The scriptures in Revelation are written by John. He is the other New Testament writer who calls Christians priests,

• and I think in his vision of the elders and the living creatures, he portrays certain features which God intends to mark His priests,

• features which will mark them certainly in the future, but which are written down in order that we may be exercised as to their marking us now, because
  • we have to keep in mind that the elders and the living creatures are a priestly company.

• It says in chapter 5 that each one of them had “a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints”, each one of them had those qualifications for priesthood.

I hope to return to them later, because I believe that is a side of priesthood in which God would specially instruct us in our present experiences and afflictions;

• but I want to begin with Matthew because we have there the normal side of priesthood in view, that is, assembly service – or one might rather say,
  • the service that attaches to those who form the assembly, because, as we noticed this afternoon, priestly service is to be a continuous matter.

• It reaches its highest character when the assembly is convened, but God’s intention is that those who form the assembly should be engaged in priestly service continually.

• You remember that of old the priests, after having been consecrated, – that is, their hands filled – were to keep the charge seven days, showing that it was to be their one concern.

• Their hands were filled in the holy service of God; they had no room for anything else; and that is God’s intention for each one of us.

• We have our responsibility to fulfil in this world, but that being done, as consecrated, we have no other occupation but the service of God.

I think Peter in the gospel of Matthew illustrates the doctrine of his epistle. He exhorts us there to

• “desire earnestly the pure mental milk of the word, that by it ye may grow up to salvation, if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good”.

• And then he says,
  • “To whom coming, a living stone, cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious, yourselves also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood”.

• He had come that way himself. As companying with the Lord he had learnt to value the sincere milk of the word.

• A newborn babe wants nothing else, and that should mark a Christian throughout his course here, that he wants nothing else but the pure mental milk of the word.

• A babe will reject anything but milk; so should a Christian reject anything which is not the pure mental milk of the word; and if we are on those lines we shall indeed taste that the Lord is good, and grow up to salvation.

I think that in Matthew 14, Peter represents one who has grown up to salvation. It is illustrated in the incident which we read where he walks on the water to go to Jesus.

• I purposely did not read of his failure, although I may refer to it; but the great point in the passage is that he did it: he walked on the water to go to Jesus. He did a thing which cannot be done in the power of nature.

• He made a mistake in looking at the wind and the waves; but in the power of nature it is just as impossible to walk on a calm sea as on a troubled one.

• The whole situation is outside the power of nature – this walking on the waters to go to Jesus – but it is what comes from feeding on the sincere mental milk of the word.

• Peter says in his epistle that we are born again of incorruptible seed by the living and abiding word of God. As feeding on it we shall receive strength to do what Peter did.

• It is because people do not pay enough attention to the word that so few have strength to step out and go to Jesus. Where the word of God is attended to with an honest heart, people acquire strength, even though their faith be small.

• The Lord said to Peter, “O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt?”; still there was faith and affection and spiritual strength there to say to the Lord, “If it be thou command me to come to thee upon the waters”;

• and the Lord said, “Come”; and Peter did it; he walked on the waters to go to Jesus. I think the waters represent the adverse elements here.

• Unless we learn to be superior to them, we shall not be free in our spirits to function as priests.

This section of Matthew begins with chapter 13: 53. The various sections of Matthew’s gospel are indicated to us,

• because each begins with an expression something like this: “And it came to pass when Jesus had finished these parables …”

• Following that we get the natural view of Jesus: He came to His own country, and taught in their synagogue,
  • “so that they were astonished, and said, Whence has this man this wisdom and these works of power? Is not this the son of the carpenter?”

• That is one of the elements that we have to overcome; it is one of the elements that is suggestive of the waters upon which we have to walk.

• It is the natural view of Jesus, men regarding merely His natural origin, bringing Him down to the level of an ordinary man. There is a great deal of that going on in Christendom.

Following that, at the beginning of chapter 14, we have the character of the world, the careless, godless world, seen in Herod.

• The world celebrates such functions, and professes to take a certain amount of interest in divine things, but they are really callous in heart, and prepared for the sake of vanity to murder the saints.

• We have to learn not to fear that element, but to overcome the world; and we must remember that today the professing church is largely a department of the world, and we have to learn to be overcomers.

• But then, all the time we are being helped and fed. The Lord feeds the five thousand. We taste that the Lord is good, and move with Him, and the result of it all with Peter is that he walks on the waters to go to Jesus.

• The Lord is looking for this movement with each one of us here tonight. He is waiting to hear us say, like Peter, “If it be thou, command me to come to thee upon the waters”.

• The Lord is apart from everything here – “Disallowed indeed of men”, cast out as worthless by men, but chosen of God and precious.

• He loves to see souls who are prepared to step out to Him, and as we do so, even though our faith may be little, and we begin to sink, we can be sure of the strength of His arm. We shall never sink. The Lord has a perfect care for all who move in this way.

• So it was not only that Peter walked on the waters to go to Jesus, but the incident finishes with Peter walking with Jesus; they came up together to the boat.

• This walking on the water is what characterises the christian dispensation. If there is such a thing as a boat at the present time, we might apply it to the mercy we have in being able to walk together;

• yet the value of the boat position is dependent on the ability of each one in it to walk on the water to go to Jesus, each one of us having an individual, personal history, and able to stand alone. This illustrates growing up to salvation.

But then, the Lord had in mind that Peter should be a living stone in the full sense of the word. In chapter 16, Peter is developed so that the Lord can name him as such.

• In chapter 15, we have lifeless religion based on the traditions of men; but then at the beginning of chapter 16, it says, of the Lord, “And he left them and went away”.

• That is another thing we have to do: we have to turn away and leave lifeless religion with its traditions and ceremonies.

• As we turn away from these things, and the leaven of them, we come into a position where the Father can bring us into the gain of the revelation which He made to Peter. The Lord Jesus says, “Who do ye say that I am?”

