Well, beloved friends, it is a very humbling subject to us; still it is no less true, that to have the whole truth is one of the marks, one of the accompaniments of knowing the Lord in the midst of His own, gathered together to His name.

• For my part I cannot conceive anything more really interesting – because it is not to angels, but to us that the Holy Spirit makes known the truth:
  • "He shall guide you into all the truth".

• If you look into all the sects in Christendom, what you are met with on every hand is, that each assumes to have more truth than its fellows; or at least one particular truth that others have not.

• We cannot but see the importance of having all the truth. And though I am very far from assuming that we have it in its fulness, still I do trust there is the earnest desire after the truth.

• The apostle warns Timothy, that the time would come when they would not listen to the truth, but would be turned away to fables. He speaks of those who were the mischief workers, they "withstand the truth" – not a truth, but the truth.

What I propose to present to you as well as I am able, is what really the truth is. Because here the Spirit of God, not the church, guides into it; and one of the failures of Christendom is the boast that the church expounds the truth.

• No doubt the church has it; all the truth there is, is in the church. There is a verse in Timothy which is not sufficiently borne in mind:
  • "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and the base of the truth", 1 Timothy 3: 15

• – not "the ground" exactly – the base of the truth.

• And I think if we look around we must acknowledge the reproach that rests on the church. We cannot free ourselves from the reproach, for it rests on each of us.

• We are only like convalescents; if we are any better than our fellow Christians, we are still in the same infirmary, and we own that we have been suffering from the same malady, but that we have escaped from it.

• We are thankful for the revival, but we have to encourage and help others to escape also. And though this is our condition, still we are connected with that which is of such value in the eyes of the Lord that it is of immense moment for us to ascertain where the truth is.

• The danger, I apprehend, and I warn you of it, is that the truth is slipping away; for the truth is being weakened and diluted, and you will find that as the truth becomes weakened, every section of it becomes weakened.

• The more you advance in truth, the more you advance all round: you cannot advance on one alone without distorting all. If a man is a great man, he has not only good eyes and good ears, all his qualities are good. So with a tree – all the branches contribute to the tree.

• There can be no greater testimony to the importance among ourselves of the truth, than the assertion of each of the sects, that it has more than its fellows.

The first scripture I will turn to as expressing what the truth is, and which will convey it to you in a very small compass, is Colossians 1: 23-25,

• "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church: whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God".

• There, in very small compass, you get the two ministries connected with the truth – one is the gospel, and the other is the church. They are quite distinct. Where they coalesce is an interesting inquiry;
  • but the point for us, what is to mark us, is that we have these two ministries. It is not the question whether every person of the company understands them; but the question is, whether they accept them.

I look for an admission of the truth; not that I expect every one of the company to be intelligent as to the truth.

• Why were creeds ever brought out? In order to show what people believed. I do not want a creed in that formal way; but I want to understand what really belongs to us as belonging to Christ here on earth, because I take the ground that we are in company with Him.

• t is not only that I know Him individually. If you do not know Him in your individual circumstances, you will never know Him in the house of God.

• If you have not personal intimacy according to John 10,
  • "I know my sheep, and am known of mine",

  do not tell me that you know Him in His assembly.

• You may know the effect of His presence there, you may get the benefit of His presence, but you do not know Himself there. He is there in a very full way, as He would not be with an individual.

• When He comes to the individual, He comes in relation to the individual; and when He comes to the assembly, He comes in relation to it, as Son over the house of God.

• And if you look at Sardis – Revelation 3 – I think you will see there, that the great lack is, that they have not been in company with the Lord in the assembly, and therefore they do not get beyond the Reformation.

• You see it in Luther; justification by faith, the truth of the gospel revived, but the church only reformed.

• If you really were alongside of the Lord in His own assembly, do you mean to tell me you would not understand that there is the assembly, as well as the gospel? I do not believe it. Nothing can be plainer.

• The Colossians were a very nice people – they had "faith in Christ Jesus", and "love to all the saints", but they were in danger. It was not that they did not know the truth, and it was not that the truth was not accepted, but they were not holding "the mystery" in faith.

I would not judge a company of saints by one or two; I must take the whole. I do not judge a country by a village. I look at the whole. And you may be sure that the Lord looks at the whole.

• Now if you are near the Lord you must know the gospel. If you did not know the gospel you could not be near Him. You could not be in His presence unless He had removed every cloud between Him and you; you could not be happy there. Even Peter was not happy till the Lord restored him to communion.

• Affection is not communion. I am sure there are many who have affection – you all know something about it – but communion is quite another thing. There is no restlessness where there is communion; on the contrary, there is enjoyment.

• Peter was restless, and was grieved because there was something between him and the Lord; the Lord removes it, He did so in order that there should be communion.

• The apostle writes to the Colossians that they should
  • not "be moved away from the hope of the gospel";

• and he prays for them according to the hope that is laid up for them "in heaven". As much as to say, If I do not keep you on heavenly ground, I shall never get you to understand the mystery.

• You must look at the gospel as the handmaid of the assembly. The gospel connects me with heaven. No one is saved for earth now; I am saved for heaven. I am as fit for heaven now, as if I were in it. Sometimes I have said to a person, You are fit for heaven, but not for earth.

• That is another thing, but you are fit for heaven. If you were not, how could you be fit for the presence of the Lord of glory? The very first thing one learns, is that Christ Himself has removed every single thing that bars me from His presence, and therefore I enjoy His presence.

