Lectures on the Second Coming of Christ
Ministry by J. N. Darby
– Part Four

G.A.R.

We shall find, too, that the teaching of Scripture as to Christ's second coming casts wonderful light on the value of His first coming.

• For His second coming, as it concerns the saints, is to complete as regards their bodies – so bringing them into the full result of salvation – that work of life-giving power Christ has already wrought in their souls, founded on the complete title in righteousness which He has effected for them on the cross.

• He comes to receive them to Himself, that where He is there they may be also – to change their vile bodies and fashion them like His glorious body.

• For the saints the resurrection is a resurrection of life, not of judgment. It is a raising in glory, or changing into it by the Lord's power, those that are already quickened and justified.

• When people, Christian people too, are looking for judgment, and saying with Martha,
  • "I know he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day",

• they forget the judgment of the quick – that then is the judgment of this world. They are to be all caught eating and drinking.
  • "Sudden destruction cometh upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape".

• People do not like that. They put off God's judgment to a vague and indefinite period, when they hope all will be well. They think that then will be decided their final state, they trust, for blessing.

• There is surely a judgment; but all their thoughts about it are a mistake. The matter is decided now:
  • "He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already".

If we receive the statements of Scripture, all is as simple as possible: that the first coming of Christ to do His Father's will was so complete in its efficacy that they who belong to that first coming,

• who have part in its efficacy by faith, are forgiven, cleansed, justified, by its virtue; and that when He comes the second time, He comes to bring them to glory.

• The moment I get hold of the truth that the coming is, for believers, to receive them to Himself, the moment I see that His coming the second time is to bring in the glory – to change us into His own likeness and to have us with Him, it affects everything, instead of being an unimportant thing.

I believe death is the most blessed thing that can happen to a Christian; but it is not the thing I am looking for. I am looking to see Him.

• He might come to-morrow, or tonight, or now. Do you not think it would spoil all your plans? Suppose you thought He might come, would it not make a difference in your thoughts? You know it would.

• Suppose a wife expects her husband to return from a journey, do you not think there would be an effort to have everything ready?

Another thing I have found to be specially blessed is, that it connects me with Christ so nearly that I do not think merely of going to heaven and being happy – a vague thought this.

• Of course, I shall be perfectly happy: surely we shall. The divine presence will shed sure and endless blessing around.

• But one is coming whom I know, who loves me, who has given Himself for me, whom I have learned to love: and I shall be with Him for ever. Christ becomes personally more in view, more the object of our thoughts.

• Nothing is so powerful as Scripture for everything. It deals with the soul in the power of divine light. It reveals Christ, bringing the heart's judgment into His presence. It convicts every thought of the heart, shewing what it is in truth.

There are three ways in which Christ is pointed to in Scripture: on the cross at His first coming; He is sitting on the right hand of God; and He is coming again.

1. In the first, He has laid the foundation of that which I have in Him: the foundation was on the cross.

2. And now that He is sitting on the right hand of God, He has sent us the Holy Ghost the Comforter while awaiting His return, giving to those in whom He dwells the full certainty of faith as to the efficacy of His work and their own redemption.

3. God's love and their own adoption thus lead them to desire with ardent hope His coming again.

Having thus given a general idea of the place Christ's coming holds in Scripture, I will take a few passages in different parts of the word, without going fully into them now,

• to shew that it is the great truth of Scripture hope, and that all the thoughts, feelings, hopes, interests of God's children are connected with it –

• that not only it is not a false idea, but that it is not rare or strange, but enters into the whole structure of Christian feeling.

Thus 1 Thessalonians 1: 9, 10, "For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come".

• Here we find that the world was talking about this expectation of the Christians: so sure was their expectation and so strong the influence which it exercised on their conduct.

• They – the disciples – were looking for God's Son from heaven; it formed a part of that to which the heathen were converted – to the present waiting for God's Son from heaven – so that the world took notice of it.
  • In chapter 2: 18-19, "For what is our hope, our joy, or crown of rejoicing?"

• Most beautiful here to see the affection of Paul for the saints; but to what did his heart look as the time when these affections would be satisfied in their blessing? The coming of Christ.

• Again, as regards holiness, we see exactly the same thing in chapter 3: 12-13,
  • "And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you: to the end he may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints".

• The coming of Christ – and His coming with all the saints, so that it can confer but one thing – was so near to his spirit that he looks at their being found perfect then as the object his heart desired.
  • And in chapter 4: 13-18, "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him.

  • " For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. 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".

We find that, instead of the Lord's coming being a strange doctrine, while he could not look for the Christian's dying without his going to heaven, yet the comfort he gives is not that, but their return with Jesus.

• Death did not deprive them of this; God would have them with Him.

• First note, beloved friends, the full assurance expressed here for living and dead saints alike. How do people persist in saying it is impossible to tell on this side the grave? The apostle does tell for both.

• The first coming of Christ has so finished redemption and the putting away of sin, that His second is glory and being with Him, for the dead and living saints.

• But see how present the coming of the Lord was to their minds. If I were to comfort the friends of a departed saint by saying that God would bring him with Jesus when He came again, what would they think of me? That I was mad or wild.

• Yet such is the comfort Paul gives to the Thessalonians, and no other, though he plainly teaches elsewhere that the soul of the saint will go to be with Christ when he dies.

But these examples shew how the coming of the Lord mixed itself with every thought and feeling of Christianity then. So in his wish for Christians in chapter 5: 23,

• "The very God of peace sanctify you wholly, and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ".

• But the world rejects this news, and the church becomes worldly – has lost her value for it. Not so the first disciples: their hearts were attached to their Master; and they desired to see Him to be like Him. They waited as a present condition of soul for God's Son from heaven.

• I have gone through these passages, not merely to prove the doctrine, but to shew the way in which it connected itself with the whole of the Christian's life.

We will turn back now to see the universal testimony of Scripture to the truth of this doctrine and the various aspects it takes; and first Matthew 24: 30-31,

• "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

• "And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet; and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other".

• When the disciples ask Him the time when these things are to be, He tells them to watch; and in verse 44,
  • "Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh".

• But the Lord goes farther in the following parables, which apply to Christians. The mark of the evil servant given there is that
  • he says in his heart "my lord delayeth his coming".

• and thereupon begins to eat and drink with the drunken. They lost the expectation of Christ and sank down into hierarchical power and into the world, into comfort and pleasure.

• But the Bridegroom did tarry, and the church lost the present expectation of Christ and the blessed fruit of it on their souls.
  • Matthew 25: 1, "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps and went forth to meet the Bridegroom".

• There is the essence of the church's calling. They went forth, but while the Bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept – saints as well as professors, no exception. They all lost the sense of what they had gone out to, and gave up watching. And what is it that aroused them from the sleepy state into which they had fallen?
  • "And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the Bridegroom cometh: go ye out to meet him", verse 6.

• They had to be called out again; they had got into the world, into some place to sleep more comfortably – just where the professing church is now – eating and drinking with the drunken, and the cry is, I trust, again going forth,
  • "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh".

• And what made the church depart from the sense of what they had been called out to was, saying – just what people, and Christian people too, are saying now – 'The Lord delayeth his coming'. They do not say He will not come, but He delays it; we are not to expect Him.

I will pass over Mark, not that there are not plenty of passages there, but that what we find there is substantially the same as what we find in Matthew. I will go on therefore to Luke 12: 35-38,

• "Let your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning; and ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

• "Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching; verily, I say unto you, that he shall gird himself and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants".

• Remark here that the waiting for the coming of Christ is what characterises the Christian according to the mind of Christ. Men speak of death, but death is not "my lord".

We find the same truth pressed on men in Luke – chapter 17: 22-37 – where this passage does not warn people as to sin, but as to the unholy thought that the world may go on indefinitely.

• As soon as Noah entered into the ark, the flood came and destroyed them all. As soon as the church is taken up, Satan having filled men's hearts with lies, judgment will come. And as in the days of Noah and of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, planted and builded, even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

• Remark here how impossible it is to apply this to the great white throne. When He sits on the great white throne, the heavens and the earth flee away; there is a total destruction of everything. Men will not then be eating, drinking, planting, building.

• Now look at chapter 21: 26-36. People apply this to the destruction of Jerusalem, but this is spoken of in verses 20-21 of this chapter:
  • "Then let them which are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto".

• But then, after that, Jerusalem is trodden down of the Gentiles till the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled – the time running on now till the last beast's wickedness is filled up). Then come the signs and the Son of man is revealed.

John 14: 1-3. "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 and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also".

• Such is the promise left us, the comfort Christ gave to His disciples when He was leaving them: He comes to receive them to Himself.

Acts 1: 10-11. "And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven".

