If I take the start, the mark of true spirituality is that we take a very small account of ourselves.

• If you take Solomon, he had everything on the natural side to make him great; he could have said, 'If there is a man in the world of any importance it is myself, for I am the son of David the king, and I have inherited the throne; I am in a most important position'.
  • But he says, "I am but a little child".

• This was not sentiment; it was the consequence in this man's soul of being in the conscious presence of the God of Israel. He meditated before God in this dream, and in it God spoke to him. It is very beautiful; God puts Himself at his disposal for any request. He feels, 'Who am I that I should be spoken to by such a wonderful Person as the God of Israel?'

People may ask, How we are to discern the marks of the spiritual person? They think that a spiritual person is some great brother or sister that has shone for some time amongst the brethren.

• That is all wrong; that is not necessary for spirituality; it is a person who in the sense of the presence of God can feel his own littleness. This is the first step in the most extraordinary advancement of spirituality.

• Take the blessed Lord Himself, I am sure we all covet to be as that blessed Man was, going along with the lowly. Look at the humility, the beautiful humility, of the Person of Christ; He created the world at His word, and yet there was the beautiful spirit of humility.

Now when you come to Solomon you get true spirituality, and what is the consequence? It leaves the blessed God free to unfold all His wealth to this man.

• I would like to draw your attention to the second incident because it is the point that tests our spirituality practically. It is when the saints are astray in affections, and when they are mixed up and cannot be properly located; there are squabbles and so forth; it is then that the spirituality of the spiritual man comes to the fore, and this incident is a picture of the lawless state of things.

• You get people with affections entirely astray; but mark this – there was affection. In one of these cases there was genuine affection, and in the other there was no affection at all. There is genuine affection, and you covet spirituality that we might be able to be with the Lord in discerning the affections that are genuine, so that we might not crush or hinder anything that is really of God.

I think the apostle Paul is a remarkable proof of this. How he distinguished between one kind and another, and how there was in him the most tender consideration where there was failure! Let me give you an incident.

• Take the second epistle to the Corinthians: Paul discerned the genuine affections in the man that failed. We should have said, 'That man has had a complete breakdown, leave him alone'. The apostle spiritually discerned the true affections. How did he come to them? By bringing in
  • "the sword of the Spirit, which is God's word", Ephesians 6: 17,

• and which discerns between soul and spirit, joints and marrow. What happened? The man had to be cut to pieces, and he saw there was something genuine there; he did not want that overwhelmed.

• How we covet to be spiritual enough to use the sword of the Spirit to cut to pieces what is of the flesh, so that what is genuine is brought to light!

Here the true mother's heart comes out, and she says, 'Rather give it to the false one than destroy it for ever'.

• That is where sorrow comes in, and it brings its sorrow. When the Lord cuts to pieces, cuts close home, may we have grace to recognise what the object of it is!

• Do you think Solomon intended to kill the child? He was going to kill the false affections, and bring to light genuine affections. I just turn for a moment to the passage:
  • "And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice".

I sometimes allow myself the privilege of sitting down and meditating on the assemblies on the earth, and Paul's dealing with them.They must have thought, 'How privileged we are to live in the day of the apostle's ministry'.

• They looked at the Corinthians and said, 'We shall never make anything of that place;' but the spiritual man had taken the matter in hand, helped by the Lord, and had brought the sword of the Spirit to bear upon the assembly in Corinth. Great searching of heart was the result.

• Look at the way the genuine affections come out! How their hearts went out to the apostle, and how delightful to see the spurious thing gone; and the testimony reached all the assemblies.

• We think spirituality lies in an outward form. What marked the apostle? He was nothing to look at as a man; he was in touch with the sympathies of heaven. So with the figure – Solomon. He sat upon the throne with the wisdom of the God of Israel.

I turn to the next incident for a moment: it is full of encouragement. What you get there is the gain of spirituality. The apostle gives you a figure in the New Testament, but the figure in the Old Testament is exceedingly beautiful.

• "And God gave Solomon wisdom and very great understanding and largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the sea-shore".

• One mark of wisdom is "largeness of heart". We are straitened in our affections; and the reason is we are not wise enough to be large. We are afraid of being captured or turned aside.

What did Solomon's largeness of heart consist in? It not only embraced the people of Israel, but all the living earth for the God of Israel.

• Do you know what he said to the Queen of Sheba? He did not say, 'You do not belong to the chosen people, I can give you no information at all'. No. He had largeness of heart; that is a beautiful figure of the true man of wisdom – that all the ends of the earth might come to him to solve their problems. What did his wisdom consist in?
  • "He spoke three thousand proverbs; and his songs were a thousand and five".

• I just want to say a word about proverbs and songs. One covets to name a proverb. You see, when you come to a thing that there is no getting away from, it becomes a genuine by-word among the saints; it is a proverb.

• He spoke three thousand. It is a beautiful figure of one who had the perfect intelligence of what the fruits and results of the death of Christ are in this scene, and everything here is to be measured by the death of Christ for the spiritual man.

• It is one thing to give a good address, but another thing to make a statement that remains with the saints as a by-word. The apostle's statements live with the people of God today, not because they are remarkable ones, but because they put into form the consequences of the death of Christ for the people of God.

There is another side – "songs". When you come to a song you come to the product of a victory won. We are to speak in

• "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs", Ephesians 5: 19;

• it is the outcome of a spiritual victory. There was a victory of Moses, and a song of Moses. Do you know anything of the new song?

• There is going to be a new song and there will be none but those who are spiritual persons singing it, there will not be a trace of the carnal man; and then the gain of these things is that there is plenty of material in a spiritual man for profit – that is the force of a proverb!

  Then there is the joy of victory, that is a song – and he spoke of certain things, that is instruction. The gain of spirituality is very great. Take the apostle Paul as an example: if he came into a place where things were going wrong it became evident that this man would not countenance it.

• What is the next thing you would have got? He would have raised a spiritual song in their midst; he would have shown them how to begin at the bottom, and how you can come to the top. What is the bottom? Hyssop; and the top, cedar.

Now a word as to the last incident in Solomon; that is 'testimony'. The Queen of Sheba heard of the wisdom of Solomon.

• I hear people complain sometimes like this: 'It is very difficult to get an audience, no one comes into our room'. You do not want the audience, you want something for the audience when they come. Do you think if the apostle were to come to this city we should be here long?

• I greatly appreciate the company of the saints, but if I knew a man as spiritual as he was here, I should be one of the first to go and hear him.

• How far did the wisdom of Solomon extend? It reached the Queen of Sheba. There was no need for notices, there were results; and tidings had reached the Queen of Sheba. She considered it inconceivable that there should be a man on the earth that could do those things; she came to see, and tell her hard questions. They were nothing to the spiritual man, and when all the questions were ended, the Spirit could unlock the door and show more than any human person can take in.

• When Solomon had unlocked the door to the system of things for which the spiritual man is formed, she turns and it is one unbroken burst of praise, not to Solomon, nor to the people around, but to God.

Now, I read the closing verses of the Acts of the Apostles; and I just refer to them for a moment because the figure is beautiful. The system of things has gone to pieces; there is nothing outwardly; but they had escaped.

• Now we are in this broken day, a day of difficulty, but we are still here – we have escaped – thank God. What is the spiritual man doing? He adapts himself to the conditions of the moment, and in the spirit of the moment just helps to improve the condition of things; he is picking up sticks to keep the fire going.

• It is a wonderful thing when you can keep the affections of the saints warm towards Christ. But it was an act a little child could have done and it was done in that spirit. Now Satan said, 'I will put a stop to this; I do not mind people quarrelling, but I do not want people to get warmed like this'. The viper appeared.

• The thing that warms the affections of the saints kills the power of Satan – you may put that down as a proverb! The spiritual man knows this. They see the effects of spirituality. What is the apostle doing? Going on quietly doing what he had been doing – simply and quietly serving under the hand of God.

The benefit of wisdom came out and the issues of life are discovered; the power of life is brought in and testimony goes out. They had expected him to die, but he lives. The Lord graciously awakens an increased desire to get the gain of what was spiritual. They came from all parts of the island to come under the influence of this wonderful spiritual power.

• Now you may say it was all very well in the early apostolic days; we are in the close. This picture is at the close; the ship was gone; they have been thrown on an island; there is little room and little movement, but there is room for spirituality, and also increased largeness of heart towards all saints.

May the Lord graciously give us with renewed earnestness to seek that which is of the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ.

But now I should like us to look for a little at the inheritance on the heavenly side – and I may say in passing it is not the mountain of His inheritance exactly, but it is that which the blessed God has taken up in Christ, and His inheritance in the saints.

• I believe it is the desire of the Spirit of God to bring us into the good of that inheritance now; that it might not be simply a question of merely being in the company of people with whom you have certain outward privileges, such as the breaking of bread, prayer meetings, reading meetings, and so forth,
  • but that you might have the practical spiritual enjoyment of the inheritance in the circle of the saints now.

