Ministry by Joseph Pellatt
– Part One

I have been very much exercised about speaking here this evening. It were easy, in a sense, to occupy the time by the utterance of words,

• but that is not what is before us; but what we have before us in our small measure, and in a sense of our own feebleness, is really the spiritual prosperity of the saints.

• We trust we can speak honestly before the Lord and say that above everything else that is what we desire.

In the first place, the point I have in my mind in reading this scripture – Revelation 1 – is that things are there brought before us individually.

• If we speak of the fellowship or the privileges of the assembly we are not, of course, speaking about the fellowship or privileges of an individual, but of the assembly, and I trust we are speaking of it in full view of scripture.

• We are not speaking of the fellowship privilege of "brethren" so-called, for it has come to pass that the term "brethren" – I do not know that we can altogether help it – often means, with some of us, a certain number of saints,
  • but we desire for ourselves and for you that all this might drop out of our minds for the time being and that we may come back to the scriptural use of the word "assembly" as really embracing every Christian.

• But while one is desirous to have scriptural thoughts, scriptural conceptions, feelings, and affections for all Christians, for all the saints of God – all who comprise His assembly, whether we speak of its fellowship or its privilege
  • we have to begin individually, and not only have we to begin individually, but in a certain sense we never lose our individuality.

• Though we may speak of ourselves in connection with the assembly we have to take account of ourselves individually; and whether it be the fellowship or the privilege of the assembly our ability to answer to the one or to the other is really the measure in which things are true of us individually.

• To speak simply, take the scripture we have read in Acts 20: 7.
  • "And the first day of the week, we being assembled to break bread"

• – not simply the disciples at Troas, it is "we", inclusive of Paul and his company who were there at that time.

• Now I think I am addressing a company who are familiar with that. I am addressing those who are in the habit of coming together on the first day of the week to break bread;
  • but our coming together on the first day of the week to break bread does not in itself change our individual spiritual condition.

• If I leave such and such a place, and come into this room, the fact of getting ready and leaving my house and coming to the room and sitting down with the Lord's people here does not change my spiritual state.

I want, beloved, in connection with that scripture we read in Revelation 1 to emphasize that which is individual; not simply as to the possession of the Spirit, but that which is individual in connection with the activities of the Spirit in me.

• We are not going to discuss the point as to whether every Christian has the Spirit; we are assuming that every Christian is indwelt by the Spirit, but I believe it needs to be emphasized in our souls at this time – what must be true of us individually.

• If it is not true of us individually the fact of fellowship with others in the breaking of bread, or the question of outward association with others who are spiritually fitted for the enjoyment of privilege, will not help us.

It is wonderful how John speaks of himself. If he had said: 'I John, an apostle', we might have been interested in what he was about to say, but if he had said that we should have had to stand off, as it were, we should have had to say – it is not common ground.

• It never was common ground even when the apostles were here among the saints.
  • "He has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints" but it could be asked even then:

  • "Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers?" Not by any means: "Having then gifts differing".

• But look how John speaks. He says, "I John, your brother". If a man speaks of himself as your brother, you may get close to that man; there is no distance, and more – there is no difference; it is common ground. But it is not only "I John, your brother", but it is also "and fellow partaker". That is the language of fellowship.

Now I need not say to you – because it will be very obvious to every one here – that as banished to the Isle of Patmos it was not possible for John to give expression to his fellowship in the breaking of bread; you would have to have more than one saint for that; you might have the breaking of bread with two saints, or three, or more;

• but let me emphasize this – John brings himself before us on common ground as our "brother", and he is in fellowship.

• Oh! you say, could a man be in fellowship without breaking bread? Excuse me if, in reply, I ask you: How is he going to break bread according to scripture if he is not in fellowship?

• If I understand the breaking of bread, it does not produce fellowship; the breaking of bread is the scriptural and divinely-appointed expression of it, but fellowship must exist.

• What else could you make of the order of the words in Acts 2: 42:
  • "And they persevered in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, in breaking of bread and prayers"? That is the right order.

• Does Paul call in question the fact of the Corinthians being Christians? Look at the very opening of his epistle to them. He addresses them.
  • "To the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints"

• – not "called to be saints". They were constituted such by divine calling.

• So far from calling in question their Christianity, he speaks of it as a matter of thanksgiving, and he does not hesitate for a moment to give expression to his assurance concerning them – assurance that not only covers the present but reaches on into the eternal future; and yet,
  • beloved, you may have a number of Christians and they may break bread – that is, outwardly; there is the table and the bread and the wine, and things may be done in a kind of orderly way –

• but if the truth of fellowship is not there, if they are not in fellowship, how would that affect their outward breaking of bread?

• Well, in Paul's judgment it would so seriously affect it that Paul would absolutely deny that their breaking of bread was the Lord's supper. Now that may seem a kind of paradox, but that is just what he says in chapter 11: 20.

• Ostensibly, and possibly in outward form, there was the breaking of bread, but he says,
  • "When ye come together therefore into one place, it is not to eat the Lord's supper".

• And he says why; his statement is not arbitrary, or one which is unsupported by good reasons.

• The first thing, then, is individuality, and we have got to be in fellowship, and the question is, How? Well, what we desire to affirm most emphatically is that
  • everything in Christianity not only subsists in the power of the Spirit of God, but everything in Christianity must be taken up in the power of the Spirit of God.

• If the breaking of bread is taken up apart from the activities and power of the Spirit of God in us, it will lose its proper character.

• This was the case with the Corinthians; the reality of fellowship was not there; externally they were in fellowship and responsibly they were in fellowship, but fellowship was not there – they were carnal – fleshly.
  • "For whereas there are among you emulation and strife, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man?"

• These are the specifications supporting and proving the apostle's charge that they were "carnal", "fleshly". It is a serious thing.

I have thought – I do not speak positively, but as a suggestion – that the opening of 1 Corinthians is very significant.

• In chapter 1 the cross of Christ is emphasized, and it is the cross of Christ not simply as meeting the question of man's sins, but as meeting the whole state and condition of man according to flesh.

• There were great differences in that day with regard to man according to flesh, and there are great differences now.

