Author's Rights

Published as an E-book

by

Austin-Sparks.Net

Email: info@austin-sparks.net

ISBN: 978-1-927326-41-1

In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given and not sold for profit, and that his messages be reproduced word for word, we ask if you choose to share these messages with others, to please respect his wishes and offer them freely - free of any changes, free of any charge (except necessary distribution costs) and with this statement included.

God's Method and Means in Times of Special Peril

by T. Austin-Sparks

Transcribed from Conference Messages given in August 1955. Also published as Part 2 of a book in 1956 by Witness and Testimony publishers titled "God's Reactions to Man's Defections".

Contents

Chapter 1 - Divine Reinforcement

Chapter 2 - Divine Reactions

Chapter 3 - Divine Resources

Chapter 4 - Remember Jesus Christ

Chapter 5 - The Spiritual Basis of Everything

Chapter 6 - The Testimony of Jesus

Chapter 7 - The Responsibility

Chapter 1 - Divine Reinforcement

The burden that has been on my heart for some time in relation to this time, is Gods Method and Means in Times of Special Peril - how God meets particular perils at particular times. There are such times in every connection, the Bible contains many times of particular and peculiar peril in the life of the people of God and shows us how God moved to meet the situation at such times. And there are such times in the life of the Lords people continually, times when things have come to a turning point, a crisis. That is true in the history of the church again and again, even since New Testament times, and it is true in the life of any company of the Lords people locally when, for some reason, the situation is critical. A turning point has been reached. And at such times it is very important to know how the Lord would meet such situations and such need. That is in general what we are going to be occupied with at this time.

May I remind you of a provision which the Lord made in the construction of the Tabernacle, as it is called.

The Tabernacle in the Wilderness

Some of you will recall a reference to this. The Lord gave instruction that in the erection of the boards of the Tabernacle, at the corners there should be an extra board, reinforcing the turning point. Of course, corners are always delicate things, perilous things. Turning points are always fraught with tremendous possibilities. You come up to that point and now a turn is going to be made; a new course is going to be followed, and that turning point has got to be negotiated with much wisdom. Something extra must come in there to cover it. And in that infinite wisdom of God - the recognition, not only of the weakness of a corner in natural things, but the perils connected with turning points in spiritual life - the Lord made and makes a provision; He covers it, prescribes for it. And as in the boards of the Tabernacle, there must be some real reinforcement at that delicate and dangerous point of crisis.

We might just dwell for a moment or two upon the Tabernacle, we come back to it again presently. You know that it was, in type, the shrine of God's testimony. It is called the "Tabernacle of Testimony", or "The Testimony". The shrine of God's testimony. In type it was what Paul calls, in his letter to the Colossians, "the mystery of Christ" - the mystery of Christ - the shrine of the mystery of Christ into which no natural eyes may peer. And in this shrine of the testimony of God concerning His Son, Jesus Christ, there are these turning points. As we have said, they are always precarious places and times, for the testimony is involved, God's testimony concerning His Son is involved. And if something goes wrong here, if something goes wrong now, it's going to have very serious effects in the future. The next phase of things is going to be affected by what happens as we turn this corner, by just how far we negotiate this present difficult situation - in our lives, or in the work of God, or in the history of the Lord's people, locally or generally - the future is involved.

We come up to this point: here are the boards all leading up to it, and now from this point a new course has to be taken; but oh, this new course has got to be very, very carefully safeguarded. I think you see what it is that we have in mind. All that has been in the past, all the labour, the work, the suffering, and the cost, may be hazarded at any point of crisis by any weakness, or lack of care, when we come to this issue. All the future may be made unsafe, weak, and be clouded by regrets, if this turning point is unguarded.

You are no doubt wondering what is in mind, "Now what is he getting at? What turning points? Where are the crises?" and so on. Well, you wait, and I think you'll see that this is not just some general statement of truth, obvious truth, it has some very serious points of application. Now we can go on, having introduced the matter.

It is with such a turning point in the Church's history, and the Lord's way of handling it, that we are brought when we take up Paul's two letters to Timothy. Shall I repeat that? When we take up Paul's two letters to Timothy we find ourselves right there at one of the major turning points in the history of the Church - a turning point fraught with momentous issues; and those issues have thrown their shadows right down the centuries and are with us today. We need to know what was God's provision (which remains as His provision) to meet that which came in at the turn of the road then, for the values that we have given us here in these two letters (and you'll never call them 'little' letters again after today or after this weekend, if ever you have!) the values which we have in these two letters of Paul to Timothy were meant to cover this whole age, because the Spirit who gave these letters through Paul, saw what was happening and how far-reaching it would be. And what (let me repeat) is of general and comprehensive importance here, has its own application to all those minor crises in our own personal lives, or in our life together as God's people.

Now then, such a crisis was the occasion of Paul's writing these two letters to Timothy. And may I say again, for I do want you to get hold of this very, very important thing that the Lord is wanting to say to us at this time, this is an inclusive and comprehensive example of all crises in the spiritual life; an example in principle and in nature. That is, it has all the features of any spiritual crisis, and it therefore contains all the method and means of God of meeting any spiritual crisis. We are not just dealing with church history - we are dealing with our own history. We've got to be met right there in our own spiritual lives.

Well, inclusively then, the Divine method of meeting any critical situation is - what? It is the reinforcement of fundamental and essential realities. That is what these two letters contain. The reinforcement of the boards at the corner, and its counterpart here in the reINforcement and ENforcement, if you like, for Paul commands here as well as exhorts, that the reinforcement of fundamental and essential realities is God's inclusive method of dealing with any threat, or any possibility, or any actual change in the course of things. And there is one all-comprehending fundamental of true Christianity, and that is: spirituality. Let me say that again: there is one all-comprehending fundamental of true Christianity and that is: spirituality or its essentially spiritual nature.

The Essentially Spiritual Nature of True Christianity

So that God's method in meeting any critical situation in the Christian life is to reinforce spirituality, or to recover it. For true Christianity, at its very beginning, and in all its growth, and in its final perfecting, is wholly spiritual. That needs breaking up, and will be broken up as we go on during these days probably.

A Christian, a true Christian, is fundamentally and essentially, by their being, very being and existence, a spiritual person. All our growth in grace is not the growth of time, years, or of the acquiring of knowledge about things of God, true growth is just our own spiritual growth, and before God there is no other stature, no other growth. And God takes infinite pains to see that our growth is spiritual growth. Well, that wants a lot said about it. The consummation and the perfecting of the life of the Christian is a wholly spiritual thing. You see, the consummation is a spiritual body; as was the natural, so will be the spiritual. "Not that which is spiritual is first, but that which is natural then that which is spiritual". Those words, as you know, from 1 Corinthians 15 apply to the resurrection body. "It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body". Then, then it wants a spiritual person to occupy a spiritual body; and if the spiritual body is the consummation of the Christian life, then the Lord would have, not a little, poor, little spiritual person occupying a consummate body; He would have us full-grown, so that the perfecting of the Christian life is in keeping with its consummation: it must be spiritual.

Everything else in the Christian life is spiritual. The people are spiritual people by their very birth by the Spirit, their work and service is spiritual. It's not a matter only of how many things we do, but the spiritual quality of anything that we do. There's tremendous spiritual value intrinsically in a 'small' thing done in the Holy Spirit, while very little may come of a vast amount of feverish activity in what is called "Christian work". Everything is judged in Heaven by its spiritual value; the work, the service. The warfare is spiritual; and you have no need to be reminded of that. "We wrestle not with flesh and blood, but with hosts of wicked spirits". Our warfare is spiritual. Our knowledge and our understanding as Christians is spiritual. Our fellowship is spiritual - our relationship with one another is a spiritual relationship, it's the unity of the Spirit.

All government amongst Christians is spiritual. It's not autocratic, it's not official - it is spiritual. Just at that point we need the parenthesis of a worker's conference, for very, very few Christians today are able to discern and discriminate between human government and spiritual government in the House of God. They confuse the two, and thereby bring in many, many complications. However, it's said for the moment, we leave it. Government in the Christian realm is spiritual government.

Guidance is spiritual guidance, "led by the Spirit". The methods and the resources of the church, of Christians, are spiritual methods and so are their resources. All this makes up this comprehensive truth: that the all-inclusive, fundamental reality of the true Christian life is spirituality; by which we mean, it is all of the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember that in the closing chapters of the prophecies of Ezekiel, there is brought into view the river - the river rising in the sanctuary, broadening, and deepening on its way - and on its banks trees... bearing fruit every season, and the leaf unfading. I believe that to be a foreshadowing, a pre-figuring, of what we have in the book of the Acts. The trees are men, planted by God, drawing their life from the river of God and how it broke out in the sanctuary in the book of the 'Acts'! And how we see the men planted then by God on the banks of that river; and the fruit - how abundant was the fruit! Trees, sustained by heavenly life, carrying on a heavenly testimony; in a word: spiritual people, men and women whose life and resource and everything, was the Spirit of God - for it was the Spirit of God who broke out in the sanctuary on the day of Pentecost. God's testimony down the whole course of the river requires spiritual people, drawing upon spiritual resources; that is what we have there.

Now dear friends, all the troubles inside of Christianity (and it's a big term 'Christianity', it comprehends a very great deal; you can localise it and personalise it, if you like) all the troubles in Christianity are due to loss or lack of spirituality. God's method, ever and always, in getting over some trouble in us personally or in us together, locally or in His Church, is always a reinforcement of the spiritual life. And we never get over any trouble without some strengthening of our spiritual life. Isn't that true? We are just not going to be able to patch it up, put it right, do something about it outwardly - we have got to come into a new spiritual position about this. We'll never get through on this crisis until we have got a new spiritual position, until our spiritual measure has been increased, or our spiritual position regained, if we've lost it.

It's futile to try to get rid of any troubles in Christianity at large, or in ourselves, or locally, along any other line but God's line. This is a crisis. Everything in the future depends upon how we get round this awkward corner, this difficult situation - all the past, as we have said, is going to be jeopardised if we don't negotiate this spiritual situation triumphantly. How will it be done? An extra board - a reinforcement of what has been for the future, holding everything intact by a strengthening of our spiritual life. So the Divine safeguard, or remedy, for every trouble is the reinforcement of spirituality, or recovery of spirituality.

Look just again at those boards of the Tabernacle. They were made of acacia wood, which is known for its great strength and power of endurance. They were of considerable height, as you know, ten cubits high; this is higher than any man naturally, this is something of greater stature than we are naturally - we or they who comprise the House of God - something here bigger than you or I are naturally. They were upright, standing on their feet. Upright. And those three things are very significant. Here is something that needs strength that is more than ordinary strength; for endurance. Here is something that means stature that is more than ordinary human stature; to rise above. And here is something that must really be on its feet; that is, established.

Now you have got your New Testament crowded into those few things, if you just think. And these letters to Timothy (and you think perhaps, that I've gone from them; I haven't) they are just full of those things; just full of those very things. How wonderful they are seen to be in the beginning, aren't they? For, you know, even at the beginning of the Church's history, it was a tremendous corner that was being turned. We shall see as we go on that the coming of Christ Himself represented the biggest crisis in all history. It was a most tremendous turning-point in everything. Indeed, things were going to change from that time. And into that tremendous crisis right at the beginning the Church was thrown; and it was a delicate, and a dangerous, perilous time. How the church behaved and got through those days, would give colour to all the succeeding generations.

Look at the strength of the boards! Was it super human strength? Well, think of Peter only a very little while before, how much he could take, in that room downstairs by that fire, with the finger of the maid pointing at him. How much could he take? He crumpled under it. But look at him now! And are these men on their feet? Are they standing upright? They are not only standing on their own feet in the Lord - they are putting other people on their feet! Look at that poor fellow who has been lying there at the gate all those years, unable to use his feet. Peter takes him by the right hand, and up he comes - and he's on his feet right enough! And again later, a repetition, that same thing, that putting people on their feet. And out of that grew this rich ministry in the New Testament about being established.

Being Established

That's what it means: standing up. You and I will be no good to the testimony of the Lord unless, in the right sense, spiritually, we are on our feet, we're standing up! The testimony is always let down when we break down, when we let go, when we lose our feet. And that may be a crisis for some of you, even this afternoon if you have lost your feet, you've been knocked off your feet, or you haven't been on your feet for a long time, or you've been up and down, up and down for a long time, you've got to have a crisis over this thing. You've got to get around that corner. All that has been is in the balances with this present issue; all that the Lord would have for the future is made impossible, or will be all wrong, unless you get round this corner quickly, and get your feet in the Lord.

You know what I'm talking about, "getting your feet in the Lord", having what Paul calls "full assurance" - assurance about your salvation. For these boards, as you know, were founded in the two, the two basic things - made of silver; redemption. Redemption is silver, or silver is redemption. And the double testimony under their feet, reinforced this thing twice over. Two is always sufficiency of testimony, isn't it? And they were in that. Assured of your salvation, certain about this matter. Until that is so, well, there's no strength and there's no uprightness; there's no endurance, there is no stature, no measure. And so that applies to many other things as well as our foundation: our confidence, our faith, our certainty with the Lord. These are things which must really characterise the true Christian. These are the constituents of a spiritual man, or a spiritual Church.

If you've been thinking in Timothy's letters, as I've been speaking, does it not all come back to you if you know those letters at all? All that I've said comes back, doesn't it? We'd say Paul, but Paul's Lord was making him write those letters on these very things at a time of tremendous crisis. So we come to Timothy and to the crisis in Christianity which (note this) the whole crisis in Christianity at a turning-point in its history was focused in this young man himself. These letters to Timothy are nothing less than dispensational in their significance. They are far more than those favourite texts: "Take your share of the hardship, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ" well, you love that, that's a favourite text; or, "Fight the good fight of the faith" you love that; or, "That the man of God may be perfect, furnished unto every good work and work" that's fine, that's grand, we like that; or again, "That he may be a vessel unto honour... prepared unto every good work" - how we like these fragments! Well alright, but do remember, dear friends, that every one of them, every one of them is set in a crisis for the dispensation. And until you recognise that, you haven't really got the value of the fragments.

Why "take hardship as a good soldier of Christ Jesus"? "Because the dispensation hangs upon it, Timothy! This is not only for you, but for the future." Why be "a vessel unto honour", why "lay hold on eternal life", why "fight the good fight"? There are far, far-reaching issues at stake, right on to the end of Christianity's history - that's why! These letters were not written to Timothy just for Timothy's sake, for the time being, to help this young fellow along in his own Christian life. And they were certainly not written just to give us nice fragments for our own Christian life. These letters were written at a most critical time in Christianity's history, and all their fragments relate to that.

Now take the fragments in their setting, and they take on new meaning, new significance and you will understand why Paul is so serious - his appeals, his exhortations - repeatedly, "Oh man of God...", "Oh man of God". Was there a crisis on? Well, there are plenty of proofs in the letters themselves to that fact. You can pick out some of the indications. First of all, he reminded that these were the last writings of the Apostle. The second letter was the last thing that ever Paul wrote, and he wrote it within perhaps hours of his execution. Paul is going. Paul is passing from this scene. Paul's personal ministry, in word and in writing, is coming to a close. There is going to be a real loss and a real gap; tremendous loss to the Church. It's a crisis. It's a crisis. When God takes away any servant of His through whom He has met His people in some rich, full way, there's a great gap, and that gap doesn't become smaller as time goes on. You're always wishing that that servant of God were back to help. You're always saying, "Now what would he say, what would he do?" I don't exaggerate the point. This letter contains this.