• This too, though it be Christ coming in the clouds, is not the great white throne: but it is striking here that they are losing Christ; and what is the angel's word to them? Why are ye looking up into heaven? He will come again in the same way.

• What the angels brought before them, to comfort them, when Jesus left them, was that He would come again; and that to which Scripture points people's hearts to comfort and strengthen them is, that He is coming again.

It is appointed unto men once to die, and after that the judgment. That is the allotted portion of the seed of the first Adam;

• but as that is man's portion, so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and to them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation; Hebrews 9: 27-28

And Christ is waiting only till the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. We are not even all to die. We shall not all die; 1 Corinthians 15: 51. Romans 11: 25:

• "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part has happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in".

• When the church is formed, its last member being brought in; when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, Israel will be saved as a nation, and the Deliverer come out of Zion. Christ will appear for their deliverance.

Again, turn to 1 Corinthians 1: 6-7. "Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that ye come behind in no gift: waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ".

• All the promises of the prophets will be fulfilled at that coming.

Turn back to Acts 3: 19-21. "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when" [read "so that"] "the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began" –

• as had been before preached to them; but it is the same Jesus that had been spoken of to them. We cannot apply it to the Holy Ghost; for it was the Holy Ghost then come down who spoke by Peter and declared that He should come whom the heavens had then received.

In Acts 17: 30-31, the apostle is testifying that though God winked at the times of their ignorance, He now commandeth all men everywhere to repent: because He hath appointed a day in the which He will judge the world – i.e., this habitable earth – in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained, whereof He hath given assurance unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.

The distinctive resurrection of the saints will be at His coming. 1 Corinthians 15: 23.

• "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming".

Ephesians and Galatians are the only two books in the New Testament in which you do not find the coming of the Lord.

• The Galatians had got off the foundation of faith – absolute justification by faith in Christ; and Paul was obliged to return to the first principles of justification.

• The epistle to the Ephesians takes the opposite extreme, and you see the church in Christ in heaven, so that it cannot speak of Christ coming to receive it. It is viewed as now united to Him there.

• But we shall find constant reference to it in the other epistles that it is a point kept before the mind for present practical effect.

Philippians 3: 19-21. "Whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things. For our conversation is in heaven, from when also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself".

Colossians 3: 1-4. "If ye then be risen with Christ, 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. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory".

In the Thessalonians it is the main subject of both epistles. In the first epistle, except the warning in chapter 5, it is the blessedness of it to the saints; in the second epistle, the judicial character, though the glory of the saints is included in it – for when He executes judgment on the living, we shall appear with Him in glory.

1 Timothy 6: 14. "That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ".

• he apostle exhorts Timothy to go on diligently and faithfully looking for the appearing.

• When the word of God is speaking of joy to the saints, it is the coming. The moment he speaks of responsibility to the world or to the saints, it is always His appearing.

• What would have been the use of his saying to Timothy to keep the commandment until His appearing, if it were not practically a present expectation? and then, how mighty its power on the conscience – not the very highest motive, but one we need!

• And if through grace the Lord has delayed His coming, not willing that any should perish, those who have acted on that expectation will have lost no fruit of their fidelity: it will find its recompense in that day.

2 Timothy 4: 8. "Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing".

• "Love!" – do you love, can you love, that which will put a stop to everything that is pleasant in the world? it asks the heart. How does this mark a spirit entirely in contrast with that of the world!

Hebrews 2: 5, 6. "For unto the angels hath he not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak. But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him?"

• The world to come is the habitable earth. Christ is now at God's right hand till God puts all things under His feet.
  • In chapter 9: 24, "For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us".

• There was a state of probation before man was turned out of paradise. Since then man has indeed been tried up to the death of Christ, whether law or prophets or the mission of God's Son could win him back, but in vain.

• What man finds out now is, that he is lost; but then, that when man's sin was complete, God's work began, and redemption is by the cross on which man crucified the Lord. Sin was complete then: but He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.

• That work is completed, and those who through grace believe and have part in it await the same Saviour to come again for their final deliverance.

James 5: 8. "Be ye also patient: stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh".

• Here again we see how it is presented as a present motive for patience and to be looked for in daily life as sustaining the soul in patience, yet as that which was to change the whole state of the world.

In 1 Peter we have a remarkable testimony to the order of God's ways in this respect.

• First are the prophets, who learned, in studying their own prophecies, that what they testified was not to be fulfilled in their day.

• Next is the gospel, but this not the fulfilment: in it the things are reported with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven. The saints are called on to be sober and hope to the end for the grace to be brought to them at the appearing of Jesus Christ,
  • "whom, having not seen, we love".

• The time of the saints' receiving the promise is the appearing of Christ; 1 Peter 1: 10-13.

In 2 Peter you may remark that he makes the slighting this promise, the calling it in question because the world was going on as it had, to be the sign of the scoffers of the last days.

In 1 John it is mentioned in chapter 2: 28 for the conscience as ground of warning, but in chapter 3: 1-3 we have it amply used for the heart and walk of the saints. Now are we sons of God.

• "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 everyone that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure".

• Our blessed and assured hope is to be like Christ Himself: this we shall be when He appears. The present effect of this special hope is that the saint purifies himself even as He is pure, seeks to be as like Him now as possible, takes his part with Himself at His appearing as his motive and standard of walk.

Jude 14. "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints".

• The epistle is striking in this; it shews the decline of the church – the false brethren coming in unawares, who in character designated the state of the professing church in the last days and the object of the judgment of the Lord when He would appear.

The whole book of Revelation refers to this; it is an account of the preparatory judgment of God on to chapter 19, when the Lord comes forth to execute judgment.

The way in which God has dealt with us, beloved friends, is this – He has brought us completely to Himself, having respect to the whole value of Christ's work; and, in doing that, He has given us a place with Christ.

• He makes us like Christ; and, having thus made us near to Himself, He then unfolds to us all His plans. It is not merely being made safe, but, being brought as children to God:
  • "all things are yours, and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's".

• But then, having done this, He treats you – as His expression is to Abraham, and as Christ's expression is to His disciples – as friends.
  • The Lord says, "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?"

• And what He then told him was not merely that he personally was in His favour – that He told him long before. He does not merely shew him the promises which belonged to him and his seed:
  • but He told him too what concerned the world, and did not immediately concern himself. This was the special mark of friendship.

If I am dealing with a man with whom I am on good terms, but not on terms of friendship, I tell him whatever is needed with regard to the business between us, according to the common courtesies of life; and there it ends.

• But if I have a friend, I tell him what is in my heart. This is what God does with His children – as Christ said to His disciples,
  • "Henceforth 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".

And there is not a greater proof of the extent to which the church has lost its conscious identity with Christ, than its giving up its expectation of the coming of Christ.

• And why is that, but because there are so many whose hearts do not enter into this thought, that God has brought them so near to Himself that they are considered as having been taken into His family?

• "Sons and daughters", the expression is, and sons and daughters too of full age. That was not their position under the law.
  • Therefore it is said that "the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant though he be lord of all.

  • "But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

  • "And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba Father".

• And, because you have the Spirit, because you have an unction from the Holy One, you know all things, having the consciousness of being sons of God, sons of full age, so as to possess the confidence of the Father.

And the same Spirit, who is the Spirit of adoption, unfolds to us all the things which are freely given to us of God.

• "It is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him".

• And there people generally stop; whereas the apostle goes on to say, in order to shew the difference between that and our state,
  • "But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God …

  • "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God; that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God", 1 Corinthians 2: 9-12.

• Now is it not a strange things that people should quote that passage which declares that man's heart hath not conceived the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him, and should pass over the declaration which follows, and which contrasts the position of Christians, saying God had revealed them unto them, and given them the Spirit to enable them to understand them?

• And is it not a sorrowful thing, when the Lord hath put us in such a place that He confides to us – poor creatures as we are – in a certain sense the glory of Christ, having confided to us all His thoughts about Christ, that we should say, 'Oh! we cannot pretend to such things as that?'

• I will not say it is ingratitude – it is worse; it is dishonouring the love God has shewn to us.

• Suppose a child were to say, 'I do not pretend to the confidence of my father; I do not want that; I am simply willing to obey him'. I would say to such a one, 'You are a very unhappy child, extremely unhappy; you do not know what a child's place is'.

• It is just that which the apostle brings out in this chapter. He first speaks – although I do not dwell upon that now; not that it is not precious: I thought, while reading, how sweet it was – in the early part of the chapter, of the place in which we are set before God –
  • "that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,

  • "to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved; in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins".

• You are brought into God's likeness of righteousness and holiness before God –
  • "holy and without blame before him in love".

• You are brought into the place of sons, having the adoption of children, and you have got the forgiveness of your sins and are accepted in the beloved Himself.