• Some of them at that time were very religious – they were the Jews. Some men were not religious, they were intellectually cultured men, they were philosophical men, but, differ as they might in the sense in which we have just spoken, they were united in their opposition to the truth. Why?

• Because the cross set man according to the flesh – religious man according to the flesh, aside; indeed, it was the sentence of divine judgment upon that man, and it was just as much the sentence of divine judgment upon the other man, the philosophical man. The preaching of the cross was foolishness to the Greek and a stumbling-block to the Jew.

But in chapter 2 what is emphasized is the Spirit, and I presume that you would agree with me that it is on the ground of the cross – the cross as that in which man according to flesh has been judged and judicially terminated and set aside for ever from before God – that it is on that ground the Spirit is given.

• Now if that is the ground upon which the Spirit is given, it is only as the truth of the cross is really made good in our souls that we may expect the activities of the Spirit of God in us.

Now take chapter 11: 31. What does Paul say there?

• "If we judged ourselves, so were we not judged".

• That is the practical power of the cross so brought to bear on my soul that I judge myself:
  • "But let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread and drink of the cup".

• They were refusing to judge themselves at Corinth and they were coming under the judgment of the Lord. I venture to say this – some of us get over bad conduct or bad ways because perhaps we have grace enough to pull off the bad fruit when it appears, but we do not judge ourselves. There will not be bad fruit or bad conduct if there is the judgment of self.

In chapter 5 the apostle is beginning to deal with the saints in a very practical way – a very real way, and what comes to light is that the failure to judge themselves at Corinth was bearing its bad fruit in many ways; but what I call your attention to for a moment is this – he brings in the truth of the Passover

• "For also our passover, Christ, has been sacrificed".

• Now while the head of each family in Israel had to take the lamb, and was responsible for the slaying of it, you must remember that was only true in the beginning; after priesthood came in, the priest attended to the slaying of the paschal lamb
  • but when we come to Christianity you and I have had no part in the death of Christ – "our passover".

• For Christ our passover has been slain for us; but where the truth is brought to bear upon us in this passage is just as the feast of unleavened bread lasting seven days – a complete period – was based upon the passover and was really the practical answer in the Israelites to what the paschal lamb represented and typified – so it is here;
  • he applies it to us, and here is the real reason why these beloved saints at Corinth were not in the truth of fellowship.

• Hence when they came together ostensibly to break bread Paul said, I cannot own it,
  • "this is not to partake of the Lord's supper".

So in chapter 5 we come to the bottom of this; their failure was in what the feast of unleavened bread sets forth; there was not in them the practical answer to the death of Christ as the true passover.

• Instead of purging out the old leaven, Paul brings them face to face with the fact that the old leaven had been allowed by them and it was active among them, and so they are called upon to purge out the old leaven that they might answer in their practical condition to what was true before God of the saints viewed in the light of the death of Christ as our true passover. There was their failure, and how could there be the activities of the Spirit?

• The Corinthians had the Spirit – chapter 6 is positive proof of it – the apostle does not challenge the fact of their having the Spirit; he owns it in chapter 2 and he owns it right through his epistle – he owns it in chapter 3, for, apart from the Spirit, how could the saints be spoken of as the temple of God?

• He is speaking to them individually, as it were, of their bodies being the temple of the Holy Ghost,
  • "which is in you, which ye have of God; and ye are not your own, for ye have been bought with a price";

• but he most emphatically challenges their having the activities of the Spirit.

• He says, I cannot speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal. I know that many of us have dropped, perhaps unconsciously, into the thought that "spiritual" describes some wonderful attainment on the part of Christians, but it is not so.

• If you are a Christian you ought to be spiritual. To be spiritual is the normal condition of every Christian; one might say God has had it before Him in giving us the Spirit that we might be spiritual.
  • Has God given us the Spirit that we might grieve Him, and that we might allow the flesh – indulge the flesh?

• No; He has given us the Spirit that we might be spiritual and not carnal. For this there must be correspondence and fellowship with Christ's death.

Now where the trouble lay was in the fact that there was not an answer in their souls to the death of Christ as the passover lamb. And let me say one simple word: when it speaks of Christ as our passover – the great truth set forth in the passover was God acting in judgment;

• it was a night of judgment, and in the blood of that lamb, sprinkled with the bunch of hyssop on the two side posts and the upper door post of the houses where they dwelt, presented for the eye of God – there was this fact set forth that the judgment of God had already taken place; the blood which was sprinkled there sheltered and screened them.

• I trust you will in grace bear with my saying a word as to this, but I feel that in these days many of us are occupied and working away with a superstructure in Christianity, when the real trouble is that which is connected with the moral foundations of Christianity in our souls;
  • we are occupied with the superstructure, and we do not get on very well with it. What is the cause?

• The foundation is lacking in our souls. And for this we have not to look on one another, but each one of us to see to it for ourselves.

Well, the Corinthians were not ready for the supper. The supper is the divinely-appointed expression of the fellowship, and it is most precious to me, if one might for a moment speak personally – it becomes more precious than ever to me in all the years that pass by; but, beloved brethren, the fellowship must be there.

• The Corinthians were partaking of the supper outwardly, and in doing so they were eating and drinking judgment to themselves.

• I need not stop to say to you that the Lord never designed that in the breaking of bread you and I should be eating and drinking judgment to ourselves;

• the Lord intended that it should stand till He comes, and as the precious expression of the truth of our fellowship together – fellowship based upon His death, a fellowship that calls for correspondence with that death, and a fellowship together in His love expressed in His death; that is the Lord's supper.

Well, I have dwelt thus long on the individual side of it; I trust that we may be able to receive it and to take it home to ourselves, for the Lord does individualise things.

• I am aware that fellowship in the very conception of it is the fellowship of the assembly of God; indeed, I do not know any other fellowship – I am not concerned about any other but the fellowship of the assembly of God, and while it necessarily embraces all who are in and of the assembly it does not at all interfere with individual responsibility "Let a man judge himself, and so let him eat"; that is individual.

• I am coming to the supper every Lord's Day morning, but it is a solemn consideration – am I really in the truth of fellowship? It all turns upon the Spirit of God, and the free action of the Spirit of God in your soul, and that depends on whether you are in correspondence with the judgment of God as expressed in the death of Christ as our passover.

