These seven chapters – I mean those from chapter 6 to chapter 12 – form a distinct section of the prophecies by Isaiah. And the great theme of these chapters is the remnant.

• It is a very complete and definite history of the remnant; it is very precise at both ends; that is to say, at the beginning and at the end; for instance, mark the definite way it begins,
  • "In the year that king Uzziah"

• – how the Spirit of God puts His finger, as it were, down on the exact time. And what is the next word? I – Isaiah; I, the prophet, the writer of this book:
  • "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord" [Jehovah] "sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple".

• Now there could not be a more precise and definite beginning than that. And what about the end? Turn to it for a moment: the end is in chapters 11 and 12. In chapter 11 it says,
  • "And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord …

    And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins … The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them …".

• Now then, see chapter 12, "And in that day" – mark what a definite end, for, as I have said, we get a very definite beginning and a very definite end.

• And, beloved, what a marvellous finish it is! So far as the actual statement of these seven chapters is concerned Christianity is not mentioned; but then we have just read that
  • "whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our instruction";

• and it is not for our instruction in ancient history or future history, but for our present instruction,
  • "that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope".

• What is the point? The remnant comes to light, and there are seven facts pertaining to the remnant brought out in chapter 7 which I want to call your attention to; but before I do so let me attempt to show you the bearing upon ourselves of what we have read.

There are two sides to the truth of the remnant as set forth in scripture.

• There is one which you may call a dark side; but if there is a dark side, there is a bright side also. The dark side is on the side of God's people.

• There was no remnant in the days of King David and King Solomon. What would you want with a remnant then? God had just established His people. Whatever trouble there had been previously in connection with Saul, it was all wiped out, and now all the twelve tribes are there, and all are one, and we see the glory and magnificence of the kingdom as set up by God in the midst of His people.

• You do not want any remnant there; but another day comes. When does the remnant come to light? It comes to light in a day of failure, and breakdown, and declension. Did Isaiah live in that kind of day?
  • Well, listen: "The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

    "The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters they have forsaken the Lord … they are gone away backward",

    God says, "from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and petrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire …".

• That is Isaiah's day. And what comes to light then? A remnant!

• But mark! There is the dark side, and there is, thank God, a bright side, and that is God's side; the bright side is always God's side; the dark side is ours, but the bright side is His.

• And if there is a dark side now – and there is – there is also a bright side; but if there is a bright side, I repeat it is not our side.

• We may bow our heads in shame and self-judgment and confusion of face as to our side, but we can lift up our heads on God's side, for His is a very bright side, and we get that in Isaiah's day. I am going to dwell just a moment on the beginning of the remnant.

Now, Isaiah, in chapter 6, describes his own experience; he testifies as a man can testify if he has seen anything; he can tell what he has seen, and if he has heard anything he can tell what he has heard. As John says:

• "That which we have seen and heard we testify to you".

• So Isaiah says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne and what then? He saw the seraphim, and he heard them, and then he witnessed of what he saw and heard.

• But my point at the moment is this – Isaiah gives us here, in connection with his own experience, what he actually saw, what he heard, and what he was constrained, as the result of what he saw and heard, to confess – first about himself and then about the people.

But now – though it is not exactly right to speak about a remnant of the assembly – our own times are remnant times, and they have been remnant times for some time back, and that is the particular interest of this part of scripture on account of its application to us.

• The conditions and the principles of the remnant must be our conditions and principles, otherwise no matter what your outward position may be, and it might be that you would pass muster in a way; for instance, you are breaking bread; that is all right – and hold on, beloved – but we must have things in reality. That is the particular value of this scripture.

Now then, let us look at Isaiah for a moment. He begins individually, I saw and I heard;

• "I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts".

• They said holy, not merely once or twice, but three times, and that gives a complete testimony –
  • "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory".

• There you are. And what is the effect upon you? You learn this – that if these are remnant times your individual history must be involved; for if your individual history is not involved you are not in it.

• If we turn to the New Testament – to 2 Timothy 2, we find "Let every one" – that is, every individual, not every two or three – but
  • "let every one who names the name of the Lord depart from iniquity, and if a man"

• – that does not mean a male; it means a person – an individual:
  • "If one shall have purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour";

• as Mr. Darby rightly says, it is "himself, not somebody else".
  • "If therefore one have purged himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour".

And now notice another thing about Isaiah, and a very important thing it is: What is the point of his experience here? – he learns deliverance.

• Is it deliverance from what he has done? No, deliverance from what he is. He says,
  • "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips".

• And then being clear about himself, of course he is clear about his associations.

• You often find people finding fault with their associations. They grumble about others they do not like the sects and the systems; but they seem to like themselves pretty well. Such people are not in the remnant spirit.

• We touch here a very practical point. Ah, beloved, it must be an individual matter, and it must begin with deliverance. Do not tell me that anybody can be right who is not in the experience of deliverance.

• It is not in vain that the Spirit of God puts it in the first person singular; the man in Romans 7 does not say, 'for I know that in us dwelleth no good thing'. No; he says,
  • "In me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell".

• I do not want to be in a hurry, for this is a very important point. In our own day, there has been a wonderful movement of God going on for eighty years or more [since c. 1827].

• The truth has been brought out with wonderful distinctness and clearness; and any one who knows scripture must feel that it has been brought out with wonderful intelligence.