• It seems to me, dear brethren, that it is in this that we really become living stones to be built into the spiritual house. We come to the apprehension that Jesus, the One whom men have cast away as worthless, is no less than the Christ and the Son of the living God;
  • and nobody can confess Jesus as the Christ and the Son of the living God except in the spirit of worship.

• Those who have the New Translation will notice that the pronouns Thou and I are emphatic. Peter says, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God”.

• I believe the emphatic “Thou” means that Peter said it in a spirit of worship. He realised that the Person before Him was God’s King, the Christ, the One in whom God is shortly to head up all things, the things in heaven and the things on earth.

• God is going to head up all things in the Christ. Would to God that this great truth might enter all of our hearts, that Jesus is the Person in whom everything in heaven and on earth is about to be headed up!

• He is the Christ, and no one else. What a glorious Person He is! What a Man, the Man of God’s counsels and purposes, the Man in whom God has purposed in the dispensation of the fulness of times to head up all things!

• He is already Head of His body, the assembly, and Head over all things to the assembly. It is a great thing to apprehend the Christ!

But then He is the Son of the living God, another title which would bow the heart in worship. God is the living God, and Jesus is His Son.

• It means that Jesus would use His sway as Lord and Head to secure the worship and praise of God. He has in view that the whole universe should be vibrating with life.

• He knows that God is the living God, and that God requires living stones, living response, and living service; and He is the Son of the living God. It is His joy to bring all that to pass.

• The light of it had dawned on Peter: He is the One who can hold heaven and earth for God, and cause the whole universe to vibrate in praise and life. That in the soul constitutes Peter a living stone.

• How could one who had such an apprehension of Christ be otherwise than living? It is bound to make the believer’s soul vibrate in worship, and praise.

• He becomes a living being in response to Christ and to God; and that is the idea of the assembly. The Lord said, “On this rock I will build my assembly”.

• He delights in Peter. He says, “Thou” – another emphatic pronoun – “art Peter”. How the Lord delighted to see another living stone come to light!
  • There is a suggestion here of the reciprocal affections between Christ and the assembly.

• Peter says, “Thou art the Christ”, and the Lord Jesus says, “Thou art Peter”. His delight is in Peter. He goes on to say, “And on this rock I will build my assembly”.

• That assembly is a living structure, because it belongs to the Son of the living God, and the supreme way in which He uses that assembly is in the praise of God.

• The assembly is used by Him in other ways – for the filling of all things, “the fulness of him who fills all in all”; but you can understand that the living God’s Son would use that vessel in a supreme way for the pleasure of the living God;
  • and He exultingly says, “Hades’ gates shall not prevail against it”, meaning that no effort of the enemy would ever silence the praise in that vessel.

  • The living God would be served in that vessel, despite anything that the enemy could do.

• A priesthood was brought in which would never cease to function. Everything in Israel had broken down, but the Lord says, “My assembly”. Here was something that would never break down.

• We know that it has broken down publicly, but as the assembly of the living God, and as Christ’s assembly, there is no breakdown.

• The praises will never cease, maintained in the power of the Spirit in this spiritual house in which the holy priesthood functions. So Peter was a living stone.

I just refer to the verses read in chapter 17, because there we have the Father Himself taking in hand to put another and a most important touch to Peter’s education.

• It is the privilege of the holy priesthood to enter into the holiest, and these three disciples had experience of the excellent glory, the very presence of the Father.

• That cloud of glory overshadowed them. What a privilege! It is ours, as belonging to the holy priesthood to enter into the glory cloud; but the Father instructs Peter.

• The Father’s voice is heard – “such a voice” as Peter says in his 2nd epistle; and the emphatic pronoun is again used. “This is my beloved Son”. There is no other.

• I think that from a spiritual angle, though Peter had other moral lessons to learn, this completed Peter’s education.

• The Lord Jesus is the Head of the corner. “This is my beloved Son”. However great Moses and Elias might be, Jesus is supreme. “Hear him”.

• What a qualification for the holy priesthood to hear such a voice from the excellent glory: “This is my beloved Son in whom I have found my delight; hear him”.
  • That gives us enough to fill our hands as priests through endless ages.

• Official priesthood, I suppose, will not go on in eternity, but in “This is my beloved Son”, surely we have material to fill our hands and our hearts with worship, as apprehending the Father’s delight in the Son.

• So it says in Mark 9: 8, “Suddenly having looked around, they no longer saw anyone, but Jesus alone with themselves”.

Having said that about Peter and his education, seeking to indicate how he became a living stone and a living member of the holy priesthood in which we all are called to have our part, I want to say a word about Revelation.

• At the beginning of this book John says, He “has made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”. That links us on with what we have been having; but I have an impression, dear brethren, that
  • God would in these days bring us into priestly service in a broader way than, perhaps, we have been accustomed to come into it. He would widen our view.

• The side of things connected with the assembly as such, the highest and most blessed way in which we worship God in all the light in which He is revealed in Christ, and share with Him His pleasure in His Son.

• Yet there is another side of priesthood open to us, and that is to be able to worship God and vindicate Him, too, in the spirit of worship, in connection with all His ways and public dealings here.

• That is what marks the elders and the living creatures throughout the book of Revelation. You find they are able to ascribe praise and worship to God in whatever character He appears;
  • and we need to remember this, that the elders and the living creatures refer to ourselves, because the saints of the assembly are included undoubtedly in the company represented by the elders and the living creatures.

• So that it is well to take account of the features that mark these elders and living creatures, for the features that mark them will help us in priestly service.

I will refer particularly to three features:

1. firstly, the feature of experience. The elders suggest that.
   • I think it has been made clear today that the youngest believer who has received the Spirit is a priest, and can have part in his or her measure in the priestly service on the line on which we have already been speaking.

   But there is another side to priesthood which depends on experience, in connection with the ways of God.

