The House of God and the Gospel
and other ministry
Ministry by J. Taylor
– Part Two

R.S.S. The first intimation of decline was also at Ephesus, Rev. 2.

J.T. God set up the assembly perfectly at Jerusalem and Ephesus. That is to say,

• you could take account of the assemblies in these cities as God's handiwork, and in that point of view they were perfect; there was nothing lacking; everything was supplied.

• Now the apostle in leaving the saints at Ephesus committed it into the hands of men; he committed it to the elders.

• The result is what we see all around us – the ruin, but the witness to the gospel at the outset was in that which was divinely and perfectly set up.

Ques. The church at Ephesus stood representatively at the beginning: does not Philadelphia stand representatively at the end?

J.T. Yes, I think so, but the point in Philadelphia is appreciation of Christ. Philadelphia is not the candlestick, but Ephesus was that representatively.

I think Ephesus was set up more as God's handiwork, to be the candlestick, and in that sense stands for the whole church.

J.P. Philadelphia is the moral recovery of what was true at the beginning, in connection with appreciation of Christ, but not the candlestick.

Ques. Does not Philadelphia really bring out in the end what is suited to the heart of Christ, descriptive of what the church really is?

J.T. Yes, what the church is to Christ. There is nothing public about it, but in Ephesus there was what was public.

• The whole of Asia heard the word of God through Ephesus: the assembly began with twelve men who received the Holy Ghost through Paul. The preaching was by the apostle, but he was of the assembly.

I think it is a great thing to be able to take account of what God established: there was nothing lacking in it when He established it.

Ques. Is it not our privilege now, notwithstanding all the breakdown, to be in the light of it?

J.T. Yes, I think it is our privilege to be in the light of it, but you can never be it.

J.P. I think what we have set before us is most important, for in the minds of many the thought of the gospel has been entirely dissociated from that which God established in perfection in the beginning.

J.T. Yes, but if you will consider the principal gospel parables in Luke, you will find the existence of the house is supposed in them.

J.P. Mention one, please?

J.T. There is Luke 14; that is to say, the "great supper", as we call it. You cannot have a great supper without a house in which to spread it.

• You must have a house with all the equipment necessary for the accommodation of the guests, and I do not think God would be behind in that way, so there it was.

• All things were ready. The parable begins with all things being ready, and at the end it is "that my house may be filled".

• It is so all through the great gospel parables of Luke. Chapter 7 is an exception, but there it is a question of forgiveness.

• Even the parable of the good Samaritan in a sense involves the house; that is to say, the "inn". The idea is there at any rate.

R.S.S. I suppose the thought you had in mind, is that the general idea is to connect the gospel with the individual?

J.P. The individual, as having needs and these being met, you mean?

R.S.S. The individual who proclaims it.

J.P. It applies to both sides – the man that preaches it and those to whom it is preached.

• I do not think there has been the thought, in the minds of many of us, of the connection of the gospel with the house of God, and
  • especially the house of God as established in divine perfection and beauty at the beginning.

• Do you not think the thought of the house of God is really what throws light on Ephesians 3?

J.T. Yes, I think so. "Filled to all the fulness of God", which meant that they were to have the knowledge of God in love.

• They were to be filled to all the fulness of God in order to set forth God adequately – to represent God down here. You cannot conceive of anything else.

• God intended to have representatives down here, and those who were to be such were to be filled with His love.

I think the popular idea of the gospel is pretty much theoretic – very largely a question of doctrine: I should perhaps say a question of creed.

• I think we have a purer creed than others; still, with us it is very largely a question of creed, and I do not think a creed can be the gospel.

• The idea of the gospel is the attitude of God toward man in Christ, and the answer to it is what He had established down here in the power of the Spirit for man's deliverance from the power of evil.

R.S.S. That is, it is vital – a living thing.

J.T. And as such it is that which is brought within the reach of man, so the first gospel address we have is in regard to what is down here,

• in answer to Christ having gone to the right hand of God.

• The repentant Jews would receive the gift of the Spirit, who was already there in the house (Acts 2).

J.P. The Jews did not know what had happened when they heard the disciples speaking under the power of the Spirit of God, and some said they were drunk with new wine.

• Peter rises to the occasion, and tells them what had really come to pass in Jerusalem that day.

J.T. So it takes the character of an explanation; the effect produced by the presence of the Spirit in the saints led to enquiry on the part of the people.

• Hence the form of the gospel address. That is, what God established down here was perfectly capable of arresting the attention of men.

J.P. In 1 Corinthians 14 we get the order in God's house: a simple person coming in would recognise by this that God was there.

J.T. The order of Solomon's house greatly affected the Queen of Sheba.

J.P. Scripture says, "When the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built …".

J.T. I should like to see the saints living according to God. I think we ought to be concerned about the gospel,

• but the first thing is to be formed according to God, so that we should be a testimony to it.

R.S.S. I believe, in general, if what characterises the saints were analysed, you would find they are very largely formed by that which is not according to God.

• They go through an immense deal of exercise that is not really of the Spirit.

• I am sure that we may thank God that He, in the main, has set and maintained us on the right line, on the Spirit's line, and this is most encouraging.

J.T. And the next thing is for us to get together in affection. If we are to be of any help at all to men, it must be as bound together by the Spirit.

R.S.S. And then something vital comes out.

J.T. Preaching and building go together in the scriptures.

J.P. Do you not mean building and preaching?

J.T. Exactly – I did. The building precedes the preaching. Historically the preaching began after the building was formed by the descent of the Holy Ghost.

J.P. The order in verse 31 of Acts 9 is very instructive viz., edification followed by increase, or multiplication.

J.T. I have no doubt the order of Scripture is right. In the case of Noah his preaching depended on his building. Building and preaching went on the same length of time.

• How did he condemn the world? By building. The building was accompanied by preaching, but if he was to condemn the world it was by the building.

J.P. In Hebrews 11 it says, "By the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith". It was his preparing an ark. That was the point.

• "By faith" Noah prepared an ark. The ark, as prepared by Noah, was the condemnation of the world.

Rem. In the case of Nehemiah it was the building of the wall.

J.T. It is wonderful to see how the building of the ark brings out the patience of God. As it is said in Peter, "The longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah".

• It is a very comforting thing in a day like this, and in a country like this, where you see so little result from the testimony.

• In Noah's case he built, and he preached, and appar-ently nobody was affected by his preaching, but then the patience of God came out.

• So it is, I think, if we are in the good of the building, we shall not be discouraged. If in any place you have a company of people bound together in love, it brings a testimony of God to the people of that community.

• No matter how it may be treated, the testimony of God is preserved; the longsuffering of God is demonstrated by it.

Nobody regarded the preaching in the days of Noah; never-theless the ark was built, and completed; and I think God gained His point, in that His longsuffering came out.

Ques. The building of the house of God is the condemna-tion of the world, is it not?

J.T. I think so. It indicates the overthrow of the world-system. That is what the gospel involves.

• If the gospel does not effect the overthrow of the world for us, it has not proved effectual with us.

The establishment of the house of God indicated the overthrow of the world-system. That is really, too, what the ark meant.

Salvation is not for heaven, but from this world. The salvation of the children of Israel involved the destruction of the Egyptians.

• Indeed, in the coming day salvation will mean the complete setting aside of the world-system, and the introduction of a new system.

J.P. He "gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world", Gal. 1: 4.

J.T. The point now is water; that is, baptism.

Ques. Is it not more Judaism in Galatians? Judaism was something God set up for a time, and people wanted to go on with it.

J.T. The world-system, as the Lord found it here, was in connection with Judaism. What gave it all its power was that it was set up by God.

• Now that is to be done away with, and something new is to take its place; and that is, I think, the reason why baptism is so prominent in the Acts.

Rem. Please say a little more about the world-system. I believe people have a wrong idea with regard to the world-system. They look at it more in view of the lusts of the flesh.

J.T. Judaism was that which was established by God, and it was in that way it had all its power.

• I do not say that applies to the present world-system, although God has given the Gentile powers their authority;

• but the world-system of Scripture, that which the Lord had to deal with, was really set up by God, and it had Jerusalem as its centre.

• But it had fallen under the power of Satan, and was in direct opposition to God, as the sequel proved.

J.P. So in John's gospel, the Jew morally is the world.

J.T. What we need to see is that the Lord came into things as He found them, came into what was here. He found a system of things established, which He owned and recognised.

• He did not disown it, but made the most of it, and if He could, would have used it; but He could riot do anything with it. Its true character came out, and as He could not use it, He established a system of His own.

• People do not see that, and hence do not understand the gospel. The gospel involves the idea of an entirely new system; it properly means the coming age, but the coming age took form in the church.

• Every element in the coming age must find an answer in the church. The church took the place, for the moment, of the new system.

J.P. The gospel was, and is, really a divine explanation of what God has brought to pass and established in Christ at His right hand, and in the Holy Ghost down here.

• Not only the old thing judged and destroyed morally, but the new thing established.

Rem. When Noah came out of the ark, he came into a new scene.

J.T. Yes, and he brought every element of the new world out of the ark. When the Lord came into this scene He would have established His kingdom.

• But He was not received, so the whole thing was set aside: then the Lord began anew. He says, "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate".
  • Consequent on this He brings in another house; a house of His own.

• I like to revert to that company of people whom the Lord left down here. Simple fishermen, who had escaped the corruption that is in the world.
  • The world had not formed them at all; they were entirely formed by Christ.

• There was no connection in any shape or form between the world-system and what God set up.

• The glad tidings, the announcement of what the Lord had done, were to be in connection with this new system, of which Christ is the Head.

Rem. The rich and mighty men in the world were not needed in God's system at all, and on the other hand those in His system had no place in the world-system.

Rem. In the case of Paul, all he had as in the world-system was nothing to him among the saints.

R.S.S. All Paul had in connection with the world-system he calls "dung".

J.T. It is remarkable that he went to tent-making afterwards. He did not seem to take advantage of his education at all.

• The thing to get hold of is what suits God; what He intends should represent Him down here.

• And then another thing comes out: all the elements of the coming age were to be carried through and preserved until the time arrives, just as in the case of Noah.

• The idea in the ark was not only salvation, but preservation.

• Eight souls were saved, but we read that Noah was "preserved" in the ark, and everything necessary for the establishment of a new world was also preserved.

J.P. It was a beautiful point our brother brought out when he said that when Noah stepped out of the ark he came into an entirely new scene; everything in it had been brought through in the ark.

• The first great thing after he got out was that wonderful burnt offering: all the substance for it had been carried through in the ark.

J.T. What would Noah have done otherwise? He could not have established a new world by himself. It requires a great many things to establish a world.

• Everything for the renewed earth was carried through in the ark. That illustrates what the church is.

Rem. In the house of God everything is preserved for God.

J.T. Every element of the coming age is preserved in the house. Although the ship in which Paul sailed was actually wrecked, Acts 27, nevertheless all on board reached land safely.

Ques. What answers to the ark now?

J.T. The ark is typical of Christ, but I think also of the church in a way, as I said; the idea is there at any rate.

• When the Lord was rejected, that was the judgment of the world morally. "Now is the judgment of this world". God never reverted to the world again.

• In the meantime, how is God going to preserve His thoughts and purposes? He had given expression to a good many blessed thoughts in Old Testament times. What was going to become of them?

• The Lord intended all these things to be taken up and preserved in the church until the time of the display of the new order arrives.

Rem. All would not take account of the ark as you have spoken of it.

J.T. Any right minded person would admit the flood was a mercy, the only hope for the world.

• If you have a house polluted with every kind of disease, a thorough cleansing would be needed, otherwise everyone in it would die.

• That was the state of the world – polluted – and the only remedy was the flood.

• It was judgment, of course, but a mercy. Everything God does is in mercy; it is the outcome of His love.

• Any right minded person who reads Genesis 6 would say, What a mercy the flood was, the only means of salvation for Noah and his family from that terrible state of things. They were saved through water.

J.P. What must have been the feelings of Noah and his family when they came out of the ark into a new world! Saved from that old world – so horribly corrupted – by that which to the world was judgment.

J.T. And what an infinite mercy baptism is to a man who has a family. Look at the polluted system of things we have to deal with.

Ques. Why do you say, "to a man who has a family"?

J.T. God takes account of your family. If I professed interest in you, you would not take much account of it if I did not interest myself in your family.

• God knows man's heart. If a man has a wife, he loves his wife and children, and God not only saves you, but your house. That is the idea of baptism.

• Baptism is a mercy it means preservation from the present polluted system.

Ques. Would you say salvation to you and your house is not soul salvation, but salvation from this present evil world?