• You have the sense that you have touched "the heavenly things"; you could not in any other way be in His presence. He comes into the midst; He comes in heavenly order, and I know that if there were a spot upon me, I could not enjoy Him.

Next – if the gospel has not made me fit for Christ, and to be united to Christ, then what does? Surely union does not fit me. I am fit by the gospel, and that is the great teaching of the earlier verses of Ephesians. I am fit for union.

• It is like Abraham sending for Rebekah, one of his own family. And that is what you have in Hebrews:
  • "He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one".

• In Hebrews you get that you are fit to be His companion. It is a wonderful thing that the gospel gives that. If you are not fit to be His companion, you could not be united to Him. He could not be united to what is unsuitable to Himself. Ephesians 1 shows that we are
  • "accepted in the beloved",

• brought really into fitness; as John says,
  • "As he is, so are we in this world".

• Through divine grace, I am fit to be His companion. And now comes out the mystery; We are His body, in the closest relationship to Him.

• I do not believe a soul could be in the presence of the Lord in the midst of His own, without the sense that there was a relationship, though he might not be able to explain it, he has not learned the word, the divine authority for it.

• Scripture tells you that you are united, a member of His body, and you are entranced; but then you were prepared for this light. I want you to understand that you could not be much in His presence without growing into a knowledge of the assembly as well as the gospel.

These two ministries comprise the truth, because they show not only what the work of Christ has effected, but what our relationship is to Christ, and that for ever. Not only in this world, but for ever, the assembly will be the medium by which He will convey His pleasure over the whole universe.

• Hence you see it is the expression of Himself. There is no good in anything but Himself.
  • "As the truth is in Jesus";

• that is, the truth was expressed in Him, a man on earth. A Person was on earth who exposed the false, and declared the true; He was the living impersonation of what is true, and therefore He exposed all that is false.

• Hence, God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ. He is "the Truth".

• I think I need not say more on these two ministries. I desire before the Lord that you should dwell upon the whole truth, and my comfort in speaking on this subject – in one sense a line new to myself is, that I believe the necessity of the time has called it out – that it is the Lord's will that it should be brought before you.

Now I pass on to the practical application, which I may call the test whether you know these two ministries or not.

• There are four great events connected with them, and they are in relation to Christ.

1. The first – there is not one here, I hope, who is not clear about it – that our blessed Lord was on this earth, and that He died and rose again.

2. The second is that He has been glorified.

3. The third is that the Holy Spirit has come down from the One who has been glorified.

4. The fourth is not yet accomplished; it is what we wait for – the coming of the Lord.

• Now by these four events, you may judge the church: you can judge Christendom, you can judge yourself, you can judge every one.

1. Let us look at the first. You say: I believe the Lord was here, and that He died and rose again. Well, I ask, What does that involve?

• It involves a momentous thing. It involves that the old man has been crucified, and that a Man has risen out from among the dead. Christ bore the judgment. He was made sin for us. You get it in the Romans; not only is your guilt removed, but your status as of the first man is set aside in the cross.

• I have no doubt that a great deal of darkness that is in souls, is because the work of the cross is not fully apprehended. This subject will touch you all. There is no atonement for sin. That statement may alarm some of you.

• There is atonement for sins, and there is atonement for a sin; that is guilt. But your state is sin: He was made sin; and sin is condemned in the flesh. There is a wonderful difference, and if you do not understand it, you have not understood the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

• Romans 12, tells you to present your body as a living sacrifice. How can you do that if your body is not freed from the old master? The old master was the flesh of sin.

I do not wish to go beyond the comprehension of the youngest here, but I want you to know whether you do really believe this first event: That Christ died and rose again; that He cleared everything away, that He not only removed all your guilt

• when He "bore our sins in his own body on the tree",

• but "in that he died, he died unto sin once"

• and "in that he liveth, he liveth unto God":

• that is, He was the atonement for our sins, but sin in the flesh was condemned.
  • "God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh", Romans 8: 3.

• The old man is condemned, and is entirely gone in judgment. I know how slow the heart is to receive it, but till you do receive it, you will never progress.

• You must have the fact, I am free of the man by which I was held. That man is gone in the death of Him who bore the judgment, and I am free in His life who cleared me. Therefore the scripture is,
  • "Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus".

• Now you are on new ground, and that is the reason John does not speak of the blood on the lintel, or of the Red Sea; he speaks of the brazen serpent, he says, as it were, man is brought to an end, and your liberty is in life. Therefore, in Numbers 21 it is,
  • whoever "beheld the serpent of brass, he lived".

  • "Even so must the Son of man be lifted up: that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life".

• You are out of death, and in life. You come out in a new life literally; outside of everything now. Therefore, the apostle is so earnest that "the truth of the gospel" might continue with them – not a gospel, but the truth of it. He says,
  • "I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live; yet not I" [not forgiveness here] but "Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me".

Well, beloved friends, I need not dilate upon this doctrine; but what is the actual state of the one who has accepted the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ? He is not only justified from the guilt, but he is actually freed from the old man.

• "He that is dead is justified" [freed] "from sin", Romans 6: 7;

• that is clearance. The man who enjoys the result of Christ's work, the first event, knows that he is clear of everything, and that he has the life of the Christ who cleared him; in that life there is no condemnation, there could not be, there is nothing to condemn.
  • "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death", Romans 8: 2.

