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T. Austin-Sparks - on Church

Contents

The Assault on Fellowship

Bethany - The Lord's Thought For His Assembly

The Body of Christ: Its Heavenly Aspect

Corporate Life

The Corporate Vessel

The Cry of the Elect

The Family of God

God's Means of Achieving His Purpose

God's Mind About the Church

God's Thought-Intention Concerning Manhood

Government by the Holy Spirit

The Greatness of the Church

I Will Build My Church

"Jehovah Shammah"

A Jigsaw Puzzle

The Lord's Assembly

Maturity - The Lord's Desire for His People

The Meaning of the House of God

The Need For Positive Ground

The Parables of the Kingdom

Reproduction by Divine Life

The Revelation of the Father

Some Principles of the House of God

The Transcendent "Sign"

Urgently Needed!

What is the Church?

The Assault on Fellowship

There are few matters which go to the heart of the Lord's testimony more than the matter of fellowship between the Lord's people... and especially where there is particular responsibility for His testimony. The drive of the enemy and all his subtle and diabolical wit, as well as his pressure and his misrepresentations, will be directed toward destroying that relationship of fellowship. He will seek somehow to divide believers and to get in between.

And if you are not careful, you will resolve all such matters into merely natural problems and say: "Well, it is incompatibility of temper! So-and-so is made this way, and the other person is made that way; you can never blend people who are so different in temperament and outlook!"

If you allow a conclusion of that kind, your testimony is gone; you may as well abandon your position in the Lord and go and scour the world for people who in everything see eye to eye. Does it mean that the Lord's work, as entrusted to two or three or more together in one place, can only continue in so far as these children of His are able at all times to get on with one another on a natural basis? The Lord help His work if that is what is required.

We have to look deeper than that. This drive on fellowships and relationships is Satanic. There may be ground - there may be human elements - but those concerned should take this attitude toward one another: The Lord's testimony is bound up with our oneness; the devil will do everything he can to destroy that... and to strike a blow, therefore, at the testimony! You and I are going to be one in the Name of the Lord and stand our ground against the enemy!

There we have something altogether different from the attempt to get on with one another on a natural basis; we have a dynamic for fellowship. We have to get on with one another in the Name of the Lord, or else the Lord's testimony is not established.

There is something much bigger than a natural or human situation to be dealt with. When we realize that back of what may truly be natural difficulties there is always something else at work... and that therefore we must keep these natural things in the place of the Cross and stand together against the enemy, we will get through. But we will never do so by spending a lot of time trying to adjust ourselves to one another... and seeing how far we can work together.

Standing shoulder to shoulder against the enemy who is assailing fellowship, we will find the way of triumphant fellowship. Come down on the natural level, and the enemy will soon make terrible havoc of the whole relationship.

Remember then that all these things which sometimes seem to be so natural are in principle deeper down, and the activity of the enemy is behind them in his seeking to circumvent that gain, that advance, that increase, that attaining unto dominion... and he must be withstood in these matters.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jan-Feb 1937, Vol 15-1

Bethany - The Lord's Thought For His Assembly

The upper room of the first chapter of the Acts corresponds with Bethany, the "house of figs", and Bethany with the upper room. We are going to take up that thought and, as the Lord helps us, follow it out to greater fullness. What is before us is the Lord's desire to have at the end what He had at the beginning - to have in His people, spiritually, that which He Himself constituted by His own presence at the beginning: and if I were asked to put into a word what I feel the object of the Lord to be, I should say, speaking symbolically, that it is 'Bethanies'. For Bethany, to my mind, most fully corresponds to the Lord's thought: He would have things on the basis of Bethany, constituted according to Bethany, and have His universal Church represented locally by 'Bethanies'. Now I am going to ask you to look at seven passages where Bethany is mentioned.

THE LORD RECOGNISED AND RECEIVED

Luke 10:38. "Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village (do not forget that villages represent local assemblies): and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. (You know whose the house was now, who was the head of that house.) And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said..."

Now here, in this first mention of Bethany, we have one or two things which in principle represent that Church, and that assembly, and that house, which the Lord has His heart set upon, and I fasten at once upon one word: "And a certain woman named Martha received him into her house." The word "received" is the key-word to this whole thing, and it represents immediately a great difference. It is a discriminating word, a differentiating word.

One remembers that it was said concerning His coming from glory to this earth: "He came unto his own, and his own received him not" (John 1:11). We shall remember that He said of Himself: "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the heaven have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head" (Luke 9:58). And if it really did break upon us with anything like its real meaning, when we reflect as to who it is of whom the first is said, and who is saying the second, it would leave us astonished. Here is the Creator of all, the Proprietor of all, the Lord of heaven and of earth; the Lord who has greater right to everything and anything than any other being in the universe; the Lord, for whom and through whom all things were made - and He came and had not where to lay His head in the world of His creation, in the realm of all His sovereign rights. He was not received, but, as truly expressing the attitude even of His own kinsfolk to Him, He represented them as saying: "This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and take his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth..." (Matthew 21:38,39).

But here we read: "And a certain woman named Martha received him..." "My church" - "My church" - His assembly, His spiritual house, is the place where He is gladly received and finds His rest. It is His place, His place in a world which rejects Him; it is the place where He is recognised. Do you notice that when assemblies are being scattered over the face of the earth it is always that which is the beginning of an assembly? They "receive" the word. Pentecost was that: "Then they that received his word..." (Acts 2:41). At Philippi, "a certain woman named Lydia... whose heart the Lord opened, to give heed unto the things which were spoken by Paul. And when she was baptized, and her household, she besought us, saying, If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house, and abide there" (Acts 16:14,15). That is the beginning of the assembly - it is like that everywhere. It is a spiritual perception issuing in an open-hearted reception. That is the first thing which befeatures His Church: "received". It is the giving Him a place, the place of honour.

Now that is very simple, but it represents much to the Lord, and it carries us a long way, because it represents something more than the Lord coming just to be a sojourner in the midst. It represents that the Lord has got a footing, a foothold, a place which provides Him with that which is necessary to Him to secure all His rights universally. Let me illustrate.

You remember the tragic story in II Samuel 15, of the rejection of David in the usurping of Absalom. It is a pathetic story - David driven away from his place; leaving, passing out of, the realm of his rights. One and another accompany him, and Zadok the priest brings the ark of God with him, but David turns to Zadok and says: "Carry back the ark of God into the city: if I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me again, and show me both it, and his habitation" (vs.25). The inference is: 'When I come back, I shall have in the city, in the place of my rejection, that which is sympathetic with me, to which I can come back. I shall not come back a stranger; I shall not come back to nothing; I shall not come back to find no place; I shall not come back and find there is no home for me: I shall come back to something that is one with me. Zadok, you are one with me; yes, you wanted to come out with me - this is a perfect sympathy. Now go back into the city, and when I come back I shall come back to something that is with me'

And that is the principle here. The assembly here provides the Lord with that in which He is now, by His Spirit. It declares that He has a foothold in a rejecting world, and He is coming back to that. He will have something to come back to which is on His side and which, being on His side, will provide Him with the ground for re-establishing His universal rights, just as Zadok did for David.

And that is why the Lord would have His Church here in assemblies, local assemblies, over the face of the earth. They are testimonies to His rights, in a world where those rights are disputed and disowned; and they stand there to say: 'Yes, His rights are the supreme rights in this world, not the rights of the usurper', and they maintain that testimony. When He comes back, they are to be the means, the instrument, of His recovery of those rights which have been disputed and from which He has been driven out. There is a good deal bound up with receiving the Lord. He is coming back to His own because He is already there in possession.

You understand why the Devil is always out to destroy, if possible, the local expression of the Church; to destroy the little companies of the Lord's people who are living in heavenly union and fellowship with Him. It is because they represent His rights - the Lord's rights - and they are there all the time disputing by their very presence the rights of the usurper. The ark of the testimony is there; and while that is there, on the side of the Lord, the usurper has not universal sway. He knows that it represents that his kingdom is defeated, is menaced, and it is a constant thorn in his side. And so, if possible, he will quench it, break it, divide it, do anything to get rid of that local expression which is according to Christ and in which He is. That is what the Church ought to be as locally represented; that is what every believer ought to be here on earth: a foothold to the Lord in this earth, a testimony to His sovereign lordship and right. To receive the Lord provides Him with such a foothold and such a testimony.

And so we see that the very first step as related to Bethany is of the greatest significance. It represents a principle of tremendous importance. The Church is constituted, to begin with, upon the simple principle that Christ has found a place: amidst all the range of rejection He has found a place.

HIS HEART'S SATISFACTION

Now we continue with the passage: "... received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word." Literally the words are: "who also took her seat at the feet of Jesus and went on listening to His word." "Took her seat at His feet and went on listening." It was that which irritated Martha: she went on listening. What Martha really said to the Lord was in the same tense, the imperfect. When she came to the Lord she said: "Dost thou not care that my sister doth KEEP ON LEAVING me to serve alone?" "Keep on leaving me" - because she "kept on listening"!

What is this? Well, it is that which provides the Lord with what He most desires. It is the heart satisfaction of the Lord that is represented by this. The heart satisfaction of the Lord was found in what Mary did. It is here that we understand the meaning of Bethany. You go over to Matthew 21, and you will find the story of the fig tree. Jesus is moving between Jerusalem and Bethany; He has been into Jerusalem and has seen things in the temple, and His heart has been pained, shot through with the agony of disappointment. He has looked round upon all things, and has said nothing, and has gone back to Bethany. In the morning, as He is in the way, being hungry and seeing a fig tree, He comes up to it, to see whether perhaps it is bearing fruit. But He finds none, and says, "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever"; and as they return, the disciples mark that the fig tree is withered and dead; they point out the fact.

Now that fig tree, as we know, was bound up with Jerusalem, and was a type of Judaism as it then was. The heart disappointment which the Lord had met in the temple was one with His heart disappointment in coming hungry to the fig tree and finding no fruit; the two things are one. That order of things, then, passes out of His realm of interest; Judaism goes out for the rest of the age - "Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward for ever" (Gr. "unto the age"). It cannot satisfy Him, and it goes; it is a withered tree providing the Lord with nothing.

But when that heart disappointment is felt so acutely, and registered in that way by Him, He goes to Bethany, and Bethany means "the house of figs". Not in the temple, and not in Jerusalem, does the Lord find His satisfaction, but in Bethany. That is why He was always going there. Heart satisfaction for Him now was not in the cold, lifeless, formal religious system of the day, but in the living, throbbing, warm atmosphere of the Bethany home. He always knew that, while His words were rejected in Jerusalem, they would be accepted there, and listened to eagerly, and there would always be someone who would 'keep on' listening.

I am impressed with Acts 2; it says that after Pentecost those who believed "continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching" (vs.42). You see, there the Church came in, and that is its feature: "they continued stedfastly in the apostles' teaching." We are so used to those words that they do not seem to convey very much to us. Will you bear with a simple practical way of seeking to apply it?

In these pages certain things are being said. Now you will read them, and you will go your way, and perhaps you will remember them for a certain length of time; perhaps for a long time you will remember Bethany. Mention of Bethany will bring back something - certain things that you have read. You may speak of this message as a more or less good one, an interesting message, or something like that. What a difference between that and your going away and 'continuing stedfastly in the teaching'! You must yourself interpret this, and say to yourself: 'Now what does it mean for me to continue stedfastly in that?'

The word really is 'persisting'. "They persisted in the apostles' teaching". There is all the difference between persisting in the teaching, and going away and saying: 'Well, that was a very nice message'. 'Persisting' represents the practical, positive application of the heart to the truth, and that constitutes His Church; it is where that which comes from Him is received and the whole heart, the whole life, is given to it. There is abandonment to it.

And that was probably what Martha did not like. Mary was abandoned to it, she was given to it; and that is what the Lord is seeking. I wonder what would be the result if we took that attitude toward every word of Divine truth that came to us. When I think of the mountains of truth that have been built up, I cannot help asking the question: 'What is the percentage of real application to that truth on the part of those who hear it?' It was because those at the beginning took such a practical attitude toward the things which they heard, and persisted in them, that you had the effectiveness there. They did not go away and say: 'What a wonderful sermon Peter preached today!' No, they persisted in the apostles' teaching.

That is what the Lord wants. That is what satisfies His heart. Mary took her seat at His feet and went on listening to His word, and that satisfied His heart when all else disappointed Him. Heart satisfaction must be a feature of the life of the Lord's people; and heart satisfaction to Him is just this, that we hang upon His word, we appraise it rightly, we regard it as the supreme thing. The assembly must be the "house of figs" for the Lord.

ADJUSTED SERVICE

Next let us look at Martha. "But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said..." The Greek is very strong: it means that she walked up to Him and involved Him in this. It implies that she regarded Him as responsible, and if she had said all that was in her mind, she would have said: 'You are responsible for this, You are involved in this, and it is up to You to put it right.' That is what is implied by the original words here - regarding Him as the one involved in it, and He could if He would, and He ought to, put it right. It implies that she burst out. She had been bottling this thing up, and at last, able to contain it no longer, she went up to Him and burst out: "Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me."

Now I want you to get the force of the situation, and it will help you with Martha. We must understand Martha's mood and position. "Cumbered about much serving" hardly conveys to us what really was the situation. We get from the translation an altogether imperfect impression, I think, of exactly how things were. The Greek word here is a word which means "was distracted", "pulled in different directions". Probably her anxiety showed in her face. And what was the anxiety over? Many household cares, perhaps many dishes; preoccupations of all kinds. And the Lord said to Martha: 'Martha, you are bothered about all sorts of secondary considerations; you have got more than you can handle. There is but one thing that is really necessary -'.

You are beginning to understand the situation now, are you not? It was simply that there was necessary an adjustment of things on the part of Martha, so that what was most important should have its place. It was not that the Lord was out of sympathy with Martha's providing them with a meal, but He saw that she was causing this meal business to become such an elaborate and extensive thing as to be altogether out of proportion, and to put the more essential things into a place much less than the non-essential.

Yes, a meal may be right, but oh, let us put things in their right proportion. Let us see to it that temporal things do not overwhelm spiritual. Do not let us become so anxious and distracted about the passing things that the spiritual things are eclipsed. For the one thing which ought to be made to keep all the other things in their right places - they are all right in their places - is the thing which comes from the lips of the Lord.

You see, it is a matter of proportion, it is a matter of where you are placing the most emphasis. It is a matter of whether you are allowing the things of this life so to absorb, and to occupy, and to draw you round with anxiety, that the greater things are not getting a chance. And we all agree now, we have no more quarrel with the Master over Mary, when we see it like that. What was necessary was that there should be an adjustment of things: so that, while these other matters had a place, and a right place, they were in their place and in their own measure; whilst the supreme things were allowed to predominate and were not submerged in those lesser matters which, after all, are not the abiding things.

Now, that was the whole situation. In the House of God, the thing that matters more than all our business, all our feverish activities to do a thousand and one things of Christian work - the one thing that matters is getting to know the Lord, and giving the Lord a chance to make Himself known. Feverish activities so often, in what is called 'the church', exclude the voice of the Lord, shut Him out; it is all what we are doing, and so little of what He is getting a chance to say. The place that satisfies Him is the place of adjustment to the supreme things.

Well, that is Martha.

PRECIOUS OINTMENT POURED FORTH

Now we turn for the fourth thing to Matthew 26:6-13. It is the same village, and now the woman with her "alabaster cruse of exceeding precious ointment". The incident speaks to us in the first instance of the recognition of the worth of the Lord Jesus. The recognition of the worth of the Lord Jesus. All who looked on, as good as said: 'He is not worth it'; that is what it amounted to. 'He is not worth it.' Of course they would not have put it like that. She recognised His worth - that He was worth the 'exceeding preciousness'. It was the exceeding preciousness of Christ that was in view here, as something recognised. That, I think, is the main feature. It is a feature of Bethany, it is a feature of the upper room, it is a feature of "My church". It is a feature of the Lord's assembly, it is a feature of the people who are after His own heart: the recognition of His exceeding preciousness, His exceeding worth; that there is nothing too costly to lay at His feet. "Unto you therefore which believe he is precious (is the preciousness)" (1 Pet. 2:7).

Now, that is very simple, and yet again it is a thing that draws forth the deep appreciation of the Lord Jesus. It is again a thing which gives feature to a very much beloved village. In other words it is a thing which makes His assembly of great value to Him, that there His worth is recognised, and He is appreciated and appraised at His true value. That must mark the house of the Lord. It is a feature that must be developed more and more. It is a thing to which we must attend, that we have a ready and an ever-growing recognition of the preciousness and worth of the Lord Jesus. Oh, how different this is from the merely formal church system! We can hardly say that the outstanding feature of that is a true heart-appreciation of the worth and of the value of the Lord Jesus. Where that appreciation is, you have the assembly; where it is not, whatever else you may have of ornate and elaborate presentation, you have not got the assembly, it is not the place of His delight.

I think I see something else here. The brokenness of the cruse brings out into expression the preciousness of the ointment. It is the 'vessel of fragile clay' which, being broken, makes possible the manifestation and expression of the glories of Christ. While that cruse is whole, strong, and sound in itself, something which you would look at and take account of in itself; something that would cause you to say: 'That is a beautiful vase, that is a wonderful piece of alabaster'; - you are not getting at the secret. We may take account of men, as splendid intellects, splendid men, wonderful preachers and so on - be occupied with the vase, the cruse - and the other be sealed, be hidden; but when the cruse is broken, shattered, then you get at the tabernacle secret of the glory of Christ.

You see it in Paul. I suppose Saul of Tarsus was a wonderful bit of alabaster intellectually, morally, religiously. He tells us that he was; he tells us all that he was, all that he gloried in and that men looked at and no doubt praised; but he was smashed and it is no longer Saul, and it is no longer Paul, but it is the beauty and glory of Christ. The fragrance of Christ comes out when the cruse is broken.

And, beloved, it is just like that in our experience. The Church, the true Church, has been allowed to be shattered, and shattered again, and the members individually are so often allowed to be broken and broken again; but has it not proved through history that, for the Church and for the individual, the breaking, the shattering, the smashing, has brought about an expression of the glories of Christ in a wonderful way? It is just like that. We go through a new experience of being broken - we put it in other ways sometimes and say we are being brought more deeply into the death of Christ, coming into a fresh experience of the Cross: however we may put it, it means breaking, it means the breaking of the cruse - but believe me, beloved, it means a fuller expression and knowledge of the glory of Christ, and it will bring us to a new appreciation of Him. We shall discover Him in the time of our brokenness. And in the same way the Church passes through the way of the Cross, but comes by the breaking to the worth of the Lord Jesus.

THE POWER OF HIS RESURRECTION

We pass to John and the well-known chapter 11. Here is Bethany again in view, and this time it is the raising of Lazarus which comes before us. We will not go through the whole story and take its details, but simply come swiftly to its one conclusion at the end. Bethany, in this instance, becomes the scene, the sphere, of the manifestation of resurrection power, resurrection life. There are many other things here. There is a wonderful expression of love; there is a wonderful expression of fellowship here in this chapter. Far away from Bethany the Lord said to His disciples: "Our friend Lazarus is fallen asleep". "Our friend"; not "My friend", but "our friend". You see, it is fellowship. "Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus." It is love. All these are features of Bethany; but the outstanding feature here is the manifestation of His resurrection, the power of His resurrection, resurrection life.

And here again Bethany is an illustration of the Church that He is building. We know this from Ephesians, the 'Church Epistle', as we call it. We very soon come to our being "quickened... together with Christ" (Eph. 2:5). The Church is the vessel in which the power of His resurrection is displayed; and here again we not only testify to the fact, to the doctrine, but we have to apply the test, that the assembly according to the mind of the Lord is that in which His resurrection power and life are displayed.

Now, I know, when things like that are said, so often there is that vacant feeling that remains: 'Yes, we know it ought to be so, just as we ought to be crucified with Christ; we know we ought to be risen with Christ, and it is quite true that we ought to know the power of His resurrection, and His resurrection life'. That is said again and again, but we leave it there. The point is: how is it to be?

Now, we have to recognise that the Lord has brought His Church into being for the specific purpose of displaying the power of His resurrection, and we should dedicate ourselves unto the Lord for that very end. That is the way: in recognising that the object, the very object of our being in that Church, of that Body, is that He might display in us His resurrection power and life. We, recognising that, have a definite understanding with our Lord that we are consecrated to Him; now our responsibility ends there, if it is from our hearts, and the Lord will begin His work.

We shall not be able to raise ourselves any more than we can crucify ourselves, but we must recognise that the Lord's dealings with us are with that in view. In order to display the power of His resurrection, He will very often have to take the attitude toward us of letting things get well beyond all human power to remedy or save, of allowing things to go so far that there is no other power in all the universe that can do anything whatever to save the situation. He will allow death, disintegration, to work, so that nothing, nothing in the universe is of any avail, except the power of His resurrection.

We shall come to the place where Abraham came, who became the great type of faith which moved right into resurrection: "He considered his own body now as good as dead" (Rom. 4:19). That is the phrase used by the apostle about Abraham: "as good as dead". And Paul came into that: "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (2 Cor. 1:9). Whatever else men may be able to do in the realm of creation, they stop short when death has actually taken place; they can do no more. Resurrection is God's act, and God's alone. Men can do very many things when they have got life, but when there is no life it is only God who can do anything. And God will allow His Church and its members oft-times to get into such situations as are altogether beyond human help, in order that He may give the display, which is His own display, in which no man has any place to glory.

So said the Lord Jesus: "This sickness is not unto death, but for THE GLORY OF GOD, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." Glorified! We have dedicated ourselves to that course of things - that is, we have dedicated ourselves to a line of human despair; but how slow we are to accept it in its outworking. When things get to a desperate situation, we kick so much and think that all has gone wrong. It may be just going right for the Lord! Oh, yes, it is desperate; that consideration does not take away from the desperateness of it, the awfulness of it; but if it is going to provide the Lord with His supreme opportunity to raise His pre-eminent testimony, then it is right - that is, it will be right in its issue.

When at last, in eternity, we read the story of the Church, which is His Body, and see all that it really did come through, we shall have to confess that no human institution, no man-made thing, could have survived, could have gone through that which the saints went through. When it is understood in the light of eternity and appraised by true spiritual standards, we shall say that none but God Almighty could have achieved that, could have brought it through: that it has undoubtedly become the vehicle of the expression of "the exceeding greatness of his power" (Eph. 1.19); and that is to say a great deal. If "the exceeding greatness of his power" is necessary to this, well, that says much for what we have to be brought out of, doesn't it? If "the weakness of God is stronger than men" (1 Cor. 1:25), what must "the exceeding greatness of his power" represent?

Well, that is in resurrection; as you know, the words are connected with that: "the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead" (Eph. 1:19,20). That is "to us-ward who believe". Now the Church, the Bethany testimony, is to be a testimony to the power of His resurrection, and if His methods with us are making that necessary, then let us take encouragement and comfort from the fact that we are thus to be a true expression of what He desires of His Church.

CELEBRATING HIS VICTORY

We pass from chapter 11 of John to chapter 12. "Jesus therefore six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus raised from the dead. So they made him a supper there: and Martha served" (evidently she had not gathered, from the Lord's words to her, that service was wrong; she is still serving - it is all right now); "but Lazarus was one of them that sat at meat with him. Mary therefore took a pound of ointment of spikenard, very precious, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment."

Here we have the feast, and the feast has several elements. One, represented by Mary and her action, speaks of worship. Once again, it is the appreciation of Christ that is in view. That is worship. Worship - according to God's thought - is always simply the appreciation of the Lord Jesus; bringing up before God the sweet odour of a heart-appreciation of His Son. That may sound simple, but worship in its purest essence is what we think of the Lord Jesus, expressed to the Father. That is worship. The assembly is for that. Bethany speaks of that.

Martha - yes, Martha served. But it is adjusted service. She is still serving, but it is all right; there is no rebuke now. There is no circling round of her face with anxiety now; she is not drawn around with care: she is serving in a resurrection house. Here is adjusted service, and service in the Lord's house is quite according to His mind when the service is in fellowship with, and in right proportion to, the worship. There is an adjustment between the sisters now, you see. They were disjointed before, because things were ill-proportioned and out of place; now the adjustment has been made and they are just getting on constantly together. It is adjusted service.

Lazarus sat at meat, and of course he is the principle of life, resurrection life. That, again, is a mark of the Lord's spiritual house. So we have worship, adjusted service, resurrection life.

Yes, but there is always some sinister thing not far away: "Why was not this ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor?" When you get the assembly just as the Lord wants it you will always find that the Devil is lurking very near. That may be a compliment to the assembly, for anything that the Devil does not cast his eye on jealously will surely not be that which is satisfying the heart of the Lord. But it is always like that. Just begin to get something that is according to the Lord's heart, and you find a sinister thing begin to circle round with a view to destroying that worship, to divert that appreciation of the Lord. It becomes a feature of the very assembly itself, that the Devil jealously casts his eyes upon what the Lord is getting, and would have that for himself.

You see, the Church is that which brings to the Lord Jesus what He ought to have, and from eternity the Devil has been out to rob him of that, and he will do it in the assembly if he can, because the assembly is that in which the Lord does get what His heart is set upon.

OUTWARD AND UPWARD

Now we close by noting the last thing in Luke 24:50-52.

"And he led them out until they were over against Bethany: and he lifted up his hand, and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy."

Three words: "led out", "blessed", "carried up": out with the Lord, in His place apart; under His blessing; and linked with Him in heaven - to use Paul's words, "made... to sit together with him in the heavenlies."

That is Bethany, that is the Church, that is what the Lord wants to have in the life of His people today.

Go back over Bethany again and just allow your heart to exercise itself on these things, and seek very definitely that the Lord shall have in you just these features which are according to His own mind. And what we do individually, let us seek to do in those fellowships, those assemblies, with which we are connected, that they shall be true Bethanies, the village-expression of the great city of God, the Heavenly Jerusalem.

The Body of Christ: Its Heavenly Aspect

We are going, as the Lord enables us, to meditate afresh on the Body of Christ. We know, when we want to have the larger unfoldings of this "Mystery" where to turn; we instinctively turn to the Ephesian letter. In this letter we note, first of all, the simple preliminary fact, that the Church is designated 'The Body of Christ," it is "the Church which is His Body." That distinguishes the Church in this letter from other designations which we find elsewhere. There is the Temple, there is the House of God, and other suchlike designations, but in this letter it is particularly. The Body of Christ that is basic to all that the letter unfolds, and what is contained in the letter is in line with the conception of a body.* Now the word which seems to predominate through this letter in connection with that designation is the word translated "Together." It is impressive to note how frequently that word occurs. Here we are said to have been "quickened together" in Him. That does not only mean that our together-ness individually was with the Lord Jesus in His rising, but it means that we corporately were quickened, we were together quickened in Him, not only with Him but in Him corporately quickened.

