Notes of General Meeting: Readings and Addresses, St. Louis, MO, Nov. 26-29, 1925
Unknown Author
Table of Contents
Reading Meeting
November 26th: Thursday, 10:30 A. M.
Hymn 14, L. F. Prayer
EPHESIANS. 2:11-22.
This scripture gives us quite a good part of the vocation wherewith we are called (Eph. 4:1.). Nearness to God is a part of it; "Ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh," and the means of it is the blood of Christ. Here it is individual; down towards the end of the chapter it is collective. We do not speak of the relationship now, but of the effect in itself; and it is nearness to God in Christ. "Through Him (Christ) we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father" (verse 18). This is new ground, and has changed our relationship entirely, as being in Adam. Now we are in our new creation place, "in Christ." It is a wonderful thing to recognize that we are dead in Christ, and risen in Christ. It is most important for us to know, not only that the blood has cleansed us from our sins, but that it has put us into a new place, entirely. Those who are "in Christ Jesus" cannot get any farther up, nor down. It is not experience, but it is our position before God, in Christ. We are partakers of the new creation; we are His workmanship (Eph. 2:10).
Rom. 8:1 gives us what there is not for those who are in Christ Jesus, but does not give us what there is; and the first thing God teaches us is to know that those who are in Christ are as far beyond the reach of condemnation, as He is. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." Well, what is there? O, 'there is nearness to God in new creation. Then, Rom. 8:2 adds to that, for there we get the power of the new state, the Holy Spirit dwells in us,—the power of that new life, "For the law of the Spirit of life"—not only the Holy Spirit, but the new life—"the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." It is not only a new position, but it is a new state also. I suppose that is the new life, not the person of the Spirit, as we get farther down. You get the Spirit as life, and then the Spirit later in the chapter means the power of the life.
Q. Why Is the Word "Spirit" Capitalized There?
A. Because it is the Spirit. It is difficult to separate but they can be distinguished, and so down to the 13th verse. After that it is the personal Spirit, distinct from the new life, but to the 13th verse the two go together; the Spirit is the power of that new life.
In John 20:22, when He breathed into them, and said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit", the two go together,—the life, and the power. There He was the head of a new creation, and breathed into them that life in new creation, of which the Spirit is the power.
The Holy Spirit dwelling in us also is union with Christ in glory; not only the life now, for John could go that length, giving us oneness of life; but union with \Christ is by the Spirit of Christ dwelling in us, and every one that is sealed by the Spirit is also united to Christ the Head in glory, and thus are members of His body. In the end of Eph. 2, we have the relationship to God as His house, and that is quite a different thing from union with Christ, but that is part of the vocation.
What two wonderful verses are Eph. 2:10,13: "We are His workmanship," and what a word that is,—God's workmanship, "created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them," and then, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are become nigh by the blood of Christ." That is also part of the vocation.
We can expect to see in believers something like a reflection of Christ Himself,-a reproduction of Christ in us, however small it may be. The more we live in the Spirit, and in the power of the Spirit, the more it is produced in us. Having our eyes on Christ, with Him before our souls, produces it. We can't produce it ourselves. That is being transformed,—changed from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Cor. 3:18). It is to have Christ before us. All power, wisdom and grace comes from Christ. He is the Head and Fountain.
The Spirit of God will minister Christ to us, that in our walk and our ways there might be a faint reflection, at any rate, of what He is. The way in which He walked, is the standard for our walk down here. "He that saith he abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." That is accomplished by God working in our souls; it is wrought in us by the Spirit of God and the Word of God, and it conies out in our walk and ways. God always begins inside.
In Eph. 2:19 we find God has a family, and we are all of the household of God. In the next chapter we have heirship, but that too is only a part of the calling wherewith we are called. I have noticed of late, that we find many of God's people, and we thank God for it, who go as far as "that He might gather into one the children of God which are scattered abroad." That is John's line of things, but when we come to Paul's line, it is Christ, the Center, and the Head of the body, and all linked up with Him, in union, by the Spirit of God; the unity of the body, and the unity of the family are distinct and separate lines of truth, and have their corresponding responsibilities and affections.
Here is brought out that God has a family, and that is the most intimate relationship into which it is possible for God to bring us; but we say, Christ has a body, and we are part of that. We have those two things in this Epistle. The household of God is viewed from another standpoint, and discipline is connected with it, but not with the body of Christ. All this comes in with the vocation wherewith we are called.
Another thing, we are sealed by the Spirit of God; that God now by the Spirit claims our bodies as His temple individually. So "Grieve not the Holy Spirit" comes in this Epistle also, as an important thing for our souls. The Holy Spirit dwells in us. So we have a relationship to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
Then there is a certain state of soul much needed in order to respond, to walk worthy of this vocation; and what is that state of soul, heart and mind? "With all lowliness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearing one another." This is what is needful, whether it be our relationship to God as His children, or our relationship to Christ as members of His body; this we would call the "Spirit of Christ." The result of the Spirit of God dwelling in us, is the Spirit of Christ manifested in our walk and ways. You will find the two spoken of in Rom. 8:9. If the Spirit of God does not dwell in us, the Spirit of Christ cannot shine out from us. A man not sealed by the Holy Spirit, would not be of Him. The believer has the Holy Spirit dwelling in him, has the character of Christ, has the Spirit of Christ, coming out.
Q. Would It Be Possible for a Believer to Get Into Such a State That It Could Be Said, He Is Not of Him?
A. No. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." God is looking at us in the 8th of Romans according to His thought of it. There is no failure here. It is God's treatise on the believer, and his place before Him.
The "little children", the babes of God's family know the "Father". They have the unction from the Holy One, and that will answer 101 questions about who has the Spirit. It is only by the Spirit that we call God our Father.
Our vocation gives us individual and collective responsibilities, an important thing to see; especially as some are saying now, "It is all individual; Christ is outside, and is knocking at the door"—Laodicea. Well, that is true; but suppose Christ knocks at your door and at mine, and we both open the door and let Him in. Does He say, "I will come in and save him"? No, He is not talking to sinners there at all, but to saints, and what He is seeking, is communion; "I will sup with him, and he with Me." Very well, you and I, and two or three others, have opened the door to Him, and here we are in communion. Now, what is uppermost in His heart, and what is the object of His love? It is the Church; and that brings us together according to the truth of the Church, and His headship of it. Rev. 3:20 is being used really for independency, saying "Henceforth, it is a lone walk with Jesus", as if you were the only one in communion, but can you say you are the only one? No! if we are walking with the Lord, we are brought together around Himself. This is the Spirit's way of gathering (Matt. 18:20). It is very important to distinguish between the Kingdom of God, the family of God, and the Church of God. All Christians are in these three positions, but that is no reason why we should have fellowship with all of them. They may be real children of God, belonging to the family; they may be real Citizens of that Kingdom, but they are not all walking in obedience as to their place in the Church of God. (2 Tim. 2:19, 20, 21).
When the Lord gave the word from heaven, about what we call the Lord's Supper, He gave it to Paul, and not to John. The children of God gather about the table of the Lord, when they partake of the emblems of the Lord in death. They do this, if they do it Scripturally, not in their relationship to God as children, not in their relations to each other of the same family; they do so as members of the body of Christ. Being one bread and one body, we are all partakers of one loaf. He gave this truth through the apostle Paul to whom he revealed the Church, and it is so difficult to get saints to see this, but yet it is stated as plainly as can be.
In 1 Cor. 10:16, you have the cup first. It is well to see it in this verse; and the body, the bread, comes second here.
This is not how we take the Lord's Supper. In the 11th chapter, it is remembrance; in the 10th chapter, it is communion; the ground of our fellowship in the 10th chapter, and it is this you are carrying out in remembrance of the Lord in the 11th. The ground of our communion is that we are washed in the blood of Christ, first; the second thing is, being partakers of that one bread, we are members of that one body, and we could not be partakers of that one body except we were sealed by the Spirit. The sealing of the Spirit always follows redemption, the blood. We must know redemption through His blood. No one has a claim to be at the Lord's Table except they know their sins have been washed away by the blood of Christ and then they should know they are all members of the body of Christ. So, in the 10th chapter you will notice:
"We being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread."
That is the symbol that we now have for taking the Lord's Supper. It is the Lord's Table in the 10th chapter, and the Lord's Supper in the 11th. You have these terms mentioned only once in Scripture; and the Lord's Day is mentioned once (Rev. 1:10).
Q. What Is the Difference Between the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the Sealing of the Holy Spirit?
A. In Acts 1:4, you have an assembly, "being assembled", but in the 4th verse they are so many units, that are not joined to each other. They have the right kind of life, but they are not yet sealed. Now, in the next verse, "John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence." Here is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and it is a corporate, not an individual thing.
"For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body." 1 Cor. 12:12, 13.
That was "not many days hence" after what was written in Acts 1:4, 5, so what took place included the Gentiles in the 2nd and in the 10th chapters. There also upon the Gentiles was poured out the Spirit, as "at the beginning," linking the two together; so now the corporate baptism of the Spirit has been accomplished. This baptism is not possible of the individual, and the moment a person is sealed by the Holy Spirit, that moment he is made a member of the body of Christ, but it is never said, that he was baptized as an individual.
Q. Did I Understand You to Say That the 10th of Acts Is a Part of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit?
A. According to 1 Cor. 12:13, yes. It takes Acts 2nd and 10th chapters together to furnish the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the same is spoken of as "at the beginning." One is the completion of the other; the one concerns Jews, and the other, Gentiles.
When Peter is speaking in the 10th chapter, it is of the Jews, rather, but it was given unto "the Gentiles" as well; it does not say, "to Cornelius" as well. They were historically recognizing that Gentiles were now in the one body, as well as the Jews, and the sealing for them is connected with the receiving of the Holy Spirit, but never with the baptism; it was the act of faith; they were sealed when they believed.
Some teach that by prayer they receive the sealing of the Holy Spirit. This is not how the Holy Spirit is given,—by prayer; but by faith. "Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal. 3:2),—i. e., faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior; then God seals us. First, the blood was put upon the great toe, the ear, and on the right foot; and then the oil was put on the blood, (Lev. 8:23,24). If you have really believed the gospel of your salvation, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit. If you are sealed by the Spirit, you are anointed. When it is sealing it is security; when it is anointing it is power; when it is earnest, it is enjoyment of the possession. The baptism of the Spirit took place once, and that was at Pentecost, but you can't argue with people about it very well; into one Spirit you are all baptized into one body. I don't like to tell people that they personally have not been baptized, but the great thing is to get them to see that they have the Spirit of God, and that links them up with Christ, as one Spirit and one body. There is no such thing as that you are baptized by the Spirit. That is a past thing, but each one now receives that which was accomplished by the Spirit.
Q. Was Acts 8:15 Individual, or Corporate?
A. It was both individual and corporate. None of them had received the Holy Spirit. These were Samaritans, not Gentiles; but Samaritans could not receive the Holy Spirit until once the feud between Jerusalem and themselves was settled. There was only one Spirit, whether in Jerusalem or in Samaria. They could not receive the Holy Spirit until Peter and John had come down from Jerusalem, and prayed for them, and laid hands on them, and then they received the Holy Spirit. Thus there were not two assemblies independent of each other.
The woman of Samaria said to the Lord at the well, "Our fathers worshiped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place", and that had to be removed before they could receive the Holy Spirit? That had to be settled by them, and that was settled when Peter and John came down from Jerusalem, and prayed for them, and laid their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit. They were all true believers; they were baptized, and everything had been done, but they had not received the Spirit of God. God alone has to do with the sealing, He has to do with the baptism, and all that; not man at all; it is all from God. But God withheld it in this instance, till Peter and John came down from Jerusalem. They were the ones whose laying on of hands gave the Samaritans the Holy Spirit. The Samaritans were thus identified with the assembly at Jerusalem.
We, as children of God, should learn that there are exceptions in Scripture; for instance, the cases of Cornelius and of the Samaritans are exceptions. You could not find Christians now in such a condition as we have in the 8th and 10th chapters of Acts, that is, without the Spirit of God. They already have the Spirit of God. These cases are exceptional, and for a purpose. In the history of the Spirit's acting down here on earth, you will notice the great progress that goes on in the Acts, not only giving us a history of what was done, but just lines of truth touched on in every chapter of what was before; to lead us bye and bye to a full knowledge.
For the first time, in Acts 9:4, when from the glory the Lord said to Saul of Tarsus, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" we learn that we are one with Christ. The Lord did not say, "Why persecutest thou My people?" He said, "Me", though it was His people that Saul was persecuting. In 1 Cor. 12:12 we read, "so also is Christ." We with Christ are one.
It is beautiful to see how careful the Holy Spirit was to guard that oneness; the foundation was laid on the day of Pentecost. Afterward neither the Gentiles nor the Samaritans, were allowed to begin anything new; no new foundation could be laid. If Christians could see that, what a change it would make! How carelessly things are started today, when there is only one foundation.
If a new assembly was gathered then, it was in fellowship with all the other assemblies at once, and recognized by them all. There were no two names then, but only one, and only one the Scripture gives us, and that is the name of Christ, which includes holiness. Thus they went on in the unity of the Spirit of God, in the Church, the body of Christ, as it was in the beginning, getting back only to the original ground, and holding on to those principles given at the beginning. So they could not recognize independent meetings at all.
What a serious thing it was when some of the brethren established an altar (Josh. 22) across the river from the children of Israel. They needed some excuse; but if they had been in the right place, they would have needed none. It was not their character so much that was wrong, but is was the wrong place. We are apt to judge Christians by their nice character, and say, "They belong to the kingdom of God", and perhaps they are nicer Christians than some others; but they are on the wrong ground. We can go on with them as far as the unity of the Spirit will allow us.
I can go on with a man, and talk to him about the Lord, and enjoy his conversation, until he asks, "What denomination do you belong to?" Then I am stopped, because he has set aside the unity of the Spirit. I was having a happy conversation with a man in the train till he said to me, "I would like to ask you a question. What denomination do you belong to?" I said, "We were getting along fine; why do you need to bring that in?" He said, "I wanted to know." I said, "That looks like You want to start a fight. What denomination does the Bible say I should belong to?" He said "There are no denominations in the Bible!" I asked, "What are you?" He said, "I am a Methodist." "O," I replied, "I thought you were a Christian!" If they leave that behind when they get to glory, they had better leave it behind now.
Q. Had He Broken the Unity of the Spirit?
A. Yes; that broke it. I suppose the truth led him to want more, but then he overstepped the bound.
Q. of What Does the Unity of the Spirit Consist?
A. Well unity in the truth, is must ever be. It could not be otherwise; just as it was there with that illustration I gave you.