You are now like a bird out of a cage, you enter on new ground altogether, you are in a new region. The old is set aside; the new is introduced; you are in the life of Christ. That is the first event.

2. Now I turn to the second event, and it tests us. The second is, That Christ is glorified.

• That is a very solemn thing. I ask myself very often, Do I believe that He is in heaven? Do I believe that the Person who set me free from all the misery and judgment of this world is glorified at God's right hand in heaven? It is a very solemn question, and a very useful one.

• The idea in John and in Numbers 21 is that you are on for another country; in fact, that you belong to the place where the Life is.

• I do not know anything more difficult than to lead saints to understand and accept the simple fact, that they belong to heaven because the One who cleared us from the misery and judgment under which we lay, is in heaven. He is my life, and He is in heaven. Souls are very slow to learn it.

• When the light broke in many years ago, there was much ignorance about this second event, there was a great deal of legality, a trying to get rid of earthly appearances, and earthly glory; that of itself was not heavenly.

• Still it was better than what is now. Now it is what is called a clear gospel, not a single charge against me; sins, past, present and future, all gone, as people say.

• But what are you doing? Trying to make yourself as comfortable here, as you can. I say, Where is your Saviour? He is in heaven, and He is your life, then your "associations of life" are in heaven.

It is one of the most interesting moments in the history of the soul, when the inquiry is raised, Where is He?

• Mark now, that is the turn in everyone's history. Like Mary Magdalene, desolate without Him, I am in a place where my Lord is not. And the Lord introduces her to a new relationship, to a new sphere, and to a new day,
  • "Old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new".

• She was like the bride in the Canticles; and He leads her from Canticles to community of relationship, and community of relationship involves union.
  • "Go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father; and to my God and your God".

• It is a real start with Christians when they reach this.

But I am dealing now with events or facts which necessarily test us as to whether we hold the truth or not, not a truth but the truth. The Holy Spirit is called

• "the Spirit of truth".

• We need to test ourselves. What do I see generally abroad? I see the history of Israel repeated. There is not one of us who does not believe that there was a day of provocation in the wilderness, and we know that
  • "all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages are come", 1 Corinthians 10: 11.

• Study Numbers, and you see what happened. They only took one journey when the trouble came; they complained, and what then? Their hearts turned back into Egypt, they began lusting; and the next thing was, we will not go up. But that was not all; they essayed afterward to go up without the power.

• And the worst form today is, that a person says, It is the right thing to go up, but he goes up simply from the knowledge of the right thing without the power, and that is presumption. That was fatal to Israel. It is a grievous thing when your knowledge is beyond your power there is no power without faith.

It is a simple question for every heart in this room: we assume to hold the truth – I will test you.

• You say you are clear about Christ's death and resurrection. Are you? Do you mean to tell me you are in the liberty of His life, when your heart is indifferent as to where He is; to this second event?

• I could not believe it while you are engrossed with the things of this life. Hence the argument of the apostle is,
  • "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God", Colossians 3: 1.

I put a plain question to every one of you, How much of the things above have you sought today? You belong to another sphere altogether. You have died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Be like a tree that has its roots in heaven, and its branches down here. You say, That is a miracle.

• Very likely; nevertheless, in reality your roots are in heaven, and your branches down here. No doubt they are fretted and nipped by the atmosphere here, but nothing can touch the roots up there.
  • "Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God", Psalm 92: 13.

• Planted inside, they flourish outside.

I have no doubt at all that the first fact, that is, Christ's work at His first coming, is not clear and full in your souls, or you would long to know where He is.

• The measure of the truth in Christendom is, Christ was on earth, and is coming again; they have no idea of what is in the interval.

• Thank God, you have believed in the first; but you must hold fast to the second event, that is, Christ is in heaven. Now, as Christ is in heaven, and I am on earth, how can I get on here in the place where He is not?

3. The answer is, The Holy Spirit has come down, and this is the third fact or event. The Holy Spirit has come down to be with us, and in us.

• It is not merely that my heart is in heaven because my Saviour is there; my actual place is there, though I am bodily here. The Holy Spirit has come down to lead us into all the truth;
  • "He shall teach you all things";

  • "He shall glorify me: for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you".

• He has come down to the place where we are, here in this scene of misery where we have been contributors to the misrule and disorder of everything in this world.

• We have been converted through God's mercy, but still we have the same flesh that we had, and though we are in the same world, yet we are free from all, through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• But where is He? In heaven. And when He comes into the midst of His own gathered ones, He comes in His heavenly character – what do you know of Him as the heavenly One there? If you tell me you enjoy Him in the midst of His gathered saints, you must enjoy Him in the place where He is, and your heart is set upon Him there.

Someone lately asked, What would make me heavenly minded? Nothing but a Person, the Person who is in heaven – your Saviour.

• "Seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth".

• But I am not presenting this merely as a matter of affection; there is further, this great event, that the Holy Spirit has come down to us, and as the Lord tells you in John 16, He not only leads you into all the truth, not only conducts you into a sphere where everything is perfect according to the mind of God, but
  • "He shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you".

It is not a question of the world; in one sense it is almost easier to get out of the world than to get free of the earth.

• The world is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life; but I see a great many people who are not worldly, but who are earthly. They are surrounding themselves with the ease and comfort of earthly things; the grandeur, and the position of the world they have given up. What I dread is the earth.

