The word 'serve' has here a very comprehensive meaning which we do well to weigh over, as affecting the whole life of the saints of God on earth;

• the range of service cannot be restricted to a small compass; it comprises the many activities which make up the service of God in the sanctuary and in the house of God;

• the wide field of the service of compassion, comfort and love amongst God's people; the bearing of glad tidings, God's good news to men.

• We must not be confined to one aspect when we think of a magnificent Scripture like this,
  • "Let my son go, that he may serve me", Exodus 4: 23.

• the speaker was God Himself, and His people were the subjects of His word – not only Israel, but the Israel of God, of whom we, through grace, form a part.

• It is perfectly clear that it is the divine thought that the children of God should be free. Alas! that many true children of God, who are destined to spend eternity with Christ, are yet in bondage!

The great effort of Satan, the adversary, the god of this world, is to bring the people of God into bondage; and if he cannot do it in one way he will attempt to in another.

• For several centuries he attempted to bring Christians into bondage by persecution and opposition, but it proved that 'the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church'; and that those held in captivity by the enemy were most blessedly free.

• He could put Paul and Silas into prison, only to evidence that they were the most happy men on earth; the dark, foul dungeon of Philippi did not rob them of their liberty! Nor could the spirit of a man of God be bound by chains, fetters or the stocks.
  • The power of Satan is not great enough to hold the spirits of God's sons in bondage, when God liberates them!

• But Satan tries many methods, and we have solemnly to face the fact that many of us have had long and painful experience of times of bondage.

• We know that many of God's children, believers in Jesus, are not really free; and our hearts are moved with compassion as we think, with sorrow, that so many who are entitled to enjoy liberty, are still held in bondage!

How our hearts would have been wrung a century ago had we visited the West Indies and seen for ourselves the condition of physical slavery then existing! How we should have longed for the day when the slaves would be liberated!

• But assuming after the ransom of twenty million pounds had been paid and the slaves were liberated at such a cost, it was found that many who were entitled to be free were still in captivity!

• Yet such is the position we have to face: we find many a young man, who in early years was brought under the mighty influence of the love of Christ, and while still a child had confessed Jesus as his Saviour,
  • now held in bondage and captivity by the love of money, the thirst for pleasure, the longing for position and fame; the gratification of natural desires: he is a slave!

• He is entitled to freedom but does not enjoy it! It is a dishonour that one of God's children should be thus in bondage.

We should face, not theoretically but practically,

THE FREEDOM OF THE SAINT,

and accept the challenge that this Scripture would make to our hearts.

• Are we enjoying liberty? Are we practically among God's free men? The Scripture says,
  • "But now, having got your freedom from sin, and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life",

• have we the consciousness in our souls of having, so to speak, received our freedom-papers from God; even as a former slave would hold up the documents which prove his liberty, showing his hands and feet unfettered, his face aglow with the sense of joy which everybody has brought him; and living witness to what liberty really is!

It is not a glorious unattainable ideal, but one of the simple fundamental truths of the gospel.

• The Epistle to the Romans describes the way in which God has moved for us and in us to bring to light a people on earth who are free from the consequences of their sins,
  • for Jesus "was delivered for our offenses, and was raised again for our justification".

A Christian who is in the good and power of the Epistle to the Romans can say that he has obtained his "freedom from sin"!

• The great dominating power of evil which is governing men and women around is not holding the believer who is in the power of liberty, having received his freedom from sin!

• Many are held by 'the cords of their sins', and are bowing under the tyranny of the god of this world, but the liberated believer is not! He can use his freedom to bring forth "fruit unto holiness".

We recognize that the Epistle to the Romans is fundamental truth, and it makes us wonder if the great present need is not for fundamental truths.

• But how wonderful it is to see men and women delivered from the power of sin which is holding so many in bondage; walking down here on earth, liberated and living witnesses to the triumph of God who had set them free!

In Romans 7 we find a man who was born again, but who is in terrible bondage.

• He says, "For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do".

• The battle goes on, and only God and the man in had bondage knows what Romans 7 means; so if you have never had the experience, you have never known the terrible disappointment when you have tried with all your might and failed;
  • you want to do good and cannot; you do not want to do evil and yet find yourself continually doing it. The situation seems hopeless: even the enemy whispers in your ear, 'Ah! you cannot be converted after all; you are not a Christian, you are a hypocrite'.

• It is a terrible place to be in, but thank God, it is only a tunnel to go through, not a house to live in; and the sooner you are through it the better! We have to learn the serious lesson
  • "that in me (that is, in my flesh), dwelleth no good thing", Romans 7: 18.

• Such an one is trying to do good but finds it is not there; and not to do evil, yet has no power to resist it; the flesh is more powerful than all good resolutions and desires.

• Then there comes a moment when, by the marvelous power of God, the heart and mind are turned away from self, and the one who describes himself as a "wretched man" turns heavenward to Christ and sees a blessed Man out of death in triumph and victory!

• He looks to Him and says, 'Lord, Thou art in triumph and glory, and the victory has been won'. And then he can say,
  • "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord".

    The result is that

  • "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus".

• Happy man! He can now say,
  • "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death".

We are thus liberated from the power of sin without; and freed in our spirits from the control of sin in the flesh. We enjoy our liberty in proportion to the measure in which we have felt our bondage.

• If a prison was a delightful place, there would be little sense of relief and joy in being liberated from it; but if the bondage is great, the liberty is the more richly enjoyed.

The language of Romans 8, is that of one indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God with his mind serving the law of God and his soul liberated, he can look up Godward without a fear, and face the future without a cloud; his hopes are bright and unsullied;

• he is not disappointed with the flesh, for he has proved that it can never yield anything but sin; the only thing he can do is to judge it with the condemnation wherewith God has judged it at the cross.

• He can now walk through this world, not a dominated by the old master, "sin", but his new Master, CHRIST; he has Christ – under the similitude of a new husband to support him, according to the language of Romans 7: 4.

• And according to Romans 8 he has the Holy Spirit of God dwelling in him – a new Power by which he can go forward in liberty.

As it was with the people of Israel in the day when the fiery serpents had bitten them and the serpent of brass had been lifted up, they turned away from themselves and the working of the poison within,

• and by one look out faith, according to the word of God, they lived! The next report is that they journeyed toward the sunrising.

It is not good to spend all our lives getting free, but to be liberated at the earliest possible moment, in order to live the rest of our lives as God's freed men!

• But for this it is necessary to pass through the experiences set forth in the Epistle to the Romans, not simply by reading it, but going through it experimentally with God!

Are we free to serve God with all our hearts? We may spend most of our time endeavouring to get free of difficulties which are standing in the way,

• but the sooner we face these terrible problems in the light of the death and resurrection of Christ, the sooner we enter into liberty and freedom! The Scripture says,
  • "But now, having got your freedom from sin and having become bondmen to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life".

• We understand the difficulties of being in bondage physically and the blessings of freedom, but those are but faint suggestions of the spiritual realities.

May I linger for a moment in compassion towards those who are in a state of soul bondage and beg you to get alone with God; get on your knees before Him and go into this matter in the light of Romans 6 and 7.

• Ask God to bring you into liberty, He will delight to do it! He is given you that Epistle in order that you might be brought into freedom. Go through it with God and you will emerge to enjoy your holy liberty.

The next Scripture relates to those who through grace have already passed this way, and it raises the question of

THE FREEDOM OF THE SERVANT.

How are we using our liberty; are we spending it well? We read in 1 Corinthians 7, of the Lord's freeman, who is addressed thus:

• "Art thou called being a servant? care not for it: but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather".

According to Romans we are liberated from the power of sin, from the "wrath to come"; the domination of the old master 'sin' and the control of "sin in the flesh",

• but the next question is, 'What are we doing with this liberty?' It is one of the greatest problems which a liberated man has to face.

The prison missionaries tell us that one of the great problems facing a released prisoner is, How is he to use his freedom?

• He has to be shown the right way to use it or he will soon be in a worse plight than before.

The result of the work of God as seen in Romans is to enable a man to step out of 'prison', so to speak, with all the joy of liberty, free to do and go where he desires; but as he emerges from his prison he hears an earnest appeal by the apostle in the power of the Spirit of God:

• "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service".

• Some of the young people may enquire, 'If I respond to that, will it mean going back into bondage?' No! Indeed, it is your intelligence service; it is due to your Master and to God that you should do so; the moment you are free, say,
  • 'Lord, here is my body. Thou hast liberated me from my sins and the wrath to come; from the power of sin without and the working of sin within; I can no longer trust myself to use it, so I present my body to Thee to control, that it may be for Thee and Thy service'.

Thus the happiest way of using our liberty is to be one of the Lord's bondmen, which means even more than being a servant – for a bondman is one who belongs to his master and who owns his absolutes sway over him.

• Are we Christ's bondmen? If so, we have no right to do as we like, for Christ has bought us and set us free, that we might serve him for ever!

With this desire to serve the Lord, having presented our bodies on the altar, we can say,

• "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

• He may say to us as He did to Saul of Tarsus,
  • "Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do".

• In his case, after three days of soul anguish, the Lord sent to him a brother who was one of the very men he had intended to kill,
  • but Ananias "entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul",

• and then he told him what he was to do.

Dear young friends, the Lord would subdue your spirit and prepare you to walk with His lowly and despised people.

• He will often use your brethren, who love and serve the Lord Jesus and desire His glory, to tell you what you should do.

• Many a time we have to be adjusted by our brethren; it is a most useful, though subduing and humbling experience, and yet very encouraging; for the Lord frequently takes this way to show us how we can use our freedom in the best way.

Some may say, 'I want to do as I like and go where I like, I believe in Christian liberty!' So do I; but that does not mean mean to violate every ordinance of the Lord and please ourselves, for that is fleshly licence!

• It is well to call things by their proper names! We are followers of Christ, and He has died to set us free, but that we might use our liberty in the service of God! As God said,
  • "Let my son go that he may serve me".

Do we know what it is to serve God? Are we using our lips in holy worship Godward, and in testimony manward?

• Are our hearts in harmony with God's heart and compassion towards men? Are our hands employed in serving others for Christ's sake?

• Are we going about doing good, as Jesus went about? God has set us in liberty that we may engage in these activities included in the service of God.

For example, a young sister may awake one morning, thinking about an old bedridden sister. More than likely the old sister has been asking the Lord to send someone along to comfort her. In a case like that it would be well to enquire,

• "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

• Very likely He will say, 'Visit that old sister'. When you get there she will probably greet you with joy, saying, 'I have been praying to the Lord that He would send someone along'.

• You may have intended to have had a free evening, but you will enjoy the visit much more than if you had used your liberty for yourself. To do the Lord's bidding brings a joy which you would have never tasted otherwise.

• We should not have so many free evenings, perhaps, if we were at the Lord's bidding, but we should be happier. There is plenty in the service of God to keep us going all the time. Let us weigh that over!

• The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few! The Lord is liberating persons in order to have them under His control, for His glory, pleasure, use and service!

The story of Elisha provides a fine example of one of the Lord's free men. When he was a young man,

• "plowing with twelve yoke of oxen … Elijah passed by him, and cast his mantle upon him".

• Elisha rightly interpreted the act: it was a call to service. Are we prepared to surrender our lives in order to be a servant of God? Elisha was, for he forthwith went after Elijah, and ministered unto him.

• For many years he learned the spirit of service as a lowly disciple of Elijah, pouring water on the hands of his master, and at the end of that time he took his last walk with him.

• Though tested by Elijah's suggestion that he should tarry where he was, love would not tarry: with a heart burning, longing, and educated to serve, he followed his master from place to place until they reached Jordan, and went through the river, typically accepting the death of Christ, and on the resurrection side with his master, he witnessed his translation.

• Now his master had gone, and life was before him; the world was open to him; he could do what he liked, but what did he do? He went back to the place where he was known, and there he exhibited a double portion of his master's spirit and lived a life which yielded glory to God and blessing to men!

We will now refer briefly to the thought of

THE FREEDOM OF THE SONS,

for it is to be known in all its reality: though, as it was with Peter, it may be a long time before we awake to its import and preciousness. The words of the Lord Jesus,

• "Then are the sons free", Matthew 17: 26, N.T.,

• indicate the glorious liberty of sonship. I do not think that any of the Old Testament saints knew this; they had light and power, and were mighty men of faith, but they did not know the liberty of sonship.

• Until Jesus, God's beloved Son, was here to reveal the Father and to lead His own into sonship, and until the Spirit of God's Son was given to the people of God, the liberty of sonship could not be known, though the thought was always in the heart of God that we should enjoy in our souls the liberty and the spirit of sonship.

In the light of this we are seen in the house, not as servants engaged in service, not as visitors coming occasionally, but finding our home where the Father's love is known; where by the Spirit

• "we cry, Abba Father";

• where there is response in hearts divinely moved, for the love of the Father is enjoyed.

• Then with hearts at liberty, and souls filled with adoration, there is holy worship, and praise ascends to God. This is the liberty of sons!

• We cannot work ourselves up to it, for to enjoy this we need to walk in the ungrieved power of the Holy Spirit of God. May the spirit of sonship be a living, wondrous, blessed reality to us!

When the Lord comes with the assembling shout and we are caught up to meet the Lord in the air, it will be ours to be consciously and unhinderedly in the Father's house, where God is known as Father, revealed in His beloved Son; where the Father's love is enjoyed and responded to without hindrance.

• Will any one of that vast throng of God's sons feel unfit to be there? Will anyone be devoid of the feelings suitable to such a position? No! each one will be conscious that he is there because he is one of the sons.

• God has given them the Spirit of His Son, and everyone will be perfectly at home in the Father's presence. We sometimes sing –

"There no stranger-God shall meet thee!"

All this will be known in its actuality very soon, but is enjoyed now in liberty by the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

• God's thought is that He will surround Himself with myriads of sons, each liberated in His presence – no sense of fear, for
  • "perfect love casteth out fear",

• no sense of unsuitability; everyone clothed in the best robe and enjoying the consciousness of the Father's delight; for in that scene of unsullied light the liberty of sonship will be enjoyed unhinderedly!

• In the meantime, God has given us
  • "the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father".

• It is not to be known in terms only, but in spiritual power and liberty!

May we add a few words in relation to

THE FREEDOM OF THE CITIZENS.