J.T. Yes. The thought of salvation formerly referred to the state of the world; and every person taught of God wants to get out of the world.

• It is a polluted, corrupted system, and one cannot thrive in it; you want to get out of it.

• The Lord wondered there was no man, and so His own arm brought in salvation. He clothed Himself in armour, and brought judgment upon the world-system, Isaiah 59.

J.P. Romans 8 looks on to the deliverance of creation.

J.T. The creation is subject to the power of sin, and groans under it. As to our bodies, we have part in this, notwith-standing that we have the first-fruits of the Spirit,

• but we are saved in hope: we are looking on to final deliverance with the rest of creation.

While you await the salvation of your body, you get soul-salvation from the world-system in virtue of the presence of the Holy Ghost down here.

R.S.S. Someone asked the question, What is the ark symbolical of? The general thought would be, It typified Christ.

• I was struck with your remark, that you thought it was also typical of the church.

J.T. I think in a certain sense that Noah is typical of Christ, in that he prepared an ark to the saving of his house.

• I do not think it can be denied that the church is that in which things are preserved in view of the judgment of the world.

R.S.S. Something like the city of refuge.

J.T. In view of the destruction of Judaism the spared ones from among the Jews found refuge and preservation in the assembly, Acts 2: 47.

Rem. Salvation is found in the Christian circle.

J.T. I cannot conceive how anybody can think of salvation being available to men without the church at the present time. By "present time", I mean the time of the Lord's absence from this world.

• The existence of the church as the vessel of the Holy Ghost here means salvation in a practical sense.

Rem. A few Christians walking together in love are a great thing for the people in that vicinity.

J.T. We want to get the idea of salvation from Scripture. It means deliverance from the world-system.

• Of course Christ is the subject of the gospel, but Christ according to what He can do. What has He done? The gospel explains what He has done.

• Peter tells what has been brought to pass through Christ in Acts 2. He tells them that God has made both Lord and Christ that same Jesus whom they had crucified;
  • and He "having therefore been exalted by the right hand of God, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he has poured out this which ye behold and hear".

• And so in chapter 4 Peter tells them that salvation is in none other than Christ.

Every Christian can tell how salvation came to him. Christ has effected it for him, but through what He has established down here.

J.P. Do not omit this portion: "Men and brethren, what shall we do? … Repent, and be baptized every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost". Peter's answer to the Jew's question is gospel.

Rem. It is an important thing to see that He set the gifts in the church.

J.T. I do not see how you can have the gospel without the church.

• Hence, considering the state of things to-day, one is greatly humbled in attempting to preach the gospel.

• Sometimes you hear people speak about evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc., as if we lived in the days of Ephesus, when things were in order and freshness. I think we should refer to things very humbly and soberly.

Rem. Things are at such a low ebb you cannot find many evangelists and teachers.

J.T. You do not see very many according to God. You might find a good many taking that place, but those who are really formed according to God are not plentiful.

What is popularly called preaching the gospel to-day is really preaching a creed.

• I do not say there is not light connected with it, for there is, and people get more or less help.

• One would not deny it, but the true idea of the gospel was to bring people to God – into a sphere where they would be safe and at home.

Ques. Do you mean by creed, the different ideas of the different sects ?

J.T. I think any man with a fairly good mind and educa-tion, who can give a good address, can preach, but the question is: Has he the gospel to present?

• It is a great thing doubtless to be able to point to the work of Christ on the cross, and to His resurrection; through these a man gets a good conscience,

• but the world as dominated by Satan is still here, and unless he is brought morally into a sphere where righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost are found, he has no present salvation.

Take the parable in Luke 10. If the Samaritan had left the half-dead man by the roadside, after he had poured in the oil and wine, he would have still been exposed to the robbers; but the Samaritan did not leave him there.

Rem. The man would not have been saved from his enemies if he had been left there, but he was brought to the inn. Where is the inn?

J.T. I fancy it must be among the saints. Where could the Lord find anybody to take care of His people? Could He go to the rulers of the world, or to the magistrates of the city? No, only to those who loved Him.

R.S.S. Then there is the inn-keeper, which represents the Spirit of God. I suppose the two great things for us to-day are that Christ is glorified, and that the Spirit of God is here?

J.T. Yes, the Spirit here in the saints involves the "inn", I believe. nt moment? Does it not take the character of 2 Timothy, where the apostle exhorts Timothy to do the work of an evangelist?

• To be an evangelist at the present time, would you not really need to be in the light of the house of God?

J.T. Paul does not tell Timothy to be an evangelist, but to do the work of an evangelist.

• I think if we are to be of any help to men now we must have living water to offer. What is offered at the end of Revelation 22 is living water, and it is to "whosoever will".

• The water of life is there, and I think the important thing is to locate it for people.

J.P. I think it very remarkable that that should come in at the end, and it is presented in the widest possible way. "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely".

J.T. You must locate it for him. I would not pay any attention to a man's gospel if he does not locate what I need.

• Man is in need, and the person who preaches the gospel should locate what will relieve him.

• At the same time, although the Holy Ghost is not anywhere else on earth than in the saints, and in certain cases was received through the administration of man, Acts 8: 17; Acts 9: 17; Acts 19: 6,

• yet it would be wrong to imply that the church is the giver of living water. Christ is the Giver of living water, although what He gives is now here.

J.P. People say, We must go out for sinners.

• You get a company in divine order; a few people together, built up in divine love, then God will begin to work, because that is His way, and you cannot make God change His way to suit you.

• That is the way He did in the beginning. He established the house, and then sinners came in afterwards.

You said a little while ago that a person could not be saved from the world-system apart from the saints.

• That is to say, God has established a sphere down here where we are to dwell together in love, apart from all evil, and superior to all the attacks of the enemy.

J.T. Every Christian would agree with that: we all know what an advantage it is to be in touch with those who are going on in the Spirit.

• You find prootection there, and you find that which your heart longs for, and by these things you are saved and preserved. The Lord has put all these things here for you.

• If there is such a company in Chicago the Lord has put them there, and they are there for your good.

• Of course, Scripture furnishes examples of individuals enjoying salvation while actually isolated, such as Paul at Rome, and John in Patmos, but they were in the energy of the Spirit, and always in the church.

R.S.S. What do you understand by "living water", in the way you were speaking of it just now?

J.P. The Spirit is living water.

R.S.S. How would you locate the Spirit? Where do you find it?

J.P. In the saints. Among the people of God, He was never sent to the world. He shall abide with you, and dwell in you.

J.T. How is living water, the Spirit, to be made available to the need of humanity?

• People cannot see the Spirit. You may talk about the Holy Ghost, and they have no idea of what is meant;

• but if they see people walking together in love there is something they can take account of,
  • and one who is really under exercise takes hold of that at once, and says: That is what I need.

• In that way living water is available among the Lord's people, but Christ is ever the Giver of it.

J.P. Of course this is a day of weakness, but with regard to all these things of which you have been speaking, you can see them demonstrated under your very eyes.

• Occasionally you see believers turning away from the saints: there is no salvation outside.

• So it is with regard to all you have spoken about. Living water, the Spirit, is made available for men in the saints. The Lord, of course, is ever the Giver.

R.S.S. Coming out as you find in Galatians, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness", etc. Is that your thought?

J.T. Yes. The Lord spoke about the water He would give, John 4.

• I think the Lord felt greatly hampered when here, for in a sense He was dependent on Jacob's well. It was there, and He was thirsty, and drank from it.

• When speaking to the woman, what was really in the Lord's mind was a well of His own: He would dig a well. Really the woman herself was to be His well, in a sense.

J.P. It "shall become in him a fountain of water, springing up into eternal life".

J.T. In chapter 7 you get rivers of water. The Lord Jesus put the living water down here,

• and I think the great exercise with us should be to make it evident that it is here. If we have the water then we can present the gospel.

R.S.S. Your thought in connection with the gospel was, you not only present God's attitude in the forgiveness of sins, but

• you would seek to bring the person into touch with that which is of God here in the world – that is, the people of God who are really expressing Christ.

J.T. Yes, you not only enlighten a person as to God's attitude toward him,

• but you also enlighten him in regard to what God has put down here for his benefit – that is the living water.

• The tendency to separate Christ from the saints at the present time is very noteworthy. The church is Christ's body – that through which He acts and is known, down here.

All the saints were to be formed according to God and to be in His house, as we said at the beginning. Ephesians 3 puts it "Filled even to all the fulness of God".

• Such people would be evangelical – not evangelists exactly.

R.S.S. Would you think Andrew illustrates what you were speaking of just now? He first found his brother Simon, and brought him to Jesus. Of course, Christ personally is not here now, but in the faith of his soul he must come to Christ.

J.T. And it is important to get him as close as we can to spiritual people. You can enlighten him by presenting Christ glorified to him,

• but after he is enlightened and believes in Christ, the man has an aching heart that needs to be filled, and you want to bring him into touch with those who have hearts filled with the love of God.

R.S.S. I was very thankful for your remarks just now in connection with living water being the Spirit. I think we have a very vague idea of it, except as we see it expressed in the people of God.

J.T. If you speak to a man of the Holy Ghost it is a mystery to him,

• but if he sees people prepared to give up what they have in this world for others, he says, That is not in nature; that is a new principle,

• and if God is at all working in him he will be affected and will get help.

R.S.S. It is the same thing as to love, 1 Cor. 13. Love is spoken of there in connection with man here on earth, and the way it comes out is, "Charity suffereth long, and is kind", etc.

J.T. God knows man's heart and has adapted Himself to man, and the living water is the Spirit as adapted to the needs of man's heart.

R.S.S. I suppose in the passage we read what really comes out is God's attitude, and that expressed in the people of God down here.

• That is, God desires that all men should be saved, and it is also God's will that prayer should be offered everywhere for all men.

Ques. Would you connect with that Simeon's prayer, when he held the child Jesus ("mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared the face of all people; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel") with this passage? It says, "Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth".

J.T. You mean as to salvation? Yes; Simeon saw in Christ God's salvation, although he did not wish to wait for it: seeing it, he was content to depart.

Ques. Does not the first epistle to Timothy, in the chapter we read, bring out what we should pray to God for, in order that we may live here according to God's mind? Is that not the thought where he speaks of praying for kings, etc.?

J.T. He says, "I exhort therefore, first of all, that supplica-tions, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings be made for all men; for kings and all that are in dignity, that we may lead a quiet and tranquil life in all piety and gravity; for this is good and acceptable before our Saviour God, who desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. For God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all, the testimony to be rendered in its own times".

• Then Paul goes on to speak of himself as a herald and apostle, etc. All this is based on the attitude of God towards men. The prayer is based on that.

R.S.S. Yes, that is a great thing to see; and I have rather thought that perhaps the first thing a soul apprehends, the first light he gets, is the sense of what God's attitude is toward him. If a soul gets that, you may be quite sure a work of God is begun there.

J.T. It was a wonderful conception that God should have a company of people here descriptive of His heart: those who are filled full of love: and it seems to me a great point that such a company existed at Ephesus.

J.P. How important all this is for us at a moment like this! It turns us away from that which is merely external. It brings us back, I believe, to what is according to God,

• because it is now a question of a company that are really where there is the activity of the divine nature – where there is some testimony as to what God is.

I want to show from Matthew how the Lord indicated in His own path the way of deliverance from the religious world. Matthew is particularly occupied with the world as an organised system in opposition to God, having its centre in Jerusalem. Other scriptures refer to the world as the men in it.

• You will find that Matthew presents Christ as dealing with twos, meaning that He aimed at breaking up the world as an organised system, so we have two demoniacs, and two blind men;
  • over against that, the ass and the colt, and "two of you", Matthew 18: 19, that is, two of the assembly; God meets organisation by organisation.

• So the Lord, in breaking up organised opposition to God, exposes it, and leaves it, for we should not leave anything without giving reasons, and the reasons, if according to God, are the exposure of the things we leave.

• If we thus expose something and abandon it, our object would be that others should abandon it also. A lead thereby is given, which is another great principle with God. The Lord in Matthew is seen leading.

• In chapter 12 the religious system is seen as a house; in chapter 16 I hope to show that the system is seen in its leaders, and in chapter 24 in its grandeur and finery. The believer is thus furnished by the Lord with what enables him to judge and to turn away from the system in all its features.

The house aspect of the system is perhaps the most attractive to the young; you find family gatherings there, social events, garden parties – what you may regard as a 'living' state of things.

• You say, We have life in our church, we have social functions, happy gatherings, sewing classes and dancing classes, for they have even added these in our day, for they have in mind to hold the young, and it is true the young are held, but alas! it is in bondage to the world.