Q. I Heard a Definition of the Unity of the Spirit That I Thought Was a Good One: the Unity of the Spirit Is That Oneness Into Which the Spirit of God Leads Us, According to the Truth of God.
A. That is the simplest definition that I know; and we are to endeavor to keep it; it is the Christian's energy; it is his calling.
Q. Now, for Instance, If One Leaves the True Ground of Gathering and Joins That Which Perhaps in His Heart He Knows to Be Wrong; When You Meet That One, You Do Not Feel Free to Have Fellowship With Him?
A. No, for he has set aside the unity of the Spirit. The unity of the body you cannot break, Christ is the Head, and takes care of that; but the unity of the Spirit is what we are responsible to keep, and it is our privilege to do so. I like privilege, because it has always been a sweeter word, to urge us on with love. Privilege does urge us on, and it is our responsibility to keep the unity of the Spirit in love, and it is our privilege to serve the Lord in this way.
Some of God's servants go on with a bad conscience, for the good they think they can do, and are identifying themselves with ecclesiastical evil.
"Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity."
Eph. 4:2 shows us the character of Christ in the way in which the unity of the Spirit is maintained "with all lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love." I think that is so like the character of Christ Himself. How He walked in that path! He never drove His disciples away; true, He often had to rebuke them; He would say to Peter, "Get thee behind Me, Satan," but His character came out in it all, and you will find Him always nearer to them, day by day. Sometimes we are apt to drive people away by our harsh manner. You do not find this in Christ; you have His faithfulness, but it is always in the character of "lowliness and meekness." In Matt. 11:29, He says, "I am meek, and lowly in heart." If we are humbled before God in that spirit, we will be meek,-"lowliness and meekness, with long suffering, forbearing one another in love. "
I think sometimes we have an idea of being faithful, and perhaps doing harsh things. Remember, the Lord Jesus would have done it in a different way; so we need to be watchful in that respect; something like an old brother; many years ago had a brother on his heart very much in regard to his wrong doing, and he wanted some one to visit the brother; finally he went himself. Instead of talking of his wrong, he had sweet fellowship with him, and then they got down on their knees. The brother prayed for some one who was getting cold, and the other brother prayed for him too, and when they rose from their knees, the other brother said, "That is very much like my case." That's the way the Lord Jesus wins our hearts; love wins our hearts; and so we find that character of Christ comes out in this verse. The new nature—not the flesh produces this,—the new life coming out in the believer, in the power of the Spirit.
"I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ." 2 Cor. 10:1
"There is one body," Eph. 4:4, and this is as true today as was at the beginning of the Church before there was any departure. "There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling." This takes in every Christian, every child of God, sealed by the Spirit. Perhaps we know very few of them, but they are there, and when we partake of that one loaf on the table, it always puts us in mind of that one body, for the one loaf brings this thought before us. We do not have merely a piece of bread, nor do we cut it up, for that would only be division; it is one body, and one loaf. The size of the loaf does not matter. It is oneness; it is not size, nor does it say what kind of bread it should be. Some people are troubled as to wether it should be leavened or unleavened bread, but we should not be bothered about the frame; be occupied rather with the picture. The picture is Christ, and the loaf is a remembrance of Christ in death; and the cup is the remembrance of the blood of Christ shed for us, just as He says, "which is shed for many, for the remission of sins." The gospel puts it that way. The cup speaks to us of the blood of Christ, as a memorial. It covers all sins we have committed, and it touches our hearts, to think that Christ's blood was shed for us. What a blessed fact that there is one body, and we are members of the same body. We belong to Christ.
Hymn 327, L. F. Prayer.
Young People's Meeting November 26, 2:00 P. M.
Hymn No. 72, App., L. F. Prayer
2 CORINTHIANS. 5:14-18.
In those few verses we get that little word "henceforth" three times, and I wonder, dear young Christian if there has been in your life a "henceforth"? It is of immense moment that it should be so. In order to succeed in natural things, men must have a motive, an object, a goal, before them. There must be a constraining power, in the life. Men cannot go on living aimlessly, casting about from this to that, if they would achieve success. I speak now in terms of the world. So, in divine things, there must be in the soul a constraining power. Now, what power in heaven or in earth would equal that which is set before us in this scripture—"The love of Christ constraineth us"? O, what an object! What a motive power in the life of the Christian,—"The love of Christ constraineth us!" If it is true, that the love of Christ has been realized in some measure in your heart, and, indeed, it has, if you are a Christian, I wonder if it has had that place in your life which has enabled you to say, practically, "Henceforth". In other words; has there been a definite, clear-cut break from all that characterized you before you found Him? Has there been that change in ambitions and desires and purposes that marks you out in this world as one who has, as it were, waved farewell to all that you were as out of Christ, as identified with the world? Consider our portion, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature," or, "a new creation,"—complete change of position, complete change of relationship with the world—"a new creation." Well, dear young Christian, if that is true, it means a "henceforth" for you; it means a change. You will never reckon your life as you did before. You will never be able to reckon it as the worldling does.
In the 7th chapter of John's Gospel, when His unbelieving brethren after the flesh speak to Him about going to the feast at Jerusalem, our Lord says,
"My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready... Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for My time is not yet full come."
I think these words, "Your time is alway ready", are solemn words, coming from the Lord Jesus to those who know Him not. What a thing to have Him say to the world, "Your time is alway ready." In other words, "Go ahead, and make your plans as you will; you will not bring God into them. Plan out your course here. You do not need to take God into account; do not need to have Him interfere with your plans. You have rejected the One He has given. Go ahead, and make your plans as you will!" That is just what characterizes the world all about us, and, isn't it sad that it characterizes so many Christians, too!
If it is a question of education, how many a one has faced it merely from the attitude of the world, i. e., "I want an education!" Why? "Because it is my own personal desire!" God was not brought into it, and the love of Christ was not in it, so they went ahead in self-will, into a course, when perhaps, if they had waited on the Lord about the matter, He would have directed another way. He might have directed to another path for good and blessing, but they took their way in self-will, without waiting on Him, and result was sorrow and bitterness in soul.
So it is in connection with a young man entering business life. A flattering opportunity opens up before him; the thing is placed before him in such terms that it spells certain success, as the world terms it. Not stopping to consider the One who has bought him with a price—and such a price!—he accepts, and plunges into the work, gives himself over to it, and then perhaps wakes up to the fact that he missed the Lord's mind. Maybe some day he will be torn out of it, with loss to his soul—perhaps property losses too, to learn a bitter lesson that the Lord would have saved him from, if he had listened.
The whole thing is this: Are we willing to reckon our lives as from that "henceforth"? We are not to view our opportunities as the world views them. I was told recently of a young man who had had a most flattering business opening, but what else did it mean? Why it meant practically the surrendering of himself,—body, soul and spirit,—to that great institution with which he would have to identify himself. He would, as it were, have to sell himself to become a part of that great concern. It meant success in the world; but what would it mean to his soul? Ah, thank God, that young man, under better advice from those older and more experienced, weighed the matter in the Lord's presence. He shook his head, and said, "No; I will not accept it." He accepted a position at a moderate, living salary, and he is going on happily with the Lord.
We cannot, as Christians, view these things from the same standard that the world does. Their standards are not our standards. "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh." The whole thing is changed, we are changed, our relationship to God is changed, our destiny is changed. We have a new life; and now, in accordance with that, there must be different views, in subjection and obedience to the Word of God. Our Lord did not go up to that feast when they suggested it, for He had not the word from the Father to go. He was in subjection, and obedience to His Father, and He would not even go up to the feast till He got the word. That is a pattern for us. Those unbelieving brethren, He let go, if they would. They had no warrant to ask Him a thing about it. They were strangers to it all. Sometimes in the government of His family, God finds it necessary to let them go their own way. A child goes to his father, and says, "I would like to do so-and-so", and the father advises against it; but still, the boy persists, and wants his father's sanction. Finally, the father says, "Well, I am not going to say another word; you do what you want to!" This has often opened a boy's eyes to the wrong of what he wanted to do, and he replies, "I don't want to do it if you are going to feel that way about it!" We don't want to get into that state of soul where the Lord will say to us, "Your time is always ready"—no, indeed! We want Him to have an interest in every circumstance, and to be able to bring our circumstances to Him; and then it will give us confidence to go ahead.
"And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again."
O, dear young Christians, that is our business in life—to live for Him; not to live unto ourselves. We would do a lot of things if we lived unto ourselves; we would do just like the poor world is doing. The Psalmist being out of the Lord's presence saw the prosperity of the wicked (Psa. 73), and envy began to rise in his heart. He says, they are having a good time, while I am having a hard time. Their eyes stand out with fatness; they have more than heart could wish, while waters of a full cup are wrung out to me. These are the ungodly, who prosper in the world. Finally, he got into the Lord's presence about it. Then he saw their end, and bowed his head in confession. O, he says, I have been a fool. I have been like a dumb beast before Him. He bowed, and owned his folly.
Dear young people, there is an end to all we see about us, an awful end; the cross has marked the end of this world. "Now is the judgment of this world," our Lord says, in the 12th of John; "now shall the prince of this world be cast out." This world has been judged, everything that is connected with it; and you and I, by wondrous grace, have been picked out of it, and set in a safe place, where the judgment that is coming can never touch us. Are we willing to realize, practically, in our lives, that it has been judged, that it has been pronounced upon, and live our lives accordingly? It will make a tremendous difference if we do!
O, to have the "henceforth" of 2 Corinthians active in our lives—not to live unto ourselves, but unto Him that died for us, and rose again—to be identified with Him. He is risen, and He is up in heaven for us,—for us in every circumstance. What a blessed thing to get hold of! He is for us when we fail! Yes, He is for us, ever, always and He wants us to be for Him, practically, in our lives down here.
"Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh"—no, it won't do, even if it is a question of family relationships; all must be on a new basis. Sometimes we find saints excusing themselves, in a path that is not just according to the Word of God. They plead family relationships. One says, "I have to make a living for my family," and so excuses himself for something that is just a little off color. No, dear young Christian, we cannot excuse ourselves on that ground. God has opened a pathway for us, and He has said that He will stand by us in it, that He, the Lord Almighty, is on our side. Now, let us not be afraid to take Him at His word, and if it means a way of hardship, what of it? If we have His commendation, and His sympathy, and His help, we can say, "I will not fear; what can man do unto me?" He has said, "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." He can't go back on His word—that would be absolutely impossible. We have seen many a Christian who has, in a measure, forsaken the Lord; we have never seen a Christian whom the Lord has forsaken; no, nor ever the Lord will.
"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." Can we not trust Him, or are we not willing to bring Him into every circumstance of our life, however small, or however great, and let this 2d of Corinthians have full sweep in our lives?
"Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God."
What a marvelous transformation, a tremendous change, isn't it? A new creation, where everything is of God. Every relationship in which the Christian finds himself now, is to be of God; every friendship, every fellowship,-it is all to be of God. O, that it might be more among us, that confidence in God, that belief that if I bring Him into my circumstances, He is going to be for me, and see me through the trial! That there might be that confidence and trust in Him! How soon we find ourselves slipping back into that Jacob-like scheme, and we think we must help the Lord out. It is unbelief and lack of confidence in thee One who has sworn to Aland by us. And is not that very often just the source of our trouble?
Dear young people, if you would just learn to measure things as God measures them, what a world of sorrow it would save you from, and you would have that sweet and blessed consciousness of going through this world with the favor of God resting on you!
I met a man not so long ago with whom I went to school, and we were speaking of some fellow school mate we had known twenty years or so ago. He said of a mutual friend: "He is making quite a success; He is making lots of money."
I said, “Do you think making money is synonymous with success?" The thrust went home, and I could see he felt the point of it. Poor man, measuring things as the world measures them! Young people, God is never going to measure like that with you. Ten years from today, twenty years from today, if our Lord shall not come before that, your measure will have been taken, not only by man, but also by the Lord. Supposing the world says, "O, yes; he has made lots of money; he has made a success!" I would rather hear the God of heaven about that. When you come down to the time when you are going to change worlds, when everything that man can set his heart upon is just slipping out of your hands, and you are entering into things eternal, your satisfaction can only be in how much Christ was the object of your life.
A dear old servant of the Lord lay dying, and he was able to say, "I have made Christ my object." What a satisfaction to the soul! The same one said "Ours is not a religion of regrets." No, not at all. It need not be, going on day by day in communion with Him, we need not harvest a host of regrets.
You know we are prone to make so many mistakes by scheduling our lives out away ahead. That won't do for the Christian. We set our stakes, and we say, "I will reach on to accomplish this thing, and then I will go on to that thing". That is the way the world does. How does the Christian? O, to know that today I am where the Lord wants me; this planning ahead gets us into a deal of trouble. Even in connection with the Lord's service, isn't it enough to be in the Lord's service today? But to plan ahead, whether in a course in His service, or whether in a pathway in secular life, how often it brings us into a line of things contrary to the Word!
Now, dear young people, I want to urge upon you this thought: Have you had in your life that which is equivalent to what is in our scripture here? That henceforth it is going to be different with you; that you and the world have parted company; that you are going on your way to meet the Lord Jesus, and with the love of Christ constraining you? Haven't you confidence, then, to launch out fully and completely on that love of Christ, with confidence in His promises? Haven't you the heart to say, "By the grace of God, from henceforth we will know no man after the flesh; from henceforth we will not live unto ourselves, but unto Him which died for us, and rose again?"
Hymn 76, App. L. F. Prayer.
Address on Philippians November 26th, Thursday, 3:00 P. M.
Hymn 155 L. F. Prayer.
The Epistle to the Philippians was written by Paul when he was in prison. With their feet fast in the stocks, their backs lacerated, and all the misery that man could heap upon them, their souls were not crushed. They were in fellowship with God's Son, and their hearts were feasting upon Christ, and rose up in prayers and praises till the prisoners heard it. It was He who could give songs in the night. That is Christianity. Christianity is not only knowing I am saved, but it gives me Christ, and it gives me Him as an object for my heart. Sometimes people seek happiness. One dear sister told me how happy she had felt, and then just as she looked at it, it fled. We are not to look at our happiness, or our feelings, but we do desire by the Spirit and will of God to be taken up with Christ.
In Num. 28:4 there was to be a lamb in the morning, and a lamb in the evening; and why? It was a type of Christ,—we should begin the day with Christ, and close the day with Christ. Paul wrote this letter to the Philippians from the Roman prison—a beautiful letter—as well as Ephesians, Col., and Philemon. His life was full of joy, full of Christ. In each one of these
Epistles we have that sweet renewing of joy. We perhaps are not called to pass through much suffering, but let us not shrink from what we have to pass through, proving the joy of our souls in finding our occupation day by day with Christ Himself.