Paul says: "I, Paul, the aged... I am about to be offered up" right? Is that a crisis? Well, if, if it is - and it is - we need something, Paul, from the Lord to meet this situation. The Lord must reinforce us at this turn in the road. And the letters do that! You see that, as we go on. Ah, but not only so - the letters reveal a secession from Paul. He cries: "all they which be in Asia be turned from me". And although we know that some did leave him because it was too costly to stay with him, and that the peril of his death was overshadowing any associates, it is difficult, in looking into this whole matter, not to conclude that the turning from Paul by all those in Asia was on doctrinal grounds. On doctrinal grounds. You say, "Where have you the evidence for that?" The evidence is abundant, and will be brought forward presently, we state it here.

There is a secession from Paul because of his line of things, his teachings; because of the standard that he has raised, because of the level that he has insisted upon. They can't go on with Paul. And that's a crisis. Oh, what a crisis! Must I, must I anticipate this and say here and now that the first chapters of the book of the Revelation are the outcome of that secession from Paul. The very churches in Asia which Paul had been used to bring into being, beginning with Ephesus, of which Timothy was the overseer. Those churches are seen in those chapters, first chapters of the Revelation, to be in a condition resultant upon their turning from the man whom God used to bring them into being. It is a tremendous crisis to let go anything that God has given, to lower your standard; and oh, how the standard was lowered. We shall come back to that again. It's a tremendous crisis, it's a dangerous point to weaken on anything that the Lord has shown to be His will. Very dangerous. So, they were leaving Paul.

And then you look again at the letters; the change in the nature of things indicated by these letters... I can't now stay to go through all these things, and I think perhaps it's there that I must stop this afternoon. But these letters are just full of a lowering level of spiritual life, in every way; a loss of spirituality, a decline. It's a crisis. And all I will say at this point, without going into those details, because it would carry us such a long way, all I will say is this: that this is always the peril: where God has given richly, where God has given any fullness, where God has called to anything more than the nominal and shown His mind to be spiritual fullness, the peril is always present of losing, letting go, declining, dropping away on to some lower level, perhaps because of the cost of going on, or for some other reason. This peril is always present.

Now I come back just to close this time, to where we started: reinforcement. Reinforcement. The Lord is always seeking to strengthen our spirituality in order to get over these threats and perils which are always imminent, never far away. An increase in the spiritual life. Isn't it, isn't it impressive (I was going to say "strange", it isn't strange because it's just the very thing that we will expect if only we thought about it) but isn't it impressive that when there is a time of danger, of peril, of a threat, of a crisis in the spiritual life, the Lord puts us into such a state of agony and suffering and distress that we have got to get a new position with the Lord altogether, or we'll not get through? How faithful He is! How faithful He is, and because, because of a threat, because of a danger, a peril, He may plunge us right into a sea of difficulty and trial, to strengthen our swimming powers, to get us into some fuller measure, that we will not so easily be caught there again. When anything like that reappears, we'll recognise it for what it is, and know that we have got to keep our feet, keep our balance, and keep steady.

So these letters are just full of exhortations to Timothy: "Be strong", in other words, "Be steady" - "Take your share of hardship... Lay hold on eternal life" - all because of what Timothy signifies in the whole dispensation. I trust you're able to glean something from what I've said, and then dear friends, I'm quite sure it's what the Lord would say to us and to His people in these days; as we go on I'm certain you will be more and more convinced of that.

Chapter 2 - Divine Reactions

We have taken up the letters from Paul to Timothy as containing and representing a very great crisis and turning point in the course of Christianity. And we are moving into those letters to see, firstly the nature of the crisis, the change which was coming about, and then how the Lord moved to cover, to provide for that tremendous turning of a corner. We began to take note of the indications of crisis in these letters, observing that all these fragments with which we are so familiar, the favourite passages, are really set in a very much larger setting than just things said to help the Christian in their own personal life at any given time of need. These things are written in relation to very far reaching issues. But let us continue for a few minutes with this line of indications of there being a real crisis on when Paul wrote these letters.

We have noted the first feature of that big crisis in the imminent departure and withdrawal of Paul himself from the scene. We might add a few words to that particular matter because undoubtedly the apostle was writing largely for that very reason. The things he was saying to Timothy were largely because he was going. These things needed to be said, because the whole thing was going to be left to others, and to Timothy in a particular way. That constituted a very big change, that Timothy and the faithful men mentioned by the apostle (you will remember the fragment) these are to take up the work and the responsibility, and stand in the place that Paul had occupied. And so the apostle was laying the burden very heavily upon Timothy and upon these others, because of his near-at-hand departure.

And then we took note also of that to which he refers in that secession from him; all those which were in Asia being turned from him, no longer prepared to follow Paul, no longer standing with him in the truth and purpose for which he had given his life, no longer faithful to the great revelation which God had given. Perhaps not having an adequate apprehension of how great a thing had come through Paul, for it is difficult to believe that anybody who had an adequate apprehension of the greatness of things, could in this way turn away. However, here it is, they were leaving Paul, which meant they were leaving what Paul had sought to realise.

And then we were beginning to note the change in the nature in things indicated by the content of these two letters: a real state of spiritual depreciation. I cannot take the time to turn you to every fragment and every passage in the letters indicative of these things, but it does not take you very long to read them, and I would suggest that, after having had it pointed out, you do take up these letters anew and read them carefully again and again. I would that I already had basis with you upon which I could build, but however... there are not a few indications in these letters of a state of moral decline. The apostle refers to some things which are worse than sad or grievous - they are quite evil as things creeping in and having a place amongst Christians: moral laxity. Moral laxity - carelessness in moral conduct and relationships; truly a sign of a lowering of spiritual temper, temperature, standard. The beginnings of it, so far as the church, so far as Christianity was concerned, are traceable in these letters. And the apostle is saying, in effect: "The two things cannot go together: a real true spiritual life, spirituality - and moral laxity".

Perhaps you'll think that that's a terrible subject even to mention in a conference of Christians. I don't know whether that is so, but dear friends, the world is a terrible place, a terrible place, morally, and we all have to live here. The atmosphere is full of it, the papers are full of it, and it is not always easy to keep that atmosphere, if not that kind of life, altogether at bay. It insinuates itself, but perhaps the least or the most that I should say here is this: that that is a very, very persistent means employed by the Devil to ruin the spiritual life. Moral laxity. The enemy is always trying to catch Christians on that ground, on that line, and if he can do it with the people of God, he has ruined their testimony.

Now, we began this afternoon, you'll remember, by referring to the Tabernacle as the shrine of the testimony of God, and God's recognition of the need to reinforce the corners, the turning points - to reinforce spirituality against the perils and dangers of a corner, a change-round from one line to another. It's the testimony that's involved. It is. And let me say this and pass on: that rather than being the least involved, or the most immune, Christian people are more in danger of this very thing than anyone else. If the enemy can get a Christian on that low level of life, at that point, he's struck a master blow. And if he can get a servant of God overcome there, he has surely consolidated his ground against the testimony of Jesus. Therein is a long and terrible history; it explains much. Hence - "Timothy, Timothy, flee, flee," says the apostle, "youthful lusts... flee!" Beware of the encroachment and inroads of this moral laxity that's in the world - we've got to reinforce things against anything like that for the testimony's sake. Is that an unnecessary word to you? Forgive me, if you think so. But here it is.

But that's not the whole of it. I... I'm compelled to say some things that I would rather not say and if, dear friends, they don't apply to you, any of you individually, for your enlightenment and being made aware, it may be helpful to some others in danger. For another feature of the change and the lowering level of spirituality marked in this letter, is unbecoming behaviour in the House of God.

Unbecoming Behaviour in the House of God

The House of God is mentioned, as you notice here, and one of Paul's emphatic words here is "how men ought to behave in the house of God"; that's why he wrote, he said; behaviour in the House of God, and there is unbecoming behaviour. He touches upon the women - the women with unbecoming dress, or lack of it. Now that's an unpleasant thing to talk about, but isn't it something to be talked about? It's a mark of poor spiritual life when that happens, a lowered spiritual level. You see, spirituality is pre-eminently practical. When we speak of that and use the word "spiritual" and "spirituality", sometimes people make a joke of it and say, "Oh, they're so spiritual!" Well, if you, if you can think or talk like that, you haven't got any idea of what spirituality is! Spirituality is tremendously practical: it touches your dress, it touches your behaviour, your conduct as a Christian! Spirituality says, "Look here, you will not overdo it and you will not underdo it; you will have a proper, dignified means". That's what's here.

Isn't it a pity that these things which Paul wrote, you see, concerning women, sisters, for instance, have been taken out and made subjects in themselves? Thrown up like that, and so it comes back on Paul, that he ever said such things. See? It's a complete mishandling. Why not recognise that this is set in a decline of Christianity, and these things are marks of spiritual decline? That's why they ought to be spoken about; they're not things in themselves! Naturally, naturally you might have your own feelings about these things. You might be old-fashioned, for instance, and be called not up-to-date; you haven't moved with the times. Or naturally you may have an argument for this kind of thing, but if you're spiritual, you'll have another kind of argument. You'll not be behind the times, and you'll not be moving with the times; you'll be moving with Heaven, and that's a different standard altogether. You see what I mean? This laxity and this behaviour which is not becoming, not becoming to a Christian, and it touches all sorts of practical things. Take note. Take note. It does matter, it does matter. It is a barometer of spiritual life: how we behave. Is that enough? But you see, it's in a second: things are changing. You'll see before we get much further, what happened; what happened.

Then note other indications in these letters: the beginning of an altogether new situation with Christianity itself, on the outside. You here have quite clearly indicated the beginning of ecclesiasticism, the beginning of clericalism, the beginning of formalism, the beginning of officialdom in Christian orders. It's all here! It's started in. Paul died, Paul was executed. There was a period of some twenty-five years without any historical record of how things went on or what happened. Then you come to John, to the writings of John, and then silence; silence again. And then men began to write, and we have the writings of the men called the "fathers". And what do we have? Immediately they began to write, at the end of the first Christian century, clericalism is in full force and so is ecclesiasticism. The whole system of spiritual men as overseers has been resolved into prelates, bishops, and what-not; a non-New Testament system. Officialdom: men in high position ecclesiastically, governing in an official way. Well, it's come; it's come. Here are the beginnings. So that what was spiritual - spiritual men as overseers of the Church and the churches, functioning because they were spiritual men, men of God - has now given place to men who are officials, ecclesiastics, clerics, and so on. A tremendous change has taken place, and that has come right down with all the history.

The Christian ordinances were changed and the Christian doctrines were changed. The ordinance of baptism was changed at the end of the first century. I'm not going to enlarge upon it; I'm taking them as indications of change - the turning of a corner - the coming in of something now organised in the place of that which was organic, something institutional which was once spiritual - a change from what was spontaneous. And how spontaneous it was; the Church just springing up and pressing on and expanding and growing by the sheer life that was in it; now it's organised, now it is a self-conscious entity, making its own appointments, and so on, and so on. Well, what's the point? The Holy Spirit saw this encroachment, saw this thing beginning, and sought to react to it and through Paul wrote these letters, and pointed out, "Look here, elders and overseers in the Church must be essentially spiritual men: they must be known for their moral character, for their spiritual character and life and for their spiritual measure!" And everything, everything in the House of God must be spiritual in its nature and value, and not official. The change led to infinite loss of power and all the unhappy conditions that we have today. And so the Lord's word, the Lord's word then, ever, and now is: "Oh, recover spirituality if you want to recover the power of testimony in this world!" If you want to have that impact and registration which existed at the beginning you must recover the spiritual state which existed at the beginning. Everything must be like that, not like this. How much there is in that; some will see more than others. These are very practical applications. A man's position in the House of God depends, where God is concerned, on his spiritual value and nothing more. You may dress him up and decorate him and laud him, and call him by this name or that, and you may do anything you like, but with God it is no more than that man's spiritual value that counts.

And what is true in the realm of those in place of responsibility is true, is true of everyone; true of everyone. Paul calls Timothy, "man of God" and makes it personal, and says, "Oh man of God..." That's because of Timothy's particular position of responsibility; but, mark you, Paul uses that phrase of all others too, in the same writing! Why are the Scriptures given, and to whom are they given? Are they only given to Timothy, and to overseers, and men in particular responsibility? No. "All scripture given by inspiration of God is good for this and that, and that; that the man of God...". Who is that? Every one to whom the Scripture is given is called a "man of God". See that? So, if you have the Scriptures, you come into that designation; you are supposed to be a man of God, a woman of God. As God's man, God's man... we're all supposed to be that: 'God's men'.

What Are God's Men?

What is the man of God? Again, that title only belongs to those who are in a spiritual position, not in any formal, official position, but a spiritual position. They are where they are because of their spiritual life, measure, and value. We cannot underline that too strongly.

Well, you see, the move, the crisis, the change was from what was inward, to everything being outward. Everything being outward - offices, and functions, and positions, and titles - outward, formal, the introduction of formalism. Paul is bringing it back to where it ought to be: the person himself, the person herself. That's where he fastens it, to safeguard, to recover, to protect, it must be spiritual men and women.

Well, these are indications of the course of things; the change that was coming over Christianity. But as I said a few minutes ago, there is so much proof of this. Paul went somewhere, John was going on, and you know that Paul went in the terrific holocaust of persecution which led to John's exile. Somewhere, John is - and then he writes; he writes his gospel, the gospel of pre-eminent spirituality, isn't it? You don't need that I should stay to show that the gospel written by John was written with the object of bringing things back to spiritual principles. And then he wrote his letters. And what are his letters? Well, John's letters are just full, from beginning to end, of spiritual essentials, aren't they? Life, light, love, and so forth. Spiritual essentials for revelation. Read the beginning then again of the book of the Revelation, the chapters of the Lord's challenge to the churches in Asia - Paul's churches - and what have you? Full development of those things of which we have been speaking! Moral laxity: "thou hast there that woman Jezebel"; "thou hast a name to live and art dead"; formalism... formalism, empty shell... and so on. It's come about. But, again, what is the Lord's reaction? It is a reaction to a spiritual position, isn't it?

What Are Overcomers?

What are overcomers? Well, overcomers are simply those who have recovered or maintained spiritual ground; that's all. It's not easy in a world like this, in the course of things, in Christianity as it has become, it's not easy to recover or to maintain purely spiritual ground. You will suffer for it, so the Lord said. You will suffer for it. I venture to say, dear friends, that it is far, far more difficult to keep a clear, straight spiritual course in the Christian life, than it is to live just as a Christian in this world. It may be difficult to live as a Christian in this world, but you will find there are difficulties that you'll never encounter from the world which you'll find in Christianity. Am I right? Am I right? Yes, "a man's foes shall be those of his own household" has a very much larger meaning. A spiritual course in Christianity is exceedingly difficult - because of Christianity. Christianity has very largely become the enemy of spirituality.

These are strong things, but, you see, it is a matter of the effectiveness of testimony, the purity of testimony. I am not at the moment touching upon the doctrinal side of things in these letters. There's a large, large measure of these letters given up to departure from former doctrine, I come to that in some measure later on. But what I am concerned with is to prove two things: to prove that this kind of crisis happens, it's the kind of thing that happens again and again, and this is the kind of besetting peril all along the line: to drop away from the full, high, spiritual level to which the Lord has called onto something lower and something less; to lose spirituality and then to see that God has ever and always and still does react by trying to get His people onto a more spiritual level of things, that is, to increase their spiritual measure, their spiritual life. It's the only way to overcome. It's the only way to get through and at last (to come to the letters again) to hand back the deposit to the Lord unspoilt: "Oh Timothy, guard that which hath been committed..." - Divine trust. Hand it back at the end, unsullied, unspoilt, undiminished, here it is intact [?]. Paul, on that very matter, says: "I have finished the course, I have kept the faith - Timothy, take it up and do the same." That's the effect of it: "Guard that which has been committed to thee" - the deposit of God.