• You can have tracts, and pamphlets and books on scripture, and if you have a mind you can read them, and assent to them as you see they are scriptural, and further, you believe them and adopt them, and so you hold the right doctrines. But ah! that is not it.

• It is only when we know deliverance – deliverance – that we get into the good of these things. That is how Isaiah got it. What was the outcome of it? He says,
  • "Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

    "Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal" [or a glowing coal, as Mr. Darby's translation reads] "in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, and he laid it upon"

• – Does he say our mouths, and Lo, this hath touched our lips? No! but
  • – "he laid it upon my mouth," [Isaiah's mouth] "and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged".

• It does not say sins, it says sin. Sin is purged. Do not read scripture loosely, if you do, brethren, you will suffer.

• The hindrance with many of us when we come to scripture is that we have already got our heads full and our minds full, and oftentimes we come to scripture to help up our doctrines.

• Mr. Darby once, in a reading, turned on a young man, who was rather forward, and said to him, "Do not put your thoughts into scripture; seek to get God's thoughts out of scripture".

Well, to return to Isaiah, what does he say next?

• "Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me".

• Ah, beloved, he was ready for it, and what do you find? The Lord says "Go". He sends him. And what next?
  • "Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land he utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it" [in the land] "shall be a tenth".

• The tenth is the remnant, and chapters 11 and 12 give us the remnant. The remnant of Israel goes on to the end, and we have not come to the end of Israel yet,
  • "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance".

• Any one who thinks God has given up Israel is deeply mistaken.

Now I want to say a little as to what is God's idea in the remnant.

• Let me tell you what it is. God does not institute an organisation. No; when people begin to say, 'We are the people', you may be sure that they are not in the remnant character.

• God does not bring in anything new in connection with a remnant. God's thought as to a remnant is that it is God's way of maintaining in principle that which He had established; that is maintained in the remnant, but it does not constitute the remnant.

• Now we are in remnant tines; and if there is enough of a remnant in Belfast as to have three little meetings, what have you got? You have got three companies of individuals, and they have been delivered, and through deliverance they have come into the remnant character.

• If you have not the remnant character, you are not in it though you may be breaking bread; and you may know a great deal of scripture, more than I do, and you may be able to give me points and so on; but if you have not been brought into deliverance, you are not in the remnant character.

• What is deliverance? Look at Romans 6-8; the beauty of chapters 6 and 7 is, that though it is broken up into distinct elements, it is all one deliverance, but it involves complete deliverance from sin – sin not looked at as in you.

• Then the question of law is taken up, and the moment that law is taken up, out comes the flesh; because, when the question of law is taken up, you get to the bottom; and then, in chapter 8, you are in the good of deliverance.

• "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made" us? Oh, no; no wholesaling things now, it has to be an individual matter; if it is not individual in my soul and in your soul, it is not there.
  • "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death".

• If you have come to that, the remnant character will come out in you.

I want to show you now what comes out in Isaiah 7, and I shall attempt to show it to you briefly. I have read the chapter, and let the reading suffice.

• But all these circumstances are brought before us, especially in the beginning of the chapter:
  • "It came to pass in the days of Ahaz the son of Jotham, the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, that Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, went up toward Jerusalem to war against it, but could not prevail against it".

• Well, those are the conditions. Well now, in connection with all that, what do we get? I must not lose sight of it, because
  • "they are they" [saith the Lord Jesus, speaking to the Jews of the Old Testament scriptures] "which testify of me".

• He said, You search them, because they testify of Me. You might select a chapter where you might say, 'Well, I cannot see Christ in that', but any one should see Christ here.

• If you read Matthew's gospel, you find there the name given Him here
  • "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good".

• There is Christ, and mark, it is Christ in identification with the remnant. Take the Lord when He was here; take His first public act; what is it? He goes down to Jordan and sees John baptising, and He is baptised of him. What is the great point in the baptism of the Lord? Identification with the remnant. He is with the remnant.

• But I drop that for a moment, for I want to show you what the prophet goes on to learn:
  • "The Lord shall bring upon thee, and upon thy people, and upon thy father's house, days that have not come, from the day that Ephraim departed from Judah; even the king of Assyria".

• Then he goes on to declare all the things that come to pass in that day – that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silver pieces – why did he number the silver pieces? To show the value and the preciousness of the vines. But what now? It shall be nothing but thorns and briers.

• As to the people themselves, they hired a razor; and what does the razor do? It shaved the head and the hair of the feet, and it consumed the beard. What do the hair of the head and the feet and beard signify? The points of distinguishing beauty that God had put upon His people – all gone!

Now, beloved, that is a picture of the present condition of things. Look at what the church was at the beginning and look around now. Can you see anything like it?

• Why, the ruin could not be more complete than it is, as complete as it was in the land of Israel in Isaiah's day, Well, the desolation in that day was complete. And now, what about the remnant? Listen:
  • "And it shall come to pass in that day".

• Ah! we get another side now. It is not the Egyptian fly now, nor the Assyrian bee; it is not the thorns and briers now, it is the remnant:
  • "And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep".

• What is the meaning of that? I think it refers to Solomon's day. When the temple was being dedicated there were offered in sacrifices two-and-twenty thousand oxen, and an hundred and twenty thousand sheep in one sacrifice. Think of that!

• Then think of a young cow and two sheep! It was in the very same land that a man is said to nourish a young cow and two sheep. That is a very small thing, especially a young cow. A young cow does not give so much milk as an older cow. She does not reach her full milking until she is five years old.

