1. The first passage we read shows the need for continuing in obedience. This is becoming an increasing test as the days become darker and the confusion in Christendom grows.

   There is an increasing call for obedience to the word of the Lord, and our passage shows the seriousness of giving way to other voices.

2. Our second passage would encourage us to continue in confidence in the word of the Lord, no matter what the circumstances may involve in the way of suffering.

3. Thirdly, in reading of Peter we may learn as to the Lord’s desire that we should continue in subjection to His holy will. This may not only involve suffering in a lighter kind of way, but even martyrdom.

4. Finally, in the verse in the Acts we see in Paul one who could say that with the help which is from God he had continued unto that day. He did not speak of the morrow, for who knows what a day may bring forth?

   But he could say that with the help of God he had continued to that day, speaking only those things which were accurate, and this because he had continued in the path of dependence on the Lord.

1 Kings 13: 1, 7-11, 18-19, 23-24

To return to the first passage, we find a servant of God sent on a special mission.

• It was his prerogative to proclaim, on God’s behalf, judgment in relation to a system which had developed amongst His people through their moving at a distance from Him.

• King Jeroboam had set up a system of worship and idolatry in the very place – Bethel – where God had made Himself known to Jacob – a most solemn consideration – Genesis 28: 10-22.

• As we look around in Christendom today we can see many forms of so-called worship, ostensibly in the name of the Lord, but which will become a universal system that will ultimately call forth His judgment.

• This prophet, the man of God, was told by the Lord to go to Bethel and proclaim the judgment to the king: this he faithfully carried out.

• And he was further told that, after delivering his message in this realm of idolatry, this false form of worship, he must return by another way.

• This is just where we are tested, beloved brethren; whether we understand what it is to walk in another way. It is easy to move in masses. Some of us have moved with large companies hitherto.

• There are thousands of God’s beloved people in bondage in Christendom where the will of man is rampant in the things of God.

• But it is our privilege, as knowing the mind of God, to walk in another way. And God is very faithful to us in that He has told us the way. For
  • “the firm foundation of God stands”,

• and no matter how much departure there may be into other channels, or to other systems or companies, this foundation stands,
  • “having this seal, the Lord knows those that are his”, 2 Timothy 2: 19, 22.

• This is a great comfort to us. If our hearts are given to mourning because so many of His people are still in bondage, the Lord knows them all.

• They are those for whom He died. Let us not say hard things about them, beloved brethren, but let us pray for them. So the scripture continues,
  • “Let everyone who names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity … and pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”.

• That is “another way”, one which many of the saints of God in Christendom do not understand.

• And there is a command in this chapter in Kings concerning this other way, that when the mind of the Lord had been proclaimed, against the idolatrous altar reared up by the king,
  • who by means of it, was giving a false impression of God – at Bethel, the ‘house of God’;

  • a remarkable thing that a false impression of God should be given in the place which is called the ‘house of God’ –

• the man of God was to return by another way.

• The Lord’s judgment, pronounced by His servant, was that the altar and the system which it represented would ultimately be refused and rejected, and come to nothing.

The Scripture records that in Bethel there was an “old prophet”, verse 11. What was he doing there?

• What are those persons, who have been used to bring the mind of God forward, doing in Bethel?

• According to the prophet Hosea, Bethel is now called Beth-Aven –
  • ‘house of iniquity’, Hosea 4: 15; 5: 8, 10: 5.

• Instead of giving God His right place, and the sole place, room is made for the mind of man. This is what idolatry is – the introduction of another in the place of God.

• You will notice that the word to the man of God was neither to eat bread nor drink water in that place. The king, however, tested him, saying
  • “Come home with me … and I will give thee a present”.

• To the natural man this would sound very attractive. And there are many real believers in Christendom today who are mixed up with the systems of men;
  • not that I would speak ill of any of the Lord’s people. But what are they doing there?

• So the word from God is that you can walk in another way, and thus be clear of the whole thing; that is, you can pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart.

• And it becomes those of us who have learned, in any measure, to walk in another way, to hearken continually to the voice of the Lord, and to keep clear of the systems of men, even though promised a present.

• The command to the man of God was, “Thou shalt eat no bread nor drink water there”, verse 7.

The truth of separation is still with us; and if, perchance, I am speaking to some who feel they would like a little more licence to go to this place or that,

• or perhaps to move amongst Christians where the will of the Lord is set aside, to allow for the pursuit of the will and mind of man, hearken to this –
  • “Thou shalt neither eat bread nor drink water there”.

• You may say, ‘Are you going to put us under law again? We have been delivered from bondage, and you are going to put us all in bondage again’.

• Never! God would never have His people under a sense of bondage: He would desire us to stand fast in the freedom and liberty in which Christ has set us free.

• But we must be obedient; and obedience is this: that we must do just what He tells us.

• So, beloved brethren, especially you young people, be very careful to which voice you listen, lest you should go off at a time when God is making His mind very clear as to what separation from the world really is.

• It is not a code of rules – Thou shalt not do this, or thou shalt not do that. That is the law and brings us into bondage.

• It is the voice of Jesus to which we should listen, and if we obey His voice He will bring us into untold blessing.

• So let us all keep clear of the systems which are around us in Christendom, where the Lord is not given His full place and where the Holy Spirit is grieved.

• But perhaps you will say that there are many godly Christians in those systems. I grant this; but I would raise the question, ‘What are they doing there?’

• There was indeed another prophet, “a certain old prophet”, in Bethel. Why didn’t he leave it? He knew that Jeroboam had set up the golden calf; then why didn’t he leave it? But he still stayed in Bethel – and he had his sons with him there.

• And the sons went home and told their father what the man of God had done and the words that he had spoken to the king; and the old prophet arose and went after him, just after he had left Bethel by another way.

• See the seriousness of what I am seeking to bring before you, beloved brethren.

• The man of God had begun to move in another way, following righteousness and faith; and the old prophet, who had no business to be in Bethel, lied to him, saying,
  • “I am a prophet also as thou art, and an angel spoke to me by the word of Jehovah saying, Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat bread and drink water”.

• It must be in the old prophet’s house – not the king’s house. You see, we may be allured into going off at a tangent, and disobey the Lord’s commandment
  • through listening to somebody who is himself moving in the path of disobedience.

• And the man of God went with the old prophet, and ate with him against God’s commandment; and alas, it meant that he was lost for the path of testimony.

• He departed from the old prophet’s house and a lion met him in the way. The lion wasn’t concerned about the ass; it was the man of God he wanted, and it was him he slew.

• Peter reminds us that our adversary the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Dear young people, you are safe near to the brethren who are walking in another way. Keep close to them;

• and if there are those who are real believers but found in wrong settings and who tempt you into association with them, keep clear of this, or you may lose your life so far as the testimony of our Lord is concerned.

• The old prophet went out and found the lion standing by the ass, while, lying in the way, was the dead prophet, the man of God.

• The lion had not torn the ass, but was standing by the one who had been overthrown for not continuing in the path of obedience.

• Brethren, let this word abide with you as from the Lord – continue in the path of obedience to His will;

• and move with the beloved saints of God, who themselves are seeking to move in quite another way in this world of darkness, as following righteousness, faith, love, peace, with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

Matthew 11: 2-11

We now come to John the baptist, and are stimulated and encouraged to find a man who,

• in spite of all the circumstances which came upon him, continued with his confidence in the Lord entirely unshaken.

• He was a favoured man: he was also a servant of God. He had been sent from God with a particular ministry, a ministry concerning our glorious Lord. How I love those words.
  • “There was a man sent from God, his name John”, John 1: 6.

• One would fear to take any part in service, apart from doing so as sent from God. John’s ministry was a faithful ministry, and he expressed it fearlessly.

• Would that there were more true servants today who are fearless in expressing the mind of God! Fearlessly, John said to the Pharisees, “Offspring of vipers”.

• He neither minced his words nor spoke niceties to them: he spoke the truth.

• He had a wonderful opportunity to get a reputation amongst the religious men of the day, amongst the people of God too. Certain ones sent to him and said,
  • “Who art thou? … I am not the Christ … Art thou Elias? And he says, I am not. Art thou the prophet? and he answered, No. And they said therefore to him, Who art thou?”

• Here was an opportunity! His enquirers explained that they had been sent from those who were in the forefront of the Pharisees: here was an opportunity for John to get a good reputation.