• He has borne the judgment, but, mind you, those who are sheltered and screened by that blood are those who are called upon to keep the feast of unleavened bread; and if the leaven is allowed individually, or if it is allowed collectively, it vitiates fellowship and it vitiates the breaking of bread.

• You cannot have the Lord's supper apart from the truth and reality of fellowship, and the truth and reality of fellowship involves your unconditional acceptance of the judgment of God as expressed in the death of Christ as our passover. It is not the passover at the supper; it is a different aspect of Christ's death altogether.

• In the Lord's supper it is the Lord's death as the expression of His love for us; you cannot have any words better than the Lord's own words:
  • "This is my body, which is for you. This cup is the new covenant in my blood, poured out for you".

• It is His death as the expression of His love, and it is the expression of God's love for us.

• It is not only the "love of God which is in Christ Jesus", but it is the death of the Lord Jesus wherein He expressed His love for us that the love of God finds its full and perfect expression; not that we can separate them; you may distinguish them in a certain sense, but you cannot separate them.

I do not see how I could dare to come next Lord's Day morning and sit down with the saints to partake of the Lord's supper if I were not self-judged. I beg you to bear with this; I say it for the sake of the truth; we need it in its living, practical power in our souls.

• No amount of correct statements of doctrine or correct ways of putting things – I fully believe in doing things decently and in order – but no amount of that will form a substitute for the inward and spiritual reality of christian fellowship; that can only be known in connection with the free action of the Spirit of God in us.

• I know how we are tested, and nothing puts us more to the test than when something is done by somebody that makes us feel, 'Well I know that is not right', and when it is done it often becomes the occasion of that which is not consistent with the truth which we have been feebly attempting to put before you.

In chapter 1: 9 the Apostle Paul says,

• "God is faithful, by whom ye have been called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord".

• And what is the next verse? Well, I will leave you to find out what it is; I tell you, it will pull you up –
  • "Now I exhort you, brethren", etc.

• – it is intended to pull up every one of us.

• We often drop down to the miserable, low level of religious systems, while loudly denouncing them! May the Lord bring it home to us, and bring us into the reality of christian fellowship!

I wish I were able to speak of the blessedness of the divinely-appointed expression of it. The expression of fellowship in the breaking of bread stands in relation to the spiritual – the heavenly privilege of the assembly as brought before us in a scripture like John 20.

• And do not let your minds drop down to some quibble; get the reality of what this wonderful spiritual privilege of the assembly is.

Well, I ask you, what is the relation of Christian fellowship, and the truth of Christian fellowship as expressed in the breaking of bread, to what is beyond it – the privilege? I will tell you.

• There is a scripture I have often thought of which illustrates it. It is in the last chapter of Revelation –
  • "Blessed are they that wash their robes, that they may have right to the tree of life, and that they should go in by the gates into the city".

• The expression of Christian fellowship is the gate into the city; it is the gate into the marvellous privilege that is found inside the city.

• A beloved servant of the Lord, alluding to the meeting – when the saints come together on the first day of the week to break bread, he said, "It is the meeting-place – it is the gate into the city".

• I can think of the gates, but I can hardly think of them apart from the city; you go "through the gates into the city". The Psalmist says,
  • "Our feet shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem";

• he was delighted at the thought of going through those gates and entering the city.

• I wish that our hearts were fairly ravished with the thought of it; I wish we knew the spirit of that
  • "I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the Lord".

• What is in the city? Well, the tree of life is there. "That they might have right to the tree of life". There is a wonderful, illimitable, unspeakable wealth of spiritual and heavenly privilege found in the city?

Now is the time to go in for the reality of the truth of Christianity, whether it be the privilege or the fellowship of the assembly.

• There are, I fear, a good many in a path of pretension and assumption; they boldly say, We are the assembly, we are the church. On the other hand there is the ignoring of the truth of the assembly – utter independency!

• And the only thing that will preserve from either the one or the other is the truth of the assembly. If I find a few people who are in the truth of the assembly, or the privilege of the assembly, I am glad to have the opportunity of being with them, but we want to stand for the truth in these days.

I might have called your attention to the fact that all the four scriptures that I have read are connected with the same day – it is the resurrection day; it is the day on which the Holy Ghost descended; it is the assembly day; the Christianity day; and it is also called the first day, or the Lord's day.

• As the Lord's day, we think of it in connection with Him personally, and we think of all that belongs to Him, and as connected with Him, as the Lord; and if we speak of it as the first day of the week we think of the new order of things, and the new scene that has come in.

• We might have spoken of these scriptures in that way, but it was the truth I desired, as the Lord might help me, to put before you simply, and I trust He will be pleased to use it.

• Well, it is a wonderful thing to be so self-judged, as to be really keeping the feast of unleavened bread in sincerity and truth, and to answer in my soul to the judgment of God expressed in the death of Christ as the passover;
  • To be in the truth of fellowship, and being in the truth of fellowship to be permitted to give expression to it in the breaking of bread;

• and, remember, you find it is the gate into the city; you are in the city of heavenly, spiritual, privilege, and when in that city you will know what belongs to it, and what belongs to it crowns everything, and that is His presence in the midst!
  • "Then … came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace unto you",

• and the disciples "rejoiced" when they saw Him in the midst. That was the joy connected with His own presence as in the midst.

May we, beloved, increasingly know that joy – not only know what it is to sit down together and break the one loaf and drink of the one cup; and thus practically announce ourselves one body,

• but to find that the breaking of bread in the power of the Spirit is the open doorway into spiritual and heavenly privilege. May the Lord add His blessing.

I want to speak very simply.

1. The first fact is the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, and, pursuing the order of our reading,

2. the second fact is the ascension of our Lord Jesus Christ;

3. and then the third fact, in what is recorded in John 20, is the Lord coming into the midst of His disciples as they were thus gathered together, and what is connected with His presence as thus found in the midst.

• But if we take account of time we should have to say that the third fact precedes the second, because as a matter of fact the Lord Jesus Christ in John 20 had not ascended – He was risen from the dead, but He had not yet ascended.