Many of our young friends are already occupying important posts with considerable prospects, and the more ability they evidence the more the world appreciates them;

• this will open commercial and social doors for them; they will be asked to occupy a part and place in the world's cities of glory and magnificence;

• it is very tempting, and the more successful they are, the greater the appeal; for the higher up the scale a person is, the more powerful is the influence of the world.

• What will keep us in such circumstances? Nothing but the consciousness of being sons and citizens of the heavenly city, and in the enjoyment of the Father's love! There is no city in the universe to be compared with the heavenly city; no freedom to be compared with the freedom of
  • "Jerusalem which is above".

• We have been impressed much with the spiritual dignity of "Jerusalem which is above". The dignified character of our heavenly citizenship will alone preserve us from accepting dignity and power of citizenship in the world.

• We are followers of the crucified Christ, for
  • "the princes of this world … crucified the Lord of glory".

• We cannot subscribe to the building up of the glory of the world which crucified Jesus!

• If we are loyal to the One who died, we shall go in for the privileges of our heavenly citizenship, which is greater than anything that has ever been conceived by statesmen of this world who have not the knowledge of God!

• The feeblest saint of God, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, receives the consciousness of spiritual dignity which would make him superior to the appeals of the world and its greatness and glory.

May the Lord stir up our hearts, raising questions with us as to whether we are really enjoying our liberty, and how we are using it.

• You may say, 'We go to all the meetings'. Thank God for the meetings; but there is something far more than that, and if we are content with that, it is not the end which God has in view.

• Is each one consciously one of His free saints – one of the Lord's servants – one of the sons of God, and a free citizen of the heavenly City?

The Lord is seeking to liberate our souls that we may be free, under His control, to spend the rest of our time in the service of God;

• it may mean going on with our business and home duties according to the will of God, but with our hearts liberated and responding to Him.

May the Lord be graciously pleased to lead us all into an increased enjoyment of liberty, while we await the day when

• "the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God".

"Blest Lord, Thou spakest! 'twas Thy voice
That led our hearts to Thee;
That drew us to that better choice,
Where grace has set us free.

"O rest ineffable, divine,
The rest of God above,
Where we shall ever see Thee shine,
Our joy, eternal love!"

This cannot be too strongly stressed, for we observe that in actual life those who are whole-hearted develop spirituality and become serviceable to God and the people;

• but on the contrary, those who are half-hearted, uncommitted and only onlookers, often make shipwreck, and in any case are not of present value and service to the Lord and to His people.

It must have been true of Elisha even before his name is mentioned that, as one of the seven thousand, his knees had not bowed unto Baal and his mouth had not kissed him! God is well pleased even with this negative testimony.

• It is a fine start when one who loves our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, has the spiritual power to say, 'No!' Though the nation had gone after Baal, yet there were those who had not gone in the way of iniquity, but who had thus maintained secret fidelity to God.

There are many today who may not as yet have made a positive testimony, who in true affection are loyal to our Lord Jesus Christ, calling Him "Lord"; refusing to bow to any other lord! But it is well to be reminded that a negative testimony is not sufficient!

• We have in Elisha one who had this foundation of true fidelity hid in his soul, and when he was called to the path of discipleship he was prepared for full committal!

Never was there a day in the history of the Church when whole-hearted committal was more necessary than today. Vast numbers of professing Christians are turning away from the truth to apostasy, and the love of the many is waxing cold.

• But there is a definite call from God to the young to commit themselves in true affection and loyalty to the Lord, to the path of the will of God and to the path of separation from evil, to be identified with that which is for the pleasure of God on earth.

Let there be no ambiguity about your position; it is not possible to maintain neutrality.

• The Lord is calling for your definite answer. He would throw His mantle over you! The day would come when Elisha would cast aside his own mantle and take up this same mantle and use it in power!

Having responded, he surrender his position and became entirely, whole-heartedly a follower of God's prophet, Elijah. Thus his spiritual history began.

Has each one responded to the Lord's call? You may say, 'I am converted, and love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity', but does your love for Him cause you to follow Him? Can you say, 'Saviour, I longed to follow Thee'?

• Do not be content with being merely an attendant at meetings, or being an onlooker. Let the Lord have the joy and let us have the joy of seeing you whole-heartedly committed!

• The Lord will take you up definitely from that moment, with a view to preparing you for a living part in His service.

Development does not come to pass all at once, for no path can be trodden without preparation. God prepares persons for the place He has for then, whether here in the assembly, in the service of God or with Christ in glory

• The work of preparation is going on, that each person may suitably fill the place that God has assigned to him.

• If you have committed yourself, you will not be a full-grown man of God, as described in 2 Timothy, all at once; a child does not grow into manhood immediately;

• many experiences have to be gone through; crises have to be passed, discipline has to be borne in the process of development, as is clearly indicated in the example before us.

The point is that there should be patient endurance and that we should be prepared to allow the Lord to take us in hand and teach us.

• One feature of a disciple is that he is ready to be moulded, to be led and developed; while prepared to endure suffering and hardness for Christ's sake.

It was probably about ten years from the call of Elisha until he was actually left to represent God in the footsteps of his master. Those ten years, during which he poured water on the hands of Elijah, must have seemed a long training and would be a test to his spirit.

• As he was doing this work his master would watch him. Let us remember that our Lord is watching us, and our brethren are watching us affectionately, waiting to see if there is a patient spirit, if we are prepared to do menial work for the Lord obscurely without any praise or any apparent encouragement or promotion.

• It is a stage in soul history in which we are tested as to patient endurance.

The second feature is

HUMILITY,

and without it we shall not be serviceable to the Lord; there is no pleasure for Him in pride. The pride of our hearts is so subtle we may even be proud of being humble.

• God loves humility, and we are exhorted to
  • "be clothed with humility".

  • God "giveth grace unto the humble".

• Such remind Him of the features of Jesus, the One who humbled Himself. The Lord of life and glory took upon Him the form of a servant in lowly grace. What an example we have in Him!

• Elijah was there with Christlike features, and Elisha, his servant, acquired from his master those characteristics which subsequently came out in his public service.

The next feature which marked Elisha was

AFFECTION.

The Lord is developing in each one of us affection for Himself; without affection we shall not be overcomers!

• We shall be tested in the path of service; we cannot tread that path without tests. It will call for endurance and patience, but if we have not affection we shall not be able to stand the test. Love never fails! Love goes through!

So after the ten patient years of obscure and humble service, Elisha had become so attached to his master that he was ready for the test. Elijah said,

• "Tarry here, I pray thee; for the LORD hath sent me to Beth-el".

• It was a test to ascertain whether his affections had so developed that he was ready for that path; ready for the tests that lay before him; but immediately there was the response of love,
  • "as the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth I will not leave thee".

    That is magnificent!

How good to hear this language from those who have taken up the confession of Christ as Lord. How the Lord values that!

• Every time we break bread, every time we put our hand to the loaf, we are saying to the Lord Jesus by our act, "I will not leave thee!"

Elisha is getting on now; he is ready to go up to Beth-el, the house of God; there is room in that house for love!

• Elisha follows Elijah is master: then another test comes, and the second test is that he is to go on to Jericho, the place of a curse. Are you prepared to follow your Master into a place where you will be in the reproach and dishonour, a place on which the curse rests, as a devoted follower of your Master?

• The test is great, but again Elisha says, "I will not leave thee!"

• Then comes the test of Jordan, typically even death itself. Elisha again says,
  • "As the LORD liveth, and as thy soul liveth, I will not leave thee".

He is ready to follow his master wherever it may be; so when he is about to be taken up from him, Elijah says,

• "Ask what I shall do for thee, before I be taken away from thee".

• If the Lord said to us, 'What would you really like Me to do for you?', would it be to be wealthy or famous? or to be great among the brethren?

• Elisha does not answer thus at all; such thoughts are foreign to him. He is now following his master so closely that the secret comes to light that he desires to be like him! It has taken ten years to forge that in his soul!

• Is that the desire of our hearts? We do not know how long or short the time may be, or how long the Lord will be leave us here, but is the language of our hearts while we wait for His return, as it was with Elisha,
  • "I pray thee, let a double portion of my spirit be upon me"?

• This is granted him! The sight of his master going heavenward inspires his soul; it moves his affections and he is equipped to come back to the place where his master has served, with a double portion of his spirit upon him, so that those around have to acknowledge that
  • "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha".

We would encourage each other to develop an increase of the Christ-like spirit. Thus the work of God will manifest itself, and God will be glorified. Elisha now possesses

THE SPIRIT OF HIS MASTER.

One who had a wonderful impression of Christ said just before he was taken home, 'I feel I have only reached the very fringe of Christianity!'

• We are all much like children paddling on the sea shore. Their feet are in the sea, but how little do they apprehend the vastness of the ocean in which they are!

Now that Elisha's master has gone, he is left to carry forward the work of God. God may take away those who have faithfully served Him.

• A blank is left, but the work is to go on, the gap in the hedge is to be filled, the frontline is to be maintained so that the enemy shall not get in.

• The Lord is calling us who remain to step forward in the absence of Christ, to maintain His interests here in the spirit of our Master.

Now Elisha goes forward into public service, and it is interesting to observe how this man of God is developing.

• As his service proceeds there comes to his notice a widow; death has deprived her of her husband, her resource, so she comes to Elisha pouring out her soul to him, telling him of her dilemma and her impression that she has no resource.

• But the man of God immediately says,
  • "What shall I do for thee? tell me, what hast thou in the house?"

• Here it is clear that Elisha is developing in his own spirit, for he indicates typically the value of the presence of the Holy Spirit of God on earth, as one great resource.

Do we appreciate the great value of recognizing the presence and power of the Holy Spirit of God on earth?

• About a century ago there developed a sovereign work of God; for in many places simultaneously, there was an awakening to this wonderful fact that the Holy Spirit of God, a Divine Person, is here on earth, and that Christ in heaven is the Head of the body, the Church on earth.

• We do not need, therefore, organized religion or a ritual, but we do need that the Holy Spirit of God should be in control so that spiritual power may be present, not by human organizations or religious systems,
  • but that even a few lovers of Christ, assembling in all simplicity and true affection for Him, may give place to and prove the support of the Holy Spirit of God.

The widow says to Elisha, "Thine handmaid hath not any thing in the house, save a pot of oil".

• But there is a sufficiency in that pot of oil, not only to pay all her debts, but upon which to live for the rest of her life!

Let us be assured that if we are in the path of the whole-hearted devotedness to Christ, marked by humility, ever ready to do even menial service and in true affection to follow Christ, with our eyes open to the presence and power of the Holy Spirit of God on earth,

• we shall prove that there are sufficient resources to carry us right through to the end; for in the power of the Holy Spirit of God we shall laugh nothing!

• We need have no apprehension or fear as to whether our resources will fail. The Spirit of God is here, and the Lord promises that He will remain with us for ever. The assembly will never be without the Holy Spirit for all eternity! Our resources are thus eternally secure.

So Elisha goes on to still greater service, which has its own peculiar character and suggests to us the pathway of Jesus, the anointed Vessel of grace and love,

• "Who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him".

• How perfect was our Lord Jesus Christ, ever ministering to men! He is worthy to be followed and studied in order that he we may exhibit

THE GRACE OF CHRIST.

Life is made up of crises, every one of which is different: each calling for fresh wisdom, grace, spiritual power, endurance, the need for more prayer and more study of the Holy Scriptures to obtain the mind of God.

• Crises arrive in many a young person's life, and they look around, wondering to whom they can turn for counsel and wisdom.
  • May we be encouraged that the heart of Christ is ever open to us, and that He possesses the solution of every question and is ready to answer all our enigmas, to lead us in the path of God's will and sustain us there!

• He may not answer all our prayers of once, but day by day as we walk with Him and listen to His voice, He will unfold a sufficiency of grace to help us through. Each day will tell its own tale of our need and His sufficiency, and thus yield glory to God and pleasure to Him.

A serious crisis arose at Gilgal; poison was in the pottage: something that was threatening death. What was to be done?

• Then the sons of the prophets acted very wisely. They called for the man of God! Elisha furnished a remarkable answer,
  • "Then bring meal",

• as if to say, 'Christ is the answer to every question, every threat, every perplexity. He is the antidote to every poison'. He is ever accessible! He has power to heal for
  • "he is able to save them to the uppermost that come unto God by him".

There are at least seven [a] men of God mentioned in the Old Testament, and one [Timothy] in the New Testament, all of which came to light in crises. They came in at the needed moment and were used to solve the problem on hand.

• How we should covet to be men of God! They are not baffled, and in this incident Elisha was not baffled. He brought in the true spirit of Christ, and the pottage was no longer poisonous; the grace of Christ had adjusted it.

[a]  11 designated "Man of God" in the Old Testament Moses - Samuel - David - Elijah - Elisha Unnamed sent to Eli Shemaiah sent to Rehoboam Unnamed from Judah sent to Jereboam Unnamed sent to Ahab Unnamed sent to Amaziah Igdaliah, Jer. 35: 4 Manoah also referred to the "angel" who announced the birth of Samson as "the man of God".   GAR

How many questions would be solved if only we had spiritual ability to bring Christ in.

• Alas! we fall back on our own wisdom, but we shall never get our questions solved until we bring in Christ.

Among the many beautiful incidents in the story of Elisha we mention one more. Naaman, a proud leper, needed cleansing.

• Elisha certainly could not condone the pride of Naaman's heart. As a man of God he knew that God hated pride, yet He had the blessing of that leper in view.

• So when Naaman came in all his dignity to Elisha's house, the prophet, instead of going down to heal him in a spectacular way, simply sent him a message.

• We are impressed with the simplicity of that message; it was not a learned sermon, nor a long treatise, but just,
  • "Wash … and … be clean". He acted in the spirit of the hymn,

"Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men".

Elisha's message was the way of cleansing. His heartfelt sympathies went out to Naaman, the leper, who needed cleansing. If we are near to God we shall be God-like, evidencing

AN EVANGELICAL HEART,

and this beautiful feature marked this man of God.

God is prepared to use a simple message, spoken in love and power to the conversion of souls.

• If they will not come to hear the Gospel we can at least spread the glad tidings in words of simple testimony and say to souls that need it,
  • "Wash, and be clean".

• There needs to be a living testimony today, not only from preachers on platforms, but from brothers and sisters in their personal contact with men and women in the experiences of life. God would use the simple gospel message, if only we were humble and ever ready to be used of Him.

May the Lord encourage each one in the development of the features of a man of God!