   He passes us through circumstances here that we might get experience; and I think that you can understand that the worship of God that flows from experience is peculiarly valuable to Him.

   So if the elders worship in Revelation, their worship flows from experience with God in the character in which they are worshipping Him.

2. Then in the living creatures we have first of all the feature of life. We have already referred to that in connection with the living stone. These are living creatures.

3. And then you have the feature of discernment. It says of these living creatures: “full of eyes, before and behind”, and later it says, “round and within they are full of eyes”.

One feels that God would encourage our hearts with a view to these features being promoted with us.

If we take the feature of experience, God is passing us through experiences which are leading us to value Him in characters to which, perhaps, we have not hitherto paid much attention.

• They are to lead us to value Him as Creator.

• Surely the last few years have taught us to value God as Creator as never before.

• We may have thought of creation as an act of power in the distant past; but we are having to learn that God is operating all the time in creation. In Him we live and move and have our being.

• We have seen His ability to increase the harvest of the fields; we have seen His ability to use the elements to alter the course of the world war. We have had experience of God in His creation power and goodness.

• It is intended, no doubt, to give us confidence in Him as Creator, if we are called upon to suffer for the testimony.

• Peter speaks of those who suffer according to the will of God committing their souls in well doing “to a faithful Creator”. We must know and be assured of the faithfulness of the Creator to do that.

• We might have thought Peter would have said “to a loving Father”, which is quite true, but he says, “to a faithful Creator”. Surely we are learning God as the One on whom we can rely as Creator.

• So these living creatures are worshipping God as Creator. If the elders are doing it, they are doing it as the fruit of experience; and I believe that is one of the things which God is bringing about to-day.

• A wonderful ascription of praise comes before us in this passage; and I would like to challenge our hearts as to whether we have ever been as much affected as these elders and living creatures are. It says of the elders that they
  • “fall before him that sits upon the throne, and do homage to him that lives to the ages of ages”, and they “cast their crowns before the throne”.

• All this shows that their whole being is affected as they worship God, and they say,
  • “Thou art worthy, O our Lord and our God – this is the fruit of experience – “to receive glory and honour and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy will they were, and they have been created”.

• Surely this gives us a theme for worship, dear brethren. Have we ever fallen down before God in the spirit of worship?

• And notice that their worship is “to Him that sits upon the throne”. Have we paid enough attention to that? God is on the throne: He is “the blessed and only Ruler”.

• He is so much the blessed and only Ruler, that in this book even when evil reaches its worst form, everything is controlled.

• It says that it was given to the beast to pursue its course 42 months. It could not do that unless it was given to it.

• What we have been passing through recently is intended to establish our hearts in this great fact that God is on the throne and has control of everything;
  • and if that lays hold of our hearts, it will lead out our hearts to Him as the blessed and only Ruler.

  • We shall not acknowledge any other ruler in our worship.

• We would give place to rulers as set up under God, but so far as worship is concerned, there is only One,
  • “the blessed and only Ruler”, 1 Timothy 6: 15.

In the next chapter, these same companies are portrayed in worship to God as Redeemer, and then to the Lamb.

• I think that is what is going on at the present time, God would enlarge our apprehension of Him as Redeemer; because this feature stands out in God’s governmental ways,
  • that though they may come in in judicial discipline upon mankind, God uses them to effect His rights in redemption.

• We all feel, surely, that at the present time in what God is allowing He has in view to bring to light the elect, as one might say. When the throne begins to operate in the book of Revelation, after the first six seals, all the elect are brought to light.

• It is a wonderful thing to think that in all this upheaval that is going on now, God is securing His rights in redemption.

• In chapter 19, we find this same company of elders and living creatures falling down and doing homage to God as Judge; and I believe that God would have us to be worshippers of Him in that relation. It is said that we have come
  • “to God the Judge of all”, Hebrews 12: 23.

• You will find one of the widest ascriptions of praise in the book of Revelation in chapter 19, where God is celebrated as Judge:
  • “True and righteous are his judgments”.

• There is nothing more stabilising to the soul than to know God as Judge, because it gives the assurance that the right will prevail. The function of a true judge is to uphold the right; and we can trust God to do it.

But then, in worshipping God in these characters, if we are to get the experience that He would have us to get from what we pass through, we need discernment.

• One would desire to raise an exercise with us as to how far we are in accord with these living creatures which are “full of eyes”. One feels that there is peculiar pleasure to God in that feature.

• They were full of eyes “before and behind” – able intelligently to take account of God’s ways in the past and His ways in the future. And they are full of eyes “round and within”.

• Let us be diligent, dear brethren, to be “full of eyes”, not to miss anything in connection with what God is doing and what He would teach us – full of eyes “round and within”.

• That is how we are brought into accord with divine judgments. It says finally in this book:
  • “God has judged your judgment upon her” – that is, on Babylon.

• If this feature is present – “round and within … full of eyes”, we shall come to God’s own judgment of the great harlot.

• We find, sometimes, that people have a difficulty in discerning the principles of separation. We need, dear brethren, to be full of eyes, and to come to God’s judgment, so that He judges our judgment upon her.

• Have we come to God’s judgment about the great harlot? What is it? That she should be burnt with fire; or rather, that is the judgment which God executes; for it says, “God has judged your judgment upon her”.

• Have we come to that judgment, that the great harlot, the faithless spouse that takes the place of Christ’s spouse on earth, in all the principles of her make-up should be burnt with fire?

• If we are true priests of God, we shall come to that judgment; we shall have discernment.

One trusts that these two lines may be of service to us:

1. first, our education and formation, so as to become living stones, and part of the holy priesthood, truly functioning in the assembly,
   • and functioning at all times as part of the assembly in relation to God and His pleasure in Christ.

2. Secondly, to be moving with God in what He is passing us through at the moment, so that we might gain experience of Him in every character in which He is known,
   • and that we may gain discernment so as to be wholly with Him in what He is doing in His judgments, and be able to worship Him at every move He makes.