• Indeed, I suppose there would be at least a period of forty days between His resurrection and taking His place in the midst of His own, as recorded in John 20, and the fact of His ascension as recorded in the closing verses of Luke 24.

Let me say further – these were three wonderful facts of actuality. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ was an actual fact.

• I wish to dwell upon it for a moment, because I would that the Spirit of God might so bring these facts before us that they might affect us in all their actuality; and so with regard to the fact of His ascension it is actual; so with regard to His coming into the midst of His disciples as it is brought before us in John 20, it was actual.

• I suppose with regard to time that both the first and third facts occurred on the same day. His taking His place in the midst of His own was on the very day of His resurrection, while the second fact – the fact of His ascension, did not occur until the end of that period mentioned by Luke in the opening of the Acts of the Apostles – the end of the forty days.

The actual appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ in the midst of His own in John 20 is really a pattern – I use the word because it is so freely used amongst us – and it is a pattern, beloved friends, of the assembly;

• not the assembly as in the light of 1 Corinthians, where the world is in view, and where those who do not believe may come into the midst of the company,

• but the assembly in a spiritual way, and not only in a spiritual way, but the assembly in regard to real enjoyment of heavenly privileges; and so – if we take the actual fact recorded in John 20 as a pattern, though its application to us would be in a spiritual way, and we should have to take it in that sense out of the realm of what is actual and transfer it to the realm of what is spiritual – it is none the less true.

• I know there are those who seem to think that if you talk about things that are spiritual you talk about things that are not real, but it is not so at all. It is a fact of spiritual reality in its application to us, and I have not much doubt that so far as regards the moral order of these three scriptures, that we have read them to you in their correct order.

• We first learn the Lord in connection with resurrection, and then we learn the Lord in connection with ascension, and with all that it involves for us in connection with Christianity, and then I think the climax is reached in learning the Lord in spiritual reality as coming into the midst of His own as assembled.

I wish to speak first of the Lord in resurrection. I am very conscious of great feebleness in attempting, in any way, to speak of such marvellous facts – facts of such tremendous importance.

• I could not hope in any sense whatever to cover the ground: I could not pretend in the course of a few minutes to speak to you of all that is involved for God and for us in the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now it is difficult in a certain sense to speak of these three facts without at least an allusion to what goes before and to what fairly underlies these facts, and to what gives them their wonderful significance and meaning – I mean the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.

• We have four accounts of His death: we have Matthew's account, and Mark's account, Luke's account, and John's account. I cannot take the time, beloved friends, to mark out in any detail the distinctions and differences, but I would rather allude to the broad general fact of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ.

• It has often been said that in Matthew and Mark He is the Victim, hence in Matthew and Mark you get that cry from His lips on the cross:
  • "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?"

• but in Luke He is not exactly the Victim; that is, it is not exactly in that way that Luke presents Him in connection with His death; He is rather the offering Priest; He offers Himself, as we get it in Hebrews –
  • "Who by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God".

• But John's account must for ever stand alone; it has its own unique character; He delivers up His spirit – that is the wonderful thing when you come to John's account of His death.

• That is a marvellous fact. It is not in your power, or mine, or in the power of any one to deliver up one's spirit, but it was in His power; after He had cried He bowed His head and delivered up His spirit.

• Not only, beloved, is He presented in John's gospel as a divine Person in manhood, but even speaking of Him for a moment as a Man – oh, what a Man! Such a Man had never been in this world before. He did not need to wait for His own death, or His own resurrection; He could say at the grave of Lazarus:
  • "I am the resurrection and the life".

• Resurrection and life were inherent in Him as a Man. The Father had given to Him as Man to have life in Himself.

• If you think of Him as a divine Person only, you could not speak of anything having been given to Him; as a divine Person all was His; He was equal with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the Godhead;

• but He had taken upon Him the condition of Man, and so He says in John 5
  • "For even as the Father has life in himself, so he has given to the Son also to have life in himself";

  • and then in chapter 10 He says: "I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it again" –

  • "No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself".

• Have you considered Him in this wonderful light? What a Man! I am inclined to think that the title – the inherited name according to Hebrews – the Son of God – is not a title or name that describes Him so much as a divine Person;
  • it describes Him as a Man born in time; in His relationship to God that Man was God's Son.

• But, not to multiply words, what I say is, that John's account of His death is unique – He delivers up His own life; and so it is with His resurrection, as He says in chapter 2 of this gospel:
  • "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up";

• He was alluding to His own body. He delivers up His spirit, and He raises Himself; it is all His own blessed act,

• and He is not "carried up" into heaven in John; He says: "I ascend"; it belonged to Him; He had that right, that privilege, in His own Person as Man; He says
  • "I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God".

I have made a sort of digression, yet I trust it will not be without some profit; but I want to go back to the fact of His resurrection. I need hardly say that the resurrection presupposes death, whether on the part of the Lord or anybody else.

• Some of us may be in the room tonight who will never know resurrection, because the apostle says:
  • "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet"

• – it is a wonderful fact – I can hardly forbear alluding to it.

• People say: You have got to die. I say: No, in a real sense – a literal sense – I have not got to die. If the assembling shout should be heard tonight, not one of us Christians in this room would ever fall asleep – we should all be changed: in the practical effect it comes to the same thing, whether we are raised or changed, but
  • for the moment I call your attention to the fact that resurrection, whether of the Lord Jesus or of the saints, implies death.

• And so with the Lord Jesus, He really died; even in John His death is very real; indeed, the reality of it in John stands out, perhaps, as it does not stand out in any other gospel, because it is only in John that we get the incident of the Roman soldier, and the spear thrust into His side.

• Whatever peculiar character or significance attaches to His death in John's gospel, you cannot read that record without the reality of it corning vividly before you. It is said
  • "He was already dead", hence the action of the soldier –

  • "The soldiers therefore came and broke the legs of the first and of the other that had been crucified with him; but coming to Jesus, when they saw that he was already dead they did not break his legs, but one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately there came out blood and water".

• Wonderful witness to the reality of His death!

Now to come to the resurrection. I hardly know how to begin to speak of it, because it is so marvellous – so transcendently great; but there is no fear of over-statement; the question is, can we take it in – can we speak truly according to the scriptures of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ?