• In that circle you learn to appreciate and enjoy what the blessed God has got for Himself in His redeemed, beloved people.

Now I trust, with the Lord's help, to make this more clear to you. I would like to give you the connection in which the Old Testament setting of the inheritance is presented.

• If I understand the book of Genesis correctly, the climax of that book is reached in chapter 22.

• I must not, however, enlarge very much on that at the moment, but it is intensely precious – I refer to the beautiful figure of Abraham and Isaac ascending the mountain where Isaac was to be offered up; but I may say in regard to it that the blessed activities of the Father and the Son, with a view to all blessing, both heavenly and earthly, are set forth there in type.

The foundation on which everything stands for God is the offering up of His own beloved Son; and I think it was a wonderful point when God brought out, in figure, a father's affection for his son; and yet the son of his affection was offered up as a sacrifice – a sacrifice that prefigured what Christ was,

• not merely as the answer to guilt, not merely as the atonement for all the sin and ruin that had been brought in,

• but the offering up of His Son in order that from that very spot where all the corruption and departure were, there should be a savour of eternal sweetness rising to the heart of the Father.

• It is from that spot that the Spirit of God records the blessings that were to come in through Isaac.

• Now, just to keep the connection for one moment, you will remember that at the close of chapter 22 there is a little parenthesis which gives you the generation of Rebecca, just immediately before you get the record of the death of Sarah, showing that the assembly was in view before the history of Israel was portrayed.

Now chapter 23 gives us the record of the death of Sarah, and Abraham's purchase of a burial-ground.

• It is perhaps one of the most interesting chapters in the Old Testament, for it establishes the rights of redemption in regard to the earth, and you have the purchase price paid with the current money of the country, and the land made sure to Abraham for ever.

• Let me remind you, that piece of land is going to be demanded, and Israel shall come forth and people the earth. The incident is a picture of Israel, for the time being, buried;
  • but the rights of redemption are held by the true Abraham, and He will take up those rights, and Israel will come forth and stand upon the earth,

• for the purchase price has been paid, the deed has been made sure, and the inheritance rightly belongs to Abraham. Now that is connected with the death of Sarah.

Chapter 24 stands between chapter 23 and the incidents recorded in chapter 25, where other families are referred to; but you will have noticed that in that chapter, Isaac gets the pre-eminent place – Abraham gave to Isaac all that he had, and before he died he sent the other families away eastward.

• The picture is beautiful: there stand Isaac and Rebecca, with all the blessing of his father in a unique and distinct position; and all the other families blessed as only Abraham could bless them, but sent away eastward.

Now the hope of our calling is connected, I think, with Genesis 24; and when you come to consider the way we have to enter into it practically, you will, I think, agree that the Spirit of God has graciously given us, through Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, three salient epistles that deal with the subject.

• I do not at all undervalue Paul's other epistles, but the three epistles in which the heart of the apostle comes out in a distinct way, in this connection, are those to the Romans, the Colossians and the Ephesians.

• I may remind you that the apostle had not seen either the Roman, or the Colossian saints, when he wrote those epistles; he had, however, been to Ephesus, and he knew the saints there intimately.

• It is an immense thing that we should be established in these epistles with a view to entering on the hope of our calling.

Now let me say a word on Romans 8,

• "If any one has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of him".

• I take Genesis 24 to be illustrative of the Spirit's mission, to bring to Christ a company which will be adequate to fill a special place in His affections; in other words they are the company of whom the apostle spoke in the epistle to the Ephesians; they are his inheritance.

• What marks the chapter is that the servant starts out with ten camels of the camels of his master, indicating that the whole question of the responsible wilderness journey – ten camels – had been contemplated before the servant ever started out on his mission.

• Is there a faint-hearted or tremulous saint here this evening? You need not be at all afraid; when the servant started out on the journey he knew all the distance that was to be travelled on the onward path, and every mile home.

• What a heart the blessed God has: He not only gave His Son, but He gave the Spirit of His Son. What was the mind of the servant? His mind was to discover someone that was like his master.

Here the apostle writes to Rome, the metropolis of the world at that time, and his object in writing was to bring to light the mystery of the metropolis of God's world.

• He wrote a thesis that was to deliver the saints from this world, and put them in touch with the metropolis of God's world, to which they were to belong.

• And what was to mark them? They were to have the spirit of the kind of Man that God was going to people His world with. Now I think you have this pictured in Genesis 24.

• There you have the servant explaining his exercises; his communications take the line of exercises, that he might find a wife that was suitable to his master; and he asked the Lord to bring him into touch with someone of the same sort of spirit as Isaac. What kind of spirit was that? The servant says, when I ask a drink, the maiden will say,
  • "Drink, and I will give thy camels drink also", verse 14.

  What is the gospel? It is the recovery of man for God. So the servant's exercises were not to the end that he should find someone who was very beautiful to look upon; no, but to find someone touched with the spirit of Christ.

Beloved, many of us profess to believe the gospel, but I ask you, how far are we each marked by the Spirit of the Man who is God's Glad Tidings? If you have got the Spirit of that Man, you will have no room for the display of your own spirit.

• Now, when the camels had done drinking, the servant
  • "took a gold ring, of half a shekel weight, and two bracelets for her hands, ten shekels weight of gold", verse 22.

• We were speaking a little of the inheritance of Moses, here you have it. Just imagine this damsel looking at these things, and feeling that there was now only one person for her – the one who had sent her the ring and bracelets; her hands were only to be active in the service of that one person, and her ear to listen only to his voice.

Well now I pass on for a moment to what we may see in connection with the epistle to the Colossians. There the apostle says,

• "In which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge".

• Now you can understand the picture in Genesis: you can understand the impression that the servant must have given of his master; there was no question whatever of what they gave to the servant; they gave him nothing; but he begins to unfold the illimitable wealth of Isaac. Oh, I wish we took it in.

• If a person were prepared to listen to the Spirit's account of Christ, what would impress one would be the extraordinary wealth of Christ, and what God had gained for Himself in that blessed Man.

• It was to this end that the apostle exercised himself on behalf of the saints at Colosse; he says you need not go outside Christ for anything –
  • "For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily; and ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority", Colossians 2: 9-10.

Now when you come to consider the question of the state that is necessary in order to enter into the inheritance, and this is a point of very great importance, you will remember that what led the damsel to the conclusion that she should go with the servant was the treasure that he gave out at this particular juncture; we read,

• he "brought forth silver articles, and gold articles, and clothing, and he gave them to Rebecca; and he gave to her brother, and to her mother, precious things", verse 53.

• This is the picture that the Spirit of God gives to captivate the heart for Christ, and to get you to move in your affections to the scene where Christ is. Look how the Spirit lavishes the wealth of God upon you.

• Is His object that you and I might be established, and set up, and made glorious with the glory of this world? No, no. What is His object? It is that we might cut our connection with this scene, and move to where Christ is.

• The servant says, 'Now I have had the liberty of bringing out the wealth of my master, and I must go back to him again, do not hinder me;' and I think I can see in the spirit of the apostle Paul an intense longing to get the saints to move on that line.
  • He says, "If therefore ye have been raised with the Christ, seek the things which are above", Colossians 3: 1. Seek them.

The enemy says, 'Adapt yourself to the things that are down here; you had better stop with us; bring the light of the truth and establish a system here, so that we can all be benefited by it; don't mind going over to Canaan; the two-and-a-half tribes settled down here, and only went over occasionally'. But what does the Spirit say?

• "Do not hinder me", verse 56.

• You may say, 'But if I were to move it would mean breaking loose with my father, mother, sister, brother, all the household, and all that I have been interested in, all my life'. But just look at the wealth, the gold ring and the bracelets, and the silver articles and gold articles.

• How the Spirit of God delights to give an external view of Christ to the affections of His people, so that they might cut loose from the things in this world and move towards Him.

The Lord help us, beloved, to respond to the presentation of Christ, so that we may, like Rebecca of old, put them on and say,

• "I will go".

• Do not think, beloved, that these things are just to be listened to and passed over. The Lord looks for decision, definite and distinct, that we should be set in the line of the exercises of the Spirit of God for us.

• The Spirit of God takes up the journey, He accepts the responsibility; and what is He doing on the road home? He is strengthening you with might in the inner man.

• I venture to say that between the moment that Rebecca cut loose from her own family circle, and the time she saw God's blessed Man meditating in the field, she had her affections strengthened by her communications with the servant.

What is the object and intention of ministry? Why, to quicken, and increase, and intensify the spiritual affections of the saints. Just think of it, the apostle bowed his knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, that He would give the saints

• "according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts".

• You say, 'What do you understand by that?' I will tell you: there was a time when every interest that was common to men in the world had a place in my affections; but now I have before me another Man and another world; and the interests of that blessed Man now occupy the place that formerly was held by the things pertaining to this world.