   May God grant it, for His name’s sake!

The titles used normally in the New Testament are Lord and Christ, both of which bear on Kingship, the title Christ especially so. The word ‘Christ’ means the Anointed, and anointing is essential for a king. Jesus is the anointed One.

• The title Christ covers other glories, but one glory is certainly His glory as King. The New Testament opens with “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ”, it tells us who the King is! He is Jesus Christ – Jesus, the Anointed.

• Peter in Acts 2 announces that, “God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, verse 36.

• When a king comes to the throne, the first thing that has to be done is to proclaim the accession. What a wonderful privilege Peter had at Pentecost in announcing the accession of God’s King!

• I have no doubt the coronation has also taken place, for when the Lord comes out of heaven it says, “upon his head many diadems”, Revelation 19: 12,

• and in Hebrews it says, “We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour”, chapter 2: 9.

While lordship, in its bearing on us, is akin to kingship, in itself it is a wider thought, for it implies that Jesus has absolute authority. It is a wonderful thing to grasp that Jesus is Lord of all!

• His authority extends to heavenly, earthly and infernal beings. Every being in the universe, even the wicked, will have to own that Jesus is Lord.

• We need to know Him as Lord in order to have courage here in the presence of what is adverse.

• He is Lord of Satan and his angels; He can at any time curtail their power. Sooner or later they will have to own Him Lord, but we have the privilege of owning Him thus now, and coming under His protection.

The title ‘Christ’ is in some respects more limited, involving a sphere where He is Head, where everyone owns Him, and is willing-hearted.

• It is thus closely allied with kingship; for the idea of a king according to God, is that he is a beloved person, ruling over subjects who give him their willing obedience; ruling with affection as well as authority, the beloved of his people.

Now I want to speak of the way we grow in the apprehension of Christ’s glories;

1. first, as learning to value Him in His authority and support in our circumstances in view of our salvation,

2. then as set free to delight in His glories as with Him in His circumstances which Psalm 45 has in mind;

3. and finally to see from Psalm 110 that the King is the Priest, in view of God having His portion.

Our Circumstances

I am sure all of us here would desire to know more of Christ in our circumstances. It is a great thing to apprehend that God has made Jesus, both Lord and Christ in view of our salvation.

• Peter reassures their hearts in this respect for he says, “being by the right hand of God exalted … he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear”.

• They had crucified Him and crowned Him with thorns, but He was now exalted at the right hand of God. What would He do? Would He take vengeance on His enemies? Peter says
  • “having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this”.

• Then he announces formally the accession of Christ to the throne, and brings home to them that what He had shed forth was for them, provided that they would own and enthrone Him in the way that God had done.

• All hope for man lies in that. Jesus is there, a Man for men, having received the promise of the Father. What a wonderful preaching!

• Peter says, “Repent, and be baptised every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost”, verse 38.

• I wonder if everyone of us here has come into practical salvation? – it is in that exercise that your link with Christ will be really formed.

• As you learn what He can be to you in your soul need, and in practical everyday matters in your pathway, you will find practical salvation. The more you know Him thus, the more you will exult in Him as Lord.

• That is the teaching of Romans – you own Jesus as Lord, you give Him the place God has given Him, and by so doing, come into all the blessing connected with Him as Christ, including justification, acceptance and The gift of the Holy Spirit.

As Lord He has all power and authority to protect the believer. Peter says, “whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved”, verse 21.

• That becomes a daily matter: we learn to call upon Him moment by moment, hour by hour, and He never fails us: “the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him”, Romans 10: 12. He is rich and there is no need that He cannot meet.

• Further, as owning His authority, we are brought into the practical salvation of the assembly. That was in mind in Peter’s preaching.

• They were to repent and be baptised, and would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and thus find their place in the assembly, the sphere of practical salvation down here.

His Circumstances

Psalm 45 is a Song of the Beloved. All His service to us is in view of His becoming the Beloved of our hearts.

• I would like to stress that the King is the Beloved. David means “beloved”; Solomon’s name Jedidiah, means “beloved of Jehovah”. It is wonderful to think of that!

• So the Psalmist goes over His varied glories. The Psalm is divided into sections. Verse 2 is occupied with the moral glories of Christ, for they form the basis of everything. Official glories must be based on moral glories.

• Kingship, apart from Christ, always breaks down because there are not the necessary moral qualities underlying it. But of God’s King it says,
  • “Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee forever”.

• The Lord having met our need, would draw us over to His own side, that we might be free to contemplate Himself in His moral beauty.

• Think of a king like that! grace poured into His lips! There would be no harsh words, no ruthlessness there! “Therefore God hath blessed thee forever”. That is the King in His moral perfection.

Verses 3 to 5 speak of His military greatness. Every king needs to be a warrior. The idea of a kingdom supposes that there are enemies to be met, and that what is precious is to be protected. What a wonderful warrior Christ is!

• “Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty. And in thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things. Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies”.

• Men are greatly occupied at the present time with martial prowess: they are looking for skilled warriors; but the Lord Jesus, the great warrior King, stands out unique before our hearts. In Exodus 15: 3 it says, “The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name”.

• Think of Christ coming into manhood to meet all the forces that invaded mankind. Satan came into the garden and brought in darkness and the lie.

• As a result of that, sin came in, and death, “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death”, Romans 5: 12.

• What an invasion! Where was a warrior great enough to roll back those forces? There can never be peace on earth until they are defeated. True peace can only be based on victory.

• The Lord is shortly to come forth publicly in majesty and splendour as we see in Revelation 19, as King of kings and Lord of lords, and He will actually remove by His power those terrible invaders from the earth.

• Satan will be bound and sin and death will be held in check for a thousand years. What a reign it will be! Finally death will be destroyed; “The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”, 1 Corinthians 15: 26.

• What a Warrior the Lord Jesus is! Where was the victory really won? On the cross – as we sing, “His be the Victor’s name, who fought the fight alone”.