• In the most simple way we might speak of its effect, for it had a wonderful effect upon the disciples of the Lord; you can hardly conceive of a greater moral effect than Luke 24 gives you as to this company.

• If we take account of them in the beginning of the chapter we see how they were affected by the death of the Lord! Peter says in his first epistle:
  • "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his great mercy, has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from among the dead".

• Those two had had their hopes, but when the Lord joined them in that walk to Emmaus, they said mournfully, "We had hoped"; they thought it was all over. But what a change His resurrection made!

• We have not the details of His appearing to Simon, but we have the details of His appearing to the two that went to Emmaus. What a moment it was to them when they "constrained" Him; He could be constrained, and He is still constrainable; He loves to be constrained by those He loves and by those who love Him.

• "He made as though he would go farther" – that brought out the constraining from them and He went in.
  • "And it came to pass as he was at table with them, having taken the bread, he blessed, and having broken it, gave it to them. And their eyes were opened, and they recognised him".

• He took the place and gave thanks and broke the bread. That was enough; they had been with Him before, they had not forgotten it, and the moment that action took place they knew Him.

Then when they were gathered together – they had not, as a company, seen Him yet, but Simon had seen Him, they had Simon's testimony, and on the strength of Simon's testimony the fact of His resurrection was the theme of their conversation, saying,

• "The Lord is risen indeed and has appeared to Simon … And as they were saying these things, he himself stood in their midst"

• Were you ever so happy, beloved, that you were afraid to speak? Such joy filled their hearts – a kind of surprised joy, they hardly dared to speak. He was risen. All their trouble was over; their sadness, their reasonings and unbelief – all over!

Now I think one might say a word about the resurrection of the Lord in regard of God. The resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ has been a wonderful thing for God.

• If it be a question of the declaration of the righteousness of God, that was at the cross. If it be the question of atonement, that was at the cross, all that it involves was set forth at the cross. I would not brook for a moment anybody that would dare to add to the cross of Christ, because we know that all was completed in His death.

• But then, what of God? Sin had come in on the part of man, and the question of sin had been met – it was met in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ; but was there nothing else in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ besides meeting the question of sin? We know better than that.

• In the heart of God there had been counsels of grace before the foundation of the world was laid, and in raising Christ from the dead God reached the moment when He could put into effect as to man the counsels of His grace; He could express toward man what was in His blessed heart.

• I think we may say that if it is the death of Christ alone it is a scene of judgment; we shall never know the depth of all His sufferings; no heart could conceive them. When we contemplate them in any measure we can only bow our hearts adoringly.

• In the cross we see all that man could do, but that is not atonement. When the wrath of God came upon Him, when God made His soul an offering for sin, when God "put him to grief", who could presume to sound the depths of those sufferings through which the Son of God passed on the cross?

• All that man inflicted upon the Lord Jesus Christ never wrought one atom of atonement; it was what He suffered at the hand of God.
  • Now what must it have been to God to raise that One from the dead! God longed for the moment when He could express toward man all His pleasure and His wonderful thoughts of grace! Well, now, that is the resurrection.

• There is no forgiveness for man, no justification till you come to the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ – there is no salvation at all until you come to the resurrection.
  • "If Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins".

• But Christ is raised and the believer's faith is not in vain.
  • "Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification".

• His death effected things greater than that – beyond that. When Christ was raised from the dead there came to pass in God's mind a scene – a world altogether beyond death.

• There never was a death like the death of Christ, and there never will be; you and I might die naturally, but we could not put into our death what was put into the death of the Lord Jesus Christ – the question of sin, the claims of God, the wrath of God, everything on that side was brought to an issue in the death of Christ.

• Hence in His resurrection a world beyond death was opened – a world of life – life according to God, life for man according to God, where every question of sin, and every question of the judgment of God has been settled – a world that Satan can never touch. Do you believe it? Are you in the good of it? You pass through the death and resurrection of Christ into a world of life and glory.

Now I just want to say this: you must give to resurrection its proper character. You need not detract from it. Resurrection is the great evidence of the power of God.

• If somebody said to me, Search the scriptures and give me the greatest proof that scripture affords of the power of God, I would not go to Genesis, I would go to the first chapter of Ephesians.

• It is as though the Holy Ghost, through the Apostle Paul, just piled up the words till they could not be piled any higher; it is as though there were a tremendous effort on the part of the Spirit of God to impress upon us
  • "the surpassing greatness of his power to usward who believe".

• What a marvellous exercise of His power when God raised Christ from the dead; it will ever remain the foundation of the effectuation and accomplishment of the counsels and purpose of God. Who would detract from it? I would that I were equal to speak suitably of it.

Then the second thing I want to speak of is the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is a great thing to be able to see things as scripture presents them.

• One thing connected with the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ is glory, and consequent upon His ascension and glorification is the Spirit. Where should we be practically without the Spirit?
  • We might talk of resurrection, but what would it amount to apart from the Spirit of God?

• Peter's discourse on the day of Pentecost puts it very plainly. There was the great fact that the Holy Ghost had come – a divine Person – with unmistakable attestations and proofs, and Peter rises to the occasion, and how does he account for it?

• Christ was exalted. He received of the Father, as glorified, the promise of the Holy Ghost which He had shed forth. So John says:
  • " For the Spirit was not yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified".

• I would that we might take in all these facts in their proper connection; for they are all facts concerning Him, and, as I said, they ought to concern us deeply. Who wants to separate them?

• Who wants to put resurrection over against ascension or ascension over against resurrection? It would be a very unspiritual person who would do so. No, we want all. We cannot do without the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and we cannot do without His ascension.

Well now, to return to Luke 24, they witnessed His ascension. He goes up with His hands uplifted in blessing, and the effect was they returned to Jerusalem with great joy.

• In the beginning of the chapter they are full of sorrow; they cannot tell out the sorrow of their hearts; they thought they had lost the Lord. Look at them at the end of the chapter and you find them in Jerusalem praising God.

• The Lord had gone up to heaven and He had gone up with His hands uplifted in blessing – in the very act of priestly blessing – and if He went in that sort of way what will He not do for His people?

