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The Testimony and Its Vessel unto the Time of the End

by T. Austin-Sparks

The Abiding Message of the Book of Daniel

First published in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazines, 1933.

Contents

Chapter 1 - The Abiding Message of the Book of Daniel

Chapter 2 - Hell's Hatred of the Vessel of Testimony

Chapter 3 - The Basic Principle of Spiritual Effectiveness

Chapter 4 - The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose

Chapter 1 - The Abiding Message of the Book of Daniel

In this introductory word it will be necessary for us to take a broad view of what is before us and to be occupied mainly in a general outline. The more specific spiritual application will remain for subsequent consideration and you will understand that the peculiar nature of this present time is just in preparation for what may follow.

We shall have to take what this book ('Daniel') brings into view along a two-fold line, in the main. Firstly the historical and prophetical; and then secondly, the typical and spiritual. But I would like here immediately to say that it is not in one's thought or intention to deal with the book of Daniel in any way exhaustively along prophetical lines, that is, it is not just prophecy as contained in this book which will occupy us, although that will be latent and sometimes patent all the way through.

We are aware that prophecy by itself need not be spiritually helpful or enriching or building up. It may be very interesting, very fascinating, very educational, but it does not always have a spiritual effect, and I do not think the Lord ever intended His people just to study prophecy as a subject, but to recognise that everything in His thought is intended to reach down into the life and to make very radical changes there, and in order for prophecy to do that, you have to do a great deal more than study dates, times, seasons and signs. There has to be a spiritual interpretation and application, and it is that which we have especially in mind here. But for the present moment we just take some more or less broad view of what is here brought before us.

2,500 Years of this World's History

We know that the Book of Daniel covers and outlines that part of this world's history which was designated by the Lord Jesus Himself as "the times of the Gentiles." You will remember that He said (it is recorded in Luke 21:24): "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," and this Book of Daniel covers, and outlines, that period; roughly a period of some 2,500 years. It commenced when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were entirely overthrown and Gentile powers took possession of their land; in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim, Nebuchadnezzar introduced the times of the Gentiles, the Gentile world-powers; and never since that time has there been a king of Israel or Judah. Now the outline of this period is given to us largely in the second, seventh, eighth and ninth chapters of this book.

In the second chapter we have the image of Nebuchadnezzar's dream, and the seventh and the eighth chapters are enlargements of the second, that is, a fuller account of what is contained in the image of that dream. I am not going to attempt to deal with all the details of that, but just to remind you of that image and what it pointed to.

As you will remember, the image had a head of gold, and interpreting the dream to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel said: "Thou art this head of gold," which of course was Nebuchadnezzar and his empire, the Babylonian empire. And then the image had its chest and arms of silver; you will notice that that is inferior to gold and portrayed an inferior kingdom which would follow that of the Babylonian. It pointed on to the Medo-Persian empire. Then the trunk and thighs were of brass, a still more inferior empire following that, which was fulfilled in the great Macedonian empire. Then the legs of iron and the feet part of iron and part of clay, pointed on to a still more inferior empire, namely, the Roman, the two legs representing the eastern section and the western section of the Roman empire. The feet, the iron speaking of the monarchical aspect of that empire, that government, and the clay speaking of the democratic aspect. Over the territory covered by that fourth empire today there are monarchies and republics, a literal fulfilment in our own day and for many years past of that which was foreshadowed 500 years B.C.

Then another thing is said concerning that fourth empire, that in the midst of those kings the God of heaven would set up a kingdom which should never be destroyed, and which would never be in the hands of another people; a stone cut without hands should break those kingdoms in pieces. We have seen a very large fulfilment of that; the God of heaven has set up His kingdom in the midst of the kingdoms of that fourth world-empire, the Roman empire. Against that kingdom of the God of the heavens no world power has yet been able to prevail, although they have wielded the full weight of their might against the saints of the Most High: butchered and massacred them and determined with a diabolical determination to wipe them out; it is those kingdoms that have gone to pieces, the stone cut without hands has broken them and the kingdoms which have set themselves against the Lord and His Christ are fast becoming stories in history books of glories of past days, and the kingdom of the God of heaven goes on never to be destroyed, and never to be entrusted to the hands of any mere world-power, it is in the hands of the saints of the Most High. There will yet be a greater fulfilment of this; a literal one, and not only a spiritual one.

Well, that is the second chapter in brief, so far as Daniel's image is concerned, and then as we said, chapters 7 and 8 are an enlargement of that. In chapter 7 you have the four beasts coming up out of the sea. The sea, as we here know, represents the unorganised mass of mankind. Coming up out of the sea are these four beasts. The first was like a lion and that again represents Babylon. You remember Jeremiah, in prophesying the overthrow of Israel and Judah, and the coming captivity, spoke in typical language about the one who would come up and carry them away and destroy them. He said: "The lion is come up," and here is the lion coming up out of the sea, Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian empire.

The second was the bear, and that again points to the Medo-Persian empire. On its side, (you notice the detail) meaning that Persia was its strong element. It had three ribs in its mouth, speaking of three great provinces of that empire, Syria, Lydia and Asia Minor.

The third beast, the leopard, speaking of the Greco-Macedonian empire. This leopard had four wings typical of its rapid advance, fulfilled so clearly in the conquests of Alexander the Great, sweeping advances in all directions. It had four heads which pointed to the parting of the empire into its four territories of Syria, Egypt, Macedonia and Asia Minor.

Then the fourth beast, the great nondescript beast, pointing to the Roman empire. Ten horns, speaking of ten provinces, and then one small horn destroying the three; the eyes of a man, a mouth speaking great swelling things. Much of this yet awaits fulfilment.

Now we, of course, could go on with that historic, prophetical side, but a hurried look at Chapter 8 will complete all that we intend in this connection for the time being. In Chapter 8 you have the Medo-Persian empire, firstly as a ram with two horns, indicating the Medes and the Persians, the Persians the last and the stronger side, conquered in three directions, and those three directions are the three ribs of Chapter 7.

Secondly, the Greco-Macedonian empire is a he-goat; swift, that is, as the leopard kingdom of Chapter 7, with one horn, that is Alexander the Great. It is most important to realise this was all written some hundred years before Alexander the Great was born, and you see these conquests of that monarch as he leaped across the Hellespont and fought successful battles, and then moved on up the banks of the Indus and Nile and then to Shushan, the battle of the Granicus, and then the battle of Issus, and then his great battle of Arbella. He stamped the Persian to the ground and soon Syria, Phoenicia, Cyprus, Tyre, Gaza, Egypt and Babylon were all conquered. After this he conquered Bactria and defeated the Scythians. Thus he stamped upon the ram.

"But when the he-goat had waxed very great, the great horn was broken." The early death of Alexander was thus predicted. He died a drunkard at the age of thirty-two years.

Now you may be wondering what all that has to do with us at this present time, but as we said at the outset, there is a spiritual side to this. There is, of course, its value of seeing the Word of God fulfilled so minutely, and the Spirit of God being vindicated along all these detailed lines, but there is a very great deal more than that in it and we want to come to the main spiritual features of this particular age as indicated by this Book of Daniel, and we can gather those up briefly.

The Spiritual Features of this History

Firstly, we are impressed by this book with the fact that the government of the world on the human side is seen to be for this long period in the hands of Gentile rulers. That carries with it a very great deal more than is apparent on the surface, and we shall see something of what that includes as we go along.

Then in the second place, in a special and distinctive way the kingdom of God of the heavens is seen to be operating. Now put those two things together and you have something of tremendous significance. On the one hand, the fact that, for some 2,500 years of this world's history, on the human side, its government is in the hands of Gentile rulers, and on the other hand, the fact that with the introduction of that regime there is so much said about the rule, the government of the God of the heavens. I do not know whether you have been impressed with that phrase, and similar phrases, in the Book of Daniel. If you care to make a note and look it up I will just give you some of the places in which that phrase and like phrases are used. Five times in Chapter 2: 2:18,19,28,37,44. Five times in Chapter 4: 4:13,26,31,35,37; then in 5:23; 6:27; 7:13,27.

Now that has a two-fold force. It has that general force which we have mentioned, that while Gentile powers, on the human side, have the government of this world in their hands, the heavens do rule. There is a specific emphasis laid upon the government of the heavens, and the God of the heavens. We shall come back to that later on, but there is another thing which goes along with that, which carries its own significance. Daniel was a Jew, probably of the seed royal, and if not of the seed royal, one of dignity in the Hebrew race. If you read in Chapter 1 you will see that those that Nebuchadnezzar required to come in to his court were to be taken from the seed royal or those outstanding in dignity, and Daniel and his friends were chosen on that ground. Now Daniel evidently held an important place in the Hebrew race and the Book makes it quite clear that Daniel had a special concern for Jerusalem, and the Lord's interest in Jerusalem, and the Lord's people the Jews. His windows were up toward Jerusalem three times a day, and he carried his own people as a great burden upon his heart, and yet withal he never speaks of the Lord as the God of the Jews, or of Israel, but always, the God of the heavens. That is a Gentile age feature, and it brings in God's specific purpose in the age, which is not the Jews as such, though included in the purpose. It brings in a heavenly calling, not an earthly one. "Partakers of a heavenly calling." It brings the heavens in with something which specifically relates to the heavens as differing from the Jewish kingdom on the earth, and shows that in this age the heavens are interested in that; that is the thing in which the heavens are concerned, this heavenly object. The God of the heavens is always seen here; it is the heavens ruling, and we shall see in what connection more specifically as we go on.