I come then to the Divine reaction more particularly and specifically. And I want you to take note of this. Timothy himself is at this point being marked out as the instrument of the Divine reaction to this trend of things. And Timothy, therefore, assumes the role of a sign. Now, that is not a new idea in the Bible, is it? Ezekiel was told by the Lord that He had made him a sign for the house of Israel - a sign. And Timothy comes into that position and into that vocation, or function, as a sign so that he must himself become indicative of what spiritual features are, what spirituality is. Well, first of all look at Timothy, shall we say, negatively. He is a symbol of things essential to recovery. He himself is a symbol of things essential to recovery. We're going to find a lot of comfort and help here, all of us. What are they?

Weakness. You can despise Timothy, if you like; they did that when he was alive. Paul said to him: "Let no man despise thy youth", literally despised; weakness.

Dependence. It looked as though Paul was providing him with a set of crutches to help him to keep on his feet! Dependence. Discount. Discount, why, so much of this that Paul said to Timothy indicated these things about him.

Speaking of Timothy naturally, you would say that he was evidently a very timid, nervous sort of young man who needed all the time to be bucked up. Surely, Timothy must have been very weak, seeing all these things were necessary! Look at it that way, if you like; but there are other ways of looking at it. This, this is the most suitable and promising ground for spirituality - indeed, it is absolutely essential to the thing that God is after and Paul was after! And yet, what about Timothy? What about Timothy? Paul thought a lot of him; Paul made a lot of him, and Paul, who did not, did not usually err in the matter of wisdom and discretion, put Timothy into a very, very important place.

Timothy was an apostle, although he was never called that. Timothy was an elder, although he was never called that. But Timothy was more. There was in Timothy a combination of all the functions from an evangelist to a church-builder. "Do the work of an evangelist". From an evangelist to a church builder he was, he was the elder amongst the elders at the church at Ephesus - no small responsibility! Think of Ephesus. What was Paul up to, sending someone like Timothy to put things right in Ephesus, to take charge in Ephesus, to correct and to build in Ephesus? Preposterous to send a young fellow like that, of this kind!

Well, spiritual and natural abilities are altogether in different worlds! And when God reacts to recover, or acts to provide against a threat, a peril, a danger which has these characteristics, He brings His instrument down to nothingness - He empties it out and makes it more conscious of its weakness and of its dependence than of anything else. He is a symbol of God's reacting methods. I say that there is some comfort for us here. You know, you know in this greatest of all works of God - maintaining His testimony in absolute purity and truth - there is no place amongst those who are concerned, no place whatever, for assumption; assuming that you're something, or assuming that you can do something, assuming that you are called to this or that. There's no place for assumption; getting in, getting in by assuming - no place for that. There is no place for presumption - that is, running ahead of God, running ahead of the Spirit. There is no place for self-importance, for self-sufficiency, for self-assertiveness - no place at all. And if you and I are going to be used for spiritual purposes, God will take us in hand to drain us of the last drop of anything like that so that we know that of all men we are the most unfit and unsuited to the thing to which God has called us, that from all natural standpoints we have no right to be in that position. That's God's way of making spiritual men and women. He just does let everything out that is not of Himself. Yes, no place for anything like this if Timothy was to be all that Paul said he must be.

Now note, note because you may, if you're acute in your mental activity, you may have been thinking you're catching me up on this, because in these letters Paul is telling Timothy he must be strong, and I have just said he must be weak! Paul is as good as telling him he must be full, and I have said he must be empty! Ah, yes, but if Timothy was to be all that Paul said he must be, then it would be all spiritual and not natural. Is that borne out by the context? Of course it is! "Be strong" - but he doesn't stop there, "in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2:1). That is not self-strength, that's not natural strength of any kind. "The grace that is in Christ Jesus" - be strong in that. And so you note the strength, the strength in the case of Timothy as the symbol of God's reactionary method and means in a day of declension, the strength is to be spiritual strength.

Well it works both ways. It is a word of encouragement to those who are conscious of no strength, who only feel their weakness, "Look here, that is not the criterion, how weak you feel, at all: the criterion is 'the grace that is in Christ Jesus'". And it works the other way. If any of us should feel that we can do it, and press into the situation and into the position, and take it on, assume or presume, then we are in for a bad time under the hand of God - that is, if we are going to be of any use to the Lord. That's going to be emptied out.

"Let no man despise thy youth". Well, then, well then what is to be the reaction of Timothy to an attitude and mentality amongst men of that kind? How would you young men react if you were there, and men were despising you, and I said: "Don't you let them despise you!" What would you do? "Don't you let them have that attitude towards you!" You know you could act very much in the flesh, couldn't you? You could begin, as they say in America, to be 'chesty' - peacockish, they mean - to spoil it all by a false dignity, by an artificial personality that's not yourself. Authority is spiritual in the House of God. There's an authority about the man or a woman who has real spiritual measure, that weighs, weighs, and counts, and has influence. They may naturally be despised, but find spiritual measure and you'll find that in the time of difficulty it's to those people that those in difficulty turn. The authority... I'd like to dwell much upon spiritual authority, but we'll touch it again, not tonight, later.

The knowledge and the understanding (and note, I'm keeping to the book) the knowledge and the understanding were to be spiritual. Spiritual! I go on.

The Office

If you still like to use that word, the "office", whether it be elder, overseer, teacher, evangelist - whatever it is, it's to be spiritual, not official. You do that because you are that. It simply comes out because that is how you are spiritually constituted - it's how the Holy Spirit has constituted you. And it is a poor thing to try and be an evangelist if the Holy Spirit hasn't constituted you one, or a teacher. Oh, what tragedies we know of and have seen by people trying to be teachers, or something like that, because they like it, it appeals to them, and the Holy Ghost has not qualified them for it and it's just like the peacock's tail when it has gone - still strutting about, but there's nothing behind it! There's nothing more pathetic, is there? Lost it! Yes, what's the good of it all, if it isn't of the Holy Ghost?

And so it is with Timothy, "Endure hardness, hardship, as a good soldier". Endure? Endure? Well, just think for a moment of what Timothy was called upon to endure at that time. My dear friends, you, you perhaps haven't any idea of the situation. I have re-read lately the account of those persecutions which came about through Nero and the Jews against the Christians - the perfectly unspeakable horrors of cruelty to women, to children, to men, to families. I wouldn't shock you by mentioning them, but they are inhuman atrocities, indescribable, that literally hundreds of thousands of Christians suffered at the hands of those Roman Emperors. Because when Nero commanded the burning of Rome, a scapegoat had to be found upon whom the blame could be laid, and it was laid upon the Jews, and the Jews said, "No, it was the Christians!" and so the Christians were taken. You're not surprised at the sufferings of the Jews, are you? Not only Christ, but hundreds of thousands of His precious children were simply tortured in unspeakable agony, for many decades.

Timothy was in the presence of that growing shadow. He knew that his father in Christ was in prison and shortly to suffer death. He knew that those who had been near Paul in Rome had left him. And Paul said: "At my first defence no man stood by me, they all forsook me". Timothy was in the presence of that! Endurance? Who could endure but by the mighty power of the Spirit? You want spiritual measure for that, you need the enduring power of Christ for that; that spiritual endurance, not just natural courage.

Well, have I said enough to prove one thing, that the Lord, the Lord at all times of peril to His Church, at all times of danger, when things are threatening, and a change seems to be coming about, He always tries to get His people on to a higher spiritual ground: He always seeks to increase spiritual measure, He seeks to bring things over from the merely professional and formal on to the ground of spiritual life and spiritual character and to remind us that we are God's men; we are God's men. We are not the men of a system, not men of the world, not men of our own natural ambitions - we are God's men. I don't make much of it, but it is significant, isn't it, that Timothy's name means "honouring God" or "Timo-theus" - honouring God. That's the key to everything, with him, with us - honouring God - that's spirituality. And so we leave it there for tonight.

Chapter 3 - Divine Resources

I think perhaps the Lord would have us to underline and go just a little bit further with what we were saying at the close of the gathering last evening. You know we are in the letters to Timothy, and we are seeing by the aid of those letters that they, and Timothy himself, stood at a very critical turning point in the history of the church, of Christianity. And that the things that the apostle wrote to Timothy in those letters, were things which bear very, very strongly, seriously, upon the whole course of things as it was being "reshaped", shall we say, at that time.

And in speaking about Timothy last night, as himself a symbol of the situation and of God's method of meeting it, a symbol of the need to meet the new situation of spiritual declension and departure, we noted, on the one side, the neediness of Timothy - how he is presented in these letters as one in need in every way. And then on the other side, the urge that the apostle brought to bear upon him, the tremendous responsibility which the apostle indicated as resting upon him. And all these words of exhortation and command, seeming to make very great demands upon this young man: "I charge thee...", says the apostle, "in the sight of God...", "Oh Timothy..." the appeal, more than once to him, "Be strong", "Endure hardship as a good soldier", "Give diligence to show thyself approved unto God", and so on. And in the light (as we pointed out) of the situation which was developing at that time - the terrible, terrible persecution of Christians that was coming about, to which Paul himself so soon after writing this last letter fell a victim. And Timothy knew all about it. It was indeed putting a lot upon a weak vessel. It was making tremendous demands upon one who was evidently in himself not, speaking quite naturally, of great account. Apparently physically he was at a discount, "thine oft infirmity" the apostle mentions, "thine oft infirmity". Evidently Timothy went down under some malady, repeatedly and often.

Well, what did it all amount to? And this is the point; and we only need, as I have said, to re-emphasise it this morning: Paul was not calling upon Timothy to be a kind of super-man; neither was he calling upon Timothy to be more of a man than he was. That doesn't get us very far; we might talk to one another like that when we get down and under, or knocked about a bit. We might speak in human language and terms, "Well now, buck up!" "Now then, none of that, no giving way! Remember you're a man, remember you're a woman, remember you're a responsible person! You ought to behave better than that, it's most undignified!" Well, I don't know how far that gets you. It may make us feel all the worse, and  thoroughly ashamed of ourselves and such utterly worthless creatures that we want to get out of it altogether. And so Timothy might, if this had been what Paul was doing, might have said, "Well, Paul evidently doesn't think much of me; he has got a very poor opinion of me. And, well, I'm good for nothing - I had better just give it all up". But you see, that was not what Paul was doing.

It's important to notice this great feature about his letters; we shall enlarge upon it in other connections probably later, here we just take note of it. And I repeat: Paul was not telling Timothy to be a super-man - for it wanted a super-man to stand up to this situation, to carry this load, to meet these emergencies - it wanted a super-man, but Paul wasn't telling him to be that in himself, nor, as I have said, to be more of a man than he was. He was (Paul was) indicating to Timothy all the way through that Timothy's very life and work, his ministry and his position of responsibility, rested upon a Divine and supernatural basis. "The gift that is in thee... that was given thee" Paul refers to that, as you notice, more than once in his letters, "God has not given us a spirit of fear". And I call you to just read through again as I have no time to take you through, and note this: the strength that Timothy was to have, the ability that was to be his for doing and for enduring, was a strength and an ability which would not come from any spring in himself. He could be, and Paul was calling upon him to be, a super-man - but not in himself. "Be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus". He was really being called upon to be and to do far more than any human person could measure up to; far more than was possible even for the best men, the strongest and the wisest - to say nothing about Timothy. Timothy! And the Lord never lays upon us an impossibility. If He charges, calls, demands; He provides: His is the strength, His is the wisdom.

Now, without taking that any further, I bring it to this focal point. Dear friends, difficult as it may be for you and for me to believe it, especially at times, it is true that every Christian in a sense, and a very real sense, is a super-man and a super-woman. Every Christian is supposed to be something that no other person in this world, even at their best, can be. Every Christian is supposed to know, have knowledge of, and understanding of, that which no other person at their wisest can know. Every Christian is supposed to do what no one outside of Christ can possibly do; and every Christian is called upon and supposed to go through what no one else can go through, in the way in which a Christian is supposed to go through it. There are imposed upon Christians demands which are super-human. There are given to Christians resources which are super-natural. The Christian life is supernatural, from start to finish.

It's very important for you young Christians to recognise this, and for all of us to call it to mind. When the whole story is told, when we know as we are known, when we see all things clearly and no longer through the glass darkly, the one thing I am sure that will overwhelm us will be this: "My, it took the infinite power of Almighty God to do that, and I didn't know it!" Our salvation took that. Salvation is not the simple little thing that I am afraid a lot of people think it is, or make it out to be. However simple may be the turning-point, there are vast immensities of Divine power lying behind the rebirth of any one soul. And to get that soul right through and at last bring it into His presence glorified, calls for the "exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward". Thank God, that is available!

Now, is it not true, dear Christian? You've been on the way long enough, you know quite well that you couldn't get through? Indeed, you broke down in yourself, you did just break down and go all to pieces. It may have been worse, you may have said, "It's no good, I give it all up", and you contemplated another course, you looked for a way out - the situation was so difficult, so trying. But you're here, in spite of yourself, in spite of the Devil and all his forces, in spite of everything, you are here! How do you account for it? Well, there is something to account for it that's not in us, and in that very sense we have surmounted a tremendous force of opposition and antagonism to our getting through to a glorious end. I have often said here humourously, we'll look at one another when we're there and say: "Well, we're here brother, you're here brother! You didn't expect to be, did you? But you're here!" Yes, even Timothy will be there! Ah, but what he had to face, that's the point, and what was put upon him, and yet "be strengthened in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." That lifts us above the level of any human possibility.

Well, I just hope that the underlining of that would be perhaps helpful to us all. We are, oh do remember, we are as Christians, supposed to be something other, and more wonderful than any other people in this world; supposed to be, in every way, in every way. That wonder may be secret and hidden, and not manifest to the world, but it's there. May the Lord help us to lay hold, to lay hold upon that which He has presented to us - for a miraculous life. "Lay hold," says Paul, "on eternal life". Lay hold on eternal life. Lay hold.

Chapter 4 - Remember Jesus Christ

We shall proceed with our consideration of the message of the letters of Paul to Timothy. And you will have recognised that our method is that of arriving at the import and the significance of these letters, not necessarily going through them in the way of exposition. Of course we keep closely to what is written here, but what we are seeking to do, is to derive the inclusive import; that is, the spiritual message. We are leaving out quite a lot of technical data; we're not discussing problems which are purely technical in relation to the letters. We're saying nothing about the controversy as to whether Paul wrote those or not. We're saying nothing about the time and space between the two letters, or the first and second imprisonments. Such like things are just being left out of our consideration; there are a number of them, but they really don't affect the purpose that is in view. We want to get right to the resultant message of these letters having been written at all - why they were written, and at what time in the history of the church.

I'm going to take you back again to the point where we commenced yesterday afternoon [see chapter 1] in our reference to the boards of the Tabernacle in the wilderness, where we saw God's provision for reinforcing the turning-points, the corners, with an extra board because turning-points, angles, corners are always danger spots. The Lord has always made special provision for such points, turning-points in the course of His people's history. It's something to be taken up, if ever you are disposed to do so, in the Bible, and you will see how true that is. I have only to remind you, by way of instance, of the first chapter of the book of Joshua. You could not have any chapter in the Bible which is a greater reinforcement of everything, taking up the past to carry it on to the future, and you'll know that that was a big turning-point, from the wilderness into the Land, but it certainly did want strengthening, or it wanted strength to turn that corner and negotiate that crisis safely.

