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Malachi - The Voice at the End Time

by T. Austin-Sparks

Edited and supplied by the Golden Candlestick Trust.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Lord Coming for a Prepared People

Chapter 2 - A People Utterly for the Lord Himself

Chapter 3 - The Altar and the Coming of the Lord

Chapter 1 - The Lord Coming for a Prepared People

Reading: Malachi 3.

We notice that Malachi is the final voice of the Old Testament and that there are very striking similarities between the close of the Old Testament dispensation and the close of this dispensation; and one of the outstanding things is that for the close of a dispensation God has a special voice. He secures for Himself a voice by which to make vocal His special message for an end time. That voice represents an instrument peculiarly constituted. We saw that with Malachi there was not only the closing of the dispensation, but there was the bringing in of the Lord. The Lord was coming. Read chapter 3 and you have the messenger sent before His face and then the Lord Himself coming, the Messenger of the Covenant coming suddenly to His temple. It was an end time with the Lord's coming in view.

And we further see that Malachi was peculiarly linked with John the Baptist, and John the Baptist with Malachi, as we saw the complement of each other, two halves of one whole. Chapter 3 speaking of John the Baptist in connection with other prophecies and Malachi thus linked with John the Baptist is the voice for the bringing in of the Lord. The end of one order and the bringing in of a new order, the end of one age and the bringing in of another age and that age ushered in by the coming of the Lord. These things are very patent, they lie on the face of these prophecies and of the life of John the Baptist who declared "I am a voice".

Malachi, we noticed, means "the messenger of Jehovah" and John the Baptist was "My messenger". Malachi is an unknown man. We do not know who he was or when he prophesied. John the Baptist set aside all public recognition - "I am not a great man, I am a voice. That is all, a voice". And so an end time instrument of God for the bringing in of the Lord Jesus is something which is nothing in itself, but which brings the Lord Jesus into view and is only occupied with Him and preparing the way for Him, and repudiates all prestige, popularity, and personality of its own and keeps the Lord Jesus in view for the attention and consideration of all. So Malachi and John were one as an end time voice for bringing in the Lord.

We swiftly glance on towards another representation of an end time and we touched Paul. The nature of the apostle's life is also a representation of an end time and an end time method of God. We believe that the general characteristic and feature of this dispensation is the securing of the church, the body of Christ, out from the nations. Paul himself had that revelation in a peculiar way and was the embodiment of that truth. He became the personal embodiment, the very personification of the truth of the body of Christ and with the close of his life you have in representation what you will find at the close of the church age, this present age; and you will notice that the features are similar to those features of those other closing ages, the features of John and the features of Malachi. Things were reduced to a very small compass, that is, things which truly represented the Lord's mind.

In Malachi the great mass of those who claimed to be the Lord's and laid claim to covenant rights, were in their hearts distant from the Lord whilst maintaining the outward ordinances. And in the midst, hidden, you have Malachi 3:16: "They that feared the Lord spoke often one to another; and the Lord hearkened and heard..." "they shall be My peculiar treasure in that day that I do make". There you have things reduced among the Lord's people in that which represents His own mind. When you come to John you have something very similar. At the opening of John's life things which truly represented the Lord were very small. A remnant of a remnant.

In Malachi you are dealing with the whole remnant that came back and yet that whole remnant is out of touch with the Lord, and a remnant of the remnant only is in touch with the Lord. There is that remnant of the remnant at the beginning of John's life. There was one Simeon... coming in by the Spirit into the temple etc.. And there was one Anna, and she spoke to all those that looked for redemption in Jerusalem - a remnant of a remnant looking. I have missed the most important thing, "She spoke of Him to all those". It was Him she was speaking of; and Simeon was speaking of Him, bringing in the Lord. A remnant of the remnant out to bring in the Lord. "She coming in at that very hour"; this was not some chance thing that she came in by the Spirit just at that very hour, there was something in the background causing this thing. A remnant of a remnant looking for, waiting for the Lord.

When you come to Paul you find things are reduced very much at the end of his life. It is striking and perplexing unless you get the key. This man with such a wide range of ministry, to whom the whole world was open, by the working of things in a very strange and perplexing way must be reduced, cut off from his public ministry, the many lands all closed to him personally until he found himself in the prison at Rome and that is all. No platform, no church, no wide ministry, nothing out in the open, but the last thing it says about him, "...he received all that went in unto him... teaching concerning the Lord Jesus". Simeon and Anna spoke of Him. Paul now not coming out to the multitudes, but shut away and the Lord leading hungry ones to him and he received and taught them things concerning the Lord Jesus. These are features of an end time.

What the Lord is going to do is to find hungry ones, and hungry ones will seek out the truth. And the nature of the instrument at the end time is not some great public organisation, movement and demonstration, but some secret thing to which the Lord leads the hungry; detached from the official organisation, in the wilderness, outside the camp, a going out.

As far as I can see this is the principle at work in Malachi, John the Baptist, and Paul: the Lord seeking to get something which is wholly for Himself, to which and in which He alone is Lord, He the sole occupation, engrossment, absorbs all the attention. They feared the Lord, thought upon His Name: the Lord in view. And that thing will be something apart, not a popular movement, something outside the camp with His reproach upon it like Paul in prison. Who will go to that? Reproach, shame, a man in prison who is there lying under judgement, a man concerning whom there are all kinds of rumours - this is the instrument. And who is hungry enough to risk all the laws of reputation, who is humble enough to accept God along that line? Finding out where there is true hunger for the Lord. The Lord does not protect His special instrument from the slanders and the reproaches of men, but He uses those very slanders as tests as to the hunger of others, as to where they are, whether they are prepared to bear the reproach in order to find Him. Do you recognise that? So Paul, representing in his own life and person the end time of the church, finds that, so far as the great public sweep is concerned, that is at an end and now he is shut up in a prison and his ministry is to those who come to him, and by his pen out to the Lord's people. This is a feature of God's method at the end.

It is important for us to recognise that, because there is such a longing for a great public demonstration, movement of religion, something that is going to have recognition and a great sweep of success, and the Lord seems to be making that more and more impossible. He is reducing, and curtailing, and shutting up, and putting the thing out, and even bringing His best into a place of reproach and rejection. He is then sifting out the others by an instrument of that kind and adding on the ground, not of personal interest and enjoyment, but of a desperate need of the Lord Himself. People cannot have essentially the Lord unless the Lord is everything somewhere.