• ‘Who are you?’ He replies. ‘I am but a voice’. But that voice was bringing into prominence the glory of Jesus.

• How wonderful it is, brethren, that the servant goes right out of sight in order that Christ may come into view! Who would not love to do that?

• John said, ‘I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose the sandal of the One whom I am here to announce, and whose paths I am to make straight. There stands amongst you a Man; He who comes after me and yet was before me’.

• Of Him John says further, “He must increase”. That does not mean that He would increase in His Person, because He “is over all, God blessed for ever”.

• It means that John the baptist’s ministry was given so that we should appreciate Jesus more and more, and that He should become greater and greater in our view.

• ‘As to me’, John says, ‘I would like to get less and less, until I go out of sight altogether’. Servants like that are ministers to whom you can afford to listen.

But the time comes when John himself is tested, and he is in prison. His confidence apparently beginning to wane, he sends his disciples to Jesus to enquire,

• “Art thou he that should come, or look we for another?”

• I have much sympathy with John in prison. Everything seemed against him. He had ministered well and fearlessly.

• He was not a man who had lived luxuriously, having received large gifts to enable him to do so. No, he had been brought up in the desert, and he knew what the desert was.

• Paul likewise was in Arabia for three years and he knew something about that desert.

• But John, pressed by his untoward circumstances, says, ‘I would like to be confirmed about this person, for I am just getting a little weary in these prison conditions’. The Lord says,
  • “Go, report to John what ye hear and see”, and then he added this little personal bit for John himself –

  • “Blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in Me”, Matthew 11: 6.

• This was a special message to John the baptist from the Lord. You say, ‘I don’t understand what it really means’. Well John did; and if there is anyone here who is inclined to let his confidence wane,
  • I believe this is a word from the Lord Jesus to you – that you should continue with your confidence in Him undiminished.

• He will send you just a particular message for yourself. The disciples sent by John would tell him, ‘We saw the blind and they had received their sight’.

• Well, they are here today – many of them. There was a time when we saw no beauty in Jesus, but our eyes have been opened to see beauty in Him now.

• And if you are beginning to lose confidence, we would call your attention to those whose confidence is undiminished. “And lame walk”.

• It is a lovely thing to see all you young people here who were once lame, possibly just limping your way off towards the world, or perhaps to some other system in the religious world, which is not ‘another way’ as we have been speaking.

• But the message to John is that the lame are seen walking. It is a delightful thing to see young people walking, so as to please God and walking with the brethren who love God out of a pure heart and worship Him thus.

But what about this message, “Blessed is whosoever shall not be offended in Me”?

• I believe it just stilled John’s questions: it would remove every doubt from his mind that this was the Christ. He would gain fresh confidence that his ministry had been a right ministry.

At the time of Herod’s great feast, there was a woman, who, having heard John’s ministry and taken umbrage at it, said to herself, ‘I wish I could get rid of him’.

• Her daughter, having so pleased the king by her dancing before him, and having received from him the offer of a present – the gift was promised by oath – was set on by her mother to ask for the head of John the baptist on a dish;
  • and Herod, unable to withdraw from his foolish oath, sends and has John beheaded in the prison.

• Has John’s confidence disappeared now? No! Has he any doubts about Jesus now? No! Methinks I see John accepting all with tranquility of mind and heart –
  • the man who was sent from God with a message and a ministry dies, fully confiding in Jesus, and wasn’t offended in Him at all. He was blessed in his confidence in Jesus.

• But what about the other side? What do you think that young maiden would feel as the carrier brought in the head of John the baptist on a dish and handed it to her?

• What fair damsel is there here today who would like to see the head of a faithful servant of the Lord brought to her on a dish? You say, ‘What do you mean?’

• I simply mean this, that if you are seeking to move out towards the world which crucified the Lord of glory, you are in great danger of becoming involved in these parties where there is opposition to the truth,
  • and where the ministry as to Christ is ignored because it touches their hearts and consciences. They would like to get rid of it.

• You may join hands with them in their pleasures now, but one day you may see a servant who was faithful to you martyred for the testimony of Jesus, and you, still in the world.

• Would you like that? Would you like to see the head of any faithful servant, who brought to you the voice of Jesus given to you on a dish?

• Would you like to be on the side of the world which has crucified the Lord of glory?

• Let me encourage you to hear the voice of Jesus tonight, and to continue in confidence in Him, in spite of all the conditions, whether prison conditions, or whatever they might be, and not to be offended in what Jesus asks of you.

John 21: 15-19

Now we come to Peter. Because there was seen in him such vacillation, I believe the Spirit of God takes him up expressly to encourage us.

• One day he would say something in the flesh, and soon afterwards something which was of the Spirit; and the Spirit of God portrays much of his life for us
  • so that we, in our day, may be sustained, and continue in dependence, in spite of what we find in ourselves.

• There had been an occasion when Peter had said,
  • “Lord, if it be thou, bid me come to thee on the water”.

• That was right; and if you have heard the Lord’s voice calling you to move out toward Him in confidence and faith – move!

• But when Peter saw the waves he began to sink. How far did he sink? just sufficiently far into the deep to discover how weak he was. And when he discovered how weak he was, he says,
  • “Lord, save me”.

• And the Lord’s hand was there immediately, and His servant was saved.

• If we have really moved out to the Lord, and there are times when we feel our weakness and see the storms around us, and are apt to give way and begin to sink, let us not be ashamed to cry out, “Lord, save me”.

• He will do so immediately. His hand of power is great enough to lift up to Himself every true heart.

In chapter 16 of Matthew’s gospel Peter said that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God;

• yet in the same chapter, when Jesus was speaking of His forthcoming sufferings, he allowed human sentiment to come in, saying,
  • “Lord, this shall in no wise be unto thee”. And Jesus had to say to him,

  • “Get away behind me, Satan”.

• In the next chapter – chapter 17 – Peter was up on the top of the mountain, beholding the glory of the Lord during His transfiguration, and again he vacillates.

• Later he actually denied the Lord; not once, but three times; but
  • in John chapter 21 the Lord is speaking to him with a view to establishing him to continue to the end. So He challenged Peter’s affection for Him.

• We may all say that we love the Lord, and we may say it three times; but the Lord can look right down into our hearts, and He knows how much we really love Him.

• He could appraise His own work in Peter’s heart, and knew that he was a man who would face martyrdom in subjection to His will. So the Lord reminds Peter that when he was young he did just what he liked.

• Young people, be careful! Don’t just do everything you would like.

• Let your love for the Lord increase so that He can see and value it, and so that you may be one of those persons whom He can tell quite plainly that you will continue to the end, even if this calls for martyrdom.

• That was what Peter was here. The Lord says,
  • “When thou wast young, thou girdest thyself, and walkedst where thou desiredst; but when thou shalt be old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and bring thee where thou dost not desire. But he said this signifying by what death he should glorify God”.

• We know that Peter was martyred by crucifixion, which is no doubt alluded to in the stretching forth of his hands, but we also know that he continued in dependence to the end.

• What sustained him? Was it a view of the glory in Matthew 17? Yes! it was his view of Jesus.

• But you will have noticed – and I call your attention to it afresh – that when Peter is just about to be martyred, 2 Peter 1, he says that knowing that shortly he must put off this tabernacle as the Lord had shown him,
  • he wants to remind us that He – Christ – received from God the Father honour and glory, such a voice being heard by him and those with him.

• Then he tells us what this voice said –
  • “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”.

• Does Peter stop at that point? Yes! In Matthew 17, however, the voice says,
  • “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight: hear him”. Yes!

• But Peter does not say this in his second epistle. There he says,
  • “This is my beloved Son, in whom I have found my delight”, and then adds,

  • “This voice we heard”.

• It is not now a case of hearing Him: the time for that is over. What is it now, Peter?

• It is Himself, just Himself, his delight in the same glorious Person who is the delight of the heart of the Father.

• May our hearts know more about that, beloved brethren, specially so as we are nearing dissolution!

Acts 26: 22

And finally, Paul. We know the history of Saul of Tarsus. We know something of what he suffered for his Lord.

• Who can define and describe the whole category of sufferings which were his, as portrayed in 2 Corinthians 11?
  • Railed upon; beaten by the Jews five times, with forty stripes save one; in perils of the deep too; perils of robbers.