• Think of the Lord Jesus in the way He met the foe, with what divine strategy He moved. We love to contemplate His military greatness,
  • the One Man great enough to meet that tremendous invasion of sin and death and woe. It was a wonderful military plan – a plan which Satan could not foresee.

• The Lord took all his armour away by which he kept men in bondage through fear of death. As Goliath was slain by his own sword,
  • so the Lord took Satan’s weapon out of his hand and in principle slew him with it. “Through death he might annul him who has the might of death”, Hebrews 2: 14.

The Psalmist looks on to the future, and we too, need the day of glory shining in our hearts. Nevertheless, we can see these qualities in the Lord when here in humility.

• He knew how to gird on His sword; He knew how to handle God’s word, how to silence men, and yet in what grace He brought it to bear, having in view their repentance if only they would listen.

• What majesty and dignity marked Him as He moved on to the cross, facing it alone, saying “if therefore ye seek me, let these go their way”, John 18: 8 – dying for His own, not asking them to die for Him.

• How kingly He was! – a king, against whom there is no rising up, Proverbs. 30: 31. Even here in His path of humiliation, who could stand before Him? None!

• Sin and death could not stand before Him; going into death He “abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel”, 2 :Timothy 1: 10; What a warrior He was!
  • “In thy majesty ride prosperously, because of truth and meekness and righteousness”.

• Meekness and righteousness marked the Lord Jesus right through to the cross; and all that marked Him in kingly grace and dignity then, is soon to shine out in Him publicly as He comes out of heaven, sitting on a white horse, with many diadems upon His head.

• In those closing moments at the Supper, in Gethsemane, at the trial before the high priest and before Pilate, in His acceptance of the crown of thorns, and the purple robe – what unsurpassed glories shine in Him!

• To have His glories in our hearts would surely eclipse all the official glories of men here.

Verses 6 and 7 deal with another side of kingship, the throne and sceptre. How great He is in this connection. The war is over, so to speak, and the King is seated on His throne –

• “Thy throne O God, is for ever and ever”.

• Think of the majesty of that throne! The Psalmist worships before it owning Him as God, as our hymn says, “God, ever blest, we bow the knee, and own all fulness dwells in Thee”. God’s King is in Himself a Divine Person!

• Think of the greatness of His throne! At present He is on the Father’s throne, “Who … having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”, Hebrews 1: 3.

• But we can anticipate the day when He will take His own throne, and delight to salute Him as God: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever”.

• Righteousness and justice are the foundation of the throne. There the King sits in majesty and dispenses justice and righteousness.
  • No one oppressed need fear to come to that throne. There is protection for the weak, and support for the widow.

• But there is also the sceptre, “a sceptre of uprightness is the sceptre of thy kingdom”. This refers to the rule of Christ which extends to the utmost parts of His kingdom – a rule of righteous grace.

• The whole realm, too, is filled with gladness, in which the King Himself is pre-eminent. “God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy companions”, verse 7.

• What a joyous kingdom! What a glorious King!

The next section refers to the king’s glories inside the palace. We are passing from glory to glory – the glory is increasing.

• You may see a king at the head of his army in the human sphere, you may see him in connection with the throne and sceptre, but what about inside the palace? – only privileged persons can see him there.

• The section begins with the idea of nearness to the king, sufficient nearness to smell the odour of his garments. “Myrrh and aloes, cassia, are all thy garments”. The Song of the Beloved is working up to this point.

• We have been engaged with His moral and military glories, with His greatness in connection with the throne and sceptre, but now as in the palace, we are near enough to Him to breathe the odour of His garments.

• In the Song of Solomon the Beloved is the King. The fact that He is King enhances His love. Think of being loved by One so great! He is the King, and yet He loves us! What will stimulate bridal affections like that, dear brethren?

• The more we apprehend the greatness of Christ, the more we shall marvel that He could set His love upon us. It suggests nearness here, as in the Song of Solomon 1: 3.
  • “Thine ointments savour sweetly; Thy name is an ointment poured forth”.

• She is near enough to him to get the odour of his ointments. Then in verse 12 it says,
  • “While the king is at his table, My spikenard sendeth forth its fragrance”: it brings in what is mutual.

• The bride is near enough to the king to detect the sweetness of his ointments, but then, there is the response from her: “My spikenard,” that which gratifies the king’s heart.

• Mutual expressions of affection and appreciation between the Bridegroom and the bride follow, until she says,
  • “His left hand is under my head, And his right hand doth embrace me”, chapter 2: 6 – the setting of all that is within the palace.

• So in Psalm 45 we have the palace, and the queen at his right hand in gold of Ophir. What glory belongs to her as inside the palace with the king, the object of his heart!

• It is wonderful to think that He desires to be everything to us in our circumstances, in order that we should be drawn over into His circumstances, to be available to His heart, to be engaged with His glory.

• She is not unsuitable to be there, for “All glorious is the king’s daughter within”; i.e. in the royal apartments. She is fitted to be there as companion to the king.

• But if we are not subject to the Lord in our circumstances, we shall never be free to pass over into His. There is no insubject will in the palace of the king.

• If we are to enter into the blessedness of our part there, it implies complete subjection to the Lord in our circumstances here.

• If this subjection exists we shall experience the joy and gladness in verse 16.
  • “With joy and gladness shall they be brought; they shall enter into the king’s palace”.

• It is in that glorious setting that bridal affections – the affections of the Bridegroom and the bride are satisfied; the Beloved is the King.

God's Portion

Now just a word as to Psalm 110. It is necessary to say before speaking of this Psalm, that Hebrews, which particularly develops the glory of Christ as the anti-type of Melchisedec, emphasises that God’s King is God’s Son.

• We have spoken of the Lord’s moral glories and of His official glories as King, as Warrior, in connection with the throne and sceptre, and lastly, within the Palace.

