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"That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One" - Volume 2

by T. Austin-Sparks

Twenty-Third through Forty-Second Meeting

Manila Philippines, 1964

"Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, "This is the Word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.'" Zechariah 4:6

Contents

Letter (by T.A-S)

Meeting 23 - Within Christianity There is Great Mixture

Meeting 24 - The Holy Spirit Creates In Us Tremendously Strong Desire For Everything God Has

Meeting 25 - "Not by Might, Not by an Army, Not by Power, But by My Spirit, Saith the Lord of Hosts"

Meeting 26 - Are You Risen-Ones With Christ?

Meeting 27 - Is Christianity a Legal System on the Earth, or is it a Spiritual Movement From Heaven?

Meeting 28 - The Great Distinguishing Mark Between a Legal System and a Spiritual Life is by Direct Revelation of Jesus Christ

Meeting 29 - The Only True Emancipation from all Forms of Legalism is to See Christ

Meeting 30 - The Rule of Heaven will Divide Between the Evil and the Good, Between the Leaven and the Unleavened Bread

Meeting 31 - The Holy Spirit Came Especially for the Purpose of Creating a Spiritual Order of Things

Meeting 32 - The Matter Which is of Supreme Importance is: "Christ Fully Formed In You"

Meeting 33 - "A Sword Shall Pierce Through Thy Own Soul"

Meeting 34 - The Presence of the Lord is Power! The Presence of the Lord is Life! The Presence of the Lord is Holiness!

Meeting 35 - John Set Out to Confirm the Faith of Believers in a Difficult Day

Meeting 36 - Jesus, as the Light, Brings to Light the Works of the Devil in Order to Destroy Them

Meeting 37 - What is True in the Lord Jesus Has Got to be True in Us

Meeting 38 - Life is the Basis of Everything

Meeting 39 - The Law of the True Manifestation of Christ is the Law of Death and Resurrection Union with Christ

Meeting 40 - The Cup of the Lord

Meeting 41 - Prayer is the Basis of Everything in our Life with the Lord

Meeting 42 - "For the Sake of His Name"

Letter (by T.A-S)

The following was written by brother Sparks in the January-February, 1964, edition of the magazine "A Witness And A Testimony," shortly before he and his wife left for Manila.

Dear fellow-travelers,

With this issue of this little paper we have entered upon one more year of its ministry - the forty-second. Let us immediately express our very sincere wish that this year will be one of great blessing to every one of our readers. May it be a year in which our beloved Lord has a great increase in the possession of His inheritance, and one in which His people come into a great enlargement of theirs in Him.

We shall count upon the continuous prayer-fellowship of each one of you that we shall be enabled to help in both of these directions by the medium of these pages. Need is undoubted: Christ is all-sufficient; but our capacity is so small. In a new way, or with a new emphasis, we have been burdened with the need of so many scattered and hungry sheep. We do need to know the mighty resurrection-life which can make the small handful of 'loaves and fishes' expand to the multitude for whom the Great Shepherd has compassion.

I personally take this opportunity of once again sharing with you, and asking you to share with me, this very practical concern. Does the Lord really want me to spend this year in 'journeys oft'? The calls are many; some quite pressing, and these would lead me practically right round the world. But the physical condition of the increased years [he was 77 years old] make it necessary to be very sure of the Lord's will and to know His enablement in a fuller way than ever.

At the time of writing I am having to face a very urgent and pressing 'Macedonian cry' from the Far East again, immediately. It may be that a note will be added in this connection before this issue is mailed.

The sense of urgency and shortening time is making us press on with more literature. Some twelve books and booklets (including reprints of those not available for some time) are now with the printer, and three new books are ready to go to press. One of the books most called for - What Is Man? - is now at the binders.... Announcement will be made as the books are on hand. This is a ministry which can go on when we have gone to the Lord, and it can go where we are unable to go personally.

When you think of the Editor and pray for him remember also his three helpers; our faithful brother, Clifford Ogden, who has printed A Witness And A Testimony singlehanded for a long time, and who printed many of the books. Also my two devoted secretaries - Miss Guy and Miss Read. We four carry the full weight of all that is entailed in getting this ministry out over the world.

There are many fierce battles related to it all, but 'He Who hath delivered, doth deliver, and we trust will still deliver.' What a glorious thing it would be if, this should be the year of His appearing! Let us walk with our faces toward the light and our hearts inspired by "that blessed hope" to pour ourselves out for Him, "till the day breaks, and the shadows flee away."

Yours in His grace,

T. AUSTIN-SPARKS

P.S. to the Editors Letter.

Further to the note in the above letter, it is now possible to say that provisional arrangements have been made to leave for the Far East toward the end of this month, January. We, my wife and I, will, the Lord willing, fly direct to Manila.

P.S. 2002: And, dear ones, these two volumes entitled, "That They May All Be One, Even As We Are One," are the results of that journey taken in 1964, as our brethren gathered together before the Lord.

Meeting 23 - Within Christianity There is Great Mixture

Twenty-Third Meeting

(February 20, 1964 P.M.)

We are coming back to Matthew's Gospel, and this evening we are going to be occupied with Matthew 13:31 and 32, "Another parable set He forth before them, saying, 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: which indeed is less than all seeds; but when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the heaven come and lodge in the branches thereof."' You note that what is in this chapter has two names. One name is "the parables of the Kingdom." Jesus called them "the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven." Whether you call them parables or mysteries, the meaning is the same. The meaning is that something is being said which has a deeper meaning than the ordinary mind of man can recognize. Anybody can read what is said, and everybody may think that they do understand. But the very meaning of the parables and mysteries is that you may read and not understand. It is not what you read that is important, it is what you understand.

We are told that great multitudes gathered to hear what Jesus had to say. The great multitudes heard Him and went away with the story but without the meaning. Only a very few of those who heard got the meaning. We must remember that, because that is the governing thing all the way through of what we have to say.

Now before we come to the meaning and the message, let us look at these parables in a general way. We have seen that there are seven parables in this chapter, and they are divided.

Firstly, they are divided between those which were spoken to the multitude, that is from verse eleven to verse thirty-five. The parables spoken to the multitude were the parables of the sower, the darnel (the tares), the mustard seed, and the leaven. So that four parables were spoken to the multitudes. And then it says Jesus left the multitudes, and went into the house. And He gave three more parables to the disciples alone, from verse thirty-six to verse fifty-two. The parable of the treasure hid in the field, the parable of great price, and the great net let down into the sea. The first two parables were explained by Jesus. The next four were not explained.

Now it is very important for us to recognize one or two general truths. First of all, we must recognize the law of consistency. When Jesus used any symbols more than once, He always meant the same thing. If He spoke of the sower, He always meant the same person, He meant the Son of Man. If He speaks of the field more than once, He always means the same thing, which is the world. In the first place, He is not speaking of the Church, He is speaking about the world. If He speaks about the birds of the air, and in the parable of the sower, He says the birds of the air were the evil one; then, when He says that the birds of the air find a place in the great tree, He means the same thing. The same words mean the same thing every time.

Perhaps you wonder why I say that. It does not sound very interesting or very important, but it is very important, because these parables have been misinterpreted. You will see what I mean as we go along. Jesus never did confuse people's minds by using the same thing for two opposite purposes. If He spoke of birds, He always meant something evil. In one parable, He speaks of the birds and He says that is evil. In another parable, He speaks of the birds, but He does not say they are not evil, but He means the same. So the law of consistency is important, and you have to notice that through these parables.

Now let us look at some of the overall facts. The first overall fact is what He calls the "Kingdom of Heaven," and we have already seen that the meaning of the Kingdom of Heaven is the Sovereign Rule of Heaven over all things. It does not mean that the Kingdom of Heaven has a lot of wicked things in it - the Kingdom of Heaven has a lot of evil birds in it - the Kingdom of Heaven has the darnel (the tares) in it. It simply means that over all these things is the Sovereign Rule of Heaven, and all these things come under that Rule. Good things and bad things come under the Rule of Heaven. That is one of the great truths in these parables.

The second general thing is this: These parables are intended to show what will come into this world under the Rule of Heaven. What the Rule of Heaven will allow and what the Rule of Heaven will do with it. Is that quite clear to you? There are a lot of things here that have got to be dealt with in judgment by the Rule of Heaven. And there are a lot of things here that would come under the blessing of the Rule of Heaven. So the great overall truth is that the Rule of Heaven takes account of everything. And the Rule of Heaven deals with every thing according to what it is, whether good or bad. Jesus is doing two things with these parables. As you notice, first of all, He is speaking to the unbelieving nation. He says of that nation that they are blind. Their blindness is due to their unbelief. They had not believed the prophets, and as Isaiah is quoted here, "blindness came upon them because of unbelief."

Now Jesus in the first place is speaking to this unbelieving nation in order to find out whether there are any people there who want to believe. Do they want to see, or do they not want to see? Will any of these people forsake the ground of their blindness and take the ground of faith?

You will remember that on several occasions, Jesus gave sight to blind people, but He only gave sight to blind people who came to Him to have their sight. They cried out, "Jesus, Master," and He said, 'What do you want Me to do?' They said, 'Lord, that we may receive our sight,' and He gave sight to those people. So, He is testing the unbelieving nation to see if there are any people in it who want to see. All these people heard the parables, most of them went away. They only heard the words, but there were a few who said, 'Now we do not understand what He means, but we are going to find out.' They were not satisfied with the parable, they wanted the meaning. He was testing the faith of these people by speaking mysteries to them.

You remember that is always a principle of teaching. You have a lot of teaching, what are you going to do with it? Are you going to say, 'Well, I do not understand what he is talking about,' and you go home. You seem to say, 'I do not understand,' and that is the end of it. Will you go with the multitude, or are you going to say, 'I believe that he has something that I do not see. He has seen something that I do not see, but I am going to find out what he has seen.' It is always a law of teaching. It is a test as to what our reaction will be. If you go back to the parable of the sower, that is exactly what Jesus meant by the ground, He meant an honest and good heart. The honest and good heart ground brought forth thirty, sixty, and hundredfold. All the others said, 'Well, we do not understand so we are going away.' It is just a matter of whether you really want to see. So in the first place, the Lord Jesus was testing these people as to whether they had an honest and good heart; and, as to whether if they did not understand, they would not give up until they did understand.

Now Jesus was doing a second thing. He was instructing and warning and preparing His own disciples for what was going to come into Christianity. He was preparing them for what they might expect in the future. It is always a very good thing for us to be able to say, 'Well, it is exactly what He said would come.' You see, quite a lot of people just forget what He has said. Jesus said, "Through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom, or in the world you shall have tribulation." Well, the tribulation came, they knew the tribulation in the world. They were able to say, 'This is just exactly what Jesus told us would happen.' So they were prepared and fortified. They were not surprised. And that is exactly what Jesus was doing with His disciples, He was preparing them for what was coming.

Did you notice that in the first four parables, He shows the things which are against the Kingdom of Heaven? Here are many antagonistic elements to the Kingdom of Heaven. Go back to the first parable again, the parable of the sower. A sower goes forth to sow, and the first three parts of his work falls by the way side, on the stony ground, and amongst thorns. Well, the apostles had to go out with the seed of the Word of God. Jesus had already taught them that a lot of their work would be in vain. There were the birds of the air that would be carrying away the seed. There will be evil things against their work, and a lot of their work would be destroyed by the devil. It is well to note that He was warning them that it would be like that.

Then the parable of the darnel (the tares): The Lord has sown His true children in the world, but the enemy comes in and sows false children. The Lord says that would go on right to the end of the age. Do not be surprised if all those who professed to be Christians turn out not to be true Christians. A lot of them will take the name of Christian and prove to be false. The apostles met that sort of thing later on. The Lord had already warned them that it would be like that.

Well, He is saying on the one side, there are a lot of evil things that you have to meet which are against the Kingdom of Heaven. That brings us to our present parable, the parable of the mustard seed. Another parable is just like this: "The Kingdom of Heaven is like a seed, which a man sows." It is like the mustard seed, and the mustard seed is amongst the smallest of all seeds. But the mustard seed can grow, and it can be cultivated until it becomes something very big, and the birds of the air lodge in it.

All right, what are you going to make of that? Now this is where the parable has been wrongly interpreted; and this is where our law of consistency comes in. This parable has been interpreted as meaning the Kingdom has a small beginning, but it grows and grows until you can find anything and everything in the Kingdom. It is going to become so big that it will embrace everything. THAT IS A FALSE INTERPRETATION OF THE PARABLE. Jesus was not meaning that. He is not using birds here as good things when He called birds bad things before. The birds mentioned by Him, are always bad things. It is quite true that the beginnings were small. It is quite true that things grow and spread over the world. The Church did expand and it has become something big. But not this: The mustard seed does not naturally become a tree. Naturally it is not a tree. It only becomes a tree when men take hold of it and cultivate and develop it themselves. So the mustard seed was developed for commercial purposes. If you really want to get money for your fruit, you will have the biggest fruit you can get. The very commercial element in it must make it as big as possible. So by all kinds of artificial means you make it big, but that is not its true nature. You have done something with it! You have put your hands on it! And now it represents the work of man, rather than the true work of its own nature.

Now Jesus is saying that is what is going to happen between the time that I am speaking to you, and the time which is the end of the age. Men will take hold of the things of the Kingdom of Heaven, and make them something bigger than they are by nature. There will be an artificial and abnormal developing of Christianity. And because men do that with Christianity, Christianity becomes like a tree with every kind of bird lodging in it. Can you count all the birds that are in Christianity now? Do you know all the kinds of birds that call themselves Christians now? Christianity, as we know it, can just cover anything; and Jesus is saying that is not good. He says that is bad, this is evil work. And it has come about in history, just as Jesus said it would. This thing would be developed by man's hands until it would cover anything you like. I am not going to try to name all the things that are embraced by the word, "Christianity"; but there are many many things which go by the name of Christianity which are not Christianity at all.

Now do we have anything in the Word which proves that we are right in this interpretation? Well, let us look at this matter of the birds. We can go back in the Old Testament. God came to Abraham once, and God was going to make a covenant with Abraham about His seed. He was going to tell Abraham that his seed would become a nation, and that that nation would go into bondage and be in bondage for four hundred years. Then God would deliver those people, and bring them into the land of promise. God said, 'I make a covenant about this and these are the terms of the covenant. You take a sacrifice, and you divide it in two, you put one part there, and you put the other part here. That part is you; this part is Me. We are going to be joined in a covenant.' So Abraham took the sacrifice. He divided it down the middle. He put one half there, and the other half here, then he waited. What happened? The fowls of the air came down, and tried to devour the sacrifice before the covenant could be completed. But Abraham drove off the fowls of the air, and he kept on doing that until the sun went down. Then when the sun went down, a light appeared. The natural light had gone, a Heavenly Light came in; and God completed the covenant.

Well, we know the story that Israel went into captivity for four hundred years, and then God delivered them and took them into the land of promise. But the point is this: Those fowls of the air represented the evil powers who want to destroy the covenant. I say this to show that these birds of the air are evil things. Now we come over to the parable of the sower, and Jesus says that the birds of the air are the devil, who comes to snatch away the seed in order to destroy the work of Christ.

However, we can go on further in the New Testament. In Ephesians, chapter two, the apostle says to these Ephesians, "We all had our conduct according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air." He says, 'Our former life, before we came to the Lord, was according to the prince of the power of the air.' That is only another way of saying, according to the evil power that is all around. Note that this is the beginning of the Letter of the Ephesians.

Now when we come to the end of that letter, in chapter six, we have this: "Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of the wicked spirits" (ASV). Now I want you to notice something. At the beginning of that letter, Paul speaks about the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ. You would remember the words: "The exceeding greatness of God's power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His Own right hand, far above all rule, and authority, and principality, and power." JESUS IS ENTHRONED OVER ALL THE FORCES IN HEAVEN AND IN HELL AND ON THE EARTH. But although that is true, and the apostle has said that, he goes on to say, our warfare is with principalities and powers and hosts of the wicked spirits.

The fact that Jesus is Exalted far above all, does not mean that our warfare is at an end. In this world, we are still wrestling with principalities and powers, with hosts of the wicked spirits, in other words, the birds of the air, the prince of the power of the air. And this big tree called "Christianity" is the place in which we meet many of those evil powers.

Now this is a very difficult thing to say, but it is quite true that many Christians find their real enemies amongst Christians. The world does not treat you as badly as Christians do sometimes. That is a terrible thing to say, but it is true, oh it is so true. It is within this big tree called "Christianity" that we find so much that is not of the Lord. In this parable of the mustard seed becoming a great tree, that is what Jesus is saying to His disciples. You will find the evil powers working in the world. They will turn the world against you. You will be persecuted by the world; but always remember that you will also find a great many of your difficulties in Christianity.

I think I need not enlarge upon that. Some of us have to say the greatest sorrows and sufferings that we have met have been amongst Christians. The most disappointing and discouraging things that we have met are inside of Christianity. Yes, those birds of the air have gotten into this tree. Jesus said to His disciples, in effect, do not be surprised if it is like that. I am preparing you for that. When it comes, do not be perplexed; I have told you that is how it should be.

Now one last word, we come right back to where we started when we began this parable. The great need is that we have to be able to discern between the good and the bad, not only in the world, but in Christianity. This Christianity has become such a big tree, and there are so many kinds of birds in it. Very often, we just do not know what to make of this or that. What kind of a bird is this? Is this a good one or is it a bad one? How we need spiritual understanding in Christianity, that we may be able to discern what is of the Lord, and what is not of the Lord, even in Christianity. You notice how the Lord concludes all this. He says, at the end of the age He would send forth His angels, and note this - be very careful to note this - and He will take out of His Kingdom all things that offend. So within this Sovereign Rule of Heaven, there are a lot of things that offend, a lot of things, to use His Own words, "which make people stumble." Within that range of the Sovereign Rule of Heaven, there are many things like that. But in the end, He will send His angels, and He will take out everything that offends.

Do not be surprised, therefore, if you find things in Christianity and amongst Christians that are not good. If you realize that the Lord Jesus said it would be like that, it will save you from some trouble. I have met some Christians, and some young Christians, who have gone away from the Lord. They are no longer walking with the Lord. And when I asked them why, they have said, 'Oh, I saw a certain Christian who was so bad that I felt that I did not want anything to do with Christianity. A certain Christian treated me so badly that I am giving up Christianity.' That sometimes, of course, is an excuse. But sometimes they are made to stumble by Christians. If they realized that Jesus said it will be like that, they would not be surprised. Then they would say, 'Well, Jesus told me that it would be like this, and they would be saved.' That is the message of the parable: Within Christianity there is a great mixture. There is good and bad in the branches of the tree. It has become something so big. Almost anything can get into it.

But, beloved, Jesus knows what is the right and what is the wrong. And the Holy Spirit in us will teach us what is the right, and what is the wrong. We leave it there for the time being, we may have something more to say on this at another time.

Meeting 24 - The Holy Spirit Creates In Us Tremendously Strong Desire For Everything God Has

Twenty-Fourth Meeting

(February 22, 1964 P.M.)

I am going to continue this evening where we left off last Saturday night [19th meeting]. So I would ask you just to turn again to the passages of Scripture which were before us then. In the Gospel by John, chapter sixteen, at verse seven, "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I go, I will send Him unto you." Verse thirteen, "When He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all the truth." Back to chapter fourteen, at verse sixteen, "I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever." And verse seventeen, "The Spirit of truth; Whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth Him not, neither knoweth Him; ye know Him; for He abideth with you, and shall be in you" (ASV). And the Book of Acts, chapter nineteen, at verse two, "Did ye receive the Holy Spirit when ye believed?"

So we are going to say a little more about this very important matter of the Holy Spirit. One of the greatest needs of our time is to recover the realization of the greatness of those things with which we are very familiar. There are many things in our ordinary everyday life which are very wonderful things, but we take them for granted. I have in front of me five microphones, and through these microphones, people some miles away might hear what I am saying at exactly the same moment that I am saying them. Although it may not be true of these microphones, yet in this city men can speak into a microphone and be heard at that very moment three to six thousand miles away. It does not take one hour, one half hour, nor five minutes, on the other side of the world, while a person is speaking, other people can hear. Now when I say that to you there is nothing on your faces that makes me feel that you think that is very wonderful. You see, it has become just a common place thing that we take for granted. The same is true about a great many things in everyday life.

I remember the day when the first motor car came onto the street, it traveled at about four miles an hour. It made a terrific noise, and everybody rushed into their houses. Well, now look at our streets today, but we do not think it anything very wonderful. It is so common place that we take it for granted, and so it is with many other things in natural life. Because we are so familiar with them, we have lost the sense of wonder. We never look at the motor car now and say, 'oh! what a wonderful thing!' It is just a motor car, and that is all there is to it. Now you know that this has become true of many of the greatest things in this universe.

In the beginning of the Christian era, the world was startled and shocked by the preaching of the apostles. The things that they said from day to day just shook the world. Some people said, 'The men that had turned the world upside down had come here.' What they said was just turning the world upside down. Of course, we should have said, 'They were putting the world the right side up.' But that is how the people felt about the things that they were saying. We are not shaken by these things, we are so familiar with them, they do not mean to us a turning of everything upside down. We can hear them every day and every week and we are never shaken by them. They are the same things as the apostles said. But they do not affect us as they affected the world in those days. We know them so well. We are so familiar with them. They have lost all the sense of wonder for us. And the world is not shaken by these things when we say them. Perhaps that is because they are not wonderful enough to us.

You see, the things with which we are familiar are things which are the greatest things that have ever come into this universe. But the fact is that Christianity has been made too small, too easy, too cheap, and too popular. We here this evening are just thinking about one of these things. It is one of the most wonderful things that has ever happened in this world. That is the coming from Heaven of the Holy Spirit. You have read the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit, and you know what it meant in those days. We had a great fire here in the last twenty-four hours. All the city is talking about it. Perhaps all the country is talking about it. Perhaps the newspapers of the other parts of the world have got the report of it. But that fire is nothing compared with the coming of the Holy Spirit. This fire was put out in a few hours, bad as its work was, it was finished in a few hours. The fire that came into Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost has never yet been put out for two thousand years, and that fire was not just localized to a little area. That fire had gone all over the world. It is still burning today, and it will go on burning until Jesus comes again.

You see, John the Baptist said about Jesus, "He shall baptize you with the Holy Spirit, and fire." I do not suppose they had any fire engines in the days of John the Baptist. If they had any fire engines then, I think John the Baptist would have added: 'and all the fire engines in the world will never put out that fire.'

Now look at one of the passages which we read, Jesus said, "It is expedient for you that I go away, if I go not away, the Holy Spirit will not come." Do you recognize what that means? It was of tremendous importance that Jesus Himself came into this world. It was of tremendous importance that He spent thirty-three and a half years on this earth. But do you notice, He said, 'It is far more important that I go away.' Now, if Jesus were on the earth today, if He were living in Palestine, you know the people from over the world would be making pilgrimages to go and see Him. People would go from every country of the world to get His help. Well, you say, that makes Him very important. It would be a very important thing for Jesus to be here on this earth. But Jesus Himself said, 'It is far more important that I go away.' Just think about that! 'It is far more important that I go away, because if I do not go away, the Holy Spirit will not come.' Therefore, it must be much more important that the Holy Spirit could come, than that Jesus should stay here in the flesh.

Jesus, while He was here on the earth was always using one phrase, the phrase was this, "In that day." He was constantly saying, "In that day, in that day." He put tremendous emphasis and importance upon what He called, "that day." And, if you look to see what He meant, you will see "THAT DAY" was the day when the Holy Spirit would come. It was not only a day of twelve or twenty-four hours. It was not only the day of Pentecost. The day of Pentecost only began that day. The sun has never gone down on that day yet. That day is not closed yet. The day to which Jesus referred was the day which will last from the day of Pentecost, till Jesus comes again (John fourteen through sixteen).

It was not only a matter of time; it was a matter of a "new order." So Jesus constantly said, "In that day, in that day, in that day." And He said tremendous things about that day. Do you realize that we are now living in that day? That day has come! It came when Jesus went back to the Father. We are living in that wonderful day of the Holy Spirit. THE COMING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BROUGHT IN A NEW AGE AND A NEW ORDER. The coming of the Holy Spirit was the first thing in Christianity. And Jesus said that He would be with you, and He will be in you, and He will abide with you for the age. This wonderful Holy Spirit, more important than Jesus being here in the body, is in you. I am looking at your faces to see if you see how wonderful the thing is that we are living in. We are living in the most wonderful age of the history of this world. I say that to you on the authority of Jesus Christ Himself. "It is necessary that I go away in order that the Holy Spirit may come." You know we ought to get up and go away feeling tremendously impressed with the day in which we are living. Why is it so wonderful that the Holy Spirit should come? What is this great importance of the coming of the Holy Spirit? For this reason, among others, but this is the first reason, because the Holy Spirit makes a new creation, because the Holy Spirit when He comes into us makes different creatures of us.

Forgive me for asking you a very impersonal question. Do you know the difference between a vegetable and an animal? I expect you will say, of course we do. We know the difference between a cabbage and a dog. Let us go further, Do you know the difference between an animal and a human being? Well, if you had any doubt, you people who love music, get your dog by the piano, and then begin to play one of the great composers - a Beethoven or a Chopin or someone like that. Then say to your dog, 'Now do you hear this? I am interpreting to you Beethoven or Chopin.' And you tell him all about it, and then you look at your dog, and the poor fellow looks terribly bored. The look on his face is, 'I do not know what you are talking about. That may be all right for human beings, but that is not all right for dogs.'

Now we know the difference between a vegetable and an animal. Now we know the difference between an animal and a human being. Do you know the difference between a human being and a child of God? It is just as big a difference between a child of God and an ordinary human being, as there is between a cabbage and a dog. The word says, "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: the old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." And that is why the Holy Spirit came to make such a difference in us that we are a new and different kind of creature. You so often hear about being born again, you know the word of the Lord to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." Perhaps you have heard that a hundred, or a thousand times, you know it so well. But do we really know what that means? When we are born naturally, when we come in this body of ours into this world for the first time, we come into a new world that we have never been in before. The little baby has come into a new world. It does not understand everything. It does not know what everything is. It is quite a new world.

You must be born again, which means that the Holy Spirit brings us into an altogether new world. Now do test the work of the Holy Spirit in your life by this. Do test your Christian life by this simple fact. When you came to the Lord Jesus, when you gave your life to the Lord Jesus, when you believed that the Lord Jesus came into your life, your first realization was this: That you have come into an altogether new world. You have come not just into a world where people are called Christians, not just into a world or a system called Christianity, but for you in your consciousness, everything was new. The Holy Spirit said, "Behold, I make all things new." You did not understand everything, and you do not understand everything now in that new world. But we, by the work of [the] Holy Spirit have come into another world altogether. A whole new world had opened to us.

Now this is the Word of God. This is why the Holy Spirit came. Is that true for all of us here tonight? We know that we have come into a world where we never were before, and in Christ all things are new for us. We have a new consciousness. What is our consciousness? We use the Word of the Scripture, "We have passed from darkness into light." Just as truly as if we put all these lights off now, and then we were in total darkness, we could see nothing and no one. We would have to try and find our way out, all is dark. Then someone puts all the lights on, and we said, 'Now I can see, my consciousness now is that I am in the light.'

You know that is the simple truth of the beginning of the Christian life. It is not just a doctrine of Scripture, it is an experience. As a new creature we have the consciousness of having come into the light. THE REIGN OF DARKNESS IS FINISHED FOR US. But again, the Scripture puts it in this way, it is the consciousness of having passed from death into life. Of course, the darkness and light illustration is a simple one, and easy to understand.

Now no one here tonight has been actually, literally dead. You have not been a corpse in a coffin, with the life having gone right out, and you had someone come along and raise you from the dead, so that you could really say, "Well, I was dead, but now I am alive." But the Bible says that is how it is outside of Christ, we are dead. It says, we are dead, as dead as any corpse to God. In Christ we are made alive, and the consciousness is, I am alive now. The most wonderful thing is: I know I am alive, but it is another kind of Life. It is God's Own Life. It is not just natural life, it is another Life that has come to me from God Himself. The point is that I have a consciousness, I am alive. I am alive with a new Life which I never had before.

Now there is another thing about this new consciousness. You see, we are following a little baby. A little baby comes into this new world. A little baby comes from darkness to light. A little baby comes from death to life. What is the next thing about the little baby? I tell you a secret. I had a new little grandson two or three weeks ago, and I am told that he is a very big boy. And the difficulty about this new baby is that he never can be satisfied. He is shouting all the time for more food. He was born with a great new desire, a wonderful new appetite. Well, you understand that about the baby, do you not? You know one of the first things they do is to scream for food. They have a strong desire for something.

Now I have been very simple, for the sake of the young people, but no matter how old we are, we can test our Christianity by this. The Holy Spirit creates in us a tremendously strong desire for everything that God has. What the Bible calls, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. The Psalmist cried, "My soul thirsts for God" (Psa. 42:2). Have we all got this consciousness of a wonderful new desire and craving for everything that the Lord has to give us? These are simple tests as to whether we have the Holy Spirit.

Now because my time is gone, I have got to finish there. I have got a lot more to say to you about this. We will hold it over for the time being, but, dear friends, these are the simple basic facts about the Holy Spirit. These are wonderful things. You know a little baby is a wonderful thing. You look at a little baby, you look at his eyes, his little fingers, his little fingernails, you say, that is a wonderful thing. Well, to be born again is much more wonderful. It is a very wonderful thing that the Holy Spirit has come to do. HE HAS COME TO MAKE A NEW CREATION OF US.

We all know this teaching, so I go back to where I started because we are so familiar with it, a great deal of the wonder of it has been lost. Shall we all ask the Lord to bring back the wonders of our salvation? And make us realize what a marvelous thing it is to be born again. How great a thing it is that the Lord has made us new creatures. Then we shall realize something of what He meant. It is very important that the Holy Spirit comes. When Jesus was here, He could only mend broken bodies, He could just heal physically sick people. The Holy Spirit has come to mend broken souls, but IT is the same Person - IT is the Spirit of Jesus. IT is Jesus Who is coming in the Holy Spirit, but is just changing the nature of His work. When He was in the flesh, His work was outward. Now that He is in the Spirit, His work is inward. And the inward is very much more important than the outward.