Well now, in using this illustration of the type again, the point that I want afresh to indicate is this: that the corners of the Tabernacle did set forth the arrival at a certain point which had a past; that point had a past. Things moved up to that point, and from that point there was a future, a new phase, a new course in the road, so to speak, as illustrated. And the reinforcement at the corner was a taking up of what had been up to that point, and saying, "Now, look here; we must safeguard that, we must conserve that, we must ratify that; we must be quite sure that that does not suffer loss or is allowed any weakness, in order that everything that is yet to be, shall take up those values and continue them in strength." For God does not intend a fundamental change in things, a change of character, a change of nature at any point; He just means that all that He has done and given shall be carried on safely and in strength to the next and through the next phase. You see the point. If you'll just grasp that, you will see what we are going to say this afternoon, how it is just that being done in the history of the church.

Now, when you come to these letters of Paul to Timothy, recognising them to be the last writings of the apostle - which in itself is a corner being turned, one phase closing and another phase coming. And you know, it was like that when Paul went; things changed when Paul went, things changed. And Paul himself was conscious of things changing, and because of that he wrote as he did to Timothy. These letters are therefore a reinforcing of things, a taking up of what has been, and confirming and consolidating for the future. At any rate, that is what God meant by these letters. And so, when you take them up, you find what we may call a large retrospective feature in them; a look back and a taking up of the past. A taking of Timothy back, right back to the beginning: the beginning of Christianity, and the beginning of Timothy's work and ministry. Paul takes him back to both of those things. Whether we shall be able this afternoon to speak of both will remain to be seen. But we'll take one: the retrospect as to the beginning of Christianity, which is Christ.

The Retrospect to Christ

Here is a very strong and a very comprehensive throw-back of Paul to Christ in two fragments - and are they fragments? One just a recall, and the other a very inclusive statement. One in the second letter, chapter two, verse eight: "Remember Jesus Christ..." we could leave it there, that's enough, you can add if you like, "risen from the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel". "Remember Jesus Christ". We have come to a crisis, we have come to a turn, we have come to a point where things are changing. What is our safeguard at this point? "Remember Jesus Christ". It is only a way of saying: "Bring Him into view again". So you've always got a method at any crisis: bring Jesus Christ into view again. Whether it's a personal crisis in our own spiritual lives, "Remember Jesus Christ". How often the apostle resorted to that means and method of dealing with difficult situations! Philippi, for instance, where there was some trouble, some disagreement, some lack of singlemindedness; Paul resorted to this method: "Remember Jesus Christ, have this mind in you, which was in Christ".

Now, I dare not enlarge upon that, gather up all the material upon that point, but you look again. The big turning-point which we come to in the beginning of the book of the Revelation; oh, what a turning-point in the church's history was the book of the Revelation! Remember that the beginning of that book is a re-presentation of Jesus Christ, comprehensively and matchlessly: "Remember Jesus Christ". It is always like that. You're having a bad time - your time is so bad that it's creating a real crisis for you - "Remember Jesus Christ". It's the greatest help in every such time. Is there some trouble between you and another Christian? "Remember Jesus Christ". Is there trouble in the assembly? "Remember Jesus Christ". The greatest corrective is to remember Jesus Christ.

But here is this other great statement, in the first letter, chapter three, verse sixteen: "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness" (or 'God-likeness'); "He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory." That is Christianity in a nutshell, as we say, it's a comprehensive and inclusive re-presentation of everything upon which Christianity rests. There are other fragmentary retrospective features in these letters, but that's enough. The first great throw-back of the apostle at this point of crisis and danger, is back to Christ; back to Christ. For Christ is ever the standard; backwards and forwards. Christ is ever the standard. At any given point where there are dangers, where there are certain changes, we have to refer back to Christ, and from that point we have got to carry on what has been from the beginning, of Christ.

Here it says that Christ is the embodiment of godliness, the embodiment of godliness or Godlikeness. It's a mystery, it's a mystery: "great is the mystery of God-likeness". That is enough to dwell upon at the moment, that is another time, but here Christ is said to be the inclusive, comprehensive embodiment of God's likeness. Now, that has a very practical application in this whole letter, for the real, the real purpose of God in the church is God-likeness, or conformity to the image of God's Son. It's the great dominating purpose and objective of God in our very lives as His people. Godliness. Godliness or God-likeness. But what is it? Explain, define Godliness: it's Christ, it's Christ - it's the reproduction of Christ, it is the expression of Christ. It is bringing Christ now, into the present situation.

The Embodiment of Godliness

Now we want but to look at Christ. I am sure, dear friends, that we, many of us Christians, have not really understood Christ. And we do need to understand Him.

You see, Christ was more than one man among many, albeit better than the rest, a real improvement on all other men. You might find somewhere a man or men of a very high moral character, of unimpeachable integrity, well, you'd say, "A splendid specimen of moral uprightness and goodness!" and then Jesus goes one better. No, He is not just one better than the best. He is not one man amongst many, although better than all. Let me put that another way. The goodness, the goodness of Jesus was not just that He was better than other men, His goodness was Divine goodness, and not human goodness. It was by Him, Jesus, that Life and incorruption were brought to light, through the Gospel; Life and incorruption. And the very best specimen of mankind that you can find, nonetheless is still corruptible; he can still be corrupted - he has the seeds of corruption in his nature. But not so Jesus Christ.

There is no corruption in Him, there are no seeds of corruption; it is incorruptible Life that comes with Him. And the Life that He gives to the child of God is incorruptible Life. That is, not ourselves, in what we are, but it is a distinct gift which, while being in us, is apart from us. And mark you, that is the key to our spiritual survival, in spite of a world of corruption, and a nature of corruption. He has given to us His own incorruptible Life. And through the gospel Life and incorruption have been brought to light through the gospel.

I need not perhaps to say to most of you, but for some of you young Christians: you want to be very, very aware of an insidious deception through perhaps unfortunate mistranslations in the Scripture, but more through common language and phraseology about immortality, the "immortality of the soul". The Bible does not teach it! The Bible does not teach it, our souls are not immortal. The Bible word, really, where the translators have put "immortality", is "incorruption" and incorruption is quite a different thing from what men may mean by the immortality of the soul. They, they lump us all together in this and by their word 'immortality' lift us all on to a level to which we do not belong, and to which we can never come naturally.

Incorruption is an altogether different thing from what is generally called immortality, incorruption is the true immortality. But, mark you, immortality is thought to be continuity of existence. Alright, we will allow you that for the soul if you like; but there is a very great deal of difference between continuity of existence and incorruption, incorruption: an incorruptible life. Eternal life is a different thing altogether from just continuity of life. It's a kind of life, a character of life. It's the Life which we have in Christ. Does this sound too technical, too difficult? You see, it goes to the root of this whole matter. We have got to get back, we've got to get right back to Jesus Christ. Christ is different from all men, all other men, in the essential nature which is in Him. And when He gives us His own Life, we as Christians are different essentially from all other creation, yes, and the biggest difference is possible because it is an eternal matter.

Now then, corruption. Corruption is coming into the church. Here it is in this letter, we pointed it out yesterday: corruption, moral laxity, all sorts of things which belong to this fallen creation and to this evil world, creeping into the church in Paul's day. Corruption manifested itself in the life of God's people. What are you going to do about it? "Remember Jesus Christ"!

Look here, dear friends, you have another Life, you have another Life by Christ, and you've got to live on the basis of that Life, you've got to remember that it is not necessary for you to be corrupted. Not necessary for you to be corrupted. You have in you a Life, the mighty Life of God, which in Christ has overcome death and corruption for man. Remember Jesus Christ. Remember that in Jesus Christ, there is that which went through all corruption untainted, and it is still possible, oh blessed be God, it has proved actual again and again for a child of God to walk in white raiment in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah. Where Satan's very seat is, you may find saints walking in purity. It's the marvellous miracle of the Christian life that we can be subjected to all the filth and all the horror, all the corruption and pollution of this world around us, and still go on unstained, untainted. It's a miracle! The miracle of the Christian life.

So, when corruption is assailing, is seeping in, remember: your Life is a different life from that. You know that is not your life, that is not for you; that is not your way, that's not the way of Christ. And it is not something imposed upon you by law, it's something in you by power. Thank God for this miracle. When a young man or young woman, without a great deal of knowledge, instruction, teaching, experience, have to go out into this world in that way, and be surrounded by men without another Christian anywhere near, men of the lowest kind just pouring out their filth day after day, and that young man can be kept by the power of God unpolluted. It's very practical is this incorruptible Life. Jesus is different. Jesus is different; He is not just better than the rest; He's different, basically different from the rest. And that's the truth about Jesus, and that is the truth about the child of God - not only a bit better than other people, but different; different. The life-principle is different. Is that important? Surely it is, we negotiate through the course safely to the end.

"Thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments". That is a testimony: "even in Sardis" there are a few even there in Sardis. "Even in Sardis... they have not defiled their garments". What is that? That's a throw-back to chapter one of Revelation, where the robe of Jesus is seen, clothed with a robe down to His feet, the white robe of incorruption. "I am He that liveth and I became dead, and behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages". So He says as clothed in this white garment down to the feet. What does it mean? Well, He has been thrown in His death into the cesspool of human iniquity, for us - "He was made sin for us, He who knew no sin" thrown into that cesspool of iniquity and has come out undefiled, triumphant, in a white robe. "And thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments..." what is that? It is just His victory in Sardis, in the lives of these people where things were indeed very, very black morally. "Remember Jesus Christ".

Young men, are there any here going to get that call-up into the Army, Navy? Well, you are going into it. You may not find another Christian near to help you. You may be out of touch with all means of grace outwardly; it may be a crisis for your spiritual life. Many have lost out at that turning-point. "Remember Jesus Christ". Remember that Christ in you is there as the power of an incorruptible Life. It is possible for you to go through it and come out triumphant because of Jesus Christ. And what is true in that connection is true in all others. It's true in all others; we are not good enough. And that's the difference, you see, between Jesus Christ and all, even the best, of men; His goodness was a different goodness.

Take a move around to another angle from which to look at Him: His knowledge.

His Knowledge

Now, no one will question or dispute that Jesus had a very wide knowledge, was tremendously well informed, was very rich in His understanding. Everybody in His day had to both recognise it and acknowledge it. Even His critics and enemies raised the question: "Whence hath this man this knowledge? Whence hath this man this knowledge?" He spoke as one having authority, and not as the very knowledgeable men, the Scribes. But His knowledge was not the knowledge of the schools. He never went to college or to university. He had to work at home, hard and long, for that pittance to keep mother and brothers in food and raiment. He was not able to earn in order to put aside a nest-egg against a rainy day (if that's not mixing metaphors!) for when it came to going out on His life's work, He couldn't afford a lodging, He had nowhere to lay His head. He had to work a miracle to pay His taxes.

No, "Whence hath this man this knowledge?" Knowledge which has extended and exhausted all the brains ever since His day? And they're still at it; still at it. Look at all the libraries that have been written on Him and His sayings! And still we come back and wonder what He meant when He said that and that; we still have not fathomed it! Everybody will acknowledge that He had a very, very large knowledge: but whence was it? We say again: It was not the knowledge of the schools; it was something other and something different and something else. Well, we Christians of course have got the answer; we know. But, mark you, that difference is the difference between Christ and all other "knowledgeable" people, and the difference between every simplest child of God and the wisest amongst men.

"Remember Jesus Christ..." oh, there is a source and kind of knowledge, by which we can be got through, which all the princes of this world's knowledge do not possess. It is a kind of knowledge. I do want to enlarge upon that sometime in this conference, but I am making the statement here. I want you to understand that unless we have, we have this kind of knowledge, this spiritual understanding, this spiritual intelligence, this intelligence which is different, which is other, this mind which is the mind of Christ - we are not going to negotiate these critical corners in Christian life, and experience, and in the work of God.

We need, we need understanding more than the best understanding in this world to get round these crises. How are we going to negotiate this situation? It may be that you are facing such things. You are exercised; you are wondering, "How are we going to get round this, how do we get through this? How is it going to be?" Well, there is a kind of knowledge available to the child of God, a kind of understanding, a kind of spiritual intelligence, that will get us through. And that is very true in experience and in history. If we didn't know the Lord at certain times, where should we have been, if we didn't know the Lord? That's only a comprehensive way of saying this: we've got a knowledge, a knowledge that saved us; our knowledge of the Lord saved us. And many times our knowledge of spiritual principles has saved us; our knowledge of how God does things has been a tremendous standby in times of crisis and need. Do you see what I mean?

Yes, remember Jesus Christ. He had a knowledge which was more than all the knowledge of this world, and different: it was that which He had by the Spirit. Well, these letters from Paul are proof positive of this: here is the new situation arising, and the big question is, "How is the church going to get around this without disaster, get through this crisis without calamity?" Well, the letter is just full of a knowledge, isn't it which meets the need, and it is the knowledge of Christ. Do you know that Christ is mentioned twelve times in each of these letters? They are very brief letters; you can read them through in a few minutes, both of them; and 24 times Christ is referred to and I always feel that when you get any word dominant like that anywhere, that's what it's about! And that's what it is all about. And so Paul is coming back with Christ, with Christ, with Christ - He is the One upon whom we should draw.

So much, then, for this matter of His knowledge.

A word about:

His Influence.

And again it is indisputable that He had a tremendous influence. His presence, His presence always made itself felt. He could not be anywhere without it being known that He was there. He had not to speak, and things began to come out; His presence was a powerful presence. Well, that does not need proving or enlarging upon. This mysterious influence and impact - what was it? Well, of course, of course some people have tried to explain it psychologically, that He had a tremendous psychic effect upon people. Others use one word by which they sum it all up: a tremendously strong "personality". Well, you can think that if you like, but that isn't the answer, that is not the answer. His influence, His impact, was something other than the psychic, and something other than just a strong personality. It was essentially spiritual. You see, this embodied, or embodied spirits, recognised His presence - spirits. Demons cried out in His presence. There's a registration upon the spiritual world, this is not psychic; these are actual entities and intelligences. I'm not going to say a lot about that, but what I want to say is this, what I'm getting to is this: that influence, influence is not just a matter of your having a strong personality, or being able to make a strong psychic registration wherever you are. That is a false conception of influence.

You may be, so far as men and this world are concerned, without the training of the schools and all the values of a rich education, you may have had nothing in your birth and inheritance and upbringing to make you an important person, or a strong character, and yet, dear friends, you may exercise a tremendous influence, a tremendous influence. You may count for something more than all that. It is true again (and here is the miracle of it all) that "God hath chosen the weak things... the weak things... and the things which are not", that He may destroy, may nullify, may bring down the things that are wise, the things that are strong, and the things that are. When you think of it, it's so often a, humanly speaking, very insignificant little person who is counting, counting tremendously for God. There's a difference, a great difference, between human influence, natural influence, and spiritual influence.

The Testimony is beginning to lose out, to lose its influence, so we find it in the churches in the book of the Revelation. The Testimony had lost its power and its influence in the world; and so it is today, so largely. What is the remedy? It is, as we have been trying to say all through this conference, it is the recovery and the reinforcement of spirituality. A spirituality! Spirituality is a tremendous power! Really spiritual people, be they what they may from this world's standpoint, really spiritually people are the people that count, the people of influence. And they are the people that are needed in this world - spiritual men and women - God needs them for the preserving and carrying on of His Testimony - reinforced spirituality. "Remember Jesus Christ" because you can only account for Him - in His knowledge, in His influence, as in every other way - you can only account for Him by the anointing of the Spirit. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him". The anointing. And we have the anointing; we are supposed to have the same anointing. And so His authority, to use the word of Scriptures, His authority was not that of personality; it was spiritual authority. And oh, how we need that! His judgment, His judgment of things, His power of discrimination, His insight was not just human sagacity, not just a high level of human shrewdness; no, His judgment is spiritual wisdom. I have only to mention it, and you will call so much to mind. This is just what Paul argued out so thoroughly in his first letter to the Corinthians; all these points, all these points.

