But then there is the practical side as to being in accord with these ministries: if we have come to the judgment that Paul came to;

• if for us “the old things have passed away”, and “all things have become new”;

• if we are with God in His judgments, then we shall put them into practical effect. And so he is beseeching the Corinthians.

• He does not say here he is commanding, he is not at this point threatening them with what might happen, but as fellow workmen they are beseeching them
  • “that ye receive not the grace of God in vain”.

• But in this connection in verses 11 to 13, he brings in the great thought of expansion.

• The ministries he has brought before them – the gospel of the glory, and reconciliation and new creation – if understood, would lead to great expansion of heart.

• They had become narrowed up: we are all in danger of being narrowed up and parochial, There were a large number of saints in Corinth –
  • “I have much people in this city”, Acts 18: 10

• – but in result they were not looking beyond their borders, and they were puffed up. To be puffed up means to be narrowed up.

• But Paul is bringing these ministries before them in order to bring about expansion of heart. His previous letter had had some effect, so he says,
  • “Our mouth is opened to you, Corinthians, our heart is expanded”.

• He was not so restricted as he had been in speaking to them – the fact that he could bring these ministries before them shows that he was not so restricted as he had been.

• He felt there was a state to take in things, which had not previously existed. But now, having put these things before them, he says,
  • “but for an answering recompense – I speak as to children – let your heart also expand itself”, verse 13.

• As our heart expands itself in the gospel of the glory, and in the ministry of reconciliation, which brings to us the longings of the heart of God –
  • what a price He has paid to have man for Himself

• – and in an apprehension of new creation – as our hearts expand themselves in those things – the practical answer in our conduct here will become simple.

H.J.M. Is there some indication of what is in your heart and mind at the moment in Isaiah 60?

• “Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee”, Isaiah 60: 1.

• Then, “Lift up thine eyes round about, and see” the numbers gathering together, verse 4.

• “Then thou shalt see, and shalt be brightened, and they heart shall throb, and be enlarged”, verse 5.

G.R.C. That is helpful. Paul was ministering to them in order that the glory might indeed shine upon them, and then they were to shine:

• “Arise, shine! for thy light is come, and the glory of Jehovah is risen upon thee”.

• I trust it rose upon us yesterday as we were speaking about these things. Then there is the testimony:
  • “Jehovah will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen on thee”, verse 2,

• in the midst of darkness. Then you were thinking of verse 4:
  “Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee”.

• And that is what we would desire, that we might be such exponents of the truth that we hold, so in keeping with God’s dwelling, that our joy might be full –
  • and in that connection God’s joy will exceed ours so that others may gather themselves to us.

• Then, as you point out, it says,
  • “thy heart shall throb, and be enlarged; for the abundance of the sea shall be turned unto thee”.

• We want results in the gospel; we want expanding hearts and throbbing hearts.

R.P. Does the heave-offering of Exodus 25 bear on this?

• There is the Divine side in Exodus 15, “The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared”, verse 17,

• and then the practical side, as you say, in the bringing of the materials in chapter 25.

G.R.C. Yes, I think so. Chapter 25, properly, in the New Testament would be Romans 12, where those in the liberty of sonship according to chapter 8 gladly bring the material. Paul beseeches us there.

• But there are the willing-hearted who bring the material. The material is our bodies. We need all of our bodies to work out the truth of the one body in Christ, and that is the basis of all that is collectively for Christ and for God.

• It is the basis of the tabernacle system, among other things, in its reality, that we bring our bodies – that is the material. And it is one great heave-offering. It is spoken of as one heave-offering in Exodus 25, and
  • “a living sacrifice” in Romans 12.

• We present our bodies – that is, all of our bodies – as one great living sacrifice for one specific purpose, primarily. The primary thing is immediately spoken about in the chapter.
  • “Thus we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”, Romans 12: 5.

• The Apostle has to remind the Corinthians of that in his first epistle. He says,
  • “Do ye not know that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you”? 1 Corinthians 3: 16;

  • “Do ye not know that your bodies are members of Christ”? 1 Corinthians 6: 15;

  • “Do ye not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have of God”, 1 Corinthians 6: 19.