A Person, A Testimony, An Instrument

This rule of the heavens, therefore, is related to a Person, a Testimony and an Instrument. That person is the One here called "The Son of Man." Everything is pointing towards that Person, and the issue of this book is found in that Person, everything here is moving on toward the day when that Person shall be the one pre-eminent Person. The heavens are ruling and over-ruling the world-kingdoms towards that end, toward a Person, a Testimony: that is, the Testimony of Jesus. That is the spirit of prophecy, we are told: "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The heavens are ruling and over-ruling in relation to the testimony of Jesus. And then in relation to an instrument, that instrument is the Church, and it came in with the Gentile period. That Church is represented typically and spiritually by Daniel and his three friends. It is typified by the remnant which was the issue of the testimony of these four. Now I hope you may be able to grasp that. It will leave a general impression upon you if you cannot grasp the details.

Thus, then, there are three things clearly in view in the main. One, the set course of the age, by Divine planning, heading up to Christ. That is very clear in the book of Daniel. The set course of the age  all these Gentile powers with all that was bad and wrong in them, nevertheless by Divine appointment (not bad by Divine appointment, but the power, the rule by Divine appointment) it is in the Divine plan, and in spite of the Divine planning being taken hold of by evil men and all the wrong that they introduce, God is carrying on toward His purpose and causing these things to head up to His Son: that is the rule of the heavens. It ought to come to us with fresh emphasis  (I know very well how I am covering very old ground for many of you, for myself this is very old ground indeed, but there are perhaps younger servants of the Lord who have not been taken through the prophetical school very thoroughly, and for whom, perhaps, the barest outline of things may be helpful to a closer study)  that these world empires, these Gentile empires with all the wrong and the evil and the wickedness and the antagonism to God, are nevertheless in the hands and in the plan of God, and that God has got them not only in His plan but in His authority. They may work against Him but He is compelling their very working against Him to work for Him, and it is all heading up to Christ, the Person.

Secondly, an instrument in the earth is in view which is inseparably bound up with the purpose of the age. Again, that should carry much more weight with us than it does, and if we are going on with the Lord we are going to come to that fact spiritually, perhaps along very violent lines. You and I will, if we come right into God's specific object for the age, come right in it spiritually and vitally. We are going to discover that we are people who count for something. That is not said on the natural level, that is said in that realm where we are going to discover that heaven and hell are involved in this matter of securing this instrument, and heaven will be moved to its centre and hell will be moved to its depths because of that object, that installment, that Church, or that remnant. It is inseparably bound up with the age purpose and all the kingdoms of the earth are related to it. It touches all the nations in a spiritual way, so that two mighty spiritual hierarchies are drawn in, so to speak, as to the issue, the issue of the government of those nations, and that is being determined in and by the Church. Have you ever recognised that? That the Church is the instrument for the determining of the government of the nations, because it is the instrument of the testimony of Jesus, that He is Lord; and that is the challenge. The Church stands on the side of heaven, and heaven stands on the side of the Church, the Body of Christ, and heaven and the Church confront hell and all its forces with a challenge of government for the nations in all the ages to come. And so as that instrument is inseparably bound up with the purpose of the age, this third thing comes in, that heaven and hell are actively in operation concerning that instrument. That is of immense significance. You may be a professing Christian engaged in much of the organised work of Christianity, but if you come by the Holy Ghost into God's immediate age purpose spiritually, livingly, and range yourself with Christ as Lord, to be a witness unto Him and His Lordship in this earth, you range yourself against hell and hell at once takes account of you and you become an object of significance and importance.

Now all that comes into view in the Book of Daniel because that is represented and typified by Daniel and his fellows, and the remnant which issued from their testimony.

SIMILARITY BETWEEN ENDS AND BEGINNINGS

1. The Word of God Despised

The next thing is that conditions at the beginning are particularly true of the end. Look at the beginning of this period, this age-period of the Gentile world powers as we have it in the Book of Daniel and in the other prophecies which circle around the beginning. You have Jehoiakim and his apostasy. We will have more to say about it, but remember that all that took place here in the Book of Daniel took place in the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim. Who was he? He was a son of Josiah. That makes things exceedingly serious, for Josiah was one of those good kings of the latter days of Israel, through whom a very blessed revival took place in Israel; who recovered things for God, who was true to God in a day of terrible declension and idolatry, and one of the most glorious fragments of those latter years of Israel's history was that under Josiah. And Jehoiakim was a son of Josiah; and Jehoiakim son of Josiah cut the Word of God to pieces and burnt it. He despised the Word of God. He knew that upon which God had set His blessing, His approval, he knew of days of Divine blessing and the ground upon which that blessing was given, he knew that of which God approved, history was before him in close relationships, he had a godly heritage, but he apostatised, he despised the Word of God. He let go his godly heritage. That was the beginning. He did more than that. He had a brother and he had seen his brother captivated, the King of Egypt deposed his brother and put him in his place and changed his name. He had seen the downfall of his brother because God was against the way that he was taking, and that ought to have been a warning to him. He had seen the blessing of God upon his father and the judgment of God upon his brother. That is how it was at the beginning, and I have said that the conditions at the beginning are repeated very closely at the end of a dispensation. The Word of God is despised today. There is a godly heritage, there is a history; it is clear to all who want to see where the Lord's blessing rests and upon what it rests. We have not to look back upon our history very far to see where the Lord comes in in blessing  faithfulness to the Word of God;  and yet today that which officially represents Christendom as Jehoiakim officially represented Israel, in the main, despises the Word of God, sets it aside, ignores its history, takes no account of its godly heritage, and things are in a state of declension, largely apostasy, today. Yes, as it was then so it is now.

2. Mixture

A further feature was mixture in the things of God. Why, these prophecies pointing on to the captivity of Israel are just full of that, it is mountainous. You open Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the whole plaintive cry is about an awful mixture in the things of God. Take a chapter like Isaiah 66: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been saith the Lord: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." But this is how things are: "He that killeth an ox is as if he slew a man, he that sacrificeth a lamb, as if he cut off a dog's neck: he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood; he that burneth incense, as if he blessed an idol. Yea, they have chosen their own ways, and their soul delighteth in their abominations." What mixture! No discrimination, no spiritual discernment, perception, sensitiveness about holy things, but mixed up, confused. Are we not truly able to say that in our day at the end of the age there is a terrible mixture in the things of God? Yes, indeed, in the things of God all sorts of things contrary to God have been brought in. Sometimes it is literally appalling.

As you know, I travel through the country a good bit by road, and in the course of these many journeys we pass the doors of numerous places of worship  great blazing notices of whist-drives, concerts, concert parties by the most outrageously worldly names and titles. These are the programmes of these "places of worship" (?) and as you take account of Christendom, you shudder sometimes and wonder where the testimony of the Lord is. Awful mixture; so that even honest and sincere people very often do not know their right hand from their left in spiritual matters; what is of God and what is not, and you find very often genuinely sincere Christian people find it possible to do things and go to places and engage in this and that without any conscience whatever as to what the Lord approves of; things are so mixed, the whole background of their life has become so confused that they have entered into an inheritance of mixture and they do not know: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Mixture at the end as at the beginning, and much idolatry.

God Requires Ultimate Conformity to Original Light

One very brief word in this general outline again. Light is given at the beginning and light is recovered at the end, but with this extra emphasis, that light given at the beginning and recovered at the end is with the special object of that light being conformed to. I want you to get that, because these are abiding features of ages. The beginning of an age is marked by light always. The end of an age is always marked by that same light being brought into view, but an added emphasis of demand for conformity to the original light. Do you get that? In the Book of Daniel, isn't it marvellous, does it not strike you with great force, that the bringing in of Gentile world powers in a man like Nebuchadnezzar should be so marked by light. Nebuchadnezzar, what was he in himself? Not much as a man, and yet to that man the God of heaven gave the most remarkable and wonderful fullness of unveiling of world-history, successive dominions of this world. Nebuchadnezzar searched out all his wise men, and his magicians to give him light, to help him in an hour when he was defeated, baffled, and not one of them could give a ray of light upon his perplexity, and he ordered them all to be destroyed. Daniel heard of it and said: "Why is the decree so hasty from the king?" Then Daniel went in to the king and desired that he would give him time and he would show the king the interpretation. "There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets." Every confidence in the Lord.

And a season was appointed, the order of execution was stayed for a period, and Daniel called a prayer meeting, they went to the Lord. In a night vision the thing was revealed to Daniel and then Daniel praised the God of heaven and went in unto the king. By direct revelation 2,500 years of history were given to a Babylonian king when none of all the wise men of the earth could give him a ray of light. The God of heaven came in. Is not that impressive? Yes, light at the beginning. Light is always a feature of the beginning of a dispensation, but as that dispensation closes that light is brought into view anew with God's double emphasis for conformity to the original light. That carries us a long way. If we are in the end, God is going to recover, and is seeking to recover for His saints the original light for His Church, but He is going to demand that the saints conform to that light, and if at an end time we come into touch with the true light, God is going to take great pains to see that we do not just handle this thing as so much truth and teaching, but He will deal with us in such a way as to bring us into living fellowship with the light.

This is just where we should finish, is it not? Light was given at the beginning: much light came in fully through the Apostle Paul. Most of it has been lost, or it has been lost in the main for the people of God through the ages, but God has been slowly recovering it, bringing it back bit by bit. And does it not strike you as significant that the Lord has so mightily recovered the testimony to the truth of the Coming Again of the Lord Jesus, and then brought in on top of that, and is bringing in on top of that, His emphasis about the Church the Body of Christ? Those two things go together. The remnant is related to the Advent.

