Matthew brings in what I suppose is the greatest title of God; “they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is, being interpreted, ‘God with us’ ”.

• I think it may be right to say that ‘El’ is the greatest title of God. I am speaking of title now in contrast to name. A title may be attached to a false god;
  • the Old Testament makes clear that Jehovah is the only true ‘El’, the only One who has a right to that title.

• When the name is proclaimed it says “Jehovah, Jehovah El merciful and gracious”, Exodus 34: 6, and in verse 14 it says “For thou shalt worship no other El; for Jehovah – Jealous is his name – is a jealous El”.

• It is important to understand the titles of God, and therefore, in a special way, this title, El. It refers to God as the One in whom alone is strength.

• God stands in His own strength, and no strength exists anywhere apart from Him. All other strength is derived.

• Whether we think of animate or inanimate bodies, whatever power or strength there is in the universe, it is all derived from El, who alone has strength in Himself, the Mighty God.

We can understand that title being introduced in Matthew, because in Matthew it is a question of the testimony going through, and of persons going through with the testimony;

• and the persons who will go through with the testimony are those who can say “Emmanuel”, “El, with us”.

• For if El is the source of all strength and He is with us, it means nothing can stand against us.

• Paul enumerates at the end of Romans 8 the things that might be against us, and that might be against the testimony, but they are all creatures, they have no strength in themselves, no inherent strength.
  • “Death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature”, everything in the universe is a creature.

• The greatest powers against us are only creature, but God is with us. Therefore the testimony must go through;
  • and those who learn to call Jesus by this name, Emmanuel, will go through with it, because they are the ones who can say “God is with us”.

When we think of strength, we must not limit the idea to physical strength. When we speak of a strong man, we do not always mean physical strength, we more often mean a man with strength of character.

• That is the great and glorious feature which stands out in all its excellence in God. God stands in the strength of His own nature and character, immovable and unchanging. Nothing ever turned Him aside.

• His nature and character in the past were unknown. A certain amount of light was given, as when the name was proclaimed, in Exodus 34. But full light as to the nature and character of God was not disclosed.

• It necessitated One coming whose name would be called Emmanuel, to disclose in all its radiance, the nature and character of God.
  • God is now in the light, there is no doubt now as to what He is in His nature and character; all is in display, and where is it in display? In Jesus!

• Jesus is the effulgence of God’s glory, and the expression of his substance. Hebrews 1: 3. It is a most amazing thing – the radiance of it.

• If only our spiritual eye-sight could take in the radiance of what is in display now, God shining forth in a Man, in the effulgence of His glory. I am not suggesting that any creature could take it all in, but it is there, in that glorious and glorified Man.

• The holiest means, if we know what it is to enter there, that we are in the contemplation of that glorious and glorified Man, who is the effulgence of God’s glory, the expression of His substance. And so scripture speaks of being “strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory”, Colossians 1: 11.

• If we are to become strong in the testimony, if we are to develop strength in a right sense – I am speaking now of strength of character to stand against allcomers – we must derive it from El. And we derive it in a particular way in the holiest.

• That verse refers to those who enter the holiest, “strengthened with all power according to the might of his glory”.

• The Psalmist says in Psalm 63: 2, “To see thy power and thy glory, as I have beheld thee in the sanctuary”, and in Psalm 68 “They have seen thy goings, O God, the goings of my God, my king, in the sanctuary”, and again in verse 35, “He it is that giveth strength and might unto the people”.

• How little we know of this, and yet we see it illustrated in a man like Stephen, strengthened with all power according to the might of God’s glory; nothing could overthrow him.

• All the power of the world and Satan combined could not overthrow Stephen, who was completely victorious in the darkest hour. That is how the testimony works out, Emmanuel, God with us.

So this gospel shows the resource we have in God in the testimony, how complete it is. At the end the name of the only true El is declared, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

• There is no need to be in any doubt as to who the true El is. The Jehovah of the Old Testament is now known by this great and glorious name.

• The meaning of Jehovah still attached to Him, a great name in itself, but we have this greater name, the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
  • And the title El attaches equally to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

• We have spoken of the Son, the effulgence of God’s glory. Think of the might of glory that shines in Him, who also upholds all things by the word of His power.

