One of the marks of a man of God is that his vision embraces the whole thought of divine purpose.

• Things may be of very great interest to us in our local meeting, where we are more or less familiar with the exercises of brethren, and with the matters worked out there under God's good hand.
  • But a true man of God is privileged to look beyond the confines of what is local, and to reach out in his vision to the whole circle of the interests of Christ on earth.

• You say, That is a very embracing view, and it is, but that is not all, for the man of God is not only privileged to embrace every feature of the interests of Christ upon the earth, but he can look into heaven.

• He can look back, and he can look forward. In other words, the whole sphere of divine operations from the beginning, right on to the end, is brought within his compass.

• One great mark of a true lover of Christ, as has been remarked, is that he is just as much concerned about the welfare of the Lord's people in a future day as in his own day.

• I introduce that in connection with the thought of shepherding, because I notice the Lord and His apostles put great emphasis upon the shepherding of the sheep, as indicating that that activity would guard the flock in the grievous day that they saw approaching.

• One of the last things that John's gospel records as to the Lord, is that He gives to Peter the commission to shepherd His sheep, showing it was a matter of the deepest importance in the mind of the Lord.

• In fact, the giving of this commission to Peter at the close, suggests that it requires moral history, and qualifications, if one is to be entrusted with such a privileged service. You will recall what Paul says in Acts 20: 28, on the occasion of leaving the place where his crowning work for Christ was done,
  • "Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers".

• His concern was that there should be those who would shepherd the flock in view of the day that was coming, when wolves would come in from without, and false teachers arise from within. I mention this in view of showing the importance the Lord attaches to shepherd care, trusting that it may tend to promote it among us.

It is noteworthy that the apostles do not commit the care of the flock to 'gift', if you understand what I mean.

• There would be ministry, surely, the Lord would see to that, but the thought is that the sheep are to be cared for by those who have a shepherd spirit, and who would take up the charge from the very same motives as governed the Lord Himself.

• If we refer to the two titles, "good shepherd", and "chief shepherd", for a moment, the distinction between them is this: in relation to the former, the Lord is alone – absolutely alone.

• As the good Shepherd, He stands in contrast to all others who assumed the place of shepherds, as He says,
  • "All whoever came before me are thieves and robbers".

• As the good Shepherd He stands out alone in contrast to such. But when the title "chief shepherd" is used, others are in view, and I am sure every one who loves Christ would desire to take up in their measure shepherd care for one another, as they have learned it from Him.

If we look at John 10 for a moment, we find three features connected with the Lord as the good Shepherd.

1. First, He lays down His life for the sheep;

2. secondly, He knows all those that are His;

3. and thirdly, all those that are His know Him.

• The great basis of intimacy between the Lord and His people is connected with the laying down of His life. It forms a bond of marvellous intimacy between the Lord and His people. What wonderful reciprocity of affection is suggested in these words,
  • "I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father".

• The laying down of His life is the basis of all; and if you want to be a shepherd, the first essential feature is that you are prepared to lay down your life for the brethren. It will cost you your life, be assured of that!

• If you take up shepherd care among the people of God, you can only take it up on the principle of laying down your life.

But see what it will promote! It will give you access to hearts, just as the Lord in the actual laying down of His life has reached ours.

• What opened the door of our hearts to Him? What led us to say, Come in and take possession? The powerful influence of His love, expressed in the giving up of His life for us.

• No one who is a sheep of Christ's could be unaffected, no one could be so hard, so unapproachable as to be unaffected by what He has done; it is bound to break through the hardest exterior and affect the heart.

If we think of the term 'sheep', it presents the people of God in that aspect which calls forth compassion and consideration.

• You may think of the highest privilege of christianity – sonship – and you may find a few with whom you can converse on this theme, but the great fact stares you in the face that the mass of the Lord's people knows nothing of that.
  • I do not mean that sonship is not theirs, for it belongs to every saint, but for the moment what is before me is entrance into it spiritually.

• You may speak in the same way of what is priestly, the service of God, and how it is carried on by the maintenance of what God has brought into function.
  • But the great fact remains that the majority of the people of God knows nothing of priestly service.

• But when you think of the sheep, you have no small select company in mind. All the Lord's people come into mind practically – every one; and, as viewed in that character they call forth compassion and consideration.

• The mass have little ability to gather food out of the Scriptures; they are just sheep, and sheep have to be led to their food, to the green grass that grows beside still waters. And not only do they require to be led to their food, but they require those quiet conditions – still waters – before they will feed at all!

• The term 'sheep', thus suggests the people of God in their helplessness, open to attacks from wolves, thieves and robbers. These will prey on them, and they are unresisting. The consideration of this cannot but call forth from every heart something of shepherd instincts and spirit.

I read John 21 in order that we might take account of the exercises of one to whom the Lord committed the feeding of His lambs, and the shepherding of His sheep.

• It is very remarkable – I have often pondered it – that they should be committed to the hand of Peter, as he had a very heavy hand. Yet there was no diplomacy about Peter; he was impulsive, a man who was marked by speaking first, and thinking afterwards. But there was nothing concealed; all that was in came out.

• It is to this man that the Lord commits His sheep. I would not suggest for a moment that these natural traits that marked Peter gave him any qualification to shepherd the sheep, for there is nothing in nature that qualifies for that service.

• Great wealth, mental power, business ability to conduct and organise affairs will not give you the slightest qualification to shepherd the sheep. All that one would rely on after the flesh must be broken, and natural ability as a qualification set aside, before the Lord can commit the least of His flock to us.

• He makes no mistake in His selection; He does not commit the most precious thing He has on earth, to those who are half-hearted, but to those who are characterised by deep affection. Such was Simon Peter, he was outstanding among the disciples in his love for Christ.

See what the Lord does as His activities here are about to close. He tests Peter, He tests him publicly. Peter has failed, and the Lord probes him that the root may be reached.

• The Lord never tests any one to find out what is there, for He knows what is there, but He tested Peter here – He tests us – that Peter might learn what was there, and that the brethren might know what was there.

• In passing I would remark that I have been interested in noticing how the idea of testing comes out in Peter's epistles. You get the idea of the testing of materials.

• We are tested in public by what we say, and the supreme test here was when the Lord questioned Peter the third time.

• Almost any one could pass his first examination, so to speak, especially those of us who are versed in a phraseology that enables us to avoid mistakes. But the Lord touched Peter a second and a third time, till it says, Peter was grieved.

• Now, the point is, what are you to say when you are grieved? When you are cool and collected and have time to think, when there are no emotions surging up in your heart, tending to take possession of your tongue, it is comparatively easy to answer; but when you are grieved, what are you to say then?

• That is the test, the test of a shepherd. And why? Because every shepherd is going to be grieved – grieved to his very soul, grieved to find, as every true man of God has found, that the more he serves, the more grief he must carry.

How graciously, and yet how wisely the Lord tested Peter! He is a formed vessel now, the product of divine teaching, and he will not trust himself to say anything at all about himself without adding that word, Thou knowest that I am attached to Thee.

• It is well to be careful when we speak about our love for Christ, not that we would deny that affection is there, for every lover of Christ would readily answer when the question is raised, Do you love Christ?
  • But when we speak of the measure we have to be careful.

• So Peter, with all his blunders, with all his impetuosity, has the sheep entrusted to him.

• It is interesting to take account of the movements of divine sovereignty, but you will observe they do not travel ahead of the work of the Spirit. There was a time in Peter's history, when he placed himself in the very centre of the picture, so to speak, and said to the Lord,
  • "Lord, with thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death", Luke 22: 33.

• The Lord did not say anything then to him about feeding His sheep, not a word, yet as acting in sovereignty He knew all about what He would do with Peter. But the manifestation of the movement of sovereignty awaits the formation of the vessel, and when Peter is prepared to serve the sheep, the Lord commits them to him.

• Are you seeking some area or sphere of service? Be assured, when your affections are formed for it, the Lord will give it you. For all His movements in sovereignty among the saints, have perfect relation to the measure in which the vessel is formed, the measure in which the flesh and will are broken down, and subdued by the power of God.

When the time comes for Peter's departure from this scene, he writes two letters.

• In the second you get a word which connects the two together: "in both which", he says.

• He speaks of his departure, and he has the greatest concern about what is to happen to the saints after he is gone.

• One loves to see an aged brother, who has borne the burden and heat of the day, one who has a secured place in the affections and estimation of the brethren, manifesting the deepest solicitude as to who is to take up the service of caring for the saints in his room.