We would contemplate the peculiar joy which filled the heart of Jesus, on that last night of His life here, when, surrounded by His loved ones, He instituted the Lord's supper;

• on that occasion, too, He set that marvellous example of feet-washing, when His love was expressed so unmistakably that their hearts could not fail to be touched; and with divine wisdom He chose that opportune moment to unfold the glorious secret of His coming again for His own.

• Thus the first direct reference to the Lord's coming now from the lips of the blessed Lord Himself, and the last sound of His voice which is recorded on the pages of Holy Scripture is in relation to this same wonderful theme.
  • His word to our hearts afresh is, "Surely I come quickly".

• How dear to the heart of Christ is that moment for which He waits, and which we, too, await with joyful anticipation; when for the first time we shall see Him face-to-face.

Had we not the light of the gospel and the revelation of the unfolding of the heart of God, the coming of the Lord would only strike terror to our hearts;

• but so great has been the transformation, and so effective the unfolding of His love, that instead of terror, it can be anticipated with

EXPECTANCY.

Let us think of the Lord Jesus on that night of His betrayal, recalling that at that moment the Lord's own spirit was carrying the greatest burden that has ever been borne;

• untold suffering was awaitng Him, the anticipation of which was already upon His spirit, for He knew full well all that lay before Him:

• yet His heart was filled with a deep joy as He spoke of His coming again to receive His own unto Himself.

• Already known to their hearts as Saviour, He would have them know Him as the Bridegroom, as He regarded those disciples as the nucleus of His assembly.

Does the anticipation of that moment, so soon now to be fulfilled, when He will say,

• "Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away",

• fill our hearts with joyful expectation? If in the hour of darkest night, His love rose in triumph above all the cloud of sorrow which enveloped Him, to unfold to us this blessed secret, should not our hearts rise in response to say,
  • "Even so, come, Lord Jesus"?

Is there anything unjudged which is hindering the bright anticipation of that moment?

• We may have an intelligent understanding of the Scriptures, and a clear outline of the truth, but His heart desires that there should be maintained undimmed in our hearts, the hope of His coming.

• What must it be to Him to have a people on earth who are longing and waiting for Him: to see, in an apostate world in which He has been crucified, where His rights are denied, and His glorious Name dishonoured, a people whose hearts are responsive to Himself waiting and watching for His return!

As He contemplated their hearts at that moment, beclouded by the consciousness that they were fast drawing near to the moment when He would no longer be with them personally, and they would be left to tread the path in this world without Him, He said tenderly to them:

• "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go on prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also", John 14: 1-3.

Surely this was a wonderful expression of the Lord's concern for His own. How marvelously our great High Priest expressed His tender consideration for His loved ones! How many have been encouraged by these words! May we each by His grace be comforted by them!

• He holds out to us the joyful certainty of His coming, not merely to relieve us from the stress of sorrow and pressure which trouble us, but as the moment which will yield supreme joy to Himself and to us.

• We would contemplate this aspect of the Lord's return increasingly. What will it mean to Him, to welcome to Himself His bride, His assembly, for which He gave Himself!

• As He will look around upon those myriads of sons, with Him and like Him, whom He will present to His Father, the fruit "of the travail of his soul", then at that glorious moment, He "shall be satisfied"!

We would not bring the hope of the Lord's coming below the divine standard; it is essentially and primarily for the delight of the heart of Christ, and for this He waits. Well might the apostle say,

• "the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patient waiting for Christ".

• While the work of God proceeds, He waits patiently, as a blessed Man who is entitled to have associated with Himself eternally those for whom He died and shed His precious blood. He waits according to the will of God for the realization of this glorious hope, for the moment when He will fulfill His promise,
  • "I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also".

This is the first great result: may it be preserved undimmed until the end!

• Outwardly evil is advancing, the tide is rising, the enemy is coming in like a flood, but the Spirit of the Lord has lifted up a standard against him;

• and one of the greatest triumphs of the present day is that, all over the world, there are hearts which are loyal and true to their absent Lord, sharing with Him the joyful anticipation of the moment when He will be satisfied!

A further immediate result of the Lord's coming being held in power in the soul is

PURIFICATION.

We would differentiate between it being a truth which is held, and this hope holding the heart in power.

• There are a great many who would bow to the exposition of the Scriptures concerning the coming of the Lord, but the test as to whether this is a bright and living hope with us, is found in these words
  • "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure", 1 John 3: 2-3.

The application of this Scripture is very serious. Let us test our lives, books, companions, outlook, ambitions and hopes, by enquiring whether they can be pursued in the light of the Lord's imminent return. Would His coming cause us to be ashamed? The same beloved writer says,

• "And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed, before him at his coming".

• What He would work in our souls is that condition of heart which will enable us, the moment we hear His assembling shout, to look up with joy; with nothing to put right, or sins unjudged; not a question outstanding, or a portion of secret history which has not been faced before Him; not a companionship which the Lord's coming would break, not a hope which would be dimmed or defeated. What a test it is!
  • For "every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure". This is practical sanctification.

A companionship may develop between a believer and an unbeliever, but when there comes into the believer's heart the light of the truth and the joy of the Lord's coming, that link will be broken!

• Another may be seeking self-gratification, which is holding the soul in its grip, but when the truth of the Lord's return moves the heart in power and the affections bound towards Christ, the coming One, that sin will be judged and the habit broken, and the recovered one will be ready to lift his face with joy in the twinkling of the eye.

• It is not the darkness of mount Sinai with its curses for the disobedient, but the bright shadow of the coming One, whose love was expressed in death and has already moved us to respond to Him, which causes this voluntary departure from iniquity and the refusal of all that which would hinder that hope burning brightly in our souls.

• The Lord would still our hearts with profound joy in responding thus to the appeal of His love!

In the epistle to the Thessalonians the apostle wrote to a company of young believers who, though they had not been very long on the Christian path, had experienced persecutions and testings.

• They were not clear as to the truth of the Lord's return, though the hope of it was in their hearts, so he said:
  • "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do towards you: to the end that he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints", 1 Thessalonians 3: 12-13.

From this it is evident that another great result of this blessed hope is

CONFIRMATION.

It is a divine idea that souls should be confirmed. This is not a ceremony nor the laying on of hands, but soul confirmation, in the truth. Every doubt is removed when the work of God as consolidated.

• A spiritual babe becomes a young man and the young man develops to be a father; where spiritual development takes place, the foundations of the Christian faith are well and truly laid, and the soul becomes impregnable and unshakable!

• Such persons are not "carried about with every wind of doctrine", but pursue their way with solidity, assurance, certainty, and peace. There is no solid foundation outside of the word of God on which to rest: the world knows nothing of this!

• But God would have His children established; the work of God, having begun, is to reach maturity. Souls that were once filled with uncertainty are now to have glorious certainty,
  • "which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil".

• There is nothing so confirmatory as the bright hope of the Lord's return.

The reference is to "the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints".

• A view of the coming glory of Christ will confirm our hearts. This is already established in Christ at the right hand of God, and though not yet in display, they sees it.
  • The Lord Jesus said, "Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad".

• Since then the children of faith have enjoyed the anticipation of the coming glory-day, when He, whose right it is, shall reign. Then Jesus, the despised and rejected One, will have His rights and will fill the world with His own glory: that Name, so hated and dishonoured here, will be the supreme Name, to which every knee shall bow!

• We can then face life with all its realities and problems, yet go forward in faith, established because we have had a glimpse of the glory.

Dear young believers, the Lord would confirm you in "the faith": the world will tell you it is a myth, denying the Holy Scriptures and even the very existence of God;

• but the believer who is confirmed in the faith of Christ, goes his way steadily unmoved and unperturbed by all the infidelity in the world.

• When the believer is anticipating the coming glory, the light of the morning has dawned in his soul and nothing will shake him!

It is the longing and prayerful desire of those who have been in the truth for years to see "the generation following" confirmed in the faith, not going back,

• for "if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him",

• but going on with the light of His coming; the heart's affections centred on Christ at the right hand of God; the mind fixed on Him; and the feet treading the straight and narrow path which leads to light.

• May the Lord confirm each of us in that living faith which will find its answer in not coming glory-day, when Jesus comes!

Yet we need more than confirmation, for we may have to face persecution, opposition, and all kinds of difficulties which beset the Christian: we are not immune from the problems of life and the sorrows that are common to mankind – pain, weariness, and illness;

• hence we need comfort and encouragement, to be lifted up above the shadows. If we are called to tread the sorrowful journey to the grave of someone we love, how greatly we need the ministry of

COMFORT.

This is one of the greatest spheres of service open to both brothers and sisters. It does not need a special gift to be expert in this ministration, but it needs a heart! In this connection the coming of the Lord stands out magnificently,

• "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words", 1 Thessalonians 4: 16-18.

As we look down into an open grave, we see death, defeat, weakness and sorrow; the breaking of natural ties and hearts broken.

• But then we lift our eyes heavenward and know that soon the Lord will come, we know that all this will then be reversed, for
  • "the dead in Christ shall rise first".

• The ones who are in death physically, will be the first to be the subjects of His mighty power, and to respond to His call in triumph! Millions have walked away from open graves comforted by this. It is not in vain that the apostle Paul said,
  • "Wherefore comfort one another with these words"!

When the Lord's love and power exercise their great influence, there is victory over death.

• It enables Christians to meet death – the greatest problem man has ever faced – and to walk even from the grave with a deep sense of conscious victory,
  • "For yet a little while, and he that shall come will come, and will not tarry".

• The very exhibition of weakness will give Him the glorious opportunity of exercising His own triumphant power,
  • "and the dead in Christ shall rise first".

• This is comfort indeed! Well may we say:
  • "O death, where is thy sting? O. grave, where is thy victory?"

    We return to spend the rest of our time

  • "steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord".

In the second epistle to Thessalonians the apostle brings these results into practical effect,

• for every truth carries responsibility with it, and to every presentation there should be a corresponding answer.

The Thessalonians now having developed, are ready for a word of encouragement to spiritual

ENERGY

in relation to their part in the service of God:

• "Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God, even our Father, which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort your hearts, and establish you in every good word and work", 2 Thessalonians 2: 16-17.

• The present moment is the only opportunity that we shall ever have of serving our Lord Jesus in the peculiar and precious way which is ours: to minister to His own while He is away and to spread the glad tidings of His glorious Name in the world in which He has been crucified. This time will never recur!

• Only until Christ comes is this opportunity ours, and hence we need increased spiritual energy.

The work of God is not maintained by human organizations in this world but by the Head of the assembly. Under the immediate direction of our Lord and Head in heaven, through the hearts and affections of His people, there has been given

"to every man his work".

• Let us encourage by every means in our power the work which the Lord has given any one to do for Him. If it is carried out consistently with His word and Name, let us support it, and also by our prayers promote the whole of the work of God on earth, that the Name of the Lord may be magnified.

• Thus would the apostle encourage and stimulate us into "every good word and work", which is not limited to the exercise of gift, nor to work rendered publicly, but would include the most insignificant service for Him.

• The simplest act rendered in love to Christ, the feeblest word spoken in longing desire to magnify His Name, and the movements of compassion from one heart to another, for Christ's sake, are all noted by Him.

• It embraces all; even those who may be bedridden can have a share in this work of prayer and supplication.

I recall visiting one of the Lord's afflicted people. She had been paralyzed for twenty-three years and was unable even to move her hands, but from her bed she dictated to a young visitor her thoughts and impressions of Christ.

• By this means many a weary heart was comforted, and though she could not do any good work involving activity, she seized the opportunity of speaking a good word for the Lord, and He used it!

We need the light of the Lord's coming to energize our hearts to "every good word and work", so that while the days pass and we are awaiting the coming of Christ,

• the waiting time is not spent in indulgence or wasted and misspent, but in "every good word and work", as our hearts are stimulated by the hope of the Lord's return.

Finally, I would call attention to the end of them Bible – Revelation 22: 16-21. Of all the results of this glorious truth, there is that which the Lord values beyond everything and it is reserved to the closing words of Holy Scripture to emphasize this.

• How we cherish the last words of any one we love; many other words they have spoken may pass from our memory and the impressions fade, but the last words remain undimmed; we repeat them, as they remain with us through life!

• Thus counting on the lovr of His people, our Lord Jesus Christ, ere the close of Holy Scripture, was pleased to speak his last words to our hearts,
  • "I Jesus".

• Was there ever an appeal so powerful as that of the Name of Jesus? It is the common chord struck in every true heart the world over. Is it not the link which binds all the saints to Himself and to each other? The precious Name of Jesus, known, loved and honoured! He is the Lord Jesus, for
  • "God hath made that same Jesus … both Lord and Christ",

• but his own sweet, powerful, personal Name, JESUS, remains in all its dignity and glory; a Name which will presently fill the universe, and in the power of that Name He appeals to our hearts:
  • "I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star … Surely I come quickly!"

This last word which is to remain cherished, repeated and held, fervently and undimmed, through all the night of His absence, tells of the immediate hope of His assembly, and produces its inevitable result –

AFFECTION

in the hearts of all those who compose the bride of Christ. They are heard with one united heart responding,

• "Even so, come, Lord Jesus".

• Thus, while we wait for the answer to His promise, even though the waiting may seem long, we are supported in the meantime by the promise of the last verse of Scripture, which says,
  • "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all".

• Sustained by that grace we would wait patiently for the moment when we shall hear that shout of triumph and our eyes will open to behold the face of Jesus, who died for us, who lives for us, and who is coming for us!

The Lord grant that the hope of His return they shine more brightly than ever before in our hearts, producing its own marvellous results for the joy of His heart, the glory of His Name, the development of "every good word and work", and for increased affection for Himself, for His Name's sake!

"Lord Jesus, come, Thy saints for The are waiting,
To see Thy face and be with The at home;
E'en now our endless bliss anticipating,
With all our hearts we say, 'Lord Jesus, come!' "

It is important that we should distinguish between dignity and pride.

• There is nothing more abhorrent to God than spiritual pride, and nothing more pleasing to Him than to see His children conducting themselves in spiritual dignity.

• Let us not forget that there is a deportment which should mark us, giving dignity to the testimony of God.

• The Spirit of God has indicated this in the Holy Scriptures and we do well to consider it; for they disclose the secret of this dignity which can only be maintained in true spiritual humility!