That is put rather badly I know, but if people really want the Lord, if it is the Lord they want and not service, work, popularity, not a sphere to display their own gifts, but a desperate need of the Lord, and they find the place where the Lord is everything, they will say "I am satisfied because it is all the Lord". That is an end time; the Lord Himself. Oh, though these words are so simple, it is the grandest thing, the solution to all our problems and difficulties when we are really taken up with the Lord. It is the solution to our problem of joylessness. A very great deal of our joylessness comes about because we are taken up with the work of the Lord, have got into a system of things, and we lose our joy because it is 'work'. If it were the Lord, it would not be like that. The question of joy is settled and the problem is solved when the Lord is in it.

These things are similar in principle in these end time representations and when you come to the book of the Revelation you see the thing borne out so clearly. You have many Christian people in view in the book of Revelation in the first chapters. We cannot think for one moment that those messages of the churches were sent to unconverted people. They were sent to Christian people, but you find that while those Christian people may be a remnant, there is a remnant of a remnant to which the Lord is especially addressing His exhortations and His warnings, His admonitions. His eye is upon that remnant of the remnant and I am quite sure that represents the end. Whatever is going to happen to the others, that is not for the moment the point of our consideration, but one thing is perfectly clear: that the Lord at His coming is coming for a people prepared for Him, and that must search. It must search, it will raise problems and it will discriminate.

I have heard many discussions on the letter to the Thessalonians which had the Lord's coming in view and things seem to be very general in their presentation there. It looks as though everybody is going to be caught up willy-nilly. Now let us recognise that to have a Thessalonian letter you must have Thessalonian conditions. You have a people wonderfully advanced in spiritual life. Read the letter again. "God is not unmindful to forget your work of faith and labour of love, assurance of hope - turned from idols to serve the living and true God and to wait for His Son - great conflict of affliction - your love for all the saints which is reported in every place - your faith is spoken of" etc.. Tell me that that is the average Christian life - not a bit of it. The message of the Lord's coming is to a people like that. The Lord is looking for a people prepared, and if that is true, there is a special meaning in the coming of the Lord. It is not just a general thing, and it does not matter; you are saved and you can live as you like.

You can start with the Gospels and go through the Epistles and you will find that whenever you are dealing with the Lord's coming, you are dealing with a preparation for the Lord's coming. If it is in the Gospel illustration, you have a waiting, standing on guard. There is an occupying till He comes, there is a devotion. The Lord is coming, therefore it behoves us to be this and that and the other thing. It is a prepared people for whom the Lord is coming and He will secure for Himself that voice of preparation. "Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight" (Matt. 3:3). A voice of preparation for His coming; that is what I feel is the burden of the Lord today. A voice of preparation to bring in Himself and the preparation is according to the laws of this instrument which we have seen. The voice of preparation is generally outside the camp, in the wilderness, and if anybody goes out and does not really mean business, they will not stand. It is a testing thing.

John was not accounted for. He was born of the Holy Spirit and one of those who was especially raised up for a purpose, whose natural life was impossible and had to be the result of a miracle. There had to be a work of God. This was true of Samuel and of Isaac. These represent something in the purpose of God. And John, being born of the Holy Spirit, represents an instrument which is not a project of man's activity and organisation, but something born of the Holy Spirit. God has raised it up and given it a message; it is raised up for His purpose. These are the governing laws of an instrument for a special purpose, seen there in the illustrations, and are true in the reality of this end time.

We have much more to say about the Lord's coming in this connection, perhaps later, but in this chapter, one feels this particular stress again. You may fail to recognise it, this thing that God is after; something peculiar at the end as His treasure. While there is that which He may commend even in a Thessalonian condition, at the end He may speak in a commendatory way of various things - "I know thy works and patience" and so on. But above that hangs a greater desire of God for something, and after that "something" the Lord is reaching out, and He would raise up an instrument that would be a voice to get something that answers to the desire of His heart.

This quest of the Lord will explain His dealings with some. John will go into prison and lose his head and the explanation is his peculiar vocation. Paul will go into prison and be shut up and lose his great public ministry as an individual simply because of the purpose with which he is called. He is called in a peculiar way to secure for God His dispensation purpose, the church, and it is very striking that when you come to the product of that restricted public ministry, you are making the application of truth to the church very intense. Those letters from the prison bring things to a very high object of perfection. It is an intensification process at the end time; it represents the Lord Jesus in His sovereignty and all things in subjection to Him. That is what is in view. So the principles of this peculiar treasure, this end time instrument, are illustrated in Old Testament characters as well as New Testament characters.

In Psalm 105 there is the reference to Joseph whom they threw into prison. He was bound in chains of iron until "his word" came, the word of the Lord tried him. Now, Joseph represents the movement of God and he is that instrument especially ordained, raised up and preserved of God in order to preserve life on the earth, a Seed of God. That Holy Seed was near to perishing, being wiped out by the famine, but in those sovereign acts of God was hidden so deep, so past finding out; those strange providences which shook the faith of Joseph, that reproach, false charge, the restricting of him because of a lie, all this shutting up and the Lord seeming to have left him. And on the time goes, but the Lord has dealt with him in that way because he is a chosen vessel to preserve a living remnant on the earth.

The Lord wants to preserve a line, the Seed of Himself, and He must have an instrument raised up, but His dealings with that instrument are very strange. John the Baptist, the man who proclaimed the Messiah, had his faith tested. We do not know what Paul's tests of faith were in that prison. Doubtless he had his dark days - "only Luke is with me", and so on. Faith tested, but what a purpose served. What we owe to that! Has not the Lord through that very ministry and through that very servant done more to secure His church in the succeeding generations than by any other means? When the church is completed and in the glory, the instrumentality of the Lord above all others, will be Paul and his letters. But those very things by which the church has been mostly secured, those letters born out of the imprisonment, suffering, and the reducing of that man, is the way of the Lord. Strange ways, but mighty. His ways are past finding out. And Benjamin who was the instrument linking the distant brethren afar off with the one exalted, he fulfilled his ministry by way of the cup. To use the words of another Benjamite, Paul himself of the tribe of Benjamin, "That I may know Him... and the fellowship of His sufferings." That is taking the cup, Benjamin's cup, but it is to bring nigh those who are afar off. It is a ministry, a wonderful ministry.