• That is the place you are brought into: there is no other place for a Christian. And now, says the Lord, having put you there, I am going to tell you what my plan is for Christ's glory and your glory along with Him.
  • He says, "Wherein" – that is, "in the riches of his grace" – "he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

  • "having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself; that in the dispensation of the fulness of times"

• – He hath not only given us this redemption, so that we know where we are in our relationship to God, but, being in this relationship, has shewn us all this of His plan –
  • "that in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth, even in him".

• Mark where we are connected with it,
  • "in whom also we have obtained an inheritance".

• We are heirs, as the apostle says to the Romans –
  • "heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ".

• That is, God says, I am going to give all to Christ; I am to gather together in one all things which are in heaven and on earth in Him; and with Him you are joint-heirs – with Him you have got the inheritance.

• That is the way in which the chapter presents to us the purpose and thought of God.

Now just look at various passages which shew how He brings this about, and the way in which, beloved friends, He will take us to put us into the inheritance.

• For it is for this we are waiting. We are not waiting to be heirs, but we are waiting for the inheritance.

• We are not waiting to be sons – we are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus; but we are waiting to get what belongs to the sons. Poor earthen vessels that we are here, in the wilderness, we are waiting for that.
  • He has given us "the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory".

• That is, the glory of His grace we have got – the redemption; but the glory we have not got – this we are waiting for.

Such is the order of his prayer withal: our calling, our nearness to God; our inheritance, that is, everything of which we are heirs along with Christ; and, then, there is the power which brings us into it.

• That is, the very same power which raised Christ from the dead has raised every believer out of his state of death in sin to the same place with Christ. And, having brought them into one, at the end he shews us the place to which Christ is raised –
  • "at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come;

  • and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all".

This enables us to see a little of the way in which God accomplishes His plan; and it was to shew what that plan is that I read this chapter –

• "That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth" – under Christ as the Head.

• But when Christ takes this place as man – of course as God He is over all always; but when He takes this place as man – we take the inheritance along with Him. We are joint-heirs –
  • "in whom also we have obtained an inheritance".

• And, again in Romans,
  • "if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ".

Now the principle of that is what many Christians are sadly unmindful of, having lost the consciousness of the way in which they have been brought by God into the same place as Christ, who became a man on purpose to bring us into the same place with Himself.

• "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them".

• If He is a Son, so are we. He is our life, our righteousness; and we share His glory, the fruit of righteousness.

• When He was transfigured, Moses and Elias appeared in the same glory, talking familiarly with Him. And we should consider that the Lord has come down in lowliness and humiliation amongst us, that our hearts might get near enough to Him to understand that.

Having got the plan then, we shall now go through some passages of scripture to shew how the Lord brings it about.

• If you will turn to Psalm 2, you will see the way in which the Lord was first presented on earth to have the earthly dominion, and was rejected:* we shall see immediately how the two things are connected.
  [* The words are quoted in the New Testament, but do not give our portion of the inheritance at all.]

  • "Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his anointed".

• This is quoted by Peter with reference to Herod and Pilate, etc.
  • "He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision".

• That is, Christ Himself shall have them in derision.
  • "Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath, and vex them in his sore displeasure".

• This is not come yet.
  • "Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion" – in spite of all this rejection –

  • "I will declare the decree: the Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel".

• These judgments, of course, are not come yet.

And now, as confirmatory of what I have just said, let me ask you to turn to the book of Revelation, at the end of chapter 2 to shew the way in which we are connected with Christ.

• "He that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father".

• I refer to this now for the purpose of shewing that even in such things the saints are connected with Christ, although these, of course, are not the most blessed things in which they are connected with Him. It is said immediately afterwards,
  • "and I will give him the morning star"

• – Christ Himself; and this is infinitely more precious. But still He associates them with Himself in all His glory.

• He receives these heathen for His inheritance and breaks them in pieces; and so shall you with Him if you are faithful.

It is strange to see how the church of God has lost the sense of all things; and I refer to these passages to shew how the saints are associated with Christ, even with reference to those extreme cases.

• "Do ye not know", says Paul to the Corinthians, "that the saints shall judge the world?"

• He tells them just to think of that, and then to consider whether they were not worthy
  • "to judge the smallest matter"

• – speaking of saints going to law with one another. Are you not able, any of you, to settle the commonest things between yourselves?
  • "Know ye not that we shall judge angels?"

• It was necessary to tell them this, because they had not got hold of a right understanding of the place in which Christ has put the saints, because they did not see their association with Christ in all the fulness of its meaning.

• I have referred to this association with Christ in judgment, not at all because it is the most blessed part of it, but as confirmatory of what I have said about the association of the saints with Christ.

Observe that Psalm 2 speaks of Christ's coming and being rejected. Peter quotes it in that view, and Paul also the words,

• "Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee".

• And, being rejected, the Lord – that is, Christ – is there represented as laughing – which is, of course, a figure – at all the raging of the nations; and it is said that the time will come when He will sit in Zion in spite of them all, and have all the world given Him for His inheritance.

• This, however, does not present Him in the place in which the New Testament largely represents Him. Here He is only connected with the fate of the Jews, and the judgment of the heathen and rebels at the time of the end.

At His first coming, He was rejected as Christ, the Messiah the Anointed. And mark what light this throws even upon the gospel.

• We find Christ charging His disciples strictly that they should no more say He was the Christ, because He was to be rejected,
  • for "the Son of man", He says, "shall suffer many things".

• It was, as if He had said, 'I am not now to take my place as King of Zion. I come in another way. I come to be the suffering Son of man, in order that I may afterwards take a far higher place of glory'.

• You find accordingly, in Luke and the other gospels, that He strictly charges His disciples not to say that He was the Christ, because that was really over in consequence of His being rejected.

• Now take Psalm 8 –
  • "O Jehovah, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger".

• This, you know, was fulfilled when He rode upon the ass's colt into Jerusalem.
  • "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.

  • "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things under his feet".

• It is there intimated that, though as Christ He was rejected, the consequence of His being rejected was that He takes His place as Son of man, in which He was to have everything put under His feet. You will see how the apostle reasons on that in the New Testament.

These two Psalms shew His coming among the Jews and being rejected, and yet His taking His place over these rebels in spite of them at the end.

• But the present consequence of His rejection is that He takes the place – which He always gives Himself in the gospels – of being the Son of man.

• Coming to the New Testament, I have just read from the Ephesians,
  • "He hath put all things under his feet", and, being in that place, "gave him to be head over all things to the church, which is his body".

• The church is His body, making the complete man, and is therefore said to be
  • "the fulness of him that filleth all in all".

• Christ is a divine Person, though a man, and fills all things; but it is the church which makes Him as the Son of man complete – makes up what is called the mystical Christ, of which He is the Head, all the members of the church making up His body.

• The church, therefore, is as closely associated with Him as a man's own flesh is with himself. This is the comparison employed in Ephesians 5,
  • "No man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church; for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones".

• And in this body there being but one Spirit, the church is associated with Christ as taking the headship over everything.

• We see Christ, the Son of man, in the counsels of God set over everything in heaven and on earth; and we, as being close to Him, His redeemed ones, His brethren, joint-heirs, and members of His body, are completely identified with Him in His place of headship.

• You thus see the connection of the church with Christ's glory at His second coming.

You find the same thing in Hebrews 2, where the apostle, citing Psalm 8, shews how far it is accomplished.

• "But one, in a certain place, testified, saying, What is man that thou art mindful of him? or the Son of man that thou visitest him?

  "Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.

• "For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him".

• That time is not yet come.
  • "But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour".

• Mark what we have got here. Here is God's purpose of putting everything in subjection under Christ without any exception – there is nothing excepted that is not put under Him. In fact He created it all, and therefore is heir of it all.

• But the point is this, that what He created as God He takes for an inheritance as Man, in order that we might take it with Him; but that time is not come yet. We do not see all things put under Him; but we do see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour;
  • we see that half accomplished, but not the other half; we do not see all things put under Him.

• This is what the apostle states, and the reason of it we get in Psalm 110, which the apostle also quotes in the Hebrews, and to which the Lord Himself appealed in reasoning with the Pharisees on this very matter.
  • "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool".

• And therefore in Hebrews 10 the apostle says,
  • "He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified" – that is, the work of their redemption – "from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool",

• till they are all put under His feet by God. I shall have another opportunity of referring to that.

• But I am speaking now of the blessed assurance it is to the saints, that Christ is sitting at the right hand of God until – and expecting till – His enemies are made His footstool.
  • They are not made His footstool yet: if they were, He would not allow matters to go on in the world as they do now.

• It is another thing which God is doing now. He is gathering out His joint-heirs, and, having this purpose, He says, Sit thou at my right hand until the time when thine enemies shall be made thy footstool.