The Eternal Oneness of the Body

In the resurrection of the Lord Jesus the whole Church was included together. And then in the same verse, 2:6, we are said to be "raised together" in Him. Further, in the same place, we are said to be "seated together" in Him. Coming back a step into 1:10, we are "gathered together into one" and then on again to 2:21, we are "framed together." So this word "together" brings into view in a very simple way the fact of the corporate nature of the Church, the Body of Christ. We want to get the full force of that as far as it is possible, because this letter undoubtedly emphasizes the fact that the Church is a corporate Body; not that it one day will be when the work of grace is completed; not that it is merely that in the mind and thought of God, the will of God, the intention of God; not that it was intended to be when the Lord started it; but that it is; that in spite of what is seen here on the earth; in spite of the ever-increasing number of divisions and separations, all the unhappy schisms which have entered into the fellowships of God's people on the earth, in spite of everything that ever has been and ever is or will be along that line, the Church is still a corporate whole. It is that, not as to the people as on the earth, but it is true as to the essential nature of the Church, the Body of Christ, and the sooner we get that rooted and settled in our spiritual acceptance and consciousness the better. No schism, beloved, that is incidental to the relationships of Christian people on the earth can alter that fact. The differences which exist or which come about by the different mentalities, choices and preferences, likes and dislikes, intellectual acceptances or rejections; all those differences do not touch this ultimate fact that there is a realm in which there is a togetherness, a oneness, a corporateness which is unaffected by anything that is of man in himself religiously or theologically. There is a realm of course in which is unaffected by anything that is of man in himself religiously or theologically. There is a realm of course in which there may be a breach of fellowship, that is where it enters into the realm of the spirit and where the spirit is affected. There you may very definitely strike a blow at the Body of Christ, but ultimately the Body is one; which, of course, clearly indicates that this is something other than an earthly thing and that it is a heavenly Body, unaffected and untouched by earth.

We are inclined to accept what we see, to be affected by the divisions that are here, and are almost in despair because of what we see. The sooner we sweep that whole thing aside the better, and let there be fifty thousand earthly departments of Christian people, the Body of Christ remains one. It is a seamless robe, it is a Body which cannot be divided, it remains one. That is the basic fact to which we must come back, that is where we begin. This letter, in which there is the unveiling of the mystery of Christ and His members, The Church, the one Body, states most emphatically the fact of the corporate nature of the Body. It does not argue about it, or discuss it, it takes it for granted, it is a settled thing. Of course there are degrees of enjoyment of it, and there are degrees of the fruitfulness of it as here, but there are no degrees of the fact of it. The fact remains as solid and settled. Our business is to enter into the settled fact and come into the meaning of it: but our not having come into the full meaning of it does not mean that it does not exist. The trouble is that we have to know what it is that makes the Body one, and that is our business. The unity exists; our business is to apprehend it, not make it. We go on to that almost immediately, but note, the letter to the Ephesians is still alive, it is still applicable, it is still true for to-day. After all these centuries when we have all that we have on the earth, the departments and divisions of Christian people, all of whom may be members of the Body of Christ, still after all these centuries the Ephesians letter remains where it was at the beginning, and it represents the Body as a solid whole, a corporate unity.

A Heavenly Position Necessary to Apprehending the Oneness

It is only as we get up into the heavenlies and away from the earthlies that we begin to enter into the fact and realize what that fact means to God, to the heavenlies, to hell, and to this world. So, in order that we should enter into the fact with all that that fact contains of effective vocation and life, we have to introduce the whole matter by our position in Christ in the heavenlies, and see exactly where we are placed spiritually: for not until we come to recognize that and to enter into our heavenly position in Christ can we see, appreciate, or come into the meaning of this heavenly reality the Church, which is His Body. We cannot see the Church from the earthlies, we can only see it from the heavenlies.

Our Attitude Towards Differences

I do not want to pass away from that as having merely stated something. I do want that we should get the benefit of it. You and I may have a disagreement, but it makes no difference to our relationship in the Lord Jesus. The fact that you and I fall out or disagree does not tear us as limbs out of the Body of Christ. No, that is our shame, that is incidental in our Christian life, that this a breakdown somewhere in grace in us, but we shall recover ourselves from that if we yield to the movements of the Spirit in us, and come back to find that we have not to be rejoined in Christ in His Body, that fact remains. You see the working principle is this: that there may be much amongst believers on this earth of division, but we have not to accept that as ultimate, we have not to take that as meaning that some are in Christ and some are out of Christ, that we are in Christ and others are not, and that we are in Christ and others are not, and that the Body has altogether collapsed and disintegrated. The only hope of enjoying the fact is that we repudiate what looks like another fact, and we seek to get above that which, being earthly, brings these things about, and discover we are in the heavenlies, and fellowship abides. That is a working principle and we should recognize that is the meaning of the fact. We have got to accept the fact, and we have to seek to overcome or repudiate the other things which come in against the ultimate fact.

Corporate Life

In order that life may fulfil its function, reveal its power, reach its full measure, and pass on its potentialities, it must assume form. Life in itself has never been seen. Only through the form which it takes can it express itself. It must have a body. It is only through the body and corporate relations that the great laws of life and the spiritual kingdom can come to fullest expression and efficiency. Life involves relations. Isolation spells death.

The relation into which the new-born child of God is introduced is twofold - first to its risen Lord, as Head of the Body which is the Church, and secondly to all its members, consisting of those who in every age and country have heard His voice, and come out at His call. They have not merely been 'called out,' they have been 'called in.' It is a call with a double object.

First it is private, personal, specific, as between the individual and his Lord. Stripping himself clear of all relations, entanglements, and environments, he must come first of all into the consciousness of his own nakedness, face to face with God alone, bringing nothing with him of his own personality. We are as truly born naked in the spiritual as in the natural realm. In the private presence of God relations are set up which are primary and fundamental. Spirit meets with spirit.

From that personal relatedness the child of God is introduced to a new order, a great spiritual fellowship, a relatedness of all who have been "born of the Spirit." This relatedness is as absolutely essential as is that of the organs of the physical body. For growth, function, safety, balance, and fulness, this co-ordination, interdependence and co-operation in spirit and practice is indispensable. It involves an utter repudiation of independence, separateness, and self-centredness. This is inherent in new birth and being "in one Spirit baptized into one body," and the sooner it is recognised the greater the saving of the precious time in spiritual maturity.

We are related to an order which is higher than anything on this earth or of the natural creation. The higher the organism, the longer the process of co-ordination. It takes a very much longer time for an elephant to be formed than other animals. But the presence of life can and will consummate the order if it is not violated.

"Till we all attain unto... the stature of the fulness of Christ."

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, July-August 1948, Vol 26-4

The Corporate Vessel

There are two titles or designations of the Church, which are, to my mind, supreme amongst the designations. The first is "Christ": "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" (1 Corinthians 12:12). That seems to be the very highest designation of the Church. The other is "the new man." Both of these are represented by the other designation, "the Church which is His Body." In the sense in which Paul meant it, the Body is the Christ corporately presented. Again, it is the "one new man." In those two designations — "Christ" and the "one new man" — we have the whole idea of representation, and that is set forth as supremely a corporate thing.

There is one Body, and we are members one of another; and the importance of the individual has to be subjected to the importance of the whole Body. The importance of the individual is subjected in the Body to the Body. It is what the Apostle is leading to when, by the grace of God given to him, he exhorts every man not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think, because we are members one of another. The individual importance must not stand out from, or in, the Body as something over the Body — something in itself. There is an importance of the individual member, as the Apostle makes perfectly clear... and great importance; but that importance of the individual is not to protrude.

That brings us to another very vital aspect of the great truth of the Body of Christ, as presented in the Word of God, and that is the Holy Spirit and the order in the Body. You cannot read these writings of Paul (Romans through Philemon) by the Holy Spirit in the light of facts as you see them, or of conditions as you meet them, without being rendered well-nigh breathless. It is an astonishing understanding that Paul has concerning the Body. You have only to stand back from these things as you read them, and feel this is either something amazing, or else impossible. Many have surrendered to the latter conclusion. You are sufficiently aware of, and alive to, the importance of this matter. This is not just a presentation of teaching about great themes, great ideas; this has to do with God’s ultimate purpose represented in this universe — an expression of God in Man-form. That is our destiny, that is what we have our being for; and we miss our destiny unless we recognize this. We have no adequate knowledge and understanding of what God is doing, and why He is dealing with us as He is, until we see this purpose of God in our being conformed to the image of His Son, the producing in this universe of a corporate Man which is Christ in full expression.

Firstly, the Body grows and makes increase through order. Paul makes that perfectly clear. It is as the Body is fitly framed that it grows. It makes increase with the increase of God. That is on the basis of being fitly framed and of every joint working in its due measure. Growth and increase, therefore, are by means of this order. We hardly need turn again to the analogy of the physical body, which is presented to the mind of the Apostle as he writes about the Body of Christ. It is quite true that there is no growth in the body — no development — unless there is an ordered state in the body... what he calls a fit framing. It is wonderful how the Lord has created things in the physical world so that their position is best suited to their purpose. Conceive of any other order in the arrangement of our members, and see how we should be handicapped. We do not want to be humorous, but rather to simplify this matter and get the principle home. But supposing your thumbs were on the other side of your hands and you had to work in that way... And get hold of everything on the outside. Get anything that is freakish, and see at once how limitation arises.

Now the Lord has an order which, if recognized and if functioning, leads to the greatest measure of increase — it is itself determined to realize the goal of God; and we can no more realize God’s goal without God’s order than we can realize the physical possibilities of our bodies with a body disordered. The inclusive factor in this order is the Headship of Christ... and, of course, our holding it: "holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." The Headship of Christ and our holding that, is the inclusive factor. Every faculty is centered in Him as Head. No part of a body can function if the head is severed from the body or in any way separated in the sense of function. Get in between the head and the body in any way by a nervous disorder or a fracture, and the whole body is out of order and incapable of functioning. Everything is gathered up into the head. Thus the Headship of Christ becomes essential to the order of His Body, the Church.

Now we must take up the whole matter of the individual function of the members. We have not to take up the matter of our own function in the first place — as to what it is. That is not the first consideration. Our relatedness to others is likewise not a thing of which we are to make a mental problem. The first thing that we have to do is to be subject to Christ; and when the individual is subject to Christ, that individual is by the Holy Spirit brought into a proper function and relationship with every other expression of Christ. Harmony comes in that way. It is spontaneous.

Secondly, the members of Christ are functioning parts of Christ. That follows from our being one spirit, as joined to the Lord. Let us get rid of the physical idea altogether and recognize how that the Body of Christ is the uniting of renewed spirits indwelt by the Holy Spirit. It is not the uniting of so many physical bodies and calling them the Church. That is merely a congregation. It is what we are together in spirit that makes us the Church. Congregations do not make a Church. The Church is spiritual... because it is the union of spirits. We are not talking about something physical, but about the spiritual Body, the Church. "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17). That is the nature of union, and that is the nature of the membership of the Body. Membership of Christ is something other than our physical relatedness. What a lot of notions we have to get rid of.

If we have our names put down on a certain Church roll, we say we have joined the Church. Membership of the Church is membership of Christ by union with Him in our spirits, and that union is brought about by Christ’s indwelling our spirits. The next thing that Paul will teach us is that there must be a mutual recognition of the Body of Christ: "...to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think" (Romans 12:3). If he does that, he will be setting other members at naught... or in a place less than should be occupied by them. It does a great deal of harm to the Body of Christ when one member dominates the situation. Mutual subjection to, and recognition of, one another represents what the Lord would have.

Further, there must be a ministering of Christ to one another. We have something of Christ — a faculty of Christ for ministering Christ; that is, a measure of Christ to be ministered by us... and our business is to minister Christ to one another. In that way the Body grows. Is not Christ our Life... and can we not, as functioning in Christ, minister Life — His Life — to one another? Surely we can. That is what we are called to. Thus the Body grows. Oh, that the Lord will enable us to be greater ministers of Life — His Life — to one another, and not of death.

The Cry of the Elect

Reading: Luke 18:1-8.

The common interpretation of this parable is that it is a lesson in, or an exhortation to, importunity in prayer, and it has been generally used in that connection. While undoubtedly there is that element in it, that is altogether too limited an interpretation. If you look at the setting of the parable, you will see that it has a much larger connection than that.

You know that the division of the books of the Bible into chapters is something much more recent than the writing of the Gospel. It has nothing to do whatever with the original narrative. So, looking back into chapter 17 you find there is quite a lot about the Lord's coming.

"There shall be two women grinding together the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. And they answering say unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, Where the body is, thither will the eagles also be gathered together." And earlier, you see the chapter is grouped around the day of the coming of the Son of Man; and then you go on into this parable itself. The last verse of the parable is this, "When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith (or, the faith) on the earth?"

Thus the parable is set right into the coming of the Lord and must be interpreted in the light thereof, not merely and only as a lesson in importunity in personal prayer. It cannot be that, because the elect is in view. "Shall not God avenge his elect, that cry to him day and night?". "The elect" is only the eternal designation of the Church. The word "Church" brings us into time as the called-out company but "the elect" takes you back before time - "chosen in him before the foundation of the world" (Eph. 1:4). It is the Church, therefore, which is in view here, and the Church as related to the coming of the Lord.

Then, again, the avengement of the Church can only take place when the Lord comes. The Church will not be avenged until He appears. We know that, and much Scripture could be cited to support that. He will avenge His Church at His coming.

The Increasing Pressure and the Deepening Cry

Thus it becomes perfectly clear as to what the Lord was really saying. There is an adversary, and that adversary is here set forth as the adversary of the elect, the adversary of the Church, and that adversary is seen to be engaged in a persistent pressure upon the Church, a persistent and growing pressure,  which is bringing the Church more and more to the place of crying to be avenged. Now here we have two things, namely, the growing pressure and the deepening cry, and I do not think it necessary beloved, to try to prove that the pressure is intensifying. It is another sign that the coming of the Lord is drawing near. All truly spiritual children of God are well aware of the intensification of pressure, spiritual pressure, from the adversary. We see it and we feel it in many directions. Things are closing in on the Church, pressing the Church in.

We see it in the political situation today, the international situation; that in that realm, no sooner does God begin to do something in a living way than the enemy himself begins to do something. There was a great spiritual movement beginning in China. Many were seeking, inquiring, coming to the Lord; and then came the war in China, to scatter, to arrest, to break up, to hinder. Blessed be God, He is sovereign, and sovereignly takes hold of those counter movements of the enemy and turns them to serve His own end. Nevertheless, it is marked. In Norway again, there was something of the Lord, a real movement of the Spirit; and now, in the very places marked by the twos and threes who were keys to that country for something more of the Lord, the very heat of things is raging today, to scatter, to paralyse. What is true in these two, is true over a much larger area. We have seen it again and again, pressing in.

We recognize it in a spiritual way, apart from anything outside; spiritual pressure, naked pressure from the enemy upon the spirit and the mind of the child of God. It is indeed intensification. And what shall we say about this which is becoming such an obvious thing, this spreading of physical pressure upon the children of God? We have to take account of these things, and that is the point now. Beloved, a very great deal, an immense amount, of the physical suffering today of the children of God, of the servants of the Lord, is pressure from the enemy. It cannot be, in the last issue, accounted for on merely natural grounds, for so often the assault is related to some spiritual interest, is bound up with something that God is doing or is going to do. There is the crippling and paralysing attempt of the enemy in the physical, the bodily, realm of the saints. We could almost say you will hardly find one who is a key to spiritual things who is not assailed in that way at some time or other. Pressure in every way is intensifying upon the Church. I am sure you are alive to that, the fact of it, at any rate; and it is going to intensify, and true spiritual work, the thing that is heavenly and that really counts in relation to God's ultimate and full purpose, is going to find itself under increasing pressure from the adversary.

But then there is the other side. What is this to result in? In what way will the sovereignty of God govern this? What does the Lord intend to be the issue? The deepening and strengthening cry of the Church, "Avenge me!" - the Church as one man, "me"; not us, but "me". "Avenge me of my adversary!"; and that, according to the way in which the Lord puts it, is to become a continuous cry at the end: "which cry day and night unto him".

There are implications in this parable, and one of them is this, that the coming of the Lord, the avenging of the Church and the destruction of the work of the adversary is bound up with this cry, and the cry must be. The Lord has put the two together. Until there is the cry, there cannot be avengement, and that means there cannot be the coming of the Lord in intervention for the Church, and there cannot be the destruction of the adversary. The cry is essential.

Present Responsibility

Well now, in the light of that, where are we? What does it mean for us now immediately. It means this, that we have to take account of what lies behind things. We have to take account of what lies behind this world situation, what the implications of it are, so far as the Church is concerned, and we must not just accept this present world conflagration, this international situation, this war, as merely a bit of the history of this world, the course of things here on this earth. No, there is something at the heart of this thing which is eternal and which is heavenly, and the adversary is prepared to throw all the nations into conflict and carnage in order to get that "seed royal", that "man-child", to injure that "elect", to defeat God's purpose as bound up with the Church. If you have spiritual eyes open, that is the focal point of your present observation; not simply the fact of a war between this nation and that, these and those, but that which lies behind it, and so in every other connection. What is behind this pressure and assault upon the bodies of the Lord's people, and especially where spiritual interests are the more bound up, this seeking to put out of action, to render incapable of functioning because of physical conditions? What lies behind the spiritual pressure and the circumstantial pressure, pressure coming in all these different ways? Oh, beloved, ask the Lord to open your eyes to that, to get you engaged with that, for it is in that realm that the Church's effectiveness is seen to obtain. When you get back of things to the adversary and bring that adversary up before the Throne of God and the Church cries, "Avenge me of mine adversary", you have touched the realm of spiritual effectiveness, you have got behind things. My longing, my craving, is to find the Lord's people seeing this and acting accordingly. Oh that, while not always occupied with the Devil and talking about the Devil and demons and so on, and getting that kind of mentality, we were nevertheless alive to this great reality, that back of things is an adversary, and that we went behind things and did not just pray for the things themselves. You see, you may pray for the Lord to heal, for the Lord to raise up, to make better, and oh! you have not really touched the realm of effectiveness in prayer. What is there of the adversary in this? Until you have touched that, you have not really touched the issue. We have no real ground for effectual prayer over these situations in the world until we have got behind them to the adversary who, in his own interests, for his own ends, is bringing them about, precipitating them. Oh for the day when our prayer gatherings will be more characterized by this seeing, and acting accordingly, in the heavenlies! That is the thing. We shall recognize what this pressure is meant to produce; a cry, a united cry, a one-voiced cry in the saints: "Avenge me of mine adversary!" The Lord bring us into that.

All Will Centre at Last in a Cry

Unless I am mistaken, this parable of the Lord is intended to lead us to one or two other conclusions. In the first place, that the Church, the spiritual Body, will be so pressed that it has no other cry than this. It has only this one cry. I mean that it will be gradually and definitely centred in this, that all its other praying will be recognized as of little avail, and its one great heart cry will be this, perhaps not in these words, but with this significance, with this meaning -  "Avenge me of mine adversary!" That means that the people of God will be pressed into recognizing that they are not up against some human situation, and therefore their cry will be in relation to this ultimate issue, being avenged of the adversary - pressed into crying.

The "Cry" and the "Coming"

Then it seems to me that the Lord intended that we should take account of this too, that, when the Church really does reach that point and position where it does cry like this, that means that the end is just at hand. "He will avenge them and that speedily." Now the Lord said those words many centuries ago, and if we reasoned according to man, we should say, Speedily? Well, of course the Lord dwells in eternity and there is no time with Him. A thousand years is as a day with Him. With Him it may be speedily, but for the poor Church it is two thousand years - we cannot call it speedily. But that is not what the Lord meant by "speedily". He meant that, when the Church really cried like that, it would be speedily. Has the Church done it? When it really becomes one cry from the Church, you may take it that God's hour synchronizes with the cry. We have always to recognize that principle in God's Word, that God's time is always made to synchronize with something else. He may fix His time, but He fixes it in relation to something else; and the time of His coming may be fixed, it may be appointed, but it is a related time, and His appearing to avenge His Church is bound up with the Church's cry day and night: "Avenge me!" If the Lord by the Holy Spirit were to produce that cry in the Church, we can take it as settled that His coming is near.

Now, is He working toward that? Is there today an activity of the sovereign government of God to hedge the Church up to this cry? Some of us can say that, for our part, we have no doubt about it. As we look out, we can see movements in that direction. Yes, inability to do a very great many things, inability to be occupied with much that has been occupying the Church; a cutting off, a shutting in, and this sense of the adversary withstanding, obstructing, hindering, limiting, and all efforts to break through seeming to be unavailing, until almost in despair, the cry which is focused upon the enemy, the adversary, breaks out of the heart. Well, that is what the Lord is doing, I am quite sure. We must ask the Lord to keep us very much alive to what lies behind things and to bring us strongly into this cry which is for the Church's deliverance, the Church's emancipation, the Church to be avenged of the adversary, the adversary cast down from his place of accusing the brethren. "Avenge me of mine adversary this adversary which accuseth the elect before God, day and night".

The Essential Ministry

We should ask the Lord that we may be so much in the Spirit when we come together for prayer that we are not found dealing with things on the surface, as they appear, but touching the throne in relation to the adversary and what he is doing behind things. Oh, do ask Him to interpret this to your hearts, to give you the meaning in every matter. There is no doubt that there is today much that is locked up, that is hindered, that is limited, much of the Lord's interests brought well-nigh, if not altogether, to a standstill by the work of the adversary. You say, Can that be? Yes, even such a one as Paul who was not ignorant of his devices and who knew something about union with the sovereign Lord said, "...but Satan hindered". "We would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and again; but Satan hindered us". You say, That is a problem: here is a man anointed, laid hold of by God, and yet that man has to say "but Satan hindered"! Satan succeeded in stopping something, preventing something, something of value. Are we to say that the Lord never intended the Apostle to go? No, not at all, not in that case. Where, then, are we to find the solution? There are many servants of the Lord and many interests of the Lord locked up like that, not able to function, to fulfil their ministry, by reason of the hindrances of Satan, because the Church is not prevailing for that ministry, for those interests. There is not a company of the Lord's people who know how to take hold of the throne for the release of those Divine interests. That is borne out more than once by things that Paul said when he appealed for prayer from the Church; for example, "...that utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel". He appealed for united prayer, for corporate prayer, that he might fulfil his ministry; and I say again, there are many things being limited, held down, paralysed by Satan, the adversary, the release of which can only be brought about by this prayer, this cry; and, if it is true that the Church's final deliverance is coming through its own cry, the Lord's response to that, it is true in the details of the Church's life. If the whole thing is an issue like that, then the principles are the same in every detail.

There is a ministry here. There are multitudes of the Lord's people who need light, revelation, spiritual reinforcement, in order to bring them through to God's full end; but Satan has come in between them and the resources and the ministry, the stewardship, and they will not get it unless there is prevailing over the enemy on the part of spiritual and enlightened children of God. It is a Divine way, Divine order. Here is our responsibility. Do take it to heart. Very much more could be today if there was a prevailing instrument, a vessel with God's cry, a vessel that saw through the situation, saw the adversary, and knew the meaning of touching the throne to bring Haman's great campaign of death to an end, to turn it from death to life, for the children of God. Well, the Word of God is shot through and through with this truth that, while God wills, God's will is brought into operation by the co-operation of those who are one with Himself. This is a basic truth. Oh, may He bring us there, for the large interests which are at stake today!

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jul-Aug 1940, Vol 18-4

The Family of God

The Divine thought is surely not to have companies of Christians constituted by a New Testament technique, or system of doctrine and practice, any more than it is to have congregations, preaching-places, or just meetings. Primarily it is to have spiritual families; and a Divinely governed and ordered family will express its life according to what is true doctrine and right practice. Thus, when it is time for His people to take spiritual responsibility, if the Holy Spirit had things on His right basis, He would distribute them so that new spiritual families are brought into being. This is organic growth as differing from organised expansion which is so unsatisfactory in its resultant spiritual measure. How much safer and purer is this Divine method. For one thing, it starts from the inside and not from without. Its bond is mutual love, not doctrine. It grows by spiritual birth or organic oneness, not by adherence or "joining". Its success is not determined by its size or numbers, but by its spiritual life and inward measure of Christ.

There is nothing professional about a true family; neither is there anything artificial or formal. What a true natural family would be in every respect, as to its own inner corporate and family life, and as to its growth, testimony, work, and multiplication of itself in new families in due course, so the local companies of the Lord's people ought to be; for God intended His visible institutions to embody His invisible, spiritual, and heavenly thoughts and principles. But it is all spontaneous and vital, not organised and technical. We cannot go further here with this Divine thought, but we ask; May this not be the Lord's object in allowing or causing that ever present sense of inadequacy, limitation, and dissatisfaction in "organized Christianity"; and may this not lie behind His permitting of so much destruction in the realm of the traditional framework which has really come to take the place of the true spiritual family? There is nothing like an emergency and suffering to bring down to the bedrock things; and the bedrock of true Christian experience is that, beneath all else, the Lord's true people are a family - "The Church of the firstborn ones".

The first thing that the Lord Jesus said on His resurrection was "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father". When the meaning of His resurrection was made good in the coming of the Holy Spirit, we find that the believers in Jerusalem were spontaneously constituted a spiritual family, "breaking bread from house to house". Later, reference was made to one local company as "the Church in thy house". Let us remember that only two spiritually responsible ones are essential to be the starting-point of a family. May this not be the principle behind the sending forth at the beginning "two by two"?

But let us ever remember that the Lord has a governing object in mind in the family, and that the family is not an end in itself. Spiritual fulness is His end, not only spiritual fellowship. Much loss has been suffered by the Lord and His people by other forms taking the place of the spiritual fulness. Beware of substitutes. Beware of letting go something of the measure for which you have been apprehended. This is one of the perils of isolation and scattering from the family where your home has been. The one powerful bond of a true family is that the desire and will of its head governs all its members. If the Lord's desire for spiritual fulness governs us all, it will be a safeguard or guiding principle, and motive-power which delivers from many personal and lesser interests or considerations which would eventuate in limitation and disappointment. We are quite certain that spiritual fulness is only possible by emancipation from the artificial and man-made system of procedure which obtains today, and a return to the simple but powerful basis of organic life kept pure by the direct government of the Holy Spirit, as it was at the first.

Well, beloved, the Lord open your hearts to all that is of Himself, and our prayer is, in the words of an Apostle, that "none of you should be deemed to have come short".

First published in an Editor's Letter in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1941 Vol. 17-2

God's Means of Achieving His Purpose

By what means does God reach His end in His people?  What is God’s means of achieving His purpose?  It is by the Spirit of sonship through the Cross.  There is no hope of reaching God’s end, or of even taking the first step in that direction, without the Spirit as the Spirit of sonship.