• What a comely sight to see such an one not grasping for office and distinction, as it were, amongst the brethren, but thinking of the prosperity of the Lord's interests here when he is gone!

You say, The Lord will prepare some one. He will; but what He does is one thing, and what I have an exercise about is another.

• The Lord can do His work without any of us, if necessary, but the way He loves to do it is by using His people, and I am sure the Spirit of God would search out hearts who have a desire to serve Him.

This is what He looks for – hearts. When He gets one heart, He can build everything on that. He can build intelligence, for a workman must have intelligence as to the whole plan of divine conception.

• He can give you skill, for every workman should be marked by skill, not blundering.

• The Lord can build all that is needed when He gets a heart. Such a movement of surrender that has this end in view, to lay down one's life for the brethren, must come from the heart.

• Mentality and knowledge of doctrine never produce that. They may lead one to seek a place among the brethren, but that is not laying down one's life.
  • Show me a man, or a woman, on the line of laying down his or her life, and I will show you one whom the brethren love, and to whom they give place and respect.

• If we move simply on human lines of intelligence, making use of natural ability, the confidence of the brethren is not gained and their affections are not won.

• One could not but be touched by the most blundering brother that ever sought to serve the saints, if he gave his life for one. So the basis of all shepherd care must be our measure of love for Christ.

• Do not talk of loving Him, if you do not love the sheep; the two go together. And do not talk of loving the sheep, if you are not prepared to take up the daily toil connected with their welfare.
  • "Not by necessity", the apostle says, "but willingly", 1 Peter 5: 2.

• If you say, 'I suppose I ought to go and visit a certain brother tonight, but I do not want to', that is "necessity". What should mark service among us is willingness.

Then it goes on, "not for base gain". The Lord will have a word to say to any one who makes a gain of the sheep. He will not have things on that ground;

• willingness and love for the sheep should be seen in all our service.

• I would plead for more shepherd care for one another. If I were a true shepherd, I should know how every sheep brought by the Lord within my sphere of activity was getting on.

• Sometimes we hear it said, 'There is John So and So, he was breaking bread for twenty years, and suddenly he went into the world and threw everything up'. I express surprise, but had I been a shepherd, I should have seen the way he was going. There would have been that care for, and interest in, him, as there should be in regard of all those with whom we walk.

• As we look at the faces of those with whom we gather locally, we should be exercised to have some knowledge of the spiritual welfare of each one. How it would help to keep out the wolf. The shepherd resists the wolf.

• A shepherd is not a military term, it is a title that speaks of love that will guard the flock. Oh, how much damage the wolves have done to the flock! If we look abroad among the Lord's people, we cannot but take account of the sorrowful position they are in.

• How has it come to pass? Through the failure of the shepherds. Every door unguarded by shepherd care, becomes a means of access for the wolf, and the wolf does not spare the flock, and so the sheep have been scattered.

• Then there are the false teachers who have turned many aside – teachers who speak every evil in the name of Christ, so that the sheep are not fed, but distracted by men speaking perverted things to draw away the disciples after them.

All the terrible things in christendom arise in the main from the failure of the shepherds. No company of the Lord's people can walk together, and be sustained and added to, apart from shepherd care.

• You go home perhaps many a night tired and weary, and you would fain sit with comfort at your own fireside, but you think of the sheep and you rise up and go forth, not of necessity, but willingly, to care for them.

• All is done on the basis of sacrifice. If the care you expend on the sheep does not cost you anything, it is not true shepherd care.

• All is rightly appraised by the Lord, and in the day to come, in the day when He is manifested as chief Shepherd, He is going to single out all those who have cared for His sheep, and give to them an unfading crown of glory. They are going to have in that day a peculiar distinction.

We speak of glory, but it is not, as some suppose, a great blaze of light in which you can distinguish nothing.

• In the future day when the glory of God is manifested, one of the beauties of it will be the distinctions of glory. It will not be something confused and run together, but the features of it will be distinguished by those who look on. Amongst these distinctions will be the shepherds who cared for the sheep.

• Suppose you say, I have served the brethren for so many years, and they did not appreciate it, and now I will do so no longer. Ah, my brother, you will lose the crown of glory. And remember it is unfading, it will not tarnish like earthly crowns.
  • Paul could speak of his labour for the saints "for three years, night and day, I ceased not admonishing each one of you with tears", Acts 20: 31.

• That is the kind of labour that is acceptable; you can quite understand an unfading crown of glory given to such an one. What marked his service was that it continued; whether he were loved or not, he went on; whether it was appreciated or not, he went on.
  • He said to the Corinthians "Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved", 2 Corinthians 12: 15.

• That is the character of service connected with shepherding, and there is great lack of it, I am assured.

• There is not lack of ministry, there is much light, but there is lack among the Lord's people of godly care for one another's spiritual welfare; and I am sure we can all say, May the Lord promote it among us, for His name's sake.

• These features, if rightly understood, would bring the Lord before us as Object. It is a great moment when He becomes the Object of our thought, desires and activities.

• Unregenerate man is his own object, and refers everything to himself; but the operation of divine grace, amongst many other things, would turn us from ourselves and fill us with Christ as our only Object.

Now one's heart cannot be filled with Christ in a theoretical way.

• One of the features connected with the Lord is substance. We get the word in Hebrews 1, and inferentially in 1 John 1: 1,
  • "That which … we have seen".

• Not that I would convey the idea that the divine essence, or substance, can be seen, but to show that the idea is there, that there is great substance connected with Christ.

• If Christ is the object of our lives, if He is before us at all times, and the idea of substance as connected with Him, then our lives will be filled out. They will have something tangible in them, for the precious detail of the way in which the Lord is presented in Scripture will fill our minds.

In turning to John's gospel we read of the title "the Word". It is a very wonderful title, involving the thought of understanding, or apprehension on our part.

• Here is a glorious divine Person brought before us, who "was with God", and who "was God", but coupled with the expression of His divine greatness, is this most interesting title, "the Word". What does it mean to us?

• We love to speak of Jesus as Saviour, that is a title which has the sweetest, most precious meaning, bringing before our minds certain associated thoughts. There was a need of a Saviour, and this Saviour came to our help in such an appealing, loveable way that we delight in His title of Saviour.

• But then the Lord has many titles, many names. He has one that no one knows – but connected with all His known Names, there is certain teaching for us, for the Name conveys something definite.

• Now I would commend to all, the need of understanding His title "the Word". God is made known in this Person; He has come into expression through "the Word", and His mind is to be known. No angel, however dignified, could undertake the great matter of expressing God, and setting forth the greatness and glory and power of God.

• "The Word" has in view revelation, or speaking, and the speaking is detailed in words; and the words can be written and put down, so that we can turn to them. Their fulness and meaning is so marvellously great that no one could hope to exhaust them.

• So that the Lord is before us under this title "the Word", having in view that God is to be expressed; He is to make Himself known to creatures.

• But God Himself must express His own mind. God Himself must come within man's range. He must be the Speaker, that there may be the full and perfect expression of all that could ever be known of Him.

• Now if God comes down, as presented in John's gospel, He comes down with marvellous evidences of His greatness: not indeed, with external evidences of greatness, sufficiently manifest for the world to receive Christ or know Him, for
  • "the world knew him not", and

    "his own received him not".

• But there were certain marvellous evidences of greatness connected with that Person which it is essential we should understand.

The first is that "in the beginning" He "was".

• Every creature must have a beginning for his thoughts, and a conclusion. We have no power to carry in our minds the thought of things that have no beginning, and no end.

• Men of the world love to trace things back; archaeologists and suchlike persons pride themselves on being able by a few scanty evidences here and there, to trace a thing back to its source. But you notice that whether they talk in millions or billions of years, it is always in units of time.

• Now here is One who, before there was any time, "in the beginning", "was". "The beginning", was not His beginning. Everything else had a beginning. He had no beginning: He "was". He comes before us in His marvellous greatness as the One who "was".

• He is the "I am", to use another title. But here the thought we are to lay hold of is that there is a beginning of all things, but that there is no beginning as to God.
  • "In the beginning was the Word … and the Word was God".

Now, I call your attention to the fact that

• "All things received being through him, and without him not one thing received being which has received being".

• The Lord is before us as the great Giver of all "being".

• Whatever scientists may say, whatever may be thought in the world, there is nothing that has being, but has received it from the Lord. It has all passed through His hands, so to speak; it exists because of Him.

• God lives of Himself. He can live in eternity, He inhabits eternity – Isaiah 57: 15; He is dependent upon no one.