Meeting 25 - "Not by Might, Not by an Army, Not by Power, But by My Spirit, Saith the Lord of Hosts"

Twenty-Fifth Meeting

(February 23, 1964 A.M.)

Read: Zechariah 4

That whole chapter centers in one verse, and that is verse six. "Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, "This is the Word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, 'Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts.'" I shall not take time this morning to remind you of the history in which this chapter is set. All I want to do is to mark the spiritual condition that is found here, because here is a spiritual situation which has often occurred in the history of God's people. The historic situation may only have occurred once in the history of Israel, but the spiritual situation has been repeated many times in the history of the Church. The spiritual features of this story are just these: Everything of the Lord had suffered a great setback. The house of the Lord, the place of the Lord had received many heavy blows and much damage. Because of that experience, many of the Lord's people had turned away. They had decided not to go on with this work of the Lord. They had given up faith and hope. The majority had said, 'It's all too difficult,' and they had decided that it was easier just to stay in the world.

A small number, however, had said this situation is not what the Lord intended. They said, 'This situation is all wrong, it is dishonoring to the Lord's Name, and something must be done about it.' This small minority were the Lord's instrument in recovering what was to the glory of God. There were some leaders among them who encouraged them in that. There were those who saw what ought to be. They saw what the Lord wanted to have, and they inspired these few people to get to work to have that which the Lord wanted. That is the spiritual interpretation of this chapter. And I am quite sure you will agree that this situation has occurred more than once. Now, because the things of the Lord have received much damage, and much dishonor has been brought to His Name, a lot of His people have just given up the fight. And like Peter after the Cross, they have said, "I go fishing. I am going back to my old life and my old work. This way of following the Lord is all too difficult." So this large company decided to go back to the business of this life in the world. That, of course, was the big number of Israelites which decided to remain in Babylon.

But here were these few, who did not feel like that. They had a great concern for the honor of the Lord's Name, and they said something must be done about this; we must do something to recover the honor of the Name of the Lord. And there were these leaders who knew what ought to be done, and who encouraged them to do it. You can read the whole story in the light of what I have just said. But there were some very great difficulties.

First of all, they were just a small number of people comparatively. That is indicated by verse ten. The Lord said, "Who hath despised the day of small things?" This was a comparatively small company. And the people were implying: 'Well, we are so small, we are so few, and this work is so great, we are not strong enough to do this.' When they looked at themselves, they felt completely discouraged. They did not say what we have just been singing. They did not say, 'I dare not be defeated.' They just said, 'Well, we are so small, what can we do?' The Lord said, "Do not despise the day of small things," because it has so often been that the Lord has used small things to do big things.

Now that opens the door to a very big consideration. I will give you one illustration. In Bethlehem one night, there was a stable and a manger, and in that manger lay a little new born baby. The great representative of the Roman Empire was wanting to destroy that little baby. And later on, the whole Roman Empire tried to destroy everything that belonged to that little baby. Herod was a very powerful ruler. The Roman Empire was a very powerful empire. And they were set against that little baby. Well, you know the rest of the story. You know what happened to Herod. He had a bad end. And you know what happened to the Roman Empire. You know that it is no longer in existence. But what about that little baby? God very often uses very little things to destroy very big things. So the Lord said to these discouraged people, "Do not despise the day of small things." The Apostle Paul said, "God has chosen the weak things and the foolish things." Well, the first big difficulty was their own smallness. And the Lord said, 'That is not really a difficulty with Me.'

Then the next difficulty was that there was a great opposition from outside. If you read the other books connected with this special movement, the Books of Ezra, and Nehemiah, you will see how much opposition there was to these people and to this work. That is what verse seven here refers to, "Who art thou, O great mountain?" There was a great mountain of opposition to what these people were desiring to do, and as they looked at that great mountain of opposition, they said, "It is all so impossible." But the Lord said, 'Who art thou, O great mountain? What are you after all? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain, and people will look for the mountain, and they will find it is not there.' But to them at that time, it was a great mountain; it was another difficulty.

Then there was still a further difficulty. These people said, "We have no outward support. We have not got any soldiers to fight for us. There is no army to defend us. We are just a helpless, defenseless people." What did the Lord say to that? He just said this, "Not by might, nor by power" and perhaps in the margin of your Bible you will see a correction. Because, what the Lord actually said was this, "Not by an army, nor by power." You don't need an army; you don't need the great world power, because you have got more than all that. So the Lord said, over against these difficulties, "Not by an army, not by worldly power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts." Now we have got two things in that. The all sufficient factor is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is greater than all weakness, all mighty mountains, and all lack of outward support. If we have the Holy Spirit, we have all that we need.

You see, the Lord said, "Not all that which you think is necessary, not all that which the world thinks is necessary, not any of that at all." He put over all that: "NOT." And then He put on the other side: "BUT by My Spirit." And that is more than all the other.

And, then, do you note the Name by which He calls Himself. "BY MY SPIRIT, SAITH THE LORD OF HOSTS." Whenever there is a big, big piece of work to be done, that is the Name by which the Lord comes in. You go back to the Book of Joshua. The Lord had brought His people, Israel, out of Egypt; He had brought them through forty years of the wilderness, and now they were to go in and possess the land. But the land was full of mighty nations, you know that there were ten nations in that land, and they were very strong. You have only got to look at the first city, Jericho, to see how strong they were. And Jericho stood right at the entrance of the land. And all these other people were strong in the land. When the spies were sent into the land, they came back and they said, "We were like grasshoppers in their eyes. We were poor little creatures of the earth in comparison with them." But "Joshua lifted up his eyes and he saw a Man standing with His sword drawn." And not knowing Who He was, "Joshua went up to Him, and he said, 'Are You for us, or are You for our enemies?'" And this One answered, "Nay, but as Captain of the host of the Lord am I come." Joshua bowed himself to the earth. In effect, Joshua said, 'It is all right. This thing is not left to me. The conquering and occupation of this land is not my business. The Lord of hosts has taken on this business.' "As Captain of the host of the Lord am I come." I wonder who that was. Might it have been the Lord Jesus before His incarnation? Because He is the Captain of the host of the Lord. One of His New Testament titles is Captain. He is called: "The Captain of our salvation" (Heb. 2:10b).

So the Lord gave the answer to all their problems by just saying, "Whatever you may lack naturally, I am going to make up spiritually. You may be a small people. There may be a great mountain of opposition. You may feel that you have no army to support you, but I, the Lord of hosts, I am with you, and I am with you by My Spirit." Well then, if we have the Holy Spirit and the Lord of hosts, anything can be done. Did you notice a rather strange verse in this chapter? It spoke about the seven eyes of the Lord. And it said that the seven eyes of the Lord would rejoice. When they saw the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, they would rejoice. Of course, that is only symbolism. Seven is always the number of spiritual perfection. So this just simply means, the perfect spiritual vision of the Lord. The Lord sees everything perfectly. There is nothing wrong with the eyes of the Lord. He takes in the whole situation. He knows all about it.

Now it says, when the Lord sees the plummet in the hands of Zerubbabel, His eyes will rejoice. Well, what does that mean? The Lord is very glad and happy when He sees a people who are set upon His honor. And there is nothing more inspiring than to know that the Lord is quite pleased. You know, dear friends, that if you have any sense that the Lord is pleased, how full of joy you are! What a strength it is to us to know that the Lord is pleased with this! We can do anything if only we know the Lord is in this. In that other book to which I have referred, the Book of Nehemiah, you will remember that Nehemiah was rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem, and there were all these enemies opposing the work, and Nehemiah said to the people, "The joy of the Lord is your strength" (Neh. 8:10). The thing that will give you strength is to know that this is something the Lord wants done and something that will please Him. I repeat, it is always a great strength to know that the Lord is on your side. As the Lord looks out upon everything, as the Lord takes in the whole situation, there is joy coming into His eyes. There is joy on His face. He says, "This is the thing that I want." There is nothing that takes the strength away from us more than knowing that the Lord is not in it. When the Lord sees what He wants, that means strength for us.

Now we come to the inclusive message of this chapter. In the light of all that we have just said, if this thing is going to be done at all, it is to be something that only the Lord can do and will do. Supposing these people had been a vast multitude, it had been a day of big things so far as numbers were concerned, supposing they had a great army to support them, and then they had turned to do this work, what would have happened? They would have simply said, "Well, you see we were so many, and we had such strong support. That is why we were able to do it. So, we did it, it was ourselves that did this." The Lord will not have anything like that. The Lord wants that which will bring all the glory to Himself. So, here we have a testimony to that which is wholly of the Lord, and not of man. Do remember, dear friends, that that is an abiding truth for ever. There is not one thing, not one thing in relation to the Lord that you and I can do by ourselves. There is not one thing that a great multitude of people can do by themselves. If it is something that relates to the glory of the Lord, nobody but the Lord can do it. Did you ever try to save yourself? Did you ever try to work your own salvation? Well, you know how impossible that is. It had to be the Lord or it would not be anybody at all. Have you tried in your own strength to stand up against the difficulties and oppositions of the Christian life? You have learned that you cannot do it. If the Lord does not put the strength into you, then you will break down. And it is true also in the work of the Lord. The Lord's work can never be done by natural strength. The Lord is going to have all the glory, or He is not going to have anything. And that is what this chapter tells us. It is not this and that and something else, but it is My Spirit, saith the Lord. This thing is going to be of Me, or it is not going to be at all. That which brings most glory to the Lord is that which can only be attributed to Him.

But note this next thing. If it is going to be like that, if the Lord is going to do it, if the Lord is going to have all the glory, if it is going to be something that no one but the Lord can do, it must be in a vessel of pure gold. That is why the lampstand or candlestick comes into our chapter. The prophet saw a candlestick of pure gold. That is a symbol of the vessel of the Lord's testimony. The light which that candlestick will give, is the testimony of the Lord; and the testimony of the Lord has got to be in a vessel of pure gold. We are not talking about material things now. We are talking about the symbolism here. What is this pure gold? It is a vessel that has no mixture in it! It is not something of the Lord and something of man. It is not some of the Lord and some of the world. It is not some of the Lord's will and some of my will. No, it is only the Lord, with no mixture whatever - a candlestick of pure gold.

How did this candlestick come into being? If you follow the instructions to make the candlestick for the tabernacle, the Lord said two things about it. One, it must be of one piece, and it must be of beaten work. Now here we have two principles of that which serves the Lord, that which will really bring glory to the Lord, that which will make the Lord pleased. The vessel must be of one piece. That simply meant that you are not to bring a lot of pieces and try to join them together from the outside. You are not, by your hands, to take hold of people and say, 'Now, you come and join us.' You are bringing all the pieces from the outside and joining them together. That is what they do in factories. The Lord does not work on that principle. Now, take very careful notice of what I am saying. I am giving you the fundamental principles of anything that is really of God. And God says this about the vessel of His testimony. It must not be so many unrelated pieces just brought together. There must be a basic fundamental oneness about this. Man must not just join others to this. The oneness must be the result of something that God has done in all. All concerned, must have one vision. All must see just that one thing that God wants. What the Apostle Paul called, "The eternal purpose of God." It is essential that all who are going to serve the Lord in this way, must have one vision. If two brothers, only two brothers, who hold responsibility, are not one in vision, it may divide the whole work. This oneness must relate first of all to those in responsibility. They are seeing the one thing. They have one mind and one spirit. And that must apply also to all those who are concerned with the Lord's testimony. It is absolutely essential that we all see the same thing. We all have the same vision. And we all have the same spirit, that we are one piece, not just so many pieces joined together, but one piece.

Now you notice the second thing that the Lord says. This candlestick must be of beaten work. Here is a large piece of gold. It has got to be formed into a candlestick of testimony. How are you going to do it? There are two instruments or tools that are going to be used. One is a chisel to cut, and the other is a hammer to hit hard. It is going to be of beaten work. That means, it is going to be formed out of discipline, and suffering. This vessel of testimony will be the result of a good deal of hammering, that is, of suffering. That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "That I may know Him, and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). Now Paul was a great vessel of testimony, but see how the chisel and the hammer were put to work on that man. It seems that he was knocked all over the place. He was picked up and knocked down again. A great deal of hammer work was done on him. Now these few people in this chapter were people who had gone through sufferings. They had had many hammer blows in their lives. But the Lord was going to make them into a vessel of living testimony. That may explain a lot to us. You understand what the Lord is doing with us? What He is doing with you and with me? We have had many hammer blows. Sometimes we thought we were going to be knocked to pieces. But really, the Lord has only knocked us together. Instead of breaking us up, He has made us one. That is the effect of suffering and discipline. It must be a vessel of pure gold, and it must be a testimony that has been brought out of adversity.

Now I will just close with this. Do you remember in the chapter, the two olive trees? I think that is a very beautiful picture, a very helpful one. On either side of the candlestick was an olive tree, and these two olive trees were pouring their oil into the candlestick. This was not just some reservoir of oil, not just some container that held just so much oil, these were living trees, and they had an unending supply of oil. And that is what the Lord meant when He said, "By My Spirit." 'For a vessel that has gone through suffering, for a vessel that has been hammered out, for a vessel that has been made pure in the fires of adversity, for a vessel for My glory only, I have an inexhaustible supply. My resources will never come to an end.'

The living olive trees will go on pouring their oil out for all times. I am quite sure you believe, that you agree that this is a very beautiful picture in this chapter, and how true it is to spiritual experience. The way which the Lord is working to get what He wants, and the inexhaustible resources of His grace, THAT IS FOR US, dear friends. So here we have represented a testimony of the greatness of the power and the grace of God. That is what the Lord wants with us. That is what the Lord wants with His people that He should have a candlestick of pure gold, one that has been formed for His use through sufferings, one that has come to know the great resources of His power and of His grace for what He wants. "Not by might, not by an army, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

Meeting 26 - Are You Risen-Ones With Christ?

Twenty-Sixth Meeting

(February 23, 1964 P.M.)

Will you please turn to the Letter to the Colossians, chapter three, verses one through four. "If ye then be risen with Christ." That is how our translation puts it. But, literally, it ought to be in the form of a question. The question is: Have ye been risen with Christ? Have ye really risen with Christ? The apostle says that when Christ died, we all died in Him. Before God, in the death of the Lord Jesus, all have died. And before God, the only ones who are really alive are those who have risen with Christ. What was history in the case of the Lord Jesus has to be experienced in the case of men. It is an historic fact that Jesus died and rose again. That is history. What is history in the case of Jesus must become experience in the case of believers. Notice the change in the way in which the apostle puts this. He does not ask any question as to the death side. He states that as a fact. He simply says, "You died." But he puts a question on the other side, and he says, "Have you been raised with Christ? Before God, you are really dead by the death of Christ, but are you sure that you are raised in the resurrection of Christ?"

Well, he puts that in the form of a question, and then he goes on to answer the question, and what follows in this chapter is the answer. He is talking now about "Risen-ones," and he is stating what Risen-ones do, what their position is. In the first place: RISEN-ONES ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF CONDEMNATION, JUDGMENT, AND DEATH. Condemnation, judgment, and death lie behind the Risen-ones. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1,2; ASV). That is the position of Risen-ones. Well, we can bring the question alongside of that. In view of condemnation, judgment, death, have you been "raised together with Christ?" That is the first blessing of Risen-ones. The question is: Are you enjoying that blessing, the blessing of condemnation, judgment, and death BEING BEHIND YOU, no longer in front of you? That is the position of Risen-ones.

The next thing that the apostle says about RISEN-ONES IS THAT CHRIST IS THEIR LIFE. "When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory" (Col. 3:4; ASV). Christ, our Life! The Risen-ones are those who have Christ as their Life. What was history with Him has to be experienced in believers in the matter of Life! Christ is the Life of our inner man. We know that Christ is Life within us. He is the very Life of our spirit. He is the Life of our mind. This apostle speaks much about the renewed mind. Christ as the Life of our new minds gives us ability to understand what we could never understand before. The mind has been enlightened, and we now have spiritual understanding. We have a new mind. Christ is the Life of our mind.

Not only is He our Life for our spirit, and our mind, HE IS LIFE FOR OUR BODIES. "If the Spirit of Him That raised up Jesus from the dead be in you, He That raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies" (Rom. 8:11). There is such a thing as Divine Life for our bodies now, and not only in the great resurrection from the dead. The Word is Christ Who is our Life, and not Christ Who is going to be our Life some day - Christ is our Life now. There is such a thing as Christ being our Life in these mortal bodies now.

That does not mean that we never know anything about sickness, it does not mean that He always miraculously heals us of our sickness. But in these mortal bodies, He is Life to help us go on. We come back from many of our sicknesses because the Life of the Lord is in us, and we go on in spite of our own physical weakness by the strength of His Life. This is the heritage of Risen-ones. And the apostle asks the question again against that: 'Are you risen with Christ? Do you know Christ as the Life of your inward man? Do you know Christ as the Life of your new mind? And do you know Christ as the energy even of your dying body?' This is what Risen-ones ought to know.

Then the apostle goes on to speak about THE CONDUCT OF RISEN-ONES:- Firstly, the position of Risen-ones, and then the life of Risen-ones, and then the conduct of Risen-ones. What do Risen-ones do? Verse five says this: "Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth." And what does he mean by that? He uses a lot of words to explain that. The first word is "Fornication." Risen-ones put to death fornication. A Risen-one does not live in fornication. The second word is "Uncleanness." A Risen-one does not live in uncleanness. The third word is "Passion." A Risen-one does not live in passion. The next thing is "Evil Desire." A Risen-one does not live in evil desire. And, then, the last word is "Covetousness." And the apostle says, 'Covetousness is idolatry, that is, a life of wanting everything for yourself.' A Risen-one does not live in these things.

Then he gives us another list of why THE RISEN-ONES ARE VERY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. Verse eight: "Put ye away also all these things," put away "Anger." Risen-ones do not live in anger. Put away "Wrath," put away "Malice," Put away "Railing," put away "Shameful Speaking out of your mouth: lie not one to another." Why? Because "You have put off the old man." All that belongs to the old man went into the grave with the Lord Jesus. And Risen-ones leave the old man just where the Lord has put him: IN THE GRAVE.

Then the apostle says: "You have put on the new man." And the new man is the Risen-man. This is the conduct of Risen-ones. I want you to notice, especially, verse eleven. In this new man, the apostle says, "There cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all" (ASV). You notice the different classes that the apostle mentions? There are national differences - Greek, Jew, Barbarian, Scythian. These are different nationalities. Of course, we could add a lot more to that and we could say, British, Chinese, Indian, African, American. And the apostle says, in Risen-ones, there are none of these. If you are taking account of national differences, you belong to the other side of the grave. If you say, 'Well, you see, he's only an Englishman.' Or if you say, 'Well, he's only an African.' 'Well, you see, he's only an American' - you are contradicting the fundamental reality of the Risen-ones. Paul says there can be none of this in Risen-ones.

First of all, CHRIST IS ALL FOR RISEN-ONES. Christ is all and the only One. And then he says, "And Christ is in all." Oh, what does that mean? A Jew, a Greek, a Barbarian, a Scythian, an American, a Chinese, an Englishman, if they belong to the Lord, Christ is in every one of them. If they are Risen-ones, Christ is in all. And we are not to know them on national grounds: We are only to know them on Christ ground.

Then the apostle marks another distinction. He says, "bondman, freeman." These are the people who are of a high social standard and others of a low social standard. These are the masters and these are the servants. Paul says, "In the Risen-ones, there is no such distinction." Risen-ones are not governed by social distinction. The superior ones do not look down upon the inferior ones in Christ, and the inferior ones do not hate the superior ones. We are all one man in Christ Jesus. Christ is all, and in all.

Now we must close with just one more thing. WHAT IS THE LIFE OBJECT OF RISEN-ONES? The answer comes right at the beginning of the chapter. Are you risen with Christ? You will prove that you are by this! - you will seek those things which are above, where Christ is. You will not set your minds on things on the earth. All your interests will be centered in Christ in heaven. Of course, you will have business interests, but you will make your business serve Christ. You will say about your business, 'This is not to be my slave, this has got to serve the Lord Jesus.' You will have family interests, but you will say, 'My family interests have got to serve the Lord Jesus.' You will have social interests, that is, you will have friends, but your friends must come along the way of the Lord Jesus. Those with whom you make your friends, must be the friends of Jesus. So Risen-ones will have everything centered in Christ.

Sooner or later, dear friends, you and I will leave this earth. With some of us, it looks as though it is going to be later. We are getting old, but we are certainly going to leave this earth. The youngest one here cannot say that he or she is going to get old. By some sickness, or by some accident, you may leave this earth early in life. But whether it be sooner or a little later, or quite late, we are all going to leave this earth. Then what matters? What is the thing that matters when that comes about? The thing that is going to matter for all eternity is how much of Christ was there in us while we were here? The young ones must say, 'As a Risen-one with Christ, I am going to have as much of Christ as possible.' And they must say, 'Christ is going to have as much of me as possible.' Christ must be all, and that applies to the middle-age, and it applies to the old-age. The big question in eternity will be: 'How much of Christ was there in us while we were in this world?' Paul says, 'It is not this or that, but Christ is all, and in all.' That is what it means to be Risen-ones.

Over against all that, he says, 'Are you risen with Christ? Are there all these evidences in your life that you have been raised together with Christ? Is Christ your Life? Is your heart set upon things of Christ? Are you behaving like Risen-ones? Is Christ all, and in all?' These are the evidences of our being risen together with Christ.

Meeting 27 - Is Christianity a Legal System on the Earth, or is it a Spiritual Movement From Heaven?

Twenty-Seventh Meeting

(February 25, 1964 A.M.)

We are asking the Lord to help us in these mornings to consider some of the most vital matters of our Christian life. In our New Testament we have a number of documents. But amongst those documents, there is one which stands related to perhaps the most vital question that has ever risen in relation to Christianity. In the matter of space, it is not a very long document. Indeed, it is one of the shorter ones; but into its brief space the writer has crowded the very essence of Christianity. He took up his pen to write this document with an intense determination to settle this great question. So he concentrated into a short space the very essence of Christianity. I do not think the apostle ever wrote anything under a greater sense of importance and necessity. This letter just throbs with the sense of his passion about this particular matter. A great question had arisen. That question threatened to destroy the real nature of Christianity. The question was this: What is this thing which has invaded this world by the coming of Jesus Christ? For in the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, God had broken into history, and God had broken into history to make an immense change in everything. So the great question was: What is it that has come into this world with Jesus Christ? Is it just the continuation of an old system with some things added to it? Is it a legal system shaped on the basis of the old Jewish system? In other words, is it just the continuation of Judaism with something added to it? Or is it an entirely new, living, spiritual movement from heaven? Is the old garment of Judaism just to have some new patches put into it? Or is it to be an altogether new garment? Is it the old wine-skins of Judaism to have new wine put into them? Or is it to be an altogether new wine-skin? This was the great question.

This great question represented a vast difference, and that difference became a great battlefield between the old and the new. This question just wrought Christianity into confusion. For a time, everybody but a few were in a sense of uncertainty about this. It led to very serious divisions amongst the Lord's people. It even insinuated itself among the first apostles themselves. Peter, the leader of the twelve, had a great battle over this question, and at one time he came into serious conflict with the Apostle Paul on this matter. James, who was one of the brothers of our Lord on this earth, had serious reservations about this matter. The first Christian martyr died on this very question; Stephen was martyred because of this very matter. Wherever Christianity went, this dispute followed it. We, in our time, are not able to realize how tense was this strain over the matter of the real nature of Christianity.

Although this particular document to which we refer did settle it very largely at that time, the nature of this controversy has persisted right through into our own day. Is Christianity a legal system, or is it a spiritual life? It was in relation to that question that the Risen and Ascended Lord broke through from heaven and laid His hand on the Apostle Paul. Jesus came right out of heaven, right through from the glory, and put His hand on this man Saul of Tarsus. It was not a small thing for the Lord Jesus, Who had sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, to get up off the Throne and come back here again. He must have seen that there was a very serious matter involved. So He did not send an angel or an archangel; He left His place in glory and came down to that man on the road to Damascus, and He laid His hand upon him. Afterwards, Paul described it as being apprehended by Christ Jesus. You know what that word "apprehended" means? Well, I hope you do not know what it means so far as the law is concerned. When the policeman is after a criminal and he finds the criminal, he puts a very strong hand on him. And that is the word that the apostle used. He said, 'I was apprehended. I was arrested by Jesus Christ.' And it was in relation to this specific question. The Lord arrested Paul as the instrument through which He was going to answer this question. So serious did the Lord regard this matter, that it is impossible to understand the Apostle Paul's ministry unless we recognize this particular connection. The whole of the Apostle Paul's ministry related to one issue: And that issue is the true, spiritual, heavenly nature of Christianity.

Now Paul by that mighty act from heaven had come to see this great difference. He had come to see that a great divide had been created between old Judaism and new Christianity, between the old earthly Israel and the new heavenly Israel. He had come to see that these were two distinctly different nations. He had come to see that this question divided the ages. What had existed in the past ages was now terminated. And something new had been introduced to be the nature of things for all the eternal ages. When the Apostle Paul himself came to see that, when that broke upon him from heaven, that is, the vast difference between the legal and the spiritual, he threw himself into THAT BATTLE to the last drop of his blood.

That battle began immediately when Paul was saved. When he had been met by the Lord, and entered the city of Damascus, after being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit, he testified to them that Jesus is the Christ. Recognizing what that meant where this man himself was concerned, recognizing that he had changed his ground, that he had left the ground of legalism, the ground of Judaism, that he had taken the ground of Christ: THEN THE BATTLE STARTED. And right through the thirty years of his life, everywhere he went he was found in that battle.

The last chapter of the Book of the Acts, which leaves Paul in prison waiting the sentence of death, finds him still in the battle. The Judaizers are with him in his prison. He seeks to reason with them, but then he has to turn from them and say, 'It's no good, I must turn to the Gentiles.' The battle was on from the beginning to the end of his life; and this battle was on one mighty issue: Is Christianity a legal system on this earth, or is it a spiritual movement from heaven?

Now, I began by saying that there is a document in the New Testament which sets forth the answer to that question, and I expect many of you have already come to the conclusion as to what that document is. If you are not sure about that, let me say at once, it is the Letter to the Galatians. It is now fairly or generally believed that this letter was the first letter that Paul wrote. In my early days, it was believed that the Letters to the Thessalonians were the first letters that Paul wrote. And I used to say that. But further investigation has led those who know very well that the Galatians Letter was probably the first letter. Now I am not going to argue out that matter this morning. You can believe it or you need not believe it. But, if that should be true, how significant it is that that should be the first great issue about which the apostle wrote. And if you read that letter, and feel the strength with which the apostle wrote it, you can discern how serious he felt this question to be. He saw that there was that which was threatening the whole nature of Christianity. And so he set himself to do this work. That is, to preserve the pure spiritual nature of what had come in with Jesus Christ.

Now before we proceed to consider what is in this letter, there are two basic things which must engage our intention. First of all, what the apostle himself meant by this letter, and that is contained in chapter one, and verse eight, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any Gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema" (ASV). The whole letter is gathered into that one sentence. "The Gospel which we preached." He says that what he is dealing with is the nature of the Gospel. He says we preach the Gospel to you. This letter then is a restatement of the Gospel. Now various names have been given to what is in the New Testament. It is called by many Christianity, and that is a very comprehensive term; or it is called the Christian faith, or the Christian religion. In the New Testament, it is known by none of those names. The New Testament never speaks of this as Christianity; it never speaks of it as the Christian faith; it never speaks of it as the Christian religion. It is known just by one name. Everything that is in the New Testament and which came in with Jesus Christ is just called The Gospel.

Now here is something that we need to carefully notice. You see, we draw a distinction between what we call the Gospel, and fuller teaching for believers. By the Gospel, many mean that which is for the unsaved, and what we give to the saved, well, it is something else. Suppose you are going to have some gospel meetings at the end of the week and they are not for believers, they are for the unsaved. That is an altogether artificial distinction. Everything in the New Testament for the unsaved and for the saved is called the Gospel. It is not a religion. It is not a philosophy of life. It is not a system of truths and practices. It is just the Gospel. And that word means: "Good News." It is given various connections, such as the Gospel of our salvation. But there is one overall and inclusive thing about this word, and that is, "The Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:1-3). So when we divide between the Gospel for the unsaved and something else for the saved, do you see what we are doing? We say, we have left the ground of God's Son, and we have come on to some extra grounds for Christians. The Gospel is comprehensive of everything in Christ. You will never get to the place where you will cease to discover something new concerning God's Son; and although we may be discovering more throughout all eternity, it would still be the Gospel.

Do you think the Gospel ends when you are born again? Do you think the Gospel ends when you leave this world and go to the Lord? If you see the great multitude, which no man can number around the throne, and you listen to their song, they are singing a gospel hymn, "Worthy is the Lamb." But they have come into a very very full understanding of God's Son. See, the Gospel is the Gospel of God concerning His Son for all time, and for all eternity. The Gospel is something infinitely bigger than salvation from sin; it is infinitely bigger than deliverance from judgment and death. The Gospel comprehends all that is in Christ. It was that for which the apostle was fighting. It was not just for the salvation of these people, but that they should understand what they are saved into. That is the battleground. He says, "The Gospel which we preached." And what does it amount to? A whole letter is crowded into that one sentence. The Gospel is emancipation from all legal bondage. It is emancipation into the liberty of the sons of God. That is the theme of this letter: Emancipation from all legal bondage. Emancipation into the liberty of the sons of God. And Paul says, "That is the Gospel which I preached."

In this letter, Paul calls legalism a yoke of bondage. He cries, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage." When he used that word "yoke," he was using the same word as Jesus Himself had used in Matthew eleven, verses twenty-eight through thirty. Jesus looked out on the multitude, He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. Take My yoke upon you, and learn Me. My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." He was speaking to the multitudes who were under the yoke of Jewish legalism. He said to be under that yoke is to be in labour and be heavy laden. He says, "My yoke is easy," by which He meant: I will liberate you from the yoke of Jewish bondage. I will set you free from all this toil under legalism.

