meeting of open brethren. That was 42 years ago (1868). There are a number of meetings now. I have got to find out why I am where I am. I never questioned, had no reason to question, but that I was divinely gathered at that time, and to be simple, show me where I missed my position, when I went wrong. I was in the strife and conflict of affections for certain brethren—beloved servants of God, too, from whom I had received much blessing, but then I retraced my steps and did it with bitterness and got back to the original position. Perhaps you say, when did you miss it? It was when that division took place in Montreal. What I want to make plain is the solemnity and reality of being gathered to the Lord's Name.

Instead of being in Chicago, suppose you and I had been in Montreal at that time. There was much strife and conflict, and presently judgment was given against a certain brother. He had a large following, and his followers advised him to begin a new meeting altogether. The thought didn't come from himself, according to his own word by letter, but from his followers. The next Lord's day after he had been put away on the ground of Titus 3:10, there was a new meeting at Montreal, known as the Craig St. Meeting. They sent out a circular, telling the brethren everywhere what they had done, calling upon these gatherings to disown the old gathering and recognize the new. Well, that is a pretty solemn thing. Then the question came, suppose they have made a mistake in their judgment, suppose there has been fleshly action, had they lost their standing as a gathering? (They had been gathered 25 years). That was the simple question: not as to whether their action had been wrong but whether they had lost their standing as a gathering, and I never heard anyone yet say they had. In the first place, the Lord always gives space for repentance. And about four days after this one was put away, a new meeting was started! It wasn't his suggestion as he told me himself by letter, but he was friendly to it.

What have you in that new meeting? The question is not as to whether those men were godly. There is no question but that they were godly, but the question is, has the Lord removed His Name from the old meeting and placed it at the new? There is everything to humble one in the other meeting, but what we have to see to is this: has the Lord been pleased to place His Name there in the new meeting? If He has, that is your place. If He has not, that is not your place, and that is where the passage in Deuteronomy is so important: "Take heed to thyself that thou offer not thy burnt offerings in every place that thou seest: but in the place which the Lord shall choose in one of thy tribes, there thou shalt offer thy burnt offerings, and there thou shalt do all that I command thee." There was just one place in Israel where God placed His Name. If there are a dozen gatherings, we must go back to the origin of the meeting. It is not a question as to persons: get that out of your mind. We are to love all the saints. You will find gifted and godly brethren in the different gatherings, and is it not in some sense these that led others off, according to that passage, "of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them."

Suppose the Lord has not been pleased to place His Name there, what is the character of the new meeting? Now, face it! It is schism and a schismatic meeting no matter who is there. You can never change the character of the meeting. That was its origin, and it remains that in the sight of God as long as it is in existence.

There might be 300 in one city, only two or three in another. I believe the thought of the Lord in saying two or three is that you can't have fewer than two or three gathered. There can be individuals, so He comes down to the lowest possible number. You don't mean to imply that the Lord is not in the midst of any others in the same sense? Decidedly He is not. That is the very point; for instance, you get the church of God at Ephesus. We are thinking of one city. There may be different meetings in the same city but all in fellowship with each other, the churches of Galatia—districts there. But you never get the churches which are at Corinth, and we find the church in so-and-so's house. There may be more than one gathering in one city because of distance, just as in London there are twenty meetings, all in the same fellowship. The Spirit of God doesn't gather in separate meetings, and if He gathers you and me, the next thing is that we are in fellowship one with another. What the Spirit of God has before Him is always Christ's glory, and I believe especially as Head of the church.

There is confusion, but still the Spirit of God goes on. If He gathers at all, He gathers as He did at the first. He never changed His course of action—He couldn't do it. That seems to be my point. If gathered to Christ and to Christ Himself, it must be in fellowship with one another, whether in the same meeting or not. The question is: are they there in separation one from another? They couldn't be. But they are. They are in separation, and I go to such a meeting and I say, tell me the origin of the meeting. That would seem to contradict the first epistle of John, first chapter, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another . . ." Don't you see, it is where a Christian walks, not how, and every Christian is in the light in that sense of the word, and not a Christian unless in the light in that sense of the word.

There are just two left here of the original ones gathered. I am one of them. Tell me when I missed the path, for I want to know it if I have. Then you know where the other one missed his? Yes, I do. When a meeting refuses to judge evil, it has forfeited its character. What is the Scriptural authority for this? The ground for action is generally taken from Leviticus. First in leprosy in the person, then in the garment, then in the house. Leprosy in a person is leprosy in a person—flesh in activity in a saint of God. In the garment, is one's circumstances and surroundings. I might be in a business in which I might not be able to walk with God. Suppose I am converted, and I am a saloon keeper. I would have to give it up. It might be other business. A.M.B. gave up his position as a conductor on a Pullman sleeping car. I asked him why he did it. And he said, It's a leprous garment—a constant defilement. When you come to leprosy in the house, it is in the assembly. There is the greatest of patience in dealing with it. Did you ever notice how many verses we have on leprosy? 116. Think of God giving it such a place in His Word. It typifies sin in the flesh.

In Leviticus the man doesn't decide it himself but says, "It seemeth to me there is leprosy in the house," and the priest says, "Go and clean everything out so I can get a view of it." He goes and looks and shuts it up seven days. He goes and looks again and if the leprosy is in the walls, he commands the stones and mortar to be removed and others put in. There it is—leprosy in individuals in the meeting. The point is to put such individuals out. You've got a leper in the house at Corinth, but not a leprous assembly. After all the apostle's labor, had they refused to put the leprous man out, it would have been a leprous house. He comes and looks again after taking out the stones and it is broken out again; then he makes short work of it.

Pull the house down; it is a leprous house. When a meeting refuses to judge evil, the meeting as such has fallen under the power of evil. It is important to see the man in the house didn't declare it leprous, but said it seemeth to me. He called attention to it. I believe that to be the scriptural course with a gathering. You and I are burdened and we labor and can't get things as we believe they should be. What do we do? We write to a nearby assembly and call upon them to come and see. They are not connected with it and would not be influenced by things there. Wouldn't that be taking the place of Christ as judge? No, they would be acting as His representatives. In the addresses to the seven churches, it is the Lord Himself who is judge. So He is now, but He would do it through these instruments.

The nearest instance in apostolic times is that in John's 3rd epistle 9-10. He didn't tell them to leave the meeting any more than the apostle Paul told the Corinthians to, but "if I come." He would come with apostolic authority. Do we realize what a blessed thing it is to be gathered to the Lord's Name and what a serious thing too and what an exceedingly serious thing to leave it? If the Spirit of God has gathered us to the Lord's Name, we dare not leave that position until we have the Word of God for it. Some that have left it have learned some of the sorrow incident to leaving it. At the same time the Lord has used it to teach us what it is to be gathered to His Name and what it is to be on the ground of the house of God and church of God. One learns oftentimes through failure what might have been learned in another way and the whipping they get in connection with it makes it very practical to them.

The original gathering to the Lord's Name at the beginning of the church's history would seem to assume that they were gathered to Christ's Name. In the 2nd of Acts, "The Lord added to the church," rather, added to them such as should be saved. We never get the truth of the church as the body of Christ until we get it through the Apostle's letter to the Corinthians.

I had more in mind. We say this is the meeting in Chicago that is on the ground of the church of God— the one where the Lord has set His Name; and in other meetings He has not set His Name. What I want to do is to trace the authority for that from the beginning down to the establishment of this meeting: the authority for the meeting as initially established.

I can give you the origin of the meeting in Chicago in this way: In 1866 a brother and his wife came to this city from England, from a meeting that had been formed there about a year before. That meeting in England had been formed by a very devoted man named J.C. He got to see the evil of denominations— not the people in them—but to see they were wrong. He was a devoted man. The result was he left and quite a few gathered to the Lord's Name. One thing very striking: he said he never had at that time seen any books of the "brethren" to his knowledge.

In the spring of '66 this brother and his wife and another who was in that meeting in England and myself came to this country. I had never broken bread with them, and when I came here, went to a mission on ______Street. One Sunday afternoon I came in rather abruptly into the little cottage where they lived, and what did I see but this brother and his wife with a loaf and a cup, breaking bread together. That is the origin of the meeting here.

Soon after that a brother came along from Canada— Mr. Robert Grant. A brother in the old country had written to him about us, and he came to look us up. And when he came we saw this gifted man, Whitby was his name, and Mr. Robert Grant in conversation.

We loved Mr. Whitby and it was through him I took my place. I never heard one speak from the 13th of John as he did. During the week, those two brothers went to Milwaukee where there was a meeting. We saw there was something wrong between these two brothers. All at once Mr. Grant called us together and said I will have to tell you Mr. Whitby is a man who has been put out of the meeting in Toronto for sin. He was a clever, gifted man. The first sorrow we had was to put that man away—not to put him away either, for he was already away, but tell him we could have no fellowship with him.

We went along till '84 when the sad trouble came at Montreal which split us clean in half, and it was a question then of whether we would break with the old and recognize the new, what scripture were we to do it on?

In 1 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says, "Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances as I delivered them to you." But in the 17th verse he writes "now in this that I declare unto you I praise you not, that ye come together not for the better, but for the worse" and in verse 19, "for there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." Turn to the first chapter of the same epistle, 10th verse, the mind of God for His people: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment." But in the 1 lth chapter and the 19th verse we get what becomes necessary because of the state of the church of God. It is like this: here is a meeting going on apparently all happy and prospering in every way, and the Lord says there are some there that are not grounded at all and are not going on in a way pleasing to Himself at all, though outwardly going on all right. He says I will have to let some trouble come that those who are walking with Him might be made manifest. These divisions do make manifest where we are and who is going on with God. It has been illustrated by a captain and a new crew of sailors. They all do very well in calm weather, but he says, I will have to wait till a storm comes to find out which are good sailors. Our weakness and where we are is shown by that passage, "That they which are approved may be made manifest." Isn't that a searching word? It means all were not approved by Him.

If we were keeping in fellowship with the Lord above, we would have no trouble with our brethren. If each were trying to be most like Christ, we would get along fine. As we have said, the thing we have to see to is this: Not, are others more godly than we? But, has the Lord been pleased to place His Name there? I hold for my soul that I am not in division at all. If I thought I was, I would give up my convictions that I am on the original ground. Others have gone from it.

What led to the terms "open and exclusive" was this: The open took this position that they would receive anyone coming from Mr. Newton's meeting, provided he had not imbibed his doctrine. The fact of his being in fellowship with Mr. Newton was no hindrance. The other said no, anyone so unfaithful as to remain in fellowship with Mr. Newton we will exclude. He is a partaker of his evil deeds.

Chapter 12

The Lord Jesus in Some of His Circumstances
on Earth and in Heaven

Luke 23 and Revelation 5:1-14

It is before us at this time to see the Lord Jesus in some of His circumstances on earth, and some of His cireumstances in heaven. The first are past, and those we are about to speak of are future. We shall refer to the scriptures telling of the first, presently, but we shall first read the one speaking of His future status in heaven. Turn to Revelation 5:1-14: "Under the earth" is that which is beyond human.

We will go back for a moment to the gospels, to that night in which the Lord was betrayed and will follow Him in our thoughts as led by the Spirit of God, into Gethsemane, and we shall follow Him out of Gethsemane, and still follow Him, the bound, captive Prisoner into the palace of the high priest. We will watch Him there, see the reception and treatment He receives at the palace: shame, scorn, spitting. We will follow Him from the palace of the high priest to the Judgment Hall of Pilate, and again we will watch and see what the Blessed One receives there: again sorrow, grief and shame. Follow Him from Pilate's Hall to Herod's Hall—the same thing. Follow Him from Herod's Hall back to Pilate's Hall, and it is the same thing. It is good for us to follow Him thus in our thoughts from place to place. Now follow Him from the Judgment Hall of Pilate to the "place called Calvary." And what about the place called Calvary? "There they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left." Luke 23:33. Such was the last of the Lord's circumstances in this world. Such was the answer He received for a life of untiring love and service.

Notice, after He leaves the Judgment Hall and before He reaches Calvary, the striking instance of Divine love in its care for others. A number of women follow and bewail Him and well they might. He has forgotten His own circumstances for the moment and turns to them saying, "Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children." What a touching instance of the Saviour's love, looking not on what was before Him, but what was before them, because of their rejection of Him. "For if they do these things in the green tree, what shall be done in the dry?" verse 31. The time had not yet come when Jerusalem would receive governmental retribution for the death of God's Son.

Matthew 27:1 "When the morning was come"-0 fellow-Christian, think of the night that had preceded that morning. Gather up the circumstances of the blessed Saviour during His last days on earth. Think of what that life of His had been toward God and man—service to man—devotedness to God. It ended at "Calvary, the place of the skull." Such is the answer this poor world has given to God sending His Son, in infinite love, into it. Can we wonder that the end of the world has come?

Luke 20. The parable of the vineyard let forth to husbandmen pictures God saying, What shall I do? I have sent My messengers (vs. 13). All they have received is shame, persecution, death, casting-out. It is a wonderful thing the Lord Jesus picturing God doing that, saying "What shall I do?" There is but one resource—"I will send My Beloved." Did they reverence Him? What does Calvary tell? They gave Him a crown of thorns. Here is God's last resource. He did not have another. Now what shall that blessed God do? There was but one thing and that which He had no pleasure in—draw the sword. Upon whom did the stroke fall? "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the Man that is My fellow, saith the Lord of hosts" Zechariah 13:7. God drew the sword and the stroke of judgment fell on His Son. It is on that basis that mercy is offered now to man. It is well for old and young to remember that there is a suspended sentence over this world, and that suspended sentence is a sentence of judgment. That is the next thing for God in His ways with this world.

We shall now think of the blessed Lord in far different circumstances as we find Him in the 5th chapter of Revelation. Revelation 4 and 5 form one. Chapter 4:1, "After this"—after what? There is a wonderful event to happen on earth and a wonderful event to take place in heaven that will change things on earth and in heaven after an event like this has taken place. A shout is heard; the voice of the archangel and the trump of God has removed all His redeemed from the earth. What has become of them? The shout has changed them all. What an event! And that is the very next thing that clears the way for judgment to fall on the earth. After this, after the church's history is closed, there is a change in God's attitude toward the world. He sits on a different throne. Now His throne is a throne of grace, but in Revelation 4 it is a throne of judgment. His attitude toward the world is no longer as a Saviour-God, the character in which He rejoices. Out of that throne in Revelation 4 proceeded "lightnings, thunders, and voices." When will this change take place? According to the length of time of God's longsuffering and the prolongings of His patient grace toward this world.

When the redeemed are gathered home, heaven has a company which it has never had before, a vast company known as the redeemed. There is that One sitting upon the throne, the throne in the rainbow. Why the rainbow? He is a faithful Judge and remembers His covenant with the earth, when He set the rainbow in the cloud as a sign of mercy. Why is it seen before the throne, and what is the color of the rainbow? "Green like unto an emerald." The freshness of His covenant with the earth is before Him, and all that redemption is founded on—sacrifice. And the bow in the cloud tells us about "God having smelled a sweet savour" Genesis 8:18-21. This is very instructive. What is Abel's sacrifice? Personal acceptance. What is Noah's? Blessing for creation as such. We see the double aspect and bearing of the sacrifice of Christ.

This Sitter upon the throne from which proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices is sitting there in silent majesty while those that wait upon Him cry, "Holy, holy, holy." In Revelation 4 we have God in an atmosphere in which He is not at home. He has no pleasure in judgment. He delights to save, but His nature and His character force Him there. How reluctantly He draws the sword, but when He draws it, He draws it. He has a book in His right hand full, written within and without, chapter 5:2. A strong angel proclaims with a loud voice through the universe. He says, "Who is worthy?" The answer to the challenge was silence. This brings the Lord Jesus more definitely before us as the worthy One. "And I wept much because no man was found worthy." What a strange sight, but what an instructive one, especially if our hearts are warm to Christ. The new nature, the new heart finds its joy in Christ and in Christ exalted.

Verse 5 speaks of the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah." We have seen the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah," not in claiming or asserting His rights. In those circumstances, instead of being as the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah," He is seen as a "Lamb dumb before His shearer." Picture the Lord Jesus, His hands bound, receiving insult after insult and answering when asked if He were the Christ, the Son of God: "Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven" Matthew 26:64. Nevertheless, in spite of all My circumstances, here I am your captive, as it seems at your mercy, but hereafter ye shall see Me at the right hand of power. The world would have Him stay there "at the right hand of power," but there is a limit to His sitting there. He is coming, coming as the Son of man. That is what the world fears. It will be an awful day for the world when the heavens are opened and the Son of man is revealed.

Here we have "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah" as "a Lamb as it had been slain"—not the Lamb in His atoning character but the Lamb as a Sufferer at the hand of this world, the Lord "reckoned among the transgressors." When His praise is celebrated it is as the One who has accomplished redemption, but here it is the Lamb character—the Man of sorrows and of shame and woe—in heaven.

The sufferings of the cross are divided and distinct in their character and result. They are divided into two three-hour periods. During the first three hours God is allowing man to display what is in his heart towards Him. That class of sufferings the Lord felt intensely, but the sword was not drawn yet. There is no atonement in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus in the first three hours on the cross. Instead it is the manifestation of man's enmity. Had the stroke fallen then for these guilty ones, which it could have done in righteousness, it would have been their everlasting ruin.

In the second three hours the Lord has to do with God. All is changed now. The sword is drawn on that blessed One. "All Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over Me."

Who can measure the cross? It is only when we can enter at all into God's thoughts of it, only there can we learn it. It is only at the cross that we can learn God's thoughts of it, and His love to sinners. Two natures are manifested there: the nature of man toward God, and the nature and attitude of God toward man. The Lord condemned sin in the flesh and found Himself not only suffering at the hands of man but under the heavy weight of God's judgment against sin. At the cross alone is the measure of God's love seen.

Such were the circumstances of the blessed Lord on earth. It will be a wonderful thing to get to heaven and look upon Him, not only as the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah," but as the "Lamb of God," the One who bore the judgment of God. What can ever begin to equal the cross of Christ? The point now before us is not the cross, but the bearing of the cross. It is good for the soul to think of the Lord bound before His persecutors. We see there the heart of the Saviour, and one looks forward to the time when we shall see Him exalted.

Revelation 5:7. From those solemn hands He takes the book, not in personal right, but He takes it as One who has acquired the right to take it. We are apt to overlook the acquired rights and glories of the Lord. In 1 Peter 1:11 we should read, "the sufferings of Christ and the glory [glories] that should follow." The word "glory" should be in the plural.

He had prevailed to open the Book. Now where is the silence? From end to end of the creation His worth is celebrated. But first, before we go on, let us notice the Lamb of God has "seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God." Contrast this with the Lord in the Judgment Hall of which we have spoken. The seven horns speak of the completeness of power; the seven eyes speak of completeness of discernment, and the seven spirits speak of the Holy Spirit in the completeness of His power and Person. When this power and this discernment are used, it is done in all the completeness of the power of the Holy Spirit. As here on earth, so there in heaven, when the reins of government are in His hands, all will be done in the completeness of the power of the Spirit. What a contrast between heaven and earth! See the place the earth has given Him! Measure all by Christ. God's controversy with the world is the place it gave Christ.

There is no such scene in existence now as we have in our chapter. The great change has to take place when the vast company of the redeemed are gathered to the Lord. It is a future scene and our eyes will behold it. How one anticipates it! What will it be to be one of that innumerable throng? Not a heart will be there that is cold or indifferent towards Him, and not a tongue will be silent in His praise. The saints are there to give. Happy saints! Happy Saviour!

The change on earth and the change in heaven is at hand, verses 8 and 9. Faith and love are challenged, and faith and love say, "What other One could be found?" What a wonderful thing to look forward to when the vast, vast throng of the redeemed will fall down before Him.

Those who are Christ's have no more place in this world than He had in the day they crucified Him. Preach condemnation coming to this world and see what you will get.

Verse 8. They fell down before the Lamb. One's ear anticipates the joy of that. Oh, redeemed one, we will be there. "The four and twenty elders" are in relation to Christ as their Redeemer, and each one of the innumerable throng is one of the "kingdom of priests to God." How great will be His joy when He sees in that day the fruit of the travail of His soul. We shall see that joy.

They fall down before Him, "having everyone of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints." There are no more prayers needed for themselves, but there are others who need their prayers. "They sung a new song...Thou art worthy." Now we get the atonement. He is first introduced to us as the silent Sufferer, but when we bow down before Him, it will be as the One who redeemed us to God "out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation."

Verse 10. "And we shall reign over [not on] the earth." Heaven awaits the transference of power from God Himself to the hands of the Second Man. Notice further on, "And I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne." Here we have redemption again. That Book (verse 8) entitles anyone who will go to take it, to power, riches, wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing. Here we pass from the circle of the redeemed—that circle we have from the 8th verse, down to the 11th inclusive—to the praises of the redeemed.

Verse 12 puts us into another circle—the vast circle of the unfallen, glorious creatures which according to their Creator excel in might—the angels. Let us connect some words from Hebrews 12:22-23 with this verse. What is meant by "an innumerable company of angels" to the "general assembly"?

As an illustration, there is a change in the administration of the government of the country. All the ambassadors are called in which were sent out by the other government. Here is a change of government.

God is governing this world providentially, and His providences are administered by angels. They are all called in now, the power is transferred to that Person referred to as the "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" and the former ambassadors rejoice to see that One take the reins of government, though they lost their places, as it were. Hebrews 2:5. "Unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come." That is what we take to be the meaning of those "ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands" of angels rejoicing here in seeing Christ receiving His earthly rights from God. His receiving those rights is the substance of the whole book of Revelation. First, He gets the title; then He takes possession.

There are three circles of praise here: first, the redeemed, second, the angels, and third, all creation. Verse 13 gives the third circle, the praise of all creation. How beautiful—the Lamb for ever and ever worshipped! All ends in worship. All creation is brought under the effects of His having received His rights on earth.

Oh that we might enjoy more and more, Christ on earth, and Christ in glory, as we follow Him in His sufferings here! Think what the answer will be there.

Chapter 13

God for Us
Romans 8:31-39

To what pains and what cost God has gone to show us the truth of those five words: "If God be for us." How deeply rooted in our very nature is the opposite of that truth. Who is there—until born again, until they have partaken of the new nature—that knows "God is for us" or that believes "God is for us"? Satan in that scene of perfect human happiness and bliss ruined all by leading Adam and Eve to believe that their Creator was not good, that He was withholding something from them.

Here it is not the Father; it is not the Saviour; it is not the Lord; but it is "If God be for us, who can be against us?" What is there in the world to tell us that "God is for us"? God does not call our attention to anything in the world, but to the fact that He gave His Son, and as soon as that fact is received, the mischief is all undone to those who receive it.

Sometimes one is led to say to a patient in the hospital, "We do not come here to look for the love of God." "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (1 John 4:9). It is a challenge: If God be for us, who can be against us? How are we to know that God is for us? "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." The "us" is not limited; it is addressed to all. "God so loved the world," so we can say to the sinner, "God loves you." "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We have to test every seemingly adverse circumstance with this challenge. Satan takes advantage of our circumstances to make us question the love and wisdom of God. There stands the unchanging evidence.

The us comes in in a different way in 1 John 4:16: "We have known and believed the love that God hath to us." Some of the "us" have known and believed it, and some have not. It is because of the absolute character of His love that we have God here instead of the Father. It is God in His own being and nature, not in relationship; as soon as you get the Father, it is relationship. We have "the Son" three times in the chapter, twice as "His own Son" and once simply as "His Son."

"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son." Verse 3. "He that spared not His own Son." Verse 32. That is important. It is what the Son is: God's beloved Son.

"He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son." Verse 29. That is dignity.

We get the counsels of God here:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose."

"For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren."

"Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified."

"What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" (verses 28-31)

Then in verse 33 we have another point: "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth." God's people are an elect people—of His choosing. Just as soon as He brings in the sovereignty of God and election, He brings in the question of justification. God's people are not only elect, but they are a justified people. God has justified them, that is, cleared them righteously. No charge can be laid against one who is justified. That is the basis of a soul's peace with God. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1). We know how watchful Satan is; he is ever ready to find fault.

We get the highest tribunal, the highest court, here; God is the Justifier. We cannot be at peace without the knowledge of justification. The cross and death of Christ have their origin in the love of God. Justification is the means by which God brings us into relationship with Himself according to His own purposes.

God had to shut the mouth of that accuser:

"The accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death" (Rev. 12:10, 11).

There is no progress into the truth of our heavenly position until the truth of justification is known. It seems to be God's order of things. In Israel's history they could not enter the land until they went through the Jordan, until their redemption was accomplished. If I cannot believe the simple Word of God as to my sins, surely I cannot receive into my heart the truth of the heavenly position and the truth of the church. The individual question must be settled first. Consequently Romans comes before Corinthians. Romans is individual. The relationship of the church to God and to Christ is a corporate thing—a corporate relationship. "And are of the household of God." Members of the body of Christ. Each knows Christ as Saviour for himself first, and each knows God as Father personally.

"Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us" (Romans 8:34).

All judgment is committed into His hands. He is the very One who died for us, died for our sins. "Yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us."