• We have the Son, in a peculiar way, as our resource, “there am I in the midst of them”, Matthew 18: 20, and, “behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age”, Matthew 28: 20.

But this gospel shows also that we have the Father as our resource. The Lord uses that name about forty times in Matthew.

• And the Father is brought in in connection with needs down here, whether our personal needs, or the needs of the testimony; the Father is the great ultimate resource.

• The Lord says in Matthew 18, where it is a question of assembly administration,
  • “if two of you shall agree on earth concerning any matter, whatsoever it may be that they shall ask, it shall come to them from my Father who is in the heavens. For where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I”, and the Father stands committed to support such a position as that.

• How little we have learned to have faith and confidence in keeping with this name Emmanuel. How little we have made use of the verse, “if two of you” – two of the assembly – “shall agree on earth”

• Normally it would embrace all of the assembly in a locality, they would all be in the matter. But there might only be two.

• One feels that if we understood the resource better, we might not be deploring so much the smallness of meet-ings, because it might be they would not remain small.

• I would have thought in a small meeting the first thing that would be done would be to ask the Father for more of the great fishes. At the same time, the Lord shows, for our comfort, that if there are only two or three, the thing is workable.

• Matthew has in mind the praise of God, and the heavenly administration of the assembly. The praise of God is in view in chapter 16, in “my assembly”, and opposed to that is hades’ gates.
  • Hades is the place of silence; all the operations of the devil are to silence the praise of God in the assembly, but he will never succeed, because El is with us.

• And so the administration of chapter 18 is supported with all the power of God, so that the gates of hades might never prevail, that the praises might never be brought into silence.

• On the cross – in this gospel – the Lord uses the words of Psalm 22, “My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me ?” And the answer is in Psalm 22, “thou art holy”.

Now that brings me to another point, and that is, as I have already said, that the title El relates to the nature and character of God, His strength in that way.

• You will find when that title is used in the Old Testament, it nearly always has reference to some attribute of God, or some feature of His character –
  • The most high El, the Almighty El, the living El, the faithful El, Jehovah El, merciful and gracious, abundant in goodness and truth. And so in many other passages.

• The answer thus to “My El, my El, why hast thou forsaken me?” is “thou art holy, thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel”. What a transaction the cross is, when we think of who the Person is who was there!

• Because of who He is He knew fully, in an absolute way, the nature and character of God, and all that He is against sin, and all that had to be met.

• That transaction could never have been completed except for such a Person being in the position, who understood it fully. Perfect Man, taking our place, yet knowing fully all that was involved, because He is God.

Mark

Now I pass on to the gospel of Mark. It opens in this abrupt way, “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”.

• Now the word God here would correspond with “Elohim” in the Old Testament. That is, it is God in reference to creation – God in His supremacy in relation to the works of His hands.

• I think you can see the distinction I am drawing; not God now in relation to His inherent strength, whether in what we call a physical way, or in connection with His nature and character; but God in His supremacy relative to the works of His hands – the One to whom all worship is due from the creature.

• It is from Him the gospel goes out. “Beginning of the glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God”; the Son of God had come with glad tidings, sent from the heart of the Creator, the supreme Elohim. God never forgets His creatures.

• On man’s side the conscious link is severed, but God never forgets the relationship of creature and Creator. And, as I say, the gospel goes out from the very heart of the Creator, and that is why at the end of this gospel the Lord’s word is “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”, chapter 16: 15.

• The heart of the Creator goes out to all the creation, He never forgets it; though we forget Him He never forgets us. In Isaiah 9: 6 it is said of Jesus Himself that “his name is called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Father of Eternity, Prince of Peace”.

• The very One who, as risen, in Manhood, was saying to them “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation” was the One by whom the worlds were made. All the feelings of the Creator were fully manifested in that glorious Man.

• It is important that we should know these feelings, and have feelings about all the creation. The Creator has planned to free the creation from the bondage of corruption.

• You say, The gospel is for our blessing. So it is. It stands related to eternal purpose, to bring in the family of the firstborn.

• But then, it says “for the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God”, Romans 8: 19. “The glad tidings of Jesus Christ, Son of God” is to secure sons for God, and to secure sons for God at the present time, with a view to those sons being revealed.

• When the sons, secured now through the gospel, are revealed, the whole creation will be delivered “from the bondage of corruption, into the liberty of the glory of the children of God”.