• It may be in some degree they had brought the great heave-offering, but they had not maintained that devotion, and their bodies were being used for other things.

• We have to be careful about our bodies, and what we use them for, for our bodies are primarily to be used in functioning in the one body in Christ, so that Christ gets His portion from the assembly and God gets His.

R.P. It says in Exodus 25, “And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”, verse 8.

G.R.C. Exactly. The beginning of that in Christianity is the one body in Christ.

• That is the foundation, both of all corporate response to Christ, and of the dwelling place of God.

• Because, after all, “the body of Christ” is another view of the house of God, or the dwelling of God– in fact, it is a basic view.

• The bride, the Lamb’s wife, is seen in Revelation as the city and the tabernacle of God.

A.G. Would you say a word as to being “fellow-workmen” with the apostle? It seems that there should be no disparity between the workmen and their work. The “accepted time” seems to be connected, does it, with that?

G.R.C. Yes. It is very important that the ambassadors should have proper ambassadorial garments, and you see that in all circumstances Paul never soiled his ambassadorial garments. It is put in the plural here,

• “We are ambassadors”.

• So this is not exclusively Paul. It is for us all to see that our garments are right –
  • “in everything commending ourselves as God’s ministers”.

C. What is the difference between the “one body in Christ” and the “body of Christ”?

G.R.C. “One body in Christ” is the initial conception – that is in Romans 12:

• “we, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”, verse 5

• – and the initial test of body relations lies in that expression “each one members one of the other”.

• Romans 12 is to teach us to have respect for one another, because God has dealt to each a measure of faith for action in the body.

• Every brother and sister has got a measure of faith dealt by God to enable them to act in the body.

• It is not justifying faith, it is faith for action, in the body, and every brother and sister has a measure of faith which is different from my measure.

• And we are to encourage one another, not rival one another, but encourage one another as “each one members one of the other”. That is the Romans view.

• But in Corinthians it is not so much our relations with one another –
  • although that is still there, but it is supposed that the teaching of Romans deals with that

• – Corinthians deals with our relations with the Spirit.

• If we are right with one another, now the thing is to be right with the Holy Spirit, and to make way for His manifestations through the members of the body.

• And it is in that setting, where the Spirit is viewed as operating and manifesting Himself through the members of the body, that it is first called, the body of Christ –
  • “Now ye are Christ’s body”, 1 Corinthians 12: 27

C. Is unity and what is corporate in mind in Romans?

G.R.C. That is corporate – “One body in Christ” is corporate.

C. That would deliver us from independence.

G.R.C. Exactly. We need to see that the great heave-offering which our brother has referred to – the presentation of our bodies as one great living sacrifice –

• is primarily that we should each and all be functioning in our place in the one body in Christ;

• and learning, as to Corinthians, to be on good terms with the Spirit in that connection, so that He might be free in His manifestations through the members of the body.

• Then, if we are free with one another and free with the Spirit, it makes way for Colossians, where we learn the place the Head has, that He is the Head of the body, the assembly.

• But we cannot get the gain of Christ as Head unless we are first right with one another, and then right with the Holy Spirit.

• Then we get the gain of the Head. Then Ephesians develops what that vessel is as the great vessel of response to Christ and to God.

C. Would Ephesians take in the whole of the saints from Pentecost to the rapture?

G.R.C. In some passages it might include them. It is the assembly according to purpose,

• “the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Ephesian 1: 23.

• Chapter 5 shows what the assembly is to Christ personally – how He loves it, how He did love it and deliver Himself up for it, and how He loves it now in leaving other things to be united to it.

• But then chapter 1 shows what it is as His consort, His helpmate, His like –

• but chapter 3 shows what it is to God. So does the end of chapter 2,
  • “a habitation of God in the Spirit”,

• and chapter 3, the marvellous vessel of God’s praise.

G.A. What have you in mind in speaking of our being on good terms with the Holy Spirit?

G.R.C. Well that is just what the Corinthians lacked. They were babes in Christ because they were occupied with big men. Men filled their vision, leaders.