The Philippian Epistle is divided very conveniently into four chapters. In the first chapter we have the affections of the new nature; then, the apostle and the Philippians were wrapped up together in one bundle of love; he in their hearts, and they in his heart; and he is counting upon the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ for something that he has before him, and what do you think it is? Take the 1st chapter. There were some preaching the Gospel out of contention, but in the 19th verse he turns away from that, to triumph in the love of Christ. This verse brings before us, as other scriptures do, the precious privilege we have of praying for each other; and here they were praying for Paul, and he knew it, and he counted on those prayers, and with the prayers come the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ; i. e., not that the Holy Ghost was not dwelling in them, for He was; but that Spirit was burning in them, and through the prayers of the saints he counted upon the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, that whatever he did, or whatever he said, or whatever was before him, it was the Spirit of Jesus Christ coming out of him. It was the fruit of grace in his soul, enabling him now, not to show Saul of Tarsus, but to show Jesus Christ in his walk and ways.
Then, in the 20th verse of Phil. 1, he says that it was all the same to him whether by life or by death Christ be magnified in his body, but through their prayers he expects to have boldness in what he does. Don't we need each other's prayers for that,—that Christ may be magnified in your body and in my body, whether by life or by death? That was all he lived for, that was his motive, his object. Christ was the One he had wanted to please, because he had been taken, as it were, captive in His chains of love, and all his delight was, as he had said, in the beginning, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" and he is doing it now. He is spending his life for Christ. Do you think that is too high for us? God has no other standard for us; the standard for every believer is Christ.
"He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." No, whatever business we are connected with, wherever we are, there we are to abide with God, and, too, in our little measure, shine for Christ. We are not all alike; the twelve stones, the twelve foundations of the New Jerusalem, were all different, but they were all a reflection of Christ. Every one of us is different. He does not make two of us alike, but God is working in us; in you in one way, and in me in another, to bring out in us a reflection of Christ.
Put a prism into a dark place and let the sun shine through a hole on the prism, and you will get all the colors of the rainbow through that little piece of glass. The sunshine is composed of all those different colors, and so it is with Christ. All these little glories showing in the twelve stones of the New Jerusalem were in the Son. Just as all those different colors come from the sun, so the life in the different sisters and brothers comes from Christ; and as you see Christ in them, how precious! Are you looking for Christ in your brother and sister? That is what we should look for.
Then in the 2nd chapter we have Christ's obedience and the obedience of that life in us. The obedience of Christ is the obedience of love. It is never of law. The commandments of the Lord Jesus have never any penalty attached to them; it is our spiritual loss if we do not walk according to that new divine life. God has saved us in grace, and there is no penalty whatever attached; but "whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." What we want is this: If He is your and my Master, you and I should learn to walk in obedience to Him. Is there any code of rules, that I may hang in my room, read in the morning to try to obey during the day? No; there is no law, but the Lord Jesus Christ is there Himself, and He wants me to speak to Him, and He wants to point out to me the way wherein I should walk. Sometimes one says, "How do you know what to do?" "You can find it in the Word, and by waiting on the Lord."
As with Queen Esther, she said, there was a law forbidding one to go in to the king unless summoned. But she was not under the law, and when she went in to the king she found that the coldness had been on her own side. So it is with us, dear friends; you yourself know how it is that this cold feeling creeps over your heart. Get close to the Lord. The guidance is lost, the grace is lost, if we get away from Him. The object of your life is given up. The Lord wants you to be an obedient child. What a loss it is if you are not abiding in Christ. Your life is practically a blank when you are not living close to Him. How much we feel these things sometimes. We want to know His mind, but we have to return to Him before He will give it to us. "Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams."
Let us never go on with a bad conscience. God has given us a perfect conscience, which we shall never lose; and a bad conscience we can get through disobedience and iniquity. If a little thing comes in between you and the Lord, if you are not faithful to judge it, Satan drives in a thin end of a wedge. There is no distance on the Lord's side; it is all on your side. And that is what the Epistle to the Philippians presents to us, i. e., the presence of Christ, in such a way as to make our hearts long to know Him.
So this 2nd chapter of Philippians tells us of those who gave themselves up. The 5th verse starts out with "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Christ himself is set before us, and went down to the lowest; He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, and that the death of the cross, "Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name." So the more you go down and down, humbling yourself before God, the higher up you will be with Christ in glory. Think of all the marks put upon that thorn-crowned brow. If you and I have to go through anything for Christ, it may bring rejection upon ms, and have others look down upon us, but can't you put Christ first? Why, He is going to have you in that glory, let your heart be possessed by it now. We find Paul does that. He was willing to pour out his life that he might see the joy of Christ in that day. As he says in Phil. 2:17, "Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all." That will be in the day of Christ.
It is very beautiful, in the 3rd chapter, how Paul gives us to see his object in the glory. He says, I am a pilgrim here; I have no home here; my home is where Christ is, in the glory, and I am just running on day by day; and I can't forget that I saw Him once; and I will see Him again, and I am going to be with Him up there, and "I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
Christ apprehended Paul; and he said, "I want to know what I am apprehended for!" and he laid hold of what he was apprehended for; so you get him pressing on; and in this chapter you have that brought in. "We look for the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior" (chap. 3:20, 21). Salvation in this Epistle is looked at as at the end of the journey. We shall be saved out of this, into the glory, and these bodies of ours will be changed and made like unto His body of glory. What a blessed, blessed moment that will be! Christ will have His joy, we shall have our joy, but His joy will exceed, and He will present us to Himself, as He tells us in Ephesians, “a glorious Church". Paul sees that this body of humiliation is to be fashioned like His own body, by the same power with which He is able to subdue all things unto Himself.
Then in the 4th chapter is brought out complete dependence. I can't do what you are talking about; I am not able to; I am too weak. I am too weak to take one step by myself; I would be sure to dishonor my Lord; I don't want to; I want to put my hand into His, and let Him lead me on. And so in the 4th chapter we have the means right at hand to do this. The first verse reads:
"Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved." Isn't that beautiful language! That is the language of heaven, right here and now. The heart is filled with the love of Christ. In the 4th verse he says:
"Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice." Here you have something to always rejoice in. There are lots of trials, sicknesses and troubles of many kinds, and you can't rejoice in them. When the blessed Lord sat down to the table with His disciples, and they had the passover sacrifice before them, and He instituted the Lord's Supper, the word says, "Having sung a hymn." How could He sing at such a moment as that? Because the joy of the Lord rose above it all in this, that He saw what He was going to do, and the blessed effect it would have!
When he says, "Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice", doesn't it mean the same to us? We see others in sorrow. "The Lord is good, and a stronghold in the day of trouble", and "He knoweth them that put their trust in Him." Well, if you and I occupy our sunshiny day with the Lord Jesus, and a storm comes on, we find a refuge at once in the presence of God. We pile the trouble all back on Him, owning His blessed hand in it all. The heart knows, and loves to say,
"My times are in Thy hand."
"Tis with believers well."
We sympathize with all who sorrow, weep with those who weep, but we rejoice in the Lord above it all. We find ever that blessed One as the object of our hearts, and then we find what to do with all our cares and difficulties. The 6th verse says: "Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God."
Our cares, our worries, our troubles, come in, and He says, Now you must get rid of them, and the way to get rid of them is to cast all on the Lord, "In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving." You will notice it deepens, it grows more intense, and when the heart comes in thanksgiving to God, what a mercy it. is, the bitter waters have become sweet, and everything comes from my Father's hands; whatever He orders must be best, the heart bows and joys in that He plans all things for us. The heart is immediately filled with the peace of God.
A little boy was born blind. A teacher asked him, "Why did God make you blind?" The little boy, with his eyes closed—he had eyes of a different kind—thought for a moment, and said, "Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight." Wasn't that beautiful! That soul reached God's presence. He had learned what made the bitter waters sweet. He had learned that subjection to the Father's will is the sweetest thing on earth. It makes every cross sweet, it turns every bitterness into blessing, it turns everything that might be a curse, into a good, useful thing, and that is the kind of Savior we have.
In this 4th chapter you get our dependence so fully brought before us. You find the sufficiency of Christ coming in. So he says in the 13th verse: "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." "I can do all things through Him who gives me power." He hasn't a bit of power of his own, but his heart clings to the Savior, and the blessed Lord answers him for every circumstance in life. Remember, this was written by a Roman prisoner, and the prisoner who wrote it did not know when the ax would fall on his neck, but he was a prisoner of the Lord, not of men.
"Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Verse 8).
Now, just think of that—this refers to our minds. Your mind and mine belong to ourselves. We need to turn our minds to profitable things. If we are occupied with good, we shall become like it. If we allow ourselves to be occupied with trifles, we shall become like them. "Set your minds," as it is in
Colossians, not affections; it should not be affections there. Your affections will be sure to follow, just like the tail of a kite. If a boy gets a kite to go up, the tail will follow. Set your mind on things above, and then your heart follows. What is your mind occupied with? Is it to please the Lord? Is it to be the joy of your Savior's heart, to give Him pleasure? A verse like this would forbid us to give up our mind to all the trifling, light reading matter we have today. All this turns our mind away from Christ. We find in this 13th verse that Christ is to be our strength from day to day. I heard of a man engaged in business who conscious of his own inability said, "I can't trust myself to do this work." The superintendent replied, "I will stand at your elbow while you do it." "Well", the man answered, "if you stand at my elbow, I think I can do it." The Lord Jesus stands at our elbow. He is right at your elbow—"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."
Then from the 19th verse we learn that everything is supplied for us according to the will of God. "My God shall supply all your need, according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus"—what a measure! The love of Christ is sufficient to carry us along, constrained by His love; carried along on His bosom. May the Lord give us to know more of this love of His.
Hymn 72, App. L. F. Prayer.
Reading Meeting
November 27th: Friday, 10:30 A. M.
Hymn 93, L. F. Prayer
EPHESIANS 4:1-16.
I would like to call attention again, that it may be definitely before us, as to what our vocation is. I believe we get it in its entirety in Ephesians, chapters 1 and 2. What I mean by its entirety is, in our individual and in our collective relationship to God as His children; to God as His household and family, and to Christ as the Head of His Church, His body. To walk worthy of the vocation wherewith we are called, we must know what that vocation is. A brother who has long been with the Lord, used to say he thought the saints had neglected too much of what he called the "tail end" of the Epistles. Some of those tails are quite long, and that is especially so in the Epistle to the Ephesians. The doctrine of the Epistle is in the 1st and 2nd chapters: the calling, and in what follows we have what he called the "tail-end" of the Epistles, is e., the practical application of the truth of the doctrine.
The hope of our calling is what the calling points forward to; of which we are not yet in possession, but what we look forward to. The glory of Christ, and sharing the kingdom comes in the beginning of the 1st chapter.
It might be well to read the hope of our calling as it is brought before us in Eph. 1:15-23. (The portion was read). The calling covers a very, very wide range of things.
Q. I call our attention to where it says "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory." How would you define that?
A. He was the source of it all; it is all given from Him in connection with His Son.
There are three points:
1st. The hope of His calling;
2nd. The riches of His Glory and His inheritance in His saints; and,
3rd. The heavenly glory in heavenly places.
In that way it all comes from God. God and the saints in that one association, where they become the complement of Him who filleth all in all.
What we have in "God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory" is God in Himself, in His own purposes, for His own glory, and the glory of His Son. He as the Father of glory, has purposed and set up in Christ a system of glory, of which He Himself is the author and source. That system of glory will never be complete until the new creation is all brought into existence; not simply the Church gathered home, but when all that God has purposed for His own glory-and the glory of Christ is brought about; when we have a new heaven and a new earth; a new Adam and a new Eve—new creation,—this is the hope of His calling. The fulfillment of all this is another thing. It is the glory of His inheritance in the saints. That is what I take to be the meaning of God as "the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory." He has given us that system in chapter 1:10, and in the next verse He gives us His companion in that glory,—the sharer with Him in that headship, in whom we also have obtained an inheritance; and so there is one hope of our calling, but it does not stop short of all that God has purposed in Christ—in Christ as man, of course,—the head of a new creation. That is what I take to be the hope of His calling.
Q. "That we should be to the praise of His glory" is a great contrast with what Israel will have on earth?
A. Before Israel as a nation is saved, we, believers, have a heavenly position where we are to the praise of His glory in. Christ, so the hope of His calling in the 4th chapter points forward to the glory which we shall have with Christ above.
Q. Will you explain "His inheritance in the saints"?
A. The glory of God, and He Himself inherits it in His saints. The glory is His, but the saints are the administrators of it. Consider the new creation. Whose glory is it? Who is the source and author of it all? God. In whom does God possess it? In His people.
Eph. 4:8-11. Verses 9, 10 are a parenthesis. How low did He descend? Into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same also that ascended up—how far? To the third heaven? No, above all heavens. Now, the simple point is,—the height from which He came; the depths to which He went—the lower parts of the earth, and perhaps we can't locate that, but He went as low as He could go. Where is He now? High above all heavens. He is gone above them all. Range is the thought. It does not say that He ascended first, but that He descended first. That is very precious—the Spirit of God guarding the glory of Christ.
Q. The thought, then, is to show who it is that has given these gifts?
A. Yes; but it is as the ascended Man. He has received gifts, as the Psalmist says, "in man", or "in manhood" (Psa. 68:18).
In Hebrews we are told that He passed through the heavens; the tabernacle is a beautiful picture of this. We have a picture of the universe in the tabernacle also. Christ has gone through the heavens. His blood has been carried right through, and He has gone in; not resting at all in any created place. He, as a man goes right up into the presence of God, and when He took that place at the Father's right hand, He could say, "And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me... with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." What is new about His position now is, that He ascended there as a man; took a place as conqueror, and, conquering everything, has taken His place at God's right hand as a man. That could not be until once He had descended, and then ascended. And now there is a real man in the glory of God, who has won that place not only for Himself, but for us.
Q. Would you say a word with reference to Eph. 4:8, in regard to the idea one finds coming up again and again, of the Lord going down somewhere, and unlocking a prison, and taking a lot of prisoners with Him?
A. There is no idea of the Lord Jesus going to any prison, or preaching the gospel in any prison. He went into the grave purposely, and before He went there, He prayed to the Father with strong crying and tears unto Him Who was able to save Him out of death; and then He broke the chains of death, and rose triumphant from it. He Himself quickened that body again. As He said, "Destroy this temple, and in three day I will raise it up."
You have God glorifying His name (John 12:28): "I have both glorified it"—that was with Lazarus, "and will glorify it again" that is in Christ's resurrection. Referring to John 13, if God glorified Him in what He did on the cross, God shall also glorify Him in Himself. There He goes the whole distance from the depths He had gone (down to the lower parts), until you find Him above all heavens.