• All this should encourage us with gospel feelings, and gospel energies. In one way this is the spearhead of the testimony, the glad tidings – “Go into all the world and, preach the glad tidings to all the creation”.

• The witnesses of Luke are behind it, they are supporting the glad tidings but the glad tidings come as the first impact, as it were, of the testimony upon men in power. They may have been affected by witnesses, as they were in Acts 2, but it was the preaching of Peter that affected them.

• So you can see, from that standpoint, that Mark precedes Matthew. It is quite right, I am sure, that Matthew should come first in the New Testament – the gospel that deals with the course of the testimony, the maintenance of what is for God in praise and administration.

• But then, if we are to have persons such as the Lord speaks of at the end of Matthew, “Go, and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit” – if we are to have persons available to be made disciples of – they must be secured through the glad tidings.

• “Go into all the world, and preach the glad tidings to all the creation”. You get material thus, to be discipled, and taught, and brought into the assembly.

Luke

In Luke the word is “He shall be great, and shall be called Son of the Highest”. You will see from the note that “Highest” is the same as in Genesis 14: 18, “the Most High”.

• It is remarkable how these titles are brought forward into the New Testament, nothing is discarded. And so the Lord Jesus is presented in Luke as Son of the Most High. Later, it says “do good, and lend … and ye shall be sons of the Most High”, chapter 6: 35.

• How we need to know God as Most High, and to know the Lord Jesus as Son of the Most High – the true Melchisedec, the true Priest, as He is presented in Luke.
  • His functions are at present Aaronic, but He is Priest after the order of Melchisedec, Son of the Most High.

• We need this title in order that we may be preserved in moral elevation from all that is around. Luke brings in the service of praise in the temple. It is not to be on the level of anything on earth. And so when the heavenly host praise at the beginning, they say “Glory to God in the highest”; think of the level of it!

• Praise in Zion will be a great matter in the day to come, but what marks the assembly period is “Glory to God in the highest”. I do not apprehend that the heavenly host themselves were rendering glory to God in the highest; I apprehend it to be a prophetic statement.

• As a result of the incarnation, there would be glory to Him in the highest. And where is it found? In the assembly. In Christ, of course, personally, but to be found in that heavenly vessel, “to him be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus”, Ephesians 3: 21.

• And while we are still here, in the scene of testimony, we are to be marked by the moral elevation proper to that heavenly vessel. It is a question of the character of our service and praise. “Glory to God in the highest” is what we, as of the assembly, should be capable of rendering.
  • And corresponding with it, our testimony to men, “do ye remain in the city till ye be clothed with power from on high”, Luke 24: 49.

• And so, you see, this title of God is brought forward to maintain us at a true elevation, above the level of current religion; and on the other hand, to enable us to be with God in His government;
  • not submerged and depressed by what is happening down here, but recognising that “the Most High ruleth over the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will”, Daniel 4: 32.

• And so you find in the early chapters of Luke, how government is stressed. We are told of the decree of Caesar Augustus, and of the various rulers who were reigning in the land of Palestine when the word of God came to John; the Most High was ruling in the kingdoms of men.

• These two features connected with God as Most High should ever be with us.
  • The service of praise should be on the highest level, worthy of our God, and on the other hand, we should be able to confide in Him as to all matters of government.

• So that we are not depressed, nor over-occupied with earthly things; we have access to the One who rules over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to whomsoever He will; and who may set up over them the basest of men, if it suits Him.

• He does according to His own will in the armies of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and we have access to Him. And having access to Him in that way, as to governmental matters, if we really take it up, will mean that we shall never be deflected in the praise. What is happening here will never unduly disturb us.

• It is wonderful how we prove His government, that He is the Most High, and that He is ruling in the kingdom of men. We prove it day by day! What He is doing in government, even in detail, such as our having this hall tonight, is all setting forward the testimony.

But sometimes things may happen that seem untoward. How untoward it seemed when Caesar Augustus made his decree that a census should be taken.

• One might have said, ‘What an awkward time for Mary to take that journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Has the Most High given up His over-ruling hand?’

• Such questions are apt to arise in our minds, when things that mean discomfort, and are contrary to natural calculations, occur. But we are not to be disturbed. They arrived at Bethlehem, and there was no room for them in the inn.
  • Again one might have said, ‘What an untoward circumstance; surely God has given up control! Surely He is not interested in the matter at all. Things have all gone wrong’.