• As to the question when that time shall be
  • "Of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father".

• But it is said to the Son, Sit thou at my right hand till that time is revealed.

We have the plan then as clearly set forth as language can put it. We see Jesus, when He has by Himself purged our sins,

• "set on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens",

• and then by the gospel gathering out the joint-heirs.

• And we are associated with Him while He is there at the right hand of God – associated with Him as united to Him by the one Spirit.

If you will turn now to another passage, 1 Corinthians 15, you will see the way in which we get this place of glory at the resurrection, all things being under His feet.

• "As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming"

• – those that are His heirs, they and nobody else.
  • "Then cometh the end when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.

  • "For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. For he hath put all things under his feet.

  • "But when he saith, all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted which did put all things under him".

• That is, God the Father is not put under Him, but that very exception proves in the strongest way that everything else is – God the Father being alone excepted.

But it is said we do not see that yet. Do you think that all the oppression and wars and wickedness and horrors, which now mark the history of the earth, would go on if everything were put under Him? It is Satan, and not Christ, who is now the prince and god of this world.

• It is strange how many people fancy that the cross put an end to that; it was exactly the contrary. The cross was the one grand demonstration – and there never was such a demonstration before – that Satan is the prince and god of this world.
  • "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me", said our Saviour.

• Until Christ had been rejected, Satan was never called the prince of this world. Before that, Jehovah was on the earth, and in the temple was the Shekinah of glory.
  • But when at last He came into this world in the Person of Christ, and the world rejected Him, then from that time Satan is the prince of this world.

• And it is after this that the apostle says,
  • "In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not".

• When the Lord comes again, He will be the Prince of the world; but till He comes again, Satan is that prince.

If you will now look to Luke 19, you will see how the Lord Himself puts it, when He speaks of going into a far country to get the kingdom, and there receiving it, and then returning and executing the judgments to which He refers.

• "As they heard these things, he added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom of God should immediately appear".

• They were looking for this, and fancied that, instead of His being rejected as He was, they would get the kingdom with Him in an earthly way directly.
  • "He said therefore, A certain nobleman went into a far country, to receive for himself a kingdom, and to return And he called his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy till I come".

• This is the service of Christians, while the Lord is away. He has gone away to receive the kingdom, and has not returned yet. Then He judged the servants when He came back.
  • "And it came to pass, that when he was returned, having received the kingdom, then he commanded these servants to be called unto him",

• and begins to take account of their service. And then, that being finished, he says,
  • "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me".

• This is after He has received the kingdom and come back again. He does not judge while He is away. It is said,
  • "The Father hath committed all judgment unto the Son; that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father".

• But, if He were to begin to judge now, He would have to close the time of grace and the gathering in of the church. The Father judges the saints, but it is in the way of discipline –
  • "If ye call on the Father, who, without respect of persons, judgeth according to every man's work".

• But, as regards definite judgment, it is said in John,
  • "The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son".

• When the Son returns, He will take notice of His enemies and execute judgment upon them. But meanwhile He has gone away to receive the kingdom, and has not returned. When He does, He will not allow all this wickedness which we now see to go on.

• But for the present, this is the time when we must watch in faithfulness, occupying till He comes, and trading properly with those talents, the spiritual gifts He has given us.

You will find this remarkably brought out if you turn to Colossians 1.

• I wish to dwell a little on this, that we may get to as full an understanding as possible of the thoughts and scope and plan of God, which seem to me to be very plainly set forth in Scripture.

• Begin at verse 12, which shews where we – I mean all believers – are:
  • "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet".

• He has made us meet – that is all settled. You will always find this in Scripture; you will not find anything there about growing to be meet; it speaks about growing up to Christ in everything, but this is a different thing.
  • "Which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light; who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son;

  • "who is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of every creature, for by him"

• – this is the reason why He is set over all things –
  • "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers; all things were created by him and for him".

• He is to take them all under subjection, but not in this state of wickedness in which they are now.
  • "We see not yet all things put under him".

And how does He take them? He takes them as Man –

• "whom he hath appointed heir of all things" – Hebrews 1: 2;

• and we are appointed joint-heirs with Him, as the scripture tells us. You will see, therefore, how the second part comes in.
  • "And he is before all things, and by him all things consist"

• – that is, because He is a divine Person –
  • "And he is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence".

• He has this double headship, which is also brought together in the chapter of Ephesians I was reading –
  1. head over all things,

  2. and head to the church.

  • "By him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

  • "And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, in the body of his flesh through death".

• He has reconciled – it is always 'hath' as regards the saints. It is not said 'He will reconcile,' but "hath reconciled".

• But the reconciliation of all things in heaven and earth is future, because Satan is not yet bound.

• Even Christianity itself has been corrupted in the most awful way, because Satan is not bound; and the corruptest thing in the whole universe is corrupted Christianity. The apostle says,
  • "By him to reconcile all things unto himself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven";

    or, as it is in the Ephesians,

  • "to gather together in one all things in Christ";

• but he does not say he has done this yet. Nor does he speak at all of those who are under the earth. When he talks of subjection, of everything bowing to Him, it is said,
  • "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth".

• Of these things he does not say 'reconcile' but "bow"; "but you", he says, "hath he reconciled".

You thus see the truth about the double headship of Christ – His being Head of the church, and His being Head over all things;

• and then the double reconciliation,

1. the present reconciliation and redemption of the church through grace,

2. and then the reconciliation of all things in heaven and in earth.

• Now we see not yet all things put under Him, but we see Him by faith, sitting at the right hand of God, until His enemies are made His footstool.

• And when that time comes, and they are all put under Him, He will take possession, according to the character given to God in the appellation used by Melchisedec when he came out to bless Abraham –
  • "The most high God, possessor of heaven and earth".

• Thus, when Christ becomes in all its fulness the King and Priest upon His throne, God will have that title.

We come then to the next thing, which I will just state – I do not know how far we may be able to go through it this evening.

• Taking these two statements, that He is to reconcile everything in heaven and earth, and again, that He is to gather together in one, all things which are both in heaven and on earth;
  • we also see, in several of the passages which I have quoted, that the church, or the saints who compose it, are joint-heirs with Him.

• What I have been seeking to shew you is, that the church of God – all the saints whom in this present time God is gathering by His grace in the gospel – are being associated with Christ, as the centre of blessing;
  • that they get the central place with Himself, under whom all possible existences are to be placed.

• But the time for this which the scripture speaks of is when Christ receives the kingdom and returns, when the dispensation of the fulness of times comes. Then everything will be brought into order and blessedness under the authority of Christ.

• When God the Father has put everything under His feet, He will bring everything into order, and will then deliver up His kingdom.

• But the central thing during the dispensation of the fulness of times in the heavenly places will be the church, and the central thing in earthly places will be the Jews.

This brings in what are the two great subjects of holy Scripture, after personal redemption.

1. The church is that in which He displays sovereign grace, bringing its members to share the glory of Christ.

2. The Jews are those in whom He reveals as a centre the government of this world.

• These are the two great subjects in Scripture after personal salvation.

• The Scripture speaks of the church of God as those who are associated with Christ, who are the heirs of Christ's glory.

• But the moment we say this, we cannot but think how wondrous it is that poor wretched creatures like us should be brought into the same glory with Christ – should be brought into the same place with Himself.

• And the work of reconciliation is to embrace all things in heaven and on earth.

This world is not to remain for ever the sporting-place and playground of the devil. That will not be allowed for ever.

• The Son of David will yet have His place in it, and His glory too, as its ruler, and the world will then be altered.
  • "None shall hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain".

• There is a time coming when Christ will be the Prince of peace. He has declared positively that this is not at the present time.
  • "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division.

  • "For from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother …".

• That is, this is the time when the bringing in the light awakens the passions of men; and until Christ's second coming puts them down, they continue their raging.

• And Christians now have to take up the cross and follow Him. Do you think if Christ were reigning, His followers would only have the cross? Why, they would have the crown. We are positively told that our part is the cross. We must now take it up every day.

• But, when Christ reigns, that will not be the part of His people.
  • He will "come to be glorified in his saints";

• and a glorious place they will get, when He comes to reign.

When this time comes to gather together all things in one, the church of God will be the centre of all things in heavenly places, and the Jews the centre of all things on earth, Christ being the Head over all.

• This is what we find stated in the chapter of Ephesians which we have read –
  • "That ye may know what … is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead,

  • "and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come"

• – the time namely of which we are speaking –
  • "and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, which is his body".

It is the same power which raises the saints, and so, in the next chapter, he says, speaking of it now as already got spiritually,

• "and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus;

• "that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus".