Well, now, we just close here for the present on this. The Lord is out to perfect that instrument of and in the testimony as to the Coming Sovereign One, and to bring that instrument, as He brought the instrument in the book of Daniel, into a living and experimental relationship to Himself for the age-purpose. How practical things were with Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego  very practical. The Lord wrought the testimony in them and through them by deep, deep experiences. That is a foreshadowing, making the testimony a matter of life and death. And that is where we are. God is seeking to bring about a conformity to the light at the end.

May the Lord give you hearts that are able to hold all that is in His thought important for this time. This has only been surveying a very broad outlook in order that we may have something to work to after.

Chapter 2 - Hell's Hatred of the Vessel of Testimony

Having covered the ground in general survey and main outline we are now able to begin to work more closely on the spiritual aspect of those things. We want to come into closer touch with our title in its meaning, that is, "The testimony and its vessel unto the time of the end."

I want to just touch one or two fragments of this book before we go on. Daniel 1:21: "And Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus." Try and keep that in mind, for it is a very important statement. Daniel 7:9-11: "I beheld till thrones were placed and one that was ancient of days did sit: his raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool: his throne was fiery flames, and the wheels thereof burning fire," etc., 7:13-14,22: "...and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom." 7:18: "But the saints of the Most High shall receive the kingdom..." 7:27: "and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High..." 10:1, 12:13: "But go thou thy way till the end be; for thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days."

We have been saying that this book reveals that throughout an extended period of this world's history, known as the "Times of the Gentiles," the heavens are in operation in relation to a vessel of the testimony of the Lord, and that inasmuch as the heavens are in operation in that connection, hell is also stirred up and is tremendously active in the same direction.

The Mighty Significance of the Insignificant

Now what we have to see is not only that vessel, but how it fulfills its ministry in relation to the Lord's testimony in this time. And that vessel, we have said, is represented in this book by Daniel and his three companions. There are these two things; the world, under Divine planning, governed by Gentile powers, for the most part hostile to the Lord, antagonistic to the Lord's purposes, but in the midst thereof that which is related to the Lord and His purpose, and joined to the heavens  through which the heavens are ruling in the midst of the kingdoms of men; and what comes out in this book of Daniel very clearly is, that while the Gentile power is operating, and operating strongly, in opposition to God, God is imminent in His instrument and that instrument is really ruling in the midst of the world-powers and bringing in that which speaks of the superior and transcendent government of the heavens. Now that is a very simple statement, but it has bound up with it tremendous things for us and for the people of God.

It is no small thing to see that right there in the heart of the great dominating world system, the organised systems of this world governing the earth, there is a small thing, out of proportion to that system in its natural constitution, which so represents the supremacy of the heavens over the earth that although that world system goes just as far as it can, and the spiritual forces back of it, to bring to an end that apparently small and insignificant thing at its centre, it is said of that, firstly, that it continued unto the reign of Cyrus, King of Persia, continued unto then; then there is seen that testimony right at the end of everything, the last thing when the pageant or the empires has passed, mighty empires rising, having their day, dominating, waning, passing; and they have all come and they have all gone and they have spent themselves to the full, the instrument of that testimony stands at the end of the day: "Thou shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days." And then withal the kingdom handed to the saints of the Most High and they take the government. That instrument, that vessel, is no insignificant thing; it may appear to be to the natural eye, comparatively from human standpoints it may be a mere nothing, but it is the instrument of heaven's rule and government and it is something which is greater than all the world-powers with all the satanic forces behind them.

Now that is saying immense things, beloved, immense things. Do you catch something of the application of that yourself? Do you realise and recognise that you in all the weakness, the feebleness, the poverty, the insignificance of your own personal life, your own human constitution, your position, if vitally, truly spiritually linked in with God's eternal purpose in and concerning His Son Jesus Christ, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, called by grace and having responded to that call, a partaker of the heavenly calling, you are moving with God in the Holy Ghost, if that is true of you then you are a part of that vessel through which the government of the heavens is being made manifest in the unseen, and vitally related to the course of this world's history, giving significance to all the happenings of the course of this world; that you are spiritually what Daniel and his three companions were in Babylon. What was that? The vehicle, vessel, instrument, for showing that God and the kingdom of the God of the heavens is a mightier thing than all the force and power of men and devils combined. That is no small calling for you or for me, we are in that, and mark you, that involves this  if my interpretation of the Scripture is right (and there is a great deal more than the book of Daniel with which to support it)  it involves this, that when the Devil has done all that he can do, and men have done all that they can do against us, that testimony which we represent is going to abide to the end and we are going to stand upon the wreck and ruin of all the world empires triumphant in that testimony in Christ, indestructible. Let them kindle the fires seven times, let them starve their lions! Now this is not romancing, this is the meaning of the issue of the testimony in the power of Christ's resurrection. That is the thing you and I are called unto, the power of His resurrection, which is to have its final manifestation in a company who have conquered death, and the authority of death, or in whom the Son of God has conquered death. That is the meaning of the fire and the Son of God in the midst.

Oh, that something of that might just dawn upon you, for we are here today in no small thing. Tremendous things have gathered us here at this time and there is a very great deal of history back of our being here.

Daniel continued unto the first year of king Cyrus. When was that? Open your book of Ezra and how does Ezra begin? "Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of Jehovah by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished Jehovah stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia." What did he do? Gave command for the return of the Jews to their land, opened the way and facilitated the return of the remnant, the recovery of the testimony. Daniel continued unto then. He must have been an old man, but that very fact is a declaration which spites hell, for Babylon sought to engulf Daniel.

Hell's Hatred of the Vessel of Testimony

The powers of evil back of Babylon marked Daniel out for destruction. Oh, you can see it. Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream, sent for all his wise men to interpret  no one could, impulsively he commanded that they all should be destroyed, and it says: "And they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain." That means Daniel was a marked man by those who had this power in their hands. Why does it say: "And they sought Daniel and his companions to be slain." Well, he was not one of the Chaldean or Babylonian wise men or magicians, but they included him and his friends. They had not asked him if he could interpret the dream, they had not given him a chance, but they sought to kill him. You see the impulsiveness of hell back of that, to get four men who had not been given a chance, to kill them, to sweep them in, to stampede this whole thing in order to get those four men. That is what Herod did; he swept in all the babes in order to get one. That is what Pharaoh did. This is hell's method, just to get one, to engulf the vessel of the testimony.

We know the fiery furnace and the den of lions. We know from this book of the animos in the hearts of men toward these. How they were scheming and designing so that they could entrap them, catch them, get rid of them. How they gloated over the signing of that command by the king which could not be cancelled and had to go through when Daniel was caught. How they gloated over it. "Now we have got him." Well, that is there coming from the spiritual background, but: "Daniel continued even unto the first year of king Cyrus." Why is that added just there? Why is that put in? Is that only just a little bit of historic information thrown in for narrative? No, the Holy Spirit is saying something tremendous. Daniel continued. Then when all this is passed, they have done their worst: "and shalt stand in thy lot, at the end of the days." The vessel of the testimony will be there when all else is spent. It continues unto the end; it is indestructible, it is of the nature of the permanence of heaven. It does not mean we may not die, although we may not be executed  but never was a vessel of the testimony more alive than the Apostle Paul today. He was executed. He will stand in his lot at the end.

This is a spiritual principle, a spiritual truth, and the point that I am seeking to get at is this, beloved: there has got to be something in our relationship to heaven and God's specified purpose which makes possible the manifestation of that mighty, devil-conquering life in us. We have got to know the power of His resurrection. That is essential to the vessel of the testimony at the end time, unto the end, to get through to the end: it means that we must be that in which the power of His resurrection is manifested. That is not merely an obligation, that is a privilege. It is a costly privilege, but that is what the Lord needs.

I am always so glad of that correspondence between Paul and his Lord, that when the Lord Jesus came to die He said: "I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one taketh it away from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment received I from my Father." When the Apostle Paul came to the end he did not say: "Now I am going to be taken hold of and they are going to kill me, and I shall not be able to help myself." He quietly, serenely announced: "The time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith." There is no surrendering to fate in that. There is no capitulating to the hands of men in that. There is, as it were, a quiet, deliberate walking out in the recognition that the Lord's time had come and not man's. Now there is a correspondence between Paul and his Master, but note, Paul is in representation the vessel of the testimony in this age. The testimony of Jesus was peculiarly placed within that vessel in a representative way. We have often said Paul personally embodied all the special revelation which was entrusted to him, he became a personal sign of that revelation. The truth which was committed to him from heaven had a specific outworking in his own life and experience because he had got to represent the Church in this age in himself as the vessel of its unveiling, and the issue of the Church in this age is the expression in fullness, of the power of Christ's resurrection as triumphant over death in translation, not by the grave but by the air.

"Oh, joy! oh, delight! should we go without dying;

No sickness, no sadness, no dread, and no crying."

We have sung that: that is the prospect for the Church, that is the glorious possibility, no! that is the certainty, as the final issue, but that represents that death is robbed finally of its power, that the power of His resurrection is manifested in eluding the grave and depriving death of its object. That is Enoch. But Paul represented that, and his last utterances are: "That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection"; yes, true: "and the fellowship of his sufferings," that is Daniel and the others. "The power of his resurrection" not as something just at the beginning of his Christian life and walk, but something at the end. And not as something merely to deliver him with all others in a general resurrection from the grave, but in a specific out-resurrection from among the dead. That is the testimony of the Church, a vessel for that. Paul represented that specific thing for the Church in this age. Daniel continued and Daniel stands in his lot at the end.

