Ministry by G. A. Rainbow
– Part One

The words relate, largely, to chronic local conditions and to external influences, chiefly from abroad, fostering the line from which all had professedly separated.

• The unbrotherly conditions locally persisted and when the test as to Edinburgh came the mass, as in many other places, yielded to the pressures – family and otherwise.

As the subjects are of continuing importance, the notes are presented here with the desire that the Blessed Spirit may use them to alert and warn others of the enemy's tactics.

The maintenance of a good conscience would not allow me to identify myself with either side in that 1972 division –

• but that fact has not diminished my respect and love for brethren individually.

Gordon A. Rainbow.

John began well saying "Master" but ended with "us" – sectarianism.

• We have begun well in owning the rights of Christ, but let us never use that good beginning as a cover for sectarianism.

• Let us assiduously avoid making anything of ourselves or building again the things we have thrown down. Galatians 2: 8.

"Master" means "one who is over others", not "teacher". Christ is the One who is over others, the One who is over us!

• Therefore we have no right to interfere with anyone "because he follows not with us".

• Let us not make anything of ourselves. We are nothing. Christ is everything! Christ is the testimony! Christ, not us. If we are a testimony to anything, it is to the public ruin.

The Lord can well say of this city, as He did of Corinth, "I have much people in this city", Acts 18: 10. They will all come out in display in the heavenly city.

• We are nothing publicly, so let us be humble. But we do know the secret of His love for the assembly – Matthew 13: 5-6; Ephesians 5: 25-27; Revelation 3: 9.

• Let us hold fast to that, and let us have "love … towards all the saints", Ephesians 1: 15.

There is much food for us in the life of Jesus, but the frankincense represents that which was exclusively for the pleasure of God.

• The connection with the altar suggests that it came out in a peculiar way as He laid down that precious life.

• But, "has been received up in glory" is not preceded by any reference to His death.

• This seems to suggest that He could have been received up in glory at any time because of His personal excellence and the Father's delight in Him. Luke 9: 28-36.

But it was the divine purpose that Jesus should die and be raised that we might be linked with Him in a new life and, as thus linked, be taken into the presence of God by Him. John 12: 23; 13: 1; 20: 17.

• Now, just as there was that in the life of Jesus which was peculiarly and exclusively for the pleasure of God,

• so there is to be that same character seen in the lives of the saints as the present expression of Christ here on earth.

Reference was made in prayer to the Spirit speaking – Acts 13: 1-3.

• That speaking immediately followed what was for God, "ministering to the Lord and fasting",

• just as the Spirit's speaking here immediately follows what is for God being received up in glory.

"But the Spirit speaks expressly". The speaking of the Spirit always has that character; it is express, direct, definite.

• It is to be known in all our assemblings – Rev. 2: 7 etc.

• He would speak to us now expressly about how God is to be glorified among us.

Notice the special attention given to relationships among us.

• It is not old and young which would, in some sense, be absolute implying a generation gap.

• But "elder" and "younger" are relative terms, suggesting that we can fit together.

• God receives great pleasure as these relationships, involving our fitting together, work out locally.

Because of the public ruin of the assembly, we must be occupied with 2 Timothy, especially chapter 2, but we may forget 1 Timothy which deals with what is normal.

• It was what was normal – and how consistently so! – in the life of Jesus that went up as fragrant incense to God.

• That which is normal, working out in the lives of the saints, goes up to God now.

An elder, simply as an older man, may at times be wrong and require correction.

• Even in this, the relationship is to be maintained normally – "exhort him as a father".

Continuing "in supplications and prayers night and day" (5: 5) is normal in widows and is pleasurable to God.

• Being "idle … gossipers and meddlers", which might be true of younger widows (5: 13), is not normal and is odious to God.

There are not only elders who are to be respected simply because of their age.

• There are also "elders who take the lead among the saints well" and these are to "be esteemed worthy of double honour".

• Such are not satisfied with merely growing old; they go in for what befits their age, caring for the welfare of the saints.

• Some go further "labouring in word and teaching", using the gift given for the building up of the saints; these are to be "specially" honoured.