  • “Thrice have I been scourged”, he says, “Three times I have suffered shipwreck; a night and day I passed in the deep!”

• And you are still going on, Paul? Yes! How are you going on? He says, and I would like to commend this to the brethren,
  • “Having therefore obtained help of God I continue unto this day”.

• And this is why we are all here today, beloved brethren. We have continued up to today with the help of God, whose infinite mercy, grace and goodness have sustained us.

• We owe nothing to ourselves. We owe our present position to the constant intercession of Jesus in the presence of God, and to the power of the Holy Spirit, who alone preserves us in the path of God’s will.

• I believe it will be the morrow which will test. We sang in our hymn that our hearts are expectant of seeing the Lord in glory, and we would seek His grace and His help to preserve us until His promised coming.

• May it be so, for His Name’s sake.

You will have noticed that the scriptures I read speak of clouds,

• and the Spirit would use these verses which He Himself has indited so as to engage us with the One who never fails us especially in times of sorrow or trouble;

• the One who despite the pressure and through the pressure will eventually consummate all His thoughts concerning us and perfect in us that work which will be for God’s glory and praise.

I read the first passage in Leviticus because that speaks to us of the excellence and worth of the Lord Jesus.

• The instructions given to Moses in Exodus 30 concerning the incense of fragrant drugs required that it be made of stacte, and onycha, and galbanum – fragrant drugs; and pure frankincense, in like proportions.

• The scripture in Leviticus says that Aaron with a view to entering the sanctuary, inside the veil, should have both his hands full of that fragrant incense beaten small;
  • and bringing it inside the veil he should put the incense upon the burning coals of fire, also taken by him from off the altar, so that the cloud of sweet incense should cover the mercy seat,

  • thus merging with the cloud already there – the cloud of God’s immediate holy presence.

• The Spirit of God records that this took place before ever the blood was put on the mercy seat,
  • thus giving us an understanding of the excellency and the glory of Jesus in His holy perfections, before the Spirit records the efficacy of His work.

• That is the Spirit’s choice work today, to engage us with the excellencies and perfections of Jesus;
  • and it is only in the measure in which we understand the glory of the Person that we are able to value the glory of His work

  • and to be led into God’s appreciation of it and of the blood of Christ as before God.

• For Christ has entered into the presence of God by His own blood, and it is because of that that we are here tonight;
  • on account of the excellency of the One who came in from God and has gone back to God and the work that He accomplished on the cross and His bloodshedding.

• He has gone back in the power and glory of all that, as it says,
  • “now to appear before the face of God for us”, Hebrews 9: 24.

• He has made a way right into the holy presence of God – the excellency and glory of Jesus is there.

• He has entered by His own blood into the presence of God for us; so that the way is open – every moral question is settled for ever.

• The glory of God has been established; for Jesus said, in the light of the cross,
  • “Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God also shall glorify him in himself, and shall glorify him immediately”, John 13: 31-32.

• And it is that glorified Man who would encourage us tonight as He would minister to us of the glory concerning Himself.

I wonder if we all have an understanding of that fragrant incense and its compounding!

• The stacte and the onycha and the galbanum and the frankincense – how much do we know of it?

• There was nothing to be made like unto it; it was to be unique. And we find everything concerning Jesus is absolutely unique.

• Oh, the grace that marked Him! The excellencies that marked Him as a Man! The perfections of the humanity of Jesus!

• We shall go over it, beloved brethren, throughout the eternal day – the perfections and the glory of Jesus in whom we see God.

Stacte: John's Gospel

I think we find the stacte in John’s gospel, Stacte, you may recall, means ‘a drop’ – a crystal, pure drop. It is just like John’s gospel.

• See a drop of dew in the brilliant light of the sun – how it sparkles! Now take another viewpoint, and you look and the glory is different.

• And whenever we look at the gospel by John we always get some fresh ray of the glory of Jesus.

• Oh, the sweet incense that ascended to the Father from Jesus as we see Him moving according to John’s testimony in his gospel!

• View Him at the grave of Lazarus! Glorious blessed Saviour! One who in the infinite wisdom of love kept away for two days when He heard that Lazarus was sick! The sisters said,
  • “If thou hadst been here, my brother had not died”.

• That is true. No one could ever die in the presence of Jesus, because He is the Resurrection and the Life; but in infinite wisdom He remained two days where He was;
  • and then He comes to the grave and the fulness of His compassion is seen in that He weeps.

• Oh, glorious Lord, that He should weep in sympathy with those bereft hearts by the grave of their brother! And then, what did He do? He lifted up His eyes on high and said
  • “Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; but I knew that thou always hearest me; but on account of the crowd who stand around I have said it that they may believe that thou hast sent me”.

• Can you not get a wondrous impression of the fragrance that went up to the Father as Jesus lifted up His eyes on high and said, Father, I knew that thou always hearest me? At the end of his gospel John says
  • “There are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written”.

• But he says in effect this is just a tiny drop – the stacte – to keep looking at in the light of the One who is heaven’s glory;
  • and the more you consider this drop, the greater will be your impressions of the immensity of what eternity will be as filled with Jesus.

We shall soon see Him face to face, dear brethren, but in the meantime He would encourage us and the Spirit would help us to put these things together with the skill of a perfumer.

Onycha: Matthew's Gospel

What about the onycha? Is not this Matthew’s presentation of Jesus in all His suffering path?

• The onycha is a small creature, the body of which, on being subjected to pressure, exudes a perfume as the pressure increases; and so it speaks of Jesus.

• Have you ever viewed Him as in Matthew 11 when He turns and reproaches Chorazin and Bethsaida and Capernaum – the cities wherein most of His mighty works were done, but which refused Him?
  • “Woe to thee, Chorazin! woe to thee Bethsaida! – and thou Capernaum who hast been raised up to heaven”;

• they had refused Him. And what did Jesus do? He turned His eyes to heaven and answering said,
  • “I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well pleasing in thy sight”.

• See how the pressure brought out the fragrance! Oh, beloved brethren, the Spirit is actively forming Christ in our hearts now, today, and the pressure increases;
  • let there be, however small, some fragrance characteristic of Jesus in the feelings which marked Him at that hour.

• For onycha is included in the fragrant drugs.

Galbanum: Mark's Gospel

And then the galbanum. This, I am told, is a drug which is yielded by plants under the heat of the desert and has a long lingering perfume which remains day after day. Is not that like Mark?

• You remember that in Mark’s gospel, beloved brethren, in that first chapter, Jesus had laboured all the day long, and it says the sun had gone down, but He was still working.

• The whole city was gathered at the door and He healed many suffering from various diseases and cast out many demons. And then it goes on to say,
  • “And rising in the morning long before day, he went out and went away into a desert place, and there prayed”.

• Oh, what fragrance even in the desert, and carried over from day to day! The day beginning with that beautiful dependant spirit that ever marked Him and which ascended as fragrant incense to God.

Frankincence: Luke's Gospel

And who will tell of Luke’s gospel? Well, here we get the frankincense.

• At the outset a praying Man in the midst of Jordan and heaven opening, the Holy Spirit descending upon Him and the voice out of heaven,
  • “Thou art my beloved Son”.

• A personal salutation from heaven expressing the Father’s delight in Jesus;
  • and at the end of His pathway He is still a praying Man, and all in between, He is a praying, dependant Man.

• This is the frankincense. Leviticus 2, referring to the oblation, speaks of the fine flour – the manhood of Jesus;
  • and when the oblation was offered the Spirit of God records that it was to be offered “with all the frankincense thereof”. What pleasure this yielded to God.

Well, the perfumer knows how to put all these prescribed constituents together, and this is what the Spirit of God would give us to understand.

• The cloud of sweet incense, speaks, as we have seen, of the excellency of Jesus, the Man who went into death to accomplish the will of God.

• It also speaks of the glory of His Person, and mingled with the cloud of the divine presence, the cloud of glory upon the mercy seat; for Christ in Himself is over all, God blessed for ever.
  • “Having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”, Hebrews 1: 3.

• And the cloud was there, beloved brethren, before there was any sprinkling of the blood on or before the mercy-seat.

• You see that what I desire to impress upon you is the excellency and dignity and glory of who He is, and that it is this which gives efficacy to His work.

Acts 1: 9-11

Well, when we come to Acts 1 the work was done and there were those with Him there who had actually been with Him during His pathway on the earth.