The Judge of all men, the One into whose hands all judgment is committed because He is the Son of man, is the One that died for all men. In that way all who know Him as the One who died for them know Him as the One who has justified them. "Risen again"—the resurrection is the proof that the sacrifice has been accepted. We sometimes illustrate it this way: Christ paid the debt, and the resurrection is God's receipt for the payment. Do not look inside for the evidence. God in mercy turns our eyes in on ourselves and in that way leads to repentance. When the work is done, He says never look there again. That is why we get the exhortation in Hebrews 12: Looking off unto Jesus the Beginner and Completer of faith. Look away from all that crowd of witnesses who obtained a good report through faith; not one of them was perfect; all missed the path at some time; look away from them unto the One who has never missed the path, JESUS. He was the Man of faith in the path of faith and was sustained in that path by the joy that was set before Him. He "endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." He was the dependent Man, sustained day by day. He kept His eye on the end.

"The joy that was set before Him" was the joy of getting back where He was before, after having done all that God gave Him to do on earth. It was the joy of getting back to that place in a new glory, an acquired glory. He sits there as an Overcomer. "Even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne" (Rev. 3:21).

We might call attention to Hebrews 1:3:

"Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high."

He was just as perfect in His humanity as in Deity— the One who made the world and the One who saved it. It is not the application here, but the thing itself. "When He had by Himself purged our sins"—made purgation for sin. He, "For the joy that was set before Him endured the cross," as a Man of faith overcoming all obstacles.

God has His purposes—His ways. Those ways are always consistent with His nature and character.

"For it became Him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings" (Heb. 2:10).

He is going to do it consistently with His nature. When these many sons are brought to glory, we are going to be among them. Everyone will be suited to His nature and character. If we have His purposes, we have His ways in doing it. God never loses sight for a moment of what is suited to His character, and nothing can abide in His presence that is not suited to that character and nature. How is it that no one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? They are justified. Christ has died; and the very One into whose hands all judgment is committed is their Saviour. That is a wonderful verse in hymn 331 of the Hymns for the Little Flock hymnbook:

"Thou gav'st us, in eternal love,
To Him to bring us home to Thee,
Suited to Thine own thought above,
As sons like Him, with Him to be."

We learn from the Word of God that nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord; and then we learn it experimentally, for if anything could separate us from God's love, it would be our ways. It was to Jacob God said, "I will not leave thee" (Genesis 28:15), not to Abraham nor Isaac. Jacob was a crooked man, a man of self- reliance despite the promises of God. We get the expression "God of Jacob" over one hundred times. Jacob could not turn His love from him. That is what we prove in our experience. If anything could change "the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus" my ways would do it. There is nothing that can do it: "Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature;" nothing in time nor eternity, nothing in hell.

The faithfulness of this love of God leads Him not to give us up because of our ways but to use our ways for our chastisement and profit.

When we get the subject of chastening in Hebrews, Christ is left out altogether because He was never under the Father's chastening hand. He had no will to subdue, but we have. Nothing can stop this love. In John 13:1 we read, "He loved them unto the end." In the 13th of Hebrews we read "Let brotherly love continue." His love never changes and our love to the brethren is to continue in spite of circumstances: "By love serve one another." When trials come in between brethren, do not let the love pass away, let it continue. You may have to walk away from your brother, but let love continue. It may cause a heavy heart. Brotherly love gives one who has it in that way a heavy heart. "Brotherly kindness" (2 Peter 1:7) is shown in our acts; love is the source. It is divine love that leads to brotherly kindness; otherwise we might have the acts and love would not be the source at all.

We are predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son. What are our present circumstances? "We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter"—a path of suffering; but "in all things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us." If we lose the sense of the love of God in our souls, we get discouraged and the enemy gets in. "Keep yourselves in the love of God" (Jude 21). "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1). It is very difficult to keep the heart in the love of God. As soon as the sense of God's love is gone, weakness and despair ensue.

Look at Hebrews 12:12: "Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed." "Hands which hang down" is a figure of discouragement. Satan takes advantage of that; the result is "feeble knees." These two go together. One of Satan's ways with God's people is to discourage them. See how he tried it with the Lord in Gethsemane. Instead of being discouraged, faith in the midst of the circumstances strengthened Him. If you go to visit a saint and find him all discouraged, there is no end to the difficulties. He has to be lifted up. You seek to lift up the hands that have fallen down by encouraging the brother or sister. "Exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaehing." You get one saying, "I was so discouraged and so and so came in," or "I picked up a tract and read it." Some are very easily discouraged.

"He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" That is faith's challenge to circumstances.

God always strengthens us by something in His Word; He brings His Word to our minds. "Let Thy lovingkindness and Thy truth continually preserve me." In Scripture, prayer and the Word of God go together. "Sanctified by the Word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. 4:5). "But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:4). They go together.

"He that searcheth the hearts knoweth . . . the mind of the Spirit," not my mind. He that searcheth the heart is guided by the mind of the Spirit. The Spirit is so linked up with the Christian in the 8th of Romans that He makes intercession accordingly. That is a comfort for us in our weakness. The sympathy of the Holy Spirit is very largely lost sight of. He enters into the circumstances of the saints; He dwells with every believer. Here is one so burdened he does not know how to give expression, does not know what to ask as he should or how he ought. The Spirit comes in in all that state of infirmity and takes up what causes him to groan and gives expression to it and brings down the suited blessing.

"And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them." That shows the sympathetic intercession of the Holy Spirit. The "love" of the Spirit is found only in Romans. "We are more than conquerors through Him that loved us" (vs. 37).

In 1 Corinthians 2:9 we read, "As it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him." There it is our love to God. God has a people in this world that He speaks of as those that love Him. That is true of all His people; the measure is another thing. There are only five passages where Scripture speaks of our love to God. They are: "We love Him, because He first loved us" 1 John 4:19, "All things work together for good to them that love God" Romans 8:28, and 1 Corinthians 2:9 quoted above, James 1:12 and James 2:5.

Love to God is the result of our being His children.

Chapter 14

Treasure-2 Cor. 4:3-11; Blessed—Titus 2:11-13;
Marvelous-1 Pet. 2:1-9

Several scriptures that we wish to call attention to this afternoon have an especial word to each. The first one is the word "treasure," the next one is the word "blessed," and the last one is the word "marvelous."

The first one is found in 2 Corinthians 4:3-11. There are different ways of speaking of the lost. Some are lost eternally. They pass into the eternity of the lost. There is another sense in which all the unsaved ones, that is, all who have not received Christ as their Saviour, are lost, and God's grace seeks them—seeks and saves the lost. Here we have a special class of lost ones: "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." It is in this world they are lost and lost not because they were born sinners or anything of that kind. "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost": Now the 4th verse "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

There is such a thing as trifling with God, with His truth, with His grace, but there is a word of His that stands fast whatever His patience, His grace, may be. There is another thing—we speak of it together sometimes—and that is the government of God. "God is not mocked; for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap;" that is what we have here in these lost ones. They are not people who have never heard the gospel of the grace of God or of the glory of Christ; they are people who have heard it. Whenever God presents His truth, however feeble the instrument may be, He presents it to be believed and to be received. Where it is not believed and received, presently the government of God follows it, and what is that? He allows Satan to close the eyes and ears.

"The god of this world" is Satan in his religious character. "Prince of this world" is his political character.

Here it is the religious character, and wherever the Word of God is being preached or taught, Satan is always on hand. If you were to turn to the 8th of Luke and take that parable of the sower, you would find there, when the Word has been sown, the Lord says, "Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved." He is a watchful enemy of man's soul, and he knows in a measure what is going on in the soul. Satan doesn't pay much attention to a careless, indifferent listener. He doesn't need to. But see that one that is attentive! The Word is finding some entrance. Satan says, "I must be after him; if he really receives the Word, he will be saved!" "Then cometh the devil, and taketh away the Word." It is well for us to remember these things.

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them."

The gospel is good news of the grace and glory of Christ. The gospel is simply the good news that Christ is in glory and wants that truth to find entrance into our souls, and He causes it to be preached.

The 5th verse states, "For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." The purpose of the preacher of the gospel is to hide himself, and hide himself behind the One he is preaching. "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord."

Now, further, "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." What is that treasure and why call it a treasure? What is a treasure? It is something we value, something the heart is set upon. The blessed Saviour said, "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also," and when we have a treasure, we have that which is valued. The heart is occupied with it.

What is this treasure it speaks of? It says we have it in earthen vessels. The vessels, we find further down in this chapter, are these poor bodies, of the earth, earthy, and should the Lord not come to redeem it in a little while, it will return to the earth from which it was taken, in which case God's power in resurrection will come in and bring it out of the dust again. In the natural course of things, it is just simply these poor bodies.

This treasure is just simply Christ as life and eternal life. Real Christians are those who know Christ as their Saviour; Christ as their life; Christ as their righteousness; Christ now and Christ forever. In God's sight, whatever you may be in the sight of this world, you are not a Christian if you do not know Christ as your Saviour. What is a Christian? He is one that knows and confesses and follows Christ. The disciples or believers were first called Christians at Antioch, not Jerusalem, and that is what a Christian is. He is a confessor of and a follower (in some feeble measure, more or less, but a follower) of Christ. He owns Him as his Lord, as his Saviour, as his Example.

How far, fellow-Christian, is the truth that Christ is our Saviour and the truth that we have eternal life and shall never perish—how far is that a treasure to your soul? It is not a mere doctrine, not merely resting in the satisfaction that you shall never perish. In the way of Scripture, it doesn't ask what is that truth to your conscience, but to your heart. Is it, a treasure? Dear fellow-Christians, that in a very special way, ministry of the truth of God among Christians, should be ministry for the heart. God wants your heart! But His way of getting at the heart is through the conscience. God never stops His work in the conscience. It is conscience that makes us know what we are in the sight of God, and that makes us know our need of His grace—our need of the Saviour He has found for us.

We get in 1st John a kind of climax: "He that keepeth His commandments dwelleth in Him, and He in him." He says something that is profoundly true, not something mysterious or that cannot be understood. No, it is this, that this heart of mine has found a home in God and that the blessed God has found a dwelling place in my heart. That is what it is to dwell "in Him and He in him." It is brought before us in another way in the 5th of Romans. The first part of that says, "Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" ... "and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." Isn't that very wonderful? God doesn't stop there. That wouldn't satisfy God. Where does He stop? Further down in the chapter, "Not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ." That is very different from peace with Him. Peace with God must precede, of course, and peace with God comes from the knowledge of being cleared from guilt, but the climax is "Joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement [reconciliation]."

It is a wonderful thing that the blessed God, the God of heaven above and of earth beneath, is after our hearts, but He reaches that heart through these consciences of ours and makes us know our need. That is why the Apostle Paul says, "We have this treasure," that is, it is the knowledge of God which is eternal life, knowledge of God in Christ, as we have in the 17th of John. "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Is the truth that God has brought us into the knowledge of Himself and all His glory as revealed in Christ a treasure to our souls? That is the point. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."

There is another thing: Into dark benighted souls— hearts so dark through sin (it says in the 4th of Ephesians "alienated from the life of God through the ignorance ... because of the blindness [or hardness] of their heart")—God has shined, and the Christian can say, and ought to say with joy, I know not only something about God, but I know Himself. To know God in Christ, to know God as the One that sent His Son is eternal life.

If God has shone into our hearts in this way, it is for a purpose. That purpose is for the shining forth. What was the standard of the Israelites' conduct before God? What had God to measure the conduct of His earthly people by? What did He look for from them? He looked that they should keep His law, be obedient to His law. What does God look for in the Christian? What does God look for in us as Christians, as those whose hearts are lit up with the knowledge of the glory of Himself in Christ? What does He look for? To keep the commandments? Oh no. God is looking for something else in the Christian. What is He looking for? We get it in verses 10 and 11, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." What does God look for in the Christian? Likeness to Christ. Or to put it in other words, He looks to see Christ in the Christian, and the Christian is to be to God a sweet savor of Christ.

When the blessed Saviour, the Lord Jesus, was here on earth, there was a sweet savor going up to God continually. Christ, whether in life or death, was an offering of a sweet smelling savor to God that went up night and day. He was a sweet savor to God of what He was in Himself. The Christian is to be a sweet savor of Christ unto God. So it is here, "that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." We find dear Christians mixed up with law and grace, Judaism and Christianity and so on. What God looks for, and what His blessed Spirit produces when allowed to operate, is reproduction of Christ. The Apostle Paul, that one through whom the Holy Spirit worked so mightily said, "That...Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death."

Dear young Christians, (some of us are pretty well up in years—getting old) what do you think God is going to expect from you as long as you are in the world? More and more of Christ. That is what God is looking for. As in the previous chapter in this very Epistle, "from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." Now what is that? What is that "from glory to glory?" It is just this moral glory until what is called physical glory is reached. And what is moral glory? More like Christ. More like Him in meekness, in lowliness, in dependence, in obedience, in every way. That is what "from glory to glory" is, and it is what occupation with Christ as the object of the affections produces. We are affected by the company we keep. If we are in company with Christ, the character of Christ will be seen. Now we have seen that Christ was a sweet savor of what He was in Himself, and we are to be a sweet savor of Christ to God. God hath shined in our hearts to give the light. The light has to be there or it can't be manifested, and that is the treasure in earthen vessels—Christ as our life.

We get a remarkable thing in that connection. See what follows the 7th verse. We don't have to wait until we get glorified bodies to have the treasure; we have it in earthen vessels, and God tells us that the excellency of that power may be of God, and not of us. God has to do something for us after this work of His precious grace has been wrought in our souls, after He has given us what is called the light of life, and what has He to do? God never had to take Christ in hand. Christ was never under the discipline of God or the Father's discipline. We know, no doubt, how fully the Epistle of Hebrews brings Christ and His glories before us. There is a certain path in which He drops right out, and that path is where God is brought before us as the Father and the only place where He is brought before us in that Epistle in that relationship, "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." Christ drops right out for a blessed reason: because He was never under discipline. There was no will in Christ to be broken. The life of that blessed One as to will was just simply and solely the will of another. "I came down from heaven" (think of the glory of that—He could say that) "not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." Was that will a burden? Oh no, it was a delight, but because of what He was in His own nature.

In the same gospel we read, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me" and another scripture, "I delight to do Thy will."

It is not so with you and me. Our wills are in opposition to the will of God, and we, in our unconverted state, are naturally children of disobedience; it is our nature to disobey. What is the first thing a mother has to do with her newborn child? She must teach it to do what is contrary to its nature: to obey, and a little one is not very old before it shows it has a will. The great object of the parent, a wise and faithful parent, is to bring into subjection that will of the child, but into subjection to the parent. If there were no contrary will, there would not be that difficulty. We don't give up our wills willingly.

As children of God we have a will that has to be broken, and we have a nature that loves to obey as in 1st Peter, "obedient children," as being children of God. We have a nature that loves the will of God, God's own nature as born of Him. But we have the old nature too, both natures. God graciously undertakes, like the parent, to subdue that will of mine, so that will of the new nature may have its way. How He does it you get in the 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th verses. Our gracious God has caused the light to shine in and has given us the light of life and, thank God, has taught us in some measure to enjoy it as a treasure. See what it says: "We are troubled on every side" (that is God's Word). He is breaking the vessel so the light may shine out. We often say when this scripture is before us, suppose God had saved us and let us have our own way, how much meekness and devotedness would be seen in us? We would just go on pursuing that which gratifies the old nature and the will of that nature.

God brings us into this government: "Troubled on every side." Take the beloved Apostle; what a life of trouble that life was and at the same time what a happy life. These things go hand in hand. Trouble in this world, and happiness and joy in God go together because these things break our wills and humble us and bring us into God's presence. The natural effect of ease, comfort, and prosperity is not to take us into the presence of God but the very opposite. We like ease and prosperity. We don't like to be troubled on every side. God has His own glory and the blessing of His people in hand. That storm of trouble does just what we read of in the Psalms. "Before I was afflicted I went astray," and these things simply make us have to do with and say to God and find our resource in Him.

There is another thing: God delights in the company of His people. That may seem strange, but it is blessedly true. We are called into the fellowship of His Son, and He takes us in hand, graciously takes us in hand, that we may know what communion is.

We have noticed so particularly the difference in the openings of the 18th and 19th chapters of Genesis. How blessed is the 1st verse of the 18th chapter. How solemn the 1st verse of the 19th! In each it is a saint of God. There is no difficulty in seeing we have in the 18th a saint, but in the 19th we never would have known it if the Spirit of God hadn't told us. He is speaking in the one of Abraham and in the other of Lot. We get in the opening verses the key to the state of soul found in the chapter. Abraham sat in the door of his tent in the heat of the day. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, sunk down to the level of the world. The Spirit of God tells us what went on in that man's soul: "vexed his righteous soul from day to day."

It is well for us to ask in the presence of those two chapters, where am I? Is it in the place that answers to the door of the tent, or is it in the gate of Sodom? That is what tells.

What was it made poor Lot go to Sodom? It was prosperity, and he hadn't the grace to use it as Abraham had. They went down into Egypt comparatively poor, but came back with much cattle and servants, and the land wasn't large enough for all the flocks and herds. The herdsmen of Abraham and the herdsmen of Lot quarreled about their pastures, and poor Lot's heart was on his possessions. Abraham said, Let there be no quarreling between us; we are brethren in the presence of these strangers. You go to the right and I will go to the left, or if you go to the left, I will go to the right. Lot chose the inviting pastures of Sodom and Gomorrah. That, in general, is the effect with the Christian when there is prosperity and not grace to know how to use it. "If riches increase, set not thine heart upon them."

"Troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair." The blessed God allows us to be troubled on every side, but He sets a limit. He says as it were to Satan not to distress; don't go that far. If a soul got into distress, it would show he had not been with God about it; not distressed, perplexed, but not in despair. That is so blessed and especially in connection with chapter 10 of the 1st Epistle: "God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation [that is, the trial] also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." That is what we have here. God watches over and will not allow us to be tested above that we are able—shut up where there is no escape. So again, "persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed." These trials, as it were, bring us nearer to God and He nearer to us as to the state of our soul. It is very blessed to know that God never takes His eye off us and will never allow us to be swamped. Satan cannot go one inch beyond what God allows, and he knows it. It is just the same now. The purposes of God in government are the same, whatever the change in dispensation. May God make what His grace has done for us more of a treasure.

Next, let us consider a passage in which we find the word "Blessed," a well-known passage in Titus 2. "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Are you a stranger to the grace of God? The grace of God is bringing salvation to all men. It hath appeared unto all. First it saves, then teaches that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly, righteously and godly, in this present world. First grace saves, brings salvation, and when grace has saved us, it teaches us how to live, the precious grace of God— wonderful Saviour!—wonderful Teacher! It teaches us what to look for. "Looking for that blessed hope."

Why call it a "blessed hope"? It is because of what it was to the Apostle's heart. "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." How far is the truth of the coming of the Lord a blessed hope to you and to me? Here again the affections are involved—blessed hope.

What a common doctrine now is the doctrine of the second coming of Christ. Fifty years ago it was comparatively an unknown doctrine. Within the last century a voice has been heard the whole length and breadth of Christendom. What did that voice say? Behold the Bridegroom! Go ye out to meet Him. What was the condition of those to whom the voice appealed? Where were they? Asleep. All those virgins arose. That awakening shout woke the mass. The doctrine of the Lord's coming in some shape and form within the last century has gone from end to end of Christendom.

In this city 55 years ago we saw a religious notice: a certain Episcopal clergyman was going to speak on the second coming of the Lord, and it was so new we said we would go and hear it. We went and found the poor dear man was in such a muddle as to it. He said he saw from Scripture that the Lord may come at any time and he saw too that He couldn't come until certain things had taken place. This brother and I felt we would like to tell him about the two parts of the coming, but he had it in some shape or form and he preached it. Then it was comparatively new, but now it is a well-known doctrine.

Now "that blessed hope" has a special application. You and I may have the doctrine of the Lord's second coming as clear as possible but it may be anything but a blessed hope; that is, the heart not involved. In the 4th of 2nd Timothy what a moment in the history of the beloved Apostle. "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that" believe in His coming. Is that what it says? No, what does it say then? "All them that L-O-V-E His appearing." What the truth of the second coming of Christ is to your soul is indicative of the state of your soul; that is, is it a blessed hope? What about the treasure, and what about the blessed hope? In each case the affection of the heart is involved! Some fifty years ago in this city there was seldom a meeting and seldom a week passed that we didn't sing #173, "A Little While the Lord Shall Come." Now it is comparatively seldom sung. It tells a tale. That hope in some measure has ceased to be a blessed hope and we need God's gracious work to revive our soul's affection. We sing sometimes in connection with the gospel, "Revive Thy work 0 Lord." That is what is needed among the saints, a revival of the work of God.

Now turn to 1 Peter 2:1-10. This passage teaches the same truth as the other two passages we have already considered. In the 4th verse God and man are in contrast, disallowed of man, chosen of God. Verse 7 should read "is the preciousness," that is preciousness of Christ made known to the believer. In verse 8 what made Him a stone of stumbling? Disobedience. We were noticing how the god of this world is blinding the minds of them that believe not. Don't oppose the Word of God, or He will let you stumble over it and that will be your everlasting ruin. In verse 9 we have a word which brings out what the truth was to the heart. The first was "treasure," the next "that blessed hope" and then the Apostle as it were, contemplating, dwelling on the light he has been brought into, called out of darkness, oh, he says—"marvelous light."

Peter wasn't writing to those in Gentile darkness; he had never been in Gentile darkness himself. He had been in the light as far as God had been pleased to give the light. He was one of God's earthly people. He calls it darkness. Called out of darkness "into His marvelous light." What is that marvelous light that he calls marvelous? It is just simply the light of the knowledge of God in Christ. The Christian has no partial light. God who commanded that out of darkness light should shine, takes us back to the 3rd verse of the first book in God's Word. God said, "Let there be light." All was wrapped in darkness. God said, "Let there be light and there was light." That is what that scripture takes us back to. Has God said to you and me, Let there be light? No, no. What has He done then? He has Himself shined into our hearts. There is a contrast there. God said, "Let there be light," but that God Himself has shined into our hearts for the shining out, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. It is something to meditate on.

We get not only the darkness out of which we have been called, but the light into which we have been called—marvelous light. "No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him." God has manifested Himself here in this world. How little our affections dwell on these things! It was that which made the apostles speak as they do of the treasure, the blessed hope and marvelous light. May our gracious God work the same in our souls. The ministry in season to the saints of God is not the unfolding of the truth of God so much as the application of what is already unfolded; rather the work of exhortation than the word of explanation. May God graciously grant it.

Chapter 15

Riches and Poverty
2 Corinthians 8:9

2 Corinthians 8:9: "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that, though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that ye through His poverty might be rich."

There is one thing that gives exceeding sweetness to all that we have and are to have as the children of God and that is that all we possess is in and with and through the Lord Jesus. How striking are these words, "Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom." What a wonderful thing it will be to be in heaven and to have entered in that way, the only way, of course, in which poor man could enter. Oh! the sweetness of it! In heaven, entered through a door that is opened by the death of the Saviour! It is not only the fact that we are to be there, but oh, the way in which we shall know ourselves to be there is that which will add such joy to our being there. We shall be forever with and in the presence of the One to whom we shall gladly own that we owe everything.

In this simple little verse we get a great deal of truth. First, of course, the apostle is writing to Christians. It is to Christians the epistles are written, and when he is writing to Christians, he can write to those who know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Are there any reading these lines who are strangers to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ—who have never casted that grace which brought a Saviour from heaven to be the Saviour of sinners? All God's people have tasted that grace, some more deeply than others, but all know in some measure the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is that grace and the knowledge of it that makes one a Christian—a child of God. That is the grace that brings to us the Saviour and salvation.

Suppose He were here and could do so, what do you think He would do? The first thing He would seek to do if He were here, would be to open your heart to that grace. Do you know how? He would just bring that blessed Saviour in all His love before that poor, cold heart of yours and so seek to win it for Christ. For a heart that has tasted the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is a heart that is won for Christ and that is what God is after, not only your salvation, but He wants your heart, poor man's heart, for Himself and His Son. He does it in His own infinite love and the gratification of that love and in the presentation of that love. Do you not see it is all made known in Christ?

He says here, "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." He does not say the grace of the Saviour; He does not say the grace of God; He does not say the grace of the Lord, or the grace of Jesus, but He says, "the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ." He brings in all those titles that belong to Him. He says you know His grace, the grace of the One who is the Lord Jesus Christ.

We will just call attention to that title of His—Lord. God has made Him Lord of all and decreed that every knee must bow, and not only bow in silent submission, that would not do; that will not do, not in itself. No, God is going to have something more in connection with His Son for His own glory. When the knee is bowed, the tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Jesus is the Lord of all and He wants to be the Saviour of all. Lord of all He is, and as such, all must sooner or later confess Him, but He wants to be known as the Saviour of all; He wants the joy of that. It gives His heart joy when the poor sinner accepts Him as the sinner's Saviour. Just think of the blessed Lord seeking your poor heart that He may be your Saviour! Just as He is your Lord and wants to be your Saviour, if He is not your Saviour, you will find Him presently your Lord and your Judge!