• But the apostle brings before them the manifestations of the Spirit through the members of the body, in chapter 12, and brings in the sovereign will of the Spirit, that He distributes to each in particular as He pleases – not as we please.

• The body is a matter of sovereignty, and that is why we must be in the gain of sonship to accept truly our place in the body.

• In sonship we are all firstborn, but in the body we each have a different place according to divine sovereignty, not according to our choice.

• And if we are not in the gain of sonship, we are in grave danger of quarrelling with the place God has given us in the body.

• Indeed, if we are not free from the big ‘I’, we shall bring ourselves into the picture, and grieve the Spirit.

• But the great point was that the Corinthians should be right in their relations, not only with one another, but with the Holy Spirit. So in the second epistle it speaks about
  • “the Lord, the Spirit”, 2 Corinthians 3: 18.

L.F. Is there anything for us following that in this twofold reference in the second verse to the

• “day of salvation”

• having a bearing on what you are saying – and there might be wrought out in us the complete sense of deliverance and liberty and freedom, and of all that is involved in the thought of “a day of salvation”?

G.R.C. Yes, and the great point in verse 2 is that God is listening. What is He going to hear?

• “I have listened to thee in an accepted time”, verse 2.

• Now what is God going to hear? Whom is He listening to?

C.R.J. It says, “thee”, does it not?

G.R.C. “I have listened to thee”. If you look at the scripture in Isaiah, it refers to Him listening to Christ. In Isaiah 49, verse 8, it is speaking of

• “His Holy One”, “to him whom man despiseth”, verse 1.

• “Thus saith Jehovah: In a time of acceptance have I answered thee, and in the day of salvation have I helped thee; and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; saying to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves”.

• Now that indicates to me, since the primary reference is to Christ, that the application of it here is that He is listening to the priesthood. He is listening to the saints.

W.J.H. Moses said, “Jehovah listened to me” at a certain point, did he not? It is a wonderful thing to get the divine ear in that way.

G.R.C. It is. It ought to affect us to think that God is listening. This is

• “an accepted time” and “a day of salvation”.

• God is willing to do most marvellous things in this accepted time, this day of salvation.

• It is the great day of reconciliation, effected according to 2 Corinthians 6: 2. It is the great day of reconciliation,
  • “the acceptable year of the Lord”,

• as we may say. God is ready to do great things, and He says, ‘I am listening to you in this accepted time. What are you asking Me to do?’

D.J.M. The Lord’s words on the cross, “Father forgive them” – could we bring that in?

G.R.C. I am sure we could.

D.J.M. And how the malefactor was evidently affected, and also was heard?

G.R.C. Yes, I am sure we could bring that in. How that God listened to the Lord –

• “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”

• – and how the prayer was answered!

• But now God is listening. What does He hear in our daily approaches? We have spoken of entering the holiest, and then praying. What does he hear?

• He is listening. What does He hear in our prayer meetings? God is listening.

A.I. The word in Isaiah 62: 6,

• “I have set watchmen upon thy walls, Jerusalem; all the day and all the night they shall never hold their peace: ye that put Jehovah in remembrance, keep not silence, and give him no rest, till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth”.

G.R.C. Well, that is a very fine scripture. We should give God no rest until He prospers the assembly, as we might say, in every way.

M.R. A solemn contrast, is there not, in Jeremiah 7: 16,

• “And thou, pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, and make not intercession to me; for I will not hear thee”.

G.R.C. Yes, that is a terrible thing. That is perhaps like a time that is coming, when this day of salvation is over. God will no longer be listening in this respect.

• But we need expansion of heart to take advantage of the fact that God is listening to us. Are our prayers large enough for a day of salvation, an accepted time? Are we in sympathy with the heart of God?

V.D. This will help us, will it not, in view of this evening? Much prayer there will be in the households in this city this evening.

G.R.C. Yes, I am sure it will help us.

W.B.H. Would you care to open up a little more the scripture in Isaiah 49 from which this is quoted, and what the purpose of the listening is?

G.R.C. I think it is that we are living in the accepted time and the day of salvation, the day when reconciliation is effected, and in one way there is no limit to what God is prepared to do.