The scribes and the Pharisees had thousands of interpretations to the Old Testament Scripture. They had taken the law of Moses, and they had put two thousand interpretations upon every law. Everything that God had said, they had interpreted it to mean a thousand different things. And so they had taken the Word of God and given to it an interpretation which became a great burden to bear. Not only had God said, "Thou shalt not," the scribes and the Pharisees had said, "Now that means, 'thou shalt not this; thou shalt not that; and thou shalt not a thousand things."' Not only had Moses said, "Thou shalt," the scribes and Pharisees said, "Thou shalt a thousand things." Jesus said, "They bind heavy burdens and put them on men's shoulders." That is always the effect of legalism. Under a legal system, you just do not know what you may do. You are always asking: 'Now, really, may we do this? If we do this, shall some judgment come upon us? And if we don't do it in that way, shall we fall under the judgment of God?'

That is how it was then, and Paul himself had been under that burden. He tells us about it in the seventh chapter of the Letter to the Romans. And he ends that terrible story with "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this dead body?" That whole system is a system of death, but then he adds, "I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I now meet all in Christ." Now that is the battle of this letter to the Galatians. So this is what Paul calls the Gospel. And as I have not the time to go to the second thing this morning, I am going to leave it there. I mean the second fundamental thing that lies beneath this letter. If the Lord wills, we will speak about that tomorrow. But let him who runs, READ; and let him who reads, RUN. Run out of all this sort of thing into the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free.

Now what I have done this morning is just to present the great question. This great question as to the true nature of Christianity, or of that which came in with Jesus Christ. But I must say this as I close, do not take what I have said as everything; that is only the beginning. We have really got to see what it is that we are in, in Christ. In general, we are in liberty. But we have got to see what that means. So do not go away and say: 'Well, he said this.' Just keep that quiet and say, 'There is something more that we have got to learn about this.' I leave that with you for this morning, but it is a glorious Gospel - the Gospel of our liberty in Christ. And we refuse to be brought back into bondage by any man.

Meeting 28 - The Great Distinguishing Mark Between a Legal System and a Spiritual Life is by Direct Revelation of Jesus Christ

Twenty-Eighth Meeting

(February 26, 1964 A.M.)

Read: Galatians

We covered so much ground in more than an hour yesterday morning that it is quite impossible to go over it all again. All we can do is just remind you of the great matter which is engaging us at this time. We have said that this matter is one which had been the most vital question in the history of Christianity. It is no other question than "What is true Christianity?" In other words, "What was it that invaded this world with the coming into it of Jesus Christ?" Around that question, an immense battle raged in the time of the apostles, and in the nature of that question, the battle still goes on! It took a peculiar form in the days of the apostles; then, it was a matter of Judaism or Christianity. Since that time it has not been a question of Judaism and Christianity. But all along, and today, in principle it remains the same. The question is, "Is Christianity a legal system or spiritual movement from heaven?"

We saw that battle and that question was concentrated by the Apostle Paul into his brief letter to the Galatians. And the Letter to the Galatians is concentrated into one phrase, a phrase with which the apostle begins the letter, that is, "The Gospel which we preached." And we saw that phrase, "The Gospel," is not something just for unsaved people, but comprehends everything that is in the New Testament. That is the first basic thing to be taken account of. It is the comprehensive meaning of the Gospel. Not only Good News for the world and the unsaved, but the Good News of God concerning His Son for the people of God. So we spent some time on the nature of the Gospel.

And then we said there was a second basic thing before we could consider the content of this letter. Because this letter is very largely based upon this particular thing - that is, Paul himself, and the basis of his apostleship. I would like to think that this letter is fresh in your minds. I would like to think that since yesterday, you have read it right through again, and I would like to suggest that every day this week you read this letter. That will help me a lot in what I have to say.

Now, if you are familiar with this letter, you will know what a large place the Apostle Paul himself takes in the letter. He speaks very much about himself, and about his apostleship. There is a sense in which it is the man behind the letter. And that means, the man behind the Gospel. There is such a large place occupied by the apostle himself personally, but that is for a purpose. And the purpose is certainly not that Paul is seeking to glorify himself. It is not to magnify Paul; but it is to MAGNIFY JESUS CHRIST. That is proved by the fact that in what is quite a short letter, the name "Christ" occurs forty-three times. We shall refer to that again.

Now the reason for the prominence of the apostle in this letter is the whole question of the great change which was made in his time. This immense historic and spiritual change in the ages was very largely turning upon this man, Paul. It was not his desire that it should be so. Certainly Paul would have wished it otherwise. He did not want to be the prominent figure in this controversy. But it was his opponents that were making him the central figure. They were opposing Paul's right to teach what he was teaching. They were setting Paul over against Moses, or Moses over against Paul. In effect, they were saying, God always referred to Moses as "My servant." So by the Scriptures, Moses was the accredited servant of the Lord, and as the accredited servant of the Lord, Moses gave the whole Old Testament system. Moses gave the system of the law. And Moses wrote the Scripture at God's dictation. God verbally told Moses what to write. So that the Old Testament was verbally inspired by God. That means that the Jewish system was inspired by God. It was through Moses that God gave the great system of worship which we have in the Book of Leviticus.

Now you see how it seemed that these opponents of Paul had a very strong case against him. They said, Paul denies all that. And Paul says, all that is finished with. For instance: They concentrate upon the question of circumcision. They say, now in the inspired Old Testament, circumcision is a very important thing appointed by God. The Bible, as they had it, said circumcision is something. This man Paul, deliberately says, circumcision is nothing. Therefore, Paul is contradicting the Scriptures; Paul does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures. They went further than that. Not only did they attack his teaching, but they attacked him. You know, that is always a bad weapon of a bad cause, wherever there is a people who attack persons. They turn from what the person teaches to the person himself; and they try to discredit the person. And that is what these enemies of Paul did. They said, Paul is not a true apostle, at most, he is inferior to the other apostles. He is a false teacher. He is unsound in his doctrine. And he is a dangerous man. So they sought to undercut the ministry of Paul.

You will see by this, how prominent the place was that Paul occupied in this great issue - the great historic and spiritual issue as to the true nature of Christianity. And because these powerful enemies focus their attention upon Paul himself, it all drew from Paul a personal testimony; and it is in that testimony that we have the very essence of true Christianity. It is in that testimony that we have the new wine which will burst the old bottles, and we have the new garment which Paul will not try to patch up. In this testimony, we have the thing which constitutes the new heavenly order in which we live. By the way, we have to thank the enemies of Paul for a lot. We have to thank these enemies for the great light which emerged from his sufferings. We have to thank these enemies for the great emancipation of Christianity from a dead legal system. God turned the persecution of Paul into a wonderful advantage for this whole dispensation. It is very often like that. God gets out of the winepress, the pure wine. But that which goes into the winepress has to be crushed and broken; and then the pure wine of the Kingdom flows out. And that is how it was in this case.

Now it must be clearly understood, that the battle was not between Paul and Jews, but it was between tradition and spirituality. Paul only comes into it because he has seen the difference, and is speaking that which he has seen. So we come to understand Paul's personal answer.

Before we pass on, let me add this: it is very important in this great matter for us to settle this same issue: was the Apostle Paul a peculiarly chosen vessel for this purpose? Does the Apostle Paul stand in a particular relationship to this whole dispensation? Ever since those days, Paul has been a subject of violent attack. The liberal and modernistic theologians have attacked Paul. And the thing which they have said is this, 'Paul is not a true interpreter of Christ.' Of all the men in the Bible, there is no more controversial personality than the Apostle Paul. Even those who will accept Jesus, with limitations, will not accept Paul at all. And we have to settle this question. What relation does this man Paul stand to the whole dispensation? Until we are clearly able to answer that question, we cannot understand his ministry. Because all of Paul's ministry focuses down upon this one issue. That is, the spiritual and the heavenly nature of the dispensation, which came in with Jesus Christ.

So we must spend the rest of our time this morning in considering Paul's apostleship. But do remember that in all we say, we are really thinking of this particular issue: THE SPIRITUAL AND THE HEAVENLY NATURE OF THIS DISPENSATION. The principles of Paul's apostleship lie at the very foundation of this dispensation. Well, let us look at it in just two fragments. The Letter to the Galatians, chapter one, and verses eleven and twelve: "For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the Gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ."

Chapter two, and verse six: "But from those who were reputed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth not man's person) - they, I say, who were of repute imparted nothing to me."

All right then, these two fragments settle the question. The source of Paul's apostleship, 'not from men, neither through a man. I received nothing from men, it came to me by revelation of Jesus Christ.' What does that amount to?

I must pause here to put in parenthesis just this request. We are having these morning meetings, and perhaps you are looking upon them as meetings for teaching, and you will perhaps remember them in the future as some special meetings in which a special subject was considered. Well, of course, there is teaching, and it is focused upon a special matter. But I do want to say this to you earnestly, that what I am saying is not only a statement of truth, it is a 'testimony' of your foundation. It is a test as to the ground upon which you individually stand. So that this is not just a series of special meetings for teaching, this is a vital challenge to our spiritual position. If what we have said is true, that the whole dispensation in a sense focuses upon the spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul, that is, in a fuller way than in any other case except the Lord Jesus Himself, then what we have said about Paul's apostleship is basic to our own spiritual lives.

So what does this source of Paul's apostleship mean for us? It means that the basic reality of this dispensation is a personal, direct encounter with Jesus Christ. I want to repeat that. It is perhaps the most important thing out of which everything else will come. The basic reality of the dispensation in which we live is a personal direct encounter with Jesus Christ. It is personal between Christ and ourselves personally. It is direct because it is not through man. It is not through a priest or any other kind of intermediary. It is not through a ritual; it is not through a system; and it is not through man. It is directly between Christ and ourselves. We shall fail in the very purpose of this dispensation, unless we can say, 'that is how it is with us.' The method in which it happens may differ between Paul's experience and ours, but every one of us individually must be able to say: 'I have met Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ has met me directly. Men may have helped, but I did not receive it from men. I did not even receive it from those great men in Jerusalem. I did not receive it from the great representatives of Christianity. I received it personally and directly from the Lord.'

What a searching thing that is! How that will find us out. It just raises some questions. How did we get what we have got? Are you prepared to go home with that question? How did I get my Christianity? How did I get what I have got? How did it come to me? Did it come to me by thinking it out? I reasoned out this matter of Christian life, and I came to certain intellectual conclusions, in comparing it with all other things I saw that this was the best thing, so that in my mind I decided that this thing is right. Is it just an intellectual conclusion? Is that how I got it? Is that the ground on which I stand? Or, did it come to me by the impact of some strong personality? Some teacher, or some leader, with a very forceful personality and I came under the impact of that personality. So I received it through a man's strong personality. Is that the ground on which you stand? Was it through the persuasion of other people? They said you ought to come to Christ, and they kept on saying that, and at last I yielded to them, I gave way to their persuasion, and so I profess Christianity, and I got baptized, and that is the ground on which I stand.

How did we get what we got? That is going to decide everything for the future. Sooner or later the stresses of life will come upon our position. The Lord will allow our position to be tried in the fires. And His object in so doing will be to find out exactly what we are resting upon. So Paul said, "I received it not from men, nor from a man. Peter may have been a very important man, but I did not get it from Peter. James may have been the Lord's Own brother in the flesh, and he ought to know, but I did not receive it from James. John was a very loving devoted disciple, he was one of the first three, but I did not get it from John. These men gave me nothing. I RECEIVED IT BY DIRECT REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. That is the basis of this dispensation. That is the basis of true spiritual Christianity. And that is the great distinguishing mark between a legal system and a spiritual life.

Now in the next place, for a few minutes, we have to consider the crises behind Paul's apostleship. You see, we are keeping close to this letter. And for the time being, we are keeping close to Paul's testimony, which testimony is the basis of things. Behind the apostleship of Paul was a tremendous crisis. Chapter one, and verse thirteen, "Ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and made havoc of it" (ASV). You must say that with very strong emphasis, because that is how Paul said it. "My life in the Jews' religion," fancy Paul saying a thing like that; a man who was a Jew by birth and upbringing, a man who was just kept in Judaism, I would have liked to see the look on his face when he said this - "In the Jews' religion. In the Jews' religion," that is how I lived in time past. I persecuted the Church of God, and I made havoc of the Church of God. And I advanced in the Jews' religion, beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers. Unless you put sufficient emphasis upon all that, and realize what all that meant to Paul or to Saul of Tarsus as he was called before, you cannot appreciate the tremendous crisis in his life; the immense crisis behind his apostleship.

Note, it was a crisis, not a development. It was a crisis, not an evolution. It was a clear-cut thing that happened at a certain time. There was a crisis in this man's life. And that crisis meant the dividing of his whole life between what was in the past and what was in the future. For him it was the finishing of a whole system and the beginning of an altogether new heavenly order of things.

The next thing to note is this: That while it was the Sovereign Act of God, as we said yesterday, Jesus Christ rose from His throne in glory and came right down to this man. It was therefore A SOVEREIGN ACT FROM HEAVEN. Yet at the same time there was something upon which God could act. There was something in this man which gave the Lord the ground for acting. It was not merit, but there was something there. What was that something? Now I ask every one of you here to take note of this, God had ground on which to act in this man because he was a man who meant business with God. You must remember that although Saul of Tarsus was doing the wrong thing, he was doing it according to the light of his conscience. He afterward said that he did it in ignorance, that he thought that he was doing God's service. And however darkened his mind was, and however wrong his conduct was, he was a man who meant business with God. In his ignorance, he was doing it for God. He thought that this was what God wanted. There is a sense in which he had a heart for God. And there was no mistake in that. His zeal, as he calls it, was very great for what he believed to be for the Lord. That was a ground upon which God could work.

Listen to this, brethren, those who are indifferent, and do not care very much, will never get very far with the Lord. If things do not matter very much, then the Lord does not matter very much. There is an Old Testament word which says, "To the upright Thou will show Thyself upright; to the pure Thou will show Thyself pure; but to the froward Thou will show Thyself froward." God is going to be to us what we are to Him. If we are indifferent, if we are careless, if we do not care very much, the Lord will not come to us in this way. If you look at the men and the women who had counted most for God, you will know that at the beginning there was a very serious crisis. What was the Lord doing? He was getting this ground of reality. He was testing them as to whether they wanted Him just for their own good and pleasure or whether they wanted Him for Himself.

A young man who had great wealth came to Jesus, and he said, "Good Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" And it looks as though Jesus played with him, first of all, He said, 'Why do you call Me good? There is only One that is good, and that is God.' There is a real test in that. Well, you know what is written in the law, 'Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." Still the Lord is drawing him out. And the young man said, "All this have I kept from my youth." All right then, we will bring it right to the test. "Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor and come follow Me, come and follow Me without anything. Follow Me without a penny, follow Me without a reputation." Is eternal life more important to you than all that you can have in this world? And you see, the Lord had found the spot, "What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Why do you want eternal life? Is it more important to you than all things in this world? Are you prepared to let go of everything in this world for eternal life? The young man dropped his head, dropped his hands, turned quietly round and walked away. You see the point?

The Lord wants to know whether we really mean business. We shall get nothing unless we really do mean business with God. We may be wrong in our way of life. Our minds may be very blind and darkened, but even so we can mean business with God. And although it was a Sovereign Act, yet the Lord had ground upon which He could work. That zeal, although it was misdirected, meant something to God. What is our attitude toward the Lord and the things of the Lord? Are we only half alive to this matter? Are we asleep? Or are we on full stretch, saying, "What the Lord wants for me I am going to have, if it can be had. No matter what it costs me, my heart is set upon what the Lord wants for my life." So we have considered the crisis behind this man, and we must leave it there this morning. And if the Lord wills, take it up from there tomorrow morning.

Meeting 29 - The Only True Emancipation from all Forms of Legalism is to See Christ

Twenty-Ninth Meeting

(February 27, 1964 A.M.)

Read: Galatians

We continue with our consideration of this great fundamental question as to the true nature of this dispensation. The question being: Is Christianity a legal system or a spiritual movement from heaven? We have seen that this question became a very serious battleground right at the beginning. It was on this question that Stephen was martyred; and his great successor, the Apostle Paul, became the focal point of this battle. So with the Letter to the Galatians before us, we are seeking to see what the apostle had to say about this. In as much as he was made the very center of the controversy, we have to consider the apostle himself. So far, we have looked at the source of his apostleship. He said that it was not from men, nor from a man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ - an apostle of Jesus Christ and God the Father. Then we went on yesterday to consider the great crisis behind his apostleship.

This morning we are going to consider the constituting of his apostleship. We turn then to the Letter to the Galatians. Chapter one, and verse fifteen: "When it was the good pleasure of God, Who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations" (ASV). It was the good pleasure of God to reveal His Son in me. And then the well known words in chapter two, and verse twenty: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God."

Now may I remind you that the thing of importance for us is that this spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul contains all the principles of this new dispensation. If we ask the question, "What is true Christianity?" Then the answer is found in the spiritual history of this man, the dispensation in which we live is founded upon these principles. So that which constitutes this dispensation is that which constituted the apostleship of Paul. After emphatically stating that he did not receive it from men, not even from those who were apostles before him, he goes right to the heart of this matter, and he says, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." So this dispensation is founded upon an inward revelation of Jesus Christ. If you and I want to know what it is that we are supposed to be in, it is that.

Our true Christian life rests upon an inward revelation of God's Son. The Apostle Paul had come to see the immense significance of the Son of God. Here is a man who was absolutely intoxicated with Jesus Christ. In everything he saw Christ. And as we said yesterday, in this very short letter of Galatians, the name "Jesus Christ" occurs no fewer than forty-three times.

First, "IT PLEASED GOD TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME." And then, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." In that Cross of Christ, one man, Saul of Tarsus, has gone out. The Cross has dismissed one kind of man. And the resurrection has brought in another kind of man; and that other kind of man is Christ. So Christ takes the place of Saul of Tarsus. This is foundational, the basis of this whole dispensation. What an immense difference it would make if we saw Christ as Paul saw Him; it is hard work for our imagination to do that.

Paul had come to see Who Jesus of Nazareth was. You remember that on the Damascus road, when he said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" Jesus answered, "I am Jesus of Nazareth." He did not say, "I am the eternal Son of God." He did not say, "I am God Who became incarnate." He said, "I AM JESUS OF NAZARETH." And Paul was on the ground, he was helpless and blind. The brightness of THAT GLORY had laid him to the earth, and the very first sensation that this man had was, "This glory, this power, Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus of Nazareth, all this?" I say it is very difficult for us to understand. You remember some of the things that Paul wrote later about Christ? When he wrote his letter to the Philippians, he spoke of Jesus as, "before times eternal, existing as equal with God." He said, "He was on equality with God." And then, when he wrote his letter to the Colossians, he gave a matchless picture of Christ. He says that, "He was before all things, and all things were created through Him, whether things in heaven, or things in earth, whether principality, or power: all things had been created by Him, and through Him, and in Him all things consist. It was the pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell." And that is Jesus of Nazareth. You see, Paul had come to see the significance of God's Son.

Now just think of that again: Existing on equality with God; the instrument and the heir of all creation by the will of the Father; all things being put into Him by the appointment of the Father; He had to have the preeminence in all things, and on-and-on. This was the One Whom Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, and his friends and his nation crucified. Persecuting and crucifying God manifest in the flesh. Persecuting and crucifying the One Who created all things. See how vast this One is! Now here is a little man who is crucifying Him! Can you enter into that? Can you realize at all WHAT this man felt when he saw Who Jesus of Nazareth was? No wonder Paul wanted to be liberated from a system that could do that. Paul's whole being cried out, 'Let me be emancipated from a thing that can do that. Let me escape from a system that can do that.' No wonder this word "liberty" was such a big word with Paul. And no wonder Paul was so angry about this system. In this letter he says, "If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel than that which we preached, let him be anathema." And he said it again. He said, "I repeat that." How angry he was! The Gospel was the Gospel of God concerning His Son. Nowhere in all his writings, with all that he had to meet, is Paul found to be so angry as in this letter. He seems to throw all discretion to the winds. He completely discards all compromise. And he says, 'There can be no compromise with a system which can have this effect.'

Legalism always crucifies Christ afresh BECAUSE legalism cuts out the greatest word in Christianity. The word over the door into true Christianity is the word:"GRACE." Legalism always wipes out "Grace," and puts in its place "LAW."

Grace is the chief word in the vocabulary of the Christian. Do you notice that where legalism reaches its fullest expression, it always puts the crucifix in the place of the empty tomb? The badge of the Christian is the empty tomb. That is 'Life from the dead.' The badge of legalism is a crucifix, 'a dead Christ.' Legalism always brings death, and the chief thing about Christ is resurrection. It is Life from the dead. This was something that Paul came to see when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. And he said, let me get out of all this legalistic system. Jesus of Nazareth Whom we crucified is alive. He has been revealed alive in my heart.

The only true emancipation from all forms of legalism is to see Christ. Not all the forces in this world would have emancipated Saul of Tarsus from Judaism. The only thing that did that was seeing Jesus. And so, I repeat, the only thing that will emancipate us from all forms of dead legalism is to really see the Lord Jesus. And that would do it. It does not matter what you are bound by - a dead traditional Christianity, or any other kind of bondage. If you truly see the significance of the Lord Jesus, you will be emancipated. We must not go about telling people that they must come out of this and that. Whatever it may be, it is not our business to tell them they have got to come out of that and come into this. Let me emphasize that, that is not our business. If you do that sort of thing, you will only make matters very much worse. A great deal of mess and confusion always follows that sort of thing. Anyone who says, Now you must leave that and you must come into this is going to make trouble - trouble that will not glorify the Lord Jesus.

The thing that will do it for anyone is to really see Jesus. It is not our business to preach the church in the first place. You hear what I have said? It is not our business to go about the world preaching the church. Whether it be the Church universal or the church local. We are NOT commissioned to go and preach that. We shall never know what the Church is until we have seen Jesus, because Jesus is the Church in corporate expression, or to put it round the other way, the Church is the corporate expression of Jesus. We can never understand what the Church is until we understand Who Jesus is. Otherwise, the Church for us will be something so small, so limited, so exclusive. Jesus is not like that. How great He is! How wonderful He is! Paul says: "The Church is the fullness of Him That filleth all in all."

Now the Apostle Paul was the greatest teacher of the New Testament time on the matter of the Church. But his knowledge of the Church was the result of his seeing God's Son. You see the simple beginning of it. Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Saul might have said, "I am not persecuting you, Lord, I am persecuting these Christians." If he had said that, Jesus would have answered, "It is the same thing. I and these Christians are one body. You cannot touch a member of My body without touching Me." How true that is in the physical body. You take off your shoes, and you walk across the floor, and you come across a pin, and it pricks your little toe, the farthest, smallest extremity of your whole body. And you quickly lift up your foot. It hurts you. How do you know it hurts you? Because that farthest extremity of your body has a relationship with your head. When you say that has hurt me, you are saying it with your head. You see the point, you cannot touch the remotest part in the human body without touching the head. The whole nervous system of the body is centered in the head. So Jesus would have said, "It is the same thing. Touch one simple child of Mine and you touch Me." I think Saul of Tarsus never got a bigger surprise than he did when Jesus said that. When it was shown to him that to touch any of the simple Christians on the earth was to touch the glorified Son of God, that was the beginning of his understanding of the Church.

There is nothing legal about that; that is very spiritual. If we really see the Lord Jesus, we shall be emancipated. Some of us have had that experience. We were in legal systems; our horizon was that system. Then the day came when the Lord opened our eyes to really see the significance of Christ. And that whole system fell away as being all nonsense. No, it is not our business to say, 'Come out of this and that, and come into this other.' The word "must" or "thou shall" does not belong to this realm. That belongs to the old legal realm. The "must" becomes a spiritual thing, not a legal thing. We could say of Paul, there was a mighty "must" in his spirit. I have seen the Lord, and I am seeing more and more of what the Lord is, and this is creating in me this great imperative. "This one thing I do, leaving the things which are behind, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the on-high calling." So we do not say, 'Change your system.' But we do say, 'Ask the Lord to reveal His Son in you.' Then the great work of emancipation will begin.

I wonder if you have noted that whenever God made a new move, He always did it on the basis of His Son. Whether that move was a new phase entirely, or the recovering of something that was lost, He always put His Son in the front. The beginning of the Bible is God creating a new world. And He does it all in and through and by His Son. His Son is the Agent, the Instrument and the Pattern of the creation. Later on, when God was making another new move with Abraham, He constituted the life of Abraham upon the basis of His Son. Step by step He brought Abraham right up to the climax. And what was the climax? It was this, "Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him a sacrifice." That was the climax of Abraham's life. All his life was gathered into that. In that step, Abraham entered right into the heart of God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." The new move of God with Abraham was on the basis of God's Son.

The next great move of God was with Israel, the nation. The nation Israel is in bondage in Egypt. The emancipation of that nation from that bondage was on the basis of that Passover, the blood and the flesh of the Passover Lamb. God had put His Son right at the beginning of the national life. Having gotten them out of bondage on the basis of His Son, He constituted them in the wilderness on the basis of His Son. The tabernacle in the wilderness was a comprehensive and detailed representation of God's Son. Many years later, when that nation had departed from the Lord, and when every appeal to them had failed, God raised up the prophets. Now some prophets prophesied toward the captivity; and some prophesied as to that which looked beyond the captivity. But both of these sets of prophets always kept the Lord Jesus in view. Isaiah fifty-three is the great picture of the suffering Son and Servant of the Lord; and that looked beyond the captivity. You see, the history of these people was based upon the presentation of God's Son.

The next great movement of God in this world is the New Testament. It begins with the incarnation of the Son of God. It goes on to the resurrection of the Son of God. And it goes on to show that the full meaning of the Son of God is to be manifested through the Church. It is always God's Son in view. Every new movement of God is taken by a fresh presentation of Christ. In the first three chapters of the Book of the Revelation, Christ is seeking to bring back the churches to their former spiritual position. This is a move to try and recover what has been lost. And therefore you have in the first chapter that matchless presentation of Christ. What a wonderful description of Christ that is! Just read it again, every detail in that description is of some aspect to Christ. It is a symbolic, comprehensive presentation of the meaning of Christ. I think it is perfectly evident to us all, that from the Book of Genesis in the creation, to the Book of the Revelation at the end, God always moves on the ground of His Son.

So we come back to Paul, this is a new and mighty movement of God. It is the emancipation of a people from all the death of legalism. The people of Christ's day were as much in bondage to legalism as Israel was in bondage in Egypt. And the same God Who said to Moses, "I have seen the affliction of My people, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; and I am come down to deliver them. Come now therefore, and I will send you." The same God saw the bondage of the people to that legalistic system, laboring and heavy laden under the yoke of legalism. The same God said, "I am come down to deliver them." And as it were, He turned to Paul and said, "Come, and I will send you." A chosen vessel for the liberation of His people.

So great is this matter with God. Well, all these are gathered into these words, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." "I have been crucified with Christ" to the whole system of legalism. 'It is true that I am alive, and yet it is not I, but Christ Who liveth in me.' This is one more chapter on this very great question, 'What is Christianity?' Is it a legal system imposed upon God's people? Or is it a great liberating spiritual movement from heaven? The answer is found in this: "Have we really seen the Lord? Have we really seen the significance of Christ?" Only if we have, shall we be a free people. We will leave it there for this morning. If the Lord wills, tomorrow morning we shall deal with what I feel to be one of the most important aspects of this whole matter. It will be the real fundamental difference between the old and the new dispensation. So I suggest that you try to make time to read this letter again before tomorrow.

Meeting 30 - The Rule of Heaven will Divide Between the Evil and the Good, Between the Leaven and the Unleavened Bread

Thirtieth Meeting

(February 27, 1964 P.M.)

The Gospel by Matthew, chapter thirteen, and verse thirty-three: "Another parable spake He unto them; 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened'" (ASV). This is the fourth parable on the kingdom, and like the ones before it, it has two interpretations. Bible teachers are quite divided on the meaning of this parable. The most popular interpretation is that the leaven is something good. Indeed, it is the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is going to spread all over the world until there is nothing bad left. Indeed, the world is going to become wholly good in this dispensation, I say, that is the most popular interpretation. It is popular because it is just what we would like it to be. We would very much like that to be true. But is that the true interpretation of the parable?

The much less popular interpretation is that the leaven is something bad. And that evil is going to spread more and more over all the world. Well, that is not a popular interpretation, and it is not popular because we do not like that idea. However, it is never a matter of whether a thing is popular or unpopular. A doctor's medicine is not a popular thing because we do not like it, but it is the right thing. And there are many quite nice things that are not good for us. So it does not depend upon whether the thing is popular. The thing is, is it true? Which is the right interpretation?

For myself, I come down on the second interpretation; that the leaven is not something good, but something evil. And I am going to tell you why I believe that is the true interpretation. If you look into your Bible, and trace this word leaven all the way through, beginning with the first mention of leaven in the Book of Exodus, chapter twelve, and moving right through the Bible, until you come to the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter five, you will find that with one possible exception, leaven is always something bad. It is always something which God will not allow. In the Old Testament, God gave very, very careful instructions about leaven. The passover bread was to be unleavened bread. In every Jewish household, to this day, on the eve of the passover they light a lamp and the wife or mother takes the broom and sweeps every room and every corner to see if she can find any leaven. This is what they believe to be God's attitude toward leaven. So that wherever this word is used right through the Bible, it is almost, if not altogether, an evil thing.

You will remember that when we were speaking about the parable of the mustard seed, we pointed to the law of consistency. And we said that Jesus in His teaching never contradicted Himself. Never did He, in one address, use the same thing for two opposite meanings. So when we had the parable of the darnel (the tares), the darnel was the work of the evil one. When we had the parable of the mustard seed, the birds of the air which lodged in that tree are the same birds as in the parable of the sower. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said, "The birds of the air are the evil ones." In the parable of the darnel, it was an evil one that did this thing. The law of consistency demands that we interpret this parable of the leaven as being something evil. Jesus is teaching that in this dispensation, we are to expect to find evil things in this world.