• "A young cow and two sheep" was a very small thing. There was nothing to show in the remnant of that day, and so it is now.

• When you come to Philadelphia – Revelation 3 – what do you find? I speak soberly and thoughtfully. There is not very much to be seen. The Lord says to Philadelphia. Thou hast – what? a great power? an abundance of power? No! He says,
  • "Thou hast a little power".

• But that little power is wonderful when you look at the results. It is but "the young cow and two sheep". "And it shall come to pass in that day that a man" – it is "one" here: the "man" taken up is only a symbol of the remnant, because you see it comes at last to this.

• "For butter and honey shall every one eat"; but who eats? Every one that is left in the land. I have no doubt that took place in that day; I have no doubt that a great many Jews emigrated and left the land, and some were found here and some there.

• And in this day you can find that many Christians have migrated and have left the land. The point as to the remnant is; they are left in the land.

Let me say this – When God set up the nation, He did not set up the nation in the wilderness, He set them up in the land, and He set them up in a wonderful way.

• And when God set up the church, He did not set it up in the wilderness, He set it up in the land. You say, What do you mean by the land? Well, what did the land mean for the children of Israel?

• It is very simple; if you want to know: read the scripture where He brought them out of Egypt to bring them in – where? Into the wilderness? He does not say so. He brought them out to bring them in.

• There is so much in that; do not miss its meaning; the Red Sea and Jordan coalesce, they are bound to coalesce. If you separate them, you have separated what God has joined together; for He brought them out to bring them in.

• Look at that wonderful chapter 15 of Exodus. Where did they sing that song? On the banks of the Red Sea, and there is not a word about the wilderness in that song; it is all about the land.

• In our individual souls we may have a history that will answer to the history of Israel from Egypt to Canaan; but if you speak of the assembly, God set the children of Israel in the land.
  • Well, the land of Canaan was the sphere of God's purpose for Israel, and the land represents now typically the scene and sphere of God's purpose for us. That is it.

Now, beloved, are we in the land? I would like to raise that question in a very simple way. Mark! you begin with deliverance; do not forget that you cannot go on without that.

• You say, perhaps, 'I am in the land'. Well, see the Philistines! – they would never go and ford the Red Sea, they shirked it, and they are in the land, but they are still Philistines, they were not God's people, they were not in the land according to God, nor by God.

• I repeat, you must know deliverance to be truly in the land. You may have your head full of the doctrines of scripture, but you are not in the land; you could not be unless you know deliverance; and that is just as true of the one who is speaking to you as of any one else in this room.

• When you come to the truth of God, beloved, there must be no dodging it, no evading it, no exemption, no getting round it your own way; there is only one way. You must know deliverance to get into the land.

• Look at Romans 8. You touch the land there; and what marks you? The Spirit marks you! You do not walk according to the flesh, you walk according to the Spirit; you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit. It is only in the Spirit and in the power of the Spirit that we can touch the purpose of God, or reach those who dwelt here.

• The remnant are in the land, and mark! it is "in that day". What day? The day of desolation, the day of thorns and briers, the day of the Egyptian fly and the Assyrian bee; I have seen bees settle down on a bush until they almost covered it. That is the figure the Spirit of God gives. The evil things settle down and all the distinctive marks of the beauty of the people of God have disappeared.

• And yet in that day, in the very presence of these things, in the very scene of desolation, the remnant comes to light.
  • "A man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep; and it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter, for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land".

Now I call your attention for a moment to verses 14 and 15:

• "Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good".

• We have read already "butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land". That is identity of food. You must not take scriptural figures materially. Butter and honey simply stand as figures of the richness and fatness of the purpose of God.

• Look at the effect, "butter and honey shall he eat", it is that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.

• What was the matter with the Egyptians? They had no butter and honey. And what did Amalek lack? What does anybody lack that lives on Amalek [the flesh]? They will not know anything about the purpose of God; they will not know how to refuse the evil and choose the good.

• It is a solemn thing, a solemn fact but a true fact. How readily some Christians take up with any kind of movement and any kind of doctrine. It is a very solemn thing.

• I believe in being gracious, but I am suspicious of that kind of graciousness which will surrender the truth of God, and which will surrender good for evil, for that is what is at the bottom of it. I do not believe in that sort of graciousness.

• Paul said that meat belongs to those who are fully grown. That is – when you are so in the richness of the purpose of God that you are able to refuse the evil and choose the good.

• I wish, beloved brethren, to speak in grace, but I would say that the Lord would have us to be very real. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself to walk as He walked. And how did He walk? He walked in the absolute choosing of the good and the refusing of the evil.

• Ah, if we walk as He walked, we shall go in that way; He refused the evil and He knew how to choose the good. "Butter and honey shall he eat".

One speaks with all holy reverence of Christ. That wonderful scripture is about Christ: and it is most searching, and at the same time a most encouraging scripture for us; it is, indeed, because it says also

• "butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land … and on all hills".

• You are maintained though there are briars and thorns. What is the remnant going to do? I will tell you what is left for the saints now; the mountains are left for the saints;
  • "and on all mountains that shall be" – what? – "digged with the mattock".

• Oh, my brethren, have you learned to dig with the mattock? I know why the creeds are so popular; it is just like some who like to go to the ready-made tailors. We try the garments on. The garment seems to be the right size, down goes the money for the suit, and there is no question about it.