Let us then go in for what is normal in all our assembly relationships. The result will be not only what is enjoyable to ourselves,

• but that which will ascend to God as a continual memorial of the fragrance of the normal humanity of our blessed Lord Jesus.

If we don't know what is to govern us we are nowhere at all. It is then just the same as 'going to church', just being part of a congregation governed by someone else.

• Or, perhaps worse, you are governed by your own thoughts and self-importantly attempt to impose them on the assembly. What governs you?

The situation at Antioch shows what governed the assembly under normal circumstances.

• Now, as then, that which is to govern in the assembly is the direct speaking of the Holy Spirit.

• His speaking is always in accord with the divinely inspired scriptures.

• He always draws our attention and affections to Christ, not to any other man.
  • "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies", Revelation 2: 7, etc.

There have been, and always will be, crises in the assembly.

• We should learn from our recent experience and never again allow what is wrong to govern us in a crisis.

• In Acts 5: 1-10 the crisis arose through greed and the desire for recognition which led to deceit.
  • Peter met it by naming it as it was, lying to the Holy Spirit and tempting the Spirit of the Lord.

• Then in Acts 6: 1-7 a murmuring arose because of natural and national feelings.
  • It was met by the selection of men "full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom".

That which has just been referred to in Acts 15 also involved the Spirit.

• It was a crisis and James had the word of wisdom, bringing in the word of the prophet to confirm it.

• Truly prophetic ministry should always govern us.

Consider the Lord Jesus! "He wakeneth morning by morning, He wakeneth Mine ear to hear as the instructed", Isaiah 50: 4.

• "The Son can do nothing of Himself save whatever He sees the Father doing; for whatever things He does, these things also the Son does in like manner", John 5: 19.

• And again, "I do nothing of Myself, but as the Father has taught Me I speak these things", John 8: 28. He was the perfectly dependent Man.

AJG once gave us a word on that. He started to speak of the features of the Lord's Manhood in Luke and began with "dependence" and went no further.

• What a wonderful consideration!

• "Thou didst make Me trust, upon My mother's breast. I was cast upon Thee from the womb; Thou art My God from My mother's belly", Psalm 22: 9-10.

• What perfection of dependence in "Jesus the leader and completer of faith"! Hebrews 12: 2.

Jesus never varied. In the temptations He said: "It is written … It is written … It is said", Luke 4: 4, 8, 12.

• And on the cross, "that the scripture might be fulfilled, says, I thirst", John 19: 28.

• He was in direct contact with the Father, as Man constantly drawing upon Him, until the awful time of the forsaking.

• He was governed absolutely by the will of God, and always in accord with the inspired Scriptures.

• That was what governed Jesus. What governs you and me?

The question for us is not only what governs us in our individual lives, but what governs us in our assemblings? That will give its impress to our individual lives.

There was a crisis in Acts 15. What was to govern? The whole matter of 'do's and don't's' came up.

• That is what law is: do this, and don't do that.

• Of course "the law indeed is holy, and the command-ment holy, and just, and good", Romans 7: 12.

• And in the assembly we are to "recognize … the Lord's commandment", 1 Corinthians 14: 37. We cannot set that aside for a moment.

• At the same time, we need to face the matter of the 'do's and don't's'. We have had them; and we have had enough of them!

• Not that liberty is ever to be an excuse for looseness and lawlessness; it is not!

• It is time now, if you have never done it before, to discover what is to govern you. Do not do things, or refrain from doing things, just because someone says so.

• 'Do's and don't's' are simply legality, and legality will get you nowhere except into bondage. Is that not our experience? Let us give up legality completely.

James says, "Wherefore I judge, not to trouble those who from the nations turn to God", Acts 15: 19.

• But when the letter was written it says, "For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us …", 15: 28 – not to James alone, who is only the instrument.

• It is first "good to the Holy Spirit" and then "to us". The brethren accepted and were governed by what the Holy Spirit said through James. Is that what governs us?

• Don't be confused by personalities; leave James out of it. The Holy Spirit had spoken, no matter who had been used, and that was the governing principle.

• This essential principle is demonstrated earlier: "the Holy Spirit said", Acts 13: 2.

• His speaking will, of necessity, always be in accord with and fully supported by the divinely inspired Holy Scriptures. Is that not enough?