It is important that our younger brethren should have an impression of this thought, lest they should be obsessed with the thought of reproach, suffering, sacrifices and testing;

• for over against all these experiences, which are inevitable in the Christian life, God has set for our encouragement the thought of spiritual dignity, which comes to light most beautifully in circumstances of adversity.

In the first instance we have –

DIGNITY MANIFESTED IN A TIME OF TEMPTATION.

Abram was a man of faith walking before God. He had made an excellent start; he had delivered his brother and gained the victory over the kings: he was at the height of his victory when the king of Sodom came to him,

• but before he actually faced the temptation, there met him, in the tender consideration of God, another personage, Melchizedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God. What an encouragement!

As we think of our younger brethren, inexperienced in the school of discipline, facing testings and temptations which are beyond anything that they have hitherto known,

• how encouraging it is to be reminded that our Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, anticipates those moments by ministering grace to their hearts and furnishing just that which is needed to carry them through the temptation.

So, at the moment when Abram needed it most (for it is after a victory we are so liable to defeat), there came forward this glorious personage – a remarkable type of our Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest – who ministered bread and wine to Abram.

• Spiritual nourishment and spiritual joy are required if we are to get through in power and victory! The bread and wine are indispensable!

The king of Sodom represents the flattery of this present world.

• That is one of the subtle methods which is much employed today by Satan, the god of this world, to seek to allure by promise of position and glory; the flattery of this world is more dangerous than its opposition!

• I remember a young Christian saying to me that when exposed to temptation, it was not so hard to say 'No' to the gross things, as it was to those that appeal and are attractive in themselves: which could not be designated wicked, and yet are nonetheless temptations from the world.

Abram was marked by spiritual dignity as a result of this experience.

• He was comparatively young in the faith, for it was soon after he had stepped forward in the path of faith that he was tested; when the king of Sodom with all its subtlety, offered him something which would give him worldly dignity and prosperity,

• but the priesthood of Melchizedec had been so successful that Abram was able to take up his very words and refer to
  • "the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth".

• Abram stood with a consciousness in his spirit that he belonged to a God who possessed heaven and earth. Then why should he take favours from the world, as suggested by the king of Sodom? Did not his God possess heaven and earth?

• He reached to a spiritual elevation that made him superior to the temptation, so that he resisted it with a noble dignity, suggesting to us an answer to the Lord's priestly grace, the feeding upon that heavenly food, which He loves to give our souls; and drinking into that heavenly joy which is our portion,
  • making us superior to the temptations and allurements that the king of Sodom would offer – this is true spiritual dignity!

• Abram rose to the height of that position to which God had called him, and immediately he refused the advantages the world would give him, he heard the word of the Lord saying,
  • "Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward".

If the Lord gives you grace, under His priestly support to decide definitely for Him against the world and to refuse its overtures and appeals, it's attractions and advantages, for Christ's sake, you too, will hear the word of the Lord to you,

• "Fear not … I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward".

• You will find you are richer than Sodom could make you, and that you are better protected than with all the forces that the world could offer to protect you; you will find the consciousness and approval of God in the path you have taken, and the holy dignity that marks you will be a definite feature of your testimony.

• You will be marked by the consciousness of entire dependence upon the priestly grace of Christ on the one hand, and dignity on the other, as being assured that our God has vastly greater resources than all that the world can afford: thus the Christian gains at every point!

That was a fine beginning in a day of temptation, but there may also be days of persecution; indeed, many of our brethren are already in them.

• While we would not assume the courage or ability to meet such a test, we would all be concerned that if persecution should arise, we may be assured that there are resources in God which are more than sufficient for every emergency.

• The story of the three Hebrew children, so well known to us, is most delightfully encouraging, in view of any possibility that may arise in our homeward journey.

The second Scripture suggests –

DIGNITY MANIFESTED IN A TIME OF PERSECUTION.

The way in which those three young men were able to answer that most dreadful potentate was simply magnificent. It was said of Nebuchadnezzar,

• "whom he would he slew; and whom he would be kept alive";

• he had absolute despotic power, yet these three men of God were able to manifest the most marvellous dignity as they answered the king.

Our sympathies go out to our younger brethren, who have to stand before tribunals, but they are nothing like this, for in the mercy of God, they are to a considerable extent favourable:

• but here was a furnace heated one seven times more, waiting to receive them if they stood firmly for God.

• What a day it was! There was no cringing on their part; no beseeching for mercy and no surrender of their position as they stood firmly, answering that king with these words,
  • "O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter",

• as if to say, 'Our God is mightier than Nebuchadnezzar, why should we fear?'
  • "If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us!"

Can we talk like that? Can we speak of God, as "our God whom we serve"?

• Does each one serve God? If so, let each enquire as to how he may serve Him. Do you know your service? Have you ever said to the Lord Jesus,
  • "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?"

• Do you know what He would have you to do, and have you done it? Have you reached a point in your soul history when you can say, 'Lord, thou hast left me here in a world where thou didst serve God perfectly, and I am left to follow in that path; how am I to serve Him? Show me the way?'

• If He gives it to you to do, will you do it? It will cost you something, but it is worth while. He is worthy of our service!

It is also impressive that king Darius addressed Daniel later as

• "servant of the living God".

• Daniel did not call himself that, but he was so manifestly the servant of God, that the king gave him that title. Would that every one of us were marked by that feature, that each one had the spirit of service, not suppressed, but the desire put into effect, that we may be known by men as the servants of the living God!

• We are left here to continue the service of God. As David said,
  • "who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the LORD?"

    and like Isaiah, who said, "Here am I; send me".

• It is a magnificent thing to be a servant of the living God! Life is worth living with such an objective.

• We are not to spend our lives simply getting through the days as well as we can; or to get as much out of each day as we can for ourselves, but realizing that every day there is work to do for God.

• There is not much fear of our being "cumbered about much serving". He will give us strength for the task, to carry us through. Those three men said,
  • "our God whom we serve",

• and surely if we serve God, He will never forsake us! It might be said that God allowed them to go into the burning fiery furnace, and Daniel into the den of lions, but that was not the end; they came out triumphantly, and God was more glorified as a result of them going in and coming out, than if they had never gone in at all!

We appeal to the young: the days are difficult, and you have our deep, prayerful interest in the tests you are facing,

• but God will get more glory from you as a result of the testings, than if you had never gone through them, and those who are facing the trials are proving that our God is able, and with courage and faith, they prove that God is greater than the foes.

What a dignity marked these men! They commanded the respect of the whole world: it was such that there went through the whole civilized world a decree bearing witness to their God.

• They were not proud, nor would they speak of their faith and all they had gone through, but they would say, 'Is not our God wonderful, has He not done marvelous things for us?'
  • "O magnify the LORD with me and let us exalt his name together".

• That is true spiritual dignity, not pride, this is not the audacity that would reply resentfully to the authorities, but in a lowly spirit with faith manifesting itself in the true spirit of Christ;
  • for there is "the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" for every emergency!

In the third Scripture read we find –

DIGNITY MANIFESTED
IN CIRCUMSTANCES OF ADVERSITY.

The apostle Paul was facing a very testing experience, and it was lasting;

• we may perhaps stand one severe test, but when that continues week after week, month after month, and we cannot see any likelihood of a cessation, then it is felt.

• Those who are interned, or prisoners under the hand of cruel men, need continual grace, great High Priest; they need the resources that Abram experienced, they need confidence in God and the assurance that the three Hebrew children had; it is the continuance of the pressure that tests their spirits! Let us continually pray for such!

Paul had been through a great deal of suffering, and was still a prisoner in bonds as he stood before King Agrippa.

• It appeared as if the position was hopeless, but God came in; the heart of the king was moved, and the whole situation transformed.

• The prisoner in the dock became the chief man in that great company, he was marked by marvellous dignity: the king was cringing, but the prisoner was standing in power: he was conscious that he was of the sons of God.

• What power there is in the dignity of sonship; and yet there is no spiritual pride attached to it!

Peter had to learn this when those who collected the tribute money said to him,

• "Doth not your master page tribute?" And Peter, with natural pride, said, "Yes",

  but "when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers? Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children (or sons) free".

  What dignity have the sons of God! Yet "lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea … and take up the fish that first cometh up … thou shalt find a piece of money, that take, and give unto them for me and thee".

• What a lesson to show the dignity of sonship. Yet, lest Peter should be elated or marked by spiritual pride, the Lord said,
  • "Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven".

• He called a little child unto Him and sent him in the midst; that we, in these difficult days, may know how to comport ourselves with the dignity of sons, and at the same time in the spirit of a little child: it is the only spirit and will command God and Christ and be consistent with the kingdom.

• It is a lesson which we have to learn practically – to be marked by the true dignity of sonship, coupled with the delightful, lowly, accessible spirit of the little child.

• The most spiritual are the most accessible; and those who know God the best are the ones that are nearest to their brethren, and at hand for those in need.

Paul stood in the consciousness and dignity of sonship as he said to Agrippa,

• "I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds".

• It had involved much suffering, but he did not wish them any harm; there was no spirit of retaliation or revenge; no calling down fire from heaven, he was not praying for their overthrow, he desires that they might be as happy as he was
  • "except these bonds".

• He would have them have the knowledge of God, the liberty, the joy of sonship. God would have us liberated and not be in slavish habits, the fear of men or of the world, but as God's children, comporting ourselves with spiritual dignity, in a world from which we can draw nothing that will add to our service, life or power.

We would not speak of this delightful subject without taking a glance into the glory by the Spirit's power, and having our attention focussed upon the circle described as the "four and twenty elders", where we see –

DIGNITY MANIFESTED IN GLORY.

We may well ask the question that was asked of another company, "What are these … and whence came they?"

• We can afford at such a moment to contemplate them: they are each sitting upon a throne, "clothed in white raiment"; and they have on their heads crowns of gold. There is no spot or stain of sin upon any of them. What wonderful persons they are!

• Are they the kings of the earth that have come up? No, they are not that! Are they the great politicians of the world? No, they are not those! Are they in the victorious warriors of the battles of earth? No, they are not!

• Who are they? Well, we would like to think of them as many of them are at the present moment.

• Some are bedridden in institutions; many of them living in poverty; some of them suffering from disease, pain, weakness and weariness; some of them are interned or prisoners of war; some are facing adversity, hunger and sorrow; some are bereaved, almost overwhelmed with broken hearts; they are a poor and afflicted people of no account in this world.

• When the history of this country is written they will not be mentioned; they are lowly followers and lovers of Jesus as still rejected; but they are throned, clothed, and crowned – what dignity! What has happened?

• They have been redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, their hearts have been won by Christ in glory, they love Him and have been set free from every form of bondage; they have bodies of glory like unto Christ's: they are the same persons, but think of the dignity that now attaches to them, as they sit there; elders having had experience with God!

Are they proud of their dignified position? No, they rise from their thrones and cast their crowns before the Lamb!

• The crowns are not holding them, for everything they have received they owe to Him and only use it to subscribe their quota to His glory and praise, and every feature of dignity they possess would only give them the glorious opportunity to glorify the One they love.

• Each one has a harp for heavenly music and to ascribe praise to God and to the Lamb; and each one has a golden vial "full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints", sweet incense going up to God. They are bowing down before the throne.
  • "The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne".

• They are worshippers, clothed with such heavenly dignity that we wonder at it. Yet all is being ascribed to the Lamb, to whom they owe everything, for they say,
  • "Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power".

• This is the holy dignity of worshippers! In the light of this we delight to think of our brethren today, and clothe them in our minds with the holy dignity of worshippers.

• These four and twenty elders are the great company who, as worshippers, will surround the Lamb, pouring out their praise and adoration to Him.

• Why should we wait until that glorious day? Why postpone the joys of that scene? Even while here in the place of reproach, suffering, shame and dishonour, still discounted by men and sent at nought, as our Master was, our souls are to be maintained in the holy dignity of worship.

It may be said that the path of following the Lord Jesus costs a good deal, and we do not deny it;

• but if our souls are thrilled with holy worship in the sanctuary of God, we would not speak of what we have lost, but of what we have gained.

• It is marvellous to be linked with Christ in glory; it is wonderful to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God, our whole being enraptured with Christ and filled with worship to our God under His leadership.

There are many phases of the service of God open to us and we each desire to have a living and practical part in them,

• but there is nothing which carries such glory as the service of worship in His sanctuary, for the way into the holiest has been opened by the blood of Jesus.

• There is no reason why the youngest believer should not be bowed in holy worship and adoration before the God who has revealed Himself in love –

'Our God whom we have known;
Well known in Jesu's love'.

Impressed by such love, why should we not all be worshippers? The Lord would not have us come together as a congregation beholding other people worshipping.

• The power of the Holy Spirit of God is lifting many of His beloved people above the level of congregations to form assemblies; each one in the assembly contributing to the service of God, in holy worship, anticipating this heavenly scene and in the holy dignity of sonship, rising to present our adoring worship to Him who is alone worthy of praise!

These things are glorious realities; they are going on today in spite of all the cruel hatred of men and the awful things which are being enacted on earth.

• The assembly is the most august assembly engaged in the most dignified service the universe will ever know – worshipping the Father in spirit and in truth, under the mighty power of the Holy Spirit of God.

• This is all under the leadership of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Minister of the Sanctuary, who has
  • "entered in once into the holy place",

• and God is inviting every one of us to have a living part in this holy service of praise.

• Can we receive honour from men in the light of that? Can we turn to the world for glory and dignity? Our spirits are lifted up above the level of men and the world.

• While we are suffering, sorrowing, and toiling here, we are to be maintained on the spiritual level of holy dignity through the sovereign work of our God, to have a living part in this most glorious service.

• Are we called narrow-minded? The greatest mind in the universe could not conceive anything greater than the service of the living God!

We would pray for grace to concentrate our minds on our Lord Jesus Christ, the Man of sorrows who was acquainted with grief, of whom they said, "Is not this the carpenter's son?"

• They despised Him, set Him at nought and cast Him aside as worthless.

• Yet, think of the holy dignity with which our Lord and Master, our Model and Example, comported Himself in His perfect pathway through this world, ever conscious that He was the Son of the Father, ever conscious of His own holy dignity.

• The glorious Son of God was so gracious, so lowly and tender, that the children found a home in His bosom. He went on and on through the world to death, dignity shining through every act, every word, until at last He reached the sorrows of Gethsemane and the sufferings of Calvary.

He went from one experience to another, but in every instance His dignity rose triumphantly above all that was opposed to Him.