And so we could go on, but the point is this: Jesus Christ, Jesus the Anointed (for that's the meaning of Christ - the Anointed), is different, and superior. What was true of Him then is true today. He needs, in these ways to be brought, shall I say, up to date and to be brought right into every spiritual crisis - wisdom, understanding, power, judgment, and everything else - "Remember Jesus Christ". Yes, it is all by the anointing.

And dear friends, surely you do feel about all this, if your hearts beat with Paul's, if you have any, any sense whatever of the real need today in the church, amongst God's people - yes, and in yourselves - because, because of things as they are, as they have become, or as they are threatened, you, you can take up Paul's concern. You see, this man just poured out his heart in these letters. There is something of a yearning, if not a breaking heart, in the way in which Paul here says: "Oh Timothy... oh Timothy, guard that holy thing, oh Timothy". That cry, that ejaculation, that bursting forth of his heart which is found through the letters in other forms, if not in that language, is just Paul tremendously concerned about this matter of spiritual Life, the, yes, the reinforcing of spirituality - that's what it is.

We all share that concern with Paul today; we all feel like that. Here is a man, tremendously concerned. Are you concerned about spiritual things? Are you? Are you concerned about the way that things have taken, speaking generally? The declension, the departure, the diversion, the dropping down, the differences, since the beginning? Are you concerned? Well, remember that it must be an intelligent concern, an intelligent concern, not just a sighing and groaning over it, but knowing what the cure is; what the remedy is, what the solution is. And what is it? The reinforcement of spirituality in ourselves and in the Lord's people. That's what we are here for - that's all; in this conference and what this place is for, is to seek, by the grace of God to bring about an increase of spiritual stature and measure in the people of God - no other object. May the Lord give us the concern of His servant in this matter.

Chapter 5 - The Spiritual Basis of Everything

We have before us as the basis of our consideration the two letters of Paul to Timothy, not for exposition of their contents in particular, but by way of noting that those letters represent a crisis and turning point in the whole course of Christianity. The imminent departure of the apostle Paul, the growing change of things in the church generally: decline, departure, the encroachment of false teaching, of bad behaviour, and much more; and the shadow of an altogether new system of Christianity fast creeping on. These were the things which constituted the burden on the heart of the aged apostle and which led, under the Spirit, to his writing these two letters.

And what lies behind these letters is one inclusive thing by which the Lord always seeks to meet a time of spiritual crisis, a turning point in the history and life of His people, both individually and locally and universally, and that is: a reinforcement of spirituality, a bringing back to the essential spiritual nature of everything in the Christian's life, the Christian's history, the Christian's very being as a Christian, and in the life of the church.

The departure which was taking place and which became so fully or largely crystallised at the end of the first Christian century was a departure from the spiritual, the essentially spiritual nature of everything, and the change from the vital and the organic, to the formal and the organisation and the ecclesiastical; from the inward life, to a merely outward framework of things; from the spiritual, to the natural; from the Holy Spirit, to men. That covers a lot of ground and includes a great deal, but in brief, that was the nature of the course of things.

So I repeat, that all that was in these letters, those well-known fragments, those favourite texts, and everything else, relates to the Holy Spirit's reaction, His endeavour to bring things back onto a purely and wholly spiritual basis. There is the re-call through the apostle here to remember Jesus Christ and how comprehensive that is! And then to Timothy, to remember where he began, and on what basis, and what were the spiritual principles which constituted him both a Christian and a servant of the Lord. In effect the word is: "Let's get back to where we began, let us be very careful of all this that is coming in".

Now, dear friends, we today as Christians live in the full development of that which Paul feared. It's present in Christianity very largely, though thank God not wholly, but it is very necessary to recognise that this is always a persistent tendency in all Christian life. You and I can fall into this peril as easily as anyone else, indeed, to avoid it constitutes the greatest difficulty that any Christian has, and certainly any body of Christians have: to avoid decline into a merely formal system, a merely outward order, into something organised and institutional. And all unconsciously, so often imperceptibly, to move away from the essential spiritual nature of everything. And I am sure with those few words you will recognise that it is a message that has a place today as protective and as recovering.

Well, that is the realm in which we have spent five gatherings, and those who are here for the first time will appreciate that five hours and more on a matter would contain a very great deal, but we've only touched the fringe of it. I'm very conscious there will be more than five baskets full over, that we are launched into a tremendous realm and you have got to follow on and not let it close tonight, for I shall be able to say only a very little more about this matter.

Now then, let us, through these letters to Timothy, broaden our horizon a little or widen our horizon a little, and be led out into the larger realm of this very thing. Today we shall find ourselves moving in a very large sphere in this particular connection. These letters will lead us there as they do lead on, quite naturally, to the so-much-more of this matter. We take then, this retrospective feature in Paul's letters to Timothy, that look back, that review, that throwback to the beginnings, to the foundations, to the essentials. We spoke yesterday afternoon on the throwback to Jesus: "Remember Jesus Christ". Now we are going to look back this morning to the real basis of the Christian life as Jesus showed it; but let's go through Timothy.

As you look into this, these letters, and you find Paul reminding Timothy - yes, reminding him very forcefully - of certain things which lay right at the very root of his own life and of his own service to the Lord, you have fragments like this: 1 Timothy 1:18: "the prophecies which went before on thee" - or literally, "the prophecies which led the way to thee"; or in modern language, "in accordance with the prophetic intimations concerning you". If you look at the context, you will see that it was at the time when Timothy was coming under the anointing for service, for ministry, for his active part in the Gospel. The Apostle is calling to remembrance the great principle, and great truth, and great foundation, of his life and work. Further, chapter six of the first letter and verse twenty: "That which was committed to thee, guard" - that which was committed to thee. 2 Timothy 1:6: "Keep constantly blazing the gift of God which is in you..."; and again it's dated back, as you see, to a particular time. 2 Timothy 2:2: "The things which thou hast heard...". Chapter 3 verse 14: "Abide thou in the things which thou hast learned...". You see, all this takes Timothy back. Paul is calling up the past, calling up the foundation, calling up what has been. He is, in effect, saying: "Now, Timothy, this has got to be reinforced, this has got to be consolidated, this has got to be confirmed, in the presence of the present tendencies and perils, the present course of things, all this has got to be brought up in a new way, and re-established. We are going round a bend in the road, and it's always a dangerous place and time, and we need at that time and that place to be reinforced with what has been of God in the past".

I am not going to dwell upon these passages, I am simply taking out this factor of retrospect and résumé, which means confirming what has been, with the future, this perilous future, in view. What does it all amount to? Well, if you look again more closely, you will find that it all relates to the Holy Spirit. It all relates to the Holy Spirit. All this, in effect, means that everything at the beginning came by the Spirit. Shall I use the other word? Everything is by the anointing. "Timothy, you stand where you are because of that original anointing, because at the beginning the Holy Spirit did something in you and with you. Timothy, your ministry of service so far has been because of the Holy Spirit. Now the threat and the tendency at this time is to depart from that basis, and for another basis of things to come in which is not essentially spiritual - it is something else." It is very important, dear friends, that you should recognise that.

And I do want to say, if I may, in parenthesis, that I am not a little bit concerned in just giving a lot of teaching. I could say a lot about this, but never before in my own life have I seen this tremendous contrast amongst Christians, and in Christianity today. And it is really the cause and root of all the trouble - a difference, a difference not between the Christian and the world, but inside of Christianity itself, a difference between what is spiritual and what is natural. And it's that that we must look at.

Now, in order to be helped, we must take our retrospect much further back. We must go right back to John's gospel. I said that Timothy naturally leads us there, and yet, you see, Timothy doesn't lead us back only. He does that, but you know that John's gospel was written long after the letters of Paul to Timothy, although his second letter to Timothy was the last that ever he wrote, it was years after that John wrote his three books or his three writings: the gospel, the letters and the Revelation. So that Timothy really leads us right into the full development of this other thing. I wonder if you have ever really grasped this, seen it? We take up our New Testament, you see, as we have it compiled, and we say, "Well, of course, the first things in the New Testament are the four gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, that's the beginning of the New Testament". But have you recognised that the fourth of those was written at least, the fourth of those was written long after everything else in the New Testament was written?

If you were compiling the New Testament chronologically, you would have to put John's gospel right over near the end. Now do you see what that implies? Why did John write his gospel, his Letters, and the Revelation, as the last writings of the New Testament age, the apostolic age? Why were they written? Why was the gospel of John written? When was it written? The gospel of John was written when this other kind of Christianity had become almost full-grown - this other kind of Christianity that is not spiritual, but natural. You've got to read John's gospel in the light of the situation existing in the church when it was written, otherwise you can't really get its message, its value. It's a great call back to spirituality. This gospel of John is, as we know, the spiritual gospel. This is not just the earthly life of Jesus; everything here is of spiritual, heavenly, and eternal significance; not of time and earth at all. Note how it begins. Well now, we are coming with that in mind. Do keep it in mind.

When John, the third chapter was written, the third chapter of John's gospel was written when the church had left its first love, when the church had left its first position, when Christianity had taken on an altogether different complexion, was a different thing from what it was at the beginning. And so the third chapter of John's gospel is the enunciation of a fundamental principle of the Christian life which needs to be recovered. Well, look at the third chapter of John's gospel; you know it - or you think you do. Of course, you know the words, you're almost wearied with that name, "Nicodemus". And yes, dear friends, I do not exaggerate; please believe me - I speak the truth when I say I come back to that gospel of John after having known it (well, I wouldn't like to tell you how long) and read it, and studied it, and spoken on it, and I come back and feel, "We've not grasped this; we really have not grasped this - the church has not grasped what is here". It would be impossible for the present situation amongst Christians and in Christianity in general to exist, if what is in the third chapter of John really obtained! I do not exaggerate; I cannot be too strong about that.

And so, at the risk of saying things which you think you know, look at it again. These words, (I'm not going to read the whole chapter and I'm not going to read the whole context) but look here: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born anew." (The margin says 'from above'.) "The wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth..." "And knowest not..." this thing is a mystery to you, you don't know: "so is every one that is born of the Spirit." SO is every one that is born of the Spirit!

First of all, you've got:

An Entity.

Well, it's not difficult to understand that on the natural side: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh." That's an entity. Every little new-born baby is an entity of the flesh: it's something quite concrete, something quite definite, and you don't find two, in every respect, exactly alike. It's a peculiar entity. Well, however, we need not labour it, we know it so far as the flesh is concerned and the natural, that which is born is a definite, concrete entity. "That which is born of the Spirit" is a distinct, definite, concrete entity, altogether different, but absolutely real. That, that, that entity, born of the Spirit, is something quite definite and altogether distinct from that which is born of the flesh. A spiritual entity has been brought into being in the case of every new birth of every child of God; different entirely from the entity and the constitution of the natural, but just as real, just as definite.

I repeat: very, very few Christians understand that; they seem to know it - "we've joined something", "we have joined Christianity", "we have gone into the Christian religion" - "we..." put it how you will. It is something objective: "We have come over into some other sphere of interests and activity and life and conduct". That's the idea about Christianity. The Lord Jesus here is saying what the New Testament confirms through and through: that this is an altogether new thing; and this is an altogether different thing; and this is not one bit of the order of the natural; this is spiritual. The natural and the spiritual belong to two different orders and kingdoms. That's the context of these words. And therefore every born-again child of God is, in the innermost truth of their being, a different entity - not that they have taken on something, or gone into something - they are a different entity; I have often used the word 'species' - a different kind of person in their very being; another constitution, another constitution: something constituted by the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God; born from above.

You know, they are talking in our papers now about visiting the moon. At the end of the century men will have landed on the moon - but not with their earthly constitution! No man, just as he is, will ever do that. You have to have an apparatus which constitutes him, in effect, a different kind of person, to live out there. To go into that realm as he is, would be disaster, calamity, oh, destruction. Well, it's artificial in that realm, but the principle is here: you and I will never be able to go to heaven without a new constitution - and not an artificial one! No make-up about this: it has got to be constitutional. There's a clear cut line, broad and unbridgeable, between what we are naturally and what we are as children of God.

Well now, this is explaining what has happened to you if you are really a child of God, if you have really come to the Lord, if you have really had the experience of salvation, you know something's happened to you. You may not know what it is that has happened, but this is what's happened. This is what's happened. The Holy Spirit says, "Look here, we've got to get back there. Things have got off that basis." We have got to again recognise this broad line of difference and division between what is natural and what is spiritual in Christianity. We've got to get back there: a new constitution, a different constitution, by the Holy Spirit.

Dear friends, there are few things more important than that we as Christians should be able to recognise the fundamental difference between what is natural and what is spiritual. You see? And then that's dependent upon your knowledge of things, of course, are you to be able to corroborate and for me to carry my point? (Not many of you will be able to follow.) The natural man is always trying to bring things on to a natural basis. He must bring things on to a natural basis. Reason - he must bring everything on to the basis of natural reason! He must be able to reason the thing through, to comprehend the thing with his reason; he must bring everything within that compass of his own natural reason. And a very great deal of Christianity is just man naturally taking hold of the Bible, of Christian truth, Christian doctrine, Christian things, and interpreting and applying by natural reason. And the Word of God is as distinct as anything can be: the door is closed to that, the door is closed. God's closed the door. You're not going to get into anything through the power of your reason, however big it is - not a bit!

Very well, look at our friend, Nicodemus. He stands for all time as an example. Reason... "How can a man be born...? How can these things be?" A good man, a clever man, an intellectual man, a religious man, but outside the door! The door is absolutely closed to him. Now, you can carry that fact everywhere. Man may be most devout, most devoted, most religious; he may be a red-hot fundamentalist, a champion of Christian doctrine and yet all being in the realm of his own intellectual power and grip, there is a world that is closed to him, of which he knows little or nothing. He has heard the voice, but he "knows not". He has heard the sound, and taken the sound as the sum: but there's a mystery that is still outside of his kingdom. And the result of this is that there may be good, yes, devoted, earnest, sincere people, who, living in that realm in Christian things, cannot understand spiritual people, cannot understand the things of the Spirit, and think that people who really are in the spiritual good of things, are all wrong. Enough said on that; there it is. The natural man must reduce things to the natural basis. Spiritual things will always be a mystery to the natural mind, an enigma; they always will be. That was Jesus; "Remember Jesus Christ".

The difference between Jesus and the Jewish leaders, in their radical and almost fanatical devotion to religion, was not a degree of religion at all. It was not that He was more religious than they, it was the difference between the spiritual and the natural in religion. And He was an enigma, He was a mystery - and, of course, He was all wrong! He could not be right, for, you see, you see natural reasoning says this and that; but how off the mark they were. Now do you get it, do you get the point? It is an exceedingly important one, is this. A real walk with God in the Spirit - while, of course, never contradicting Scripture, but always being consistent with the Word of God - is very often a lonely thing amongst Christians. It's a tragedy that it should be so, but it is very often like that.

What then, is Spirituality?

It is first of all a fundamental constitutional change in the being; a fundamental constitutional change in the entity, in the person, in the being: that's spirituality. After that, it has many outworkings. "The wind bloweth where it likes... and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit." What is that? A sovereign act of the Spirit. That takes us back to this other fragment here: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh", and to that earlier fragment in this gospel by John, which makes it so clear, so emphatic: "which were not born of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God". This is something in the sovereign hands of the Holy Spirit and taken right out of the hands of men. You cannot convert yourself, you cannot convert anyone else; you cannot make yourself into this other creature, and you can never make anyone else this. And you can never say when it is to be, for yourself, or for anyone else. All that is a matter of the sovereign Spirit. If the wind decides to blow, it doesn't give you notice a day before that it's going to! It just blows, and when it blows you can't say, "You are out-of-date, you are out of time - this is not a convenient moment!" He blows; and that's all there is to it; He is sovereign.