Now He says, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." How can I know it? What is His grace? In order to know the Saviour's grace, we must learn a little of His glory. We learn the two together; as we learn the glory of Christ, we learn the grace of Christ. How can He speak of His being rich? What are the riches the apostle here refers to? Certainly not His circumstances here on earth. No! No! far from that! His birthplace was in the stable of an inn, and His tomb a borrowed one; He said to one who had said to Him, "Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest," you do not know what you are saying; you will follow Me wheresoever I go? He says, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head." Now, He says, Do you want to follow Me?

He does not refer to His circumstances on earth when He speaks of being rich, does He? No, He took His place with the poor and was ever found among them and delighted to be found with them. When His glory was manifested, they were made to marvel at the gracious words which proceeded out of His mouth. They began to think a little of who He was and asked, "Is not this the carpenter?" When they thought of that, they despised Him, despised the wondrous words they had been listening to. He took that place and was known as the carpenter and the carpenter's son. Where did He come from when He came into this world? In the 6th of John, He says, "I came down from heaven." That is the One we have in the Saviour, the One who came down from heaven. It is that the apostle speaks of when he refers to His being rich and becoming poor—His coming into the world and the circumstances into which He came when He was here.

There are so many scriptures that tell us of His riches. We see in that beautiful first chapter of John: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

Just think of the One of whom all that and much more could be said. A little further down we read, "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth." That is the wealth that He laid aside and became poor. Another scripture tells us, "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant." That is His first step in His wonderful descent—"took on Him the form of a servant."

All angels, however glorious, are only servants— glorious servants they are as God's Word shows us, but servants. It might be a Michael or a Gabriel, but, listen to Gabriel himself, when asked, "Whereby shall I know this?" His reply was "I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee...these glad tidings." They stand. That is the servant's place. It is not sitting, but standing in the presence of God, waiting for His commands. As a servant waits for orders from his master, so these glorious creatures wait upon God.

Consider Psalm 103:20: "Bless the Lord, ye His angels, that excel in strength, that do His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of His word." What an exalted position is brought before us in the place of the servants that wait constantly upon God! But servants they are and it is their joy and service to be such. But here is ONE who takes that place—One who was God's equal, too, subsisting, as it is said, in the form of God. With whom did He associate Himself when He thus took upon Him the form of a servant? With the angels? Those glorious creatures of whom we have been reading just a little, and of whom we might read much? No. He took on Him the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man! That blessed One was found here below a Man among men, Jesus the Lord, and He took on Him the form of a servant that He might be the servant of men! It was for the glory of God—God's servant among men.

Those are the riches which the apostle refers to. We find this One coming down in that way and here He is among us, not as a king reigning and ruling, not as some mighty conqueror, but as a lowly servant, coming to save. The Son of man is come to seek and to save and to give His life a ransom for many. He took upon Him the form of a servant and was found in fashion as a man, and then what? If He has undertaken poor man's cause, if He has undertaken for the glory of God to lift poor man out of the pit into which he has fallen, He has undertaken a wonderful work, for we had fallen, fallen, fallen very low. He has undertaken poor man's cause and that for the glory of God. Here He is in this servant's form in our midst and being found in fashion as a Man. What? Just think of the descent! From the form of God to the form of a servant in fashion as a man! It is that glorious One of whom we were thinking just now as brought before us in the first of John, found here in the place and form of a servant! But He must, if He is going to lift us out of that pit, He must go very low. He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death! And we find that glorious One going down, down, down until we find Him in death, and that the death of the cross.

It is this grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes Him so precious to our hearts. Any set of doctrines, however correct, cannot meet and satisfy this heart of mine or that heart of yours. It is such a large heart that we have. It is a very bad one, but it is very large, and there is but One that can fill it, and that is the One who came down from heaven. What the gospel of God's grace presents is a living Person and the glorious work of the blessed Saviour, the Son of God.

That wonderful epistle to the Romans gives us the gospel of God, good news of God. It is all concerning His Son and the gospel and the blessed Spirit in the ministry of the gospel "concerning Jesus Christ our Lord." It is constantly in some way pointing to the Son of God for the gospel of God concerns His Son. Poor human ears and hearts may be indifferent to the gospel of God concerning His Son, but there is an ear above that delights to hear the story told out time and time again, however feebly. There is one theme of which the ear of God never tires and that theme is the gospel concerning His Son. But what a contrast! Here we are, and if in our unconverted state, the blessed Name of the Saviour touches no chord there; it is the very Name that is the very joy of God. How that tells the difference between our hearts and the heart of God.

We began with Him in the form of God and now we have Him down in death, the death of the cross. If He is going to lift us out of the pit, He had to come down into the pit where we were, and we are all sinners under the sentence and power of death. Sin has made this poor world death's great harvest field; death is ever abroad with his sickle and we never know when he is going to claim this one or that one, for there is no respect of persons with him. He claims the young; he claims the old; he claims the rich; he claims the poor; he claims the high; he claims the low; and there is not a soul who can say, I know that death will not lay his hand on my shoulder and say, "Come with me" before tomorrow morning. Not one! It is the valley of the shadow of death and through sin we are all under the power of and subject to death.

There is a solemn passage of Scripture which says, "It is appointed unto man once to die, but after this the judgment" (Heb. 9:27). You see, the Saviour, in order to lift us out of that dreadful pit, that hole into which our sins had brought us, has got to come right down to where we are and right under the weight and burden and judgment of it all. That is what makes Him so precious to the heart. The Saviour, every saved one knows, is the One who died for him. What a link that forms in the heart of the Saviour between the sinner and the Saviour. There is a wonderful link between these two. Look at that poor saved one! He looks by faith into the Saviour's face and what does He say? He says, "There is the One who bore my sins; there is the One who died for me." Is there not a link there? A link of love. And what does the Saviour say as He looks into the face of the saved one? He says, "There is one that cost Me the travail of My soul." That is a link in affection, not exactly in life, that exists between the Saviour and His saved ones. They know Him as the One who loved them so much as to die for them, and He knows them as those who were in such a state that, ere He could be their Saviour, He has to go down into the very dust of death to bear the judgment of God for their sins upon the cross. That link between the soul and Christ is very precious.

Suppose we think of the blessed God. You and I know Him just in the way He delights to be known. We know Him as the God that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all. Angels do not know Him like that. That is your blessing and mine; your joy and mine, present and eternal, to know the blessed God in that way and to know His Son. How God does delight to hear His saints make use of that word of His in the 8th of Romans: "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" It is the triumph of faith: the joy and glory of God when faith knows God and lays hold of Him in that way so as to be able to challenge everything, as it says a little further down in the same chapter, in heaven, in earth, and under the earth, things present and things future.

Here then, He has come down, down, down into death. Just think, how does the Saviour have us contemplate Him in the breaking of bread? There He is living in our midst as He says, the living One that was dead, but how does He call Himself, and in what circumstance does He call Himself to our remembrance in the breaking of bread and the drinking of the cup? It is as the Saviour in death. One feels how little he knows what it is to contemplate the Saviour in death. If we knew a little more of that, we would be found more frequently at the table of the Lord. It would take a good deal to keep us from that precious service that He has in such a special way requested of us. If our hearts and souls only knew a little more of what it is to contemplate that blessed One in the circumstances in which He brings Himself before us when He says, "This is My body which is given for you . . . this is . . . My blood, which is shed for you." He brings Himself before us in death and says, there in that precious service to us, I am bringing Myself before you again in the circumstances and conditions into which I had to enter in order to save you from your sins.

There are the depths into which He went; that is the poverty He entered into. We do feel the necessity to press upon souls this truth in a special way that nothing short of the death of Christ could save one soul! We bring it before you again in this way. In spite of all that life of unswerving devotedness to God, that life of His, every thought, every word, every act of which was a sweet savor going to God night and day (for the fire on the altar was to be continually burning,) had Jesus gone to heaven from Gethsemane, you and I would never go there at all. You might say, All that life of precious service to God to count for naught? As far as you and I are concerned, He had not gone low enough. The solemn majesty of God says, "The day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." He had said, "The wages of sin is death." "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin" and had the Saviour gone to heaven from Gethsemane, you and I would have been excluded from heaven for ever! Sin was not atoned for. It is death that atones for sin. It is His precious blood that puts sin away and cleanses the soul and makes it meet for the presence of God.

You and I presently, when we are in the glory of God, will be there as having entered through that rent veil, as having been cleansed by that precious blood. All the hosts of heaven, as they view the innumerable company of the redeemed, will know that they are not there as the result of creative power but as the result of redemption, and there as those who were sinners, vile and undone in the presence of God, but those whose case and deed have been met by the death of God's own Son and by the shedding of His precious blood.

Can you not see, can you not feel how wonderful it will be to be in heaven in that way? That is the only way in which poor man can be there. If the Lord Jesus had gone to heaven from Gethsemane, if He had refused the cup and had not said, "Nevertheless, not My will but Thine be done"; if He had refused at last to take that cup and had gone back, as He could have done at any moment, instead of a rent veil, instead of an open door, the door would have been opened for Him and closed behind Him. There would have been no such thing in heaven and heavenly glory, as a Saviour and His saved ones, and saved ones and their Saviour; heaven would never have known such a sight, such a theme, such joy.

It was when Jesus died, and only when He died, that the veil of the temple was rent in twain. Do you not see, when He went away, the door was not only open to Him, but it has been open ever since, and it is open now. So in one scripture we read, "See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused Him that spoke on earth, much more shall not we escape if we turn away from Him that speaketh from heaven." There is an open door, and God is speaking to us from heaven. Heaven is open to us, but opened to us through the cross of Christ.

In order to reach us in our need, to what depths of poverty He went! "Though He was rich...He became poor." He had to go right down into those depths where the heart adoringly contemplates Him. What is so wonderful! What is there that fills the heart with such a deep, solemn peace and joy and sense of indebtedness as the contemplation of the Saviour in death? Nothing, NOTHING, NOTHING is like the death of Christ. Our souls learn that to our blessing and to our eternal joy and glory. Just get a little of God's estimate of the cross, something of His thoughts of the cross, this is what it will do: it will just make all that this poor world is and has pale into nothing. There is a little hymn which starts something like this:

"The thoughts of the cross turn earth into dross!"

That is seeing, so to speak, with the anointed eye and getting God's thoughts of it. Nothing is like the cross, and none like Him. It is for our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. The first thing that God does for a soul that accepts the Saviour is to forgive him his sins, to impart eternal life—the first thing. Here you have one that is saved. God is going to answer the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the estimate He sets upon all that He in grace did.

One so delights in that Word of God, "He shall see of the travail of His soul and shall be satisfied." Who said that? God. And God is going to give His dear Son as an adequate answer to all that He did when He stooped so low, and He says, "That ye through His poverty might be rich."

Poor man, when first awakened to the knowledge of his need, his one great thought is how he can be saved. That is all right in its place, but God is going to answer the work of Christ according to His thoughts of its worth. It is a marvel. You and I are going to be blessed according to God's value of Christ and the work of Christ.

Sometimes people say (and they think it is very humble, too) I will be quite content if I get just inside heaven. They think it very humble and that they are hardly worthy of such a place, but how thankful they will be to get it! In a certain sense, however, it is the pride of a deceived heart. I say, "I'm sure you would be thankful, but how do you think you will get a place just inside of heaven?" There is no such place for man in heaven. If you and I have a place in heaven, we have got to have such a place as is worthy of the work that was done for sinners upon the cross. So we say, "How do you expect to get there?" Then they will tell you that it is through the blessed Saviour. All is so vague and indefinite before them, but you will find where there is a true heart, they are sure to tell you in some way or other that Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. They will gladly own that there is no other way. Now we say, Come, you want a place in heaven through faith in Christ and the work of Christ, and do you think the place such as you have been thinking of would be a just answer to all that Christ did upon the cross? Just look at it in that way, that our salvation has to be according to the work that the Saviour did in His grace, and you will see what kind of place we will get in heaven. Our place in heaven is in association with Christ.

"That ye through His poverty might be rich." How rich? Take one of the most elementary truths—one that is one of our most common blessings as Christians, as children of God: listen, "If children," that is, if children of God, then what? If I am not a child of God, what am I? I am a sinner in my sins, and every one of us is either a sinner in sins, or we are children of God. Well, suppose I am a child of God. "If children" then what? "Heirs." The heirship goes with the relationship. Heirs of what and of whom? "Heirs of God!" What is that? Oh, that we through His poverty might be rich. Can you measure what it is to be an heir of God? Is there an angel in heaven who is an heir of God? Oh, no! "If children, then heirs; heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ." Think of that!

God has crowned His Son with many glories. When we find Him coming from heaven, we find Him coming from the glory of God as God's eternal beloved Son. "The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father." That is the way we have to contemplate Him. It is the Word that was with God and was God, the One who made all things and without Him was not anything made that was made. Think of those glories! They are all His still, but in coming here He has gained glories, has acquired glories, and has gone back to heaven with many glories. One of these glories is that He is the Saviour of sinners, and He like Joseph of old now has a coat of many colors. Just think what the Saviour is Heir to now as the One that accomplished redemption! Think of all that He is Heir to now as the One who has created all things, but as the One who redeemed everything, all that you and I will share! "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ."

He says in the 17th of John, "The glory which Thou gayest Me I have given them." That is, He shares with those for whom He suffered all the answer to His sufferings, all the answer that the blessed God Himself has given Him. That is what He refers to when He says "that ye through His poverty might be rich."

In another passage He says, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God." Whom do we owe that to? Our deepest joy is that we owe all that we have to the blessed God and to the work of His dear Son.

Presently the Lord Jesus is going to come and gather up all those joint and fellow•heirs, and they are going to share with Him all that He is Heir to as the Accomplisher of redemption and we shall be forever with Him in the Father's house. When He comes to reign, we are going to reign with Him, and when He comes to judge, we are going to judge with Him, ever with Him, never separated from Him when once we meet Him. When once the saints meet the Saviour, they never never part again. If He reigns, they reign; if He judges, they judge; wherever He is, they are with Him as His fellow and co-heirs, and there in the joy of the Lord everything is owed to Him, who though He was rich, for our sakes became poor that we through His poverty might be rich.

May the Lord increase in our souls for our peace and joy and for His own glory the sense of our indebtedness to Christ. How little these poor hearts of ours think of what we owe the Saviour. What are the returns of these hearts of ours, these lips of ours? May the Lord beget in these hearts of ours something of a more worthy response to all that precious grace of His.

Take that poor woman in Luke 7. What a sight it is, and how precious those tears. What was Simon's feast and his company to the Saviour? What a feast He had from that creature sitting at His feet. What brought her there? The sense of who He was and her indebtedness to Him. How is it we love so little? It is because we have only a little sense of what we owe Him. May He increase in our hearts a sense of what we owe Him for His Name's sake.

Chapter 16

The Exceeding Riches of His Grace
Ephesians 2:1-13

Outward position does not change what we are by nature. In our chapter we read of some that were far off, and some that were nigh; then we read of one thing that was needful for them both—to be reconciled to God. We "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." God is at work today and is working to accomplish the same results.

"And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." Death, in Scripture, does not always mean the same thing. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." This is spiritual death and spiritual life. Then a few verses farther on, "Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth." John 5:28, 29. This is what we call physical, or literal, death. Thus we find different kinds of death are referred to in Scripture.

"By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin." God connects these two things: sin and death. They go together, in the ways of God. And when the man opened the gate and let sin in, he could not keep back death.

The simplest definition of death that I know of is, separation. At physical death the body is in one world and the spirit is in another. The dead one has gone into another world, into eternity, and his body is here. Death has caused the separation. We have that thought frequently in the Word of God.

The second death will never be done away with, while physical death will be done away with. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"—the physical death. The second death will take place in "the lake of fire." It is called the second death because it is the eternal, unchangeable condition of all the lost. They are separated forever from God, and confined under His judgment. There is no end to it. People talk about literal fire, but that is not the point; eternal confinement is the point. Fire is the judgment of God.

Let us hope that you will never find yourself in the lake of fire. Part of the gracious work of God in this day is saving souls—those who if left to go on in their own course, would find themselves, forever, not only excluded from the presence of God, but confined under His judgment.

There is another kind of death—"And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins." To be "dead in trespasses and sins" is separation from God by sins. That is not eternal death, however. Thank God, there is a remedy for it, and He is delivering people from it, and this is part of His work in this portion of Scripture.

"And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in times past ye walked according to the course of this world." The course of this world is a system, under Satan as its prince, led on by him, and will end under judgment. When the Lord was in Gethsemane and the crowd came to take Him, He owned Satan as the prince of this world and said, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Luke 22:53. People little think of who it is that is leading them on in their separation from God!

Into such a scene God comes, and works. What leads Him to work in it the 4th verse tells us: "But God, who is rich in mercy." Mercy leads God to work in this poor world, so estranged from Himself, and all pursuing a course that separates them from Him, and which must eventually, as was said, if not interrupted, end in His judgment upon them. How rich is God in mercy? We learn how rich as we learn what it is to be dead in trespasses and sins. By that I mean, we learn it in communion with God—what it was to be separated from Him, and what it is to be brought to Him. Our soul meditates on it with adoration.

"But God, who is rich in mercy,"—something else comes then—"for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins."

Are you dead in trespasses and sins, one whose sins have never been forgiven; whose sins still stand between you and God? If you are such and if you don't feel it, God does. He would have you know that He loves you, sinner as you are, "Even when we were dead in sins." In that connection another Scripture comes to mind: "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Romans 5:8. Poor sinner, do you know where we who are His people, whose sins are forgiven, and whose sins no longer separate us from Him, first learned the truth that God loved us? We first learned it in His Son; in His sending His Son to die.

When we want to see what love is, we see it at the cross, where He has displayed it. Have you seen Christ die for your sins? For that is an individual thing. You say it for yourself; I say it for myself; all believers say it together, how that Christ died for our sins—"rich in mercy, for His great love."

The character of the life He has given us we have brought before us in different ways in Scripture, first in John 3:16 as "life eternal," and it is the opposite of perish. Here we have "quickened us together with Christ," and that little word of four letters—"with"means association. The life God has given to us as presented in this Scripture is life in association with Christ. It is that life that the blessed Saviour spoke of on the morning of His resurrection, when God had filled the heart and the lips of His Son with praise.

When the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, He rose with a song of triumph. Redemption's work was complete, and the Redeemer was in the glory of redemption. What was the first thing heard? "Go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father, and your Father; and to My God, and your God." Again it is that character of life—life in association with Christ. How blessed and full it is! Ah, He had been at work, and God had been at work. He was led to work for those who were dead in trespasses and sins; and He brought them into the fulness of blessing. What fuller blessing can there be than to be in association with Christ? And, thank God, that is an association that will never be broken. It will always be true—"My Father, and your Father."

Now turn aside for a moment. What is meant by the church of God—the assembly of God? The Lord Jesus in glory will be surrounded with an innumerable company of redeemed ones, but amid that innumerable throng there will be one company in special nearness to Him and the special witness to the riches and glory of God's grace (Heb. 11:40; Eph. 1:5, 6; 2:7; 3:21). They are the object of His love, and He is the object of their love. This is the kind of association with that blessed Saviour which is the portion of the redeemed.

"Hath quickened us together with Christ"—who could do that? Ah, it is God, and the work of God. As Christians, we own it to be His work. "We are His workmanship," just think of that! God has been at work, and His work is perfect. He has done the work of creation again. He has acted in creative power twice. Referring to Genesis 1, we see God as the creator God. Then we see the results of that creative power, that when all is completed He looks over it, and rejoices in the work of His own hands. He blessed the day He rested from the work of His own hands.

"In Christ Jesus" refers to the place the believer has in Christ. We often have that expression, "in Christ," "in Christ Jesus," but I call your attention to the fact that it is seldom outside of the writings of the Apostle Paul, because he is the instrument through whom God brings out the truth of new creation. God began the new creation when He raised Christ from the dead. He did not begin the new creation until He was done with the old one. He was done with the old creation, if I may so say, after He tried every effort to make something out of it. The world has shut God up to do one thing with it; it has left Him no other course but to execute judgment. Even the sending of His Son failed to reconcile the world to Himself, and He had to give it up. He has given it up, long, long ago. "Now is the judgment of this world: now snail the prince of this world be cast out, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me."

God has a new center of gathering: His Son, lifted up. God began His work of new creation after this world had refused His last offer. It is so wonderfully brought out in Luke 20:13, "What shall I do? I will send My beloved Son." The sending of that Son was the last resource, for God had no other. What was the result? 0, you all know. The character of man came out to the full, and the treatment accorded to the Son of man here in His love, brought out the awful fact that not only is man a sinner, and guilty before God, but that he is at enmity with Him. There stands that cross. When you look at it from man's side, God can say, "If you want to know what your heart is, look at that cross. That is My Son, and who put Him there? Wicked hands put Him there. Why did I send Him? I sent Him in love to you." That is where it ended, at God's last resource.

Do you know that God is not ruling this world now? What kind of a God would He be if He ruled this world and allowed such a state of things to exist, year after year, century after century? You ask, what is He doing? He is overruling. He is overruling the works of the ruler, i.e., the prince of this world, and His work is saving people out of this world before judgment comes upon it.

The blessed God is at work in this scene, not to rectify conditions, but to take a people out of it, and the Christian is one who has been taken out of it by God's grace, and is not of the world. God will go on with that work until one of these days He will bring it to a close. He is gathering a people for Christ, and fitting them for heaven. When they are in heaven through the blessed Saviour having come to call them unto Himself, then the way will have been cleared for judgment to take its course. It is the mercy of God that keeps back the judgment of this world, but judgment will come.

The course of this world will end in destruction. Dear friends, men are absorbed with what is present, what is seen; while that which is unseen and eternal has been neglected, but remember, we shall be a witness either to God's power to save, or to God's power to judge. Such, you and I must be.

God's gracious work is in taking poor sinners and associating them with Christ. "If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ." What a wonderful thing the salvation of God is! Just think of that!—"if children, then heirs." If I am not a child of God, I am a child of wrath. But do you know that if I am a child of God, I am an heir of God? How do we know these things? Because God tells us, and the child of God believes Him and thanks Him for them. Relationship and heirship go together.

I say, for the benefit of the younger ones here, do you know that you can't have the Lord Jesus as your Saviour, and not have God as your Father?

God is acting now according to His own great love. That is why we have these words, "God . . . rich in mercy, for His great love." Then there is another thing: God is blessing poor sinners now as One who has purchased the right to bless. God has purchased the right to save and bless a sinner. Without having purchased that right, He never could have done it. Purchasing that right means my sins had to be atoned for, for they stood in the way; they were a barrier. He longed to bless, but His holiness and righteousness kept Him back. Now the barrier has been removed, and God knows of no hindrance to the outflow of His love to the poor sinner.

But how are you and I saved? We are saved according to the fulness of the love of God, through the redemption work of His Son. Our very need has brought out the occasion for God to show forth His love and mercy at the cross, where redemption was accomplished and atonement made.

Think, dear friends, of man despising Christ! No, I won't say despise; I will use another word—neglecting so great salvation. Neglecting—just carelessness and indifference to the salvation that has cost God so much.

"We are His workmanship." We see that wonderful company of saints called the Assembly of God, the Church of God. And, O, it is blessed nearness to Christ, and He looking upon it, and thinking of what it cost Him, and they looking at Him and thinking of the price with which He bought them. How mutual is the joy.

Then there is another thing. Christ has a body, a people so intimately related to Him that He finds in it such joy, such eternal joy; and God has a family. "Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children." Ah, the Father's eye will rest upon those children, the objects of His own predestinating love, and the work of His Son upon the cross! "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace" (verse 7). God has all this joy in His family.

"We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus." Suppose there were a defect in the workmanship: what a reflection that would cast upon the Worker! There are no defects.

I don't want to wander too far from the subject, but that word "new creation" takes in all that is true of the Christian—his new birth, the righteousness of God, nearness to Christ, God in Christ—it takes in everything. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature." 2 Cor. 5:17. (There is a new creation. J.N.D.)

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Rom. 8:1. There are many souls rejoicing in the truth of no condemnation, but we should not stop there. The first thing the soul learns is that he is beyond the reach of condemnation, and as far beyond it as Christ. Then he learns what there is for those who are in Christ Jesus.

Just think of those words, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." "Good works" are what become us in this new position. The law is the standard for man in the old creation; but the rule of the new creation is Christ.

God is not writing the law on the Christian's heart; He does not expect the Christian to keep the law. The rule of the old creation was what man ought to be toward his fellow-man and toward God. The rule of the new creation is Christ. What God writes upon the Christian's heart is Christ, so in 2 Cor. 4:11 it is the life of Christ, "that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." What a wonderfully simple thing is the rule of the new creation. We should be the reproduction of Christ. In that very Epistle the apostle says that we are to be, as Christ, "to God for a sweet smelling savor." Christ was a sweet savor unto God, for what He was in Himself. That is the rule of new creation; that is the good works that God before ordains, so to speak, that we should walk in them.

"That ... He might show the exceeding riches of His grace, in His kindness toward us." O, what it will be to find ourselves in the fullest and most intimate association with Christ in glory. Already it is true of us as to our position.

"Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world!" What a disturbed condition and position! What a blessed contrast, that, "Now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." The nearness is in Christ. The means of our being there was by blood. 0, how God has been able, according to His nature and character, and glory, to associate a poor sinner with Christ; to have him in His own presence, the object of His love. It is in Christ; but how can He have man there? Because Christ made atonement for sin.