• Everything had to work out according to divine plan; men could not do what they liked: they did exactly that which had been foretold they would do; even His garments were dealt with as the prophet had foretold.

• Then when He cried with a loud voice at the last moment of that perfectly beautiful life here, it was with a dignity that marked even the yielding up of His spirit.

• He was "with the rich in his death", and on the third day He was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. He is now at the right hand of God, crowned with glory and honour, and our hearts unite in ascribing praise and glory to His blessed Name!

May we be enabled by His Spirit, to thread our way through the world with all its complex problems which have to be faced, in the lowly grace of Christ, being ever accessible to every one in need,

• yet carrying in our souls the secret of a dignity of which the world knows nothing, which will presently be seen when Christ is "admired in all them that believe".

1. In 1 Corinthians 13 the great theme is love, so the child of God would be growing up in love, developing in the love that is normal to a Christian.

2. In chapter 14 the thought is growing up in wisdom – "in understanding be men" – spiritual maturity in wisdom.

3. The 16th chapter suggests development in strength. Wisdom love and power are suggested in these three scriptures, and each leading to spiritual development.

The object is that God should have a people on the earth, His own sons, indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and that they should be making spiritual advancement; developing spiritually in love, in wisdom and strength.

• Every true believer covets the thought of development. How normal and proper it is!

I have no need to remind you that our Lord Jesus Himself personally in Manhood here, is the example setting before us the standard; of whom it was said as a child,

• "and the child grew".

• God noted by His Spirit in Luke that the child grew. There was development, and then it says,
  • "He waxed strong in spirit".

• The development of our Lord Jesus Christ as a babe, a child, a boy, a youth, a man, was perfect in every detail.
  • "He shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground", Isaiah 53: 2.

• How lovely it is to watch the development of the childhood of Jesus! How beautiful to see that at the age of twelve years there had been such development with Him, that subjection marked Him;

• then in His Manhood here in holy dependence (never forgetting that in His glorious Person He is God blessed for ever), how He grew here under the eye of God – thus setting forth the principle that is engaging us, that

• having been brought into the family of God in the marvellous power of divine love, we should develop, not stagnate, but grow; as it was said of the Lord Jesus,
  • "Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favour with God and man".

We desire that all may be deeply concerned as to continual progress spiritually towards spiritual maturity or manhood; not manhood in any limited sense, but that spiritual maturity should be brought to pass.

• It is a process which involves time and experiences. Natural growth is a remarkable similitude of this particular spiritual development which is engaging us.

• May the Lord graciously enable us to consider it together, and the conditions which will promote spiritual growth, to reach maturity, so that God shall have a people on earth marked by wisdom, love and power; that we may be found here for His pleasure, for God delights in that which is mature.
  • As it has often been said, there is nothing to lament in being a babe; the great sorrow is when a person remains one.

• God loves to look down upon His children and note the babes in Christ. What subjects of divine interest they are! How God delights to minister to their hearts, to promote these three features
  • so that they will develop from babes into young manhood, and thence to fathers, as described by the apostle John in his first epistle – the spiritual development of the children of God.

• How it should be the deep concern of each one of us that we should not stagnate. Even in nature, it is a most pathetic sight to see a person who is mature in years, but whose brain has failed to develop, and is just a babe.

• But how sad it is spiritually, when there has been a work of God; a definite confession of Christ as Lord, and yet no development; no evidence of spiritual growth; no enlargement in love; no appreciative increase in wisdom and in spiritual power.

• The Lord preserve us all from such a condition, and encourage us to pray earnestly and desire to have real and constant spiritual development!

The Old Testament illustrations often help us. How beautiful the development of Samuel! What a pleasure it was to the heart of God to see a little lad gradually and normally developing, coming into maturity, and how the Spirit of God takes pains to describe to us the process of that development!

• From a child to a prophet of the Lord, the history is beautifully noted in the early chapters of 1 Samuel. Again and again the Spirit of God delights to use the word "grew", showing the growth of one person to reach the objective of God's work in him.

• Year by year he was visited by his mother who brought a little coat with her, and as it has often been remarked, that little lad would need a larger coat each year.

• How searching to enquire, 'Do we need a larger coat each year, spiritually? Is there spiritual development going on with each one of us? Are we going forward? Are brethren able to note that there is an increased work of God in each one of us; more love; more wisdom; and more power?'

• This is normal in the family of God. There should be normal growth so that the pleasure of God may be found in those who are maturing under His eye by the power of His Holy Spirit. We would be finding our place happily among those, too, who are growing and maturing.

In the case of Samuel, the Spirit of God says, "And the child Samuel grew on".

• The stages of growth are noted, and very early in his history he became absorbed with the service of God.

• At twelve years of age the Lord Jesus was about His Father's business. How beautifully He exemplifies the thought of the holy joy God would secure from each life under the control of the Lord Jesus for His own pleasure.

• How many lives are lost because in early life these great considerations are postponed! They leave them until influences have spoiled and corrupted them. How can they make decisions when, alas, they have already committed themselves to associations with the world that are harmful to a believer?

• How the Lord would encourage us that God, in His grace and goodness, would work early –
  • "I love them that love me, and those that seek me early shall find me".

• Let me encourage the very young ones here tonight to commit yourselves to the Lord Jesus and confess His Name early.

• Be wholly committed to the One who died for you that He might not only have you in glory for ever, but have you here on earth for His own pleasure and delight;
  • to win your life as well as your heart; to secure your service as well as your confidence.

• Christianity is not a mere theory, a eries of doctrines accepted mentally. The thought is, the Lord Jesus has died to secure us for His own pleasure, and He puts in His claim, thank God, at a very early age,
  • for He wants the young for Himself so that they might continue in the testimony for Him till He comes.

God saw the development of this child Samuel, and regarded his development until it says,

• "And the child Samuel ministered unto the LORD",

• confirming what we have just said, that it is open to a child to minister to Him, to respond to the love of the Lord Jesus, regarding the people of God as normal companions, and having the interests of Christ at heart.

• We love to hear the simple prayers of a child! How beautifully the Lord would encourage the heart of even a child so that each one might minister unto Him! But a child does not remain a child; that is but the beginning of things.

• There are many young Christians unestablished – not yet developed, but God looks upon them potentially, and we would look upon them for what they are worth potentially.

What a cheering word that is for us all! How we would covet to be so committed to God that He is pleased to make His thoughts known to us!

• We should not have to wait until of mature age to be divinely instructed or to be intelligent in the things of God. The Spirit of God would take of the things of Christ and show them to us even at a tender age.

• You will recollect the case of Solomon. It was when he was young and tender that he came into great usefulness and privilege, and great opportunities were his while he was yet young; and the Lord is doing the same today.

• Having received the mind of God, the development of Samuel went on until it is said,
  • "Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him".

• How delightful to see a young person of whom it can be said, 'The Lord is with him!' To see their manner of life: the spirit that marks them; a definite love for Christ, and love for fellow-believers; their desire to be true and loyal to Christ and separate from evil.

• Then comes the moment when they desire to commit themselves to the fellowship of God's Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. How interesting and encouraging it is when those features can be borne witness to, as having marked the person who desires the privileges that belong to Christian fellowship!

• They should begin and develop steadily, gradually and gently, that the progress may be seen by all. You remember the apostle Paul's desire for Timothy, that he should develop as a young believer,
  • "Meditate upon these things; give thyself wholly to them; that thy profiting may appear to all", 1 Timothy 4: 15.

Coming back to Samuel, it is said, "And all Israel from Dan even to Beer-Sheba knew that Samuel was established to be a of the LORD".

• May our hearts aspire to that – "a prophet of the LORD", one who has the mind of God: who can speak of and for Him: to whom God is prepared to communicate His mind by His Holy Spirit.

• There came a moment when this youth – no longer a child – was known by all Israel to be established as a profit of the Lord.

• We look upon those who are young; already known to be the Lord's and committed to Him; we love them to be in evidence; to see that God is using them and making His mind known to them, that they should be more and more available to Him for His service.

• While generally things around us are getting worse and worse; men deceiving and being deceived, God would have His gracious work in their souls; that they should be more and more available
  • for His service in the assembly; in the gospel; in tender ministry of comfort; in levitical activities and service of every kind; young men and women ready to say,

  • "Here am I., send me";

• persons wanting to go in the service of God and wanting to be sent. It is a great encouragement to see evidence of the work of God in the soul; to see manifestation of this growth in the experience of those who are developing and are ready for increased development.

Then it says, "And the LORD appeared again in Shiloh; for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel by the word of the LORD".

• How beautiful this is! The great Jehovah of Israel was pleased to reveal Himself to a young man in responsible life! What a marvelous statement!

• Does it not stir up every youth to long that God would reveal Himself to him, for God reveals Himself in Christ, and we learn God as we know and love and follow devotedly our Lord Jesus Christ.

• How perfectly God is revealed in Christ, for He Himself could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father".

I have called your attention to Samuel as an Old Testament illustration throwing light upon the divine thought of spiritual development, until he reached the climax of his history when he was favoured to anoint God's chosen one in the midst of his brethren.

• Surely he reached maturity then! How beautiful is the possibility of having such a favour granted as a result of spiritual development, that a holy moment comes when Christ can be anointed in the midst of the brethren, when He can be extolled, praised; and there should be united response to our Lord Jesus Christ!

• As am matured man, Samuel was given the holy privilege of anointing David.

Now I would suggest David as one in whom the process of development in love took place.

• You remember he came to light as a youth, "a stripling", as Saul called him. He was minding his father's sheep on the hills of Bethlehem when he was called to that momentous occasion of his anointing, becoming the Lord's anointed;
  • and yet, in the ways of God, he had to pass through a certain process of development before he could take up that which was connected with his anointing.

• He was despised and hunted by Saul; he had to suffer discipline, and hunger. The experiences of David were far from pleasant. His life was in jeopardy many times.

• He knew what the wilderness meant in all its testings; he was still the Lord's anointed, but he was developing, and there were certain remarks that characterized him, which are most encouraging.

• David is a fine Old Testament illustration of one who developed in love. What ability he had, as it has been said, to make men love him! Quite early in his history it is said,
  • "All Israel and Judah loved David".

• What lovability there must have been about that youth to command the affection of the whole nation of God's people! It suggests to us one who is developing Christ-like features, who becomes the object of tender love on the part of God's people.
  • How God raises up the love of the brethren to encourage and support those who are making spiritual progress!

• David made great advancement. Not only was he triumphant over the enemy, but in his behaviour he manifested spiritual growth. It says of him,
  • he "behaved himself wisely in all his ways", 1 Samuel 18: 14.

• It is a practical word to our dear young friends. We are not only believers and Christians when we are together, great as is the favour of being together and enjoying those favours and privileges;

• but we are not always together, and we have our ways, our experiences in daily life, where we are employed; the circle in which we live; the persons we meet and with whom we come in contact; all are embraced by our ways. It says,
  • "David behaved himself wisely in all his ways".

• How delightful it is that the Spirit of God can make such a comment about one who was but a youth. We would encourage each one that, as God's eye rests upon us in all our ways, there might be that which is ennobling.

• The ways of Jesus as a youth and a man were perfect, and filled the heart of God with delight, and David was a type of Jesus. Hence it could be said that
  • he "behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the LORD was with him".

• The Lord was with Samuel: He was with David: is He with you? Are you walking in a path where you could have the Lord with you in it? Are we conducting ourselves in such a way that the Lord can sustain us and support us in that path and in that behaviour?

• How searching and how delightful when it can be said of anyone, young or old, brother or sister, 'the Lord is with them!'. It is significant evidence that they are making spiritual progress.

• The Lord is with them, encouraging them in the service of expressing Christ in testimony and in their contact with the people of God – a very important factor in this spiritual growth. It says of David,
  • "All Israel and Judah loved David, because he went out and came in before them", 1 Samuel 18: 16.

• He was just one of them; he went in and out among them in lowly grace. He was not at a distance; not haughty; not refusing to be identified with their sorrows; but as one of them affectionately, and his love produced an answer, for "all Israel and Judah loved David".

• Such are being reproduced in the earth today in the power of the Holy Spirit. There is spiritual growth going on, and we rejoice to see evidence of it. God would have His work furthered and developed in all our hearts.

• The very discipline through which David was called to pass, was part of God's ways to develop him until the climax was reached – he had the whole of the people and led them in holy worship to God.

• In 1 Chronicles 29 is the climax of a brother who made spiritual progress until at last he was able to lead the whole of the people in worship. In the New Testament there are recorded many beautiful cases of persons who made spiritual progress and became beloved.

Without going too much into detail, the story of Gideon has particular bearing on the thought of strength or power.

• The beginning of his history was very fine. The first mention was that
  • he "threshed wheat by the winepress, to hide from the Midianites", Judges 6: 11.

• He was devoting himself to the food supply of the people of God. It is very good when a young person is concerned about the food supply, and is ready to pass on such impressions as he or she receives; ready to pass on literature likely to help; ready to promote in every way possible the spread of the gospel, and conserving the food supply of the people of God.

• That is how Gideon came on the pages of Scripture, and an angel appeared to him. Gideon was surprised that the angel should say,
  • "The LORD is with thee, thou mighty man of valour".

• Are you a mighty man? Gideon would say, 'I am the least of my father's house. I am a very insignificant person; I have no strength, no power; I am just doing this, and it is as much as I can do: I am no one'.

• But God called him a "mighty man of valour", looked upon him potentially, and laid hold upon him that he might be developed. The process of his development illustrates this.

• First of all, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. If you are devoted to Christ, you will have the support of the Holy Spirit of God and the support of your brethren in prayer.

• Looking round on the interests of God on earth, you see it is those who are wholly committed to Christ who are used by Him for His interests and for His glory. So we would urge upon every believer to see there is nothing to retard their spiritual progress.

• Our own weakness and insufficiency and incapacity need not stand in the way. See how God used a timid man who thought nothing of himself, but whom God called "a mighty man of valour". It was potentially there – spiritual manhood that could do great things for God.

Then came the test as to whether he was prepared to confess God publicly.

• What he could not do by day, he did at night – he took his father's second bullock, and raised an altar to the Lord. He was not courageous enough to go forward in the daytime.

Then there was another test. Thirty-two thousand warriors answered to his call, and twenty-two thousand went back because they were fearful and afraid.