Now here you are touching a principle: the sovereignty of the Spirit, as represented by the sovereignty of the wind. And you know quite well that it seems useless to stand up against the wind when it really decides to blow. Carry that over further into the New Testament, the principle, and you will read three times: "And the Lord added to the church those that were being saved...", "there were added unto them...", "they were added, they were added to the Lord..." Who added? Who added? Did the apostles add? Not at all. The Lord added!

There is all the difference between our being told to go and join a church, and the Lord adding to Christ; or our joining what we call a church, and being added to Christ. We cannot join Christ at our own will, when we want to, or think we will decide to. We can't do it, because being added to Christ is this thing: being re-constituted on a different principle, and that is not in our power at all. It's the Lord that must do it, so that the adding is His sovereign act; and when He decides to do it, my, it's wonderful, isn't it? And if He doesn't decide to do it, well, you can work yourself to death, and nothing will happen. This is with the Lord.

With the day of Pentecost, the wind blew - a mighty rushing wind. Was it sovereignty? "And there were added... a great multitude." The wind blew - the sovereignty of the Spirit! Oh, how wide and far-reaching is the application of that! Oh, that Christianity were on that fundamental basis today - wouldn't it make a difference? The absolute sovereignty of the Holy Spirit! Why is it not so? Because of the present sovereignty of the natural, because of the intrusion into Christianity of the natural, the natural man. That's all the difference. But we must go on.

Read again John three. Here we have:

A New Constitution.

"That which is born of the Spirit" - a new entity. Here we have the sovereignty of the Spirit: "He blows as He will", and there's always a mystery about Him, always a mystery about Him and about His work; a glorious mystery, glorious mystery. But then further, notice: it's a matter of capacity. It's a matter of capacity. To Nicodemus the Lord says: "Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? We speak that [which] we do know... If I told you earthly things..." and you've not understood. What? "If you can't understand the secret of the wind - and that is a natural phenomenon, that is an earthly thing, that belongs to your world of reason - if you can't cope with that, what about it when I tell you heavenly things?' "We speak that we do know". Do you see the point?

Here is a difference of capacity: a new faculty, and a different faculty, and of knowledge, and of apprehension, and comprehension, and understanding. Another faculty, it's one; a spiritual faculty, for spiritual things. Oh, I know how familiar this is to many of you, it's not new; but dear friends, we have got to bring this again to the whole realm of our Christianity. I am sure that it has not been yet grasped by Christians, many of long years of Christian life, that, by their very constitution as children of God, they are supposed to have a faculty which makes them capable of comprehending and understanding spiritual things which no natural mind can understand. The youngest child of God is supposed to have the faculty; it may not be fully developed, but it is a constituent of their very entity. Have you grasped that? And the very presence of that faculty is the basis upon which everything in the Christian life is going to be built.

The Holy Spirit only builds upon His own foundation, upon what He Himself puts down as a basis. And that is spiritual: that which is of the Spirit is spiritual. He only builds upon the spiritual basis in us. All our growth, therefore, is going to be along the line of spiritual understanding, spiritual knowledge, not the accumulation of a vast amount of truth, and religious, Christian information, but what the Spirit teaches us. It'll be through the Word, but what the Spirit teaches; He has come for that very purpose.

But you see, there must be a link between us and the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit and us which is in correspondence with Himself. And the link between the Holy Spirit and the born-again child of God is the renewed spirit of the child of God, with this new capacity, so that the child of God, over against, over against the whole world of merely intellectual knowledge, says: "We do know, and we speak that we do know". It may be very little, but you know, you know now. As far as you've gone, it is a knowledge which is yours, which is altogether new and different and you are able to say: "I don't know very much, but what I do know, I know; and the way in which I have come to know it is because, not that it has been presented to me, but because it has happened in me. Something has been done inside; and, although I cannot put it into words or into any theories, I cannot compose it into a set of ideas, I know - I know!" "Therefore I know... We speak that we do know". You know. There's something about spiritual knowledge which is so strong, so settled, so satisfying, so rest-giving. It's like that; a new capacity. What is the difference? "If I have spoken unto you earthly things..." That is one realm: what about the heavenly things? "Now, Nicodemus, with all your wonderful outfit of birth, upbringing, training, education, you are still in the realm of earthly things, and even there they are beyond you. You haven't yet come into the realm of heavenly things. Therefore, marvel not that I say unto you, you must be born from above."

Dear friends, that is a very, very great need with safeguarding the whole Christian situation and in the recovery of spiritual effectiveness in this world - a fresh discernment of the fundamental difference between the natural and the spiritual - yes, even in Christian things, in Christian things. No one thinks that I am speaking about something that is extra to what is in the Word of God. I am speaking about the necessary faculty given by the Holy Spirit, and the necessary work of the Holy Spirit, in order that we should rightly know the mind of the Spirit in the Word of God. And all sorts of things will happen, which will be very sad and very distressing and very wrong if we get on to any other basis than that; as it has been. So, the Holy Spirit who says through Paul to Timothy: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..."

(If you prefer the Revised Version you can have it, it doesn't make any difference: "All Scripture given by inspiration of God" - drop out the "is", what difference does it make? Is there such a thing as Scripture in the sense in which it is meant there which means purely the written Word of God? Is there any such written Word of God that is not inspired by the Holy Spirit? It seems a contradiction in terms when you use the word "scripture" rightly, as applying to the written writings of the Bible, it's a contradiction in terms to say "Scripture... some scripture is not inspired by the Holy Spirit and other is" but that's a purely technical point that you needn't worry about.)

It's true, after all, it's true, all Scripture, all the written Word of God is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Now Paul is saying that to Timothy, and in effect he's saying, "Look here, we must get back to what the Holy Spirit has given, what has come from the Holy Spirit, and what, therefore, is spiritual. Get back to that; what God means by things."

John 3 is a tremendous offset, not only to the world of the unconverted and un-born-again, but an offset to a great amount of Christianity as we know it - it is not the Christianity of a different entity, of a different capacity, of a different constitution. Let us be sure that it is with us the right thing, the right thing, and not the false and the imitation.

Now you see, this is not necessarily a special revelation that is given to us or to anybody. Be very careful there. It may sound a fine point, but it's a very important one. It does not mean that, because we are so reconstituted and have this faculty, this other faculty, that we get a special revelation. No, it is not a special revelation, but it is a special faculty for knowing what has been revealed.

And so I'm going to close now by reminding you that that is the inclusive and comprehensive meaning of the advent of the Holy Spirit. What took place on the day of Pentecost was that in the history of the church which corresponded to what took place in the personal life of the Lord Jesus at the Jordan. At the Jordan He was baptised, He was buried - signifying and representing that something is put out of sight. In type, in figure, the natural man goes out of view. He rises, in type, another man, or another vessel. And then what? Heaven opened - the Spirit! And from that point everything is by the Spirit. "Then was Jesus led of the Spirit into the wilderness..." And then to Nazareth: "And He opened the roll, and said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me..." "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me"; everything by the Spirit.

Come to Pentecost. Has the church in its representation or nucleus been baptised into His death? Well, look at them! Look at them! Before, before they were re-established on resurrection ground they are baptised into His death right enough. And they have come to an end of all natural resource, for understanding anything, for seeing through anything, for being able to do anything. They are as good as dead and buried - no prospect, no future. "We had hoped..." - we had hoped, in the past tense - "that it had been He which should redeem Israel... that hope has gone now, nothing". Yes, baptised into His death. But now, the day of Pentecost! What? Raised, a vessel, and now have a look: the Spirit is coming and filling, and from that time everything is by the Spirit.

[Unfortunately the recording stops here, but the following portion is from the messages printed in the book version of these messages.] They had a new knowledge - and how their knowledge grew, even in the Word of God! The Word of God, which was for them the Old Testament, had been so largely a closed book, spiritually. They had only got it in the letter, and they were all wrong in their interpretation of it, as it came to be proved. Now the Bible is new for them, because they are on new ground; potentially in the new day of the Spirit.

Chapter 6 - The Testimony of Jesus

We are too far advanced now in the conference to give even a brief synopsis of what has been before us. And all that can be done at this point is to say that with these two letters of Paul to Timothy, we are in the presence of a great change which was coming over Christianity at the time when they were written; a change which was not arrested, but went on and developed so that at the end of the apostolic age, with the close of the first Christian century, Christianity had completely changed. It had lost its primal, original character. And it is in the consciousness of this change coming about, the Apostle wrote these letters to Timothy and through them, by them, in all their content, sought to indicate the way - the only way, God's way - of keeping things pure: maintaining things according to their original nature.

The letters amount to one thing, that in God's thought for "Christianity" (I use that wide term for the moment) in God's thought everything was to be, had been, and was intended to be, wholly spiritual as over against that which was developing, a system - ordered, governed, arranged and carried on by man; formal, ecclesiastical, outward and so on. These letters are a strong appeal for the recovery or the maintenance of a wholly spiritual character in every thing, every department, and every aspect of the life of the Christian community.

Now, I have used the large word "Christianity" and now just used a term: "the Christian community". And I am coming immediately to what that really means - the proper name for it - because neither of those terms are in the New Testament: "Christianity" and "the Christian community". But there is a term for what they were intended to mean, and that term is "the Church". I ask you to look at these letters, one or two fragments, which intimate that matter.

The first letter, chapter 3, verse 5: "If a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" We leave the context and the immediate relationship and application, and just note that this that is called the "Church of God" is introduced as something which must have been known and recognised, that is something taken for granted. It's just introduced, it's referred to. There is such a thing as the Church of God. That's all we want to get at that point, for the moment.

Look at verse 15 of the same chapter: "If I tarry long, that thou mayest know how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness". The church of the Living God, the pillar, and ground or stay of the truth.

And then in the second letter, chapter 2, and verse 10: "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory". The elect... that they may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

Here we have then, in both letters, the drawing attention to the church. What we have been saying about this turning-point in Christian history, this change which was coming about, this departure from the original character and nature, was a church matter - not just "Christianity", in that very general term; and not only that certain Christians were losing out, or that a state of spiritual decline had set in with some believers; but it was a church matter. The departure was the departure of the church. And so these two letters are essentially church letters. That will become even more clear to you if you just read them through. It's about church affairs, church matters and about the church.

Now it is quite clear, from what we have just read, that the apostle was speaking of the church in more than one conception. He was not saying to Timothy, who was at Ephesus, in the church in Ephesus, and had a great responsibility given him by the apostle in relation to that church, "Now Ephesus is the church of the living God". He wasn't saying that any local church is the church. But to turn it round the other way, he was saying that any local church is a representation of the Church as a whole and that the church as a whole, should be represented locally, and that what is true of the church as a whole, in the mind of God, ought to be true wherever it is found in a local expression. And then the apostle brings it down to the individuals, the persons, and in effect clearly says, "Now look here, any one of you individuals can show what the church is meant to be, as a whole, or you can let it down. You are not just individual Christians - yours is a church responsibility!" Well, we must get to this matter, because it is of very great importance in the connection with which we are occupied: God's first supreme thought concerning the Church.

What is the Church?

What is the church? That is the first question. Well, I think Paul very definitely puts his finger upon that question or gives us that answer in this term, this title that he gives it, "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake...". And if you look at the context, you will see that the apostle takes that back to what he here calls "before times eternal". So briefly, the church is something which is "elect before times eternal", something quite clearly defined as an elect people, an elect body, which has its roots in eternity past, and therefore is not historical. It is eternal, and therefore it must be spiritual.

In the second letter we are looking at, in that connection, perhaps you'd just like to note the words, the second letter, chapter 1, verse 9: "Who saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal". "Purpose... grace... given us in Christ Jesus before times eternal". So the very first thing is that the church, according to God's mind, is altogether different from, and above, something that is historical - that is, that has its beginnings, and course, and development in time. This is something which has its beginnings in eternity past, and its course is ordered according to the purpose, purpose in eternity past. This is something not constituted by man, not brought into being by any human effort whatsoever: this is something which is constituted by the Holy Spirit, the eternal Spirit. And therefore, as we were seeing this morning, that which is constituted by the Holy Spirit is essentially a spiritual thing: "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

Now that, as we saw, relates to the new birth of the individual: the individual Christian is essentially constituted a spiritual being by the work of the Holy Spirit. And what is true of the individuals is true of the aggregate of the born-anew: the church is something born of the Holy Spirit and therefore is a spiritual thing. That does not mean that it is abstract. I noticed in his prayer our brother used the phrase and made the petition that it should not be "so spiritual that it was hidden and not manifest". Well, we know exactly what he meant and are in full agreement, and I am not putting him right when I say that it is impossible for anything to be spiritual and not manifest. Can the Holy Spirit be present, active, living, and no one know it? That's not a correction, it's simply an enlargement on what I am saying. What is spiritual is not just abstract, indefinite; something intangible, in the air, like a vapour or a cloud. What is spiritual is terrific, it's mighty; and so, when the church was really a spiritual body, it was - and the word can be well applied - it was terrific. It was!

Well, yesterday I was referring to what the church encountered, which was developing just at the time that Paul wrote these very letters. It caused his own imprisonment and his own execution, it was the cause of much that is in these letters to Timothy about being strong, because Timothy himself had been arrested with Paul and imprisoned, and later released. Paul wrote: "Know ye that our brother Timothy hath been set at liberty", but Timothy knew something of what was pending. He needed to be encouraged to be strong. But I am referring to what the church had to encounter in those unspeakable persecutions, horrors, diabolical, indescribable, going on for many, many years, with the whole Roman world - the greatest Empire that had been - determined to blot out the name of Jesus of Nazareth by liquidating the last Christian on this earth. And it stood at nothing, human or inhuman, to do it. And when it had done its worst, the Roman Empire went to ashes and the church rose out of them, triumphant, growing. Oh yes, I tell you a Holy Ghost thing is a tremendous thing; nothing can stand before it. Spirituality is not abstract, it is a potent force in this universe, I mean Divine spirituality, or if you like, that which is born of the Spirit and filled with the Spirit and governed by the Spirit.

And so the church is, according to the Divine conception, essentially a spiritual people, and we have got to somehow get to the place where we see it as God and as Heaven sees it. And that is a tremendous adjustment to make. Now here is our practical difficulty right here. You see, in apostolic times, it was quite easy to see the church as a single entity. Although it was represented in numerous local companies all over the Roman world, yet it was still a single entity: it was not then divided up into the '-ists' and the '-ans' and the '-ics' and the '-isms' and you can put the prefixes to every one in which we find it today. I mean that today when you speak to Christian people, they very soon ask you if you are an '-ist', or an '-ic', or an '-an', and they say "I am an ...'ist'" something. Ah, but there was nothing of that in the church in the days of the apostles. Whatever little differences there were amongst the Lord's people locally, the church as a whole was one entity, everywhere, held together by spiritual ties and by spiritual ministries, but no central government or no sectional government of affiliated bodies. It was just one; everywhere. If you had gone from one province to another, from one country to another, to the Christians in every place, they would never have asked you whether you were an '-ist', or an '-ian', or an '-ic' - whether you belonged to them, giving the name. No, you were a Christian - that was enough. You belonged to the Lord - that was enough. But, with the closing of the apostolic age, the thing was changing - changing into what we have today; all these things.

An altogether wrong and false mentality has grown up around this word "church". And most people, when that word is used, think of one of these things with a prefix, or some place - a church; that is the mentality that is common. Dear friends, recovery of the original demands an escape from that mentality. I'm talking about the mentality. I'm not saying you've got to come out of this and that and the other thing - don't misunderstand me - you've got to get out of a mentality; absolute emancipation from this earth mentality about the church, to the heavenly mentality as to what the church really is, and see it as God sees it and as Heaven sees it. And we must get free of the confusion which is brought about by the historical institution called "The Church".