What do you think such people are in the sight of God, and to the heart of God? "Now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Those brought near to Himself, and in the very nearness of His Son are loved as His Son is loved, and share His inheritance, heirs with Him. All is brought in at the cost of redemption, and that redemption by the blood of Christ. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

Chapter 17

Notes on Readings on Philippians 1:27-30, 2:1

"Conversation" as used in verse 27 means "manner of life." It is frequently used in that way. In the 3rd chapter it is altogether different. There it is another word: "Our conversation is in heaven." There are a number of different standards that the Christian is to measure his conduct by. Here is one: "Let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ." Another is: "Walk worthy of the Lord." Another: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God." Another: "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Here it is, "Let your conversation (manner of life) be as becometh the gospel of Christ." It would include all—cover all the others.

The only way the walk can conform to those rules is by having Christ as the Object. It is very simple for one who has received the gospel of Christ, "contending for the faith of the gospel," the whole truth of Christianity. Christianity is so different from Judaism in that way. They had so many "Thou shalts" and "Thou shalt nots." The Christian has nothing of that kind. He is partaker of a certain calling and his walk is to be consistent. The Holy Spirit does not teach or show anything except by Scripture. If that were not so, we would be exposed to Satan's attacks and the imagination of our own minds. Everything must be tested by Scripture, not by any sentimentality, feeling, or anything of that kind.

Satan has two ways of attacking: one is by seduction and the other is by terrifying. If he cannot seduce, he will seek to terrify. On the mount of temptation with the Lord, it was rather seduction, but not in Gethsemane. "He began to be sore amazed." That was seeking to terrify Him. "The devil...showed unto Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time"; that was seduction. That was just the opposite of drinking that cup from the hand of God. "In nothing terrified by your adversaries." "Whose children are ye as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement" 1 Pet. 3:6. (The margin reads "children" as do other translations.)

In Gethsemane the Lord had to meet the devil. If we do not see that, we lose a good deal of what Gethsemane is. The cross was before Him, and the devil was seeking to turn Him aside. From all the quiet, calm and communion and love of that upper room with the eleven (and of John 14), out of that room to Gethsemane. "Hereafter, I will not talk much with you." As it were He says, "I will have all I can do to attend to Satan." When He left that upper room He went out to meet, not God but Satan; but He went out to meet him as the dependent Man, dependent upon God. The more the devil pressed the cup, the harder He prayed. "And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly." He met the devil in dependence upon God, not in His own power or might.

We find often that Satan seeks to terrify us. He did not succeed in terrifying the church though he persecuted it for about three hundred years. So he decided to try another scheme. He won in that conflict and the church accepted what his seducing power offered—a place in the world. "I know...where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is." That is the thought in the verse "In nothing terrified by your adversaries: which is to them an evident token of perdition." The adversaries often are made to feel the superiority of those they are persecuting. You get something of this in the history of martyrdom, how they were sustained in their sufferings.

Then we have that word "salvation." We get it several times in this epistle. It is always in connection with our circumstances, and not our souls. Notice in the first part of the chapter, verse 19, "For I know that this shall turn to my salvation"; so here, "But to you of salvation and that of God"; and in the next chapter, "Work out your own salvation"; that is, without the presence of the apostle. He says they will have to do it themselves; he will not be able to help them. "Not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence." He felt not being able to be there and help them, but he says, Remember "it is God that worketh in you," go slowly, be patient.

The 29th verse: "For unto you it is given on the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." Here it is suffering for, not with; suffering for Christ's sake. Suffering with Christ is a natural and necessary result of having been born again and having the divine nature, the same nature that made Him a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. We are made partakers of the divine nature. He felt the wretchedness and misery into which poor man had plunged himself in his departure from God, but where do we find the Lord blaming man for being in the pit into which he had fallen? He did not come to blame him but to lift him out of it.

Is there any place where He really condemned the sinner? He did the religious Pharisees. John 16:8: "He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they believe not on Me." All our sins are sunk into comparative insignificance in the presence of this: "because they believe not on Me." Of course, He has nothing but condemnation of the severest kind for the Pharisees. "Master, thus saying, Thou condemnest us also."

"Suffering for Christ" we take to be the result of testimony. There are two classes of suffering typified in the meal offering: the one is typified by the frying pan and the other by the oven. The frying pan gives what is external and as it were, its intensity, but the oven would bring before us those inward, quiet sufferings of the Lord, those unseen. The oven calls for endurance, so to speak, but it is constant steady pressure. We get the Lord in the frying pan in Gethsemane, but there was that which went on inwardly, constantly. The condition into which poor man had fallen bore on His heart. "If we suffer, we shall also reign with Him," but with: "If so be that we suffer with Him that we may be also glorified together."

It is important to see the difference between with and for. One is what goes on constantly, inside, feeling what sin has wrought in this world, and the other is the result of testimony. Sometimes you speak to a man about his soul and he turns on you and reviles you. That is suffering for Christ. If we are suffering with Him, the chances are we will also suffer a good deal for Him. 2 Timothy 3:12, "All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution." Suffering with Christ is inward and a deeper thing. Consider the poor deaf and speechless one brought to Him. He sighed and looked up to heaven without saying a word; that was what He Himself felt. Then He said, "Be opened." He felt the awful condition, the result of sin, in what that poor one was suffering.

The character of Christian suffering is all alike; degree is different. Way back all those hundreds of years ago, the same suffering spoken of in Philippians has continued with the saints of God down to this day; the only question is as to degree, called in another Scripture, "the sufferings of Christ"—"as the sufferings of Christ abound in us."

What a wonderful link it will be when the church is gathered home to Christ in all its vastness and perfection; it will be seen as that which partook of the sufferings of Christ. Each member in its own little way, some more, some less; but there the whole body will be seen as those who partook of Christ's sufferings. When the church is seen by this world in glory, it will be seen as those who partook of Christ's sufferings. In that way God justifies Himself in having those people with Christ in glory. That is the teaching of Romans 8, of 2nd Thessalonians 1 also: "Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; And to you who are troubled rest with us," rest to the troubled ones then and trouble to the troublous ones. These ways of God are remarkable and needful to be understood. When in the Father's house, all will be rest, ourselves the objects of His sovereign love and grace. When manifested to the world, that will be another thing. That is one point in Revelation 17, "They that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful."

What would you say if one were to ask what is the doctrine of the epistle to the Philippians? One can tell you about the Corinthians, Galatians, Hebrews, 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus, but what about Philippians? Many, many years ago, Mr. R.G. said, "I think Philippians is Christian experience on Ephesian ground," and that comes pretty near it. In no epistle is Christian fellowship so developed as in the epistle to the Philippians.

Chapter 18

Notes on Readings on Philippians 2:1-11

The exhortations at the beginning of Philippians 2 are founded generally on what is in the first chapter. "If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies"—these things characterize normal Christian fellowship—Christian love.

There is nothing like strife or vainglory to separate saints. The first three verses need no explanation, but it is well to meditate upon them. They are their own explanation.

In 1 Corinthians 10:33 Paul writes: "Even as I please all men in all things, not seeking mine own profit [which is natural] but the profit of many." To seek the good of another is unnatural. It is very simple when we come to know the origin of man's solemn condition—seeking self-exaltation. The fruit of the tree "was good for food...and...desired to make one wise." "Ye shall be as gods." They were not contented in and thankful for the circumstances in which God had placed them and that is what makes us selfish creatures by nature. That is its origin—self-seeking.

It is just the opposite of the Lord; all His path here is in contrast to man. That first man of the ear .h, earthy, is a creature. Who is that second Man? He is the Lord from heaven. He is not God's creature at all. That is the One who thought it not robbery to be equal with God. It was not an object to be attained or aspired to; it was His, and He humbled Himself; God did not humble Him.

The passage just referred to is in the 15th of 1 Corinthians, "The first man Adam was made a living soul." The last Adam was not made, but is "a quickening spirit," a life-giving spirit, not simply One that received life, but a life-giving spirit. All is contrast, and we find Him in that way in John 5: "As the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom He will." "Quickeneth" means giveth life.

Paul seems to write as though they were saved— quickened. However, they were still selfish: "For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." That is the old nature, and it is what we have to guard against. That is why he says, "Let this mind be in you"—to seek the other one's blessing.

"All seek their own." We are all guilty of it in some measure, some degree, every day and every week, and we know it. Every breath of the old man is a breath of selfishness. "The commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death." What was that? "Thou shalt not steal"? "Thou shalt not lie"? "Thou shalt not commit adultery"? "Keep the sabbath"? NO; what then? "Thou shalt not covet." That is what is inward.

"Let this mind be in you" is important. It is not people's actions, but what is the source of the actions. Two passages come to mind: 1 Samuel 2:3, "Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." 16th chapter: verses 6 and 7: "And it came to pass when they were come, that he looked on Eliab, and said, Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him. But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him; for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." "Man looketh on the outward appearance." That is the passage more particularly before us. It is beautiful

in that chapter. When it comes to God's choice, it is the eighth. Seven passed before Him, but God did not choose them. There is the youngest, but he is attending the sheep. So he sent for him, and when he came, He says, "This is he; arise, anoint him." Even a prophet like Samuel might have the wrong thought. There is the outward appearance, the height of his stature. David (a type of the Lord Jesus) is forgotten altogether. He is taking care of the sheep. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." The most difficult thing to control is the mind; it is always active.

You hear a good deal said about concentration these days. Psalm 51:10, "Create in me a clean heart, 0 God, and renew a right spirit within me." The marginal reading is "a constant spirit," not a changeable one, not simply a "right" spirit, but a "constant" spirit. We find the wandering of the mind a great trial sometimes. It is here, there, and everywhere.

Suppose you were asked for a simple definition for "who, being in the form of God," what would you give? How do you and I subsist? What is the manner of our subsistence? We are mere creatures. What was His subsistence? He subsisted as God; He "thought it not robbery to be equal with God." It was not an object to be attained or to aspire to. It was the manner of His subsistence. What could be higher?

Satan said to the woman, "ye shall be as gods." That was really the secret of it—seeking to be as gods—self-exaltation. Twice in Luke, in connection with both the sinner and the saint, the Lord says, "Whosoever exalteth Himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted" Luke 14:11 and 18:14. The Lord Jesus humbled Himself; then God exalted Him. The first step in the Lord's humbling Himself was that He became a servant; that is what He never was before; that is what every creature is, though he might be a Michael or a Gabriel. He took upon Him the form of a servant. What creature ever took upon him the form of a servant? A creature is a debtor to his Creator.

This One who subsisted as God humbled Himself and took upon Him the form of a Servant and was found in fashion as a Man, a little lower than the angels—it is a lower order of creation. "Who maketh His angels spirits"—they are a higher order of creation than man. "Form of a servant"—"found in fashion as a Man." He connects Himself with a fallen race—became a Man.

"Made Himself of no reputation." That is what man is jealous of having and careful for—his reputation. Reputation and character are two different things. A man's reputation may be different from what his character is. God knows about that. A man may have a poor reputation among men but have a good character before God or vice versa. That passage referred to in Samuel, "God is a God of knowledge and by Him actions are weighed," "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."

"That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow . . . and every tongue should confess." Does that infer that all will be saved? Some are building doctrines on that. Notice the words: "of things [or beings) in heaven, and things [beings] in earth, and things [beings] under the earth." In Colossians we get in chapter 1:20 reconciliation. Here it is subjugation, the recognition of the Lordship of Christ even by demons. (New Translation). It shows right there that not all are reconciled. If we turn to the passage in Colossians, we shall see the difference: Colossians 1:20: "And by Him to reconcile all things to itself, having made peace through the blood of His cross—by Him, whether the things on the earth or the things in the heavens" (JND Trans.). There is nothing about things under the earth. They mix the two—reconciliation and subjugation. Here it is bringing back creation. Peace has been made by the blood of His cross. "By Him to reconcile all things unto Himself": that is future; "and you, who once were alienated and enemies . . . yet now has it reconciled" (JND Trans.). That is present.

In passing, let us note that there is not a word about demons or infernal beings in Colossians; the passage does not go beyond the earth at all. In Revelation 5:13 "and under the earth" is another word altogether for creatures that live below the surface of the ground. All will be delivered from the bondage of corruption.

"Made Himself of no reputation." When He took that servant's form from another viewpoint we get "Lo, I come [voluntary] to do Thy will, O God." There was One competent and in a position to offer Himself for the accomplishment of God's purposes. The same truth from another viewpoint from John 1: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us." He became flesh— became Man, and tabernacled among us. And we beheld His glory—not as Creator, but as the only begotten of a father. He dwelt among us "full of grace and truth."

A moral school of Universalists that goes further than any of them say that the devil will eventually be saved (as well as Judas and the fallen angels). That would be a one-sided God. They magnify His love at the expense of His holiness.

Chapter 19

Notes on Readings on Philippians 2:8-17

"The death of the cross" is the lowest point of human shame. There could not be a death lower than that. Here the point before the Spirit of God is not God's side (atonement, propitiation), but it is the depths to which the Lord submitted Himself in obedience to God, the lowest point of human shame.

Next we see Him in the highest place of exaltation in heaven: "And hath given Him a name which is above every name"—not only in earth but in heaven— and not only a name but the authority of that One: "That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow... and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father's glory" (J.N.D. Trans.).

It is helpful to see in that way the two extremes: extreme humiliation and extreme exaltation. We have not sufficiently noticed the shame side of the cross, the human side of it. That is the point in 1 Cor. 2:2: "I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." A crucified Man is the One Paul preached to those proud Corinthians who rejoiced so in human wisdom and glory. So also in Hebrews 12:2: "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame," "even the death of the cross," not only death, but the death of the cross.

"That at the name of Jesus. "That is the Lord's personal name. "Thou shalt call His name Jesus." "Christ" is a title.

What is the thought in the 53rd of Isaiah: "He made His grave with the wicked"? We read from another translation: "They made His grave with the wicked, but He was with the rich in His death." They crucified three, and they dug three graves, but God came in and never allowed Him to be put in that grave. God would not allow any further humiliation; though they prepared the grave, they never put Him into it.

"By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant justify many"; instead of "for," put "and He shall bear their iniquities." There you get the two sides of the Lord's work: "My righteous Servant justify many"—His teaching in His life; "bear their iniquities"—He did that in His death. That makes it much clearer.

His death brought the two cowardly disciples out boldly: Joseph of Arimathea was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews. Nicodemus, too, came to Jesus by night. Joseph goes in boldly and craves His body. He had been ashamed to confess Him. Honor was put upon Christ in His burial. He was not buried with those two thieves; the grave prepared by the wicked was never occupied by Him.

Many years ago, Mr. G. heard someone who was walking down the street use the Lord's name in vain two or three times. He went to him and, putting his hand on his shoulder, said to him, "Do you know that God hath made 'Jesus Christ' both Lord and Christ?" One day all will own His authority. We sometimes sing,

"But O! the grace that taught us now
Before the Lord the knee to bow."

Some go so far as to say this is the confession that leads to salvation. The confession of Christ as Lord in Romans 10:9, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved," supposes a genuine confession. There is no confession of Christ apart from the work of the Spirit. "No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." "No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed." 1 Cor. 12:3.

It is remarkable you do not hear people using the expression, "Lord Jesus Christ"; they talk about "God" and about "Jesus." Here it is the fact that all do so (own Him as Lord) either by grace or judgment. We have a remarkable passage in Romans 14:9: "For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living." Reconciliation is by God's grace; subjugation is by His power.

Verse 13: "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." He works in the sinner to make him know his need of Christ, and when he is saved, God continues to work in him to make him to will and to do. That work goes on all through the Christian's life, and He works in us that way very largely by the circumstances in which He allows us to be. "Work out your own salvation" is in connection with circumstances—the recognition of God's hand in the circumstances—both to will and to do of His good pleasure. That is why He brings us into these straits in which we find ourselves so often. God never had to work that way in Christ; He had no contrary will. His delight was to do the will of God His Father. We have the same nature, but we have another nature, too.

Some say the old nature has been entirely eliminated. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." We deceive ourselves very easily. It is difficult to deceive other people. Once a woman who professed "holiness" was asked if she ever had an evil thought. She said, "Yes." She was asked, "Where does that thought come from?" She answered,. "From the devil." "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts." When the devil is chained for a thousand years, people will still sin.

"Work out your own salvation" may be individual, or it may be in assembly difficulties. The force of "your own" is in contrast with his helping them when Paul was with them, but now he is a prisoner and cannot. That is the simple meaning of "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." It is in contrast with His helping them.

"Do all things without murmurings and disputings." Here it seems it is more the assembly he has before him—the collective thing. We have often thought there is moral order here. "That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world." What then? "Holding forth the word of life." The state that is referred to in the 15th verse precedes the 16th verse. It is a little remarkable there that "lights" is the same as "the glory of God did lighten it" in Revelation 21. Suppose they were all at loggerheads among themselves? In a certain way there would be no testimony.

Then the next thing is, "That I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither labored in vain." That answers to the judgment seat of Christ. They are converted, but how do they go on after they are converted? There should always be some testimony of the gospel going out from an assembly. One cannot be going on with God and be indifferent to the gospel. A brother who never came to the evening meeting said, "That is only the gospel meeting!" That very thing told a tale. If there were a discipline meeting in the assembly, he would be there and very likely would have the most to say.

Some say we do not hold forth the word of life as we should and that we are just sitting down and waiting for the Lord to come. J.N.D. was very depressed on one occasion because D.L.M. had called us "do- nothings." The Lord will try, not how much, but of what sort the work is—quality not quantity. The last shall be first and the first last. It is a good deal like giving: The Lord stood over against the treasury and beheld how they gave.

How are the unsaved to know of the meeting? They will know of it if we are faithful in giving tracts and inviting them.

The 17th verse answers to the drink offering— "poured forth." The drink offering of wine told of the joy the Lord had in doing God's will.

Chapter 20

Notes on Readings on Philippians 2:17-25

In Paul, Timotheus and Epaphroditus we have contrast; these three servants of God are contrasted with the mass of those professing the Lord's Name in that day when "all were seeking their own." The first contrast with the apostle is when all were seeking their own things or interests. It was his joy to be offered in sacrifice and service to God's people. It is going to the full limit—sacrifice. In service to the saints you cannot go beyond what we have here, and it is, as we get elsewhere, laying down our lives for the brethren. That is the limit; beyond that we cannot go. "He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren" 1 John 3:16. Paul not only did that, but rejoiced in it. He was so devoted to Christ and to the blesing of His people that he says in the 18th verse, "For the same cause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me."

Then we have the contrast of the devoted servant Timotheus: "I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state." He had the real state of God's people at heart and such an one Paul sends that he might know the state of the Philippians. All this is right at the end of the apostle's life.

In what way would that go along with 2 Timothy 1:6? "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee." We have often said, from the human side, 2 Timothy was written to a discouraged, downcast, disheartened but devoted servant of God. The apostle writes to stir him up and encourage him, and also to exhort and to warn. Take, for instance, the verse in the 1st chapter, "Stir up the gift"; in the 2nd chapter, "Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus," and the 1st verse of the 4th chapter: "I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom." He warns in view of the Lord's coming to judge the living and the dead.

It shows that a devoted soul can get under the power of evil. His very devotedness made him feel the power of evil if there is not being with the Lord about it. God is not overcome, but He feels it all. That is what the cross declares. At the cross there was the question of whether sin or grace would survive. "Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound." That is, when sin and Satan rose, grace kept on rising; it superabounded. Romans 5:20.

"I have no man like-minded who will naturally care for your state ... but ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me in the gospel." Perhaps the apostle had known Timothy twenty years at this time.

Consider Elijah. Some of us think Elijah was a servant who was overcome with evil because of what we have recorded of him in Romans 11: "How he maketh intercession to God against Israel"—against instead of for. He was a devoted man and an honored servant.

"Overcome evil with good" means to rise above it and overcome it.

This takes us back in thought to Haggai 1: "Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, This people say, the time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built. Then came the word of the Lord by Haggai the prophet saying, Is it time for you, O ye, to dwell in your celled houses, and this house lie waste?" There was the principle. "All seek their own." God's interests were forgotten.O, they say, the time has not come to take care of that, but God took notice of the kinds of houses they lived in, celled houses, and called their attention to it.

"Likeminded" is a state. There is also a word at the end of 2 Corinthians 11:20-28: all those sufferings he had and then the 28th verse: "besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches." What does he follow that with? "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is offended, and I burn not?" He entered into the circumstances of the saints. That was really more than all those outward sufferings he had been speaking of. All that kind of outward suffering, in a certain way, the flesh can glory in, but when it comes to entering into the state of and care of the church of God, that is another thing. That was daily with the apostle, a continual thing.

Moses shunned that, did he not, when he asked to be relieved of it in Numbers 11? Prior to that he had stood for Israel. That is a remarkable thing; he got his eye off God and on the people. "Kill me, I pray Thee, out of hand,...and let me not see my wretchedness." That is a remarkable instance in that way. Numbers 11:11-15: God is not mentioned once! It is "I," "me" and the evil of the people and God's thoughtlessness! He had not taken His servant into consideration and had laid all this burden upon him! He was occupied with himself, but not in the same way as Elijah who said, "And I am left alone and they seek my life." In other words, he was the only man who feared God! God said, that is not so at all; there are seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal. Obadiah hid one hundred of the Lord's prophets and sustained them.

God does not record this incident of Moses in Hebrews 11. That was not faith, and He was talking about faith there. Notice what is given about Abraham: "Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed." It is just as though he obeyed immediately, on the spot. Actually that was not the case. Abraham did not make the first move; it was his father who did, and "when his father was dead, he removed into this land." Think of that crooked life of Jacob's but we get nothing of that in Hebrews 11.

It is very touching to see how Moses did enter into the afflictions of the people on another occasion. "If Thou wilt forgive their sin—; and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book" Exodus 32:32. That was well- pleasing to God. That is referred to in the 3rd of Hebrews: "As also Moses was faithful in all his house."

"All seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's." That is a very solemn word: "All they which are in Asia be turned away from me." They had not ceased to be Christians, but Paul was going on in the proper Christian path, like a runner in a race. They had turned away from him in that sense. It does not say they had turned away from the truth, but "from me."

The epistle does not show that he is discouraged. He had his eye on Christ, pressing toward the mark. He felt things deeply but did not get under the power of them. Consider Acts 20:28-38, and 2 Corinthians 2:4 where Paul writes of shedding "many tears" and suffering "anguish of heart." In Philippians 4:11 he writes, "I have learned in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content," and in 4:13, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Trouble in the meeting is a serious trial. If it is in the family or if it is business trouble, you can keep it to yourself; but when it is in the meeting you cannot do it.

Paul's heart was deeply wrapped up in those saints, and they had neglected ministering to him; he felt that. "Not that I desire a gift," but as perhaps telling out their forgetfulness of him; he felt it.

But now when Epaphroditus came and brought this, he rejoiced that their care of him had flourished again. "Wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity" Phil. 4:14. He softens it, takes the edge off by saying, "ye lacked opportunity." That is, there was no one to take it. It was a long way from Philippi to Rome and at last Epaphroditus said he would take it. It is one thing to take a ten dollar bill or note and send or give it, but to go and take it is quite another thing. It almost cost Epaphroditus his life. It was a part of the work. "For the work of Christ he was nigh unto death." Taking that journey nearly cost him his life, "but God had mercy on him and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow."

What a combination of Christian experience: not only these Philippians but look at 1 Thess. 3:1. So great was his anxiety about those who were passing through trial. Were they standing, or were they giving way? So he sends to find out, verses 6-8.

When the Lord gave converts to the apostle, he did not rest content. It was not enough to know that they had eternal life and would never perish. He wanted them to go on. He knew that in a certain sense he was responsible to lead them on. He would "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" Col. 1:28—not merely saved but in his proper place with respect to the mystery of the church.

In our day there is so much about merely getting people saved. What is uppermost now before the mind is not God's glory in man's salvation. It is the joy of the sheep being found instead of the joy of the Great Shepherd in finding the sheep, joy of the soul being saved rather than God's joy in saving it.

Why do we not have the saints more on our hearts in the way that the apostle did? The 21st verse would be the answer. Communion with God leads one to care for the objects of His care down here. "Lovest thou Me?" "Feed My sheep." That is the highest order of service the Lord has given to anyone down here on earth. If God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.

Mr. Kelly made a remark: God never for a moment allows independency in the saints one of another. "We are members one of another."

Chapter 21

Notes on Readings on Philippians 2:25-30

The 26th verse, "For he [Epaphroditus] longed after you all," gives us in a way the atmosphere in which we find ourselves in the epistle to the Philippians. They had heard Epaphroditus had been sick, and that caused the anxious desire and longing from the human side more than if they had never heard he had been sick. It is the affections drawn out—the affections in operation—the affections of the divine nature. Some folks like to have you think they are sick when they are not! Divine affections are careful not to burden other people unnecessarily.

You see how God used these circumstances: "For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on him." Why did not the apostle rejoice? 0, but there was another side of things. Did God have mercy on him in keeping him out of heaven? For that is what it would have been had he died. But there is another side "God had mercy on him, and not on him only, but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow." One might have said, What is the matter with you, Paul? In the previous part of the epistle you said, "To depart, and be with Christ, which is far better," and now you are talking about sorrow upon sorrow. It is important to keep ballast in that way.