• Then when the remaining ten thousand were tested as to being whole-hearted, there were only three hundred whole-hearted ones among them: the nine thousand seven hundred had to go back; they were not permitted to have their part in this glorious victory;
  • showing that the Spirit of God is emphasizing what is needed in a difficult day – persons who are whole-hearted for God and His interests.

• With these three hundred, God saved Israel through Gideon. It was these three hundred faithful men who stood where they were; reliable men who did not flee from before the enemy, to whom was granted the holy favour of having part in that mighty victory, though it was God's.

Young people may say, 'It sounds very nice, but I have not the power'. It is well to hear that, for if you thought you had the power, you would be doomed to failure.

• Think of the great exploits the apostle Paul carried out –
  • "When I am weak, then am I strong!"

• Weakness is a great qualification for one who desires to serve the Lord. To own our weakness makes us cling to Him and call upon Him; what we cannot do by human strength may be carried forward in the power of the Spirit.

• You cling to the Lord, dear young believer! He says, as He said to Jeremiah,
  • "Say not, I am a child", Jeremiah 1: 7.

• He touches your lips, and He enables you to serve in a way that you could not in your own strength.

This thought of power is of great importance; it runs right through Scripture, and is consistent with the main thought of development before us.

• You would not expect to see a newly converted soul evidencing the same measure of spiritual power as one matured in the things of God. He has the same resources, but it is a matter of progress, and the Lord would promote that.

The apostle Paul is a fine example of this. The thorn in his flesh was so oppressive that he besought the Lord three times that it might depart from him.

• The Lord did not give him the answer he expected. He withheld the answer twice; the third time the answer came, but it was not at all what he thought the Lord would do.

• Paul thought He would remove it, but it was necessary in the ways of God with him, so the Lord just said,
  • "My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness";

    and thus the apostle could say,

    "Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me".

Dear young brother and sister, we speak to you sympathetically. You are being greatly tested in present conditions: you are facing difficulties you have not hitherto faced: the path is difficult; the spirit of the world is opposed;

• we are naturally timid and we feel things, and sometimes we are almost overwhelmsd; the test is sometimes too great for us until we go to the Lord, and then He says,
  • "My grace is sufficient for thee!"

• He will carry you through in triumph and in power as he did Gideon. He will never leave us to succumb to the enemy. What a resources there are!

• You say, 'I know it is right and proper that I should be marked by spiritual power and able to resist temptation, but I am so conscious of my weakness'.

• May we remind you of the resource at the right hand of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, now living to save us in our experiences in our daily life? His grace is sufficient for you. Then we have the Holy spirit of God indwelling us. What divine power there is!

• There is a beautiful expression of that given by the apostle Paul when he was interceding for his fellow-believers; he prayed that they might be
  • "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness", Colossians 1: 11.

• This is a mighty triumph, and by the Spirit of God. There is need for longsuffering. Our joy sometimes appears to be at a very low ebb; our strength seems all gone, and the temptation seems too great to overcome,

• but we are reminded that we have been prayed for, and that all these mighty resources of our blessed God are available; that we might be
  • "strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power",

• not according to my weakness, but according to His power! I bring my weakness to Him and He puts in the place of it His own divine power. So in the epistle to the Ephesians, the apostle could exhort the brethren,
  • "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might", Ephesians 6: 10 –

• not in the power of a bold brain; not by a character that is persistent and not easily overcome. No, that will not do. Our strongest point will prove to be our weakest one, unless we lean on Him as the great High Priest.

We specially need the grace of Christ individually. Then, having experienced it, we are exhorted to

• "be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus", 2 Timothy 2: 1,

• and we are to manifest to others, as having proved it, what the Lord Jesus is to us.

The verses read serve to show these three great features of spiritual development.

• In that great love chapter, 1 Corinthians 13, the apostle says,
  • "When I was a child I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things".

• This is a very important verse for our young friends, that there should be evidence of spiritual manhood; the ability to say 'No!' to the things which are childish.

• There comes a time in our natural life when we pass from youth to manhood; a very important part of our life-history itself, when we put away childish things. It is the experience of many of those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity to be tested as to whether they are prepared to put away childish things.

• Take the question of reading books that are fascinating for the mind, but not in any way developing for the soul. Such things test us, and are often responsible for keeping us dwarfed in our spiritual stature, and have to be put away.

• The cross of Christ is essential in putting away childish things. You find in this great love chapter that love is the motive power behind it all.

Then in 1 Corinthians 14, "Brethren, be not children in understanding".

• Think of what favours we enjoy; of the way God has given light, ministry and truth, and thrown light on the Scriptures in this day, greater than in any other day of the Church's history.

• What ministry there is as we come together; what favours God shows to us! He says,
  • "Brethren, be not children in understanding".

• Let us not remain with our hearts and thoughts dwarfed, but let our minds expand in spiritual thoughts.

• He would say, 'There is one way only in which it is well to remain children', and surely we need this word:
  • "In malice be ye children".

• A little child never shows malice. He will forgive so quickly that a few minutes after an incident he will go on as if it had never happened. Let us be babes in malice, but in spiritual intelligence there should be development for the glory of God.

Finally, a word on power in 1 Corinthians 16. We need to be watchful:

• "Watch ye, stand fast in the faith" –

  climg to everything; let nothing go. Then,

• "Quit you like men!" God wants persons that can "stand … and having done all, to stand". "Quit you like men".

• Such are needed on earth today in the assembly for the working out of the thoughts of God while we wait for the Lord to come; those who will stand like men, firmly, graciously, so that the interests of Christ shall have first place.

• The whole thought is that there is a development in spiritual strength so that we are preserved in the path, available for the pleasure of God and for Christ.

• God delights in persons in whom He can see those Christ-like features reproduced – those indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, who are committed whole-heartedly in wisdom, love and power!

Moses is a remarkable example of how God prepared one to sing the worshippers' song.

• Moses, like Jacob, finished as a worshipper – a fine spirit for a man of God. Let us consider Moses as an example.

• The Spirit of God records of him in infancy, that "the babe wept", indicating that very early in his life God's ways of discipline were in evidence. The blessed God had an end in view in all that through which He passed Moses.

• As a babe he was taken to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter, though under the providence of God he was nursed by his own mother up to a certain age, when, no doubt, she had to surrender him to Pharaoh's daughter.

• Up to forty years of age he lived in the court of Egypt, in circumstances which were very testing, which brought to light what a remarkable man he was naturally, but he came to the point when that had to be surrendered.

Let it be for the encouragement of our younger brethren, who are feeling the pressure of things today and the testing experiences through which God is passing them,

• that the end in view is that they may be prepared for their part in the assembly, in the service of praise and worship, and make their contribution in the response to the blessed God.

At the end of the first forty years it came into Moses' heart to visit his brethren. He threw in his lot voluntarily with them and

• chose "rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season".

• He was able to make this choice; that it was better to be identified with God's people in rejection and reproach than to be a great man of the world.

• His choice was confirmed, for God passed him through a still further period of forty years in the desert alone with Him, during which he received communications from God and his soul was developed.

• He was acquiring the knowledge of God and being prepared by Him – and what a preparation that was!

• How many times Moses would say to himself, 'This is a wasted life, to be here in the desert, with all my powers, feeding a few sheep!' But they were years spent in learning the will of God. God was producing a qualified man, capable of taking up the service of God entrusted to him,
  • and in the last forty years of the history of Moses we find him a man prepared by discipline and in secret with God, who could take the great part that God had assigned to him.

• He became great enough to bless the people, and in so doing, his heart went up to God in worship and he closed his life as a worshipper.

It has often been said of Jacob that he had a beautiful finish, leaning on the top of his staff – suggestive of his dependence upon the power of God, for he finished as a worshipper.

• How we would desire to come to that, though not to wait until our deathbed. God would pass us through such spiritual education that we may be worshippers even now.

• He loves the worship even of a child. When there were those who would have stopped the song of the children, the Lord would not have them silenced, and quoted,
  • "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise",

• showing that this is not limited to advanced age and long experience, but that hearts divinely moved are able to contribute to this tribute.

The Scripture read in 1 Samuel 16: 11-13 confirms this. There are two personages specially before us there, David – the central figure – and Samuel, both being instances of the preparation of the servants of God.

• Given as the answer to prayer, Samuel was dedicated to God in infancy; while he was yet a little lad he ministered to the Lord! How encouraging that is to those who are young! The Spirit of God emphasizes his growth from a child but it had a beautiful beginning.

• Then he was seen growing up and developing, and presently it was known that he was established to be a prophet of the Lord – one having the mind of God – the work of God in him and the ways of God with him were yielding fruit, even in his youth.

• Then followed years of quiet preparation in obscurity and of devoted prayer, for Samuel was a great man of prayer. How much time he must have spent in secret with God, for in every emergency that arose in Samuel's life he was found before God in prayer.

• He became a worshipper too; the very act of anointing God's chosen one constituted him a worshipper.

• At the feast Samuel recognized, as under God's hand, that someone was missing – someone who was to fill the position had not yet come to light and he would not sit down until David came; he could not sit down with God's anointed absent.

• So David came in, with his beautiful countenance, and Samuel anointed him in the midst of his brethren. That is what God would desire everyone of us to do – to recognize the greatness of the Person of Christ, the dignity of His office, and give Him His right and supreme place in the midst of His brethren.
  • Psalm 45 says, "He is thy Lord, and worship thou him".

• The Lord Jesus is entitled to our worship – it is right that we should worship Him. How can anyone who loves and admires Him, not worship Him?

• When together with our brethren, and the Lord Jesus comes in, room is made for Him; His beauty enraptures our hearts and we bow before Him to give Him His own place.

The Scripture also calls attention to David in his personal character. He is a beautiful example of the work of preparation.

• David was the youngest son, insignificant in the eyes of his brethren and even in the household; Jesse did not seem to have recognized the necessity for David to be present on that great occasion.

• He was but a shepherd-boy on the hills of Bethlehem, but in Psalm 23 he gives an account of lessons learned in the isolation of the shepherd's task. It evidences that God was passing him through experiences which were preparing him too to become a worshipper.

• The crisis before meeting Goliath brought to light the secret of his service. He said,
  • "Thy servant kept his father's sheep and there came a lion and a bear and took a lamb out of the flock; and I went out after him and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth and … I … smote him and slew him".

• That was one of David's personal experiences as alone was God and shows that he was ready to take his life in his hands to rescue the lamb. How beautifully suggestive of the Lord Jesus!

Think of his education as alone in the perils of the wilderness with those sheep, meeting the lion and the bear. How all that he passed through in those early experiences was used of God to educate and prepare him!

• In the Psalms we learn from David's own lips of many other experiences, but they all yielded a song. A psalm is a song of experience and every experience only served to make David a more distinctive worshipper.

• Thus it is in the ways of God with us. Everything through which we are called to pass has the objective that we should become worshippers, able to sing our own psalm.

• Whatever it may be that God, in His profound wisdom, allows His children to pass through in their natural life here, it is intended to prepare them for their part in His assembly; ready to contribute, ready to support His interests and to enter spiritually into the song of praise and worship.

Following David on from his early youth to his early manhood, it is noteworthy that most of his sorrows that are recorded in the first book of Samuel were passed through before he was thirty years of age; those hardships were mostly his experiences in early life.

• Why did God allow a youth like that to go through such distresses? Because He had in view the preparation necessary to produce the wonderful contributions which have been found serviceable to the people of God ever since. Who would like to be without the Psalms, recording as they do, soul-history with God? Hence David could say,
  • "O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness; fear before him, all the earth".

• He reached the dignity of a worshipper. He had a sense, too, of holiness, knowing that he himself had been cleansed. He can stand before God and give the lead in holy worship in spiritual dignity.

• Why? Because he had been through the discipline alone with God; he had known what it was to have to cry to God in his trouble, but all that yielded a mature state for the worship of God.

The world looks on and says, 'Why does God allow this and that?', challenging God's ways, but the believer does not attempt to offer an explanation of all God's ways.

• He knows that they all bring to pass the results that He desires, yielding the knowledge of God Himself and qualifying the saint in the school of discipline for his part in the service of God.

• Eternity will reveal the marvellous results that God has achieved by His patient ways with us all in our life here, preparing us for our part in the glory of the coming day,
  • enabling us to have a deep appreciation of our Lord Jesus Christ and giving us to value the presence of the Holy Spirit of God, unsealing our lips and giving us even now to know the joy of offering praise.

Now in the New Testament there are more examples. Mary of Bethany clearly indicates that worshippers are not limited to those who take audible part.

• Worship is rather that which is in the heart and often words fail to express what the heart feels. Young persons may be worshippers as well as old ones.

• Without having these Scriptures, we may have thought of worshippers as being only those who took the audible part, but the divine idea is that each one should be a worshipper.

• What a spiritual education there was for Mary of Bethany! It began with a wonderful, never-to-be-forgotten day when the Son Man – who had said of Himself,
  • "Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head"

• – was received in the home. Her sister Martha – wonderful woman – in the midst of the opposition shown to Him, opened her house and received Him.

• The world did not want Him, but Mary was quick to ascertain that the opportunity of a lifetime had arisen, when her sister Martha welcomed Jesus into her house.

• Instinctively she chose to sit at His feet and hear His word, and there at the feet of Jesus she was educated to be a worshipper. She heard Him say,
  • "Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her";

• she was rewarded for her choice and a great blessing followed.

• We would encourage one another to make time to listen to Jesus. It would be a most valuable asset in our spiritual education, to imbibe the spirit of Jesus.

• The atmosphere in which alone we can worship is that which pervaded the house of Martha as Mary sat at His feet.

It is recorded, "Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus".

• There was a personal love for each member of that household. The Lord loves each one of us; He loves the assembly as a whole, but He also loves each one of us individually.

• That choice household in Bethany came under the shadow of death, and they were sensitive to it. Believers are often more sensitive than the world, but Jesus drew here. He went even to the grave and was found weeping there.

• Mary experienced in the presence of the Son of God both the shadow of death and the glory of resurrection, for He said,
  • "I am the resurrection and the life".

• What an experience it was! Mary was thus prepared to become a worshipper.

• We should never have had that charming incident in John 12 if Mary had not learned the Lord Jesus in her sorrow, and had not felt His presence near as she was overwhelmed; when He proved Himself to be the Son of God – the resurrection and the life.

Their previous history had been preparing them, but as a result of God's ways with them and His work in them, it came to light.

• Lazarus sat at table with Him – the one who had been dead, but who now could have communion with the Lord of life and glory, and Martha served; not now was her service cumbrous; it was done beautifully and well.