When the Lord Jesus died, He said, " Father into Thy hands I commend My spirit". He said to the dying thief, "Verily,... To-day shalt thou be with Me in paradise", and there His spirit was till the moment came. That same body—spirit, soul and body—a perfect man, is glorified at God's right hand. But to no other place did His spirit go, but to be with God the Father.
In 1 Peter 3 we have the Spirit of God preaching through Noah to the ante-diluvians who were drowned. It is Christ, by the Spirit, i. e., the Spirit of Christ in Noah. It is not the Spirit of God spoken of as such but it is the Spirit of Christ that tells, them the good news' that there is an ark prepared for them. "Therefore the gospel was preached to them that are dead", but it was preached to them while they were living (1 Peter 4:6).
Q. What do you understand by this captivity that Christ led captive; is it persons that have been redeemed in this dispensation?
A. Well, I love to think that I am one of them.
Q. I didn't know that persons were in it at all.
A. All who are brought into judgment, the judgment of God, the judgment of the dead, will have heard and rejected some gospel. The passage just referred to (1 Peter 4:6), tells us that. The object was that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the Spirit. What that gospel in the providence of God, and the dealings of God may have been in this dispensation or that, is not the question. I think 1 Peter 4:6 is a very important scripture in connection with the judgment of the dead. All have had some kind of gospel, and are judged because they did not receive it. Christ preached a gospel in the days of Noah by the Spirit. It is remarkable that the first mention of the person of the Holy Spirit is in Gen. 1, where He brooded over the face of the deep. The second mention is, "My Spirit shall not always strive with man."
It is assumed that there is a captivity; and what was it that brought us into captivity? Sin; man's will. Satan led man to assume a will apart from the will of his Creator. If I own a will apart from my Creator, that is sin; and it began in the Garden of Eden. The Lord Jesus died to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. The Lord burst the bands of death, and came out victorious over everything that held Him; He went down there under the power of death, and sin, and Satan, and apparently, He was absolutely defeated; and then He comes out victorious over it all. It is the victory of Christ over every enemy that held man captive.
Read Luke 4:18. What a refreshing little scripture this is about the Lord. How the Lord's human side comes out in that passage. He is God's Anointed there in the synagogue—"deliverance to the captives."
Col. 2:13, 14 is in our own sphere, our own realm, here on earth; verse 15 goes out of our realm. It takes in the whole glory of God in connection with sin. Sin came in, and sin has been met in the person of Christ. As a man Her did it; an angel could not do it. So it is quite true it is a multitude of captives, and that He led captivity captive. Everything is subject to Christ, and the God of peace shall bruise Satan under our feet shortly. We are already delivered, though; we are already set free; we are already associated with Christ in glory —faith claims it, faith own it.
Satan has no rights over us.
"Led captivity captive." Satan that held man captive, is now a captive himself, and is only let loose for a little while, finally to be cast into the lake of fire. Satan is not chained down yet; but God purposes to use, him in the future to display His glory.
It is important to us—we perhaps overlook it—what a marked place, an essential place, the resurrection of Christ has in the purposes of God. They an center in Him, not in incarnation, not in death; they center in Him in resurrection, and it is only in resurrection that He takes His place and becomes the head of a new creation. Don't overlook the place that the resurrection of Christ has in the ways of God,—in the purposes of God. "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"," I will do it", "I lay it down", " I take it again." It depends on what line of truth is before the Spirit of God when He speaks of the resurrection of Christ in different connections.
Christ in death—death had no claim upon Him. How came He, then, to be in death? He had gone there in obedience and love to God His Father. Well, how could God be true to His own character, and leave Him under the power of death? His glory was in question.
Q. Please explain John 13:31, 22.
A. Part of these glories are what we call moral. The moral glory of Christ as Son of Man, and the moral glory of God, we see in the death of Christ. There we see the personal glory of Christ, that He should glorify God in death. What I mean by moral glory is the righteousness, holiness, truth, and the love of God. We find it in all its fullness, in the death of Christ. We want to know what we call the moral glory of Christ. The Son of Man maintained and vindicated God's glory; where? In death, and only in death. God has glorified Him; but how? He raised Him out of death. Now there is a man in resurrection, never to die again.
Q. While you are talking about glory, will you say a word on John 17.24 "that they maybehold My glory which Thou hast given Me, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world"? What glory does He mean, "My glory"?
A. He means that glory that He has as the only begotten Son in the bosom of the Father. This is His personal glory; and we shall forever, at it were, be hearing God tell us of His delight in Christ. But then, go a little further John 17:26),
"And I have declared unto them Thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith Thou hast loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
In eternity the Father will declare His delight in His Son, and will be doing it to our delight, too; and there the Son will declare His delight in the Father—the One declaring the Father, and the other declaring the Son.
Q. What was the glory the Father gave Him?
A. Everything He received. In John everything is given to Him by the Father. "Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world"—Christ as the object of God's love. It is personal, not acquired, though He says, "given Me". That is characteristic of John—everything is looked at as given; God has given Him the place of being His beloved Son. The voice came out of the excellent glory, and said, "This is My beloved Son." We shall hear, as it were, of the excellent glory forever and forever, God telling us what Christ has done. Christ is an inexhaustible subject with God.
Q. Returning to Eph. 4, how many ones are there in the first part of the chapter?
A. Seven.
Q. What is seven in Scripture, as a typical number?
A. Completeness, or perfection, in things spiritual; good or bad. Take, for instance, "seven spirits"; and "seven devils". Whether good or bad, in spiritual things seven is the number of fullness; so it is not merely divine completeness. What is the thought of one? The first thought is of unity, "one body", "one Spirit", "one hope of your calling". The portion of the Church is a common portion to all who compose the Church.
Eph. 4:4 takes in all who are believers—sealed by the Spirit; the 5th verse takes in all professors, all who were baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost; the 6th verse includes all the world, with God as the supreme Creator of all. So when we came into this world, we were born, into the 6th verse; baptism put us into the 5th verse: salvation put us into the 4th verse.
Q. Could we say that the 6th verse includes the universal kingdom of God; the 5th, the kingdom of the Son of Man-of heaven; and the 4th verse, the Church?
A. I wouldn't define it that way. We need to be careful in defining the kingdom of God, and the kingdom of the Son of Man. The kingdom of God is spoken of from different viewpoints, i. e., "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God"; "The kingdom of God is like to a grain of mustard seed", etc.
We should refer to the particular passage when we speak of the kingdom. Never say, the kingdom of heaven means this, or the kingdom of God means that, because it is spoken of in several, to say the least, different viewpoints; it means in one place, what it does not mean in the other at all.
Q. Would you say, in some instances the kingdom of God, and of heaven, are interchangeable?
A. Well, not exactly. "The kingdom of God is like to a grain of mustard seed", and "the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking" are two aspects, each quite different. The kingdom of heaven is dispensational, and the kingdom of God is not, but the same parable is used for both sometimes, i. e., the parable of the sower, and of the mustard seed.
What was called attention to was, "one God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in us all." That is the Creator God, and all are in Him as His creation. When we come to "one Lord, one faith, one baptism", we come to a circle of worship within that kingdom of God; and what brings us into it? A certain profession made; a certain ordinance brings us into it, and that ordinance is Christian baptism. Then we come into another sphere where all is blessedly vital, "one body, one Spirit,.... one hope of your calling." These circles are inside of each other. "The kingdom of heaven" is one; and when seen from that same viewpoint, "the kingdom of God" is one; but there are two parts to it; the upper part of that kingdom of heaven is called the kingdom of the Father; the lower part is called the kingdom of the Son. "I drink it,.... with you in my Father's kingdom"-the upper part. There is a heavenly part and an earthly part.
Hymn 99, L. F. Prayer.
Young People's Meeting
November 27th, Friday 2.00 P. M.
Hymn 197, L. F. Prayer.
"Keep Thyself Pure."
The little portion that is before me is a part of 1 Tim. 5:22, three words: "Keep thyself pure." Timothy was exhorted to "Lay hands suddenly on no man, neither be partaker of other men's sins" and then the injunction is added, "Keep thyself pure."
I don't know of anything that we need so much as this little exhortation. Timothy, as most of us know, was a young man. He had been left in Ephesus by the apostle Paul, and had been blessed by his ministry and teaching. Paul was anxious that the truth he had taught should be maintained, and he entrusted this to Timothy. I think that is a happy thing: To Timothy, a young man; weak physically, but strong spiritually, were committed certain things by the apostle, and he was exhorted to continually remind the saints of these things for their edification.
But Timothy was not exempt from the ensnaring influences of this world, and neither are we, dear young Christian: for, if we are honest before God, we must own how much—and, alas, too much—this world has its influence upon us; and what a detriment to our spiritual state, if this world is allowed to come in in any measure, and claim our affections! These affections are to be given to Christ, according to His great love wherewith He loved us. The love of Christ, constrains us; and it is often a challenge to you and to me.
We, as Christians, know the love of Christ in its saving power; but I wonder how much we know it and enjoy it day by day?
Timothy was commanded to put the Christians continually in remembrance of these things; and we, too, need to be reminded of these precious things that have been committed to us, for our walk, our conduct and our ways down here.
I am not speaking in these measures to those who are not saved. There may be some young people here this afternoon who do not know Christ as their Savior, i. e., in the eye of God they are not pure. In our portion of the Word, it does not say "make thyself pure", but it says "keep thyself pure", and this is very simple. If there is anyone here who does not know the value of the blood of Christ; does not know that his or her sins are, forgiven, this is no part for them, for we would have to go first to Isa. 1:18,
"Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."
There we get purity, the sinner cleansed by God, the sinner accepting from God the precious gift of His own dear Son; the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
That is how we who are Christians have been made pure and white in the sight of God, i. e., through having to do with Christ as the gift of God's love, for our sins. So, if there is one here this afternoon who has not had to do with Christ as his or her Savior, I entreat you, Do not delay;
God says "Come now, let us reason together, saith the Lord." God wants every soul to come. The Gospel goes out today, because God in His great love does not want any one left out. He wants your soul this afternoon. He wants you to come. When God says "Come," He means exactly what He says.
As this was given to Timothy for the edification of the saints, he was reminded of a thing which I believe we ought all to be reminded of today, i. e., that it costs something to keep pure, in a world that leaves Christ out.
For instance, a boy or a girl enjoys Christ, knows Him as his or her Savior; yet there must be battles, because we are in the enemy's land, as it were—we are in a world that cast out Christ—we can't expect friendship.
I remember a very dear girl, and she came to her mother and said, "Mother may I go to the concert to be given at school next week?" Her mother answered, "No. Why do you want to go to the concert at school?" The girl replied, "It's all right, mother; I just asked you, to know, so that if they ask me to go, I will say, 'Mother doesn't want me to go." How important that we should seek to be in His presence first, and then go out.
I think perhaps the best way in which our ways can be committed to Him, before a busy day, is to come to Him in the morning, even if we have only a few minutes; to own before Him—dear young Christian, you need it, and I need it, too—that we have no strength of our own, that we need His grace for the day. We need His presence with us for the day, whether we are at school or in business—and in business how much we need Him, too.. If you are in business, how many things come up—ambitions—perhaps. Really, I am much concerned about the young men in these great cities because of the ambitions and worldly prosperity that present themselves, both to young and old. And it is going to cost us something if we refuse; look what it cost Moses—a throne in Egypt,—but the riches of Christ are far greater. If you want to see what you are gaining for what you are giving up, just look at Christ in glory. We are going to enjoy His presence, and we are going to have a crown, too, for every little thing we do for Him.
I think it is so wonderful, that for any service whatever that we do for Christ, we are going to receive a reward—for every little thing. We have joy, and I do not know of any greater joy, nor do you, young Christian, than to be able to present Christ to poor souls, so that they are snatched from hell; and not only snatched from hell—yes, we are all glad that we are not going to hell—but how much do we enjoy what we have been saved for! How much do we enjoy that which God, which Christ, would have us enjoy,—that you and I as children of God are going to enjoy throughout all eternity? That is often a great challenge to our hearts; indeed, it is! We have been saved from hell, from everlasting banishment from God, from eternal damnation, but think of what we have been saved to—to spend eternity with Christ.
I ask you, how much, dear young Christian, are you expecting the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, to take you to be with Himself? Have you ever been separated from any dear ones? A little while ago my father was coming from England. I would go down to the steamship company and inquire as to when the steamer would leave, and when it would be due to arrive. And when the day came for it to arrive, I took time to leave my business and see that boat in. And why? Because there was one on board that I loved.
Dear young Christian, just think how the Lord Jesus Christ loves you, He loves me, far greater than anybody else has ever loved or ever will love us. We know very little of love compared to that love of His, which caused Him to go into death for us.
He is coming again. It may be that He will come today. I am not my own, you are not your own—we are bought with a price. But how often we want to go on in our own way, and He has to come in with bit and bridle to stop us. What a selfish thing to want our own way here, when we expect to be with Christ through all eternity.
If we weigh all things in the light of His presence, whether we are in school, in business, or in service for Christ, how it changes things! I want to tell you, dear young Christians, just as an encouragement, what joy it is to be of any little service for Him, who delights to draw our hearts on to lead us on, for further service, for further occupation with Him. But He never draws us into service to take our eyes off him. No, He has to be everything in all we do. Well may the love of Christ constrain us; well may we be occupied with Him, the One Who gave Himself for us!
Let me tell you, if we are ever called upon to give up anything for Him, God is never our debtor. If we have to give up a little of this poor, Christ-rejecting world, we shall get back, with far greater interest, more than any earthly concern pays.
Dear young Christian, when I see people wanting to get on in this world, I think of what Rev. 6:15 says. Great men, rich men, pompous men, but how poor without Christ! I often pity them; and I am sure, you do, too. How humbling it will be when this scene takes place! Men that had position in this world, rich men mighty men—think of it!—when that great day comes, will be mingled in with all classes, crying, "Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." They had heard of Him, but they had rejected Him.
This verse, too, should have its effect on us, in separating us from this world which is so soon to receive its judgment. We don't want to be like Lot, a brand plucked out of the burning. We want to be of service to the One who loves us, and it is our reasonable service to give a little back to Him.
There is just one other Scripture I want to refer to before we close, i. e., that beautiful 1 John 3:1-3. I think the 3rd verse is particularly beautiful. You know, when Timothy was told to keep himself pure, it was very necessary.
Dear friends, dear young Christians too, perhaps as we look back on our lives, how many things we would wish that were not there, even as Christians; perhaps things that we have said, perhaps things that we have done. O, how necessary it is that we conduct ourselves properly, those of us who know that precious truth of being gathered to His blessed Name; and, of course, as children of God, there is no reason why we should not all know this.