Now you notice that these parables all relate to this present age. And in the last parable, the parable of the drag-net, Jesus says, at the end of the age, He will send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that make to stumble. The law of consistency demands that we say, they will gather out all the leaven and destroy it. Now I want to know where you stand on this matter. If these parables relate to this present age, which ends with the coming again of the Lord Jesus, is it true that the whole world is being converted? Is it true that all evil is being taken out of this world in this age? Is it true that the leaven of the Gospel is transforming the whole of this world and nothing evil is left in it? Is there anyone here tonight who believes that? If I ask for a vote, I am quite sure that everybody would say, 'There is more evil in the world today than ever there was.'

The final argument is this, the Bible does not teach that the whole world is going to be saved in this dispensation. But it does teach that "evil men will wax worse and worse." It does teach that "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." So we are thrown back upon this second interpretation. We come down upon what the Bible says about this. The leaven represents evil, and leaven is everywhere forbidden in relation to the things of God. I can only make that statement, but if you would like to look at your Bible, you will find it is quite true.

So we are going to first of all look at the nature and the effects of leaven. Of course, you know what leaven is and what it is used for. If the brothers do not know, the sisters do. It is that which you put into the dough to make your bread. But what is its nature and what are its effects? First of all, leaven always sets up fermentation. Have you seen the effect of the leaven when it is put into the dough? The dough was a very quiet thing until you put the leaven in. There is no disturbance and no excitement until you put the leaven in the dough. But as soon as you have put the leaven in, you find something begins to work up excitement. Everything becomes disturbed. This leaven stirs up everything. Now you know that this is the same principle of alcoholic liquor. Alcohol is simply another form of leaven. And you know quite well that if you take alcohol, you begin to get excited. There is an inward disturbance. And if you take too much, you lose your senses, and then want to fight, and a lot of disturbance takes place. This thing ruins homes. It ruins lives. It ruins businesses. Indeed, alcohol is a curse. And that is only another name for leaven, for it is the same thing. That is the nature of leaven, and those are the effects of leaven to begin with. Just keep that in mind and we will come back to it.

The next effect of leaven is inflation; it makes things unnaturally big. I have noticed that in your market and outside your churches there are a lot of men selling balloons, hundreds and hundreds of balloons. Well, they are made to look very attractive with many pretty colors, but what are they? Well, you take this very thin skin and you begin to blow into it. You fill it with wind and you make it larger and larger with wind. And then you take a very little pin, and you prick it, and the whole thing is gone. It is an artificial inflation that cannot stand up to anything. It is something which has been made unnaturally big. An artificial increase of size.

When I was a very little child, I was sometimes sent to stay with my grandmother. And on Friday night, in the kitchen, the servants always made the bread for the next week. They made the dough in a big bowl, and having put the leaven in, they worked it with their hands and with their fingers, and then they just put it in the bottom of the bowl and they covered the whole thing over with a cloth, and they went to bed. The next morning I was up early, I went into the kitchen and I lifted the cloth, and the dough had filled the whole basin. In the dark, it had grown and grown. It had become something very big, the leaven made it do that. Hold that and we will come back to it.

Another thing that leaven does, it breaks things up, it disintegrates. You see the holes coming in the bread. The leaven tears the dough asunder. It makes the loaf into a thing with many, many parts and many holes in it. It just breaks things up and divides. Hold that and we will come back to that.

Then the last thing, unleavened bread is not very pleasant to the taste. Leaven is put in to make the bread taste nice. It is something to make an appeal to the natural taste. Unleavened bread is not very nice to taste, and so that we may be very pleased, we put leaven in. It appeals to our natural taste.

Now do you see the meaning, the nature and effects of leaven? There has come into this universe something that disturbs the universe. All these terrible wars, about which you know something, are the result of this disturbing influence which has come into the universe. There is something in this universe that stirs up human nature. Like alcohol, it makes men fight against one another. It keeps the world in unrest. It produces all this excitement of the human evil nature. Then, again, this something that has come into this universe results in an enlargement that is quite unnatural - a false development. That is a thing that we have seen in these last few years. In the case of the wars, there has been an attempt to develop this world in an unnatural way. Anything that results in unnatural development and enlargement is evil.

The Apostle Paul said, "Through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Anything that makes us unnaturally big is evil. Whether it be the individual life, or whether it be what is called the work of God, trying to make it bigger than its real spiritual measure, inflating it beyond its genuine spiritual degree, that is something evil, that is leaven.

Anything that results in divisions and breaking up - disintegration is evil. Do not let us excuse our divisions. Do not let us look favorably upon the divisions amongst the Lord's people. If there are only two of us who are divided, let us not make excuses for that, let us say, 'This is wrong, this is evil, this ought not to be, there is some evil at work to divide us.' And what may be true between just two people, is true amongst all the Lord's people. We must not look upon divisions as being good, they are bad. And we must know that God is against divisions. He does not accept this working of leaven.

Then what about this leaven that makes things appeal to our natural taste? Paul said to Timothy, "The time will come when they will not endure sound teaching; and they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." And he goes on to say that they will believe the lie instead of the truth. Why is that? Because these teachers appeal to the natural life. These teachers cover over evil. Indeed, they will sometimes call evil good. People do not like the teachers who tell them what is wrong, that this thing and that thing are contrary to God. They like leavened bread, it pleases the flesh.

Well, these are the effects of leaven. And I am quite sure that there is no one here tonight who will argue that any of those things are good. You see, it is all bad. Now let us look at the symbolism of leaven: We will listen to the Lord Jesus and then to the Apostle Paul on this matter. Jesus gave three warnings to His disciples. First, He said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." And what did He say was the leaven of the Pharisees? He said, it is hypocrisy - pretending to be something that you are not, something that is quite artificial and unreal. You have only got to watch those Pharisees to see it. They make long prayers in public. They look at a poor sinner and they say, "O God, I thank thee that I am not like that man." They send somebody in front of them to blow a trumpet and say this wonderful righteous man is coming along; Jesus says, it is all hypocrisy. It is all false and unreal. And if there was one thing that Jesus hated more than another, it was unreality - pretending to be something that you are not, making a lot of noise amongst the people of God with nothing behind it. Indeed, the life behind is quite a contradiction.

Well, that is capable of a very wide application, but that is the principle of the Pharisees. Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." I do not know what the word means in your language, but in the Bible language, it means, acting a part. It is the picture of an actor on the stage. He may be dressed up to represent a great king, but he is not a great king. It is only his dress. Or he may be there acting the part of something else, but he is not that something else. He is just pretending to be that. And that is the real meaning of the word hypocrisy. Jesus said, "Beware of play-acting in the things of God."

The second warning was, "Beware of the leaven of the Sadducees." Now we are told that the Sadducees did not believe in angels or spirit or resurrection. They said, 'There are no such things as angels, there is no such thing as spirit, there is no such thing as resurrection.' What did that mean? They ruled out the whole reality of the supernatural. They set aside everything that was spiritual. Therefore, they were pure materialists. They lived only for the present time because they did not believe there was anything afterward. They lived only for this world because they did not believe there is another one. For them, there was nothing supernatural, all was now - just material - in this life on the earth.

You see, that is a very convenient philosophy of life. It is very convenient for this reason, that it will not accept future judgment. If there is no resurrection, if there is no life after this one, if there is no other world after this one, then there is no such thing as judgment. Judgment goes, that is a very convenient doctrine. Jesus says, 'Beware of that'; there is such a thing as the supernatural. God Himself is Spirit, He is the greatest reality in this universe. There is a life after this, for we shall all be raised: "Those that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation, and those that have done good, unto the resurrection of life." Jesus says, 'Beware of anything that contradicts those great realities.'

Then He gave a third warning. He said to His disciples, "Beware of the leaven of Herod." What kind of leaven is the leaven of Herod? Herod was a man who believed in great worldly splendor. He ruled his world by a great show of magnificence. Everything that looked wonderful was Herod's idea. His was a reign of earthly glory. But this other thing also comes to life with regard to Herod; behind all that outward show, was a life which was absolutely corrupt. John the Baptist told Herod of his corrupt life, and Herod beheaded John the Baptist. Here is a life of outward show, with the inward life absolutely corrupt. Jesus says, 'Beware of anything like that. That is leaven. It must not come into touch with any of the things of God.'

The scribes and the Pharisees came to Jesus one day, and they said to Him, 'Be gone, get away, Herod will kill You.' Of course, they wanted to get rid of Jesus. What did Jesus say? "Go and tell that fox, that I work today and tomorrow, and the third day I am perfected." Go and tell that fox. You know what a fox is? Well, he is one who makes a great show, a great pretense. He looks like a very nice animal. But you let him get in amongst your chickens and see what he will do. His nature is a contradiction to his appearance. Jesus says, "Beware of that leaven."

Now just a word about this that Paul has to say. In 1 Corinthians, chapter five, you have it. Something had happened in the church of Corinth. A man had committed fornication, and by his fornication he had brought evil into the church, and the church had not done anything about it. The church had not taken account of this evil as represented by this man. They let him stay there. They even let him come to the Lord's Table. A man whose background of life was evil. Now Paul wrote to the church about that man. And he said to the church, 'You must judge this thing, and you must put that man out and forbid him the Lord's Table until he repents, because he is leaven, and he defiles the whole church by his presence, and the presence of that evil is robbing the church of its spiritual power.' So Paul says, "Purge out the old leaven." Fornication and uncleanness must not come into the house of God. And, it certainly must not come to the Lord's Table. And Paul says the church is responsible for dealing with that thing. While the church allows that, the church is defiled, God's blessing cannot be upon it. It will, therefore, lose its spiritual life and its spiritual strength. Purge out the old leaven, all that sort of thing is just the working of evil in the church.

Now we must gather this up and come to a close. In the parable of the leaven, Jesus is saying that right through this present age until He comes again, this thing will be in the world. Evil will spread everywhere like leaven. But as in the other parables, Jesus said about the sower and the seed, that while three parts of it would be bad, there would be a fourth part that would be good. As in the parable of darnel, there was the work of the evil one, but there were also the children of the Kingdom. So in this parable, He says, there will be leaven, will be corruption and defilement everywhere, but the teaching of the New Testament is: Keep yourselves pure. See that your garments are not spotted. Walk in this sinful world as those who do not belong to its nature. Although there is leaven everywhere, you be the unleavened bread. But, the world may not like you, the world will not like unleavened bread. It does not please the flesh, but the bread which is pure is pleasing to God. And in the end, He will gather out all that which offends. He will gather out the offending leaven, and He will burn it with unquenchable fire; but the children of the Kingdom, the unleavened bread of God, the pure in heart and in life, He will gather into His eternal Kingdom.

The Rule of Heaven will divide between the evil and the good, between the leavened and the unleavened bread. I think you will agree that this is the right interpretation of the parable. Because it is true to the Bible, it is true to history, it is true to what we see in the world; but it carries the warning, let us offer to God that which has none of this leaven in it.

Meeting 31 - The Holy Spirit Came Especially for the Purpose of Creating a Spiritual Order of Things

Thirty-First Meeting

(February 28, 1964 A.M.)

This morning we come to what I feel to be one of the most important messages that we have been giving. We have been seeing that the Letter to the Galatians is a concentration of the great change which took place with the coming of the Lord Jesus. That is, that the coming of Christ into this world changed the dispensations, and changed the whole nature of things. So that Christ stands as the dividing of two whole systems. The whole system of Judaism which had existed up to the time of His coming was set aside when He came. From that time, as He said, a new order was introduced, and that is represented by His repeated phrase, "The hour cometh and now is." Now this morning, we are going to consider the essential nature of that great divide. How the new dispensation and the new order differs from the old. This is a matter of supreme importance for us here this morning, and for all Christians if only they would accept it, because Christianity as we know it has been largely constituted on the old dispensation. The great difference between the old and the new has not been fully recognized. So let us get to business and try to understand the difference between the old and the new.

The obvious nature of the old Jewish dispensation was that it was all in the realm of the natural senses. Firstly, it was in the realm of physical senses. Everything was a matter of seeing with the physical eye, of hearing with the physical ear, of feeling with the physical hand. It was something that could be touched, something that was tangible, something that you could put your hand upon. And then it was a matter of physical smelling. You see, the offering and the incense were a matter of physical smelling. They could smell the sweet incense. And then it was a matter of physical tasting. All the feasts of the Jews were a matter of tasting. That needs no argument; that is perfectly clear and simple. To begin with, their whole system rests upon the physical senses.

But it did not stay there, it also went into the realm of the soul. We understand the soul to be composed of three things, reason and emotion and will, that which appeals to the natural reason, and that which appeals to the natural feeling, and that which appeals to the natural will. So you see that body and soul governed everything. God gave them a tabernacle that they could see and handle; God gave them the incense that they could smell; God gave them the feasts that they could taste; however, they were blind to the meaning of these things. In brief, that was the nature of everything in the old Jewish system.

We pass over to see the difference in the new spiritual order. What is the essential nature of that which has come in with Jesus Christ? It is a spiritual order. It is no longer a matter of the natural senses. This whole new order begins at another point. Now we are keeping very close to the Letter to the Galatians. I suppose it would not be fair if I were to ask you how many have read the Letter to the Galatians right through this week. One of the advantages of knowing the Word of God is that you are able to see what is right. There are many other advantages. But in this Letter to the Galatians, the word "Spirit" occurs twelve times, and that is very largely the key to the letter. It is no longer after the flesh, it is now after the Spirit. This is essentially a spiritual dispensation that has come in.

You will remember our message on the words of the Lord Jesus to the woman of Samaria. She had said, 'Men ought to worship in this mountain, and you Jews said, men ought to worship in Jerusalem.' "Jesus said, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father... God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."' That is the nature of what has come in with Jesus Christ. We know from the Word of God, and I trust from our own experience, that men are not born of the flesh in relation to God: But they are born of the Spirit. Not of a man but of the Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit, said, Jesus, "is SPIRIT."

In the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter twelve, the writer speaks of the Father of our spirits. He is not the Father of our bodies. He is not the Father of our natural souls. He is the Father of our spirits. We are going to come back to that later on. But what is it that happens when we are born of the Spirit? What really is the nature of the new birth? This is, of course, the very meaning of the advent of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came especially for the purpose of creating a spiritual order of things. And He begins with the individual. The word to each individual is, "You must be born again," and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. What then happens when we are born of the Spirit? When we are truly born of the Spirit, we receive a new set of spiritual senses. They correspond in purpose to the old senses. But they are spiritual and not physical.

We, by the Holy Spirit, receive a new faculty of sight. You know how much there is in the New Testament about having our eyes opened. Jesus pointed to this principle by opening the eyes of the blind. He was illustrating the great spiritual truth that in the new creation, we get a new faculty of sight. And every truly born again child of God ought to be able to say, "Whereas I was blind, now I see." The truth about a child of God is that their first thing is, "Now I see." They have received the faculty of spiritual sight. It goes by different names in the New Testament. Sometimes it is called spiritual discernment. Sometimes it is spiritual understanding. Sometimes it is spiritual perception. But whatever the name is, it means the same thing. I now see what I was never able to see before as to the true meaning of Divine things. I was born blind, but the Holy Spirit has performed the great miracle of giving me new eyes.

This spiritual faculty of sight has introduced us to a new world altogether, not the material world, but the spiritual world. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about this, he says, 'Things which eye did not see, things which ear did not hear, things which entered not into the heart of man, these things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.'

The first faculty of new birth is spiritual sight. Can you see the difference between the old dispensation and the new? You see, Israel had all these things which they could see with their natural eyes. They could see the tabernacle or the temple. They could see the priests and the sacrifices. They could see the feasts. But they were totally blind to the meaning of those things. And because they were blind to the meaning, they crucified the One Who fulfilled them all. With all their power of natural sight, they were spiritually blind. So the first work of the Holy Spirit in new birth is to give us new spiritual eyes.

Not only is this true of seeing, it is also true of hearing. In the old dispensation, they heard everything with their natural ears; but they were quite deaf to the Voice of God. It did not go any further than the drums of their ears. Now in the new order of the Spirit, we are given a new faculty of hearing. We Christians have a way of saying, 'The Lord has spoken to me.' We do not mean that we have heard something with our natural ears. We know what we mean, 'The Lord has spoken to me. I have heard the Lord speaking in my heart;' that means we have received a new faculty. And this new dispensation is built upon this principle. When Jesus spoke His parables, He finished by saying this, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear" (Matt. 11:15). And you know that was His Own Word to the seven churches in Asia. After He had spoken to those seven churches, He repeated seven times, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith" (Rev. 2:7,11,17,29; 3:6,13,22).

But you must remember that speaking to the churches was not with an audible voice. Those churches did not hear a voice from heaven with their natural ears. It was what "The Spirit saith to the churches." And spiritual speaking is spiritual. It is not physical. We could illustrate this in many ways. We speak of spirit to spirit speaking. We meet some other child of God, and we do not have to say much with our lips, but we know that is a child of God. Their spirit speaks to our spirit. We have a spiritual language. We know that we belong to the same family. We can discern the Spirit in one another. We have got this new faculty of spiritual hearing. It is not outward hearing, but it is inward hearing. And what is true of seeing and of hearing is true of all the other senses.

What shall we say about spiritual smelling? Do you know what spiritual smelling is? Well, you have only got to go into some atmospheres, no one has to say anything to you, but you sense that something is wrong; you sense that it is not life here, it is death. This is not the Lord, this is man. This is not the Spirit, this is the flesh. You sense this with your spiritual faculty of smell. You may meet another person. You do not have to speak, or they do not have to speak, but you know that there is suspicion in that person. There is prejudice in that person. There is a closed heart in that person. They are not open to you, they are trying to deceive you, they are holding something back from you. How do you know it? You smell it. It is a spiritual sense. But it is a very important faculty. By this faculty we sense what is of the Lord and what is not of the Lord. You see, the incense in the old dispensation was a sweet fragrance. It was something very pleasant. The corresponding spiritual faculty of smell is, this is very pleasant. This is something very pleasing to the Lord. This is an atmosphere of life.

Therefore, it is a guiding principle. When naturally you go into a place where there is a bad smell, you hold your nose and you say, let me out of this. This is unhealthy. Your nose may save your life from a fever. Your nose may save your life from one of the bad diseases. And that is very true in the spiritual life. If this spiritual sense of smell, or this faculty for spiritually discerning were really keen and alive, we would know what is life and what is death. We would know what is spiritually healthy and what is spiritually unhealthy. I am not going to follow this further. I am just saying that when we are born again, we are given a new set of spiritual faculties. And just as the physical faculties governed in the old dispensation, it is the spiritual faculties which are to govern in the new dispensation.

If you will read the First Letter to the Corinthians, you will see that that letter is built upon this very difference. The Corinthian Christians were living on the basis of natural things, and they were not living on the basis of spiritual discernment. So Paul said to them, "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." The natural man cannot receive those things, because those things are only spiritually discerned. And then he adds, "He that is spiritual discerneth all things, yet he himself is discerned by no man." He is the mystery of the world. A spiritual man and woman is a mystery to the world, they just do not understand. Paul illustrates it in this way, "What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" If you and I are going to understand one another as human beings, we have got to be human beings and have human nature. Other orders of creation do not understand the human order. Men understand one another simply because they are men. Now Paul says in the same way, "No one understandeth the things of God except the Spirit of God that is in him."

Now I must get to perhaps the most difficult part of it all. If you will look at the Letter to the Hebrews, we will come to it. Chapter four and verse twelve begins in this way, "For the Word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and quick to discern the thoughts and intents of the heart" (ASV). We can leave the second half of the verse for the present, and just note this, "The Word of God is quick, and powerful, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." You notice how that statement begins. It begins with a conjunction. It relates to something. It connects with what the writer has just been saying. What has he been saying? He has been speaking about Israel in the wilderness, and Israel's failure to enter into the promise land. And it says, "If Joshua had given them rest, he would not have spoken afterward of another rest." He is saying that Israel after the flesh failed to enter into God's rest. They failed to enter into that for which God had brought them out of Egypt. That whole generation with the exception of two men died in the wilderness. And they never did come into the purpose of God in their redemption. Now that is the statement, that is the background, and then you have this conjunction. For, or because, the Word of God is living and powerful, piercing to dividing asunder of soul and spirit. What does that mean? The Old Israel lived entirely upon the basis of the natural soul. They lived entirely upon the basis of these natural senses. Everything for them was a matter of what they could see and handle down here on this earth. Theirs was an entirely soul life. And the writer says, because of that they failed to enter in.

The Word of God cuts clear in between the soul and the spirit. The new dispensation and the new people who are going to enter into all the purposes of God must be a spiritual people, not a soulish people. They must be constituted on the basis of what is spiritual and not what is natural. This whole letter to the Hebrews is built upon the difference between the old and the new. It takes a lot of space to show how the old fails. The old law fails, the old priesthood fails, the old sacrifices fail, the old tabernacle fails, the old temple fails. It was complete failure, because it was built upon natural ground. The ground of the soul.

Now the new is not going to fail, the letter brings in the new order. A High Priest is in Heaven. The One Sacrifice has been offered forever, and so on. It is all a spiritual order. And the Word of God divides between those two. When you get to the end of that letter to the Hebrews, to chapter twelve, the writer is saying this, 'We have had fathers after the flesh, they chastened us as it seemed right to them. And we gave them reverence.' I wonder if that is true of all of us. When our fathers after the flesh gave us a good thrashing, did we revere them? We did not say, thank you, we felt very bad about our fathers after the flesh. When we grew up to be men, we said, 'Father was right, that chastening was the best thing for us.'

However, the apostle says, 'We had fathers after the flesh, who chastened us as they thought was right and good. And we gave them reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of our spirits?' The natural is down on that level. The spiritual is so much higher, the Father of our spirits! Is that what happens when we are born again? Not our souls born again, but our spirits. That innermost part of our being which died with Adam, was separated from God in Adam's sin. So that by nature all the children of Adam are dead in that spiritual sense. Our spirits died with Adam.

In Christ they are made alive again. The new birth is not the new birth of our body. It is not the new birth of our soul, because we have got a soul. It is the new birth of our spirits. And God is the Father of our spirits. That is why I pointed out in the Letter to the Galatians - which marks the great divide - the word Spirit occurs twelve times. The Father of our spirits, then we are not the children of Abraham, we are children of God, and that is a very big difference. You see, this is what Paul is arguing in the Letter to the Galatians. He is saying to these Galatians, "Oh! foolish Galatians, how foolish you are! You began in the Spirit, and now you are going back to the flesh, you came out of the old dispensation and out of the old order, you came into the new life of the Spirit, and now you are going back, you are going to forfeit your rest, the very purpose of your redemption. Oh! foolish Galatians, how foolish a thing it is to live in the old dispensation!"

But note this, dear friends, the Christianity with which we are familiar is very largely constituted on the old dispensation. It would take another hour to show that in any fullness. But do you see how Christianity goes to work now? It begins by building religious buildings. They are called churches, of course, a false name entirely. The Church is not a building made with hands. And then they set up a certain order in it. And then they appoint certain officers to do the work. When they've got the building, and when they've got the officers, the minister and all the others, and when they have got their order of service, then they ask the Lord if He will come into it. The organization comes first. The outward thing comes first. It all builds upon the principle of the soul. It is all a matter of reason and emotion and doing. That is Judaistic Christianity.

It is just the reverse with God's method. Where does God begin? God does not begin with churches even if they are companies of people. He certainly does not begin with buildings. And He does not begin with ritual, or with a system of things. And He does not begin by calling a congregation together. A congregation is not God's beginning. God begins by a work of the Holy Spirit in individual lives. It may just be one to begin with, and then another and then another. And if those two or three find themselves in one city, they are joined, not because they have accepted Christianity, but because they have the one Spirit in them. That is the beginning of the Church in that place.

And what is true of the beginning, has got to be true of everything afterwards. Man's hands must be kept off the things of the Spirit. Man must not try to form something that is of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit, Who began this, is perfectly capable of forming what He wants. Hence our responsibility is to be led by the Spirit, to always seek the guidance of the Spirit. And until we are sure that the Holy Spirit is really guiding us, we keep our hands off. We will do nothing about it. This thing must be of the Spirit. This is the order of this dispensation.

Do you see the difference between the beginning and what we have today? In the first thirty years of Christianity, the Gospel spread all over the world that then was. There were churches in almost every country of the world. Thousands and thousands were joined to the Lord. It was a mighty thing. It only took thirty years to do that. We have had two thousand years since then. We have put multitudes of missionaries into the world. We have spent millions of dollars upon this. We have worked tremendously. In two thousand years, there is nothing to compare with those thirty years.

Why has it not continued? Because they brought it all back again unto a soul basis and not unto a spiritual basis. When things are out of the hands of men, and in the hands of the Holy Spirit, things happen. My great concern is that there should be something like that here. That is what I have come to say to you. If things are wholly of the Spirit, you will see something happen, the enemy will be stirred up against it. And that is always a good sign. If the devil feels that there is something that he has got to fight, he knows that means something against his kingdom.

So I must stop now. I have not finished this part yet, we have another morning, but do not leave it till tomorrow morning. This is the word for us today. If I were to go away tomorrow, and never see you again on this earth, I feel that I have spoken to you the most vital word that could be spoken. This represents the complete change from the old to the NEW, from the natural to the spiritual in the things of God, from the things which are of men to the THINGS which are of God.

Meeting 32 - The Matter Which is of Supreme Importance is: "Christ Fully Formed In You"

Thirty-Second Meeting

(February 29, 1964 A.M.)

We come to this last morning of our consideration of this great question. That is, the great question as to the true nature of the dispensation which came in with the Lord Jesus. We have this morning therefore to gather up all that we have been saying into one matter. We have covered a lot of ground, but it all amounts to one issue. It is not a matter of one system over against another. That is, it is not a question of Judaism over against Christianity. It is not a question of legalism over against spirituality. It is not a question of the Old Testament over against the New Testament. And it is not a question of Paul over against his enemies. All these things have come into our consideration, but they are not the special issue. The great battle which began with the coming of the Lord Jesus, and for which the Apostle Paul was a chosen instrument, is not the battle for a special interpretation of Scripture. It is not the battle for a particular form of doctrine. And it is not the battle for a particular form of worship. It is a much bigger battle than all those things.

And so we have this whole letter to the Galatians which touches all these things gathered into one word. The whole letter, and all that has to do with it is gathered into one verse. It is, so far as words are concerned, a very short verse. But you see that it is a very big verse. It is in chapter four, verse nineteen, "My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you." One slight alteration or correction ought to be made in the translation. The word "formed" ought to be translated "fully formed." So that the verse should read, "My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be fully formed in you."

So you will see that this whole battle with all its aspects is gathered into this matter of Christ being fully formed. It is nothing other, nothing less, and nothing more, than the question of the formation of Christ in fullness, the formation of Christ fully in individual believers, and the formation of Christ fully in the Church. So you see, that brings the whole matter down unto one question. Christ is the test of every man and of everything. Christ is the test of the Church and the churches. Christ is the test of every teaching.

Whether a thing is right or whether it is wrong is decided on this one point. How much of Christ is there in it? How much of the Spirit of Christ do you find in it? You can reduce all your questions and all your problems to that one thing. It is always a matter of how much of the Spirit of Christ do I find either in this people or in this teaching or in these things? I do want you to take special notice of that, because it is the deciding factor. It was the deciding factor in the churches in Galatia.

In this verse which we have read, the apostle does not say that I am travailing for one system over against another. He does not say I am travailing for one teaching against another. He does not say I am travailing for one form of worship against another. He does not say I am travailing for one meaning of the Church and the churches against another. He does not say I am travailing for Christianity against Judaism. He does not say I am travailing for spirituality against legalism. Paul did not say any of these things or all of those things put together. It was a very much greater concern than all those things. He says, "I am again in travail until Christ be fully formed in you" (Gal 4:19, ASV). You remember that on more than one occasion we pointed out that the name, "CHRIST" occurs forty-three times in this short letter. Therefore, that is the key to everything. We have just been singing a hymn which we sing very often here, "Christ only Christ." And that was Paul's concern.

Now that brings us to the greatest thing that has ever been revealed by God to man. And it is centered in one word in this letter. Six times the word, "Son" or "sons" occurs, and that which is meant by sonship is the greatest thing that God has ever revealed to man. Paul began with that. In chapter one, he laid the foundation for the whole letter. And he says, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." That was the thing that upset the whole life of Paul. That was the thing that made the great change in him as in the dispensation.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the foundation of everything. So Paul laid the foundation by saying, "God revealed His Son in me." Presently in the letter he will say this, "Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts" (Gal. 4:6). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of sonship in the believer. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Son of God. And so the Holy Spirit coming within constitutes the believer a son of God potentially.

Now do you notice the word that the apostle uses, "My little children." If you were able to read the Greek, you would notice something about that. The apostle does not say, my great big son. He does not even say, my sons. He says, "My little children." And there are two different Greek words used. Children means someone or something that is born, but has not grown up, something that is still very small and immature. Another Greek word is used for son, and it relates to those who have grown up. Now you can see how this whole letter turns upon that difference. He says, "O foolish Galatians!" He meant - you are like silly little children. You have been born but you have not grown up. You have made the beginning but the full formation of Christ has been arrested. And so he says the Holy Spirit is given to us with the intention of bringing about the full formation of sons.

So in this letter, the apostle contrasts the old dispensation with the new on this one point. He says that in the old dispensation Israel was just a nation of little children. And the mark of little children is this: First of all you have to teach them by illustrations and by pictures and by models. And you have to teach them by everything outside of themselves. You teach them by presenting things to them as objects. And you teach little children by saying, now you must do this and you must not do that. If you want to be a good boy, or good girl, you would do what I tell you.

That is how you treat a little child. The difference between a little child and a grown up person is just the opposite. A grown up son does not always need to be told what he ought to do. A truly grown up son is not one to whom his father has to say, 'You must do this, and you must not do that.' A truly grown up son knows inside himself what he ought to do, and what he ought not to do. It does not have to be presented to him in pictures and illustrations. In himself he knows. A son who is really a true son knows in himself what his father would like and what his father would not like. The father does not have to keep on day after day saying, 'Look my boy, this is what I want.' A true son knows in his own heart what his father would have.