First there must be the infant cry, "Father"!  There must be that relationship brought about by the Spirit.  Then the Spirit of sonship, once He is within, must proceed fully to form Christ in us.  Thus the Apostle says, "My little children, for whom I am again in travail till Christ be fully formed in you." It is not a case of my struggling toward God’s end, but of the Spirit of God’s Son in me energizing toward God’s end.  Oh, that we had faith here!  If you really have faith on this particular point, you will have the secret, of a profound rest.

You know, we have our "off" times spiritually - "off" times in the prayer life when it seems impossible to pray; "off" times in many other ways spiritually.  No matter how we struggle, we can make nothing of it.  What are we going to do? Well, if my experience is of any value to you - and I believe I have discovered just a little of the secret of things - I have come to this position: Through the Spirit Christ is in me, and everything is with Him - not with me.  It is not what I can do, nor what I cannot do, nor how I am today; all is with Him. Today, maybe, I am not conscious of His indwelling, but on the contrary very conscious of other things that are not Christ.  Well, that is my state; but He is faithful, He is true.  He has given me certain assurances about never leaving nor forsaking me, about abiding through all the days to the end, and about perfecting unto the day of Christ a good work which He hath commenced.

He started this thing - I did not; He undertook this thing.  Before ever I had a being, He had undertaken to carry through His perfect work in any one who would trust Him.  That was all undertaken for before ever I saw the light of day, so that I did not start this - it is not commenced with me.  My one thing to do is to trust Him - trust Him - and, if I cannot break through, to say: "Lord, I cannot pray just at the present; I must trust you to do all the praying."

No one who really has his heart set upon the Lord will take hold of a statement like that as a back-door way out of prayer.  I am not trying to give you some excuse for giving up praying.  I am saying there are "off" times, and I am not sure that the Lord does not allow us to have such times lest we should begin to build again upon works.  He takes us right off that basis and throws us upon Himself, where there is no alternative but to trust Him.  You are not surrendering your prayer life in taking that course at a time like that.  If you could pray, you would do so; but now in a time of real inability you are just trusting the Lord about it.

I find I have these "off" times, but as I definitely trust the Lord, and say: "Lord, this is Your responsibility, and I know this will not last; that prayer life will come back, and I am trusting you in the meanwhile."  It does come back, and in greater fullness and greater blessedness.

Beloved I have proved that again and again.  It comes back.  It is not merely that you get better and start again.  You know quite well that you may be perfectly fit and yet be unable to pray.  No one can make prayer.  It is not a matter of health and strength to be able to pray. You may be a perfectly strong man or woman, but you cannot get through to heaven in prayer because you are that.

Prayer has to do with an opened heaven - prayer is fellowship with the Lord; and that is His doing, not ours.  He brings that.  Trust Him.  "I live; and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me"; He has the whole matter in hand.  While my attitude is one of faith in Him, He will see that there is a prayer life; He will see that there is a life in the Word.  Positive faith in Him is the secret of everything in the will of God.

God's Mind About the Church

In the Divine scheme of things it is the Church which has the ultimate effect in the spiritual realm. I mean that individual Christians, though they may be born again, as individuals will not get very far in touching the outermost realm of spiritual forces. There a real registration has to be a corporate one. It will be the Church eventually which will be the instrument of Divine government in this universe.

Spirituality means what the Church is in God's mind. When we come to contemplate the Church in its wholeness and entirety, of course, we come mainly to the letters to the Ephesians and to the Colossians. There we find God's mind about the Church. We must realize the necessity for our seeing and apprehending what the Church is in God's mind, not as we find it in the churches, not as it actually is here; and we must stand on that ground, or we shall be helpless in this matter of spiritual impact. I mean that if we are going to accept what we find in the New Testament as to the churches as being the expression of all there is, we are very soon going to give up the fight and shall not get very far. If we are going to accept that as the standard, we are going to be crippled, and the measure of our spirituality will be very small indeed, and therefore the measure of our impact likewise. The Apostle, who was mainly responsible for these churches coming into being, repudiated their condition, would not accept it, was fighting against it. Why? Because he had seen God's mind, that was his position, his vantage ground, his strength. If he had never seen God's mind and only saw this, what a disheartened, disappointed, despairing man he would be! He had seen God's mind about it.

It is the Church that is in view in these epistles, and spirituality in Ephesians and Colossians means first of all an inward revelation of God's mind about the Church. It is a tremendous thing for spiritual strength, for spiritual power, for spiritual ministry, for spiritual impact, for spiritual food - yes, for every spiritual value - to have really had a heart revelation of God's mind about the Church; not simply to have studied Ephesians and Colossians, but for it to have broken in upon your heart, to have seen it in an inward way. I say that is spirituality with an impact; it is spirituality with a dynamic, and what a dynamic it is!

Look at the Apostle. He looks out at the end of his life over the churches. He knows them intimately, and he has to say: ''All that are in Asia have turned away from me'' (2 Tim. 1:15). They have repudiated Paul, to whom under Christ they owed everything. He looks out, and what a spectacle, what a heartbreak! And the man in his circumstances of imprisonment and isolation and limitation, looking out on that, might well have died of a broken heart or have sunk down into the uttermost despair and written his life off as a failure, and all his work as for well-nigh nothing. But this man is not down there, he is in triumph, he is delivered, he is saved, he is emancipated from all that. The facts are true and real, and yet he is triumphant. Why? Because he sees God's mind about the Church and he knows that if God ever had a mind about a thing He is going to have the thing like that; and no matter what appearances say, in the end God will have His Church like that. God has not conceived a thing and projected it to be cheated out of it. There it is and it will be!

When you have grasped that, you are able to get closer to these letters and see the value of spirituality. A true spiritual apprehension is an emancipating thing. The spiritual is not the unreal, it is the most real of all. It is far more real than the temporal and visible. The eternal, they are the real things. You do not see this Church here on the earth; it is not seen, but it is there in the unseen with God, and it is the eternal thing. If only we saw the invisible, that as an extraordinary statement: ''He endured as seeing Him Who is invisible'' (Heb. 11:27) - if only we saw the invisible, meaning if only we saw in the spirit what can never be seen in the flesh with our natural eyes, it would be a tremendously emancipating thing, because we should see that that is the eternal thing that must be. When all else passes, that will be. Spirituality buoys you up.

There is so much disappointment in the churches, in the things seen, that you might give up in disgust, close down your work, go and do some other job; but you do not do that if you have really seen. You may tell yourself that you are a fool not to face facts, that you are simply putting on blinkers, not taking account of realities; but because of something that God has done inside, you cannot accept that, you must go on. You cannot accept the total ruin theory if you have had a revelation.

God's Thought-Intention Concerning Manhood

"Ye must be born anew (from above)" (John 3:3).

"…till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ" (Eph. 4:13).

"Ye have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man... where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman, - but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:9-11).

"(He) emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a Man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross" (Phil. 2:7,8).

It is at least interesting, but more impressive, to recognize that the passages above - cited from Paul's letters are the full development of John's recorded word of Christ - "Ye must be born anew" or "from above". John's Gospel was one of the last of the New Testament writings to be written. When all the Apostles had gone to the Lord and the first apostolic century was nearing its end, John wrote his Gospel. He wrote because Christianity was fast changing its form. From being essentially characterized by life, it was fast declining into tradition. From being an inward thing of the spirit it was becoming an outward thing of formality. From being heavenly it was becoming earthly. From treating of the eternal Son of God it was becoming a matter of the Jesus of History. The universal Church of his Epistles, and the local churches of his Revelation had lost their spirituality and set aside or repudiated the great revelation given them through Paul. "All that are in Asia turned away from me" (2 Tim. 1:15). John's Gospel was written as a corrective to all the above, and much more. Take those points one by one and see that corrective character.

Having introduced the Son in His eternal Godhead, and then indicated or stated the heavenly relationship of His manhood, he soon arrives at his contrasting of that heavenly Man with the best type of (religious) earthly man, and at that point, in that connection, introduces Christ's words "Ye must be born anew". We are thus brought at once into the light of the eternal thought-intention for manhood - albeit, Deity apart, so far as all but Christ are concerned.

One inclusive effect of a right apprehension of John's writings (as of Paul's and Peter's) would be to deliver Christianity from the smallness into which it has been brought, into the greatness, the immensity, of God's intentions. At the centre of these intentions stands - so far as creation is concerned - a Divine conception of manhood.

Men Representing Constituents Of Manhood According To God's Thought

"Let us make man" - that was a conception, that was a thought, and it proved to be an intention. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). God made man. He made him, and then he was marred; that man was spoiled by the works of the devil, permitted by man in himself. From that point you find a course of history in which there was a chain of men under God's hand in each of whom there is seen some feature of manhood according to God. That is why these men are mentioned, why we have what we have about them - Abel, Enoch, Abraham, and all the rest. They are men under God's hand and every one of them represents some feature of manhood according to God's thought-intention. There were many other things about those men, but one thing in every case was uppermost, and that is this Divine thought, this man-factor in accordance with God's mind. Not one of these men was complete as a man according to God. Perhaps in most things they were very imperfect and in most of them there were many contradictions; but there was one thing about them all. It was not the same thing in every one, but a different thing in nearly all of them. There was one thing which stood out, upon which God looked, to which God committed Himself, because of which God went on with that man; because that man was, in his heart-relationship with God, being made to reveal one of these marks of manhood as God intended it to be. But, as we have said, they were all imperfect. No one of them was complete as a man after God's Own heart. They failed and passed on, just leaving this outstanding characteristic to be noted for all time. We do not stay now to indicate what those characteristics were in each case - you know them. We simply intimate the fact. Each link in the chain of these men represented some feature, but the chain ended in imperfection, incompleteness, no one having in all respects satisfied God, but God having had a testimony in everyone.

The Incarnation

The next stage and step is the incarnation, the coming in flesh of the Word Who was God, the heavenly Man in the world, the Son of Man: and immediately He became the central object of universal contemplation. Heaven looked on and watched and was most interested. At the birth, angels were present looking on; they were tremendously interested in it. From time to time during His life on earth angels attended, visited, and ministered, succouring in the wilderness, in the garden. In His resurrection they were there at the tomb. It is the manhood that is the object of interest. Hell was very much interested. At the birth, Herod; in the wilderness, Satan; in the Cross, principalities and powers. To use the simile of the Psalmist - "They compassed me about like bees" (Psa. 118:12) - swarms of evil spirits investing Him. Hell was tremendously interested in this manhood. And earth was interested, men were interested, watching, perplexed. He is the centre of universal interest.

The Purpose Of The Incarnation

(a) The Destruction Of The Works Of The Devil In Man

Then you ask, What is the meaning and the purpose of God coming in this form, in man-form? Well, the answer is that the purpose is twofold. One, to bring in a Man fully in accord with Divine thought-intention, and set Him forth as heaven's pattern: and the other to destroy the works of the devil in man. "The Son of God was manifested (in man-form) that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8). I just want to intimate here - we will come back to it more fully - that the destroying of the works of the devil by the Son of Man was not just some objective thing, as I might take up a book and tear it to pieces. It was done inwardly, and it was not first of all done in man outside of Jesus Christ. It was done in the Son of Man Himself. That wants explaining. It would get me into trouble if I left it there. He was doing something by being something. He was destroying something by being the opposite of that something. "The prince of the world cometh" - to destroy Me, that is the meaning - "and he hath nothing in Me" (John 14:30), nothing to work upon; therefore he was utterly defeated, and he was defeated in a man because he had not got the ground. His works are destroyed because he has not got the required ground for success. The Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil as Son of Man, and so supplant the first man, Adam, in whom the works of the devil had been wrought.

Oh, we do not know what took place in the soul of Jesus, both during His earthly life and on the Cross! What a terrific battle was being fought! How greatly the enemy strove to force Him down to the ground of the first Adam, and thus to destroy Him and His seed. His life must have been one continuous inward state of resistance, refusal. On the Cross, in weakness, emaciation, exhaustion, the full force of the whole power of Satan was brought to bear upon Him to try to get Him to provide some ground for the works of the devil, for the devil to repeat his works and destroy the last Adam. This conflict of His soul was universal, was on the ground of all that is found in man naturally. He met every temptation common to man, He was tempted in all points like as we are. We have to think and know as far as we can from our own hearts what that meant - all points as we are tempted. The enemy was on all points destroyed in his works, so that in this Representative One Who has now taken the place of a tempted man, of a tried man, of a weak man, "crucified through weakness" (2 Cor. 13:4), the enemy has found nothing; the Son of God as Son of Man destroyed the works of the devil and representatively supplanted that man in whom the works of the devil had been wrought. The first man is deposed, displaced.

(b) Perfect Manhood Developed And Brought To Fullness

But let us return to what we said earlier concerning the purpose of the incarnation - the bringing of another Man to perfect manhood according to God's mind. This was done in two ways. In Himself personally. A work was going on in Him; not making Him better, purer, more sinless. That is not the perfecting of the Son of Man, and yet it is definitely declared that a work of perfecting was going on in Him. He was sinless, He could not be made purer and better than He was at the beginning, but there can be virtues, characteristics and attributes which are without flaw in themselves, yet not developed to their full measure, and that development to full measure will only take place as they are put to the test, put through the fire. It cannot make them purer in essence, but it will make them greater in measure. He was made perfect through sufferings (Heb. 2:10), made perfect, made complete - if we take the real meaning of the original word - made complete, brought to maturity, brought to full growth, brought to all-roundness. In Himself, manhood brought to fullness.

So He started as a babe and grew up. Thirty years is the Levitical age of manhood, and He attained to that age and beyond it. It was manhood under God's eye being brought out in its fullness. He could say, "It is finished" - not only in the sense in which we use the word, that is, that He had got to the end, to a triumphant conclusion of a work; but really He was saying more than that. He was saying what the priest said over the offering which had been separated from the flock and put apart for so many days to be under severe scrutiny and examination if, peradventure, any flaw could be found in that sacrifice, before it was offered to God; and at last, when the scrutiny had gone as far as it could under the trained eye of the priest and no blemish could be discovered anywhere, the priest made a pronouncement over it, "It is perfect". Those were the words the Lord used on the Cross at the end as He presented Himself without spot to God. It is perfect, it is complete! This is manhood according to God's thought and mind.

But then the incarnation has a more far reaching object than that. This perfecting of manhood was to be fulfilled in His Body corporately. That is why we read the words of Ephesians 4:13 - "till we all attain unto the... measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ," a full-grown man. And Colossians - where there cannot be all that belongs to this earthly man: national barriers, differences, divisions; social barriers; characteristic differences; religious differences - circumcision, uncircumcision: but one new man, where Christ is all, and in all, "and ye have put off the old man... and have put on the new man" (Col. 3:9,10). So that brings us to this point, that as believers, we are supposed to stand on this new ground which has been secured by the Cross of our Lord Jesus, the new ground of the new and heavenly Man. We are supposed to be on that ground. That is where our responsibility begins, and where the real work begins, for then, being on that ground, the only ground of a Christian according to God's mind, our sole business is related to this heavenly Man; our sole business is related to heavenly manhood, personally as to ourselves, and corporately as to the Body of Christ. That sole business may include many forms of operation. It will include evangelism, because the members have got to be gathered to the Head. It will include every other New Testament activity. It will involve many Divine endowments and heavenly gifts - apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, for this perfecting of the Body of Christ. "Diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit... the same God... one body" (1 Cor. 12:4-13), one object. It is all this manhood, but the sole business is not evangelism as evangelism, not teaching ministry as teaching ministry, not this gift or that gift, your gift and my gift, as a gift, but all is focused upon one thing, and one thing only - the sole business of all - this heavenly Man.

It must begin with ourselves personally. So far as we personally are concerned, the sole concern of our hearts is and must be manhood according to God's thought. We must seek to be conformed to the image of God's Son. And then so far as others are concerned, it has to be just as it was with Him, the heavenly Man - He Himself seeing to it that He personally was the Man according to the Father's heart at all points, and then His great concern that others should come on to that same ground as He occupied, and be ministered to and helped and encouraged and instructed and in every way have provision made for their conforming to God's thought as to man.

I do want you to get the point. Do not think this is just so much being said. We do a lot of Christian work and very often the worker has become so taken up with the work as the work as to forget the very character of the worker himself, and Satan is always trying to destroy the work by getting into the worker, by spoiling the worker. He wanted to destroy the great work that Christ had come to do - to bring in this heavenly Man - by destroying the very Man Who had come to do it. He was always trying to find an entrance somewhere into this Man Himself with an object of destroying the work that He had come to do. That is very clear, and we must be very careful that we are not so concerned about the work of the Lord as to neglect our own spiritual manhood; that is, neglect the necessity for being Christlike. Do remember then, ever and always, that it is the nature, the character, of that Manhood that matters.

The thing that matters is a kind of person. A kind of person is set before us in Christ. He is God's beginning and you can have nothing before a beginning. He is God's end, and you can have nothing after that. So there is nothing outside of Christ. He is God's Man. I emphasize again, we must ever remember that it is the nature, the character, of the manhood according to God that matters, and if that is true, then this means very deep formation.

Conformity To Christ

(a) Through Outward Separation

Deep formation firstly through outward separation. That is one thing that is said about the Lord Jesus, that He was separate from sinners (Heb. 7:26), and using that word 'separate', I am only using a more common and ordinary word for the great Bible word 'consecration' or 'sanctification', which are the same word in the original. Consecration or sanctification simply mean - set apart unto God. Outward separation to begin with. Separate - not going the way of others; not trying to stand well with them; no policy, no diplomacy, being perfectly willing to let a fundamental difference be recognized, and to take all the consequences of being in this world as something other than that which is here.

(b) By Inward Separation

And then deep formation by inward separation. Israel in the wilderness was outwardly separated, but inwardly not so. That is why, in recounting their history, the writer of the Letter to the Hebrews connects with the wilderness life of Israel those words - "For the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing, even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow" (Heb. 4:12). You notice the context is Israel in the wilderness, and the meaning therefore is this, that while they were outwardly separated from Egypt and from the nations, they were inwardly not separated: there was something to be done inside to divide asunder between soul and spirit, joints and marrow; a deep inward separation. This cannot be accomplished mechanically. This is some deep inward work of God, getting us circumcised in heart.

(c) By Considering Him

I only ask you to contemplate the Lord Jesus. If we are really going on with the Lord, sooner or later we shall be brought back to the main emphasis upon the Lord Jesus Himself. Many other aspects of Divine revelation may from time to time be the things which are holding our interest and our occupation and our concern, but sooner or later the Spirit of God is going to bring us from the circumference to the centre, and the final full object of the Spirit's concern will become ours - the Lord Jesus Himself. We shall come back, with all the values of every other part of revelation, we shall come back to the Gospels, and we shall be compelled to look again at Jesus of Nazareth from heaven's standpoint, and see this heavenly Man under fire, under test, what kind of a Man He is, how He behaves, how He reacts, His disposition, His temper, His everything. And I say here, Look at Him, read again, quietly, prayerfully, thoughtfully, read again the life of Jesus from the standpoint of inward separation. See how Satan is ever trying to close that gap of separation, bring things together, mix up things which belong to two realms. How fine the point was sometimes, and how absolutely necessary it was for Him for His very destiny (natural reason argued) to adopt certain lines, certain courses. Everything seemed to depend at times upon His doing a certain thing, and He would not do it. Satan could not close that gap of inward separation; He kept things in the right place. 'This belongs to that realm, this to that; this is of heaven, this is of men.' Deep formation by inward separation. That is the work that God is seeking to do in you and in me.

(d) Through Suffering

And then, of course, it is suffering. He was made perfect through sufferings; there is no other way for us. We are not already perfect, but we do stand on the same ground of Divine method. Made perfect through suffering. This manhood, this heavenly manhood, is only going to be produced through suffering. You had better settle it. We do not like it. It does not seem to be the kind of Christianity that we had offered to us in the popular terms. We have been promised so much if we become Christians, it has all been made so rosy. No, He never did that. He said, 'You cannot be My disciple unless you deny yourself, you have to say No to yourself, and take up the Cross; you cannot be My disciple unless you hate your own soul and are prepared to lose it' (meaning, to lay it down unto death: Luke 14:26,27,33; Matt. 10:38,39; Matt. 16:24). It is suffering, deep inward formation according to Christ, God's heavenly Man, by outward separation, inward separation and suffering. That is the way that Christ went. He has offered no other way to His disciples and to His servants.

Of course, to leave it there seems rather gloomy, not very attractive; but we have not finished by a very long way. Oh, what this Man in Christ, this corporate Man, this Body of Christ, is destined for! 'What is man, that Thou puttest him in charge of all the inhabited earth to come, whereof we speak?' (Heb. 2:5,6). And, more than that, "know ye not that we shall judge angels?" (1 Cor. 6:3). I am not going further with that. I simply indicate it, to set that as an offset to what might look like rather a gloomy situation over this suffering business. "If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified with Him" (Rom. 8:17). "If we endure, we shall also reign with Him" (2 Tim. 2:12). You see, it is not just again putting somebody into an objective position as a reigning monarch. It is spiritual character. "Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth" (Matt. 5:5).

What the Lord is saying to us at this time is, 'Do you know what you are in this world for? Do you know why I have reached out and laid My hand on you, why you are a Christian, a child of God? Do you know the meaning of it all? It is to make you a man according to My original and abiding thought and intention, to bring you into that Man'. I suppose sisters think they are not in it, but remember, in the beginning He called them Man. "Male and female created He them... and called their name Adam (Man)" (Gen. 5:2). So you are in it. "There can be no male or female: for ye all are one (man) in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 3:28). Yes, it applies to all of us. It is a man-hood, a kind of humanity, God has ever intended, and if you think this is theory, have you no experience that corroborates what I have said? Every one of us knows how true it is. What is God after? Why are you set on this scene as you are? Why is it that God does not give us such pleasant situations and circumstances as we crave for, and make it easy for us? Why does it seem rather that He makes it hard, puts us into hard places, and does not deliver us or prevent us from those very trying conditions? Why is the furnace heated seven times for saints, men who are walking with God? Well, what is it doing with us? Is not this the necessary background to formation according to Christ? Where will the characteristics of the heavenly Man have an opportunity, if not in adversity? Love has no meaning unless there is a background of hate. It is supine, it is weak, it is not real. When you read, "having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end" (John 13:1), you say, 'that is a miracle'. When you read the prophecies of Hosea, and see God uncovering His heart about Israel, the unfaithful Israel, the unfaithful wife, the harlot wife, and then crying as with a broken heart, "How shall I give thee up?" (Hosea 11:8), you have to say, 'that is love'. You only see it in the light of the background. And this heavenly manhood can only be developed over against a background which is so opposite. That is why He puts you among men who are so earthly, sensual, 'old-Adamic'. That is why he calls upon Christians to live together up against one another's old man. If only we could get with all those nice Christians, it would be easy! But you would not develop any heavenly character if the Lord took that line. God is practical. We do know that in no other way could God get us changed. He gives us a first-class opportunity just where we are of developing characteristics which are not of the old man at all, they are of the new man: that is the explanation.

From "A Witness and A Testimony" July-August, 1960

Government by the Holy Spirit

We are considering the deeper and fuller meaning of what came in on the day of Pentecost, the nature and order of an entirely new day in this world's history, that nature and order being essentially spiritual. A new order and character introduced by the advent of the Holy Spirit to constitute everything immediately spiritual, not indirectly and ultimately, but immediately spiritual.

One of the primal features of this new day is this (take careful note of it because it is the key and the basis of everything): the voice of the Spirit is to be taken account of rather than what is going on in the religious world around. It is that which cleaves things asunder, puts things into two different realms in this book of ''The Acts.'' With this new age we see on the one hand in the religious world that which claims authority with power, position, and influence, which has established itself and taken possession, but which is shown to be something which is not according to the Spirit of God. On the other hand, over against that, we see what is brought out into such clear, manifest relief, that to hear and to take account of the voice of the Spirit of God may be, and very often is, another thing altogether.

You recall Stephen's defense. You know that he comprehends the whole of this history. He starts with Abraham: ''The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham'' (Acts 7:2). That is the beginning of this religious history, and he traces right through stage by stage until he arrives at the murder of the Lord Jesus; and he sums it up in one great declaration, sweeping away the whole ground of that established thing on the earth and saying, as comprehending it all: ''Ye stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ear, ye do always resist the Holy Spirit'' (Acts 7:51). Something spiritual, a taking note of the voice of the Spirit of God, is something very different indeed from an established religious order on this earth, and very often runs directly counter to it.

That is a strong statement, but it is said in order that we may immediately get to the very heart of what it is the Lord is seeking in this present age: a people of a spiritual life who are governed by the Spirit of God, who take account of what the Spirit says and are obedient and conform thereunto. It is a spiritual people God is after in this age, not religious people.

Paul has built a very great spiritual structure upon this very principle. A large part of his letter to the Romans and the whole of his letter to the Galatians is occupied with the sole object of pointing out that traditional religion is one thing and life in the Spirit is another; that religion as here on this earth in all its forms may be one thing, while what is of the Spirit of God may be altogether another thing. That is what Paul set out to make clear, and he built this tremendous edifice upon this fact. If you read Galatians carefully in the light of that, you will see that that is what he is after, to divide between this religious thing and this other, which is of the Spirit.

The challenge of the new age, the new day and its meaning, was first presented to the seed of Abraham, and the nature of the challenge was that they should become a spiritual seed of Abraham as something more than a natural seed. The significance of the day of Pentecost is just that. Now by the coming of the Spirit a transition is to be made, a change is to take place. The natural seed of Abraham should become a spiritual seed of Abraham.

There is no doubt that the hand of God was upon Balaam, although he was not a very willing and joyous prophet under the hand of God. The Spirit of God made Balaam say about Israel as he looked from the top of the mountain: ''It is a people that dwelleth alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations'' (Num. 23:9). There is surely a spiritual principle there, that this spiritual seed of Abraham which has been brought in with the Day of Pentecost is a people distinguished from all other people. I believe that if we are living in the radiance of Divine life, there will be something of it betrayed by our faces. At any rate, the world will know something if we are really living in touch with the Lord, and there will be a language which only the spiritual can enjoy and understand. There will be those spiritual counterparts of the seed of Abraham, a people different from all the rest.

Now the tragedy of what is called 'the Church' has so often been, and perhaps is more today than ever, that that distinctiveness is being lost. It seems today as if a set is being made in some way to remove all the offence and all the difference, and to get us near to people without anything that clashes, in the hope of winning them. Yes, that is what is going on in the religious world around; it is a conforming to this age. But what came in at Pentecost is fundamentally this, that this people of the Spirit are so utterly different in the very center of their being, different altogether from all other peoples, and their power and influence lie in that fact. You cannot fit them in with other things, and it is not because they are awkward and difficult and deliberately irritate people, but there is that which by reason of their spiritual constitution marks them off; and if they did but know it, this is the secret of their influence in the world.