• I often think of it – those eleven men moving with Jesus to the Mount of Olives. What holy converse it must have been as Jesus spoke with them!

• They had heard His preachings, received His teachings, heard Him commune with the Father, and observed Him – as we were reminded last night –
  • they had heard Him, seen Him, handled Him; they had seen the fulness of grace coming out in Him.

• John had witnessed Him on the cross, had seen the excellency and the fragrance marking Him in death, had witnessed the blood and water coming from the side of Jesus – he was near enough to see it.

• But in Acts 1 all the disciples were together with Jesus and they came to the place where Jesus was ofttimes in prayer, the Mount of Olives.

• And as they were there together, Jesus left them and was taken up into heaven, they beholding Him; and it says,
  • “a cloud received him out of their sight”.

• I would love to give you an impression tonight that Jesus is not very far away. The apostle says in writing to the Philippians
  • “the Lord is near”.

• How near is He? He is just behind that cloud that is causing you so much sorrow. Yes, He is just behind the cloud. You say, ‘I wish I could see Him!’ Well, He said to His disciples
  • “Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe on God, believe also on me”, John 14: 1.

• They had never seen God and yet believed on God. Now, He says, as soon going out of sight, “believe also on me”.

• Oh, He is just there; He draws nearer when He sees those tears of thin, oh believer; He sees them.

• And the Holy Spirit would help you just to get in touch with Him, so to speak, on the other side of the cloud, that your heart might be comforted,

• as those sisters were comforted when they discovered the immensity of the power that marked Him when with a loud voice, He said,
  • “Lazarus, come forth”, John 11: 44.

• He can bring the lost ones from the dead if He should so choose; He can do anything. But, you see, He is behind the cloud.

• It meant that the faith dispensation had begun, as Peter shows when he says “whom, not having seen, ye love”, 1 Peter 1: 8.

Job 37: 11-16

That brings me to the third scripture that I read, in the book of Job, because we learn there that these clouds which press upon our spirits are guided by Himself.

• They are not haphazard things of chance, beloved brethren.

• Some of us have known the Lord a long time and we are learning how divine wisdom marks everything that He permits to come into our lives. Everything is known to God.

• Job was going through severe discipline and Elihu in his discourse to Job and his friends asks,
  • “Dost thou know about the balancings of the clouds?”

• But the scripture that we have read says,
  • “With plentiful moisture he loadeth the thick clouds”.

• They are well loaded by God, beloved brethren, and if we only have the faith we will see that they are full of blessing.

• One desire I have, on leaving these shores on the morrow, if God will, is to leave an impression that God has everything in hand and there is nothing that ever gets amiss with God.

• I would love to leave behind an impression of the glory and fragrance of Jesus and that He Himself will be with you in all your tests and sorrows.

• And these clouds are directed everywhere by His guidance, throughout the whole circuit of the earth.

• What you are passing through here, beloved brethren, the saints of God are passing through throughout the whole circuit of the earth.

• He plentifully loadeth those black clouds with moisture and He directs them. He may have turned some in your direction – just towards you.

• It may be that it is for a rod to bring in correction. But it may not be that. It may be for His land; or it may be mercy.

I love to think of David. He was a man after God’s own heart. A choice man of a beautiful countenance, ruddy, and of surpassing excellence in his day –

• and he was a man who never disregarded the anointing of Saul.

• Let us be like David in that sense, never disregarding the anointing of God, for God has firmly attached all true believers by the Spirit to Christ and He has anointed us, and He has sealed us.
  • Let us never disregard the anointing on any of the saints of God.

• Well, David ever regarded the anointing. His was a lovely spirit – a forgiving spirit – he had a shepherd’s heart.

• He experienced conflicts; he had faced the enemies of God’s people at their strongest and he triumphed.

• But one little bit of pride entered his heart and he thought he would like to number the people.

• He loved large companies and he sent out Joab to number the people, and the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

• Joab was a ruthless man that would extol himself at everybody else’s expense; it was no matter to Joab who went down so long as Joab went up, and yet the king’s word was abominable to Joab.

• And God observed what David’s motive was. We cannot judge motives, beloved brethren, but God knows them all and He knew the motive governing David’s heart and action. It was pride.

• May we be preserved from pride! “Six things doth Jehovah hate, yea seven”, Proverbs 6: 16, and the beginning of the list is haughty eyes, a proud look.

• So God said, in effect, that He was going to direct a black cloud in David’s direction as a rod; He was going to correct him.

• And God directed a thick black cloud over the people, and David looked and he saw it and seventy thousand of the men of Israel were destroyed, 2 Samuel 1: 24.

• Clothed in sackcloth, he says, ‘I am to blame, it is I that have sinned and done evil; the trouble is with me’.

• What a man! Oh, that we were more like David, and take the blame when we are to blame! Why should the people of God suffer on my account?
  • “But these sheep, what have they done?”

• What a shepherd heart! Brethren, let us keep close together with shepherd hearts, caring for one another. We do not want to see anyone go down.

• We are not of those who say, ‘We can discard them, they harass us, they are of no value’.

• No, they are the Lord’s, He died for them. His sheep hear His voice and He knows them and they follow Him.

• We cannot discard one of those for whom Jesus died. David was to bear the rod. He says, ‘I will bear it, punish me, but let these sheep go’.

Well, you may ask what was the result of that black cloud? It eventuated in plentiful moisture.

• The angel’s sword being sheathed, David immediately goes to Oman the Jebusite and says, ‘I want to buy this place to build an altar to the Lord. I want Him to get the blessing that He is going to bless me with’.

• And he purchased the place because he had in mind a magnificent building – exceeding magnifical – wherein the service of God would proceed.

• What resources had David got to provide such a building? He immediately says,
  • “In my affliction I have prepared … a hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight”, 1 Chronicles 22: 14.

• ‘Out of your affliction, David?’ ‘Yes, the cloud has burst, and all this wealth and the knowledge of God that I have is the outcome of my affliction’.

• We are familiar with the 132nd Psalm. David indited that –
  • “Jehovah, remember for David all his affliction”.

• What was the outcome? He said ‘I would like to see Zion secured and I would like to see the ark in Zion because that is the place where God desires it to be’.

• What we really need to see more and more is Christ exalted and supreme in the hearts of all the saints, and nothing less than that – the ark in Zion.

• You must have Psalm 132 before you have Psalm 133; and what is Psalm 133? It is brethren dwelling together in unity and that is where God commands the blessing.

• And what is the blessing? It is like the ointment coming down – the perfume – coming down from the ascended Man and coming right down to the hem of His garment.

• And what is the hem of His garment? You have there alternately a bell and a pomegranate. The testimony going out that the Man has gone in. That is it.

• And down here the brethren seen dwelling together in unity, so that the testimony has increased power.

‘Well, David, that is out of your affliction?’ ‘Yes’, he says, ‘but now I know God better’.

• You will find in 1 Chronicles 29 that he says
  • “According to all my power”.

• You see the man is gaining power with God, Oh, that we might increase in our power with God! Well, David says,
  • “I have prepared according to all my power for the house of my God gold for things of gold, silver for things of silver and brass for things of brass”.

• And he goes on to bring in precious stones – he brings in a vast range of varied wealth that he has acquired to indicate to us how our knowledge of God increases as we respond rightly to the pressure.

And then, before he finished that chapter in 1 Chronicles he says,

• “and moreover, in my affection for the house of my God I have given of my own property three thousand talents of gold of the gold of Ophir” – the very choicest – “and seven thousand talents of refined silver”.

• You see the man is now coming to God’s thought of him. He is ready for translation. Not only his work, but the work in him, is complete; and he is handing over to Solomon, his son.

• Oh! that we might out of our affliction and power and affection for the house of God and the things of God increase in spiritual substance
  • so that we may be able to see the building constructively proceeding, for we are being built together for a habitation of God Himself.

Well, we could say a good deal more about the cloud coming as a rod, but our time is going. It may, however, be for His land; or it may be in mercy.

• Now, beloved brethren, we may not understand the peculiar discipline with which we are being disciplined at the present time.

• There have, in a widespread way, been breakups in families, grievous heartrendings, mental and physical collapse; there have been pressures and sorrows between husbands and wives, and parents and children, that hitherto we would never have thought of.