What are His interests, beloved? His inheritance is in the saints, and I venture to say that when you come into a local meeting and look around on, it may be only two or three, you have a profound impression of what they are to Christ.

• People may say, 'Oh, what a poor lot they are'. They have never seen them rightly. To see the saints properly you must have the Christ dwelling in your heart by faith. You look around, and you are unconscious of any peculiarities they may have; instead you see the preciousness of Christ in them.

• Rebecca lifted up her eyes and saw Isaac meditating in the field at eventide, and she asked the servant who he was; and he said,
  • "That is my master!", verse 65.

• How beautiful to see God giving us a record in the Scripture of the delight that the Spirit has in being at the service of Christ.
  • "He shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you", John 16: 14.

• I believe, beloved, that nothing is of more real delight to the Spirit of God than to retire behind the affection that He has created for Christ, and to watch those affections in their own proper movement, in their own proper sphere, and to contemplate the delight of Christ in them.

• Do you not think it was a moment of supreme delight to the servant when he saw Rebecca array herself? What a delight to the Spirit of God when the hope of His calling has laid hold of saints, and then to quietly go out of sight, that Christ might have His unique and proper place in the midst of His gathered people.

There is a day coming when He is going to have a public display; when every eye shall see the supreme place that Christ has in the affections of His people; but the Spirit of God desires that He should have that place now. That is the hope of our calling.

• We are called to be the vessel in which Christ has His rightful place; and that in the very midst of the confusion, and in the scene where the enemy's power is, there should be glory to God in the assembly, unto all generations of the age of ages.

• As we were reading a short while ago, Joshua commanded the sun and moon to stand still. What a day, and what was seen at that moment? The power of God in His delight to have man entirely for Himself; one to whom He could listen.

Now, beloved, just think of being called. There will be no barrier in the coming day; but why does the Spirit of God want us on the heavenly ground now?

• It is that there might stand on this earth, in the very spot where the man of sin will stand, a living witness to God's delight in His blessed Son. What is He going to do for that company? Scripture is so beautiful – the servant told Isaac all that he had done.

• Now, I would like to say one word to encourage you; just think of the servant telling Isaac how the same spirit, the spirit of Isaac, had come out in Rebecca; then he related to him the history of the home from which she had come, and how she had left all to come to him. When she was asked, would she go, she responded, "I will go".

• I believe it will be supremely delightful to the Spirit to bring the company in to Christ, and – I speak reverently – to report all that has happened in the pathway here, that Christ may welcome the company in all the warmth of His everlasting love. What did Isaac do? He took her into the place where Israel had been, and he was comforted.

People have sometimes said to me, 'Why are we not caught up to be with Him now? Why do we wait?' I will tell you:

• there are certain things that have to transpire in the ways of God before He can renew His links with Israel; and the assembly holds the ground until the moment arrives for those links to be renewed.

• Now there are two sides to this privilege; one is that you stand for Christ here. The other is that there is an inside spot, and there are communications of a spiritual character inside, that will never be known by anyone but Isaac and Rebecca.

• If you were to ask me what I coveted above everything on earth, I should say it was to know a little more of those inside communications. You may ask me, is there any scripture for that? There is; if you were to read at your leisure from John 14: 1 to John 16: 33, you would find some of those communications. Do you know what happens at the close of them?

• The heart that made them prays. The heart that made those communications prays that the Father, about whom the communications were, might make good, in the company, the force and meaning of them. Beloved, we have a wonderful calling.

We are not called to do exploits on earth, to convert the world, or do some stupendous acts; we are called to fill a peculiar place in the heart of the blessed Son of the Father's love.

• May God give us grace, so that there will be wholehearted response from every one of us, for His name's sake.

He appeals to that faith of the believer that trusts in Him, He gives him too His Spirit, as I have said, and that gives him part in the assembly.

• But while that is true of every believer, yet every believer does not know what it is to be intelligently a part of the assembly. Now, when I say intelligently, I do not mean as a matter of mind only, but as a matter of usefulness.

• Take an illustration: – I have a man working in my office and I want to write a letter – I say, 'Do you know shorthand?' 'Yes', he says, and he takes it down as I speak. He becomes useful to me because of his intelligence in shorthand.

• I think you can understand, the assembly is set here for a special purpose, and every person who composes, or forms part of it intelligently, becomes available for that service.

• I have no doubt Apollos was a remarkable man, but he was not intelligent in relation to the assembly, he only knew John's baptism, and hence he lacked in efficiency for use among the people of God, but he was instructed more perfectly, and so his usefulness was increased.

• I covet that every believer might be as useful as a believer can be. In view of that it is important that we should be intelligent as to what it is to form a part of the assembly in its moral constitution, and it is with that object in view that I read Psalm 16.

It is the first of a series of psalms that come in in connection with God's glory. We start at that point and the finish on that line is in Psalm 24.

• On the way all the questions in which need for usefulness arises are taken up and settled. This we find in the intervening psalms, and the series closes with the gates of glory open, and the Man of Psalm 16 goes in; and not only Himself personally, but as the Lord of hosts; that is, there are millions go in too.

• That, speaking reverently, is the consequence of Christ having come into Manhood. One could not conceive anything more wonderful than the moment when there was one holy Man on this earth. He was here entirely for the pleasure of God, He walked in absolute dependence upon God.
  • "Preserve me, O God: for I trust in thee".

• I believe, beloved brethren, the great contrast to that is the feature which marks the present moment; man says, 'I take very good care of myself;' he thinks he has a right to do this, and alas! it is the principle of his being to think so.

• What I seek to show you is this: the blessedness of Christ in the way He was here for His Father's business. He was always ready to bring to light every thought that was in the heart of God for man.

• You could understand that suffering and sorrow came across His pathway, but He would answer, in the language of the psalm,
  • "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places".

• So subject was He to the hand of Jehovah, that even in the most trying circumstances He could say,
  • "Yea, I have a goodly heritage".

Now turn to Matthew 11. He had been rejected and the Lord felt it. He says,

• "And thou, Capernaum, who hast been raised up to heaven;"

  the consequence of rejecting Christ is to be cast down to hell.

• The Lord had the sense – how blessed! – that the pathway was so ordered that the light of the heavenly could come out. You can understand the blessed Lord taking a place under the eye of the Father, and becoming a vessel so that what is heavenly could come out – something hid from the great people of this world.

• What was it? It was the truth of the assembly. What will be the result of this? Well take the close of the psalm – the light in the soul that God's great end will be reached.
  • "Thou wilt make known to me the path of life … at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore".

The constitution of the assembly is that it is of Christ, and to reach that in our souls we have to come intelligently to know what it is to be formed spiritually after Him. You say, 'I don't think that will ever be brought to pass with me'.

• It depends on who is going to bring it to pass; it depends on the workman, and so when the apostle touches upon it in Ephesians, he has to explain that it is not human workmanship, it is the fruit of divine operations – God's workmanship. How marvellous this is!

Now there are three things necessary in order to bring this to pass intelligently in any believer. First, the condition in which you are here.

• Do not think beloved, get it dismissed from your mind, that these things are brought about in a sentimental way; that will not do. God begins to work simply and effectually with the material in hand, and when He has done, you would scarcely recognise the material.

• It is the same person, in the same body – and you cannot take account of the person apart from the body and by what you see coming out in that body – but there is moral transformation.

• If I see you strike a person, I come to the conclusion that you are a violent person, if you speak harshly, that you are a harsh person, but if persecuted you bless, I form my conclusions by the way the vessel acts.

God steps on the scene, He is going to have material, He begins to work in such a blessed way that He actually brings to pass in that person a yielding up of that body to Him; you say, 'That would rob me of my truest hopes and aspirations', but listen, you would have higher hopes and better aspirations.

• Before God asks you to relinquish, He impresses you with the fact that He could glorify you, and you cannot glorify yourself. You know He justified you, but He can glorify you, and He has set His love upon you; you are thus moved by the compassions of God, and with His thoughts, and you begin to realise that God can do a great deal better with that body than you could yourself.

• Then you present that body – the hand that struck, the tongue that spoke – you give it to God to do just as He likes with.

That is very simple, and now you begin to see in the same person, with the same body, little actions and movements that were never seen there before.

• Perhaps the person who was first out of the room after the gospel preaching stays to shake hands with the brethren. What does that mean to God? He looks down to see the fruit of His grace in that man's hand. He is writing home to his mother to say, 'I thoroughly appreciate the brethren, I am at the meeting as often as I can get'.

• The secret is, God has captured that person – that body – and, do not be discouraged when I say that the gospel has not had its full effect on a person until that person is at the disposal of God with regard to his body.