• But everything that has received being has received it from Christ. So that He comes before us as the great and glorious Originator of everything that has being.

Now to pursue further, we read,

• "In him was life, and the life was the light of men".

• The statement "In him was life", brings out another feature of divine greatness. We have no explanation. Our life is dependent on God,
  • "who preserves all things in life", 1 Timothy 6: 13,

• but of this Person it is said that, "In him was life". It is a feature of divine greatness, and having man's apprehension in view, it says
  • "and the life was the light of men".

• When men are in view, you get the idea of "light". So that His divine greatness and these precious features of it, which produce adoration and worship in our souls, come before us in the way of light.

• Light was here in Jesus. Not indeed physical light, as with the sun. For the sun rose and set and followed its ordinary course in the ordering of God while He was here as before.
  • But light which was the outshining of that life which was in Him, shone in a marvellous way to enlighten every man.

• Whatever problems there were in the world, whatever there was of darkness and distance, light was here in Jesus. It shone out in Jesus, and was the expression of His life, for,
  • "In him was life, and the life was the light of men".

• John the baptist draws attention to this light; it is a great thing to draw man's attention to the light of God. You can talk to a believer, one that has the Spirit, about the features of divine greatness that attach to Christ. But if you want to talk to men, you must draw attention to the light.

• John was a witness to the light, and he speaks about that light as shining for all men, having all men in view. God came before men in this sovereign way as light, and that light was presented in Christ.

Now the light was refused in two ways:

• "He was in the world, and the world had its being through him, and the world knew him not".

• That is, the world had no knowledge, nor understanding of the light that shone. Then it says
  • "He came to his own, and his own received him not".

• It is important for us all, and especially for young people, to understand that light is not known, nor understood, nor received, without a sovereign work of God in the soul.

• In the ordinary sense, nothing is so apparent as light. If you come into a dark room, and the lights are switched on, it would not matter what you were looking at, floor, or ceiling, or persons, you would be conscious at once of light.

• But the Lord Jesus came here, the One who made the world. Surely the world He made will perceive and understand! The world was full of wisdom of its own in that day, full of learning, full of enquiry: but strange to say, this glorious Person with all the light that radiated from Him, passed through the world unknown, or refused by the world!

• God has expressed Himself before men, and that expression is perfect and full, and marked by the dignity that attaches to a divine Person. But when Christ came He was not known in the world, and was refused by those who should have recognised Him. We learn, however, from verses 12 and 13 that to
  • "as many as received him, to them gave he the right to be children of God, to those that believe on his name; who have been born, not of blood, nor of flesh's will, nor of man's will, but of God".

• Here you get the thought of a family – not sons, but children born of God. The thought of birth is not connected with sonship, as regards us, for we are sons by adoption. God brings in children, and they receive Christ.

• "As many as received him", it says, suggesting that God is counting them with divine care. And then we get this marvellous explanation of what underlies that. They were "born … of God".

• God has worked sovereignly to produce a family, and in that family everyone has received the Lord Jesus, everyone has believed on His name. They all have faith in Him, and God has given them "the right to be children of God". It is a right that Scripture says we have, but God has given us that right.

We have these two thoughts, the world that "knew him not", with all its wisdom and attainment; and the Jew, the carefully cultured man, "received him not".

• But then you get a sovereign movement that is absolutely of God, the will of God asserts itself. God can always come in at a crisis and call attention to His will. When a thing is not, He can say, 'I will', and it is. There is no one like God!

• In a crisis like this, when there is complete refusal of, or ignorance as to, all that God would present to men, He can meet it by His will; He can meet every crisis by His will.

• If you study this gospel, you will find that the ministry connected with John – and the presentation of the divine system in it – is connected with the will of God, not with faithfulness on the part of men.

• John's gospel comes in after Laodicean conditions have been fully developed. He presents the assembly, not in name, but in all it's living character and associations here on earth, answering to the will of God. John himself represents the thought,
  • and of him the Lord says, "If I will that he abide until I come, what is that to thee?", John 21: 22.

• So here God meets this crisis, this apparent obstruction, by bringing in the great basis of His will by means of which He secures a family, and in it every one has received Christ – that is our side.

• It means that we have received Him in all His greatness; not simply that we have received Him as Saviour, but having some conception of His divine greatness. Then as set in the family of God, we learn the affections proper to that.

• It is the divine school in which to learn the greatness of Christ; by conversation with one another we promote these holy and great thoughts of the Lord in our minds and hearts. We thus come to understand in measure what we have received.

• We receive Him: in this sense it is a complete idea; but to know whom we have received and all His greatness takes a lifetime.

The next thought before me is connected with nearness. Greatness is one idea: nearness is another. So we read in verse 14,

• "the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us".

• How wonderful to think of this glorious Person coming into this condition, and dwelling among us. The term "among us", shows that He would, by the help of the Spirit of God, come under our notice, in conditions that could be understood, He "became flesh".

• As I think of God dwelling in unapproachable light, beyond the realm of all created beings, I say, what a wonderful thought! But in that realm we cannot be brought near, it is "unapproachable". It is a moral idea, as I understand it, that
  • God clothes Himself "with light as with a garment", Psalm 104 2.

• But now, the Word, the One who is the expression of the mind of God, the One who was God, has come down here amongst men as a Man. That is what is conveyed by the words, He "became flesh", it was His own doing, He was not 'made' flesh, He "became" flesh.
  • It was a sovereign, divine action – another expression of the greatness of the Person.

• I could not come into some other condition, no matter how much I wished it; but He "became flesh" that He might dwell amongst men; that He might be known in this tangible nearness, He became Man!

• An angel could not express nearness. I could not sit down, or dwell, with an angel. I know little about angels, but this glorious Person, who in His own essential form of self-existence could never be approached, came down into manhood condition.

• He became flesh and dwelt among us, and men were not afraid – they were not terrified, they were at ease. They were so at home with Him, that they took notice of what was personal to Him.

• The ability to take note of what Jesus does and says, to take account also of the holy nearness and blessedness of His relations with the Father, is a feature of the family of God.
  • John says, "we have contemplated his glory".

• The princes of this world saw no glory; they looked upon the Lord critically, but they saw no glory.

• Think of the Pharisee in Luke 7: 39, who said, "This person if he were a prophet;" what words to use in speaking of the Lord! But if the world, and the Jew, saw nothing,
  • the children of God saw a marvellous glory, not only something of interest, but glory!

• Glory is a remarkable term in Scripture. It indicates the excellence of what is presented, and is linked up with complete, full development. When the heavenly city comes down out of heaven from God, it has the glory of God, it will be manifested glory.

• The glory referred to in John 1: 14 is not that which the world took notice of, it was the glory of "an only-begotten with a father". The disciples contemplated this glory.

• When the Lord Jesus spoke of His Father, the Jews would have stoned Him. They charged Him with blasphemy, that He, being a Man, made Himself equal with God.

• But within this family circle, the persons who received Him, who had been given right to take the place of children of God, are filled with the sense of glory,
  • the "glory as of an only-begotten with a father, full of grace and truth".

• What a contemplation, what nearness! So near had He come that His movements are known, and His words are heard as He speaks to the Father. How He loves the Father, how He praises the Father – and these things can be taken account of. It is a glorious contemplation.

• It is not unapproachable light, it does not repel; it fills the soul with contemplation. And this marvellous relationship and glory as of an only-begotten with a father, is connected with His manhood, and with the thought that "the Word became flesh".

All this is not merely something to be looked at, but things are to be heard.

• We pass on from the thought of tangible nearness, to that of affection and intimacy, suggested in the bosom of the Father.
  • It says, "No one has seen God at any time".

• That is always true, viewing God as in absolute Deity; but attention is drawn to the fact that God is declared. This gospel is largely taken up with the idea of declaration. Declaration involves hearing on our part. Attention is called to that in chapter 5 and elsewhere.

• And how is God declared? By
  • "the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father".

• Our second heading had in view how near Christ came to us, but I think the third point shows us how near He was to the Father, as He declared God. This is not connected with unapproachable light, but with nearness and intimacy.

• It is affection in its most precious presentation – the bosom of the Father. It indicates the place the Lord Jesus had when down here as a Man: that was His place in the Father's affection; that was the nearness that was His, even "in the bosom of the Father". You could not have an idea expressing greater nearness than that.

• "The bosom of the Father", was His place as Man, and it was from that place that He declared God. He would make known the secrets of that place! We can enter into that which corresponds to it now. He was in the bosom of the Father in an absolute way. He is a divine Person;
  • but John would show us in chapter 13 that we can be in the bosom of Jesus; and the bosom of Jesus is what corresponds, for us, with the place the Son has in the bosom of the Father.