• There were ten thousand men in Gideon's army who were neither fearful nor afraid – but what happened? Nine thousand seven hundred of them fell before the mercies of this life. You say, What will detach me? Nothing but the truth.

• These are two tests for every one of us, My Saviour is in heaven, and the Holy Spirit has come down to me.

The Lord interest you more in having really your associations in heaven. I do not ask you to give up anything, I ask you to acquire, to be true to the simple fact, that He is in heaven.

• He was on earth, that was the first fact, you know what that is; then, next, He is in heaven; third, the Holy Spirit has come down to be with us – in the house of God, and in each of us individually.

• Think then of the power you have. Think of the place He comes from. The place He comes from is necessarily the place He connects us with. You are outside what is natural, your power is by the Spirit of God.

• That is the third; and these two, the second and the third, are what are to mark us in the interval between the first fact or event, and the fourth, as you get in 1 Thessalonians.

• People sometimes quote that passage, "Ye turned to God from idols and to wait" – No, I say, you have left out the interval :
  • "to serve the living and true God, and to wait for his Son from heaven".

• Christendom accepts what it terms the first advent and the second, but it omits the interval; that is, the present time.

The moment you accept that Christ is in heaven, and the Holy Spirit is on earth, you must bring in the assembly. The gospel gives me title to be where He is, but in the assembly we are placed there.

• Thus you see the two ministries embrace the truth. It would be an impossibility for you to be left in this place where Christ is rejected, if there were no mystery.

• If He is in heaven, because He has been rejected on earth, how could we be here even for an instant? If He, the Greatest, the Son of God, has no place here, how can I be here?

• By the mystery, the whole question is solved. I am here simply as a member of His body; in no other way have I a right to be here. As a member of His body, I am left here to express Him in the place where He is not, according to the grace given to me.

• Now, and it is very searching; Are you simply here as a member of His body standing for Him to whom all belongs, but who has been cast out? As a member of His body I have a place in heaven; I am not there as an individual, but I can enjoy it as an individual.

• "to wait for his Son from heaven";

• and they were so carried away by it, that they did not attend to their ordinary business, thinking every day He would come. I do not dwell on that.

• Through the death and the resurrection of Christ you are clear of all the misery here, you are brought into a new life altogether, to soar away into the realms of light. My Saviour is in heaven, and I have association with Him there.

• Here you ought to have the sense that you are in the place where Christ died. The deeper my sense of His death, the more do I feel the death of anyone here. The more sorrow you have passed through, the more you feel sorrow. Every new sorrow revives the old ones.

• It is different with joy: every new joy puts out the old ones.
  • "Man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward".

  • "Judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field".

• Death follows in our track. It is "the valley of the shadow of death". We recall, in the declaration of our affection to the Lord, the greatest death that ever occurred. "The golden bowl" is broken.

• We announce His death, we are the continuation in memory of Himself as He left this world, as He died out of it for us. This is an engrossing sorrow always before your heart as you walk through this world.

• "Remember me", is ever before the true heart. One feels sometimes, as one passes from the Lord's supper – take honour there, take distinction there, seek enjoyment there, where Christ died! Never! How could I?

Well then, you are in this world, and the Holy Spirit is here, what are you looking for? I am looking for Him to come. Therefore,

• "The Spirit and the bride say, Come".

• See how naturally they flow one from another. We wait for Him; that is the fourth fact or event; it is not yet accomplished, but we have the certainty of it, we can count upon it more surely than upon tomorrow's sun. You are not true to the fourth, if you do not answer to the other three.

• >I do not think I need add more. I can only look to the Lord to lead you and me to pray that we might see better how necessarily His truth is connected with those who enjoy His presence.

One does not assume anything, but I have challenged people before now who profess to be gathered to His name, just give me a short statement of what the assembly is. Their inability to do it shows where they are.

• If I look at the literature of the day, I see in it little or nothing as to the assembly, a partial gospel is enough.

• What I dread, is lest the truth should slip away from us. God has been pleased to recover the truth, and has allowed us to see it: may we not be deprived of it because of unfaithfulness.

• I am sure He will not permit this without plenty of notice; but He is warning us, He is drawing our attention to it; we are highly favoured, and are proportionately responsible. I say this in order that our hearts may be awakened to understand the greatness of His grace.

The Lord grant that each of our hearts may be delighting in the knowledge of the truth. As we are in His company, we expand in it. He is the Truth.

I have read this scripture because it gives you a picture of service, not that I am going to interpret it, or attempt it, but I will refer to one or two great characteristics connected with it.

• In that sense it is a beautiful picture, because I look at what you do; not at what you assume to be. Your works are to praise you in the gate.
  • "The fire shall, try every man's work"

• – not what the man thinks he is, or says he is, but
  • "the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is".

• I have no doubt, if the body, the assembly had been true to its organisation, the house would have been kept in order. If the internal machinery – if I may use the word – went on thoroughly right, that which is visible would be indicative of the harmony and order of the internal organisation.

• As with a clock; you do not see the machinery, but you see the effect of it, whether it is right or not, whether it keeps good time or not.

• What I see is properly called the house; what I do not see is the body, and that is the vital energy in the house; that which is in living association with the Head, and acts correspondingly to Him, and effects the result that is according to His pleasure.

There are two great characteristic marks of this wise woman, and they sum up our own service; she fed and clothed her household: food and clothing.