• God works also by bringing the moral beauty of Christ before you, and you say, 'I wish I were like that Person'. God keeps that Person before your soul; then you come to the conclusion that your intelligent service is to give God control of the vessel, which in the past you have controlled yourself. What is the result? I shall show you.

Saul – Paul – is presented in Scripture as breathing out threatenings and slaughter; how did this come out? Through his body, his actions; he went to the high priest and received authority to bring bound to Jerusalem any who were of "the way;" he used his body with this in his mind.

• Now, that man was captured by God on the high road to Damascus, and the effect was that afterward he breathed out the Spirit of Christ. The very same body became the vessel that went through shipwreck, journeyings, perils of waters, and what came out of it? – the Spirit of Christ.

• I do not know anything more touching than to see that man in prison, and the jailor, who put him there, saying:
  • "Sirs, what must I do that I may be saved?", Acts 16: 30.

• Paul immediately uses his body as a vessel to bring out God's blessed thoughts for man as they are set forth in Christ.

Now, how can you reasonably form an intelligent part of the assembly if you have not submitted your body. The truth is you have no right to it now. You are called to glorify God in your body, which is His.

• "Preserve me, O God: for I trust in thee", is the Spirit of Christ.

• I used to take care of my body and take it to all sorts of places, and things, but when I gave it to God, I let Him take it. Do you not think God can take very good care of the body? I remember the remark of a dear brother, now gone to be with the Lord; 'the best remedy for a suffering body is a pious soul'.
  • "The fear of the Jehovah is the beginning of wisdom", Psalm 111: 10.

The first thing to do, in order to become an intelligent part of the assembly, is to give over the vessel in which you live to the God to whom it belongs, so that He may get control of it. When He does, He immediately begins to give you an enlarged conception of Christ.

• I recall that wonderful scene recorded in Exodus 24, after the children of Israel were brought out of Egypt, when Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up unto the Lord and they saw the God of Israel, and they did eat and drink; then Moses received divine communications, the centre and sum of which were Christ and His glories.

Now the epistle to the Colossians is presented to a company of people whose bodies had been captured for God, and the point before the apostle in writing to them is that their minds might be governed by what God has before Himself. The apostle had a marvellous conception of Christ. What is your conception of Christ?

• Christ is going to bring to pass a condition of things in which people are reconciled – are a positive pleasure and delight to the heart of God. Christ is going to bring that to pass, and He is bringing it to pass in the minds of believers now, by setting their minds on things above,
  • where there are "pleasures for evermore", and

  • "where the Christ is, sitting", Colossians 3: 1.

One can understand that when a person has yielded his body, the question comes of keeping up that thought, of its being maintained. It is kept up by the mind being held in the reality of a system of things that is of such a character that it could not be surpassed.

• You cannot find anything better than what is presented to the believer in a glorified Christ. You will never find anything in this scene to put alongside a glorified Christ. Keep your mind in that direction and you will find that the body will be held in a sacrificial way for God.

• We see the value of the mind being held, in the incident of Paul and Barnabas going out to serve the saints. Their bodies were available, and it is very blessed to see how Paul was minded that nothing should govern him but the service to the people of God.

• Barnabas had something else in his mind. He wanted to take a relative with him, and a relative who had not been very devoted. You cannot have two minds, and what happened? Barnabas went back, and Paul went on; he went on more devotedly, and with his mind pressing toward the mark.

• I dwell on this point, the question of what you are minding. What is your mind set on? You believe that you have a link with Christ in glory, you believe that you belong to that world of which He is the Sun and Centre. If you have given up your body, and He is going to use it, He would bring to pass in that body a renewed mind – a mind that has come under the influence of a glorified Christ.

You will find that men's minds are full of one idea – the glorification of man here, but when you have seen that glorified Man, the glory of men fades away.

• "Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god", A.V.

• Have you observed how men become great in this world? I have seen a man come into his fortune by the death of the man that was in the place before him, and some attain greatness through slaughter of their fellow-men on the battlefield.

• How did that Man become great? You know the story of Calvary as well as I do; He laid down His life
  • "through death; to present you holy and unblamable and irreproachable before it" [i.e. the Godhead]", Colossians 1: 22.

• He gave up His body – the One who was great enough to bring about the reconciliation of all things, gave it up and so He becomes the Centre of a system of things that is entitled to hold the minds of the whole universe.

Now, beloved, let us have our minds set on things above; if you begin to live there, you will find that apart from that you have nothing; thus the mind begins to control this body and you act for God, and this makes way for the reality of what is expressed in that beautiful statement,

• "Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God", Colossians 3: 16.

That is how we admonish one another and teach one another; you come alongside one of the people of God, who has got his mind on things above, and you tell him of some trouble in this world – a threatened strike perhaps. 'Yes', he says,

• "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage".

• If you talk of trouble here, from the standpoint of man, it is a great disaster, but if your mind is set on things above, you feel sure that it must be allowed for some purpose to further the testimony. Let us get the benefit of the tests, let us take advantage of the occasions when we are tested of
  • "teaching and admonishing one another".

• Marvellous! How God came in! I thought all would have to close up, but God came in so wonderfully! and was not Christ intensely dear to you? Hence the hymn and then the spiritual song.

• You are free to get to the meeting again; you are not under pressure, you are in spiritual victory – hence a spiritually constituted part of Christ's assembly, against which the gates of hades cannot prevail. Under the eye of God tonight, on this earth, in the midst of the most awful circumstances, there is material that is according to God and all of Christ.

The great thing is to have the affections set on things above and to be

• "strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man".

• I would ask you now to weigh over the thought of the inner man. What I understand by it is the body presented as a sacrifice to God and a heavenly mind so that there is expressed here the character of the "new man".

• People say, 'the man is completely changed, we cannot understand it'. There is something there now that was not there before – it is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, and the great thing is that it should be a spiritual proof of how God loves to maintain, by the mighty power of His Spirit, what is of Himself here.

You are part of the system of things of which all the saints in every clime are a part,

• "to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height".

• That gives the universal thought, and you form part of that vessel intelligently in your affections – what is the vessel for? It is for the service of God; I venture to say, if you took that vessel away from the earth, at the present time, there would be nothing for God here.

• When it actually goes, God will revive His ancient people, so that there will still be here that which is for God.

The assembly is here for the pleasure of the blessed God. Christ was here once for His pleasure, He is in glory now, but there is a vessel here which is wholly of God in its structure, but what intelligent part have I in that?

• Why, I have the pleasure of sacrificing my body, the vessel in which I did my own will, so that it might become a vessel for His will and glory. No wonder the apostle thinks of
  • "all generations of the age of ages".

• I sometimes wonder whether we contemplate the marvellous privilege of taking account of what we belong to. You see men of the world with letters after their name, denoting the Society to which they belong, and their rank in it, and they are proud of them. Do you think this superstructure is ever going to fall, or this workmanship ever to be destroyed?

• What is the present advantage of these things to us here together, who are but a few of that company – the assembly – when we cannot find all the saints? Just think; can we not intelligently in our mind rise to that spot where Christ is and survey things from that point? Coming down from there, can we not hold in our heart, as dear to us, what is dear to Christ?

Let our prayers and our utterances Godward, express what holds our hearts, and let us embrace in our affections the whole assembly.

• Never let us think we are the only ones left; keep the height of the position in our hearts, as we turn Godward, so that something of the blessedness of it may come out in our utterances manward. The Lord graciously lead us into the good of these things for His name's sake.

Now I have read, as you will see, from the individual section of Old Testament Scripture, perhaps in one way one of the most interesting sections.

• The previous book to that which I read first gives what I understand to be a picture of the ultimate end of the unseen operations of God.

• In the book of Esther you have God operating as unseen, but the fruit of the operations as presented there in figure is the exaltation of Christ, and the assembly – as typified in Esther – after experiencing the sorrow and affliction that belonged to the place of reproach, coming out as a full answer to the true Mordecai in His glory. That is the picture presented in the book.

Then in the book of Job God challenges Satan as to what He has on this earth.

• The ever blessed God Himself inhabits eternity, and there came a day when, amongst other intelligent beings, Satan appeared in His presence, and God asked him where he had been, where he had come from, then raises a question with him in regard to his operations on the earth as to whether he had taken account of this remarkable man – Job.

• I believe Job represents the spiritual history of every man in whom God operates. He is taken account of by God from the outset as entirely according to Himself. You might not think that of a saint; you might see a good deal of perversity, a good deal that is very unsuitable, but if you were to ask God about any of His people, you would get a similar answer to the remark He made to Satan about Job.
  • "Hast thou considered my servant Job?"

• He points him out as a man amongst men. I do not know, beloved, whether we sufficiently realise the fact of the great dignity that belongs to any person who stands related to God. You may say, I do not know much; it is not a question of what you know, it is not a question of your strength, it is a question of the glorious, blessed God.

• Think of having God as your God! It is one of the greatest privileges that any man in the universe can have, to have God as his God, and Job was in that place in the mind of God. He asked Satan, "Hast thou considered my servant Job?"