• That was available for John – the bosom of Jesus! A man who had had his feet washed was there, and consciously there. He was as near as that, and could contemplate the greatness of that glorious Person, who "became flesh", and tabernacled here among men.

• The Person who is "the Word", has come down into manhood that men might be in this holy nearness to God, to know Him as Father. What intimacy of love! These things are set before us, in this objective way, for our contemplation.

• If we have vague thoughts of Christ, and are still trying to stimulate ourselves to love Him more, the way to arrive at definiteness, is to contemplate the greatness of this Person; and to keep in His company, for you could not have thoughts like these in your hearts without corresponding holiness.

• As you ponder these features they will fill your soul, and the Lord will be known in your heart in a definite, substantial way. So that if somebody was to say to you, What do you see in Christ? You would be able to say with John: not even the world itself could contain the books, if all the things which Jesus did were written.

• I believe that what was in the mind of John was that that should be one of the characteristic features of the family of God, that everyone of us should have that impression of His greatness. It may be that I know so little about Him, that I could put it all into a very small book. But John would give us the sense and conviction that
  • "there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which if they were written one by one, I suppose that not even the world itself would contain the books written", John 21: 25.

• We could never exhaust or complete the marvellous detail of all that is connected with this glorious Person, who chose to come near to us in this tangible, intimate way so that He might be known.

• He wants everyone of us to know Him like this, not to be content with a distant knowledge, but to know Him in all the nearness and preciousness of the way He is presented in this chapter.

May He become the definite Object of all our thoughts and all our desires.

I want to dwell tonight on the significance of the last of these movements – the Lord taking His place on high.

• Now this section of the Acts deals with the detail, and I should like to say a few words about the setting of these chapters, in order that you may follow what is on my mind.

• At the stoning of Stephen, the Lord Jesus was finally and definitely rejected by the Jews. He was rejected in His ministry and service to the nation, and on the cross He was cast out as worthless.

• But here we find that He is seen in the vision of Stephen as standing at the right hand of God. He is standing, you will observe, not yet seated; and the testimony of Stephen to the nation was that he saw the heavens open and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.

• The Person whom they had rejected in His humiliation and reproach, was now in circumstances of power and glory, but He was not yet seated at the right hand of God. That is, He had not finally taken up His new position,
  • and the fact that He is standing there suggests that from the glory, the Lord Jesus would make one more appeal to Israel.

• What an appeal it was! A marvellous appeal! The words of testimony came from the lips of a man who was very like Christ.

Stephen was a man who was formed in the moral features of Christ. Have you ever noticed how like the Lord he was when he died? It says of him,

• "And they stoned Stephen, praying, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit", Acts 7: 59.

• You remember what the Lord said:
  • "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit", Luke 23: 46.

• Here is a man, a follower of Jesus Christ, about to die a martyr's death, and what we see in him are the features and spirit of Christ. Stephen, however, could not possibly say, what no other but the Lord could say, "Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit": but he could say,
  • "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit".

• That was as far as any other man could go. And then it adds,
  • "Kneeling down, he cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge", Acts 7: 60.

• One is reminded of the loud voice with which the Lord Jesus cried when He was on the cross, indicating that He went out, not at the point of utter weakness and exhaustion, but at the point of strength. In that respect we see how much Stephen is like the Lord. And then when he said,
  • "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge",

    it recalls what Jesus said,

  • "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do", Luke 23: 34.

• Stephen could not go further than, "Lord, lay not this sin to their charge". You see how iniquity and evil in the hands of men had progressed.

• The Lord Jesus accredited them with ignorance – He said, "They know not what they do;" but Stephen has to say, "Lay not this sin to their charge".

• The sin was that they were about to slay Stephen, and so reject and refuse the appeal of the One who stood at the right hand of God.
  • "And having said this, he fell asleep".

Now from that point onwards you will find a great change in the character of things in this book of the Acts.

• Previously the great burden of the testimony, given by those who preached, was that Jesus is the Christ; but having been made, as we are told, "both Lord and Christ", we get the introduction of a new phase in the activity of the Lord Jesus.

• From that new position we find Him moving as Lord, and directly active from the right hand of God as Lord. Over and over again in chapter 8, you get the reference to the Lord. It says,
  • "they were baptised to the name of the Lord Jesus", verse 16;

  • then, speaking "the word of the Lord", verse 25;

  • "the angel of the Lord", verse 26;

  • and then "the Spirit of the Lord", verse 39.

• Thus we get in the chapter four suggestions, four features, connected with the lordship of Christ, as exercised from heaven at the right hand of God.

1. First of all, the name of the Lord – authority is connected with the name.

2. Then we get the word of the Lord – light is connected with the word.

3. The angel of the Lord speaks of His intervention, His power to use angelic agencies in intervention on behalf of His people.

4. And then finally you get the Spirit of the Lord, which is connected with the power that sustains His people.

• But I do not wish to dwell on those features, although they are full of the deepest interest. I only call attention here to the fact that the prominent thought throughout chapters 8 and 9, and onward, is that
  • the Lord Jesus from the right hand of God is now directly taking control of the situation.

The first thing that happened after the stoning of Stephen was that the disciples were scattered everywhere.

• It was the first general persecution of the saints; a movement, I do not doubt, of the enemy. Satan had seen on this earth, on the very spot where the feet of Jesus had trodden, a man who was exactly like Christ, like the Christ whom he had succeeded in putting out of this world.

• Here on this earth was a reproduction of Him – a man who could live and die like Christ – and at once the forces of evil are stirred up to greater activity, and this great persecution began which scattered the saints.

• But what is so helpful to see in regard of all Satan's movements is this, that the Lord allows him to go so far, and whenever Satan makes a move, it only serves to bring to pass something which the Lord Himself desired.

• The result of this persecution was that the saints were scattered, and they preached the word everywhere. Thus you see the first great result of the Lord's movements from on high is this, that evangelical activity is established as one of the great features of the kingdom of God. It says that Philip announced the glad tidings of the kingdom of God.

• And as we see this great effort on the part of the saints to reach out to men – they preached everywhere – so we see also in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus an evidence of the subduing power of the Lord Jesus Christ, as active from the right hand of God.

Paul speaks of himself as the chief of sinners. When the chief of sinners can be subdued by the activity of the Lord, we do not need to fear to approach any man.

• There is not one remaining in the domain of darkness but can be subdued by the power of the Lord Jesus. He has power to subdue all things to Himself.

• Here, at the very beginning of this phase of things, the Lord manifests His power by reaching out His hand to one in the very stronghold of Satan, taking him who was chief and leader in the persecution of the saints, and bringing him right down to the earth.

• Now Paul is secured; he is the great vessel of the testimony as it is connected with the assembly. You will find that comes out later. At this moment he is secured in the kingdom, and for the kingdom, by the power of Him who is now supreme.

Now we come to the passages I read, where we get the activity of Peter.

• What I really have on my mind is this, that the kingdom of God is functioning today.

• It was functioning in that day, and it is doing so in this day with the same power, and there is no moral disease connected with sin, there is no power of evil as it presses upon men, but the kingdom of God can give deliverance from it.

• Peter finds out this man who had lain upon his couch for eight years. In the second instance I read, they send for Peter – two men go for him – but in the first instance Peter finds the man. It shows the two sides of activity in the kingdom of God.

• Now this man Aeneas, is not exactly a type of a sinner being converted, but rather of one who is in the kingdom, but who is not getting all the gain and blessing connected with being there.

• Many of God's people are in that case today, that is, they are not getting all the gain from the kingdom of God, that the Lord would have them get, and it is of very great interest to notice what Peter says to this paralytic man. It is this,
  • "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee".

• Peter does not say, 'Jesus, the Christ, will heal thee'. What he emphasises is the present bearing and functioning of the kingdom of God, in the power which proceeds from the right hand of God.

• The thing was operative and operating, it was going on, it was present, and Peter would make Aeneas acquainted with it. He says, "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee".

• I hope you see the bearing of that, particularly the younger ones, for it is a great thing to apprehend that the kingdom of God is acting in real living power from day to day.

You remember the case of the impotent man who is spoken of in the gospel of John. It says that he had had his infirmity for thirty-eight years.

• When the Lord found him, he began his sad and sorrowful story, that he waited for the moving of the waters, when at a certain season an angel came, and there was healing for the one who stepped down first.

• That kind of intervention was only an occasional one; it was not in force all the time.