• The Son of God – the Lord of life and glory – was there! The resurrection and the life was there!

• Jesus loved Mary she loved Him in response to His own great love, and this was the moment for her to express in actions (which speaks more loudly than words) her love for Him.

• She anointed Him! The anointing indicated her spirit; she anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair, and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

• One sister with a worshipping spirit of adoration in the appreciation of Christ would fill God's house with fragrance. What value sisters have in adding spiritual fragrance to the company! A worshipping spirit would make everything of Christ.

It was a marvellous action, speaking so loudly of one whose heart had been won in affection for Him.

• Wiping His feet with her hair expressed that her body could be used in contributing to the spirit of worship.

In the fourth instance, in Ephesians 1, Paul burst out in that glorious doxology and we find him a worshipper.

• He commenced to write his letter, but when he had written the introduction, instead of proceeding with what he had on his mind to say to them, he burst out in this worshipping expression which has been an inspiration to thousands.

• He was so full of the spirit of worship that he could not proceed, but he wrote what he had in his heart,
  • "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ …"

• What a transformation had been effected by the work of God in Paul, by the sight of Christ in glory, and then by the hardships and suffering which followed, for he passed through terrible afflictions, but it was all part of the ways of God in preparing this wonderful vessel.

• What a changed man! His spirit was changed. The work of God does not change us externally, but now we can worship God. He was once a blasphemer, an injurious man, but now, as Paul, he was a lover of Christ, a lover of the assembly, worshipping God.

• The transformation was so marvelous that the brethren at Jerusalem could not believe at first that Saul of Tarsus was a brother; they were loth to receive him, and so Barnabas took him in hand and told them how the Lord had met him in the way. A sight of Christ in glory had changed him.

• He was not now a man who would intimidate the brethren and ride over them, but, as Paul the little, could move about among them in the spirit of worship; as having been transformed, he could worship God in spirit and in truth.

God never yields anything that He sets out to accomplish. He may, in profound wisdom, take a way to reach it that we do not understand,

• but it is for us to bow to the inscrutable wisdom of the blessed God and recognize the end that He has in view,

• which is the preparation of worshippers who are being educated in the school of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, by which power alone worshippers are formed.

May God grant that each one may be at true worshipper, to the glory of God!

The Lord is making a definite appeal in our day. The work of God is going on in a very positive way, and God is gathering out of this world of people for his name:

• it is not part of the divine intention that those who are blessed and who remain in the world should be of it.

• We may have to remain on earth and go through the world, finding our livelihood in it; the boys and girls have to spend their school days in it; the young men have to serve their apprenticeships in for the trades which they are following; and the men of business have to go through it.

• That is essential on the practical side of life, but in the secret of our souls we cherish the consciousness that we are not citizens of the city in which we're living, not citizens God's city – the city of the living God.

God has "saved us, and called us with an holy calling" which is heavenly in character, so that we carry with us a secret which makes us different from other people in our outlook, our interests, our desires, and in our objective.

• It will mean that we shall be misunderstood, that we may suffer for Christ's sake, and be despised because we do not go with the crowd: we may even be wrongly regarded as disloyal to the city in which we live;

• but all this is well worth while if we get one glimpse of the holy dignity of heavenly citizenship!
  • The apostles had that, for "they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name".

• It is a wonderful thing to be a heavenly citizen here on earth! So we pray that the Lord may open the eyes of those who have never seen and appreciated what this means, and that He may give a soul a deep and holy sense of the work of God which is for the part and place that we shall have in that heavenly city.

• That this preparatory work of God is going on is beyond question, and we do well to review all the ways of God as preparing us for that heavenly city.

The citizens of earth recognize the intense importance of educating the rising generation, so that when the time comes they shall be ready, equipped and qualified to take the burden of citizenship upon them, willingly and efficiently. Men of the world see that necessity.

• It is also true, and the word of God confirms it, that, in divine wisdom, God is pleased to work to the end that the citizens of His city should be prepared and equipped to step forward, when it is the will of God for them to be displayed, as those who have been divinely educated and prepared.

• There is the marvelous work of divine grace which stands in its dignity and glory – the work of Christ for us; the stoop of divine love, that He might lay down His life and shed His own precious blood.
  • The other is that God is working in us. "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure".

• When, in a coming day, that holy city comes down out of heaven from God, we shall say, "what hath God wrought!" What hath Christ wrought for us to bring us into such blessing; and what hath God wrought in us to produce such a marvelous result!

• The whole company of citizens will be there, intelligent, educated and prepared to take their place in that glory-scene with Christ, the Lamb whose glory fills the city; and each one will occupy the place that God has prepared for him, as fitted for that place.

It is necessary for the young to look forward, in this life, as soon as they are awakened to a sense of responsibility.

• You consider what education will best fit you for the position you wish to take up. You say, 'I am prepared for all that it will cost for the education and experience that will best fit me for the particular profession which I desire to enter'.

• Thereupon a course is determined and entered upon. There are sacrifices made in order that all may be provided for the necessary education for the position that will be filled in after-life.

• But shall we not look on to the heavenly city? Wha path and education, what experience and companionship will be conducive to the development of our souls and lives, will yield the maximum results for the glory of God, and enable us to take our place in that holy city in intelligence and affection as well equipped, by the work of God in us, and the education He has passed through?

This is a subject with which I would engage your hearts, and I trust it will appeal greatly to the young, for you have before you, if the Lord leaves you here, years of life with all the freshness and vigor of youth; you have a mind, fresh and pliable, ready to be taught.

• You have a path as yet untrodden; you have not yet chosen your companionships; you have not yet committed yourself to any associations.

• There lies before you the path of heavenly citizenship which the Lord would open up before you, and He would allure you into it under His hand, that henceforth you may live for Him and not for yourself. How exceedingly attractive!

One would like to be assured that at the end of life, when about to pass into the presence of the Lord, you may be able to look back and say, 'I thank Thee for the way Thou hast led me!'; that there should be no steps to retrace; no regrets; no remorse as a result of false steps taken, or bi-paths trodden instead of the highways;

• but just a looking back with thanksgiving on the way that God has led you. Do not wait until the best years of your life have gone before you commit yourself to Christ!

• Do not wait until you have drunk deeply into the corrupt streams of the earth; nor wait until your mind is corrupted by the fearful filth of this world. Here and now, may your body, soul, heart, and life, be laid on the altar for the Lord's sake and for His glory! Who shall tell the possibilities the one life devoted to Christ in this manner?

• When the coming glory is revealed and the Lord has His own with Himself, do you think you will ever have a moment's regrets that, early in life, you committed yourself to Christ and were ready to move under His direction; to walk with His people and talk with them; to serve with them; to live in the light of the coming glory; and to be governed down here on earth by motives that are befitting heavenly citizens; as indeed we are

• Will you ever regret it? Never! We meet many believers in our Lord Jesus Christ, but we never find one who regrets having come to Christ early, or having entered early upon the path of heavenly citizenship.

Now as to this very important question of education. We will assume first of all that you have definitely trusted Christ: for it is no use trying to educate an unconverted man; you cannot educate him in the things of God.

• When God has wrought in your soul and you have received His Holy Spirit, there begins a spiritual education which is invaluable and indispensable in regard to the heavenly city.

• Even a disability from which we suffer may be one of the ways of God in fitting us for the city. We can take a different view of that disability instead of murmuring that things are not going as we had hoped; instead of feeling that our prayers are not being answered; the coming glory will reveal that they were being answered in the best possible way.

• The coming day will reveal that it was the finest bit of education that we ever had, and we shall then see the spiritual prosperity that accompanied it in the course of our path here.

This education is strikingly exemplified in God's way with Abraham. He was, perhaps, the first man to whom the light of God's city was given, for

• "he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God".

• Now the effect of the light of the city upon that man was thatf it made him a pilgrim and a stranger here.
  • A pilgrim is a person who is on a journey, and who has an objective in view. He is passing on because he has a specific object before him.

  • A stranger is one who is not at home in the place where he is found.

• We have to speak humbly and simply in regard to this. I am assured that an essential part of our education as citizens is that we should have the spirit of a pilgrim and of a stranger.

• It means that our hopes are not bounded by this earth; our aspirations are not limited to the horizon that the natural man can see; but that we have an object – none other than the heavenly city.

• A pilgrim is awaiting that moment when the journey will be completed and he will have his part in that heavenly scene.

• A stranger is a person who says, 'I may have to find my living in this world, but this is not my home. My home is in heaven; my heart is there; my interests are there; my affections are there; my Lord is there; my Bridegroom is there; everything is there that counts. For the moment I am a stranger here'.

This has been illustrated by the outlook of a miner.

• Suppose we go down a coal mine; we come to the working face and find a miner working almost in the darkness, and in the dust and heat, and we say to him, 'This is an extraordinary place in which to live!'

• He looks up and says, 'I do not live here!' 'But', we say, 'you are working here and you are breathing here'.

• He replies, 'I am: but I do not remain here when the time comes for the work to cease. I am working here but I do not live here. My home is up there; my wife, my children are there; my interests and my affections are there; and when work is over, I am going there as quickly as I can!'

• That is exactly the position of the Christian here who has the light of the heavenly city in his soul.

• He says, 'I am here; I am working here, spending my time in subjection to the will of God, but I do not live here; my home is in heaven; my affections are there; Christ is there'; and all the interests of the believer who has the heavenly outlook are there too!
  • "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God".

That is very much the attitude of Abraham, as one who had the light of the city. He will have a part of that glory-scene, as all the Old Testament saints will.

• That God gave to the man of faith the light of the heavenly city is a matter for a great thanksgiving, for it means that if you and I are to be here for God, we must be here in faith.
  • "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".

• The man of the world says, 'I do not understand you'. But you have the light of that which is unseen. God has revealed to you at heavenly secret, the light of the unseen, and you are governed. by that.

• It is a wonderful thing to be in the path of faith! The Lord would encourage our hearts to step forward in that path, for without faith it is impossible to please God. It is no use pursuing the path unless we have faith.

• It needs faith first of all to trust Christ as our Saviour; faith is set out on the path of a heavenly citizen.

• It needs faith to stand true to the Lord Jesus with those who are being reproached for the name of Christ.

• It needs faith to stand in the school or the workshop; believe the only one in the shop who is a Christian and standing for Christ.

• It needs faith to go straight through this world of crookedness, to be honest and true in our business lives.

All these things are connected with our heavenly citizenship, for we should not like to give anyone the impression that there is any unrighteousness connected with the holy city, or any on holiness.

• "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth".

• Righteousness and holiness are inseparably connected with heavenly citizens. It is not that we should do right because it is right, but we do right because it is one of the principles of the heavenly city.

• We are not holy because we are told to be holy, but because we are conscious that we belong to a city in which God dwells in His holiness, where everything is holy, and where nothing that defileth can enter.

• What character of city do we belong to? What are the governing principles of the city in which we are citizens
  • "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth".

• How exclusive that is! Would you like to think of the paltry pleasures of this world being enjoyed by the citizens of that city? Would you like to see those citizens engaged in reading novels? Indeed, our souls shrink from the very thought of it.
  • "There shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth".

• Heavenly citizens would delight to be marked practically by righteousness and holiness, because the city to which they belong is a city in which righteousness will be displayed and holiness will be maintained.

Another example of a man who was educated in relation to the heavenly city is furnished in Nehemiah – a man who was a typical citizen.

• He was cup-bearer to the king, and the latter observed that there was something wrong with him. He looked worn, haggard, and anxious, as if there was a burden upon his spirit. The king asked Nehemiah, "Why is thy countenance sad?" and he replied,
  • "Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city … lieth waste, and the gates thereof are consumed with fire?"

• He was such a loyal citizen that even his health suffered, through the burden that was upon his spirit. The king said, "For what does not make request?" And then in a moment, quicker than it could be read or written, he prayed to the God of heaven, and the dog prayer was answered.

• I would say you, 'Do cultivate the habit of prayer. It is one of the very best habits in relation to school, business, or any other life. If a question is asked or a point raised, let a prayer go up to God, and in a moment you will have the right and suitable word'. Many times we have experienced it.

• When an answer has to be given, a decision has to be made, we pray to the God of heaven, and the God of heaven is graciously pleased to answer: the decision is made, and there are no after regrets: God carries us through.

• Nehemiah knew the God of heaven, and He ordered his path so that he can go back to Jerusalem. When he had reached the city, he took a review of the position. It is good to do this.

• The reproach of Christ is a very great reality; the past is a pass of toil and suffering, and so there needs to be with each of us a readiness to put our hands to the work, to put our bodies at the Lord's disposal, for our feet to be in the path, and to be prepared to take up the service so that the wall of the city may be built.

The building of the wall means to us that holiness must be maintained: the wall is for that purpose – to exclude all that is unholy and to include all that is for God's pleasure.

• So the wall of the holy city is great: is great enough to include everything in which God has His pleasure and high enough to exclude everything that God hates. How simple the Christian path is when we have the wall in mind: we need to keep it before us constantly.

• We enquire, 'Is that something that could come inside the wall?' If the answer is 'No', then I will not have it.

• When a question arises, do you say, 'Is it right or wrong?' Rather enquire, 'Can it come inside the wall?' If the answer is 'No, it could not', then, leave it alone, and go in for what is inside! There is plenty of interest and development there.

• God will encourage you to go along with those who are pleasing to Him: to do that, keep inside the wall, and let all that is evil remain outside.

• It is a very sound judgment to arrive at, that what is to be excluded by the wall must be excluded by us. Nehemiah saw the necessity for it. He gathered the people together and stirred up their hearts, and it was not very long before the wall was built. Then it says,
  • "The people bless all the men that willingly offer themselves to dwell at Jerusalem".

• We feel like that when we hear of a young man or young woman asking to break bread, desiring to throw in their lot with the people of God – to live with them; to sit down and pray with them; to suffer and testify with them; and to offer praise with them. It is a glorious movement and we can bless them.

Dwelling at Jerusalem meant living inside the wall, though there were not many there. They were a small company; and perhaps a good deal of suffering, but the people blessed them.

• They walked upon the wall on the great day of its dedication and Nehemiah records,
  • "that day they offered great sacrifices and rejoiced whole for God had made them rejoice with great joy: the wise also had the children rejoiced: so that the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off".

Now, we would say to the children that the day will come when you will be profoundly thankful to God that He has put you in relation to parents who hate evil and do all in their power to protect you.