• And when you come to Pentecost, because the connection, as you know, between Luke 24 and Acts 1 is very close – it is the same writer, this beloved physician, Luke, and he is writing to the same Theophilus, and he just continues it in Acts 1 – there they are, and what is the outcome? The Holy Ghost comes down upon them all.

I have tried to say a few words about resurrection, but resurrection in itself does hot give another place; it does give another condition – passed out of death, as it were, into life.

• Between you and death, between you and the power of the devil stands the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

But now when He goes up it is to another place. His death was not for Himself, His resurrection was not for Himself, His going up to heaven was not for Himself. He has gone up as our Forerunner.

• Hebrews puts it very literally – He appears in the presence of God for us; the same One who appeared in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself now appears in the presence of God for us. He is our Forerunner.

• What does that mean? It means that you and I are going to get there; it is the pledge that the whole company is going to get there. It is not only that you have new condition, that you are clear of death, but you have got a new place; and it is wonderful how the Holy Ghost connects things in scripture.

• Take the five links, as you know, in the chain of Divine purpose in Romans 8: 29 – foreknew, predestinated, called, and "whom he justified, them he also glorified".

• All is assured, and see the wonderful way the Spirit of God puts it there and states it, as if it had already taken place. And again,
  • "Being justified by faith … we boast in hope of the glory of God".

• You cannot rejoice in anything unless you are perfectly certain about it; there cannot be rejoicing if there is any uncertainty. A good many people say they hope they will go to heaven when they die, but that is a poor thing.

• By the Holy Spirit you are consciously linked up with the One who is there; you are linked up with Him, you have the certainty of the hope.

Now I want to speak a little about John 20, because that is where you reach the top – the summit.

• It is a wonderful moment when the One who is risen and the One who is ascended comes to take His place in the midst of His people.
  • "The disciples rejoiced therefore, having seen the Lord".

• They are together in a very special way; they are together, too, in Luke 24, but their being together in John 20 is another kind of thing. One could not speak so positively if we had not what we have when the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene and said,
  • "Touch me not, for I have not yet ascended to my Father; but go to my brethren", etc.

• What does the Holy Ghost say about it?
  • "For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren".

What has taken place? Why, the grain of wheat has fallen into the ground and died, and these are the "much fruit".

• There is a company here upon the earth that is derived from Himself; His death is the womb of their new existence. He says to Mary, 'Go to that company – go to My brethren'. There we get the first meeting of the "brethren".

• People sometimes say: Can you give me the history of the brethren? I say, I can give you their origin; I can tell you the first time the brethren ever met together. He did not say, Go to Peter, or James, or John, but to "my brethren".

• I wish you could grasp it in a spiritual way, because it is a company; it is not a number of people who have got together on the ground of mutual agreement or anything of that sort. He has been into death, and there are His brethren, the "much fruit". They are a wonderful company, derived from Himself.

• Now, I trust I am not saying too much in saying that they are together in the light of that wonderful message; they are together as His brethren – it is blessed every step of the way; but they are together, not only in the light of the fact that they are His brethren, but they are together in the light of association with Himself.
  • "My Father and your Father, and my God and your God".

• That is association, and association in the most marvellous way; you could not conceive of any other association like that; every other kind of association of people pales into utter insignificance when compared with that.

• They are there in that light, and to that company of His brethren who have derived their new being from Himself, and whom He has set in the light of association with Himself, into, the midst of that company He comes.

My time is up, and I must not go further, only to say, what a marvellous thing it is to enter really into that – to know that in spiritual reality.

• Do not be content with merely reading it in the chapter, blessed as it is. Do not be content short of the blessed Spirit of God making it so real in your heart, that you know the reality of being derived from Himself, and the reality of the light of association with Him,
  • and to crown it all, the reality of His presence in the midst.

• The disciples "rejoiced" when they saw the Lord. It is the assembly, but it is the assembly in respect of heavenly privilege down here, and this enjoyed, beloved, with Himself in the midst; He the Sanctifier and we the sanctified; He the
  • "Firstborn among many brethren".

• I have no doubt that the passage in Romans 8: 29 looks on in a way to the future; but then all that is of the future has a present realisation in the power of the Holy Ghost.

I trust we may be greatly encouraged. I have spoken very poorly; but I commend the Lord to you and I commend these things to you.

• You may say you believe in the doctrine of resurrection. You may believe in the doctrine of resurrection and freeze! I put it strongly, but you must reach Him. Do not be content to live in dogmas and theories. Get close to Himself.

• These disciples got close to Him; He possessed their hearts; they were filled with joy when He came into their midst. There was joy in the risen One, and great joy in the ascending One, and oh, beloved, the joy of having Him in the midst cannot be told; it may be known, but you could not express it. It is all an anticipation of what is coming.

May the Lord bless His word to us for His name's sake!

1. The first is the sorrowful and painful breakdown and failure of John Baptist.

• We must not allow ourselves to lower our thoughts or estimation of him, because in this very chapter the Lord in His grace bears a most wonderful testimony as to him. He says:
  • "Verily I say to you, that there is not arisen among the born of women a greater than John the baptist",

• nevertheless, it is a sorrowful breakdown on the part of that wonderful man.

• He was no other than the forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who had been appointed of God to introduce publicly the Son of God to Israel, and yet it is evident that there is a breakdown. Just fancy that man, John Baptist, sending a message –
  • "Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another?"

• – the man who, on the banks of Jordan, in the presence of those assembled thousands of Israel, had borne that beautiful testimony,
  • "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world";

• then the next day, not publicly, but privately, there had burst from his lips that spontaneous testimony as he looked upon Jesus as He walked,
  • "Behold the Lamb of God";

• and the effect of that testimony on two of John's disciples was that they immediately turned and began to follow the One of whom John had just borne this wonderful testimony.

• Now he is in prison; it is no longer Jordan – no longer the assembled thousands of Israel, and, I would say it sadly, it is no longer with John the energy of the Holy Ghost by which he bore that testimony. He is shut up in prison alone, and having heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent by his disciples and said to Him:
  • "Art thou the coming one? or are we to wait for another?"