• Picture God looking down and speaking of you as His servant. It reminds Him of a time when Christ was here; it reminds Him of a time when One left His presence and stood here as His servant, infinitely precious, infinitely blessed. But He inaugurated a line of service – that of serving God with reverence and godly fear.

Now God challenged Satan in regard of such a servant, and Satan makes reply. "Doth Job fear God for nought?" Is there no reason why he serves? Is there no reason why he is what he is?

• Well beloved, you know as well as I do there is every reason. And God puts him for a moment into the crucible. What a crucible it was! It pictures, as I understand it, every kind of pressure, every kind of adversity, that the god and prince of this world can level against that which is of intense interest to God here.

• He levelled Job's house, he levelled his family, he would like to have levelled him; but he could not level one of the people of God. When he had done his worst, beloved, the "end of the Lord" was gained, for Job stood out in the presence of men as God had stated him to be at the outset.
  • Now that is "the end of the Lord", James 5: 11.

• I do not know whether you sit down sometimes and think that love will have its own way with you; that one day, what God has said about you at the outset will be an experimental part of your practical being, as the result of the actual adversity that the god and prince of this world has been allowed to bring to bear upon you.

• How often, beloved, has the beginning of spiritual joys had to be dated to the loss of a loved one, or the loss of property, or the health. These are the ways of God in order to double the people of God. Job 42: 10.

In this book you come into the presence of three things on which I would like to touch.

• One is the associations you have formed in this scene; then spiritual ministry; and finally a personal link with God

• Job's friends came to comfort him – they were the associations he had formed in this scene. They were remarkable men – Jobs friends. But I tell you what marks associations in this scene, the best of them – I speak of the best, not of the worst.

• They were kindly disposed, well intentioned in their feelings, but they entirely missed the operations of God with the man – that is the point.

• You often meet persons who have friendly feelings towards you, well disposed, who come and sit perhaps with you in your trial, and then begin a line of argument about you and your ways, your misdoings and otherwise; and if Satan were having his own way, they would entirely divert you from what God is doing – His intentions in regard of you. Well, I need not say, there comes a time in the history of these people when they are silenced.

• Then you get what I understand is presented in Elihu, spiritual ministry. You come under the influence of things put in a right way. God is put in His place, man is put in his place, and things are put in their places.

• The effect of spiritual ministry – how intensely blessed it is! – is that you are prepared for personal ministry, prepared to have to do with God Himself. I think I could say, without fear of contradiction, that the profit of all ministry is that it brings you into the presence of God, and that God begins to speak.

One would like to enlarge on this; the consideration that God had for Job is so very blessed. He asks him, in the first place, to stand up like a man. Job might have said, 'I do not feel like one, I feel like a wreck'. He asks him to stand up like a man and answer him – take the position that grace would give him.

• Then God begins to describe His own greatness to Job. What a help, beloved, ministry is when God becomes great to you. How magnificent it is to hear God describe His own greatness to Job, and asking him where he was when some of the mighty acts of creation were being done. 'Where were you?' Why, beloved, he was nowhere.

• You know the outcome of it is that Job gets an immense sense of God, and a very small sense of himself. That is "the end of the Lord". "I abhor myself". But oh, how he must have magnified God in his heart! How he must have looked up to God in worshipful affection, with an intense feeling of adoration, and be more than ever fixed in his purpose, that 'He is to be my God'. That is the portion of every child of God on earth.

• You may say, 'Well, but you do not understand my history'. I do not want to understand your history, I would like to understand the God that is behind your history; and at the end of it you will come out doubled. Everything that you had before comes out now in a twofold character; it is not only now that you have got it yourself, but you have got it in relation to God. That is what I understand by the doubling of it. Well, that is the activity of God in His ways with His people in this scene.

Now I come to the Psalms. I think you will agree with me if I say that the object of the book of Psalms is to produce in the heart what the ways of God have produced in the person. The psalm language of the soul is formed in sorrow.

• You are not now in the presence of Satan and his activities. You are in the presence of a godly soul who would like to fear the Lord and would like to be like Christ.

• The first Psalm, as I understand it, is that you have got a blessed impression of Christ, and you would like to be like Him, and the Psalms bring you along the road till you really reach Him: in other words, you ascend to where He is. That is, as I understand it, the finish of the book.

• Psalm 120 begins the ascent, which finishes in the presence of the One you would desire to be like. And I raise the question of Psalm 24, the challenge of the Spirit of God. After you have accepted Christ as your Shepherd, you are prepared to be submissive to Christ, and to let Him have control with you, and then the challenge comes to you as to this question of joining Him where He is.
  • "Who shall ascend into the mount of Jehovah?" and "who shall stand in his holy place?"

• It is a great challenge. I would say to any saint that the danger after you have accepted in your soul God as your God, is of settling down here. So the sorrows of Christ are presented in Psalm 22, to show you what He suffered here, so that that might characterise the scene for you. Then the Spirit of God gives you this challenge,
  • "Who shall ascend into the mount of Jehovah?"

• Will you leave the scene and join Him, beloved? That is the challenge. But what is the character of person who ascends? A person who has
  • "blameless hands and a pure heart; who lifteth not up his soul unto vanity, nor sweareth deceitfully".

• It is a great challenge; one would feel, in oneself, utterly inadequate to answer the challenge, but I believe that it is the intention of Christ in His shepherd care to minister provision in the house of God, so that every saint can answer the challenge.

• The apostle raises the question in writing to Timothy; he would
  • "that the men pray in every place, lifting up pious hands, without wrath or reasoning", 1 Timothy 2: 8.

• Think of having the service of Christ, the great Shepherd of His people, and that in intense affection, so that we might lift up pious hands. What a service! And, beloved, He does it, so that when the day comes that we shall literally and actually join Him, there will not be one saint that will not go up – they will all go up. But I believe the Spirit of God would like us to join Him now.

Now the Psalms become the language of the life of the saint, and, as you know, they conclude with the fact, not that God is your God merely, and that you would seek His support and His blessing, but that you are responding to Him unreservedly.

• "Let everything that hath breath praise Jah"

• – the whole moral being responds to God. That is the end of God's ways with us in His love, with every one of His people; there will not be a breath about them that is not responsive to Himself. They learn from the contemplation of Christ.

Now those things we have spoken of are what might be called outside experiences. One is in the presence of Satan and his world; the other is in the presence of wicked men and the scene through which we pass.

• Now we come to the family circle in the book of Proverbs. In the family circle we get remarkable education. I read this passage for the simple reason that it suggests certain things that impress certain parts of this family – the men of Hezekiah.

• These, as I understand them, represent men who had been struck by the fact that they had seen death give place. They had seen a marvellous triumph against Sennacherib and the host of the Assyrians – that was a wonderful thing,
  • for they had seen the kingdom glory supporting the virgin daughter of Zion, the people of God, according to the purpose of God, supported by the mighty power of God. That vast host perished as one man in the presence of the stupendous majesty of the God of Israel.

• They had seen something else – they had seen the sun dial of Ahaz go backward. These men copied out certain proverbs. You can understand them writing this section of the book of Proverbs!

The proverbs they copied out stood related to a region that could not be touched by death, a region from which death has to step aside when it sees, and say, 'I cannot invade that region, it is beyond me'. When they come to copy out, the first thing that impresses them is,

• "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing".

• In the family circle we learn under the paternal care of a father, and the maternal care of a mother, what is concealed.

• You move about the streets of Edinburgh, you speak to an ordinary pedestrian, and say, 'What is there in Edinburgh?' He will tell you about the Castle, and the Rock, about the celebrities of history. 'Is there anything else?' 'I do not know of anything else'.

• 'Are there people of God here?' 'Oh, there are religious people'. I do not want to know that; are there people of God here? What do you think God has got concealed?

• Did you ever stop to think in your meditations that there is concealed in this scene a vessel that one day will perfectly express Christ? It is concealed. Just think for a moment of what is concealed in the heart of one saint, let alone the thousands of God's people!

• Think of what was concealed when Christ was here personally. How little the great men of Israel realised that, concealed in the lowly form of a Man, was all that God is in all His infinite greatness and His everlasting blessedness – Christ was here. And that was God's glory.

• The best things of Christianity are concealed. The public things come out against the power of Satan and are evident, but the best things are concealed.
  • "Eye has not seen, and ear not heard", 1 Corinthians 2: 9.

  • "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing".

• What is the kingdom for? To break down the barriers that would interfere with your discovering it. Hence it says, very beautifully,
  • "The glory of kings is to search out a thing".

Then we read, "The heavens for height, and the earth for depth". What about the heavens for height? How high have you ever been?

• I think sometimes we live too much in the lowlands; I think it is unhealthy. Medical men tell patients, 'You want altitude; you must move higher up, get into mountain air'.