• We need nothing else. It is God's provision for the best days of the assembly, whether at the beginning of the dispensation or at its end.

The letter continues: "to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things", Acts 15: 28.

• Just these necessary things; just four things.

• How simple Christianity is! It is not a system of rules and regulations devised by men; that is just religion. We have had enough of that.

• The Spirit has spoken, and there is to be "no greater burden that these necessary things".

Now, what is to govern you and me? Can you do what you like, how you like? Certainly not!

• The Spirit has captured your affections for Christ and you are to be "legitimately subject" to Him – 1 Cor. 9: 21.

• You do not need to be put under law, though you are glad to learn from the law with its wealth of typical teaching. How valuable those five books are!

• But we are not under the five books, just the four "necessary things" and "what the Spirit says to the assemblies", Rev. 2: 7, etc.

We are not to require "bit and bridle", Psalm 32: 9. We are to be "led by the Spirit", Galatians 5: 18.

• We are to know how to govern ourselves by the Spirit, both individually and in the assembly.
  • "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, fidelity, meekness, self-control: against such things there is no law", Galatians 5: 22-23.

• "Self-control" is mentioned last but it is the ultimate evidence of the recognition of the Spirit.

• Without self-control the other features of the fruit of the Spirit will be obscured and discredited.

• But with self-control it is possible for us to be together governed by the Spirit, by His speaking, by the Holy Scriptures.

• The result would be that even an "unbeliever or simple person" coming in will be convicted of being in the presence of God. 1 Cor. 1: 23.

This passage brings out the dangers to which we are subject, during the wilderness week, if we do not "hear Him".

• This occasion for prophetic speaking is an opportunity to hear what He would say.

We are no quicker to hear than the disciples. They spoke first, instead of inquiring – then they had to be adjusted by hearing Him.

• Is it not the same with us? We speak first, and then perhaps we inquire.
  • It is not right! We should hear Him first.

• David called for the ephod and inquired of Jehovah. 1 Sam. 23: 6-12. This shows the manner in which we ought to proceed in any matter that comes up.

JND points out in the Synopsis (3: 249-50) that there are three kinds of selfishness in this passage:

1. gross personal selfishness, 9: 46-8,
2. corporate selfishness, 9: 49-50, and
3. the selfishness which clothes itself with apparent zeal for the Lord, 9: 51-55.

"And a reasoning came in amongst them, who should be the greatest of them".

• They had just failed miserably. A father had brought his son to them, while Jesus was on the mountain with the three. He had besought them to cast out an unclean spirit but they could not.

• Yet, here they are reasoning who should be the greatest of them.

• What basis did they have for thinking that any of them would be great? None at all. What basis have we? None at all.

• Why didn't Peter, or James, or John, say that they had just heard a voice from heaven distinguishing Jesus above even Moses and Elijah? Why not inquire of the Lord first?

• But in spite of their failure and the greatness of Christ as the Son, there it is, gross personal selfishness, wanting a place, the greatest place, to be somebody like Diotrophes, 3 John 9-11.

• The Lord then shows them by means of a little child what true greatness is. Let Him show us. Let us give up wanting to be great. "Hear Him!"

If we do not judge these things the evil will go further, as we have seen in recent years.

• Gross personal selfishness, some one or ones wanting to be great, develops into corporate selfishness –
  • that selfish claim 'We are the church!' "He follows not with us" – the old sectarian cry.

• Let us beware lest we fall into sectarianism again. "Hear Him!"

Finally the spirit of the dispensation, the spirit of grace, is completely set aside.

• They were ready to call down fire from heaven to consume the Samaritans, in apparent zeal for the Lord but at the expense of someone else.
  • How out of keeping with the Spirit of Christ!

• Have we not seen the same thing? Let us be humbled. How many brethren have been treated harshly because of the selfishness of some clothed in apparent zeal for the Lord! "Hear Him!"

Don't think that you or I could not do such a thing.

• The beloved disciple John, who was so close to Jesus, was involved in each of these exhibitions of selfishness, and is specifically named in the last two instances.

• If even John could display such a harsh spirit, let us not delude ourselves into thinking that we are immune.