• You find enjoyable seasons and everything regarded as 'life'. You are thus in the system regarded from the family side.

• In chapter 12 the Lord views the whole Jewish system as a house, but He leaves it for the same reason as that for which you should leave modern religious systems, if you are in any of them.

• I do not enlarge on His word here, it has its own power, lest you should think that I am unduly attacking what is around. But the Lord definitely leaves the house.

• He had spoken about sinning against the Holy Spirit, about an unpardonable sin, and about their own sons casting out demons – a family touch, then He went out of the house and sat by the seaside.

Then His mother and His brethren come; worthy people they, surely! they are without. They claim Him on natural lines, but He is not at the beck and call of those who claim Him thus;

• He denies the claim, and brings out those who had a family claim upon Him: those who did the will of His Father in the heavens.

• Do you find such persons in your social functions, in your sewing parties, in your dancing parties?
  • The Lord "stretching out his hand to his disciples … said, Behold my mother and my brethren!", Matthew 12: 49.

• You say, How hard on those standing outside! Yes, it was scathing language, for Satan was in the system to which they belonged. The Holy Spirit was spoken against in it, the unpardonable sin was in it, so that all natural claims were null and void.
  • Those who do the will of God are the only ones who have a claim on Him, and He therefore gives them a lead; in Matthew 13: 1 He goes out of the house.

Young people, this word is for you, especially if you have not left that house; the Lord is indicating a lead that you should follow:

• "That same day Jesus went out from the house and sat down by the sea".

• If He sat down, He is not going back again; you may be assured of that.

• Stephen saw Him standing – it was an attitude of grace, and He would have gone back, if they had repented;
  • but Paul sees Him sitting, for He is not going back; you may expect Him to, but He will not go back, and your wisdom is to find where He is.

He sat by the sea to sow, for He will bring in another order of things;

• and then in verse 36 He goes into another house, for there is another house, and there are brethren and fathers and mothers; you will not be left orphaned, you will find these and you will be enriched.

• The disciples – verse 36 – come to Him as He goes into the house and ask Him a question. It is a time for asking questions; one hears questions everywhere and one is glad of it, for the Lord delights to answer all our questions.
  • He sometimes answers the questioner, which perhaps is more important.

• Here He answers the question, and goes further and speaks about the assembly – a divine organisation of divine material, a wonderful structure, the most wonderful of all, built by God Himself with stones which shall never be thrown down but which shall abide for ever, when every earthly system and its glory have crumbled to dust.

• Scripture presents it as the holy city coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, and also as the tabernacle of God with men.

• It was in the house that the Lord spoke about the assembly, so that any one who had followed Him as leading out can follow Him in where He will unfold all these things.

• You will find every right feeling and affection there, but here it is particularly to fill your treasure, for you will become a householder, and as such you will become a most interesting person.

• You will have in your treasure things new and old, and you will have things of your own as you listen to Christ – wonderful things that He has to impart to you in the house.

Now the part we have spoken of is mainly for the young, but in chapter 16 we have something for those who are older. It is concerned with the Pharisees and Sadducees.

• As you grow up to manhood and womanhood you begin to think, and you will find these thinkers in the world, and they think according to their schools.

• The Pharisees are those who are orthodox, but they spin their theories out of their own minds; they recognise the Fathers and even the scriptures, but they take no account of what God is doing.

• They can discern the face of the sky; they can prognosticate accurately, as the Lord says in another place, "and so it happens", Luke 12: 54; they are correct in what they forecast. We are not to wonder at this, for the man of sin will say and do wonderful things; the second beast of Revelation will do great wonders.

• The Lord refers in chapter 16 to the "evening". I have no doubt He alludes to the evening of the dispensation. They say 'fair weather', and so it is, but they ignore that the morning will bring a storm, "for the sky is red and lowering".

• You may listen to them, and you may say, A wonderful address, a wonderful article, a wonderful book! yet the fact is it is written to establish the present religious order of things which is opposed to Christ.

Then there is another class of thinkers; they think nothing of the Bible, they will tell you that it was all exploded long ago; they are Sadducees, they believe nothing they do not see.

• You hear these conflicting things and it may be you are bewildered – many are. There are many who have taken refuge in the most ancient forms of religion, attracted by their grandeur and finery in order to escape the confusion and bewilderment of what the mind of man has evolved.

• These two great lines honeycomb Christendom, and the Lord in His lead and in His own withering way would say,
  • "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and a sign shall not be given to it save the sign of Jonas".

    Note what follows, "And he left them and went away".

These men pay no attention to God and the work of God. If you read the books of the leaders of religion written during the last century, you will find no reference to the great current work of God. It is not that they do not know of it, but they entirely ignore what they know.

• To such the Lord says, "a sign shall not be given to it save the sign of Jonas".

• There is no need to pretend to have signs, for the Lord says there shall be none. There were signs at the beginning, but the present time is entirely in faith, not signs.
  • Paul always taught his hearers to look at what was not seen.

• I am not denying that there will be signs, for there will be such – real satanic workings which will head up in the man of sin with all his deceitful power; but the Lord says here that no sign shall be given save the sign of Jonas.

In chapter 12 the Lord calls Jonas a prophet; He would in grace towards them give Jonah his status as a prophet in order that they might pay heed.

• There is more grace in chapter 12 than in chapter 16, but there is no grace for those who refuse the sign of Jonas.

• As viewed in chapter 12 a believer in the system might have respect for a prophet, but in chapter 16 the prophet is only ridiculed. Such teachers today have no regard for this prophet.

• Outside of the books of Moses no part of scripture has been so much attacked as the book of Jonah. They will argue about the 'whale', as they call it, but the Lord would answer all the questions, if we only ask Him.

• He would have spoken to them about the "great fish", Jonah 1: 17, that was prepared, but no, they would not listen. The Lord will tell you about that, if you ask Him. If you ridicule, you will only blind yourself and your fellows.

• The Lord would have called Jonah a prophet, as in His answer in Luke 24. He spoke of all the prophets; He said,
  • "O senseless and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! Ought not the Christ to have suffered?", Luke 24: 25-26.

• The sign of Jonas referred to His own death, but the modern teachers ridicule the sign of His death, for that is what the sign of Jonas referred to – the death of Jesus.

In leaving such a state of things you not only leave, but you put a distance between you and it – you burn all the bridges between you, and the further you get away the better.

• It says that the Lord left them and went away.

• The epistle to the Colossians is to encourage the saints to get away as far as possible from the religious world, and in getting away not to take any of the leaven with them; the leaven is referred to in the next incident in Matthew 16.

Now there are many who appear to escape these things, but are held by what is in chapter 24 – the grandeur and embellishment of ancient religion.

• The young are held up by family feelings and affections, those older are held through their minds,
  • while others are held by the glamour and antiquity of current religion.

  There is nothing like it to them. It is wonderful in its finery and embellishments; it includes Rome. Look at the wonderful services, the windows, the incense, and added to this the idolatry by which the religious mind of men is captured. Many have taken refuge in all this from the bewilderment of the diverse opinions of men.

• It says of the Lord that He went forth and departed – He left the place. We shall see what He meant by it, if we recall what we read; the disciples come to Him to point out to Him the buildings of the temple. Think of that! as if He did not know what buildings were there.

• There are those who assume to know better than the Lord, or better than Paul. The disciples even assumed that the Lord did not know. Does the Lord not know about your edifices; your St. Peters, your St. Johns, your saints, your windows and finery?

• The Lord knows all about them, for He walks about among the seven candlesticks; He has judged all that system and He has departed from it, never to return, and as a result, not a stone will be left upon a stone – compare Revelation 18.

• Where will you be then, and what avail will all this finery be when He comes at the completion of the age?

Having said this to the disciples, He went and sat upon the mount of Olives. The force of His sitting on the mount of Olives is that He now speaks of the Spirit, that He is now operating through the Spirit.

• Then the disciples come privately and they ask an excellent question,
  • "What is the sign of thy coming and the completion of the age?"

• I hope we are all thinking of the coming of the Lord and of the end of the world. He is coming and this world is wearing itself out.

• The Lord then proceeds to unfold His coming from the Jewish standpoint, but the first remark is of importance to all of us.
  • "See that no one mislead you".

• You may have escaped all these phases of the world which we have spoken of, but the enemy pursues you. You need not think that because you have left the Pharisees and the Sadducees that you are secure, for the enemy will not leave you alone, and our safety lies in dependence on the Lord and prayer, and asking questions.

• The Lord has taken up a position privately to the end that we may learn, and we need to keep on asking Him questions, for it is intended that we should know, as it is said, "ye know all things", 1 John 2: 20 – that is, through the unction.

• While there are no outward signs given, yet we have signs for our times – they are signs in the Spirit, and for the understanding of these, the believer's eye is turned to Christ.

• Let no one be deceived about what is happening in the East or in Italy [current events of 1927]; it is not the time of signs except of signs in the Spirit, known only to those who have faith. It is a time of faith, not of sight, and of inquiring from Christ as on the mount of Olives.

• The Lord has given a lead, in order that we may know the way out of the world and the way into God's world.

In Acts 1 we have the final touch to all this; Scripture does not say that the Lord went up from the mount of Olives, but it says, the disciples returned from the mount of Olives. They returned into the city from the mount.

• They do not go into the temple, for things are not recorded from the same standpoint as in the end of Luke. We are now in view of the assembly, so they went to the upper room.

• You say, 'Now you are going to bring us down to very small things'; yes, you can be safe only in what is small outwardly – a "little flock" as the Lord says,
  • "Fear not, little flock", Luke 12: 32.

• The time of publicity and great things is coming, for the holy city is coming down and will eclipse all here. Look at that city, look at its measurements, its stones; it will not be destroyed. It is coming down having the glory of God, and then, as the tabernacle of God, it will be with men.

The disciples go to the upper room. The Lord had not told them to do so according to the passage, but they are persons who know what to do as having been with Him on mount Olivet.

• It says that He was taken up, they beholding Him, and a cloud received him out of their sight – a cloud received Him. He was not in view as He went up. The cloud indicates that what marks the present period is not sight but faith. We are tested when He is not in view; it is a test of our spiritual progress.

• Although they were acquainted with such wonderful things, they did not use the things to make themselves great – they were not to be heroes. Hero worship is a present danger.

• The Lord told them to remain in Jerusalem until they were clothed with power from on high. They were to wait for the heavenly clothing before they were to appear in service. You will not be carried about in this world as in this garb.

The word used for 'upper' here is a stronger word than usual. Spiritually it means elevation in obscurity; it corresponds to our place as in Ephesians – seated in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus, but as compared with the temple, a 'room' implies smallness.

• When you go to the upper room you find remarkable persons there; as you follow the lead given, you will find notables in the assembly. It says that certain ones were staying there – Peter, and John, and James, and Andrew etc., with several women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, with His brethren.

• What notables they were! their living associations were there. The point is that it was an upper room; you are withdrawn there from the level of the street, and you find there the companions of Christ, those commissioned by Him;
  • you will find there, too, satisfaction for every spiritual affection and feeling.

• What a privileged and elevated although obscure spot it is!

Note that it says there were several women. The women are representative of affection in Scripture, so that they are seen here as those who love Christ – Christ's companions who have learned to love spiritually.

• It is affection that counts with women, but it is a great thing when women learn to love spiritually. We are to learn to come to the meeting spiritually, it is the only way into the assembly.

• Then there was one distinguished woman there – Mary the mother of Jesus, a woman who could say,
  • "all generations shall call me blessed", Luke 1: 48

• What an advantage to young women to find a mother in Israel in the locality!

Then there are the brethren of Jesus – a most remarkable set of persons in this world, a model company, for that is what it is.

• The apostles are suggestive of the moral weight that represents the authority of Christ, then the spiritual affections are seen in the women and in one outstanding woman.

• Paul speaks to Timothy of one who had washed saints' feet and diligently followed every good work, who was marked too as having brought up children, for that is the test – to bring up children.

• All this culminates in the spirit of family dignity as seen in the brethren of Jesus known in elevation in obscurity.

Isaiah 37: 4, 22, 31-32

I wish to speak of what is regarded by the Spirit of God as "left" of the original as contemplated in the history, and Isaiah serves in a special way to bring this out.

• He is by no means a doleful prophet: he is a triumphant, buoyant prophet, and he deals with what is left showing how it becomes in due course a complete whole;
  • for if we are to be with God, beloved friends, in our service and testimony, we are to have completeness in our minds.