• But what Peter brings to bear on this paralytic man is that the power to heal is available, it is present, it is going on all the time –
  • "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee".

    And then he goes on,

    "Rise up, and make thy couch for thyself".

• Now, let us see just what this incident stands for. Here is a man in the kingdom of God, and what marks him is that he is lying upon his couch.

• I believe he represents those who only travel in the kingdom of God to the point that they apprehend the comfort and support that there is in it.

I should like to make that plain. There are many who know nothing more of the power of the kingdom of God, than what is connected with the relief side.

• They have found the forgiveness of sins – that is a matter of relief – very great relief, but how many there are who stop at that point!

• Let me ask you, dear fellow-believer, is this all that you have apprehended in Christ? You may say, 'It is a great deal'. It is, surely, but how much more there is in Him!

• Here was this man who had been lying for eight years on his couch, paralysed. What a picture of thousands of the Lord's people today! They are marked by the couch, by repose and rest. The couch is all right, but it is a bad thing to lie on for eight years!

• What the kingdom of God did for this man was to strengthen him to make his couch; the man became stronger than the couch, through the apprehension of the power that is in Christ to heal.

• The couch was all right in its place. That is, the kingdom will give us all the comfort and rest that we need. But there is something more in the kingdom of God than that,
  • there is the power to bring about movement and life and vitality, so that the man himself should control the situation, and make his own couch.

• I hope you have followed that point, because it is of the deepest significance.

• How many young people there are who apprehend the forgiveness of sins, and move no further! How many there are who go through the greater part of their life, marked by paralysis. They have not apprehended the testimony:
  • "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee".

• The bearing and import of His position today at the right hand of God, is that healing is going on every day, and all day, not only at a certain season. The operative power is present and faith should take hold of it.

• This man is not exhorted to pray, he is not told to ask for something, for the thing that he needed was there. The kingdom was there in active power for him, and what he is told to do is to avail himself of it – to rise up and make his couch.

Now, are you praying, dear fellow-believer, for some mighty power to take hold of you, and lift you out of a condition of paralysis, out of a condition in which you are making no spiritual movement and progress?

• Let me tell you the power is at your very door. You do not need to pray for it, but you do need faith and energy to take up and lay hold of all that is involved for you in the Lord's position at the right hand of God.
  • "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee".

• There it is, there is the bearing of it, it is before us now. If any one here is sitting before the Lord in a condition of paralysis – helplessness, having made no movement of soul for years –

• the power and bearing of the kingdom are at their disposal.
  • "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee".

I pass on now to the second incident, where we find a woman. What marks Dorcas is that she is full of good works.

• It is a good thing to do good works – Scripture makes much of them – but good works of themselves, and by themselves, are not sufficient to sustain a soul in vitality before God.

• This woman was full of alms-giving, and good deeds, but she died. There was no power in them to sustain life.

• Ah, we have to learn that life must be sustained from day to day. Formality and routine, even in alms-giving and in good works, will not sustain us.
  • Life can only be sustained as we are livingly in touch with the One who is at the right hand of God.

• So this woman died; the end of the story of all her continuous services to the poor is that she died; it is a sad end.

• Now the power of the kingdom comes in. They send for Peter, and he comes into the presence of this dead woman. We are told that the widows were there, and that, weeping, they showed him the body-coats that Dorcas had made; it was a scene of death.

• Now Peter puts all the widows out. They had been all right at the time of her activity in alms, and in good deeds, but the widows – we can but judge – were not sympathetic with life. They speak of what is connected with death; and Peter puts them all out.

• They do not represent those who have apprehended the power of the kingdom of God to sustain life. Christianity is a living system. It is to be marked by life and vitality, hence all that is unsympathetic with what Peter is about to do is excluded.

• It is of interest that when he restores Dorcas, it says he restores her to the "saints and the widows".
  • The saints would be indicative of that element which would support life.

• The widows are not excluded altogether, but the good works which should be connected with our christian life are put in their proper place; they are not to have the whole place. If they have the whole place, the result will be spiritual death, but when put in their proper place, the saints come first and the widows afterwards.

What suggestions flow out of these scriptures for every one of us! It is a very wholesome question to ask ourselves, How are we getting on? What are we finding in the Lord? Are we finding enough in Him?

• If we do not find enough in the Lord, we shall look elsewhere. Something is going to fill our lives, and we may be sure that every corner of our lives that the Lord does not fill something else will fill.

• Satan's world is full of what is attractive. He has many cunning devices for turning the Lord's people aside. God means to fill your life, and to fill it full with Christ.

• If that is so, we shall not die in all the routine of habit and custom and good works. We shall not be found paralysed at a time when vitality and movement should mark us. All these things are in the kingdom now.

• What I should like to impress upon you is that all these things are actively in operation now; they are going on. If I do not get them it is my fault, for they are there.
  • They are there for every one of us, and they are there in the form of a kingdom; not as an isolated intervention on the part of God.

• But they are there in something – in a vast blessed system that is functioning every day of the week, and is sustained by the blessed Man at the right hand of God – and it is there for every one of us.

Now in the light of this, let us all ask ourselves if the things that are thus available are really in our possession.

• What a man Aeneas would be to walk with! He had a couch, but he had learned how to make his own couch; he knew how to rise up from it. He would know how to rest in all the comfort and support of the kingdom, but he would no longer be a man who would stop at that.
  • He would know something of the liberty of the movements of the kingdom of God.

• What a thing it is, under God's hand, to be found in liberty, able to explore all the vast range of blessing that there is in Christ! What an expanse our eyes are opened upon, when we see there is something more in christianity than just the meeting of our needs! Aeneas would be a man like that.

• And what a woman Dorcas would be! I do not suppose she stopped making her body-coats, or ceased her alms-giving; but she had come under the power of the kingdom, and she would know that there was more in the kingdom than giving alms; there was life there.

• Oh, dear young believer, the Lord Jesus can sustain you in life! He can make every day to you a living day! He can give you something fresh from Himself every day! Do you know that the day that does not bring some fresh impression of Christ is a lost day?

• You know what the thought of life is if you have a garden. At a certain season of the year, you go out and you see something fresh every day. The bud of yesterday is the flower of today. Things are living; they are moving. This is what marks the kingdom of God.

• It is possible to substitute the habits of formality for the movements of life. We can go on with a routine, which may be outwardly correct and good enough.

• But the great test as to whether I am in the gain of the kingdom of God is this, that no enemy can take an inch of territory from me, and that every day is a living day.

The import and bearing of that expression, "Jesus, the Christ, heals thee", should be upon my spirit every day. It expresses the power of the kingdom.

• Satan would seek to put his mark upon us; he would seek to limit us, and to restrict us in our enjoyment of all that is in Christ.

• But there is power in the kingdom of God to meet all that – power to make your life a full life.

• We live in a day when most of those who are moving with the Lord have the impression that He is soon coming for us. There may be but few days remaining to us. What are we going to do with these days?
  • If we are content with merely going to meetings we may be like Dorcas, and die.

  • If we are content to have the comfort side of the kingdom only, we shall be like Aeneas, lying paralysed on a couch.

• But if we come under the precious shining of Christ, the mighty power of the Man who sits at the right hand of God, who has been made Lord, in whom all authority and power are vested, we shall taste the reality of what life according to God is.
  • The Lord is exercising His power for the protection and the encouragement and the enlargement of His people.

• Now, are we sitting under the shining of Jesus? Do His things look attractive and precious to us? Are they becoming more so, as the days go by? If they are not, then let us see to it.

• Remember, it requires no special intervention of God to help any one of us in this condition, for the power is already there. The kingdom of God is active in power, and in order to get the gain of it, we have only to take up in faith what is lying at our very door available for us.

• The Lord help us that we may be sustained in living conditions, finding that He is enough to fill our lives, to fill them so full that there will be no room for anything else.

The first thing I would call attention to is that Christ is Lord by divine appointment, as it says in Acts 2: 36

• "God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ".

• This is a divine appointment which must be recognised, and bowed to by every man.

• True, the Lord is not asserting His rights as Lord publicly in the world today. Were He to do so it would mean the end of the world-system, and the judgment of all who refused to bow. For when He publicly asserts His rights, He will do it with all the authority and power connected with His place as Lord.

• He is, however, bringing the claims of His lordship to bear upon His people, so that they may come into the gain of the kingdom of God now by responding to those claims.

The thought of lordship is connected with the individual pathway of God's people, and has to do with the wilderness, whereas headship is connected with what is collective.