It is intuition, not command, and that is the difference. And the difference, therefore, between the old dispensation and the new is one of spiritual intelligence. Because that is the difference between a child and a son. The child does not have the intelligence in himself. The intelligence is outside of himself in other people. But a grown up man has the intelligence in himself. And that is the big contrast that Paul is making in this letter. He says to these Galatians, 'My little children, you are lacking in intelligence. The true mark of maturity, which is spiritual intelligence, is not found in you yet.'

Then another difference between the child and the son is this: A little child has to have everything done for it by someone else. You have to do everything for the little child, whatever that child needs you provide it and you do it. You provide the food. You provide the clothes. You provide the family. You provide the home. You provide everything for the little child. The little child provides nothing for himself. The grown up son is different. The grown up son takes responsibility. The father knows that he can have confidence in that son. He does not have to be worrying all the time as to whether that son will do the right thing or the wrong thing. He is at rest about the son, and he says, 'I know I can trust him. I can put the responsibility on him, he is capable of taking the responsibility.'

Do you see from the history of Israel in the Old Testament, how irresponsible they were? Just look again over their history in the wilderness, and their history after the wilderness. They are having to have everything done and provided for them. They are having to be told everything that they ought to do. It is the law, and the law is written on tables of stone. It is not written on their hearts. They are a very irresponsible people, and neither the servant of God nor God Himself could trust them. Leave them by themselves for one day and they go all wrong. They are like horses. You have to put a bit and bridle on to keep them straight.

You know that is one of the illustrations used in the Scripture. Now growing up in Christ is just altogether different from that. SONSHIP MEANS SPIRITUAL RESPONSIBILITY. Because the Holy Spirit is inside, you are able to say, 'I know that they can be trusted, I know that the Lord is in them. I know that they know that the Lord is in them. And I can trust the Lord in them.' Do not you wish that all these people were like that? This is the difference between little children and sons. When the apostle says here, that because ye are sons, the Spirit has been given you as the Spirit of sonship. "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts." He was not contradicting this truth of the difference between children and sons. He says when you received the Holy Spirit you received sonship potentially. That is, the Holy Spirit makes the fullness of Christ possible. All the fullness of Christ is in the Holy Spirit in you. But the question is: Are you going to continue as children, or are you going to live in the Spirit and grow up to be full grown sons?

Now the Apostle Paul makes another contrast in this letter. He contrasts sons with servants. And here he is not so much in the first place teaching of Israel and Christianity. He is taking an illustration from Greek life. In the Greek system a servant is one who took the little child of the family by the hand. And took him to the school master. He steered him down the road through all the traffic. He took him across the road and all the dangerous points. He took care of the little child, and did everything for him. And then he delivered him to the one who would educate him. He delivered him into the hands of the principle of spiritual education.

Now Paul says, the law was the servant - intended to take us by the hand and lead us to Christ. As you see, the law has to do with little children. The law does everything for the little child. The law was intended to hand us over to the Holy Spirit, and then the Holy Spirit would bring us to sonship. So Paul makes the difference between the servant and the son. The servant does everything for us on the outside. But the Spirit does everything for us on the inside. So Paul put his emphasis on this, "Until Christ be fully formed in you." The whole character of this new dispensation is Christ in us.

So we are back to chapter two, verse twenty again: "It is no longer I, but Christ liveth in me." The Holy Spirit in us, is with us, in order to make us capable of understanding the things of the Lord. The Spirit is bringing into us spiritual intelligence about the things of the Lord. In another place the apostle will say, "Let the Word of God dwell in you richly in all wisdom and spiritual understanding." Before you can have the wisdom and the spiritual understanding, you have got to have the Word dwelling in you richly. It is the foundation of the Holy Spirit's work that the Word of the Lord should be in us richly. We must have a good and thorough knowledge of the Scriptures. It is the foundation of the Holy Spirit's work. The Holy Spirit is never going to do anything apart from the Word of God.

I cannot tell you how glad I am, that before I ever had a great spiritual crisis, I had very thoroughly studied the Bible. I had studied the Bible systematically right through. I could put on a big blackboard the outline and analysis of every book in the Bible. And I could give Bible lectures, but it was not until I had a real spiritual crisis, that I came to understand the Bible which I knew so well in my head. Then the Bible that I knew became a living Book.

You see that is what happened to the apostles on the day of Pentecost. They were Jews and they knew Jewish Scripture very thoroughly. That is, they knew what was written in the Old Testament. They could have told you all that Moses had written. They could have told you all that David had written. And they could have told you all the prophets had written. But on the day of Pentecost their Bible became alive. They inherited, in a spiritual way, all that they knew in only a mental way. But the Holy Spirit could not have done His work, had they not had the foundation in the Word of God. Do you remember that? Are you reading your Bible thoroughly? Are you really studying the Word of God? Can it be said of you that the Word of God dwells in you richly? (Col. 3:16). If it is dwelling in you, then you have the foundation for spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Do you notice that was the difference between Jesus and the scribes? Now the scribes were the authority on the Bible. They were the people who had committed the Bible to memory. They knew everything that was in the Bible, which was the Old Testament. And if anybody wanted to have an explanation of any part of the Old Testament, they went to the scribes, because the scribe was supposed to know all about it. Now when Jesus spoke to the multitudes, the verdict upon His teaching was this: "He talked as One having authority, and not as the scribes" (Matt. 7:29). And yet, the people thought the scribes were the authority. But they said of Jesus, "He taught as One having authority and not as the scribes." What was the difference between Jesus and the scribes? He had the spiritual understanding of the Scripture. And they only had the letter of the Scripture. The apostle says, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life" (2 Cor. 3:6).

Now we have to hurry to a close. We come back to Galatians four, and verse nineteen, because this gathers up everything. What was it that Paul was working for? What had he given his life for? What was he suffering for? What was he so troubled about with these Galatians? You can rule out a whole number of things, and you can say it was not that, and it was not that. He said, "I am again in travail until Christ be fully formed in you." When he uses the word "again," that is, a second time. He means that I was in travail for your new birth. It cost me a great deal of suffering and pain to see you truly born again. It meant a great deal to me to see that Christ was really planted in you. Your new birth was a travail to me. But now I am having to go through it all again. My real object was not just to get Christ into you, my real object was that Christ should be fully formed in you, that Christ should grow up in you and you should grow up in Christ. And so I am today in travail again because you stopped. You are putting other things in the place of Christ. You are putting form in the place of Christ. You are putting mere teaching in the place of Christ. You are putting law in the place of Christ. You are putting a legal system in the place of Christ. Paul says that just throws me into agony.

I am going to apply that to ourselves. If we are suffering at all, what are we suffering for? If as in the case of Paul we have enemies, those who are against us, and who are working against us, why are we suffering? What is the nature of our suffering? Is it because of something personal? Are they working against us? Is it because of some piece of work for which we are jealous? Is it for some place in which we are interested? And against our way of going on? Is it any of these things? Is that why we are suffering? I say, The Lord deliver us from all of that. The only real and true reason for any spiritual suffering is that Christ is being hindered. We see that these things limit the Lord. They dishonor the Lord. And they will cause spiritual limitation. They are against the enlargement of Christ in us. All our suffering ought to be for the sake of the Lord Jesus, and not for anything else, "Until Christ be fully formed." That is the last word I am going to leave with you for this time.

I know something about your troubles. And I know something about the cause of your troubles. But I am going to bring it back here. Are you and I in travail over things, or for the full formation of Christ? Is all our suffering in our hearts related to the increase of the Lord Jesus? Is it that He may have His fullest place? Is it that He shall be fully formed in us? Have we, therefore, got this true kind of travail - not travail for something, but travail for Christ? I ask you the question, if you are suffering at all, and you ought to be suffering, what are you suffering for? Is it your genuine concern for the honor and glory of the Lord Jesus? Is it that in every one of these believers, from the children, to the young men and women, to the grown up people, that in every one of them, Christ should have a full place? Are we travailing in pain for that?

So all that we have said this week about these contrasts: Legalism and spirituality, Judaism and Christianity, and all these other differences, they focus down upon this one question: THE FULL FORMATION OF CHRIST. How far does legalism limit the growth of Christ in us? How far does our technique get in the way of Christ? It is all a matter of Christ.

So I leave that question with you. I leave that emphasis with you. Now when I go away from you, the one thing that I want to be sure of is that I preached Christ to you, that I was not just giving you Bible teaching. And I was not trying to put you right on the technique of the Church, or the churches. But I was keeping Christ always in full view, and telling you that the matter which is of supreme importance is: "Christ fully formed in you - Christ fully formed in us!"

Meeting 33 - "A Sword Shall Pierce Through Thy Own Soul"

Thirty-Third Meeting

(March 1, 1964 A.M.)

Will you please turn to the Gospel by Luke, chapter two, verse twenty-five: "And behold, there was a man in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon." And verse thirty-five, "Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed." I want to add verse thirty-four to that verse thirty-five, "This Child is set for a sign which is spoken against." "Yea and a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed."

Now turn to the last chapter of the Book of the Acts, chapter twenty-eight, and verse twenty-two, "But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest; for as concerning this sect, it is known to us that everywhere it is spoken against." "This Child is set for a sign which is spoken against." "Concerning this sect, it is known to us, that everywhere it is spoken against" (ASV).

We do not worship or pray to Mary, the mother of Jesus. We do not ask things from her as though she were God. We do not put her alongside of the Divine Trinity. But we do honor her. We give her respect and honor because of the great service which she rendered unto God. And we find some real help from some of the things which have come to us through her. Some of the things which were said to her by the angel, by Simeon, by others, have very real value in them for us. Some of these helpful things are in the Word which we have read; in the prophecy of this old man Simeon. And we shall this morning seek to draw from what he said about some of the helpful implications.

Here is a conversation between Simeon and Mary, the mother of Jesus. And it is perfectly clear that Mary was recognizing that something of very great importance to God, was being entrusted to her. This was something of great value to God Himself. Then Simeon said, it was something of great value to the world, "A light to lighten the nations." Then it was something of great value to the Lord's people, Israel, "And the glory of Thy people, Israel." All this was bound up with the little baby now in the arms of Simeon. And Mary realized that she had been chosen by God to serve Him, to serve the nations, and to serve His people in some special way. This little Child was set for a sign; and all peoples would come to recognize what Jesus signified.

So Mary had been the vessel chosen by God for that great purpose - an angel had come from heaven and told her of the great vocation to which she was called. Mary was just a simple country girl, who had with her husband been living in a small house in a far away city of Nazareth. Then a little while after Jesus was born, she came up to the city of Jerusalem, took the Child to the temple and we have this further wonderful thing said by Simeon: "This Child is set for the falling and the rising of many in Israel; and for a sign which is spoken against." As she listened to these things, no doubt her heart was filled with wonder. What a wonderful thing it is that the Lord has called me to! What a great purpose God has called me to serve. It is something far too big for me. I have no natural qualifications for this. I am only a simple country girl. I am the wife of an ordinary carpenter in a little town, and that town is a very despised one. One man said, "Can any good thing come out of Nazareth?" And yet the Lord has called such a one as I to serve Him in this great world purpose. Perhaps there was some fear in her heart, but undoubtedly her heart was thrilled when she listened to these things. She would be saying inside herself, "Can it be possible that I have been called to this?" And then as she looked at her little baby in the arms of Simeon, she would say in her heart, "Little Baby, these are great things that are coming through You. These very wonderful words that Simeon is saying. It must be a marvelous Life that is here given to us. God must have some very great things that He is going to do through You." So she listened to these words of Simeon, and astonishment and amazement filled her heart.

While she was listening to those wonderful things, suddenly a cloud came over the whole situation, and already she felt something like a stab at her heart. Because Simeon finished with these words: "And a sword shall pierce through thine own soul; that thoughts out of many hearts may be revealed." Wonderful things, mighty things, precious things, most important things - but a sword. With them all, a sword shall pierce thine own soul.

I expect Mary often wondered about that in the following days. But we know how this prophecy of Simeon was fulfilled. The day came when she saw that Son of hers despised and rejected of men, taken to the judgment hall and accused of the worst sins; and then led to calvary to be crucified. It says that Mary stood by the Cross of Jesus. Yes, she lived to know the meaning of, "A sword shall pierce through thine own soul."

Now our word has got to be a very brief one this morning. I have about seven minutes left. But perhaps you already can see the meaning of what we have said. Was Mary called to be the vessel and instrument of this great world purpose of God? Mary was a woman, a simple woman, without any great qualifications, but chosen of God for this great purpose. Do you know that the Church is always spoken of in the feminine? The Church is always represented as a woman. "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church." And always, the Church is spoken of as a woman.

But this Church, the bride of Christ, this Church, the wife of the Lamb, is called and chosen for this self-same purpose: That through this Church, this CHRIST of God shall be manifested to the whole world. That through this Vessel, CHRIST may be a blessing to all the nations, and a blessing to all God's people. Mary was not called for a greater purpose than the Church is called for. You and I, who form part of the Church of Christ, are called for this very purpose. Paul says, "We are called according to His purpose," and the purpose is exactly the same as that one spoken of by Simeon to Mary. We are called to be a light to lighten the nations, and a blessing to God's new spiritual Israel. Wonderful things are bound up with the Christ Who is entrusted to His Church. If the little Baby was entrusted to Mary, the great eternal Christ is entrusted to His Church. He is committed to us for this great world purpose. If it was a great honor to Mary, it is an even greater honor to us. If it was a wonderful thing to Mary, it ought to be a more wonderful thing to us. Yes, wonderful things, precious things, glorious things - but a sword.

Anything that is really precious to God will have suffering associated with it. Perhaps the first thoughts of Mary about Jesus were - He is going to be a great public figure whom everybody thinks wonderful things about. What a wonderful Man He is going to be, everybody will think highly of Him. All people will speak well of Him; but she lived to find it just the other way. A sign that shall be spoken against. And these Jewish leaders in the prison of Paul were saying, "This is something that is everywhere spoken against."

We are called to the fellowship of the great purpose of Christ in this world. We are called into the greatest things that ever God has done for this world. Ours is not less an honor and glory than that of Mary. But we are also called into the fellowship of His sufferings. However great this Christ is, and however great the honor entrusted to us in having Him, strangely to say this great preciousness to God will never be popular in this world: there will always be the sword to pierce our souls; there will always be the sign that is spoken against. The Cross of the Lord Jesus is not a popular thing. Man has tried to make it popular, but it is never popular.

So I say to you all this morning, and especially to the younger people here, you are called to a very great purpose. God has called you to a service for Him that is the greatest service in this universe. God has entrusted into your hands His Own wonderful Son. But remember, however wonderful it is, it will never be popular; there will always be suffering attached to it.

In a few minutes, you are coming to the Lord's Table. Is that table the symbol of something popular? No, it is the symbol of the most unpopular thing in this world, Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. He said, "Do this in remembrance of Me. As often as ye eat this loaf and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death." When we take these symbols, we are only saying, "We come into the fellowship of His sufferings." To be a blessing in this world, a sword shall pierce thine own soul, a sign that is everywhere spoken against. May we be given the grace to share with Him His sufferings.

Meeting 34 - The Presence of the Lord is Power! The Presence of the Lord is Life! The Presence of the Lord is Holiness!

Thirty-Fourth Meeting

(March 3, 1964 P.M.)

We turn to the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter four, verse one through three, "Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the Gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, as I have sworn in My wrath, They shall not enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world."

Chapter six, verse one through three, "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this will we do, if God permit."

In our first series of special meetings, the Lord led us to be occupied with the matter of His Presence with His people. I think every one here will agree that the most important thing for us is the Presence of the Lord. I expect, when we gather together like this, our prayer in the first place is for the Presence of the Lord. And probably those of you who prayed at the beginning of the day, will always pray for the Lord's Presence. We realize that the all-important thing in our lives and in the lives of God's people is His Presence with us. We should all be afraid to go on unless the Lord was with us. We cannot think of life without the Presence of the Lord. The Lord's Presence means everything to us.

Now you will remember that we pointed out that this is the greatest desire of the Lord Himself. He said to Moses, "Let them build me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them." The greatest desire of the Lord is to be amongst His people. But there are some conditions upon which the Lord is with His people. The Lord has His own terms upon which He will be with us. You will notice that this letter to the Hebrews from which we have read is all the time referring back to the life of Israel in the wilderness, that period which was covered by those words to Moses, "Let them build Me a sanctuary." It was the period from the Red Sea to the border of the land to the river Jordan.

Now during that period of forty years, although there were many difficulties, and the Lord had much trouble with the people, the Lord was with them. There were, as I have said, many difficulties during those forty years. There were many very serious times. We read of Amalek coming out to fight against Israel. We remember the story of Balaam, the false prophet who was hired by Balak to curse Israel. These were some of the very critical times during that journey. There was the crisis of bread and the crisis of water. There were the crises of enemies. But through all that time the Lord was with His people. He did not allow Amalek to succeed in their war against Israel. He turned the curse of Balaam into a blessing. The Lord was with them. That meant victory, that meant support, that meant the supplying of all their needs, that meant that the Lord helped them in spite of their own weakness, the Lord was with them.

There was one reason why the Lord was with them through all their troubles and difficulties. The Lord was with them because of one thing: They were a people who were going on. They had set out to go to a certain goal, and in spite of many hindrances, they were a people going on. Sometimes their troubles just stopped their progress for a little while, but then they went on again. And the Lord was with them, because they went on. When they went on with the Lord, the Lord went on with them. And that is one of the fundamental terms upon which God is with His people. They had started out with a vision. Perhaps you will remember that when they had crossed the Red Sea, and Pharaoh's army had been drowned in the sea, then Moses and Aaron and the people of Israel sang a song. And in that song, the vision arose. They said, "The Lord has brought us out in order to take us in." The Lord has brought us out, not to let us die in the wilderness, that is not the Lord's idea for us. The Lord has brought us out of Egypt in order to take us into the land. They put it this way - "to bring us unto His holy hill" (Psa. 43:3). That was the vision with which they started. And while they kept that vision before them and went on, the Lord was with them.

The Lord gave them that mighty victory to begin with in order to encourage them to go on. The victory of the Red Sea corresponds to the victory of the Cross - the victory of death, and burial, and resurrection with Christ. That was the great foundation. And with that foundation behind them and under their feet, they went on. But there came a time when they stopped going on. You will remember that the tabernacle was constituted for transit; it was not a building to be put down in one place and to stay there forever. It was all made so that it could go on. And the tabernacle was the place where the Lord was. So that the Lord's idea for them was to go on.

I wonder how interested you are in the Book of Numbers. The Book of Numbers is a very wonderful Book. If you have not studied it, I advise you to study it. It can be called the Book of the Goings-On, the Book of progress with the Lord. And you will come to one chapter, chapter thirty-three, and in that one chapter, you will find one phrase used forty-three times. Now if one thing is repeated forty-three times in one chapter, it must mean something. Numbers, chapter thirty-three, and in that chapter, this phrase occurs forty-three times - "And the people of Israel journeyed." It says, forty-three times the people went on. They took their journey. And that is the Book in which you find the Lord so mightily with His people.

Now you know that when they came to the other side of the wilderness, they came to Kadesh-barnea, they came to the border of the promised land, they stopped. You do not read again - and they journeyed. They stopped. And you do not find the Lord with them. All, but two men, of that whole generation died in the wilderness. That is not the idea of the Lord for His people, for His people to die in the wilderness is not the Lord's idea. The Lord is not in that. Indeed, as we have read in Hebrews, the Lord is against that. So the term on which the Lord is with His people is that they keep going on. We have read in Hebrews, chapter four, the terrible warning that the Lord gave because they did not go on. He said, "I swore in My wrath, they shall not enter into My rest." They lost everything because they did not go on. So we read in chapter six, "Let us go on." Do not let us stay with our beginnings, but let us go on.

Now what does going on mean? Well, of course, for us it is a going on in a spiritual way. We are in a new dispensation, and this is a spiritual dispensation. But there is one thing that I want to suggest to you as meaning our going on. It is true of Israel in the wilderness, although it was an earthly thing with them, the same thing is true with us in a spiritual way. If you look again into this letter to the Hebrews, you will discover this, THAT GOING ON SPIRITUALLY IS A MATTER OF PUTTING INTO PRACTICE WHAT THE LORD HAS SAID. Do you realize that we never go on by being told things by the Lord? Now that sounds like a very strange thing to say. The Lord can speak to us Himself. We may have His word, we may have all the teaching that He can give us, we may know all the truth of God, we may have had it all for many years, and yet, although we may have had it all, we may be standing still. No, it is not a matter of knowing what the Lord has said. It is a matter of putting that into practice. Doing what the Lord has said, that is the only way of going on.

How are we to go on then? We are to sit down quietly and say, "Now what has the Lord said to us?" Perhaps it may be over these past four or five weeks, or it may be over years past. The Lord has spoken in this place, or to you through the ministry of His many servants. Now through the reading of His Word you may have a great mountain of truth, and yet you may not be going on, and the Lord may not be with us, as He wants to be with us. The Presence of the Lord is power, the Presence of the Lord is life, the Presence of the Lord is holiness. Oh, the Presence of the Lord means much, but it is all very practical. The Lord does not believe in theory. He does not believe even in textbooks. The Lord is a very practical Lord. And His attitude toward us is this: Look here, I have said this to you, you have heard it. Perhaps you have rejoiced in it. Perhaps you have believed it to be true. Perhaps you thank the Lord for it. But what have we done about it?

Have we taken each thing that the Lord has said, and brought it up and said, 'I have got to do something about that. We, as the Church, have got to do something about it. We have got to put that into effect. If we do not do that, we will not make progress. And the power of God will not be manifested among us.' We may go on for years, and we may fill the years with teaching, but we may still be years behind. We may not be coming into what the Lord means that we should be in. Why all these exhortations in the New Testament to go on? Why is the New Testament just made up of exhortations and encouragements and warnings to the people of God about going on? And why is the New Testament such a practical Book? Because real spiritual progress and the Presence of the Lord depends upon bringing everything that we know right up to date.

I wonder if you could tell me the number of times in the New Testament that that one thing occurs. It is a quotation from Israel's life in the wilderness. And it is this: "Today if you will hear His voice, harden not your heart." Again and again, those words are put in the New Testament. Today! Today! Today! You see, all this has got to be brought into NOW. All our progress for the future depends upon what we are doing with what we know NOW. So the Lord says to us, I am with you if you are going on. And going on means putting into practice and effect all that I have said to you. Our growing knowledge of the Lord depends entirely upon our daily obedience to the light which we have.

Now we want the Lord to be with us, and we want Him to be with us in fullness. Our hearts are really set upon that. I am quite sure I am speaking for everyone here tonight. If I were to come to every one of you personally and say, 'Do you want the Lord to be with you? Do you want the Lord to be with you as fully as He can?' I do not think there is anyone here tonight who would say, 'No, I do not want the Lord.' You would say, 'Yes, that is one thing for which I pray and long, the Presence of the Lord in fullness.' And that is what you want as a company of the Lord's people in this place.

So when the Lord speaks, and we bring that which He has said, and we say: There is something to be done about this. I do not just put that into the store of my knowledge. I do not just add that to all that I know. I look to see what that requires of me in a practical way. And when I see what that means, then I get to the Lord to have that made real and living in my life. Brethren, the people who do that will be going on. They will be entering the promised land. They will be entering into His rest. They will be entering into the joy of the Lord. Because that is what the Lord wants - people who take hold of everything that the Lord says, and make it practical.

So the writer of the Hebrews says, "Let us go on." In what other way can we go on? We are not on a literal journey on this earth. Our promised land is not somewhere on this earth, in this world. No. Christ is our promised land. Christ is God's fullness of purpose for us. So, we have got to take everything that has been said to us about Christ, and put it into practical effect. That is what it means to go on. And that is what it means to have the Lord fully with us!

Meeting 35 - John Set Out to Confirm the Faith of Believers in a Difficult Day

Thirty-Fifth Meeting

(March 4, 1964 P.M.)

We are going to be occupied with the First Letter of John. I want to read the first five verses of chapter one:

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

Between the time that John wrote this letter and the Lord Jesus had fulfilled His ministry on the earth, quite a long time had passed. John was writing this letter after all the other apostles had gone to be with the Lord. In that long period since the Lord Jesus went back to the Father, up to this time of John's writing, many things had happened. Many things had invaded Christianity to destroy the certainty of believers. A great number of different teachings had come in, there were many opposing interpretations of the teaching of Jesus. A variety of sects and parties had arisen. Divisions and separations between Christians had taken place.

In addition to these things, the world had invaded the Church. The world had gotten into the churches. In the Book of the Revelation, chapters two and three, we see how the world had gotten into the churches in Asia. Whenever the world gets into the churches, it always weakens their testimony. And it was just like that when John was writing his letter. To realize all this is to understand why he wrote this letter, that very difficult background gives a very good explanation to this letter of John. It is easy to understand how difficult the Christians were finding things. Of all the different teachings and interpretations, they did not know which to believe; they did not know which was the right and the true one. Of all the divisions amongst Christians, they did not know which one was right. And the world had brought in such confusion and such weakness that the believers were in a state of great difficulty.

Therefore, because things were like that, John wrote this letter. He not only wrote this letter, but he wrote two other quite short ones, and much about the same time, he wrote his Gospel and the Book of the Revelation. It is quite clear that John had a very special object in writing. In the first place, his object was to try to help these believers in their difficulties, to bring them back to the fundamentals of their Christian life, to tell them in all this confusion what was the true thing. That was his general objective. Then, if we look at this letter more closely, we shall see how he got to work to fulfill his object.

John has set out to confirm the faith of believers in a difficult day. And it is good to note that John himself was altogether untouched by all these conditions. There was no question in his mind as to where the truth was. He had no doubts whatever as to what was right. And so in this short letter, he uses a small phrase thirteen times. I suggest that you take your pencil at some time and underline these two words in this letter. Of course, I do not know whether it is two words in the Chinese language. In the English, it is just two words, and those two words John repeats thirteen times in this very short letter. And the phrase is this: "We know." Thirteen times he says, "We know." You see, there is no question in his mind. He has no doubt about things. He knows where he stands. And so he says repeatedly, "We know."

Then he had another phrase. Ten times he uses this other phrase, and that phrase is, "This is." And he links that "This is" with ten things. We have read the first one in verse five: "This is the message." The next one is: "This is the promise." Number three is: "This is the commandment." Number four is: "This is the witness." Number five is: "This is the love of God." Number six is: "This is the victory." Number seven is: "This is the confidence." Number eight is: "This is the antichrist." Number nine is: "This is He that cometh." And number ten is: "This is the true God, and eternal life." "We know," "This is," all questions, all doubts are set aside. And in this way, the apostle seeks to confirm the believers in Christ.

Now there are some other very distinctive marks. And I want to say here that I am not doing your Bible study for you. Perhaps you would like me to do that, but I am not going to make lazy people of you. So I am not doing your Bible study for you. That is why I have not given you the references to all those words. You go through the Letter and mark each occurrence of this: "We know." Thirteen times you will see it. And then go through the Letter again and mark every occurrence of "This is." That is a very helpful way of studying. That is what I mean when I say I am not doing it for you, I am giving it to you to do.

I have said that there are other distinctive marks in this letter, and these marks have to do with this matter of confirming faith. I think it is unnecessary for me to say that the conditions with which John was dealing are conditions which we have to meet in our time. We have to meet these many kinds of teaching, these many interpretations of the Scriptures. We are familiar with the many divisions amongst God's people, and we know so well how the world has invaded Christianity, and how the world has robbed the churches of their pure testimony. We have to face these conditions. Many of the Lord's people, especially the young people, ask: 'Which of all these is right? Which of these different teachings is the right one? Which of these divisions amongst the Lord's people is the right one?' It is a time of much perplexity, especially for young Christians, and that is why we are looking into this letter of John. We are going to let John help us, just as he helped the believers of his own day.

So I want to point out three other great words in this letter. For these words are words which will solve many of our problems. Indeed, John said that these were the things that would solve the problems of the Christians in his day. And the three words are: "Light," "Life," and "Love." You will probably remember how often John uses those words. They are the great words of Christianity: Light, Life, and Love. And John links with that last word "Love," the word, "Fellowship." He says a lot about fellowship in this letter.

Now we are going to begin with the first of these great words. We come back to the fifth verse of chapter one: This is the message, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all. "God is Light." This is the message. Now we must remember that John is just full of the Old Testament. John always has the Old Testament as the background of his mind. I could give you a good hard piece of work now. If you were to take the Book of the Revelation written by John, you would find that there are four hundred allusions to the Old Testament in that book. I do not mean that there are four hundred quotations, but there are four hundred ideas taken from the Old Testament. I say, I will leave that to you. We are not going to attempt to look at four hundred Old Testament allusions.

But having said that, that brings us right to this matter of the message. THIS IS THE MESSAGE, THAT GOD IS LIGHT. And do you notice that John takes us back to the beginning? He says, "In the beginning." That is how he opens his Gospel. And in this letter, he is taking us back to the beginning. What is in the mind of John? He is thinking about the creation. And he is referring to the fact that the first thing in creation was light. God is Light. The first thing, of course, is God. That is the first thing in creation. It all begins with God. But what is God? What is the effect of God anywhere? When God comes on the scene, what happens? What is the first result of God coming in? John says, as in the creation, it was light. So in this present difficult situation, the first thing is God and Light.

Now we must go back to the beginning of the Old Testament. You know how the Bible begins, "In the beginning, God." Then the next thing, "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep." A state of terrible chaos existed, everything was in a condition of disruption, disorder and barrenness. "The earth was empty, without form and void." There was no beauty there, and darkness was over the face of the deep.

Now it is believed by many that this condition was the result of a previous judgment. It was not the beginning of the existence of the world. The world was there, but it was in this terrible state. It is believed that this condition was the result of a judgment which had come upon the world in an earlier time. Literally, the world had been destroyed. And it is believed that the New Testament teaches that is going to happen again to this world. All things here are going to be destroyed in the judgment of God. When the Lord has taken away His people, then, as Peter says: 'The earth will be destroyed and burned up.' And John says, 'There is going to be a new heaven and a new earth.'

Now we can understand better today, than anybody in those days could understand, how easy that could be. It is known that there is in existence power enough in hydrogen bombs to destroy this whole earth. It has been definitely stated that that could be done in a very short time. Peter in his letter prophesied that that is going to happen. If there is to be a new heaven and a new earth, then the old one must be destroyed.