• We could not have the Lord's supper rightly today, were we to confine ourselves in our thoughts to a part of the whole: to regard ourselves thus would indeed be sectarian. The Lord's supper is of no force save in the light of the whole assembly.
  • The Lord said, "Take, eat: this is my body",

    and added to that in 1 Corinthians 10 is,

  • "We, being many, are … one body", not a part of a body, "for we are all partakers of that one bread".

• I wish to work out my subject on those lines, that, as beginning with what is left, we end with a whole or complete thought.

• There is no other thought in the mind of God, nor is there any other in the mind of the intelligent Christian; and this expands him and maintains him here for God according to His mind.

• One could illustrate that from numerous passages in the Old and New Testaments, showing the whole thought is always in mind.
  • I dwell upon it at the beginning, lest young people should be partaking of the Lord's supper with any less thought than that, and so become sectarian in mind and practice.

• You may look at what is left, and say, Well, there is very little. But the nearer you get to God, the greater what is left becomes in your mind. It becomes enlarged and expanded, until it is seen as
  • "coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband".

• It is a great city, corresponding in every way with the administrative requirements of God. It comes down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God, and its light is most precious.

Isaiah helps us as to this. If we consider ourselves as here tonight, what is left in numbers in our localities is small, and sometimes we become very discouraged because of this, and the enemy of our souls would press it in upon us. We see this in Rabshakeh intimating that Hezekiah could not put riders on two thousand horses.

• The enemy would say to you, Look at the little meeting you have over the grocery store, and contrast it with that great cathedral with its fine music, etc., or look at those people that get up at five o'clock in the morning and attend mass; look at the numbers of them!

• Rabshakeh represents this side of Satan's efforts. He would press the greatness of current religious organizations upon you and discourage you, until you will perhaps even join some of them.

• Hezekiah had no such thoughts; nor did the men on the wall. They were enjoined to answer nothing. Believers belong to greater things than cathedrals or the most renowned organizations of men. Hezekiah was led into the knowledge of this by the messages sent him by Jehovah.

• In the meantime he rent his garments, and sent a beautiful, feeling message to Isaiah, the servant of God. He says to him,
  • "Lift up a prayer for the remnant that is left".

• That is the word, dear brethren. The remnant that is left, small as it may be, is to be prayed for. Will not God hear?

• There is great encouragement in one's heart tonight – this being the usual night for prayer – as one thinks of the hundreds of places where prayer has been raised for the remnant that is left. God hears, as Isaiah's message to Hezekiah shows.

Then Rabshakeh writes a letter to Hezekiah, and Hezekiah spreads it out before the Lord, in the house of the Lord.

• That would show that a young believer, as pressed by the enemy on account of the smallness of things in his locality, might rightly send a message to someone whom he knows is in relation to God.

• It is of great importance for young believers to maintain acquaintance with those who are in prayerful relations with God. Hezekiah regarded Isaiah in this way. He says, "thy God".

• It is very important to know the man to whom to send if you are in soul need. Be sure he is the right man or you will be misled. Hezekiah sent to a known "man of God" and obtained a divine answer.

• But then in asking aid from another the thought comes to you, Why not go myself to God? That is an important matter especially for young people. Why not go to God yourself?

• The enemy is pressing on you – it may be that the fellow-workers in the office are taunting you about the miserableness of your little meeting, or about your teachers, or preachers: they are not college men, etc. Why not go to God yourself about these things? You will get encouragement as you do so.

• The second time Hezekiah went himself to the house of God. That is how priestly ability is promoted, and he spread the letter he had received from Rabshakeh before God. He told Jehovah the whole matter.

• I may not be able to speak eloquently to men, but God will listen to the most broken or ungrammatical words, for He reads the heart.
  • "He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit",

• and He makes intercession for the saints according to God. The whole case is in your heart and God understands it as there.

• To this prayer of Hezekiah a second answer from Jehovah is sent through Isaiah. It is much fuller than the first and promises complete triumph over the Assyrian, as we shall see.

God does not say anything at all at the first about the remnant that was left. If you get into your closet with God, you see with Him the things that be not as though they were: you get the sense that "all things are possible" with Him.

• And so a triumphant word is sent back to the enemy. The once feeble christian, cowering at his taunts, now says,
  • "The daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee".

• That is not merely the remnant that is left. "Zion" is a great spiritual principle, involving a complete or whole thought. Scripture abounds with it.

• Think of being a daughter of Zion! And what kind of a daughter? A virgin daughter. That is to say, a daughter that is "unconquered" – see note on 2 Kings 19: 21, New Translation.

• She has never come under the power of Assyria or the world. Can an enemy stand against that? No. Behind that is all that God is.

• God dwells in those who as keeping His commandments, love Him. Who can overcome Him, or them in whom He dwells?
  • "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world". 1 John 4: 4.

• Then there is "the daughter of Jerusalem". Zion is a great principle. It is the ground upon which God took us up when we were unconverted.
  • "According to his mercy he saved us".

• The idea of Zion comes to a christian as he listens to the gospel and believes in Christ. The God who took you up and saved you then saves you now. He is the defender of Zion.

• I want you young people to hold this thought in your minds when people talk to you about your little meeting – I am not saying that the little meeting might not be larger! – but what God has saved out of the wreck, as it were, however small, is not to be despised: God clothes it with all His thoughts.

• It is the whole idea that is there in that little "upper room" as intelligent christians come together to partake of the Lord's supper. As spiritually intelligent they are full of a whole thought, and God takes note of it, and brings them into the fulness and blessedness of the assembly.

So we have the daughter of Zion and the daughter of Jerusalem. The last is one that understands government; government in, and going out from, the assembly.

• We have what we call 'care meetings', which are very important meetings, They imply that there are those who care for the saints.

• We have been speaking in these meetings about the Gershonites. The Gershonites looked after the curtains of the tabernacle; that suggests principles. These would come out more in Bible readings and in ministry generally,
  • but at care meetings what comes into evidence, is the persons of the saints – although the former necessarily at times combines with the latter.

• Every one of the saints is precious. Were we only to know how valuable each saint is to God, he would be an object of care to us. Even a weak brother is precious; Romans 14: 15. The weak brother for whom Christ died, as precious, is to be cared for.

• So in these care meetings we talk over these matters, and the Lord helps us. They are not administrative meetings: they are deliberative meetings. They are meetings into which wisdom enters, a wisdom greater than enters into any of the councils of this world, a wisdom that is "from above". That is the idea of them.

• All young brothers are developed there, as sons of Jerusalem. But what about the daughters? Some say the sisters do not know of what transpires at care meetings. If a sister is truly a daughter of Jerusalem, she will know. She will know if she inquires, and she will inquire as having the Lord's interests at hearts – see 1 Corinthians 14: 35.

  The matter of whether sisters should attend the care meeting came up, and its rightness was established. The Ministry of Elisha in its Practical Value - 2, Toronto, 1950, JT New Series 74. As a young man of 20, those were some of the first 3-day meetings which I attended, and I was deeply impressed with the aged JT's skill in dealing with the questions that came up – both as to the traditional practice of excluding sisters and the correct interpretation of the bearing of Acts 15. GAR

• Do you think Anna would not know of things that were current in the temple in her day? She would know. She represents what I am speaking of. She was a daughter of Jerusalem. She was a daughter of Zion also, as every true believer is, as I have said;
  • but a daughter of Jerusalem is one that is concerned about Jerusalem and what it represents.

• Anna was marked by this; she spoke of Christ to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem. Luke 2: 38. And so all the sisters may be conversant with matters relative to the assembly.

• As daughters of Zion and of Jerusalem thus, the saints prove the power of God as with His people, and they despise the Assyrian enemy and laugh him to scorn. The daughter of Jerusalem knows that the wisdom of God is operative, the wisdom of which Proverbs 8 speaks.

• That wisdom is the same that is with the brothers as in some obscure room they converse together about the saints and their welfare, and it eventuates in the defeat of the gates of hades, Matthew 16: 18; therefore the daughter of Jerusalem laughs to scorn the opposition, instead of cowering before it in the office or in the workshop. She is superior to the attack.

Another thing comes out in our chapter in Isaiah;

• "The remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward", verse 31.

• There is no gainsaying that what is in this continent, what "is left", is very small. To ignore that fact is to be at a disadvantage.

• It is not only small in quantity, pardon me for saying this, but it is poor in quality, relatively speaking, but that is no reason why I should turn my back upon it: it is for me to make it better.
  • For if I speak of the poverty of things, I have to begin with myself, what I have, and what I am contributing, and that applies to every one of us.

• So the word is, "take root downward" – that is another great point with Isaiah. It means that one gets down into the soil in which he is set, that one is not ambitious, nor living in the sense of his own importance. There will be no growth for God in that state.

• The growth is in getting down into the earth where the power of life is: being "rooted and grounded in love". That means that one renounces one's self, so that one becomes planted of the Father. How beautiful that is!
  • "Every plant", says the Lord, "which my heavenly Father has not planted, shall be rooted up".

• One comes under the gracious agricultural skill of the Father; and He plants me in the best possible soil so that root is taken, but to "take root downward" is more than being planted. You can see the point of it, how the roots of the tree spread out and strike downwards because of the energy of life in the tree and in the soil.

• Aside from life in the plant there can be no growth, and aside from life in the soil there can be no growth. There must be both ideas, and then fruit for God is borne upward.

Leviticus 10: 12-15

In the second scripture, we have the priesthood – those which "were left" of the priests, Aaron and his two sons; they are few; if two thousand riders cannot be put on two thousand horses, we may be sure there are not many priests.

• We may be sure that the fewness of warriors is because of the fewness of priests.

• But then you see from the first scriptures I read, how the priesthood comes into evidence. As I was saying, I am oppressed by the opposition and I send to a priest, a man that I know can pray. I send to the right man. There are such; and I advise every young person here to get to know them, the men who pray to God.

• But then, in doing that I think of praying to God myself, and that is how the priesthood becomes enlarged. There is a sense of need as one is pressed by circumstances of various kinds, and he says,
  • "I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help? My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth".

• There is a man developing in the priesthood. He has been looking elsewhere, and rightly asking a brother to pray for him; now he prays for himself: and I ask you young people here, How much of this marks you?

• What you see in this chapter is that there were four sons of Aaron, but two of them die – and not an ordinary death. What comes out in these types shows extraordinary things happening.

• Some people think that none of these things are happening now, that since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. It is not so. Every true christian is a miracle.

• There are current occurrences in the sense of blessing that are greater than physical cures, and they are constant.

• The same may be said of God's judicial dealings. In Numbers 16 you get the earth opening and swallowing men down, men dying thus under the judgment of God.

• The present period is not a time of wrath – it is a time of grace, but still the government of God is inevitable: it is against rebellion, and the Lord says of Jezebel,
  • "I will kill her children with death", Revelation 2: 23.

• Is not that serious? It is a greater thing, in a sense, than was the death of Korah and his company! Perhaps you never thought of that. Why should the Lord kill with death? We have to understand it spiritually.

• Here are two men, priests. They have that position in Israel. They are the two elder sons of Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and each takes his censer and offers strange fire – a most serious matter.

• Possibly amongst ourselves, dear brethren, strange fire in a modified sense is sometimes offered to God, and one has to challenge one's self when one is taking part in the assembly. What is one's motive?

• A man may use excellent language in speaking to God, but what is his motive, what is behind it? The "fire" is what gives effect to it. If it is "strange", the spiritual feel it, and God feels it.

• But what is before us in Leviticus 10, is a more extended and serious matter. It typifies a great happening in the assembly; the unrestrained human mind become active in the worship of God. This solemn occurrence corresponds with the rebellion of the Levites as recorded in Numbers 16.

That is the setting in this chapter, and the word is to the priests that are left. What is to happen to them? Are they not to be on their guard, are they not to be careful? It is a most solemn chapter.

• I cannot go into it fully now, but I want to call attention to the fact that Aaron, Eleazar and Ithamar were not to uncover their heads – Leviticus 10: 6 – they were not to go out of the sanctuary.
  • The priesthood, however reduced, must continue.

• No matter how terrible the happenings, there must be no relinquishment of priestly service in the assembly. The enemy would bring in troubles amongst us and seek to prevent the saints turning to God, but there must be no relinquishing, whatever happens.

• I want to show you, further, that if those that are left of the priests are to continue priests, they must eat, and they must eat priests' food, not ordinary food.

• And then, a certain feature of it must be eaten in a holy place, and other features in a "clean place": the former is typified in the oblation that is left of Jehovah's offerings by fire; the latter is the breast of the wave-offering and the shoulder of the heave-offering.