• In the days of Nehemiah the children rejoiced. Oh, how delighted they were that the wall had been built that now the enemy was kept outside!

• God would inspire every heart with the sense that it is a glorious company: and He would have the children feel that they are part of the company – that they belong to the city.
  • "The children rejoiced".

• It is a great thing to be a Christian, dear children! There are no children on earth so favoured as those whom God has placed in relation to His beloved people. Happy are they who know the joys of the heavenly city!

Thus we have seen Abraham setting forth the importance of the path of faith, and Nehemiah as a man who recognizes the divine principle of separation, without which it is impossible to enjoy divine things. He saw that the people would never enjoy the support of God until the wall had been built.

• Separation is entirely and absolutely essential if we are to enjoy the privileges of citizenship.

• You cannot be a citizen of Zion today and a citizen of earth tomorrow. You cannot have one foot in Babylon and one foot in Jerusalem. Wholehearted devotedness to the path of the will of God is what God is seeking, and in that there is exceeding joy.
  • "And the joy of Jerusalem was heard even afar off".

• Would that it might be said today that the joy of the saints of God is heard afar off! It is their most powerful feature for testimony, for if only we could convey to the people around us that we have found the secret of joy, they would ask, What is the cause of your happiness?'

• There is many a seeker after joy; there is many a one who desires to hear in simplicity how he or she can be brought into peace and happiness. May not the joy of Jerusalem be heard today, when the gospel is preached? But let us not limit this to the public preaching. Let each one of us be at living exponent of his joy.

Now let us consider a New Testament citizen – Timothy. He is worthy of earnest consideration, for he was a young man who from a child had known the Scriptures, which were able to make him wise unto salvation. That is a fine point!

• May I say that if the Lord has touched your heart and you want to be pleasing to Him, use your time while you are young in getting thoroughly well acquainted with the Holy Scriptures. You will thank God for every word of the Scriptures which you acquire. It is good to learn the Scriptures by heart. There is not too much of them learned today.

• Many have been thankful for the Scriptures learned by heart when they were young. It is a good thing to get the Holy Scriptures well into our minds, for one day the Spirit of God illumines what we have, and we thank God that these Scriptures were learned by us.

• It is a very essential part of our education, and we should remember this, for the Scriptures are the great Book of legislation for the holy city. Every principle that will govern the holy city is found in them.

• Every divine movement will be according to divine revelation, and in the Scriptures we have the principles, laws and features that will mark the heavenly city. We want to know them now!

If the city is to be composed of holy men, we would be holy now; if of righteous men, we would be righteous now; or of sympathetic men, we would be sympathetic now.

• Every feature that will come into display is being worked out in the secret education of the people of God, and one feature is that they have a knowledge of the Holy Scriptures which the Spirit of God is pleased to own and bless.

Now Timothy was brought up under the teaching of his mother and grandmother. Thank God for such! For the holy influence of godly women who love the Scriptures, and love the Lord and His children, has its part in the preparation of the city. God is honouring such women.

• Quite early in life, too, Timothy came under the influence of the apostle Paul. Now that is a very interesting feature for us, because one of the marks of the present moment is that the teaching of the apostle Paul is being emphasized by godly, spiritual men who have been sent along by the Lord.

• Like Timothy, you have come early under the influence of the apostle; so you have a great advantage, for the apostle was one of the great instruments used by God to bring to light the truth of citizenship. It was he who said that
  • "our conversation" [citizenship] "is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ".

  • It was the apostle who spoke of us as "fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God".

• We need to give heed to the teaching of the apostle Paul. If we are to be citizens intelligently and consistently, it will be as a result of coming under the teaching of the Holy Scriptures, and especially the writings of the apostle.

• These are writings which the enemy is attacking today, and therefore we need to be established in them, so that every principle of God's city shall be well grounded in our souls.

• Then every evil principle will be refused by the Lord's grace and power, and every principle that is consistent will be welcomed and pursued.

It is important to recognize, however, that there is no ability to respond to such an appeal by any effort of the natural man, for

• "they that are in the flesh cannot please God".

• The death of Christ has ended judicially the man in flesh, but the Holy Spirit has been given, and by His power there is response to the desires of the heart of God, and ability to answer to His present thoughts.

It is as though the apostle would say, 'We would find more citizens'. Many were old; some had been put to death; or were suffering persecution; some were in prison, and there was a need for men.

• Then Paul came to a certain place, and a certain disciple was there, named Timothy. He was converted, and when Paul heard that he was well reported of by the brethren, he would have him go forth with him.

• Perhaps the Lord is appealing to someone today. He wants you to set out on the path of heavenly citizenship; on a path of obedience and affection that would be pleasing to Christ and for His glory. What will you do about it? Are you a willing to step forward into the path of faith?

• You may still live in the same house; live the same life outwardly, but with this difference – you are now essentially a heavenly citizen, living for heaven, whereas before you were an earthly citizen, living for the earth.

So Timothy stepped out; without any reluctance, we are sure. He went along with the apostle, and was prepared to endure hardness, to take his share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.

• The Lord would encourage us to take our share in suffering. Do you know why? When that holy city comes down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God, the influence of that city will eclipse every other. It will not be an arbitrary influence, not thunderings or lightnings, but a holy, tender, sympathetic influence. How is it to be brought to pass?

• Each one of the citizens of that city will have been educated down here on earth in a world of sin, suffering, death, and pain. Here on earth they have learned to have their hearts touched and impressed with tender sympathies like the heart of Jesus.

• They have learned to be moved with compassion, and that compassion has exerted its influence over men. They learned it in suffering. That is why the apostle said to Timothy,
  • "Take thy share in suffering",

• so that in the coming day he might take his share in glory, for it is,
  • "If we suffer, we shall also reign with him".

  • Peter, too, spoke of "the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow ".

    "But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you".

• The suffering makes room for the glory; and educates us for it. So the apostle said to Timothy, his young fellow-citizen, one who is stepping forward to receive his education,
  • "Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ".

Then the apostle, writing to this child in the faith, said,

• "Be a model of the believers, in word, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity".

• Now this verse gives the features of a heavenly citizen. The desire of the Lord is that there should be men exercising holy influence, models of the believers, so that as the young ones grow up they may say; 'I should like to be like that man!'

• As Timothy went about, the young people would say, 'I should like to be like Timothy' – "in word", that is, in his speaking; "in conduct", that is his behavior; "in love" – he was marked by spiritual affections, so that those around would feel the power of Timothy's love, and the next generation would be guided aright as they saw in him a model of a heavenly citizen.

• Then, "in faith"; they would see how Timothy was prepared in faith to follow the apostle in the path of suffering and reproach; and finally, "in purity". This is the greatest test of all.

• Knowing one's own heart and something of the world in which were found; the fearful corrupt character of the pleasures of this present world; the infidelity in the educational system; the influence of the impure literature that is being poured out every week; we need to tread our way through this corrupt world in purity.

We should pray for our young fellow-citizens. They have to tread a path beset with tremendous difficulties. They have a conflict to face which might well appal them, were they not established in the path.

• They have around them a world of iniquity, and inside the flesh in its sinfulness; yet in the midst of it all, there is one power that will carry them through. That is the power of Christ!

• We need to encourage them; to put our hands upon them, and to succor them. They need our prayers, our comfort and help.

• Many of them slip away: the test is too much for them; but if there had been a little more of the Shepherd spirit, a little more interest and care, if their difficulties had been anticipated and met in a spiritual way, they might have been saved and not have drifted.

May the Lord be pleased to impress us deeply with the necessity for these features of citizenship, and especially for purity; and to give grace to you, dear young believers, to keep yourselves pure.

• Ask the Lord for power to refuse what is impure; judge evil thoughts; keep in the holy company of those who love Christ and love to speak of Him; keep your mind saturated with the things of God; find your joy in singing holy, not impure, songs;
  • and as your joy is in that which is holy, it will find the secret of the happiest, purest life it is possible to live on earth!

Heavenly citizenship has a great appeal to our hearts. It is a reality to be worked out in Christian life, and it is now that God is educating and preparing us for the part that He has assigned to us in that heavenly city.

• May God grant for each of us, from the least to the greatest, that we may be willing and ready to step forward in the path of citizenship of that heavenly city in a practical way; to stand shoulder to shoulder with our fellow-citizens;

• looking for our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ; and while we wait for Him, to work out in practical life every principle of heavenly citizenship, by His grace, for His Name's sake!

In the process of this spiritual education there are seasons of loneliness, isolation, inactivity, or restricted activity, with the consequent feeling of uselessness;

• or it may be that some are under the domination of an authority which causes them to be engaged in menial or unuseful tasks, until the spirit may chafe under the circumstances and enquire –
  • 'Why am I am enforced to this; is it not a serious waste of time and mental powers? If my circumstances were altered I could spend my days and energies far more usefully'.

• This is a peculiar form of discipline to which many at the present time are being subjected.

MOSES is, perhaps, the most striking instance of secret education, as he was tested for forty years of exile.

• Little is recorded of that long period discipline, but it is said,
  • he "tended the flock",

    and, "he led the flock".

• Clearly the activities of a shepherd were his, but what a test it must have been for a man who
  • "was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians",

    and who was "mighty in words and deeds",

• to spend those years – normally the most valuable years of a man's life – with sheep in the desert! How irritating to nature to pursue, day after day, this monotonous life!

• He would be tempted to call it a waste of his mental energies, of his administrative ability, and of his military powers. Year after year this severe discipline was his, until this section of his spiritual education was completed.

But when it is considered in the light of his subsequent service, his great power, his skilled leadership, and the wisdom of his administration, we can appreciate that the effect of that discipline had proved its necessity.

• How his spirit, once so impetuous, was subdued by that process until it could be said,
  • "the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth"

• – a transformation effected by those solitary years of desert life with God.

• Were those years wasted? Consider the mighty task which was entrusted to him by God, of delivering, shepherding and leading His people through that howling wilderness, for which he qualified by the manner in which he had accepted the will of God and developed the spirit of a shepherd during those years.

• What a knowledge of God he acquired! What self-judgment and self-abnegation resulted from his heart-searchings, as he tended and led the flock when in exile!

• But what a magnificent result for God and for His people when there emerged from the desert a man of God, equipped for his tremendous task.

• Thus did the time, apparently so uselessly employed, yield the spiritual education for forty years of leadership.

With what joy will the people of God exult in the manifold results which will assuredly be seen as those brethren – who are perforce spending their labours on work so unproductive, and so much below the standard of their mental powers –

• emerge from their trial, spiritually educated, subdued, and equipped to carry out the holy tasks and to bear the administrative burdens which will be allotted to them by the Lord, as the living Head of His assembly!

• Will they look back regretfully upon these days of testing? Will they not rather "bless the hand that guided" and "bless the heart that planned" every detail of their path, producing such fruitful results for God and for His people?

• If, however, the tasks are resented, the spirit is unbroken and the will God not accepted, what spiritual loss will be theirs!

ELISHA provides further encouragement. Called from home and farm, he left all and followed Elijah, God's prophet, in difficult days.

• From Jehoshaphat's reference to him it is clear that for approximately ten years he was employed in pouring water on the hands of Elijah, his master – an expression indicating that he acted purely as a lowly servant.

• During the whole of that time nothing is recorded of him but the fact that he performed that service. What a test it must have been for this wealthy young farmer to surrender all his interests and wait thus upon the man of God in obscurity!

But it is also obvious that during those years he was in such close contact with his master, and had learned to admire his spirit so greatly, that when the time came for of Elijah to be taken up to heaven,

• the longing desire of Elisha was to be characterized by a double portion of his spirit, and so effectively had he profited by his secret education that eventually it could be said of him,
  • "The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha".

• He had been so long in the company of his master that he had become like him!

• How well for those who desire to follow Christ, and to be His servants, if the years of discipline yield the same glorious result; that they emerge into public service in such a spirit that it can be said of each of them 'the spirit of Christ doth rest upon him!'

ELIHU'S secret education was of a different character. What discipline it must have been for that young man, who could say,

• "The Spirit of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life",

• to stand silently listening to those four aged men: Job, who was righteous in his own eyes, and justified himself rather than God; and his three friends who found no answer, yet condemned Job.

Though his spirit within him constrained him, and though he had the knowledge of God, he feared to show what he knew. With commendable deference to those older than himself he said,

• "Days should speak",

• but it was only to discover that "great men are not always wise". Moreover he said,
  • "I gave ear to your reasons … yea, I attended unto you",

• indicating a respectful and subdued spirit, so essential for one who is to speak for God.

• He thus became the evangelist of his day, for he alone had good news from God for man, as chapter 33 proves.

• The "time to speak" had arrived: he had listened to the long arguments which fill chapters 3 to 31; his secret education for his service had been effectual
  • and in the power of the Spirit of God he unfolded the mind of God to Job and his three friends in that marvellous speech which God has used to the blessing of thousands.

It is the fervour of spirit – the spirit of an evangelist – which is expressed in Elihu's words,

• "I am full of matter, the spirit within me constraineth me … I will speak, that I may be refreshed".

• How greatly this is needed today in the preaching of the gospel! It is not sufficient to propound the doctrine of the gospel with ability and intelligence,
  • but to speak under the constraining influence of the love of Christ, and the power of the Holy Spirit of God.

• Preachers are valued whose love to God, and love for souls make them unable to refrain from telling out the gospel of the blessed God!

JOSEPH was secretly educated for thirteen years for the great administrative position which God had designed that he should occupy as 'the saviour of the world'.

• Let us not assume that anyone can enter upon administrative responsibilities in the interests of Christ without a secret education. The word says, "not a novice".

• On this account Joseph had to experience the bitterness of being sold by his brethren, of exile in Egypt, of the temptation in Potiphar's house, and of being falsely accused. Then the prison house, in which
  • "his soul came into irons",

• was part of his preparation for public service by which he saved alive, not only is father's house, but the whole world.

What a glorious result for God and for men accrued from that education! Even Pharaoh had to say,

• "Can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the Spirit of God is?"

• And to Joseph he said, "There is none so discreet and wise as thou".

May our God greatly comfort and encourage those who for the moment, are in a position involving menial servitude, uncongenial tasks, or who are forced to spend their time in a manner which appears so unproductive of profit;

• for as these days are lived in subjection to the will of God and in communion with Him, they are developing that secret education, so necessary to equip them for the service of God and for their part in the coming kingdom and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!