And Samuel who brings in the great King; not born after the will of the flesh, but again the result of a mighty prayer ministry on the part of his mother, and a Divine act, so that his very being was a miracle. He also represents an instrument of God for bringing God's ends about; something not of man, but all of God, and born out of a strong and bitter cry because of the conditions prevailing. You can see all that. The Word of God is full of it. How is it applied? In this way. While there must be an appreciation of everything that is of the Lord, we must not fail to recognise that the Lord has something far more than a generalisation, than Christian activities in view, something far deeper which relates to His coming and He is seeking to get something. Whatever all the rest may gain or lose, it is not for us to sit in judgement upon anybody and certainly not for us to think that we might be superior to all the rest. While there is to be a due appreciation of all that is of God and for God in every place everywhere, the Lord wants us to have our hearts set upon this supreme thing. His heart is set upon having a peculiar treasure for some peculiar purpose now, and perhaps for some peculiar glory afterwards. A purpose now, and that purpose is the bringing of the Lord Jesus into His place, bringing Him in, preparing the way of the Lord. Now, that is an instrument in very general terms. As the Lord may give us enablement in the next chapters, we may see this in applying to the nations and in a more direct way to the Lord's coming, but in this chapter I have been very conscious of being held to a limited range.

The Lord's coming represents the preparation of a special people for Himself, a high degree of preparation within a certain compass of His people - it does, you cannot get away from it. For that, He must have a voice by which the preparation is made, with a message, and that instrument has to be prepared to pay a special price, to know something of the dungeon, the prison and the chains, and the patience of Jesus Christ, of the curtailment, and all the lies and slander. If we could see more deeply we should see that the very things that to us are the things against the fulfilment of the ministry are being used of God to make that ministry all the more sure in this way, and that it will test the downright reality and sincerity of other people. People never mind crowding to a popular thing, but if you want that which really does mean business, the test of it is very often unpopularity, something lying under reproach of men. We are not applying this to this company and say this is it; we are speaking in a broad way looking over the whole of the world. One cannot speak a great deal of what is in one's heart, it would seem to be making comparisons, if you had any taste and knowledge of the reality of things and then got out into the Christian world today, your heart would ache and you would be constantly saying, even where there is a constant buzz and hum of activity, "This is not it, this does not satisfy the Lord. This is work."

A brother came back to me from a great convention in the States and I asked him what kind of a time they had. He did not seem very satisfied and was telling me something of what had been said, and I happened to remark "Well brother, it is only the Lord that can satisfy." He replied, "Oh, that is it; the fact of the matter is we run to feed on prophecy and we have lost the Lord." He could have put it in another way, a simpler presentation of the same truth. We have said this before very often: we can be so occupied with the Second Coming that we may lose altogether the One who is coming. It is not the Second Coming, it is the One who is coming, and there are multitudes of good, earnest, evangelical people so taken up with the signs of the times, but the One who is coming is not all their thought, and today it is like that. It is things, the work, enthusiasms, enterprises, organisations, programmes, all these, so much occupying time and resources and the Lord takes a second place. It is a disappointing situation, but as one looks out and is in touch with this situation, one just feels this burden, that the Lord must get something more than this, He must have something more than this among His people. And one looks back into the Word and sees that is just what the Lord is after.

In Malachi... the conditions, not general, but specific: "Then they that feared the Lord" etc.. In Isaiah general religious conditions are rejected and the Lord is seeking a people for Himself. In Paul's day the great sweep is left and he is now in a place just put aside from all that. And the Lord's method is not now a man going to all the nations with a public ministry (don't misunderstand that, I will put that right in a later chapter if the Lord wills), but the Lord setting up a testimony here and by reason of the conditions of that testimony, reproach, slander, rumours, lies, all the rest of it, testing men out as to their genuine hunger for Himself. Where He finds those who stand the test, they come along and Paul is occupied with teaching them things concerning the Lord Jesus.

Do you get the vision of the Lord's method or instrument? Ask Him to show it to you in your heart and He will put down in the nations something like that, which will have to suffer, which will be under a ban, will know much of the prison conditions and the chains and tests of faith, but the Lord will find out who really does mean business. It is not the great sweep, but shall we say the selection of those whom He foreknew.

May the Lord write His word on our hearts for His Name's sake.

Chapter 2 - A People Utterly for the Lord Himself

Reading: Malachi 3:1-16; 4:1-6; Matt. 17:3-4.

We have been thinking together of the voice at the end time, seeing the nature of that end time instrument as set forth in Malachi, John the Baptist, and the apostle Paul, and just for these moments, the note of emphasis which is in my heart is with regard to their utterness for the Lord.

You notice in Malachi what we have read. Malachi strikes that note very strongly and very definitely. The whole of his prophecies have to do with a partial devotion to the Lord, that which is merely and only on the outside; a system of works, activities, things occupied with maintaining traditions and keeping up formalities, a certain kind of zeal which had to do with things. And on the other hand, over against that, the burden of the message of the Lord for something infinitely more than that, something wholly of the heart; the dissatisfaction of the Lord, the discontent of Jehovah into which His messenger had entered in a very real way, sounding this note of Jehovah's discontent and seeking to bring the Lord's people to a place of utterness for the Lord. And as we have again and again pointed out, that utterness for the Lord resulting from his ministry - seen in that remnant of the remnant, that little company that feared the Lord, spoke one to another, and thought upon His Name - utterness for the Lord.

And then you notice as you get to the end of his prophecies there comes in that verse 5 of chapter 4 where Elijah is introduced into this thing. It is very wonderful how at the end the Lord gathers up the outstanding things of all the dispensation. John gathers up all the Law and the Prophets. In him the whole of the Old Testament is represented. And you find an end time thing is a collecting up and gathering together of the greatest features of all that has gone before, and so the Lord is out to recover all that has been outstanding according to His mind. And before you get to the end, Elijah is introduced and you have John the Baptist and Elijah brought together in Malachi. And you find John the Baptist fulfilling this prophecy and going his way, and you find Elijah brought in and linked with John the Baptist, and you have in Matt. 11:14 (see also Luke 1:17) Malachi 3 and 4 brought together.