• I would appeal to young christians as to where they eat. There is a great deal of eating going on professedly in relation to God, but is it in suitable places? That is a matter for everybody to consider. It is not only the food but where I eat it.

• I would not like to say anything against our brethren who are in the so-called systems around us, but it is obligatory to call attention to conditions, that there are places, so-called christian organizations, that are not clean places: they are not holy places. They are unholy because of the very fact that they are sectarian.

• No one who reads the types – and they are written for us – will fail to note the great stress laid on holiness both as to persons and place. The types refer to God's requirements in the assembly, which New Testament teaching shows.

• Thus the Spirit of God would challenge us as to what and where we are eating as christians. It is well to face this, dear brethren, Are you to continue, are you to go on in active service? If you are, you must eat the food that is provided for the priest and you must eat it in a holy place. This passage says:
  • "Take the meat offering that remaineth of the offerings of the Lord made by fire, and eat it without leaven beside the altar: for it is most holy: and ye shall eat it in the holy place, because it is thy due, and thy sons' due, of the sacrifices of the Lord made by fire: for so I am commanded.

    "And the wave breast and heave shoulder shall ye eat in a clean place; thou and thy sons, and thy daughters with thee: for they be thy due, and thy sons' due, which are given out of the sacrifices of peace offerings of the children of Israel.

    "The heave shoulder and the wave breast shall they bring with the offerings made by fire of the fat, to wave it for a wave offering before the Lord; and it shall be thine, and thy sons' with thee, by a statute for ever; as the Lord hath commanded", Leviticus 10: 12-15.

• It is a question of the most excellent of the offerings presented to God by His people. It is Christ in the most excellent features in which He is presented in the saints: the oblation, the breast of the wave-offering, and the shoulder of the heave-offering – all these precious parts are "thy due, and thy sons' due", as Moses says to Aaron. It is your right to have them.

• Are any here depriving themselves of what is their right, in linking themselves with systems where the altar of the Lord is not, where the clean place is not, and where the holy place is not?

• May I urge you to inquire into this and to take up your priestly food, and priestly functions in the place where the altar of the Lord is, where the clean place is, and where the holy place is. These belong to the assembly.

• You may be uncertain as to the assembly – what it is and where it is, but if you are sincerely desirous to know the Lord will not leave you in uncertainty; He will give you understanding in all things, 2 Timothy 2: 7.

• It is for you to find where the assembly, in the principle of it, is, and see that you are there and that you enjoy your portion in it; in that way you appropriate your priestly food and have part in the priestly functions of the saints of God.

John 6: 66-69

In the last scripture, John 6: 66, we have again the thought of some left. You will observe that

• "from that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him".

• This was a testing time; here we must be prepared for such times. Many went back. Why did they go back? Because the Lord Jesus was speaking of the most spiritual things, speaking of Himself as the bread of God that came down from heaven.

• What He was saying was spirit and life. Unbelievers cannot stand such ministry. As the apostle Paul says,
  • "The time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine … they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears", 2 Timothy 4: 3.

• The apostle speaks elsewhere of "ten thousand instructors", but here they heap them to themselves. Is there any spiritual order in a heap of teachers? There is no spiritual order, balance or discrimination in it at all.

• The instruction of Scripture governing levitical service conveys no idea of a heap of teachers. That can apply only to the fitful, irresponsible, natural religious mind, contemplated in the second epistle to Timothy.

• Think of the disorderly condition of the mind that heaps to itself teachers! It is because of "itching ears" that cannot endure sound doctrine.

• John 6 is a very long chapter. It is full of details, but every word in it is excellent, for it is about Jesus who is the precious food that came down from God out of heaven.

• Many of His disciples had been murmuring, now they ceased to walk with Him. Is there any Christian here who is not walking with Jesus? What companionship have you? It may be that someone here is in this class – one who has turned away and is walking no more with Him.

• Sometimes murmuring is heard as spiritual thoughts are ministered; one says, 'I do not understand what they are talking about'. Why do you not understand? Others do.

• It is because of your state; you murmur, as they did at Capernaum, according to our chapter, and that will soon be replaced, unless you judge yourself, by your turning away from the Lord and those who seek to do His will, and you cast about among the different sects to find a preacher suitable to your ear.

• According to your present state of mind, it is not a question of what is said: it is how it is said. But that is not the 6th of John.
  • The Lord says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life".

• It is what the words are.

They did not all turn away back at Capernaum: thank God in all drifts from the truth some are left.

• The Lord says to the twelve, "Will ye also go away?"

• And He would ask this of every one here tonight. Peter replies,
  • "To whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life".

• You see how that which is left, dear brethren, is to continue, and to continue in the greatest conception of things, and that the Lord Jesus alone is the centre. He never fails. Who else is there to go to?

• Cast about and tell me to whom you could go? This is how Peter puts it. It is a negative, but we are often guided negatively. If there is no one, then we must not move at all. There is no one but Christ for the true believer.

• It is not only that the Lord spoke things about life but He had the words of eternal life. He is the one to stand by, dear brethren. It is an appeal to our hearts, a question of what the Lord has, and Peter as "being one of the twelve".

• Twelve represents what the Lord can use. After all, what is left is sufficient for the Lord to carry on with. As we were saying, there were two priests left. We can go on with two:
  • "If two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven".

• These are priests owned of God. But now we have not only two but twelve priests of God, and through the twelve God approaches men in grace. The Lord spoke to the twelve here, the full administrative number.

• It is not exactly a question of apostleship here, but the great principle conveyed in the number, which always applies. The Lord goes on in relation to it.

He challenges the twelve. Peter says, "We have believed and known", He is a leader in what he says. There are brethren here, dear young people, who have believed and known.

• All that can be said of some of you is that you "have believed", but there are those around you who have believed and known. That is the way it should read. And what have they believed and known? That Christ is the Holy One of God. He is the true Aaron of God.

• Peter and the other disciples, although as I said, representing administration, are, so to speak, His sons. They belong to the true Aaron. They prove themselves to be that.
  • "We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God".

• It is a question here of holiness, and Peter shows that he belongs to the true priesthood. But then the Lord's answer is most serious. Even these twelve have to be challenged, searched inwardly. "One of you", He says, "is a devil".

• Thank God it is not two of you, as with the priests of old; it is just one, but how solemn the indictment. The Lord was not concerned about the external number: He is concerned about quality, and He exposes what is unreal.

• No one need think he can pass the scrutinizing eye of the Lord. It is not here the word "demon" but "devil", and not that he has one but that he is one. It is to put us on our guard.
  • In the twelve we are reminded that the Lord's administration has a universal bearing. If there is a book of spiritual ministry published, it is for the whole assembly. That is the position.

• The Lord is administering in relation to the whole; but if there is a devil, He will not let him pass. He is concerned about quality – reality, holiness. He will carry on to the end, but He will carry on with those who, like Peter, say,
  • "We have believed and known that thou art the holy one of God".

May the Lord grant us help to understand what "is left", and to see how it comes in for the whole thought

• and appears presently as the result of the mighty workmanship of God as the holy city whose light is most precious, coming down from God out of heaven, having the glory of God.

The incidents recorded in this chapter, as many know, mark the introduction of the gospel into the Western world; it was Paul's first visit to Europe.

• It recalls to one's mind the attitude of God as foreshadowed in the temple; the cherubim there were looking out toward the house instead of looking down toward the mercy seat as in the tabernacle, as if to take account of the need which was outside, and to meet it in grace.

• In that outlook God embraced men, for He has a very long look-out. When the prodigal was moving towards his father in Luke 15, his father saw him a long way off, and so here one may picture God looking out towards Europe.

• He saw the end from the beginning, and that the introduction of the gospel there was to be of far-reaching consequences to the human race.

• He had His own chosen vessel, too, in Paul for this work, not one sent from Jerusalem, but as one might say, sent from heaven; he was a heavenly missionary.

• We have to bear in mind that Paul in his evangelical ministry worked from the full height of his commission, as he tells us in his epistle to the Ephesians,
  • "God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us", Ephesians 2: 4.

As the chapter teaches, Paul is guided to Philippi. He was forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach in Asia, and when he assayed to go to Bithynia the Spirit of Jesus suffered him not, and he was subject. A beautiful model for all who serve!

• Presently, as a subject vessel, he has a vision. There was need in Macedonia, there was need in Europe, a need perfectly known to God, but now already becoming known to a few in Philippi, for there was a spot there where prayer was wont to be made.

• I wonder if there is any one here who has a spiritual need, who is conscious of his absolute weakness in having to say to God, feeling his powerlessness, and who has the power of evil pressing upon his spirit, and it may be death before him. Is there any one here like that? If so, God takes account of it.

• The man from Macedonia appears in the vision and says,
  • "Come over and help us".

• It was a call, and the servant was subject, entirely subject, thus affording room for God to show what He had in His mind, and how He would reach the regions beyond. The divine horizon was far beyond even Paul's.

• Later on he spoke of going to Spain, of going to the utmost limits; he had that in his heart, but God had it in His heart before Paul. God had looked out and saw Europe. One cannot but dwell on that.

Now, God is not carrying on government simply for the sake of having government on earth, but on account of those who shall be heirs of salvation. It is said of angels,

• "Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?", Hebrews 1: 14.

• We may reckon on that, and we should be concerned, as Paul was, with what is going on in the souls of men and women;
  • and when I say women, I say it, because they are very prominent in this chapter. In two of them a work of God had already begun before Paul preached to them. In the third, a dreadful work of the devil proceeded; sad, solemn fact!

• It may be that in this company, small as it is, there are those in whom an initial work of God has taken effect, but whose hearts as yet have not come into the good and blessing of the gospel

• but, on the other hand, there may be one in whom the devil has begun to work, who has been employed by the devil in some way or other. The damsel with the spirit of divination said,
  • "These men are the servants of the most high God".

• It sounded very nice; apparently she is a helper of Paul, but in reality she is an agent of the devil, and opposing the introduction of the light of grace. It may be there is one here who has come under the power of the devil; if so, now is your opportunity.

• The mind of God for you is exactly the same as it is for those in whom God has begun to work. The mind of God for this wretched woman was the same as for the others, for God has not two minds. Of the Saviour God it is said,
  • "who will have all men to be saved", 1 Timothy 2: 4.

• His mind for her was grace, and so the demon was cast out of her.

But to refer for a moment to the first woman mentioned in this chapter, Timothy's mother; she is an honoured woman, she is said to be a "believing woman", for that is how it should read; a Jewess, but not simply one who had believed.

• To make a profession of faith on a certain day and then to go as usual does not constitute a believing woman. A "believing" woman is one who is marked by faith every day.

• Well, Timothy's mother was said to be such, she believed not only for herself, but for Timothy. Her mother, too, that is, Timothy's grandmother, we see also was a believing woman. The apostle in writing to Timothy said,
  • "The unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice", 2 Timothy 1: 5.

• But I only speak of that to show how important it is for wives and mothers to be believing women; women who bring in faith, who bring God into things, both in regard to their husbands and their children.

• As to Timothy's father, all that is said of him is that he "was a Greek". He possibly had a political status, but nothing spiritual is indicated in regard of him, and therefore this is a word for unbelieving husbands. Is there any husband here of whom all that could be said is, that he is an Englishman?

Timothy himself had a good report. We read,

• "which was well reported of by the brethren that were at Lystra and Iconium".

• Young man, young brother, what about you? What about the report that can be made about you in your district? That is a word for young brothers!

• You all understand that I am endeavouring to make a present application of the facts that are presented to us in this scripture, for, if we profess to believe the gospel, God looks for a life in accord with it.

• Timothy was such as to be worthy to be taken up by the great apostle as a companion and fellow-labourer; it is said,
  • "him would Paul have to go forth with him".

• What a trophy of grace! One would appeal to those who have Christian parents as to the importance of following what has come to you through them, lest you should become a profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of meat, a mess of pottage, sold his birthright.

• One would speak to the young people who know the Lord, for God is taking the old ones home, and you will be called soon, if the Lord tarry, to occupy the ground and to stand for Him. One would desire that your report should be a good one from the Lord's people in the district where you are.

The next woman that we get is Lydia. What one notices in connection with her is that the apostle's desire is first of all to associate himself with that which is of God in that place.

• He did not take a hall in Philippi and start to preach. He found the place where prayer was wont to be made; he found that dependence was already there, and he came into touch with it; he and those with him
  • "sat down and spake unto the women";

• and now Lydia comes into evidence. This woman was not of Philippi but of the city of Thyatira. She was a seller of purple, she had a trade; of her it is recorded that the Lord opened her heart,
  • "that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul".