• So some like creeds and doctrines, and think they are fine clothes, but such do not know how to dig with the mattock. They have not soul exercise.
  • "On all hills that shall be digged with the mattock," [i.e. where there is individual exercise] "there shall not come thither the fear of briars and thorns".

• And what kind of place will it be? A place of soul prosperity:
  • "It shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle".

• My beloved brethren, it is marvellous; it ought to encourage us. May the Lord really enable us to take up what we have had before us, in exercise of soul with Him, so that the result may be endurance, and encouragement for our souls.

• Endurance means that though I know "the land shall become briars and thorns all around", still, no other place for me but the land, for oh! if I have found out the mountains – the elevated places in the land – the heavenly heights, and the digging of them with the mattock, how blessed, how wonderful! That is the portion of the remnant!

May the Lord bless His people; may He encourage us greatly.

I want now to speak a little about the sheep of Christ and to point out the sphere that belongs to them.

• They occupy that sphere, there is that about them which marks them out as His sheep: they hear His voice, and the voice they hear is the voice of the Son of God: and He knows them.

• So the sheep of Christ are marked as being known in a particular way by Him. They are known by Him personally, individually, and they follow Him; they follow the Son of God. His path is a wonderful path, a peculiar path, and the sheep are found following Him in it,
  • and He says, "I give unto them eternal life":

• eternal life is given by Him to the sheep – to those who follow Him as the Son of God, and who hear His voice. Eternal life is the characteristic blessing of the sheep. And in verses 14-15 we find that this characteristic blessing of the sheep lies in knowledge.
  "I am the good shepherd; and I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father"

• this knowledge is the characteristic blessing of Christ's sheep. Then in verse 28 eternal life is given to the sheep as security.
  • "I give them life eternal; and they shall never perish, and no one shall seize them out of my hand".

• There is perfect security there from every form of opposition or power of evil. No one is able to pluck them out of His hand. I do not apprehend that security is spoken of here for our comfort, but let me tell you, in a day like this we do need the comfort of it.

• Absolute security is guaranteed, "they shall never perish". The sheep are in the hand of the Son of God – a place of greater security than any you could possibly conceive, and the result of being there is – they do not "perish".

Now I want to speak a little as to the sphere of the sheep.

• Many have difficulty to adjust in their souls what belongs to them down here and what belongs to them in heaven. They connect eternal life with heaven instead of earth.

• The sphere of the sheep, then, in the first place, is connected with the truth of Jesus as the Son of God. You get the revelation; that is – the way God has revealed Himself in Him. The Son of God having been here, there has been the revelation of God – the only true God – and of what the Son of God has brought in by the revelation of Him.

• The incarnation becomes increasingly precious to me. A wonderful sphere has been formed down here, to be entered into while we are on earth, though it is not of earth. It is no question of heaven.

• We know, of course, and rejoice in it that we all – all Christ's sheep, are going there; but God has not come out in the revelation of Himself in heaven. No! the wonderful thing is that God has revealed Himself down here in the blessed Person of His Son, and there is a sphere on God's side where He has come out. That is the sphere open and available to us.

• A wonderful thought – a sphere down here into which the sheep are entitled to enter. I fail to see how it could be connected with heaven. It is not earthly, but it is for us while we are on earth.

• In this chapter the "one flock" is the great point. God has come out in revelation; He has come out in a Man – in the only-begotten Son, and in the revelation of Himself has formed a sphere down here, though outside all here, and it is ours to enter into it. It is the characteristic blessing of the sheep, and it lies in the knowledge of the Father and the Son.

• Is it possible to have that knowledge down here? Yes; not the knowledge of divine Persons in the Godhead, but in the sphere where the Spirit of God has come out, and you can enter into that sphere here, and now.

• The knowledge is, of course, in different measure to the knowledge between the Father and the Son, but it is the same kind or character of knowledge as that between the Father and the Son as Man down here.
  • The Lord says, "And am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father".

• Surely if we were able to take in all that this involves our souls would be exercised as to how far we enter into that sphere, and if we know experimentally this – the characteristic blessing of the sheep.

• When the Lord Jesus Christ was down here, He was in relation to the Father as the only true God, and we are entitled to know the Son of God as the Father knew Him down here, and as He as a Man knew the Father.

• This same kind of knowledge is open to us, but not that which belongs to those relationships between divine Persons; that cannot be known or entered into by us. Incarnation has brought Him into revelation, has brought Him, so to speak, within our range.

In the end of chapter 9 the Lord heard they had cast the man who had been born blind out of the Jewish fold, and having found him He said to him,

• "Dost thou believe on the Son of God?"

• – and He goes on to unfold what is really the truth of Christianity.

We read in [1] John 1, "In the beginning". That is not the outset – the creation; it is the starting-point; it is incarnation.

• F.E.R. said that "the truth of incarnation is entering into a condition in which He was not before".

• There was no change of Person – it is not a term of personality, but a term of condition.

• The sphere of the sheep is connected with the thought of the revelation of God as the only true God.

• In that one Person – Jesus Christ, the sent One – two things are perfectly expressed – the perfect revelation of the Father, and Himself – the Son of God – the perfect answer to that revelation.

There are three points in which God's people are poorly established:

1. the place the Son of God as Man has taken to God;

2. the new place man has been brought into God-ward;

3. the knowledge of the Father God-ward, and that also involves the knowledge of "Jesus Christ" as the sent One, and what characterised Him as the Father's sent One.