• But it was the Son of the Most High who was about to be born. The Most High was ordering every circumstance; indeed, even as to the very birth of Christ, Mary had been told “power of the Most High shall overshadow thee”.

• So what seemed so untoward was all part of God’s ways in testimony. And the heavenly hosts were not disturbed. They did not think anything wrong had happened. They said, “Glory to God in the highest”.

• The very birth of Christ in those circumstances was the sign, “And this is the sign to you: ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, and lying in a manger”.

• It was necessary in the ways of God, that the Son of the Most High should be born in the most lowly place; that there should be nothing that men call high attaching to His birth.

• The title Most High is introduced in scripture when kings were fighting one another; kings are called the high and mighty princes of the earth.

• When He who was the Son of the Most High, and who later, in Zacharias’ theme of praise, is Himself called the Most High – for he says of John the baptist, “And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High; for thou shalt go before the face of Jehovah …”, Luke 1: 76 – came,
  • it was necessary in God’s ways that He should be in the most low place here, with nothing that men call ‘highness’ attaching to Him, so that, true highness, true moral elevation might come into evidence.

• Anything connected with man’s highness and greatness would have spoiled the lustre of the incarnation. How great Christ is, that He needed nothing that men think great and high to enhance His greatness.

• Well, our witness is to be in keeping with this. We are witnesses when we praise, “Whosoever offereth praise glorifieth me”, Psalm 50: 23. The saints engaged in the high praises of God are a great witness, in some ways the greatest witness.

• But then we are to be witnesses at all times. “Ye are witnesses of these things … ye be clothed with power from on high”. Think of the elevation of power from on high.

I am saying these things to bring God before us. God, the Mighty El, Elohim, the great Creator, whose heart is moved towards His creation, and is acting with a view to its complete liberation;

• and then the Most High, the One who is ruling in the kingdoms of men so that we can rest under His shadow, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty”, Psalm 91: 1.

• We can be restful there, and, as restful there, maintain the service and the witness on the highest level.

John

We now come to John, to what is most choice; and if we think of what is brought forward from the Old Testament, what is brought forward in John is the Name,

• not a title but the Name, as the Name of the Old Testament, “I am that I am”. That was God’s personal name as known in the Old Testament.

• That name comprises three designations. “I am” is God’s own assertion of His self-existence;
  • “Jah”, is the creature’s answer to it, “whose name is Jah”, it says, Psalm 68: 4. God says “I am”, the creature says ‘He is’. He is the One who alone has existence in Himself, the great and eternal God.

  • Then “Jehovah”, refers to that great and eternal One coming into time, and into relationship with men – the One who is, and who was, and is to come.

• Those three cognate words comprise the Name, that is, the Name of the Old Testament, and that is what is carried forward into John.

It was when God disclosed His personal name in the Old Testament that He spoke of dwelling; and we come to what is most choice then. The choicest thought, as it were, in the heart of God is to dwell.

• To bless, yes, to liberate, to give eternal life; all these things are necessary. But the choicest thing is that He would dwell. It is what His nature requires.

• In human affairs we dwell with those we love, we dwell with those with whom we have personal relations. Think of God entering into personal relations with men! With Israel, as a covenant God, but how wonderful the declaration today.
  • The name was proclaimed then, but declared now. God Himself has declared it.

The gospel of John thus opens with the assertion that Jesus is I am, the One who ever was and everything else began to be through Him.

• God alone has existence in Himself, all other things began to be. God alone ever was. The name carries with it the idea – though it is veiled – of what He is, “I am that I am”.

• I believe there is an indication in it that God is love, manifested in His desire to dwell, even to dwell in the bush; “the goodwill of him that dwelt in the bush”. What a God He is!

• And so as we think of this personal name of God in the Old Testament, how wonderful the personal name of God in the New – the full declaration, “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”.

• This gospel is a wonderful gospel, the declaration of God in a personal way, so that we should know Him. And when I speak of a personal way, when you come to Christianity it means knowing three Persons;
  • it is not only knowing God in His nature and character – that is most blessed – shining forth in a Man; but having personal relations with the Persons of the Godhead, and brought into them by One in such a position, “the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father”.