But John here is not particularly concerned with the destruction of the material earth. What he is concerned with is a spiritual condition which corresponds to the condition in the second verse of Genesis. If in the beginning of Genesis, the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep, if that is how it was with the material creation way back there, John sees that there is a spiritual condition just like that in his own time. Everything has gotten into a state of disorder and disruption. Everything is broken up. There is no beauty to look upon. All these spiritual conditions just speak the one word - "Chaos." The verdict is, darkness over the face of the deep.

Now God intervened in that situation. In effect, God said, 'This is never how I intended to have things. This state of things does not express My Mind for the world.' So God came in to redeem the world from that condition. In Genesis, God intervened through His Son. John says in his Gospel, that it was through God's Son that all things were created. Then John goes on to say, that in this spiritual chaos, God has intervened again by His Son. In exactly the same way as He intervened in the material creation, so He intervenes in the spiritual. God said over the material creation, "Let there be light." And God says over the spiritual chaos, "Let there be light." And that light comes in through His Son. You will remember that in his Gospel, John said, "In Him was Life, and the Life was the light of men. And the Light shineth in the darkness." The Light came into the world through the Son.

Now John is looking at this state of things spiritually in his own day, and he says that God's way of redeeming this situation is to bring the Light in, to come in Himself in the Person of His Son as Light. God is going to reverse this whole situation, by His Son, in terms of light. The first thing in redemption is light.

First of all, light reveals the state of things. When Jesus came into this world, He made all see what the condition was. Men began to see things just as they were. It is wonderful to see how everything was made plain wherever Jesus came.

Are there wicked men about? Well, people did not see that they were wicked men until Jesus came. Of these scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said, "You are of your father, the devil." No one had ever thought that about scribes and Pharisees before. These were outwardly very religious men, and Jesus says, "You are of the devil." And as He goes on in this earth, it becomes perfectly clear that He is right. These very people whom the world thought were the religious people will one day crucify Jesus Christ.

As the true Light, He has brought out into the open the true condition of men's hearts. And you know, that is always the effect of Jesus coming anywhere. The first thing that we feel when Jesus comes near us is, What bad creatures we are! On one occasion, Jesus came into the life of Simon Peter. Simon Peter cried, "Depart from me, Oh Lord, for I am a sinful man." The first effect of the Light in Christ is to reveal the true state of man's heart. If man does not like to have his true condition revealed, he will crucify Christ. He will persecute and fight against the Lord Jesus. But if we are prepared to have our true condition revealed, we shall go down on our knees, and say, 'I am a sinful man, O Lord.'

The first effect of the Light is to reveal the state of things. The true meaning of such a revelation is to bring us to repentance. Any man or any woman who has never felt the awfulness of the sin of their own natures, has never met Jesus Christ. This is a test as to whether we have come to the Light. No man or woman can ever come near to Jesus Christ without crying out, "I am sinful." Like the prodigal, we have to say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight." Let us have no doubt about this. A touch with Jesus Christ means we realize how sinful we are in ourselves. No true union with Jesus Christ can mean that we have any pride in ourselves. We can never have any true relationship with the Lord Jesus and feel that we are ourselves quite all right.

The man or the woman who lives nearest to the Lord Jesus is the man or the woman who feels they are the worst people in this world. The cry of their heart is, "HAVE MERCY UPON ME, O LORD." They are not just words, not just religious words, they come out of a revelation of our own hearts in the Presence of the Light. Will you remember this thing, that in one sense, the pathway to heaven is the pathway of discovering more and more how sinful we are in ourselves. The person who gets nearest to heaven is the one who knows best that they ought not to have a place in heaven, they are the people who are most ready to say, 'I am altogether unfit for heaven.' So the Light reveals the state of the human heart. It has to be like that before there can be redemption. This is the first step toward redemption. It was so in the case of the material creation, and it is so in the case of the new creation in Christ.

But then watch Jesus again as He moves about the country. You notice what happens? Here are poor people bound in affliction, here is a poor woman who has been suffering for many years, here is that poor man moving about the tombs, filled with devils, no one could tame him, every chain that they put on him, he snapped. Wherever Jesus went, He showed that behind these awful conditions was Satan. People had not thought of it like that; they thought, 'This poor woman.' Well, she is suffering from some malady; Jesus said, "Whom Satan has bound these many years." This poor man in the tombs, people said, 'Well, of course, he has lost his reason, he is mad.' But Jesus says, 'It is the devil in him.' And so, whether it is sickness or whatever it is, Jesus sees another power behind this. And when Jesus comes on the scene, the evil spirits cry out, "I know Thee Whom Thou art."

You see, the evil power hidden behind the chaos in this world is brought to light by Jesus. There are many conditions which are not according to the will of God. But we accept them because we say, 'Well, they are just human conditions.' If we had the Light, we should see that another power is responsible for that. So wherever Jesus went, He showed that by the Light these things were not according to His Father's will. Everywhere that He went, it became clear that this is not as God would have it, this is all wrong, God would have it different from this. That is what became clear by Jesus coming into the world.

Now come to this first letter of John. We have spoken of the conditions, the conditions that John was having to meet, the conditions that the Lord's people were having to meet - confusion in teaching, divisions amongst the Lord's people, and a lot of other things. John is saying, "That God is Light, and in Him is no darkness." All these are contrary to the mind of God. That is what the Light shows. False teaching is against God. Divisions amongst the Lord's people are against God. Any disorder and disruption is contrary to God. Therefore, the Light demands some reaction. Light is never passive. You realize that?! Light is never passive. Turn off all the light, and darkness is everywhere. Switch on the light, what happens? Well, something happens. The darkness goes. It cannot abide the Light. Light is effective. Light is active. Light does things.

Now that is the challenge to us. Do we claim to have much light? Do we think that we have got the truth, that we are a very enlightened people? Well, what is happening with all the Light that we have got? Is it just passive light? There is no such thing. If it is not active light, it is not light at all. Light is intended to do something. Light is intended to change conditions. Just imagine, how can people who claim to have the Light be responsible for division amongst the Lord's people? That is a contradiction of light. So John says, "If we walk in the Light, we have fellowship." One effect of walking in the Light is having fellowship one with another. And some people think that having light means to make divisions, to break up fellowship. John says, that is a lie, that is not the truth. Light means that we must walk in it. "And if we all walk in the Light, we shall have fellowship one with another."

You see, light effects things. "Light" is a practical matter. I am not content with just giving you theory. My object in coming here is not just to give you more teaching. Probably, this week will see the end of my special ministry here, and before long I shall have gone again. What I am really concerned about is this: Not that I have given you a lot of words, but that I have given you light, or the Lord has given you Light. Because true Light always does things. The darkness cannot abide the Light. The darkness cannot overcome true Light. That is what John said about the Lord Jesus, "And the Light shineth or was manifested, and the darkness overcame it not." Light ought to be something very effective. Are we walking in the Light? Or are we just claiming to have light? Do remember that every bit of true Light is power. There is power behind this Light.

Light is power. It is always power. Is all that which we claim to have as Light, really power? Is all the Truth that we possess, power? Does it do things? Or is it only in our heads? Is it only a theory? You see, when Jesus came a Light into the world, something happened wherever He went. And that is how it all came to be. "God is Light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

THIS IS THE MESSAGE. This is the thing that we carry with us. Not just something in words and theory, but something that does something. We must examine all our truth, just to see what it is doing. How much it is changing the situation from chaos to light, from disorder to order, from emptiness to fullness, from ugliness to beauty. These are all the effects of light. That is what Jesus does, because He is the Light of the world. That is how it ought to be without teachings.

Now I only commence on this first message. I may have more to say on this particular thing, if God wills tomorrow night. But do not wait until tomorrow night, start tonight. Ask the Lord how much of all that you have in your heads is doing things. What changes are being made by the Light, for no light is true light that does not make changes.

Meeting 36 - Jesus, as the Light, Brings to Light the Works of the Devil in Order to Destroy Them

Thirty-Sixth Meeting

(March 5,1964 P.M.)

I am going to continue this evening where we left off last night. We will read again the first five verses of the First Letter of John:

"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us,) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be full. This then is the message which we have heard of Him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all."

Now as we broke off before we had finished this particular word, we must just look back a little in order to get the connection. You will remember that we said that John wrote his Gospel, his three Letters and the Revelation at a time when everything was in confusion; especially was that true in relation to believers. Believers were turning aside to something either different from Christ or less than Christ. They were becoming occupied with certain interpretations of Christian truth, and so there were separate groups of believers all circling round some particular aspect of truth. And these various aspects of truth divided the Lord's people, so that certainty had almost disappeared. Many of the Lord's people did not know just where they were. They were full of doubts and questions, and the testimony of Jesus was losing its power because of these divisions.

So John wrote because of that situation, and his Gospel and his Letters are his answer to that situation. John's great purpose was to bring the Lord's people back to certainty. So over against all the questions John said in this First Letter thirteen times, "We know," by which he meant there is a ground of absolute assurance for the Lord's people. Then as we mentioned last night, ten times he said, "This is." Ten things he said, "This is" the foundation. This is the ground of assurance.

Now we take it up there this evening, and we include all that John has to say in one thing. The Lord's people had gone off in all different directions on some teaching. So they were divided by many teachings. You will see that John employed one solution to the whole problem, and John said that this solution is a sure and certain one. Sometimes you will see an advertisement for a certain medicine, and the advertiser will tell you that this medicine will cure all troubles. You can suffer from any malady, but this will cure it. Of course, nobody believes that, WE are very suspicious about advertisements of that kind. But John is right. He says, I have got the cure for all your troubles; and he says it with great emphasis. He says, 'That which we have seen, and heard and handled, that which was from the beginning, this is the cure for all Christian troubles.' John has no doubt about it, because he himself had proved it. John had lived a long life. He was older than anybody in this gathering tonight when he wrote this. He was the last of the apostles. Paul spoke of himself as "Paul the aged" (Philemon 9). But John was much older than Paul. He had lived a long life. He had seen many troubles. He had met many difficulties amongst the Lord's people. He knew about all those conditions of which he wrote in the first, second and third chapters of the Revelation. He himself had suffered great persecution for Christ's sake. But after all, John says, 'We know." - And this is the solution to all our troubles.

We ought to be prepared to listen to a man like that. We ought to say at once, 'Well then, John, what is the solution? We have a lot of trouble. The Lord's people are divided. Many groups of the Lord's people are even fighting against each other. There are many contrary teachings. John, you say that you have got the solution, what is it?' Well, come again to this letter and he gives it to us. It is very simple in words. It may not be so simple in practice. But what John says in effect is this: You come right back to the Lord Jesus Himself. Leave all those things which are just things in themselves, all those things which are occupying your time and your energy, all those things which are causing so much trouble to you, all those things which make you ask questions as to whether we are right or whether we are wrong. Are we right or are the other people right? Are we wrong or are they wrong? All such questions, just leave them, and come back to Christ Himself. John seeks to bring the Lord's people right back to the Lord Jesus Himself. That is, he seeks to show them what came in with the Lord Jesus.

What was it that was bound up with the Person of the Lord Jesus when He came into this world? What is it that comes wherever the Lord Jesus comes? What is the effect of Jesus coming into touch with any person or any situation? Because everything is bound up with the Lord Jesus Himself personally, and the test of the Presence of the Lord Jesus is the effect that He has. The Presence of the Lord Jesus always does have some effect. The Lord Jesus can never come anywhere without something happening. That is the difference between the Presence of the Lord and teaching about the Lord. You may have all the teaching about Christ, and you may have some special teaching about Christ, and it may have no result whatever. There may be no effect. It is just some teaching. It may be some teaching on the Church. It may be some teaching on the local churches. It may be the teaching of holiness. Oh! there are a thousand different teachings connected with Christ. You may have one of them or you may have the whole thousand, and it had no effect in your life, and it may make no difference amongst you as a company of the Lord's people.

If the teaching has any effect at all, it makes you tired of teaching. Sooner or later you come to the place where you say, 'Oh, we have heard that all before. There is nothing new about that. We know it all.' And you are not very interested to hear any more of it. Perhaps you would say, 'Well, give us something new.' Then the new thing gets old. You would say, 'Give us something new again.' You are wearing out everything, until you get to such a place that you cannot take any more. And that is the effect of teaching. It does not transform the life. It does not make a difference in the situation. That means that you have separated the teaching about Christ from the Presence of Christ Himself. THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD ALWAYS MAKES A DIFFERENCE.

We saw last night that wherever Jesus went, something happened. Now have you noticed the difference between John's Gospel and John's Letter? At the end of the Gospel by John, John sums up the whole of that Gospel in one statement. John says, 'Many other signs did Jesus, if they were all written, I suppose the world would not contain the books; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and believing, you may have life in His name' (John 21:25). So, the whole of John's Gospel is gathered into this, that you may believe.

That is very good, but look how John sums up his Letter. He sums up his Letter in another way: "That you may know that you have eternal life" (1 John 5:13). The Gospel is, that you may believe and believing you may have eternal life. The Letter is saying, "That you may know that you have eternal life." And John says: What is true in Him in the Gospel, is to be true in you, in the Letter. He says, What I have said about the Lord Jesus in the Gospel has got to be true in you - true in Him and true in you.

Now in the Gospel, John told us of what Jesus said about the day when the Holy Spirit would come. He said, "If I go away, I will send the Comforter. He will abide with you forever, and He will be in you." These people to whom John wrote his letter were living in the day when that was fulfilled. The Holy Spirit has actually come, John fourteen has been fulfilled. The Spirit has come. You are living in the day of the Spirit. And the Spirit is supposed to be in you. What was true of Christ, must be true of you, and it can be true of you. The truth as it is in Jesus has got to be the same in us.

I think we need to recapture the realization of the day in which we are living. John the Baptist came preaching, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Jesus came preaching, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." And everybody was looking forward to the day when the Kingdom would come. They were waiting for the Kingdom to come. Are you waiting for the Kingdom to come? Are you still looking forward to a day when the Kingdom will come? The Kingdom has come. The Kingdom is here now. If you are born again, you are in the Kingdom. We are living in the day when the Kingdom is here. It was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost. We are not looking for the Kingdom to come. We are only looking for the Kingdom to be consummated. But it is here now, and that ought to mean something to us.

While all the prophets prophesied to the day in which we live, John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets, also prophesied toward this day. Jesus said that day is coming; but He said, there are some standing here who shall not see that until they see the Kingdom - and that was fulfilled. The day of Pentecost, the Kingdom came; and that Kingdom has never yet been taken away. We are living in the day toward which all the prophets prophesied. What a wonderful day we must be living in. The Kingdom came in with Jesus Christ. You cannot have a Kingdom without a King. If Jesus is King, you have got the Kingdom.

Now what did come in with Him, that is, what is the nature of this Kingdom? We come back to where we were last night. We saw that the first thing that comes in with Jesus Christ is Light. He brought in this Light from heaven. He said, "I am the Light of the world, He that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness." So John says here, THIS IS THE MESSAGE, THAT GOD IS LIGHT, AND IN HIM IS NO DARKNESS AT ALL. Then immediately John points to Jesus Christ. And through his Gospel and through his Letters, he says, This is the Light of God come in the Person of His Son, Jesus Christ.

We referred to three effects of the light. It makes people able to say, "Whereas I was blind, now I see" (John 9:25). I was blind. You remember the man who said that? He was a man who was born blind. He never had seen. He did not know in his own experience what anything looked like. Any knowledge that he had, he received from other people. He could never say, "I see." He was born blind. He never did see. When Jesus touched him and gave him sight, he was able to say, "I was blind, but now I see."

Now I want you to note that there is a principle there. Perhaps there is no one in this gathering, I hope there is no one, who is physically blind. Perhaps everybody here tonight has their natural sight. If I came to any one of you and said, "Look here, you are blind. You cannot see anything." What would you say? "Well, you are not speaking the truth. I know I can see. I can see you. I can see the other people. I can see all that is here." Well, that is all right naturally.

But the fact is this, it is not until Jesus touches you and me that we really do see. Not until we get a personal touch of the Lord Jesus upon our lives, do we realize that we have been blind. Not until we get that touch of the Lord Jesus are we really able to say, "I was blind, I thought I could see, I imagined I could see, I believed I could see, but now I know I was quite blind. The way in which I now see, I never could see before." That is the effect of a living touch with the Lord Jesus. Of course, all the people of this world will not believe you if you tell them they are blind. They think you are mad. But let them get a touch of the Lord Jesus, and the first thing they will say, "I can see now, and therefore I must have been blind before."

That is the effect of Jesus, that is not the teaching of Jesus. You see, the teaching does not always open people's eyes. The teaching may be very useful and very important, but if the Spirit of Jesus does not touch our spiritual eyes, we are still blind.

Now I must go back over something that we said last night. The three things that came to light when Jesus came into the situation. First of all, His Presence revealed the true nature of the human heart. At once, people began to show their true natures when Jesus came into the situation. And it is very interesting and significant to note that this started at the highest level. Here is Nicodemus. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "Art thou the teacher in Israel?" He did not say, "Art thou a teacher in Israel," but "Art thou the teacher in Israel?" Which put Nicodemus very high up in the saddle. Here is a man of great intelligence and natural enlightenment. There was nothing that Nicodemus could not talk about in the realm of religion. He was a Pharisee. That means he represented the top level of people in Israel.

If you had met Nicodemus before he met Jesus, he would have told you quite frankly that he knew everything. He had been to college. He had sat under the greatest teachers. He was a man of great education, he himself occupied a very high place in the academic world. If you had then said to Nicodemus, "Nicodemus, it will not be very long before you will be saying that you do not understand anything at all." Nicodemus would have said, "That is quite impossible. I do understand. The day will never come when I will have to say that I do not know." Very well then, let us see what happens.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He comes into the Presence of the One Who is the Light - and Jesus begins to speak to him. And it is not long before Nicodemus is saying, "How can these things be? I do not understand what You are talking about. I do not understand what You mean?" He is constantly saying, "Oh, how?" One great big question! Jesus says to him, "Art thou the teacher in Israel, and understandest not these things?" This great scholar is a poor little ignoramus. He has come into the Presence of the Light, and he has discovered his own darkness.

But look at all these other Pharisees, they are like Nicodemus, educated men, proud religious men; when Jesus came among them, it stirred up in them all their hatred for Jesus, and they will seek by enemies to put Jesus to death. Why is that? Because Jesus is bringing to light their true nature. He is making them feel how bad they are with all their religion. And Jesus says, "This is the condemnation. The Light has come, but men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil." So the first effect of the Light is to show up the evil in our own hearts, and to make us feel what poor creatures we are, after all. The Light brings conviction of sin. There is no hope of salvation without the Light that brings conviction of sin.

What is true of the beginning of salvation is true of the whole course of salvation. If the Lord Jesus is really with us, we ought always to be aware of how sinful we are in ourselves. Let me put that in another way. If the Lord Jesus is with us, the one thing about us will be - oh, our greatest need is the grace of God. That will be the greatest word in our vocabulary. Grace, Grace, marvelous Grace! You do not understand the meaning of Grace unless you know your own heart. The deepest note in Christian worship is the note of thanks for the grace of God. That is the first effect of Jesus coming into touch with us as the Light.

Then I remind you of the Life of Jesus as He went up and down the country. Everywhere that Jesus went, He found trouble. He found sickness of every kind - the blind, and the deaf, and the dumb, the lepers and the palsy, they were everywhere. But Jesus put His finger upon the cause of all this. One day, the scribes and the Pharisees were gathered together, and there came in a man who was sick of the palsy, and it says, "And they watched Him to see what He would do because it was the Sabbath Day." Jesus looked at this poor man. He had compassion upon him, and He said to him, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee." The scribes and the Pharisees said, "Who is this that forgives sins, only God can forgive sin." Jesus said unto them, "Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, 'Thy sins be forgiven thee'; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?"' Of course, they did not answer that one. So Jesus said, "But that ye may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins," (He saith to the sick of the palsy) "I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." And the man arose, and went to his house.

You see the point? This man is an example. He represents all the sick. And Jesus says about all the sicknesses, that behind all these conditions, the thing that is responsible is sin. If sin had never come into the world, none of these things would have come in. All the suffering and the misery in this world can be traced back to sin. Adam let sin into the human race, and with sin came all human suffering. When all sin has been removed from believers in the end, there will be no more suffering. The time is coming, as it is written in the Revelation, when there shall be no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain. God shall wipe away all tears from all faces. That is how it is going to be. A little girl heard that read, God shall wipe away all tears from all faces, and she turned to her mother and said, 'God must have a very big handkerchief.' Well, of course, that is how a little child will think of it. How does God wipe away all tears? Not by taking a literal handkerchief, but by removing the cause of tears. And the cause of all tears is sin.

So that when Jesus came into this world, all these conditions were shown to be something wrong. The Light made it manifest that all this is wrong. And Jesus had come to remove the cause of all this. And He bore our sin in His Own body on the tree.

Then the third thing that the Light revealed. It went back behind the suffering, it went back behind the sin, and it went right back to the cause of the sin and the suffering, and He showed that all this was the work of the devil. In the First Letter of John, he actually uses this phrase, referring to the darkness, referring to the divisions, referring to all the confusions, he says, "The works of the devil." "And the Son of God was manifested to destroy the works of the devil." So, confusion is a work of the devil. Division amongst the Lord's people is a work of the devil. Make no mistake about it, the devil is behind that sort of thing.

What is it that the devil is wanting to do all the time? He is wanting to bring dishonor upon the Name of the Lord. Division brings dishonor upon the Lord, confusion amongst the Lord's people brings dishonor upon the Lord, teachings that divide the Lord's people bring dishonor upon the Lord. And that is the supreme work of Satan - to bring dishonor upon the Name of the Lord. So that when Jesus came and met all these conditions, and knew that Satan was behind them, that Satan was the cause of them, it was His jealousy for the honor of His Father that calls Him to deal with these situations. Jesus, as the Light, brings to light the works of the devil in order that He may destroy them.

Now John says, "If we walk in the Light, as He is in the Light, we have fellowship one with another." The cure of those difficulties is to come into the Light, and to walk in the Light. Dear friends, if you and I are walking in the Light, we shall hate every work of Satan. We shall turn violently against anything that brings dishonor on the Name of our Lord. So, Light is power, Light does something in us, Light sets up a reaction to darkness. The Light is good, and therefore, the Light sets up a reaction against all that is evil and bad. So it will be if the Lord is in us, because HE IS THE LIGHT.

You see, I want to put the emphasis on this, that light is not just some abstract thing. You can call it by the other name, if you like, Truth. Truth is not just some abstract thing. Truth is not just a theory. Truth, like Light, is power. It has an effect, And we can test our idea of light by this - what is it doing? How is it reacting to the works of the devil? I am afraid that quite a lot of the Lord's dear people are encouraging the devil rather than discouraging him. They are making divisions. And the devil is rubbing his hands, very pleased. He says, that will bring dishonor on God. Do not help the devil. Do not help him in any of his work. Walk in the Light, and react against all the works of darkness. And still, we have not finished this matter, but we have got two more evenings, if the Lord wills.

Now may the Lord make all this talking more than words. We are going away with a lot more words. Ideas, which may be new or they may not be new to you, if it just remains there, we have come here tonight in vain. It would have been better if we never came; because we are only going to be responsible for what we hear. But do lay up these words in your hearts, and just tell yourself that the Presence of Jesus Christ in my life is going to have real effect. Jesus cannot be Present without something happening. And if He is Present all the time, something ought to be happening all the time. May He make it like that for His Own glory. Amen.

Meeting 37 - What is True in the Lord Jesus Has Got to be True in Us

Thirty-Seventh Meeting

(March 6, 1964 P.M.)

Read: 1 John 1:1-5

We are continuing with our meditation in the First Letter of John. I hope you are not tired of reading the first verses of this letter. It is important for us to notice how John begins what he has to say. So will you please look at these verses again. Well, we have been seeing that John wrote this letter to confirm the people of God in Christ. I am not so much concerned with giving you a lot more teaching as I am that you should really get hold of what John is really saying. John was trying to save the Lord's people in a difficult day from uncertainty. When everything was in a state of uncertainty, John was seeking to confirm believers in Christ, and that is the object of this whole letter.

Now that helps us to understand how he begins. You see, John gathers up everything into one matter. He bases everything upon a practical, personal experience of Christ. In these first verses, John repeats himself again and again, he says, 'That which we have seen and heard and beheld and handled, THAT is what we declare unto you.' If you can say, I have seen, I have heard, I have handled, that means you have got a personal experience. That is not mere theory, that is not just doctrine, that is not something that you heard from someone else. That is something which has come into your own hand and you can say, 'I have handled that.' That is as real to me as any thing that I can take hold of with my hands. John says, "THAT which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." You notice he uses that word "declare" twice. John does not say, "I am going to argue about this. I am going to enter into some debate on this matter. No, this is something that I declare unto you." The apostles never went out into the world to argue about something. They never went out to try and influence people to a teaching. They never tried to influence people to a way of doing things. Their method was not argument at all. It was a declaration of the facts. It was what they called, "testimony." It was what they called, "evidence."

Now in the Letters of John, we have seen that John uses the phrase "this is" ten times, and he links that "this is" with ten things. And the word "evidence" is one of these ten things: "THIS IS the evidence." What is evidence? What is testimony? What is a declaration? I wonder if you have ever been in a court of law as a witness. You have been called to be a witness about some case, and there is the magistrate, and here are all the other people who are going to listen to what you have got to say. If you began by saying, Well, somebody told me this, I heard it said by other people, I have an idea that it was like this. What would the magistrate say? He would simply say, My good man, or my good woman, we are not here to listen to what other people told you, we are here in order that you might give us first hand personal evidence. We want to know what you have seen. If you cannot tell us what you have seen, please stand down, we do not want to listen to you. We want evidence, not theory. We want first hand proof, not what you have got second hand.

So John says, "This is the evidence. This is the witness." He brings everything back to practical experience. And he says to these people who are not quite sure about their position, we have heard, we have seen, we do know, and we declare that unto you. In this letter, John brings everything to the test of personal experience. That is what John means by light. We have got to walk in the Light. We have not to write a treatise on illumination. We have not to write books about the wonderful thing called light. We have not to study the science of light. We have got to walk in the Light. That is something very practical. That is bringing light into experience. That is coming ourselves into the experience of light.

So John begins by saying that this is the message, "That God is Light." What is your idea of God? Some great wonderful Being far away Who cannot be known, some great object somewhere Who must be worshipped. Is that your idea of God? Why does John put God right at the very first sentence of his letter? Because God is a Great Present reality. God is right here to experience. John had had a great experience of God. And he says, 'The only way to escape from uncertainty is to have a real experience of God.' I think we Christians have lost a good deal of the sense of the greatness and the reality of God. We ask the Lord to be Present with us when we gather together. Who are we asking to be Present? If we realized Who God is, we might behave very differently when we are together.

Let me try to help you to understand this by telling you a story. There was a great American preacher. He was really a great servant and saint of the Lord. He was the minister of a very large church in the city of Boston. It was a wonderful building, very beautifully decorated, it had a wonderful organ, and a wonderful choir, and a very large congregation, and he was the minister of that church. And he wrote this story -

He said: One Saturday, as I was sitting at my desk, preparing my sermon for the Lord's Day, I got tired and I fell asleep, and I had a dream. I dreamed that I was in my pulpit in my church. The choir was in its place. The congregation filled all the seats. And I was preaching. As I began to preach, the door at the back of the church opened, and a stranger came in. He looked everywhere to find a seat. And then the man at the door just led him to one empty seat. Something drew my attention to that stranger. He had in his face the marks of a great sorrow. It seemed that he had been through some great suffering, and yet, there was something very beautiful about his face.

And I found that all the time I was preaching, my eyes continually went in the direction of that stranger. There was something about him that I could not take my eyes away from. And I decided that when the service was over, I would find out who that stranger was. I would get down to the door and I would shake his hand. Well, I preached my sermon, the choir sang, the congregation sang the closing hymn, and then I pronounced the blessing, and the people began to go out, and I hurried down to get to the door to speak to that stranger, but before I could get there, he was gone. I said to the man at the door, 'Do you know who that stranger was?' The man at the door said, 'Oh, yes, don't you know who that was? That was Jesus of Nazareth.' I said, 'Oh, why did you let Him go, I would like to have spoken to Him.' The man at the door said, 'Oh, don't worry. He has been here once, He will come again.'

And the preacher said, I went home, I sat down in my room, and I said to myself, 'Jesus of Nazareth has been in my church today. What did He think of our wonderful building? What did He think of the congregation? What did He think about the way our ladies were dressed? What did He think about the way in which they sang those wonderful hymns about Himself? What did He think about our choir and our organ? What did He think about our worship when we used His name so often? But most of all, what did He think about my preaching? I was preaching about Him. What did He think about what I was saying of Him? And then he said, I woke up. It was a dream. But he said, "It made all the difference to my ministry for the rest of my life."

Now it is true, that every time we gather together in His name, He is there. He has promised to be there. But oh, that my people would always realize Who is Present. How differently they would behave! How punctual they would be in coming to the service. They would say, Jesus is going to be there this morning, we must not be late. And every time we use His name, we should know that He is hearing us! What was it the man at the door said? He has been here once. He will come again.

Dr. A. J. Gordon, who was the man of whom I am speaking, wrote two books. One was about the Lord Jesus coming into this world and being here, the other one was about His coming again. Those two books were born of his dream. Well, you may say that was only a dream; but is there not some truth in it? Why do we ask the Lord to be with us when we gather together, if we do not believe that He is truly Present, although unseen, as ever He was when He was on this earth. Can it be true that Jesus of Nazareth - crucified, risen, glorified - is here in this place tonight? Is that possible? That ought to make a very big difference to us in every way.

It all comes to this, that our Christianity has got to be something very real. It is not to be just something that is a theory, a doctrine, something we have got from someone else. It has got to be something real to us personally. And I have made a mistake. I have used the wrong word. I have said, "It" has got to be real. I ought to have said, "HE" OUGHT TO BE REAL. To Dr. Gordon, the Presence of Jesus that morning was not the Presence of an "It," it was a "HE."