There is a tremendous lack of entering into the actual circumstances of the saints. They think it is spiritual to say, "All things work together for good." It is very easy to say that when it is someone else.

God intends that these circumstances should produce certain results, certain exercises. God allowed this devoted servant, devoted man, Epaphroditus, brother and companion in labor and fellow-soldier, to be so exhausted with that journey that he was nigh unto death. Why did God allow it? It was a journey undertaken in love to the Lord's servant, his fellow- servant. God allowed it at almost the cost of his life. We express that human side a little; some are so spiritual that there is no human side to it. It is that side that pains one. This may have been allowed to happen so that the Philippians might exercise affection—might develop that grace. It had divinely intended results both with the apostle, Epaphroditus, and the Philippians.

Some say that no tears should be shed at a funeral. The Lord Jesus shed tears. It is out of balance. When we go into the presence of death, there are both sides to it. The 3rd of Ezra should be found in all such occasions. Notice verses 11 and 12. How often that little word "but" makes a big change. Now we get what is meant, the 13th verse: "So that the people could not discern the noise." What noise? Weeping and singing commingling: "The noise of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people." There are both sides of it. There is an amazing lack of mingling divine and human sympathy with the people of God; they go together. When we were born again we did not cease to be human and suppose that there was no old nature within. We should be human; human nature has its proper affections and its proper relationships.

Sometimes people say they are dead to nature. Have you a wife and children? Then you are not dead to nature. It is all wrong, a muddling up of things. Scripture does not speak about being dead to nature. That is what we mean by keeping ballast. It is an immense thing to keep the even balance of things. Some of us come short a good ways. It sort of stirs one when you know this attitude is the height of spirituality in their judgment. It is no such thing. "The Lord had mercy on him and not on him only but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow."

Just a word about that scripture, "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." It is while we look not at the things which are seen which are temporal, but at the things which are not seen which are eternal. There are the things the mind is occupied with and set one (2 Cor. 4:16). It is the outward man, frail man, the body giving way. There is nothing sinful about it, just the poor body wearing out, the outward man perishing. The inward man is the new nature. Faith feels and spirituality feels the old tabernacle breaking up. "We know that, if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God" and rejoice that it has one beyond that death will never overtake, that will never break up.

The 25th verse gives us the relationships. First "brother," then "companion"; that is the next best thing. Companionship is what the human heart values and cannot get along without. "It is not good for man that he should be alone," and the heart that does not value human companionship in its proper place has something wrong with it. "My companion in labor," servant, fellow-soldier in conflict . . . "and he that ministered to my wants." We get the Lord giving His aged, imprisoned servant cups of cold water now to cheer him. Look at 2 Timothy 1:15 as a contrast. There is not much cold water in that, is there? There is sorrow, not refreshment. Then look at the contrast in the 16th verse: "The Lord give mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus; for he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain. But, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me." That is very beautiful. I take it from that that he had some difficulty in finding him. Then in the 18th verse we get the apostle's appreciation of that. AU this is about the same time. "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day: and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well." Hebrews 6:10 gives a nice word in regard to love shown toward His Name. There he uses a remarkable expression: "God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love" and desires the keeping of it up. There he uses a bold expression: it would be unrighteous for God to forget.

Now that we are in that passage in Timothy, how do we understand the expression in verse 18 "that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day"? Here in our chapter we find "God had mercy on him." Onesiphorus may have gone up there on a business trip and remembered that this servant was there. It took a good deal of diligence to find him, but he did not give up until he did find him. It is kind of a hidden service, but how much it meant to the apostle when all in Asia were turned away from him. "And in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus thou knowest very well." Ephesus was in Asia. How do we understand "that he will find mercy of the Lord in that day"? We suppose everything will come out, the good and the bad. It is not a question of guilt or anything of that kind, but of the conduct of those who have been brought into relationship.

We might well be ashamed of the bad that will be manifested if it were not that it told out the grace of the Lord, how His grace has been above all our failure. Years ago a sister asked, "Will all the bad come out?" It is in the presence of our badness we know His goodness. In a certain way we shall find our joy in the badness. We could not bear it all in the present state, but when the flesh is gone, it will be different. Another said, "Will our brethren know?" We do not know whether they will or not, but we know they will not care, for there will be no flesh in them and none in you. We really could not say whether others are going to see it all or not. Each will give an account of himself. It is an individual thing; each one has his own record. There is nothing hidden that shall not be manifested.

Luke 12 was just called to our attention. "He began to say unto His disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees,[the Sadducees had bad doctrine] which is hypocrisy. For there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall not be known. Therefore, whatsoever ye have spoken in darkness shall be heard in the light; and that which ye have spoken in the ear in closets shall be proclaimed from the housetops." We get three leavens in Scripture: The leaven of Herod (worldliness), the leaven of the Pharisees (hypocrisy) and the leaven of the Sadducees (bad doctrine).

How thankful in the present day we ought to be for the Word of God which reveals the thoughts and intents of the heart and the consciousness that there is nothing that is not manifest before Him. He knows it all. "Who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise of God." 1 Cor. 4:5; this passage is in connection with stewardship.

It is good to see the value the Lord places on a cup of cold water. In a special way the day of Christ will manifest that. It is important how we find the Lord taking pleasure in the little things and not in big ones. He does not say much about the gifts of millionaires and libraries. Such have their reward in this world, and it is this world and its benefits such givers have before them, nothing about Christ. They do not recognize that God is not occupied with improving the world.

It is good to see Joseph of Arimathea. "Not many noble"—it does not say, not any. His very position kept him from confessing Christ. He was a disciple, but for fear of the Jews he did not confess Him. At the end two godly men, great ones, (we suppose both were members of the Sanhedrin) had charge of the Lord's burial. Just that brought them forward. We get nothing of Joseph until the Lord delivered up His Spirit. Of course, we knew of Nicodemus before. Do you not think the truth as to the death of Christ will test whether a man is a disciple or not? That is one of the tests, also the truth as to the atoning character of the death of Christ. It is not the martyr side, suffering for righteousness, but for atonement from the hand of God. All own He died a martyr's death, but when it comes to dying an atoning death, very likely those very ones will oppose and ridicule.

In pictures they usually show two or three women standing around the cross and at the burial. Joseph had to go and beg for the body. He had to get a written permit from Pilate, as it were. Pilate marvelled if He were already dead, and would not give the body until he knew from the centurion He was dead. There is dignity in those two men, masters in Israel, in charge of the body of Christ. Last week someone called attention to the fact that they came forward after the others had deserted Him. It was of God. Those other poor disciples had no new tomb! That makes it all the more striking. Here is one and he has a tomb already prepared.

There are times when the confession of Christ and the atoning work of Christ test the heart and tell who is who. You get poor simple souls owning Christ as their Saviour who do not know anything intelligently about His death, but when you bring it before them, they own it thankfully. Denial and ignorance are two different things. Many souls have been brought into peace by just resting on what God says, without knowing the value of atonement or anything of that kind, and that is very important in connection with the gospel. Just present that before souls as the truth of God, to be rested upon because His Word is truth. It is a very happy experience to know the ground upon which God can save the poor sinner. The intellect may know all about the ground and never have rested on it. There is a good ring in the hymn:

"Nothing in my hand I bring,
Simply to Thy cross, I cling."

That is a good foundation.

"Receive him therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in reputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death, not regarding his life, to supply your lack of service toward me." They could not go to the post office and put the communication into the mail and send it to Rome; they had to have a messenger to carry it. It is a pretty easy thing now to send communications clear across the ocean and a comparatively easy thing to go yourself with the means of transportation we have. I take it from Philippians 4:18 it might have been quite a little package he had to take. In what way did Epaphroditus supply the Philippians' lack of service? When you communicate with such and such a person, who is going to take it? Communicating is one thing; getting it to the person is another. Sometimes it is a long way even in cities.

It sounds like a little reproach to the Philippians. In the former part of the chapter he says, "But I rejoiced

in the Lord greatly, that now at the last your care of me hath flourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked opportunity." He felt not having heard from them. It was not the gift, but he wanted the affection that the gift expressed. He takes the edge off by saying, "Ye lacked opportunity." "Ye were careful" but needed someone to take it.

Chapter 22

Notes on Readings on Philippians 3:13-18

The New Translation renders the word "apprehended" as "take possession of." It says "Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing—forgetting the things behind." (JND Trans.) The apostle has something before him which he is pressing towards. The word "possession" is simply getting hold of or possessing the apostle for a certain thing, but he had not yet the possession of that thing. The purpose of possessing was that the apostle was to conform him to Himself, to His own glory, either by resurrection from among the dead or by His transforming power when He comes again. Consequently, what the Lord laid hold of him for, possessed him for, he does not yet possess and never will possess until he is glorified in his body.

The state of being absent from the body and present with the Lord is a state that comes in and forms no part of what God had purposed; it is an imperfect state. When the body of humiliation is changed, then he will have possession.

"The prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus" (JND Trans.) is conformity to Christ. That was the prize for him because all through here the Christian is seen as running a race and making for the end. We get the same thing from God's side in the 8th of Romans as we have from Christ's side here. In the 8th of Romans it is God's predestinating us to be conformed to the image of His Son; here it is Christ laying hold of one, possessing one, to be like Himself in glory, the same thing in result. Speaking of running in a race makes one think of a remark of Capt. Trigge's: "Some people ask, What is the harm of wearing a collar? If a collar hinders me, away it goes!" Hebrews 12: "Let us lay aside every weight." In that chapter the Lord is seen as running the course before Him. In the 15th verse of Phil. 3: "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded"; what does that mean? Is not "perfect" in the 15th verse "full-grown"? We take "perfect" in the 15th verse to mean, as many as have this object before them. "This one thing I do"—as many as are in that state of mind. He had just one thing before him, that is, as near perfect as any can be now, to have this object before him and pressing towards it. That is his state of mind and heart: energy and freshness.

What is it in this passage, "wisdom among them that are perfect"? There it is full-grown in contrast to babyhood.

What is the meaning of "forgetting those things that are behind"? Do not let them hinder. One running in a race cannot be looking back. The figure of a racer is used. "Those things that are behind" with the apostle were really those he could glory in as a man in the flesh. No matter what it was, it was behind.

It is remarkable how little the objective character of the gospel is thought of by saints. Take a passage from 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14, "To the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ."It is objective. Here it is the "prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus"— objective. So in the 8th of Romans and a great many other scriptures, "I press"; there is energy.

1 Corinthians 9: another line of truth—there we have energy; 26th and 27th verses: "I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air; but I keep under my body and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway." It is a different line of truth, but a very important line of truth, and it shows the real in contrast to mere profession. "Not as one that beateth the air"—nothing to it. It was a real thing to the apostle. "I keep under my body." We do not always keep under our bodies; it is often trying, but it contemplates things that are really sinful.

The difference in "the prize of the high calling of God" and "the calling on high of God" is important. Any calling of God would be a "high calling" when God called him, the fact that God had called. "The calling on high" is another thing. Abraham's calling was a "high calling" when God called him; but the "calling on high of God in Christ Jesus" is to conformity to and companionship with Christ. Here it is individual—not collective or corporate.

How do we understand the 15th verse? "Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you"? There are differences of judgment. Our differences of judgment tell a tale: that we all have not had Christ before us; that is, if we really and truly are of one mind, having Christ as our Object, God will reveal any differences. John 7:17: "If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine." In the light of this passage what a tale the condition of the church tells: that Christ has not been the Supreme Object.

I think we shall find it increasingly important to have what we have just spoken of, the objective side of truth before us, not the subjective. It is so natural to be occupied with what is subjective. A certain kind of pious feeling leads to it; but it is nothing but the power of the Spirit of God and acknowledging the truth that leads to occupation with objective truth.

Does "subjective" mean what concerns ourselves? Yes, what is going on inside, not leaving behind. All that comes from not ceasing to expect anything from one's self. As long as we expect anything from ourselves, we will always be left. How can a bad tree bring forth good fruit? We have an example of it in the first Christian martyr, stoned to death—gnashed upon with their teeth. "He . . . looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus"; "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit"; "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge." There is moral conformity. The Lord said, "Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit"; He prayed for His murderers first: "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do." Stephen's was moral conformity. Had he been occupied with the wicked side of it, it would have led him to say, "How long, 0 Lord, before Thou wilt avenge?"

How are Christians to take the exhortations that are subjective? It is to occupy us with objective truth. Take for instance, Colossians: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved"; start from this point: "holy and beloved." The thing is to "put on" according to that objective truth. "Put on therefore"—it is a wonderful passage.

There is another thing: occupation with Christ in glory conforms to Christ in humiliation. 2 Corinthians: "We all, with open[unveiled] face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory"—objective again, but the subjective is the result of the objective: "Beholding the glory of the Lord" as in a mirror.

The 16th verse is important. "Nevertheless"—whatever the state, let us walk according to what we have, and when that is the state, we will get more. Consequently, there is growth in walking according to the truth we already have to begin with. A soul says, I am saved, born again, walk according to that truth. That is individual truth, but you will be led on to corporate truth: that God has a family, and we are His household and members of Christ's body; that is another thing—a corporate thing. All is not learned at once.

Presently we will all be around the table to remember the Lord to partake of the emblems of the Lord's death—have the same precious Saviour before us. Some of us have been there for many years and some for only a short time, but it is the same thing to all. Degrees of apprehension is another thing, but it is the same thing: all have been made to drink into one Spirit. God does not expect as much from one who has been there one year as from one who has been there many years. He is remembering the Lord, and perhaps it is more to his heart than to the one who has been there much longer. God would occupy us with the same Person, leading both on and keeping the same Object before each one.

There is another thing: we find the apostle is no stranger to tears. He shed tears over the saints of God. Acts 20, 2 Corinthians 2, and our passage here illustrate what is meant in 2 Corinthians when he says, "out of anguish of heart and many tears"; so he wrote to them. He had gone in and out among those at Ephesus for a number of years. "By the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears." (Acts 20:31.) "Of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping" (Phil. 3:18). These were not of the outside world but saints of God, earthly minded, selfish Christians that called forth these tears. "Many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies (not of Christ] of the cross of Christ."

We have called attention a number of times to the fact that in Scripture the death, blood and cross of Christ are all found in connection with certain lines of truth, and that the cross in this way is in connection with the world: "God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world" (Gal. 6:14). Also the 12th verse: "As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ." It is the end of man in the flesh as connected with the world. We have here in our passage—"enemies of the cross." Enemies of the death or enemies of the blood would not do, but of the cross. How solemn and beautiful—"enemies of the cross." The truth as to the cross of Christ is little known. We do not say the truth as to the death and the blood, but as to the cross and its use in Scripture. The cross has separated us from this world and the world from us, and in the cross the world is a judged thing.

We begin by being sheltered from judgment under the blood; God does not leave us there; He takes us through the Red Sea; that is deliverance from Pharaoh and Egypt, then the wilderness and that is where the cross comes in. That truth as to the cross is very important. When the Red Sea closed upon their enemies, it shut them out of Egypt. If it shut them out of Egypt it left them in the wilderness. That is where the truth of the cross comes in.

We find ourselves content, as it were, to be sheltered from judgment under the blood of Christ. The cedar wood, hyssop and scarlet were cast into the fire that consumed the victim (Numbers 19). Cedar wood speaks of earthly glory—the glory of Lebanon—man at his best estate. The hyssop is man at his lowest. There is a mighty contrast in that little hyssop and the mighty cedar, the whole range cast into the fire. That is the cross.

Chapter 23

The Will of God, the Work of His Son, the Testimony
of the Holy Spirit in Hebrews 10:1-25

Hebrews 10:1-25: This is a rich portion from the Word of God. What was God doing there in the days of old with that people of His, before His Son came? What did that tabernacle mean? What did that redemption from Egypt mean? What did God mean in bringing them through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, through the land, giving them the tabernacle for its sacrifices, and continuing with them after they had gotten into the land? What was God doing there? He was shadowing forth. And there is very little perhaps one might say, almost nothing, in all that economy that has not a typical bearing—God foreshadowing His Son. Ever and anon, it is Christ and His work.

Christ is the key to the Old Testament as well as the New. As a passage in 2 Corinthians says, "Now where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." The Spirit of the Old Testament is the shadowing forth of Christ. It is only when the Christian gets to see those things' symbolizing and typifying by it, that the Old Testament becomes interesting to him.

The Old Testament, in a measure, is otherwise a dry book, but when one gets the Spirit of Christ in it, it becomes just the opposite. From that wonderful tabernacle and those various sacrifices the Christian gathers rich fruit in what God was typifying. What is God typifying now? What is God shadowing forth now, since redemption is accomplished and the Redeemer has gone to heaven? Nothing. The days of types and shadows are gone; He had fulfilled its mission, and now it is not type and shadow, but eternal realities. In Hebrews we find again and again that word, "eternal." And that is in contrast in this book with what is temporal. So God is dealing in eternal realities now. God is speaking of eternal realities. What is before you as a sinner, and what is before another as a saint, before you both, saint and sinner, is eternal.

He says here, "The law having a shadow of good things to come,"—and they have come. It was a shadow; it was not an image. Some of them were very sweet in types, but still they were not an image; they were not perfect. There is another thing found in this Epistle, and that is "perfected."

Just by way of introducing to us our chapter, there are three things especially in this chapter to which one would call attention: the will of God, the work of His Son, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. It is very important to remember those three things when reading the book of Hebrews.

This scripture has a precious place in our hearts; it is a solemn thing. Are not those three things blessed and solemn? It is a great thing, and the Christian loves to dwell on it, that the source of all his blessing as a Christian, now and to come, is the will of God. The source is the will of God.

Let us refer to the 2nd chapter of this Epistle: that by the grace of God He should taste death for everyone. The grace of God and the death of Christ are two wonderful things. There is food for meditation in those two things. The grace of God is the source of all blessing. What is the channel through which the blessing reaches us? Of course, it is the death of His Son. Before the death of His Son, the blessing was all there treasured in the heart of God, but it could not flow forth. There was something in the way of His blessing in the fulness of His nature. It is God's nature to bless; He delights to bless, but all that, as it were, was barred. There was a barrier that kept it from flowing forth, and that barrier was S-I-N. The thing to bring about was first of all to take away sin.

The Israelites had all these sacrifices; all had divine origin. All those sacrifices which Israel had, had their origin in God Himself, and they offered them in obedience to His Word. It was impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin. Sin stood in the way. It does not stand in the way now; the barrier has been removed. We ask when, and by what? It was when the Saviour died. The Saviour's death, as brought before us in Matthew 27 signifies: "Jesus, when He had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom . . . ."It tells that sin had been atoned for. In the gospel of Matthew, God is making heaven, earth, and death respond to the power of the death of Christ. Above, the whole veil of the temple was rent, and below, the earth did quake, the rocks rent. That was the most solid part of the earth, but it was overwhelmed by His death. The graves were opened, and many of the saints came out of their graves after His resurrection. The death of Christ did that.

In the thoughts of God, and in the thoughts of His people there is nothing like that death and never can be. All God's rich blessing had been treasured up, but sin stood there in spite of those sacrifices for it was not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats could take away sin.

Sometimes the will of God is spoken of in its absolute character, sometimes, in the desire. "God who will have all men to be saved"—that is not its absolute character, but that is the desire of God, to get all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim. 2:4).

Here we find that that Will had a desire to have a sanctified people, which means a people set apart to Himself, a people that He can connect His Name with, and not only connect His Name with, but find His joy in—a people that He can love, not as He loves the poor sinner, with pity and compassion, but that He can delight in, having set them apart. And how does He accomplish that? All are sinners. How is He going to separate people unto Himself? God's people are always a separated people, according to their calling, both Israel and the church. Take, for example, the first command to Israel: "Lo, the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations" (Num. 23:9). They are a separated and sanctified people. How is He going to come to a world full of sinners and set apart a people for Himself—for that is what He wants to do, and that is what He has done. "By the which will (that is the source here of the believer's sanctification) we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once ...." God has a sanctified, a separated people, that are set apart to Himself on the ground of the sacrifice of Christ.

Sanctification is spoken of in different ways in Scripture, but it always means separation. Sometimes it is spoken of, as in our chapter, as an accomplished thing, and that accomplished thing is a perfect sanctification. When it says, "For this is the will of God, even your sanctification . . ." that is what we call progressive, growing sanctification. In the former it is classified as meaning absolute sanctification, having its source in the will of God, and it is myself, the work of Christ. It is positional sanctification. Progressive sanctification is growing more and more in the knowledge of God and like Christ.

The sanctification spoken of here is absolute, perfected forever, and there the believer stands answering to the will of God in His eyes sanctified and brought into the place in all the infinite merits and worth of the work of Christ. "By the which will we are sanctified . .."—perfected forever—that is, accomplished, and in the perfection of it, the sanctified one stands. In it he rejoices. He thinks with an adoring heart, of the source of that sanctification—the will of God and the sacrifice of Christ.

If those sacrifices originated with the heart of God, why not offer for sin? That is the argument in this chapter: ". . . There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins." Our sins have been atoned for, met their desert. If they had not been atoned for, God would tell you to offer sacrifices for sin. Will the Saviour ever be on the cross again? Suppose that such a thing were possible, it would tell that that one offering was not sufficient. What a glorious truth it is that our blessed Saviour will never have to die for us again. All our sins are atoned for. There is no more sacrifice for sins. Because the Lord made that one sacrifice, there is no more sacrifice for sins for the Christian, but there is happy, holy remembrance of that one sacrifice, and there is now nothing as a veil before God.

There are two ordinances for Christians: baptism and the remembrance of the Lord's supper. There is no value in either to atone for sin, but they tell that sin has been atoned for. Both of those ordinances speak of death, the death of Christ. Thus we can see why God is not now sacrificing for sin. God is bringing in now a rich, eternal blessing. Type and shadow are gone. As it says in another epistle, we have not the type nor the shadow, but the substance (Col. 2:17).

Why is it that the one offering of Christ could do what all those many many offerings of the Jews could never do? By "that one offering," of course, we mean the atoning work of the cross. Why is it? Think who it was who died a sacrifice for sins. It is that which gives value to what He did, then of the sacrifice when He said, "Lo, I come ..." Who could that be, volunteering Himself to do that which all those sacrifices had failed to do? Who was that? Whose voice can we hear saying, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God"? Think for a moment. Who was it? Ah, that was the Son of God, One at liberty and competent to do what He volunteered to do, One who fully knew what it would be to undertake to put away sin. His estimating what that would be, estimating so justly what it would be, was an evidence of His fitness to atone for it.

What was the Lord Jesus doing in the Garden of Gethsemane when He agonized in prayer, sweating as it were, great drops of blood? Atoning for sin? No, what then? He was realizing what it would mean to drink the cup of death from the hand of God; and all that agony, those tears, as we read in Hebrews, came from the depths of His soul. "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." That tells very blessedly that God could look upon that One, and did look down upon Him, and realize: "Ah, there is One who estimates sin according to its true nature in My sight." Some do not understand Gethsemane in that way at all. There He weighs and anticipates going through all in communion with God. There is another party there, that is Satan, who was pressing upon the blessed Lord what it would mean to drink the cup of death from God's hand. Why did Satan do that? Just for this: Satan knew that if he could get the blessed Saviour to refuse that cup, sin was unatoned for. Atonement for sin was made on Calvary's cross, in the last three hours of Calvary's cross. So that is what the blessed Lord was doing there in Gethsemane. He was just anticipating. When a sinner is brought to repentance under the grace of God, he tastes just a little of what the Lord felt in Gethsemane perfectly. When a pious sinner is brought to realize himself in the presence of God, the terror in his soul is, in a small measure, the kind of terror that the Lord experienced in Gethsemane. But the Lord went on and bore the judgment. So when a poor sinner has learned rightly what sin is, it gives him a little taste. But there is One who bore all of what sin is.

One loves to put together, "cried with a loud voice" and "the veil of the temple was rent." Why was the veil of the temple rent? Was it rent for God in mercy to come out to poor sinners? No, God has done that in Christ. Well then, why was the veil rent? This very chapter tells us that the way into the holiest was made manifest by the blood of Jesus; that is, as it were, God is throwing open heaven for poor sinners. "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh; and having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith . . . ." What do you think this means? A true heart fully assured by faith comes boldly, but with reverent boldness, and that is to give credit to the value of the blood of Christ. When God opened those heavens, the door of His house, in that way, that we might go into it according to all that He is in His nature, the way there is like this: God sits upon His throne, and He says, "Come near"—that is the Majesty of God. And so he who enters that Presence by the blood of Jesus, enters boldly. And the blessed God rejoices in the work that set Him at liberty to throw the heavens open in that way. When you and I get into heaven, we will go on the ground that Christ died and opened the way into the presence of God.

Where is Christ now? He is on the throne. There He is sitting in the presence of God. Why does it say, "From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool"? Why does He talk about His enemies, as making them His footstool? He means bringing them into subjection. He has nothing more to do for His friends. He is waiting and expecting to bring judgment upon His enemies, those who do not receive Him. (Dear unsaved one, not having received Christ as your Saviour, you, in your various characteristics as a sinner, take warning that you are an enemy of God and of Christ, and that Christ is going to execute judgment upon His enemies—all those are His enemies who have not received Him as their Saviour.)