• Each of us may think that we have a bigger load to bear and a darker cloud than our neighbour, but remember, that it is turned by His guidance in the whole circuit of heaven and the whole circuit of the earth.

• We can be subject to the Father of spirits and live. Would you be without the discipline? Listen to what the scripture says:
  • “Whom the Lord loves he chastens”, Hebrews 12: 6.

• It is because He loves you. Oh, let us get it into our hearts; if it comes our way it is because He loves us.

• You may say ‘I cannot quite see it’. Despise not the chastening of the Lord – do not despise it.

• Do not faint under it, but be exercised by it, and afterwards it will yield the peaceful fruit of righteousness; and you will find that you will be of much more use than hitherto in the testimony of God.

• Permit me to say, God knows what He is doing, dear brethren. We may feel that we are suffering persecution and scorning and derision – ignored by those whom we love.

• Do not be discouraged. God knows all about it from every angle. Let us be subject to the Father of spirits; for, listen,
  • He “scourges every son whom he receives” and scourging is no light thing to bear.

• Moreover, it might be in mercy. Perchance the saints of God – the inheritance of God – will get the benefit from such suffering and trials.

• But it may be mercy to preserve us from some fall-trap laid by the devil to ensnare our feet.

• Oh, that we might look up and see the Man that has gone in, in all the fragrance of His person! He would take hold of our hand. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.

• Does it not say that “they all forsook him and fled”? Oh, suffering one, put your hand in the hand of Jesus in faith; He is just behind the cloud – just there.

1 Kings 18: 41-45

Let us now turn to Elijah. He is a praying man and the Spirit of God brings Elijah forward as an example of what a righteous man can bring into effect by prayer.

• Have you ever felt that you could not pray? I have. That may startle you somewhat but it is true.

• Satan loves to prey on our weaknesses, but the strong hand of Jesus lifts us up and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to pray.

• Praying in the Holy Spirit is a very real thing. Not repeating words or desires that we might like an answer to, but it is the Holy Spirit within us – it may be with groanings that cannot be uttered –
  • but everything is interpreted by the One at the right hand of God and He gives efficacy to the prayers of the saints.

• Elijah was a man of God. He had such confidence in God that he could say to Ahab in a very difficult day of apostasy,
  • “There shall not be dew nor rain these years, except by my word”, 1 Kings 17: 1.

• And it was so. Have you faith like that? When you pray do you believe that you will get the answer? The word is that all things whatsoever we shall ask in prayer, believing, we shall receive.

• Believing. I can tell you something about that but not just now.
  • “Do ye believe that I am able to do this?” said the Lord.

  • “According to your faith be it unto you”, Matthew 9: 28.

• Elijah was a dependent man. God said to Elijah,
  • “Hide thyself by the torrent Cherith – I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there”.

• Notice – “I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there”. He commands – God is still in control – things are not under the control of men.

• The whole testimony is in the hands of God and He will order every circumstance that it might prosper to the end.

And then Elijah is moved from Cherith and he has to go to Zarephath to a widow woman, and what does God say?

• “I have commanded a widow woman there to maintain thee”,

• that is, she shall be in a position to maintain Elijah for the whole period of test that God had in mind.

• The barrel of meal – it did not waste; the cruse of oil did not fail, for a whole year, that is, until the time that God had in mind was completed; so let us not lose heart.

• And not only that; he had learnt God. When it was a question of the widow coming into the full joy of sonship in the light of resurrection he could say, “My God”.

• That is lovely. He says it twice; “My God”. Do we know God like that?

• The Holy Spirit would help us to come into the true knowledge of God by seeing how everything is being perfected by Jesus.
  • “My God and your God”, He says in John 20.

‘Well, Elijah, what about this prayer?’ There has been no rain for three years.

• Some of us have been tested for a long time – some for three years, some, perhaps for longer.

• They felt that there had been no rain coming on them. Moses could say,
  • “My doctrine shall drop as rain”, Deuteronomy 32: 2.

• You feel that in recent years you have not had much from heaven. Well, pray about it.

Elijah goes to the top of Carmel and he gets his face between his knees and he bows right down to the earth.

• What a man! This is the man to whom God said
  • “Show thyself to Ahab”.

• God likes such men to show themselves. He has them. He says to Elijah,
  • “I have reserved myself seven thousand in Israel”.

• That is beautiful, “Myself”! God has them for Himself. And Elijah goes down on his knees, his face between his knees, and he prays that there might be rain – an answer to his prayer.

• I do not know what it is you would desire. Is it that your family has left you? Or has your wife or your husband left you? Well, can you get your face between your knees and bow down to the earth? for the scripture says,
  • “the fervent supplication of the righteous man has much power”, James 5: 16.

• Elijah sent to look for the answer and his servant went and looked. He came back and he said, ‘There is nothing’. Are you going to give up now, Elijah – there is no answer?

• No, he is not going to give up. He says, “Go again” and he went again. ‘There is still nothing!’ The man of God says,
  • “Go again seven times”, and the servant went again seven times.

• Ah! the answer is coming now. His faith did not waver; it never flagged. In his faith he was assured that God would answer his prayer. He was a man of faith.

• Oh, that our faith and our confidence in God might be increased. The servant comes back; he says,
  • “Behold, there is a cloud, small as a man’s hand, arising out of the sea”,

• Elijah says, ‘That is good enough for me’. There was a man’s hand in it. It is the hand of Jesus. He has said,
  • “Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, this will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son”.

• Do we believe that? Is our faith equal to it? Is our confidence in God equal to it? It is a cloud the size of a man’s hand.

• I love the “man’s hand”. You know the Father loves the Son and has given everything to be in His hand. And the Son carried it through. He says,
  • “I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it”.

• And when He came to His own on the first day of the week He showed them His hands. He had done it; He had been through death to establish it.

• The will of God has been established on the basis of redemption. Elijah says ‘That is enough for me. God can now readily dispense the blessing’.

• Ahab went into the city. Elijah ran before Ahab’s chariot in triumph. And soon the small cloud developed and the heavens became black with clouds loaded with moisture, and there was a great pour of rain.

Well, beloved brethren, these are real matters. We are dealing with God’s things and God’s word. This is not man’s word – this is God’s word; and before I close

• I would just like to refer to that other cloud that the apostle speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 4: 17 to the end of the chapter. He says
  • “For the Lord Himself with an assembling shout, with archangel’s voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall be always with the Lord. So encourage one another with these words”.

• The clouds that have been such a test to us will give way to sight. That cloud that hides Him from our view at the moment will be removed and we shall gaze upon His glorious face.

• What more could we wish for than to see the glorious face of Jesus? We shall soon look upon Him.

• And the word of God says that when we see Him we shall be like Him for we shall see Him as He is!

May our hearts be lifted up, and our hope increased as the day draws nigh for He has said “Behold, I come quickly!”

The Cloudless Morning

E. L. G. Clist.

J.L.W. Would a colt let loose be like the liberty of sonship?

J.H. Well, I believe that the Lord is after the young people, so that, as coming under His control, they will move in service, just as He did.

J.L.W. We all remember being tied, and the moment came when we were loosed and let go, but led to Jesus. Is not that the point, led to Jesus? and then it says that He took full command.

J.H. That is it, so that we would desire that those whom the Lord has in mind to be liberated, should themselves so come under the command of the Lord Jesus, that they will not be any concern to us:

• for once He has got control, without reserves, the persons are safe.

H.F.R. Would you say the man knew where to go? Where did he go?

J.H. He followed Jesus “in the way”, as seeing Him.

H.F.R. Is not that the key word for the present recovery?

J.H. I think it is. Open that out a little for us.

H.F.R. Some of us will never forget the word for us on 26th December, 1960,

• “Follow thou me”,

• and that is, I believe, the key word for the present recovery.

J.H. Very good. That is a ministry that has come right down to us today.

D.MacI. Is that why you are calling our attention to our place in the dispensation? For we are very near the end of it.

J.H. Yes, it is; I feel that we are in the last days, and Paul in writing to Timothy, in his second letter, brings Mark forward in the very last chapter.

• We know something about 2 Timothy 2 calling for separation, and we also know something of the authority of the word of 2 Timothy 3, but Paul says in chapter 4,
  • “Take Mark and bring him with thee, for he is profitable to me for the ministry”.