• But take the spiritual health of the people of God. What a wonderful thing it is to touch a little of the heights of heaven. What a height Jesus has gone to!
  • He has "passed through the heavens", Hebrews 4: 14.

• What for? To fill all things. And then in touching the heights you come to the ability to go down – "the earth for depth". If you go to the bottom what impression would you get? That Jesus had been there. He descended and went into the lower parts of the earth.

• I believe it is as we get a sense of the magnitude of His present position that we begin to marvel at the depths to which He went in love, in order that there might be no barrier to love's movements. What is between the two? It says there very beautifully,
  • "Take away the dross from the silver".

• That is what is between the two. You want a vessel for the refiner. In the family circle of divine affections we get the exercises and the development from childhood to manhood, to full growth, and under these exercises
  • "there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner".

I often say, speaking of very little children in a family circle, how early you discover in them the desire to do the things their parents do. In quite early infancy, as soon as they can walk, you will find a little boy or a little girl wanting to do just what father and mother do. That is a delightful thought to a parent's heart. A parent looks down with supreme affection and says to himself, 'One day you will do just what I do'.

• Now I do not know whether you have thought of it in this light, but just think of the heart of God looking down on a people who want to be like Christ. Well, one day they will do just what Christ does. They will come out of heaven having the glory of God.

• In the exercises that lead up to it you have to learn the unique qualifications that are looked for in the assembly.

• The Proverbs conclude with a description of the woman of worth, who I believe represents the product of family exercises; a vessel is brought to light who can receive Christ as Head, and who can be true to Him as Head.

Now there are two more thoughts on which I want to touch simply. The one is public testimony in the Preacher, or former of assemblies – see Ecclesiastes 1: 1, note e.

• The Preacher represents the public testimony – a testimony rendered in the presence of emptiness and vanity. I venture to say that if you have had any experience – the Lord grant it to us all! – of the precious enjoyment of the blessed realities that have been brought to you, you can look round on this scene at its best with the divine estimate that all is vanity and vexation of spirit.

• I do not care what it is, accession of wealth or of brains; accession of physical power, or of property – it does not matter what it is, there is nothing to hold or satisfy the heart of a man.
  • "All the rivers run into the sea, yet the sea is not full", Ecclesiastes 1: 7.

• The Preacher in the presence of these things draws attention, striking attention, to the tremendous importance of God.
  • "Let us hear the end of the whole matter: Fear God", Ecclesiastes 12: 13.

Now I read a section from this book which I want to touch on. There was a city and it was attacked; that is, the situation down here that has been established publicly is attacked by a great king.

• I venture to say publicly that the outside position looks as if the enemy had managed to build up such bulwarks that the situation will go; it looks as if the city were going to be wiped out.

• It is found that in this city there are a few men within it, not a great many; the situation, looked at outwardly, is not great, but there is in it "a poor wise man". There is in it, beloved friends, an impression of Christ.

• I think sometimes one may unconsciously, in the ministry of God's holy things, get so occupied with the intensely interesting character of them – and they are interesting, the operations of God, and the glories that are coming – that one may forget the "poor wise man".

• But the one thing that is important, beloved, is that the Man who was despised and rejected of men should come into evidence in ministry. If He comes into evidence the situation is saved. It does not matter what the situation is; it does not matter how critical, how dangerous, how difficult, how trying it may be, the wisdom of the poor wise man will deliver the city and the situation will be saved. But they forgot the poor wise man; they did not remember him.

I speak for a moment to my younger brethren present. Do you remember the poor wise Man?

• You say, 'What do you mean?' Have you ever broken bread? You say, 'I have not thought of that; I do not like to be committed to it'.

• You like the blessings of the city, but do you ever remember the poor wise Man? He delivered the city. The situation today, the fact that we can meet together to speak to one another of divine things, that the love of Christ can be spoken over freely, is because the city has been delivered.
  • Yes, Christ has saved the situation for His people, but, speaking generally, the "poor wise man" is forgotten.

• The comment of the Preacher is very good,
  • "The words of the wise are heard in quiet".

• One wants, beloved, freedom from the rush of things, and from the confusion around to hear words that would convey thoughts of Christ to us.
  • "The words of the wise are heard in quiet".

  • "Wisdom is better than weapons of war"

• – to have divine resources in Christ is better than any outward power or outward ability to handle difficult matters. Where do you learn this? I believe in the family in the activities of love.

Now the end is very beautiful – the desire to be attached to Christ livingly in affection.

• "Set me as a seal upon thy heart, As a seal upon thine arm".

• Christ and the believer are one in affection, and one in activities. Think of being co-workers with Him – that is the seal on the arm; and also of having Christ in the heart – that is the seal on the heart. You may say, He has you on His heart. Oh yes, beloved, but have you got Christ in your heart?

• The Spirit of God calls attention in this book to the value of love. If you have everything, but have not love, it is utterly to be contemned. God's individual ways with us end in the fact that we get the one thing that is wanting, we have love.

• I add, beloved, if the church has not affection for Christ she has nothing. She may clothe herself with vestments and practise religious observances and be marked by strict adherence to details, but the point is this, what is at the bottom of it – is it affection for Christ?

• All God's ways with us are to this blessed end; He uses the exercises we pass through to bring to pass this fact, that there are men and women on this earth in whose hearts God can read the indelible impression of Christ, and what is concealed behind their activities – the arm as it is stretched out – is affection for Christ.

• You may say, 'A brother has been very trying'. Very possibly he has, beloved, but it is not the trying brother you are helping, it is the love of Christ. You reach out your arm with the seal on it, and you lift him out of himself and he remarks, 'I have never had such kindness shown me in my life'. No, that is the kindness of God. What came out in Christ personally now comes out in those who are Christ's.

In concluding, I merely suggest that in the book of Esther these things are seen as coming to light in their ultimate issue, through pressure, opposition and exercise.

• Christ comes out in supremacy publicly – the true Mordecai; Ahasuerus, representative of God, is seen in all His magnificence, and in Esther that great vessel – the assembly – is seen in her proper place.

• It seems that the Spirit of God takes up the individual – Job – to make these principles work out in that one man. You will remember the passage,
  • "One sinner destroyeth much good", Ecclesiastes 9: 18.

• What is a sinner? A person that has a way of his own, that is a sinner. I do not think the idea of a sinner is a person who does some great wrong, but a person who has a way of his own – one sinner.

• The Lord give us grace, beloved, not to be the one sinner, but that we may walk in the way of the Lord, and walk in the paths of understanding and according to the will of the Lord, and let heaven have its own way.

• Then we shall put a premium on love. We shall value above everything the place Christ has in our affections, the place He has in our activities and service. If you were to give the whole world or anything else for love, it is utterly to be contemned.

That concludes, as I understand it, the individual books. I would like to say a word, in conclusion, on the prophets.

• In the prophets you begin a ministry supplied by Christ that will bring these things to pass no matter what breakdown or what departure takes place. For in the prophets you have a voice from God, a divinely given voice, that has never found a situation yet that it was not superior to.

• Every time the voice goes out the situation is saved. Hence the prophets contain this remarkable statement,
  • "I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth", Hosea 2: 21.

• If you were to go to heaven tonight and ask heaven what there was on the earth, I think you would be amazed at the answer. 'What is on earth?' 'The church is on the earth, the vessel that is the product of the love of Christ, and which is being formed to be perfectly suitable to that love; that formation is taking place in individuals'.

• You may say, 'I am not of much importance'. One man saved the city. One has felt that in the history of the testimony of God publicly, the situation has often been saved by one man. Take Luther; take beloved men whom we can recall. One man! Oh beloved, to have grace to be the one man that might deliver the city. The Lord give us grace for it.

It is often said of the saints, and no doubt it is true, that as to the truth, their eyes are in advance of their feet. It is a true saying that 'the eyes see farther than the feet go', but the divine intent is that our spiritual understanding should be commensurate with our intelligence.

• We have much light as to God's thoughts, but we often lack in being the expression of this light in ourselves, hence our public movements are oftentimes not in accord with the light.

• So in discipline the Lord sees fit betimes to restrain our activities in moving outwardly, by allowing circumstances to come in which hinder.Now as to the subject before us, some may say we are not Jews, but I claim to speak of it in relation to ourselves on account of what we get in Galatians and in Romans:
  • "Know then that they that are on the principle of faith, these are Abraham's sons", Galatians 3: 7, and again,

  • "And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace upon them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God", Galatians 6: 16.

  • "For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is so inwardly; and circumcision, of the heart, in spirit, not in letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God", Romans 2: 28-29.

Now I desire to refer to four men, as giving us, I believe, the features of the true Jew – Adam, Enoch, Abraham and Jacob.

• In the two former you have the divine side, seen objectively, and in the two latter the practical side, seen subjectively.