• Notice that! She attended to them, and they were taken into her heart and pondered over.

What about your heart? Simeon in the temple, when he took up Jesus in his arms, said that the thoughts of many hearts would be revealed in connection with that Child. The coming of Christ involved the testing of every heart. How about your heart?

• Your heart has to be taken account of by itself. The word of God has to be received there, but I would call your attention to what the Lord says in Matthew 13, that while the word may be received, unless it is understood, the devil comes and catches away that which was sown in the heart.
  • The apostle said "the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in heart", Romans 10: 8.

• Now that is remarkable, because it shows that the word may be received, and yet if it not understood, Satan takes it away. One has seen many instances of that kind, where the enemy takes away the word, so that the man remains what he ever was, he is unaffected.

• I ask again, How about your heart? Has the word been received into your heart, and has it been understood? The word of God brings in what God is, and what Christ is, and so works effectually in those who believe. It is effectual only in those who believe.

• Lydia believed; she received the word into her heart, and then she opened her house to Paul.

Now I want to come to the jailor, because, after all he is the character of the chapter; he is the man of Macedonia, and I shall show you, if I can, the beautiful manner in which God reached this man's heart, and what it involved for the servants of the Lord.

• One is greatly humbled when one thinks of Paul and Silas, and the great disparity between oneself and such men. Here are two men simply in the hands of God. It is God's work and they are prepared for the path of suffering.
  • "For thy sake we are killed all the day long", Romans 8: 36.

• And one trembles, and I say it truthfully, when one thinks of what Paul and Silas were, and compares oneself with such. Here are two men ready to be offered up for the gospel.

• The jailor was charged to keep them safely, and so in the ordering of God they are thrust by him into the inner prison, and their feet were made fast in the stocks. God would reach that man's heart, and God would reach your heart through the gospel.

• At midnight Paul and Silas sang praises to God. God had His portion in them. What a savour ascended to God that night from that dark dungeon in Philippi. Such is Christianity! They prayed and sang praises to God.

• God was showing Himself through His servants, through qualified vessels equal to the message. He was showing Himself to the jailor, and not only to the jailor, but to all in the prison;
  • "and the prisoners heard them", Acts 16: 25.

• God was approaching this jailor and the prisoners.

These servants began by prayer, and proceeded to praise. What energy there was! Their hymns are not preserved, but they sang a hymn of praise, and the prisoners heard; they were compelled to listen. How beautiful!

• What a moment it was! What a privilege! Think of that jailor being converted that night! Then God acted in power to further His work.
  • "And suddenly there was a great earthquake", verse 26.

• God acted, doubtless, by angelic means in that way, and now the jailor is moved. His first thought was to commit suicide, what great folly; that was his first impulse. Think of the heart of man! Suicide does not take a man out of the presence of God; it takes him into it!

• The jailor drew out his sword and would have killed himself. Then he heard the voice of Paul, which was full of grace.
  • "He cried with a loud voice", verse 28;

• not only were the accents divine, as one might say, but the words themselves,
  • "Do thyself no harm, for we are all here",

• were beautiful. God would preserve man; indeed He preserves the beast.
  • "O Lord, thou preservest man and beast", Psalm 36: 6.

Is there any one here who is pursuing a course of sin? To such an one I would say, The gospel is to do you good.

• Note how this poor man was changed. He sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas. He was evidently affected by the words of grace which fell from Paul's lips as from the Lord's mouth, for
  • "they wondered at the words of grace which were coming out of his mouth", Luke 4: 22.

• And so the jailor calls for a light; he felt the need for it, for his soul was dark; and so is yours if you are groping in the dark and have not come into the light of grace. He rushed in to Paul and Silas, for the light was really there, and he says "Sirs", Acts 16: 30.

• He no doubt would have used the roughest terms before, but now his mind is changed about them. He would not have said that when he thrust them into prison, but he was changed. He had to do, no doubt, with the roughest of men, who did not deserve terms of respect, but now his mind is changed; it is the effect of conversion.

• His mind is changed about God, about Christ, and about the servants of Christ; he had despised them. The jailor now uses terms of respect, and they deserved it, for they are indeed God's noblemen.

Young people are disposed sometimes to speak with disrespect of the servants of God. He says,

• "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?", verse 30.

• May God grant that someone here may ask that question, if not already done! Paul gives a simple answer, nothing could be more simple,
  • "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house", verse 31.

• The jailor had a household, and the message not only embraces him, but those he loved
  • "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house".

That is the message, and the man is reached, he believed, and as we see in the sequel, he was instructed in the word of the Lord. Paul and Silas

• "spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house", verse 32.

• He is to know not only that the Lord has rights over his soul, but that He has a mind about him. The word of the Lord brings to you the mind of the Lord. It is an immense thing to know that the Lord has a mind in regard to me and to all His own; it is most important, therefore, to know the word of the Lord. This is a case where the word of the Lord was received and understood.

• In verse 32 we find that the children and wife were also instructed by the apostle, I am speaking now of his methods, for it was to all that were in his house that the word of the Lord was spoken; they were all to be instructed in the mind of the Lord.

Now I want to dwell upon what the effect upon this man was. It says,

• "he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptised, he and all his, straightway".

• He did not wait; mark, it was done "straightway". I would urge you, whatever the light brings into your soul, to act upon it immediately. He took them the same hour of the night, for the servants had stripes upon their backs.

• I would never put off baptism, either for myself or my household. It brings them in immediately.
  • Joshua says, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord", Joshua 24: 15,

• and that is what this man says in effect. He washed their stripes, and gave them meat; but he was baptised, he and all his, straightway.

• Such is an outline of the manner of the introduction of the gospel into the Western world. I may note another effect of the testimony of grace being received. The man rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. God brings into our souls the element of rejoicing. It is said of the jailor,
  • "When he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced".

• There was joy in that house. I think it is very beautiful. It is not only that the jailor "believed in God" and "rejoiced", but he did so with all his house;
  • it is 'householdly'; the word is an adverb, and it is intended to show that the joy was not only for the jailor himself but for all his house; what a marvellous result of the gospel! The man was genuinely affected.

May God grant to any of those who may have heard the gospel, to believe it, and may the joy that brings into our hearts be more known by us who believe, and may it be shared by all in the house. The households of the people of God should be scenes of joy.

May God bless His word.

1. First, divine speaking in relation to discipline,

2. and then divine speaking in the world typified in Egypt as that through which Satan holds many of the people of God, not all but many, in bondage.

3. Then, as in Numbers, divine speaking in the wilderness, not Egypt, but the wilderness; that is, the world viewed as a contrary and harrowing scene tending to cause dissatisfaction and complaint.

4. Then finally, divine speaking in the house of God, speaking of the exigencies of His own holy nature. He is concerned in this fourth scripture with what is due to Himself in His own house, a place of love, that He might have from us what He can accept and enjoy.

• Therefore, the position of the speaking is in the whirlwind which is audible and distinct, not as in the house where there is perfect quiet and restfulness, but the whirlwind denotes certain divine feelings that the person under discipline needs to take account of and understand, that God is speaking to him or to us – for who is not under discipline in some sense – speaking to us with premeditation.

• There are times and seasons and circumstances in which God speaks suddenly as He did to Aaron and Miriam; but there are circumstances in which God shows great patience in waiting, but nevertheless if it is in His mind to say something to someone or to persons, to say it in circumstances which tend to uneasiness.

• He is in the whirlwind. Who else could be there and speak with any measure of order and distinctness? Very few of us know much, if anything, about whirlwinds. They are bad enough.

• Elijah experienced a great and strong wind in mount Horeb. God was not in it. But Elijah was to feel the power of the wind. God was not in that. He had great respect for Elijah, perhaps as much as for any of His servants.

• He was a man that could change public circumstances by prayer, making them unfavourable and then making them favourable, yet he wearied of his service, and grew fearful, and would determine the end of his own life, which is not within one's province. God alone should decide the termination of lives, and the duration of them.

• He asked Jehovah to take away his life. God did not do that. He had something very great in His mind for this servant, namely, that he should never lose his life, that he should never die.

• Hence we learn the great thoughts that God has for His servants, those who serve Him well. Woe be to those who speak ill of Him or them! God caused him to experience something of the great wind; it was a wind without God, who let it do its worst, yet no ill befell the servant. Other terrible things happened too, and then the still small voice speaks to him saying,
  • "What doest thou here, Elijah?" 1 Kings 19:13.

• The whirlwind is one of the agencies in God's hands. The mind focuses on the believer who is being disciplined. There is nothing to fear really, because the whirlwind will do him no harm, but it is intended to affect him. It does not evidently cause such commotion or such a noise as to hinder the divine voice penetrating and reaching the ear of the disciplined believer.

• What a moment for him! He had to do with his three friends. They were not really friendly, but none of them spoke out of the whirlwind. None of them could. Nor did Elihu speak out of the whirlwind. He had no thought at all of causing fear in the heart of Job. He said,
  • "Behold, my terror shall not make thee afraid", Job 33: 7.

• He represents human sympathy, speaking on God's behalf. But now God is taking on the finishing process. The result is to be reached and He begins most drastically in the position He takes up.

  Can Job get away from the force of it? He does not attempt to. The idea is that one is to be held whatever the cause or necessity of the speaking and forced to listen to it. If there is a disciplined person here such as Job, one specifically disciplined, and most of us, if not all, experience it, do not turn a deaf ear.

• God is saying, There are other things, other instrumentalities I have. He is armed with the whirlwind. It belongs to God. He would have Job to be as a disciplined person, not as a self-vindicated person. How eloquent we become in self-vindication! I do not think Job was so eloquent in any of his speeches as he was when he talked about what a great man he was, but now the words of Job are ended because all such words have an ending.

• God has His way and He says to Job,
  • "Gird up now thy loins like a man", Job 38: 3.

• That is the word. That is, you are not like a child in your waywardness, your wilfulness and your disobedience. Use manly feelings and listen to God. Answer Me. He says. God is not shutting him up by any means, not formally. He is giving him full scope to answer, but he does not. He answers according to chapter 40, verse 3, but God pays no attention to his answer.

• I do not want to be like that, that God should pay no attention to what I am saying to Him. Jehovah went on. We are told in the second discourse that He was still in the whirlwind and He was successful. If we are in the place of discipline, or in need of it, let us afford God the satisfaction of overcoming us. We may as well, you know.
  • "That thou mayest be justified when thou speakest, be clear when thou judgest", Psalm 51: 4.

• It is His right. God looks for that, but He has pleasure in it. He has reached His object.

• We have to go back to the beginning and begin over again. That is the point in this second scripture, as you have often doubtless observed.
  • "Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron",

• for now it is a question of the mediatorial position; there was none with Job; out-and-out discipline is a question of God and the person:
  • "but now mine eye seeth thee", Job 42: 5.

• No one else but God, but God has taken up a mediatorial position, to serve us so that we might in our measure begin over again. After all that long weary discourse-making with Job, he really had to go back to the beginning of the book where God was speaking so nicely of him.
  • My servant, He called him; "my servant Job".

• Let me go back again to chapter 1 and begin all over again with God; not indeed the awful miseries of the discipline; let us pass over chapters 3 to 38, as it were. Let me begin over again with God.

• We cannot afford to miss the instruction even although it may have been through the whirlwind. Job began over again and that is the point in the recovery of a sinful person.

• And so it is with Moses and Aaron. The people said to Moses, "Speak thou to us". God does not care for that, but He would say, 'If you want Moses, you can have Moses. I have the fullest confidence that Moses will be faithful to Me in dealing with you, and Aaron too'; our Moses is Christ and our Aaron is Christ. So the word is,
  • "Jehovah spoke to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt, saying, This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you. Speak unto all the assembly of Israel, saying, On the tenth of this month let them take themselves each a lamb, for a father's house, a lamb for a house. And if the household be too small for a lamb, let him and his neighbour next unto his house take it according to the number of the souls", Exodus 12:1 - 4.

• The Lord said to Zacchaeus, whom He would have to begin spiritually – there was some beginning with him before undoubtedly. He wanted to see Jesus who He was. He did not get that impression in the school, nor in the play-house. He got it elsewhere. He got it from God. He could not have told you that, but he did. He wanted to see Jesus who He was. What a Person He must be! he says to himself.
  • The Lord says, "Today I must remain in thy house", Luke 19: 5.

• He is to have Jesus in his own house. That is, God in his own house. Well, that is the position here, but it is in Egypt where you have been at home.

• There are some here, perhaps, from some external or natural influence, waiting for the meeting to be over. God is speaking to us through these scriptures. It is a question of Moses and Aaron, men known to you; they are your own people.