The progress and increase of spiritual life mean this, that the gap widens all the time between the children of God and those in the world who are not such. That is not to be taken literally in this sense, that we begin a mistaken system of hiving off, shutting ourselves up, getting out of touch. That is a wrong application of the principle. The Lord Jesus is preeminently our example in that He could move in any circle, and He did so deliberately, publicans and sinners, all classes, He moved amongst them, but His power over them was in His basic difference from them. Let us be careful how we are caught in this great movement of conforming to this age. To conform is to lose spiritual power. Well, spiritual seed is what God is after, a spiritual seed of Abraham.

This is the day of the Spirit, and those who are the spiritual seed of Abraham, who are now under the power of the Spirit, governed by the Spirit, will be made alive by the Spirit continually to that which is of the Spirit and that which is not. The more we go on with the Lord, the fuller and clearer will become our perception as to what is spiritual and what is natural, even in our Christian life. It is a whole life of education. Things that we thought at one time were quite all right, quite permissible, quite in line with the Lord 's will, as we go on we come to find that even those things have come into a realm of question; the Spirit is not agreeing with them now. We have come to discover that He never did agree with them, but we were not enough alive to Him to know His mind about them. He deals with us as with children as long as we are children, but when it is time that we should leave childhood the Spirit begins to deal with us very drastically if we are going on with the Lord.

It is this kind of people that the Lord is after in this age. Oh, what a difference it would make if all the Lord' s people were really governed by this law of the Spirit of life in Christ, if their hearts were truly circumcised, that all the fruit of life should be wholly unto God, because this law of the Spirit is not outward but inward.

I wonder if you are feeling the Lord touch your hearts in this matter? I am so anxious not just to heap words upon words and truths upon truths. I do feel the Lord wants to do something, not just to say things, and it does matter above everything else whether we are able to take account of the voice of the Spirit rather than to be actuated and governed by even the Christian and evangelical world around us. Yes, even in the evangelical world Christianity has become a very set thing; it has become fixed as an order, a system of things; you have to conform to it, and if you do not, well, you are not sound or you are in some way heretical.

No, we shall not go wrong in being governed by the Spirit; but even there many good Christians may not be able to understand. Are you prepared for that? It is not conformity to a system of teaching or truths that is needed, but to be able to take account of the movement of the Spirit of God that will not make us independent, a law to ourselves, the Lord will attend to that. But oh, it is more important than anything else in these days that the Lord should have a people who know the Spirit, who hear His voice and follow Him; and all who do that will move in the same direction, will flow together. The reason for so much division and conflict is the fact that the Spirit is not Lord. Other things are Lord, Christian interests are Lord, interpretations are Lord, mental appraisements are Lord, all sorts of things have taken Lordship. Where the Spirit is Lord, we shall speak and think the same thing; there will be no mere individualism.

Let us listen to what the Spirit says. Let us ask the Lord to make very sure in us that we are not being moved in our lives, in the course that we are taking, by what is religiously natural, but that we are really children of the Spirit and know the Spirit and are in conformity to God's thought for this present dispensation, true children of Abraham according to the Spirit.

The Greatness of the Church

There is a painful slowness amongst Christians to apprehend the great purpose and intent of their salvation, to know and to understand the nature of their high calling; and it is in this connection that there is a great divide between the people of God. Christianity at its best has very largely become a general thing a matter of being saved and of going on in a general way as Christians, but not recognizing that in God' s mind we are saved with a mighty purpose, not just to be saved and then to be occupied with getting others saved, and stopping there. Both of those things are good; they are fundamental and essential, but they are only the beginning.

From that point something quite different begins, what Paul refers to here when he says, ''I....beseech you to walk worthily of the calling wherewith ye were called''; and around that phrase, the calling wherewith ye were called, he gathers all these immense things about the Church; these immense things which, as to the backward aspect, reach far back over the ages; as to the upward aspect, ''in the heavenlies", with a vocation which is now heavenly; and then the onward aspect, ''the ages to come". These are phrases which indicate the calling wherewith we are called, but how few of us have really apprehended it!

We could say very much about the tragedy of the loss of that vision, the loss of that Divine revelation, and of the building up of something which has made it well nigh impossible for multitudes now to move into that calling, bound hand and foot as they are by a tradition and by a system of things which leaves responsible people not free, too much involved, too much involved for their very livelihood, to move into God's full thought.

The Church, as the Body of Christ, is the vessel chosen of God, appointed and revealed by God, to be the embodiment of the glory and greatness of Christ, the vessel, the vehicle, by which all that Christ is will be made known through the ages of the ages. The greatness of the work of Christ in His Cross indicates how great the Church must be. If Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, if the work of the Cross of the Lord Jesus is so great, is not that a further indication of how great the Church must be? It has by His own parable been called a ''pearl of great price'' (Matt. 13:46), and to secure it He, the Divine Merchant, let go all that He had, and He had an 'all' which no merchant in the history of this world has ever possessed, a wealth and a fullness, a glory which He had with God before the world was, something indestructible, great, and wonderful. Seeking goodly pearls, when He had found one of great price He sold all to get it. We cannot understand that; it is beyond us; but there it is, it is Divine revelation. And the Cross was the price of the Church. For some unspeakable reason, the Church stands related to God in value like that. Christ loved the Church, the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood. It is evidently a very great and wonderful thing.

Now we must look at some of those features of Christ which are taken up in the Church, in order that we may know what this Church is that we are talking about. What is it? Well, if it takes up the things which are true of Christ, then what is true of Him is, in the mind of God, to be true of the Church; and it is true of the Church which is in God's eye.

And the first feature of Christ is His eternal being, the eternal conception. He was before the world was; He was before the order of time was instituted in the establishment of those heavenly bodies by the government of which time exists, years and months, day and night, summer and winter. These are all governed by heavenly bodies, and these are time factors. Before they were, He was, for He created all things. That is true of Christ.

But the letter to the Ephesians says that that is true of the Church: ''He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world....having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself'' (Eph. 1:4-5). This letter to the Ephesians is not set in time, it will have its effect upon time matters, the practical matters of everyday life, of our walk and conduct here on this earth, but it is set in the timeless realm. It goes back, and it goes on; it bridges all time in the Divine conception. That is where this letter is set, and until we recognize the implications of that, we have no real apprehension of the Church; and when we do recognize that, what nonsense all this 'churchianity' becomes, how small and petty, and how we feel that from God's standpoint we are just playing at some game of churches when we make so much of what has traditionally come to be called 'the Church.' One real Divine glimpse of the Church and all that other becomes paltry, petty, foolish; and a mighty emancipation takes place inside of us, but it requires revelation.

Christ as the foundation, as the rock, as the basis of everything, is founded, planted, and rooted in eternity, and nothing that time can bring can affect that. He is outside of it all. He is over it all. He is beyond it all. Nothing that can come in, even with Adam's fall and all its consequences through history, can interfere with that. The Church takes that feature of the absolute stability of Christ. It is something outside of time, before the world was, chosen in Him. The stability of the true Church according to God's mind is the stability of Christ Himself. This thing, on God's basis, in God's realm is an immovable and indestructible thing. The Church embodies the eternity and indestructibility of His very life.

Christ passed through this world unrecognized, unloved, making the positive affirmation that ''no one knoweth the Son save the Father'' (Matt. 11:27). There is a mystery here. He is manifested as God in Christ, but in such a hidden way that it demands an act of God in specific revelation to see Jesus Christ. You cannot see Who Jesus Christ is truly unless God acts sovereignly and opens the eyes of your heart. That has been demonstrated by His whole life here on this earth. When one apostle was able in a moment of revelation to say, ''Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,'' the rejoinder was: ''Blessed art thou, Simon BarJonah; for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father'' (Matt. 16:17).

And what is true of Christ is true of the Church. It is heavenly; it is unrecognized, unknown, unless God reveals it. I want you really to grasp this. I know in what a realm of helplessness it places us on the one side, and rightly so, it is as well that it is so; and therefore what it makes necessary on the other side: God must have a Church which exists on the basis of His own sovereign act of revelation. The purity of it demands that. If everybody could see and understand and comprehend, and the Church could be brought right down to the limited compass of human apprehension, what sort of Church would it be? The Church, in its heavenly character taken from Christ, is something that can only be entered by revelation, because it can only be known by revelation. ''No one knoweth.....'' We can only state these facts. No teaching can accomplish it; we are powerless in the matter. All that is given to us is to state Divine facts; it is for God to reveal. But, thanks be unto God, He has revealed and He does reveal; and some of us can say He has shined into our hearts in this matter, and the revelation of Christ and of the Church has made an immense difference in every way.

God cannot be really known by the things which He says, however many they may be. There is such a difference between mental, intellectual apprehension and conception of God, and living, heart-transforming apprehension. God must come to us Himself in a living, personal way if we are to know Him livingly, actually. You may read a biography or an autobiography, and you may afterward say that you thereby know the person concerned; but how often it is true that when you actually meet that person, there is something that was not there in the book, and which makes all the difference. You were not really changed and transformed by reading the book. You had impressions, but they did not make any difference to you actually in your very life and nature; but you meet the person, and the impact of the person makes a deep impression and has a great effect. That is so often the case, but that is a poor illustration.

Now the greatness of the Church is here, that God has ordained and appointed that the Church now, in this dispensation, should be as the living Person of the Lord: where He can be found, where He can be met, where He can be touched, where He makes self-manifestation. Rome has the 'truth' regarding this, but has dragged it down on to a temporal, worldly level; but nevertheless the fact remains, He is found there, in the Church, and only in the Church. ''Where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them'' (Matt. 18:20). God can be met, found, touched there; there is the vehicle of His manifestation. So the Church is called to be here in this dispensation, and in the ages to come, the very Body through which God in Christ manifests Himself, makes Himself known. Is that the Church that we know, that is commonly called the Church? (Oh, no! But that is God's thought, and how different!)

I have been reading a book by Adolph Keller, a man who traveled all over the world to visit all churches, to see what could be done along the line of church union. I came on something like this in his book: ''I must admit," he says, ''that oftentimes when I sat in magnificent church buildings, with their stained-glass windows and carved organs, I was less conscious of being in the Church of Christ than when, for instance, I was in one of those Ukrainian peasant-rooms crowded with men and women who had come barefoot from afar to hear the Word of God. These poor little congregations and churches widely scattered in the hills of Yugoslavia, in the lonely villages of Wolhynia, in the coal-mining districts of Belgium, in the taverns and barns of Czechoslovakia, these churches truly humble us, because they show us again and again the true poverty and the true riches of Christ; and that in a way impossible in the securely established, self-sufficient church that we know today.'' Then he makes this statement: ''The entire Church no longer represents its nature as originally intended, neither is it able to do so.''

How different from the Church of God's thought! The true Church is nothing less, in the intention of God, than Christ Himself present and going on with His work, now without those earthly limitations of His life before His death and resurrection. The Christ risen, ascended and exalted in all the fullness which God has put in, is now in the true Church, and that Church exists. I say, you cannot identify it; you can only see where two or three are gathered. You cannot say of this or that or some other thing called 'the Church' that that is the Church. No, the true Church is still this mysterious thing. It is Christ in active expression. How great is the Church if it is Christ! I say, we can only state the facts. There they are. What we have to do next is to pray to the Lord: O Lord, reveal the true Church and save me from the caricature!

There is one last word. It concerns that always present and always governing factor about Christ which is not taken sufficient account of, I think, in its meaning. You notice that when Christ was here His aspect was always the forward one. He was always thinking and talking of a time to come. That is a governing factor and feature of Christ. ''In that day....'' (Matt. 7:22). He is looking on, talking about a coming day. All the time His eyes are upon the distant horizon and He speaks of what will then be then you shall know, then you shall see, then all will be manifested, then all that has been so hidden and mysterious will be perfectly clear.

When you pass into the Epistles you find the same thing dominant in the case of the Church. Mighty things now, big possibilities now, big issues and responsibilities now; the Church is now, even now, unto principalities and powers an instrument of the revelation of the manifold wisdom of God (Eph. 3:10). But the onward look is prominent, governing everything: "...that we should be unto the praise of His glory'' (Eph. 1:12); ''that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus'' (Eph 2:7); ''......unto Him be the glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all the generations of the age of the ages'' (Eph. 3:21). I am only bringing that in here at this moment with this object: to remind you of the tremendous end to which the Church is called. How great the Church is in the light of the vocation which it is to fulfill! What a great vocation!

We might spend much time considering what the calling of the Church is, or is going to be, in the coming ages; but we must be satisfied for the present with making this one observation. It is one thing to be a citizen, and a blessed citizen, of a noble country and of a noble king. There may be many blessings in that for which to be grateful, but it is an infinitely greater thing to be a member of the king's household and family, a member of the reigning house. And that is the calling of the Church: not only to be inhabitants of the land, but to be members of the reigning family. We are called with that calling, to be in that inner circle.

The Church is this specific company, elect from all eternity to all eternity, not just to be something in itself, to know satisfaction and gratification, but to be instrumental in the hands of God in serving Him in His universe throughout all the coming ages, in close relationship with His Throne.

How great the Church is!

I Will Build My Church

Reading: 1 Peter 2:1-12; Matthew 16:16-18.

We turn to the Word of the Lord in Matthew 16:16-18; the fragment of that passage which is basic to our meditations is that in the eighteenth verse: "I will build my church," and we will immediately seek to explain what we have in view. And it is, that which issues from the death and resurrection of Christ, and its real nature. It is here called by Him: "My church," and that embraces matters no fewer and of no lesser importance than the Person of Christ, the death and resurrection of Christ, the heavenly position and activity of Christ, the advent and vocation of the Holy Spirit, the coming again of the Lord Jesus, the new birth, the warfare with Satan, and the vocation of believers in the ages to come. There you have a catalogue of the magnitudes of the Word of God, and these are all included in that phrase: "My church." So that it will be seen at once that to be occupied with what the Lord Jesus calls "My church" is to be occupied with no small thing - not that it is my intention to deal with all these matters, but I simply want to have you impressed at the outset with the great importance of this matter.

Our specific object at this time is the nature of what Christ effects and brings into being in His resurrection; and we shall consider this in two ways. Firstly, what we may call contemplatively or objectively, and secondly, introspectively or subjectively. That is, on the one hand we shall look at its nature as it is presented to us, and then on the other hand we shall look into it and see its deeper nature and content.

Peter's Explanation of What Christ Said to Him

To begin, then, with the contemplation of "My church." We have read a passage which defines for us what Peter - the one to whom the statement was specifically made - understood it to mean: "...upon this rock I will build my church"; he did not understand it at the time. That is quite apparent from what he said a few minutes afterward, but he did come to understand what the Lord had said to him, and he gives us what he understood to be the meaning of that phrase: "I will build my church," or: "...upon this rock I will build my church." Listen again to his own definition and explanation of those words: "Unto whom coming" (that is, of course, the Lord Jesus) "a living stone..." What was the rock? "Unto whom coming a living stone, rejected indeed of men..." Look again at Matthew 16 and you will find immediately after the Lord Jesus had said those words to Peter: "From that time began Jesus to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things... and be killed..." "Unto whom coming, a living stone, rejected indeed of men, but with God elect, precious, ye also, as living stones are built up a spiritual house..." "I will build my church."  "...built up a spiritual house..." That is Peter's explanation and definition: "...built up a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. Because it is contained in scripture, "Behold I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be put to shame." There you have what Peter understood to be the meaning of the Lord's words in Matthew 16:16-18.

When we turn to the letter to the Ephesians we have what the Apostle Paul came by the Holy Spirit to understand to be the meaning of such words. We shall leave that for a little while, returning to it later, bearing in mind as we go on, that what is before us is the nature, not just the object, but the nature of that which Christ brings into being in His resurrection.

Christ is the Builder

Let us study this passage in Matthew a little more closely, and see what is implicit in the statement. We begin with the personal statement of the Lord Jesus: "I will build my church." "I"; that carries with it two things quite clearly. One is that Christ builds the Church. That is discriminating and important. Christ builds the Church. No man can build the Church. Christ is the Builder. "And the Lord added to them day by day those that were being saved." No man can add to the Church. No man can constitute the Church, no company of men, no committee of men. This is something which is the Lord's doing, and if the Church is eternal, only the Lord can build it. What man may do will be but for a time. The second thing in connection with that "I" is this; that in view of the imminent cross, the statement - "I will build my Church" - means that the risen Christ will build His Church. He looks right across the grace, He looks right through death, He looks to the other side of Jerusalem, His crucifixion and all that was about to take place there, He looks through it, beyond it, and says: "I will build my Church." It is the absolute confidence and certainty that He will go through, that He will come out on the other side; and He will be as truly on the other side of Calvary and of death and all that that means as He is here and now on this side of it; and now as One Who has already in faith and assurance and certainty passed through it, He says: "I will build." That is the faith with which the Lord Jesus faces the cross. It is a challenge. It is as though He were saying: "Let Elders, Scribes, Pharisees, Rulers, men and demons, and all the power of spiritual death do their work, and their utmost. I will build My church; I face the Scribes, Pharisees, Elders, Rulers, people, devil and death, and I will build My Church in spite of them all!" That "I" is a tremendous "I" as it comes there with the cross clearly in view, imminent.

The Cross Essential for the Church

Now that leads us to three other things. The cross and the resurrection mean, firstly, that the cross accomplishes something. You look at it this way and you will see what I mean. Here is the Lord Jesus standing with all that in view, and yet with an object which is the object for which He came, the object which has been in the Father's heart, the Father's thought and intention from eternity; the object which is the dominating object of His very Being: "My Church"; "I will build," and yet before He can build that Church there must be this thing, this death, this cross, and this resurrection. It is not just some incident in His life, it is not just something which comes in the order and progress and programme of things; it is something which is basic to that object, without which that object cannot be, because this cross and this resurrection is to be the scene and the occasion of accomplishing something, apart from which accomplishment that Church cannot be. So that the cross and resurrection of the Lord Jesus accomplished something. They are a part of a scheme; a definitely arranged order of things in which they take a very vital and important place.

I have to remind you that we are working towards seeing the nature of the thing that results from His resurrection, and therefore it is important to see that that character, that nature is resultant from His death and resurrection: that the death and resurrection, the cross of the Lord Jesus, gives character to the Church. And that is why they fulfil a purpose and are a part of the whole design, because that Church cannot be without them, inasmuch as it derives its very quality from them. You see the Lord Jesus, although He was set upon that object, could never have realised it by leaping over from Caesarea Philippi to the resurrection; that is, leaving the cross out. It was essential to His end because it had got to yield certain features which would constitute the Church. Those things we shall see later.

Secondly, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus means a new ground by reason of a new state. Something has been left behind in the death. Some whole realm and order of things has been dismissed, put away, and entirely new ground is taken in the resurrection, and that new ground represents a new state, an entirely new state; and it is on that ground that the Church is built.

Then, thirdly, the world is put aside. In the cross, the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus, the world is put aside, is left behind. Oh, the stress that the Lord Himself laid upon that truth as we have it brought before us by John in his Gospel 16:16-18,20-23. "In that day" - now go on to chapter 17:6 and He strikes that note continually in the 17th chapter: "I am no more in the world... I come to thee." "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." The world is left behind. The world is ruled out, new ground is taken, and on that ground the Church is built. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Galatians explains the meaning of that so far as spiritual experience is concerned: "Far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world." And when you and I testify to our union with the Lord Jesus in His death and burial and resurrection in the waters of baptism, we spiritually accept the position where the world is ruled out and left behind, and we take new ground; and that is the ground upon which the Church is built. In a word, the Church is built upon the ground where the world has no place. It is outside of the world. In saying that, we are, of course, saying something that is very familiar to most, but something which is growingly important in our time. The nature of that which comes out in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is that it has left the world behind, and that it is outside of the world, in that sense in which the Lord Jesus used the words in His prayer: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." "...even as I..." You cannot now associate the Lord Jesus with this world; you cannot! And in exactly the same way you cannot associate His Church with it, and the church which is associated with it, is not His Church.

Eternal Purpose

Secondly, "...will build." We have seen a little of the implications of that personal pronoun "I." Now secondly, "...will build," and for our present purpose we note two things. This means that the Risen Christ will be marked by purpose. "I will build..."; marked by purpose. I do not merely mean determination to do something; but characterised by a spirit, a power of purpose. I wonder if you have recognised that feature which comes spontaneously into the life of everyone who becomes vitally joined with the Risen Lord, that that life immediately assumes a spirit of purpose. If it never had a sense of purpose before, it has now. If it was a wandering, indefinite thing before, without object or aim or direction, the one thing that marks that life now is a sense of purpose, a sense of object, a definiteness of direction, a poise; and although as yet all that that means may not have broken upon the understanding, there is a sense that has come, and that sense has come out fo eternity, that life has come into the eternal, and by its union with Him has reached right back into the before times eternal, into the counsels of the Godhead, and has received now its character from those eternal counsels of the eternal purpose of God. As that life goes on with God it will move more and more to the place and state represented by the words of the Apostle Paul: "This one thing I do..." It is a sense of purpose. It is the purpose of the Risen Lord. This statement of His says to me, as I meditate upon it: "I am set upon My Church and I give Myself utterly toward its realisation; the building of it and the consummating of it dominate and govern all My thoughts, and draw out all My resources. I am occupied with this thing; this is My purpose." And you know that when you come into the Ephesian letter that that is what you come into at once, "...quickened us together with Christ... and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together..." You are in the realm of the purposing of God concerning Christ, from eternity. "I will build My Church." An atmosphere, a spirit, a sense of purpose.

And, beloved friends, there is, I think, much room in many of the children of God, for that spirit, that sense, that dominating consciousness of purpose, so that they shall become absorbed, engrossed, dominated by one thing, the end which Christ has in view, and be burnt up with His objective, which leaves room for so much of the scattering, destructive weakening, paralysing work of the Devil. There is no greater defence against the Devil than for your whole being to be dominated by one object. We leave far too much room for him to come in by being like David, on his bed when the time came round that kings went out to battle. The Devil played havoc with David that night and David was weakened to the end of his days, and never recovered, because at that moment he was not taken up with the real business of life. The Lord would have us in union with Him in this sense, that we have this feature of His marking our lives clearly: "This one thing I do"; a sense of Divine purpose eating us up; the zeal of His House. "I will build My Church" is a statement which carries with it the spirit of One Who has one all-inclusive and governing object in view, and when you come to your later New Testament you find that that is the thing which marked apostles and believers.

Read the Thessalonian letters again and you will see that that is the spirit of believers in general there. And read the letters of the Apostles themselves from the standpoint of the Apostles, and you find that their hearts are eaten up with this one object. Hear Paul: "...that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." That is something which has drawn out his whole being. Oh, that we should be one hundred percent on the Divine purpose, pouring ourselves into it without any reserve. That is union with the Risen Lord. That is to be the nature of the thing which  comes up in His resurrection. It is something governed by one object - purpose and action, "I will build My Church." We must remember that the Lord Jesus, from the day of His resurrection until now is in action. There is  a sense in which He has sat down. That sense is that He has accomplished all the work necessary to secure the consummation of His Church. He is now at work by the Holy Spirit in the outworking of the accomplished work. He is still working. "He ever liveth to make intercession..." is one picture of Him in action. "I will build..." He is building, He is in action, and He would have all who are in union with Him, not only characterised by a sense of purpose, but definitely in action under that sense. It is just possible to have a sense of purpose, and it lies in tomorrow that never comes. When we are a little more qualified, when certain things have taken a certain shape, or transpired - there is always that will-o'-the-wisp future which we never reach, but when we will do what we purpose doing; but we are not doing it.

The Lord Jesus not only has an object, but He is actively engaged upon His object, and we are the proof of that. Union with Him means that we are in action, definitely stretched out in action under a mastering purpose out from eternity; for the eternal element arises with the Risen Lord. Temporary elements have passed in His death. "I will build My Church..." Then we must be governed by a sense of purpose in this regime of the active Holy Spirit. Of course, the nature of the Church which He will build has been seen in Peter's words: "A spiritual house." It is a spiritual thing.

The Church is Christ's

"My Church." There you have the implication of relationship and proprietorship. The Lord Jesus builds His Church, that which is peculiarly His in the sense that He has purchased it, He has made it His own by right of eternal choice, creation and redemption. It is His. It belongs to Him. And there again we have the importance of taking account of the fact that the sovereign rights in and over the Church belong to the Lord Jesus and are vested in no one else. It is not given to man or men to lord it over God's heritage; to have the supreme government of the Church. It is His Church, and He is Lord of the Church, and the Church which He builds is that which represents the absolute Sovereign Headship of the Lord Jesus, to order, to govern, to direct, control, to have the first and the last word, and every word between. It is where Christ is Lord. That is simple; perhaps too simple and too familiar, but we are working on toward our object.

The Church's Victory over Death

"...and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it." That phrase is explained in the Old Testament to mean "the house of death." "The house of death shall not prevail against it." In Acts 2 you have an explanation of that: "thou wilt not leave my soul in Hades, neither wilt thou give thy Holy One to see corruption," the first statement. The second, "...whom God raised up, having loosed the pangs of death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it."  "Holden," in the grip, the mastery, the dominion of death; the house of death. The words: "shall not prevail" more literally are: "Shall have no power of mastery." "The house of death shall have no power of mastery." That related to the Lord Jesus, and that relates to everyone in that union with Him as a part of His Church. He went into the house of death; the house of death closed upon Him. We must remember that death is always a thing of positive antagonism. There is a lot of romancing and sentimentalism about the friendliness of death. Death is always an Enemy in the Word of God and always stands in positive opposition to God's intention, to God's purpose. It is the opposite, and that actively so, of what God eternally intended, and at last death as the ultimate Enemy will be destroyed.

It was necessary for the Lord Jesus to go into the house of death, representing all those who, because of the fall, have been enclosed in the house of death. But He went in in the power of something which no other who ever entered there possessed, and while the house of death closed upon Him as representing man in sin, it found that it had closed upon something else as well, which was more than its master, and: "He tore the bars away," and "Up from the grave He arose," and death, the house of death, could hold Him no longer. "I am the first and the last and the Living One; and I became dead, and behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages, and I have the keys of death and of Hades." In virtue of that, though the house of death may close upon you and me, if the Lord tarry, those gates of the house of death may close upon you and me, if the Lord tarry, those gates of the house of death shall not have power to prevent our being there in the perfected Church, in the consummated building of Christ. The house of death will have no power to retain you and me when that trump shall sound. He has the keys, that is, the authority, over the house of death, and death will not be able to frustrate the realisation of His intention, His purpose. The gates of Hades, the house of death, shall not prevail, shall not have power to prevent. That applied to the Lord Jesus, and that applies to the saints.

And now to close, for the moment; the implication of this statement of the Lord Jesus reveals the oneness of Christ and His Church. "I will build My Church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" means, if it means anything, that the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is essential to the very life and being of the Church. To prevent Him from rising would be to prevent Her from having an existence. If Christ rises then it is unto the realisation of His Church, so that He and She are one by reason of one mighty victory over death. And that, I believe, is why, above all other things, there has been such a dead set through the ages against the testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. Why, immediately you come to the testimony of the Risen life of Christ you become the object and target of all hell's assaults; and the one thing of which you become more acutely conscious than anything else is of the spirit and power of death, death working as a force against spirit, soul, mind, body. Why? Because the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is the greatest thing in the Bible, and upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus everything in the Bible hangs.