• God, in setting us over angels and principalities and powers in the world to come, is shewing the exceeding riches of His grace in the place He has given to us, in His kindness towards us.

• This, beloved friends, is what I have been anxious to shew you, by bringing before you these various passages, that thus in the ages to come God is going to shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward you.

• Angels are going to learn the immense riches of God's grace; and how? By our being made partakers of the glory of Christ, in God's kindness to us through Christ Jesus;
  • so that, when they see Mary Magdalene, the thief on the cross, the woman of the city that was a sinner, any one of us, in the same place of glory with Christ, they may admire the exceeding riches of His grace.

• Laying hold of this now even by faith in the teaching of God's Spirit, although we have not got all the fruits of it as yet, we may find our present place very profitable in the way of discipline, and exercise, and spiritual education; still its full development is in the future, when God's kindness to us shall be shewn to the angels.

And now let me try to shew you a little the way in which the Lord brings us into this place of association with Himself.

• And first I will refer you to the passage in John 17, where the Saviour states the fact, that the saints share with Him His glory and the love of the Father.

• A wonderful passage it is, as shewing that love of Christ which passeth knowledge.
  • "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

• This refers to the present time, or, at least, to what ought to be the case in the present time. And then He goes on to the time to come:
  • "And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one,

  • "and that the world may" [not believe, but may] "know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me".

• All the glory thou hast given me, He says – that is, the glory He takes as man, for s a divine Person, His glory was eternal – I have given them, and this, that the world, when they see My people like Me, and having the same glory as Myself, may know that thou hast sent Me.

• It is not "believe": this is spoken with reference to the present time. Saints should be one now, as a testimony that there is a power in the Spirit of God which overcomes all fleshly differences. Alas! that is not so. This, too, is a precious subject; but I must pass it over just now, confirming myself to the one I am more immediately dealing with.
  • Of the present time it is said, "that the world may believe";

  • of the future, "that the world may know".

  • "The glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that the world may know that thou hast sent me".

• They will know it plainly enough for their condemnation – for the condemnation of those who are rebels – when they see those whom they have been accustomed to despise coming with Christ in glory.

Now do you believe this, beloved friends? Our hearts ought to know and recognise that love – not fathom it, for this they cannot do, but confide in it, and to that extent know it, although it passes knowledge.

• And, as you see, the time is coming when the world too will know that love of God to us. We pass on to verse 25 –
  • "O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

  • "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them".

• That is the present good we enjoy – that the love wherewith Christ is loved should be in us – that we should have it in our souls. No one can fathom it: it passes knowledge; but still we are to have it and to know it, and that by Christ being in us.

• I am not to wait till the world sees I am with Christ in glory, to know it myself; for the Father now loves me as He has loved Christ.

If you turn again to 1 Corinthians 15, you will see this same truth brought out in its relation to the resurrection.

• The point I am now to impress upon you is, that Scripture shews us these two things –

1. that we are to be like Him, completely like Him, save that He is a divine Person;

2. and that the time we shall be like Him is when we shall be raised from the dead. It is then we shall appear with Him.

• We are not of the world now, but it is said that the world will only know that we have been loved as Christ was loved, when they see us in the same place of glory with Him, when the Lord takes us up to be with Him and to put us in this glory; so that when He appears to the world, we shall appear along with Him in the same glory.

The fact that it is so, that we shall so appear with Him in the same glory, we have seen already from various passages which I quoted on the last occasion; but I shall refer you to some more particularly.

• At verse 47 of 1 Corinthians 15, it is said,
  • "the first man is of the earth, earthy; the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy"

• – all like to their father Adam; and,
  • "as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly",

• that is, like what Christ is, not speaking of His divinity;
  • "and as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly".

• We shall be like Him, we shall be just the same as Himself. He does not say merely that we shall be there, in heaven, but like Him.
  • But first, "as is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy"

• – that is, like Adam, poor wretched sinners, mortal creatures, like him; whereas,
  • "as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly".

• This is the full absolute statement of the fact. Then he adds, with respect to the fact of the glory – putting it, of course, as in the future, not having yet come –
  • "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly"; and he goes on,

  • "Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption".

  • As it is said before, "it is sown in corruption, it is raised in incorruption: it is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory".

Now let us refer to some of the passages which shew how Christ receives us to Himself. I follow the teachings of Scripture throughout, that we may get solidly grounded in what Christ communicates to us. He says<

• "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 and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also".

• He has gone into His Father's house, but He will come again and receive us to Himself, that where He is, there we may be also.

• He was going up then with a body, going up glorious, not as yet having all things under His feet, but crowned with glory and honour; and He says to His disciples, You must wait and occupy till I come again.

• But now, before He comes, we see what He is to do with us who are in the same glory –
  • "I will come again and receive you unto myself";

    as He said in the previous chapter,

  • "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me".

• It was as if He had said, I cannot stay with you, as King and Messiah now, but I am washing you that ye may be fit to reign with Me when I come again.

• I am, therefore, still your servant in the sense of intercession and the like, and by My all-prevailing intercession I will wash you daily, because, if you are to have part with Me in My kingdom, you must be made like Myself.

In like manner we get what may be called the public announcement of this in 1 Thessalonians 4 –

• "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord …".

• See how the apostle constantly expected the coming of the Lord. Some people have boldly dared to say that Paul made a mistake in expecting the coming of the Lord in his day. It is they who are making an awful mistake.

• It was never revealed when Christ would come, and Paul did not pretend to know it. But he knew that that time had come when we should always be expecting Him – instead of saying, My Lord delayeth His coming, and beginning therefore to eat and drink with the drunken, and to beat the men-servants and the maid-servants.

• It was, therefore, that Paul put himself in this class,
  • "we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord".

• And what was the effect of that? He lived like a man who expected Christ every day; and when Christ comes, he will get the fruit of that,
  • while those people who put off the expectation of Christ's coming, and do not wait for it, allowing their hearts to go out after covetousness and such like things, will also get the fruit of their so doing.

The time of the second coming of Christ is declared not to be revealed.

• Paul got a revelation that he should soon die, and he knew it. Peter also got a revelation that he must shortly put off this tabernacle, and of course knew it. But it was not revealed to them when Christ should come. Therefore Paul says,
  • "We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed",

• Christ having overcome death. We may all die before Christ's coming – no one knows the moment of it; still we may use the language,
  • "we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord".

• It is said of the man who thinks Christ is delaying His coming, that he turns to what is bad, smiting his fellow-servants, and eating and drinking with the drunken.

• And it is said, that while the Bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept, the wise virgins as well as the foolish; that is, the church lost a sense of the present expectation of Christ. Even the wise servants had to be waked up again; and it was a mercy to them to rouse them up in time, because to His people Christ is ever faithful.

• But it is the characteristic of the faithful servant that he is expecting. The church of Philadelphia was expecting the coming of Christ, and it is called the word of His patience,
  • "Because thou hast kept the word of my patience".

The passage in Thessalonians goes on –

• "We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

• "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"

• – nobody else. I shall dwell upon that at another time, but I just notice it now in passing.

• The shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, are not to be taken as the voice of God to all the world to raise the righteous and the wicked.

• "The shout" is a military term; whatever the precise term now equivalent to it, it is that which follows "Stand at ease". It was first used with reference to calling rowers in the trireme, and afterwards as a military term.
  • When soldiers are left to go about their at ease, and are then all suddenly called back into the ranks, it is the command given them for that purpose, to which the word "shout" here used is equivalent.

• But the only persons who hear it are "the dead in Christ", Christ being represented as in this way gathering together His own troops.
  • "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".

Here, then, we have the details of it. The Lord has declared that He will come and receive us unto Himself; and now the apostle, by the revelation given unto him, explains how it will be. He will come and call us up to meet the Lord in the air.

• The passage in 1 Corinthians, which I have already read, refers to the same thing, when it says,
  • "afterward they that are Christ's at his coming".

  • "But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits".

• The specific thing here is that it is not a resurrection of the dead, but a resurrection from among the dead. The raising of Christ was not a resurrection "of the dead" simply,
  • but a resurrection "from among the dead".

• This was its whole character – a taking up from among the dead; and why? Because the Father's delight was in Him. And why are we in like manner taken up from among the dead? Because His delight is in us.

• And therefore at the proper time the Lord comes – it is not said, appears – and calls us up to be for ever with the Lord, to take our place associated with Christ, partaking of that glory which you have already seen referred to in the words
  • "as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly".

But what we are called to expect is, not to die – we may die, and a blessed thing it is too, to die; but what we are to look for and expect is, as it is expressed in 2 Corinthians 5,

• "Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life".

• That Christ's power over death may be fully shewn, He takes to Himself mortal men, whether alive or dead: if alive, He changes them into glory without dying; if they are dead, He raises them.