2. Then in the second case we have a very solemn picture of the moral insensibility and indifference that characterised that generation who were here when the Lord was here,

• for the language the Lord used – the simile He introduced, emphasizes in a most solemn way their utter indifference and insensibility. There was absolutely no repentance.

• There were the sweet "pipings" of grace in the ministry of the Lord, but no responsive dancing; there was the "mourning" in the ministry of John Baptist, but no responsive wailing. Hence He says:
  • "But to whom shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the markets, which, calling to their companions, say, We have piped to you, and ye have not danced: we have mourned to you, and ye have not wailed".

3. Then lastly we have the Lord's reproach to these cities of Chorazin and Bethsaida particularly, and then Capernaum.

• In these cities they had been privileged to witness the mighty works of power wrought by the Lord Jesus Christ, and there was no repentance, no evidence of any work of God in their souls, no evidence of any proper sense of their responsibility in regard to God.

• God had sent that blessed One, and in the midst of these cities, on the behalf of God. He had wrought these mighty works of power, and there was no repentance.

I do not dwell in detail upon the, solemn language which came from the lips of the Lord Jesus concerning these cities, but I want to shew you that these things marked that moment, and it was:

• "At that time, Jesus answering 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 hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight".

• I hardly know how to speak of this as I should. How glorious the Lord appears! how glorious morally, spiritually!

• Many of us have eyes and ears and hearts for that which is merely material and external, but there is nothing of that sort here: what characterises the Lord "at that time" is like a sunburst on a very dark, cloudy and stormy day.

• I cannot refrain from saying I have a sense of how little I am like Him; how easily we succumb to discouraging circumstances. Many of us can manage a hymn of praise when things are bright and fair, but how many of us could manage a note of praise at a time like this?

• It is an ascending note of praise, and I am sure it filled the ears and heart of the Father with the sweetest music that had ever risen up from this world;
  • the music of that note of praise not only filled the Father's heart with delight and pleasure, but it has been sounding down through the intervening centuries,

• and I feel that all of us here tonight need is to come under the power of the Spirit of God that we may know something of the music of it.

The "Lord of the heaven and of the earth", I understand, expresses the thought of sovereign Ruler. The Father is the sovereign Ruler of the heaven and the earth.

• No matter who breaks down, no matter what indifference or insensibility or impenitence may be in evidence, He, the eternal Father, sits upon the eternal throne, and He is the sovereign Ruler of the heaven and of the earth.

• Do not give up in discouragement, do not get under the power of any breakdown here, the Father is the sovereign Ruler of the heaven and of the earth. It was just the suited moment for the Lord Jesus.

You know, speaking generally, the way the Spirit of God presents the Lord to us, especially in the first three gospels.

• He is "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief".

• The record of the notes of praise are very rare; but how sweet this note is; what a contrast to the words that have just left His lips – sorrowful, solemn words, announcing the gathering clouds of divine judgment.

• But the moment His heart turns to the Father there leaps out from His lips this note of praise:
  • "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight".

Then let me note another thing. There is, as He turns to the Father, the ascending note of praise as we have seen,

• and then as He turns to all those about Him – what do we find? The outflowing streams of divine grace!

• I am afraid if you and I had been there at that time it might have been a sound of murmuring, a note of discouragement, and perhaps we should have closed our hearts against those about us. We might have said, Everything is in vain; there is no use going on with men.

• Not so the Lord. You know what the Lord Himself says:
  • "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh",

• and He stands before us the perfect example, the perfect illustration of that. From that heart, beloved, that was filled with the eternal sunshine of the Father's love there leaped this blessed note of praise, and from that same heart He turns to men and says:
  • "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest".

• How it makes one long to be a little more like Him!

• Well now, let me say, the conditions that are expressed in the three things mentioned in this chapter have obtained from that day to this. They obtain all around us tonight.

• There is plenty of failure; there is even the questioning, in the spirit of it, "Art thou he that should come? or are we to wait for another?" and there is still the indifference, the impenitence all about us;
  • but the music of that note of praise may still be heard and felt in our hearts, and those precious streams of divine grace that burst from His lips are still flowing,

• so that tonight we may still catch the tones of that voice, we may still hear Him saying:
  • "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened".

Some one has said that in this passage – the end of Matthew 11 – Matthew and John coalesce.

• I do not think it is too much to say that what comes out in these wonderful utterances, whether it be the note of praise to the Father, or the expression of His grace, and what precedes it, is not exactly characteristic of Matthew,
  • it would be rather more characteristic of John; but in saying this you understand it is not calling in question the absolute perfection of scripture;

• you may depend upon it that it is set in the right place; the Spirit of God has put it just where it should be, and the very darkness of the moment, the breakdown of John, the indifference, the insensibility, and the impenitence that formed the background of it only make it shine out the more brilliantly.

Now divine Persons are mentioned here, and let me say it is around the revelation of divine Persons that all the interest, the value and importance of scripture centre; and surely we have that revelation here.

• There is first the note of praise to the Father, and then He says:
  • "All things have been delivered to me by my Father".

• The Lord Jesus never speaks from the standpoint of circumstances. Underneath all the circumstances of His path and ministry here there ever was that wonderful divine circle of holy heavenly relationship between Himself and the Father. It is not always seen, it does not always come out, but it is always there.

• If we speak for a moment of the circumstances surrounding the Lord – did it look as if all things had been delivered to Him of the Father? Indeed, it did not.

• I do not think I should be exceeding the scripture if I said that so far as the external look of things went at that time it looked as if the whole ministry and miracles of the Lord Jesus were a complete failure – it looked that way.

• But the Lord had a heavenly and out-of-the-world view; He was not looking at circumstances only. He does look at circumstances in His previous utterances, and His utterances are absolutely perfect;

• but when He turns to the Father He retires in spirit from all external circumstances of His path, and retreats into that holy, heavenly circle of relationship and affection between Himself and the Father, and retiring there He can not only send up the note of praise and express His most perfect and absolute acquiescence in, and subjection as a Man to, the Father's will, but He can go on to say:
  • "All things are delivered to me by my Father".