So John brings everything to that test, the test of experience, the test of that which we have seen, that which we have heard, and that which our hands have handled. There is a way, dear friends, in which that can be as true as it was with John. It is possible. It ought to be actual. That you and I can say, I have seen the Lord Jesus. Not with these natural eyes, but nevertheless, truly I have seen the Lord. The Lord has revealed Himself to me. I have heard Him speaking. He has become as real to me as anything that I can handle. Everything is tested by experience.

Well, there were all these theories abroad, all these different teachings, all these interpretations, but John says, "Bring them all back to this test." The proof of everything is: Is Christ a personal experience in your life. That is what John meant by light. Really walking in the Light of a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

Then if you look at this letter again, you will see that John passes very quickly from light to truth. Truth is one of the major things in this letter. Five times He speaks of that which is true, he says, "This which is true in Him and in you. This is the true God." Five times he uses the word "TRUE." But then, eight times he uses the word "TRUTH." I think in my arithmetic, eight and five make thirteen. Thirteen times in a short letter, the apostle speaks about that which is true. Then he put something over against that. Eight times he uses the word "LIE" and "LIAR." So he sets that which is true over against that which is a lie. I leave you to look at the various references. You will find a great deal of instruction if you just follow the word "Truth" through. Truth is set over against everything that is untrue.

What is truth? Truth is that which is real. Truth is reality. Truth is honesty. Truth is openness and clearness. What is the opposite of truth? It is that which is false. That which is unreal, that which is an imitation, that which is pretending, that which is hypocrisy, that which is deception, that which is not single but double. That is the opposite to truth.

Now he comes back and says, "God is true, this is the true God." Christ is true and not false. There is no deception about Him. There is no unreality about Christ. There is no hypocrisy about Christ. There is no lie in Christ. Satan is the liar. He is the untrue one. He tore this creation into pieces by a lie. He told Adam a lie, and Adam believed that lie. And the whole creation was ruined. Everything was destroyed by an untruth. Everything went to pieces because of untruth.

Now John is saying, in order to destroy the works of the devil, we must have our feet firmly based on truth. What is true in the Lord Jesus has got to be true in us. Dear friends, you and I have got to be absolutely true. There must be no falsehood about us, no pretending to be something that we are not, no trying to make other people believe something about us that is not true. There must be nothing of Satan's lie about us. In every way, we must be true. There must be nothing unreal about us. And again John says, "This is the proof that Christ is in us." If we are a lie, then we are a contradiction to Christ. If ours is only a profession and not a reality, that is a contradiction to Christ. Christ is the truth. And if He dwells in us, He will make us true. And we shall hate everything that is false and a lie.

Now you must be very patient with me and forgive me for being so strong on this matter, because we are dealing with something that is very vital. I have just said that it was by a lie that this whole creation was torn to pieces. Everything was ruined because of untruth. Even God Almighty will not hold anything together if there is a lie in it. If there is any falsehood anywhere in us, or in our company, sooner or later we are going to pieces.

Have you seen a big building that has become out of the straight? It has sunk down a bit. And there are cracks in the building and cracks in the wall. What are you going to do about it? If that is your property, you will do something about it. Perhaps you will fill up the cracks in the walls and in the ceiling. And then you will paint it over, and you think it is all right. That is hypocrisy. What is the cause of the cracks? There is something false in the foundation. And in the course of time, the lie that is in the foundation is manifested in the building.

In the country where I have spent much of my life, the country of Scotland, we have a great many big trees. And we have some big storms in that country. And after one of these storms, you can go along the road and see many of these great trees lying on the ground with their roots in the air. How do you explain that? Do you begin to blame the tree? You say, that is a silly tree to have tumbled down like that. No, what you really say is, there was something wrong with the roots. The roots had not gone deep enough, the roots had not got a tight enough hold. And when the wind blows, the weakness in the roots became manifested.

You see, it is the foundation or the roots that are the truth. If there is anything false there, someday it will be manifested. The building will not be able to stand. The tree will not be able to endure the storm. And that is only what John is saying in another way. You Christians are just being knocked all over the place. There are these winds of doctrine, there are these storms of opposition, there are all these difficulties arising, and many of you are just going to pieces. The reason is that there is somewhere in the foundation an untruth; somewhere behind your life there is something false. And if that is true, even God will not keep it going. When the lie came in through Adam, God did not stop the break up of the creation. God wanted to show mankind for all time that a lie is a disastrous thing. Anything false can ruin everything. The world just declares that truth. That where there is not the truth, things cannot stand.

But there is the other side to this, they that are in the truth in Christ will endure forever. Their life will not be broken. Their work will not be destroyed. The values of their testimony will last for all eternity. How important, then, it is that at every point in every detail, we should be true. There should be nothing false about it. We shall only hold together in the truth.

Now I just want to finish in these last few minutes by pointing you to something that John brings up in this connection. Indeed, he brings up two things. One of them I will mention now, and perhaps the other one we will deal with tomorrow night, if the Lord wills. In chapter two of this letter, verse twenty, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." And verse twenty-seven, "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." Now you see there, the connection between the anointing and the truth. The anointing is far too big a matter for us to begin to consider tonight, but I can say this in a very few words. How shall we know what is true? How shall we know that we are in the truth and the truth is in us? How shall we know what is true and what is a lie?

John says the answer to that is, "The Anointing which is in you." In other words, the Holy Spirit in you will make you know. He will make you know what is true and what is false. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, Jesus called Him that. If He is in us, then He is in us as the Spirit of truth. The Bible says: "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." It is by the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that we know we are children of God. The true children of God know by the witness of the Holy Spirit in them that they are children of God. If the Holy Spirit is in us, and if we are not grieving the Spirit, if we are not putting something in the way of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will bear witness with our spirit as to what is true and what is not true. This is the Word of God. Oh, then, how important it is that we know the meaning of the anointing within.

Do you know that word "ANOINTING" is only an enlargement of the word "CHRIST?" The name "Christ" means: "The Anointed One." The anointing means the extension of Christ. The same Holy Spirit as was in Jesus Christ is in all His born again children. Paul says, we are anointed in Him. That means that the "Anointed One" is in us, and we share His anointing. Now in Him is no lie. He is the truth. If He is in us, He will bear witness to the truth. We ought to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that when we say something that is not true, we know we have said something not true. When we meet something that is false, we know inwardly that is not true. What a different situation there would be amongst Christians, if it was always this way. Well, John says, 'The anointing in you teacheth you all things, and He is true and no lie.'

So then, to be established in Christ, we must know what it means really to have the Holy Spirit in us. That brings us back to where we began. The test of everything is experience. It is not the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It is not books on the Holy Spirit. It is the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Oh, what a lot I would like to say about that to you. But how very careful our leaders ought to be to make sure that every young Christian knows that the Holy Spirit is dwelling within, that every child of God really knows what it means to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. That is a solemn responsibility resting upon all teachers of the Lord's people. But even if our teachers fail, that does not excuse us. John is not talking about the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he is talking about the experience of the Holy Spirit. He says, 'The anointing which is in you teacheth you all things, and He is true and no lie.' I can only trust that He, the Holy Spirit, will make us understand what has been said tonight.

Meeting 38 - Life is the Basis of Everything

Thirty-Eighth Meeting

(March 7, 1964 P.M.)

We will turn to the First Letter of John. And as this is the last of our evenings together on this letter, we come to the last chapter of this letter. Chapter five and verses nine through thirteen.

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

THIS IS THE WITNESS, or as we said last night this is the evidence. In this last chapter, the apostle is gathering up everything that he has written in the letter. As we have said, John wrote this letter because the faith of many Christians was being shaken. Their faith with regard to God was being shaken. And their faith with regard to Jesus Christ as the Son of God was being shaken. So John wrote this letter to confirm the faith of the believers. He says, then, finally this is the evidence. This is the witness, firstly as to God, and then as to His Son Jesus Christ. Then he says this witness or this evidence has got to be inside the believer. And here he has these two fragments, "This is the witness that ye may know." That is what we read just now. This is the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son, and these things have I written that you may know. What is the witness? What is it that we are to know? The answer is in one word, and that word is "LIFE." "This is the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son, that He hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life, and he that hath not the Son, hath not the life. And I have written that you may know that you have eternal life." So the evidence is in our possession of what is called eternal life. We are going to spend our time this evening looking into this word, "Life."

I expect most of you who are believers, believe that you have eternal life. You believe that when you came to receive the Lord Jesus into your life, you were given something called eternal life.

Well, all true believers in the Lord Jesus believe that they have eternal life. But, if I came to every one of you believers and asked the question, "What is that life that you have got?" I wonder what your answer would be? If I say now, you believe that you have eternal life, please describe to me what eternal life is. Well, that would not be so easy. You might have some difficulties in giving an answer. You would say, "Well, I believe I have got eternal life, because the Bible says if I believe on the Lord Jesus, I am given eternal life. But if you ask me to explain what that life is, I am afraid I cannot answer it." Or perhaps you just underline the word, "eternal." And you would say, "Well, I suppose eternal life means that life goes on forever." Of course that life does go on forever, but that is not just the meaning of eternal life that it goes on after death. It means very much more than that. It is not only the extent of life, IT IS THE NATURE OF LIFE. THIS IS A SPECIAL KIND OF LIFE.

May I just say here that I know that Saturday night is the young people's night, and I see a large number of young people here. While I am speaking to everybody, I am having the young people very much in mind. So I want to try and explain this matter quite simply. And we are asking the question, "What is this life that God has given to us in His Son Jesus Christ?" We begin to answer that question by noting one word. John says, "I have written these things that ye may know that ye have eternal life." So we begin with that word "KNOW." That you may know that you have eternal life. Not only that you believe that you have eternal life, not only that the Bible says that you have eternal life, not only that the preacher preaches to you about eternal life, but, "That ye know that ye have eternal life." And this life is inside of you, you know it is inside of you.

So this life, this eternal life in the first place is a new consciousness. You are really aware in yourself that you have got eternal life. To you this is not a theory, it is not a teaching, but it is an experience. First of all, you are able to say, "I know that I have eternal life." The explanation of what that life is comes later on, but because we do not understand it, and because we cannot explain it, that does not mean we have not got it.

Now look at a new born baby. If it is a healthy baby, one thing about it at the beginning is that it is all alive. It will let you know that it is alive by the noise it makes. It will let you know it is alive by the way in which it throws arms and legs about. Somehow it knows that it is alive, and you know that it is alive. There are many evidences that it is alive.

This is the evidence - "Life." Now when we receive this eternal life, we do not, any more than a little baby, understand what we have got. We cannot explain it, but we know we have got it. We are aware that something has come into us, which was not there before. Some new strong energy has entered into us. It has taken hold of our consciousness. And if anybody asks us anything about it, the only thing we can say is, "I cannot explain it, but I know I have got it." That is the beginning of the Christian life. It is a new consciousness, a new awareness of something having come in that was not there before. The evidence or the witness is in ourselves. John says, "That ye may know." And the true believer ought to be able to say, 'Yes, I do know that I have eternal life.'

Then in the next place, this Life gives us an altogether new direction. First, it is a new consciousness, and then it is a new direction. This power that has come into us in this Life, sets us in a certain new direction. In the New Testament, and in our common language, we use the word "converted." We speak of someone who has been saved as having been converted. Jesus spoke about being converted. Well, what does converted mean? It just simply means turning right around and going in the opposite direction from that in which you were going before. If you were going that way, now you turn right around and go this way. And it is this Life that has done that. It just turns you right around and gives you a new direction. The old ways which you used to follow are now behind you. And your ways which are before, are all new ways. That is the second fact about eternal life. And if that is not true, there is something wrong with our conversion. It is not conversion at all. It is only profession.

I remember when I was a young man newly saved. There was a great Christian Society for young people. It still goes on in England and America today. It was called, "The Society of Christian Endeavor." And all the young people who joined the Christian Endeavor were given a badge to wear on their coat, or on their dress. It was a little badge of two letters in English. C for Christian, and E for Endeavor. These two letters were put together in a silver badge. And these young people wore the badge.

Now one day there was a young fellow wearing the badge. He went along the road, and came to a theater, where there was something quite worldly and not good going on. And he stopped for a moment, and then he walked toward the door to go into the theater. There was a big man in uniform standing at the door. And he looked down at the young man, and he pointed to the badge, he said, "Young man, this is no place for you. If you want to go in there, you had better take that badge off." You see, it was a contradiction of his profession. And a man of the world knew the difference. The man of the world knew that there is a difference between a Christian and a kind of people that went into that theater. That young man was denying his testimony. On his coat he had a testimony in metal. In his life he was contradicting the testimony on his coat. And you know the world is very wise about these things. The world knows that a Christian ought to be different, that the Christian ought to be going a different way from the world. Now that is a very simple illustration, but you see, this Life that God gives in Christ sets us in a certain direction.

I intended to bring a compass here this evening, but I forgot it. You all know what a compass is, you know it is like a little watch, it has a magnetic needle. If you want to know where North is, you put that compass down, and the magnetic needle always moves in the direction of the magnetic North. So that you can take your bearings from your compass. The compass is quite true if there is no interference with it. Now young people, note these two things. If I had brought my compass with me this evening, and I had put it down on this desk just in front of me, I would be looking to see where the North is. I expect you could tell me without a compass where the North is. You see, I am not quite sure as to where the North is here, but I would be looking at my compass to see where the North is. But in this instance, my compass would tell me lies, it would not speak the truth. Why was that? Because I have put it in front of this piece of metal, and that metal turns the needle away from the North. The compass needle must be free from all outside interferences. If I had lifted it away from these metal objects, it would tell the truth.

Now this is an illustration of eternal life within us. This Life that we have received from Christ always points a certain direction. It always moves like the magnetic needle in one direction. And that direction is Christ. That direction is heaven. It turns away from all that is not Christ and all that is of the world. Those who have this Life ought to know in their own hearts, what the Lord is pleased with, and what He is not pleased with. The very Life in them explains the right and the wrong. Of course, you all understand this. If you are a true Christian, if this Life is really in you, and you one day lose your temper, you become impatient. And you say something that is not kind. You are angry with somebody. How do you feel after this? Do you feel happy? Do you feel it is quite all right? You know quite well that you feel very bad inside. And the needle inside you points to Jesus and says, "Go and confess to Him what you have said, and what you have done." And the Life inside is not happy until we have gone to the Lord Jesus and asked for His forgiveness. You see, we have the witness of Life in us, and this witness of Life is a certain direction which is always toward the Lord. It is a Life away from this world toward Him. It is an upward Life and not a downward Life. Well, the second thing about this Life is that it brings into us a new direction.

Then there is a third thing about this Life. It brings into us a new power. It is a power which was not there before; before, we could not stop doing certain things. We were not able to do the right things before. We were always doing the wrong things. We were always saying the wrong things. And if anybody said, "You should not do that," we simply had to say, "Well, I cannot help it, that is the way in which I am made." But when this Life comes in we can do what we were never able to do before. Paul the Apostle said, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengtheneth me." This Life is a new power to do what we could never do before. It is the power of victory. It is the power of a holy life. It is a mighty power at work within us. You see, this Life is not a theory, it is a real power.

I expect you know what mushrooms are. Well, something happened in England a few months ago. The government had decided to make a new motor road. They spent many months in cutting a way for this new road, and then the workmen got to work and put the concrete on this road, to make it very strong to carry all the motor traffic. The road was finished and it was opened, and the traffic started on it. Not very long afterward something happened. The road began to rise up in bumps, and there were cracks in the road. All the work seemed to be in vain. There was something breaking up this strong concrete road. So they had an investigation. And you know what they found? They found a bed of mushrooms underneath. Now you would say, "Mushrooms lifting a concrete road?" Perhaps you think I am telling you a funny story. All that work, all that concrete, and mushrooms spoiling it all.

But you see, it was just the power of life in a very weak thing. You could take a mushroom in your fingers and just break it into pieces. You say, there is no strength in this. Put it in the ground, and if there is life in it, in cooperation with its other friends of the same kind, it will lift anything. The power of life is a wonderful thing. I have seen great rocks broken open by a tree growing up from just a seed. This Life which is in Christ Jesus destroyed the power of death, and tore open the grave. DEATH AND THE GRAVE COULD NOT HOLD HIM, BECAUSE HE HAD ETERNAL LIFE. So we have something very wonderful when we have this Life. It is a power which can carry us through any kind of opposition. It is a new power.

Then John says another thing about it. If you look into this letter, you will find that John has a lot to say about fellowship. He says, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. Then he speaks about our fellowship with one another. But what is it that makes this fellowship? It is this very thing - this eternal life. It is not a theory or a teaching of fellowship. We may have all the teaching and yet, the fellowship may break down. But, Life is a thing which draws all who have it together. It ought to be possible for us to recognize another Christian wherever we meet one without being introduced. It ought not to be necessary for anybody to say, 'You know, this is a Christian. I want to introduce this person to you as another Christian.' That ought to be quite unnecessary. We ought to know another Christian immediately when we meet him or her without first being introduced. There is something about Christians which just speaks without words. And, you know, Life does speak without words.

I think in this country, the seasons are not so distinct as they are in our country. That is, you do not notice a great difference between spring and summer. I do not know whether we are in spring or in summer today. But if you went to Europe, you would find a very real difference. When we left England, it was cold and windy, with ice and snow. Letters are now telling us that spring is coming. And if you were to go over there today, you would see all the new flowers coming out through the ground. You would see all the new buds on the trees, you would see life showing itself in many, many new forms, the mighty demonstration of resurrection life. You can see it almost every day, but you cannot hear it. You go and put your ear to the tree and you will not hear anything; you put your ear to the ground, but you will not hear anything. And yet life is shouting at you from everywhere. It is speaking without words.

Now I am not saying that we Christians are not supposed to speak about life. I am not saying that we need not give a testimony in words. We must do that. My complete release in the Christian life came on the night when I stood out in an open air meeting and gave my testimony for the first time. I did not know what liberty in Christ meant until I gave my testimony. So do not think that I am saying you need not speak about Christ. But what I am saying is this: That even when you are silent, Christ ought to be manifested. The Life that is in us speaks for itself. So John says, This is the witness, this is the testimony, this is the evidence, even eternal life. IT IS FELLOWSHIP.

Now you know a living human body is constituted on the basis of fellowship. Most of you know that. Especially the doctors who may be here, they know all about that. But have you thought about it? Our bodies are constituted on the principle of fellowship. That is, all our members and all our organs work together. They work on the principle of fellowship. I could prove that to you, but I am not going to. If I were to take this microphone, and if I were to throw it at the head of that brother sitting there, and he saw this microphone coming at his eyes, what would he do? He would put his hands up. One member comes into cooperation to protect the other, but something had happened before that. His eyes saw the microphone coming, and the eyes said to the hand, put yourself up in front. Now you see, I could go right through the whole body like that. Not one of the millions of cells in a body is an independent unit. Every part of our body, to the smallest part works together with all the other organs.

If one little organ suffers, all the body feels it. Have you ever had a toothache? Have you had a bad toothache? Well, is it just located in the tooth? Does not all the body feel it? Don't you altogether feel bad because of that one little tooth? You see the body is one whole, and not one little part is independent. It is all constituted on the principle of fellowship. If it were dead, all the teeth might be wrong and the body would not know it. The arm might be wrong, the foot might be wrong, but the body does not know anything about it, it is dead. But if it is alive, it lives on the basis of fellowship.

Now there is a lot about this in the New Testament. Paul says about Christians, If one member suffers, all the members suffer. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. The hand cannot say to the foot, I do not need you. You know that those things are in the Bible. We, as Christians, are not just independent units. The Life which we all have makes us necessary to one another. Not one organ in the human body can realize its life to the full by itself. Separate any organ from the body, cut off the hand or the arm or any other member or organ of the body, separate it from the body as a whole, it can never realize its life and the purpose of its creation when it is separated from the body. It demands the uniting Life to make it able to fulfill its function.

Now I could give you many more illustrations of this, but with only a few minutes left, I must come to an end. But this is what I want to say to you all, and to the young Christians particularly. Your fellowship with other Christians is absolutely essential to the fullness of your life in Christ. As an individual member, you only have so much life. When you bring several members together, you have got so much more Life. When you bring all the members together, there is still much more Life. If we separate ourselves from other children of God, we limit God's Life in us. We limit our own spiritual Life, and we limit our own spiritual usefulness. Fellowship is essential to life, and the more true fellowship, the more life. See, the Lord Jesus spoke about this when He said, "two or three of you." He is Present where two or three are gathered together. But how do we know that He is Present? This is the witness, that we have Life. It is a good thing to have real fellowship with other believers. What a terrible thing it is to be isolated and cut off from other believers. It is a matter of life to have fellowship. And John says, "This is the witness." LIFE IS THE BASIS OF EVERYTHING.

I thought of saying a lot more things about this Life. But you see, it is eternal life. It is God's Own Life, and it would not matter if we would stay here for years talking about it, we will never get to the end of it. That is the wonderful thing about this Life. It is inexhaustible. You will never get to the end of it. You will never fathom its depth. Eternal life is a wonderful thing. We must come back to where we started. This is the evidence that God has given unto us eternal life, and these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. Now do not take this as just so much more teaching, because life is not teaching. Life is just life. You cannot describe it. All the wise people in this world have never yet been able to explain what life is. We will never explain it, but we can experience it. We can know that we have it! May that be true of all of us. Amen.

Meeting 39 - The Law of the True Manifestation of Christ is the Law of Death and Resurrection Union with Christ

Thirty-Ninth Meeting

(March 8, 1964 A.M.)

Reading: John twelve, verses twenty to twenty-six:

"And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour."

In order to appreciate the meaning of these verses, it is necessary for us to see their setting. If you will look again, you will find that these words were said at the time of the Jewish passover. The great Jewish passover was about to be celebrated in Jerusalem, and Jews from all over the world were gathered in the city. Jews out of every nation were represented there at this time. But there was something special about this particular passover. It was the last passover in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus. It was the last time that He would keep the passover on this earth. If you read on in this Gospel, you will see that it was not long after this that Jesus kept the passover with His disciples in the upper room. That is what He meant when He said here, "The hour is come that the Son of Man must be glorified." This was one of the greatest hours in the history of this world. So that everything that was happening carried a very special significance for the Lord Jesus.

Among the many peoples who had come to Jerusalem for this passover were these Greeks. We do not know why they wanted to see Jesus. But that does not matter very much. Jesus was being talked about everywhere. Everybody was speaking of His miracles and of His teaching, and no doubt His fame had gone far and wide. When these Greeks came to Jerusalem, they found that everybody was talking about this Person called Jesus of Nazareth. So they thought that they would like to see Him, and they came to one of His disciples and they said, "Sir, we would see Jesus." They wanted an introduction to Jesus.

Let us say again that all nations were represented in Jerusalem at that time. These particular visitors said, "We would see Jesus." Jesus did not say, 'Well, bring them to Me,' or 'I will come out to them. I will grant them their request, and let them see Me.' He did not go to them and say, 'Now what is it you want to see?' He said something that did not seem to have any connection with their desire. He immediately uttered these remarkable words, He said, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

What did Jesus mean by saying that, at that time? Men said, "We would see Jesus." Jesus answered, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die." Is that any answer at all? It does not look like an answer to their question. It almost looks as though He is ignoring their request. It seems as though He is talking about something else altogether. He did not seem to take any notice of these Greeks. He did not say, 'Well, they want to see Me. I will go out and show Myself to them.' He did not say, 'Bring them to Me.' And when they came He did not say, 'Well, here I Am, now you can see Me.' He said, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone." And yet, in those words, He answered their question. He answered their question in a much more wonderful way than ever they expected. What Jesus really meant was the way in which they wanted to see Me is not the true way. They will only see Me as Jesus of Nazareth. They will only see Me as an object of their curiosity. They will only see Me as Somebody about Whom people are talking. They will only see Me as Someone Who is of interest here in Jerusalem at this time. And that is not the true way to see Jesus. And so He said this seemingly, mysterious thing.

What He meant was this: It is not the historical Jesus, it is not the physical Jesus. But it is the Jesus of death and resurrection. The only way in which you will see Jesus will be as THE RISEN LORD; the One Who has gone into death and has triumphed over death and Who Lives for evermore as the conqueror of death. And we, here today, know that He was right. We are a company of several hundred; but all over this world today, there are millions of people like ourselves, people who know that the Lord Jesus is alive, people who have the experience of the living Christ, people who know that although He became dead, He is alive for evermore.

I say there are millions of such people on the earth today. How many more millions there are in Heaven since Jesus was here, we do not know. John, in the Book of the Revelation describes it in this way, "A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations - ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Rev. 7:9; 5:11). Now I expect there are some mathematicians here today, but here is something that goes beyond your best mathematical ability. John finds it quite impossible to describe. Thousands and ten thousands and thousands of thousands, and a great multitude which no man could number. Out of every nation and kindred and tongue, and they all came from one little grain of wheat. One grain of wheat which fell into the ground and died, and then was raised from the dead by God Almighty. When you see that great multitude on earth and in heaven, then you see Jesus.

These Greeks said, "We would see Jesus." But Jesus said, 'This is not the way to see Me. If you really want to see Me, you will have to see Me in Resurrection with My Life distributed into a great multitude which no man can number. That is the way,' says Jesus, 'In which you will truly see Me.' All the nations were represented in Jerusalem, but Jesus is saying, 'I shall be seen in men and women out of every nation.' Now that is the great truth that is set forth here. It is a very wonderful thing, but of course it is a great challenge. What does it say to us? It just simply says this, that if we are united to the Lord Jesus, He is to be seen through us!

He has His Own personal existence in Heaven, but so far as this world is concerned, and so far as eternity is concerned, He has got to be seen in His Own people. Do you see what a challenge that is? If anybody in this world says, "We would see Jesus," they ought not have to go to Jerusalem, or to any part of the world. Their question ought to be answered by us. They ought to see Him in us. It ought to be possible for people to say in that man and in that woman, 'I have seen Jesus. In that company of Christians, I have seen Jesus.' I used to say, 'I would see Jesus,' but I have come to see Jesus in His Own children. Jesus has no other way of showing Himself to this world, but through you and through me. And the only purpose for which we are here as the Lord's people is to show Jesus to the world, that if anybody wants to see Jesus, they can see Him in us.

Do you notice that Jesus here passes immediately from Himself to other people? First, He is saying that He is this grain of wheat, "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified." - I am the grain of wheat. Then, He immediately passes to others and He says, "He that would save His life shall lose it." He brings us into this matter. He is not alone. He brings us alongside of Himself to show Himself to the world. Having said that, we must look at this law of manifestation, because what was true of Him, has got to be true of us. And if He says that the way of true manifestation is through death and resurrection, that is what He means by, "He that keeps his life, will lose it. He that loses his life for My sake, shall keep it." He is only saying that we have got to go the same way as He went. We have to go the way of death and resurrection in union with Him. This is the law of manifestation: What was true of Him, has got to be true of us.

Now I am not speaking about the death of our bodies, and I am not speaking about going into the grave of the cemetery, and some day when the trumpet sounds, we shall be raised from the dead. That is not what is meant here. This death and resurrection is a spiritual experience. It is the experience which has to come into the life of every true believer. Many of you know what the Apostle Paul wrote in the sixth chapter of the Letter to the Romans. He said, 'We were crucified with Christ, that is, when Christ died, we died in Him, we were buried together with Him. When He was buried, we were buried in Him. We were raised together with Him, and we walk in newness of life.' That is a spiritual experience. It all has to lay right at the foundation of every Christian life, and believe me, dear friends, Jesus will never be seen until we have that experience. Only as we go THAT WAY will we be a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is through crucified men and women that Jesus is seen. The law of the true manifestation of Christ is the law of death and resurrection union with Christ.

Let us come back to this grain of wheat. Jesus said that He was that grain of wheat, and it falls into the ground, and it dies. What does it die to? If you were to open the ground after a week or two, and look for your grain of wheat, what would you find? You would find that nine tenths of it had gone. You would not be able to find the greater part. All that you would find would be just a little germ, a very small part of that grain of wheat. All the other has gone. What is it that has gone? Well, all that which was capable of seeing corruption has gone. And that which cannot die remains, and it is that which is raised again. What are these nine tenths that had to go? Now if you know anything about yourself, you know quite well that that describes you. The greater part of us is ourselves. "The self-life," what the New Testament calls "the flesh," and in the death of Jesus, the self-life has to go. In order that that true Life of Christ may be raised from the dead. So to die with Christ, to be crucified with Christ, just means that the self-life has been put to death. The self-life has been buried in the grave of Jesus.

We know what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20; ASV). "No longer I, but Christ." I have died with Christ, and now it is just Christ Who lives in me. And if Christ lives in you and in me, other people will see Jesus. So that the law of seeing Jesus is union with Him in death and resurrection. It is death to all the self-life. Now what happens to this little grain of wheat? It has surrendered a great deal of itself, but when that has taken place, the life that is in that little germ is released. It is no longer in bondage to things here. No longer in bondage to this world. No longer in bondage to all the limitations of this life. Through death, this Life is released. It is like a prisoner set free.

You remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, it says that Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus, and it tells us what they were speaking to Him about. Perhaps you have not noticed that. You know about the transfiguration. And you know that it says that Moses and Elijah were there speaking to Him. And perhaps you have not noticed what they were talking about, but it tells us what they were speaking to Him about, and here unfortunately our translation does not have it. In the original language, it says they were speaking to Him about the EXODUS that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Everybody who knows the Old Testament knows what the exodus is. There is a book in the Old Testament that goes by the name of Exodus. It is the book of the story of the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. God broke their bondage. They went out a free people, and they sang a great song of deliverance. They were able to say, 'We are out at last. We have had our exodus, we are free.' They can sing about their deliverance from bondage. Now that is exactly the same word as is used here on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah were talking to Him about the exodus which He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. His Cross was going to be His exodus, His deliverance from all bondage. In His Resurrection, He would be free. The Life which was in Him would be released.