• This is the first thing He does. He raises the dead first, and then the living are changed; and they go to meet the Lord in the air. He has predestinated us
  • "to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren".

    And, as we have seen,

  • "the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them".

• This then is our portion of heavenly things.

And if you turn to Colossians 3 you will see that when Christ appears, we shall appear in this glory along with Himself and be like Him.

• He will have already come and taken us up to Himself; and then He comes manifesting Himself to the world, and we appear with Him.

• You will remember what I have before quoted, that the glory which was given Him, He has given to us, that the world might know, etc.

• Now, turn to Colossians 3, and you will see how thoroughly the apostle identifies us with Christ. Look first at chapter 2: 20,
  • "If ye be dead with Christ".

• Then, at the beginning of chapter 3,
  • "If ye then be risen with Christ, 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. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God".

• He is hid in God; He is your life, and your life therefore is hid there.
  • "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory".

• When He appears, we shall appear with Him. There can be no separation. If He is hid in God, our life is hid in God. If He appears, we appear. If He appears in glory, we must appear in glory with Him. We are heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.

You will see the same thing in the first epistle of John: only the same truth comes out in different shapes –

• "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God"

• – this, that we should get Christ's own name! – what a wonder of love is this that we should get Christ's own title of relationship! –
  • "therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not",

• shewing that we have got the same place with Him.
  • He says, "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".

• I have accomplished your redemption, and the effect of this is, that I have put you in the same place with Myself.
  • "I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee".

  • "Therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not".

• It is no wonder that it does not recognise us, if it did not recognise Him.
  • "Beloved, now are we the sons of God"

• – this is the present time,
  • "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".

Further, as to this appearing with Him, I shall now refer to the book of Revelation;

• but, before doing that, you may turn for a moment to Zechariah 14, where it is said the Lord shall come and all His saints with Him, and His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives.

• This is referred to by s the angel, when, after Christ's ascension from Mount Olivet, he said to the disciples,
  • "Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven".

• Again, in verse 14 of the epistle of Jude, you find
  • "And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon all".

• Here they are associated with Christ in the executing of judgments.
  • "The Lord cometh with ten thousands" – properly myriads, that is, an I immense number – "of his saints to execute judgment".

• This shews how entirely we are associated with Christ. And what a place does not that put us in! Yet Scripture is so simple and plain upon the point, that it cannot be misinterpreted.

You will find the same truth in 2 Thessalonians 1.

• I prefer quoting many passages to enlarging upon them, that our faith may stand, not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.

• The Thessalonians were suffering dreadful persecutions; and the apostle told them,
  • "We glory in you in the churches of God, for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure; which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer;

  • "seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; and to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels, in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ;

  • "who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe".

• He comes with these ten thousands or myriads of His saints.

You find a distinct statement of their coming given in figure in the Revelation. At chapter 17 it is said,

• "These shall make war with the Lamb".

• All the kings of the earth shall be found, not in blessing, joined with Christ, but in open war with the Lamb, joined with the beast.
  • "These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them; for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful".

• Other passages shew us that angels will be with Him, but it is not angels that are here spoken of as being with Him. The angels may be described as "faithful" and "chosen", because the scripture speaks of the "elect" angels;
  • but these that are with Him are the "called", and it is the saints who are called by the grace of God.

• These "called" persons then who are with Him are the saints. Having seen who they are, turn now to chapter 19,
  • "And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war".

You have seen all through that He is coming to judge the wicked on the earth – a thing greatly forgotten, that there is a judgment of the quick as well as the dead.

• "As in the days that were before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not, until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be".

• "His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

• "And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean"

• – which, he says elsewhere, is the righteousness of the saints.

• I close now, as regards the quotation of passages.

On the last occasion we found, running through the whole series of passages quoted, that the Lord's coming was the one thing kept before the church as its hope in the Scripture,

• that it connected itself with every kind of thought and feeling the saints had, that they were even looked upon as being converted to wait for the Son of God, that every other doctrine of Scripture was connected with it,

• that what marked a decaying church was the thought that
  • "the Lord delayeth his coming",

• and that what woke them up was the cry,
  • "Behold, the Bridegroom cometh".

Then tonight we have found that the Lord reveals to us with wisdom and prudence His plan, namely,

• "that he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth"

• – reconciling them all in Christ – not merely for their own selfish good, but as a plan for Christ's glory.

• And with this view He has associated us with Christ in the place He takes as Head over all, so that, being associated with Him as heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, we have the inheritance with Him; that, when He takes it, we shall have it with Him;
  • that, when He comes, we shall come with Him; that, whereas He was presented to the earth among the Jews according to the promise of God, and they would not have Him, He then took another place – that of Son of man.

• That place He will take in His resurrection and in His glory, and will raise us up to have it with Him when the time comes; and not we alone, but all saints will have it with Him.

• Thus we see not yet all things put under Him, but we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honour, and are waiting, as He is, till His enemies are made His footstool.

• But when that time comes – when it will be, nobody knows; God has not revealed it – the first thing He will do will be to have His body; He is not to be Head without the body, but will catch us up to meet Him in the air;
  • then, if dead, He will raise us; if alive, He will change us, and take us up to meet the Lord in the air.

• He will come and take us to His Father's house; for this is our place; and He will have everything there in order for us – only He must have His heirs with Him; for He cannot take a step in entering on the possession of His inheritance, without having His heirs, His body, His bride with Him.

In the Revelation you first have the marriage of the Lamb, and then you see the Lamb coming out with His armies following Him.

• They are the bride – that is what they are; for the Lamb must have an associate with Him, a help-meet to share His inheritance. He has not yet taken to Himself His great power and reigned. We see not yet all things put under Him.

• But when He comes, He will take us up to be with Him, because we are perfectly associated with Him. When He appears, we shall appear with Him.

• When He executes judgment, we shall accompany Him – that is, when He executes judgment on the world, breaking them with a rod of iron, and dashing them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
  • That is anything but the blessedest part of our sharing His inheritance. The blessedest part is being with Him.

• But when He does appear, the world will see us with Him. He comes to raise the dead saints, and take them up to be with Himself: then when He appears we shall all appear with Him, and
  • "shall bear the image of the heavenly, as we have borne the image of the earthy".

But meantime, while Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, He has sent down the Holy Ghost to gather His heirs together.

• They must now carry the cross: when the kingdom comes, they will have the kingdom and the glory. But until that time, while He is sitting at the right hand of God, His people must bear the cross, and it is only by the power of the Spirit of God that anyone will follow Him.

• Whatever glory He has, in the time of glory He associates us in it with Himself, and, as a consequence, we shall reign with Him – we who are now reconciled in Him.

• And when He comes again, He comes, but not to judgment as regards us.
  • "As it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment; so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many, and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time, without sin, unto salvation".

And now, beloved friends, I would only ask, With whom are you associated?

• Are you associated with Christ, rejected by the world, and now sitting at the right hand of God? Are you by the Holy Ghost in spirit associated with Christ?
  • or are you associated with the world which He is coming again to judge, and all His saints with Him?

• With which are you associated, while Christ is away? Having been rejected, He says, Occupy till I come, having gone to receive a kingdom and a glory far better than that from which He was rejected. With whom are you associated?

• You have to go through the world, you must go through it: do you really believe that Satan is the prince and god of this world, which has rejected Christ? and do you really live as if you believed this?

• Do you believe that Christ sitteth at the right hand of God, and that He will come again to receive you to Himself, to share with Him the same blessings as Himself in His Father's house, to witness His Father's glory, and to share His love?

• Are we doing anything to recommend Him? Is there that in our hearts which is like the confiding love of a child to his father, that which shews we are sons by adoption? Is there anything in us which identifies us with those who are the heirs of that blessedness and glory?

• The world knew Him not; the world knows us not. Can we say this? Are we like Him in our place in the world? When Christ was in the world, they saw no beauty in Him that they should desire Him. How is it with us? Is it the things that are not seen, or the things that are seen, that have power in our hearts?

• Christ is not seen; does He dwell in our hearts by faith, so as to be our portion? If He does, then, when He appears, we shall appear with Him in glory; and, better than that, shall be taken up to be for ever with Him. The Lord give us to be able to wait for Him, and to be ever saying,
  • "Even so come, Lord Jesus".

• May we have all our treasure, and heart, and portion, associated and identified with Himself.

• A little while, yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. He only knows how long the gathering of the saints to be with Him will last.

• Both connect themselves – otherwise it would be impossible to go into the whole subject this evening – with the manifestation of judgments in this world:
  • only that the taking up of the saints is the taking them out of the way of those judgments.