"Now are we the children of God"—some declare that this is a difficult thing to say; but if I should ask some of you if you are saved, you would answer, "Yes;" and if you are saved, you are a child of God.
Then don't be surprised, dear young Christian, that the world does not know us. We might expect a great respect from the world because we have been saved, and living an honorable life, but how sadly disappointed we would be if we expected it. They cast Him out and crucified Him. If the world won't have you, thank God for it,—in this way you suffer with Him in His rejection. However, God does not want to set hedges about us, and say that we must not do this or that, but we have a blessed Object! We might get discouraged at our own failure, we are full of failure. Peter when he looked at the waves, immediately began to sink, and then he uttered five words, "Lord, save me, I perish." He was saved and kept up by that blessed Hand. What a strong arm we have—the arm of Christ—to help us on that course. We have that Shepherd, who will surely take us home to Himself. Not one shall be lost. Just think of how beautiful, and encouraging that is. Take for instance, soldiers in battle. If they knew to a certainly that their charge would be a victory, they would forge ahead at all costs. You and I should go on; it is certain victory for us.
When He comes—and how soon that coming may be—there shall be no more failing bodies, but they shall be like His body. I remember when I was a young Christian, how it filled me with joy to know that I was going to be like Him.
"When He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself."
To Timothy, it was "Keep thyself pure." The apostle Paul wanted that testimony to the name of Christ maintained by the children of God; but he did not, as it were, force them to keep it. There was that injunction to be found walking well pleasing to God; and it is to you and me—"Every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure."
If we knew the Lord Jesus was coming tonight, we would want to undo a lot of things, and perhaps do a lot of things we were not doing. It may be that He will come tonight. I can't tell you when He is coming, nobody else can tell you, but He is coming. That ought to be sufficient for you and for me—to know that we are going to have a body like His own, Who loved us and died for us. O, how that ought to keep us in our ways down here, that we might be more and more to His praise and glory.
Hymn 46, App. L. F. Prayer.
Reading Meeting
November 27th: Friday, 3:00 P. M.
Hymn 82 L. F. Prayer.
EPHESIANS 4:4-16
Q. I would like to ask what the expressions mean "above all, and through all, and in you all"? (verse 6)
A. God is supreme, God is everywhere; but with the Christian God dwells in him—"in you all." So, "in you all" refers to ourselves, to the Church. God dwells in us. "Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God." 1 John 4:15.
It is emphatic; it comes from the widest circle, (all creation), to the individual believer, and says "in you all"' not simple "all", in general, but it is limited to the believer—"in you all." In 1 John 4:15, the blessed truth I believe is this: The believer has found a dwelling place, a home, in God; and God has found a dwelling place in him, not merely salvation, or forgiveness. "God dwelleth in him, and he in God" is judicial, and is the climax. A wonderful contrast, that these poor hearts of ours should have a home, a dwelling place in God, and then God finding a dwelling place in us. That is what God has sought, i.e., the possession of man's heart. He lost man's confidence in Eden, and ever since He has been at work to regain it, and the heart that shrank from Him at the thought of having to do with Him, now finds a dwelling place in Him, and he finds a dwelling place in the believer.
That was the work of Christ. God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself. This is a manifestation of the fact that God is so different to what man thought He was. This is another phase of our nature, i.e,. alienation. These are all different phases of the results of man's falling away from God. He is unholy, alienated, and they are all met in the Lord Himself. New creation covers them all.
"All have sinned and come short of the glory of God", but now "we joy in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the reconciliation."
Then there is another very beautiful thing, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God." Rom. 5:1-11. But peace with God, and joy in God are two different things; and God does not stop short of the latter. Peace with God, in itself, is not worship nor adoration: but joy in. God is worship, and that is when the deepest phase of man's alienated condition is brought before us. We have now received the reconciliation (not the justification.)
Here it is general; it is the widest scope coming down to the unit. And "in you all" is the same thing in effect in Col. 3:11, where "Christ is all, and in you all." He not only fills the shere and place, in everything, but is in you, in the individual; only in Colossians it says "Christ," where as in Eph. 4:6, it is "God".
In Eph. 3:19 we have another phase of it, and there it is the blessed realization of the love of Christ in our souls, i.e., "that ye might be filled even to all the fullness of God." There we get the heart entering into it; there we get our minds possessed by it, so that we are filled unto all the fullness of God. The prayer in the 3rd chapter is for the realization of it; the prayer in the 1st chapter is for the knowledge of it.
Referring to the last clause of Eph. 4:10, ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill all things." When Christ entered heaven, ascended into the heavens, passed above them all are in Scripture-He filled everything with a new glory. What glory was that? It was redemption glory. When He returned to heaven after doing what He came to do, i.e., glorify God, having finished the work God had given Him to do, He went back to heaven in a new way. He went back, not only in the worth of His person, but He went back for what He had done; and He fills all things now in that way. When the new creation is fully consummated, what glory will fill heaven and earth? Redemption glory. That is the glory that shall remain. Creation glory, He lost through sin. Redemption glory will remain throughout eternity.
The new song is a song of triumph, through the work of Christ. What a wonderful thing is the resurrection and ascension of Christ.
Q. Is there any relation between the "fullness" in Eph. 3:19 and the "fullness" in Col. 1:19?
A. No. In Him dwelleth all the fullness of God, is personal. All the fullness of God dwelt in Christ. There is reconciling all things to the fullness of Godhead, but there is no thought of the companion there. If you read that passage slightly different it might help some of us in that way.
We have God's object of all in the close of Col. 1:18. The object is that in all things He might have the pre-eminence. The "all things" there include creation and redemption. The glory of creation is His. Well, there" is the glory of redemption, and that is His, too. So in the passage we referred to, Col. 1:19, you will see the words "the Father" are in italics. There is nothing about the Father in here. I don't doubt but that in a certain sense it is true, but that is not the sense of the passage. "For in Him God was pleased to dwell"—i.e., the fullness of Godhead found its delight in this One. “And, having made peace through the blood of His cross"—now that reaches very, very far; there is a ground laid for reconciliation—reconciliation in righteousness—by "Him to reconcile all things unto Himself." All became separated from God, alienated from Him, by sin. Now, all is brought back to God, on the ground of the blood of Christ, i.e., it is brought back on the ground of reconciliation and redemption, the basis of which is the blood of Christ. All goes back to God as such, and so we can see there is no thought of Him as Father. Well, He is to "reconcile"—mark that—"all things unto Himself; by Him, I say, whether things in. earth, or things in heaven." There is scope in this. That is what God is going to do by way of reconciliation. What has He done by way of reconciliation? "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now" (that is not future) "hath He reconciled." That is what God is doing now, i.e., reconciling individuals. The ultimate and everlasting result of the work of the cross will be, everything brought back, restored to God, reconciled to God, upon the ground, not of almighty power, but of sacrifice. And now God is reconciling individuals; "We pray you, be ye reconciled to God." We may say, now God has had to give up the effort (I speak fittingly) to reconcile this world unto Himself. God has been defeated in that effort. God did at one time endeavor to reconcile the world unto Himself. What was the result? The Son of God comes into the world, in love, in power; meets every form of evil not a form but has to give way before His word—and what for! Seeking to win back poor man. But they crucified the Reconciler; so God had to give up, and God is not seeking to reconcile the world now. The world has shut God up to do one thing with it; it left Him with but one course to pursue, individuals i.e., to execute righteous judgment. Well, what is He doing now? He is reconciling individuals before He takes that course which the world has shut Him up to. So that gives us another phase of what was spoken of.
Now mark another thing about 2 Cor. 5:19, 20. God is seeking and reconciling individuals now, and how is that? "For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." It is the continuation of the ministry of reconciliation, but continuing on another basis, and with another result; God appealing to man now individually, from what was done by Christ who offered Himself as a sin offering for Him. Not merely that He sent a Savior into the world, but the love that made that Savior, when He had been rejected by the world, made that Son a sin offering.
What a number of things this part of Eph. 4 brings before us, and it is beautiful to see that that line of truth in Colossians, as to the person of Christ, stands alone. In the next chapter (Col. 2:9) it states, "In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead."
How had they received Christ Jesus, the Lord? (Col. 2:6). As an all-sufficient Savior for sinners; and now they are to learn that He is an all-sufficient Savior for saints—"so walk ye in Him." There is enough for you sinners, and there is enough for you saints. "Rooted and built up in Him, and established in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanks giving"—don't forget the thanksgiving.
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, for in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him."
Q. What is the force of the word "bodily"? (Col. 2:9).
A. It means His body; in Him as a man. If we had lived when the Lord Jesus was here on earth, and could have viewed with the natural eye, as we do by the eye faith now, that man that sat at the well, we would have seen the One in Whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead—that is what is meant by bodily; not something vague. The works of the Spirit were manifested in Him, and the works of the Father were all seen in Him. If you want to see the Father's character, look at the Son.
"No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him"—the Father. (John 1:18).
Then refer to John 1:14. See what there is about the Word in the first part of the chapter, and then what we have about the Word in the 14th verse: "And the Word was made" (or became) "flesh"; "we have heard,—we have seen with our eyes—our hands have handled, of the Word of life." (1 John 1:1).
Philip said, "Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us", and Jesus said, "Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works. Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me: or else believe Me for the very works' sake." That is bodily isn't it? When we look at Him, what a wonderful person He is!
Q. Rev. 22:4—"They shall see His face". Whose face is meant?
A. Whose does it say? His servants, the throne of God and the Lamb of God shall be in it. "His servants shall serve Him: And they shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads—and they shall reign forever and ever." That is all connected with the description of the Bride, the Lamb's wife; for what you have just called our attention to is all a part of the continuation of the description of the Bride, the Lamb's wife.
Now refer to Rev. 21:22, 23. All the glory of God there radiates from and fills the place, and the Lamb is the light thereof, the One through Whom the glory of God shines. All can be seen in Christ.
What does that mean "They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads"? Well, there are different thoughts connected with "name" in Scripture; one is individuality,—"He calleth His own sheep by name." The other thought is intimacy. "Yet Thou hast said, I know thee by name", and "He has said, I do know thee by name." So here there is this relationship, in all its fullness and outstanding character.
The forehead in Scripture, when used figuratively, is always that which is prominent, outstanding; where you can see it; and their relationship to God in service will be outstanding.
What is the character of relationship of those that reign forever and ever? It is that of servants; not children. Rev. begins and ends with it. There is nothing in it about the Father's house nor the Father’s mansions, for that is another line of truth. Rev. starts out, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants—signified unto His servant John." That is the character. It speaks of "His Father", but never of "our Father."
Rev. 22:4, 5 is a very beautiful passage; it is the close of the description of the heavenly city.
When the sun will go down here presently, if it were not for the moon, stars, etc., it would all be dark; but switch on the electric lights, and we are flooded with light. That is just the way it will be there. There will be no temple there—a temple is a confinement—but all will be filled with glory, and all that glory concentrated in and radiating from the Lamb.
Q. What is meant by "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men"? (Rev. 21:3)
A. I don't know; but where did that voice come from? It came from heaven. "Behold",—is not that a kind of expression of surprise?—"The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them." I don't know, but I had thought God changed His dwelling place in that new creation; and that it is God's final and everlasting victory over Satan. God came to visit Adam in Eden, in the cool of the day, and found His poor creature hiding away from Him; "I heard Thy voice—and I was afraid." But in the end, God does not come to visit, but to dwell.
It is God come to dwell, through redemption, with man. God looked forward to redemption, from the very first. Now the full triumph has come, for that is the eternal state here. From the 9th verse of Rev. 21 to the 5th verse of chapter 22, it is the millenial scene, but this is the eternal state.
I would like to make a remark in regard to the words, "It is done." In what sense can it be said "It is done"? It is a settled purpose of God. It is recorded, "Write". Who is He that says such a thing? I sometimes put together nine words, On the cross the blessed Lord said, "It is finished". When the seventh vial was poured out, He said, "It is done", and here where the eternal state is before Him, He says "It is done". Three words the same, in three connections. We all know what is meant when the blessed Lord upon the cross asked for the drink; that the last word in Scripture concerning His sufferings might be fulfilled, He said, "I thirst". One Scripture to be fulfilled as to His sufferings, and then all was fulfilled. He received the vinegar, bowed His head, and gave up His spirit—that is a divine act. We all know what that was. He lays down His life,—all is done. But when, in Rev. 16:17, the seventh vial was poured out into the air, and there came a great voice out of heaven, saying, "It is done", What is done? Well, to me it is this: What pleasure had God in pouring out those vials of wrath, one after another, upon the earth? He had no pleasure in it. Man's sin, of course, made it a necessity; and those words in Rev. 16:17 to me convey this: It is a relief to know that the last one is poured out. What an insight into the love of God! Like a parent who is correcting a child, and the correction has to be severe, how glad the parent is when the last one is given. We all understand that it was a relief, and it is done. Those seven vials were filled up with the wrath of God, from Rev. 15:1. That was God's strange work, and He is glad it is over.
Another thing is conveyed in Rev. 21. That new and eternal state passes in vision before Him, and it is a settled, accomplished purpose, and He says to record it. It is Alpha and Omega who is to accomplish it.
Then He goes to a different line of things—"I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life." Here we have the results, Verse 7 is the full triumph of all who are His. Verse 8 gives the doom of the lost,—the lake of fire.
"And He gave" (It is an ascended, glorified man; who has received "in manhood", as we saw from Psa. 68:18 this morning) "some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors, and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ"—that is what the one body is, i. e., Christ's body—"till ve all come into the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ."
We cannot say that we have apostles and prophets now in the sense spoken of here, can we? If we refer to Eph. 2:20, we shall see where they come in. You don't build the foundation upon the top of a house; the foundation comes first. So now we don't need apostles and prophets, because the foundation is finished; and we now have evangelists, pastors and teachers, the gifts of God come down from Christ on high, to men.
There is nothing at all in Scripture about ordaining gifts. There was appointment of elders and deacons, but nothing about gifts. You do not find a man over a congregation in Scripture; a pastor is a pastor wherever he is; an evangelist, an evangelist where he is. These are gifts that Christ has given from the glory. And these three, i. e., those of evangelists, pastors and teachers, comprise the ministry that is needed nowadays' the shepherd looking after the flock; the teacher opening up the Word of God to them, and the evangelist going out with his Gospel to the unsaved. In other words, in the order in which they are given in Eph. 4:11, the evangelist goes out and gathers the material, and brings it in; then the pastors build it up and the teacher teaches it, and all of this is done without any organizing. The organization was formed at Pentecost.
It is divine order that stands, and for all time, whether any obey it or not. However, if we are walking according to Scripture, we shall seek the original ground where it was given, and search it out.