Jesus rebukes and adjusts the disciples by His speaking after each manifestation of selfishness. Let us be ready to hear Him first.

In the messages to the last four assemblies the promise to the overcomer precedes the exhortation to "hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies", Revelation 2: 18 — 3: 22.

• This suggests that the conditions that characterize each of the last four assemblies continue to the Lord's coming.

• We are in the last days. The danger of being, or becoming, Laodicean is always present.

• A Laodicean is simply one who has the greatest light entrusted to men regarding Christ and the assembly – as represented in Philadelphia –
  • but who, instead of being faithful to it, is complacent and self-satisfied.

As a new believer I received my first instruction in the Scriptures from Revelation.

• This was in a group of young men who were under the teaching of an older brother whose memory I honour.

• Revelation may appear to be a difficult book to understand, but I found it was a very good place to start.

However, about that time, I also attended some addresses on the seven assemblies.

• To my astonishment, I heard that the believers with whom I then met were among those who could be classified as Philadelphia. Imagine! What a claim!

• Clearly, it would be out of keeping with the public ruin of the assembly, and the recent humbling failures among those who have received the greatest light, for such a claim to be made.

In these last days the Lord is seeking an entrance among those who know the truth.

• He is not finding any entrance in Christendom generally, except as there are overcomers.

• Is He finding a way in to us individually, and collectively? Are we giving Him the right of way among us?

• He is seeking the responsive affection He so richly deserves as having delivered Himself up for the assembly.

He has taken His stand; He has stationed Himself and is knocking. Knock! Knock! Knock! 'Let Me in!'

• Do you hear Him? Let Him in!

• However lazy we may be, He is gracious. "I slept but my heart was awake". It is an affront to the Lord Jesus not to let Him in.

When someone comes to the door and knocks, what do you do?

• Hide that book, put the radio in the closet, pretend that you are not in or do not hear?

• The Lord wants in. It is up to you and to me to open the door to Him.

We cannot make Him come to us at the Supper. Never think that we can!

• We are there, but will He come in? Are conditions suitable to Him? Will someone open the door to Him? Will you open your heart to Jesus now?

• Do not deceive yourself! He never comes in auto-matically, but He is waiting to come in if someone hears His voice and opens the door to Him.

• What a blessed privilege to have the Lord Jesus come in and sup with us! Here it is an individual matter, but it also would apply in a collective sense.

Knock! Knock! Knock! 'Open to Me! Let Me in!'

• Do you hear His voice? He is knocking at the door of your heart and mine right now.

• He may have to knock to gain entrance among us collectively as well. It would be a solecism to let His knock go unanswered.

• He is waiting. He is knocking. Knock! Knock! Knock! Open the door! You open the door, and He will come in!

We may well have carried attitudes and practices from the recent past with us.

• They would need to be looked at carefully in the light of these words, "But I say unto you".

• We may not yet be free from the contaminating and corrupting influence of the evil system that, among many other wicked things, undermined good brotherly relationships.

• Then too, we are still the same persons ourselves; we still have the same idiosyncrasies and proclivities as we had before.
  • All these things work against good brotherly relationships.

There have been incidents among us recently which have strained brotherly relationships.

• "It is not right, my brethren, that these things should be thus", James 3: 10.

Let us then have a right estimate of one another – of the work of God in each, of the sacrifices each one has made in separating from evil – and value one another accordingly.

• Let us have a right judgment of ourselves as well – our own weaknesses and peculiarities.
  • "For I say, through the grace which has been given to me, to every one that is among you, not to have high thoughts above what he should think; but to think so as to be wise, as God has dealt to each a measure of faith", Romans 12: 3.

  • "But in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves, regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also", Philippians 2: 3-4.

As I looked around the room earlier I noticed some of the young ones enjoying themselves. We can learn something from them.

• Our gatherings should be enjoyable, and they will be if we maintain good brotherly relationships. Why should it not be so?

The breakdown of brotherly relationships begins very subtly.

• The first step is being "lightly angry" with a brother. 'It isn't too serious', you say. 'After all, I am only lightly angry'. Don't do it – it is just the beginning.

Then comes "Raca" meaning "stupid, worthless, a term of contempt", JND note ' f '.