The Lord Jesus has already said before He reached the Mount of Transfiguration that Elijah in spirit and power would reappear in the person of John the Baptist: "He shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah." Thus He makes that most extraordinary statement that Elijah has come and they did to him what they would, and they understood that He spoke concerning John the Baptist. You see in Malachi, John the Baptist, Elijah, and that other great end time representative Paul, one feature perhaps more conspicuous than any other feature, that was utterness for the Lord. Elijah - "I have been very jealous for the Lord...". There was a man who was utterly, utterly poured out, abandoned to the interests of the Lord Himself. It was a costly business for Elijah. He was so utterly devoted to the interests of the Lord that he got to the place where he thought he was the only one, and it was excusable. There is a great deal of difference between becoming and feeling you are the only person in the world who is right. You can become very zealous for the Lord so that you feel that there is no one else like you and you feel that no one else knows your burden, no one else is able to understand your concern. And I think it was because of Elijah's devotion that he felt he was the only one. It was not his pride or conceit, but his devotion. The Lord enlightened him - He had seven thousand who had not bowed the knee to Baal. It was pardonable that he thought he only was left. This represents his utterness of devotion to the Lord, a man poured out for God.

Malachi stands in that position. He cries, "Bring the whole tithe", be utter for the Lord. John is just there. He has nothing for himself: no name for himself; no reputation for himself. Nothing for himself - "I must decrease"; "He is preferred before me"; "The latchet of His shoes I am unworthy to unloose". And if it is true in these cases, so we see how much more true in the case of the apostle Paul. If it were possible, he excelled in this thing. If ever there was a man who had that to let go, to abandon, to give up, it was Paul, but "I count all things loss and as refuse for the excellency of Christ Jesus my Lord" and at the end he did not lose anything in his utter devotion to the Lord and His interests - "That I may know Him".

Now, that is only one note and it is just the one note I have on my heart now. Very simple, but very solemn and very searching. Oh, if I may put it this way: I would not urge upon you anything that is not a concern of myself. For myself I feel the need of (and my earnest cry to the Lord is for) a position where it is abandonment to the Lord, where it is the Lord. There is this fact, that we are born into a religious system which is highly organised so that the Christian life becomes so utterly a matter of organised work and its manifold interests. We get taken up with that, and everything for us is organised. If we are asked to do a bit of work, well, alright, we may do it if we feel in a mood for it, or by some great effort and self-sacrifice, by fear of our own conscience or some other reason, we may do it. But, oh for the spontaneity that does not wait until work is for us to do and doors opened so that all we have to do is walk through. We are out, not for the work, but the Lord, we have the Lord and His interests so definitely at heart so that it is not in season and out of season, but that every season is in season. It is not a case that we are expected to do it, or it is a part of the thing that we have joined and because we are related it is expected of us and we should do it, or because we are interested in it or because it is incumbent upon us. No, rather, for love's sake that it is my need and the need of the Lord's people today.

It was a company of those who spontaneously did the work of the Lord and talked about the Lord and thought upon His Name; I think some of their thoughts were very sad thoughts. His Name, that wonderful Name, all that that Name represented in Israel, they thought of all that He said about His Name: "Because of My Name"; "I have put My Name there"; "For My Name's sake". The Name of the Lord represented all the Lord's honour, all the Lord's interest, and here in a very general way all that that Name stood for was dishonoured among His own people, and they thought upon His Name. There is a touch of tenderness and pathos about that. It is as if the Lord said, "Yes, all these are not keeping My Name in its place, but you were thinking upon My Name; My interests and My honour were matters of serious thought for you". They thought upon His Name. This is utter devotion to the Lord.

There is such a need for spontaneity and overflowingness of heart among the Lord's people. You ask, and the response you get is very often they will do it as a favour, a condescension, that sort of spirit. If the Lord's interests could be served in any possible way, that ought to be the thing that moves us. That is where I feel we have got to come. Until we get there, things will go slow; there will be deadness and death about it. I am sure that spontaneity is a general feature of Life; Life manifests itself by overflowingness. Think of the overflow of God to us, the ungrudgingness of God to us. He spared not, He gave: "Now let this mind be in you..." it is utterness of things for the Lord. For these men, Elijah, Malachi, John, and Paul, and John the apostle, it was so in their ministry. It was not their life vocation for the Lord that concerned them.

I remember Dr. Forsyth said years ago: "So many men are out to win their audience when they ought to be out to win their case for their Lord". When we get that view, we are on a wrong way. We may lose our audience, reputation, position; the thing is, we must be utterly devoted to the Lord and take all risks for that. It is not some enterprise we are concerned about - "Now, if this thing I represent is not a success it will be a terrible business!" When you get that on your mind, you are open to all sorts of things. If this fellowship does not come up to scratch, you will get troubled, worried, and concerned, and you will adopt this way and that way.

It is the Lord, utterness for the Lord, not a thing, but for the Lord. The difference is just this: are you concerned for some institution, teaching, fellowship, organisation, place, enterprise, testimony? Well, it might be well to be very much concerned for such if it is of God, but beloved, that is not enough. It must be the very heart of things: the Lord Himself; His honour, not our reputation; not things about which we are interested. No! Just how far the Lord is involved, how far the Lord is interested and concerned - you must ask Him to make that clear. I find difficulty in making quite clear and plain what is very clear to me as I speak. I see this feature about Paul. What a run Paul has had, what a career, what a sphere he has had. There has been no man who had so much to show as a result of his work. But it is going... he is losing his place in the hearts of those who owe him most. He is gradually, but very definitely, being shut down until in his prison he has to confess that all in Asia turned away from him, "This one and that one has left me and now only Luke is with me", and it looks as if his whole life work had gone to pieces and he was a failure. If that were the thing that concerned him most of all, he would have died of a broken heart, and ended in despair. Instead of that we have a different result at the end. Why? Because at the end you find intensified stress upon the Lord Himself. Paul is able to say, "If I had spent all this time and energy, this strength, these years in trying to build up for myself something great, then I am a failure and here I have very little to show for it". That would have been the result of his having an enterprise as his life's dominating object. But because it was the Lord so utterly, he could see things go to pieces and still maintain his position in triumph. It's an impressive thing.

You see, if your work is your god and it goes to pieces, you and your god and your work all go together. If it is the Lord, you know the Lord, and it is Himself, then you have got something to carry you through the changing aspect of things. When you see things apparently changing for the worst, you know the Lord in it and that carries you through. Ask the Lord to make that very clear to you. That is something precious.

With these men it was not their ministry, work, vocation, enterprise, programmes, schemes; it was the Lord. Therefore they could suffer the apparent wrecking of their schemes and their work, but know that there was that which was eternal at the heart of things that could never be destroyed. It was of God. There is this other thing necessary, of course, to an utterness of devotion to the Lord; that is, a due sense of the state of things with which the Lord is not satisfied. For Elijah, his devotion to the Lord was one half of the thing, the other half was his consciousness of how universally things were not generally spiritual.