• He has not been "sent" to heaven. He was sent on earth.

• When He says of the sheep, "I give unto them eternal life", what does He give them? The knowledge of the Father as He, as man, knows the Father, and as the Father knows Him, and this is that wonderful sphere – the sphere of eternal life.

• He is "the door", and entering in by Him involves three things:

1. salvation "he shall be saved",

2. liberty,

3. pasture – all that you need to nourish and support you in the life into which you have entered.

• All this is reached by Christ as "the door". But mark! the sphere is, as I have said, down here, but it is necessarily an out-of-the-world sphere, connected with Jesus as the Son of God
  • "Who is he that gets the victory over the world, but he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God", 1 John 5.

Well, the Lord presents Himself to the man who had been blind as "the Son of God". The man gladly believed on Him, and did Him homage. He submitted his whole being to Him as the Son of God.

• That is how we "enter in". We begin with Jesus as the Christ – that is the beginning. Then we recognise Him as the Son of God

• Many are what I call doorstep Christians – they remain on the doorstep of Christianity and never go in. They believe in Jesus as the Christ, but do they believe on Him as the Son of God?

• The sphere where He is known as the Son of God is an out-of-the-world sphere, and if the sheep know Jesus as the Son of God they have entered that sphere, and it is the sphere of eternal life, of salvation, liberty and pasture.

• He is the door – if one may so say – of egress and of ingress. His death was the door out from the Jewish fold. But now He is the door in – for ingress. It is, "If any man enter in", etc.

• We have the Lord in resurrection as the door of ingress, so in verse 9 it is the Son of God in resurrection. He is marked out as the Son of God by resurrection from the dead.

• His resurrection took place down here. It did not take Him to heaven, and when our resurrection takes place it does not take us to heaven. We await the rapture for that,
  • but I wish to emphasise that while this sphere which I have spoken of is down here, it is on the other side of His resurrection.

• We stand connected with the purpose of God; the sheep of Christ, though here in flesh, are not seen in flesh in that out-of-the-world sphere because it is connected with Him as the Son of God risen from the dead, and that brings in the characteristic blessing of the sheep which is eternal life, and which consists in the knowledge of the Father as "the only true God", etc.

My conviction is – we are near the close of things here. Everything will get worse and worse. Many saints have asked me recently if I think the rapture is near. I think it is.

• But have we soberly weighed the condition of things here? They are now exceedingly difficult and trying for many of the Lord's people, and they will become increasingly so.

• When the rapture takes place how we shall rejoice to be with Him, but things here are becoming so bad there will presently be no place for us here. When Enoch was taken the state of things here was awful – wickedness on every hand just before the flood. So God took him

• But listen! you are in the hand of the Son of God and in the Father's hand, and you "shall never perish". If we are settling ourselves comfortably in our circumstances here, this passage loses its force for us, but I believe the days are not far off when every statement of the Lord in regard to our security will be realised.
  • "No one shall seize them out of my hand".

• You are perfectly safe in the hand of the Son of God. What a wonderful place that is to be in! "No one" – none can touch you there. Is the wolf coming? You are perfectly secure and safely guaranteed against "perishing"; you have the blessed sense of security from all that transpires here.

But it is not only security. The sheep have the wonderful privilege of knowing the Father in the kind of way that Christ as Man knew Him. I wish I could open it up to you.

• Oh, to know Him now as the Father knows Him, with the same kind of knowledge! and the sheep are characterised by this knowledge.

• In heaven there will be no question of "perishing", and the term "eternal life" will have no force. Let us receive the truth as scripture presents it.

• We are finite creatures now, and we shall remain so all through eternity. There is no confusion in scripture. God will ever remain God, and the creature will remain the creature.

• In 1 Corinthians 15 we get the end of the mediatorial kingdom of God the Father. The Son delivers it up to Him, and Father, Son and Holy Ghost become all in all. That is the end – the final.

Now I have only a simple, practical word to add – Where are we, beloved, in relation to all this? Have we the light of Him as the Son of God?

• It is a wonderful thing to know Him as the Christ, but it is still more wonderful to know Him as the Son of God. Have we that light, and are we in the faith of Him as the Son of God?

• I might again refer in this connection to the Epistle of John –
  • "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God"

• but when you come to believing that He is the Son of God you are carried on farther:
  • "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"

Oh, beloved, where are we? Have we availed ourselves of Him as the "Door", "I am the door"? It is not a shut door; it is an open door.

"If any one enter in by me he shall be saved, and shall go in and shall go out and shall find pasture".

• It has all been made available in His resurrection and ascension. Well! it is in the measure that we "enter in" through Him into the knowledge of God, that salvation, security, liberty and pasture are made good to us.

• There is a boundless and inexhaustible provision for us. We "find pasture", and how wonderful is the character of the pasture! There is for us the "bread of God come down from heaven". We really feed upon the knowledge of God.

I feel that there is everything to encourage us. If we know Him in the wonderful way He presents Himself to us here – "I am the door", we shall prove the truth of His words;

• it will lift us above the discouraging elements, that we may see all around us, and it will set us in the joy of salvation, in the joy of liberty, and in the satisfaction of enjoyed pasture – rich pasture – from the hands of God.

May the Lord supplement and bless these fragmentary remarks, and make good to our souls what it is to be the sheep of Christ

All the closing part of the Gospel of John is intensely interesting.