• He is standing there amidst all this rejection, and indifference, and impenitence, and if the Father is brought before us as the sovereign Ruler of the heaven and of the earth, that sovereign Ruler of the heaven and of the earth has put "all things"
  • – and who would dare to limit it? – I would say the language of the context would require that we should keep to the scope of the Father's sovereignty;

• He is sovereign; He – the Lord of the heaven and of the earth – has delivered "all things" into the hands of Him who is the Son.

• One may say that is, in a sense, Christianity. It is the revelation of the Father in the Son as Man down here, and when He is pleased to reveal Him it becomes on our side the knowledge of the Father as revealed in the Son, and there is one lovely word that expresses what that means. Do you know what it means? It means rest.

• I can remember in days gone by that they used to sing: "There is sweet rest in heaven"; I have no doubt about that, but let me tell you there is rest down here; there is rest in the midst of and in spite of all the conditions that obtain here.

• He has come to give that rest. He alone could give it. He alone is competent to reveal the Father. We are shut up to that blessed One as Man down here. There is no knowledge of the Father possible in any other way, but He has come to reveal the Father; so this is the proper connection of verse 28
  • "Come to me, all ye who labour and are burdened, and I will give you rest".

• How? By revealing the Father in Himself. He gives rest. Has it come to your soul? Oh, the rest of knowing the Father revealed in the Son! My beloved brethren, let me say, it is involved in the proper knowledge of Himself.

• The Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4, speaking of the gifts from the ascended Christ and of their end, says:
  • "Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God".

• It is wonderful how it is put in scripture; it is not said, "He that hath the Father hath the Son"; no, it is,
  • "He that hath the Son bath the Father".

• You could not have the Father any other way.

Let me venture a little further. The force of the expression – "the Father", here is not the common apprehension of it. It is the Father in His relation to the Son – in His love for the Son. We have in John 3,

• "God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son".

• We have the new covenant in that way, the blessed expression of God's love toward us; but we have more than that; we have in the end of chapter 17 in the Lord's utterance to the Father,
  • "And I have made known to them thy name, and will make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them".

• Do you not delight to think of Him as the one and only adequate object of the Father's love? By-and-by you and I and all the saints of God shall behold His glory, and that glory will be the adequate expression of the love with which the Father loved Him from before the foundation of the world. Do not lower scripture; if you do, you will lower your own blessing.

He says: "Come to me … and I will give you rest" – and how? By revealing the Father. Now that revelation of the Father is once and for all.

• But there is our pathway here; we have not yet reached the prepared place in the Father's house, we have a few more days, perchance a few more months or years still to go on through this scene down here; and what about that? The Lord says
  • "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest to your souls; for my yoke is easy, and my burden is light".

• You will find rest right along your path here, no matter what your circumstances are, no matter what happens: up, down, dark, light, joyful, sorrowful, tears or anguish – for Christianity never makes stoics of us – you shall find rest to your souls. And now think of that expression which He uses about Himself –
  • "for I am meek and lowly in heart".

• That is what the Lord was as a Man down here; that is what marked Him, what pre-eminently characterised Him. He was meek, and He was lowly.

• We bump pretty hard against the rocks sometimes; and we even bump against one another, and we bump against what we call our adverse circumstances; but do you know why? We are not like Him, meek and lowly.

• It would not be justifiable for me to speak of myself, but it was perfectly justifiable for Him to speak of Himself, and it is perfectly beautiful the way He speaks of Himself, and we may be wonderfully helped and instructed by considering the way He speaks of Himself.

But what is His prescription?

• "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me".

• Does a "yoke" speak of service – of something imposed? Yes. Peter, you know, when up at Jerusalem, said, speaking of Judaism:
  • "Why tempt ye God, by putting a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?"

• You could not say of that yoke that it was easy, nor of the burden it imposed that it was light. There must be something in the yoke, beloved – His yoke, that makes it easy. Do you know what it is? May I attempt to express it in a word?

It is sonship. The Lord Jesus is so variously presented in the scriptures; He was the perfect embodiment and expression of all that a man ought to be in relation to God.

• He is not only the only one competent to reveal the Father, though that is true – no one knows the Father intimately but Himself – but He was the perfect embodiment and expression of all that a man ought to be for God.

• And what is His yoke? It is sonship. And what is sonship?

It is love. "Take my yoke". Did you ever try it? Who introduced sonship? He brought it in.

• Jehovah, of course, had spoken of Israel in that sort of way; but the reality of sonship, as what is proper to man before God, or in relation to God, never was here till the Son came; He brought it in.

• Peter, in the way of contrast, in the opening of his first letter says
  • "Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ, to … elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by sanctification of the Spirit, unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ".

• Jesus Christ characterises the obedience as well as the sprinkling, and so it is the obedience of Jesus Christ – the obedience of sonship.

• What makes it easy? Because in the spirit of sonship you only have to do the things you like to do. That is the way it works. Look at the expression of sonship in the Lord:
  • "I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes. Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight".

• To Him God's will was perfectly right; He was not only subject to the Father's will, but He acquiesced in it. He delighted in it.

• You would not learn sonship by studying me, nor could I learn it by studying you; but I know where you can learn it as you can learn it nowhere else – that is, from Him:
  • "Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me".

• We are too busy, I am afraid, in these days; we do not take time to sit down and look at Him; we do not take time for the spiritual contemplation of that blessed One.

• He is not only the perfect expression of God to man, but the perfect expression of man to God. You can "learn" from Him. And it stands out here in a very marked way.

• He is not only the Son whom no one knows but the Father; but He is as we see Him here that lowly, meek, patient Man, and I am sure when that note of praise went up, with those accompanying words from His blessed lips, that it was a perfect delight to the heart of the Father.

Well, I cannot say more now, but whether rich or poor, sick or well, whatever tomorrow may bring, if you take His yoke upon you and learn from Him you will find rest to your souls.

• You will find it right along your pathway, and the longer you wear the yoke, and the more you learn from Him, the more you will prove "for my yoke is easy, and my burden, is light".

May the Lord be pleased to add His blessing!

Our desire is to speak to you in connection with this scripture in a practical way.

• If you have come expecting some great unfolding of doctrine you will be disappointed;

• but I trust the Lord will give us just the word that He can use for our real spiritual help.