Of course you will never be like Elijah, zealous for the Lord with a burning zeal, unless you see some reason for it, and the thing that was Elijah's reason was that the heart of God was disappointed and this state of things did not satisfy the Lord. I believe the Lord is very specially concerned about His own people today. He is. There is the concern which is continuous, age-long, which we must truly share: the concern for the unsaved ones. We must truly have that concern, oh yes, but it does seem to me that, without making less of that than ought to be made, that today the Lord has a great concern about His own people. It does seem that the Lord is desperately anxious (if I may use that word of the Lord) to get His own people somewhere where they are not today. And we, if we are going to be able to co-operate with the Lord, must have a sense of what the lack is, that there is a lack and all that that lack is, and what it is the Lord really wants. Unless we have got that, we have got no zeal and no strength at all. There is a lack. Are you conscious in your heart of a lack, speaking generally, among the Lord's people? A spiritual lack. The Lord deliver us from criticism, the Lord deliver us from anything like the insidious in comparison.

Beloved, many of those who lack spiritually and are far from spiritual perception of the Lord's main things, are devoted children of God. While in the States my heart literally ached for a great many people spiritually, who were the kindest people to me personally. They really showed the love of Christ to me, they were sacrificially devoted to my interests in the time of my need. I really felt the love of Christ coming in through acts of devotion and I thought, "Oh, that you had a perception of the greater things of the Lord!" All they knew was that salvation was to get you out of hell and into heaven, to save a man from going to hell, but they had not got a vista of light beyond that, concerning the great eternal purpose of God in Christ, the eternal election and vocation of the church which is His body. I could see all the mistakes they were making, the false emphasis, and how they themselves were dissatisfied and yet so kind with the love of Christ. We must not criticise and we must not think we are better.

Do everything you possibly can both to avoid and destroy, if it exists, the impression that you or we think that we are somewhere far ahead of other believers. Get rid of that. Never in their presence do or say anything that would give the impression that we consider ourselves much more enlightened and these poor folk who have got no light. There is nothing that will ever help other people but love. We must not be butchers, but shepherds; not drivers, but leaders. There must be an overflow of God.

Now, one last word. Elijah, Malachi, John, Paul, and others who have fulfilled this purpose for God, bringing Him into His place in a day when He Himself was dissatisfied and disappointed, and they, entering into His disappointment and sorrow of heart because they sensed the lack and the need and the Lord's desire (I say sensed it spiritually; they knew it in their hearts) they were in a position to be such as to whom there was entrusted a distinctive message for their day, and that is no little thing. Of course, the Gospel is a great message, it is a distinctive message. It is a great thing to be able to preach the Gospel, but I am not thinking now so much of the bringing the Gospel to the unsaved as God's unique message of salvation, as I am thinking of the difference between the kind of general Bible truth that is coming to the Lord's people, and Bible readings and addresses - all true, beautiful, and in a way helpful - the difference between that and being a man, a woman, an instrument with a message for the time. You can go to a conference and hear beautiful messages, yes, helpful... but is it an age/time message, something that serves the hour in the times of God?

I feel that an end time voice has got to have a very distinctive note. It has got to have a message, not just a giving out of general truth, helpful in a degree, even in a large measure. It may have a place, but if that is all, it is not enough. There must be a voice for the time, there must be a message for the hour and when that is heard, you will never fail to find some who recognise that voice. You may have a dozen or twenty speakers, but it is the man who has got a message from God for that hour or time, a distinctive message; not the man who is giving a Bible address. It is the man who has got a message and reaches hearts and finds a response somewhere that is deeper than all the other responses, and you will never fail to find some who recognise that voice and who in their hearts register, "This is God's Word for the day, this is God's message for the hour."

The Lord needs a voice for the end time that has got a distinctive message. That message, of course, will bring conflict and stir up jealousy. You will be criticised - there was jealousy among the prophets; you will be set aside, the great public concerns will turn you down as singular, extraordinary, extreme, but you must go on with your message. You may ask, "How does this apply to a general company of the Lord's people?" That is not what I am talking about. Each one of you can be, in the grace of God, a part of that end time voice. You may never in your own vocal capacities be heard outside of your own house, or a gathering for prayer; you may have no platform or public ministry, and yet you are as vitally a part of that end-time voice. You have got to pray that burden through with the Lord. You have got to pray that message out to His people. You have to take this thing on your heart. Let it test you now. When you gather for prayer do you find it easy to sit still and be quiet? Can you sit with folded hands and go through without a movement in your soul? Is your difficulty rather to put your burden into words? That is it, a company, a people with a burden which they may alone be able to express before God, but do not forget there is a mighty vocation about groanings which cannot be uttered.

This is not necessarily a public voice, a clarion call on a platform. It is a burden. It may be a Daniel kind of thing. Daniel was desperately concerned for the Lord's honour and the Lord's Name, and by prayer he shakes the heavens and stirs the principalities and brings himself to a den of lions. Yes, it is all in the way. It is the nature of this thing. It is an utterness of devotion to the Lord, not to Honor Oak, not to Honor Oak's Testimony as a teaching or to any other thing, but to the Lord. And that devotion to the Lord includes these two things: on the one hand a true sense of the Lord's need and discontent, what the Lord longs for, and on the other hand a knowledge of the thing that is going to meet the need - what it is, so that you can say what it is, so that you can say, "I see, I feel, I know the need, but blessed be God I have got the thing that will meet it". It is a terrible thing to sense a need and not know how to meet it. It is a great thing to know that by the grace of God I have got the thing that will make it a new thing.

There is no room for conceit or pride when you have been in the den of lions or the fiery furnace. This thing is too costly to allow you to have conceit. Are you there, right in with God; can you keep silent before God? Is the thing a matter of conscience, or duty, what is expected of you, or if there is any interest of God that can be served in any way, if you have it in you by the grace of God, you do it for the Lord's sake, not because of one who asks you? Can the Lord be served in this? It does not matter who or what if the Lord's interests can be served. We need to be there. Whatever does not apply to you, you can let it go, but I am quite sure that this word applies to us all.

Utterness for the Lord... the whole tithe, and then these two aspects of that: a sense of what the Lord is after, what He needs and what His people lack, and on the other hand being in a blessed spiritual position to, either by prayer or in some other way, bring the supply to the need, to pray through, to pray over that which will bring about the Lord's satisfaction, although it may be only in the remnant of the remnant.