• And I believe that this chapter is what we all need to face, that the Lord is taking account of how we regard “the house”, where God dwells and even conditions in “the great house”,

• that we should be concerned that the principles of “the house” should be maintained in all their fullness and freshness and power.

S.B. Does the touch as to Bethany give us the right outlook as to the house, to the public position, and the temple?

J.H. It does indeed, and are you not thankful, that there are some of us who heard that word “Follow thou me”, so that we know something of what Bethany conditions provide for the Lord?

• A sphere where love is, and where He is appreciated above all others, and where a rival will never be entertained for a moment.

• Now that, really, as you say, provides the background for the maintenance of right conditions of every feature of the house.

D.MacI. It says of the Lord, in the first reference to the temple. “Having looked round on all things”. That is a very important word, is it not?

J.H. I think so. If we think of Christendom today, the Lord is looking round on “all things”, and He knows.

• Some of us have been very distressed and grieved, but I believe Paul’s ministry affected Mark; and the Spirit of God took Mark in hand when he wrote this, that he would use this as a comfort to us.

• He knows all about it. He Himself has had a good look round.

D.MacI. Yes, and having looked round He takes things into His own hands in regard to the temple, does He not?

• It is He that is dealing with matters; He may use servants, as Mark would love to see, but the Lord Himself is in control here, is He not?

J.H. He is, but it is very sweet to me to see, as has been said, He retires into Bethany. He has looked round, but He does not judge immediately.

• So we need not get discouraged, or be impatient, let us see that the Bethany conditions exist.

H.F.R. It was never too late for Him to go to Bethany. They would be ready for Him at any time of the day.

J.H. That is beautiful.

D.MacI. You had better tell us what “Bethany” stands for, for we all want to know.

J.H. Well, it is not very far from the Mount of Olives, according to the beginning of the chapter; {68} and it calls for spirituality, I believe, to be so imbued and formed by divine love, by the Spirit, that conditions of love are present amongst those who love Him, that they love one another, and the Lord is always welcomed there.

R.D.P. Is it not significant that when He goes out of Bethany then He hungers?

J.H. Say something about that.

R.D.P. I was just thinking about the environment which was so restful and pleasing to Himself, and then He goes out of it, and it says He hungered, for that environment is not there.

J.H. Very good, so we would seek, as has been said, to be always available at any time.

J.L.W. Do you not feel that we need to learn how to contribute to the conditions at Bethany? We often find for ourselves, perhaps, conditions of restfulness, the sweetness of fellowship, but what are we doing on the line of contributing to it? It needs maintaining, does it not?

J.H. It certainly does. How can we contribute?

J.L.W. Well, I believe, in the mutuality and sweetness of divine affections, and a little more acquaintance with the Mount of Olives would all make us contributors, would it not?

J.H. I am sure it would.

J.L.W. And then we should learn to value what fellowship is, instead of squandering it, as we do sometimes.

J.H. That is a very searching word.

S.W.H.R. It says in Proverbs, of the virtuous woman, that “She doeth him good and not evil, all the days of her life”. The Lord is seen here going out to Bethany with the twelve. Were they, in {69} that sense, doing Him good? Is that important?

J.H. The question is raised in that part of Proverbs, “Who can find a woman of worth?” The Lord is looking for personality.

H.F.R. Is personality brought about by contact with the Lord – communion; is it what He has to bring about in us? Does it suggest a standing out, as it were? God shows, from the very beginning, how He loved variety. He does not want just imitations, but something distinctive in every one.

J.H. Yes.

S.B. Does the “dead man Lazarus” help in relation to it? Would he not represent a person – a heavenly minded personality, in resurrection? He is dead, is he not? But “alive in Christ Jesus”.

J.H. He is one of those “at table with him”. It is these conditions – I believe the Spirit is searching all our hearts as to whether we can provide them, for the Mount of Olives would speak of that elevated sphere, where the Spirit is free to engage us with Christ; and we should often resort thither; not just once in a while, but that we should all, often, go to the Mount of Olives – just to sit at the Lord’s feet, to take in the holy impressions of the greatness of the thoughts of God. I believe that would form personality – a heavenly kind of personality.

S.B. So that the house is filled with His fragrance.

J.H. Yes, and only that. No room for any other man at all.

R.D.P. And do you not think that contributions amongst the saints depend entirely upon Him being the centre, and without a rival?

J.H. No rival; that is it. We have heard of ‘rival ministry’. Well, all true ministry leads to Christ, and if He is really in it, there is no rival there.

J.L.W. Is that why the twelve are mentioned? Twelve men who never rivalled one another.

J.H. There were two of them who wanted a little better place than some of the others; but the Lord adjusts them,

• and He adjusts them by showing them that love would be ready to go down to the bottom. And we have seen that in practice, have we not?

H.F.R. We have indeed.

A.L.G. Is there not a need of more love amongst us? I may be very small and feel the need of being surrounded by love.

J.H. Well, the Spirit can put us all together in the sense of how great we are, in the divine mind, and that is how we should look at each other, do you think;

• each “esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves”?

• And, as you say, the smaller ground we take in our own estimation, the more the brethren provide the love to make us feel at home.

S.W.H.R. Does Solomon get a right view of the people of God? “This thy great people”?

J.H. Yes, indeed.

D.MacI. Referring to the Lord “looking round on all things”, everything is under His review.

• If you look at Him as standing in the midst of the assemblies at the beginning of Revelation, there was nothing that escaped His view;

• He spoke well of all that He could, but then He could also adjust everything, so that there should be the spirit of the overcomer.

J.H. That is very good. So that the searching character of the Lord’s scrutiny amongst us this afternoon should produce with us a desire to be overcomers.

• There may be that which He may have to rebuke, like He does in the next section, when He comes back again, but it is with a view to our being overcomers.

D.MacI. Yes, and I wondered whether that is why He brings in so much of the question of faith, in this portion.

J.H. I thought that. Jesus said, “Have faith in God”. In this Gospel we read of the Lord groaning. He felt things; and it is right that we should feel the state of things today.

R.J. I was thinking that perhaps in contrast to the distress that you are speaking of, the liberty of sonship would also make for joy. So David could dance before the ark, although Michal, Saul’s daughter, looked down and despised him.

R.D.P. On Thursday in this room, we were looking at Thessalonians, where it says

• “that our God may count you worthy of the calling”,

• and it was suggested that the great calling was to sonship, and unless we are in the joy and liberty of being sons, we are likely to fall into legality like the Galatians, for instance.

J.H. Yes.

J.L.W. There was enough in the temple to cause great distress, was there not? So you would suggest that we need to feel things, for the Lord feels them?

J.H. I wonder sometimes how much we do. We look abroad on Christendom, and we know the Lord has His own in every place – we cannot quarrel with divine sovereignty –

• but there are many things done that are a great cause for prayer on our part, as feeling it.

• Jeremiah was a weeping prophet – a weeper – I have challenged my own heart as to how much I have really wept in relation to the things extant in Christendom – in the “great house” conditions.

R.F.G. You said in your opening remarks that we were in danger of introducing in testimony something that should not be there; what had you in mind in saying that, please?

J.H. The principle of legality and law which would bring the saints into bondage.

• I think we have seen a good deal of it, and the service in Mark’s gospel, by the Lord, is in the liberty and the glory and known joy of sonship.
  • “Thou art my beloved Son”.

• It is not like Matthew,
  • “This is my beloved Son”,

• God calling attention to Him; but it is the Lord’s own conscious realisation of the voice of the Father;
  • “Thou art my beloved Son”.

• We should have that underlying all our movements.

• Now, if we have not, I think perhaps we shall get astray on the line of expecting things from the brethren, on the lines of legality; and if they do not quite see things, try to force them.

• But sonship, in liberty, produces it. The thing is to get the saints into the good of sonship.

D.MacI. “My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations”, the Lord says;

• I wondered if you had in mind that it was really to be a great centre for God’s activities? The house has a very wide application in that sense, has it not?

J.H. Yes. I was thinking that even in “great house” conditions the true features of what the house of God is, should be maintained according to 1 Timothy.

• Because we are in 2 Timothy days, it does not mean that 1 Timothy does not hold good. That men lift up holy hands in prayer, and so forth.

S.B. Do we have to recognise that the Lord deals with what is incongruous in the temple, in this second reference?

• It is the Lord alone that can handle these matters, and, if we are kept in living touch with Him we shall not be legal, but we shall be in the same spirit as He Himself.