The purposes of God from eternity, before ever a page of the Bible was written, hung upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. It is the central and supreme thing in the history of the ages since man has fallen. And that testimony to have an expression in individual lives, and more, in a company, the Church, is therefore, the one supreme thing which rouses hell to its depths. Hell cares not about our systems of teaching, whether they are true or whether they are false; but hell does care about our living in the power of His resurrection. It does not matter to the Enemy how wonderfully accurate we may be in our Biblical interpretation, but the Enemy does, with all his might, withstand our Biblical expression in a life triumphant over death. It is for that that the Church has been brought into being. It is that which is the Church's object here on the earth, to show forth Christ in Risen life and in Risen power. Very often the teaching can become the very thing which covers over and blankets and damps and numbs that life.

You and I, beloved, have got to be very careful that we never become so interested in Christian doctrine and truth that it becomes the thing which occupies us pre-eminently. What you and I have to be occupied with more than anything else is the living of a life which is triumphant over death. That is a far more difficult thing than studying Christian doctrine; it is the battle of the ages. The nature of that which comes up with the Risen Lord is that it is a living expression of the fact that in Him to the full, and in Him initially and progressively, the gates of Hades, the house of death has not prevailed and cannot prevail. We are called for that. The Lord lead us into the nature of what He calls "My Church."

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jan-Feb 1934 Vol. 12-1

"Jehovah Shammah"

"The Lord is There"

"The name of the city from that day shall be, JEHOVAH-SHAMMAH" (Ezekiel 48:35).

So, the end sees the eternal object attained: that which prompted creation; that which motivated Providence; that which has always been the dynamic of Sovereignty; and that which carried through Redemption.

The supreme and all-inclusive object has been God's presence in pleasure and satisfaction in the midst of men.

The City of Ezekiel's prophecy has its realisation in the "holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God" (Rev. 21:2). "And God himself shall be with them" (verse 3).

This has ever been God's quest. From one of many standpoints, the Bible can be said to be from beginning to end a record of God's quest for a place and for conditions suitable for His presence. In many symbols, types, and representations, this is the spiritual principle which governs and explains.

In a comprehensive way the Incarnation gathers up everything in this one connection: "Immanuel - God with us". The Cross is set in this one relationship - to clear the ground for God's dwelling. The Advent of the Holy Spirit must be seen supremely in the light of this eternal purpose. The Church is explained and justified in this one design. The individual believer is apprehended with this pre-eminent Divine thought. In all God is working toward this one issue and verdict

"THE LORD IS THERE"

If this is true, and surely it is obvious in the Scriptures, then certain very practical conclusions and issues follow.

1. This is the Explanation of the Cosmic Conflict

That there is such a conflict is surely more apparent now than at any previous time in history. The new attitude toward this matter is one of the many signs of the times. We have passed through a phase in which Satan's cleverest ruse has been widely successful. He has persuaded men not to believe in him, and has resolved the whole matter of evil into 'complexes', 'neuroses', 'good in the making', etc. Theology has bowed out the Devil, and he has grinned behind the mask of deception, as he sees his dupes so 'clever'. But there is a come-back, and it is largely due to an altogether new appraisal of the New Testament and of Paul in particular. Paul has come into a place that he has never before held, and this postulates a principle, that a return movement is always stronger than the first position because it has in it all the strength of bitter lessons learned through experience.

A modern writer of no mean authority, a professor in one of the premier universities of Scotland, drawing attention to this return movement on the part of other outstanding intellectuals, says:

"It is the cosmic range and the sheer malignity of the evil they have seen in our world which have led them to re-espouse the Pauline view [of demonology]. And when we see, as we have seen in our time... insensate madness taking complete possession of a great and cultured nation and issuing in unspeakable horrors and cruelties - can we wonder that thoughtful men draw the Pauline conclusion?"

"There is no metaphysical reason why the cosmos should not contain spirits higher than man who have made evil their good, who are ill-disposed to the human race, and whose activities are co-ordinated by a master-strategist."

This writer goes on to illustrate.

"There are times when the police lay their hands on a criminal, and yet are not satisfied. Behind this petty thief is some other person, dimly guessed at, some master-hand moving the pawn. The police can recognise that other's strategy, for the man in their hands could never have thought it all out by himself. The marks of Satan-like strategy in our world have moved many to Paul's view that more than human agents are pitted against us in the battle, that 'the Power of darkness' is more than an outworn figure of speech, and that, though Luther said, 'his doom is writ', he still contrives to bedevil the affairs of men and nations."

What is the inclusive objective of this kingdom of evil? It is nothing less or other than to oust God and usurp His throne; "setting himself [Satan] forth as God" (2 Thess. 2:4).

So we find ourselves in a time when the battle is joined, on a scale beyond anything known before, between a true, spiritual, heavenly expression of 'God's House', and the anti-God forces. No, not between the evil powers and formal and lifeless Christianity, but between them and any vital representation in corporate form of God in Christ as here by the Holy Spirit. The more vital, the more intense the conflict! Truly spiritual and devoted people of God, who are more concerned for Christ than for 'Christian' things, are feeling the pressure from that dark and vicious realm in a way that sometimes nears the overwhelming point. God is present in them and in the midst of them, and from Satan's point of view they are a menace and must be 'liquidated'. This intensive pressure points to a nearing advent of Christ, when His presence will bring the other presence to a climax. "The devil is gone down... having great wrath, knowing that he hath but a short time" (Rev. 12:12).

2. This is the Ultimate Criterion of Christianity

There is a 'judgment beginning at the house of God' to which the Bible brings us in the first part of its final book. The climax of the sevenfold interrogation, examination and judgment of chapters 1-3 finds Christ outside of the door of a Christian church (3:20). The verdict passed and the admonition given shows that the ultimate criterion is whether God is found within.

To put that in other words: It is not our orthodoxy, 'soundness' of doctrine, correctness of procedure, many 'good works', zeal, 'success', reputation, etc., that is the final criterion and justification (so say all of these messages), but whether the Lord is met with in us and in our midst. The Lord never commits Himself to that which is not according to His mind. If He is truly present and can be sensed by open-hearted and pure-spirited seekers after Him, then that is the argument for things being, at least in measure, not contrary to but according to His heart. The Lord Himself is the 'First and the Last', the test of everything. The final question is: 'Do I meet the Lord in that man or woman, in that company and place?'

Many other things are made the basis of judgment by so many, but this is God's test "Jehovah-Shammah" - "The Lord is there". This does not mean that there is never any room for a larger measure of His presence. The measure will always be determined by suitability to that presence. 'To fill all things' is the determined end made known as God's purpose.

This leads us to

3. The Meaning of the Life of Believers, Individual and Corporate

It is sometimes a good thing to stand back from all that comes into our lives as believers, both personally and collectively, and ask some fundamental questions. 'Why, really, are we here? Why am I a Christian? What did God mean when He brought Christ into my life? Above and beyond all the details of life and work - the trials, sufferings, perplexities; the hopes, blessings, and activities - is there one thing that, in God's thought, governs all?'

Yes, there is! It is that there may be written on the life initially, to become progressively clearer and more luminous: "Jehovah-Shammah" - "The Lord is there". This is a statement of fact supported by the whole Bible. This is a test of everything and the standard of all values and judgment. This is the explanation of all discipline and suffering.

The same is true of the collective aspect. The 'meetings', 'congregations', 'services', 'churches', etc., are to God's pleasure and satisfaction just - and only - in the measure in which it is positively true that the Lord is there, and is met there. Not artificial and formal ways and means of making an impression of solemnity and reverence; not mysticism and artistry; not soulish emotions, either sober or ecstatic; but the sin-challenging, life and light-giving, heart-satisfying and soul-saving presence of God. The verdict must be - not this or that about any feature, but - 'We have been in the presence of the Lord: the Lord was there; we have met the Lord!'

May the Lord keep us alive in all things to this ultimate criterion. May we ever be exercised that when people meet us they shall meet the Lord, and that when they gather with us the predominant and abiding impression may be -

"THE LORD IS THERE"

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jul-Aug 1956, Vol 34-4

A Jigsaw Puzzle

A Message to Young Christians - and Others

"In whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord" (Eph. 2:21).

"...for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; ...but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head - Christ - from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love." (Eph 4:12-13, 15-16).

"And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all." (Eph 1:22-23).

I suppose most of us have, at some time or another, fallen under the spell of a jigsaw puzzle. It is one of those things which get hold of you, and when you have started you do not want to give it up. It draws you on, and it is not the sort of thing you like to leave overnight to start on again in the morning. Well, here, in what we have just read, we have God's great jigsaw puzzle, and when you put these different passages together, or read them together, you have got the original. It is an exceedingly difficult thing to come to a jigsaw puzzle without having the original, the picture of what you are going to make; you do not know what it amounts to at all. But here is the original, here is the perfect, unbroken picture. God made that picture it says here "before the world was"; and it is the picture of what? Well, that is what we are going to look at. But I would suggest to you that you do read these passages together again in order to see the original, and, as we come to it now, we find it all broken up into the jigsaw. That is to say, while the picture is here, when we come to the practical side of things, we find that it is all in pieces, all in fragments, large and small fragments, all apparently uneven and jagged, crooked pieces. The whole thing has been broken up; it is all a jumble.

The Original

The original is a very wonderful picture. Right at the centre of this picture is a Man - "A fullgrown man... the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ". That is right at the very centre of God's original picture. Then it says in the other passages that we are parts of that Man. I expect, if we saw the full picture, we would have to take in lots of things that are in the background. They are all scattered through the Old Testament, they are the background. There are sheep and lambs, and oxen, and goats, and doves, and priests, and kings, and prophets, and altars, and all these things are in the picture, in the background, and they all have something to do with that Man at the centre. They all in some way relate to that Man. I will not stay now to try to show how that is so, but some of us can at once see that the lambs of the Old Testament all have something to do with this central Figure, this Man Who Himself was called "The Lamb of God". We can see how the priests all pointed to Him, stand there in this great picture in relation to Him. Well, all that is a big, vast, comprehensive picture.

The Pieces

But we have said that we are here spoken of as parts of that Man. "Till we all attain... unto... the stature of the fullness of Christ". We are all parts of the Man, and that means that in this seeming great jumble of pieces, in God's great pattern and purpose every part has its place. We know that is true in the jigsaw puzzle. It may look a strange bit, but we know that every bit has its own place. It is no use trying to fit it somewhere else. How we have tried in our puzzles sometimes to get a piece to fit in where we wanted it to; but it would not, it did not belong. We have had to spend a lot of time to find the piece that fits just that place, and we have been compelled to recognise the fact that every bit has its place. It is no use trying to put it anywhere, it belongs to a certain place; and that is what is said here. "From whom ALL THE BODY FITLY FRAMED and knit together through that which every joint supplieth" (4:16). Every bit has its place. That is true of us. It is one of the great lessons we have to learn in our relationship to the Lord Jesus, in our Christian lives, that we have our place and we will not fit in anywhere else, and we will never be happy until we are really in our place. Let us learn that lesson. That is a truth which the Word of God teaches. Each bit in the great plan of God has its place. You have your place, and I have mine.

Fitting into Place

The next thing is this, that every bit is a problem until it is in its place. Notice what it says in the second half of that sixteenth verse of Chap. 4 - "according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body". Now in our puzzle we pick up a little bit, or several little bits, and we look at them, and they are a real problem to us. We cannot see what they mean, there is nothing complete on any one bit. It may just be a little bit of blue, a little fragment of red, a little touch of green, and lots of angles, corners, a real problem in itself. And we are real problems in ourselves, but the problem disappears immediately when you get the piece into its place. We have no longer a problem when that bit has found its place. I would like to say a lot to older Christians about this, but I am trying to be as simple as I can. You must look at things beyond what I am saying. What a lot of problems there are about because people are not in their place, not fitting in. They WILL NOT fit in, perhaps. They are out of their place, and they are awkward and useless, and things are not at all easy. Let us remember that we shall be problems to ourselves and to others until our place is found where we belong. Each life has its place, and each one will be a problem until it is in its place, and that place has been accepted.

Each Piece Explanatory of the Other

Now another thing. Each several part makes an explanation for another part. That is a point not easy to grasp perhaps. Here are all these parts and each part can only be explained as you find another part that fits into it. That is to say, each part explains the other. Now, here is something with a certain mark on it. It may just be the finger of the hand, the toe of the foot. Now here is the other part which has some more of that foot or that hand, and neither of these can be explained until you get the complement, the other piece, to fit in there, so that each part explains the other.

And when the Lord, by His Spirit, does unite His people, bring them together in His own wonderful pattern, He does this; He makes one the complement of the other, He makes complete another or others by bringing that one into his or her place. And the Lord is seeking to bring His people together in a right way to be helps to one another. He is not having just a jumble of unrelated pieces or people. He is not just bringing them together like so many unrelated things. He is fitting in, so that you can really be a help to me and I can be a help to you. You have something to give to me, and I have something to give to you, and no one else can do just that. You may go right over a whole mass of pieces in a puzzle and you may not find more than a piece in the whole that will fit into a certain place. You may try to get another piece to fit in there, but it will not. It wants THIS piece to fit in THERE, to help THERE. It is like that with Christians. There is something that you may be able to give me, in which you can help me; no one else can do that. I may be able to help you in a way in which no one else can help you. The Lord has perhaps dealt with me in such a way, put me through such experiences, that I can help you - not more than another can help you, but in a way in which perhaps no one else can help you; and the same with one another.

Why does the Lord deal thus with us? - Why all this cutting about, and so many angles, nothing seeming to be straight in our experience? Why has the Lord dealt with us in this way? Why does the Lord single out experiences for us so different from most other peoples' experiences? Just to make us able to help somebody in a way that no one else can. We all have our particular usefulness to the Lord. How often we have had to say in our lives about certain people, Oh, So-and-so was able to help me as no one else had been able to do! So-and-so just had the experience or the word that I have been looking for; I have asked many, but they have never been able to help me! The Lord may be dealing with you and me in this strange way of carving-out, cutting about, this jigsaw business which is such a puzzle in our own experience, in order to fit us into the whole in such a way that we can help one another as no one else can. It says so here - "that which every joint supplieth"; "the whole body fitly framed and knit together through that which EVERY joint supplieth". Every bit of the puzzle maketh increase for the whole, and every bit for the other, not for itself.

Every Piece Necessary

Then, one more thing. Of course, every bit of this puzzle makes the other bits necessary. Until the thing is finished, until the thing is really completed, as you put the bit in its place what have you done? You have increased the fullness, got nearer to completeness, but you still have some angles. You have only made something more necessary. You say, Now I want this, I cannot get on until I have this! So that last bit has made this next bit necessary. The New Testament is full of this sort of thing. It speaks about how others are necessary to this whole. One is necessary to another, and each one is necessary to the whole. "The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee: or again the head to the feet, I have no need of you" (1 Cor. 12:21). We are all needed by one another, we make one another necessary, and the whole thing can never be complete until we have learned that. Some people think they are complete in themselves. That is not what the Bible teaches. Some people think if they are together in a little group, they are complete in themselves. Not at all! This is going to require the whole of that vast mass called "the church which is his body". None of us can ever know how big that is and how many pieces there are; and every one is needed by the other. That is what the Word teaches, and we are forbidden to have any such thought that we can do without anyone, can dispense with another. The Holy Spirit, speaking through Paul, says so clearly that the least member is necessary. It is a big lesson to learn; EACH PIECE MAKES THE OTHER NECESSARY.

The Key

Well now, what is the key to this puzzle? What do you do when you get a new jigsaw puzzle and you sit down to work it out? Well, in my little experience, I have always tried to get something that I think is the central thing or the most important thing in the whole picture, and have put that down, and worked to that. I usually sweep aside all the little bits of green and blue and get something distinctive. If I can get a man's face, I have something to work to; I know what will come round a face. You have to have the crown of his head, an ear, a neck. It is all right if you have something distinctive; and here it is "and gave him to be head over all things to the church which is his body". The key to everything is the headship of the Lord Jesus. We will never get fitted in until Jesus is in His place as Head; we will not fit in with Him or one another until He is Head, until He is Lord. It takes the lordship of Jesus to get us all into our place and our relationship with one another. If we are all jumbled and up against one another, awkward pieces, the thing to put us straight is to make Jesus Lord. If we really accept the lordship of Jesus, then that is going to have a working out in this way, that we get into line with one another. It is going to be hard. The Word says that you cannot say you love God and at the same time not love your brother (1 John 4:20). "If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar". It cannot be done. If we love the Lord, we cannot be unloving toward one another. If He is Lord really in our hearts, then things will get straightened out between us and others. That must be so, that is what it says. So the key to the whole is the headship of the Lord Jesus. Put Him there in His place as Lord, and we will move on quickly toward the adjustment of all the other parts and little bits.

Living Pieces

Well now, there is another thing I would like to say. We are all forming this one great pattern, but we are doing so only as we are under the control of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is making this picture, we are not making it. The Holy Spirit is carrying out this design, the Holy Spirit is going to realise this great end of God. He is the One Who is doing it, operating it all, but we are not just like little bits of cardboard. This is where there is a difference between us and any jigsaw puzzle. We are living bits, and the Holy Spirit needs to have us working with Him, cooperating with Him, responding to Him. Then the Holy Spirit says, This is your place! We say, I do not like that place, I would like to be in some other place! The Holy Spirit says, This is what you are for! We say, I would like to be something else than that! The Holy Spirit says, This is your shape! And we say, I do not like it. I would like to be another! Anything like that, and the thing cannot go on. We have to know the Holy Spirit, walk in the Spirit, live in the Spirit, respond to the Spirit, and the Spirit will do the rest. But it is a matter of obedience to the Lord, obeying the Holy Spirit, being moved by the Spirit and being responsive to the Spirit.

The Complete Whole

Now all this is perhaps going to take a long time. It has taken a few hundred years so far, it may take a bit longer yet, but it is going to be finished; and then God is going to show His wonderful completed picture to the whole universe. "When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed" (2 Thess. 1:10). The day is coming when all that believe will look and say, Well, I could not understand what the Lord was doing, I could not at the time rejoice in the place in which the Lord put me; it was all so strange. I could not see how it fitted in; - I see it all now! He was working to a perfect design; it is marvellous! "To be marvelled at in all them that believe". We have to believe that the Lord, in all this strange seeming mess and mixture, and jumble, and puzzle is working a perfect design, a perfect pattern; it is all going to work out all right and be perfect in the end. There are a lot of pieces yet lost, and what a trouble these lost pieces are, these pieces that are out of the way. The New Testament is full of that which speaks of pieces out of the way, pieces which have gone astray, which are lost. Paul had his hands full of trying to get those pieces back again, following them up, searching them out, gathering them in. We have to work in that way to bring in the lost pieces, to recover those that have strayed. It is a lot of work, but that is our work. The Lord, by His Spirit as we work with Him, will accomplish His perfect design. In the end it will be very wonderful.

I remember a story about the late Bishop of Durham, Dr. Handley Moule. There was a great colliery disaster in Durham about Christmas-time in which many of the miners were lost, buried alive. When this took place they sent for the Bishop, and he came down to the pithead; and there were all the wives and children of those miners in a terrible state, and he did not know what to say to them. He began to speak, and he said, We cannot understand this strange way that God has taken, we cannot see what He is doing, but it is like one of those things that you work on linen; you are working to a design, but at present you can only see the background, and when you look on the back of the piece of linen, you know it is an awful jumble, all the threads are crossed, you cannot see anything at all; but then you turn it over and you see the perfect design. Just now, that is what God is doing; He is doing something, but we are only seeing the back of it, all the jumble of crossed threads. Presently the day will come when He will turn it over and we shall see what He has been doing - a perfect picture! That is only another way of talking about a jigsaw puzzle. The Lord teach us the lessons, and help us to respond to them and fit in, by His grace.

From "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine May-June 1944 Volume 22-3

The Lord's Assembly

Reading: Exodus 35

This and the following chapters give us a comprehensive representation of Christ as tabernacling among His people; they are a typical setting forth of the body of Christ, the Church; and they are a most valuable disclosure of the spiritual principles of the life and service of the people of God.

But before we deal with the contents of this chapter we must remind ourselves of the background and setting of what we have in view, and this can be stated as one of those breakings into this world by the God of glory which mark the history of His dealings with men. Reading back we find God descending from heaven, breaking through to the mount, and meeting His servant at a place midway between heaven and earth to disclose His purpose concerning this world. The glory of the God of Israel so fell upon Moses that he brought it down out of the divine presence and had it reflected in his face as he acted as a mediator between God and man. Then the purpose of the breaking through of God's glory was seen to be the setting up of His testimony on the earth. He revealed that He proposed to have an instrument here for His own self-manifesting. This was His purpose, to have a vehicle for displaying His glory here on earth. The tabernacle was, of course, only a type. The reality is in Christ. For the moment, however, we seek to get help from the type, and so consider this mediator of the divine glory, radiant of countenance, as he makes his first utterances to the people.

The Assembly Constituted upon the Sabbath

"And Moses assembled all the congregation of the children of Israel, and said unto them, These are the words which Jehovah hath commanded that ye should do them. Six days shall work be done, but on the seventh day there shall be to you a holy day, a sabbath of solemn rest to the Lord: whoever doeth any work therein shall be put to death. Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations upon the sabbath day." We remember that what is in view is God's testimony here on earth, to be constructed and constituted in a tent of meeting, and the first words in connection with this is that the only ground on which it can be constructed is the sabbath. That was because the sabbath represented the end of the works of God and the entering in by man into His finished work. Only a man of rest can build the house of God. Later on we find that Solomon was able to build the temple because he was such a man of peace whereas his father, David, had been forbidden to do this work because he had been a man of war. The vessel of the testimony can only be constituted on the ground and principle that those who have a part in it have come definitely and finally to rest in the perfected works of God. We know that every testimony for the Lord here on earth has to face a fierce conflict. The only hope of triumph for all such is that before they even go into the battle they have perfect rest as to the full and final victory of Christ, with perfect assurance that God's end has already been secured.

One of the enemy's most successful activities against the testimony and those who bear it is to bring about unrest and a lack of assurance concerning the Lord. He has many ways of producing such a condition of uncertainty: introspection, self-occupation, false accusations, feelings of the soul or doubts in the mind. All manner of means are used to upset the restful, confident assurance of faith in relation to the Lord. A principal one is fear, but there is nothing which will so quickly and utterly paralyse the servant of God as fear. In this connection we are told: "And in nothing affrighted by the adversaries". The great adversary works hard to get us unsettled and affrighted, which means that we are not spiritually enjoying God's sabbath. In principle the sabbath is a state rather than a period of time; it is a spiritual condition of heart rest in the fact that God has reached the end of all His works and has nothing more to do, having secured everything finally in His Son. We need to apprehend the completeness of Calvary's work, for without such an assurance we cannot build for God. If we are fretful and worried about our spiritual life, our acceptance, our standing or our fellowship with God, then we are debarred from practical participation in building for God.

It is noteworthy that only one aspect of the sabbath is here mentioned. Elsewhere many other things are said about the prohibitions of the sabbath, but here the only one specified is: "Ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations on the sabbath day". The Holy Spirit knows exactly what He means by singling out this one matter. What is His intention? Well, so far as I can see, the kindling of fire in the habitations represents looking after one's own comfort. It is as though God was saying that those who were going to constitute His testimony must set aside all personal interests and self-consideration. "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing THINE OWN PLEASURE on my holy day: and call the sabbath a delight, and the holy of the Lord honourable; and shalt honour it, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure... I will make thee to ride upon the high places of the earth" (Isaiah 58:13-14). To know what spiritual ascendancy is, to be on the uplands with God, means first of all to have entered into God's rest in His completed work and then to cease from personal and selfish interests.

The Assembly is for God's Pleasure

As we move on into the chapter we see what a good state of affairs prevailed among the people. The whole assembly moved in response to God's pleasure. It is tremendously impressive to note the recurrence of the word 'willing'. A willing heart, a willing spirit, everyone whose heart made him willing, everyone whose spirit stirred him up - all this represented a glad response to the opportunity to please the Lord. He did not command, but made His desire known, and that was enough. In another place the Lord commanded to bring offerings, for sacrifices were needed when it was a question of fellowship with God, but here God simply expressed His intention of establishing a testimony among them and appealed to their desire to bring pleasure to Him: "Whosoever is of a willing heart, let him bring...". It was a beautiful thing that there was such a spontaneous movement of the people's hearts to meet this desire of His.

I think that we need to recover this feature in relation to our testimony for Christ. It is sad that we sometimes tend to regard the matter as somewhat onerous, a requirement which is so hard to meet that we almost groan about it instead of counting it a joyful privilege. In the New Testament we recognise Paul as a prominent worker in this matter and as one who paid a very high price in his work of church-building, yet we get no hint that it was burdensome to him, but just the reverse. When he was imprisoned in Rome and superficial observers might have been inclined to pity him, he was able to exhort the Philippians to keep on rejoicing all the time. His experience was that if he was sorrowful yet he was always rejoicing - "rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer".

Above all we think of our Lord Jesus, who was Himself the embodiment of God's testimony here on earth. The doing of the will of God was for Him a matter of intense anguish, and yet He affirmed: "I delight to do thy will, O my God". So there were two experiences taking place at the same time, a consciousness of the costliness of pleasing God and yet a glad and willing delight in ministering to the Father's satisfaction. It seems that although the sufferings were terribly real the sting was taken out of them by the assurance that a great and wonderful purpose of God was being achieved by means of them, so that the sacrifice brought deep pleasure to the heart of the Father.

We see this principle in the case of the Israelites. They brought all sorts of precious things, sacrificing their treasures, because their hearts were moved with love of God. I can imagine that when all the requirements had been outlined by Moses, the gold, the silver, the brass, the precious stones and the costly materials, the people might well have doubted whether they could spare their treasures if they had not felt a heart-response to God's call. They would perhaps not have known what they had got or, if they had it, they might have forgotten where it was and decided that it was inconvenient to search it out. It is surprising what excuses we can find if our hearts are not in a matter. Happily they were moved by willing hearts, so that all the material came from their affectionate gratitude. It is wonderful what we can discover that we have in the Lord Jesus when our hearts are aglow for Him and for the Father's satisfaction. People whose hearts are cold will always feel that they have nothing to give to the Lord. To the Corinthians the apostle said: "In everything ye were enriched in him", but it takes love to discover what those riches are and to make them available in the assembly of God's people. In times of worship you will not have to scour through your Bible in an attempt to discover some passage of Scripture which will be a suitable contribution. If your heart is aglow to the Lord you will always have something spontaneous to offer in the hour of worship, and with that glowing heart you will discover that you are richer in spiritual possessions than you had thought, and so you will always have something precious to give.