Have you grasped the principle that is implied in that? A wonderful thing. But beloved, you and I are called even now  though we may die, we may go by the grave  yet now, at this end time, you and I are called to be a part of that vessel in which the power of His resurrection is manifested, that the murderous plottings of hell are eluded, are overcome, and that the murderer who comes out to destroy before the Lord's purposes are accomplished shall be baffled by the power of His resurrection in us. When we ought to have been dead a dozen times we are still alive. Yes, the Lord wants an adequate vessel for that, not one, two, or three scattered here and there, but an adequate vessel for that; and He is seeking that. In relation to that we are here. You and I must not accept death until the Lord tells us the time has come. If we do, we open the door for the enemy to triumph. (Many of you do not understand that. If you do not, do not worry about it, but ask the Lord to give you the essential thing of what we are saying.)

Now that all comes out of that statement: "Daniel continued." Daniel stands at the end. The vessel is there when all has been done to see that the vessel should not be there. The testimony is there  goes on unto the end. But we have to see something more about such a vessel.

The Nature of the Vessel's Present Ascendancy

We have to see the nature of the ascendancy of that vessel. In this present age it is true that the vessel is called to be in a state of ascendancy, in a place of government, now, a place of dominion if you like, ruling. But its government, its ruling, its dominion in this age is not the same as it will be in the age to come. It is going to rule. There is another sense in which the kingdom will be given to the people of the saints of the Most High, then it will be literal government, literal dominion, it will be recognised and acknowledged, it will be universally manifested, the accepted order. It is not that now, that hardly needs saying; and yet the principle is to be just as true now as it will be then. But the nature of the government now is not literal, but moral. Now I explain what I mean by that by illustrating from this book of Daniel.

Nebuchadnezzar is that head of gold. God had given him a kingdom, the greatest of all those world's kingdoms; every other dominion that followed was a step of deterioration. Silver, brass, iron, clay. A drop in value all the way through; but Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian empire was the most glorious of all empires, and God had given it to him. Daniel and his three companions are in the centre of that, and I ask you, who rules, Nebuchadnezzar or Daniel? When no one could help the king out of his difficulty over his dream and eventually Daniel came in, it says: "Then Daniel answered before the king." Why? Because he had already been before the King of kings. If you follow him in before Nebuchadnezzar you are moving in an atmosphere of dignity, quiet confidence and assurance. From the very first step, as we pointed out before, when Daniel heard that all the wise men were to be destroyed, he confidently announced that there was a God in heaven who revealeth secrets and He would give an answer to the king. There was not any hesitation and saying: "Well, I will ask the Lord and see if He will give an answer." Absolute assurance, absolute confidence, serenity, kept him perfectly steady. He never lost his head. He called his three companions and they prayed, and the Lord revealed the thing to Daniel in the night season. "Daniel answered before the king." It is moral authority, ascendancy, he is governing morally and again and again things were, so to speak, put into his hands. He became the moral ruler of the situation again and again. He ruled even from the den of lions, he was on top, he was on top of the king. The king morally groveled to this man more than once. And those three, where were they morally? Well, "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." What is the result of that? Not that they are delivered from the fiery furnace  keep that in mind  not that God comes in and opens a way of escape for them, but the Son of God associates Himself with them in the fire, and the result is that everything goes down before them morally and they come out as kings, they reign morally.

You see the ascendancy is a moral thing in the midst of this world-system, and government from the heavens morally. What is the secret of that ascendancy which, in the sovereignty of the God of the heavens, brings the power into our hands? Go back to the first chapter of the book and you have the secret, the foundation secret: "But Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself." It says: "But Daniel purposed in his heart"; it only says that about Daniel, but before you get through the chapter you find the other three are in the same position. It does not say they purposed, but it says Daniel purposed, and it is clear that Daniel's moral lead, moral stand, moral ascendancy, brought his brethren alongside of him in fellowship in that testimony. Now there are two things there. I will mention the second first.

Beloved, you never know what you are going to effect for God in securing others to a position of definite, strong standing for the Lord, by taking a strong, though costly stand yourself. Sometimes you personally have to take a stand alone at great cost, which may involve you in a good deal of suffering. You never know what that is going to mean for the Lord by others being morally brought into a strong place. The Lord needs "Daniels" in this sense; the men and women who will take a personal stand, at any cost, upon what they know to be according to the mind of God. It is not a question, in the first place, of whether others do it or not, or whether others will follow suit or not; it is what God requires, what is according to God. The question is not, What will it cost me? What will others think of it? Will others agree with me? It is, Will the Lord require that? If so, that is the only ground for me to act upon. And acting like that very often means that moral stamina comes into others and the Lord gains by a personal, lonely stand for Him, a mighty increase of reinforcement in His testimony.

Now that may be a word that touches someone who is being faced with a course which is costly, and a price has to be paid, and as far as they know there is not another one who will take that step; but if you do you may discover there are several others whom the Lord will meet if you go on in faithful devotion, if you go on in what you know to be the will of God for you. Daniel purposed he would not defile himself. This brings in a whole new world. Wherein lay the defilement? You read of Nebuchadnezzar's siege of Jerusalem. You will find he took away the vessels of the House of the Lord and put them into the house of his gods. Nebuchadnezzar had gods, and it was not the Lord. There was another spiritual system back of Babylon. It was not just Babylon, just some earthly system, not just men, it was that spiritual thing back of men and the system of the world-ruler. Yes, something spiritual behind; that comes out so much in this book. Back of Babylon was the prince of this world, the god of this age. He was moving things in Babylon and moving things against Daniel and his companions, because of the testimony and the Lord, the testimony of the God of heaven. That was behind; and Daniel knew that to voluntarily partake of those things from the king's table was to involve himself in the moral and spiritual background of things, and that would be defilement, and that kind of thing would rob him of power with God as well as with men. So he calculatingly and deliberately purposed he would not defile himself, he would not allow any kind of voluntary link between himself and that spiritual system back of this world order.

If only people recognised the things of which they say: "Well, there is no harm in it," the things of this world, even the religious things of this world with which they have voluntary connections, in which they dabble and indulge; if only they recognised that back of those "harmless" things there is the working of a sinister force, to entrap them, to spoil them, to rob them of spiritual power! And you know as well as I do, that any professing child of God who has some compromising thing in their life, something that forms a link, be it ever so small, between them and the spiritual system back of this world, they are robbed of power with God and with men and it is not until that thing is dealt with and thoroughly put away that they have any kind of spiritual or moral ascendancy. Until that thing is repudiated from the heart God cannot come in and communicate Himself to them. No compromise with the Devil through any kind of means or form of his government. I said that introduces a whole new world; now let it open up.

The World Dominion Gathered Up in One Man

Do you notice that in this second chapter the image of Daniel brings all the world-empires from the beginning of the Babylonian empire to the end of the Roman empire and its ten provinces, into the form of one personality, one image, the image of a man? Has the significance of that struck you? All the world-empires, all the "Times of the Gentiles" gathered up in the figure of one man. I ask you if the final issue of this dispensation, of this world-government on the human side, is not going to be gathered up in one personality, the antichrist? There is no doubt about it that the Word of God makes it clear that that principle will be carried out, that the government of this world will be headed up into one personality, the antichrist. There is in Daniel one man, and all is gathered up into the figure of one personality, one corporate body. That is set right over against the Son of Man. The Christ, and the antichrist; they both come out in Daniel.

Now what is the dominion of the Son of man over the antichrist in the Church, the vessel? It is the absolute distinctiveness of that vessel, separation, holiness; its complete break with the whole system of the Evil One at every point, and not allowing one touch of defilement with that system. Have you not in your spiritual experience seen, recognised more than once, that in order to destroy your spiritual power and strength and your moral ascendancy or effectiveness, the enemy in some way or another must make a contact between you and his kingdom? He will put a temptation in your way, he will put a suggestion into your mind, he will make suggestions to you, put thoughts into you. In thousands of different ways he puts out a gangway, and he wants you to cross that gangway, to accept that gangway, a link between you and his system. There is no wrong in temptation, beloved, most believers know what it is to have evil thoughts suggested to their minds. It does not mean they have sinned because an evil thought has been suggested, but at the point where they entertain that, respond to that, allow that, they have sinned and made a link with the enemy, and before long that very link is the means of their undoing, their weakness, breakdown, and not until they get back to the Lord and say: "I allowed that to linger, I added another to it." or in some way the enemy put out, and we took on, and that has been completely dealt with, wiped out by the Blood, we do not get back our position. The rule of the heavens through the instrument in overthrowing the power of evil demands no defilement, no contact.

Oh, sometimes it will come along the line of discouragement, sometimes through depression, doubt; sometimes through an overwhelming sense of weakness, and the enemy strikes a blow and sends a fiery dart of questioning the Lord, His love, His wisdom. We can never exhaust the ways in which it comes, but it is not just the fact that it comes, but the fact that we accept it, we take it on, we allow the enemy to lodge his gangway and we go across; we are undone. Mark you, the principle, the basic principle of spiritual and moral ascendancy, of dominion, of overthrowing the power of the enemy, of having authority over all the power of the Devil is not in our language, our phraseology, is not the volume of our voice, the forcefulness of our effort, our manner, it is the moral purity of our lives; or, in other words, the fact that we give the enemy no ground any where. Oh, how deeply and wonderfully clear that principle is in Daniel, the first chapter. The whole history lies ahead and it is a history of the combat between heaven and hell as fought out here on the earth. The world-rulers of this darkness, the principalities and powers on the one hand, heaven on the other, but the instrument by which the issue is decided is that small thing right in the heart of it, and whether it is the testimony's maintenance in victory and administration of victory, or whether so far as that instrument is concerned it is going to be defeat and the enemy getting the advantage, depends upon whether there is a link between us and the enemy system at any point.