The result of Malachi's ministry was that the great mass still went on asking questions and disputing his assertions: "Wherein have we robbed God?" But the result of his ministry was that there was a company, a remnant in a remnant to satisfy the Lord's heart, and the Lord called them jewels, and I love every word of those 16th and 17th verses. A book of remembrance was kept before Him. "Before Him" - that can be illustrated from the book of Esther. The king could not sleep; it was a providential wakefulness, and he called for the books and he had read from the records, the chronicles, and it was found written that which Mordecai had done. Now it is just like that. A book of remembrance was kept before the Lord and the Lord kept written in there what His people talked about when they talked about Him. They talked one to another and thought upon His Name, and the Lord said to the recording angel, "Put that down, I like that! Read that to Me now and again!"

The Lord is laying up in store that which is precious. A people utterly for Himself. May we be such people by the grace of God.

Chapter 3 - The Altar and the Coming of the Lord

Reading: Malachi 1.

We have been seeing how at the end time the Lord seeks to possess Himself of a vessel that will be a voice in relation to the time of the end. Malachi has already yielded much to us in that connection, but there is much more. We have first of all seen the nature of such a vessel, how it is constituted, and what is its history and experience. And then we have seen the result of that voice and the coming of its message, and the fulfilment of its ministry in the securing of a company among the professing people of the Lord whose one all-absorbing concern is for the Lord Himself.

In this chapter we are led to dwell for a while upon the voice at the end time and this, so far as it is illustrated in the prophecies of Malachi, can be gathered into a few very clearly defined truths. You will notice, and probably have been struck by the reading of chapter one, that one object very definitely and clearly in view at this time was the altar. And then as you read on you arrive at the coming of the Lord, and you find that these two things are very closely related: the altar and the coming. That, it seems to me, represents the inclusive message of the voice at the end. There is much included, but that is the dominating feature of this end time instrument: the relation of the altar and the Lord's coming. Chapter 1 has to do with the altar, chapters 3 and 4 with the coming, and chapter 2 has to do with the priesthood. Now let us immediately get to the significance of this. It is a very solemn message it is, but I trust very provocative of seeking the Lord for a renewal of this ministry at the end time. So it is necessary for us to see very clearly this link between the altar and the coming.

In Chapter 1 we see the altar dishonoured, dis-hallowed. There are those terrible things which were laid at the door of the professing people of God in that chapter. They called the table of the Lord contemptible. They brought to the altar of the Lord the lame and the blind, the blemished, the imperfect, and so they failed to recognise the foundational nature of God's dealings in grace and mercy with them and to appreciate the infinitive love of God. And that was the cry of God, "I have loved you", and their reply is, "Wherein hast Thou loved us?" Then you notice that that question of the Divine love is taken up. By their attitude and their conduct in relation to the altar they show they have failed altogether to recognise both the wonder and the Divine love. How? Well, for us it is a familiar truth and yet it must come here again as a fresh emphasis of a message at the end time.

You see, the altar of the Lord, that which represented the grace of the Lord Jesus, was intended to be occupied by that which represented the absolute perfections of God in Christ, without spot and without blemish - all those spiritual and moral perfections of the Lord Jesus with no defect, no flaw, no blemish. Not the blind, the lame, the polluted, for that is a failure to appreciate the person and work of Christ by His cross, and when they offered that, it was so unlike the Lord. It represented on their part a terrible degradation of God's own Lamb, God's own provision for Himself with a Lamb. It dragged the Lord Jesus down into a place as represented by the blind, the lame, the blemished and so they failed in spirit to recognise the underlying foundational principle of the altar: that it was holy, spotless, without blemish, the sacrifice representing the absolute perfection of God's one eternal sacrifice. And the love of God was in His own provision.

God so loved... that when there could not be found in this universe that which He demanded for His own satisfaction, and therefore all being found corrupt and sinful, universal judgment must inevitably be passed upon all - God found in His love a way, by finding a perfect unblemished sacrifice. That is the love of God in Christ, and they failed to see it. "I have loved you..." "Wherein?" "You have lost the very principle of the altar and what you are doing is to bring the result of your own selection, of your own judgment and ideas on things instead of that which is of My mind." This has a very practical application.

We move out of the realm of Jewish ritual, sacrifices, and that system, into this spiritual realm represented thereby. Spiritual realities are carried on into this Christian age and when we try to present to the Lord ourselves in all our blindness and lameness, and unworthiness and blemish, and think by presenting ourselves to Him we are satisfying Him, but we are setting aside the Lord Jesus; displacing Him, failing to appreciate Him. "It is not what I am, but what Thou art." We are always trying to bring God some kind of satisfaction by our works, our efforts, our undertakings and God's satisfaction is alone in the Lord Jesus. He is it all, He does it all, and apart from Him there is no satisfying the Divine heart. But once we get a glimpse of that great fact, that all comprehendingly the Lord Jesus is God's provision for all our need, and have our eyes upon Him in a deep, true and adequate appreciation, then the Father is satisfied. Then we have fellowship, then we have joy, then we know peace. But you see, this people were bringing the fruit of their own work and they could not understand the blessing of God was not upon them, upon their land, upon their labours; there was a curse everywhere. They could not understand why the Lord was not accepting, and they were blaming the Lord and counter-questioning all the time, "Wherein...?"; "Wherein have we robbed You?" It is their very blindness to see their failure, their inability to see they have put something in the place of the Lord Jesus which is not worthy of Him.

Now, a note with which an end time ministry must commence is the note of giving the Lord Jesus His right place; and the ministry of an end time instrument is in the direction supremely of a new appreciation of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. You find today that even well-meaning, earnest, enthusiastic Christians are failing to recognise that it is all the Lord Jesus. They are making much of Christian enterprise; you hear a great deal about the consecration of gifts, and talent, and natural abilities and all these things to the Lord and there is an underlying peril and danger about all that - as though that could satisfy the Lord. Although we might have every endowment, every natural advantage, unless all the merits and worthiness of the Lord Jesus become the incense mingled in the bowl of offering, not a bit of it will get through to the presence of God. Nothing apart from the Lord Jesus. We have to recognise that no effort of ours and no consecration of ours, pouring of ourselves out in Christian activities and enterprise, can satisfy God or get anywhere. All is absolutely on the ground that the Lord Jesus is everything and we at best are nothing apart from Him. Simple, but this has to be recognised.