Features of Christ in the Assembly

If we consider the numerous and various materials we find that every one of them is typical of Christ. There can be nothing satisfying to the heart of God apart from the Lord Jesus. The gold, silver, brass and fine linen, all these things represented some aspects of the person and work of Christ. Find the person who is full of love to the Lord, one whose heart is burning and throbbing with love for Him, and you will meet someone who always has something to convey to you of the preciousness of the Saviour. Such a one is always seeing the glory of the Lord from a different angle and so able to present a different facet of His beauty. This delighting in the Lord made the testimony grow. Before there was any outward expression there had to be an inner response of willing hearts. All outward ministry must be the result of an inward state of heart towards the Lord.

In this case there was such a generous response that they brought more than was required and had to be called to stop giving. How wonderful if that symbolic response of old could have a spiritual realisation in our day! The fact is, of course, that every child of God has in Christ an abundance of resources for ministering to the heart of God. "In everything... enriched in him" is to be true of us. We need more love and willingness of heart to make us discover our riches and then release them for the building of His Church. The assembly is set up as a testimony on earth by the bringing together of individual heart exercise and appreciation of the Lord Jesus. The assembly really is not just a congregation, not just the coming together of people for services, meetings, conventions, etc., but the bringing together of individual heart exercise in the appreciation of the Lord Jesus in such a way that the Father can see His Son's features expressed in human lives. That is the true nature of assembly life. One can bring the gold and another the silver, and yet another the brass. Some bring fine linen, some blue, others scarlet and others purple, so that as each brings his own apprehension and appreciation of the Lord Jesus and all are united together in the assembly, the Father can look down and see the various features of His Son. That is the testimony of Jesus on earth: that is Christ tabernacling among us. As each one follows on to know the Lord in private, personal life history, so new discoveries are made of the virtues and values of God's Son, and these are brought together in assembly life. When we have made such new discoveries of the grace of Christ we can come together with other children of God and speak and sing together of what we have proved experimentally in a living way and so we become a collective and corporate representation of the house of God.

I imagine that the Israelites went back to their tents to search out the materials which were required, eager to see if they had some of the treasures which their willing hearts prompted them to offer to the Lord, and that they then gathered together to cooperate in shaping and preparing them. This means that they were willing to work with the materials which others had brought. Not only did people vary in what they could contribute but they also had different work to do with the materials after they had been gathered. They needed one another and they worked together. Even a Bezaleel, specially called and anointed for his task, could not have carried it through without the materials donated by others. And if the women had not done the spinning and weaving, Bezaleel's work would have been without purpose. In the assembly, the Holy Spirit depends upon a spirit of willing and loving cooperation among God's people.

There seems to be a special lesson in the work of the women, for their weaving involved the bringing of things together and binding them into a whole. It is so easy to tear things apart, to pull things asunder and to shred apart instead of embroidering together. We can do this by gossip, by criticism, by letting our tongues run away with us. I am afraid that we are all guilty of such behaviour at times, and it brings weakness into the assembly. There is so much constructive work to be done, spinning and weaving even what other people have contributed, so we should give ourselves to this kind of activity and beware of Satan's temptations to put strains on our relationships and so weaken our testimony. The Holy Spirit can only do His work and perfect the testimony as each one takes personal and individual responsibility, working together toward the common end of God which is the manifestation and glorifying of the Lord Jesus.

Maturity - The Lord's Desire for His People

The great feature of the dispensation in which we live is the gathering out from the nations of the members of the Body of Christ, and then the bringing of them on to as full a measure of maturity as is possible. It is not only the salvation of souls, and it is not only the collecting of believers into a spiritual Body. It is afterward - their coming to full growth - which represents the supreme interest and concern of the Lord in this dispensation.

I think that is perfectly clear as being a great feature of this time: that maturity - full growth, completeness - is the desire of the Lord for His people. Surely this is unmistakable when you read the Word of the Lord along that line. That immaturity is widespread is also, I think, unmistakable. That the Lord is moving in the midst of His own people to bring to fulness as many as will go on with Him into that fulness is, again, a thing which I think is patent.

We know the widespread immaturity; we know that there are multitudes of saved ones - those who are the Lord's people, yet living in the shadows of immaturity - who will not pay the price of going on with the Lord; and we might be tempted, like one of old, to say, "What shall this man do?" And the Lord would say, "What is that to thee?" In other words: "It is not for you to make the immaturity of other people your standard, but what I desire is to be the thing which governs your own thought and occupies you entirely."

So, completeness and fulness being the purpose and will of God, we recognize the meaning of all that the Lord is doing. If the Lord is really bent upon bringing believers to full growth - to spiritual maturity - as one of His supreme objectives in this age, then He will consider no price too great to reach His end; and that fact will explain all the mystery of His ways with His children and all the strange happenings which sometimes seem to be His working against His own interests. To us, very often, it looks as though the Lord were working against our interests and doing everything quite wrong. But the Lord is prepared to take risks (risks to the minds of poor finite people whose understanding is so limited) and to involve Himself in a good deal of misunderstanding if only, thereby, He can reach His end.

The believer has become possessed of an entirely new set of spiritual faculties and is a new spiritual entity - a different species of being, an entirely distinct creature. These spiritual faculties, by which alone the things of God can be known and entered into, have to be developed - have to grow - have to come to a place of spiritual efficiency... just as in the natural child, who has its faculties at birth but has to have a steady development of those natural faculties. The believer is born from above with an entirely new and different set of faculties from that with which he came into this world and which he has by nature, and it is those spiritual faculties and senses which have to be developed in order to make him full grown - spiritually efficient - in the Lord.

The Apostle Paul says that it is "those who have their senses exercised" for whom strong meat is the right kind of provision, and he is deploring the fact that - after years - the Hebrew saints are still unable to take strong meat, because their senses and faculties have not been developed.

The ways of the Lord are past finding out, and they must never be judged according to our human standards. The Lord allows catastrophe to overtake us... but with an end in view - something which, when it comes, will justify Him up to the hilt. You will then see that what you thought was the weakness of God has proved to be His strength; the breakdown has proved to be His supremacy; the foolishness of God has proved to be His wisdom; so He will be justified in the end. In this question of growth by exercise, you have that whole principle involved.

If you look at the passage in which the "exercise" is referred to, you will find that this exercise comes upon us in experiences which God produces:

"My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord...."

"No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous; nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby."

By what? By the chastening ("chastening" - a poor English word; better, "child-training," or "discipline") which God takes up with them.

God deals with you as with sons if you suffer chastening. He brings you as sons to maturity. The way the Lord handles you - that is the "exercise."

The Lord may get you off activities and shut you up to inactivity. You go through an awful time and say that the Lord has forsaken you and that all has gone wrong. What is it really? Why, it is growing pains! In the long run, it was not all wrong... it was all right. You came to know the Lord, whereas - before - your whole life was taken up with things. You have been shut up, but you have come to know the Lord inwardly; and you have come to a state of spiritual efficiency which is so much greater than before that you can now cope with the external situation. He was misunderstood, but He was working unto your efficiency - exercising you unto efficiency. These growing pains are terrible, but you cannot help anyone who is suffering from growing pains; you must just stand aside and watch him going through.

So through numerous and various directions this growth takes place by the painful exercise which is produced from the way the Lord is dealing with us. We do learn through suffering. Even the Lord Jesus was made "full grown" - complete - in this sense through suffering. We take the same way unto full growth. It is child training, discipline - learning by way of experience. That is chastening - making us sons out of children, full grown men out of infants.

I feel that we need to have more faith in the dealings of God with us along this line. It is painful, sometimes agonizing. What is the Lord doing? Why is there so little space between one thing and another? It does seem that the Lord is pressing to get us quickly to full growth - to get us to the place where we learn something.

The right attitude to take toward every trial which the Lord allows to come upon us - every fresh and difficult thing - is: What is it that the Lord has in view for us to attain to by this experience? It is not to destroy, but to build up; not to take from, but to increase; not to restrict, but to enlarge. Down in the deep place is some treasure of the Lord to be discovered. Some of us can say, "Yes, we have found it like that." We have gone into deep places, found fulness there, and come to know the Lord.

Do you see the one thing that is in view in this passage on "exercise"? It is "to discern"; it is spiritual intelligence that the Lord has in view. We are chosen to make us individually the centers of His own spiritual intelligence - to know Him for ourselves. He wants His children to be individually the centers of His own spiritual knowledge. Then, bringing us together in the one Spirit unto working the one work and thinking the one thing, He will get for Himself an instrument to govern the nations in the ages to come - an intelligent instrument which has come to know the Lord's heart by experience.

This faculty of spiritual intelligence, spiritual knowledge - the inwardness of everything - has to be developed so that we know the Lord within. Every experience deeper than the last means that we are out of our depth - we have not the resource in ourselves to meet the situation. Therefore, in the deep experience we come - by the sheer necessity of the situation - to lay hold of the something more that is in Christ for us; and, by having received that something more, we have grown that much.

We can take one of two attitudes toward the ways of God with us: we can get bitter, sour, hard; or we can be enlarged by exercise - developed by exercise - so as to increase capacity and to bring us into a large place in order that we may be His instrument for governing intelligently under His Headship in ages to come. Things that enter into our history we cannot always fathom; but the explanation which we can give is that, whatever there may be as second causes, the Lord is sovereign, and He thinks it worthwhile sometimes to allow what the world would call the most terrible thing to overtake us for the time being. While it would seem that His Name and interests suffer through that thing, He brings His people through it to a place of maturity; they get to know the Lord for themselves. Through these terrible things we find the Lord produces something that is very much more worthy of Himself in the life of His children. That is His justification - His vindication; if He could do it in any other way, He would. In the long run He does get spiritual maturity among His people; He gets them to the place where they know Him.

He wants to get us to a place where we know the Lord - where we have our senses exercised to know. The Lord give us grace to accept all His dealings with us in the light of His great purpose.

The Meaning of the House of God

If we go on with God, the Cross leads us immediately to the House of God. The Cross opens the way to the House of God, and the House of God depends for its full meaning upon whether the Cross has done its work.

A great many people think that the Church, the House of God - or whatever you may term it - is a doctrine, a part of a system of Christian truth. Have you thought that? Well, let me say that you are wrong. What is the House of God? We may first name a number of things which it is not.

The House of God is not a part of a system of Christian truth or teaching. It is not a congregation with religious services. It is not a Christian society with a membership. It is not a religious association for religious purposes. Yet these are the ideas that are in so many minds when we speak of the House of God. People think of it as a place where religious observances are carried out, or as a society set up for religious purposes. The House of God is the spiritual relatedness of believers. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body..." (1 Corinthians 12:13). That is the House of God... a spiritual relatedness.

But it is more. The House of God is the recognized and active relatedness of believers. It is not a nebulous thing. It is not an abstract idea. The spiritual relatedness of believers is very wonderful, but there must be a recognition of it; and that relatedness must be made an active thing. That is the House of God.

Then the House of God represents a greater measure of Christ than is possible to any number of separate individuals. Separate individuals can never come to the Lord's fulness. It will necessitate all the believers for the Lord's fulness to be entered into; but to come to it, believers must needs be in a relatedness... and that, an active relatedness. That is very practical. Any life that is a free lance - that is independent and detached - will be limited, even though there may be belief in the spiritual relatedness of all believers. This thing has to become practical - an actual working thing. Fellowship is essential to fulness.

We know that is why the enemy has never ceased trying to scatter the Lord's people - to divide, subdivide, and divide again. He is always after that, because he knows that actual relatedness is the way to the fulness of Christ - the way in which what Christ is in heaven becomes expressed here on the earth.

Fellowship and relatedness after a practical sort is an important thing on the earth, and it cannot be repudiated. We cannot, without robbing the Lord of something, pass it off as something which has irreparably broken down and can never again find an expression. Not at all. The Lord has not taken that attitude. That represents surrender to the devil - the devil's triumph amongst the Lord's people. Actual relatedness, which involves persistent fellowship, is the way of heavenly fulness. That is the House of God, the heavenly fellowship of born-anew children of God here on this earth.

You see that a feature of the House of God is fellowship - actual fellowship. Given that, another feature arises and becomes manifest... and that is Life. Oh, what Life there is in fellowship. The Life of the Lord - His risen Life - is manifested in fellowship, and that is a feature of the House of God. And is not the House of God, the Body of Christ, intended to be the expression in a corporate way of the fact that Christ is alive - is risen?

Then Life leads to light... and in the fellowship of the Lord's people there is a ground for the Lord to communicate the knowledge of Himself in a way that He cannot do to isolated individuals; that is, if they are isolated by their own fault. We are not talking just now about that geographical isolation which cannot be avoided, but we are dealing with spiritual isolation, spiritual separateness. The Lord reveals Himself in the midst of His people in His greater fulnesses.

Thus the House of God is a very practical thing, bringing us on the way to heavenly fulness; and we have to recognize that we are under a great responsibility for what the House of God represents in the matter of spiritual fellowship. It is the place where the personal is put out and we no longer live unto ourselves, but unto one another - unto Christ and for Christ - in order that there may be an increase of Christ.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Mar-Apr 1937, Vol 15-2

The Need For Positive Ground

"Certain men... taught, saying, Except ye... ye cannot..."

"There rose... the sect..., saying, It is necessary..." (Acts 15:1,5).

"Except ye..." "It is necessary..."

What history of confusion and frustration is bound up with that clause! Here in "Acts" we have the beginning of that history which has reached such immense proportions today. It is the slogan of numerous "Sects", parties, teachings, interpretations, and emphases. Every one of these, either explicitly or implicitly, by positive affirmation or by attitude and implication, says: "Except ye... ye cannot"! It is a barrier to fellowship, less or more. It throws believers into uncertainty, and uncertainty always means weakness, or worse. It was the first and mightiest threat to the Church, and it became the battleground of the unity of God's people. The nature of this contention was that it was, firstly, based upon tradition. That is, there was originally something which had a principle of truth in it, and that principle, or germ, could have organically and spontaneously grown into a living spiritual body; but, at some point, had been taken into men's hands and crystallized into a set system and form. It was then handed down (Latin: trans, across; dere, to give = passed on) in that set form. With the extension of time it had become very hard, and people gave much credit to it on the ground of antiquity. The setness, and fixedness closed and bolted the door to further light, and created biases, prejudices, suspicions, fears, and - in some cases - bitterness and cruelty. It, in its fullest development, hampered and eventually crucified the Lord of Glory. The Jews of Paul's day were totally incapable of believing that a man could separate himself from their tradition and, at the same time, be devoted to their wellbeing.

But it is not always to a long tradition that the divisive and limiting "Except ye" applies. It can govern any aspect or emphasis of either truth or error. Not least among the limitations of Christ's fullness is the unbalanced state resulting from an over and undue emphasis upon a particular aspect of truth. It may be an aspect which is essential, but if it is out of relation and proportion to all other essential aspects it will sooner or later 'run to seed' and defeat its own ends. So many "Excepts" cut off so much that is truly good and necessary, and close everything into their own complexion. What we have said so far is surely enough to indicate that just one expression - "Except ye... ye cannot" can be the cause of deformity, limitation, confusion, and suspicion; to say nothing of exclusion and spiritual superiority, in the body corporate. It therefore becomes necessary for us to get away from what works out as negative ground (although it is so positive with those concerned with it) and seek to be strong on what is positive. In this matter we can snatch and steal the very term from the wrong usage to the right.

(1) The Beginning of the Christian Life

"Except a man be born again he cannot..." (John 3:3,5). That is a categorical imperative. Lest a certain easy acquiescence and agreement is the reaction to the statement in our relating and applying it to those who are obviously and unquestionably the sinners, the 'bad' people, the drunkards, thieves, murderers, drug addicts, and fornicators, let the force of the imperative hit us clean between the eyes: that this imperative was not first said to the poor woman taken in adultery, or to the Quisling tax-gatherer, Zaccheus, or to the dying thief, etc; but it was said to the teacher in Israel; a meticulous observer of the law; a Pharisee, the straitest of religious sects; a man who attended all the religious services and joined - conscientiously - in all the traditional ritual of the most religious of nations! The context of this declared necessity shows that by a repeated "How", even such a man was incapable of knowing the essential spiritual principles of the Kingdom of Heaven; hence the force of the "Except" and the "Must". At the very threshold and door of the Kingdom of God any and every man must be as though he were not yet born, and to enter he must be as one newly born. This necessity was repeatedly emphasised by Christ to the Jews and their best representatives, and to His own disciples (see Matthew 18:3). This is very sure ground to begin with; but not only for belief; it is a truth to be "made more sure" by experience! Without that we shall never really be sure of anything. Given that, we shall be in a fairly certain position, like that of the healed blind man - "Whether (this or that) I know not. One thing I (do) know; whereas I was blind, now I see." 'You cannot shake me on that!' 'How?' 'Well, I cannot explain, but the fact, I know.'

(2) The Maintenance and Maturing of the Christian Life

"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have not life in yourselves."

"How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" (John 6:53,52).

"Except ye... ye have not..."

If it is imperative that a new entity is demanded for entrance into the Kingdom of God now, it is equally imperative that such entities shall be sustained and matured. The New Testament is full and emphatic on this matter. In the miracle which led to the statement of the Lord it is clear that He both recognises this necessity and acts supernaturally to meet it. If the new birth is supernatural, so is the sustenance of the newborn. If we try to grasp either naturally, as did Nicodemus, we shall, as he, be defeated by the "How". The basic mystery was the plight of the Pharisees in John 6, as it was in the Pharisee of John 3. But it is not the method or process that is of primary concern, but the fact. And yet the "How" is answered in the New Testament. Let us first, however, get quite clear on this - that we have got to be fed in our new spiritual life for its maintenance as truly as the natural body has to have food. Then, it is as true in the spiritual as in the natural that normality is marked by growth unto maturity. And, finally, that full, abundant, provision is made for this by the Lord, even to twelve baskets' full over. Is it necessary at this point to take time to show that it is not normal to be born again and finish there? The whole New Testament is against such an idea or state!

But when we have said that, what of this "How" by which the imperative is answered, and the "Except ye" satisfied?

The superficial answer is - of course - feeding, and feeding on Christ. If many Christians were asked what that means, they would probably answer that it is feeding on His Word. Thus it might resolve itself into reading a 'portion' of the Bible every day. That is very good, and important; but is that what 'feeding' really is? Is it not what Christ becomes to us through the Word? Now this is an immense matter, because Christ is so immense, and by this 'feeding' an immense Body has to be brought to full-growth and stand complete in eternity. It is what Paul calls "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ". Here, we can only give an indication of what this feeding is, and it will point to much more.

It is all a matter of

What Christ is Made Unto Us

1 Corinthians 1:30 says: "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." "Wisdom" here is inclusive. It is really: "Wisdom; both righteousness, sanctification, and redemption". These three things as the provision of the wisdom of God are all that ever man needs to bring him to full-growth and to glory.

What is the wisdom of God as made unto us in His Son? Wisdom is more than the theory of things. We may have a great deal of head knowledge and carry many academic degrees, but at the same time be totally lacking in wisdom. Cleverness is not always wisdom. Wisdom is the know-how to do things. The builder rendered his account for labour, time taken, and materials, but then added 50% for what he called "Knowing how to do it". When God's verdict upon the entire human race is that "there is none righteous, no, not one" (Romans 3:10), and when every human effort and recourse to make a single man righteous (that is, to be in right standing with God) has utterly failed, a situation exists which raises an ultimate question of wisdom; the know-how!

That is only the beginning of the problem; it has to do with standing. Then the whole question has to be faced as to condition; the changing of man's state. And finally, there is the big issue of his full and final redemption of spirit, soul and body. A new inner man; a new self-hood; and a glorious, sinless, incorruptible body. You will agree that no human wisdom can know how to do all this. Very well, then: it is here that God's provision in His Son becomes the answer. It is all this that is contained in the Bible that is food for our hearts. The Bible is all about this "Bread of Life come down from heaven" as the Life of the world. And it is here that the great "Except ye" comes in. That challenge comes up again and again very severely in the course of Christian life, especially when we are under acute pressure. When the reality of sin and righteousness arises because of adversity and trouble. When the Lord allows some severe suffering, and He seems to hide Himself and be silent. When, as in the case of the Bethany sisters, He is called in and stays away, seeming to be unsympathetic. Or when, like the disciples in the storm, He is asleep and seemingly uncaring. Then the accuser is quick and fierce to raise the question of sin and interpret the Lord's ways as His condemnation of us. Or, further on; as we discover really how imperfect we are, and what a long way we have to go to be really like Him; so that the whole question of sanctification lays our heart very low, even unto despair; and when the weakness, infirmities, and breakdown of this mortal body seem to becloud the hope of its redemption; then, what do we feed on? Do we, as is so easy, feed on ourselves, what we are or are not; on the adversities as being the end and the all? Then it is that what Christ is made unto us becomes our wisdom; righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Wisdom as God's 'know-how'. Righteousness over against our sinfulness. Sanctification as offsetting our falling short. Redemption as assurance that full and final deliverance for spirit, soul and body is assured because already secured in Him.

Oh, that we did feed more upon Him, and, in so doing, progress unto that ultimate!

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Sep-Oct 1967, Vol 45-5

The Parables of the Kingdom

In the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, which we may have open before us by way of reminder, we find the operation of the Kingdom illustrated in a sevenfold way.

THE PARABLES OF THE KINGDOM

I do not propose to attempt an exposition of that sevenfold way, but will simply lift out from the chapter the salient features of the operation of the sovereign rule of God. We have here that operation illustrated, in what have come to be called 'the parables of the Kingdom'. That is the title which men have given to them, but it is well to remember that the title which the Lord Jesus gave to them was 'the mysteries of the Kingdom'.

THE KEY TO THE PARABLES

These parables, or mysteries, of the Kingdom of Heaven are really impossible of understanding, except in the light of the definition of the Kingdom which we have just given - that is, as the sovereign rule of God. If you interpret them as indicating primarily a realm or nature, then you have gone beyond their warrant, and you will most certainly get into confusion. Few parts of the New Testament have been more subject to controversy than these parables. The various interpretations that have been given to them have divided students and teachers into irreconcilable schools. We shall see something of that as we go along. It is therefore necessary to discover the key to the parables, in order to be saved from this confusion and contradiction; and that key undoubtedly lies in the definition of the Kingdom as THE SOVEREIGN RULE OF GOD. Let me repeat: I am not embarking upon an exposition of these parables, but seeking to get at something of very great importance and value to ourselves at this time.

THE PARABLE OF THE SOWER

The first is what is called the parable of the sower (vv. 18-23). The Lord Jesus said that the seed is the word of the Kingdom. "When anyone heareth the word of the kingdom", He said. Now re-translate that as 'the word of the sovereign rule'. The word of the sovereign rule has gone forth. What is the result? Very largely failure. The success in the positive sense is very limited, cornparatively - some thirty, some sixty, some a hundredfold. You see how impossible it is to impart to the Kingdom the idea of a realm or a nature. That would imply that within the realm where God rules you have very largely failure. But that is not the teaching of the parable. The teaching of the parable is this. The word of the sovereign rule is sent forth, like seed; and, no matter if there is a large failure in response and reaction to that word, God is successful in the end with a body that is productive of that which is implicit in the Word.

Yes, man may fail. He may receive apparently with gladness, and then it may all come to nothing. He may respond in a way, and seem to be going to turn out all right - and then, because of difficulties and adversities, just fade out. But let there be failure, disappointment, breakdown: no matter - God gets something in His sovereignty. There is something that this sovereign government of God secures. You see, this is a tremendous word of the sovereignty for labourers. You labour, you scatter, you give, you work, you travail; but, if it is the word of the sovereign rule in very truth, it cannot ultimately fail. There may be much disappointment, but there will be an issue which answers to the intention of the One who gave it. Very simple: but you see how important it is to recognise the all-governing law of the sovereign rule which cannot, fully and finally, ultimately be defeated. A great deal may seem to argue that the labour is in vain; but the Lord is saying here in this parable: 'No! When it is a word of the rule of God, it cannot ultimately return wholly void; there will be something resulting from it.' The sovereignty is governing.

THE WHEAT AND THE TARES

The next is that commonly called the parable of the wheat and the tares - the darnel (vv. 23-30). Here from the word the thought passes to persons. It is not the word that is now sown - it is persons that are sown. Children of the Kingdom are sown in the earth, and then by night the enemy comes and sows his own children, children of his kingdom. They are the children of the Devil. His method is suitable to his object. His object being completely to nullify what is of God, his method is to imitate it. That is a wile of that evil wisdom of Satan - imitation children of God mixed in with the true children of God in order to nullify. The workers are represented as coming to the owner of the field and telling him what they have found there, and he says, 'Ah, an enemy has done this.' And they say, 'What would you have us do? Shall we pluck up this other thing?'

He replies: 'No - let the sovereignty have its way! Let them both grow together, and the sovereignty, the rule of Heaven, will progressively make very clear which is which, and the end will be an easy and a safe course. If you start doing that now, you have not got the wisdom of Heaven to discriminate. It is not your business, and you have not the faculty or capacity, to disentangle this deep work of the Devil, by trying to mark out what is true and what is an imitation. That is not your job, and you are not qualified to do it. Only Heaven can do that. So let it go on, and the sovereign rule will make manifest what is of itself, and what is otherwise.'

It is the sovereign rule that is going to solve and settle this whole problem. You cannot say that the Kingdom of Heaven or the Kingdom of God is like that which is pictured in this parable - an awful mixture. It is not. The Kingdom of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, is one thing, and only the sovereign rule of God can bring out into clearness what is of God.

But that will happen as we go on. We can trust the sovereign rule. That is very practical: it works like this. There are those who are truly of God, of Heaven; and then there are those who come in - who perhaps sing the hymns, use the phraseology, carry on the same way, associate with those of the Kingdom; but there is a difference. Deep down, they are really "not of us". They are just imitations; they are not real, not the genuine thing. We may discern, as these men discerned, that there is something here that is not the same thing, something that is foreign, that is alien and strange. What are we going to do? Had we better turn them out, tell them to go?

No, no! Go on long enough, and they will go of themselves. The two things will be self-manifested, and it will be quite easy in the long run. "They went out from us", said John, "...that they might be made manifest that they all are not of us" (1 John 2:19). This is a heavenly principle, you see - there is a manifestation. It is difficult to endure patiently those people who you sense have not, as we say, the root of the matter in them - who are just camp-followers. But, as with the mixed multitude that left Egypt with Israel, time and testing will find them out. This is the way if the Kingdom, the sovereignty, operates, and it calls for much faith, and much patience.

THE MUSTARD SEED

The parable of the mustard seed (vv. 31, 32) is one of the most difficult of all, and one that has perhaps been the occasion of some of the worst interpretations and teachings. "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches." Do you really believe, in the light of all these other parables and of His whole teaching, that the Lord Jesus said, 'This is the Kingdom of Heaven - the Kingdom of Heaven is like that'? If the common and popular interpretation is to be accepted, then we are involved in some real difficulties. Admittedly, the parable does seem to mean that Christianity, or "the kingdom of heaven", has very small beginnings and then grows to very great dimensions. There may be an element of truth in that. The beginnings in Jerusalem WERE small, and in the course of the centuries Christianity has become worldwide. But is that just what the Lord meant by the parable?