We have a way of saying: "Do not take it on." You understand what I mean. So often a very plausible thing can be offered by the enemy, so often the things seems so true, really above argument, beyond contention. Well, prove all things. Beware! The enemy is out all the time to form a link between you and his dominion. If he gets it the testimony will go. The vessel of the testimony must purpose in its heart that it will not defile itself. And the dainties from the king's table and the wine may speak to us, young men and women especially, of those advantages, advances, facilitations of progress and improvement which the enemy offers under cover of: "Well, do not be too extreme, do not be singular, do not be fanatical; just be perfectly level and balanced, do not be a stickler." Yes, you may have some dainties from the king's table if only you will lower your standard a little in business. But the testimony means that up to the hilt there must be no compromise on moral principles; you may stand to suffer, it may be a den of lions. Ah yes, but stand, and in the end you will stand and the other things will have gone, but you will be there. Heaven is on your side; you may lose for the time being, but heaven is on your side and the kingdoms of this world will pass, but the kingdom of the God of heavens is an everlasting kingdom, and it is a kingdom to be given to you if you will stand. You see where this vessel begins? Just there, "Daniel purposed in his heart."

I would like to say this, just to round that off. It does not mean, beloved, that because you and I take a faithful, obedient, wholehearted, consecrated stand for the Lord, that we are going to be delivered from the lions' den or the fiery furnace, and that the Lord is coming in to smooth our way and cause us to escape such. No, the sovereignty of the heavens does not always work by delivering us out of the trouble. It comes in through the trouble. It is through the trouble that the heavens come in. God gets more by it than by delivering us from it.

May the Lord draw us into His purpose, constitute us a part of that vessel for His testimony, show us how very much is bound up with this conflict in which we are; help us to see why it is that He is dealing with us as He is. It is to bring us to a place where there is nothing in ourselves. He may take up the weak things and by them through them, bring to nought the things that are, and bring us morally to govern, which shall fit us to govern literally later on.

Chapter 3 - The Basic Principle of Spiritual Effectiveness

We are concentrating upon this particular thought, that in relation to His heavenly testimony, the testimony concerning His Son Jesus Christ, God has constituted and appointed a vessel, an instrument here in the midst of the Gentile world powers, and that from that vessel or instrument the government of the heavens in this world unto the Lord's end is expressed. The Church is that instrument. Inasmuch as the Church as a whole is not in line with God's purpose, vitally co-operating, and spiritually in a position to exercise that Divine and heavenly authority, God is securing for Himself a remnant, a body within, an overcomer company in which, and through which the laws and principles of this heavenly government are established and put into operation. We are here because it is in that connection that the Spirit is speaking, and we want to hear what the Spirit saith. So far as we are concerned, and all those to whom we may have a ministry, with whom we may have any spiritual influence, that we and they should come fully, livingly, vitally, energetically into oneness with God's purpose unto the time of the end.

Now we began to see that that instrument, that vessel, functions by reason of certain very clearly defined laws. It has to be in a spiritual and moral position and relationship to the Lord. It does not function mechanically or automatically. It may be an elect vessel, and it may have been foreknown and fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, God may have foreknown every member of it, and yet running alongside all the eternal counsels of God, and the sovereignty of God, there is always spiritual and moral responsibility: and while it is difficult to relate and reconcile those two things, nevertheless they are equally true that even an elect vessel can never fulfill the object of its predestination, its fore-ordination, only in so far as it corresponds with the spiritual and moral principles which God has laid down for its effectiveness.

Chapter one of the Book of Daniel, as we have seen, introduces the basic principle of spiritual effectiveness. I am very anxious that this shall not go over your heads or that you should in any measure feel that a great deal of truth on a broad scale is being given out, but rather that you should see that this does apply to you personally and individually, that every one is, in God's thought and desire and will, related to this testimony and to this vessel of the testimony unto the time of the end. That you individually with a personal responsibility and anointing, and in relation to others of the children of God are really called into fellowship with the government of the heavens in this earth concerning God's purpose for the age. You and I are really solemnly called into that. That just as truly as ever Daniel was in that, you and I are in that, for Daniel is only a type and representation. He typifies and represents that which we have in the letter to the Ephesians, which reaches on to us, embraces us, calls us in; and beloved, if ever you read the sixth chapter, or the first chapter of the letter to the Ephesians and feel that that in any way applies to you, that you can stand in there, you can lay claim to that, that it embraces you, well, you are in effect standing in the place of Daniel and his three friends.

Now if Daniel and his three friends represented something of tremendously solemn significance and import to heaven in their day, and to hell, and to the nations of this world, you and I occupy that position of spiritual importance to God. And while that may sound very lofty, it may sound very much above you, if only you could read your own spiritual history in the light of heaven  that is, if you have got a spiritual history, if you are really going on with God spiritually, if your are alive unto the Lord  if you could read your own spiritual history in the light of heaven, you would be reading the Book of Daniel and the letter to the Ephesians in your own life. You would be able to see that the same things are operative in your experience spiritually as were there, and are there. So I want this thing to come right home to us very definitely and draw us in, every one of us.

The Basic Principle of Spiritual Effectiveness

The first chapter of this book, as we have said, introduces that basic principle of spiritual power, authority, dominion, which comes out in the life of Daniel and his friends, and that basic principle is found in the words: "Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank." I do want to add just a very brief word in that connection again by way of extra emphasis, to point out that no life can be spiritually effective, can count for God in the spiritual realm, bring in the government of God, can uphold or maintain or advance the testimony of Jesus, stand against the powers of darkness, bring the consummation of the ages nearer, which is the overthrow of the whole satanic kingdom and the bringing in of the universal rule of the heavens, only in so far as that life is in a position of absolute separation from everything in that realm against which that testimony of Jesus stands. If you have one link, one point of contact voluntarily with that system through any medium, you are crippled, you are paralysed.

How often we have had people come to us and they have poured out a story of spiritual defeat, of failure, an up and down experience (not a down and up one), more downs than ups, a lack of spiritual power, and when we have sought to get to the cause of it they have been willing to confess various things, they have come out quite frankly  "I think it very likely may be this or that or something else," and they have not made much difficulty about confessing certain things, and the Spirit of the Lord has been saying in us: "It is not that, there is something else. There is something else that they are not willing to mention," and when through probing and sifting at last we have got on the scent of the thing, we have touched something that had a relation to their like, something they liked (these other things they did not like, and therefore were willing to confess them), but there was something that they liked, some indulgence of the flesh, and this they would not confess. I remember a man who was in that category, and when one tried to help him he was ready to confess that most likely it was his bad temper, that was the trouble. Confessed it with a long face, and in my heart I felt, No, that is not it, there is something else, and I was asking the Lord: "What is it?" "Give this thing into My hands," and as that man got round to another point of the compass in his direction to me I got his breath, and the Lord said: "That is it, tobacco." And I said: "Has the Lord ever put His finger upon a certain habit, indulgence? You may have argued that there was no wrong in it, but has the Lord ever very gently said something to you about that?" and I saw by a flush that the thing had been touched. He said: "Well, I see no harm in that, what is wrong with that? A good many other men have been used of God who do it." I said: "It is not a matter of general right and wrong; right and wrong is a matter of whether the Lord has ever just touched a thing ever so lightly and said, not that it was a downright wicked thing, but: 'I would rather it was not' and that raises the issue". When we had got down to that he said: "There have been times when I have come up against it." I said: "Brother, that is the arrest of your whole spiritual life and that is the back door through which the Devil comes in, and the bad temper is not the cause but the effect, and all the defeat is the result of one reservation that you have with the Lord. There is not a full obedience and willing abandonment; you are prepared to confess all sorts of faults, but that one thing you are not prepared to confess, you have got a hold with the Lord."

Satan's Vantage Ground

"Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the king's dainties, nor with the wine which he drank"; for the king of Babylon was related to Nebuchadnezzar's gods, to idolatry, and this Book of Daniel shows perfectly clearly that it is not just Babylon, but it is the spiritual power and system back of Babylon with which Daniel was dealing. We will prove that before we are through. And Daniel saw that that would be a gangway between him and their system, against which he stood and across that gangway the enemy would come and paralyse him and rob him of the power of spiritual and moral dominion, ascendancy to govern the situation in Babylon for God. The Devil was out to offer him the dainties from the king's table and the pleasant wine as a trap to paralyse his spiritual life. Now do not misunderstand me. The instance cited is not intended as a wholesale condemnation of that thing mentioned or of other things, but it is used as an illustration to show you that if in secret history with the Lord where neither companions, Christian friends and brethren know anything, where Daniel is alone with the Lord, there is a realisation of what the Lord would have and a facing up to that: if in that secret history there is the slightest touch of question, doubt about anything as to the Lord's will, that is the pivot upon which revolves the strength of the whole spiritual life, the dominion, the government of the heavens. Just think, that all the mighty power of the God of the heavens, the kingdom of the God of the heavens is suspended in our lives if there is a questionable thing between us and the Lord, a thing about which we have doubt. Yes, we bind the hands of heaven if we are not absolutely clear on every detail with the Lord and there is not the most complete break at every point with that whole system against which we are here as a vessel of the testimony. Holiness is necessary, separation is necessary; an uncompromising attitude between everything that the Devil offers as a link between us and his system.

The victory of the Lord Jesus over the prince of this world was because the prince of this world came to Him and had nothing in Him. "The prince of this world cometh: and he hath nothing in me." If only the prince of this world could have got something in Him! He tried to get personal ambition. Anything like that and the Divine end is frustrated. You see how basic is the principle of an absolute separateness from that kingdom in all its connections and aspects if there is going to be spiritual power. Let us not consider the question of spiritual power merely from a personal standpoint of how it affects us, whether we win the benefit or not, but let us remember that it is a part of a testimony to God's Son. The Lord Jesus is bound up with this. The kingdom of the heavens is bound up with this. The eternal predestinating of God is bound up with this, and a people out of the nations for His Name.