Referring back to "Lo, I come to do Thy will, 0 God," it does not say, "Father" there, but it says, "God." There are other scriptures that tell us of the Father's will, but when Christ went to meet God on the cross about our sins, He did not go to meet Him as His Father. When He atoned for our sins before God, He atoned before God as such; for it is against God as such that we have sinned, and it is with God a sinner has to do. If you receive His Son as Saviour, you become His child; but if ever you have to meet Him about your sins, you will have to meet Him as God. "Every knee shall bow ... and every tongue shall confess to God." He found Himself having to do with God about sin. I think it is important to remember that. It was from the hand of God as God, the Saviour suffered for my sins upon the cross.

We think of the majesty and the glory—the personal majesty and glory—of the One who would volunteer Himself, "Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God." He came and made atonement for sin. Now God has a sanctified people. If you are a believer on the Lord Jesus and the competency of His offering for sin, in short, if you are a child of God, you are numbered among His sanctified people; and God says that sanctification, that separation to Myself, is not according to your conduct, but according to the value of the work of My Son. I have something else to say to you about your ways, but that has to do with your conduct, but not here. Here all is judicial, that is, having to do with God as a Judge. We all have to do with God as a Judge the first time that we have to do with Him.

Preachers do not insist upon that enough. We may have to be a little critical sometimes, but we do see the necessity of making men see God as God. Increasingly, man is exalted in his own eyes, to his lasting and eternal ruin, and to the dishonor of God's Son and Himself and of the work of Christ. If the Lord delays the subduing of His enemies another two decades, the doctrine of the sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin will well-nigh have gone from the earth as a doctrine, as a truth of God. People talk about "signs of the times," and they talk about Matthew 24 and part of 25, Matthew 13, Luke 21, and such scriptures, but they do not know about 2 Timothy 3. All those signs there have to do with an earthly people and in their primary aspect; the Christian has nothing to do with them. The signs that we have are the signs given in 2 Timothy 3. At the end of our portion here, we read, "So much the more as ye see the day approaching." Heb. 10:25. It is the day of apostasy. Apostasy is the sin in the Epistle to the Hebrews, and there is no remedy for sin for one who takes the place of being a Christian. If he falls into sin, there is no remedy for him. There is no provision in Hebrews for a believer sinning, and the only Epistle that does make provision for a believer sinning is the 1st Epistle of John. It shows how differently God looks at things.

One's heart sinks within him; we would not desire to occupy you with evil, but we grieve upon seeing that the sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is rapidly dropping from people's minds. In how many of these large churches here in the city of St. Louis, if we would attend tonight, would we hear someone say, "The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin"? We fear but few. We might get into some little outside meeting and hear some "nobody," as the people think, telling gladly that "The blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanseth us from all sin," and proclaiming loudly the need of atonement by death.

Then there is another sad condition. In several instances, that is, where the sacrifice of Christ is not denied, it is ignored. You can talk with people who take the ground of being Christians—one hopes they are—and they will talk and talk. Presently you will say, "What about the death of Christ? You never mentioned that until your attention was called to it; and the Word of God tells me you were telling out what was in your heart. 'For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.' Matthew 12:34. Now if you had been full of the sacrifice of Christ, you would have been talking about it, and you never mentioned it." That is very sad. Do not forget that this little index tells what is in the heart, and that it is the index of the heart, according to the Scriptures. Often we talk too much to people in place of letting them talk, and so we do not get a good diagnosis. Just let them talk some, "For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Then we can get a real diagnosis of their state of soul and know how to minister to it.

Perhaps this tenth chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews has not its equal in all the Word of God as to the value of Christ. It goes on "by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified"—perfected forever by one offering. Think of that mighty offering—perfected forever. What gave it value? It was Christ making the sacrifice. It was the Son of God making the sacrifice.

"Well might the sun in darkness hide:
And shut its glory in,
When the Incarnate Maker died."

O, the work that was in the sight of God—darkness over all the land, and alone—absolutely alone—in the darkness. No place in heaven or on earth but in a place between the two hung the Saviour. He hung there between heaven and earth—heaven over His head and earth beneath Him—alone, forsaken of God and of man. The only One who has ever known, or will know, so far as we get it from Scripture, what absolute abandonment is! He was alone between heaven and earth. The Son of God it was who was there. He who knew no sin was being made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. There is a verse in a hymn,

"I stand upon His merit,
I know no safer stand!"

We sang that one sixty-five years ago, and when it comes to standing before God, the ground is the same:

"I stand upon His merit,
I know no safer stand;
Not e'en where glory dwelleth,
In Immanuel's land."

Oh, the precious sacrifice of Christ! Thank God, there is One who can rightly estimate it, and that was the One to whom the sacrifice was made.

In the preceding chapter there are a few verses in contrast, not in comparison. He said, "For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer . . ." Those three offerings spoke in a special way of the one sacrifice. Here he quotes those verses:

"For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" It was "dead works" for the Jew, and wicked ones for the Gentile, but the conscience has been purged for both, and the believer is one who has a purged conscience. All sins have been atoned for from the judicial standpoint.

As we said just now, there was Christ on the cross between heaven and earth; now He is in heaven, in the value of what He did, not simply on account of His own Person, but in the value of what He did for God's glory here on earth. Before He came here, He was there as God's coequal. But He was not there as a representative in behalf of others. He was there in the glory and riches of His own Person; now He is there as the One who made atonement for sins, for the sinner's sins. He came to do the will of God. He did it, and God is glorified.

Now, what about the Holy Spirit? In verses 14 and 15 it says, "For by one offering He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a Witness . . . ." There is One who came down, and came down to bear witness, and to tell of the value of His work, "Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a Witness to us: for after that He had said before, This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them. And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. "

Perhaps we had better say a word here about "the new covenant." Of course, the believer is not under the new, nor under any covenant, but he gets one of the blessings of the new covenant. One of the blessings which he gets is the forgiveness of sins; that is a part of the new covenant. When the Jew gets the blessing of the new covenant and the forgiveness of sins, God will do something with his heart; He will put His laws into their minds and write them in their hearts, and then what a happy work it will be. Their sins and iniquities will He remember no more. God's laws will be put into their minds and written in their hearts—happy people!

Your sins and mine, dear Christian, are remembered no more. But is He looking to you to keep His law? No, He is looking to see Christ in you. As we learn from another scripture, all our sins are gone; now He looks to see the life of the One who did this for us.

The Holy Spirit is bearing witness to the value of the work of Christ. Here He says, "Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more." They are all gone, forgiven in the value of the work of Christ.

Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,
Could give the guilty conscience peace,
Or wash away its stain.

But Christ the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away,
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.

Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear,
When hanging on th'accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there.

Believing we rejoice
To see the curse remove;
And bless the Lamb with cheerful voice,
And sing redeeming love."

Chapter 24

Moses Refusing, Choosing, Esteeming and Forsaking
Hebrews 11:24-30

This whole chapter brings the varied phases of faith before us, and here we have the "refusing, choosing, esteeming" of Moses—and the "forsaking."

"By faith Moses when he was come to years"—that is maturity. Some translate it "when he became of age"—gained his maturity—the forty years. "By faith Moses when he was come to years, refused." A very few of us have come to years as Christians. We remain as it were at a certain kind of childhood—infancy, that is spiritually. We get that referred to in Corinthians and in another part of this epistle. The apostle said to the Corinthians, "I...could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ." There it is: babes in a sense of a state of weakness, or weakling. In the 5th chapter of Hebrews we read, "When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For everyone that useth milk is unskillful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe."

There is a test as to how near we have come to our maturity, come to years. It is a simple test, a very trying one: "By faith, when he was come to years, refused." He refused "to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter." He was brought up there in all the luxury and all the learning: "Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians." He has been in that house—that court—for forty years. He knew little or nothing outside of it. All at once he refuses, turns his back on the whole thing. He has come to years, and faith comes to years in that way, refuses in different ways, this poor world and all that it has to give. "Egypt" is the power of the world, and in that way we feel that it is a simple but searching test. Do we not feel our own infancy and the lack of coming to years?

The child of God should be continually growing. It says, "growing by the true knowledge of God" (JND Trans.). The actions of faith, or the path of faith, to the wisdom of this world is a very foolish thing. He would give up one thing and choose another. He gave up all that the world had to give; all that he was heir to as the son of Pharaoh's daughter! A child of the court of Egypt. What did he choose? That is very striking: "Rather to suffer affliction with the people of God." Now it may seem contradictory, a paradox, to say in one breath, as it were, a foolish, but wise course. You can hardly put those two things together. But from the standpoint of human wisdom what a foolish thing to give up the palatial home—that place in Pharaoh's court, as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Here is a grown man now, able to enjoy it all, and he gave it up to identify himself with a suffering and afflicted people.

God was unknown in the court of Pharaoh. Whatever else might have been there, God was unknown in the court of Pharaoh. The Pharaoh of Genesis and the Pharaoh of Exodus are two different generations of Pharaohs morally. It says, "There arose another Pharaoh that knew not Joseph." In the time of Joseph, Egypt was friendly to the people of God, but in the time of Moses, Egypt was the oppressor of the people of God. They were an afflicted people, a nation of slaves. But faith never forms a wrong judgment whatever appearances might be. Faith is faith and always gets the mind of God.

"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God." One says, "Wise and happy choice." What is the portion of the people of God in this world? Affliction. The path of faith always has been and always will be, in this world, a path of difficulty. There is no faith in heaven, but God's people as His people are an afflicted people. Then the great thing to know is how far we are willing to make this path of faith a path of choice. That is what we are called to. "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God." God's people, to our shame and loss, have become so identified with the world that we do not know the affliction that is our due from the hand of the world, if we were faithful to our calling. There is such joining of hand in hand with Christians and the world or the church and the world—walking together. The communion, the intercourse with God, the spiritual or godly intelligence that should characterize us as the children of God is unknown in that path of walking hand in hand with the world, but it takes energy to make this choice. That is why we said at the opening that so few of us have come to years in spiritual experience.

"Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy." He gave up enjoyment, and such enjoyment, enjoyment of the court of Pharaoh, that place of dignity—known and called the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He gave it up, "Choosing rather to suffer affliction .. . than to enjoy the pleasures of"—WHAT? SIN. Naturally, we all, every one of us, love the pleasures of sin. They are pleasant. They last "FOR A SEASON"—and a very short season.

Just now some lines come to mind from the "Little Flock" hymn book before it was revised. That hymn is not in the book now; it was taken out in 1881. The hymn began:

"How happy every child of grace,
Whose sins are all forgiven;
'This world,' he cries, 'is not my place
My happy home's in heaven.' "

Its evils in a moment end
Its joys as soon are past,
But all the bliss to which I tend
Eternally will last."

How transient! "The pleasures of sin which are but for a season" are given up for a path of affliction, the normal path for the child of God through this world. We often see the poor world looking upon us with pity and saying, "You do not know what you are losing." The path of faith is to this world a path of folly, but at the same time, while the poor world pities us, or the children of this world pity us, we pity them, and we say, "You do not know what you are losing."

When the prodigal in the far country came to the end of his own resources, he found degradation for his position and calling, and he found husks for his food. And that is all that this poor world has to give us. We crave it, but after all, it proves to be husks.

Many years ago a little article appeared in a well-known publication of those days called, "Things New and Old." In it a servant of God was giving an address to the young, and he alluded to Nelson's Monument in Trafalgar Square; some of us have seen it. It is quite a monument. But come closer home and go to Washington's monument in Washington. That is a monument to Washington, is it not? Nelson's monument is a monument to Nelson, but where is Nelson? Where is Washington? They are monuments to dead men. The very fact that the world raised monuments to them is a pretty sure proof that they held a pretty good place in its esteem. On the other hand, it is just as sure a proof that they knew very little of identification with the people of God. They do not raise monuments to living people but to dead, and as we often say, these monuments are to those who are where the monuments are not. We just refer to this to show "the pleasures of sin which are for a season."

Who ever thought of raising a monument to St. Paul? Not one of those apostles came to a natural death so far as we know. What has changed things so? Has the truth changed? Has the character of the Christian's calling changed? What has changed then? The Christian has identified himself with the world. The church of God which bears God's Name—the Name of Christ in this world—has a marked place in it, a place it never would have had had there been faithfulness. What the Lord says in Luke 12 would have been characteristic of them: "Fear not, little flock." Is Christendom a "little flock"?

All this tells us that a vast majority of us have not come to years. We have not known what it is to choose the path of the people of God, which is a path of affliction. "Pleasures of sin for a season," and as we have already said, at the longest, it is a short season after all. If the Lord tarry, many of us will soon be gone, but what are seventy-nine or eighty years compared to eternity? That is the proper way to estimate. Look things squarely in the face, and that is what the wisdom of faith does and makes its choice. That is a striking verse from the pen, as it were, of the Spirit of God: "Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season." When the Lord Jesus was about to leave the world, He left two things: "In the world ye shall have tribulation." It is not "Ye may have." Then He says, "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give unto you." There is a peace outside of all, peace in and through the tribulation. The apostle speaks to some young converts exhorting them that "through much tribulation ye must enter the kingdom of God." Why has the path of the children of God ceased to be a path of tribulation? It is because they got out of it. We all know it.

The next thing is, "Faith esteems." As we have said, Faith never makes a mistake. It is unbelief that makes mistakes. Esteeming what? "The reproach of Christ." That is a remarkable word: reproach of Christ. That is the character the Spirit of God gives to the suffering of the people of God, but that tells what the world is. We often say, to illustrate it, suppose you are on a train or streetcar, does it, or does it not take courage to take out your Testament and read it? If people see you reading your Bible on a streetcar or train, you are a marked man. That very fact isolates you. That all tells what the world is. You would not need courage to read your Bible in heaven, but you do here, and to confess the Name of Christ will bring reproach. It tells us what a difference there is between the earth and heaven—"Reproach of Christ." "They rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His sake." We should take these things to ourselves. We almost envy some (it may be natural courage) in tract distribution. We know it takes courage on our part, but that all tells, don't you see, the difference between this world and heaven. In heaven there will be no such thing as bearing reproach for Christ's sake. It is impossible. "If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye" (1 Peter 4:14).

We read, "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." When the treasures of Egypt, and those who have possessed them have passed away, we will be enjoying the blessed and eternal result of having suffered reproach for Him.

Mr. Darby once remarked that the only man who is ashamed of his religion in this world is the man who has the true one. He said a Mohammedan will take his mat and drop down on his knees and pray. It is the Name of Christ that brings reproach. Who is ashamed to speak of President Lincoln or Grant in the company of the world? No one. It is an honor to be able to do so. But go into that same company and make mention of the Name of Christ. At once you feel you are out of place, and that Name has no place there. "The reproach of Christ." "If ye be reproached for the Name of Christ" 1 Peter 4:14. "If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you" John 15:20.

"For he had respect to the recompence of the reward." Faith looks on. Faith is wise. Faith says, "The pleasures of sin are for a season; the reward for the reproach of Christ is enduring." Notice the thought of that hymn of old Dr. Watts. "Ashamed of Jesus" is the beginning of each verse. How came Watts to write that hymn, "Ashamed of Jesus"? He felt it a little.

"Ashamed of Jesus, that dear Friend,
On Whom my hopes for heaven depend."

He felt the shame connected with it.

Notice verse 27: "By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing Him who is invisible." If we turn our backs on the world, we will get its wrath. Go on with it, seek to help it and improve it, and we will not. Take the place of a stranger or pilgrim just passing through. "Not fearing the wrath of the king." That is very striking, is it not? "Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you... and say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven." Is that not Matthew 5? "Shall put you out of their company" another passage says. If we are faithful to Christ, we will get the world's cold shoulder.

We might, just for a moment, refer to the last assembly addressed by the Lord, in the 3rd of Revelation. That is intensely solemn. So to speak, the Lord has just one thing to complain of, and that is He has the outside place. There it is Christian profession. "Thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of Me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see . . . . Behold, I stand at the door and knock." He is not knocking at a sinner's heart but at the heart of a Christless professor. It may even be the heart of a true Christian where the Lord has lost His place in the heart and affections. "If any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him." It does not say, "I will save him," but "sup with him and he with me"—communion.

Another thing—a strange thing, too: "For he [Moses] endured" (it was not a momentary thing,) "he endured as seeing Him" (who cannot be seen) "who is invisible." Faith has to do with an Unseen One. "For he endured as seeing Him who is invisible." What can sustain us in this path of faith? We are enabled to endure by just having that One, "Whom having not seen we love," before us, "seeing Him who is invisible." We often say that the Christian is like the bee. The bee is a most wonderful little creature. It has two sets of eyes. One set it uses when it goes out and gathers the nectar from the flowers. There are no windows in the hive; it is all dark in there so it needs the other set when it goes in to put the nectar in place inside. So it is with the Christian. He not only has natural sight, but spiritual sight; has the eyes of faith. "The things which are seen (seen with the natural vision) are temporal" things. "The things which are not seen are eternal." "While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen." "Endured as seeing Him who is invisible."

Moses was a remarkable servant of the Lord. Faith led him to do and sustained him in it. Moses has been seen in glory with Christ since, and that is where enduring "as seeing Him who is invisible" will end, with all the children of faith—in glory with Christ. It is the reproach of Christ now; it will be in glory with Christ presently.

Chapter 25

Notes on Readings on Hebrews 11:32-40

In this portion the apostle gives a kind of general summary. To give details of each would take a great deal of time and space. Thus he gives us five of the Judges and one King. Of course, we get their history in the historical books.

In general the path of faith always has been and always will be a path of suffering. Faith is something that the world knows nothing about. It goes on with the things which are seen and is little troubled or little exercised about the things which are not seen. It says the future will have to take care of itself: "I have not time for the future; I have all I can do to attend to the present." That is one snare of Satan. God is now continually calling attention to the unseen things. It says, "The things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." And God is speaking to men of that eternal future. But today, in a special way, all man's energy is absorbed with the present. It is a day of pressure in that way to keep abreast of the times in business, social life and in intellectual pursuits.

In the parable of the sower, the Lord gives us four kinds of ground upon which the seed falls: the wayside, stony ground, among thorns, and into good ground. Only one out of the four became fruitful. With some it is the cares of this life (that is always mentioned first) and they are many and heavy. With others it is the deceitfulness of riches; that is another thing. They are a deceitful thing. Then there is the lust of other things, springing up and choking the Word, and it becomes unfruitful. How well the blessed Lord, all those ages ago, depicted the truth as to the sowing of God's Word. God goes on sowing—speaking to man—and will till the day of grace closes.

The Lord tells us the character of the ground that receives the Word of God effectively: "In an honest and good heart"—uprightness before God—honesty before Him in the reception of His Word. That brings forth fruit, not always in the same proportion, "some thirty, some sixty, and some an hundred," but where the Word of God is received in truth there is always fruit; it may be thirty, or sixty, or a hundredfold. Then there is another important thing: God is Judge of what is fruit. You and I might think such and such an one was bearing fruit an hundredfold and another one perhaps only thirty, while in God's sight that one might be bringing forth an hundredfold and the other only thirty.

What is acceptable to God is obedience to His truth. There may be often a great deal of outward energy, the flesh entering in a great deal but not submitting to the ways of God. Here is a saint bed-ridden year after year, and we are apt to think there is little opportunity for testimony or bringing fruit to God. But when the end comes, that one has borne more because there is submission to His will. I think just at this moment of one we know. We have known her now between thirty and thirty-five years ever since the affliction began with her (dreadful rheumatism). She is helpless now, but the poor dear soul seems to be submissive to God's ways with her. There is another in T. afflicted in the same way, but so far as we can see,

there is submission to the will of God. One of the poets has said, "They also serve, who only stand and wait."

Peter said to the Lord, "We have left all and followed Thee; what shall we have therefore?" The Lord tells Peter that He will not be his debtor; but he will get an hundredfold. But at the end the Lord says, though He does not mention Peter, "They that are first shall be last, and the last first." There are a number who have left more than you have, Peter, and have not said a word about it. It is not really according to grace or love to be counting what we have given up for the Lord. What He enjoys is our realization of what He gave up for us. That is fruit. That is our true pride and joy.

So you see we get all these different cases: some of weakness, some of power. "Stopped the mouths of lions"—that is Daniel. "Quenched the violence of fire"—that is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. "Women received their dead raised to life again"— that was the widow in 1 Kings 17 and the woman in 2 Kings 4.

Notice 1 Kings 17:17-24. In the 18th verse she blames God's servant, but God's hand was in it for the exercise and blessing of the poor woman.

In 2 Kings 4:8-37 is the account of the Shunammite's son. The Shunammite woman had received the child in answer to the prayer of Elisha, but he suffered a sun stroke. In the first part of the chapter we read that they had great possessions but no child. Those cases are very instructive, the Lord exercising those great servants of His, both Elisha and Elijah, bringing them into the presence of death and making them to feel their helplessness, honored servants as they were. Contrast these with the Lord Jesus raising the dead. Notice how gradually it is done both by Elijah and Elisha. In the case of the Lord Jesus, "Maid, I say unto thee, Arise." That is all, and she sat and He commanded them to give her something to eat. He was no Elijah or Elisha. So to the young man on the way to the tomb, "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." The dead sat up. Lazarus was in the tomb and the Lord said, "Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth." With these honored servants of God it was very different.

You know about Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego; and you know about Daniel in the den of lions: "My God hath sent His angel and...shut the lions' mouths." You know about the victory of Jephthah, Gideon, Barak. All these examples of faith, both in suffering and power, are brought us to encourage those still in the path of faith.

Then there is another class that endured suffering and scourging, who did not get deliverance and did not give up, "Not accepting deliverance." We rather think from the 36th verse on we have the suffering of the Macabees; you know what suffering they went through.

Then we get another remarkable word, parenthetic too, in the 38th verse: "Of whom the world was not worthy." The world did not think them worthy of it, and God did not think the world worthy of them, "Of whom the world was not worthy." That is God's estimate of these outcast and suffering ones.

Nothing in general can be more directly opposed, diametrically opposed, than the thoughts of the world and the thoughts of God. "Of whom the world was not worthy." Tliey hold on you see: "And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise." They died in faith. Now what was the promise? Look at Hebrews 10:32: "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions." Verses 9 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise." What is that? The next verse tells us: "For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry." We get the patience and power of faith constantly and in different ways, patience in suffering, and so on.

Then we get the reason in the last verse of our chapter, and that is very remarkable. These worthies he speaks of, those of whom the world was not worthy, obtained a good report [record] by faith, but received not the promise, "God having provided [foreseen] some b-e-t-t-e-r thing for us." What is that? That is one of the incidental evidences why the apostle Paul wrote this epistle. The apostle Paul had the precious truth of the church, "that they without us should not be made perfect."

What is "perfect" there? They are gone to heaven, resting with the Lord long since, but they are not perfect. "Oh," you say, "can anything imperfect be in God's presence?" They are absent from the body and present with the Lord, but they are in what is called in another scripture in an "unclothed state," and "being made perfect" here is resurrection. When God made man, He did not make him without a body, and death is a thing that has come in by and by and separates a man from his body, strips him of his body, and there he is naked, without his body. Resurrection comes and all get perfection. Man is clothed again with his body, and clothed then, when resurrection comes, with a body that will never know death. He has a soul that will never die now; he has not yet a body that will never die. All this is developed and enlarged upon in another scripture.

"Not for that we would be unclothed," 2 Cor. 5:4. If death does come, it comes, and it is very blessed. It is "far better to depart and be with Christ," but it is not what we want. "Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life." That is what will take place in the resurrection, clothed with immortal and incorruptible bodies, spiritual bodies.

Is that the same as the celestial body? That passage in 1 Corinthians 15:39-44 is speaking of the sun, moon, and stars: "All flesh is not the same flash: but there is one kind of flesh of men, another flesh of beasts, another of fishes, and another of birds. There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another, There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; for one star differeth from another star in glory." What we have before us is in this 42nd verse: "So also is the resurrection of [from among] the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory: It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power: it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body." We often read that at a burial. We lower the body into the grave; it is already going to decay. It is hidden in a mass of flowers and the fragrance is beautiful, but it is already going to decay. "Sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption." Here it is the body raised. "It is sown a natural body," that is, this body. "It is raised a spiritual body."

What is a "spiritual body"? "The natural body" is this body sustained by natural life. We have a life in common with the lower creatures. The life of the ox and sheep is blood, and my life is blood, too—a body sustained in this natural way. The "spiritual" body is the same body raised from the dead but sustained by a spiritual life, not natural life. We have an idea that the spiritual body is immaterial; it is just as material as this one. Indeed it is the same. "Handle Me, and see;" the Lord said, "for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me have" (not flesh and blood).

What is the "sheaf of firstfruits" (Leviticus 23)? It is just a sample of what is to follow. So our chapter says, "Christ the firstfruits, afterward they that are Christ's at His coming."

Take that passage we so often quote to one another: "Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God . . . Beloved, now are we the sons [children] of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him" (1 John 3). The relationship is there, and the "now" is in contrast with "shall be." One is present; the other is future. "But we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." When they brought that sheaf, it was a type of Christ in resurrection and also of the harvest that is to follow. After the sheaf was presented, they went and gathered the harvest. That was presented nearly two thousand years ago. He has been gathering the harvest ever since.