• God speaks of a lamb, a yearling. He looks for something in principle of manhood in us; a year old. A yearling lamb is really a sheep, but it is called a lamb, and it is to be in the house. It is a household matter. It is not the whirlwind, but outside it is Egypt.

• Many a young Israelite in the land of Egypt that night would be questioning in his own mind, 'Why cannot I go out tonight?' The answer would be, 'No, you cannot go out tonight'. Happy it is that some night has come when you are debarred from your own will. It is pointed out to you that you must not, and the danger is too great.

• The house is the place, but what a house! These communications came through Moses and Aaron to every father in Israel in the land of Egypt. It is all a young people's matter, and Moses comes to deliver the message directly to the people. He epitomises it. He reduces it to six or seven verses and stresses the little ones.

• God does not act automatically. God is God. He made the days and He is the first to use the days. He used the first day. This new day, this new month is to be the beginning henceforth.

• It does not refer to God. It refers to the believer. That is my second point. Egypt has such a place in our hearts and its calendars and its associations and its leeks and its garlic, whatever they may be. We are going to leave all; we are going to start again; another history, a new calendar, new days, new months, new years.

• Finally time will cease altogether in an eternal day. The day of eternity; think of what a day that is! That is a scriptural term.

• We have often spoken of it. God takes away the first to establish the second. Egypt is the first altogether. The only history for the believer is this new history, and it is regulated by the moon as we have had.

• Well, as I work that out I might make something of the assembly. The moon here has reference to the assembly. How we do speak so lightly about the brethren, and what they say and what they do; so difficult to get on with them.

• But the moon would have reference to the assembly. It has a place in relation to the sun. It is dependent on the sun. Of course, the assembly is dependent on Christ. As the assembly is dependent on Him, so the moon is dependent on the sun. The moon represents the assembly; the assembly has authority. If a man does not hear the assembly, what about him?
  • "Let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican".

• You say, I am a listener to Christ; I want to hear about the Lord. Do not forget the assembly. The Lord will not hear you if you do not respect the assembly.

• "Jehovah spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the tent of meeting, on the first of the second month, in the second year after their departure from the land of Egypt", Numbers 1: 1.

• They were in the wilderness for one year and one month. How did they like it? A good question determining what the world has become to the real believer in Christ who understands the passover; the lamb slain. He is long enough in the house for you to have known Him well. You become endeared to Him because He died for you.

• Have you accepted baptism to go forth to Him without the camp?
  • "As many as have been baptised unto Christ Jesus, have been baptised unto his death. We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life", Romans 6: 3-4.

• Do you like that? That is christianity. That is the christian path.

• This is a year and a month, the first month of the second year; all that year in the wilderness. Do you want to go back again to the world? The devil seems to get great advantage sometimes. There is commotion abroad in the world.
  • "Many … went away back", we are told by John,

• and he has his own way of telling everything. He would say to us in it, 'How can you turn away from Jesus?' Why should you turn away from such love as Jesus' love?
  • "Many of his disciples went away back and walked no more with him".

• So it was in the wilderness they wanted to go away back. They told Moses and they told each other of the wonderful times they had. Things were not nearly so good as they were saying they were. They were telling lies to each other.

• When we get away from the Lord, things become exaggerated in our minds, and we are not truthful. A low state of soul is never a truthful state of soul. We cover up our mistakes by lies or partial lies.

• God says, 'You have been here for a year and a month in this new life, new associations, and now I am taking account of your troubles. I am taking account of the contrariety of the wilderness. I am speaking to you in the wilderness, but I am in My house'.

• God's house is not in heaven; it is here, in a contrary scene. When we sit down to the Lord's supper on the first day of the week, we sit down in an externally contrary scene, but all is peaceful within. God is saying to you, 'I know what the wilderness is. I know you had trouble with your children before you left. I know you may have had to work on Sunday, but you have overcome it, and you have sacrificed double pay to get here'.

• Numbers contemplates persons who are worth numbering. God is saying, I am speaking to you in the contrary scene, but I am speaking to you in the place of love; that is, in the tabernacle, and I am saying to you that you are to be numbered. God says to Moses,
  • "Take the sum of the whole assembly of the children of Israel, after their families, according to their fathers' houses, by the number of the names, every male, according to their polls; from twenty years and upward, all that go forth to military service in Israel" (verses 2-3).

• This type refers not to those who draw back but those who go forward. Numbers will not tolerate going back at all, no more than a soldier's defection is tolerated in the army. Death penalty goes for that.

• You are reckoned as a real person – twenty years old. We have been speaking today of full growth. God is saying, I know all your history, I remember when the wind blew in like a hurricane; it blows where it lists. It is very often gentle, especially southerly winds which are not like a hurricane.
  • "The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit", John 3: 8.

• God says, I know that, and I have been with you in that; I know your history, because pedigree is the point here. You have distinction in heaven. That is what is meant in Numbers. What good is distinction on earth after all – medals and the like, what good are they? We have to face matters. It is only what counts in heaven that matters.

• God is taking account of twenty-year-old people, but real ones, full-grown persons, full-grown men. God says, I know all about your pedigree and I have a place for you. I am depending on you for a certain position. You are a necessity for Me. Six hundred thousand of them. I want every one of you. I am speaking to you. I know exactly where you are. That is the idea.

• He spoke in the wilderness but in the tabernacle. He had spoken in the wilderness before without the tabernacle, but now it has been built. That is to say, the assembly is the place of affection. God says, I am making the thing attractive to you. So one is greatly concerned about young men and young women who come to the meetings. God is speaking to you in your business, at the office, or on the battlefield. Nothing can hinder God's speaking to you.

• But He chooses at certain times to have you in the assembly, where you will find out how great you are. What a pedigree you have! What a designation you have! God says, I have you down in My book and I know all about you – your history, your pedigree, your forefathers. Is it not attractive? I think it is.

• Christianity is really becoming effective to us as we come together where the Holy Spirit is operating, where divine love is operating through the Lord, and through the Spirit in one another. It is the place of love, the residence of what God has down here. How can I afford to be absent when I can be there?

• "And Jehovah called to Moses and spoke to him out of the tent of meeting, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, When any man of you presenteth an offering to Jehovah, ye shall present your offering of the cattle, of the herd and of the flock. If his offering be a burnt-offering of the herd, he shall present it a male without blemish", Leviticus 1: 1-3.

• God is saying to us just now that He regards us as people that have some wealth. He says, I know what you have, but "I seek not yours, but you". It is a spiritual matter. The book does not begin with poverty. It begins with wealth and why should we not be wealthy?

• Numbers contemplates the age of twenty which means that one has the Holy Spirit; that I am indwelt by the Spirit of God, a full-grown person. I am not a babe any more. We are not to be babes. We are to remain as short a time as possible in that state. Not that God does not take account of babes. The Lord Jesus said,
  • "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them to babes", Matthew 11: 25.

• Matthew contemplates more than that. He contemplates the assembly formed of men, not of babes. God is thinking that we have something. If we are in fellowship we shall soon be tested as to what we have. God knows exactly what we have and He is saying, I know what you have and I want what you have. He is not merely wanting our money, but He does say in this respect,
  • "I seek not yours, but you".

• It is what we are spiritually, that God has in mind. As in the fellowship we shall soon be tested as to what we will be able to give.

• So that, dear brethren, God is speaking out of the tabernacle – He is not speaking in the wilderness here – that is Numbers – He is saying in Numbers, I know what you are suffering but I value you all the same; your suffering and contrariety do not detract from your personality. You belong to the assembly of the first-born ones registered in heaven. That is what Numbers is teaching you.

• But in Leviticus God is saying that He is in a house; it is the tabernacle according to all that it is spiritually, and God is saying that He wants us there, and He knows we have what belongs to this place where He is. He wants you to enrich it.

• He says, I am telling Moses about you. I am regarding you as a well-to-do person. I am not dealing with the poor, I am dealing with you. Persons who are well off. God takes account of what you have. God says, I want that. I can use that. It is pleasurable to Me.

• It all refers to formation in us. God is just saying a word to us from these four portions that He might have results out of these meetings and finally that He might have what you have for Himself.

• He says, I want you for heaven but I want you now where I am, and that you should bring up the best you have. He tells you how to come and what to do when you come. He has the priests ready there to assist you, so that you might bring everything to God, and that He might be everything to you, and that you might be a lover of God and bring forth fruit unto God.

• He wants you to come not in a mere formal perfunctory way, but to come feelingly as a wealthy person with something you have by the Spirit of God that God likes and would have according to His own way and etiquette in His own house.

• It is not exactly in His Son, but "in … Son"; that is, God Himself is speaking in that relation, as a divine Person, but not as at Sinai when everything denoted distance, but "in … Son".

• That is surely a most attractive title, for it carries with it the affections that are proper to the relation, and the communications take character from the affections seen in One in the unclouded relation of the Son with His Father, but He no less than God, for it is God speaking.

• His personality is unchangeable, so that the speaking was God's speaking, but in Son; in One who could clothe every thought expressed with the affections proper to the relation in which He stood. That relation implied, not simply that He was sent, although that is also true, but that it was God Himself; it was God, but God come near.

• That is the thought, for the relation was well known among men, and God chose to draw near in it, that there might be nothing to terrorise, nothing to abash, nothing to disconcert, but that all the communications should be calculated to draw out confidence and liberty.

• We think of the scene at Sychar in that well-known incident when the Lord says,
  • "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water", John 4: 10.

• And who was it? One clothed in humility, who was nevertheless the Son, nevertheless God, for God was there in Jesus; and yet speaking in the utmost simplicity. One who in no way sought to disguise the fact that He was weary with His journey:
  • He "sat just as he was", as we read, "at the fountain", a wearied Man.

• He opened the conversation, and established confidence in the heart of the woman, laying in her soul an immutable basis for instruction in the knowledge of "Who it is". She would never forget that:
  • "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that says to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water".

• It was the Son speaking to her; it was God speaking to her in Son, with the effect of establishing confidence in her, and that a basis might be laid for that after-structure which would eventuate indeed in her becoming a worshipper, to worship the Father in spirit and in truth.

• "taking his place" indeed "in the likeness of men",

• for that is how the woman at Sychar regarded Him. She said,
  • "How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria?".

• He did not deny that He was a Jew; He took His place in that relation. He did not deny He was weary, that He was thirsty; that was common to men, all those things were common to thousands in Judea, and He took His place in the likeness of men, and hence recognised all these things. He was surely a Jew; He took that place; she called Him that and He did not deny it.
  • He says, "Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship".

• You see how lowlily He spoke to her, what a lowly place He took. It was a divine appointment that He should take that place, "taking his place in the likeness of men", and yet, beloved, He was God.

• It was God speaking, every word leading on from the previous one to another, building up a structure in her soul that she should become a worshipper of the true God. That is what enters into this passage in Hebrews; the wondrous lowliness of Jesus, how He came near even to the most disreputable, so as to speak, not as an intermediary, but as God. It was God Himself, as the beautiful hymn says
  'Sinner, see thy God beside thee,
  In a servant's form come near,
  Sitting, walking, talking with thee!
  Sinai's mount no longer fear'. (Hymn 112)

• It disarms all fear, it establishes confidence in the most disreputable where faith is, God come near.

• that as God draws near to the sinner and sets him free, bringing him into the knowledge of Himself through redemption, setting him up in Christ as risen from the dead and glorified, he thinks of God.

• The Lord spoke to the woman about worship; this chapter in Numbers is the saints representatively so affected by the testimony that they draw near to recognise the altar, that being the great symbol of worship and our service Godward.

• It is the dedication of the altar in the day in which it was anointed. Now God on the ground of accomplished redemption has a system of worship, but for its functioning this system depends on His people; they are essential to it.

• The altar is set up and anointed, and the twelve princes of Israel draw near with their offerings, perfect unity appearing in those offerings; and you will see if you run through the chapter that they are princely offerings; they are offerings of the people of God viewed as possessed typically of the Holy Spirit on the ground of redemption, in which we all have our part.

• They drew near; each prince had his day, each offered the same exactly both in bowls, and in spoons, and in cattle; and God is so pleased with the aggregate, as you will see, that He comes and He would speak. He is surrounded now with the wealth of His people, His own wealth indeed; as they would say like David,
  • "Of thine own have we given thee".

• It was the abundant wealth of His people seen in perfect unity in their offerings.

• It is a wonderful scene, and God would speak to our hearts as taking up this attitude towards Him.