• Of course they are only emblems; but they answer to the action of divine grace in the perfect ministry of our blessed Lord. Of Him it is said,
  • "No man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ the assembly".

• The one is inward; the other is outward: food and warmth; the two things, as every one knows, that a babe requires.

• And no matter how great or wealthy a man is, two comforts are essential, namely, food and raiment; on these two things he is dependent: all his surroundings, without them, would be as nothing.

• The Lord nourishes us all, but I am not so sure that we all know the cherishing; we do not submit to it.
  • "He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee", Psalm 81: 16.

It is a great thing to get hold of principles; and the first great principle that I desire to bring before you, as describing true service, is that it is established in righteousness.

• We are all the bondmen of Jesus Christ; simply accept that, and it will be a great help to you. Has Christ the right to you? to all yours? Yes; you are His slave. Paul delights to call himself bondslave.

• People in their natural amiability talk of the emancipation of slaves, but they carry it much farther, they emancipate themselves. There is a very great claim connected with being a slave. Your master has full right over you. All yours belongs to the Lord. If you are a slave, you cannot claim anything for yourself.

• Well, this is a great principle to get hold of, and you will never understand service till you do. Very often we act as if we thought we were volunteers, that we may serve or not, just as we please. Not at all! you are slaves and have no option.

I shall be able to bring another reason for service presently, but I start with righteousness. If you are a slave, you have no right to do anything but at the dictation of your master.

• "You are bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body".

• He has bought us – therefore He is the Saviour of the body in that sense – and you ought to be glad He has, and the more you dwell on it, the more pleased you will be to be His slave.

• It would be a good answer to give to every one who asks, Why do you do so-and-so? I am doing it righteously, I am Christ's bondman to do His pleasure; not what I like, but what He likes.

• That is the first great principle. To establish this, I turn now to 1 Corinthians 7: 22-23,
  • "He that is called in the Lord, being a servant" [slave] "is the Lord's freeman: likewise also he that is called, being free, is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price; be not ye the servants of men".

• It says in the previous verse, If a man can be made free, "use it rather". A private, or common soldier, sells himself for a period of time and cannot get free, but an officer can get free if he likes. I only refer to this because sometimes we hear, "I cannot get free". No: because you do not like to obtain your freedom at a great sacrifice.

The first thing, and it is of paramount importance, is, that you are Christ's slave, you are bought with a price; as I have said, even your children do not belong to you. You should be glad that you are a slave, because He is such a wonderful Master.

• I see where believers fail. They do not start with the fact, that they have a Master who has a full right over their whole life. It is not what you think you can spare Him, this or that.

• If you are honestly and fairly in His hands as His slave, you may be quite certain He will take much better care of you than you could take of yourself. In fact, as far as we can gather from Scripture, a saint does not suffer from want of food and clothing, except for service or chastening.

As another has said, I never knew of anyone who was cast wholly on the Lord, reduced to actual want, except one who lived on nettles for three days, and he had been in prison for the Lord's service.

• He added, You are hardly up to that yet; that is, we are not sufficiently devoted to be allowed to suffer the greater privations.
  • Paul said, "In hunger and thirst", "in cold and nakedness".

• Well then, you start with the great fundamental principle, you are Christ's slave, bought with a price; and if you are an honest man you will carry it out in everything. People talk of fidelity, but do they begin with fidelity to Christ? If you are virtuous,
  • "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her".

• If you are not right with Christ, be sure you are feeble elsewhere, and all the way down. If you are not right at the top, how can you be right anywhere else? How can you expect a child not straight to his father and mother, to be straight to his brothers and sisters? to be straight to you? It could not be.

But is that all? No; He looks for you to be a trusty servant.

• "The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her".

• Can there be anything more beautiful? Thus Abraham was called the friend of God. I know Christ is my friend; thank God, He is: but I often wish I could say, I knew I was His friend more definitely.
  • "Henceforth", the Lord says, "I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you".

• He does not surrender His claim by giving the servant a higher position. Service, then, is established in righteousness.

Now turn to Romans 12, and you will see another thing. Thank God, I was led in anywise to think of serving the Lord. The first thing that attracted my heart from my very youth was that I must serve the Lord.

• I know very well how I have neglected it, and wavered from it; but the Lord never lets slip from you a real purpose of your heart; no matter how many years you may be, as it were, unattached, still He keeps it in mind, and as sure as possible, it will come, and this is an immense comfort to one's heart.

• Now in Romans 12 what do you find? That your body is to be a living sacrifice. Why? Look at the end of chapter 6. The old man, the flesh, is dispossessed. And who dispossessed him? Christ. And what then?
  • "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions" [mercies] "of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice".

• It is your reasonable service, it is not a legal service. The body is the Lord's. I say, if you do not believe this, you will never understand service.

But now I turn to another point, one of immense importance – where am I to begin? Here I am a servant; I know I am a slave of Christ, I know my body is His, and I see that for myself I must forsake all that I have, and I say, Now where am I to begin?

• Well, it is of immense importance where you begin. I know very well if I look round at Christendom where they begin, and I know where the tendency of all our hearts is to begin.

• I thought in my younger days, that there was no way of serving the Lord but by being a clergyman, that I must go into the church, as the saying is. Now that is a right idea in itself, though I do not say it is rightly carried out.

• Some of you may wonder why I say that going into the church was a right idea, but if you read these verses, 4-5, they will explain it to you.