• To our shame, in the past we have sat by silently when such things were said. Let us make sure that we have judged and left those things behind.

Finally out comes "Fool". You see how far it is possible to go, thinking you are right and your brother wrong.

• God will have to say to that kind of speaking. In a sense we may say that we have already seen Him act against those who have belittled the brethren.

• Let it sober us, and cause us to reconsider our thoughts.

Let us then leave our gifts before the altar and go, and be reconciled to our brother or sister.

• How we come before God is just as important as what we bring.

• "Make friends". I could easily make forty enemies right now but I don't want to do that; I would rather "make friends". The brethren have been very friendly to us.

• Let us then "make friends" and "do not quarrel on the way". If we do quarrel we will come up against the judge and the officer; we will come up against God!

• How solemn, "For our God is a consuming fire", Hebrews 12: 29.

The Lord is speaking: "But I say unto you".

• As we listen to what He says we have a change of mind, we forget our old harsh thoughts towards our brethren.

• Let us give up our entrenched personal positions, give up quarrelling, cease provoking. Let us listen to the Lord: "But I say unto you".

There is, of course, the responsible side in which separation from evil is God's principle of unity; that must always be maintained, but it is not everything.

Our links are not based on separation from evil alone. We are also linked sovereignly from the divine side.

• This divine link is our primary link and it is absolutely unrelated to our responsibility.

In the service of God we touch the divine side of our links,

• and it is this side that will abide for eternity when the responsible side has been forever ended.

The oneness of which the Lord Jesus speaks here is dependent on the glory of sonship that has been given to us in common with all who are of the assembly.

• This is true oneness: "as We are one", as the Father and Son are one. How are they one? Are they not one in love and life?

• That then is the standard for our being one. What blessing and privilege!

The manifestation of an external unity is not, of itself, sufficient to glorify our God.

• He forms His own oneness in the saints in accord with the ineffable relationship of the Father and the Son.

Hymn 14: JND

This is heavenly language! Our oneness and our links together are formed in the light of the relationships in the divine economy.

• This underlies and give colour to our relationships in the testimonial sphere.

• Let us rejoice in what we have part in with all saints – in what is wholly and exclusively of God.

We have, I trust, come here from "ploughing or shepherd-ing". These are important services

• and there are other necessary services as well, although perhaps not as conspicuous. The Lord values each service and each bondman.

So you have been "ploughing or shepherding"; both are onerous and demanding, either physically or spiritually.

• In any service the tendency is to become self-occupied and self-centred:
  • 'I have done this' or 'I'm going to do that'. Such an attitude is inconsistent with bondmanship.

• The governing principle of a bondman is unconditional, unhesitating and unswerving obedience to his master:
  • "I say … to my bondman, Do this, and he does it", Luke 7: 8.

So we have come here tonight, wearied and wanting some-thing to eat and to drink.

• Perhaps we think we deserve it, having borne the heat of the day.

• Such an attitude is out of order; Christ is to be first, always.
  • "Make me thereof a little cake first; and bring it to me; and afterwards make for thee and thy son", 1 Kings 17: 13.

• Christ must be satisfied first. We are not just to think of ourselves and our needs.

• We are bondmen; Christ is our Master and must be served before our needs are met. He deserves to be served.

• It is not the time for us to come in and put up our feet, waiting for someone to serve us.

• No! Our Master says, "Prepare what I shall sup on, and gird thyself and serve Me that I may eat and drink".

Did any of us think of preparing something for Him tonight?

• 'Oh', you say, 'I thought this was a ministry meeting!'

• So it is, and the saints are to be fed and edified, but Christ must always be first, in this meeting and in every meeting.

• God's thought is that He is to "have the first place in all things", Colossians 1: 18.

• Then we come in: "after that thou shalt eat and drink".

• He will see that we are satisfied, but we cannot really be satisfied until He has been satisfied by our service to Him.

Perhaps there is something hindering us from serving Him and serving one another.

• We need our feet washed, the defilement removed and the refreshment and the comfort brought in.

• Who is ready to humble himself and perform that menial service for the brethren?

• He did not hesitate to do it. "He no service thought too lowly" – Hymn 141, 1962; Hymn 492, 1973.