• On the contrary, the Jews who are to remain on the earth, and other Gentiles also, when they come to those judgments, must pass through them, as Lot passed through, and from all that happened to Sodom, making his escape, yet so as by fire, while Abraham looked on upon the judgments that fell on the guilty cities of the plain.

• So also Noah was saved, passing through the flood, while Enoch was taken up to heaven.

• Those two cases are spoken of as analogous to what shall be at the coming of the Son of man. We have in these two cases the two things of which I have spoken –

1. the one class of persons out of the reach and out of the way altogether of the judgments that are coming,

2. and the other class passing through those judgments which destroyed the great body of men, and thus escaping them.

• I have said that this class consists of the Jews and some Gentiles also; but I do not enter into details on that point at present – I wish now merely to present the general thought.

We saw, last evening, that the church forms the centre of the heavenly glory – under Christ, of course, who is the centre of everything – and that the Jews are the centre of the earthly dominion, the earthly blessings.

• This is what gives their importance to the two points on which, if time allow, I shall dwell this evening – that is,

1. the taking the saints in the last time to be with the Lord Himself in heaven, and their sharing His own glory and blessedness;

2. and then the Jews brought into blessing with this earth, as reigned over by Christ, and not reigning with Him, but still a great nation on the earth.

• These two facts are the two great centres of God's ways.

In the chapter we have read you have first Christ Himself and the church figured in the man-child;

• and then, in the woman which flees from persecution for twelve hundred and sixty days, you have the Jewish remnant – those who are spared in the time of judgment but are not yet brought into glory.

• It thus brings before you the two subjects of which I have spoken.

• And I add this, that the consideration of the blessing of the church will lead us necessarily to another point; and that is, that what is called a general resurrection, common to all together
  • – and I state it now that we may get fast hold of the idea at once –

• is a thing entirely unknown to Scripture.

• I do not deny that it was the notion entertained among the Jews, at least by the Pharisees, that all Jews at all events – as for the Gentiles they looked upon them as dogs – would rise again together; but our Lord corrected this notion.

• A right conception on this point is necessarily connected with our understanding the taking up of the church to heaven, because those saints who are dead must be raised for that.

• When I say "saints", I mean all the saints, those of the Old Testament, as well as those under the New Testament, dispensation.

And I mention another point for those persons who are not familiar with these subjects, and that is, that God is not now dealing with this world – providentially of course, He governs all;

• but that He is not dealing with this world as He afterwards will, at this time while Christ is sitting at His right hand in heaven, and while He is gathering the joint-heirs of Christ to reign with Him when He takes the inheritance.

• He alone knows at what moment this will be fulfilled. Then, when He hath put Christ's foes under His footstool, Christ will rise up from His Father's throne, and take His own throne.

• But, while Christ sits on His Father's throne, the Holy Ghost having been sent down, consequent on His ascension, He is gathering out of the world a people for His name, to be heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ.

This lapse of time, this parenthesis in the ways of God, is brought in, in the most distinct way, at the end of Daniel 9; and I refer to it because we should never understand God's dealings with mankind, unless we get hold of this.

• At the end of Daniel 9 you find the Spirit of God shewing a certain period which was to elapse before Jerusalem got its full blessing; and you will see the reference that is made to what I was calling the parenthesis, or lapse of time, during which the Jews were all set aside. At verse 24 it is said,
  • "Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

  • "Know, therefore, and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times".

• That took place: you know it was forty and six years going on.
  • "And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off"

• – the threescore and two weeks, with the other seven, making sixty-nine –
  • "but not for himself";

• or rather, instead of this, take what is in the margin, which is undoubtedly the true sense,
  • "and shall have nothing"

• He did not take the kingdom at all; He was cut off and got nothing; in heaven He got all the glory, but He got nothing as regards what we are speaking of.
  • "And the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined".

• That is – what almost everyone is familiar with – Titus coming and destroying the city, until there was not left one stone upon another that was not thrown down.

But there is still a week left – we have only had sixty-nine weeks; and here, without entering into details, is the great principle I want you to get hold of.

• We have the sixty-nine weeks, and then there is a lapse. Messiah comes, is rejected, and is cut off, does not get the kingdom at all, gets nothing – He gets the cross it is true, but that is all He gets.

• He ascends to heaven, and therefore our hearts must follow Him up to heaven, while He is there. Then comes the time of the end.

"And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week".

• For remark what was said before, "unto the end of the war desolations are determined".

• As to the time all is left vague; these desolations are to go on for no one knows how long after the destruction of Jerusalem, the Messiah having gone and taken nothing.
  • "And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week; and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations"

• – that is, idolatry: "abominations" mean idolatry in the Old Testament –
  • "he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate".

There then we get this simple but very important fact as to the interpretation of prophecy – that there was a term of seventy weeks, which would come upon the holy city – upon the Gentiles too, but specially the Jews – until all prophecy about them was to be accomplished;

• but when the sixty-nine weeks had elapsed, Messiah comes, is cut off – that is actually fulfilled – and takes nothing; and there go on wars, etc., and the city is destroyed; and then there run on the times of the Gentiles;
  • and blindness in part, according to Romans 11, has happened unto Israel, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

So again our Saviour, in Luke's gospel, after speaking of the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, says that Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

• Now that is what is still going on. Jerusalem is still trodden down. Christ has not taken to Him His great power and reign, spoken of in a chapter of the Revelation, preceding that which we have read.

• Jerusalem is still desolate, and the times of the Gentiles are still running on – I doubt not, running close unto their completion, but still running on; and Christ is sitting on the right hand of God the Father, according to that word,
  • "Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool".

• But while He sits there, the Holy Ghost comes down from heaven to declare that, if man had rejected Him, heaven had accepted Him, and that – redemption having been accomplished, and the grace appeared that brings salvation – He sits there to associate with Himself the joint-heirs of whom we have been speaking.

But in the meantime the Jews are set aside, and the times of the Gentiles are running on, and nothing is fulfilled or brought to an accomplishment, because what He is doing is gathering the heavenly saints.

• Now those heavenly saints, as we saw in the last lecture, are completely identified with Christ Himself. He is not ashamed to call them brethren.

• He is the Firstborn among many brethren, who have been conformed to the image of God's Son, and are "members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones". For it is said,
  • "no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: for we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones".

• And the saints too are the bride of Christ. What Eve was to Adam, that is the place the church of God fills in reference to Christ. And what He is doing now is gathering the saints to fill this place.

• It is not the fulfilling of God's dealings with the earth, but the gathering of saints for heaven; and while He is gathering saints for heaven, Christ sits at His right hand until His enemies be made His footstool. As the apostle expresses it in Hebrews 2, referring to Psalm 8,
  • "but now we see not yet all things put under him; but we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour".

There is an extremely beautiful thought connected with this, which we cannot dwell on now, and that is, that if you look for the church in the Old Testament, you can only find Christ, but when you find the blessedness and glory which belongs to Christ, the church is the sharer of it.

• So that what we have to see in connection with the fulfilment of the prophecies of God is, that previous to this the church is to be taken out of the scene altogether, because He cannot begin these dealings with the Gentiles in the last week until the gathering of the saints to be heirs with Christ is over.

• Until He has got the heirs, Christ cannot take the inheritance; and therefore, all the dealings of God – or of Christ, if you please who is the power of God – all these dealings of God with the world
  • – we do not speak of His providence, of course, for not a sparrow falleth to the ground without Him –

• but all the direct dealings of God with the world through the Jews are suspended until the church is taken up.

But you never find in prophecy, until the end of Revelation – you never find the church revealed in prophecy, except in connection with Christ. I may give you some instances of this.

• For example, I have no doubt that the "man-child" spoken of in the chapter that we have been reading, includes the church as well as Christ. But it is Christ that is principally meant; for the church would be nothing without Christ, it would be a body without a head.

• It is Christ who has been caught up, but the church is included; for whenever He begins to act publicly – even as regards the casting down of Satan – He must have His body, His bride with Him; He must have His brethren, His joint-heirs.

• If you examine what we find here, you will see that the church is certainly included. You read
  • "And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron; and her child was caught up unto God and to his throne".

• The man-child is to rule all nations with a rod of Iron, but there is an interruption. And as we have seen that Christ came to this earth, was cut off, and took nothing, we get the other side of the picture here. He takes nothing, but is caught up to God and His throne, and sits at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.

This sitting at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens belongs personally to Christ, but when it comes to ruling the nations with a rod of iron, the saints are associated with Him.

• The quotation is from Psalm 2, where it is said
  • "Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession: thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel".

• That is not asked yet. And He has prayed for the saints, not for the world –
  • "I pray for them; I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me".

• He only intercedes for the world when He asks for dominion over them, and, of course, it will be given Him – it is in God's counsels that it will; and He will take judgment in hand, the rod of iron.