Where do you begin then? With the body of Christ.

• "For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another".

• You must begin there, begin at the top. You say, But I am Christ's servant. Yes, but you are a member of His body. We are speaking now, of what I may call the internal machinery – the works of a clock – that is, the organisation of the body which produces a result that is seen in the house.

• Just like the wise woman in Proverbs 31. If the woman went on wisely, the house was a beautiful exhibition of her ability – a great testimony. Consequently her husband was known in the gates. I do not dwell more upon this, still it is a great point to get hold of this fourth verse; I begin with the body, but I extend beyond it,
  • "Do good unto all men, especially unto them that are of the household of faith".

• But you begin with the body, and it is a great thing to begin right. Every good gift is from above, and comes down. I do not, now, go any further than Romans, and I am speaking of where service begins.

But now turn to Ephesians 4, and I come to another point in connection with service. Here, again, I find what the beginning is connected with – the assembly; the first thing is to walk worthy of the vocation. I am called to

• "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace";

• that is the first thing. I hope I shall be able to make it clearer to you presently, that if you are in association with Christ, in His presence in the midst of His own, you will get light as to that which is nearest to His heart; but I say this with reference to service – as of one coming out from His presence to reflect Him here.

• The first service is, "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace". Or to take the figure of Proverbs 31, the wise woman must be in health, or she will never keep things in order. I do everything to contribute to her health, and that is "endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace".

Now I come to gifts for service, which Ephesians unfolds. In Romans we get more our responsibility than special gifts, that which is common to every one,

• "showing mercy with cheerfulness".

• There is not one in this room who could not practise that grace. Picking up a little child out of the gutter would be "showing mercy with cheerfulness".

• To prophesy is the first, and you might say the highest; but I would rather have the last without the first, than the first without the last; it would be a poor thing to be a prophet and not to show mercy with cheerfulness; and what makes it so beautiful is, that it is a service within the reach of everybody, even a child. A child with only one penny may go and give it to a needy person, and show mercy with cheerfulness.

• But in Ephesians I come to special gifts, and verse 12 shows what they are for:
  • "for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ".

• In Christendom they separate between the servant and the church, instead of making the church the actual common object of the servant.

• Here if I am an evangelist, I am working for the assembly as much as the teacher, but in another way. All have to do with the Lord, the Head, but they conspire to this one great end
  • "the perfecting of the saints".

  • As the apostle says, "I endure all things for the elect's sake"

• – they are prominent. If I am an evangelist, what am I looking for? I am searching the world round – sweeping the house diligently to find the silver piece, and not merely in order to find it, but when I have found it, to put it with the other nine. But how can you, if you do not know where the other nine are? But that is exactly what happens in Christendom, they do not know where they are.

• But in Matthew 13, what do I find? that those who drew the net also selected the fish, and put the good into vessels; that is not in heaven, but on earth.
  • As Paul said, "I have planted".

Here in Ephesians 4, the great point is, That special gifts are given from the Head, and not merely the service which is the duty of every man, as you get in 1 Corinthians 12,

• "The manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal".

• It is not given for yourself, it is given for the benefit of all; as lower down in this chapter, in verse 16,
  • "compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part".

• If you are not acting in the Spirit, you are damaging the whole assembly; you may think the loss is only to yourself individually, but you are not an individual sufferer, you are making me suffer; I do not know how, but I am suffering from you because we are members of the one body.

In connection with special gifts, it is an interesting question, though I cannot say much upon it, when a person gets a gift. I do not think that it is necessarily at conversion.

• We know gifts were given after conversion. The apostle Paul was to be a minister and a witness of the things he had seen. His gift increased.

• But I want to bring before you that as the gift comes from Christ, it is not simply that you have the gift, but you must learn from Him the proper sphere for that gift; it must be in relation to Him.

• For instance, I take one whom we all speak of with honour, I mean Luther; I do not think, great as his gift was, that he was with the Lord in the midst of His own, that he knew Him there, so as to use his gift in relation to Christ's chief interest on earth.

• In fact, in one sense, no one does unless he is in association with Him. It is only there I can get true direction; how can I get it outside? I require to be in communion with my Lord in His circle of interest, if I would be directed and influenced by Him.

• I have no doubt there is a great deal more gift than is in exercise; but if you present your body a living sacrifice, your gift will come out. Many a one is hindered by other things which monopolise him instead of Christ, and the gift does not come out.

• The gift is from Christ, and if you are not upright to Christ, to whom will you be upright? If you are not faithful to God, I could not believe that you are faithful to anybody; and I have seen it over and over again amongst Christians.

One passage of scripture is enough to settle the matter. I will quote now the Lord's words in John 20.

• "As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you".

• They were sent out from that place. And I have a wonderful sense if I am working from the Head, of the circle of His interest; and it is His interest I seek.

• If I am an evangelist, well, I have my gift from Christ, and I find He has sent me for the assembly, though my work is to seek for lost souls in the world. I go for Christ, as an ambassador for Christ. Do you think that makes you a worse evangelist? No. I claim souls for Christ, I come from Christ

• I have my commission from Christ, and there is no place I get so established as to my gift as in the assembly. And I do not doubt at all that many a gifted person is not established in the Lord's presence.

• The case of Moses will illustrate my meaning. No doubt he knew he was called of God, but when did he come out in power, in the real sense that he was to act for God? Not till he saw the burning bush. And I believe that was what I may call his ordination; that is, that he got a peculiar knowledge of the Lord in that burning bush, and of His grace.