Q. The apostle Paul had all these gifts, and I suppose some servants of Christ, have more than one.
A. There is nothing to hinder it. "Covet these things." In these days, it is a question of how I can fit in, whether teaching, shepherding, or giving the Gospel; especially in the day of the remnant, we should help. Ezra was a help. His name means "help" (Ezra 7:10). First he prepared his heart, he sought the law of the Lord, to do it and to teach it. Helps are much needed today.
Q. These gifts can be combined, can they not? that is, Timothy was exhorted to do the work of an evangelist.
A. It is often strangely misunderstood, as if the apostle meant Timothy to do an evangelist's work, when he had not that gift, and consequently was not really an evangelist! For such a construction there is not the shadow of a sound reason. The danger rather was that the increasing difficulties and troubles of the assembly might distract the young and sensitive laborer, calling him to forego the exercise of that which was truly his gift without, though not his only one, because of the demands from within. Work so blessed to which the Lord had called him must not be intermitted. The evangelist is not a preacher only: work of faith and labor of love in quest of souls characterize him who presses the glad tidings on souls individually as well as publicly.
You don't wait to preach until you are sure you have a gift. Philip was not called an evangelist until after he had been speaking twenty-five years; and then the Spirit of God felt free to call him an evangelist. We don't need to label ourselves at all.
Today in the systems of schools and denominations, a person first chooses to be this or that, and then he starts to work. What you often find is that a young man gets saved, and is very earnest, and God develops him' so that the school or college He puts him through is altogether a different one; he is taught by the Spirit of God through the Word and circumstances. Saul of Tarsus went to college before he was converted (Acts 22:3), but after he was converted he had to go through another college. He had to go down to Arabia (Gal. 1:17, 18). Not a word is given us of what happened there. Then he goes back to Jerusalem, to his work. God has a way of putting us through a school. Moses went through one school in Egypt, but the other he went through on the backside of the desert. And all this about true ministry and service is that we learn to go on with God. He opens the door, whether to go out to preach the Gospel, or whether it is to teach the children of God, locally. In such a case you find ability often shows itself in teaching the saints, and also in preaching the Gospel. None of us are shut up to just one kind of work, and we don't graduate in the Lord's school at all until the Lord comes.
Timothy was told to stir up the gift that was in him, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands." This was special. Paul prophesied to Timothy that God gave him a gift. He laid on his hand in confirmation of that, and God gave him that gift through prophesy, so that he was in a special place. He and Titus were marked out to go out to every assembly.
There was no ceremony called ordination. After the apostles, you don't hear of ordination of elders or deacons, not once. There is no intention of carrying it on, as if one had authority to appoint a man now. From beginning to end, it is a deviation from the truth. It is departing from the Word, for a man to assume an authority for which there is no Scripture at all. The nearest you get to that is in 2 Tim. 2:2, and there it is just handing on the truth; and was not an appointment. Offices and gifts are quite different. A gift is that given from Christ on high; deacons and elders (officers) were local.
Q. The work that the Lord Jesus gave Peter to do, was the foundation work, was it not?
A. Peter was a special man; to him were given the keys of the kingdom,-not the keys of heaven. Heaven has no keys, at all. Authority was now given him by God, he uses that authority in Acts 2 and opens the kingdom door to the Jews; and in Acts 10 he uses his authority of the keys, and opens the door to the Gentiles. Peter wrote two letters to the Jewish sheep; Paul wrote only one. There is no name to the Epistle to the Hebrews, but 2nd Peter seems to tell us that it was Paul who wrote it; "Our beloved brother Paul" has written an Epistle unto you. These servants of God were appointed by the Lord Jesus alone.
The only man that was ordained in Scripture that I know of was Moses' grandson, and he was ordained a priest over Miciah's graven images.
Timothy is a special case, and for a special reason. Timothy was, we gather from Scripture, weak in body, and perhaps a timid man, easily discouraged; indeed, we see it in the 2nd Epistle. He might say, in face of all the discouragements seeing no fruit of his labors—perhaps no answer to his prayers —"I am not called to the ministry", but he could not do that, for God had guarded him in that way. There is a stirring up of the gift that is in him by the putting on of hands, laying on of hands by the presbytery, and the word by prophesy.
This is a special case; nothing like it; and for that reason how many a devoted servant of God has been discouraged and has given up because he has seen no results. I think it very important to see that. (Col. 4:17).
We have seen so often, dear brethren who have preached the Gospel, and they did it effectually for a time, but they became so much engaged with the things of the world that they let the preaching go. They needed this exhortation "Take heed to the ministry, which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfill it;" we all need it more or less. It is beautiful to see God's consideration of the weakness, the natural weakness, of the vessel, and His guarding against it in the ordering of his path. That is what I see in God's way in dealing with Timothy. You can't say there is not gift; first there was the putting on of Paul's hands, and then the hands of the presbytery, but that is a special case. The laying on of hands now, save in the way of fellowship or of identification, is all mockery. The word presbytery means elder hood. "Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work where—unto I have called them." Well, these servants of the Lord were praying and fasting about their ministry, and while they wait, the Holy Ghost speaks,—never mind how He spoke, but He spoke,—(those how's bother us a good deal), the point is that the Holy Ghost said, "Separate Me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." Then they laid their hands on them and let them go, so they were being sent forth by the Holy Ghost. There it was just fellowship and identification with the Holy Spirit in sending them forth. It came, too, from those who had been in prayer and fasting for sometime. You see, we can't send men; but when men go, we can express our fellowship with them; that is the difference. Barnabas and Paul were not sent by their brethren. We find that these servants, having gone out, had to get their orders daily. In Acts 16:6 they were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach in Asia. In the one place they were forbidden to go; in the next place they could not go because of hindrances. Then when they went to Philippi and preached, they were beaten and thrown into prison. I dare say, when they got into prison, for a few moments they might think to themselves, "Did we make a mistake?" However, God soon spoke to them in that prison, and their sufferings were turned into prayer and praise. That was a new phase of the work,-an open door, and new adversaries. So the door was opened, and it was closed. They had done their work in the little while that remained. They would not leave the city until they were asked. They went down to the house of Lydia, "and when they had seen the brethren they comforted them, and departed." The work went on without them after that, and we find from Phil. 1:1 that in a little while there was a meeting of such size as to need bishops and deacons—that means overseers—these men of God had to be appointed by the apostles or their delegates, to supply what was necessary, so the work of God was completed, to look after the work of the assembly. That is the only appointment we get in Scripture.
The formation of that assembly was simply the work of the Spirit. They had no name, just gathered to His name. It was a little company of some from heathenism and from Judaism, and this was a new thing to them. There they were, the company of God. Assembly always means a company—it never means a building. They were left behind without any organization at all, with the Spirit, and Christ in the midst. It was as in Matt. 18:20.
There is a nice word in Acts 14:21, 23, "They returned again"; what for? "Confirming the souls of the disciples" (those that had been converted when they first went there), "and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. And when they had ordained them elders in every Church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they believed." That is very blessed, their care; first they came and preached, then they return, and the second time it was to care for them, and in doing that they gave them caretakers; they "ordained them elders in every assembly." An elder is just a caretaker; they care for the little companies in that way.
Each one of these assemblies, whether small or large, was the local representative of the body of Christ, at that time; so that Paul, writing to the Corinthians could say, "Ye are the body of Christ", and "the assembly of God". That was the ground on which they were gathered. We could not say that now. We could not take the ground of being the assembly of God. No company on earth could do that now, in any given place.
The 5th verse of Eph. 4 covers a far larger area than the 4th verse. The 5th verse takes in all Christendom. So that now, in the midst of all this, it is broken into fragmentary pieces, and they all have their different names and societies to which they have attached their own names, and they call themselves the name of Christ underneath, but their own name is on top; but in Matt. 18:20 you have "Where two or three are gathered together unto My Name, there am I in the midst of them." We could not say that we are the assembly of God; but we could say, we are on the ground of the assembly of God, where all Christians should be. In our place and in our behavior, we have to bow our heads with shame and own the failure connected with it. So it becomes our part, brethren, to be ever broken and humble before God, and if we seek to say that we are gathered to the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ought to have His character stamped upon us. To carry that Name without Christ's character, is a shame.
Hymn 243 L. F. Prayer
Reading Meeting
November 28th; Saturday, 10:30 A. M.
Hymn 99 L. F. Prayer
Ephesian 4:8, 11-16
All true ministry comes from the Head on high, Christ. It is not of man, nor by man, though it comes through man.
What is the object of ministry? "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." We have the unity of the Spirit, before we have the unity of the faith.
Q. What is "the faith"?
A. It is the faith of God's elect. The unity of the faith is the revelation of truth as given by God as a whole; and every part of that faith forms a part of a whole, a unity.
Take the truth as to creation. If we give up this truth, and take up Evolution, we break the unity of the faith. It is composed of many parts, but includes the whole Word of God.
God in counsel has set up a certain system, for His own glory first; and then for the glory of His Son... was set up from everlasting" (Prov. 8:23).
"Set up" in what way? Set up in counsel. Why we refer to that here in regard to this passage is because of the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God... well, that is the Son of God in manhood... He is the center and head of this unity of the faith that is brought before us here. A most important thing for us to see: The knowledge of the Son of God, in the measure of the stature of the fullness of the Christ. The faith is what we believe. The faith is what we have faith in. The faith is the truth.
I think it is most important to see that it is the unity of the faith here; not exactly the truth of the faith; and that unity has a center, and that center is the Son of God, but the Son of God in manhood. So we come to the knowledge of the Son of God. We shall not come to that knowledge until the Lord comes. But, then, it is given in this verse as a proof of the Lord's not going to fail to give these gifts, until He comes, as you see from the object, stated in the 12th verse, and until that is accomplished, the gifts continue; these gifts are given until we all come to a full knowledge, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit (in 1st Cor.) were what were given then, but some of the gifts have passed away. What the Lord sees is necessary for the building up of His Church here on earth till He comes, He supplies. We will need the shepherds, the evangelists, the teachers, until He comes; we can't do without them. The Lord has not left us alone. He takes care of His own, and supplies all that is needed on the journey home.
Here it is not only the building up of the assembly, but the body as a whole. There is no mention of evangelists in the gifts of 1st. Cor. because the place of the work of an evangelist, properly, is outside the assembly.
What is given in Eph. 5:25 has been fulfilled; while what is given in the 27th verse is yet to come.
Verse 26 gives us what the Lord is doing now, i. e., sanctifying and cleansing it with the washing of water by the Word, by means of these gifts.
Notice the order; the evangelist brings them in, and then you get the teacher and pastor looking after them. The teacher comes last. If there is no pastoral work, there would be no need of teachers. It is the pastoral work that keeps the saints together. Then when they are together, we have teachers to teach them.
The order is divine; first, gathering the material; then the caring for it, then building it up. The word pastor is "shepherd" in the other translation.
There is so much lack of visiting and pastoral work among the saints. Sometimes I am asked the question; What should we do with those who stay away? Shall we give out their names as not being in fellowship? Well, I try to tell them that there is a lot of pastoral work to be done before they do that.
Q. Won't some one tell us of the duties of a pastor? Maybe pastors would like to know some of the things in the scope of a pastor's work.
A. There is a word in the Old Testament that says God hates "putting away" (Mal. 2:16); and the great thing for us is the pastoral work. Gathering and keeping the sheep together, is very much needed. John 10:9 says:
"I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
It is a flock there, without an enclosure, and they go in and out. That means liberty, Christian liberty. Of course, there is liberty to go out and serve Him, but in John 10:9 He is represented as a shepherd, and there His flock follows Him, and He leads them unto still waters and green pastures; but then, some stray far out. He does not keep dogs, but under-shepherds, to look after them and try to keep them near. There might be wolves, or they might get into thorns. So the under-shepherds are those who seek to present Christ to them, and that is the shepherd's work.
If you minister Christ to one who has been at fault, he will say, "O, I see I was wrong in that thing." The ministry of Christ does the work, and he clears himself from the evil. Pastoral work is getting their souls close to Christ, occupied with Christ. Then the chief Shepherd will bring them back.
There is a nice word as to Jacob. In the King James version, it is translated, "The God that fed me all my life long"; but in another translation it is "The God that shepherded me", not merely fed. Jacob realized at the end of his course, that he had been the object of God's shepherd care all his life long. I like that alteration. In John 21:16 it says, "Shepherd My sheep." How sad in regard to the shepherds in Ezek. 34:1-16. We are all to be shepherds, in our measure, nowadays; we can't get along without shepherd work.
Q. Why is the crown of glory for the shepherds? (1 Peter 5:4).
A. It is because they gather and keep the flock around the chief Shepherd. The work of the shepherd is pretty much unseen work; consequently, in that day, it would be, as it were, more publicly known. The evangelist, every one knows. The work of the teacher is not like that of the shepherd; but the work of the shepherd is, as it were, painful toil, unseen work; it is the house-to-house work, as it were. I believe that is why the crown of glory is spoken of in connection with the shepherds. Anyone who has tried to do a little shepherd work knows what unseen work it is.
I was very much struck when I noticed the other translation as to Jacob. (Gen. 48:15) That was the end of Jacob's course, and what a course Jacob's had been. "And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk." He does not say "God, before whom I walked," but "before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk," "the God that shepherded me all my life long." What a growth there had been in Jacob's soul! "O", he says, "Abraham, my father, and Isaac, my father, walked with God. That is the God that shepherded me." It is something like Peter, in the passage we have just referred to, (1 Peter 5:1) he won't say he had been "a partaker of the sufferings of Christ"; but "a witness of the sufferings of Christ." I don't think Peter ever forgot that he denied the Lord, and he never forgave himself, though the Lord forgave. Just as with Paul. The Lord forgave him, but he never forgave himself. And such a thing leaves its mark all through one's course.
We are apt to overlook the love of Christ to the sheep, and His tender care of them, and how He appreciates that which is done to His glory, of course, for the sheep. Often we think that the only thing necessary is to be very wise and very much instructed in the Word of God, etc., and we forget often how the Lord looks after all His sheep, and how He notices every one of them; "He knoweth them by name."
How He prepared Peter for that position He gave him. He allowed Peter to pass through all that he passed through. And every time that Peter humbled himself, the Lord gave him a new charge. And then at the last, "Lovest thou Me?.... Feed My lambs." "Lovest thou Me?.... Shepherd My sheep." "Lovest thou Me?... Feed My sheep." Love to Christ is what brings about the shepherd care. There is no display in pastoral work. In teaching, the flesh may have a part, and you have to be on guard against it for teaching is done publicly, but in pastoral work the flesh can have very little part.