• What He is personally enters into all that; what underlies all is His personal glory in Manhood as Son. God’s King is no less than God’s Son.

Another truth stressed in Hebrews is that God’s King is God’s Priest.

• The kingly and priestly thoughts are not separated even as regards the saints, for in Revelation 1: 6, we read
  • “And hath made us kings and priests unto God and His Father”.

• What a wonderful contemplation, that God’s King is God’s Priest! It ensures that God will get His portion.

• So that everything the King does in a military way, and all that He does as occupying the throne and wielding the sceptre, is in view of God getting His portion.

• We are told that at the end “he gives up the kingdom to him who is God and Father … that God may be all in all”, 1 Corinthians 15: 28.

• That is what you would expect Him to do, because the King is the Son, and the Son ever considers for the Father. Everything the King secures is for God’s pleasure. He always has that in mind.

• It says in Hebrews 1: 5, “I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son”.

• How wonderful for God to have His Son as King and Priest upon the throne!

The Lord Jesus, in securing us down here under His authority, and then bringing us into His circumstances, into the glory and blessedness of the palace, has always in view that God should have His portion.

• The opening verse of this Psalm particularly applies to the present time.
  • “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool”.

• The Lord has not yet taken His own throne, but is sitting at God’s right hand. Hebrews views Him there and shews that His great occupation is to lead a priestly company in to God.

• He secures us in our affections as worshippers of Himself, for “He is thy Lord; and worship thou Him”, Psalm 45: 11, with a view to leading us in to God, and this Psalm brings out the attractiveness of the position in this respect.

“Thy people shall be willing” – or ‘voluntary offerings!’ see footnote – “in the day of thy power in holy splendour: from the womb of the morning shall come to thee the dew of thy youth”, Psalm 110: 3.

• We anticipate the day of His power, as He secures our affections wholly for Himself, and it is His delight then to turn our hearts Godward, so that we become ‘voluntary offerings’ in the day of His power, in holy splendour.
  • What a conception! Christ leading His own in to God, in holy splendour!

• The whole scene is marked by perennial freshness “from the womb of the morning shall come to thee the dew of thy youth”.

• It speaks primarily of Christ Himself as coming out of death, for His death is the womb of the morning. He goes in to God with the dew of perennial youth upon His brow, as leading all those who are the fruit of His death.
  • “Except a grain of wheat falling into the ground die, it abides alone; but if it die, it bears much fruit”, John 12: 24.

• So the whole scene is marked by youthful freshness. As Christ’s brethren we never grow old; the dew of perennial youth is on His brow and on ours, as in holy splendour He leads us in to God.

• So the Psalm goes on, “The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec”, verse 4.

• The One who can lead a company in, is “made … after the power of an endless life”, Hebrews 7: 16.

• I think we need to give attention to Christ as of the Melchisedec order of priesthood.

• Melchisedec is the first priest mentioned in Scripture. In the chapter where he is introduced kings are mentioned for the first time – four kings against five, Genesis 14.

• But God brings forward His King, – King of righteousness and King of peace – Priest of the most high God. He is the summing up of what we have had tonight.

Luke 1: 32 says “He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest”.

• The Lord Jesus is the Son of the Most High, of whom Melchisedec was a type, and at the end of Luke He leaves a priestly company praising and blessing God.

May the Lord help us to see His glory.

But while the chapters have features in common, I wish to bring before you tonight the particular feature stressed in each passage.

1. In the first passage we are told “He is the head of the body, the assembly” Colossians 1: 18.

   This glorious Person is the Head of the body, the assembly; and, for a type, we must go back to Adam.

   Christ, in Colossians 1, is presented as One who entirely supersedes Adam, for He is “firstborn of all creation”, in virtue of His being the Creator, and as such He is presented as Head.

2. In the second passage, John 1, He is presented as the Word, and what is in view as in John’s gospel generally, is dwelling conditions for Divine Persons – home conditions.

   So He is introduced as the Word; the One who is the expression of all that is suitable to Divine Persons, the whole mind of God.

   For typical teaching we have to turn to Exodus. All types fall very far short, and a great deal has to be learnt by contrast, as in John 1: 17 “For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ”.

   Nevertheless Moses secured dwelling conditions for God by bringing in the mind of God – God’s word – so far as it could be known at that time.

   But in Jesus, “the Word”, we have the mind of God in a perfect way. All that came in previously pales into insignificance beside Him, yet it is valuable as a type.

3. Hebrews 1 particularly stresses that He is the Son, “God … has spoken to us in the person of the Son”. All the early part of the chapter emphasises that:
   • “For to which of the angels said he ever, Thou art my Son: this day have I begotten Thee? and again I will be to him for father, and he shall be to me for son?”, verse 5.

   What is specially in view in this epistle is to secure the service of praise; what we might speak of as public, priestly service worthy of God, worthy of the One who has spoken “in Son”.

   So that Hebrews stresses that God’s King, and God’s Priest is God’s Son:

   • Put those three thoughts together, the priestly and kingly offices now held by the Son, and you can be sure that public priestly service will be secured. For a type we must go to Solomon.

Colossians

I believe the first passage is basic, having to do with the relation between Christ and the assembly;

• and unless that relation is entered into by the saints, dwelling conditions will not be secured for God, nor conditions for priestly service.

• It is a great thing to see, dear brethren, that in securing and establishing the relations between Christ and the church, God secures all He is seeking for Himself.

• So that, at the end, when John “saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven, from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”, Revelation 21: 2, he heard a loud voice saying
  • “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men”.

• In that vessel “prepared as a bride adorned for her husband”, and thus presented as primarily for Christ, God has secured dwelling conditions for Himself.

• Then when the city is presented in its glory as “the bride, the Lamb’s wife”, verse 9, we are told
  • “His” i.e., God’s “servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face; and his name is on their foreheads”, chapter 22: 4.