• The voice to Adam revealed his failure in headship. God said, "Where art thou"? He had failed to control the woman – to keep his wife near him – thus she came under the influence of Satan.

• In spite of his wonderful intelligence in naming all the animals, he allowed her to go astray, and not only failed to maintain his influence over her, but came himself through weakness by his affections under her influence in eating the fruit of the forbidden tree.

• What a contrast this presents to Christ as Head of the assembly. There is no sign of this in the assembly, as under Christ, the last Adam, who
  • "loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it, in order that he might sanctify it, purifying it by the washing of water by the word, that he might present the assembly to himself glorious, having no spot, or wrinkle, or any of such things; but that it might be holy and blameless", Ephesians 5: 25-27.

• Christ has died for the assembly; He nourishes and cherishes it, and thus on the divine side she bears no trace of having come under contrary influences, so that in her you have the features of the true Israel of God.

• Mere knowledge of Scripture is of no avail if we have not come under Christ and been formed after Him. Thus Adam's failure in headship demonstrates the great necessity for the coming in of Christ.

Then in Enoch another thought comes in as illustrating another feature which is characteristic of the true Jew. He walked with God.

• Now this is the effect of Christ being known; it is the normal effect of receiving Christ. In this man we have one whose heart and mind were under the influence of God for three hundred years. The proof of this is seen in his naming his son Methushelah. There was no flood while Methushelah lived.

• While the influence of Enoch remained in his son there was no flood, his name indicating that it would not come till the one whose father had walked with God had passed away. The date of Methushelah's death and the start of the flood were the same. What a voice to us! Can we stay the judgment?

• After we have received Christ, God is to be our only outlook, and our life is to be marked by walking in communion with Him. Methushelah lived to be nine hundred and sixty-nine years old; such was the measure of his father's influence.
  • "Enoch walked with God", we read, and "he was not, for God took him".

• Yet before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God. We read also of him that he, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying,
  • "Behold, the Lord has come amidst his holy myriads, to execute judgment against all", Jude 14-15.

• If in type he had had influence in his son as the result of walking with God, so that the flood was stayed, yet he had also recognised the need for coming judgment.

• Thus we see in Enoch not only another feature of the true Israel walking with God, but also the effect of it. In Adam and Enoch, as I have said, we get the objective side.

Now in Abraham and Jacob we have subjective types of how this will be worked out in the actual history of the Jews in the latter days, but which is now found in those who are Jews, not in the letter, but in the spirit.

• Abram presents the faith side; he had answered to the call of God, had broken away from the great barriers to faith, and had moved toward great realities. He left country, and kindred, and father's house, to inherit a land that was unknown to him.

• What Abram left in these three elements – country, kindred and father's house – hinder each one of us, I believe, more or less.

• Later, the Lord appeared to Abraham at the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent, in the heat of the day. He found time for communion, even at such a time – the heat of the day. Do we find time in the history of our souls for an interview of this kind? Are we free and at leisure for divine visitations? Our leisure is our own; we may be tired and oppressed in our occupation, but do we find freedom for communion and intercourse with God in our times of leisure?

• In Abraham's case three men came to him, and he instantly recognised One of those three as a divine Person, and said as he ran to meet Him, "Lord". We are not told who the other two were: perhaps Abraham did not know, but he was able to recognise the Lord.

• Then he provided refreshment, rest and comfort for them. Sarah his wife, in sympathy with his movements, made cakes quickly, while Abraham ran to the herd to fetch a calf and gave it to a young man who
  • "hasted to dress it. And he took thick and sweet milk, and the calf that he had dressed, and set it before them; and he stood before them under the tree, and they ate".

• How sweet is this communion in the heat of the day! Some propose to themselves to work till toward the close of their life, then to retire and enjoy communion, but that is not the way; here we have one in communion on the journey through life, and in the heat of the day.

Nehemiah found occasion, even at the king's feast – the greatest monarch of his day – to enjoy intercourse with his God. As the king's cupbearer, with the cup of wine in his hand to give to the king, we read that immediately the king's question was put

• he "prayed to the God of the heavens", Nehemiah 2: 4.

• This feature of the true Jew was seen in him even in captivity. That is worthy of note.

Now in Jacob we have things worked out, and the actual name of the man changed to Israel. In Abraham, as we have said, we have the faith side, but in Jacob the experimental.

• He counted upon God and prayed to Him for blessing, and God gave him the discipline to bring him to it. One incident in that discipline is recorded in the scripture we read:
  • "He rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the ford of the Jabbok; and he took them and led them over the river … And Jacob remained alone".

• Then God drew near enough to him to touch him, and he to touch God. God will come near enough to be touched and to touch you. Have you ever been alone with God in the sense of this? Have you ever appreciated this when you were alone? Well, it was so with Jacob. God drew near to Jacob and touched him.
  • We read, "A man wrestled with him … and the joint of Jacob's thigh was dislocated as he wrestled with him".

• But Jacob prevailed, to the delight of God. He said,
  • "I will not let thee go except thou bless me".

• How God delights when we have power with Him! What a day for Israel when this is true! It is not terms or doctrine, but a Person, and Jacob held on and prevailed; therefore
  • "he is not a Jew who is one outwardly".

• This experience was much to Jacob, the joint of his thigh was dislocated. God brought him low naturally, but enlarged him spiritually. His name was changed;
  • "Thy name shall not henceforth be called Jacob, but Israel",

• meaning that as a prince he had power with God and with men, and had prevailed. What is your name, beloved – Jacob or Israel? Under the Lord's discipline Jacob became Israel, and through grace as Christians that is now our name – "the Israel of God".

So Isaiah the prophet says, "I will record the loving-kindnesses of Jehovah, the praises of Jehovah, according to all that Jehovah hath bestowed upon us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which he hath bestowed upon them according to his mercies, and according to the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. And he said, They are indeed my people, children that will not lie; and he became their Saviour".

• May the Lord grant that in His grace there may be with us the features of the Israel of God – not only the possession of the truth, but the expression of it, so that there may be a testimony for God here now, as there will be from the whole house of Israel in the day to come, and that all may see that we are His people, children that will not lie: so that He may be our Saviour.

I have taken a few examples from Scripture which draw attention to this subject; the first passage as opening to us a region of great possibilities. It is the point on which we all need to be strengthened.

• The picture is a very happy one. God has made a proposal, and who is like God in making proposals? He made a proposal which humanly speaking was unthinkable – that Sarah should have a son. You can understand the intense feelings of joy and delight that such a thought would raise in the mind of a holy woman; for, beloved, think of the possibility of it – the possibility of life out of death, as it says:
  • "Wherefore also there have been born of one, and that of one become dead, even as the stars of heaven", Hebrews 11: 12.

• Sarah laughed, but God had spoken; God had proposed it, and would carry it out. Think, beloved, of what God has proposed for us in Christ. He has proposed that we should dwell with Him for ever, that we who were dead in sins should know Him in life, and that we should be able to respond suitably to His holy love. The proposal is a divine one. It comes from God, and, if it comes from God, with God all things are possible.

• You may say, I am so weak – I was going to say, I would that you were weaker! Weakness is no barrier to God, for we read of some who
  • "became strong out of weakness", Hebrews 11: 34.

• Well, you say, I am not devoted. Well, devotedness is the result of being governed by things worthy of your devotion. Devotedness springs from an object. The really devoted person is hardly conscious he is devoted; he is absorbed with something that unconsciously takes up all his time, and all his affection.

• Then behind the subject of possibilities lies this great outstanding fact: that we believe in a living God, with whom all things are possible. That is God's side; and on our side,
  • "all things are possible to him that believes", Mark 9: 23.

• Oh, you say, I have believed for years. Is God before your soul as a living God who has made Himself known, with whom all things are possible? For the real knowledge of the living God would produce a living responsive state in us, in which there are the greatest possibilities for the glory of God.

I come now to Pharaoh's cup-bearer and baker. They found themselves in prison, due to their offences.

• I am sorry for the person that has never found himself there. I would say it, not unkindly, but the person that has never found himself in prison on earth is in danger of being in prison in eternity. Prison represents the sense of judgment coming upon you for unrighteousness.

• They were in prison because they had brought on themselves the wrath of the king, which represents the position of every person on this earth; for we were all
  • "children, by nature, of wrath", Ephesians 2: 3.

• But to their amazement these men found in the prison a person who is typical of One far greater than Joseph personally. They found one there who was righteous. He was not there because he had done wrong; he sets forth the Lord Jesus, the One of whom it is said,
  • "In very deed this man was just", Luke 23: 47.

• He was there – transferring the type now to Christ Himself – that we might be enriched. God intended to enrich the whole world by Joseph, who was in that prison. These two men find themselves there on account of the just judgment on their own guilt; but in that place through the goodness of God they are brought into touch with one who could enrich them with the knowledge of God.
  • The apostle says, "For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that for your sakes he, being rich, became poor, in order that ye by his poverty might be enriched", 2 Corinthians 8: 9.