• This grace was to mark his ministry all the way through; and therefore the greatest blessing he could give, which he gave to Joseph, was
  • "the blessing of him that dwelt in the bush".

It was the same with Isaiah; but I put it to anyone who really understands that he has received anything from the Lord – where did you get that confirmed? Where did you get His mind about it? You must be in the Lord's presence, in His own circle, to apprehend His mind respecting your gift, because it is given

• "for the perfecting of the saints".

• It is not given for people to say, That man is a great preacher, not at all. You are Christ's servant, and you are appointed to the sphere of the service, as well as to the object of it. And what is the object? The perfecting of the saints.

• An evangelist? Yes; how could they be perfected if they were not converted? Then an evangelist is a very responsible person. Yes. Hence Paul, the one who had the greatest interest in the assembly, was the greatest evangelist that ever was upon this earth.

• Do not imagine they clash; they ought not; when they clash, it is because you are separating what God has joined together. And that is where Christendom is astray. The evangelical work is paramount, for results are looked for. You are not living by faith when you are dependent on results.

• The first temptation – see Luke 4 – is, use your means; act independently of God.

• The second is, accept a slice of the world.

• Then if you have any conscience you will want results before men, some evidence that God is on your behalf. If I have faith in God I do not want any evidence. If you depart from faith you will become worldly, and then you will seek results in order to prove that God is working with you.

Next I look at Acts 13: 2. Here you find Saul and Barnabas in the assembly.

• "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them".

• This occurred in the assembly. I have no doubt that we have failed here much. We have too little connected the assembly with service. I am quite certain the better we understand the Lord in the midst of His assembly, the better we shall understand the character of the service we should render, and the time for it.

• It is in the assembly I see Him in His own circle, in the things which belong to Him, and there it is I understand my proper relation to Him.

I lay a stress upon it. Here are these men, Barnabas and Saul, highly gifted, but where did they get a right direction for their service? In the assembly. The Holy Spirit is the Person who is acting for Christ, and the Holy Spirit is the only means by which the communication can be made. He says,

• "Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them".

• A passage I will not leave out in this connection is 1 Timothy 4: 14:
  • "Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery".

• The presbytery means the elders. It was as much as saying, We all go with you. I desire to get your heart into the sense that if I want to get right direction from the Lord, it is in the assembly I am to get it.

• It is not a question of gift. I get the gift absolutely from the Lord, but He directs me in relation to His own. I do not think we understand the assembly, and the presence of the Lord sufficiently. The presence of the Lord now introduces us into the holiest.
  • "I went into the sanctuary of God"

• does not mean His presence in your own room; the antitype of that is the assembly. I do not think we have a sufficient idea of the wonderful nature of the assembly. I meet the Lord in the midst of His own; I never have His presence in the same way in my own room as in the assembly. The truth I have learned in my own room, comes out in a much fuller way in the assembly.

The next thing I would speak of is, How do I know the right thing to do? That is a very crucial question with every one, and ought to be – indeed there is never progress where there is not exercise, and the more exercise the better.

• I am the Lord's servant; I desire to know the right thing to do. I turn to the end of Luke 10, a familiar passage, about Martha and Mary. The question is, Is it the opportunity that is to direct me as to my service? or, is it the Lord who is to direct me? I know you will say the Lord.

• Here are Martha and Mary, two sisters, and Martha says, a great Guest has come to the house, the occasion indicates to me that I should provide for Him. Well, she is cumbered about much serving, and that is always the case when I am occupied about my own line of things. It was the human idea; and there is nothing we suffer from more than from the human idea.

• Mary sits at the Lord's feet and hears His word, and the Lord says of her:
  • "One thing is needful, and Mary has chosen that good part".

• Not "better part", which is the popular way of reading it, and shows how little it is understood. She had chosen that good part, the right thing; she is learning the mind of the Lord. And I do not see how you can have a right idea of what the Lord would like, if you are not in His company.

• It is not looking for a text. No doubt the Lord meets the faith of the child in this way. But you cannot know His mind unless you are beside Him. As I am sitting at His feet, listening to His word, I get wisdom from Him and I come from Him.

• It is not the occasion that directs you, if you are really with the Lord, He will lead you aright. It is a wonderful thing – here am I left in the scene of the man who does not understand one thing about God, and I have to carry out everything according to God!

• If I were quite clear of the man contrary to God, there would not be the difficulty; but my thwarted will is constantly going out or popping up to do this or that. No; it was not direction with Martha, and Martha's way is the way generally service is done.
  • "One thing is needful".

• What was needful? She studies Me.

We all know what it is to be exercised about service – shall I go and visit this person? shall I do this or that? Surely it is not right to be indolent, but activity in itself is nothing.

• "The way of the righteous shall be made plain";

• it does not say, 'the way of the active'; but there is a great difference between the way of the righteous and the way of the slothful.

• Saints in general are occupied with the occasion. I desire to press that it is not the occasion which is to direct me; it is the Lord. I consult Him. It is a great thing to be able to stand waiting for orders.

• What greater favour can there be than to be employed by the Lord? The servants of the crown are the highest men in the country; what can be greater than to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ? And I have no doubt the Lord would rather I did some little thing in concert with Him than do some of the finest works done today apart from Him.