• It refers to priestly service worthy of God’s great name. It shews how important it is that we should understand in some measure the greatness of Christ as Head of the body, the assembly.

The Spirit of God has in mind in Colossians 1 to bring the greatness of Christ before our hearts in such a way as to exclude every other object.

• If we are to know the blessedness of the relationship between Christ and the assembly, He Himself in His greatness must be before our hearts so as to exclude every rival.

• In Luke 22: 19, He says “This is my body which is given for you”, a presentation calculated to secure the church wholly for Himself.

• If we entered into it we should never look to any other source for wisdom, light, food or for anything we need spiritually.

• That is one great point in Colossians, to save christians from looking anywhere else for the satisfaction of their souls, or for the meeting of their spiritual needs.

Christ is presented as “image of the invisible God”. Adam was created in God’s image, and after His likeness, but here we have the One of whom Adam was but a figure.

• God is perfectly expressed in this blessed One who is “image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation”.

• Christ is firstborn in rank, far exceeding any other man who ever has been or will be, born into this world, and for this reason, that “all things have been created by him, and for him”. Think of the marvel of it!

• The One in whom all things were created. “In him” suggests that they not only exist by Him, but that He maintains them (verse 16 first clause, see note New Translation).

• One so great as that, coming into the creation, must necessarily be firstborn,
  • “because by him were created all things, the things in the heavens and the things upon the earth, the visible and invisible”.

• I want you to contemplate the greatness of Christ as Creator. The creation came into being by His act, and only subsists by His power.

• To secure His church He stepped into His own creation, and He must be firstborn of it. It is not only material thrones or lordships, or principalities or authorities: “all things have been created by him and for him”.

• Great positions of authority are occupied by men and by angels, but Christ created those offices and positions. Christ created kingship: He created every form of authority.

• It is wonderful to think that there are lordships, principalities and authorities created by Christ and for Him.
  • And He will yet fill them out as the Head of all principality and authority. He only can fill them according to God.

Another marvellous thing is, that since sin came into the creation and marred, not only the visible things, but the invisible also,

• the Lord Jesus, of whom it says, “in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell”,

• went into death, that by the blood of His cross everything that he had created might be reconciled to God.

• He effects reconciliation in order that He might fill the whole scene and every office Himself. What a marvellous Person!
  • Reconciliation has been carried out by Him in accordance with all the fulness of the Godhead, which dwelt in Him.

• Public reconciliation is still to come, but we have already received the reconciliation: “And you … now has it reconciled”.

• He is, even now, “head of the body, the assembly”, and He is Head of all principality and authority, although He has not yet taken up that headship publicly.

• The great truth of the moment is that “He is the head of the body”: there is a company on this earth who already know Him as Head. They know Him as no other company ever will, or can do, because they are His body.

Now as I said earlier, in Adam we get a type of this. God created him in his image, and in one sense, he was firstborn of all creation.

• He was given dominion over every form of life, but he was head of Eve in a peculiar way for, as the woman, she was really his body.
  • “This time it is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh: this shall be called woman, because this was taken out of a man”, Genesis 2: 23.

• His headship of the woman was different from his headship of any other part of creation, because she was his body.

• The presentation of Christ as Head of the body, the assembly, is intended to exclude from our minds every other object.

• I am not referring to the objects of our natural affection, but to any object which might dominate our affections, or to which we might look as a source of supply.

• Having Christ as Head, the assembly is independent of every other source of spiritual supply.
  • In Colossians 2: 9 we read, “For in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him”, or ‘filled full’ in Him.

• Saints in the gain of that could not turn to any other source, for they would be full. This is normal christianity. The assembly is filled full in Him, so that there is room for nothing else.

Eve is a warning to us. She was complete in Adam; her safety lay in not going outside of Adam for advice or counsel, or anything else,

• but she turned aside to listen to Satan’s advice which was, in principle, “philosophy and vain deceit”, and she did not hold fast her head, and the result was the fall.

• In christendom a similar thing has happened; the church has departed from “the simplicity as to the Christ”, and has relied on human ability and turned to great men and their counsel.

• What a disaster has come into christendom! What an awful state of things it is! That which professedly has Christ as head, has come to such a point that, in general, Christ is the last Person they turn to.

• It speaks of being deluded by “persuasive speech”, verse 4; indeed all the things mentioned in this chapter by way of warning are rampant around us today and Christ is displaced.

• Men have become vainly puffed up by the mind of their flesh as a result of ‘not holding fast the head’.

• We have to guard that nothing outside of Christ should have place in the minds and affections of the saints in our localities.

• This presentation of Christ should so fill us with Himself and His glory, that we could not tolerate the thought of going outside of Him for anything.

• What could we need or desire that cannot be found in Him in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily? And we are filled full in Him. This is a vital point in our assembly relations.

• It involves the truth of the mystery. It is mysterious to nature; man in the flesh cannot understand it at all. It is the mystery “in which are hid all the treasures of wisdom and of knowledge”, verse 3.

The relations between Christ and the assembly are foundational and continuous.

• As we yield to Him, and He becomes exclusively our Resource as Head, we may be sure God will secure His portion. As it says in Ephesians 3: 19,
  • “to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”.

• And the result is glory to God in the assembly, “unto all generations of the age of ages!”. God secures His end.

John

In the gospel of John the Lord Jesus is presented as “the Word” and the whole setting is fraught with the most tender affections.

• What we might almost call the ‘home-life’ of Divine Persons is brought into view, God having in mind that we should come into it and that He would thus secure dwelling conditions down here.

• If these dwelling conditions are to be secured, we need to appreciate the Lord Jesus as the Word, that is, as the One in whom all that is precious to God, the whole divine mind about man, is seen.

• If He is to have dwelling conditions amongst His own, it must be in conditions suited to Him, and we see that which delights His heart set out livingly in Christ.

• The greatness of the Person is brought before us:
  • “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”.