We have those two lines of service in 2 Cor. 11. There the apostle Paul speaks of what he suffered without, ... ..this might be the evangelistic side.
Then he says, "Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the assemblies,".... that would be the pastoral side; what he suffered within.
Some one has said, If you want joy, preach the Gospel; but if you want sorrow, try to serve the saints, i. e., do pastoral work.
"Shepherd the lambs" comes first because the lambs have the first place. The sheep, in a certain sense, can look out for themselves, but these little lambs are mentioned first because they need His care. You have that same order in Isa. 40:11. The lambs get the bosom and the arm there. The Lord has some tiny lambs and I wonder how they are faring.
There is something I think it is so blessed to see in our Lord... how He comes down, and condescends to the little lamb that can't stand up, and shows his care over such. It is something I think we often forget, i. e., the constant care, and the thought, the Lord has for each one of His lambs and His sheep. King David learned this among the lambs and the sheep that he attended; and the Scripture says, "He chose David also His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds: From following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people and Israel His inheritance. So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart; and guided them by the skilfulness of his hands." Psa. 78:70-72. He had skill in doing so.
A Christian is never looked at as perfect until he is with and like a glorified Christ (Col. 1:27, 28; Col. 4:12; 1 Cor. 2:6,7).
In Eph. 4 it is the carrying on of the work of the ministry, "For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." It takes in the whole scope of ministry, not only to get the saints to a certain point, but to keep them going on in it continually.
Q. Do you not think that the reason the pastoral work is neglected, is because some may feel they are not equipped for it; i. e., a brother who has a gift for giving out the Gospel, goes to a place where the Gospel is not preached much, and God gives him souls; and he leaves that place; though he feels they need a teacher. But in Acts 14:21, 22 they went back, and confirmed the souls. Perhaps we know of places where souls have been saved, and then left to their own resources, and the end of it was that they were led into something wrong.
"They returned again to Lystra, and to Iconium, and Antioch, confirming the souls" (Acts 14:21, 22) is an important part of the work and requires lots of patience. If God gives us the joy of leading a soul to Christ, we should not stop at that point, but follow on and seek to nurture that one.
What God wrought in Paul especially, was care for the saints, so as to "present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." And in Col. 1:9, Paul says to them that he and Timothy "desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." There is really pastoral care and prayer for the saints.
But for an evangelist to leave the souls uncared for is bad work; I was going to say, it is almost cruel. They have been born again, have a new nature, they have an appetite for things not of this world, and if left alone, with no one to care for them, the natural result is no growth, or a stunted growth.
When the certain Samaritan took up that man who had fallen, and went to him, bound up his wounds, and poured in oil and wine, did he leave him there? No, he took him to an inn. That is shepherd care. Salvation care was binding up his wounds, and pouring in the oil and wine.
Then we have, of course, in that certain Samaritan the perfect servant. "Go and do thou likewise."
We need to pour in oil and wine. If we meet an anxious soul, we have the joy of pouring in the oil and wine, and binding up his wounds, and showing him what Christ has done. But we don't stop there, for then there is another part of the service before us, and that is to do the part of the host, and minister to them the two pence, and the two pence, we might say, are the ministry of Christ to their souls.
We look up to Christ in heaven, and see Him as our Great High Priest. That is one penny. Then the other penny is, "If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father." So the second penny's worth is the ministry of Christ in our failures, to keep us in communion with the Father as we journey along. All that is, "Go and do thou likewise."
There are three kinds of ministry, the first, the evangelist; the second, the teacher; and the third, the shepherd care over them, nursing them along as the Spirit of God leads us to do.
The Spirit of God is the host, and he applies the truth of the advocacy and the priesthood of Christ.
There is another thing I would like to call attention to, i. e., the Gospel of Luke gives things in their moral character, while Matthew gives them in their dispensational character.
So when you read the parable of the Samaritan, read also what follows it, about Mary at the feet of the Lord, hearing His Word. The tenth chapter ends here, which is a pity, for the story does not. He gives a discourse on prayer (chapter 11). The moral connections are very beautiful in that way.
"And whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee" applies to any of us. Do not be afraid to go to any amount of trouble for the saints. "When I come again I will repay thee."
In Gen. 24 you have the same thing. The servant there, typifying the Spirit of God; also shows us the earnest servant walking in the power of the Spirit, in dependence about his charge, praying about it as He goes along.
I have thought that perhaps no service will receive such a hearty reward from the Lord as the work of the shepherd. "Whatsoever thou spendest more" is shepherd care. It is very beautiful, "When I come again, I will repay thee." How familiar are those words, "When I come again."
Look again at the two pence. Take another meaning. The poor man might say, "He is not going to be gone long, for he left only the expense for today and tomorrow, and said, 'I will come again.' “The longing of that man's heart would be for that "certain Samaritan.' "He won't be gone long, and He is coming again." It is very sweet language, "Behold, I come quickly." He left the word that He would not be gone long. However, He says, to the host, "You take care of him, and if I am long in coming, whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you." I think we fail at that point so often. When the two pence give out we are ready to cease in our care for them, if they are any trouble to us.
That our two pence can never fail, is blessed to know. The provision Christ has made for His Church is given in such a way that it is sufficient for the day. The number two is sufficiency, and while it is not enough to lay up a store, there is always enough. The supply never runs dry, but it is given in such a way that we are looking for our Lord Jesus Christ. Dependence is the way in which the Lord keeps his own, and it is just the path the flesh does not like.
Take the picture of the inn, what is that? It is God's house, and in God's house is where God dwells, and the host is the Holy Spirit. It is the habitation of God through the Spirit. It is just like the Lord, the competent Servant, and there is really nothing lacking.
Hymn 230 L. F. Prayer Hymn 64 L. F.
Young People's Meeting
November 28th: Saturday, 2:00 P. M.
Hymn 36, App. L. F. Prayer
Counting the Cost.
Luke 14:25-35
In this scripture is brought before us the importance of counting the cost. We all have to pay a price for these blessed and precious things we have been receiving.
It is a grand thing to be here at this conference; to be among so many of the Lord's dear people; to have His word before us, and it is easy to be occupied with these things at this time, because we find those about us are occupied with them. But when we get back home, to our farm, to the office, or whatever may be our occupation, we are going to find that we shall have to pay a price to maintain these precious truths.
Isn't it well, with all these blessed things we have in Christ, to consider the price? Our Lord says here, "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be My disciple." We value things by the price we pay for them; by the effort they cost us.
We have heard the story of two boys, the father of one bought him a horse, and the boy soon tired of it; but the other boy made himself a horse, and he valued his horse so much more than did the boy who did not have to labor for his. So if we really have to give up something, or put forth some toil or labor for a thing, we value it so much more.
If some one showed you a ring he had bought at the Ten-cent store, you would not think it was worth very much. You would immediately decide that the band was just a little piece of brass, and the set, of glass; but if, instead, he told you that he had bought a ring from a high-class jewelry store, and that is cost $500.00, you would conclude that the ring was of the very best gold, and had a set of the very finest quality in it.
The thought of counting the cost, as it were, seems to pervade this chapter, even in what comes immediately before, where we have the parable of the great supper. One man thought his farm of more value than God's supper; another, that his five yoke of oxen were worth more.
When this servant had gone out with the wonderful invitation to that supper, and had invited all of those who were bidden, saying "Come, for all things are now ready," and different ones refused to come, then He was sent out again, and His master tells Him, in the 23rd verse, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that My house may be filled.
In the 22nd of Mat. we have the Lord's servants, such servants as you and I, and we may go out to poor lost sinners, and tell them of the Savior and His love, and invite them to come to him, but that is all we can do. In Luke we have only one Servant who is the Holy Spirit, and He compels them to come in. You remember the following lines,
"Why was I made to hear Thy voice,
And enter while there's room,
While thousands make the wretched choice,
And rather starve than come?
'Twas the same love that spread the feast
That sweetly forced me in;
Else I had still refused to taste,
And perished in my sin."
God told us such a sweet story that we could not remain outside; He has told us of the blessed One Who came from those heights of glory; laid all aside; was born in Bethlehem's manger; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and yet, what grace was revealed in that blessed One. He was full of grace and truth, ready to bless everyone with whom He came in contact. When others went to their homes, we are told that He went to the Mount of Olives. He led' a lonely life down here, yet every step of it was for blessing to man. Then we see Him set His face as a flint, go on the cross, to be forsaken there. Then we have heard of how He went to Calvary's cross, and ere He went to that cross of shame we see Him there in the garden, where He sweat as it were great drops of blood. We hear His prayer, "Father, if it be possible, le this cup pass from Me." Then we see Him gloriously triumphant, bursting the bands of death, ascending up on high. As we have heard that sweet story, a wonderful story, and we have been attracted to Him, our hearts have been won.
The Lord rises from the feast (verse 25), and a great multitude go with Him, and He turns, and tells them what it will cost them to really follow Him.
"If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple."
These are strong words; what does He mean? We learn from other scriptures, that husbands are to love their wives. This does not conflict with the Scripture before us. The first place belongs to Him. Who is so worthy of our love as Himself? Our love to Him should so surpass that of any in the natural relationship, that there is no comparison.
When the Lord Jesus really fills our souls then it becomes easy, simple, to follow on. So that the first thing the Lord brings before us is Himself, the object, the One that must have the first place in our hearts. So He says here,
"And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after Me, cannot be My disciple."
What is the cross? We know what the cross of Calvary was; there where the Lord was crucified and slain; but we have a cross, too. It is not His cross. On His cross all our sins were borne. They are forever removed, so far away that God Himself can never find those sins, because they are put away as far as the East is from the West.
The Lord speaks of a cross in the verse just quoted, and what is that cross? A cross consists of two lines crossing each other. A cross is where God's will crosses ours. Our wills are absolutely opposed to the will of God, and if we allow our own will to act, immediately we are going contrary to His will and mind. The Lord Jesus had no will of His own. He said, "I do always those things that please Him." "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me," so we are told in 1 Peter 1:2, that we are sanctified of the Spirit "unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
Now, it is not that we have commandments. We have the commandments of Christ, and the Lord speaks of keeping His commandments, but there is something that is more blessed than that. He tells us in John 14:23:
"If a man love Me, he will keep My words; and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him."
What are His words? They are more than His commandments; it is the whole expression of what His desire is for us. If we would just seek to please that blessed One up there, how happy we would be.
Some of us here are just starting out on our Christian life. Will such be able to say, like the apostle Paul, at the end of their course:
"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the 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." But we may say, we are not Pauls, but he goes on, "and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing."
Are we looking for that blessed Savior to come and take us to be forever with Himself? It is not only for the apostles, but it is for all those who love His appearing.
There is nothing more beautiful in all the world than the, finish of a life that has been spent for that blessed One. But though we start out well, we are in danger of making a sad finish,—as in Jonathan's case. We are told, Jonathan loved David as his own soul. Some of us love the Lord Jesus Christ, don't we? But when it came to following David in his rejection, Jonathan went back to Saul, the enemy of David. What is the last we see of our beloved Jonathan? He is slain with Saul at Gilboa, and his body is buried with that of Saul at Jabesh. Jonathan might have shared the glory and honor with David. Jonathan had had a good start, but a sad finish. He did not count the cost.
There is only one way we can count the cost, and that is to count it with the One who is able to pay,—the Lord Jesus Himself. You see, there come times in our lives, times of special stress, times when there is special exercise, and special difficulties lie in our way. What are we to do about them? Perhaps it is a question in business, or in our social life, or in our religious life. Which way are we to turn? What are we to do? There is no middle ground, we have to make a decision, but there is one way we can count the cost, and be sure of the right answer; It is by getting into the presence of the blessed Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
We have to go over and over this matter of counting the cost. It is the going on and on that really counts. And if there is anything that Satan hates, it is to see a child of God going on and on with Christ. How he loves to deprive us of that privilege! Our Lord Jesus tells us in John 15:9, "Continue ye in My love".
Well, to put it in a practical way, how should we begin the day? We should begin it with the Lord. We should end it, too, with the Lord. But it is especially important I think, early in the morning, like the children of Israel in gathering the manna, to get into the Lord's presence, and just to have a portion of His Word; to commend ourselves to Him, and seek guidance for what is before us for the day.
"Satan trembles when he sees
The weakest saint upon his knees."
Satan does not want us to be before the Lord, and he will persuade us to take a little more sleep, just another nap, so that we shall have time merely to catch the car, and thus Satan accomplishes his end. But if there is real purpose of heart for that One, can't we arise just a little earlier? Can't we just take time for a little season over His Word.
So the important thing is not to count the cost the wrong way. In Luke 14:31, 32 we are told of a king going out to fight against another king, and he sits down to calculate a little; "Here is a king that has just twice as many soldiers as I: what are my chances with an army of ten thousand, against an army of twenty thousand?" The outlook is not very favorable, so he sends out a messenger and desires conditions of peace. Before the enemy has come near, he has surrendered to him. That is exactly what Satan likes,-to make us come to terms before he ever gets in sight. Haven't we often done this? Before ever the enemy had come, we had made peace? So our one safeguard, as we have seen before, is to count the cost with the right One.
Then He tells us in the 34th verse that salt is good, but suppose salt has lost its savor, why, it is worthless, fit only to be cast out. Another place in the Word tells us, "to be trodden under foot of men." The Christian, if he becomes untrue to that blessed One, is the most worthless, the most useless thing in the world. What is more contemptible in the eyes of men than a Christian who is enjoying the things they enjoy, who is being robbed of his own joy and happiness, as well as being robbed of his testimony! A poor Christian like that is the most useless thing imaginable.
Salt is good, and the only thing that holds this world together is the fact that there are Christians here in this world.
Now, once more as to our surrender of heart to Him. We need to surrender all we have to Him, and there is need of constant surrender, and, as we have seen here in these meetings, how blessed it is to know that One Who came down from heaven; to know that Man Who came here to men; to know Christ, the One who was anointed of the Holy Ghost, to know that blessed One, the eternal One, as our Lord; but, 0, how sad, knowing Him as Lord, and not to go on with Him. Paul said, when he was struck down, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" We are told, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." So we need to go on. Paul, at the end of the journey, could say, "Yea.... I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
A story comes to mind, told of a missionary working among the Indians in the far North. One day he was impressing the importance of receiving Christ, and telling something of that blessed One. An Indian chief was seated in the rear of the room, and as the speaker went on presenting Christ and His glory, this Indian came forward, and he laid down his tomahawk before the speaker, and said, "Indian chief give his tomahawk." Then the Indian sat down, and as the speaker went on to tell more of the Lord's glories and of His love,—what He had done for sinners,—directly he came up again, and laid down his blanket, saying, "Indian chief give his blanket to Jesus." Then as the speaker went on, presenting His glory, the Indian was seen to leave the room, and shortly after he returned leading his pony, came in, and said, "Indian chief give his pony to Jesus." As the speaker went on telling of that blessed One, of His perfection, finally the Indian chief kneeled down, the tears trickling down his bronzed face, and said, "Indian chief give himself to Jesus." Ah, dear friends, you have been told of one who gave himself to Jesus.... have you done that?