• In all that pertains to our responsible path, we are called upon to recognise the authority of the One who is Lord and Christ. While this, as I have remarked, has relation to the individual, yet it is universal in its bearing.

• The context of the scripture we have read shows that representatives of the three great divisions of Noah's family – Shem, Ham and Japheth – are brought into blessing as under the authority of the Lord;
  • showing that the Lord's activities at the right hand of God are not restricted to one nation or race, but that as Lord He has universal rights which extend to all men, and which He can enforce at any moment.

There are two simple thoughts connected with lordship, namely, authority and administration. Authority comes first.

• We have a beautiful type illustrating these, and showing the setting of the two thoughts, in Joseph in Egypt.

• He was put in the place of authority, and the people were told to regulate themselves by his commandment – Genesis 41: 40 – and when the time of famine came, the word of Pharaoh was, "Go to Joseph", Genesis 41: 55.
  • There we see the combination of authority and administration.

• Authority is necessary as a prelude to administration, in order that the blessing might be made available. What is in Christ is to be made available; that is, the administrative side of the kingdom, and it is made available for the very humblest.

There are four distinct features of the kingdom of God, which are suggested in the verses before us. They are,

1. the name of the Lord,

2. the word of the Lord,

3. the angel of the Lord,

4. and the Spirit of the Lord.

• These expressions refer to great things, and I trust that grace may be given me to speak of them in such a way that our affections may be touched.

• I shall speak first of the name of the Lord. I wonder if we realise what an asset we have in the name. It is more than a designation or a description, which identifies a certain person in our minds.

• It carries with it the thought of the authority and power connected with that blessed Person at the right hand of God. The name involves the setting forth in testimony of all that was presented personally in Christ.

• The name of the Lord is a priceless possession for His people. It is said to be a strong tower, into which the righteous run and are safe.

I wish now to bring forward some examples, showing the authority and power of the name.

• You will recall that in Acts 4: 7, when Peter and John were called upon by the rulers to give an account as to the healing of the lame man, the challenge they had to meet was this, "In what power or in what name have ye done this?"

• If men do not realise the value of the name of the Lord, the powers of darkness know something of its power! What disturbed the minds of these religious leaders was that another name was being witnessed to amongst men.

• Behind that name was the authority of a kingdom greater than the kingdom of darkness, a kingdom that was not powerless in face of all man's need, but which carried with it the power of healing in the name.

• That name will be a passport to us; it will enable us to travel among men untouched and unscathed, even where the powers of darkness seem to be supreme. The confession of the name will bring salvation. Romans 10: 9.

• There is no power in saying that we hold certain religious views. A Unitarian, who denies the deity of Christ, could say that; the power is in the confession of the name.

I refer to another example of the power of the name. It is recorded of Saul of Tarsus, that as he travelled to Damascus, suddenly there shone round about him a light out of heaven, and falling on the earth, he heard a voice.

• There was something about that voice that affected Saul of Tarsus. He had never heard anything like it before; there was something about it that brought these words to his lips:
  • "Who art thou, Lord?"

• These words would not come lightly, or easily to the lips of that haughty, proud Pharisee, now lying on the earth. The voice he heard indicated that the Person who spoke was "Lord". He spoke with an authority that could not be denied.
  • The Lord answered, "I am Jesus".

• What a precious disclosure to know that Person as Jesus – the name that speaks of His lowliness, of His down-stooping love, of His service to man! How our hearts are touched with the appealing grace connected with it!

Then another instance we find in Mary, in John 20: 2, when she went to the sepulchre to seek Jesus.

• "They have taken away the Lord", she said.

• So far as Mary knew He was but a dead Man, but dead or alive He was her Lord. The limits of His lordship to her were not defined by death, and death was no interruption of His authority over Mary. Dead or alive, He was Lord to her.
  • "Tell me where thou hast laid him", she said, "and I will take him away", verse 15.

• What a proposal for a poor weak woman to make! Where could she take Him? What could she do with One who was dead? Mary's love recognised no limitations or barriers. She would undertake anything to have her Lord.

Another example is found in Thomas. He was not with the other disciples when Jesus came and stood in the midst; and he was unbelieving when told that others had seen the Lord.

• Thomas had accepted the Lord as living and moving amongst men, but was not prepared to accept Him without special manifestation, as having passed through death into the triumph of resurrection.

• But there came a time, eight days after – a long period to miss the gain of the risen Lord – when Jesus came again with a special word for Thomas, and then Thomas said,
  • "My Lord and my God", John 20: 28.

• He now knew that the Person who stood before him in resurrection life was his Lord.

One more example occurs to me, this time showing the power of the name, not only over an enemy or a follower, but over one who, it might be said, had prior rights.

• In Luke 19: 29-36 the Lord sent two of his disciples to bring the colt that was tied. And as they were loosing the colt, its masters said to the disciples,
  • "Why loose ye the colt? And they said, Because the Lord has need of it".

• The name of the Lord was at once the authority for taking the colt. It was not an enemy who was challenging the disciples, but those who thought they had prior rights. But even then, when that word came, "The Lord has need of it", there was an end of all priority.

• Let me make a simple application. Many a time the Lord Jesus has laid His hand on a boy or a girl in an unconverted family. Perhaps the Lord's right to take the first place in that young person's heart has been challenged by parents.
  • But all prior rights and claims, of whatever character, have to give way to the Lord's supreme claim.

• It is no use trying to resist it, for what the Lord claims He holds. What I wish to show by these examples is the way the Lord sets Himself that we might be brought within the sphere of His authority.

Then there is a striking scripture in the Acts, showing the power of the name as restraining the activities of evil powers.

• "And certain of the Jewish exorcists also, who went about, took in hand to call upon those who had wicked spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, I adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches", Acts 19: 13.

• Notice that it was the name of the Lord Jesus they took in hand to call upon them, but what they actually said was, "I adjure you by Jesus" – not the Lord Jesus.
  • The word says: "no one can say, Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit", 1 Corinthians 12: 3.

• That is a plain, positive statement. I have been about the world a bit, and into some rough places, and I have heard men curse, using the names of divine Persons in many varieties of blasphemy, but I have never heard a man curse in the name of the Lord Jesus.

• In the name of Jesus? Yes, in the world that precious name is only considered fit to add point to some filthy jest, but the apostle affirms that no man can say Lord Jesus, unless in the power of the Holy Spirit.

• Those seven sons of Sceva could effect nothing; they were overcome, and fled naked, and wounded. The evil spirit said to them,
  • "Jesus I know, and Paul I am acquainted with; but ye, who are ye?", Acts 19: 15.

• The powers of darkness know well and recognise the power of the name of the Lord.

What an asset that name is to us! You may say, as I have done many times, I have not the courage to confess the name;

• but "God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power", 2 Timothy 1: 7.

• Cowardice is not replaced by bravery, for that is but a human quality; God would replace the spirit of cowardice by power, and power is of God. It is the power of the kingdom of God behind the name of the Lord Jesus that gives it authority and recognition in the darkest corners of the kingdom of darkness.

• That power will see you through the world. It may not deliver you from persecution or suffering, for that is not the intent of the kingdom of God, but it will make you superior to such enemy manifestations:
  • "The kingdom of God come in power", Mark 9: 1.

• The martyrs were not delivered from torture, and death, but they went out in triumph and victorious – a greater thing than having their lives preserved.

• Life is in the hands of God, and the enemy can only touch it if allowed by God, but the all-important matter is to be saved, that is, made superior to the influences that hold men as away from God.

• There is much precious blessing to unfold to us, but to enjoy these divine unfoldings, we must be delivered from the power of sin, and the world.

I now turn to the second feature suggested, in verse 25, namely, the word of the Lord.

• The significance of all these features, in the way we are considering them, is that they are linked with the Lord.

• The word of the Lord covers the holy Scriptures without a doubt, and would include also whatever communication the Lord would make to our hearts from the Scriptures in the power of the Spirit. The Lord deals with each one of us with infinite skill.

• He knows just the right moment in our histories to give us a certain bit of light. The light was there all the time; it is not something added, but the Lord knows when to give it to us, so that we may be kept in spiritual movement.

• For His thought for us is that we should be kept moving spiritually all our days.

The thought behind the expression, the word of the Lord, as I understand it, is that the word has all the authority of the Lord.

• Even in the religious world today the Scriptures are not accepted as having authority.

• Men talk as though the word of the Lord was submitted to them for analysis and criticism, to see if it is worth accepting. So they discard and dissect and refuse, the divinely inspired utterances at the whim of so-called scientific criticism.