A very subtle thing is that verse which is so often sung these days: "Just as I am, young strong and free, to be the best that I can be for truth and righteousness and Thee, Lord of my life I come." It is heresy, contrary to the Scripture. It is not what I can be, but what He is; not what I am, but what He is. And you know quite well, it has been drilled into you, that is where the great apostle said that all things which were of natural advantage and benefit by way of inheritance and endowment came by him to be counted as very refuse that he might gain Christ and be found in Him. You would never have heard Paul saying, "What I am and what I can do". His song was what He is and I am at best, a poor miserable thing. It is making everything of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. There has got to be a recovery of that. It is elementary, but it is the first thing in the recovery of a true testimony, and at the end time the chief Figure in view is to be the Lord Jesus.

Here they were polluting the altar, and the coming of the Lord has to do with bringing the altar back to its place, bringing the cross into its right position and its full position in all its meaning as to the absolute perfections of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. The coming of the Lord has to do with that, and there has to be a fresh emphasis upon the cross in this direction: the cross as representing all that the Lord Jesus is and what Christ has done uniquely, absolutely, finally, in which man has no say and no part, from which man is excluded as altogether unworthy. There has to be a coming back to that at the end time and it may be but a remnant of a remnant that will represent the fulness of the meaning of Calvary at the end, but that is what the Lord is seeking.

We want to see further the link between the altar and the cross and the coming. You see, the cross represents the securing of the rights of God in this universe. It was in and by the cross of the Lord Jesus that God's universal rights were secured in this universe. You have before been shown how the altar all the way through the Old Testament was the start of all the testimony, and the shed blood was that by which the territory was claimed as God's, recognised as God's. Immediately sin broke in at the beginning and the rights of God were disputed by the adversary and God's sovereignty in the race and in the earth was set aside, an altar and the shedding of blood were the means by which God's rights were testified to. And when later sin spread and God beheld the iniquity of man and determined to judge and destroy it and the flood came, on a renewed earth an altar was instantly erected as a testimony to the fact that the earth is the Lord's in virtue of the shed blood by which sin has been met.

Move on to Abraham, brought out to a land of Divine choice and location - immediately an altar is set up whereby testimony is borne in virtue of the sacrifice and this altar - this is the Lord's, the Lord's rights are here. Follow through and you will see how the Lord was always declaring His rights in that land. All the way through, the altar was God's way of declaring His rights, representing the securing of those rights in the power of the shed blood. Calvary gathers up all the types and symbols through the universe, the rights of God secured in the Lord Jesus to absolute undivided authority, and the usurper cast out. "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out." The absolute rights of God; that is the altar, that is the cross. The coming of the Lord is vitally related to that as the solution of it.

In the cross the rights are secured in heaven. In the coming of the Lord He comes into His rights, takes possession of that which He bought and secured by His Blood. It is not a matter of dates, not a matter of events; it is a matter of acts and effects, of beginning and end. Why is it that when at any time in the age the coming of the Lord becomes the heart theme of His people in song or meditation, there always is an uprising of the spirit and you are borne up? Why is it? It was so in apostolic days and through the ages it has been so. In their day it lay a thousand or two years ahead, but they were full of joy when they contemplated it. Was it a false joy, a mere emotion? Never! Today you sing a hymn and the Spirit comes in - why? Because it is not a matter of days, time, events, signs. It is this: at Calvary His rights were secured and in His coming His rights are possessed and the two things are one. Timeless. He enters into His rights in His coming which He has secured in His cross. You defile the altar, and take from the absolute perfection of the Person of the Lord Jesus, then the coming of the Lord is going to be judgment and who shall abide? Chapter 3 is written to professing people of God.

You have got the coming of the Lord here in Malachi with two facts. One is exercise, and the other is tribulation for God's people. Chapter 4:2: "But unto you who fear My Name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His (its, ASV) wings" - tribulation for some of God's people at His coming, rapture for others. Tribulation will be necessary as the refining pot. He has to be glorified in His saints and marvelled at by those who behold. That is the meaning of the refiner's fire - you know the picture. Here the refiner sits by his cauldron and he watches this fire while it does the work, until he can see the reflection of his face in the molten metal and then he knows the work is done. He is going to be glorified in His saints. What the Lord is after is to get a people bearing His own reflection. This is the explanation of the fires, but there are those whose hearts are not wholly for the Lord; these are represented by those others in Chapter 1, and for them the coming of the Lord means tribulation, not to their destruction, but to their salvation and it will take some tribulation to bring some people wholly to the Lord, and the tribulation is not far off.

I look not for the tribulation, but for the rapture, but you are not going to be caught up by living any kind of Christian life. It is those in whom His face is reflected who will be caught up and there will be some tribulation work to prepare the others. Now suffer that word. One has met so many in past years who have repudiated any such suggestion, and [think] that all who believe in the Lord Jesus will surely be caught up when He comes, and one has said, "Are you quite satisfied with the way that the majority of professing Christian people are living?" "Oh no!" "Do you not believe that the Lord wants and requires something more than this to be done now? Won't it take a bit of tribulation to do it?" Yes, they are agreed there. He will sit as a refiner and purify the sons of Levi. When the Lord comes, and has taken those who are looking for Him secretly, as He is going to do, tribulation will then begin. Blessed be God the tribulation will be productive of saints, it will do a work in hearts. But it is not necessary that there should be the tribulation fires; we can be raptured. The thing that settles this whole question is our appreciation of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. That is the link between the cross and the coming. But then there is another step in this matter.

You see, Israel was intended to be the Lord's instrument in all the nations, representing and standing for His rights in the nations; that is what Israel was raised up for; to be God's testimony in the nations to His absolute rights. We read in Malachi 1:11: "From the rising of the sun even to the going down of the same My Name shall be great among the Gentiles". The Lord is jealous about His Name in the nations. That little company of those that feared the Lord, spoke one to another, and thought upon His Name, were concerned for the Testimony of the Lord in the nations. Their burden was: "Things as they are today are letting the Lord down in the nations. God's testimony in the nations is not what it ought to be because of God's people", so they thought anxiously, solemnly, with broken hearts upon His Name. "My Name" - that was their concern and Israel was intended to maintain all the full meaning and testimony of that Name in the nations. They failed God. What God has in view and is on His heart at the end time is that His Name shall be honoured in the nations and it is the Gospel in the nations that comes into view here; the evidence of God and His absolute rights and sovereignty in the nations by way of the cross. That is the message of the voice at the end time, that in the nations God's Name should be honoured. God is there represented by those who honour His Name and who stand in the testimony of His Name on the ground of His rights in virtue of His blood.