• He expects us to ask largely, and He is listening because He is pleased to move in relation to the priesthood here.

• The Corinthians were fearfully narrowed up. I expect if we had gone to their prayer meetings, we should have been alarmed and amazed – and perhaps we are now, sometimes, in prayer meetings.

• And perhaps if we weigh over what our morning and evening prayers are at home, we should be alarmed and amazed at how narrowed up they are, that there is no expansion about them.

• Our hearts have not yet expanded as to the greatness of the present moment, when the gospel of the glory is sounding out, and the world is in provisional reconciliation, and God’s outlook upon all men is favourable.

C.A. Would the word in Acts 4, confirm what you are saying as to God hearing?

• “And when they had prayed, the place in which they were assembled shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and spoke the word of God with boldness”, verse 31.

• Would that not have been well known in the then assembly history, of how God had listened and had responded?

G.R.C. Yes, and it should be our daily and weekly experience. God is listening, but are the prayers worth listening to?

• Are the prayers centering in ourselves and our circumstances? Are the prayers centering in a self-complacent attitude as to our own local meeting, like they were at Corinth?

• They were very satisfied with themselves – nobody else was. God was not.

• We can be very satisfied with ourselves when nobody else is, and our prayers just centre round ourselves.

• Whether we think of our personal matters, or our family matters, or our local meeting matters, our prayers circle round and round these things,
  • instead of our hearts expanding in the love and the glory of God, according to the ministries we have been speaking about – instead of our going into His presence and getting His outlook.

• If we go into God’s presence and get His outlook, we shall get expansion, and our prayers will take character from the expansion of outlook, and expansion of emotion and feeling that we get in the very presence of God.

• We shall begin to ask in the way God wants us to ask. He is listening; He wants to hear something He would like to hear.

S.E.E. Expansion would not take in less than what Paul exhorts, “for all saints” in Ephesians, and for “all men” in 1 Timothy.

G.R.C. Exactly. The two altars were square. It is not simply that the measurements tell us they were square;

• the Holy Spirit not only gives us the measurement which show they were square,
  • but says of the altar of burnt offering, that it was to be “square” and of the altar of incense that it was to be “square” and again, when they are constructed, it is repeated.

• Of each altar, it says it was “square”, Exodus 38: 1 and 37: 25; and of the breast-plate, it says it was “square”, Exodus 39: 9. That means a universal outlook.

• That is, as you say, prayer “for all saints”, constantly, prayer for “all men”, prayer for “kings and all in dignity”;
  • and to have expansion of heart in the way we are praying, as those who know what it is to be in the presence of glory, in its radiant expression,

• and as those who are in tune with the longings of the heart of God who has effected reconciliation.

S.E.E. For God “desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth”, 1 Timothy 2: 4. That remains, does it?

G.R.C. It does. And He desires that “all saints” should be in the truth.

W.B.H. In that regard I would like to refer back to Isaiah 49. I do not know whether we have ‘got’ what you are getting at.

• In the 8th and 9th verses of Isaiah 49, you spoke about it that Jehovah is answering the rejected Messiah, is He?

G.R.C. Yes.

W.B.H. And He says that He wil

• “give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the land”

• and so on – and so that He can say to the prisoners, “Go forth”.

• Do I gather that you are applying this to the ministers, such as Paul here, who goes on to outline the sufferings that enter into his service, leading up to the deliverance of the Corinthians in the latter part of the chapter?

G.R.C. Yes, and having in mind the deliverance of all saints from Babylon at the present time.

• I am not saying they will be all delivered before the Lord comes, but surely there should be no less in our minds and hearts than the deliverance of saints from anything that is holding them in captivity;
  • and the salvation of men, too, and operations in government in Russia and everywhere, that will further the testimony.

• Why do we not go to God about these things? He is listening, and He acts relative to the requests of the priesthood.

• It gives Him a moral ground for action, as we say, when the priests ask Him to do something which He would love to do, as it were, and which He has a moral right to do, because it is the day of reconciliation.

• I have often wondered why there should be an ‘Iron Curtain’ in this “accepted day”, this “day of salvation”.