• But the Scriptures come to us with all the authority of the One who sits at God's right hand. It is not a question of whether I am prepared to accept them. There they are, and they stand accredited with all the authority of the Lord, and we cannot disregard them.

• Hence, if the Lord is pleased to give us light which involves any change in our ways, in order to bring our manner of life into accordance with the light, it is serious to disregard it. For the light is authoritative, and to refuse it may bring us under severe discipline.

• Who can question the Lord's right to discipline His people? Who can deny Him this right? As Lord, He is set to break down all self-will and insubjection on our part, because they stand in the way of His love.

• Disobedience was the first thing that came in to break the conditions connected with the garden of Eden. Now obedience is to mark the entry into the kingdom of God.

• We have to obey the gospel. It is not a question of taking it, or leaving it; the bearing of the gospel is authoritative. It is presented for the obedience of faith, not for analysis, research, or investigation by the natural mind.

• The gospel does not attempt to explain things to the natural mind; it is for the obedience of faith.

I should like to emphasise the authority of the word of God.

• Do not think you can afford to slight or disregard any measure of light that the Lord may give you. The word of the Lord is authoritative, and if we do not take heed thereto, we shall have to come under discipline.

• His love is of such a character that He could not rest content with anything short of having us all for Himself. The lordship of Christ would protect us from every foe, and secure us wholly for Himself. It would put us in a sphere where He can do what He will with us; it would expand and enlarge us in preparation for still greater things.

• We travel through the kingdom of God, so to speak, in order to reach the assembly. In the kingdom we are subdued, and our wills broken, and thus we are prepared to take up corporate relations with each other.

• The assembly speaks of what is for Christ. He gave Himself for it, and only the whole assembly can satisfy His heart. We can thus see the necessity of first coming individually under the subduing power of the kingdom, so that we may be qualified to take up assembly relations, in which the individual is to be merged.
  • If we try to take up assembly relations with unsubdued spirits, we shall be a source of concern, and a hindrance to the Lord's people.

• Would you not like, dear young believer, to grow up comely and straight amongst your brethren, not warped this way or that, but as fitting in with them, and a comfort to them? If you travel by way of the kingdom, under the protection of the name of the Lord, and as submissive to the word of the Lord, when you take up assembly relations you will make progress in that which is so dear to Christ.

• The assembly is not the place where self-will is to be broken; the kingdom effects that. The assembly is connected with the links of affection we enjoy together, and the individual is merged there.

• The assembly is a corporate thought. There is no room or place there for strong individuality. Dominant natural personalities in the assembly are subversive of its workings, which are to the end that Christ should be Leader and supreme.

We are fitted individually in the kingdom to take part in that. If, while being fitted, we acknowledge the authority of the word, it will save much wasted history, and lost time, and perhaps, many bitter tears.

• For if the Lord has to bring us to His own thoughts through an ocean of tears, He will do it. It is not the way His love would select, for He does not afflict willingly. But each one of us has to come under the subduing power of the Lord.

• Some may at the moment be passing through a time of stress, and as they take account of their circumstances, they may not see that the Lord is taking the easiest way, but how could we accredit His love with anything less than that?

• The pricks are hard, when we kick against them. Sometimes there is that about us, and in us, which the Lord has to break down, to make way for Himself, and so the way may seem hard. He will have us for Himself, and He has all the power to effect His pleasure.

• How blessed then to yield to Him, and to enjoy all the precious unfoldings of His love! How blessed to let Him regulate the daily pathway for us with all its details! We cannot say, Tomorrow we shall do this or that. We have to say, If the Lord will, we shall do this or that.

• That does not mean that we should not have concern, and use wisdom in relation to our path, but after we have done all we can do, we have to say, If the Lord will. He has the last word, and has the right to come into our lives, and to adjust or change what is not suited to Himself. What He adjusts may have been long treasured, but He will have the supreme place.

Well, that is what I desired to bring before you on this occasion, to emphasise these two thoughts, the gain to us of the name of the Lord, and of the word of the Lord. If you move on these lines, you will make progress.

• The world will not then hold you for itself, the Lord will have secured you for Himself, and you will be a comfort to the people of God.

What a great thing it would be if some heart in this company tonight were definitely secured for the Lord. In saying that I am not thinking about unconverted persons.

• You may have been converted for many years; you may even be breaking bread, and yet your heart not be wholly secured for the Lord.

• Scripture abounds in examples which show what God can and does effect with one whose heart is devoted wholly to Himself. What an asset it would be, not only to the district in which you reside, but to the assembly of God, if your soul should be wholly secured for the Lord!

I feel sure that some of you young people, as you look around on those who are older, must take cognisance of the fact that some have made soul progress, and others have not.

• I doubt not that you can discern those who have moved with God, by a certain freshness that makes the part they take in the meetings for edification.

• Soul progress and freshness go together, as formality and staleness do. We are privileged to learn, not only from Scripture, but also from what we see worked out in one another.

• If we have fifty of the Lord's people to walk with, it means fifty opportunities of learning, and if we note and feel that some have not moved on in soul history, it is a warning to us to avoid the entanglements that hinder progress.

Now I want to show, dear young people, what I have in mind when I speak of your being secured for Christ.

• It is that you should take up christianity as a living thing every day, as that which actuates you all day, as the controlling feature of your life, and to which everything else is incidental and subservient. That is what marks a heart secured for Christ.

• The intent of divine Persons, in their activities amongst the Lord's people, is that we should be spiritual. In Old Testament times God would be approached only by the priests. They represent spiritual persons, and God wants such. His end is not secured unless we are formed in what is spiritual.

• Piety is a good thing; it is a feature of christian life that Scripture makes much of; but you can be pious, attend meetings regularly, and yet not be spiritual. The distinction between those who get on in their souls, and those who do not, is a question of spirituality.

• How blessed it would be if you made such progress that you stopped at no point short of the divine intention. If Satan can stop us at some point of soul history short of the Lord's thought for us, he has done all the damage he can. But all the influences with which the Lord would surround us would encourage us to move on.

I turn now to the thought of the angel of the Lord. You will recall that we have considered the meaning of the Lord's present place at the right hand of God.

• He is now in the place of authority, so that the fulness of the blessing of the gospel of Christ may be administered to His people. The Lord Jesus has every necessary agency to maintain His activity amongst His saints.

• The thought of "the angel of the Lord" is perhaps more connected with the Lord's movements amongst His people as regards what is providential. For instance, in our chapter, it was the angel of the Lord who spoke to Philip saying,
  • "Rise up and go southward on the way which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza: the same is desert".

• But it was the Spirit that said to Philip,
  • "Approach and join this chariot".

• There you see the distinction; the angel has to do with getting Philip from Samaria to the desert, and the Spirit has to do with the moral work.

The Spirit is always engaged with what is moral or spiritual. I will try and make the distinction between the moral and the spiritual in a moment.

• It was an angel of the Lord that smote Peter on the side, while he was sleeping in prison, and rousing him up spoke to him, saying,
  • "Follow me", Acts 12: 8.

• It was an angel who appeared to Paul on that night of fear, with shipwreck ahead, and said,
  • "Fear not, Paul", Acts 27: 24.

• In these instances the activities of the angel are connected with the Lord's intervention providentially. The import and bearing to us is this: that the Lord Jesus from His place at the right hand of God knows how to put His people into circumstances, or to take them out of them, in a way best calculated to promote what is spiritual.

• He knows the exact time in our history to bring in some trial, and how to bring in some great pressure, such as the death of a loved one, the loss of a situation, or some other depressing circumstance.

• His object is not to give us the best possible condition of life here, otherwise we should all have health and wealth.

• He uses His power from the right hand of God, to intervene in our circumstances, so that we should get the right kind of exercise to promote what is spiritual. Is the Lord taking you through the desert? If so, it is in view of your being spiritually enriched.

I now come to the second feature, connected with the expression, "the Spirit of the Lord". Administration is connected with the Spirit.

• When the moment came for the ministering of Christ to the eunuch, it is the Spirit who speaks.

• It is in this way we get the gain of the present moment. I trust the Lord will help me in speaking of this side of things, because it is the point where many miss their way. I feel sure that most, if not all of us, have some measure of appreciation of the work of Christ.

• The work of that blessed Person stands out prominently in our minds but I wonder what measure of appreciation we have of the work of the Holy Spirit.

• Yet it is in connection with His operations that the great question of spiritual capacity lies. It is our spiritual capacity that determines the measure of blessing we can contain. Our measure is connected with the Spirit's work.

It is not without significance that the time of the Lord's sojourn on earth was short, and His public activities confined to a very small area.