• "If I therefore, the Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet; for I have given you an example that, as I have done to you, ye should do also".

We may feel that there is very little that we can do and, indeed, none of us can do very much. But there is something that we can all do.

• We can follow the example of Christ and serve one another in a meeting such as this, in other meetings, and privately.
  • "By love serve" as a bondman "one another", Galatians 5: 13.

• We have all been served by the Lord Jesus. Would you not like to serve Him, and also to serve His own?

Paul was not originating meetings such as this in 1 Corin-thians 14; they were already in existence

• but the carnal state in Corinth required that they be regulated.

• How such meetings for prophetic meetings began is not stated – except by implication in Acts 2 – but it should be abundantly clear that the presence of the Spirit in the assembly is sufficient basis and authority.

• Let us then make the most of such occasions for profit and edification.

Romans 14 deals with individual Christian conscience and liberty, and bears strongly on our relationships with each other.

• The apostle had already introduced the collective side of the truth in chapter 12, "one body in Christ".

• It is also implied in this passage in the word "receive", alluding to how we have to do with each other.

We have had many experiences together and share a common spiritual background.

• At the same time we are different persons, each having a different measure and different characteristics.

• Some of you will remember AJG being in this city several years ago and speaking on "star differs from star in glory", 1 Corinthians 15: 41.

• How wonderful are the varied expressions of the work of God in both the physical and the spiritual spheres!

• But in the passage we have read the differences between brethren are not "in glory"; they are in things that do not matter.

It will soon be the 309th anniversary of that St. Bartholo-mew's day, August 24, 1662,

• when more than 2,000 godly Church of England clergymen were ejected from their pulpits, parishes and livings because they would not submit to the Act of Uniformity.

• That Act required all to use the official prayer book with its written prayers and ceremonies, matters which were neither authorized nor contemplated in the New Testament Scriptures.

• Those men could not in good conscience – as in Acts 4: 19-20 – submit to the unscriptural requirements of the Act, and so they were ejected.

• In a certain sense we have all faced the same kind of imposed uniformity and have refused to submit to that which was clearly not of God.

Let us make sure now that a humanly imposed uniformity can find no place among us.

• I am not referring, of course, to the spiritual uniformity which the apostle enjoins in 1 Corinthians 1: 10. Such a uniformity is right and proper, and we all should pursue it.

• There are, however, many matters as to which there are no direct scriptural instructions to govern us, and this is where difficulties arise between brethren.

• I may have my personal code of rules, and you may have yours.

• We each may think that ours is better and more spiritual than those of others, and feel justified in attempting to impose our code of rules on our brethren.

• I used the word direct purposely. Direct scriptural injunctions are clear to all, or they should be; but there are many matters which are not covered by a direct command.

Don't misunderstand me; I am not advocating looseness or worldliness.

• "Whoever therefore is minded to be the friend of the world is constituted enemy of God", James 4: 4. That settles that!

But we still have differences in unimportant matters. One may be a vegetarian, and the other is not; one may keep the sabbath, and the other does not.

• But both have the Lord before them. We must always view our brother or sister as "the servant of another". Remember, there is only one Master!

Whether spoken or not, these little differences bring in distance between brethren and afford the enemy scope to divide us. Romans 16: 17-18.

• Perhaps someone would like to bring in his or her own Act of Uniformity among us and compel everyone to conform.

• Who gave you or me such a right? Rather, let us regard each as "the servant of another".

Let us be clear as to the issue; it is not who is weak or strong in the faith.

• FER said that conscience keeps pace with faith; let it be so with us.

• Nor is it to allow "determining of questions of reasonings" based on scruples.
  • JT rightly insisted that personal scruples could not be made the standard of conduct for the assembly.

We are to consider for one another, recognizing that there are no direct scriptural regulations as to certain matters and that,

• as long as they are neither worldly nor compromising as to the truth, we should not concern ourselves about them.

• Do not interfere with "the servant of another".

"So then let us pursue the things which tend to peace, and things whereby one shall build up another", Romans 14: 19.

• Picayune peculiarities and spurious scruples have no place in the assembly; we are to be governed by Christ and what is suitable to Him.

We may attempt to justify our position by claiming, 'I have a conscience about that'.