• We can understand these things happening when the church is gone, but why should they be there when the church is here? Are we interceding? Are we quiescent about these things?

• What about Rome, and the inroads she is making? Are we in our minds and hearts just allowing “the woman Jezebel”? The Lord says,
  • “But I have against thee that thou permittest the woman Jezebel”, Revelation 2: 20.

• We see Rome making strides, but what are we doing about it? God says, “I have listened to thee”.

N. Is it a matter as to how much room and place we are able to give to the Holy Spirit?

G.R.C. Well, that is a great point in the matter. We should give place to the Holy Spirit, and apprehend, by entering the presence of God, the outshining of glory and the feelings of His heart.

• But our hearts should expand themselves. It will be in the power of the Spirit, but it will not be without our using the power of the Spirit to enter the presence of God and get His viewpoint and His feelings.

R.P. Does Solomon’s prayer in 1 Kings 8 show the largeness of heart that God had given him? It follows the coming in of the glory.

G.R.C. Yes, I think so. And so, as Mr. B.H. says, it is applied by extension to the ministers, because Paul quotes the earlier part of Isaiah 49,

• “I have given thee for a light of the nations”, verse 6,

• which there again refers to Christ primarily, in the 13th chapter of Acts as applying to himself and those with him – verse 47.

• And here in 2 Corinthians he is applying the later part of the chapter, “I have listened to thee”. God was listening to Paul, undoubtedly, and Silas and Timothy,
  • but I think Paul here is wanting the Corinthians to come into it, because while the ministers are primarily in mind, I think in this assembly day God is concerned about the whole priesthood.

• The Corinthians were not in priestly state and expansion of heart; there was nothing very much, I am sure, that God could find pleasure in listening to, in their prayer meetings.

S.E.E. There are prayers for the ministers, too. In the passage referred to in Ephesians 6, after praying “for all the saints”, the apostle Paul adds:

• “and for me in order that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth to make known with boldness the mystery of the glad tidings”, Ephesians 6: 19.

• How far can we go in praying for persons who are preaching the gospel? I mean, apart from ourselves. We pray for you, here; we pray for other brethren whom we know and can walk with.

• How far can we go in expansion in relation to God’s desires for all men in praying for others who are preaching the gospel?

G.R.C. I would pray that wherever Christ is preached, wherever that Name is proclaimed, that God would use it in blessing.

• I would supplicate Him continually for that, that every proclamation of the glorious Name should be used by Him in blessing.

• God over abounds in grace and uses it in blessing, and we pray for that.

• We pray for wherever Christ is preached, as Paul would, as he indicates in Philippians 1, that even if people were preaching out of contention, he rejoiced and would rejoice as long as Christ was preached.

• So that we rejoice that Christ is preached, and in this wonderful day of reconciliation, sovereignly, God may use any preacher to reach souls – that is His matter.

F.R.G. Would you be free to say a little more as to what you had in mind in regard to the Government of Russia – our prayers in relation to that?

G.R.C. Well, the Sadducees were the priestly class of old, and the Lord warns us against the leaven of the Sadducees – of unbelief.

• We have referred to that in connection with the service of God –
  • it can only be carried on in faith, in the recognition of the Spirit’s presence and the presence of Christ, the Minister of the holy places

• – but it also applies to prayer.

• Prayer can become a formality, with no real faith in it; but God says, “I have listened to thee”, and He looks for those in the gain of the ministry as we have been speaking about to have great expansion of heart,
  • and to approach Him with great expansion of heart in prayer, knowing how to pray, intelligently, knowing what is needed for the testimony, knowing what His heart desires.

• I think we should learn to pray in faith and expect something to happen. There is nothing too hard for God. Things are happening all the time, prayers are being answered all the time. It is not a question of an occasional matter.

• Some people make a lot of it: ‘We prayed and the prayer was answered’ – as though it is most exceptional! Prayers are being answered every day of the week!

A.I. Daniel continued over a long period, some seventy years, in prayer.

G.R.C. Yes, but he specially prayed after he had read the books and knew the time was coming for release from captivity. He had special supplication then.

• Nevertheless, as you say, his window had been open to Jerusalem, three times a day – a wonderful thing. That was expansion of heart in relation to God and His interests.