So then Daniel brings in the moral ascendancy or elevation which is necessary to the vessel of the testimony unto the time of the end. He lays the foundation in that realm, moral and spiritual elevation brought about in the secret presence of God. It says Daniel purposed in his heart; it does not say the other three purposed, but before you get through the chapter the other three are in this; out of the secret history on the part of one, the others are brought in, but it was a personal thing in the presence of God where Daniel said: "I must be clear of this thing, I must stand back from this system at every point; I will not be defiled, for defilement means an advantage to the enemy." That was where the foundations were laid for this whole book on the spiritual side.

Chapter two, of course, brings in the practical outworking of that and it is not long after Daniel has purposed in his heart that he comes into action, God brings him forward under such circumstances and conditions as put the whole situation into Daniel's hands. The king dreams. No magician, no wise men in all Babylon can help the king in the interpretation of the dream and he commands that they all be slain, and they seek for Daniel and his companions to be included in the slaying. Daniel asks: "Why is the decree so hasty from the king?" Asks the king to appoint a time  "There is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets," and so the time, the space is given and Daniel mobilises the prayer forces, goes to his three companions, calls them together, and then in the night vision the thing is revealed to Daniel, and out of the secret history of moral ascendancy there issues the outward and public expression of that ascendancy and the whole situation is put into the hands of Daniel, he is the man in command.

They that Honour God, God will Honour

Now what is the next thing as a secret, for the vessel, as to its ascendancy? The first thing is the purposing of heart. The second is the honouring of God, and that is a thing which runs right through this book. It comes out in very clear definition. "There is a God in heaven," and all the way through when a crisis arises and there is an emergency, it is always a recognition of the God of the heavens, and without any kind of veiling, covering up, hiding, compromise. The declaration is made: "There is a God in heaven." God is honoured. You remember when the image was set up in the plain of Dura and all were commanded to bow down and worship that image, these three companions and Daniel refused to worship the image, and they were brought before the king and challenged as to why they refused. What was their answer? "Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer thee in this matter"  that is fine! There is no place for any argument. The fact is that we are responsible to God, that is settled for us in our hearts for ever. We do not argue, we do not explain, we have taken our position of absolute faithfulness to God and that is all there is to it. If you throw us into the fiery furnace it makes no difference to the position we have taken. "Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace; and he will deliver us out of thy hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we wilt not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up"  this is settled once and for all, the thing which is paramount is that we honour God.

Beloved, that represents something very, very valuable to the Lord and gives the Lord a way. There was never for one moment a hint that it was in themselves to do anything. You read chapter one and you find that those who were brought in before the king, of the children of the captivity, were to be of the royal seed and of those who held high positions amongst the Jews in their own nation, socially and intellectually; they were to be wise, taught in all the learning and science of their own people and well read, and Daniel and the other three were chosen because they occupied that high position socially and intellectually and were learned in all the wisdom of their people, but never for one moment in the hour of crises did they hint that any ability of theirs would solve the problem, would give the answer. "There is a God in heaven." They honoured God. They gave no honour in the first place to the king's meat. The difficulty with the prince of the eunuchs was that if Daniel carried out his purpose, and his brethren did likewise, their countenances would be poorer and they would look less well nourished than those who received the king's meat. Daniel and his brethren honoured God and refused to give any honour to the king's meat or wine. If they looked the same as the others, having partaken of the king's food, where was the superiority of the spiritual over the natural? And so they determined to refuse the king's meat and they said in effect: "At the end of the time of probation you will find that we are better than the rest, without the meat." They honoured God, they were trusting God, they gave no honour to the king's meat. They took no honour to themselves and their own ability. They attributed all to God, and whenever a situation of difficulty arose they went to the Lord about it. In the first instance, the dream of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel having been given a space of time sought out his three brethren and before the Lord they sought guidance. You see it was always honouring God: "For them that honour me I will honour," and He did.

This is perhaps a very simple principle and you may hardly see the force of it but a vessel that is really going to bring God into evidence, and the heavens into evidence so that the forces of hell and earth are going to have to take account of this and say: "There is that here which cannot be accounted for on any human ground whatever; this is something beyond the natural, this is something more than man, this is none other than God," a vessel that is going to bring in a testimony like that, a vessel that is going to be instrumental in making every knee to bow to Him, has got to be one which is wholly and utterly relying and dependent upon the Lord, taking nothing to itself, honouring God. It must be a vessel which is empty of every thing but the Lord and gives the Lord His place, and in everything it is perfectly clear that it is the Lord; not man or woman, the company, the movement, the organisation, not the brain behind the thing, the ability, the acumen, but the Lord; on the human plane there is nothing to account for this; this is the Lord.

That is what the Lord is after, to get that testimony. It was like that in the first days of the Church. "For behold your calling, brethren, that not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: but God chose the foolish things of the world, that he might put to shame them that are wise; and God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong; and the base things of the world, and the things that are despised, did God choose, yea, and the things that are not, that he might bring to nought the things that are: that no flesh should glory before God." But the thing which governs that strange providence of God in making sure that His vessel is an empty one and in himself a weak one and one which will take no honour to itself, the thing which governs Him in so dealing with His vessel is to make sure that all who see, know and wholly attribute it to Himself. You want God to come in? God will come in in the measure in which you go out. The heavens will come in in so far as we are emptied and stripped of all natural resources, and if we are emptied out to the last drop, that may be God's way of making room for a larger manifestation of heaven. It is true to spiritual experience.

When you are weak and conscious of personal helplessness, that is not the time to throw up your hands and say: "I am no good for anything and never shall be," that is the time to say there is plenty of room for the Lord, and to exercise faith in the Lord to come in, and the Lord's providences and sovereignty operate along the line of weakening us to make us strong. "Through faith... out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in light." "The people that know their God shall be strong, and do exploits," but it is immensely important to recognise the place of honouring God. It is just the opposite of nature: it represents the work of the cross having been done. The natural man never will honour God. He may in a mock-humility, but flesh never has, and never will honour God; flesh always takes glory to itself. The most difficult thing for the Lord is to use anybody very much. Whenever the Lord begins to use us there is always that little demon sitting upon our shoulder whispering in our ears: "You are becoming successful, you are becoming something," and that is the Lord's difficulty with this flesh of ours. It does so quickly become gratified with any kind of success or blessing, take something to itself, and when people foolishly begin to gather round and make something of the instrument, as though the instrument were an authority, the flesh feels so nice about it and begins to purr like a cat. Self-satisfaction  that is the curse, and it gets in God's way. For heaven to come in completely God must be honoured, it must be all the Lord and that means when God is honoured He can go on with His work. It is a law of spiritual power, spiritual authority. If Christ had power and authority over the Devil it was surely because of the emptiness of His life from the self-principle. We have often said that the root sin is self interest.

May the Lord just take afresh these two things and bring them home to our hearts. May we keep in mind that what the Lord is after in these days is to bring individuals, and a company of people in this world into a place that through them the heavens may govern, and the powers back of this world system may recognise that there is a God in heaven.

Chapter 4 - The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose

We resume our consideration of this subject by asking  What is the thing that is really upon our hearts as the burden of the Lord at this time? What is the object which we have so strongly in view?

A Primary Object of Present Divine Need

My answer is, without any hesitation or equivocation, that I believe and feel most strongly and intensely that what the Lord is after, what the Lord needs, what the Lord is seeking to possess Himself of is a vessel in such relationship to Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual system of His enemy, the principalities and powers and the world rulers of this darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies, as they have control of this cosmos; to register the throne of God upon those forces and upon the cosmos.

Now that is what is weighing with me tremendously, and that is the burden of these days. That has been the thing central to the six gatherings which we have already had as we have been dwelling hugely in the book of Daniel, and what we are going on with today is not a departure from that, it is only a following up, a continuation, for we said earlier in the conference that the book of Daniel and the letter to the Ephesians have very much in common. The principles are the same. And so as we are perhaps more in Ephesians now than in Daniel so far as the actual Scripture is concerned, we are still dealing with the same matter. In the book of Daniel we saw four men, and the Lord making one, in the midst of them, forming a vessel, an instrument for the registration of the rule of the heavens upon the spiritual forces operating back of world systems, and we saw the breaking-in of the government of the heavens again and again as those men operated in fellowship with the throne of God. And that is where we are and everything is gathered up into that, and I do trust that with all that may be said which may be more or less helpful, illuminating or interesting or informative, we shall see that the centre and heart of the whole thing is just that God shall have in us individually and collectively, wherever He may place us on this earth, vessels, an instrument in such a spiritual union with Himself in the heavenlies that the heavenly thing may be wrought out.

That brings together the testimony of Jesus, that is, as to who the Lord Jesus is and what He is in the appointment of God the Father, the position that He holds, and what is related to Him as to the history and consummation of the universe. The testimony of Jesus, Sovereign Lord, and the vessel as eternally foreknown, foreordained, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, brought into being in time, and as is seen by the Scripture, joined with Him in His heavenly position for that testimony not only to men, but to men by reason of having dealt with the spiritual powers and intelligences back of men.

Now then, we are able to speak a little more about the vessel of the testimony and we are looking at the matter of the vessel as mainly a corporate and collective thing, that is the Body of Christ; but specifically at present that company which is moving, and which the Lord is seeking to bring into that advanced position with Himself, in relation to the heavenlies. Not all the members of the Church which is His Body are there, or are going on there, but the Lord will from His people obtain a company which will be the vanguard of the whole, and which will go on with Him and take the heavenly place and be His instrument for the breaking through and leading a way for the others. That is the peculiar vessel upon which the heart of the Lord is set, and we believe that we are here in relation to, not God's second or third thing, but God's first thing. It would be very good if one could take that for granted, that everyone here is here because their hearts are wholly bent upon God's first thing, and they will never be content with anything less than that. Well, God's first thing is taking the heavens with Him against those forces which now are opposed to Him in the heavens.