• In the dignity and liberty of sonship we should be faithful as to what is incongruous with God’s house, and exemplify what is proper to it.

J.H. That is it. But if we are really in it, we would be examples of what the truth really produces. And it would produce just that which is according to the word of God.

• Now that would be powerful in testimony, but if it is not produced in me, as a vessel, I would say quite freely and openly, what would be the use of my telling other people to be in it?

R.F.G. Is that why you had this section read that speaks about the fig tree? It looked all right, but there was nothing to it, was there?

J.H. No, there was no fruit for God, no fruit for the Lord.

R.D.P. Do you think the tree here represents the system?

J.H. Well I would think it would indicate, as far as my exercise goes, ‘man in the flesh’. God is never looking to man in the flesh, and He never will.

• And if I exert energy, by my own will, in a fleshly way, to try to bring the saints into divine things, it is going to end in ignominious failure.

J.L.W. So we are brought back to Bethany are we not? The house of figs.

J.H. Very good.

J.L.W. There is a range of things where there is sweetness available, and there is fruitfulness.

J.H. I think that is excellent.

J.L.W. And it is only in the grace of that, that we can face assembly exercises, is it not? For we have to face them.

• We cannot avoid them, can we – “house” exercises? But they should produce fruit.

J.H. We must be faithful as to that which is unsuitable to the house of God, faithfulness is not legality.

J.L.W. And would you connect it with what we get in chapter 13? It speaks of a man having left his house and given to his bondmen the authority.

J.H. Yes. I think the conditions are, that He has gone to the right hand of God, but we are still here; but He works with the disciples in chapter 16 and

• the Lord is with us too, if there is the integrity of heart that would keep things suitable for the Spirit of God, for God to dwell here in the Spirit.

• The question is, as far as I can see, as to whether we recuperate sufficient spiritual vigour, by the sweetness of what Bethany would provide, to see what it is that the Lord has a controversy with.

• What is it? How would He deal with it? For I do not want to deal with it in any different way from what He would.

H.F.R. Well, He deals with it according to the Scriptures. He says, “Is it not written?”

• It is not legality to maintain things according to the scriptures, it is faithfulness, for that is the only way in which God can be glorified.

• I suppose these dove-sellers, and those that were moneychangers were all thinking of some gain for themselves, but He says,
  • “Is it not written my house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations?”

J.H. That is important, and whatever is done by persons who have been formed according to the truth, they would do it according to the scripture, they would not do it in any other way;

• but they would understand that what the scripture says must be maintained, otherwise the Bethany conditions are going to fall to pieces. We must be governed by scripture.

J.L.W. Does it not raise an exercise with us each one, not to look around upon what other people may be doing but see that these elements are completely judged in my own heart?

J.H. That first. Then as that is judged, and we are thoroughly self-judged – no room for the man after the flesh – we are not looking to the fig tree for any fruit nor for the curse, so to speak; it has been exposed.

• The Lord on the cross was made a curse, and man after the flesh is removed from before God, and I do not want to cultivate it, I want to be helped never to look for any fruit from it myself.

R.D.P. Would you distinguish between the temple and the house? As you have mentioned, three times the temple is referred to, but suddenly the house comes in.

J.H. I think we have to bear in mind that the Spirit of God is presenting the general thing to us,

• “how one ought to conduct oneself in God’s house, which is the assembly of the living God, the pillar and base of the truth”.

• The saints form the house – “Whose house are we”,

• and the temple, too. “Ye are the temple of God”.

• God dwells in His house, and is served in it too.

H.F.R. That is how I understand it, that today the shrine is the place where God is praised and worshipped,

• but we want to maintain – the Lord is maintaining here – conditions so that that service can go on. This is to be our great business.

J.H. It is; so that He would not suffer them to carry any package through; now that is a very searching thing to me.

• These things that are wrapped up – nobody knows just what is inside – but there is something hindering.

• But, if a person is carrying a package, he is not able to lift up holy hands in the sanctuary, is he?

• If I am carrying grievances against any brother or sister, I am disqualifying myself for the service of God in the shrine.

• Well, let us see to it brethren, that we dispense with personal grievances quickly.

R.J. So the Lord says, “When ye stand praying, forgive if ye have anything against anyone”.

J.H. And following that, “that your Father also who is in the heavens may forgive you your offences”.

D.MacI. Would you not say that the shrine has never been lost and never will be lost?

J.H. I would. God is never thwarted.

D.MacI. The point is that we want to be in the good of it. We have to take into account much that comes in here, and one is the authority of the Lord.

• This comes in, at the end of the chapter, that He alone has authority, He deals with these matters because He has power to deal with them, according to the desires of His own heart. We want to learn that.

J.H. So that reference has been made to Chapter 13,

• “He left to his bondmen the authority”,

• and in dealing with any question that is challenging the rights of God in His assembly,
  • those who handle a matter, should be assured that they know what it is to be the recipients of the authority that the Lord is giving at the time,

  • that the Lord’s name is really in it, and the authority of His name.

• Many things have been done allegedly in the name of the Lord, and I do not think the Lord has been in them at all.

D.MacI. That is why we left what we had to leave; for the Lord was not in it.

A.L.O. As to this matter of packages, are there not some things that must be wrapped up? Love covereth a multitude of sins.

J.H. Yes, “be watchful unto prayers: but before all things having fervent love amongst yourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins”.

• When love covers a matter, there is nothing seen but the love.

H.F.R. We may depend upon it, this kind of package has got no love in it.

J.L.W. It is an immense contrast to the vessel that Mary brought into the house at Bethany, is it not?

J.H. She brought herself.

J.L.W. Yes, at great cost.

J.H. I think that is very good. In Matthew’s gospel, it is an alabaster flask of very precious ointment,

• the Lord is looking for vessels in Matthew’s gospel – real assembly persons that have the ability to hold the ointment.

• But when you come to Mark, she breaks the alabaster flask, so that to be in the path of “the way” the Lord teaches that it involves suffering.

• It may mean that you have to be broken in order that the odour comes forward.

• But when you come to John’s gospel, there is no flask at all. It is just the “pound of pure nard”. It is what she is herself.

• A spiritual person, formed in the knowledge of God, and that is what we are after. So that you see, when a spiritual person brings it forward, the whole house is filled. There is no effort about it.

J.L.W. A tremendous contrast, is it not, to what is found in general public conditions?

J.H. This matter of “standing praying” is a very urgent matter for us.

F.C.P.H. In regard to the fact that the fig tree is not producing fruit, the Lord immediately says,

• “Have faith in God”.

• Will you say a little about the bringing in of faith in God, please?

J.H. He can do anything. God asks,

• “Is there anything too hard for me?”

• and the answer is given in the same chapter:
  • “There is nothing too hard for thee”.

• Well, let us believe God.

• If it is a question of the fig tree being cursed, I am taught by the Spirit of God never to look to the flesh for anything that will promote the things of God.

• Because there is never any fruit there and it will never produce any.

• The Spirit alone can bring in that which will yield fruit for God, and if there is no fruit for God in these meetings, brethren, they will be useless.

S.B. What is the distinction between the fig tree and the mountain?

J.H. Well, the fig tree is what I am, after the flesh,

• but the mountain might be any difficulty that would obstruct the reaching of the divine end, and it calls for faith.

• We have our difficulties in our localities, some kind of mountain, and we feel things are almost insurmountable.

S.B. And do we have to learn that I cannot put that right?

J.H. Exactly, but God can.

S.B. So faith links me with God, as to these insurmoutable difficulties that arise.

J.H. Oh, brethren, we need it!

• “Have faith in God”.

• What a lovely word that is of Jesus! It is His own blessed word, “Have faith in God”.

R.G. It is very challenging, because if we get an exercise in our localities that assumes the proportion of a mountain, and we cannot move it, there is something wrong on this line somewhere, is there not?

J.H. That is so. Well, where is our faith in God? So that, immediately after this, there is this reference to standing, praying.

H.F.R. It may be some other matter entirely, but does not this matter of forgiveness show why the mountain is there?

J.H. I think that is why the Lord goes on to that.

J.L.W. It is this mountain is it not? It is as close as that.

D.MacI. That is very searching. If I have not been forgiving, that may have built up the mountain.