A.I. I wondered if he had been in the understanding of God’s committal to Solomon.

• God pledged Himself that His eye should be on his house and His ear opened to the prayer made toward this place. God was committed to it, was He not?

G.R.C. I think so. And so Daniel’s window was open to Jerusalem three times a day.

• How he loved God, and loved what was precious to God, and cherished it in that day of weakness!

• But when he knew that the time was coming – because we should be intelligent, and Daniel became intelligent – then he made supplication.

• Supplication is something urgent and specific, something urgently needed at the moment.

• In the prayers of Ephesians 6 for the saints, and in the prayers of 1 Timothy 2, “supplication” is mentioned in both. It says in Ephesians 6,
  • “praying at all seasons, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching unto this very thing with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.

• Then as to men and kings and all that are in dignity, it begins with “supplications”, 1 Timothy 2: 1.
  • “Supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings”

• – suggesting that we ought to know how and what to pray about as to Russia; not just a generalised prayer.

• If we are priests, we surely have some intelligence to know how and what to pray for – what to supplicate about.

• “Supplication” means that you know what you want, and you are urgent about it.

B. So would you say that most of us here understand the presence of the Spirit down here amongst us in the assembly and in the world is restraining forces of evil, continuously; thereby we have peaceful settings in our meetings, and so on.

• But now, in view of what you have been saying in regard to prayer, should we pray more incessantly in relation to matters at which we often look and say, ‘We wonder how that is allowed’.

• The enemy is breaking through – even in regard to ourselves. Should we be more incessant in prayer relative to the Spirit in His restraining force here?

G.R.C. I think the restraining power of the Spirit is largely exercised through the saints.

• He is dwelling in the saints, dwelling in the assembly, and our prayers have an important place in the matter of the Spirit’s restraint at the present time, and in our testimony before men.

• Brothers now approaching authorities and setting out Christian truth, and the truth as to God and His rights – we do not know how far that influence extends.

• Men are brought face to face with this, that there is a God, and He has a people here, and that they are not prepared to compromise.

• Well, that is a great restraining power, and the Spirit would bring that home with conviction to rulers, if we are prepared to take our part in it.

• The Spirit’s restraint, I feel certain, stands related to His dwelling in the saints here, and our being available to Him, both for prayer and supplication in the Spirit and for testimony in the power of the Spirit. That restrains.

• Then, in answer to our prayers, there is angelic restraint. God can send an angel and alter the whole course of a country’s operations.
  • “He deposeth kings, and setteth up kings”, Daniel 2: 21.

D.J.M. Is that why it says in verse 6, “in … Holy Spirit”?

G.R.C. Yes, “in … Holy Spirit”.

J.N.G. Is there a tendency with us, referring to the ‘Iron Curtain’, as we speak of it, to think that matters in relation to that might lie more with those in Europe, whereas it is our matter.

G.R.C. It does not merely lie with those in Europe. It affects the whole world.

• It affects the saints in Europe, in their liberty in Eastern Germany and Russia,
  • but nevertheless it affects the saints all over the world, because it hinders our access to members of Christ’s body.

• Why should there be a hindrance of that kind? How long are we going to allow it, if you might put it thus?

• I know we have to leave God to have the last word as to what He does, but in some things it may be that we have let it go on; we have not been exercised about it.

J.N.G. We have heard about our brethren in the Ural Mountains, with whom we have not been able to be in touch for a long while. It may be it is our fault.

G.R.C. And then it is our fault, perhaps, in another way, because it seems evident that the Russian threat has been a necessary discipline for us.

• Whether we should be in the testimony at all, now, without it, is just a question.

• In the post war world of prosperity, with young people growing up, never having known what hard times are, like some of us have,
  • if there had not to be all this expense on armaments, and if there was not a Russian threat that might reach any country at any time,

• might not we have been carried away by
  • “pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease”, and got to the state of Sodom? – Ezekiel 16: 49.

• We have come out of Western civilization, which would answer more to Abraham’s coming out – Ur of the Chaldees was something like Paris in its culture; Abraham came out of that.