The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose

I think just one word here extra of a very general character might put us into line with the whole purpose of God. That is, that we should remind ourselves of the cosmic nature of everything in the purpose of God and in the person of Christ, and in the work of Christ. That word cosmic may not convey to all of you what it is intended as used, but the intention in using it is to indicate the range of God's purpose, and the range of everything relative to the person and work of the Lord Jesus. The range is not just the limited compass of a few saved people. It is not just the salvation of so many individuals, and it is not just the salvation of a company out from the nations. All these may be stages, steps toward the ultimate; but God has swept the ultimate from the beginning and it is cosmic in its range; that is, it embraces the whole world with all the nations, every inch of territory and all the realm surrounding and encompassing the world; how far beyond that we do not know, only by fragmentary suggestions; but we do know that the whole world and the whole encompassing realm of the lower heavenlies, and super-heavenlies are involved in this purpose of God in the person of the Lord Jesus and in His work. The fall was not just the fall of man, it was the fall of a creation. It was not two people who fell and involved their progeny; it was the fall of a whole creation, and every part of that creation was involved in that fall, touched by that fall. Sin and death, which are the two issues of the fall, were shot through the whole creation and everything is touched by sin and death; and the very atmosphere, air, heavenly realms around the creation is saturated with this spiritual defilement and occupied by sinful elements and death elements, fallen intelligences, "the prince of the power of the air." That was the range of the fall.

Redemption is cosmic. It is not just the redemption of man, let alone a few men, it is the redemption of the whole cosmos. "The creation itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption." Christ's work in His Cross has effected, in the ultimate, the redemption of the whole creation. But more, the redemption of the whole heavenly range surrounding the creation and the heavenlies are going to be cleared, and the very atmosphere is going to be purged, and the person of Christ in sovereignty embraces that for coming government, and the work of Calvary involves that. So that the vessel of the testimony is called not merely into relationship to the salvation of a few men and women, the vessel of the testimony will go on in relation to the whole work of Calvary, the full work of redemption, the entire range of the significance of the Person of Christ, and that vessel will not only be in relation to the earth, the redemption of, and the redeemed earth, and the new creation, it will be related to the whole range of heavenly realms, lower and higher, in the ages to come. That is the vessel and that is its calling; that is its ministry. It is called to a tremendous thing, and it is important for us to see the cosmic nature of the Cross, the cosmic significance of the Person and work of Christ, and then the cosmic relationship and vocation of the vessel of the testimony.

At present it is the taking out of the nations a people for His Name. There will be developments by stages, but the ultimate issue  while we do not believe in Universalism, so called, that even the Devil himself is going to be redeemed and saved and put back in a place of honour; nothing like that!  ultimately when God's day of probation is finally closed and the testimony has been forever decided according to an attitude taken, and evil and evil ones have been swept from God's world, then the vessel, the Church, the Body, will be the instrument of administration; administrative in relation to the throne and the whole of that range of redemption's work. There will be things beyond the Church, there will be nations which will walk in the light of that City, which is the Church; but at present the Church is the thing upon which the Lord's heart is set as the vessel, not only for purposes in this age, which are limited comparatively, but for the unlimited ranges of influence and usefulness in the ages to come. Now I have only spoken out of the Word and you hardly need that I quote Scripture, it is floating in your mind as I go on. In the ages to come He is going to show by us the exceeding riches of His grace, and it is now unto principalities and powers He is making known His manifold wisdom by the Church. You see what we mean by the cosmic range of things; and the vessel is called in relation to that, something very great, very wide, very far-reaching. (Ephesians 1:21; 2:7; 3:10.)

We said that in speaking of the vessel we are here regarding it from the personal and collective, or corporate standpoint  in this sense  that we must not forget that while the vessel in the thought and mind of God is a corporate thing, a Body, a collective thing, it is made up of living members, and every living member of that Body is in itself a vessel and has its peculiar responsibility to the whole. It is related, and therefore, everything for that vessel is relative; and yet we must not fall into the snare of allowing our individual and personal responsibility to be lost sight of by the corporate conception of things. We must realise that we, individually, have a responsibility as a Vessel, although our responsibility as vessels is related to the whole. And so we are vessels as part of a vessel. That is what I want to get at, so that we lay a safe emphasis upon the individual place in the vessel for the testimony.

Paul a Type of the Whole Vessel

That truth and that principle comes out in the way which we are very fond of speaking of and thinking here. That is, in connection with Paul and the Church. As we have frequently said, the great revelation of the mystery of Christ and His members, one Body, the Church, with all its meaning, which comes through the Apostle Paul, was personally represented and signified by the man himself. That he as a vessel in every detail represented the vessel of the testimony. What was true of the corporate vessel, the Church, was revealed through him, was true of him personally and had to be made so. That is where we begin when we speak of the vessel and that is the most helpful way, perhaps, of reaching the heart of this matter. There are one or two passages which come through the Apostle, which show that this very thought was in his own mind. The passage in Philippians 3:17: "Brethren, be ye imitators together of me, and mark them that so walk even as ye have us for an ensample." The word ensample there is the word tupas, which is type. "Even as ye have us for a type." Now you take that last fragment, ye have us for a type, and link it with the first fragment, be ye imitators of me. If you turn to 1 Tim. 1:15: "Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptation; that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief: howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all his long suffering, for an ensample (for a type) of them that should thereafter believe on him unto eternal life."

More literally that is: "This is a trustworthy saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief; howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth the whole long-suffering for a pattern, or delineation of them which should hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." Do you catch that? Paul made a pattern for all who should hereafter believe; that is, he is placed at the head of the age which he represents, as a pattern, as a model, as a type, as a delineation, as a representation. There is a great deal more in what he is saying here than I have time for, but when he speaks of the whole long-suffering, he is referring to a dispensation which he had represented as a member of Israel (the long-suffering of God through the whole Jewish age was the most marvellous thing) and that whole dispensation of Judaism which drew out the long-suffering of God in such a marvellous way. Think about it.

I confess that spiritually I have often found God's dealings with Ahab a stumbling-block, for I have felt that God ought to have dealt with Ahab long before He did. But while it is said of Ahab that he sinned more than all the kings of Israel that were before him, and that was before he married Jezebel (what could be said of him afterward I do not know) and yet when God did pronounce a judgment on Ahab and determined his end, and Ahab started whimpering and putting on sackcloth and fasting, the Lord said to the prophet: "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days; but in his son's day will I bring the evil upon his house." I have had a quarrel with the Lord over that many a time because of the issue. But I am wrong, of course! Now take that as a fragment of the long-suffering of God and spread a thing like that over the long dispensation, and then take Saul of Tarsus as an outstanding and inclusive representation, as we shall see presently, of that whole Jewish dispensation and order, and the last thing that Saul of Tarsus did was to consent to the murder, the martyrdom of Stephen in red-hot blood, so to speak, violent blood, against Jesus of Nazareth. Now, he says, the whole long-suffering, all the long-suffering of God as shown through that long and terrible age is gathered up in Saul, the cumulative long-suffering of God is gathered up and he stands as a model of the long-suffering of God for all who should hereafter believe. But the heart of the thing that I am trying to get at is this, that Paul was a model, a type at the beginning of the age, of the vessel, the vessel of mercy, and what he was individually, the whole Body  vessel  would be collectively; and as parts of that Body, and as individual vessels, we stand in relation to that whole long-suffering of God. We are where we are because of the infinite grace of God.

Now I think we have established fairly well at the outset, our principle, that what is true of the whole vessel has to be true of the individual vessel, and that the individual vessel has to be a representation of the whole.

The Closing of an Entire History

I expect in most of our minds there is already the fragment which the Lord uttered concerning him to Ananias: "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me." The first thing we notice in relation to the vessel, that is, now speaking of Paul as a vessel, and as a vessel-type of the vessel, the Church, the Body of Christ, is that one history is brought fully and finally to a close. Saul of Tarsus, we have said, represented Israel and Judaism. The closing down of the Jewish dispensation and of Judaism and its age was clearly foreshown and foretold, and the imminence of that was clearly indicated by the Lord Jesus Himself. He has some parables and amongst them as in Luke 13, the parable of the fig tree, the fig tree which was fruitless and concerning which the owner of the vineyard said: "Cut it down: why doth it also cumber the ground." It was not only fruitless, but it was mischievous; it was not only useless, but it was in the way. There was not only the negative aspect, but there was the positive which the Lord saw. It was a menace to something else, as well as unsatisfactory to Him. "Cut it down." That was a clear indication of what was coming to Israel, to Judaism. The argument of the gardener was: "Lord, let it alone this year, till I shall dig about it and dung it: and if it bear fruit henceforth, well; but if not, thou shalt cut it down." He would dig it and dung it and seek to improve the thing, and so it was given a little space for an extra ministration of grace, but then the result was just the same, and it was cut down. Now that was Israel and that was Judaism up to the time of Calvary.