H.F.R. We can so easily take a dislike to a brother, or to a sister, and if we do not get rid of that quickly, it will hinder the conditions in the meeting and will hinder the service of God. I think this may be one of the packages.

J.H. I think it is. And perhaps a brother has something against another brother, or a sister against another sister,

• and they do not follow out the instructions of Matthew’s gospel, and it develops into a mountain.

• You have not to let the sun go down on your wrath.

• If you bring your gift to the altar, and you remember that your brother has aught against you, what do you do? You put your gift down, in simplicity, and you go to your brother and you have it settled.

• But then you may say, he has sinned against me. What do you do now according to Matthew 18? Oh, you may say, he must come to me and say he is sorry!

• Now the Lord did not say that, He said you must go to him.

• Whichever way it is you have to go to him; there is always one guilty party of the two, but if we always acted in that way, we would always meet half way.

• It would be like David coming down the hill and Abigail coming down the hill, and when we come to the bottom, everything is settled; for Divine help has been at our disposal.

D.MacI. What would you say as to this matter of “nothing doubting”, we have had it before us recently in James as to asking for wisdom?

J.H. Doubt is so inherent in our make-up. If we doubt, it is because we are confiding in the flesh and not in the Spirit and the power of God.

D.MacI. It speaks about the heart here. Do we pray that ‘if it be according to His will’? He can do the things. It may not be His will, I suppose.

J.H. John’s ministry comes in there. It is,

• “If we ask him anything according to his will, he hears us”.

• All this tests us as to our spirituality, our formation in the truth of sonship, our true knowledge of God.

• Whatever He, the Son of God, said in Mark’s gospel, came to pass.

• His personal service is to liberate us so that we might have everything adjusted, and brought into proper focus.

• I think the enjoyment of sonship is a wonderful thing. You see it perfectly in Jesus.

S.B. We shall not experience that, shall we, apart from the Spirit’s power? It is only by the Spirit we can maintain this spirit of forgiveness.

J.H. It is. We have received a

• “Spirit of adoption whereby we cry Abba Father”.

• Now, when the Lord said “Abba Father”, He was in the direst suffering and conflict, the pressure was hard upon Him.

• We can say “Father” in the Spirit’s power, the Spirit of adoption.

D.MacI. “The only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father”.

• There was nothing that the Father desired or wanted but the Son knew all about it.

J.H. I think that is beautiful.

D.MacI. And do you not think He would encourage us to cultivate that spirit, in nearness to Him?

J.H. Yes, in nearness to the Father. The Father really known.

D.MacI. That would remove doubting?

J.H. You would not ask anything that was not according to His will, because you would be so acquainted with His will, in communion.

S.W.H.R. Did John really catch the Lord’s Spirit, as leaning on the breast of Jesus?

J.H. I am sure he did.

F.C.P.H. Would “not doubting in his heart” be connected with our relationship with God? So that in Matthew 18, it is

• “If ye do not forgive from your hearts everyone his brother”.

J.H. We have often referred to Matthew 18 in these days, having in mind the

• “two or three gathered together unto my name”,

• and we have found comfort and joy in the experience of it.

• But we forget, perhaps, the end of the chapter, which you quote, where a man has been forgiven ten thousand talents, but his fellow bondman owes him a hundred pence, and he takes him by the throat and demands it.

• We want to see that there is nothing of that about us and, if we understand the cursing of the fig tree, there will not be. If the heart has been secured by divine love and
  • “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Spirit”,

• we would forgive as the Father has forgiven us our trespasses, so that if our brother sins against us, the first thing that love would do is to bring it to his notice; but, at the same time, manifest the love that would be ready to forgive.

J.L.W. So Matthew begins with that wonderful touch:

• “Jesus … He shall save his people from their sins”.

• It is the bringing Him in that is the key to the situation when true salvation shall be experienced.

J.H. When a difficulty crops up, especially if it affects me, one should retreat, so to speak, to the sanctuary and wait to see how Jesus would act in this matter. How would He deal with this?

• If it were a question of the rights of God, He would deal with it with vigour and authority, that the matter should be settled;

• personal matters should be forgiven. What a word is
  • “Whosoever shall have spoken a word against the Son of Man it shall be forgiven him”!

• That is very wonderful to me.

• Now at the end of the chapter the authority of the Lord is questioned. It will always be questioned by the unbelieving heart.

• If things are done authoritatively, in relation to the house of God, so that conditions may be maintained in suitability, there will always be an element that will question it.

H.F.R. So that, is this not a right kind of secret – that is, to have a secret with God? This was His secret with God, and they want to probe into that. That was where His power lay, and is not that where the power lies with us?

J.H. It is. It is in the communion of sonship. So that it was “my Father’s house”. It is the Son who is speaking.

• Well, they say, we want to know by what authority you are doing it. But that is His secret. It is the result of His knowledge of the Father, and we can have that too, in measure.

H.F.R. Indeed, and I believe this earlier part, as to forgiveness, is important. It says,

• “It shall come to pass for him”.

• We seem sometimes troubled about everything, and we never seem to get a solution, but there are others, you find, who really know where the trouble lies and, to them, it does not present any difficulties.

• I believe it is because we should always seek to have this matter out with God. “Have faith in God”.

• Those brothers and sisters who really know. They know the solution, but that is because they have faith in God and they have been to Him about it.

J.H. I am glad you have said that, because I have often thought that the spiritual tone of a meeting often depends on the spiritual sisters as well as the brothers.

• Think what the Spirit of God does, in commending the sisters, in the Lord’s life here. That is not for nothing, is it?

A.L.O. Martha and Mary. Both of Bethany, were they not?

J.H. Yes and it was Mary Magdalene that received the message, “Go to my brethren”. Wonderful message, was it not?

H.F.R. She had the solution before all the others.

S.B. Did Chloe bring in that which led to the solution of matters at Corinth?

J.H. Yes, she knew what the difficulty was, and she brought it forward in a comely way.

S.B. But she did not do it with authority.

J.H. She kept her place, and her status as a spiritual sister.

J.L.W. And does not all this centre round the fact that Christ is “Son over God’s house”? He gives character to everything in it. If anything is out of character, it is out of line.

R.D.P. Do you think the scribes and Pharisees had no sense of the moral side of authority?

J.H. Surely. My feeling is, and I believe it is right, that if I am thoroughly in communion with the Father, in the liberty of sonship, and there is a local difficulty,

• I shall understand that there is something present not according to the will of God.

• No one who is in the full liberty and joy of sonship will ever question the Lord’s authority in the house of God; He is Son over it.

S.B. So the solution of every matter with the Lord in manhood was “It is written”.

J.H. Very good. We must do all things according to the word. But see the skill of the Lord.

• “I will ask you one thing”.

• How the Lord has the skill to turn things back upon the questioners. Now have we got that?

• There may be, and there has been amongst us; we have to own that, sorrowfully, a spirit that would not be brought into regulation,
  • and a questioning of the authority that is proper to those walking in the light of the assembly, which is the house of God, the pillar and the base of the truth.

• I have wondered how power can be brought in in sonship to help such to recognise that the authority really comes from God Himself.

R.D.P. Will you tell us why He raises this question of John the Baptist?

J.H. To turn it back on them. So that if anyone questions what you do to maintain things in your locality suitable for the house of God – and there may be some that would raise a question as to that –

• you can turn it back upon them, in relation to fundamental truth.

S.B. It is unrepentant, religious flesh, refuting the Lord’s authority.

J.H. It is; but then the Lord turns them back on what is fundamental.

• He says, in another place, that the Pharisees and the lawyers rendered null as to themselves the counsel of God, not having been baptised by John.

• The Lord gets down to root principles. There is something wrong in the understanding of foundation principles, if the authority in the house of God is questioned. Is that right?

H.F.R. I am sure it is, and, although it was the baptism of John here, because the full thoughts of Christianity had not come in, it is baptism; and, after all, if we have really gone in our baptism, we will not cause trouble to anybody.

J.H. It is a baptism of water to repentance.

D.MacI. And is it not vital to note that He challenges whether the thing is of heaven or of men? If it is of heaven it is of Christ, otherwise it is of men.

J.H. It is, because the Lord puts them in a position where they cannot answer.

• It is a wonderful thing to be able to ask questions that are irrefutable. There is no other thing to do but just to bow to the authority of the Lord.

• So I do not want to ask any questions that the Lord will put back upon me and I cannot answer.