There are at least three things that would pull us up and make us think again, and think more energetically.

One is that at other times the Lord definitely used terms of strict and severe limitation in relation to salvation, the way and the issue. So much was this so, that His disciples were startled into ejaculating: "Lord, are there few that be saved?" (Luke 12:23). He spoke of the way to life being straitened, and few finding or accepting it: of the gate being narrow, and few entering thereby (Matt. 7:13,14). He called His disciples (representatives of His Church) the "little flock" to whom it would be the Father's good pleasure to give THE KINGDOM (Luke 12:32). There are contrasting ideas between "wide" and "narrow", "broad" and "straitened", big and little, popular and unpopular. All this does not agree with the usual superficial interpretation of this parable.

Then what about the "fowls of the air"? Did He use this metaphor in a contradictory way? In the parable of the sower He had spoken of these in a bad sense: is He employing the same terms in a right and proper sense here? This violates the principle of consistency in inspiration.

Thirdly, is it COMMONLY true that the "mustard seed", the smallest of all, grows into a tree so great as is here depicted? No, it is positively not true. If our Lord saw such a thing - and He may have done - and drew attention to it, He was drawing attention to something abnormal and not natural. It was sufficiently abnormal and unnatural to attract attention.

This brings us to the factor that is common to ALL the parables and all the teaching of Jesus, and of the Apostles subsequently. In all these parables there is a selective, discriminating, contrasting, comparative, good-and-bad element. The Kingdom of Heaven is like that: the sovereign rule is all-comprehending, but it is very particular, selective, and judicial. Consistency in every direction demands that we interpret this "tree" of Christianity as an abnormal, unnatural development, capable of housing many things that are not in keeping with the true NATURE of the Kingdom. These "fowls" are NOT the born-from-above people who alone can see or enter the kingdom (John 3). They are all the accretions, the camp-followers, the parasites, the various kinds of people and things that take advantages of Christianity, and use its cover, but are not of its nature.

The Lord was letting His disciples know that this is what would happen, and that the sovereignty took all this in its stride. It is as well that we should know that the Lord has foreseen the developments of Christianity and its abnormalities, but it is to great detriment that His spirit of discernment and discrimination does not have a way with so many Christians.

Does the New Testament, to begin with, indicate that there is any such thing as abnormality, or this kind of abnormal development, about the true work of God? It rather indicates that, although ultimately the sum of many, many centuries will be 'a great multitude which no man can number', there will be, as we get nearer and nearer to the end, a tremendous sifting out and falling away. It is definitely stated that that day will not come before there is a great falling away (2 Thess. 2:3), and that "judgment must begin at the house of God" (1 Pet. 4:17). Well, then, if this is right - a great falling away - the Bible contradicts itself. As we have said, the teaching of the Lord seemed to be so clear to the disciples on this matter that they exclaimed: "Are there few that be saved?" What is all this about the broad and the narrow way? The broad way - many go by it; the narrow way - few find it. The Bible does not contradict itself; but it says that God takes account of these things, and God in His sovereignty permits them. He does not come out and destroy this freakish thing popularly called 'Christianity'. That may be there, but God in His sovereignty is pursuing His own course to secure what He is after. Though all this may be quite true, the sovereign rule of God goes on, the sovereignty is preserved.

THE PARABLE OF THE LEAVEN

The same principle is implicit in the next parable.

"The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened" (v. 33).

(a) THE LEAVEN

The popular interpretation is that the leaven is Christianity: Christianity being taken by the Church and put into the world until the whole lump is leavened - the whole world is 'leavened' with Christianity. It is suggested that we shall see the world saved by the deep, silent movement of Christianity, working strongly and deeply and hiddenly, like leaven. It is easy to say that sort of thing, but it is superficial reasoning. In the light of history, and in the light of the Word of God, it is very difficult to believe.

Look again. The world-population is vastly more in excess of the Christian population than at any time in the dispensation. After these almost twenty centuries of Christianity, an immense number over a very great part of the world have never heard the Gospel yet. Look at this - 1,200 million out of the 2,000 million people of the earth are still without the knowledge of Christ. Then what of the unspeakable revelation of iniquity in countries which have had the Gospel for centuries? We could make an immense build-up of facts which would shatter this interpretation of the leaven beyond reconstruction.

What, then, is the meaning of the leaven? I do not believe that leaven here stands in a different category from leaven anywhere else in the Bible. Consistency of Scripture demands that we interpret leaven always as the same thing, in the same light: and everywhere else in Scripture leaven is evil - something that has to be purged out. In the old economy they had to light their lamp on the eve of the Passover, and search the house high and low, nook and cranny, for any leaven and purge it out. The Passover could not be eaten till it was certain that there was no vestige or trace of leaven anywhere. They had to eat unleavened bread in the Passover. The Lord Jesus spoke of "the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees" (Matt. 16:6) and "the leaven of Herod" (Mark 8:15). And Paul spoke of 'purging out the old leaven' (1 Cor. 5:7). Everywhere it is something evil. The function or effect of leaven is to disintegrate, to break up, to tear apart - every housewife knows that. And it is not different here: still it is leaven and still it is evil. If you say that the Kingdom of Heaven, as a realm, is like that, you are in trouble. But the sovereign rule of God knows all about this deep, secret movement of disintegration, of evil, that has come into the realm of Divine things. It is not the Kingdom of Heaven that is like an alcoholic fermentation, disintegration, putrefaction.

(b) THE WOMAN

It is only necessary to look at such passages of Scripture as Revelation 2:20-23 ("the woman Jezebel"), and Revelation 17 ("the great harlot") to realise that a "woman" so often in the Bible is the symbol of a system. Again and again it has been a woman, either personally or symbolically, who has corrupted Divine things, or brought corruption into relationship with them. See Samson; see Solomon; see later kings for examples. In the message to Thyatira, this insinuation of evil and corruption into the House of God is the occasion of the severest judgment - for it is called "the deep things of Satan" (Rev. 2:24). What foreknowledge and foresight our Lord had in these parables! But let us go on.

(c) THREE MEASURES

Three measures. Remember that three is the number of Divine Persons and Divine things. Evil has spread even through the Church, so that within Christianity itself the very Divine Persons have been subjected to questions and doubts. God Himself - the Son, the Spirit - has been misrepresented. With many other things of God, evil has come in to break them up - to destroy their effectiveness and power by destroying their solidity. What are you going to do about it?

The sovereign rule of God takes account of it - the working of evil, the working of falsehood, the working of misrepresentation and misinterpretation of the things of God. History is just full of it, as we know. We hate using terms and labels, but is it not just that which has happened in the last hundred years in the realm called 'Modernism' or 'Liberalism'? Is it not the leaven disintegrating Divine things? The very Person of Jesus Christ is stripped of His Deity; the very Word of God is denied its authority and its finality; the very Holy Spirit is degraded from His dignity as a Divine Person; and so on. The Lord Jesus discerned the future, saw the way things would go, and spoke like this. He was saying. 'This very generation will not be out before all sorts of heresies and errors will come into the realm of Divine things' - which they did.

But the sovereign rule of God goes on. This does not spell God's confusion and God's defeat. His sovereignty is greater than all this. It is the only way really to be consistent both with the teaching of Scripture and with history itself. Surely it must be sheer blindness that reads history in any other way. As I said, I am not expounding these parables, but lifting out the point that is common to them all. From various angles, for various and differing causes, in differing situations, right down the age: whatever may be permitted by that sovereignty, that sovereignty is equal to it all, and will be fully vindicated in the end.

THE PARABLE OF THE DRAG-NET

We reach the last parable, that of the great dragnet let down into the sea - the sea always speaking of humanity - and gathering a great multitude of fishes. Yes, the sovereignty of God does that: in comes the net, with its multitude of fishes of all sorts, and then sovereignty gets to work and separates the good from the bad, and in the end God has what He was after from the beginning. He has got it at last. That is how the sovereignty works. There is much instruction here for Christians and for Christian workers. If we had our way, we would go to work to see to it that we always and only have the thing that is absolutely and certainly and positively according to God's mind: we would select that, and put a hedge round it, and set up walls about it, and we would protect it and keep it, as an exclusive company. But these parables say, No! The sovereignty of Heaven does not do that sort of thing. The sovereignty of Heaven permits and tolerates very much that will ultimately be found to be not according to Heaven. Yes, it takes account of much; but it is driving its own course, and, in the end, through all, God will have what He set His heart upon.

THE COMPREHENSIVENESS OF THE RULE OF GOD

To sum up - see how comprehensive is this rule of God. The sovereignty of God is one of the most problematic and perplexing things to Christians, in relation to what God will allow even in association with His own work. We would not do that at all. We would be very, very particular. But see how comprehensive God is. He allows a very great deal. He not only allows it - He even uses very much that perhaps we would never use, or about which we would have a question. He comes through things in His sovereignty to get His ends. It is HIS END that is the great testimony to His sovereignty. We say: How could God get anything out of this, or out of that? Well, He does, that is all. How could God get anything in that way? He just does! Look at this, look at that, look at all these things: is anything possible for God? The verdict at the end is that God sovereignly did get something.

You see, this is the great heart and core of this whole teaching and revelation of the Kingdom of God. It does not mean that you and I need not be sensitive to the Lord - that is another thing altogether. We may come to that later, when we say something about the Kingdom and the Church. It does not mean that, because we see that God's sovereignty reaches His ends in spite of everything, we are just to be careless and insensitive to the mind of the Spirit; to do all sorts of things that God, if He could have His way, would not sanction. But it does mean that this sovereignty of God is going to cover a lot of ground: it is going to get its end through many, many ways and means which in themselves, intrinsically, are not of Him. It is this rule of the heavens that is, so to speak, 'getting on with its job'.

We, left to ourselves, are so fussy, so particular, that we would not leave room for the sovereignty of God. The great appeal here is: Leave plenty of room for God. That is what it amounts to. Never despair over any situation as being finally and utterly hopeless. In the presence of the spread of this evil thing, this leaven - the expansion of this abnormal, 'freak' Christianity, with its contradictions and disappointments - we are forbidden by this sovereignty to give up and say it is a hopeless thing. We have to come to the place where we say and believe and take our stand: 'That looks a pretty hopeless situation, but God can get something out of it, and He will.'

That is the good news of the Kingdom, the Gospel of the Kingdom. I know that many of you who read these words can bear this out. You have known the most awful and impossible situations of mixture and hopelessness. You have despaired - and then you have seen God do something. What a strength and force that gives to the remainder of the statement! "This gospel of the kingdom shall be proclaimed... for a testimony unto all the nations". In His sovereignty, God can turn the most unpropitious and unpromising situation, the most hopeless state of things, into a glorious testimony. Yes, He allows so much, but He governs all. And He makes use of all manner of agencies - even the Devil himself. That must be sovereignty! "An enemy hath done this." Very well: we will use the enemy to show what is right and what is wrong, to make all the more manifest what is of God and what is not. The work of the Devil shall be employed to that end. That is the rule of Heaven.

All this is borne out in the later New Testament. "The things which befell me", writes Paul (Phil. 1:12) - what were they? They were the Devil's work. Again - "We would fain have come unto you, I Paul once and again; and Satan hindered us" (1 Thess. 2:18). Strange, mysterious statement! Yes, the Devil is busy; "a messenger of Satan" (2 Cor. 12:7) - he is very active. And what is the verdict at the end? "The things which befell me have fallen out rather unto the progress of the gospel"! Under the sovereignty of God the very works of the Devil are being used to reach God's end.

Perhaps that is common knowledge, so often said. But we must come more definitely to this settled position, that GOD AND CHRIST ARE ON THE THRONE. This Kingdom is a present reality. There are many things which contradict it and work against it. God does not consume and annihilate them: He permits them, and then takes hold of them; and the end is that His throne is established and it is made manifest that "his kingdom ruleth over all" (Ps. 103:19).

What these parables say to us is this - that God faces facts and has no illusions. He faces the fact that a large proportion of the sowing of the word of the Kingdom will fail. He faces the fact that Christianity will become an abnormal conglomeration, without any distinctiveness of testimony. He recognises that there will be a secret hidden working of error, of evil, of falsehood, all to disintegrate. He faces it all - all the work of the Devil, all the work of evil, all the failure of man - and then He declares His sovereignty over it all. That is what arises here. Let us ask for strength to believe it.

GOD'S JUDICIAL WORK

I have not said much about another aspect of these parables: namely, that there is a judicial, discriminatory work going on all the time. Do not fail to see that. All through these parables, He is cutting a line, He is discriminating, He is acting judicially. God is not just saying, 'Everything is all right - do not worry. Sit in your armchairs, ye Christian men; sit down, the Kingdom is coming.' No; rather - 'Rise up, ye men of God!' God is not passive, indifferent, careless, saying, 'Oh, it will be all right, this is all right; do not worry about it.' He is not like that. He is acting, and will act, judicially. He is really putting things in their place, and dividing between, as He does with the churches in the Revelation. He is discriminating. He is putting this here and that there, and saying that they belong to two different realms. That is a part of His sovereignty.

But our chief point is this: The operation of the Kingdom, or the rule, of God is to bring in at last the triumph of that rule. Whatever else may come in, it means the triumph of that rule. The rule of Heaven, the rule of God, comes out in the end triumphant.

This is chapter 2 from the book "The Gospel of the Kingdom".

Reproduction by Divine Life

An organism is never an end in itself... and is never something for itself.  It is a means to a larger end - a channel for larger purposes - and the object of an organism is to reproduce itself by life.  That reproduction is always sacrificial.  It always costs.  It is always by the vessel’s yielding up of itself in some way.  That is to say, death is the way to increase.  Reproduction is sacrificial. That brings us to the passage of Scripture in which the Lord summed up everything with regard to His future relationship with His own... and the result of His having come into this world:

"Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal." John 12:24

Unless a life propagates, it remains without being marked by any purpose.  It is an end in itself, and God never meant any organism to be that.  It saves its own life by letting it go so that increase may be the result.  The law of increase is sacrifice - "Except a corn of wheat fall into the earth and die..."  There is no propagation, there is no increase, there is no reproduction except by letting all that is merely personal go... in the interest of what is other and more.

This then leads us to several things.  The first is the meaning and value of Christ risen as an inward Life.

Christ risen is shown to be a reality for inward expression, inward experience.  The risen Life of the Lord is to be in us.  Christ is to be in us by His Life... and by His Spirit of Life.  The inward meaning and value of Christ risen is the reproduction of His Life in all those in whom He is, that all such as have Him dwelling in them in the power of His risen Life should be an expression of Christ in Life - should manifest Him in the power of the Life.  It is reproduction of the Christ Life in us.

The law of that reproduction in us is that we ourselves should die - should accept the place of death - so that all personal life, personal interest, is entirely put away - is shed - is parted with... and Christ becomes all.  That is what Paul meant when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live; yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me."  Here is the expression of Christ produced because all life that is not of Christ has been yielded to the Cross - has died.  It has fallen into the grave of the Lord Jesus, and out of the grave of the Lord Jesus there has come an expression of Him.

In our union with Christ in His death, we cease and He begins; and from the beginning He becomes the all.  That is a progressive thing, as well as a basic thing.  It is a thing all-inclusive in its meaning - in its intent - but it is also progressive.  We have to accept the fullness of that thing in an act.  We have to take the position quite definitely and consciously that now, in accepting our union with Christ in His death, this is to work out in our having no more place at all... that whenever we come into evidence we shall be smitten - we shall be put aside - we shall not be allowed to go on.

We have to accept once for all in a definite act of commitment that from henceforth everything that is of self is going to be smitten unsparingly with that Cross... and that, whenever self comes in, it will not be allowed to have a standing.  We had better settle it once for all... and have a dealing with the Lord on that inclusive, comprehensive, and utter ground... that He will make real His own meaning in that; not our understanding of it - not our grasp or apprehension of it - not what we think to be the "I" which is to be forbidden - but what He knows to be the "I"... not the measure of our knowledge of ourselves, but His knowledge of us.  There will be revealed a very great deal more that is "I" than has ever entered our thought or imagination.  Self, then, not as we know it but as He knows it through and through, is to be brought under the power of that Cross: and this we accept in an act.

Then it becomes progressive.  To die daily, to be always bearing about in the body the dying, or the deadness, of the Lord Jesus, so that His death is a working thing every day by which self is denied, is the issue of our initial acceptance. But as that takes place - that sacrificial yielding over to the Cross - the Life of Christ is being reproduced.  By the power of His own Life He is increasing while we decrease.  We shall never meet a challenge to set ourselves aside but what, in meeting that challenge and answering to it, there will be the occasion for an increase of Christ.  Everything which demands that we accept a fresh measure of the meaning of His death means that, as we accept it, there will be a larger measure of Him in risen Life.

So that the meaning and value of Christ risen as an inward Life is reproduction, and there is no other way.  There is no way to make Christians according to the New Testament but that way.  The increase of the number of the Lord’s own is not by joining something from the outside; it is by coming to the Cross and dying.  That is the only way. There is no Christian on any other ground than that he died with Christ and has been raised together with Him.

The second thing is the necessity for everything to be of a living character.

It is contrary to the mind of God to systematize Christianity, Christian truth, Christian order... and appropriate it or apply it as a system. It must be the issue and outcome of Life.  Reproduction is only by Life.  It is not by truth as a system of doctrine.  Reproduction is not by the setting up of some Christian order.  It is by Life.  And herein is the necessity for everything to be of a living character. If Christ is to be multiplied (using that word in the right sense - and not one of us will think that we mean that there will be a multiplication of Christs in any literal sense), it can only be through everything being living - of a vital order.

That brings us to the third thing, which will to some extent elucidate and explain what we have just said: the nature of the Church.

What is it that constitutes the Church?  The Church is not constituted upon the Christian creed, nor upon a set of beliefs, nor by assent to certain doctrinal propositions.  The Church is not constituted by asking people to join it -  become members of it - adherents, but the Church is constituted by the transmission of the risen Life of the Lord. Reproduction is its law of increase.

Increase may be brought about in two ways.  One is the way of imitation.  You can turn out so many things as by a mold; that is, by making so many things on the same pattern and thus increasing, multiplying, by imitation.  It hardly needs saying that such is not the New Testament way with regard to the growth of the Church.  That is not the New Testament way of reproduction.

The other way is by conception; that is, the outgrowth of life from within, the form which life takes when it expresses itself - when it has its way.  It is inward rather than outward.  The difference between imitation and what is conceived is the difference between what is dead and what is alive.  One is made, the other is born; and the constitution of the Church is the result of the activity and energy of a Life, the Lord’s own risen Life... being transmitted, passed on.  Whatever you may develop, you will never get a development of the true Church unless the risen Life of Christ is operative and is there in sufficient measure to be transmitted by the Spirit.

The same law holds good as to the order of the Church.  It is the result of His Life. Again, two kinds of things are possible.  You can appoint to office and set apart with certain titles and names which represent certain spheres of activity or kinds of work and responsibility.  You can elect or vote into such office or position and proceed along that line, setting up the Church order.

Or you can follow another line and be ruled by the law of life, whereby account is taken of the working and expression of the Lord’s Life in the members of the Church - of the way in which the members, by that Life, begin to show marks of certain spiritual ability.  Ability is coming out and manifesting itself in this way or in that way; and in due course, by a spontaneous expression and by the result of the Life of the Lord having its way in such members, the Church is compelled to take account of the fact that such-and-such in its midst are spiritually qualified... and that as spiritually qualified they are already, by the very operation of this Divine Life, the fit and proper persons for such-and-such ministry.

The expression of Life comes out perhaps in a ministry of teaching, or in a ministry of administration.  It is not just natural ability.  It is not the result of natural advantages - of training and so on - but there is the spiritual mark about it.  Then the Lord’s people take account of it and say: Well, evidently the Lord has gifted so-and-so in this way, and we must take account of it and allow that to have its expression. Thus the Church comes into its order along the line of Life.

A question may present itself to us in connection with the familiar passage in Ephesians: "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering..."  When the Lord did that, did He announce to the Church what He had done?  Did He say, Now I have definitely given into your midst so-and-so as your apostle, as your prophet, as your evangelist, as your pastor and teacher?  Did He say, Now so-and-so is a teacher in your midst? Or was His gift in the first place secret, only manifesting itself as these believers respectively went on with Him... and it became noticed that they were developing in certain ways?  Was it like that?  I think that is the truth, speaking generally. As the fruit of obedience, the perpetuation of His heavenly order was not mechanical, not official, not ecclesiastical... but vital, living, spiritual.  True order is the expression of Life.

That is tremendously important.  The Lord does not leave it in our hands to appoint our ministers - to make either the ministry or the minister. The Lord develops ministry by Life, and where the Lord develops ministry the church has to take notice.  It may be perfectly true that the appointment has been made by God, but it may be equally true that it has to be made manifest by Life before it comes to function. I believe that is partly why Barnabas and Paul were detained at Antioch so long.  Paul was definitely called and chosen.  There was no doubt whatever that heaven had ordained him as an apostle, and all the signs of an apostle were in him - the supreme sign being that he had seen first hand the risen Lord.  Yet with the sovereign choice, and with the personal commission to him, he had first to go into Damascus to be told what he should do as one in the church, the assembly; and subsequently he had to tarry at Antioch as a member of the assembly there for over a year.

Even then the Lord did not come to Saul or to Barnabas, his companion, and say, Now go out to the work to which you know I have called you - the work of which I have told you - the work for which you were chosen! Go out and get on with it!  The Lord gave direction through the leading members of that assembly: "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them."  And the church was able to do that, not simply on the basis of a command, but because it had been proved in their own midst that these men were called for this ministry.  They had revealed in the assembly by Life that they were called to a ministry. That is the way by which the Lord reveals His ministers.

That brings us to this point: You do not know what your ministry is save as you go on with the Lord.  You may have been Divinely ordained - sovereignly chosen.  There may be related with your life a ministry of great value.  You may not know anything about it yet, but it may be perfectly true that the Lord could say that you are a chosen vessel unto Him; but you will only discover what your ministry is as you go on with the Lord in Life.

As the Lord’s Life increases in you, and your communion with the Lord goes on unhindered in all its meaning and value, then you will discover that the Lord is moving in you in a certain direction and that you are becoming exercised unto a certain ministry.  None of us really discerns his ministry by being told beforehand.  We only know it as we go on with God and His Life has its way.

That is an important thing, for ministry hangs upon Life.  It does not rest upon mechanical appointment.  We cannot make ministers.  It is only the risen Christ who can make ministers, and He makes them in the power of His risen Life.  Disaster lies before the man who tries to be a minister without the risen Life of Christ. The Lord deliver us from ever trying in any way to be ministers without its being the outcome of His Life in us.  The Life of the risen Lord takes its own form - expresses itself in its own way - according to the mind of Him whose Life it is.

We have already touched upon this, but let us repeat and re-emphasize that the growth of the Church is on the principle of Life.  We can never go about this world gathering people together, asking them to accept certain things which we say about Christ, and then forming them into churches.  The Lord has not called upon us to form churches.  That is not our business.  Would to God men had recognized the fact.  A very different situation would obtain today from what exists, if that had been recognized.

It is the Lord who expands His Church, who governs its growth.  What we have to do is to live in the place of His appointment in the power of His resurrection.  If, in the midst of others, the Lord can get but two of His children, in whom His Life is full and free, to live on the basis of that Life and not to seek to gather others to themselves or to get them to congregate together on the basis of their acceptance of certain truths or teaching - but simply to witness to what Christ means and is to them - then He has an open way. As witness is simply and livingly borne in this way, one and another will be provoked at length to say: I do wish I had what they have!  And another will say: I covet that one’s experience.  It is just what I have been seeking for!  Such as these will either come to inquire the way of salvation, or opportunity will be found to lead them to the Lord.  It is in this way that the Church grows.

Its growth may be furthered at a street corner as you preach Christ and someone responds; and believing on Christ with the heart and confessing Him as Lord with the mouth, Life is given by the Spirit and that one becomes the Lord’s. The Church is not increased by your going and taking a building and trying to get people to come to it... and to your meetings... and then forming them, by a church roll, into a local church.  That is not the way.  Growth is by Life; and this, to begin with, may be by the entering into Life of but one soul... and then, after a long waiting time, of another; or it may be more rapid.  But the point is that it is increase because of Life.  That is the growth of the Church.

For the growth of His Church the Lord must have Life channels - Life centers.  I believe that, given a Life center, sooner or later one of two things will happen: that it will be abundantly manifest that Christ is fully and finally rejected there, or else there will be an adding - a growth.  There is tremendous power in life, and the Life of the Lord either kills or quickens.  It depends on the attitude taken toward it. He is a savor of Life unto Life, or of death unto death.  Things can never remain neutral.  What the Lord needs is Life centers.

The irreducible minimum, and yet the adequate means, to begin with is two - two who are one in His Life, two in whom there is cooperation in that Life.  He sent them forth two by two.  That is the nucleus of the Church.  It is such as these that the enemy will endeavor to kill, to quench, or to separate... and thus to ruin them spiritually so far as their value to the Lord for propagation is concerned.  Remember that! The Lord’s advantage is bound up with a fellowship of two in the one Life.

We can see now why in the main issue it is so important that all the resources of the risen Lord should be tapped by us - should be lived upon - drawn upon... why these spiritual, secret, heavenly resources of His Life, His fullness, should thus become the basis of our lives. Their purpose does not end with ourselves, nor is it something for ourselves; and if we turn them to that end, we shall die.  That provision is for the Lord’s end, which is reproduction - the reproduction of His own risen Life.

The Revelation of the Father

Reading: John 16:1-17:26

I want you just to pass your eye over that prayer again - "He said, Father... O Father... I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them... As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee... Father, that which thou hast given me... O righteous Father."

"I manifested thy name... I made known... thy name", and, quite evidently, from this chapter and from the whole of this Gospel, the name which the Lord Jesus manifested and made known was "Father".

That may not impress us as it would have done those in His own time, for, with the Lord Jesus, there came in a revelation of God which was nothing less than revolutionary. Go back to the Old Testament and look at the manifestation of God in the names and titles which are given to Him there. They are many, wonderful, very great and very glorious, but they are usually very remote, and put Him in a place of holy and awful isolation. He is there the one who is unapproachable in Himself, and whose presence always created fear, even terror. If there was anything approximating to the coming near of God, even in those strange forms of manifestation called the 'theophanies,' when in the first place those visited thought it was a man and then afterwards realized it was the Lord, the people cried out in fear and terror. And the Lord said even to Moses, who was such an honoured, choice, faithful, devoted servant: "Man shall not see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). When a man wrestled with Jacob and subsequently departed, Jacob cried: "I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). To him that was a most wonderful thing! Of course, he had met the veiled deity - the veiled God had come in man form - but, even so, Jacob recognized that it was the Lord, and the wonderful thing was that his life remained whole in him.