With the cross of the Lord Jesus it is then, we remember, this dispensation was closed, but there is the plea for still a season of grace, and a season of grace, that little extra period, was given from Calvary to the death of Stephen, and the digging and the care was that wonderful grace of God shown at and round Pentecost; for you notice that through the first chapters of Acts it is Israel in view. Right up to the point where the lame man is at the Beautiful Gate and Peter and John going up to the temple at the ninth hour to pray saw that man there who asked an alms, and Peter said: "Silver and gold have I none; but what I have, that give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk." And I think there is so much that is significant there; that up to that point the extra period of grace is ruling. That man had been in that state forty years, the number of Israel's crippled movement in the wilderness, and representing the probationary period in which Israel was useless. It is the probationary period represented by that man. That period ends, and at the end of that probationary period Israel is in a state of crippled infirmity, useless, cannot stand on its feet, but Jesus of Nazareth comes in at the end of that period. What Judaism could not do, Jesus of Nazareth is able to do, and now Israel's only hope as represented by that man of forty years' impotence is in Jesus of Nazareth. Oh yes, but Saul of Tarsus represented Israel, and: "Saul, yet breathing threatening and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the High Priest, and asked of him letters to Damascus unto the synagogues, that if he found any that were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem," with the authority of the official representatives of his nation, he went forth to destroy Jesus of Nazareth just as they had destroyed Him at Calvary. You see! That closed the extra period to Israel, the extra period of grace closed when Saul of Tarsus consented to the death of Stephen, because Stephen was a vessel who, in a specific way, brought in Jesus of Nazareth in the glory. "I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God."

The New Vessel Comes in Only on the Ground of one History Ended

Well, now, this is the point, it was then that Saul of Tarsus, representing his nation and the whole Jewish dispensation, came to his end. He came to his end that day, that was the end, and this vessel only comes in on the ground of one history having been closed. It is a history that has been entirely closed from heaven, that introduces this vessel.

Paul never came in as a distinguished member of his elect nation, he came in as a man on the common level of men, dead in trespasses and sins, and the Lord from heaven never made anything of Paul, or Saul of Tarsus as a distinguished member of a chosen people. He dealt with him there and then as a common member of a sinful race, dead in trespasses and sins, subjected him as such to the assembly, and he got his instructions there. The Lord never made a fuss of Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus. He never recognised him as what he had been in the past history. He took him up as a common sinner, and that is why the Apostle says: "Of whom I am chief," and he saw that all that he had in Judaism counted for nothing.

Now that is the background truth of the vessel, and what I am coming to now is this, that we never come in any relation to the testimony of Jesus as vessels, or as a part of the vessel, only on the ground that there has been an absolute closing of one history. It does not matter what that history has been religiously, traditionally, that history has to be closed and we can bring none of that with us. Our history begins (I am rather passing on to the positive side; we will have to see this again with the coming in of the vessel) by seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is where this vessel commenced his history, he took his rise out of that.

The Realm where the Vessel Functions Supremely

Now do you recognise this, that this vessel is for a heavenly testimony, pre-eminently and supremely in a spiritual realm against spiritual forces? No amount of religious tradition can enable us to function there. There is nothing that we can bring in traditionally, however good it might be religiously, that can count for anything against principalities and powers, the spiritual forces of evil. Good upbringing may be good, but as such, if it falls short of a personal inward revelation of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, it cannot meet this situation. This is what Paul declares in his very being; that history is closed, he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees, he was everything that was splendid in that history, but now it is closed; he has come into another realm, he is no longer of the earthly system, he is now of the heavenly system, and none of that counts here. Read the account of it again in Acts 9. See it in full swing as he sets out for Damascus. He sets out for Damascus because there is nothing more to do at Jerusalem. Now because the thing has been successful in Jerusalem, he must find new quarters for carrying out this devastating work, and so Damascus is the next centre for this, and you see him in the full strength of his old system starting out for that. Before he reaches Damascus he is on the ground in face to face dealings with Jesus of Nazareth.

The two things that arise there are "I" and "Thou." Yes, Jesus of Nazareth has got him alone, he is alone with Jesus of Nazareth, and before very long he is saying "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" "And he, trembling and astonished said..." "They led him by the hand." Tell me that is not the closing of a history, the shutting up of one regime effectively! Isn't that a new situation, a new history? Isn't that beginning in a new realm? Yes, but that represents a principle. That is the way; it may be violent for some of us, it may be progressive but revolutionary and not so immediately cataclysmic and violent for others, but the same principle holds. We can carry nothing over into the heavenlies that belongs to that old history of our relationship to the old creation, to the old earth. The severance in God's mind and thought is utter, is absolute. Forever after that the enemy's main manouvre and tactic will be to bring about some kind of contact with that. Typically that always was so, and spiritually it always is so. Pass your eye over the Old Testament in the types and you will see that wherever you have a type of that which is linked with heaven, for heaven's purposes, you will find the persistent effort of the enemy in that case to bring about some kind of contact, link, or bridge, with his own kingdom, in order to destroy the ministry of that instrument.

Noah comes out on to a new earth in touch with the heavens, an instrument for God's testimony to a new heavenly order. It is not long before the contact is made between Noah and that which destroys the testimony in him and mars him as a vessel. Abram, called out of the world, so to speak, linked with the heavens, tempted down into Egypt, guilty of duplicity, robbed of his spiritual position and power. Isaac! Oh surely Isaac did not make a mistake, that beautiful outstanding representation of resurrection life! Isaac grows to be an old man and because he has come as an old man to think too much of his natural appetite he brings about that unhappy situation between his two sons. Yes, he loses his spiritual perception, and you notice there is confusion in his action at the end in blessing. He is acting as though his spiritual discernment and understanding have gone from him, and in the blessing of his two sons he is not a man alive to the situation: and mark you, it is because the natural appetites along the food line had got too strong a hold on him. Interpreted spiritually, you see how the flesh spoils everything, even in an Isaac; in the end it spoils the testimony of a faith life. Jacob has made his contacts with the other system and before ever he can come to Bethel and bring in the testimony to the House of God he has to see to his family; "Put away the strange gods that are among you." But what are strange gods doing in the house of Jacob? Yes, the Devil is there all the time, very often.

Joseph! Perhaps a happier situation, but the Devil tried it in the house of Potiphar's wife. Yes, the Devil knew that he, as a type, was coming to the throne, was a marked man, and the Devil laid a trap for him and sought to bring about that thing which would have forever wrecked his testimony and set him at variance with heaven, robbed him of heaven's upholding. It is there, you see, the sinister hand. Moses  the same thing. Israel coming in relation to the heavenlies  Achan; one link with the other system to pull all Israel right out of their heavenly position. So with Israel's history from then onward. Balaam may not curse, but he ensnares, all with this purpose of getting a contact between the heavenly people and a system from which they had been cut off by the Lord, in order to rob them of their testimony and spoil them as a vessel. That is the type through and through.

Come into the New Testament; spiritually that holds good, and the one thing the Lord puts right at the commencement, which He seeks to bring us to recognise, which He labours in our experience, and seeks continuously to drive home to us, is that the very commencement of our relationship to the heavenlies as a vessel of the testimony of Jesus pre-supposes that we have left a history behind, closed; the history of the old creation, the "old man." That nature is set aside, the natural man is put out, whether he be a good natural man, as men would call him, or a bad natural man; a religious natural man or an irreligious natural man.

Disastrous Contradiction

Now beloved, you cannot (I doubt whether you can) measure and catch the importance of that principle as to spiritual ministry, but we are all going to be made more and more aware of how vital a principle that is. I have known men who have taken up this teaching and have become authorities on the teaching of the Victory of Calvary over the powers of darkness, the kingdom of Satan, over the Devil and the whole matter of our authority in Christ; yes, gone in for it and always talking about it, and I have known those men to be smashed, broken, and thrown completely out of the thing so that the place where their words were spoken will not have it any more. It was not borne out, the Devil is triumphant, and it is quite clear there that the Devil has triumphed, and the men themselves are out of it in defeat, and what is being said is: "That principle does not work, look!" And look deeper, I have known that in the Churches where those men were responsible heads under God there were concerts and worldly amusements, bazaars, and such like, and they, rather than make the great sacrifice, because of human considerations, and a price to be paid, would not take a stand fully and finally in regard to those things. What happened? Those things were gangways of the Devil across which he came and smashed them and their testimony and brought shame and reproach upon the Word of God. We use living examples not for one moment to judge others. It is the enforcement of the principle. If this vessel is going to carry through to the end and stand in victory, and the testimony is going to be established, and it is going to be proved that in His Cross the Lord Jesus won a cosmic victory which He will put into a vessel as its testimony, that vessel must be so wholly and utterly cut off in every direction from that system against which Calvary stands or else that vessel will be smashed, will be broken, will be defeated. There has got to be a closure of a history, and Saul of Tarsus represents that first stage of the vessel  one history closed. That is where you come to in Ephesians 2. When you come out of chapter one, and the eternities of the counsels of God and the foreordinations and the will of God from eternity, and you come into time, you find the state to be: "dead in trespasses and sins." That is Ephesians 2. And that is a history, a spiritual state, a spiritual history, and that history has got to be left behind you. He quickened you; dead, but made alive. That is the beginning of the positive side of the testimony of the vessel, but there has to be a closing of one history.

There is so much more that one ought to say in that connection, but we can take the fact, the principle itself and see that it does mean that inwardly and outwardly we have to have no voluntary relationship with that whole system which is enclosed within the principalities and powers and world rulers of this darkness and spiritual hosts of wickedness; that we have no voluntary relationship with it at any point. We must be crucified to the world, and crucified as men to the flesh, and thus must any ground of Satanic activity be taken away from him so that he has nothing which is his essential occasion for bringing about an arrest in the testimony. That is essentially the meaning of our being in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. "They are not of the world."

May the Lord bring this home to us and apply it in the way in which it needs to be applied to us individually and respectively, and give us grace that we will not allow any kind of association with that which gives the enemy the occasion for destroying the testimony and putting the vessel out of action. May our life continually be wholly hid with Christ in God.