What have we to show us that we will be known individually, that identity and personality are never lost? "Whose names are in the book of life." The apostle in speaking of the Thessalonians says, "For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at His coming?" We will recognize those Thessalonians and those Philippians there as the fruit of his work. Then on the mount of transfiguration where Peter, James and John are with the Lord, two men appear in glory and talked with Him, which were Moses and Elias, and Peter, James and John knew who they were. Peter says, "Let us make here three tabernacles; one for Thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias."

"Every man shall receive his own reward." Turn to 1 Corinthians 3:4, "For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?" (vv. 6-13). "And the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is." It is not how much—not quantity, but quality. S-O-R-T does not spell quantity. It is all individual. Paul planted, Apollos watered. God will reward each according to his service.

What a mercy the judgment seat of Christ will be! There were Paul and Barnabas called to a special service and they were sent out by the Holy Ghost, as it says in Acts 13. A circumstance arises. They took John Mark when they first went out. He was their attendant to wait upon them. He got tired and went back. When they start out the second time, on more of a pastoral than an evangelistic tour, to see how their work was getting along, Barnabas wanted to take John along. "No," said Paul, "he went back before, got discouraged, gave up and went back to Jerusalem." Barnabas was so insistent, and Paul was so insistent; Barnabas said, "Yes," and Paul said, "No," and those two servants separated over that. At the judgment seat of Christ, don't you see, the whole thing will be reviewed in the Lord's presence, and Barnabas will see what led him was natural affection. John was his nephew. Alas! natural affection has led many a servant out of his path. But then national affection led Paul out of it, years later. He was determined to go to Jerusalem in spite of all the warnings. At last the brethren said, after they saw how determined he was, "The will of the Lord be done." If you must go, you go. He never was a free man afterwards; he was a prisoner the rest of his life. He was allowed to dwell two whole years in his own hired house. That was like being out under bond. That was because of national affection, his love for his nation. The day of Christ will reveal that.

The judgment seat of Christ is brought before us in the 49th of Genesis; look at it. Here is Jacob just about to pass away. For seventeen years we have not heard a word of him. He has been in Egypt, a retired man, not that active, bustling, never-still man. They have been years of reflection and meditation. There we get the fruit of the retirement of that busy man, that scheming man, before the end of his life. Now we hear him saying, "Gather yourselves together and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father." Then he goes over the history of the twelve. All is reviewed just as it will be at the judgment seat of Christ. Reading it over brings the judgment seat of Christ before us. The Lord will gather His people together and give to every man according to his work. And you will not be I, and I shall not be you. Every man will receive his own reward. That is so solemn. All that those sons have done is reviewed. No doubt we have in it the whole history of Israel until all ends in blessing under Joseph and Benjamin: Joseph the man of glory, rejected by his brethren, and Benjamin the man of power, son of his father's right hand, son of his mother's sorrow. Think what a moment it was for those sons of Jacob to gather themselves together before their aged father, then 147 years old. His eyes were dim. He begins with the firstborn, Reuben, but you have lost your place as firstborn, because of your conduct. Look at 1 Chronicles 5. We were very much impressed in going over it of late. "Now the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel," ("Jacob" was his name in nature, "Israel" was his name in grace) "(for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Joseph the son of Israel: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright.)" That is the first thing he has to tell his firstborn. He takes them back some thirty or forty years. Nothing is forgotten.

Nothing is forgotten. All is brought up in review and Simeon's and Levi's father's estimate is given. At the judgment seat of Christ all will be reviewed. Then we shall have such a sense of God's grace as we have never had before—the patient love that never turns aside. It not only sought us and brought us near, but held on to us in spite of our conduct; but it did not pass over our conduct as nothing. It is all reviewed.

Shall we consider Judah. Judah is the royal tribe line and there grace comes in. The 8th verse tells us the throne belongs to Judah. It did belong to Levi.

What a solemn moment that must have been when that aged father gathered those sons around him and just reviewed their whole history! 1 Corinthians 4: "Then shall every man have praise of God." God will own every little bit of good that He can.

Do we see what is meant by "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us.should not be made perfect"? All will get resurrection, but when that comes, the church of God will have its own distinctive place. Sometimes we have illustrated it in this way: In a nation that mobilizes its army, every regiment knows its own place and standing and each takes its place in that standing. There are some regiments nearer to the sovereign than others, but each knows its place. So in resurrection each company will take its own place, and we shall not take our place with the Old Testament saints, but with the New; and these saints who died before the flood, when the resurrection comes, will not take their place with those who died after the flood. Saints before the flood and after the flood, before the Lord came and after, take their own place. All have the dealings of God with them.

Look at all the children in the school yard. The bell rings and we cannot see one. Each went to his own class. So when the shout comes—resurrection—each will take his own place. "Some better thing for us" is the nearest relationship to Christ. "That they without us should not be made perfect." They have been waiting long for resurrection. They will have to wait until the church is completed. Then resurrection comes, and all will get it together, but each takes his place in his own class. "Some better thing" is very striking. It is one of the verses that indicates that the apostle Paul wrote the Hebrews. But the important thing is not who wrote it, but what he wrote. In Hebrews 3:1 Christ Jesus is the Apostle and High Priest of our profession. The apostle Paul was the apostle of the Gentiles.

Chapter 26

Address on Exodus 12:1-15 and 1 Peter 1:18-19

"Vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers" is a remarkable expression. These people had never been heathen. They were Israelites—converted Israelites, it is true. They had been redeemed. "Vain conversation"—"vain manner of life." It was a religious manner. The passage is very striking. They were not Gentiles without the knowledge of God; they had a certain knowledge of God.

The Christian has two birthdays; if he hasn't two, he is not a Christian. The Christian is born of God, and his history with God, as one of His children, begins with redemption. "Redemption" is a large and blessed word in the New Testament, and in the Old Testament too. Redemption takes the redeemed one out of one position and one state and brings him into another.

"This month shall be unto you the beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you." To whom was that day, that date, the beginning of months? Nobody else knew anything about it throughout the whole world. We generally know the day of our first birth, but cannot always tell the date of the second. "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." John 3:8. It is the sovereign action of the Spirit of God.

What we do know is, after a certain exercise of soul, when we have been brought into peace with God. That we know. We may know when we first come into the knowledge of this salvation. Then we know that we have been born again.

"This month [this day] shall be unto you the beginning of months." It was a particular day—day of redemption. God brings souls into peace gradually. In the case of the Lord Jesus giving life to the dead, there are three cases recorded. In His giving sight to the blind, there are three cases recorded, and three only. We know that to many that were blind He gave sight. "Go...and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised." Those three cases are selected cases, and selected for a purpose. We might recall the cases of giving sight to the blind. The first is blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10:46-52. He hears a commotion as he sits by the wayside begging—an unusual commotion—and he asks, "What is this commotion?" The answer is, "Jesus of Nazareth passeth by." (The Lord's history upon earth was about to close. He was going to Jerusalem for the last time.) Immediately when he hears that he says, "Jesus" (not of Nazareth, but) "Son of David" (what dignity!) "have mercy on me."

The Lord stands still and commands the man to be brought. There are a number of details such as his casting away his garments, all instructive, if one were preaching the gospel, but we do not speak of that now. Those that went before told him to be quiet, but so much the more he cried out, "Thou Son of David, have mercy on me." It is a picture of a soul thoroughly awakened as the One who can meet that need is passing his way. They cannot silence him. Presently they say, "Be of good comfort, rise; He calleth thee." He, casting away his garments to get there as quickly as he can, comes and stands in the presence of the Son of David. "What wilt thou?" "Lord, that I may receive my sight." "And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight." He received his sight and followed Jesus in the way. What a decided work there!

The next case is altogether different. A certain blind man is brought to the Lord in the city of Bethsaida in Mark 8:22-26. The Lord takes him by the hand and leads him out of the town. When He has him out of the town, He works and asks the man if he sees aught. He looks up and says, "I see men as trees walking." Light is dawning, but it is very indistinct. The Lord operates again, and he sees every man clearly. There is a soul gradually b:.ought into the light, not like Bartimaeus who received it at once.

The third case is altogether different from that. That isn't a blind man calling out, and not one being brought, but there the Lord is passing by, and He sees a man born blind. He goes to that man, spits on the ground, and makes clay of the spittle, puts it on his eyes and says, "Go, wash in the pool of Siloam." That is blessedly instructive. We are born blind. We are all in the dark as to God until we get sight. Our thoughts of Him are that He is "a hard man, reaping where Thou hast not sown, and gathering where Thou hast not strewed." Why does the Lord act in that peculiar way? He is teaching in all those things. Why send him to the pool of Siloam to wash? The man said, "I went and washed and I received sight." "A man ...called Jesus made clay, and anointed my eyes...and I went and washed and I received sight."

What is the meaning of Siloam? We are told in the passage it is "Sent." Just as soon as I get the truth that God sent His Son into the world to be the Saviour of the world, (that is John's testimony—"God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved"), the darkness is gone. I may have known something about the God who spoke to His people at Sinai, giving them the law, and I may have a sense in my soul that I haven't kept it, but when I see He sent His Son to be my Saviour, the darkness is all gone, and I get the "true light." One thing was true of all: They were all blind. One thing was true of all: They all got their sight, not in the same way, but by the same blessed Person. There we have the way in which God deals with souls.

Take the cases of the dead who were raised. There are three recorded cases because in Scripture three is fulness of testimony, not only competent, but fulness. What is the first? It is a young girl twelve years of age, beautiful, we will say, in death. She had just died. "Thy daughter is dead; why troublest thou the Master?" The Lord goes to her and says, "Talitha cumi; Damsel, (I say unto thee) arise." And she arose straightway, and He commanded to give her food. Mark 5.

The next is not a young girl or a young woman who has just died, but a young man dead and on the way to the grave. The Lord meets the funeral procession and is touched by the tears of that widowed mother. He is the only son of a widowed mother. It says, "The Lord . . . had compassion on her." He went to her and said, "Weep not." They that bore the bier stood still. "Young man, I say unto thee, Arise." He sat up and He restored him to his mother. He was not only dead, but on the way to the grave. Luke 7.

The third is one dead, in the grave and stinkingLazarus. "Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath been dead four days . . . . Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes." John 11.

One thing characterized the three: they were dead. It is true one hadn't been dead as long as the other—one not as far in corruption as the other, but all were dead. The outcome was that all were alive, and all got life from the same blessed Person. It should be precious to our souls, those three selected cases from many. "There is no difference, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." That young girl has just died, yes, but she is dead. That young man on the way to the grave is dead, as dead as Lazarus who has been in the grave four days. There is no difference in that way. That is the great lesson to be learned.

Suppose you owed sixty pence and I owed five hundred pence and neither had anything to pay. You have to go to prison for your debt as much as I, and, according to the law, stay there until it is paid. You have to stay there as long as I because you cannot pay it and I cannot either. The Lord says to Simon that you are both bankrupt and have nothing to pay. Luke 7. I think that is very blessed.

"Begotten of God" and "born of God" is the same word. "Canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth" refers to the operations of the Spirit of God and not to salvation. It refers to being born again— "So is every one that is born of the Spirit." We must keep Scriptural truths in their Scriptural connection, and when it speaks about being born again, it is not speaking about salvation. That is where we get into such confusion. When it is a question of being born again, it is not the forgiveness of sins and cleansing by the blood; it is about a new nature being communicated—a distinct line of things.

Saul, in the 9th of the Acts had been born again before Ananias went to him. He passed through deep exercise of soul, was three days and three nights without sight and food. When the Lord revealed Himself to Saul from the glory and prostrated him, Saul said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" The Lord said to him, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" "Who art Thou, Lord?" That is surrender. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." "What wilt Thou have me to do?" That was three days before Ananias went to him. Ananias went to him to loose him and let him go. He sent the word of liberty—not life—to Saul by Ananias. Very beautiful it is too. There is Ananias, that servant of God, in Damascus. To him the Lord said, "Ananias." "Here am I, Lord." "Go into the street called Straight and inquire...for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth." "Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here" (120 miles or more from Jerusalem) "he hath authority . . . to bind all that call on Thy name." The Lord said, "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto Me, to bear Me name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel." Ananias goes into the house where the blind man is, and he hasn't eaten anything for three days, and he says, "Brother Saul," what do you think of that? "The Lord, even Jesus, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." "Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins." His sins were gone judiciously before God, but not before men. He was to take a new place before men. And the next thing, he was preaching Jesus Christ as He had never been preached before: "that He is the Son of God."

The character of the second book (Exodus) of the Bible is redemption. In the 3rd chapter we find the blessed God come down in the burning bush, and He says to Moses, "I am come down to deliver." "I have ...seen...and have heard. And I am come down." In Exodus 33-34 we have God dwelling in the midst of His redeemed people, pitching His habitation among them.

In our chapter (Exodus 12), we get the way in which He did it. The first thing was to shelter that people from judgment. That could be done only by the blood of the Lamb. The first thing God gives a soul to know when really exercised, is security from judgment under the blood of Christ; but we must not stop there. Look at the first of Ephesians, speaking of Christ as the Beloved. The 7th verse says, "In whom" (that is Christ the Beloved) "we have redemption . . . the forgiveness of sins."

In Ephesians 2:12-13 we find that we were "without Christ . . . and without God in the world: but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometime were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." That redemption which we have in Christ through His blood brings with it the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace. It gives something else too: it takes me out of the old condition and gives me a place of nearness to God Himself. So we must not stop with being secured from judgment.

That blood on the two side posts and the lintel told that death had come in. It told the stroke had fallen on a victim—a life had been given.

In that passage we read in 1st Peter, it says, "Forasmuch as ye K-N-O-W." The Christian K-N-O-W-S that he is redeemed. According to Scripture it is the normal condition of the Christian. There are those who have had faith in the Lord Jesus who do not know much about the blood—about being covered. "The blood shall be to you for a token"; that is something for those inside the house. "When I see the blood, I will pass over you" has been dwelt upon almost to the exclusion of "the blood shall be to you for a token." God sees the blood, but it is my seeing it that brings me into peace. The blood speaks to the soul inside and wards off the stroke outside. It is the soul seeing the blood for himself that brings him into the knowledge of safety.

In the 3rd chapter God had come down, and what had brought Him down was the bondage, misery, groaning and oppression of His people. There He appears in the midst of the burning bush. By way of comparison turn to the first of Leviticus. In the 3rd of Exodus "God called unto Moses out of the midst of the bush." In Leviticus "The Lord called unto Moses, and spake unto him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." What a contrast! That gives the character to these two books. God comes down to deliver; after He delivers, He sets His habitation in the midst of His people. Out of the midst of that habitation He appears and tells them how to approach Him. The subject of Exodus is redemption; the subject of Leviticus is the redeemed drawing near to God, the Redeemer.

There is more order in the Word of God than most people think. It is not brought together at random. Numbers gives us the wilderness journey. It is a redeemed people, and they are not in Egypt nor in Canaan, but in the wilderness, journeying on to Canaan.

The book of Deuteronomy answers to the judgment seat of Christ. "Thou shalt remember all the way." We will have a rehearsal when we get into our Canaan before we have entered fully into it. We Christians have a Deuteronomy before we get into the land too. We are in Numbers. Redemption has brought us into Numbers. We know all the way God has led us since He brought us out of Egypt. It must have been very humiliating as Moses called their attention to all their ways. But as it humbled them, it magnified the grace and goodness of God, and that is what our Deuteronomy will do too.

The 14th verse says, "And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever." The feast lasted seven days. That and the passover are distinct, but the feast is founded on the passover, and it is the feast of the pass- over. The passover is an accomplished fact. "Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." The feast is not an accomplished fact. We are keeping it now. It will not be an accomplished fact until we get into the land. When we get to heaven, we shall have finished with the feast of the passover. How happy it would be for us if we realized more fully that the present dispensation for the Christian is the feast of the passover. The church of God is keeping two of the seven feasts now. It is keeping the feast of the passover and the feast of Pentecost. The feast of Pentecost began in the 2nd of the Acts, the coming of the Holy Spirit.

In the 16th of Deuteronomy we find three feasts separated from the seven which are given in other parts of Scripture. Those three are the feast of the passover, the feast of Pentecost and the feast of Tabernacles at the end of the year. The church is keeping the feast of the passover and Pentecost and is going to keep the feast of Tabernacles. The feast of Tabernacles is a feast characterized by two things: rest and joy. All God's people, earthly and heavenly, will keep the feast of Tabernacles together! It is a feast characterized by rest and joy and remembrance of God's ways with us.

In the days of Nehemiah, after the remnant returned from the captivity, when there was a happy returning to the word of God, they kept the feast of Tabernacles (poor things in their circumstances!), but they did it according to God in a way it had never been kept since the days of Joshua. The people went up into the mountains and brought down branches of trees and made themselves tents—a practical reminder of God's ways with them. That is beautiful. Since the days of Joshua it had not been done, not that they had not kept the feast since then, but not in that way, getting away from all comforts.

Then we get instructions as to what was to be done with the lamb whose life had been given. They were to eat it. What is eating, for instance, eating the flesh of the Son of man, and drinking His blood? To eat a thing, physically, it becomes a part of ourselves. So faith appropriates the death of Christ, not only sheltered by the blood, but the soul enjoying the One whose blood shelters it.

In our chapter, Exodus 12, we get the "how" to eat the passover and the "who" were to eat it, and in the 16th of Deuteronomy the "where" it was to be eaten. No unconverted person can truly keep the passoverfeed upon the death of Christ in the consciousness of being sheltered by the blood.

The "how" we get in the 11th verse: "And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded." The 8th verse says, "And they shall eat the flesh in that night, roast with fire, and unleavened bread; and with bitter herbs they shall eat it. Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire; his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof." How beautiful that is— typical you know. "And ye shall let nothing of it remain until the morning; and that which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire. And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the Lord's Passover." There we get the "how."

Why not "raw nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire"? The reason is that it is typical of Christ, the Lamb of God, enduring the fire of God's judgment without any mitigation. No water came between the victim and the fire. The head is intelligence; the legs are the ways; the purtenance is the affections. All is perfect; the soul feeds on that, the affections of Christ, devoted to God.

"That which remaineth of it until the morning ye shall burn with fire." The feeding on the victim must not be too far separated from its death. All is intimately connected. You get it in the peace offering and the ram of consecration. It is a very solemn thing for this day. The worship of God's people is so far separated from the cross of Christ, the ground of worship. In many of those popular hymns, how much do we find in them about the death of Christ for atonement of sin?

How sweetly Watts comes out on that in:

"Not all the blood of beasts,
On Jewish altars slain,

Could give the guilty conscience peace, Or wash away its stain.

"But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
Took all our guilt away,
A sacrifice of nobler name,
And richer blood than they.

"Our souls look back to see
The burden Thou didst bear,
When hanging on th' accursed tree,
For all our guilt was there."

(Watts wrote it "and hopes his sins were there.") Again he wrote,

"Alas, and did my Saviour bleed?
And did my Sovereign die?
Would He devote that sacred head,
For such a worm as I?

Was it for crimes that I have done, He groaned upon the tree?

Amazing pity! grace unknown!
And love beyond degree!
"Well might the sun in darkness hide,
And shut His glories in,
When the Incarnate Maker died
For man His creature's sin."

One almost envies that devotedness. That is what we believe we have in "Let nothing remain until the morning."

Every morning and every evening there was the lamb of the burnt offering, and on the Sabbath two. God, in that typical people, that earthly redeemed people, kept ever before Him the coming death of Christ as the ground of His relationship with that people.

"Thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand." The Christian position is to be ever ready to leave. He hasn't to gird his loins and put his shoes on. "And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord," waiting for that word to depart.

"Christ our passover is sacrificed for us." It is an accomplished sacrifice. The Paschal Lamb has been sacrificed. "Therefore, let us keep the feast." The point in 1st Corinthians is this: the feast is to be kept in consistency with this truth that Christ our passover has been sacrificed for us. What is not consistent with that, is not to be allowed.

Chapter 27

How Jesus Christ Came, Why He Came,
and Consequence of That Coming
1 John 5

We believe it is of the Lord that we have a word from 1 John 1:1-4:

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;

(For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)

That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus, Christ.

And these thing write we unto you, that your joy may be full."

Chapter 5:5-6, 8, 20-21:

"Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood."

"And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one."

"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.

Little children, keep yourselves from idols." (Omit "little" there; it is the whole family. "Little children" is found only twice in the epistle—babes of the family—otherwise it is the family in general.)

What brought this passage before us at this present time was the verse, "That ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 3). That is an important word and the faith as delivered to the saints cannot be held without contending for it. If we are holding truth and parts of truth we find no opposition to and do not have to contend for, depend upon it, it is not of God. It says "contend" and not only that, but "earnestly contend for."

The revelation of God is complete, and in a certain way, God has committed that revelation into the hands of His people, and they are responsible according to another Scripture, to maintain that truth in the face of all opposition in this world. There is another thing: God in this way tests our souls as to how far we value that wondrous revelation which He has given us.

"We know the Son of God is come." What a blessed wondrous statement that is! The passages we have read not only tell He has come, but they tell us of the way in which He came and the object before Him in coming.

The way in which He came we have in the first two verses of the 1st chapter. How did He come? He came in Manhood, a Man that men could see, hear, and handle, not see and hear with the eye and ear of faith but with natural sight men could see Him, hear Him, handle Him. That is the great and precious theme of the Spirit of God in the apostle in this epistle. One finds these elementary but fundamental truths assailed constantly in some way or other. The truth of the actual Manhood of the Lord Jesus Christ is called in question.

Turn to chapter 4:1 of this epistle: "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world." How are we to try the spirits? Has that been left to us to find out? No, the One who tells us to try the spirits, tells us how to try them, and the great test stone for the Christian always is Christ—Christ and His work. So here, when He says "try the spirits" (and there are spirits to try—those wicked beings), the next verse gives us how: "Hereby ye know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesseth Jesus Christ come in flesh is of God; and every spirit which does not confess Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God." (JND Trans.) What one calls attention to there is the way in which He came: "come in flesh." It is not the time of His coming in the first verse or the second, but it is the manner of His coming. What a great, glorious and blessed truth it is that the Son of God is come, that He has revealed Himself in His Son, but in His Son in Manhood. "The Word was made flesh"—or became flesh—"and dwelt among us." That One, the Son of God, was a Man as truly as I am a man; "come in flesh."

We learn from Scripture that there are three kinds of humanity, or, if you please, man in three conditions. Go back to the beginning. There we have man in blessed unsullied innocence. He was an innocent man as perfect as that all-glorious Creator could make him and had made him. A little later he became another kind of man, but a man. What kind of man did he become? He ceased to be an innocent man and became a sinful man, but still a man. As we know that for about four-thousand years, that was man before God, fallen, sinful man. Then all at once there was another kind of Man, and the only one of His kind. His coming into the world was celebrated by messengers from the glory above. You know what we refer to: "Glory to God in the highest, and on the earth peace, good will toward men" (Luke 2). Those shepherds were sore afraid and those who celebrated the wondrous event bid them, "Fear not . . . for unto you is born in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." That was another kind of humanity, but humanity—born of a woman. It was a humanity that was alone. We have had an innocent man, sinful man, and now we have a holy Man, but let us mark this: a Man still and a Man forever and forever; at the same time He is God and the Son of God. It is a wondrous and blessed mystery in which our souls rejoice! "God manifest in flesh."

"That which was from the beginning": that "beginning" is the entrance of the Son of God in Manhood into this world. How blessed and full it was! We go on to the 4th of John, that chapter which every Christian loves more and more. It is a long chapter, it is true, but go to Jacob's well at midday and see a Man sitting there taking a little rest He felt the need of—"Jesus being wearied with His journey"—is not that a Man! That is very blessed—"Jesus being wearied with His journey." Then a woman comes and finds a wearied Man sitting on the well and she hears that wearied Man ask her for a drink of water. Who is that Man, and what kind of Man is He? That Man is the Son of God—God manifest in flesh—but let us stop there fora moment. Instead of that woman responding at once to His request for a drink, something strikes her. It is His grace! What does she say? "How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of Me, which am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans." She as much as says, "You are the most condescending Jew I have ever met" and she wants to know who He is. Thank God she asked a question, and He answered it! What does He say to her in answer to that query as to who He is? "If thou knewest the gift of God" (or the "giving God" in another translation), "and who it is that saith to thee, Give Me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water." How blessed! That is "Jesus Christ come in flesh." If we do not contend, prize and contend for the truth of the actual Manhood of the Lord Jesus, we lose all that. That wearied Man— wearied with His journey—that Man athirst, was the giving God, come down to give eternal life—"Jesus Christ come in flesh."

"Which we have heard . . . seen . . . and handled, of the Word of life," a material Man, a real Man. Those wicked spirits always attack the person of the Lord Jesus, and this was the special phase of the attack which the Spirit met by the apostle John: seen, heard, and handled of the Word of life. It was no passing vision. He was contemplated by John the Baptist in the first chapter of John's gospel. He stands in absorbed silence, looking upon, contemplating Jesus as He walked. Presently, out of the fulness of his heart, he says, "Behold, the Lamb of God." It was not a momentary thing. He looked upon that wondrous, glorious Object, that lowly Man, God manifest in flesh, and speaks of Him in that glory of His, as "Behold, the Lamb of God." That is the manner of His coming.