• This presentation is intended to impress upon us His perfect ability to declare all the mind of God, for He was with God and was God.

• He makes the disclosure from the place of infinite affections into which He has come as Man, from the bosom of the Father;
  • “the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him”.

• The apostles beheld his glory, “a glory as of an only-begotten with a father”, with a view to their coming into the circle of divine affections in their measure. His place, of course, is ever unique.

In connection with His work, the chapter speaks of “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world”, an expression intended to call out our tenderest affection. It corresponds with what we get in Exodus – a lamb for a father’s house.

• The passover lamb had dwelling conditions for God in view, and God had His House, the Father’s house in view, in giving His Lamb.

• As the two disciples of John followed Him, verse 38, they say, “Where abidest thou?” He says, “Come and see”.

• “The Word” in John’s gospel implies that every feature delightful to God is to be seen in Him. He would invite us to come and see where He abides;
  • to see Him in His relations with the Father, so that we might ourselves be brought into accord with the dwelling place of Divine love.

To refer again to Moses, in the measure in which God could be known at that time Moses had declared Him and revealed His mind,

• not only in the covenant, but also in communicating the pattern which he had seen on the mount.

• He had seen expressed typically, conditions suitable for divine dwelling, and he communicated what he had seen to the people, in order that those conditions might be found amongst them; and that God might dwell with them.

• Now the Lord Jesus has come Himself; He is Himself the great pattern of all that is delightful to God.

• What is in mind in this gospel is that what is expressed in Himself should take effect in us, according to 1 John 2: 8, “which thing is true in Him and in you”,
  • so that God might dwell with us now, having in view the final state of which it is said “the tabernacle of God is with men”.

Hebrews

To pass on to Hebrews 1 and 2, these chapters have in view our serving God in great and glorious conditions.

• It says of the Son, “having made by himself the purification of sins, set himself down on the right hand of the greatness on high”.

• Colossians speaks of ‘fulness’ – that which can fill our hearts – which will fill a universe;
  • but here it is the ‘greatness’, another expression relating to Deity, suggesting the majesty and glory connected with it.

• The Lord Jesus is presented in chapter 2 as the Leader, bringing many sons to glory. It is not so much sonship in the home circle – dwelling conditions – but what sons are to God in their ability to serve Him according to His greatness as God.

• A human illustration of the two sides is seen in an earthly royal family. There is what the son is to his father in the home circle.
  • That is the private side, and the more it is entered into, the more the son would desire in public conditions to serve his father worthily, according to his greatness as king; to bring him the honour due to him.

• I believe that is the way it would work out with us. The more we know of home conditions, knowing God as Father, the more we would desire ability as true sons to bring to Him all that is due to Him as God.

• Our Father is God – the God who inhabits eternity; and the more we know Him in the inside place, the more we shall desire to serve Him acceptably in public priestly service.

• Revelation 21: 3 says “the tabernacle of God is with men”, yet it goes on to say, “I will be to him God, and he shall be to me son”, verse 7. Revelation, as a whole, has in view that the saints are to God as kings and priests.

• Even an earthly father desires his son to be worthy of him in the public position. He loves him in the secret affections of the home, and desires to see a corresponding answer publicly.

• So in the spiritual sphere there is the family side, but there is also what is due to God in public priestly service; the one underlies the other.

• Hebrews does not mention the name of Father, yet it is implied in that a Son is the Speaker.
  • The point in Hebrews is that God is speaking in Son; God has such a Son as this. What satisfaction God must have in that His King and His Priest is His Son!

• It is as such He brings many sons to glory, saying “In the midst of the assembly, will I sing thy praises”. Hebrews 2: 12.

• I understand the singing of praise to imply public priestly service. It is meant to be heard: “Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me”. Psalm 50: 23.

• Solomon is the Son, in type. He built the house, and established the public service of God, and when the trumpeters and singers were as one in praising Jehovah, the glory of Jehovah filled the house of God, 2 Chronicles 5: 13-14.

While the service Godward in its highest character belongs to the assembly as convened, yet we are exhorted to offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, Hebrews 13: 15.

• The more we know of home conditions, the more we shall desire to give to God, as God, the honour due to His Name, morning, noon and night, in prayer, praise and thanksgiving as a holy priesthood: and in speaking to men of His excellencies, as a royal priesthood.

• All this was in view when the Lord Jesus “sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high”. He has secured for God sons serving Him as kingly priests both in assembly service and “continually”.

• We have had brought before us of late, the importance in our priestly service of holding in our affections every name by which God is known. That enters into this matter. Those who truly love Him will desire to give Him what is due in every respect.

• It says “God … spake in time past … by the prophets”. What was spoken “in time past” is not ignored, but is gathered up now in the Son, who is “the effulgence” or out-shining “of His glory, and the expression of His substance”.

• The outshining of God’s glory, and the expression of His substance in the Son fills out the names by which He made Himself known in the past, in a marvellous way.

• The outshining of His glory is more connected with His attributes. Glory enlightens, it makes everything plain. His righteousness, mercy and grace, as also His power, came to light in the Son who is the outshining of His glory.

• But then He is “the expression of His substance”, the expression of what He is in His essential Being, and that is Love, for God is love. I commend that to you, that He is the expression of His substance.

• The name Jehovah means the Eternally Unchanging One, the “I am that I am”; but He did not tell them what He was. But now that the Son has come, who is the expression of His substance, Jehovah, for us, means One who is eternal, unchanging Love.

• Similarly the name Almighty now conveys Almighty Love. So if we think of Elohim, the Creator, or the Most High – what might be termed God’s political title, the expression of His substance in the Son gives these names a fulness which they could not possess in earlier times.

• Whatever way He spake in time past is now filled out by the coming in of the Son, and God looks to us who are brought into relationship with Him through the Son, to give Him His due in every way in which He has made Himself known.

• The more we enjoy sonship, the more we shall desire to do it. May the Lord help us for His Name’s sake!