So we come back to our grain of wheat. It falls into the ground and it dies, and then its Life is released, and up that Life comes. You see a little green shoot coming through the earth. It grows and it grows, and then there begins to form the whole wonderful combination of that grain - what we call the ear of corn. Let us take this ear in our hands. What have we got here? Not one grain, there may be fifty in one ear, or it may be more than that. Then we take every one of these, and we let them fall into the ground and die. And if it is fifty grains, we are going to have fifty times fifty. If you go on like that, this thing will spread all over the world. All this worldwide testimony has come from the release of the Life of one grain. If you look into every one of the millions of grains, you will find the Life of the original grain. So it is not only a case of multiplication of Christians, it is a case of the re-embodiment of Christ's Life in every one. In His death and resurrection, His wonderful Life was released, and that Life has passed into every true believer. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have Life, and that they might have it abundantly." He came into this world for that special purpose. So that it is His Life in us, which reveals Him to the world.

But let us look still more closely. The law of seeing Jesus is the law of sacrifice. Jesus said, "He that keepeth his life" - there is such a thing as keeping your life to yourself, of holding on to your own life, of saying this life is mine. This belongs to me, I keep it to myself. Jesus said, "He that keepeth his life shall lose it." "He that loses it" - or lets it go - "shall find it unto Life eternal." The law then is the law of sacrifice. The law of letting go our life for Christ. Do you want to find your true vocation in this world? Do you want to find the true purpose for which God created you? Do you want to find the true purpose for which Christ died for you? Do you want to know what God wants to do with you? And God does want to do something with you. He has called you according to a great purpose, and every one of you has a place in the thought of God. There is some purpose relating to your life in God's will. There is a vocation with which you are called in Christ. Do you want to find what that is? Do you want to know what Christ has called you to? Well, here is the law. While you hold on to your life for yourself, you will never know. Jesus says, "He that loses his life shall find it;" that is, whoever will give up his own life for My sake shall find the purpose of his life.

Now the disciples of Jesus had great ideas for their own life. They had their own ambitions in life. Sometimes they said to Jesus, "Grant that when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom, we may sit one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand." And we read that they had a quarrel one day. Think of the disciples of Jesus quarreling. They are having a really hot dispute. One is saying no, and the other is saying yes, and what is it they are quarreling about? Who shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

See, they got an idea of the Kingdom as being something of this world, and of themselves as being very important people of that Kingdom. They had ambitions for themselves, and their lives. They had their own ideas of what they wanted to be and wanted to do. But look at them after the Cross of Jesus. That Cross has struck a very heavy blow to these disciples. All those old ideas are gone, all their own personal ambitions are gone, and now it is only for Christ that they want to live. So disciples became apostles: From something just local, they became worldwide; from something just of time, they became eternal. After two thousand years we are still reading about them. We are still getting values from them. If the world goes on for another two thousand years, it will be the same. Of course, it may not go on for another two thousand years, but as long as this world does last, the values of these men's lives will be going out to people everywhere.

They let go their own ambitions for Christ. They died to their own thoughts and plans for themselves in order to have Christ's plan. They found their true life's work when they put themselves wholly into the hands of the Lord Jesus. When they said to Him, 'Lord, not my way, but Your way; not my will, but Your will, not my plans for my life, but Your plan; not my ambitions, Lord, but what You want for my life.'

So we pass from just being ordinary people living a life for so many years and then going into the grave. There comes into our life this wonderful thing. Jesus is seen. Jesus lives through us. There is no greater thing to live for than that, and if anybody in this world is hungry to see Jesus, if there is anybody who is really in their heart saying, "I would see Jesus." Do you know what the Spirit of God will do? Jesus will not come down out of Heaven to that person. He will not say personally, "Here I am." He will lead that hungry soul to you. He will bring those who want to know Him to you. He will bring you to them. You know, the New Testament has a lot about that.

There was a man, once, who was traveling in his chariot across the desert. He had been up to the feast at Jerusalem, but his heart was hungry. All the religion in Jerusalem, had not satisfied his heart. He had heard the priests talking. He had seen the sacrifices being offered. He had seen all the crowds filling the temple, but he was going away, back to his country, a disappointed man. His heart was still hungry. All that religion had failed to satisfy his heart; and as he was sitting in his chariot, going back to his far away country, he was reading the Old Testament. And he was reading the Prophet Isaiah, he came to chapter fifty-three. He read that chapter. And he said, "I wonder what that means. I would give a lot if only I understood what this prophet is talking about."

And as he traveled with his heart toward God, God knew about that hungry heart, and God had a man some distance away. He said to that man, 'Go down to the desert, I have a piece of work for you to do there.' He did not know what he was going for, but he obeyed the Lord, and he traveled all the way from Samaria down to the desert. And as he was wondering what it all meant, he saw this chariot coming along. And the Lord said, "Go and join yourself to that chariot." And as he got near, he heard this man reading the Scripture, and he said to him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man said, "How can I understand it if no one teaches me? Who is the prophet speaking about?"

And Philip opened his mouth at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And the man saw; and when they came to a certain water; and he said to Philip, "Here is water; what does hinder me to be baptized? What does hinder me from being united with this Christ, in death and burial and resurrection?" Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, thou mayest." The man evidently said, 'Yes, I believe with all my heart.' And both of them went down to the water, and Philip baptized him. The end of the story is: "And the man went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:26-39). God knows where there are hungry hearts. God needs to have people who know the Lord Jesus. And God will bring them together.

Perhaps you are a hungry heart. Perhaps religion has not satisfied you. Perhaps you are still wanting to see Jesus. Well, the Lord will bring somebody across your path. He will arrange that your heart does not remain hungry. He will bring you into touch with that which helps you, which will lead you into a real experience of Christ, and you will go on your way rejoicing. That is, if you do what this man in the chariot did, believe with all your heart and surrender your life wholly to the Lord Jesus, and then the world will see Jesus through you.

Meeting 40 - The Cup of the Lord

Fortieth Meeting

(March 8, 1964 P.M.)

Will you please turn to the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter ten, at verse sixteen, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?" Chapter eleven, at verse twenty-five, "In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood."' The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? This cup is the new covenant in My blood. In the few times that I have been with you at the Lord's Table, I have sought to show something of the fuller and deeper meaning of this table. And that is what I want to do tonight.

I want to say just a little about the cup of the Lord. In the two passages which we have read, two things are said about the cup. Firstly, that it is a communion in the blood of Christ. The real words are these: Is it not that which we have in common with the blood of Christ? So that in the first place, it is something which we have together in the blood of Christ. And the second thing is: That the cup is the new covenant in His blood. I am going to take the second first: The new covenant in His blood. Perhaps we have not recognized the real meaning, the deep meaning of the covenant in the blood of Jesus. It is something which has made us absolutely one with Christ. A covenant is something which brings two people together in absolute agreement. In a covenant, they both put their hands down on the document and say, 'We are absolutely one in this matter. We commit ourselves together to the terms of this covenant. As long as we live, we stand together as one person in this covenant.'

Jesus says, "THIS CUP IS THE COVENANT IN MY BLOOD." And He says, "For those who enter into this covenant with Me, I will lay down My Life for them. I will live for their interests. All their interests will be My interests. And I will give My Life for them." This blood is a new covenant. But there are always two parties to a covenant. And in principle what applies to one party applies to the other. Jesus says, "This is the token that I lay down My Life for you." He says, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Will you come onto the common ground of this covenant? Will you take this cup and mean, when you drink it, what I mean when I shed My blood?" Of course, there is a difference, He died for our sins; we cannot die for our sins. By His blood, He atoned for the sin of the world. We can never do that.

But at the same time, this covenant means the same thing for us. It means that we have entered into a covenant with the Lord. In His blood, we have been made one with Him. And now, forever, we live only for Him. His interests are our supreme interests. We will live for Him and we will die for Him. Do you know, dear friends, every time we take this cup, that is what it means? That is the deeper meaning of the cup of the new covenant. On His side, He has committed Himself to us. If we dare to take that cup, we mean that we commit ourselves to Him. We have been joined in an everlasting covenant in His blood. As we have partaken of His blood, so we have been made one with Him in life. I trust that we shall all remember this every time we come to the Lord's Table. When each one of us takes that cup, let us stay for a moment, and ask ourselves the question: What does this mean? What do I mean by this? What does Jesus mean by this? It means that He and I are one in a Life covenant forever. As His Life was for me, so my life is for Him.

I remember an incident some years ago in India. We were gathered around the Lord's Table; and sitting on the front seat were two young Indian men. They were a very fine type of young man. And I was speaking about the Lord's Table. I was saying something about what it means to partake of the cup and the loaf - how it requires an utter committal to the Lord. And I asked everybody to face this matter again. Then we bowed in prayer. And the brother brought the cup, and he took it from one to another; he brought it to one of these men. I noticed he took it in his hand, and with his eyes closed for a moment, he waited quietly, evidently thinking very hard about this, and then as though he came to a decision, he lifted the cup to his lips and drank. And then it was passed to the other young man next to him. He took it in his hand, and I saw his face was going through some terrible struggle, and he was thinking hard about this, and then at last he shook his head like this, and passed the cup on.

He had made his decision. He had said, "I cannot enter into this covenant. I cannot let Jesus have my whole life." He was honest with God. I admired that young man. Although I was very sorry that he did that, that he went away from that meeting a man who refused to let Jesus have his life, I did have to say, well, I admired him for being so honest. Many will just take the cup and drink it. It is a matter of form. It is what Christians do. It is what we do every time we come to the Lord's Table. We never pause for a moment, before we drink, and ask ourselves again the question: Has Jesus really got the whole of my life? Do I mean to be as wholly for Him as He has been for me? Do I put my hand to the covenant again, and say, "For life, for death, for eternity, I am the Lord's?" That is what it means, dear friends. This is what the Lord means by it. And that is what He wants us to mean by it. "This cup is the new covenant in My blood."

Now the time has gone, I cannot say anything about the other passage. It may just be that I have another opportunity, I do not know. But remember this, if I never say any more to you, this is a blood covenant between the Lord Jesus and us, between us and the Lord Jesus. We have entered into an eternal understanding with the Lord Jesus. Because He has given Himself so absolutely for us, we give ourselves absolutely to Him and for Him.

Meeting 41 - Prayer is the Basis of Everything in our Life with the Lord

Forty-First Meeting

(March 10, 1964 P.M.)

Chapter nine of the Book of the Acts, at verse ten through twelve, "And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, 'Ananias.' And he said, 'Behold, I am here, Lord.' And the Lord said unto him, 'Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.'"

The last words of verse eleven, "BEHOLD, HE PRAYETH." From these words, we see that the life of the Apostle Paul in relation to the Lord Jesus commenced in prayer. Although he had spoken to the Lord on the Damascus road, this was really the first time of prayer that he had with the Lord Jesus. Perhaps it will surprise you to know that this time of prayer between Paul and the Lord Jesus lasted for three days and three nights. I wonder how many of us here have prayed for three days and three nights continually. Well, three days and three nights of prayer lays a fairly good foundation for a Christian life, and no doubt this time laid the foundation for the life of the apostle.

Have you realized that some of the greatest things that ever the Lord has revealed to us came through the prayer life of the Apostle Paul? You have only to call to mind some of his prayers, and you will see that they were a revelation of which there is nothing like it anywhere else. If you look in the Letter to the Ephesians, you will see the wonderful things that came out when Paul prayed. The same was true in his Letter to the Colossians; and there are many other prayers of Paul in his letters. In those letters, he tells us what he prayed for, and they were very wonderful revelations of God's mind. Now we are not going to study those prayers tonight. We are not even going to read them. But we are simply pointing out that prayer is a wonderful way in which God makes Himself known, and prayer is the basis of everything else in the life with the Lord.

Now I expect you are wondering what Paul was praying about during those three days and those three nights. If we could answer that question, we should have a fairly good basis for prayer. That is, we should understand what true prayer is, we should know some of the things which constitute true prayer. I think that I shall be right when I suggest some of the things that Paul was praying about in that first wonderful time of prayer. And I feel that these are the things which ought always to find a place in our praying.

We shall not be wrong if we say that the first thing in that first prayer was humiliation and confession. It was the prayer of a broken and a contrite heart. I am quite sure that was the first thing in Paul's prayer. You see, he had just come to realize what he had been doing with his life. It was not so long before this time that he gave his consent to the death of that remarkable young man, Stephen. It says that the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And it says that Saul was consenting unto his death. Then Saul had obtained authority from the high priest to put men and women in prison. And Paul tells us, himself, that he persecuted the church unto far distant cities. Again it says, Saul, breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the people of this Way. Thus, he had just come to realize what a great mistake he had been making. How terrible was the thing that he had been doing. What injury he had been doing to the Lord Jesus. He had been responsible in spirit and in principle for the crucifying of Christ. His sin had really nailed Jesus to the Cross.

And now he was alive to all this terrible truth. His prayer, therefore, must have commenced in deep humiliation and contrition of heart. He must have been confessing to the Lord how wrong he had been, and asking the Lord for forgiveness. You know, dear ones, that is the first element in any true prayer, the acknowledgment of our own sinfulness, the confession of how unworthy we are of the mercy of God. We can never come into the Presence of the Lord without a sense of our sinfulness. We can never stand before Him without bowed heads because of our unworthiness. No pride or self-righteousness is allowed in the Presence of God. The Word of God says, "To this one will I look, even to him that is of a broken and contrite spirit" (Isa 66:2). And I am sure that this spirit was in this man in his first prayer. I am quite sure that there were many tears shed by Paul during those three days and those three nights.

Then the second thing in that prayer, I am quite sure, must have been a spirit and attitude of surrender to the Lord. There must have been in him a spirit of absolute submission to the Lord. The complete committal of himself to the Lord Jesus. Many times after that, he called himself the prisoner of the Lord, and many times in his letter, he said, "Paul, the bondslave of Jesus Christ." I am quite sure that it was in that first prayer that Paul took that position of the prisoner and the bondslave of Jesus Christ, with an absolute submission and surrender to Jesus as his Master. And I am sure you will agree with me that that must be a feature of all our praying. First, a confession of our own sinfulness, and then an absolute submission to the Lord Jesus, as His prisoners, and as His bondslaves.

Then there was a third thing, which I am quite sure was in this prayer of Paul's. It was complete adjustment to the will of the Lord. Up to this time, he had followed his own will, he had allowed his own will to control his life and his actions, he had directed his own life, and he would have said, 'My will be done.' And we can see how thoroughly he sought to do his own will. But now, at this time, he was getting adjusted to the will of the Lord. If he did not use the actual words, I am sure this is what he meant, 'No longer my will, but Thy will, Lord, for my life.' That must have been a feature of this prayer; because it is so evident that from this time to the end of his life, there was only one thing for which he lived, and that was THE WILL OF THE LORD.

Now, while that has to be our attitude at the beginning of our Christian life, that must always be a feature of our prayer life. There are many ways in our Christian life where we have to get adjusted to the will of the Lord. The will of the Lord is not always an easy thing for our flesh; and so very often, we have to have a real battle to get adjusted to the will of the Lord on some particular matter; and prayer is the time in which that adjustment has to be done. It is just possible that some of us here this evening are having a battle over the will of God on something. Well, this is the time to get through with that issue. Our prayer times give us the great opportunity of getting right into line with the will of God on all matters.

Well, just collect up these things before we go any further. True prayer is the prayer of confession and humiliation! True prayer is the time of absolute committal and surrender and submission to the Lord! True prayer is the time for getting right into line with the will of God on all matters!

Now these three things, we could call negative things. Of course they are not negative when we have to face them, they are very positive matters. But when we come to the fourth thing, we move over a bit to another side; and I am sure that this first time of prayer in the case of Paul was a time of deep worship. What does worship come out from? What is it that leads us to worship? What is the true nature and spirit of worship? Is it not a deep unspeakable gratitude for the grace of God?! We only worship in the measure in which we appreciate the grace of God. I am sure that this man on his knees during that time was just pouring out his heart with gratitude for the mercy of God. Realizing what kind of a man he was, realizing his guiltiness, and what an enemy of Christ his nature had been, and yet that risen, persecuted Lord had come down to save such a man as he was, that must have made Paul pour out his heart in the deepest gratitude for the grace and mercy of God. You remember that a favorite way to Paul of opening his letters was with three words: "Grace, mercy, and peace, be unto you." That was the foundation of everything for Paul. Wonderful grace, grace that could never be explained; boundless mercy; and peace with God. That was surely the consciousness of this man during his prayer. It was the prayer of deep worship for the grace of God, and that must have a place in all true prayer.

Now, you notice that given these four things, there is an open way for the Lord to come in. The Lord had His eye upon that man in that room as he was praying. He knew what Saul of Tarsus was doing. He said to Ananias, "Behold, he prayeth." And the Lord knew what he was praying about. And He knew that these four things made up that prayer. THEY OPEN A WAY FOR THE LORD. So the Lord said to Ananias, "Go to a certain house in a certain street, to this man, Saul of Tarsus. That man is praying. Ananias, you go in and lay your hands on him, that he may receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." The Lord had an open way to meet that man. First of all, to open his blind eyes. They were physically blind, but you may be sure that he got a spiritual eye-opening at that time. If Saul of Tarsus was still under a heavy cloud as he knelt there in prayer, if there was still any darkness over his mind, when Ananias put his hands on his head, and said, "Brother Saul," all the darkness went; and his heart was filled with the Light of heaven.

Then, secondly, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is called the Seal of our Redemption. "We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13). We are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). You know what that means in business. If your seal is upon any goods, you have a right to claim them. You can go anywhere and say, "That is mine, I take possession of it." In the same way, the Holy Spirit is the Seal of God, the Seal of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Seal of that which belongs to Christ, and He can claim it at any time. It is a great thing to have the Seal of the Lord upon our lives.

Now we know that to receive the Holy Spirit is to receive our equipment for our life's work; because Ananias said this unto Saul (later called Paul). And he said, "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (Acts 22:14,15).

These three things happened when Ananias put his hands on the head of Saul, and used that wonderful word, "Brother" Saul. That was a triumph of grace! But the Lord had an open way to come into that life, and it was because of those four things that we have mentioned which composed his prayer. This may help us a little in our time of prayer, not only for tonight, but for all times of prayer. If this is the way, the heart way of our praying, the Lord will have a clear way with us.

Meeting 42 - "For the Sake of His Name"

Forty-Second Meeting

(March 12, 1964 P.M.)

We are going to return to the parables of the Kingdom for a little while this evening. The Gospel by Matthew, chapter thirteen, verse forty-four, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." The parable of the treasure hidden in the field. The law of consistency to which we have referred requires that we interpret the field again as the world. Jesus said concerning the sower that the field is the world. So here again the field is the world. And as in the other parables, the man is the Son of Man. It is the Lord Jesus Himself Who has found this treasure in the world. And then it says, having found the treasure, He went and sold all that He had and bought, not the treasure, but the field. When He bought the field, He secured the treasure.

Now we are going to start from the outside and work toward the center. We shall come to the treasure last of all. First of all, we want to know the meaning of this selling all that He had to buy the field. I wonder if I were to ask you, if you could give me the Scripture that would explain that, where would you turn? Would you like to think about that for a minute? Well, I will give you the Scripture that will explain that. You turn to the Letter of Paul to the Philippians, chapter two, at verses five through eight: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."

There is the Son of Man selling all that He had. It was a mighty all that He let go. He was equal with God. In His prayer in John seventeen, He said, "Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." Equal with God, having the glory of God before the foundation of the world, being the Son of God, He had all the fullness of heaven. He was over all angels and archangels, they would hasten to do His will. And much more than that, He let it all go.

"He emptied Himself," the word is here, He emptied Himself of His heavenly glory. He emptied Himself of His equality with God, and took the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, He became obedient unto death, yea, the death of the Cross. That is the price that He paid for this treasure. This Son of Man paid a very great price, indeed, for the treasure hidden in the field. It says here that He sold all that He had. You and I can never, never understand the meaning of that word, "ALL." Perhaps, when we get to glory, we shall begin to understand how much the Lord Jesus sacrificed for this treasure.

Well, there is the treasure, there is the field, there is the Son of Man, selling all that He had, to purchase that treasure. But it says, 'He bought the field.' It does not say, 'He just bought the treasure.' He bought the field in order to get the treasure. I wonder what that means? I think it is a thing that we Christians have been slow to recognize. We have not recognized that the Lord Jesus redeemed the whole world - every man, every woman, and every child in this world is redeemed. Jesus Christ purchased the salvation of every man. He paid the price for the redemption of all men. The trouble is, that although men have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus, they will not all believe and accept it. And the condemnation will be this, that redemption was bought for you, and you would not accept it. You see, that is the Gospel. Christ has redeemed all. His blood has paid the price for all. It is, "Whosoever believeth on Him, shall be saved." But the world, as a whole, will not accept the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

That leads us then to the treasure. We are able to see what the treasure is. He bought the whole field, but He only obtained the treasure. What is this treasure? Have we got any Scripture that will answer that question? I think we have. If you will turn to the Book of the Acts, chapter fifteen, verse fourteen, "Simeon hath rehearsed how first God did visit the nations, to take out of them a people for His Name." Do you see what that says? The nations. And hidden in the nations, a people for His Name. The Bible does not teach that in this age all the nations are going to be saved. On the contrary, it teaches that at the end of this age many, many will not be saved. But it does teach that in the nations, He has seen a people, and He has come in order to take out of the nations that people for His Name.

It is not that the nations cannot be saved. The prophet cried, "Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth." God would have all men to repent, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But inasmuch as all the nations will not turn to the Lord, He takes out of the nations a people for His Name. The Lord says, Simeon has looked into the nations, and in the nations he has seen this treasure, a people for His Name. And He is, through this age, taking out of the nations, that people for His Name. This is the treasure that the Lord sees in the nations. He sees that treasure in the nations. He never tells us that this one and that one is a part of the treasure, and these and other ones are not a part of the treasure. No, He says, You go into the nations, you preach the Gospel to all the nations. The result will be that some out of all the nations will be brought as His treasure. The Lord only knows who are the treasure. You and I do not know. That treasure is to Him of very great value.

What is the value of that treasure? It is the value of His Own Name. The overriding factor in this whole matter is the Name of the Lord. The great phrase here which governs everything is, "FOR HIS NAME." The value of the treasure is nothing less than the value of His Own Name. Have you noticed what a great place that Name has in the New Testament? Our salvation is only by the Name. Salvation rests upon the meaning of that Name. He that believeth on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. So that faith in the Name is the basis and the beginning of salvation.

Then we are called by His Name. The Apostle James says, "That worthy Name which is called upon you":- we are called by His Name. We do not know what was in the minds of the people of Antioch, when they first called believers, "Christians." Of course, the world must always put some name onto people. But there is a significance about that Name, when in Antioch, the believers were first called "Christians." That word just simply means, people who belong to Christ. They are Christ's ones. So the Name is called on us, we are called by His Name. Do you call yourself a Christian? As everyone here tonight says, I am a Christian, that simply means, I am one of Christ's. The Name that rests upon Him now rests upon me. I carry the Name of Christ with me.

What is the next thing? Well, it says in the Book of the Acts, they went forth for the sake of the Name. That is, they went out into the world for the sake of His Name. They went out in life and service for the Name of the Lord Jesus. That is what we are Christians for, to go out into the world with His Name.

What is the next thing? They counted it joy to suffer for the sake of the Name. They counted it an honor that they were worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name. So, suffering for the Name is the next thing. It will depend entirely upon what we think of the Name, and how much we are prepared to suffer for it. The service and suffering are for the sake of the Name of Jesus. When Paul was converted, and was led by the hand into Damascus, during those three days and nights of prayer, the Lord spoke to Ananias, and told him where Saul of Tarsus was at that moment, and told him what he was doing. Then He said to Ananias, 'You go to that man, and you lay your hands on him, he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My Name before the nations, and I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name.' The service and the suffering are joined together. The service and suffering are for the sake of the Name.

What is the next thing? It is our character and our conduct for the sake of the Name. The Word is, "Whatsoever you do, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus." Character, conduct, for the sake of the Name. What we are in ourselves, and how we behave in this world, touches the Name of Jesus. If our character is not good, if our conduct is not good, it brings dishonor upon His Name. So that the Name governs our whole life in every department in this world.

There is one more thing that we will mention in connection with the Name. If all these things are true, which we have mentioned, if we are saved through faith in the Name, if that worthy Name is called upon us and we bear that Name, if we are going forth every day into the world for the sake of the Name, if we are prepared to suffer for the sake of that Name, and if we are seeking to order our character and our conduct for the honor of that Name, then this next thing will become true. We shall have power by the Name.

You remember that almost immediately after the day of Pentecost, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and they saw a poor man lying hopeless at the gate of the temple, and he was asking, he was begging for money. Peter looked upon him, and had compassion upon him, and he said, "Silver and gold have I none," but I have got something better than that, "in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." I think that was the best gift that man ever had in all the years that he had been there. The mighty power in that Name came to that man. Of course, that upset all the Jewish rulers. And Peter and John found themselves in trouble with the authorities. They were taken to the court to be tried and condemned, and the judges said, By what Name have you done this? They meant, By what authority? And Peter said, If you ask by what Name or by what authority this man is made whole, be it known unto you that it is by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There is power and there is authority in the Name. They did many mighty works by the Name of the Lord Jesus.

But we shall never know the power of the Name unless we know these other things about the Name. A lot of people would like to have the power without the consecration and the character. The power demands a holy life, a life that is in accordance with the Name of Jesus. And I think there are a lot more people who would like to have the power without the suffering. There is no power without the suffering. It is the people who suffer for the sake of the Name, who know the power of the Name.

But we have not finished the list yet, there is one more. If you look into the Book of the Revelation the Lord says this, 'To him that overcometh, will I write My new Name upon him.' The Name, then, is the Name of glory. It is the crown of glory, crown of glory for those who have believed in the Name, for those who have been consecrated to the Name, those who have honorably borne that Name through this life, to those who have served for the sake of the Name. Those whose characters have been conformed to the Name, and those who suffer for the sake of the Name, that Name will be written upon their foreheads. It will be the sign that they are glorified together with Christ.

I wonder if we have really got what we have been saying. There are not many nations represented here tonight. I do not know how many, but only a few, I think. But all of us here tonight are out of some nation. Are we the Lord's? Why are we the Lord's? Why are we saved? What would be your answer to that question? Well, I am saved in order to have my sins forgiven. I am saved in order to escape the judgment at the last day. I am saved in order to go to heaven. Well, of course, all those things are true. But they are not the real object of our salvation. WE ARE SAVED FOR THE SAKE OF HIS NAME. We are taken out of the nations for His Name. And the value of this treasure out of the nations is just the value of the Name of the Lord Jesus. And the value of that Name is all the glory of heaven. That is the price that He paid for our salvation.

You see, all that the Lord Jesus let go of was the price that He set upon His Name. And if that Name truly rests upon you and upon me, then we are of tremendous value to the Lord Jesus. It is not the value of what we are in ourselves. Perhaps you could say to me, Well, I am of very little value. It is not true that I am of the value of the Name of Jesus. You would be quite right if you said that. It is not what we are in ourselves, but it is the value of that Name which rests upon us. Our value is the value of the Name. Without that Name, we are of no value at all. But with that Name, we are a treasure of great price. The Lord looks upon us as bearing His Name as something very precious to Him. We are therefore saved for the sake of the Name.

I want to appeal to you, dear friends, I want to say to you, Do seek to have your whole life here according to the Name of the Lord Jesus. Do seek that Your whole character and your whole conduct and all that you do in this life is for the glory of the Name of Jesus. The one question that should stand over everything is, Will this honor the Name of the Lord Jesus? See, there are lots of Christians who say about certain things, Oh well, there is no harm in it. Why should I not do that? There is nothing wrong about that. Why should I not go to this thing and to that thing? Why should I not do what other people do? You see, that is all negative. We ought to say, If I do this, will it honor the Name of Jesus? Am I conducting my business to the honor of the Name of Jesus? Am I using my money for the honor of the Name of Jesus? Is my behavior before people honoring the Lord Jesus? That is the positive way of looking at the Christian life. So, we must ask about everything, Does this honor the Name of Jesus? When there are divisions between the Lord's people, do we say, Oh, this does so much dishonor to His Name. For the sake of the Name, we must do everything to heal this division.

Now we will close by noting one other thing. The Man found the treasure in the field. He sold all that He had to possess that field. When He had paid the price of redemption for the field, He secured for Himself the treasure that was in that field. And, then, what did He do with it? What did He do with the treasure when He got it? It says, "He hid it, He hid it." You see, dear friends, His Own people are hidden in the nations. There is no other way of distinguishing His people in the nations but by the Name that rests upon them. Those people in the city of Antioch did not say, We know these people by their dress, we know these people because of this or that or something else. We know them because of the Name that rests upon them. They are Christ's ones. That is the only way in which the world knows us.

Otherwise, we are no different from other people. We have not become a different kind of species, distinguished in some outward way from other kinds of people, no, we are hidden in the world as Christians. Jesus said, "Therefore the world knoweth them not." The world does not know how valuable they are to God. The world does not know that they are a treasure for whom Christ has paid the greatest price. They are His hidden ones. It is only the Lord Who knows them that are His. The only way in which the world can know who we are is because we are living according to His Name. We are bearing His Name in this world with honor. It is a worthy Name that has been called upon us. So the Lord says, "Be ye holy; for I am Holy" (I Peter 1:16). That is the distinguishing mark of the Christians. It is said of those first believers, that men took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Whatever they meant by that, it means something very wonderful. We know these people because they are like Jesus.

Now that is a very simple message, and yet it is a searching message. That wonderful parable is contained in just one verse, but it tells us of what the Lord is doing through this whole dispensation, He is taking out of the nations a people for His Name.

Now here is a wonderful thing. When we all get to heaven, what shall we look like? Well, I want to tell you this, that you will not see me as an Englishman in heaven, and I shall not see you as Chinese men and women in heaven. You will not find white and black and yellow and red people in heaven. We shall all bear the image of the glorified Son of Man. That is better than having a black or a white face, is it not? You see, it says distinctly in the Word of God, that we were foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son. And when we awake, we shall be like Him. If we have borne His Name here, if we have honored His Name here, if we have suffered for His Name here, His Name will be upon us there, and it will be ONE GREAT CHRIST, Christ manifested in us all - because we shall bear His likeness, because we are called by His Name!