• But then the saints will judge the world too; that is positively revealed,
  • "Know ye not that we shall judge angels? Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world?"

• And not only is this stated in the general, but in the detail, especially as to the rod of iron. At the end of Revelation 2 you will find that this is given to the church, exactly as it is given to Christ.
  • "He that overcometh, and keepeth my words unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers; even as I received of my Father".

• And the same thing is said in Daniel 7,
  • "Until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High"

• – the saints who will be in the heavenly places with Christ, when Christ comes – the "rod of iron" being there spoken of as "judgment".

• That is not the most blessed part: the blessed part is to be with Him; but it is true, and it is part of what we have to look for. And so in Revelation 20, where this time is spoken of,
  • "And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them".

How sadly has the sense of this blessedness and glory of the saints been lost! I was speaking of it on the last occasion – their identification with Christ, their being joint-heirs, members of His body, His bride.

• The sense of all this has dropped away from the church. It is common to say that it is enough to lie at the foot of the cross. Now to me it is a blessed thing to see a person coming to the foot of the cross; but it is dreadful to stay there, because for a person to do so is the same as saying that he does not own that the whole thing is accomplished.
  • It is a want of boldness "to enter into the holiest, through the veil, that is to say, Christ's flesh".

• It is the same as saying that he is unfit to pass through the veil to be a priest in the holy place. He says, 'No; I must stay outside'. I say that is a very wretched condition to be in.

• He must come to the cross in order to get in; that is perfectly true. And it is blessed to see a person who has been careless so coming; he can never get in any other way.

• But always to stay outside – always to say 'I am staying at the foot of the cross, and do not know whether I have the right to enter in or not' – that is a great mistake.

• If you say, you cannot tell whether you are redeemed or not, how then can you call yourself a Christian? Christians are redeemed, of course. Why then do you take the name of Christians, and yet remain unable to say whether you are redeemed?

In this chapter of Revelation which we have read, you have it positively revealed that it is finished with the saints, as regards all their trials and all their accusations, before the time that the trial of the Jewish people begins in the last half-week of Daniel.

• In the first six verses of the chapter, you have the statement of those who are concerned in these last days. First, you have the
  • "woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars".

• This, I have no doubt, is the Jewish people, nothing else; because Christ is not born of the church, but looked at as reigning and glorious in the world, was born of the Jews,
  • "of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came".

• There is no kind of sense in the idea of Christ's being born of the church.

• Being "clothed with the sun" is being clothed with supreme authority. She has the moon – all her previous reflected state – under her feet:
  • "and upon her head a crown of twelve stars".

• Twelve is the number always used to indicate power – the power of God's administration among men. You have the twelve apostles sitting on twelve thrones – the city built on twelve foundations, and having twelve gates, etc., the number being used to express administrative power – God's administrative power over man.
  • Well, Christ was to be born. "And she being with child, cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered".

  • And so the Jews say, in Isaiah 9, "To us a son is born".

• The church cannot say that at all. We can say that we believe He is the Son of God; but we do not say He is born to us. As concerning the flesh, He was born into Israel.

Then you come to the opposing power – the power of Satan – exercised through the Roman Empire.

• "And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

• And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth; and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born".

• That is the power of Satan resisting Christ, and seeking to put an end to His power. He could not, of course, but he seemed to have done it for a while.
  • "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron" – clearly Christ – "and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne".

• He did not take the power – He took nothing, but was caught up to God.

Then, having seen who are the persons engaged, you get the woman's place,

• "And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand, two hundred and three-score days".

• You will see now the reason why I referred to the gap, with regard to all God's dealings with the world, which there always is in prophecy – without, however, giving any dates at all between the time that Christ is taken up, and the time that the church is taken up; and they are both united together.

• As I have said, it is not merely a notion of men, but it is positively revealed, as God's own order in Daniel 9, that Messiah was to be revealed, and cut off, and take nothing; that blindness in part happens to Israel till the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled; and that then the Jews would be brought to repentance, as Jesus Christ says in the gospel of Matthew,
  • "Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord".

Thus we get the church, united with Christ, taken up to God, and the woman fled into the wilderness.

• Now we come to the progress of events, not as regards the church at all, but as regards Israel and the world.
  • "And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven".

• The whole power of Satan will then be cast out. That is in direct contrast with the result of the church's warfare:
  • "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places".

• This is the conflict we have to wage as to our title to sit in heavenly places with Christ; and the result of this spiritual conflict is, that the power of Satan is cast out.

• In the prophecy we are considering this is all over, and you see the joy there is in consequence among the dwellers in heaven, the heavenly saints.

"And the great dragon was cast out – that old serpent called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

• "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

• "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea!"

• We find here, that while all the heavenly people, that is, the church of God – because our conversation is in heaven and we are one with Christ in heaven – are called upon to rejoice that the accuser of the brethren is cast down – that they have overcome him –
  • at this very moment when these heavenly saints have overcome, it is just the time when Satan comes down to earth, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.

• Thus we get entire rejoicing in what is heavenly, and at the same time most desperate woe in what is earthly.

• This makes the contrast very distinct and definite between these heavenly ones and the dwellers on earth, who, all through the Revelation, are contrasted with those persons who are heirs of heaven, whose citizenship is in heaven.

"Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time.

• "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child".

• We see here very clearly that by the woman it is not the church of God that is meant, because the church of God is called upon to rejoice on account of all their afflictions being over, and the accusations against them past.

• They are called upon to rejoice because they have overcome the accuser by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony.

• But this woman is in a different position, all the rage of Satan being now directed against her.

• The church of God has been taken out of the way, and Satan has another object for his great wrath, namely, the Jewish people. This is for them the time of great tribulation that is elsewhere spoken of.
  • Christ said to the Jews, "I am come in my Father's name, and ye receive me not; if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive".

• If they would not take the true Christ, they must have a false Christ.

I have read this chapter of the Revelation, in order to shew that while one class of persons – those associated with Christ – are caught up to God, and there is triumph and rejoicing and gladness amongst them when Satan is cast down,

• that is the very time when tribulation begins on the earth.
  • "And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man-child.

  • "And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent".

• There in the wilderness, in this time of tribulation, God takes care of her. She makes her escape from the tribulation, the figure being employed that she receives this great power of flight, as if the wings of an eagle: and God secures her,
  • not as He did Abraham who saw the destruction of Sodom from the top of the mount, but as He secured Lot who was saved by flight.

• The people in heaven rejoicing are like Abraham on the top of the mount; while the woman upon the earth is like Lot, saved by God giving her the great wings of an eagle to escape while all this great rage and power of Satan is being displayed.
  • "And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

  • "And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth".

• That is, providential means were used for the purpose of saving the Jews from the violent assaults made upon them.
  • "And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ".

I shall now refer to a more literal prophecy, which will help us to understand this same interval, these times of the Gentiles, so far as they are going on now – because I have no doubt that they began in the days of Nebuchadnezzar.

• Turn to Isaiah 8, where, after the circumstances of the moment having been spoken of as leading to it, it is said,
  • "Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself"

• – a blessed testimony to the deity of the Lord Jesus as Jehovah –
  • "and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he shall be for a sanctuary, but for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offence, to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken".

• The Lord, you know, spoke of His being a stumbling-stone, and said that whosoever should fall on that stone should be broken.
  • "Bind up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples And I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and I will look for him. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me".

• This, you remember, is quoted in Hebrews 2. Although God is hiding His face from the house of Jacob, Christ says,
  • "I will wait upon the Lord"; or, as the Septuagint has it,

  • "I have put my trust in the Lord".

  • And again, "Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me".

• These are the disciples of Christ in all ages.

And then, in chapter 9, you have the close of all that –

• "For thou hast broken the yoke of his burden, and the staff of his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, as in the day of Midian For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.

• "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.

• "Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end; upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and establish it with judgment and with justice, from henceforth, even for ever".

• Here, then, we have the fact of Christ's coming and being a stone of stumbling, and He says,
  • "I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob".

• Then follows a period of dreadful sorrow for Israel,
  • "They shall look unto the earth, and behold trouble and darkness, dimness of anguish; and they shall be driven to darkness".

• And then comes – what? A dreadful battle; only it has the fire of God's judgment in it –
  • "this shall be with burning and fuel of fire"

• – which is a figure of God's judgment. And then it is said,
  • "Unto us a child is born".

• Christ is this child that was born; but when He comes back, it shall be said of Him, as in Isaiah 53,
  • "we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted".

What I refer to the passage now for is, the revelation it gives of the same fact of Christ's coming and being rejected; His waiting upon the Lord that hides His face from the house of Jacob; and of the fact that at last He goes forth in glorious power, in this terrible battle of God's judgment,

• "In righteousness doth he judge and make wa