There are two lines in the history of men, the line of man's effort, and the line of God's grace.

• There is the first, which always ends in destruction, as did the baker and his baked meats.

• There is also the line of God's movements in grace, which found its full expression in the Lord Jesus here. It says of Him,
  • "He shall grow up before him as a tender sapling, and as a root out of dry ground", Isaiah 53: 2

• – a beautiful figure of Christ, typified also in the cup-bearer's dream. He dreamt that a vine came up, and that he had the privilege of plucking the grapes, and ministering to the heart of Pharaoh.
  • He says, "In yet three days will Pharaoh lift up thy head and restore thee to thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when thou wast his cup-bearer", Genesis 40: 13.

From the youngest to the oldest, I suppose we shall never forget the day when the sense of such joy and liberation came to us, when we learned what we had gained through Christ becoming poor. Think of His poverty, as He was crucified and forsaken of God

• What about Christ Himself? We are often so full of our own enjoyment that we realise little of what it meant to Him. The cup-bearer forgot Joseph. Now Pharaoh's dream, setting out the great problem of good and evil, is brought up to make way for the recognition of Joseph.

• There are great questions in the world, but all are intended by God to bring Christ into prominence. The cup-bearer in the face of this says,
  • "I remember mine offences this day".

• What possibilities lie in our making room for Christ, the One in whom is the wisdom of God in regard of everything. It was this great problem of Pharaoh's that caused Joseph to be remembered; and how often God allows disturbing elements in the world to awaken our hearts to the greatness of His own intervention in Christ.

• Famine, destitution, need, sorrow, and death, God would use all these things to direct us to Christ, so that the spirit of praise might mark us. If our link with Christ were held in power in our souls, we should have the answer to every problem, for
  • "in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily", Colossians 2: 9.

• There it is; that as having a personal link with Him who has solved every problem for God and men, we are brought through Him to the possibility of enjoying the liberty of holy access to God for His joy and praise.

Well now, I come to the possibilities which lie in full committal.

• "And they came, every one whose heart moved him, and every one whose spirit prompted him".

• Personal need is not in view here. You have living persons in their places in holy liberty and enjoyment before God; personal need is met.

• The tabernacle suggests the great system of things in which God finds His pleasure, and of which Christ is the centre, upon which God can look down with delight, and pleasure, as that which indicates an answer to His holy love. Having been brought to live to God, and set at liberty there is the possibility in us of answering to God Himself.

• As the result of God's work in our souls we have something that belongs to this heavenly system. These beautiful offerings are indicative of impressions of Christ in the souls of God's people, impressions definitely placed there by God, which, if rendered heartily and willingly in mind and spirit, would be contributive to this heavenly system which is for the delight of God. You will remember, when the tabernacle was reared up, it says that
  • "the glory of Jehovah filled the tabernacle", Exodus 40: 34,

• and Moses was not able to enter in. God had claimed it as His own dwelling. It was not to be the place of sorrow, but of holy delight and service; the place of divine love here on earth, and of divine communications; for God would delight to communicate His thoughts to us.

• Think of being able to contribute to that place, and of the possibilities of being there! Oh! that we were like the Macedonians who
  • "gave themselves first to the Lord".

• It is such persons, wholly committed, who are needed now. The possibilities of whole-hearted committal were seen there in Israel, and when the offerings were gathered up, there was much more than was needed – see Exodus 36: 5.

• Oh! that the Lord in His great goodness may stir us up. We have had our need met, we have liberty before God, and what ministry we have had to liberate us! Let us commit ourselves unreservedly! Let us bring out what we have.

• How many a meeting would be spiritually wealthy, if what was there of Christ came out, every brother and sister whole-heartedly bringing it. It is only a little that any of us can do, but it is of great value in the eyes of God; this rendering up of what we have, in holy devotedness for the Lord. How delightful it is to the heart of God!

Now I come to the passage in 2 Kings. There are some who excuse themselves in saying that it was all very well when things were right and in the apostolic days, but we are now in the last days of the history of God's people on earth.

• I admit that outwardly these are dark days, but man's darkest day was God's greatest opportunity. Think of the resurrection morning if you want a proof of that!

• So the final close of the history of the assembly will be the greatest morning, the morning of a never-ending day. Christ will appear Himself. When things are darkest of all He will appear.

• It was a dark day in Israel, and I suppose this widow represents typically the moral conditions with which we are surrounded today. The prophet comes along, but he does not alter the moral conditions. Things around are going to get worse and worse outside. You want to know what is inside. The prophet raises the first question,
  • "What shall I do for thee?"

• Oh! beloved, think of the Lord coming to you with a word like that. As having committed yourself, whole-heartedly, the Lord would ask you, "What shall I do for thee?" What is the dearest object of your heart on earth? Perhaps you say, the welfare of the people of God for the pleasure of God. Well, if that is so, what is to be done for you? How is that to be promoted?

• Now the prophet does not bring in something very remarkable, but he draws attention to what is there, typically, to what is the consequence of Christ becoming poor that we might be enriched. What was that? The outpouring of the Spirit. I wish I knew more of the marvellous possibilities of the Holy Spirit being down here.

• This woman had the oil in the house, for the prophet says,
  • "Tell me, what hast thou in the house?"

  • And she said, "Thy handmaid has not anything at all in the house but a pot of oil".

• Let us not speak so poorly of the Spirit; do not say we only have the Spirit. Let us take account of the greatness of the Holy Spirit who has come here to abide with us; and to dwell in us. How marvellous to take that in, to enter into its meaning, to be concerned about the Spirit to let Him have room in us. You want room for the Spirit.

• The believer has something thus that is intended to fill the vessel. The world would fill you with human thoughts, human ideas, creeds, doctrine and all kinds of things but what is needed is vessels that are available for the Spirit of God. The Spirit would fill every vessel, He would take possession of
  • "your whole spirit, and soul, and body", 1 Thessalonians 5: 23.

As you give yourself to the Lord, the Spirit will fill you. When all the vessels were filled the oil stayed. There is no waste, beloved, in the actions of the Spirit. He is here that all the vessels might be filled and filled continually. But that is not enough.

• It is not enough to make room for the Spirit, but we are to make use of the wealth that is here in the Spirit, of the riches that came from Christ in glory. In the woman's case you have a remarkable result typically. You have what is representative of a meeting, and the result of bringing the Spirit is that the meeting has got rid of all its difficulties. There are no more differences, no moral debts unpaid between the brethren; all the bills are out of hand.

• Is that all? No, that is only a means to an end, the Spirit would come in to make the whole situation suitable to God. If things are unsuitable, they can only be made suitable by the Spirit having liberty of action in the hearts of the people of God. The obligations are met, and then it says,
  • "And live thou and thy sons on the rest".

• Just one thought as to this: "Go, sell the oil, and pay thy debt, and live thou and thy sons on the rest".

• As living in such wealth how simply we would be able to take up that peculiarly precious service of distribution that the apostle dwells on in 2 Corinthians 8. He says,
  • "The abundance of their joy and their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their free-hearted liberality".

• They were poor materially, but they had liberality. Do we in our minds connect poverty with liberality? God does:
  • "Blessed are ye poor", Luke 6: 20,

• they can afford to be liberal. Why? Because as spiritually enriched by Christ, they are no longer poor, they have divine wealth, and spiritual resources and riches that are abiding.

• When we come into the good of what is here in the Spirit, poor people are marked by the liberality of God, and the wealth of God comes out; such have got the means. It surprises us at times the wealth that comes from God.

Now just one more word before we close, on the passage in 2 Corinthians 8. The apostle writes,

• "That in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty has abounded to the riches of their free-hearted liberality.

• "For according to their power, I bear witness, and beyond their power, they were willing of their own accord, begging of us with much entreaty to give effect to the grace and fellowship of the service which was to be rendered to the saints.

• "And not according as we hoped, but they gave themselves first to the Lord".

• I would like, beloved, to express a desire that the result of our being together in holy fellowship and privilege might be that we all give ourselves unreservedly to the service of God, young and old, and that some even who may have but lightly touched divine things in an outward way, might be stimulated to put their hands definitely to the work.

• Who can say what possibilities would come to light if with unreserved, whole-hearted devotedness we committed ourselves to the service of God, remembering the One who was rich beyond words yet for our sakes became poor.

• He knew poverty as you and I could never know it; He had not where to lay His head. You can find a brother or sister on whom to lay your head, but He had not where to lay His head. He was alone, forsaken, but through His poverty we have been enriched in the blessed knowledge of God, brought to know the possibilities of what is living, so that as in liberty we might be committed to the service of God in the power of the Holy Spirit.

May the Lord give us grace to commit ourselves to the possibilities which lie in faith and liberty and committal in the power of the Holy Spirit for the service of God, for His name's sake.