When the Lord Jesus came into this world He brought an altogether revolutionary revelation of God, and the one word which was on His lips more than any other was 'Father' - 'My Father', 'The Father'.

This seventeenth chapter of John's Gospel is, as you can see, the culmination and summation of all that has gone before of the life of the Lord Jesus and the manifestation of the Son of God with all His works and words. The end has come, for you will notice that the next chapter begins: "When Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden." Then the final scenes of his earthly life were enacted and the cross followed. So this prayer is the gathering up of everything by Jesus. He is gathering up the very purpose for which He came into this world, the meaning of all His teaching and His works, the meaning of His having been here in this world, and He is putting it into one marvellous word, or name: 'Father'. He is saying: 'I have done what I came for. I came to manifest THY name.' Note the way in which He puts it. He did not come to give people a doctrine, a truth or a teaching about the Fatherhood of God, as a theme or subject. He said. 'I manifested', or, for our purpose you could use the word: 'I demonstrated'. There is all the difference between a lecturer and a demonstrator! To 'manifest' is very practical; it is more than words or teaching, for it is showing in a living way the thing that you are desiring to have grasped and understood.

And so this matter of the Father God was manifested in a Person. The Person Himself was the manifestation. When you look at Him, listen to Him, watch Him, there is one deduction that you can draw, should and must draw: 'That is just what God is like.'

Whether it be with the little children, and His hands of blessing upon them, drawing them to Himself; or any of the many things that He did in healings, in comfortings, in restorings; or in any of the wonderful things that He said in parables, our conclusion should be: 'That is what God is like!' It is an expression of God as Father, and the Lord Jesus Himself is the manifestation of the Father.

Now, open that out and go right back to the beginning of history as the Bible gives it to us, and this conception is inherent in the very beginning. What was the conception with which the Bible opened, when God had completed His creative activities and got His man and the man's wife? It was a family. The FAMILY conception was there right at the very beginning, and in God's mind it was to be a family of His OWN children. He wanted a family of children 'after His own image and likeness', like Himself, and His heart was set upon this. There, at the beginning, He says: "Be fruitful, and multiply" (Genesis 1:22), and behind that is God's intention to have a family.

Do you notice that in the second phase of the Bible, that which we call the Patriarchs, it is the family which is the dominant, characteristic feature? 'Patriarch' is a Bible word, as you know, but do you know what it means? It just means 'the head of the family'. Perhaps you have not thought of that when considering Noah, Moses and Abraham and calling them by this high-sounding name 'the Patriarchs'! But right through that long and very rich phase of the development of history in the Bible there lies, deeply embedded, this idea of the family. And in the patriarchal families it was not only the father who was the head of the household. The eldest son was also the priest of the family, in union with the father. Fathers and sons were the divine idea, and if you like to make it singular you can, for you are looking right ahead to John 17!

And when you move still further on in Bible history and come to that section of the Old Testament which has to do with the kings, the monarchy, have you been impressed with the fact that, when that phase reaches its highest point in David and Solomon, the very conception and idea of monarchy, of government, of dominion, of reign, of a kingdom, lies with the father and son, David and Solomon? That was the peak of the monarchy. And if you look both into the Old Testament account and into the New Testament references to it, you will find that those words spoken by the Lord to David about his son, Solomon: "I will be his father, and he shall be my son" (2 Samuel 7:14), are taken up in the letter to the Hebrews and applied to the Lord Jesus. So God was looking THROUGH David and THROUGH Solomon - not just AT them - to His own eternal thought of the family.

You come to the next and final section of the Old Testament, the Prophets. And what is the cry of the Prophets? For in this section there is a cry, a sob, a groan, an anguish, a travail, and, for the most part, that is the spirit of the Prophets. They are burdened, men with a burden, a cry, a heartache, men who are expressing a travail. Listen again to Isaiah 53!

But what is it all about? God has lost His family! The family of Israel has been broken up and disintegrated. It has gone away from God and from His house. God is deprived of that thing for which He first of all created men, and then inculcated into the whole of His dealings with them. In the Prophets God is seen to be in a state of disappointment and sorrow. Listen to Hosea, for instance. There is a cry of deep anguish in that prophet's heart, and it all focuses upon this family conception.

Well, that has covered a lot of history, and there is more in it than that, but that is enough to show what was in God's heart, what His heart had been set upon, what He had hidden, in a way, in His dealings with men and in His constitution of things. This was a hidden desire and purpose in the heart of God.

Then the Son of God comes. Now you go through your New Testament and tabulate the number of times 'Father' and 'Son' occur in connection with God and the Lord Jesus. And then go on to the next step and tabulate the number of times that the Lord's people are referred to as His children, His sons, or as in a family relationship to Himself - 'begotten of God', 'born of God', and so on. It is very full and rich. We have only to mention it for a great deal just to come back to us and break upon us!

We said that the Son of God came from the Father: "I came forth from the Father" (John 16:27). And why? For one thing, to take up all that history from the creation, through the Patriarchs, through the monarchy, through the prophets, and gather to Himself the realization of this thing for His Father, in order to satisfy His Father. Dear friends, if you want to know what the Lord Jesus meant, and what it means where we are concerned when He said: "I came to do Thy will", it is this about which we are talking. The will of God is the family of God in which He is truly Father God, and His Son is truly THE Son, the eldest Son, "The firstborn among many brethren" (Romans 8:29). Do you pray to know the will of God? Do you ask to know what God's will is? Well, of course, you may apply that to all sorts of things, but you must remember that the will of God is very comprehensive and specific, and is just this that we are talking about. The Son came, not only to speak of the Father, but to manifest the Father, so that He could say: "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father" (John 14:9). 'There is no further need for you to say "Shew us the Father"' (John 14:8). "I manifested thy name... I kept them in thy name." And, as we have seen, in this chapter alone He calls Him 'Father' six times - "O righteous Father... Holy Father."

The Lord Jesus has come to give in His own Person the revelation of God as Father, and to redeem unto God His family. Those wonderful words in the early part of the Letter to the Hebrews: "He is not ashamed to call them brethren... I and the children which God hath given me... Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling" (Hebrews 2:11,13; 3:1) are the fruit of His REDEEMING activity.

Dear friends, it is a good thing to be redeemed, to have what redemption means in the sense of sins forgiven, deliverance from bondage, security unto eternal life, and all those blessings. But do we sufficiently recognize that it is a FAMILY He has come to redeem, and that we are redeemed as a family? We may be redeemed individually, but God's thought, and Christ's thought, was to redeem a family.

What is a family? Now, if you friends have a family, how happy and pleased would you be if every one of your children was a unit in himself or herself, living an independent life without any concern or consideration or interest in any other member of the family? Just so many isolated units in one place could not be called a home! Would you be happy about it if they all went off and never had any concern for the other members, but were just individuals? Well, they might be children of the same parents, but, if that was the situation, the parents would feel that the real meaning of parenthood had been lost. How God must feel about anything and everything that is other than a family concept and a family spirit amongst His people!

We hear so much about the Church, the churches and the local assemblies. Indeed, we can get very tired of that, for it can be so technical. But what is God's thought in companies of His people in any place? That they should be a representation of the family where His Fatherhood is the dominant thing, where His Son has the place that He ought to have, and where all are a unit. "I pray... that they may all be one" (John 17:20-21). How? 'As Thou, Father, and I are one.' The Father is revealing Himself in the Son and the Son is manifesting Himself in the Father. What perfect oneness there is between those two! "That they may be one, even as we are one."

The prayer of the Lord Jesus, right at the end, as He went to the Cross, was for the family. He went to the Cross to redeem the family, that out of His death and resurrection many sons should be born.

And there are not lacking some indications that there was a very real answer to His prayer at the beginning. You would never call those twelve disciples a family before Calvary! I should say: 'The Lord deliver us from families if that is one!' There was quarrelling, envying, striving and jealousy of one another. But look afterwards: "But Peter, standing up with the eleven" (Acts 2:14). And there is that wonderful second chapter of Acts when they "were all together in one place... they had all things common... and not one of them said that aught of the things which he possessed was his own" (Acts 2:1, 4:32).

Well, we have reached something of the family when the Holy Spirit brings Christ into His place, and God is Father over all. Paul had some conception of this. You know that in his letter to the Ephesians he prayed to the Father "from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named" (3:14).

So the Lord Jesus came, firstly to secure unto the Father the satisfaction of His eternal desire, the realization of His own ambition of heart, to redeem unto God a family; and not to leave it there, but to bring that family to reign, to govern in the eternal kingdom. It is to be the governmental family of the ages to come. The means by which He is going to govern this world in the coming ages is by this family elevated to His throne. The far greater and more glorious counterpart of David and Solomon is the Father and Son. And then, to use another phrase from the Letter to the Hebrews, "many sons" whom He has brought to glory.

We cannot just say these things without reminding ourselves that the realization of this, both on the part of the Lord Jesus and on our part, if the Father is to find His satisfaction, is a costly thing. It is by way of travail. There is no family without travail. God has put it in the very constitution of this creation that the family is by way of travail, of suffering. In a word, someone has to be prepared to lay down their life for the family, and the Lord Jesus did it. And, dear friends, we are not going to have anything like this amongst the Lord's people unless we are prepared to suffer for it, to lay down our lives for it, to set aside all our own personal interests for it, really to put up with a lot, that we might bring to the Father that upon which His heart is so much set. It is the way of travail, of sacrifice, of suffering. For this His Body was broken, that we might share that Body as one family. For this His Blood was shed, that we might, in drinking His blood - in other words, His outpoured life - share as a family that one life.

So we come back and close where we began, with His prayer. What a cry it is! What an appeal it is! Shall we say: what an agony it is! 'Father, the world has not known, but these have known... Father, as Thou and I are one... that they may be one.'

Have you been all the time poised and adjusted, asking: 'Is the Lord saying something to me? Somewhere, somehow, I have violated this family spirit, family disposition, and grieved the Spirit of God, who is the Spirit of the family.' Is there something that He is saying to you and to me? How does this apply to us? Is it just a lovely Bible theme? God forbid! It was a prayer with Him, so let us make it a prayer, and a prayer that will have a very practical aspect, for sometimes we can go a long way towards answering our own prayers. And this matter is not ALL to be left with the Lord. He has done His part!

From "A Witness and a Testimony" Nov-Dec, 1971

Some Principles of the House of God

Reading: Psalm 132

“Then Solomon began to build the house of the Lord at Jerusalem on Mount Moriah, where the Lord appeared unto David his father, which he made ready in the place that David had appointed, in the threshing-floor of Ornan the Jebusite” 2 Chron 3:1

There is much related Scripture which we ought to read, but must only refer to as we proceed, because of our limited space.

It needs no arguing amongst us, I think, that the centre of God’s presence among men, namely, the house of God, is a matter of first importance. I have said the centre of God’s presence, for the house of God embraces and relates to every thing else which is of concern or interest to the Lord. The house of Lord is within a wider range of God’s interests and concerns. Ultimately, there will be wide ranges to which it ministers, to which God manifests Himself through it. It is the centre of His presence.

From a consideration of its great type here in the Old Testament, the temple, we are able to learn something of the principles which constitute the foundation and basis of that central dwelling place of God.

The Triumph of Faith and Obedience

The passage which we have just read is a key to so much, both historically and spiritually. I begin by pointing out again that the first principle of the house of God, the dwelling place of the Lord, is the triumph of faith and obedience when all else has been brought down to the dust. All Abraham's hopes and expectations, and the promises of God and the covenant of God with him, centred in Isaac. Beyond and apart from Isaac, Abraham had nothing. And then God said, “Take now thy son ... Isaac...and offer him...for a burnt offering” (Gen 22:2). In the words from Job: “Lay thou thy treasure in the dust” (Job 22:24) And the writer to the Hebrews makes a point of that - that he in whom all the covenant and promises were centred was being offered up by Abraham (Heb 11:17,18). Looked at from one side only, Abraham was severing the very arteries of life, parting with everything of hope, prospect, possibility; all was, from that stand point, brought to ashes. But for the intervention of God, Isaac would very soon have been reduced to ashes. In effect he was. So far as Abraham’s heart attitude and obedience were concerned, Isaac was already in ashes. The wood was there for kindling, the altar and the knife were ready. But faith triumphed through obedience, and that very mount Moriah subsequently became the site of the temple, the house of God. The house of God is built on that sort of thing.

This foreshadows Calvary. From purely earthly standpoints Calvary was the end of all hope. It was a laying of treasure in the dust; it was ashes; it was an end. We know how it was for those around that Cross: it seemed the end of everything. But on the part of the one central figure of that great universal drama it was faith’s obedience unto death, yea, the death of the Cross; and the house of God was and is built upon that. It is a principle. It is the great reality, the great doctrine of Christ. But it is of practical application, namely, that the house of God can only be grounded and founded and built as that sort of thing goes on.

The Laying Down of Life

A related principle is the continuous laying down of its own soul by the Church, letting go of its own life in obedience and in faith, when all is dark, when all seems hopeless beyond. Some course of obedience is required, calling for us to do that which seems to be without prospect or hope, and which involves, therefore, the laying down of our lives, of our souls. It is the way of building. It has ever been like that.

When young men and women have given up all the prospects of this world and laid their treasures in the dust and gone forth at the command of the Lord, they have laid everything in ashes so far as this world’s hopes and prospects are concerned. The Church has been built in that way. Even when it is not like that in great acts of life’s vocation, it is a daily thing, a letting go of our own interests in obedience to the Lord, in faith in the Lord. It is thus the building goes on. I could work that down to very fine points and show how often the house of God is delayed and arrested in its progress by the withholding of something on which the Lord has laid his finger and said ‘I want that’.

However there is the general principle, the triumph of faith through obedience when all is in the dust. Abraham believed God, and that great triumph provided God with the site for His temple, the great example and type of that spiritual house which is central to the fulfillment of all His purposes. God dwells in that sort of thing. But that central thing has to go through the depths. That which is the very heart of God’s presence, to which He commits Himself, has to know stripping more than others. This involves a deep work where faith is brought to perfection through very deep testing.

Fellowship With God in His Sacrificial Love

Alongside of that (very deep testing) there is that factor of perfect fellowship with God in His sacrificial love. We have often made that point when speaking of Abraham’s great step into the heart of the One who withheld not His Son, His Well-beloved, but freely gave Him up for us all. It was indeed a movement right into fellowship with the sacrificial nature, the giving unto cost, of the love of God. That is the only way in which the house of God is established. There has to be a giving unto cost because of love. It is quite evident that Abraham loved God more than he loved Isaac, dear and important though Isaac was. Abraham saw that to obey was of greater importance than even to keep this tremendous treasure; and that is love. That is what the Bible calls the fear of the Lord - that element of fear in love.

I am sure you know what that means. If there is someone of great account to you, and whose love you esteem very highly, you are always very sensitive about causing that one disappointment. That is the nature of the fear of the Lord. Abraham feared God. The house of God is built upon that kind of fear. It is of very practical and every day meaning - the love of God in our hearts leading to costliness in our sacrifice, our giving.

The Glory of Man Abased

Then passing from Abraham to David; this threshing floor of Ornan, the site of the temple, represented and stood for the undercutting of Satan’s man-glorifying work and the deep abasement of man himself. You remember that Satan incited David to number Israel - a thing which even a carnal man like Joab could see through, for he said, “The Lord make His people a hundred times as many as they are: but, my Lord the King, are they not all my Lord’s servants? why doth my Lord require this thing? why will he be a cause of guilt unto Israel?” (1 Chron. 21:3). ‘The Lord has done very much, and will do more, but do not begin to count heads, to take account of how big your resources are and to glory in the greatness of your kingdom’.

Joab was a carnal man, but it seems that some carnal men sometimes see more than Christians do as to principles. But David set aside Divine wisdom and good human wisdom, and insisted on the numbering of Israel. You know the result. All came from Satan’s prompting of David to do something which would glorify man and make much of his resources and achievements. The Lord came out and smote it hip and thigh, and that Satanic work of glorifying man was undercut and man was deeply abased. David was a sorry picture when he came to the threshing floor of Ornan. Oh, that man is now humbled to the dust!

This has to be done before there can be any building of God’s house. Satan’s work to make much of man has to be completely undercut. The glory of man, and man’s desire for any kind of glory for himself, have to be abased. This is a house for the name of the Lord and for no other name in heaven, in earth, or in hell. “My glory”, says the Lord, “will I not give to another” (Isa. 42:8).

The Lord does that all the time. Oh, the horrible display of human flesh in the realm of Divine things! Oh, the reputations made in the realm of what is of God! Oh, the delight to have a place in the Church! Oh, how often this flesh is active for its own pleasure and gratification! The Lord is hitting it hard all the time, driving hard blows -to ensure that His house is on the right foundation, not on any thing that is of ourselves. It does come home to us.

“Lord remember for David all his humiliations” (Ps. 132:1). That last word is more accurate than the one used in our translation. “Afflictions” is the word in the text, but that does not convey the true meaning unless you add other words and say, ‘The afflictions with which he afflicted himself’. He is saying, ‘How I humiliated myself! I would not allow my eyes to have sleep, I would not allow my bed to entice me, I would not enjoy my own house; I humiliated myself, deprived myself, in order to find a place for the Lord’. And the Lord does require that humiliation. He brings about this breaking down of man in order that the house should be rightly based. That explains His dealings with us. He will not let us be anything.

If we are really to be the dwelling place of God, then we are to be nothing in ourselves. Do not look for reputation, do not try to make an impression, do not stand on your own dignity, do not do any of those things in any way whatever which will give you prominence with people and make them think something of you. It will not pass with the Lord.

So let us get rid of it, every bit of it, and recognize what we are in God’s sight. He is going to bring that about; so if we try to make people think we are other than we are in order to get an advantage, we are contradicting the principle of the house of God. All self-importance must go, and all desire for recognition. All that sort of thing has to be wiped out. The house of God is not founded on that. God will not have it. Man is abased, and all the other is the devil’s work. It comes from him in whose heart pride was found.

The Meeting of Mercy and Judgment

Then let me remained you that the threshing floor of Ornan, the site of the temple was the place where judgment and mercy met. We sing

‘With mercy and with judgment

My web of time He wove’.

There must be judgment. It was so in the case of David. But judgment is only one side. Judgment and mercy met on that threshing floor that day and kissed each other, and the temple resulted. Judgment has to begin at the house of God, but, thank God, it is not judgment unto utter destruction. It is mercy mingled with judgment, and the end is the triumph of mercy over judgment . That is Calvary, that is the house of God. We shall find it like that all the time. There will be judgment; it has to be; we know it quite well.

The Lord does not let pass things that are contrary to the principles of His house. If we only knew it, as Paul tried to make the Corinthians know it, many are suffering today in numerous ways because they are not observing the principles of the house of God (1 Cor. 11:30). There is that side; it goes on. But oh, God only does that in order to have mercy. It is mercy that is His end. So He founds and so He builds His house.

God Under No Debt to Man

No indebtedness to man is allowed to be represented by God’s house. How insistent David was, how alive now to Divine principles! The refining fires wake us up to principles. It was so with David on another occasion. You remember how the ark was put on the cart. David had forgotten the Scripture. He went through a time of suffering until at last he came to see the Divine principle in the Word of God and put things right (1 Chron.13 & 15). Here he is alive to principles again. When Ornan wanted to give David the threshing floor, David said, ‘No, I will pay you in full. No man shall ever say that the house of God is in debt to men; no other shall ever be able to say afterward, “Yes I gave God that; the site of that temple is my gift”’.

No Ornan is brought out of all holding. Man has no place as a creditor in the house of God; there is no debt to man, he is brought right out. You can apply that.

The Threshing of the Corn

This was a threshing-floor, the place where all is threshed out before the Lord. No chaff here; nothing that is not real, genuine, true, solid; nothing that will not contribute to building up. It must be the true corn. God is always seeking to do this. The house of God is a threshing-floor. All our chaff, our vanity, our emptiness, is being got rid of, all that really does not count. God is after that which builds His house, or, to change the metaphor, the Body. He is after the corn. The chaff must go. In our very relationship to the Lord amongst His people, as forming His house, we find He is winnowing, threshing, getting rid of our vanity, our unreality, our chaff. But in so doing He is getting reality. He is getting what is solid, what will stand, what will feed. This is the basis of His building.

All that we have said should work out in very practical ways. The figures employed are but types and symbols, but the realities are in the hands of the Holy Spirit, and He will unceasingly press for their fulfillment in the lives of God’s people. Let us see to it that as He works in our case He has our full co-operation.

The Transcendent "Sign"

"What sign shewest thou...? Jesus answered... Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up" (John 2:13-22).

In our book, Discipleship in the School of Christ, we have pointed out two things as to the Gospel by John. One: that his peculiar name for miracles is "Signs", indicating that John was particularly concerned with what the "mighty works" signified in each case, rather than with the works themselves as demonstrations of power. Two: that from what John calls volumes of such works (21:25), he chose seven for his purpose in writing the Gospel.

In referring to the seven we were concerned with what Jesus actually did during His earthly ministry. We therefore did not refer to the greatest "Sign" of all, because it lay beyond the pre-crucifixion time. It is that to which we now turn - the Sign of the Resurrection Body.

To recognize the full force of the fragment quoted above it is necessary to read the whole section, verses 13-22 of chapter two. Jesus went up to Jerusalem at the time of the Passover. He found commercialism and merchandise in the temple, and cast it all out, calling the temple "My Father's House" ... "His disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house shall eat me up. The Jews therefore" (note the "therefore") "answered and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?" (note "these things").

So, unmistakably, the setting is the temple in Jerusalem. It is therefore only natural that the blind Jews should interpret His words as a reference to the material temple (verse 20). John comments: "But he spake of the temple of his body", and then carries the whole matter over to His bodily resurrection.

Once more, as in every "Sign", John shows that Jesus related everything to Himself. Again and again Jesus postulates the great transition from the material, the temporal, the historical, the traditional, etc., to Himself. John 4:21-24 is a classic example.

Here, then, Jesus dismisses the temple in Jerusalem, with all its history, its tradition, its ritual, its priesthood, its material glory, and, so dismissing it, puts Himself in its place for ever. What an immense "Significance" is embodied in this change! His body was destroyed by men, religious men, representing the destruction of that earthly temple, in which destroying of His body the doom of the earthly was sealed, and the historic system shattered and scattered. In its place a resurrection body, Christ risen, becomes the Temple for evermore. All that was typified by the temple in Jerusalem is taken up in the risen Person - Jesus Christ; a spiritual House of God; a spiritual "My Father's House".

What that significance is will be our occupation in these pages for some time to come, if God wills. We can, at once, be introduced to this new Temple in a fresh recognition of the profound and comprehensive significance of the favourite phrase of the Apostle Paul, and see what he saw when he used it some two hundred times: "In Christ". To be "In Christ" is to be where God is, where we meet God; where God speaks; where all that is true of God is to be found; to be a worshipping and adoring people; to be where heaven and earth meet; to find the seat of mercy and the throne of grace, and infinitely more.

This is the greater, more glorious, and more abiding Temple than that which Solomon built. If all that beheld the temples of Solomon, Zerubbabel, and Herod wondered and praised; if David so loved and longed for "Thy House, O God", and made it the crowning glory of his life; all that and more is transferred to, and is the true glory of, Him who said: "Destroy this temple (sanctuary), and in three days I will raise it up." The glory of Heaven filled that Temple when He was raised and exalted, and "Pentecost" had that as its supreme explanation.

No wonder that one of John's great words is "Glory"! (It occurs twenty-two times in his Gospel.) ... "We beheld his glory." Not only did "the Word become flesh", but "It tabernacled among us" (1:14), a transition from the tabernacle in the wilderness as the repository of the Law, or Word, of God, to Himself - God's Son.

In this preliminary word we are faced with the tremendous, challenging, and revolutionary fact that, since Jesus was raised from the dead, the Temple, the House of the Father, and all that it signifies is not a place, an earthly location, a ritual, etc., but a Person, and where He is and believers are in Him, there is the House of God; be it dungeon, garret, simple home, cave or "Wheresoever", that is "Bethel", the House of God.

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, Jan-Feb 1966, Vol 44-1

Urgently Needed!

Men (and women) of stature

(Isaiah 45:14; Ephesians 4:13)

In whom the Cross has done a deep work as to self-interest.

Who are not so concerned to preach, or to try and influence others to a doctrine or theory, but whose main influence will be one of LIFE.

Who have come to know the Lord in a way of proving.

Whose reaction to every situation, circumstance, and proposition is: Does it glorify God?

And whose Touchstone by which all things are tested and determined is: Can it work out to an increase of Christ?

For such there is a pressing need, in the Church, in the Lord's work, and in all the nations.

Enquire in the Secret Place.

Basis of consideration Romans chapter 6.

Published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines Volume 21-3 & Volume 49-4

What is the Church?

"For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: that no flesh should glory in his presence. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:26-31)

What is the Church? It is Christ in living union with His own. That is the Church.

You do not build a special building and call it "the Church". You do not have a special organization — a religious institution — which you call "the Church".  Believers in living union with the risen Lord constitute Church. This is the reality, not the figure.

Now, in union with Christ risen, all human limitations are transcended. This is one of the wonders of Christ risen as a living reality. We are brought into a realm of capacities which are more than human capacities, where — because of Christ in us — we can do what we never could do naturally.

Our relationships are new relationships — they are with heaven. Our resources are new resources — they are in heaven. That is why Paul wrote to the Corinthians that God hath chosen weak things, the foolish things, the things which are not... that by them He might bring to naught the wise, the mighty, the things which are. Why did God appoint it so? Because it is not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit... and to show that there are powers, energies, and abilities for His own which transcend all the greatest powers and abilities of this world.

That is the history of God's people... and that is where so many people go wrong.  Men of the world look upon Christians and, for the most part, do not think much of them. They measure them by the standards of the world and say: "Well, they are rather a poor lot; their caliber is not much!".

But that is God's way, and the world never can measure that. Nor can that be done by human wisdom, strength, or ability at its greatest. God has chosen weak things for that. Why? Simply because weak things, in their dependence, are the best instruments — the best means — of allowing God to show that such works are not of any human sufficiency at all... but all of Himself.

Please do not take comfort from the fact that God has chosen weak things and foolish things... and say: "Well, I am that — and therefore it is all right!" The point is: Are you, in God's hand, bringing to naught the mighty and the wise? Is it not a case of our resting back on our weakness and our foolishness and our nothingness... and our saying: "That applies to me; that is all right; that is all that matters!"

That is not all that matters. The thing that matters is that I — being weak — may know resurrection union with Christ in all His might and power; and, in that union with Him, mighty spiritual things should be done through me. That is the positive side.

We may know the Lord in a personal and inward way. We may draw upon the Lord's resources in a personal and inward way. All that the Lord has is available to us inwardly. Heaven is no longer closed when we are united with Christ on the ground of His atoning work.