What is the church, from Heaven's standpoint? Well, you see, Heaven does not look upon the matter through or by means of these titles, and these sections, and these departments, and these bodies, and these divisions; Heaven doesn't look at it like that at all. Heaven ignores that, and looks for members of Christ: born-again children of God, spiritual people in their constitution by new birth and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And wherever Heaven sees those - whether it be in an '-ism', or an '-ic', or an '-an', or anything else - that's the church, and you and I have got to adjust to that. That's the church. A congregation is not the church, but in a congregation the church may be represented by only two people. Of all those people gathered in what is called a church, 98 may be unsaved people, though adherents and communicants and all the rest, and two born-again people. Those two are the church, and the others are not! That is what the Church is. It is constituted by the Holy Spirit in bringing through to new birth spiritually-made people.

I said Heaven ignores the other. In a sense that is true, but maybe in another sense it is not true, because Heaven will judge the other as a false thing. But in a sense, Heaven ignores, and I say it because this is the thing that you and I have got to do, what Heaven does: meet people - no matter in what they are; you may not agree with it, you may think it is false; you have got to ignore that and meet people on the ground of Christ - have to do with them, as far as you can, on the ground that they belong to the Lord. Our only question has got to be: "Do you belong to the Lord? Are you born again?" That's all. And then, if they say, "I am a so-and-so-ist: what are you?" - "That doesn't matter; leave that out. We belong to the Lord: let's get on with this." Until you and I can do that, dear friends, we are caught in the meshes of a thing that has lost its power - because it's lost its true identity, its true nature, a spiritual thing. Yes, adjustment to Heaven's point of view. And many of you know I am really only giving you the Letter to the Ephesians! That is how it is seen in Heaven.

So, that's the answer to the question (of course very inadequately, very briefly, concisely) what is the church. The second question is:

For What Does the Church Exist?

For what does the church exist? Well, of course, we have got the thing stated for us by Paul here, haven't we? In the very words that we have read, the first letter, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16: "...how men ought to behave themselves in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and stay of the truth" - and there ought to be no period there, full period, only a pause to take a breath - "And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory". That's the deposit in the church; that is the testimony of Jesus. For that the church exists. It is to that that the apostle refers, you notice, more than once, when he said to Timothy, "Guard the trust, guard the deposit, oh Timothy, guard that which has been committed to thy trust... Oh Timothy guard the deposit". The Church is the repository of the testimony of Jesus.

What is that? Well, of course, here are certain statements about the testimony of Jesus, but I am not going to take these different clauses up, because I am not occupied with Christian doctrine, or the doctrine of the church today, I am occupied with the church itself. You can look at that, but I turn you now on to the book of the Revelation, for as we said this morning, the writings of John, written after Paul had finished his work and gone to glory, related to the full development of this very thing that Paul was seeing coming about. And the book of the Revelation is peculiarly appropriate applied to this state of spiritual departure and declension, and when you come, therefore, to the book of the Revelation you find that the all-governing thing of the whole book is this one phrase: "the testimony of Jesus".

The Testimony of Jesus

John said that he was "in the isle... called Patmos, for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus". But there is a Divine sovereignty over the Roman Empire, and the persecutors and the one who has sent him to Patmos - a Divine sovereignty which says: "Right, this is what I have brought you here for! They sent you, but I have brought you! This is not their sovereignty that has put you here; this is Mine. I have something to say to the church, and I have given you a quiet time to say it for Me." "I was in the isle that is called Patmos - because the Roman Empire sent me there? Because the Roman Emperor sent me there? Because the persecutors caught me and sent me there?" Not a bit of it! "I was in the isle... called Patmos... for... the testimony of Jesus". Now that may have been because, because he had stood for the testimony of Jesus: but it is very impressive, is it not, that this very phrase runs through this book, and comes, as we go on, to be seen to be the thing, the thing by which the Lord is first of all judging the churches, and representatively the church as a whole - by the testimony of Jesus; you'll see that in a minute. And then, having dealt with the Church on the basis of the testimony of Jesus, He moves on to deal with the nations, and eventually with the Devil and his kingdom. It is all related to the testimony of Jesus.

What is it? Well, the testimony of Jesus is presented to us symbolically right at the beginning of the book, and in this declaration (we will not touch the symbol for the moment) the declaration made by the Lord Himself: "I am He that liveth. I became dead, and behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages, and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Write therefore..." What is the testimony of Jesus? The living, the present, present living Person of Jesus in the power of the Holy Ghost. That is where it begins: the living Person of Jesus, not the historic Jesus of Palestine of centuries ago - no, the right up-to-date, here-and-now living Jesus, manifested, demonstrated, proved to be alive in the power of the Holy Ghost. Is that carrying it too far? Well, then, why, when the churches, the seven churches in Asia are challenged, is there repeated seven times in every connection: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches"? The Holy Spirit has got this matter in hand. The Holy Spirit is challenging concerning, not a creed or a doctrine as such, but the manifestation of the living Christ: there, and there, and there! The testimony of Jesus, whether it be in Ephesus, or Smyrna, or Pergamum, or in any other place, the testimony of Jesus is just this: that the place where that church is - the town, the city, the province - is to know, in the power of the Holy Ghost, that Jesus is alive! That's where it begins. By its very presence, by its very existence, by its very life there in that place, the one thing that people are to know is that they haven't got rid of Jesus. They have not been able to put Him out of this world - He is here, alive!

It's very simple; but you see, that's what the Church is here for, first of all and basically, the very purpose of the church is in the first place to make this world know that Jesus is alive, and not by declaring the doctrinal fact, but by living in the power of His resurrection! There are times when the church in some countries is not able to preach and proclaim the truth of Christ, but that is not the end of its power. Even though silent in words, it can still be known that Jesus is alive. Yes, the testimony of Jesus: "I am He that liveth... I am He that liveth... the church of the living God, the pillar and stay of the truth..."; but, more - the living victory of Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, "For I became dead, but behold, I am alive... never to become dead again. I have the keys of death... the mastery, the authority, the power over death. I have absolutely triumphed over death and all that occasioned death - sin." Victory! Victory over death in the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the testimony of Jesus: His living victory present where Christians are.

Do you think, dear friends, I hope you're not thinking that this is all very wonderful and very beautiful, but is this practical? Now look here! It's so practical, it's so practical that you are a living member of Christ, and if you are a company of believers, born-again believers, constituted by the Holy Spirit on this true spiritual basis, you will, without any doubt, be taken into situations, conditions, where only the resurrection power of Jesus Christ will get you through! Your very survival will necessitate your knowing the power of His resurrection for individual believers, from time to time, and for local companies of the Lord's people, just as truly as for the church universal (as in those days to which I have referred). The survival is a testimony to the fact that death has no place here. Death cannot swallow this up - death itself has been swallowed up in victory! What a glorious, glorious assurance that is! What a ground of confidence! What an encouragement! Oh yes, we do come to times when it looks as though the end has come, we are not going to survive and get through. Don't you believe it. Don't you believe it, the life of Jesus was not taken from Him by men, He laid it down. "This authority", He said, "I received from My Father." The life of Paul was not taken from him by the executioner's axe, just outside of Rome: "I am already being offered up, and the time of my departure is at hand." He is a man who knows it is the Lord's time for him to go to glory and he is just offering himself up, he's just being offered up. Paul never said, "I am going to be executed, they're going to kill me"; he said, "I am being offered up".

Until the Lord's time comes, if you and I are living on the basis of this One, Who says: "I became dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore" in the power of His resurrection we are living on that basis, our end will be God-governed, not man-governed. It will be when the Lord says, "It is enough", not with circumstances. God is in charge of this where His church is concerned. And so, and so whatever the world does, whatever men do, and whatever the devil does with the church, local or universal, if it is really on this basis, it just cannot be brought to nought. Oh, Gamaliel is always our standby here, isn't he? "You'd better leave it alone, you'd better leave it alone. If it's of God, you had better not be found to be fighting against God. Be careful! Careful, if it is not of God, well, it will peter out sooner or later; but if it is of God, you cannot, you cannot..." and that's from a non-Christian! Well, you see the point. This is the Church which is to embody the testimony of Jesus in terms of a life which has conquered death, the embodiment of a living victory in the power of the Holy Spirit.

And then the expression of the living nature and character of Jesus in the Holy Spirit. That, of course, is far too large a matter for the present; it can only be stated. But it must be stated, because, you see both in these letters to Timothy and in the Revelation, a lot is made of this matter of the expression of the Lord Jesus in His character. The decline was from a level of character. The departure was from an expression of what Christ is in His nature. And you know, we can never, never overcome the world, nor the devil and all his powers, if the devil has got a foothold right in the middle of something that is of himself in moral delinquency and failure. In the power of the same Holy Spirit, you and I have got to exemplify Christ - the church has got to exemplify Christ, has got to express what Christ is; not only facts about Christ, but be the embodiment of Christ's nature.

That is why John, coming back at the end of the apostolic age, has so much to say about this matter of love: "You don't know the Lord if you don't love your brother. It is no use your saying you love the Lord, if you don't love your brother that's all nonsense" said John in other words: all nonsense; it's hypocrisy. "How can a man love God, Whom he has not seen, if he does not love his brother whom he has seen?" that's John's argument. It is a matter of "walking in the light as He is in the light", you see so much in John's writings touch upon this thing. And then look at those letters to the seven churches. It's a state isn't it? It's condition, it's lost spiritual life in the sense of expressing what Christ is like in nature. That's the testimony of Jesus. The testimony of Jesus, the testimony is lost when you and I are unChrist-like; it's no use, no use using the phrases and making the claims: the thing has got to be substantiated by what we are like, and what we are like has got to be what Christ is like. The church is for that purpose; not doctrines to be upheld - although the doctrines have got to be upheld; not ordinances to be maintained and repeated, not just congregations of Christians having meetings and conferences, but the embodiment of the Holy Spirit.

Now the church. Come back to that point of change in which we find ourselves is so different, with all its break-up and division, its sectionalism and what not. How are we going to get over this? Once again it's where the seat of government is, isn't it? Just where the seat of government is. Now, you see, as things are today, there is no one government of the whole church on this earth, is there? While Rome may claim that the only church in existence is the church of Rome and therefore the headquarters, "The only church in existence is in Rome". Well, alright, they have that deception. We don't believe it, but it's not true in any section that the headquarters of the church is any place. The headquarters of the church is in Heaven. The seat of government of the Church is in Heaven; it's nowhere else. And the Lord won't let it be anywhere else. When Jerusalem was beginning to assume the character of a governmental headquarters for the expanding church, the Lord scattered them to the ends of the earth. No headquarters on earth! It's in Heaven.

Now at that point I would like to take you into the book of the Revelation again, I'll only mention it, you can follow it out, you look at some passages in the book of Revelation; shall we look at them at any rate, even if we don't stay for much comment on them. Chapter 1, chapter 1 of Revelation, verse 4: "John, to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace, from Him Which is and Which was and Which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before His throne." Chapter 3, verse 1: "These things saith He That hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works." Chapter 4 verse 5, "Out of the throne proceed lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God". Chapter 5 and verse 6: "I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns, and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God".

You know this book is just full of symbols. Here you have these four references to the seven Spirits. Of course it doesn't mean that there were seven separate Spirits. Seven is the number of spiritual entirety, completeness, fullness. It's there all through the Bible. When you come to the number seven, you have completed something: you've completed something. See the seventh day - the completion of creation. And I won't go any further. Seven is spiritual completeness: so that the symbolism here is the fullness, the completeness, the absoluteness of the Holy Spirit. The whole matter begins there, "These things saith He That hath the seven Spirits..." This that is going to be said is in the authority and the power of the Holy Spirit. HE, He is in charge of this matter, He it is that is indicting these things that are to be said, He it is that is before the throne. The Holy Spirit, in touch with the seat of government, is dealing with things down here. Have you got that? There, at the throne, the seat of the government of everything; here are all these things down here.

And note the first connection of the seven Spirits is the "seven stars" which are "the seven churches". The throne of government hinged on here between the Holy Spirit and the fullness of what? Power, intelligence - the "seven eyes", knowing all about it, knowing about it, seeing perfectly the truth through all the deception, through all the masks, through all the pretence and profession, through the "name to live, but dead" - seeing through; perfect perception, perfect knowledge, perfect comprehension. The Holy Spirit in the fullness of His knowledge, the fullness of His power - "seven lamps of fire burning". This is not cold light, this is not just theoretical knowledge; this is not something that is just abstract. It is a burning lamp, it's a burning lamp, it is something that is alive with fire, with power: He's coming to deal with this situation in the power, the burning power of His judgment and of His knowledge. Things are alive with the Holy Spirit.

The seven Spirits, see? The seven-fold Holy Spirit. I said I can't stay to break that up, it means so much, but it inclusively, it is the comprehensiveness of the Holy Spirit over everything, administering from the throne. Everything, the point is this: that everything, everything that the Holy Spirit requires has got to pass with Him as being purely spiritual. It has got to be according to the judgment of the HOLY Spirit, the Spirit of God. It's like that, if you can go to church like that, and can stand up to that. You say, "Impossible!" Oh well, it's the throne of the Lamb, it's the throne of the Lamb, and that's the testimony isn't it, in relation to all our sin, and to all our failure is the Lamb on the throne. But that's another subject. But hear what I am trying to say, so imperfectly and with such difficulty, is this: that the Lord's idea for the church, in any dispensation, in any age, at any time, in any place, is that it is essentially a spiritual thing, essentially a heavenly thing; it is essentially governed by the Holy Spirit. The headquarters are in the throne, and the Holy Spirit administers the church from Heaven. And if He doesn't, then man will have to administer it himself, and he will make an awful mess of it, as he has done. Oh, for a people, wherever they are - local companies, and for the Lord's people at large - really to be under this government of the Holy Spirit!

Now I must close, and I will just close by saying this. Dear friends, every one of you, young Christians perhaps especially, do realise this: that in coming to the Lord, you have come into a tremendous vocation, to be a part of that which is to keep alive the testimony of Jesus in this world. Now I must close.

Chapter 7 - The Responsibility

I'm going to ask you to take up your New Testaments again, and open at the letters to Timothy. And we're going to just run through them in four series, four very brief series of fragments.

In the first letter, first chapter, the eleventh verse: "...the gospel of the glory of the blessed God which was committed to my trust." - the gospel which was committed to my trust. Verse 18: "This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy". Chapter 6, the same letter, first letter, verse 20: "Oh Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee...". The second letter, chapter 1 and verse 12: "I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day." You will see the margin makes an alteration: "He is able to guard that which He hath committed unto me". That's the first series.

Now the second series, in the second letter, chapter 2, verse 3: "Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who enrolled him to be a soldier." Back to the first letter, and its first chapter, at verse 18: "This charge I commit unto thee, that thou mayest war a good warfare."

The third series, chapter 2 of the second letter, verse 5: "And if also a man contend in the games, he is not crowned, except he hath contended lawfully." That series only has one in it.

The fourth, chapter 2 of the second letter and verse 15: "Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth." And that series only has one.

I wonder what impression all those passages make upon you? Hearing them, reading them, putting them together, what is the conclusion to which you come? What do they say to you? What impression do they leave? Well, surely they ought to leave one very definite impression upon us, it is that the Christian, the Christian, is a very responsible person. Every one of those passages, and indeed, the much more lying behind them and in these letters, does really say very, very clearly, and very distinctly, and very strongly: we are in a position of tremendous responsibility. The Christian is, by the Word of God, looked upon as being a very responsible person.