• In fact as we read the words of Jesus recorded in John 14, we gather the impression that the Lord regarded the day of His presence at the right hand of God, and the Spirit's presence down here in believers, as a greater day for His own than their having Him with them on earth.

• The Lord speaks too, of their doing greater works than He did. From this we see the tremendous importance attached to the presence of the Spirit.

In the religious world around, Satan has well nigh succeeded in taking from the minds of those who profess christianity, all thought of the presence of the Holy Spirit as a divine Person.

• We can learn this from the movements of the enemy, for we are not ignorant of his thoughts. 2 Corinthians 2: 11.

• Whenever you see the enemy concentrating an attack upon a certain feature of the truth, you may be sure there is some definite blessing in that feature.

• I press this because I feel there is lack in this regard amongst those with whom we walk.

The passage read in Matthew's gospel shows that Satanic activity is intensified by the outward cleansing connected with a Christless christianity.

• An unclean spirit is cast out of a man. The great question is what is to take its place, and become the controlling power of the man. The divine thought is that the Spirit of God should take that place.

• If the place is not occupied by the Spirit of God, it will be reoccupied by evil spirits, and not one, but eight. They return and find the place swept and adorned; that is
  • the mere profession of christianity, which, though it brings about certain benefits, yet only makes room for enlarged evil activity.

• What a picture of the religious world today! The name of Christ is but a cover for intensified Satanic activity.

There are three features in Scripture connected with the Holy Spirit.

1. First, His presence here as indwelling the believer;

2. secondly, His activity, or the line on which He moves;

3. and thirdly, His normal work.

Let us consider the first feature – that God, the Spirit, a divine Person, is here in believers, not as an influence as is taught, but as a Person. This is a fact, not merely a doctrine, and a fact of far-reaching importance.

• Paul says, "Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?", 1 Corinthians 3: 16.

• All privilege open to us is consequent on the presence of the Spirit.

• The second feature is the line of the Spirit's activity.
  • "For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh", Galatians 5: 17.

• Here we see the line of the Spirit's activity, always against the flesh.

• The third feature is the normal work of the Spirit, which is unfolded in Colossians and Ephesians. Moral things are unfolded in Romans and Corinthians.

• The distinction between moral and spiritual is that moral things involve the question of good and evil. God has been pleased to reveal Himself, and this has great consequences for men. It brings to light the distinction between good and evil.

• Good takes character from God. It is connected with what God is, and the attendant issues of good and evil that arise out of the revelation of God are moral things.

Now to be spiritual is just this – it is to have capacity formed in us to enjoy spiritual things.

• Our measure of spirituality is the measure in which the Holy Spirit has taken effect in us.

• What I am speaking of now lies beyond the question of flesh working in us, and the Spirit being against the flesh, and the great power in us by which we judge the flesh.

I pass on now to the consideration of the expression, "the Spirit of the Lord".

• You must have noticed in reading Scripture, how many titles are given to the Holy Spirit. We get "the Spirit of God", "the Spirit of God's Son", "the Spirit of Christ", "the Spirit of promise", etc.

• Each title is suggestive of the Spirit's activity in that particular connection.

• The "Spirit of the Lord", refers to the Spirit's activity in making good to us all that the Lord has made available for us. How comforting it is to think that there is One here, in and with the believer, who knows perfectly all that is in Christ.

• If we take account of our measure of knowledge of Christ, it is very small, but what a comfort it is to know that there is a divine Person indwelling believers for the purpose of making known every feature of Christ which has been expressed in Him as Man here. The Spirit knows and treasures every feature of the glory of Christ.

I referred to authority and administration as two features connected with the thought of lordship.

• We now see how administration is going to come into operation. It is by the Spirit of the Lord making available to us what is in Christ as Lord.

• I wonder if we are all learning from that source. Do we all value that source? It is better than books – the means used by man to acquire knowledge. This is what a divine Person makes known to the people of God.

• How shall we ever learn in the flesh and blood condition, in weakness and humiliation here, what Christ is at the right hand of God for us, apart from this divine Teacher? And we do well to note that as the Spirit of the Lord the Spirit is here in all the authority of the Lord.

In another place the Spirit is called "the Spirit of grace", and of some it says they had

• "insulted the Spirit of grace", Hebrews 10: 29.

• As the Spirit of grace, the Holy Spirit is presented in all the grace of Christ. Grace can be refused, the Spirit of grace can be treated insultingly.

• Grace is the Spirit's attitude towards men, not that they see Him or know Him, but the Spirit is perfectly representative of God and as the Spirit of the Lord He is representative of the Lord.

• Hence, if we set aside the authority of the Spirit, we shall miss the gain of Christ's present position at the right hand of God, that is, in other words, the gain of the kingdom.

• We know from other passages that blasphemy against the Holy Spirit is an unpardonable sin. When the Lord Jesus was here men did to Him whatever they would, they hanged Him on a tree; yet it is in the name of the Lord Jesus that forgiveness is preached, but to speak injuriously against the Holy Spirit is a sin that will never be forgiven.

I trust you see now what I am leading up to – that we should get an impression of the importance of the Spirit's presence and activity, and see that He makes good in us what has been made available for us by the work of Christ.

• The way things work out in Acts 8 provides an example of this. The angel of the Lord sends Philip into the desert, that is, he prepares the way, so that administration which is by the Spirit may be carried on.

• Philip was obedient to the word of the angel. As obedient to the Lord's authority, he is now available to the Spirit. The Spirit speaks:
  • "Approach and join this chariot".

• Philip obeys. He is a man under authority; all the conditions are present for the administration, and the empty heart of the Ethiopian eunuch is to be filled.

• There are many of the Lord's people who would be obedient to the angel of the Lord, allowing their path here to be ordered according to His word, but it is a testing question as to how many would accept the direction of the Spirit.

• Are we sensitive to the voice of the Spirit? There may be some here tonight to whom the Spirit has given a deep exercise. How have you answered to it? Are you where you were before the exercise? It is a serious thing not to listen to the promptings of the Spirit of the Lord.

• The Spirit has ways and means of communicating to us, and His voice is often heard in quiet places. Thus the Lord may allow an illness, or a death, to bring about desert conditions, so that the Spirit may communicate to us some spiritual thought and appreciation of Christ.

• I wonder if we should all be available for such an indicated movement as this – for the Spirit to say, "Approach and join this chariot".

• The Lord had His eye upon that eunuch, returning from Jerusalem with an unsatisfied heart. Perhaps He has His eye upon many such. Are we available, sensitive, and obedient to the Spirit's voice, so that Christ might be ministered and those hearts filled?

Now let us see how the Lord works. As they journey the exercise develops in the eunuch's soul.

• Jesus is presented to him as One whose life had been taken from the earth. The glad tidings which Philip announced stand connected with that One. As they journey the eunuch says, "Behold water".

• At the right moment in this man's exercises the water presents itself; not too soon, but while the impress of the glad tidings as connected with One whose life was taken, was upon his spirit.

• The water opens a way, in figure, for the eunuch to follow Christ. "What hinders my being baptised?" he says, as though in his thoughts he saw that he must follow Jesus, and die where He had died.

• The eunuch was a man of position. He was in charge of the queen's treasure, with much to make life here worth while. But something of the attractiveness of Christ, some working which can only be explained as the kingdom of God in power, encourages this man to forego the life that now is and to follow One who had been
  • "led as a sheep to slaughter, and as a lamb is dumb in presence of him that shears him, thus he opens not his mouth".

• It was the working of the administration. Christ was made known to him, and possessing Him, the eunuch went on his way rejoicing.

There is no power like this at work in the world. There are powerful influences at work that appeal to men's cupidity or lust,

• but only the attractiveness of Christ as known in the heart, can cause a man to publicly choose death and burial

• – in the figure of baptism – because the life of Jesus was taken from the earth.

• What a power is connected with the Lord's present place at the right hand of God, and the presence of the Spirit of the Lord here! Moral results are seen. Men look for material results from the kingdom, forgetting that
  • "the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit", Romans 14: 17.

• Though this kingdom deals with moral things, it is not small, its ramifications extend to all nations and countries. The world knows nothing of its existence.

• A sinner turned to God, is not an event worth a place in the world's chronicles, nor do they take account of men and women who own the authority of the Lord, and who find righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

It was on my mind to give some impression of the importance of recognising the presence and authority of the Spirit of the Lord.

• For the Spirit, as such, is the living link and power with a living Man at God's right hand, and with those on earth whom He loves and who love Him.