Next, and it is a very cheering thing and I often feel it a great comfort, that the very highest service is that which is most pleasing to the one who loves Christ.

• "If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am there shall also my servant be".

• Can there be anything more attractive? Everyone can understand what it is to be a friend, though you are a servant.
  • Numbers 18: 2: "And thy brethren also of the tribe of Levi, the tribe of thy father, bring thou with thee, that they may be joined unto thee, and minister unto thee: but thou and thy sons with thee shall minister before the tabernacle of witness".

• Every one of us is a Levite as well as a priest. We are priests, but the priest is inside with God; and it is remarkable that when the priests were consecrated, there is not a word about anything outside: it is all inside with God; I was very much struck with this.

• What is the priest when he comes out? The Levite; and the Levite had plenty to do. See the Kohathite, and what the range of his service was – from the ark of the covenant to the altar outside. He could not say he took up one part and left the other.

• The Levites had the pins and the bars, the boards and all the rest; they had to get material agency to come in and carry them, but they all had a service and were joined with the priests. I bring this in to show that your Levitical service ought to answer to your priestly service; you ought to come from communion, you ought to come outside from inside.

I look now at another subject, and that is, the moral influence of the person who serves. Luke 11: 36:

• "If thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright shining of a candle doth give thee light".

• You are called to be lights in the world. The servant must be a reflection of the truth he presents. Someone has remarked, If you have not a good report, even of those who are without you cannot stand up boldly where you are defective. That is the practical meaning of the breastplate of righteousness.

• People could say to Peter, You denied the Lord. Yes; but I am not doing it now; I have on the breastplate of righteousness. And you cannot stand boldly otherwise.

• It is an immense thing for a servant to be in himself morally descriptive of what he presents. You get this presented by the apostle in the Philippians.
  • "Those things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me, do".

• It was not only what they had heard, but what they had seen. I cannot think of anything more beautiful. Thus there is a moral weight about a person, he is characteristic of what he presents.

It is beautifully set forth in Peter's epistle – even an ungodly husband can be won by the chaste conversation of the wife.

• No doubt we should have a great deal more effect upon people, our families, and so forth, if there were more of the moral weight of divine grace about us; that is, in our manner of life. Paul says to Timothy, 1 Timothy 4: 12,
  • "Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in faith, in purity".

• He was to be an example. See how Christendom takes it up; Christendom enjoins upon a person a certain dress to show the sacredness of his office. Why should I not have that morally? Why should I not have that divine weight about me, that I should not require a mere external garb to command respect?

The next thing I turn to is the manner you ought to have to those whom you serve – a manner which I think is very much neglected. It is not only what you are in yourself, but what you are to those you serve.

• There is a greater thing than gift, and that is love – it is the nature of Christ.
  • "Yet show I unto you a more excellent way", 1 Corinthians 12: 31.

• I see very often, a person who has not much gift, but who has love, that he surpasses the more gifted in service. Everyone may have love. I visit a sick person, and I feel that five minutes is as much as that person can bear.

• I do not think of myself at all and all that I could say; I might pour out a volume, but I am thinking of him. It is a consideration for him, I am losing sight of myself. Read 1 Thessalonians 2: 3-8
  • "For our exhortation was not of deceit, nor of uncleanness, nor in guile: but as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the gospel, even so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts.

    "For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye know, nor a cloke of covetousness; God is witness: nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome, as the apostles of Christ.

    "But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children: so being affectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye were dear unto us".

• See what a servant Paul was. Again, 2 Thessalonians 3: 7
  • "For yourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not ourselves disorderly among you".

There is another quality of the servant that I will bring before you, that I may show you the apostle's character. It sums up the character of a servant. 2 Corinthians 12: 15:

• "I will gladly spend and be spent for you".

• That is the right principle; that gives you the character. The only other point I will bring before you tonight is the reward for service. Turn to 1 sJohn 2: 28 .
  • "And not be ashamed before him at his coming".

• That was as the servant in relation to them; it was not that they would be ashamed. It is the same idea as that of the apostle Paul:
  • "My joy and crown".

  • "Ye are our glory and joy".

It is a very solemn subject, because if I am not acting with the Lord, my service is cumbering, and will not count at all.

• "The fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is".

• "For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ; that everyone may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad".

There is only one verse more that I will quote: 2 John 8,

• "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward".

• That is, there should be no lack.

I need not add more, but I commend to you the scripture I began with. It is a wonderful blessing to walk in thorough devotedness to Christ's interest.

• The virtuous woman had only one thought, and the heart of her husband did safely trust in her. She was thinking entirely of his interests, and whether she sought her food from afar, or bought a field, or whatever she did, it was all for this purpose, and therefore it was, that her husband was known in the gates.

• She sought wool and flax, and worked willingly with her hands. She began with the raw material, then she spun and wove it, and finally sold it to the merchants.

• And the characteristic of her own manner of life was beautiful, her clothing was strength and honour, and the way in which she spoke was a wonderful mark of wisdom:
  • "She openeth her mouth with wisdom";

• that shows her heart is full of it.
  • "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh".

• Very often we say, a wise person closes his mouth with wisdom, or he may say a wise thing before he shuts it; but it is a great thing to hear a person open his mouth with wisdom.

The Lord lead our hearts to understand how blessed it is to belong to Him. We do belong to the Lord; He has His interests on the earth, and we are to be occupied with His interests, and may He use us for His interests, for His name's sake.