You know, the Lord Jesus and His apostles never appealed to people to be Christians, to be saved, to come along and follow, just for their own pleasure, just that they might have a good time. That was never the appeal; never to the pleasure-instinct in people, the good time, liking and desire. They never, never did make their appeal on that ground at all - that if you are saved, if you become a Christian, well, you are just going to embark upon one eternal joy-ride, and a whole life of pleasure and gratification. Now, whatever there may be of good and enjoyment and profit that follows (and of course, a gathering like this is a great testimony to the fact that it's not so bad to be a Christian on a bank holiday, not so bad to be a Christian) but the appeal of Christ, the appeal of His apostles, the appeal of the Scriptures, is always to people who mean business more than pleasure, who really are prepared to take serious responsibility for the interests of their Lord, and, if needs be, to allow themselves to be involved in trouble, in suffering for His sake. They're the people He wants.

And here we have this many-sided picture of the Christian as in responsibility. So we take up some of the titles or metaphors used here, which give the Divine conception of the Christian, very simply. Here we have them, that which is represented by these words we've read in the first series, chapter 1 of the first letter, "This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy... the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust... this charge I commit unto thee..." And then again, chapter 6 and verse 20: "Oh Timothy, guard that which is committed unto thee."

What is this conception of the Christian? The Christian is called to be, has the privilege of being, a trustee for God.

A Trustee

A custodian of an infinitely precious deposit: "Committed to thy trust, Timothy, you're in trust. Timothy, you are a trustee. Timothy, here is something precious, put into your custodianship, given you of God to watch over, to guard for Him." Paul calls it "the gospel of the blessed God", which was committed to his trust, and he is passing it on. He has kept it intact, he has guarded it, he has preserved it, it has lost nothing; now he is about to go, "Timothy, I pass it on to you, I hand it on to you in the Lord's Name. Timothy, guard it. It's for you to see that this gospel, this wonderful gospel, suffers no loss by any kind of carelessness, unwatchfulness, indifference, slothfulness, or preoccupation, or diversion, or persecution and suffering, or anything else. Timothy, guard it - don't let it suffer loss. Let there come to it nothing to spoil it: no tarnish, no rust, no injury." That's the Divine conception of the Christian.

All that I want to urge upon you is just this: every one of you who would claim to be a Christian, to belong to the Lord, I would that you would tonight recognise this, that you are put in trust with the Gospel, that you are a trustee of "the gospel of the blessed God", that there rests upon you this solemn obligation to see to it that it doesn't suffer in any way through you, because of you, on any account it doesn't suffer, but that it is preserved in its pristine glory and in its entirety; and that you do at the end what Paul was able to do - pass it on intact, that there will be those that come after you who will take it up from you and in their turn, carry it on. "Well, that's simple", you say, very simple, it may sound quite elementary, but oh, Paul put his heart into this. "Oh Timothy, oh Timothy, my child Timothy - this, this charge, this charge I commit to thee. Guard the deposit, take care of the great trust." Will you believe, every one of you, youngest Christian and oldest, and all between, that you are a custodian of the interests of your Lord, and that those great interests can suffer because of you, if you do not take your responsibility seriously.

Now, dear friends, that is a very elevating thing - it is a very strengthening thing to realise that, is it not? To feel that God, God has committed to me His interests, that I stand in this world, not to just be a Christian and try to live a Christian life, but as a responsible trustee of the very interests of God! Now, whether you like it or not, it is so. If you're a Christian, this great trust, this great Gospel, is suffering or being preserved by you; it's being let down or it's being upheld, whether you like it or not. But why not do what Paul was seeking to get Timothy to do: "Look here, realize this, face this, and take it up, as your solemn responsibility before God. I'm a man with a charge, a man with a charge, put in trust, a trustee."

The next series, as you notice, with that verse in chapter 1 of the first letter, or that fragment in the 18th verse: "War the good warfare..."; followed by these so familiar words in the second letter, second chapter: "...a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier on service entangleth himself in the affairs of this life; that he may please Him Who enrolled him to be a soldier." Well, there are three fragmentary ideas bound up with those words. Firstly, of course, the conception of the Christian, and the Christian life, and the Christian service:

It's a Warfare.

Most of you don't need to be told that, or to be reminded of it. Many of you are here, really war-scarred warriors, you've been in the fight and the battle has left its marks on you. You know it quite well. And yet, it needs to be said - perhaps firstly to those who are newly, who have newly donned the armour, who have newly come to the Lord: understand that you have been enrolled in a spiritual army! And your life business is war. You're going to find that out sooner or later whether you like it or not, but there's the fact. And that is a very responsible position. One, by failure in this warfare, may let down many and affect the whole campaign.

But, dear friends, although you and others may know it so well, and feel that you do not need to be reminded, are you sure that you don't? Well I think I know something about it in experience; and yet, and yet there's this subtle truth, this subtle fact: that very often we are in situations, things are going on, and we begin to blame people and circumstances and get all worked up about things that are happening, and look for scapegoats, and forget, forget the reality of this thing. Why, the devil's after something! Here the battle is on, there is no doubt about it; the air is thick with conflict; and we get our eyes on people, and things, and forget. And we are defeated, we are defeated, we are just beaten, and rendered casualties, put out of the fight - simply because we have lost sight of the fact, the abiding fact, that we are in a spiritual warfare, and behind 'things' there are other forces. And we all need to be reminded.

It is no small thing, you know, when we are really in a situation like that, and things are getting worked up to a fine pitch of stress, when someone comes along and says, "Look here, the enemy is in this. The enemy's in this, he is trying to get you, he knows something or other, he's on your track; let's have some prayer about it" and we get to prayer, and the whole thing goes. So sometimes just to remind one another of the fact is a tremendous deliverance: we find that it is, it IS a fact. We've been attributing it to things and people, and there's something deeper than that behind it. But we do need to be reminded continually that we are in a warfare - we are.

Well, that's the first thing here - the conception of the Christian life - we must just get a hold of it and settle it. And, although I don't like saying it, I don't think we are ever going to be out of this warfare here! No. Well, let's go on.

The second thing that is in these statements is that, if you are going to wage triumphant spiritual warfare, you must be all in it. "No soldier on active service" (for that's the literal wording) "entangleth himself with the affairs of this life."

Disentangled

DISENTANGLED. One of the enemy's most successful tactics is to get us all tied up, and tangled up with all kinds of conflicting things, or with some other interests, dividing us in our life and in our strength and in our application. Now, this, this that Paul says to Timothy here, does not mean, "Look here, you must not go into business - you must come out of business, and be all on spiritual work". It doesn't mean that you've got to leave everything else and come and be a full-time worker, or full-time soldier - it doesn't mean that at all. You know it's possible - and, this is, though difficult, what the apostle and what the Lord would say to most of us: it is possible for you to pursue your daily employment, and to do it conscientiously (as you should) and thoroughly, and leave nothing for reproach, and yet at the same time, either in it, through it, or over it, your supreme interests are spiritual. The really governing things in your life are the Lord's things.

The warfare may be in the business, but if you get all churned up and obsessed, you are put out of the war, out of the fight. There's got to be inwardly in our hearts a disentangled state. Now, that could be enlarged upon very much. You see what the apostle is saying: "You mustn't have two dominating interests in life; you can only have one". One. You must not be a divided person who has on the one side interests in the things of the Lord, on the other side: interests in the world. That's no good; you won't be a good soldier if you're like that. Whether you have to be in this world, and do its work, and follow your profession, your dominating concern must be the interests of the Lord, and in that part of your life you must be disentangled. In a word: one thing over everything else predominates; and no dividedness of heart or mind. "This one thing I do...", said the apostle.

And the third factor or feature in these fragments is something which is not observable in our translation. That is, it says: "Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus..." There are other translations of that clause: "Take your share in the hardship..." Now these, neither of them, are exact and accurate translations. This is one of the occasions when Paul uses one of his favourite compounds. And you know that Paul was tremendously fond of compound words. And one of his favourite compounds was a series of whole words with the prefix 'syn' to it. And 'Syn' means 'together'.

Together

And what he is saying here is this: "Look here, look here Timothy, we are all in it. We're all in it. You're not alone in this; this is a collective matter, this is a corporate matter. This is something which, if it only related to you, might not be very important; you might not think it important enough to be seriously considered. But look here, Timothy, you mustn't let me down. We're together..." And that's a big thing, isn't it?

This fact of the collective or the corporate aspect of conflict; we are fighting with one another and for one another and the battle is a common battle, and we must not let one another down. And if someone else is having a bit of hardship, we must come and share the hardship with them; and if we are having a bit of hardship, they must come and share it with us. It's a tremendous factor in victory, to keep together in it. To keep together in it. So it is the 'togetherness' of the battle and the warfare that is quite definitely thought of by the apostle here. That's enough about that. I have to keep peace with you about time.

Then the next one is just this fragment: "If a man contend in the games, he is not crowned except he has contended lawfully". Here, hidden behind the English translation, is a Greek word - athleo - from which we get our English words 'athlete' and 'athletic'. And the Greek word athleo just means one who strives for the mastery, or enters, or engages in the contest.

The Athlete

The Christian is an athlete. Now that sounds like sport, but it isn't! For the word is a very strong word: one who engages in the contest for the mastery. That's making a business of things, isn't it? The Christian is an athlete; that's the conception. We are, as Christians, called into this: to engage seriously in a contest, at the end of which there is a prize, which it is possible for us to lose. That's the conception. And of course, there is a very large background of the Greek games to this word of Paul's; he knew all about it. You see, the Greek athlete was called upon to spend ten whole months in preparatory discipline and training before he was allowed to enter the contests. And the rules for training were stringent. He must shun many things. He must observe certain regulations. He must discipline himself and put aside all his own preferences and his own likes. He must recognise that this thing is so serious that for ten months he must be under a rigorous regime of discipline, and should he break one of the regulations of his training, he is disqualified; he is not allowed to go in. Now that's what is here. Well, you must take things seriously if you're going to do that, mustn't you? We must be serious if we're going to that sort of thing.

Well, here is something: here is a contest, here is an engagement, which calls upon us to be very watchful, and to be, in many directions, self-denying. Now, don't mix this up with your salvation - you can never be saved by good works! To be a Christian you don't have to give up this and give up that, and do all sorts of things that you don't naturally like doing! It isn't to be a Christian, but here's a vocation; here's a responsibility when you are a Christian. And Paul said: "I keep under my body, I keep under my body... lest... having preached to others, I should be a cast away", and he is thinking of this very thing in this business on hand: "This great responsibility into which I am called, which is a great contest. I must see to it that my body, my fleshly appetites, don't get the upper hand. I must keep a strong hand upon myself. I must learn the disciplined life." And you know, you know, that word "discipline" is the most hated word by most people. Discipline. Yes, but it's not just discipline for its own sake, it's because of what is involved. And we can lose so much - young Christians, you can lose so much, and you can be disqualified from the great calling with which you are called, and from obtaining the great prize, the real prize, which is set before you, if you don't learn the disciplined life. "Keep under your body". A Christian then, ought to be a very disciplined person, with a life well ordered and regulated - nothing loose, and flippant, and careless. Nothing like that. We ought to be people girded on a great business. There's a lot to be said about that, and that's enough.

And finally, the second letter, the second chapter, and the so well-known 15th verse: "Give diligence to present thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth." Here there are one or two features. It's a very unfortunate thing that the translators into the King James or Authorised Version put at the beginning of that exhortation, "study to show thyself approved unto God", because it has given rise to the constituting or formation of a whole school of biblical interpretation. "Study to show thyself approved unto God, rightly dividing the word..." and they have thought that it's a picture of the student in his study, taking the Word of God and cutting it up and putting it into all kinds of different watertight compartments and dispensational sections. A whole (I just mention it) a whole school of dispensationalism and ultra-dispensationalism has been built upon this verse; and it's all wrong. It's all wrong, you shall be led astray if you get that idea, for this has nothing to do with the study and with the book.

The translators of the Revised Version have improved upon it: "Give diligence to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed..." It is true that your work is with the Word of God, but the picture here is not a student, it's a craftsman. It's a craftsman, and what lies behind the Greek here is the stonemason. And the stonemason has the specification before him of the stones that are to be cut, to be fitted into a building; and in the specification, or the blueprint, there are all the lines where the cuts are to be made, very finely, so that when these stones are put together, they do fit; they just do fit, they belong to each other. It's the craftsman's job.

I think there are few things better today than to see a craftsman at work. With all the mass-production and the machinery-made things... to really find a craftsman, an old-fashioned craftsman, with his real hand-work: the work of the craftsman, not the work of the machine. And that's what Paul is talking about, of course. And he says, "You have got the specification given to you in the Word of God. Now don't toy with it, don't play with it, don't be careless about it. You see to it that the truths of the Word of God are faithfully observed. Faithfully observed; that you handle the Word of God absolutely honestly."

In his second Corinthian letter you remember the apostle used this phrase: "Not handling the word of God deceitfully" (2 Cor. 4:2). What does that mean? Making it mean what it doesn't mean, for our own convenience, because it suits us to so interpret it! But no, no scripture is of any private interpretation. The Word of God says this; now then, that's what the Word of God does say; there's no getting round it! Don't try to get round it, don't try to make it to mean something that it doesn't mean, and certainly don't be superior to it and think that you know better than what it says. No, look here: Be absolutely honest with the Word of God. The Word of God says that; the blueprint, the pattern, the specification gives that as the precise line of things. Take it. Don't think that you can improve upon it; don't be careless about it. Take note of it.

The Spirit, the Holy Spirit, gave the Word. And here, to Timothy, the apostle says so: "All Scripture given by inspiration of God is profitable for..." this and that and that. The Spirit gave the Word. We must be adjusted by the Holy Spirit to the Word that He has given! That is "rightly dividing", or, as literally the word is: "drawing straight lines" drawing straight lines, or cutting rather, cutting straight lines with the Word of God. Just be honest with it! Just be honest with it. Just let it mean to you what it really does mean, and don't try to get round it.

I wonder if now, I wonder now if you'll do that? I wonder, very often wonder, whether a lot of Christians have read the Word of God by things about them, so glaringly about them: appearances, the way they behave, the way they dress or don't dress, all sorts of things. And the Word of God has said precisely things about those things, those matters. It's here, it's here! And they go on as Christians. What's the matter, are you not reading the Word? Or are you saying, "Oh well, you see Paul was a woman hater..." and you've got the wrong word, you have not dealt fairly with the Word. "All Scripture is given by inspiration", by the Holy Ghost. Paul was not saying things just out of his own predilection, his own preferences, likes and dislikes: he was speaking what has become Scripture. Don't get round it. Be honest. You don't stand to lose anything; you stand to gain the blessing of God. Now you see, we must be adjusted to the Word of God, adjusted to the Word of God: neither less than the Word of God, nor more.

Now these are the metaphors of the Christian. They are very clear, very simple; but I come back again to where I commenced. They, all put together, do show that a Christian is a very responsible person, or is to be so regarded, and must so regard himself or herself, "I'm in something that is not just optional - my pleasure, my likes." Not some thing... "Well, it doesn't matter very much, we'll get to heaven alright, we're saved." Oh, no! There is more than getting to heaven, there is more than just being saved. There are great interests of the Lord to be served, and these are the people required for it.

So give diligence, take your share of the hardship as a good soldier, guard your trust, keep the rules, learn discipline. "And so shall be ministered unto you an abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom..." and you, as successors of Paul in the battle and in the work, may be able to say, as he said: "I have fought the fight... I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day: and not to me only, but to all them that have loved His appearing". We are in the same fight, the same contest, the same calling.

Table of Contents

Author's Rights

Contents

Chapter 1 - Divine Reinforcement

Chapter 2 - Divine Reactions

Chapter 3 - Divine Resources

Chapter 4 - Remember Jesus Christ

Chapter 5 - The Spiritual Basis of Everything

Chapter 6 - The Testimony of Jesus

Chapter 7 - The Responsibility