Many years ago we had a brother among us who was holding the coming of the Lord Jesus in a mystical way. One of the brethren said to him, "Brother, was there anything mystical about that Man who sat on Jacob's well? Was He not a real Man?" (He was an intellectual man and had a little knowledge of Hebrew and of Greek.) "I thank Thee, 0 Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes." When we read that passage or hear the Lord speak in that way, do we not say, Lord, make and keep me a babe? There are two actions of God there: that is, revealing and concealing, revealing to the simple, and concealing from the wise. May the Lord keep us simple especially in the things of God and receive them as given to us in simple language, and not as it were trying to fathom them. The apostle Paul says in another Scripture, "Great is the mystery of godliness." It does not say "of God" but of godliness. What is the secret of godliness before God? It was this: "God was manifest in flesh." That is the first thing, and if we do not have that truth, we do not have the secret of godliness in the sight of God. That is brought before us here: "That which we have seen, heard, and handled"—a Man forevermore.

We were speaking of the meat offering; that offering was Christ in incarnation. He took upon Him the form of a Servant and was found in fashion as a Man. He took upon Him that which remains upon Him forever, as it were. He was down here a living Man, a holy Man upon whom death had no claim, One who could lay down His life and take it again. He says in the first of Revelation out of the fulness of His heart, "I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore." He was not only a Man, and a Man forever, but a Man who passed through death and will never pass through it again. He is alive, but alive beyond death, as passed through death, never to die again, and with that Man you and I are linked in life. It is wonderful, blessed truth, the elementary truth of the gospel, and if you do not have it, you do not have the elements of the gospel. There is a Man in the glory, a Man who died, but a Man that will never die again. Here we are mortal, and not one of us knows but that he will be in death before tomorrow morning; we are linked with that One and have a life beyond the reach of death. That was the way of His coming.

But what did He come for? He came to die; He came to die an atoning death; He came to make propitiation for sin. "Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). That is what we have in this second passage. 0 blessed Saviour, Thou earnest to die! Thou hast died, and Thou livest! That is why it is said here in this second passage, "This is He that came by water and blood." On the cross, when the soldier pierced His side, forthwith there came out blood and water. That blood and water came forth from the side of the Saviour who was already dead. That spear in the hand of that Roman soldier fulfilled the Word of God. "They shall look upon Him whom they have pierced." But they did another thing. There is that Saviour in death—in death at the hands of men—a criminal's death. There He hangs with a dying sinner on either side. What a scene for heaven and God to look down upon! What place is there in the thoughts and love of God and of His people like that place called CALVARY! "And all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts, and returned." May our gracious God give us to know more of that place called Calvary and that sight; that is, to let us into His own thoughts about it!

It is "blood" first in the gospel; when we come to the epistle, it is "water" first. What is that blood? It is the blood of atonement or propitiation, and Deck has well said, "The very spear that pierced Thy side, drew forth the blood to save." What a truth for God and man is the blood of Christ! What about the "water"? There is no atoning value in the water. Water is one of the most difficult symbols of Scripture. It is used as the Holy Spirit; it is used as the Word of God. We believe both are implied in the water: the Word and the Spirit of God.

The requirements of God are met in the blood, and so are the needs of guilty man. How is the truth of the cleansing and atoning blood of Christ made good to us? We would call attention to this. If we were to go to the 14th chapter of Leviticus, we would find the cleansing power of the Saviour's blood; the 16th chapter gives the atoning power. We find the one is applied to the sinner, and the other to the throne of God. For whom was that blood shed? For sinners, and to meet the requirements of God against whom they had sinned. How is that truth made good to us? The Spirit takes the Word and applies the truth to our souls.

"This is He that came by water and blood." Here it is the application, whereas in the gospel it is the historical fact of the work being done. It is twice repeated here that the blessed Lord came in this way—"NOT BY WATER ONLY." "Not by water only"—but by "water and blood." How far the truth of the blood has been lost sight of! Fellow-servant of God, "NOT BY WATER ONLY." Preach the atonement. It is true we must have cleansing, and it is by the blood of Christ; it is true God must have satisfaction and it is by the blood of Christ. "Not by water only." The Lord Jesus Christ as a Pattern could never save a soul any more than that perfect life could atone for sin before God. How wonderful that the Spirit of God should foresee a characteristic and increasingly so of this day that the blood of Christ is being lost sight of. We have noticed and observed that where the blood of Christ is not denied, it is ignored. Let us contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints.

"This is He that came by water and blood; not by water only, but by water and blood." Nothing. can meet the claims of God against the guilty but the blood of Christ. Nothing can purge my conscience or cleanse my soul so I can abide in the presence of God but the blood of Christ. "Not by water only, but by water and blood." Is this not increasingly a Scripture we need? Which we have seen with our eyes, heard with our ears and handled with our hands is the One who came by way of atonement. "Not by water only"—those solemn and blessed truths of the water and the blood. What a tale they tell!—the water and the blood. Let us not forget, "Not by water only" says the apostle, "but by water and blood, even Jesus Christ."

The cloud of incense on the great day of atonement comes in, in line with what we have here. What is typified by that great cloud of incense? It is Christ in His life a sweet savor to God, and as it were the priest was buried in that incense; he went in hidden in it. Precious, glorious truth! You ask, What truth? He that dwelt between the cherubim saw that One coming with blood into His presence. Whose blood? The blood of that One whose life from first to last had been one cloud of sweet incense to God. That is what gave value to the blood the priest brought, but mark this: He does not put that incense on the throne! The life of Christ, infinitely precious as it was—the cloud of incense— could have nothing to do with meeting the claims of the throne.

Suppose that the Lord Jesus had gone to heaven from Gethsemane after all that precious life (He could have, but He could not have gone and have done all that God gave Him to do), what would have been the result? You and I could never have gone there. But suppose He had gone after the first three hours of suffering on the cross? You and I could never have gone. It was all infinitely precious in the sight of God, but it was in those last three hours of darkness, and those alone, that atonement for sin was made. There, as it were, God came upon that scene and "made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Cor. 5:21. Oh precious, precious truth of the death of Christ! "Not by water only, but by water and blood, even Jesus Christ," How blessed to know that the Saviour came in that way—a Man—came to make atonement for man.

The first thing before the Lord in asking to be received back into glory in John 17 was the glory of God. "Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." He says, "I have finished the work which Thou gayest Me to do." Another translation gives that a little differently, and looks upon what was given Him to do as an honour conferred upon Him. "The work that Thou gayest Me, that I should do it." That work was to glorify Him on earth. And now there is not a single thing more to do, and that being the case, He prays to be taken back to heaven that He may glorify Him there. He continues to glorify Him. "I have glorified Thee upon the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gayest Me that I should do it." Wondrous Saviour to be able to look up to heaven—"lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." Wondrous Saviour! but still a Man!

Can we get hold of these three things, each one of us? How He came, why He came, and the consequences of His having come? We have not considered yet the last part of the 5th chapter:

"And we know"—know what? We get these words several times in this epistle. Here we have their own blessed fulness. "We know that the Son of God is come." If you do not know that, you are not a Christian; and if you do not know that truth according to God, you are not a Christian. Some may know it better than others, but you have to know it or you are not a Christian at all, that He is come in this way, by water and blood.

"We know the Son of God is come" with results. "And hath given us an understanding, that we may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ." This is blessed knowledge in a world of darkness. Darkness in Scripture is very generally ignorance of God. "We are in Him that is true"—linked up in life and nature with God. "In Him" who is come, whom we know as the Son of God. We are in Him in life and nature, and as Christians we live in that way always growing in the apprehension of it.

This is not a special class; it is true of all. The family is classified in the second chapter: fathers, young men, and little children; but this is true of the whole family. Each knows the Son of God is come. What a wonderful thing it is to be a child of God! What has made us the children of God? We are born of God, and such "cannot sin, because he is born of God." What a wonderful life! We question if that is true of any other creature than the redeemed sinner, intimacy of relationship with God in nature. That is the grand theme of the aged and beloved apostle, "born of God." The apprehension of that truth is by the power of the Spirit of God. It is anticipated in the first chapter of the gospel of John: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." It is never said that which is born of water is water because water is the instrument used. "We are . . . in His Son, Jesus Christ." That is our Christian position and relationship in the line of things brought before us by the apostle John, or by the Spirit of God through the apostle.

The Spirit of God by John does not take up the counsels of God. It is another line of things; for that line God had a chosen vessel, Paul. That wonderful truth of the second Man and last Adam is implied but not developed in certain Scriptures in John.

The great thing with John is that we are in the Son: "We know the Son of God is come." Thank God! In a world full of darkness and untruth, the world under the dominion of the one who is the source of all evil— Satan himself—a liar and a murderer from the beginning, corruption and violence going on, here we are born of God and know we are of God.

Our place now before God is in His Son, in His Son Jesus Christ. It comes right back again, "This is the true God, and eternal life." One says again, and it will bear repeating: blessed, wondrous Saviour!

May our gracious God give us to meditate upon these three things: the fact of how He came, a Man; the fact of why He came, to glorify God and to finish that course in death, to make atonement for sin, and the consequence of that coming. "We know Him that is true and we are in Him that is true, in His Son Jesus Christ."

Chapter 28

Various Ways the Blessed Lord Is Represented
in Revelation 1

This remarkable book, Revelation, is not about what God has done, not about what God is doing; it is about what God is going to do. One likes- to connect the first book of God's Word with the last book. They are connected in a number of ways. We shall contrast Pharaoh's dream of seven good and bad years in Genesis 41:25-32 with the Revelation.

Turn to the first chapter of the Revelation and then turn to the last. In our first chapter, first verse we read: "things which must shortly come to pass," the third verse of the same chapter: "the time is at hand." The last chapter shows how we have it doubled. Verse 6: "These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of His holy prophets sent His angel to shew unto His servant the things which must shortly be done." Verse 10: "Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand." Thus it begins and thus it closes.

Judgment is the character of the book of Revelation from the first to the last. That is what is at hand; that is what is coming. God showed Pharaoh in Genesis 41 what He was about to do, and God shows us from His Word—this word especially—what He is about to do. So it runs through those seals, trumpets and vials. Yet it is very blessed to find that the book doesn't end with judgment. This book brings before us as no other part of the Word of God eternal results, and the book properly closes with a new heaven and a new earth and the tabernacle of God with men and He dwelling with them. All that follows in the remainder of that chapter and the next is supplementary; but that is the result of the different dreadful courses of judgment that await this world. The years of plenty are drawing now to a close. How long the plenteousness of the grace of God has been proclaimed! How much longer it is going to be proclaimed, He hasn't told us. He has kept that to Himself. We don't think God told Noah his days would be 120 years; He told Noah what He was going to do but not how long before it would come to pass. He told him what to do: build an ark and so on.

May we give a word on the 9th and 10th verses of our chapter, Revelation 1: "I John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ"—(It doesn't say "Lord Jesus" here. John seldom uses that, and the "Lord Jesus Christ" but once. With the apostle Paul we get it constantly. It is another line of truth before the Spirit of God.) "Was in the isle called Patmos." How comes that servant of God to be there? His Master hasn't sent him to the isle of Patmos! "For the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ." That is what put him in the isle of Patmos. In principle and in spirit there must be more or less of the isle of Patmos with us if we receive the Revelation that John received, an outside place, a place that faithfulness to Christ and the Word of God puts us into. Lot was where God could rescue him and did but not where he could receive communications from God. Abraham was where he cold receive communications from God.

How remarkable too, the introduction here: "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass." There is an atmosphere of distance. And here the Lord Jesus Christ or Christ as Man, receives from God a communication to show unto His servants. How did He make known that revelation He received to communicate to His servants? "He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John."

Notice how the Persons of the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Ghost—are brought before us. Not "Peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ" but "Peace from Him which is, and which was, and which is to come," the eternal One. That eternal One is the One that the Christian knows as his God and Father. "And from the seven Spirits which are before His throne"; that is the Holy Spirit in the completeness of His Being, from Whom judgments are about to proceed. The Holy Spirit is now on earth gathering the church of God, dwelling in and with the saints. He is that other Comforter. All is changed when we come to the book of the Revelation because the seven years of famine are about to begin. What about the third Person? "And from Jesus Christ...the faithful witness." God in all His dealing with man from the first down to the last has had but one faithful witness. The blessed Lord when addressing the church at Laodicea speaks of Himself as "the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God."

Verse 10: "I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day." Some of God's people are feeling very distinctly and very sorrowfully what we speak of as the desecration of the Lord's day. The Lord's day, the first day of the week, has a wonderful place in the thoughts and ways of God. What a day that was for the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit too when God brought again from the dead that great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant, and when the Shepherd Himself arose triumphant over all the power of death and Satan, a mighty Victor! That day has a special place in the Word of God if we spiritually discern it. It would be inconsistent with the truth of Christianity and the heavenly calling of the church to set apart a day by commandment. The way in which God has sanctioned the first day of the week for His people is this: What day of the week did He raise the Lord Jesus from the dead? The first day of the week. It was a wonderful day in the history of God, and in the history of Christ, and in the history of the world! When the Holy Spirit came down from heaven, on what day did He come? The first day of the week. The disciples gathered together to break bread on the first day of the week; and here, on that same day, the apostle is in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and in that state of soul he receives his communication.

We would exhort as to the sacredness of the first day of the week in the sight of God, to each and all of us. We forget it. We have little conception, perhaps, of what that event was for God and His Son when He rose from the dead, the beginning of a new creation. We may remember the time when there was a question as to whether we should refuse the breaking of bread to those who unnecessarily went to work on the Lord's day. The sacredness of that day is very largely lost; but though that may be so with His people, it is not so with God. That day is still sacred to the thoughts of God and ought to be so in the thoughts of His people.

In various ways Christ is presented in this chapter; first, as receiving communication from God. That communication is God introducing His Son into this world as the faithful witness: first begotten from the dead and prince of the kings of the earth. This communication is the fact that God is going to give Christ His earthly inheritance. There is very little about heaven here, and so, the faithful witness, first begotten from the dead and prince of the kings of the earth is coming, but not to receive the church. Before then He will have received the church, and she will long at this time have shared His heavenly home. The marriage of the Lamb and all the blessedness of it will take place in heaven. There is nothing about that here. "Behold, He cometh with clouds," "the faithful witness, and the first-begotten from the dead, and prince of the kings of the earth." "And every eye shall see Him, and they also which pierced Him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of Him."

This communication God gave to Christ, to show to His servants things which must shortly come to pass. Perhaps some say, "That was nearly two thousand years ago!" The day of plenty is extended. Let us ask, "According to the ways of God and the truth of God what kind of a world do we live in?" There is a verse that says, "Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil." We are in a world, sentence against which has long since been pronounced; a sentence which the blessed God finds no joy in executing. There are those seven vials, seven seals, and seven trumpets. It won't take eighteen hundred years for them to run. God will make a short work of it when once the time comes. "Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil."

This world is guilty of an evil work of which it has never repented, the most evil work there ever was or ever will be! It crucified the Son of God. The world has never repented of that and it never will. What it has to bear is the execution of a suspended sentence, a sentence that mercy has suspended. That is the kind of world we live in; it is doomed as sure as the Word of God; a doomed world in which the mercy of God works preparing a people to take out of it, to take them to heaven far beyond the reach of the execution of the sentence under which the world lies. There is one thing most difficult to hold in the soul: that is the character of the world in which we live, and especially that part of the world in which we live.

Here we have a mixture of grace and gospel, neither one thing nor the other. How much there is that hides the truth from our eyes as to what the world really is. Look at the advances in different ways which have been made in the last fifty or sixty years. The effect of all these advances in learning and science is just to hide from poor man's eyes the truth of what the world is, and elevating him in his own estimation. Do any of these advances, achievements, tend to make poor man know what a sinner he is? To make him know more about the God with Whom he has to do? Just the opposite, and we as Christians need to steer clear of it. It is like an intoxicant; it stupifies. Steer clear of it simply by the Word of God and His grace giving us to know from day to day from His Word the reality of what the world is.

The Lord Jesus Christ hasn't given up His claims to the earth, and God hasn't given up His purposes for His Son in giving Him His earthly inheritance. His Name shall be great to the ends of the earth, not by preaching the gospel. When His Name shall be great to the ends of the earth, He shall have come as the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and prince of the kings of the earth. What solemn truth it is that Christ is coming to take possession of what belongs to Him. That possession was refused Him when He was here, and instead of His getting the crown, He got the cross—a Man of shame crowned with thorns. We live in a world that is guilty of having crowned God's faithful witness with a crown of thorns, guilty of having refused Him His rights and having cast Him out. Go for a moment into the palace of the high priest and see that blessed One as captive, bound and led away. Let us hear the high priest questioning Him: "Art Thou...the Son of the Blessed?" He is put under an oath and now those silent lips are opened; God's honor is in question; He kept silent until adjured. He could not keep silent now. In Leviticus, if any one hears the voice of swearing, he was to utter it. So He says, "Thou hast said: nevertheless" (that is, in spite of My circumstances, in spite of My being at this moment your captive, and at your mercy)..."Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power"; but He doesn't stop there. This world would be very glad if He stayed up there, but He adds, "and coming in the clouds of heaven." When God seated Him at the right hand of power, He said to Him: "Sit Thou on My right hand until I make Thy enemies Thy footstool." That is what God is about to do. He sits on the right hand of power on high waiting in expectation of God's subduing His enemies and giving Him possession of the earth.

"Behold He cometh with clouds." What wailing when He comes in that way. God's faithful witness has been in death for His faithfulness.

This aged servant, John, is sharing his Master's cup for he is in banishment. One says "Happy servant!" Poor world! "For the Word of God and for the testimony of Jesus Christ." There is no such thing and never has been and never will be in the history of the church of God as being faithful to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ and not getting a taste of Patmos. The more faithful we are to the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, the more we will get of Patmos, but we will get where God can communicate to us. Why is it that we are so dull in our apprehensions of the things of God? Unfaithfulness to the truth and testimony of Jesus Christ produces a state of soul where these things cannot be revealed. That is important to realize.

He has this revelation from God for a purpose: to show unto His servants. Being servants is our character, the Christian character, all through this book, we're never seen in relationship to God as Father here. The Lord Jesus Christ is a Servant here and has His servants.

Verse 1: "And He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant." This faithful and true witness has angels to wait upon Him. He sends and signifies what He wants to make known by His angel unto His servant John.

Verse 7: "Behold, He cometh with clouds"; nothing is secret about it. When He was rejected, He said, "The world seeth Me no more, but ye see Me." The world is going to see Christ, and it is going to see Christ to its utter dismay and confusion when He comes as the faithful witness, first begotten from the dead and prince of the kings of the earth.

Years ago it was observed one evening that people were in doorways and windows looking, and everyone seemed so alarmed. There was one of the most peculiar setting suns ever seen! What consternation was on people's faces! Somehow people got the idea that the end of the world was coming. There is nothing that scares people like the coming of Christ, the truth which is so blessed to Christians. The way in which He will come to receive us to Himself and the way He will come to the earth are quite different.

Further on we get that last course of judgment, trumpets, and the manner in which He comes to earth (the vials run on concurrently, not successively, with the trumpets). See chapter 10:1: "And I saw another angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire." That is Christ the second time He is seen in angelic character in this book. "And He had in His hand a little book open: and He set His right foot upon the sea, and His left foot on the earth." That open book is prophecy, nothing secret about it. Those prophecies tell of earthly glory. "Setting His feet upon sea and earth" is His taking possession of all represented by sea and earth.

The first time the Lord Jesus is seen in angelic character is in the 8th chapter, where He is seen in gracious intercession for suffering saints.

Revelation 10:5-6: "And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth lifted up His hand to heaven, and sware by Him that liveth forever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer" or "no longer delay." Time will go on, but no delay in His coming in the clouds and every eye seeing Him. How do we know that? "But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath declared to his servants the prophets." That seventh trumpet covers the millenium from beginning to end and goes on to eternity.

What is meant here by the "mystery of God" is God governing with an unseen hand—providentially. That is what He has done ever since the days of Nebuchadnezzar and will do until Christ comes to claim the earth Himself.

Revelation 11:14: "The second woe is past; and, behold, the third woe cometh quickly." Those trumpet judgments are all on earth. We get very little beyond the earth either as to heaven or hell in those trumpets.

Revelation 11:15: "And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever." When He comes with ten thousands of His saints to execute judgment and to claim His rights, every eye shall see Him and all kingdoms shall wail because of Him. The kingdom of our Lord will have no successor. "And the four and twenty elders which sat before God on their seats , fell upon their faces , and worshipped God" (verse 16). It is very sweet to see those heavenly saints are at rest, seated there in the presence and glory of God, while a storm is coming on all below. All is calm and secure above.

Revelation 11:17: "We give Thee thanks, 0 Lord God Almighty [Jehovah Elohim Shaddai], which art, and wast, and art to come." What do they give thanks for? "Because Thou hast taken to Thee Thy great power, and hast reigned."

Revelation 11:18: "And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that Thou shouldest give reward unto Thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear Thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth." All is subdued. That is a general summary of what takes place under the seventh trumpet, or the last blast of providential judgment.

Returning to Revelation 1, what is especially striking is the various ways in which the Lord Jesus is brought before us in human and divine glory. There is a Man before God, God's faithful witness, Whose faithfulness in testimony brought on His death. "First begotten from the dead." Christ before God in resurrection tells a marvellous tale in different ways. As God looks upon that Son of His in resurrection, how many are His thoughts of Him! What admiration He has for that One as He looks upon Him, the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead and prince of the kings of the earth—that Son of His love! Not simply as ever He was, the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father, but He beholds Him as the One Who has been in death, Whom He has brought out of death. Oh, the thoughts of God!

One asks again, how far is it habitual for God's people to contemplate Christ in His varied glories— varied relationships? They are many. Almost the first word we hear about Joseph is this: "His Father loved him." What did He do? "Made him a coat of many colors." The Father loves Christ. Now, not only as the eternal Object of His love, but "Therefore doth My Father love Me because I lay down My life that I may take it again." Acquired, purchased glory—Christ as the One Who laid down His life in obedience to the Father's will—the obedience of love. Here it is receiving a communication from Him which is and which was, and which is to come, and from that Holy Spirit, the One we know as Comforter, earnest and seal— sevenfold completeness. In the 4th chapter, it is as the "seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God." The Spirit of God takes a place before that throne in association with Him. "And from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the first begotten from the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth." (JND Trans.) It is very beautiful to find the Eternal One, the Holy Spirit, and Jesus Christ, all as it were, on a common plane!

At the end of the chapter, verse 13, we get this wondrous Person again. We find Him "in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters . . . His countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength."

What are we to learn from our seeing Him in this new position and character? The lesson is very solemn. From the symbol, "His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow," we get the Divine glory of the Ancient of Days. "His eyes were as a flame of fire"—the same One, blessed and wondrous One. How wondrous and glorious is Christ! May the Spirit be less hindered in leading us into the wonders and glories of Christ! The eyes symbolize penetration from which nothing can be concealed.

"And His feet like unto fine brass"—feet that shall subdue in righteous power and judgment all those eyes discern in righteous judgment. "His voice as the sound of many waters"—majesty again, Jesus Christ head of all. "And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword; and His countenance was as the sun shineth in its strength." One says again—wondrous Saviour, wondrous Son of God! He is in the midst in this judicial garb, a garment down to the foot, not girded about for service. He walks in the midst of them. He is not there as the Head of the church which is His body, but as Son over God's house and He is looking for what is according to God. We find that in the address to Sardis: "I have not found thy works perfect before God." That is very solemn.

Why that golden girdle about the paps? All symbols mean something. It is the affections restrained by divine righteousness. In heaven, there will be no restraint to the outflow of His affections—His love will flow in all its fulness.

Now we have something else. John, this witness of His, in the Isle of Patmos, place of banishment for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ, falls at His feet as dead. Now this One reveals Himself in another character, not as the Eternal One, the Ancient of days, but as the Living One that became dead, the same Person. "He laid His right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive forevermore," never to die again, a Living Man Who has passed through death to remain a living man forevermore. The eternity of the manhood of Christ in resurrection is very blessed. That restores the apostle, and the Lord continues His communication.

Part of the 5th verse and the whole of verse 6 is a parenthesis. Who is this wondrous One, the One we have before us in human glory in death and resurrection in so many ways? Who is He to us? The strain is interrupted: "Unto Him that loved [loves] us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and bath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father; to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen." That is very beautiful. It is present tense—loves. What has He done for us in His love? We know Him as the One who became dead and is alive forevermore, the One who is coming, and every eye shall see Him, and all nations and peoples wail because of Him. We know that One is the One who loves us. Isn't that a very sweet little interruption—a sweet little parenthesis? As these things are brought before us, the soul says, "He is the One who loves us." Do we, individually, know Christ, this all-glorious Person, as the One who loves us? "The Son of God who loved me," said the apostle. Well, what has He done in His love? "Washed us from our sins." What else? "Made us kings and priests unto God and His Father." Out of full hearts, we say: "Unto Him be glory and dominion, forever and ever. Amen."