• So we have left Western civilization in principle, but the next thing Abraham and Lot were faced with was the other aspect of the world: “pride, fulness of bread, and careless ease”.

• Well, the Russian threat has helped us against that, and therefore our spiritual state may have something to do with how long God allows it. We should look to ourselves even from that point of view.

W.B.H. That may be why verses 14 to 18 of this chapter 6 are coming before us in a special way now.

• These associations that we have allowed ourselves to be involved in have largely involved us in, perhaps, economic positions that God may not be pleased with, and He is bringing in a measure of limitation now in separation, do you think?

G.R.C. Limitations in that respect mean expansion. Every link we have with the world, and any unclean association, means narrowness of heart.

• You cannot be in worldly association without to that extent being narrowed up.

• The freer we are from such things the more our hearts are free to expand themselves in the love of God and the presence of the glory.

• Therefore, the first thing is expansion of heart, and if we begin to get expansion of heart on the lines I am saying, we shall long to get free from everything that would narrow us up.

H.J.M. Was not one of the secrets of Daniel’s power with God the fact that he carried Jerusalem in his heart, on the one hand, but he was in separation from evil, fully, on the other – from every Babylonish principle?

G.R.C. That is very good indeed, because he was in a very high position in Babylon, and could easily have got into all kinds of yokes – no doubt was continually pressed to get into them – but he never did.

• He began by refusing the king’s meat, and he kept himself right through. At risk of his life, he kept himself right through.

• Yet he was not dismissed from his position, and that is what often happens. The world knows the value of a Christian, a man they can trust, who will work honestly and reliably for them.

• If you stand faithfully, often, though you may fear you will get dismissed, you find you are not. In the end, they will say, Well, we will have you on your terms.

• That is what happened to a brother in South Africa recently. He was tempted with a Directorship and so on, in a very big concern, but in the end they said, ‘You can have the job without the Directorship, we want you for the job’.

• And he said, ‘Well, you know I can’t have anything to do with social matters – entertaining’. They said, ‘You take the job on the terms that will please your God, and we shall be happy’.

D.A. Could you say a word as to the expression

• “the servant of rulers” in Isaiah 49: 7?

G.R.C. I cannot say I really understand that expression very well. It is referring to the Lord, of course, in the place of reproach, and that is where the saints are.

• We have to think of the saints at the present time as carrying the testimony, not the Lord Himself here, and really that is what the saints are – we are the servants of rulers as regards this world.

• We are not to aim at big positions in the great corporations of man. We are to be content with the place of servants, servants of rulers, and yet we are the kings and priests. We hold the highest office of anyone on earth.

• The office that the saints hold as a kingly priesthood is greater than any monarch, so that it is those who are greater than any monarch who approach God about monarchs.

• But then, we do not parade that; we are prepared, in our ordinary walk of life, to be the servant of rulers.

D.A. I wondered in that way if we had a responsibility to pray for them as serving them.

G.R.C. Well, I think we have a responsibility to pray for them as priests of God, not as serving.

• If you are actually employed, you could pray for your employer, but this is more general; it is not a question of my employer, or anybody else’s.

• It is a question of the office we are placed in. We have spoken of relationship and offices.

• Our relationship is that we are sons, and the office we are in is priests, and we are to exercise the office; and prayer is one of the ways in which we exercise the office.
  • We have access to the “King of those that reign and the Lord of those that exercise lordship”, at any time.

• We are His priests and the office we hold is greater than any office that is held on earth at the moment.

W.J.H. Would we be helped in the enlargement you referred to by seeing that in the book of Revelation

• the golden altar in one place is before the throne – the throne of God, really –

• and then in another place it is before God?

• Prayers are related to the throne of God and to God Himself.

G.R.C. That is very good, The golden altar before the throne, as you say, in one setting, and before God in another. What a place for the priests to serve!

• Do we value our privilege and responsibility in the priestly office? God is listening to what his priests have to say.

• Let us take this to heart, as to whether our prayers are worth God listening to. Are they in faith, or are they just a formality?

• We know that rulers ought to be prayed for on Monday night, so we get up and do it. That is not a prayer of faith.