• He introduces us, as in that position, into these personal loving relations with the Father, and with Himself, and with the Holy Spirit.

So this gospel not only speaks about dwelling – and it uses the word abide which is a strong word for dwelling, there is a kind of permanency about it – it not only speaks much about dwelling, but much about knowing.

• As to the sheep, “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father”, chapter 10: 14.

• What a knowledge we have of the Son from that standpoint, “as the Father knows me and I know the Father”. And in chapter 14: 7, “if ye had known me, ye would have known also my Father, and henceforth ye know him and have seen him”.

• The thing is that we should have a personal knowledge of God, and that means a personal knowledge of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and in a most intimate way.

• Because, after all, our links with the Father and the Son and the Spirit are closer than any links we have in nature, and even closer than the links we have with one another, I would suppose, in the one body, and in the family. Surely our links with God Himself are closer than any.
  • God known and loved, and in intimate relationship with us. What a conception this is! And God would dwell as thus known.

We know the Son, “I know those that are mine, and am known of those that are mine”.

• I am not in any way contradicting another saying of the Lord that “No one knows the Son but the Father”, Matthew 11: 27, that is another idea altogether.

• I am referring to Jesus as having come forth, “the Word became flesh”, and “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father”; and He says “I know my sheep, and am known of mine, as the Father knows me and I know the Father”.

• Then He says as to the Father, “henceforth ye know him and have seen him”, and as to the Spirit, “whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see him nor know him; but ye know him”, John 14: 17. What a knowledge this is, the personal knowledge of God.

We know the Father, we know the Son, and we know the Spirit. And how has it all come about?

• Because the One who is shown so clearly to be the I am in the first three verses of chapter 1, became flesh, “the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us”.

• That is why He came – to dwell. That is why God has disclosed Himself in a personal way.

• We need to know the persons we live with, and love them; and therefore God wants us to know Him, and to love Him. He would dwell where He is thus known and loved.

• Dwelling is a most exquisite thought, the tabernacle of God with men. The great finality of it is in the book of Revelation; yet it is to be known now.

• The thought of dwelling and abiding runs right through the gospel. Nothing else would satisfy love. “My Father will love him, and we will come to him”. Why? Because of love! Love that could not stay away. Think of the wonder of the love of God, as thus manifested!

• If there are right conditions, His love is such that there is no question about it; His love required that He should come, “If anyone love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him”. How blessed!

• We shall live in this economy of love through eternity. It is our home. In another sense we may perhaps say that it is the home of Divine Persons.

God is ever dwelling, of course, in light unapproachable, into which we cannot penetrate, although we know it is light.

• We know that, in His absolute dwelling, God is not dwelling in darkness. It might have been thought so of old, but because of the way He has come out to us,

• we know that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, and therefore we know that, in those unapproachable conditions, He dwells in light. That is a great thing. We worship Him as we think of Him thus.

But how wonderful these dwelling conditions among men, and what an appeal to our hearts it is that we should provide such conditions!

• Can we turn away from such a God as this? Can we be negligent about having the Lord’s commandments and keeping them?

• Can we be so hard-hearted as to fail to keep His word, when love is waiting upon us, yearning to come, and have free dwelling conditions, and free intercourse with us?

• As we said earlier today, the Spirit will never leave us, however grieved He may be. But if we want to know God dwelling in the proper sense of the word, not only the Spirit, but also the Father and the Son, there must be conditions.

• And that is what the appeal to us is at a time like this, to provide the conditions.

But all knowledge of God is to lead up to praise. That is why I read in Psalm 150.

• It is praise to God indeed in the highest, if we bring the light of Christianity into it “Hallelujah!”, that is “Praise ye Jah”, “praise El in his sanctuary”.

• Let us lay hold, dear brethren, of those two things as understood in the light of the Christian revelation.
  • The glory of God’s name, the great self-existent God, known personally now,

  • and the glory of His nature and character in full display in the sanctuary, “Praise ye Jah, Praise El in his sanctuary”. “Let everything that hath breath praise Jah”.

• Beloved brethren, may we get a deeper apprehension, a deeper knowledge of God! Paul prays for the Colossians that they may grow by the true, or full, knowledge of God. How we yearn for the full knowledge of God!

May the Lord use these few words to help us for His Name’s sake!