• He has drawn near, as we see in John 4 and Hebrews 1, to speak to us in nearness in our circumstances, for, mark you, at the well it was in her circumstances; she had come there; it was a circumstance of her daily life that she should go there to draw water, and that is how the Lord meets every one of us, in our circumstances.

• But now He would intimate to us that He has circumstances of His own, and if you draw near to Him, which He looks for, He would say to you it must be in His circumstances, and the more you enter into those, the more you appreciate them, you would not have others. So it says that
  • "Moses went into the tent of meeting to speak with Him", (verse 89).

• I believe the closet is less understood than the holiest, at least mentally. The first thing is the closet, that is to say, the door shut on all others save God and yourself; you speak to God in secret.

• No doubt Moses had been accustomed to do that; he could never have become the man he was in the service of God had he not been accustomed to speak to God in secret.

• His brother Aaron too could never have had the place he had as priest in Israel, save that he had been accustomed to speak to God in secret. God says, as it were, 'I know him', one of the finest things that could be said of any of us by God.
  • "If any man love God, the same is known of him",

• and we become known to God as we, as it were, knock at His door. As we seek access, He opens it; the door is opened, as I have been saying. As you enter your closet and shut your door and turn to God in the light in which He has drawn near to you in your circumstances, you will soon find the holiest, you will soon find your closet has become the holiest.

• The holiest is the presence of God, but in Jesus; it is what Jesus is before God. It is as if God would say to you, 'These are the things that engage Me, and Christ is the centre, and you take a place there'.

• You are not the centre; Christ is the centre; and the more you draw near, the more you see that all around is holy. Like the holy vessels of the sanctuary, all were anointed and all were in perfect keeping within; they stood in relation to the ark.

• But now he enters surrounded by all this wealth, the dedication gift of the altar. It is one idea, supplied by twelve princes, each on his day, and Moses enters in the midst of all that wealth to speak to God, a very fine moment, for God says, as it were, Moses, I want to speak to you, let Me speak to you first.

• How beautiful it is to be detained there, beloved, just to wait for a moment to see what God would say. David went in and sat before the Lord, but there was no sitting place in the tabernacle, no seat at all; it is in the temple we have the idea of sitting before the Lord.

• It is in nearness, but according to God's terms, for it is obvious that whilst He calls upon us to draw near, He will provide for the exigencies of His own holy nature, His own attributes – His own deity, in a word.

• How perfectly this came out in Jesus as the gospels present Him! Wherever He is, whatever He is saying, in whatever circumstances, He provides for the rights and the majesty of God. A young man runs into the way and says, "Good Master", kneeling down. The Lord says, 'No, that will not do; there is no one good but God'. Was the Lord denying His own deity? Not at all, He was setting that young man right. The Lord would always do that.

• There is nothing in a way more wonderful than to see how the Lord provided for God and how He would adjust everyone that came near to Him in regard of God. So here, God would speak to Moses, but how?
  • "From off the mercy-seat which was upon the ark of testimony, from between the two cherubim".

• Now you see, God is speaking in His own circumstances, in circumstances that are in keeping with Himself. How wonderful it is that He admits of us being there, yea invites us to be there, so that it says
  • Moses "heard the voice speaking to him", then as a result, "he spoke to Him".

• Whilst God in His own sphere maintains His own rights and glory, He sets His people in perfect liberty before Him. Indeed,
  • "Perfect love casts out fear",

• and where is perfect love? In the presence of God, and perfect love casts out fear, that is in one who disallows the flesh. There is no room for it there, beloved; let us not attempt to draw near other than according to the divine requirements, for
  • "Our God is a consuming fire", Hebrews 12: 29.

• The very epistle from which I have read says that, and not simply "God is a consuming fire", but "our God", the God of those who understand what it is to enter the holiest and who know Him there.

• Genesis 35 records the results of God's dealings with a disciplined man, and no one is of any account save a disciplined man. Discipline is the order of the day, beloved, while we are down here in flesh.

• The discipline of Jacob began early, but in that discipline God assured him that He would never leave him. It is well worth while to accept discipline in such company. God disciplines us as in company with us, in nearness to us, and then He loves to depict in His own way the result of the discipline.

• The result with Jacob was that he arrived at Bethel where God met him and made known to him that his name was to be changed, that he was a prince with God, and, moreover, that God had a name too, that of Almighty God, and that Jacob was to know Him in His house. That is really the only place where we get a right view of God, in His house.

• I have been speaking of the attributes of God and the cherubim in the book of Numbers, but then the thought of the house, although it applies in both Exodus and Numbers, has a peculiar kind of meaning in Genesis. In Genesis the principle is that things get their names from persons who experience what they are.

• The name "house of God" arose out of an experience of Jacob. This is a matter well worthy of attention, that names arise very largely out of the experience of God's people; they name things as they experience them. What did Jacob experience? He experienced that God had an interest in him, that He had gone to the pains of setting up a ladder from the earth to heaven, and that angels were ascending and descending upon that ladder in relation to Jacob.

• They began with Jacob; according to the passage, they did not begin with heaven; the angels are always down here. You say, I thought they were always in heaven, but it does not say so. They are heavenly, but they are
  • "sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation", Hebrews 1: 14.

• They are here, and they were there at Luz, and they began with Jacob; they were ready at hand. What a wonderful flood of light there is as that enters the soul; they were ready at hand, watching over him while he was asleep. He alludes to the Angel of God's presence later, but there they were, a testimony to God's interest in him, and he says,
  • "This is none other but the house of God".

• He had said it was a dreadful place, but he had better thoughts, like many young people; they come to the meetings and things are not just as they wish, but as they think over them they have better thoughts and they begin to see that God is there, and that is their salvation. Those better thoughts in time overcome the wretched thoughts that call the meeting, the assembly where God is, a dreadful place.

• Jacob had better thoughts and they asserted themselves; they led him to say,
  • "This is … the house of God",

• and that is the first mention of it that we have, and the Spirit of God never loses sight of it from that naming.

• I am not now speaking of the cherubim, but of what God is Himself in His own house, for it is a place of love. It is a family thought, and what comes out in this passage is that Jacob finally discovered that in the house he was actually pleasing to God, so pleasing that God came down Himself and spoke to him there.

• He had before stood above the top of the ladder, but now He is by him, standing by Jacob. What a wonderful time Jacob must have had! and he never forgot that spot.

• It is a question of God speaking in nearness, and you get that nearness uniquely in the house, for it is His own abode. So that Jacob sets up a pillar, not simply the stone that he had for a pillow as in the earlier account, but a stone pillar (chapter 35: 14). It is the material of the pillar now; it has got more dignity; and, moreover, he poured a drink-offering upon it, meaning that he was conscious that God was pleased with him.

• What an experience is that, dear brethren, the sense that God is pleased with you in the house! Why should you stay away? Why not come into it? Why should you miss the knowledge that God is pleased with you in His own abode?

• So Jacob, as I said, poured a drink-offering on the pillar that he reared up, and anointed it, meaning that I am not only to the pleasure of God now, but I am dignified. The anointing is dignity, and it qualifies me to have part in the house, for it is only as I am anointed that I can move in the house. I move in the dignity of the house.

• It is not now how to behave myself in the house; it is the Spirit;
  • for "He that … has anointed us, is God", 2 Corinthians 1: 21,

• and He has anointed us that we might move in dignity before Him.

• What can be greater, in a way, than that God should call us aside and tell us what is going to happen, should take us into His secrets?
  • "Shall I hide from Abraham", He says, "that thing which I do …?".

• And then He tells us why. The preceding chapters are full of the deepest interest in this respect. In chapter 17, God occupied him with the death of Christ in type, occupied him with circumcision, and having unfolded that to him, it says that He broke off the conversation, as if to intimate to Abraham that He would resume it later.

• It is a beautiful conception, the holy confidence that belongs to us as the friends of God, for that is what Abraham represents;
  • he is called the "friend of God".

• Friendship implies that I am qualified and competent to enter into the affairs of him who regards me as his friend. So God spoke to him about circumcision, and He broke off the conversation, and went up from him. The simplicity of the divine communications in the book of Genesis is beautiful.

• "sat at the tent-door in the heat of the day" in the plains of Mamre, "And he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold, three men standing near him".

• That is, God is drawing near to him in company. I have no doubt the Trinity is hidden in the statement; it is God Himself. Two angels, of course, were there, but the Old Testament has its own way of conveying the truth. God came in company, and in such a way as to lay Himself open to be invited to be entertained.

• And Abraham is equal to it. It is now Abraham the believer. How nobly he acts! I need not enter into the detail; you are all conversant with the chapter; if not, you should become so. It is a wonderful chapter in this sense.

• Think of God waiting under a tree for Abraham to bring Him cakes! Think of the simplicity of it! Infidels may sneer at it, but faith exults in it; it is God drawing near.

• After the refreshment, there they wait under the terebinth for this honoured man and his wife. His servants are all brought into it, and He makes communications to Abraham about the son he is to have, Isaac.

• He makes communications to him about Christ, but then He is going to make communications to him about the world. God has been making communications to us about Christ; wonderful thoughts have come to us, and the Holy Spirit would open our hearts to let them in.

• One thing after another is happening to remind us of the end, of what is depicted in the book of Revelation, but then, God would have us not only to read and understand the book of Revelation, but to be in spirit with Himself to get His own thoughts about these things. Will He not communicate to us? Will He not convey things to us? He will, but it is contingent upon certain conditions.
  • "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do …?".

• God, as it were, challenged Himself as to His own mind, as to whether He would do it to a man. Will He not take the same attitude with us?
  • "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment".

• What a challenge that is to us as to our houses! not only as to our immediate children, but our posterity, for every true father has his posterity in mind. The book of Genesis is patriarchal. It is a question of looking forward in the testimony, and in so far as it lies with you, of providing for it. That is the kind of man God honours, and that is the man that stands and listens to God:
  • "Abraham stood yet before the Lord".

• He allowed the two angels to go off to Sodom, but He stood before this man and spoke to him. I am going down to see Sodom, He said to Abraham. Think of God saying that to an actual man today: I am going out to see what is going on in England, in the world, to see what France is doing, what Italy is doing, or America. Is that not what God says? It is exactly. God is concerned about all those matters.

• The two angels turned thence and went towards Sodom; God looked towards Sodom and He was going that way. Now He says, I will tell Abraham about it. Well, I pray to God regularly to tell me about these things. God is concerned about international conditions. He has set up the gentile monarchies, and they are running their course.

• Has God forgotten the book of Daniel? No, beloved. The book of Daniel and what is recorded in it still stands. The monster that God showed Nebuchadnezzar is still there, and the monarchies described in that book are running their course – they are nearing their end in the way God foretold that they should, and God would take us into His confidence as to what all those things mean. It is most important that we should be with God about those things, to be instructed about them. So God says,
  • "Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do …?",

• and He spoke to him about Sodom; and then it says that
  • "Abraham drew near"

• – how beautiful that is! – and said to God, If there are fifty righteous in the city will You spare it? Yes, I will, God said. What a wonderful conversation that was, Abraham interceding for the world, with a view, of course, to his brother Lot in it.

• Should we not intercede for the world, with a view to our brethren in it, our Lots that are in it, that they might be rescued out of it? Well, God said, I will spare it for fifty. Will You not spare it for forty-five? Yes, for forty-five. For forty? Yes, for forty. For thirty? Yes, for thirty. For twenty? Yes, for twenty. For ten? Yes, for ten.

• That is God, beloved, speaking to His friend. Abraham does not venture to go below ten, and so God left Abraham, the conversation was ended. That is how it stands; He did not break it off this time; it is a finished matter now. That is, we are drawing near to the close when the communications are about to stop. God went on, and
  • "Abraham returned to his place",

• and presently the smoke of Sodom arose like the smoke of a furnace. True enough the word of God was the word of God. There is no doubt about it; the world is doomed; we may as well accept it, but what I am at is this, that Abraham went to the very spot where God spoke to him,
  • that is to say, the suggestion of the nearness of God – of the dignity too – of God's recognition of Abraham in speaking to him about it, and Abraham recognising the spot.

• I have no doubt he would often think of that spot, the very spot where Jehovah had spoken to him. It is well to keep in mind where Jehovah speaks. Where does He speak today? He speaks in the assembly, in the church. That is where His communications are made, in the temple.
  • "Know ye not", says Paul, "that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?", 1 Corinthians 3: 16. That is where God speaks.

• That is all I had to say, just to stress the thought of speaking in nearness, and then speaking in a certain place where circumstances are according to the majesty and dignity that befit God; that we should have recourse to that place so as to be in the mind of God and so get the good of the speaking.