• In chapter 12, what we might speak of as the Lord's public ministry – His ministry as regards the world – ceased; and it ceased in a very striking, solemn way. The words are these:
  • "These things spake Jesus, and departed, and did hide himself from them".

• And from that moment to the present the Lord has been virtually hidden from the sight and gaze of this world.

• Then we find the Lord, in the opening of chapter 13, exclusively engaged with His own. He has them in separation from the world; He gathers them about His own Person. It is the scene of the "upper room". Ostensibly, and really too, the Lord and His disciples are gathered together for the celebration of the passover.

• In the opening of chapter 13 the Spirit of God brings very vividly before us what occupied the Lord's heart.
  • "Jesus, knowing that his hour had come that he should depart out of this world to the Father".

• Mark: "the hour" The knowledge of it fills the heart and mind of the blessed Lord. Then it goes on to say – and how it ought to touch every one of our hearts –
  • "having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end".

• In those words we find the Lord's heart, the Lord's love for His own, deeply stirred; His heart is thus engaged with His own.

• It is remarkable and well worth our attention, that what is on the Lord's heart, on the point of His departure out of this world to the Father whence He came, is to set His own in right relation, and in right adjustment to each other.

• We sometimes, perhaps lightly, carelessly, say – Never mind the saints; let us be occupied with the Lord. That is not like the Lord. He is occupied with His own, and, I am bold to say, that His occupation with them here is in the way of adjusting them in right relation to one another.

He laid aside His garments. It is during the supper – "during" is the right word, not "at the close" – during the progress of the supper He rose; He laid aside His garments; He poured the water into the basin, and, girding Himself with a linen towel, He proceeded to wash the feet of His disciples.

• I would just like to ask you to contemplate this! Look at Him, beloved! His garments laid aside! Garments in scripture are very significant. They are distinguishing and characterising. And at this moment the Lord laid aside His garments. We like to wear our garments and are fond of showing them. I wish we knew more how to lay them aside.

• Look at Him! There He is – the Lord and Master! He says, You call Me Lord and Teacher, and that is what I am. Look at Him – the Lord and Teacher! Look till your heart catches fire! His garments laid aside and with the linen towel girding Him, the water in the basin; He proceeds to wash and then to wipe the feet of His disciples.

• Look at the wonderful ending of it! He finished His service to them; He both washed and wiped their feet: and now He sets down the basin, ungirds the towel from His loins, puts on His garments and resumes His place. Then He says,
  • "I have done this for an example to you, and you must do to one another what I have done to you".

• You ought. It is the moral obligation put upon every one of us by our loving Lord and Teacher, who is none other than the Son of God.
  • He says, "Ye also ought to wash one another's feet".

Now that is the beginning, and you know how the chapter closes. It closes with that wonderful new commandment. He says,

• "A new commandment I give unto you".

• Yes, He commands. Are you conscious of it? Does your heart rise up with divine delight and alacrity to obey His commandment?
  • "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another".

• But that is not all. Of course we ought to love one another. But what He says is,
  • "That ye love one another; as I have loved you".

    And how had He loved them?

    "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you".

• There it is. See how it comes down like a divine chain, link in link; down from the heart of the Father it comes to reach your heart and mine. He says – As the Father loved Me, that is how I have loved you; and you are to love one another just as I have loved you.

• Well, beloved, there we are! Our feet washed and wiped; not a spot upon them; not a shade of distance between our hearts and Himself. What is it all for? That we may have part with Him.
  • Peter says, "Thou shalt never wash my feet". And what does the Lord say, so gently, so graciously?

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

    Then Peter says, Wash me all over; "not my feet only, but also my hands and my head". But Peter was as far wrong there as when he said, "Thou shalt never wash my feet".

• You have absolutely to surrender your own thoughts and will, and to put your feet in His hands, and let Him have His own blessed way with you.

But I must not tarry on this, or I shall not get to chapter 17. If washed and wiped perfectly clean, they are now under His new commandment; they are to love one another as He loved them. Now He is free to minister.

• Do you say – I wish we could have some good ministry among us. It is His teaching we want. It is the blessed ministry that comes from Himself.

• Look at chapter 14 – there is His ministry! He had set them in right relationship with each other, and in relationship with Himself in respect of the new commandment. What is to hinder now?

• What an opening of ministry there is from Himself to His own in chapter 14! I do not know how it strikes you, but the very first note of John 14 starts up music in my heart,
  • "Let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told, you. I go to prepare a place for you.

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

• How lovely! What a beginning! Let me add this practical, simple word – if we are in line with chapter 13, we may expect from chapter 14.

• Show me a company of saints that are rightly adjusted with each other, who are really going on in the power of the new commandment, and I will show you a company that are enjoying His ministry;
  • it does not matter where the meeting is – Glasgow, Indianapolis, or any other place;

  • it does not matter whether the meeting is large or small, it is not quantity, it is quality that the Lord looks for, and if the quality is what it ought to be amongst the saints to each other, you may depend upon it ministry will come.

Then in chapters 15 and 16, He is still engaged with His own. In chapter 15, it is in respect of fruit-bearing, and in chapter 16, it is in respect of testimony.

• You may distinguish each of these chapters, but the two are inseparable. There are two sides in these chapters – one is God-ward and the other is man-ward. Fruit is for the Father,
  • "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit".