Hymn 55, App. L. F. Prayer.
Reading Meeting
November 28th: Saturday, 3:00 P. M.
Hymn 141 L. F. Prayer.
In Matt. 18:18-20, discipline is referred to, in connection with two things, i. e., prayer and the Lord's presence, and you could not carry out discipline rightly without these.
We need to be very careful that all the shepherding has been done first, all the pastoral work, that there has been the appealing to the heart and the conscience, so that when it comes to the assembly "putting away", it is a plain thing.
When one has been put away, it is an action that is binding on all the assemblies, everywhere. It is the same as if they were all meeting together in one place.
Q. But suppose that some in a meeting, say, "We don't accept that decision. We don't think you acted right."
A. Well, there is room for brotherly admonition. We try to get them, if we judge they have acted wrongly, to correct the matter, but in the meantime we bow to their decision.
It is a solemn thing, and it is something that many Christians do not seem to realize what it means,—when an assembly is gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus, with Him in the midst, He gives it authority to act. To refuse to bow to the action of an assembly, is practically denying the One in their midst.
I don't say but what it is possible for an assembly to make a mistake, for no assembly is infallible, but the Lord in the midst gives it authority to act in His Name.
Q. Is it right for one assembly to interfere with another assembly's action in a case?
A. Not unless invited scripturally to do so. Trouble has been caused by one assembly taking up the business of another, uninvited. To do this is a mistake as the body is one "one body".
Where there is a trouble affecting more assemblies than one, I think you will always find that God by some special provision will bring the matter to some certain assembly, which acts for the rest. And when that one acts, all the other assemblies bow to it. You don't need to take up the matter in all the assemblies, but have it settled where God raises the assembly to do so. Then it would only be necessary for an assembly to send out the decision of their action, where the case has affected other assemblies.
And so it is. You can easily see it in the case of the man at Corinth. He was put away. "Put away from among yourselves that wicked person." That man, after he was put away, could not get in at Jerusalem. It simply was that they were in fellowship with Corinth, and all being in fellowship, they did not receive him.
It is an important thing, too, for us to understand that it is one assembly in different places. We are just as much one meeting in different places, as if we met in one place.
Wherever one is put away from, or leaves an assembly, such an individual should always be restored to that assembly, or by them.
When a little company has come together, not in an assembly meeting, but, say, to meet in a home, it is not correct to apply Matt. 18:20 to such a meeting. You can count upon the Lord to be with you, and to minister by His Spirit; but you can do nothing in the way of discipline.
A good illustration is that of the House of Parliament. When they are convened, in the proper place, and have the proper chairman in their midst, they can make laws; but if hundreds of them convene without their chairman, they could talk about law, but could not make laws.
The assembly as such is not a deliberating body; it is an executive body. The investigating and deliberating is done by those having the care in the assembly. Then the results of the investigation and deliberation are placed before the assembly and acted upon.
"In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established." Matt. 18:16.
An assembly meeting consists of both brothers and sisters. In the one case they come together for deliberation; in the other case they come for action. When brothers come together to deliberate, they can look at things in a way they could not do in a mixed meeting, and can bring out facts that they could not in the assembly, but their presence is desired to act with the assembly in decision of the matter in hand. There would be no authority in the brothers' meeting, but there might be a great deal of usefulness in it.
Suppose of necessity two of you were to move away from here, and would seek to set up a, table, you should have the fellowship of the brethren here, as well as the fellowship of the brethren near where you are going, recognizing that the body is one. This is to avoid independency.
After Stephen was martyred, the Church was scattered abroad from Jerusalem. You have Paul converted in Acts 9, and for the first time God tells them that they are one. When Paul was arrested, the Lord says, not "Why
persecutest thou My people?" but, "Why persecutest thou Me?" What is done against His own people, is done against Him.
You should not allow the Lord's name to be associated with evil (1 Cor. 5:4), therefore they had to put it away from among themselves.
Q. Are the regular prayer and reading meetings, assembly meetings?
A. I have always held that the regular meetings,-breaking of bread, reading and prayer, of the gathering are assembly meetings, exclusive of the Gospel meetings.
Q. If a brother comes along and the saints gather to be ministered to; that is not an assembly meeting, is it?
A. No. Whenever I go to a gathering, I never allow the character of their assembly meeting to be changed. If it is their meeting for reading the Word the night I am there, I ask, "Isn't this your reading meeting night?" They answer, "Yes." I say, "Then have reading." Then I ask, "Aren't you reading in course?" That puts the ministry in its proper place.
Q. What kind of a meeting would you call this meeting?
A. Well, this is a general meeting; with no authority to act on anything.
We are gathered together here to receive from Himself. Tomorrow morning He is here to receive from us; and we come, not with an empty basket to be filled (that is what we have done this afternoon); but we come with a full basket, to empty out before Him. But He is here on both occasions.
"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee" (Heb. 13:5), is individual, reckoning the Lord's presence with us; but that is not the thought in Matt. 18. When we are gathered together around Himself, reverence should fill every soul. Psa. 89:7 says, "God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all that are about Him."
It seems the reading meetings are usually well attended, while the prayer meetings are poorly attended. The saints have need of prayer. Prayer should be definite, with earnestness and reality, being led to own our dependence in the Lord's presence. Take the prayer meeting held in the house of John Mark. What were they praying for? O, Peter was in prison. Acts 1:24,25 is also an illustration of definiteness.
What I am alarmed at, and sorry for, is there is so little the Spirit of prayer among us. There are many things that we and others need, and yet so little prayer.
It would be helpful to read C. H. M.'s little pamphlet, "Prayer and the Prayer Meeting." There was a prayer meeting at Jerusalem that lasted ten days.
Q. If three brothers express a need, is it proper to pray for that again?
A. I don't think we would call this repetition. We are to have our hearts united in prayer. If we are in earnest, we will find lots of things to pray about. If we are seeking to be of service to the Lord, we should not hesitate to ask for the prayers of the saints, and to have their prayers is an encouragement. The lohgest prayer recorded in Scripture can be read in five minutes,—Solomon's prayer at the dedication of the temple. The disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray." They did not say, "Teach us how to pray." Perhaps, sometimes we are occupied with the thought of how to pray, rather than to pray.
A young brother once said, "Some Lord's Day mornings, I have desired to go to the table and break the bread, but I can't do so like the older brothers do." Being simple and definite is very important, not because of much speaking.
We are called upon, with all "longsuffering, forbearing one another in love", to "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." We need to keep in mind the order of God, Who says, "Let all things be done decently and in order." "Let all things be done unto edifying." "Let all your things be done with love." Those three things are very important. First, everything should be in order; then everything should be done with edifying, and everything should be done with love. That is the more excellent way, according to the love in 1 Cor. 13.
Hymn 172, L. F. Prayer. Hymn 173, L. F.
November 29th; Lord's Day Morning, 10:00 A. M.
A Word of Ministry After Breaking of Bread
"The unsearchable riches of Christ", and "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge". Eph. 3:8, 19.
Who is this Christ Whose riches are unsearchable, and Whose love is beyond knowledge?
Many are His titles, great is His personal glory, but the way in which He has been bringing Himself before us, as He always does when we are gathered for the remembrance of Himself in death, is as our Savior. How unsearchable are His riches; and His love beyond knowledge!
There is a wide range in age and experience in those who have remembered Him here in this little company this morning, by partaking of the memorials of His death—memorials which He in love gave on that dark night, and as He spoke from heaven in glory—but there is not one of us but what can enjoy those words: "the unsearchable riches of Christ," "the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge."
He is your Savior and my Savior. But Whose Son is He? He is the Son of God, so we go on from one riches, so to speak, to another.
(Eph. 1:5, 6 quoted.) Don't be afraid of that word "predestinated." He marked us out for sons,—for the adoption of children, and has taken us into favor with the Beloved. Think of this Christ Whose love is beyond knowledge, Whose love is beyond searching out,—unsearchable riches.
In this way we go from wealth to wealth, and gather up these unsearchable riches of this One beyond knowledge.
The deepest joy, I believe, of the Holy Spirit here on earth is to unfold to the hearts of God's people the unsearchable riches of Christ, and the unknowable love of Christ.
The Spirit and the bride say, "Come" (Rev. 22:17). The servant in Gen. 24 longed to get back, and present the results of his work; and Rebekah longed to be there too. Both had one object before them, i. e., the end of the journey. The Holy Spirit, when unhindered, takes of the things of Christ and shows them to us-the wealth of His love. We can't measure the wealth. Just think of what is found in Christ for the sinner; eternal life, forgiveness of sins, righteousness, sonship, according to His riches in glory are what are found in Him for us all.
We can not comprehend the fullness of these riches in Christ, which are unsearchable.
Let us keep before us "the unsearchable riches of Christ", and "the love of Christ which passeth knowledge."
Hymn 196, L. F. Prayer.
Address to Christians
November 29th, Lord's Day, 3:00 P. M.
Hymn 3, L. F. Prayer.
EPHESIANS 2:1-13
The outward position does not change what we are by nature. Farther down in the 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, i. e., to be reconciled to God. So we "were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
"But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
To begin with, we find that God is at work, and is working in the same way today accomplishing 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 which all that are in the graves shall hear His voice and 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, e. g., "She that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth," etc.
What is death? Death is a very heavy word. How came death into this world? "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. What takes place in what we just referred to as physical death? The body is in one world, and the spirit is in another. He 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.
What is the second death? There is a death that will never be done away with; and there is a death that will be done away with. "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death;" the physical death. But what is that death that will never be done away with? The second death, which will take place in "the lake of fire;" and why is it 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. I refer to that because people talk about literal fire, etc. That is not the point. Eternal confinement is the point. It does not say a "sea of fire", but a "lake of fire". It says "sea" in another Scripture. Fire is the judgment of God.
Let us hope there is not one here that will ever find himself or herself in the lake of fire. One 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." What kind of death is that, to be "dead in trespasses and sins?" It 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."
What is the course of this world? It is a system, under Satan as its prince, led on by him, and will end under judgment.
When did the Lord Jesus own Satan as the prince of this world? When the Lord was in Gethsemane, and the crowd came to take Him, He 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!
Now into such a scene God comes, and He works in it. What leads Him to work in it? The 4th verse tells us;
"But God, who is rich in mercy." That is what 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? That we learn 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. We find a little farther on, and our soul meditates on it with adoration.
"But God, who is rich in mercy,"—(this is what made Him do so; and something else comes then:) "for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins." There we bring in the well-known John 3:16.
I wonder if there is one here who is dead in trespasses and sins, one whose sins have never been forgiven; whose sins still stand between him and God? If there be such here, if you don't feel it, God does; and 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." Rom. 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."
What is the character of the life He has given you? We have it brought before us in different ways in Scripture, i. e., John 3:16—"life eternal", and it is the opposite of perish.
We have here "quickened us together with Christ", and what does that little word of four letter mean? O, it means association, and the life God has given to us as presented here in this Scripture is, life in association with Christ. It is that life that the blessed Savior 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." 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. What led Him to work? He was led to work for those who were dead in trespasses and sins; and He brought them into the fullness 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, 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 the object of His love, and He the object of their love. This is the kind of association with that blessed Savior which is the portion of the redeemed.
"Hath quickened us together with Him"—who else could do that? Ah, it is God, and the work of God; and 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 Gen. 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.
What does "in Christ Jesus" mean? This refers to the place the believer has in Christ. We often have that expresion, "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. And when was He 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; and what is that one course? To execute judgment. Even the sending of His Son, failed to reconcile the world to Himself, and He had to give it up; and has given it up, long, long ago.
"Now is the judgment of this world: now shall 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."
But the sending of that Son was the last resource, and God had no other. What was the result? O, you all know. Then 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.
What is God doing? 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 Savior having come to call them unto Himself, then the way will have been cleared for judgment to take its course. It is mercy of God that keeps back the judgment of this world, but judgment will come.
God's gracious work is in taking poor sinners and associating them with Christ.
"If children, then 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 Savior, 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, and that is, that 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; and without having purchased that right, He never could have done it. You ask, What is meant by purchasing that right? Ah, my sins had to be atoned for, they stood in the way, there was that 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 fullness 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. How could He bring that out? On 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 careless and indifferent 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, i. e., has Christ a body, a people so intimately related to Him that He finds in it such joy, and eternal joy? Yes, God has a family; and in Eph. 1:4, we have "that we should be holy... before Him in love"—in what relationship? "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.
Suppose there were a defect in the workmanship: what a reflection that would cast upon the Worker! Ah, there are no defects,—"We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus."
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 creation." 2 Cor. 5:17.
"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.
"And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."
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 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 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.
Then there is another thing, i. e., suppose we read this Scripture from different view points. First we have man's condition as utterly separated from God by sin; then we have the blessed God coming in to save and bless, though we won't speak of that now. Then we have what led God to come, and save, and bless, i. e., His mercy and His love.
Then we have His object in doing so, in the 7th verse,."That in the ages to come He might show"—show what?—"the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Wonderful scripture!
Sometimes when preaching the Gospel to people, we may say, "O, sinner, do you know that you have to be a witness forever and forever, to one of two things to what God can do to a sinner?" They may ask, "What are those two things?" They are what God can do in saving a sinner, and what God can do in judging a sinner. Which will it be? And 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.
What is true of the Church is true of the individuals composing the Church, i. e., Christ is their life, and their righteousness, their all.
"In the ages to come"—wonderful thing! Let that come up in vision before us, “the ages to come."
"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.
In this chapter Paul keeps separate the Jew and the Gentile quite a little, in order to bring them together. Remember that you were Gentiles, despised` by the Jews, "And' were by nature the children of wrath, even as others."
"Wherefore remember; that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision"—with a sneer of contempt as they felt their superiority, having that mark of God upon them—"by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands; That at that time ye were without Christ."
I wonder if it is true of anyone here today, that they are without Christ? It was true of me—"without Christ."
"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 sometimes 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. O, 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.
Let us ask, in conclusion, 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—made nigh by the blood of Christ." Those brought near to Himself, and in the very nearness of His Son, to be loved as His Son is loved, and to share His inheritance;—heirs with Him—and all brought in at the cost of redemption, and that redemption by the blood of Christ? What does God think of such a people?
How far do you know how to thank Him for the riches of His grace?
Hymn 202, L. F.
Prayer.
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