• But that won't do; Christ is our criterion. What was His standard?
  • "I do always the things that are pleasing to Him", John 8: 29.

  • "To do Thy good pleasure, My God, is My delight, and Thy law is within My heart", Psalm 40: 8.

• We come under the same standard: "Giving My laws into their hearts, I will write them also in their understandings", Hebrews 10: 16.

• It is thus that we become "legitimately subject to Christ", 1 Corinthians 9: 21.

• Personal scruples must give way before His example: "the Christ also did not please Himself", Romans 15: 3.

As having been delivered from a tyrannous system we are not to think that, as the Gentiles, we can please ourselves nor, as the Jews, retain scruples which will not stand the light of Christianity.

• The allowance of such attitudes not only undermines brotherly relationships but directly interferes with the service of God. We cannot afford the luxury of such pettiness.

• "Now the God of endurance and of encouragement give to you to be like-minded one toward another, according to Christ Jesus; that ye may with one accord, with one mouth, glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another, according as the Christ also has received you to the glory of God", Romans 15: 6-7.

Elisha's young man was afraid; perhaps many of us have been, or still are, in fear. The greatness of the enemy's power may overwhelm us.

• The man of God, for Elisha was a man of God – the only one called a "holy man of God", 2 Kings 4: 7 – was not shaken or afraid.

• He knew the power of God that was available.

• Elisha prayed, the eyes of the young man were opened and he saw "the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha".

• God did not let Elisha down, and He will not let us down. Have you had your eyes opened yet?

Why should we be afraid. Are you listening to all the reports from abroad?

• You hear this, and you hear that; but what are you to believe? Most of the reports aren't worth listening to or worrying about!

We need to listen to "whatsoever things are of good report", Philippians 4: 8.

• We have just been to W— and have come back with a good report of the brethren there. Our sisters with us from S— bring a good report of saints there.

• These are the reports to listen to; they will cheer your heart. "Fear not, for they that are with us are more than they that are with them", 2 Kings 6: 16.

• Let us not be in fear. God's power is on our side. "If God be for us, who against us?", Romans 8: 31.

Of course, in a certain sense, it is easy to become discour-aged; the enemy is always working to discourage us.

• But there is really nothing to be discouraged about; no need of long faces and chins down between your knees.

• I'm certainly not discouraged. Certain matters may and do cause concern, even great concern, but they are not discouraging me.

• "Lift up your eyes". The Lord would encourage us by that word. "Lift up your eyes". You have opened them! – now lift them up.

Perhaps the Lord has spit upon your eyes and laid His hands upon you, but you only see "men … as trees walking", Mark 8: 22-26.

• The time for that is past! The Lord does not spit upon the eyes a second time.

• We need to apprehend the Manhood of Christ in all its essential greatness and dignity.

• That is what will deliver us from that greatly discouraging occupation with men as trees walking.

• He touched the man again, as He is ready to touch you now, and the man "saw all things clearly".

• All this took place outside "the village". It wasn't very big, just a little village, like "brethrenism".

• Let us get outside of our little village and be occupied with Christ and the things of good report.

"Lift up your eyes". As you lift up your eyes everything else comes up with them – nose, ears, mouth, the long face, the chin from between your knees.

• As you see what the Lord has before Him, discouragement is banished.

I like that exhortation, "Lift up". It is an exalting thought.

• "Lift up your heads, ye gates; yea, lift up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in", Psalm 24: 9.

• Could you be discouraged in the presence of the King of glory?

Let us reap the harvest, reap the joy, reap the blessing, reap souls! "I have sent you to reap that on which ye have not laboured".

• Not four months from hence any longer but right now, "already white to harvest".

• These are the words of Christ; He was not discouraged.

• Although He was "a Man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief", Isaiah 53: 3; He went through everything "in view of the joy lying before Him", Hebrews 12: 2.

Much has been done by those who have gone before, and it is there for us to reap.

• Take your eyes off men. Open your eyes wide and see what Christ is doing.

• "Lift up your eyes and behold the fields, for they are already white to harvest. He that reaps receives wages and gathers fruit unto life eternal, that both he that sows and he that reaps may rejoice together".