• Fruit is God-ward; testimony is man-ward, and where there is the one there is the other.

• Where there is no fruit there is no testimony, or very poor testimony, but where there is fruit for the Father you will always find testimony.

In chapter 13, as we noticed, the Lord is done with the world, and in chapter 16, in the way of His ministry, He is done with His own. He has nothing more to say to the world; He has nothing more to say to His own.

• But, oh! where did He come from? He came from the Father; He could not finish with the world, nor could He finish with His own; He could only finish with the One from whom He came, the One to whom He is about to go. And so chapter 17 opens:
  • "These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven".

• He turned those eyes of grace away from the world; turned those eyes of love which were upon His own in that upper room, and He now turns His eyes heavenward. He lifts up His eyes to heaven, and says, "Father!" And then what an outpouring from His heart to the Father!

• Is it not wonderful that the Spirit of God has put it on record in the scriptures, so it has come down to us, and it is our privilege not only to read it, but to ponder it, to listen to the very utterance which fell from the lips of the blessed Lord which are found in this chapter?

• What a holy privilege to be permitted to stand by, as it were, and listen; to hear, and by the Spirit, to understand this marvellous outpouring of the Lord's heart to His Father! It is indeed wonderful. How one loves to linger over this chapter! How often do you read it?

• I want to read it very often. I have prayed and wept over it; my heart has been ravished as I have read it. What an introduction that is – what an appeal!
  • "Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son" – what for? – "that thy Son also may glorify thee".

    Then, "As thou hast given him power" [authority] "over all flesh, that as to all that thou hast given to him, he should give them life eternal".

• It is often asked, What is eternal life? Listen! not to me, but to Him. Let every other mouth be stopped and every tongue be still; but open wide the ears of thine heart and hear Him.

• Many dear Christians think themselves into a tangle – into a fog of uncertainty and doubt. It is not a question of thinking, but of listening. What we have to do is to listen to Him. Well, He says,
  • "This is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent".

• That is His wonderful introduction. And on what ground does He base His appeal to the Father?
  • "I have glorified thee on the earth, I have completed the work which thou gavest me that I should do it; and now glorify me, thou Father, along with thyself, with the glory which I had along with thee before the world was".

• He can appeal to the Father to glorify Him that He may further glorify the Father in all that the Father has given Him to accomplish – and what is that? – to give eternal life to those given Him of the Father.

• And He grounds this appeal on the marvellous fact of His having glorified the Father on the earth.

Then He turns to speak of the "men" whom the Father has given Him out of the world – the disciples. There are eleven of them.

• One, as we know, had gone out – the son of perdition; Judas was ever that, but now it had all come out; the exposure is complete; he "went out and it was night"; he went out into the night that yet lingers and remains with its deep darkness over this world.

• There are only the eleven with Him, and He privileges them to hear the desires of His heart poured out to the Father. That goes on to the end of verse 19.

Then in verse 20 He says

• "And for these only, but also for those who believe on me through their word".

• What the Lord now bears up in the desires of His heart to the Father every one who believes on Him – on "Jesus, the Christ, the Son of God". What is all this Gospel of John written for? John says in chapter 20: 30-31:
  • "And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life in his name".

• That is the divine standard. Do not pull the standard down. It is like that passage in Ephesians 4,
  • "Until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God".

• I should like to have heard Paul's first preaching. What did he preach? He announced as glad tidings that Jesus is the Son of God. The "light from heaven" revealed that to him.

I am quite prepared to speak of all believers in the widest way, and to go with anything that can scripturally be said about all believers.

• But seeing that the scripture itself makes distinction between those who believe that Jesus is the Christ and those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God, feel we do well to take account of these distinctions.
  • "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ" – what about that one? – he "has been begotten" [or born] "of God".

    But it is said further –

    "Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he dwelleth in God".

• And again – I like J.N.D.'s translation of this passage –
  • "And this is the victory which has gotten the victory over the world".

• Who gets the victory? The one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. If we are worldly we need not speak about believing that Jesus is the Son of God. If we truly believe that we shall be clear of the world.

I think there are a good many of us, as well as myself, who need a divine lift.

• Do you believe that Jesus is the Christ? If you do I give you my hearty congratulations.

• But do you believe in your soul that Jesus is the Son of God? What is the Lord's prayer for all who believe on Him through the apostles' word?
  • "That they may be all one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

    Listen to His words: "That they may be all one".

• Is that oneness dogmatical, ecclesiastical? Oh, no!

• What was the oneness between the Father and the Son? It was the oneness of holy, divine, reciprocal affection. The Father loved Him, and He loved the Father. What a place He had in the Father's heart; what a distinguishing place! The Father said of Him,
  • "This is my beloved Son, in whom is all my delight".

• He was God's only One. The expression in the authorised version "only begotten" means in the original "God's only one". It is the same expression which is translated in Genesis 22
  • "Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest".

• Again, Psalm 22, it is translated "my darling"; and in Proverbs 8 "I was daily his delight" – the literal translation of the same word is "The nursling of his love". He had that place in the Father's heart; He was the Father's delight – His "only one". He was the One whom the Father, in that peculiar sense and way, loved.

• And He loved the Father. The Father was in His heart – in His affections. The Father commanded, controlled the affections of the Son. He absolutely reigned supreme in them,
  • "That the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

• He said to His own disciples –
  • "Abide in my love. If ye shall keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love".