I feel that we have failed to recognise that the coming of the Lord is an essential and indispensable part of the Gospel. We have thought of the Gospel having to do with salvation, regeneration, new birth of souls, and the Gospel is essentially the coming of the Lord, because the coming of the Lord is the consummation of the cross in salvation. And you have not got an adequate Gospel message or Object to present to the unsaved, be they civilised or uncivilised, unless you present to them the coming of the Lord. There would be a far greater turning to the Lord if in the preaching of the Gospel the coming of the Lord were preached. If we went out to the unsaved and said more about the Lord's coming, we should find the Lord coming along in conviction of sin because the Holy Spirit is yearning towards the end for which the cross took place. The blood was shed and that end is in the coming of the Lord. And in the nations He must have His rights represented in those who are there according to His Name. And He comes and co-operates with them, not just in relation to men being saved, but in the consummation of Calvary's purpose.

I do hope that comes to you clearly. It is important. The Gospel in the nations is the gospel of the Lord's coming which includes His first coming as well as the purpose of it. We want to give the Holy Spirit sufficient ground for operation and salvation in order to be saved from hell and sin, and to get to heaven is not an adequate basis for the Holy Spirit. The only adequate ground is that Calvary represented the securing of rights universally for God in Christ and the coming again is the possessing of them. He is coming to have them.

I wonder if the Lord may be trying to get a new kind of missionary; a new kind of gospel preacher. I wonder if the Lord is just satisfied with what we call simple evangelistic messages. Do not misunderstand me - I am not ridiculing - I have a strong feeling the Lord wants something more than that, and the only thing that will fully satisfy God is that which stands on the full ground of Calvary in all its universal triumph in the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus and secures the rights of God, and will not move from that ground, and proclaims not only that those rights have been secured in the cross, but that He is coming to have His rights. That is the missionary the Lord requires. Get that vision, get that vocation, get that into your hearts adequately and I believe the Lord will come down upon that and do a new thing.

It is remarkable how many souls have been saved on the strength of a message on the coming or the Lord. Why? The element of fear? But the Lord knows what the elements are and the Lord never saves and regenerates a soul on an inadequate basis, and the Lord knows whether a man or woman turns to Him because they are scared of what is coming. The Holy Spirit sees all that Calvary means in the salvation of that soul, the consummation of Calvary's object. And often He brings tremendous conviction of sin by the message of the Lord's coming again. It is true. That is why they could preach it in the power of the Holy Spirit at least two thousand years before the Lord comes. Explain that. The Holy Spirit is not limited to time in His knowledge; God is not ignoring that it would be two thousand years before it happened. Was He giving them a good time in a thing that would not happen until years after? No, the power of the Holy Spirit came down upon them as they proclaimed the Lord's coming because the Holy Spirit saw the end of salvation and brought the ends of the ages back - the beginning and the end. God's one end was in the heart of the Holy Spirit, that salvation was only the beginning, the consummation was in His coming so the Holy Spirit rejoiced seeing the beginning and the end brought together and the joy of the Holy Spirit was in their hearts. I believe that is the explanation, that is why Malachi brings the altar and the coming of the Lord together as his end time message.

For some the coming of the Lord was going to be like the rising of the Sun with healing in His wings because they had the Lord's own appreciation of the altar and that which was offered thereon. For others, the coming of the Lord means tribulation and purging because they have not got that appreciation of the altar.

Now, that is the message in the Acts; the absolute sovereignty of the Lord Jesus by His cross established in virtue of His blood and consummated by His coming again. That is the Gospel. Take that out. The Lord put that into your hearts and make you a missionary on that basis. It is a testimony in the nations. This Gospel of the coming shall be preached in every nation for a witness. The literal translation is "This Gospel of the Sovereignty shall be proclaimed in every nation to set the evidence of the Sovereignty of Jesus Christ." That is the work of a missionary. The erecting of an altar by Abraham in the land: "setting the evidence". The erection of the altar by Noah on the renewed earth: "setting the evidence". The Gospel of Christ in the nations sets the evidence of the sovereignty of Jesus Christ, in virtue of His blood, which sovereignty is going to be consummated and made known at His coming again. He will be Lord of lords and King of kings, Prince of the kings of the earth. And so the Lord's way is to get that into the nations which, standing on the full meaning and message of the cross and the blood, is His evidence. That is the testimony.

The enemy's objective is to get it out, to drive Abraham out to the land of Egypt, to ensnare Noah so that he will dishonour the thing that he has done. And if the enemy can get you to go back out of the place where you have set your testimony, he will move you from that place if he can. He will stir up everything to drive you out, to make you run away, if he can destroy the evidence.

Do you remember Absalom drove David from the throne? And King David, as he went out of the city, sent back the priests into the city and said, "Stand there and hold the ground; I am coming back again", and when David came back he found some there who had been faithful all the time. The Lord has His evidence in the earth in you and me; He is coming back for that which is His. The enemy does want to destroy His evidence, His instrument in the nations; that is why he makes it so hard and tries to work God's people towards a giving up. Recognise the spiritual factors back of these pressures which are always calculated to drive us out, make us go back upon our testimony, and the enemy's methods of doing it are innumerable. Sometimes by external conditions, sometimes by trial, adversity, suffering, inward pressure, heaviness, darkness, a sense of hell, or by creating an atmosphere as though it was real, a suggestion that it was all a myth, or you were on a wrong track, you had chosen a false road and the Lord has left you to it - you can never exhaust his ways, but they are all intended to make you quit the ground you have taken in the Name of the Lord in virtue of the blood and that is why there is so much stress made upon "holding fast till I come", not being easily moved away from the hope of the gospel; not being moved; not casting away your confidence. It is one great cry: persevere to the end by the grace of God, by the energy of the Holy Spirit. There are great underlying factors in taking up a position in the Name of Christ and in virtue of the blood in any place on this earth. You have challenged the rights of hell in the Name of Him who alone has the right to reign. That is where the cross and the coming are brought together.

I think I will close there. It is enough, but we need the Lord to protect, to guard what has been said, but He is sufficient. We accord Him the place of absolute supremacy and He who has brought us thus far can carry us through. He who has commenced a good work will perform it unto the day of Christ. May the Lord help us to see something more of what He is after which explains the increasing pressure at the end. May He fill our hearts with the joy of His coming. Lift up your heads for your redemption draws nigh.