• There was that blessed mutuality of holy, divine, reciprocal love. Love in the Father answering to love in the Son; love in the Son answering to love in the Father.

Well, what does He pray for these?

• "That they may be all one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee"

• – I need not say that no one would think of attaching to that word "as" the idea of degree or measure, but who would dare to detach the meaning "same kind" from it.

• In what measure has God wrought in your heart and mine to produce that? That is the desire of His heart for us.
  • "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us".

• I want to emphasise this – Wherever there is breakdown and failure from the manifest unity contemplated by the Lord's heart here and expressed in this desire to the Father, wherever there is breakdown and departure from it, let me tell you it is because we are not one in the Father and the Son.

• Oh! I wish I could dare to utter all that is in my mind and heart as to this. For His glory and for the gratification of His heart I will say this – it is only as this holy, divine, reciprocal affection exists in our hearts – in yours and in mine – that the truth will be maintained in every particular.

• I am so thankful for that one utterance of the Spirit: "Love never faileth". Never! Never! It never has failed and it never will. As the truth of God, It Stands! And it is unimpeachable: Love Never Faileth.

The Lord lifted up His eyes to His Father, and said:

• "As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us".

• The Son's love for the Father will hold you as true as steel to the Father, and the Father's love to the Son will hold you as true as steel to the Son.

• We think a great deal of circumstances and details. I wish we thought more of causes and divine principles.

• The devil is always at the bottom of everything that is wrong, and we know how it will be by-and-by, because scripture has foretold the apostasy – has foretold what is coming to pass in the area of Christendom – where we are tonight, Glasgow included:
  • The Open Public Denial Of The Father And The Son.

• We read in scripture that Antichrist is coming, and Antichrist will deny the Father and the Son. The devil is on that line now – he is.

But I want to speak a word about this fourfold desire of the heart of Christ. There are the first two desires, and there are the second two.

• The first two have a bearing upon the world; the first one is that the world may believe; the Lord says in verse 22:
  • "And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them, that they may be one, as we are one".

• That is not like the oneness of verse 21: the oneness of verse 22 is quite distinct from the oneness of verse 21. You must read carefully, closely. The Lord says in, verse 22:
  • "That they may be one, as we are one; I in them and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me".

• Now, the oneness He prays for in verses 20, 21 is for the present time, it is now.
  • "That they may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me".

• May the Lord draw up our hearts and exercise our consciences as to this – my heart and conscience is deeply exercised tonight as to this desire of the Lord. Remember it! You will leave this room tonight, you will go home and lie down to sleep; but, remember, you are under all the responsibility of that desire of Christ for you! How are you answering to it?

• One in the Father and in the Son. "One in us". One in the Father's love to the Son and in the Son's love to the Father. Is that made good in us? In us, mark! Not to us. It is not something presented to us; it is something effected in us.
  • "That they also may be one in us".

• If your soul gets hold of this you will not brook for a moment any attempt to dishonour the Father. Why? Because the Son's love to the Father is made good in you; and you will get equally indignant over every attempt to dishonour the Son.

• Do you ask, What do you mean? I mean what I say, Christ as the Son is over God's house. Will you stand by and see any one trifling with the prerogative of Christ as the Son over God's house? You will indignantly refuse it; you will wash your hands of it.

• Then there is the other desire, which is future. Verse 23:
  • "That they may be perfected into one";

    that will be in the glory.

    "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory".

• Then the world will K – N – O – W – will know.
  • "That the world may know that thou hast sent me, and that thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me".

• That is the future.

Then there are two more desires. The first two have respect to testimony, and the world is in view – the first one that the world may believe, and the second that the world may know.

• But the last two desires belong to the inside – no question of testimony. It is a question of privilege conferred upon us, and that privilege can only be measured by the Father's love to the Son and the Son's love to the Father, which is inside.
  • The first one is – "Father, as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world".

• Now, do you expect me to explain this? If you do, I must decline. It is too deep for me to explain. But most devoutly I believe it. We are going to behold a glory which He calls "My glory".

• That is a glory that will never be shared by any others. Why? Because it is a glory that will express the love that the Father had for Him before the foundation of the world. That is going to be expressed in the glory the Father gives to Him as Man. And you and I are going to be with Him where He is. What for? That we may behold His glory.

• I wish I could say more; I cannot say much on this wondrous fact, it is beyond me; but I believe it. The moment is coming when we shall be there with Him, and then we shall behold that glory.

The other desire belongs to the present, and I shall finish with that. It is in the last verse. He says,

• "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".

• That is here and now; the other desire is there and then.
  • "Father", He says – and how beautiful that is! – "as to those whom thou hast given me, I desire that where I am they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world".

• Where is that to be known? In the Father's house of many abodes, as to which He says, "I go to prepare a place for you". It is in the prepared place in the Father's house. That is not exactly heaven; it is the universe; but this desire, has regard to the heavenly side of it.

• "That where I am they also may be". That applies to there and then; but the last verse is to be known here and now – I have declared,
  • "I have made known to them thy name, and will"

    – the verb is in the future tense, and looks on, doubtless, to what we get in John 20: 17 –

    "make it known; that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them".

• Oh, how marvellous this is! Just think! The hearts of the saints are the present home of the Father's love for the Son; and the present home for the Son of God Himself.
  • "That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them".

May the Lord add His blessing to my feeble words and make these wonderful things good to us, for His name's sake!