G.A. Would you say that we have before us the divine standard as seen in Jesus, who in regard to His blessed prayers could say,

• “I know that thou hearest me always”?

• Would that not be the kind of outlook that God would wish to have towards His saints, that He might hear them always?

G.R.C. I think that is what 2 Corinthians 6 implies. God is listening. Wonderful that God should take that attitude – listening.

• “I have listened to thee in an accepted time”.

• Do we know the time we live in? What a wonderful time it is,
  • “the accepted time” and the “day of salvation”,

• the time when God is ready to be entreated! The work of Christ is finished; Christ is glorified in His presence; God is ready to be entreated.

C.E.J. Would you say a word following that, as to

• “I have helped thee”?

• Would that stand connected with what you have been saying as to God answering our prayers in faith, whether they be in relation to the saints in the Ural Mountains, or whether they be in regard of our individual business positions?

• I was thinking of what was said as to those who were in jobs that require the principle of separation being applied, so that they might be clear of any evil association.

G.R.C. Yes, I am sure all that enters into it.

• “I have helped thee in a day of salvation”.

• It would no doubt have a special reference to those serving in the ministry, especially like Paul, going out and enduring great hardships. But then, I believe it is to apply to all the saints. That is why it is brought in here.

• He is beseeching them that they receive not the grace of God in vain, He is beseeching them to answer to the responsibilities and privileges of the moment, and therefore this has an application to all the saints, that God would help us. In our prayers we would make it collective.

• “I have helped thee” refers initially to Christ, but now it would refer to the assembly. The assembly needs help; the saints in all parts of the world need help,
  • and this is the day to pray for their help, whether in ministry, or in the way of government – God operating in government to alleviate their circumstances – or in whatever way it may be.

• And then we must not leave out also the individual side, that our brother has referred to.

• If we are acting in faithfulness to God, with reference to what is due to Him and His house, as in the later part of the chapter, here we have the promise: “I have helped thee in a day of salvation”.

• God will surely help us.

J.C. John says, “And this is the boldness which we have towards him, that if we ask him anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have ask asked of him”, 1 John 5: 15.

G.R.C. Yes, I was thinking of that passage. That indicates again that he always hears us if we are in the right state.

• Our brother has said of the Lord, “I know that thou always hearest me”, because the Lord was always keeping His commandments.

• And so, according to John’s epistle, we can be privileged to have a similar certainty, if we ask, it says, according to His will – and we know His will.

• His will has been disclosed to us, and we should ask accordingly.

W.F. Does Hannah set that out?

G.R.C. Yes, Hannah would set that out in an individual way.

A.G. I was wondering if this was not of such great moment, that we have also the service in relation to intercession of not only the saints in a priestly way, but the Holy Spirit and the Lord Jesus Himself making intercession for us.

G.R.C. Quite so. Their intercession never fails, but we have to keep in mind that God moves relative to the intercession of the saints.

• I do not mean He does that only – He will move of Himself – but it is the way He delights to move. The way God delights to move is in answer to the intercession of the saints.

• So He waits upon us in many matters, as to what we would tell Him is needed; I feel sure of that.

J.C. So that God is waiting for us to pray on positive lines. Very often our prayers for rulers are almost negative, seeking restraint in certain matters which affect us, or the saints.

• But is God looking to us to speak to Him on positive lines in these matters?

G.R.C. We shall do if our hearts are expanded. The reference that Mr. E. made to praying for Paul, that he might have boldness to speak as he ought to speak is a positive matter.

• We ought to be praying continually that Paul’s ministry might have right-of-way with all the saints on earth.

• That is a big thing to ask, I know, but what I mean is that there should be an increasing right-of-way for Paul’s ministry among all the saints on earth.

• That should be a continual prayer and supplication; as its says in Colossians,
  • “that God may open to us a door of the word to speak the mystery of the Christ”, Colossians 4: 3.

• And that is what Christians need, that is what they do not understand “the mystery of the Christ”.

• You say, it is impossible to speak to them. But have you ever prayed about it? Have you prayed for God to open a door of the word?

• And the objective would be that in every place there should be offered incense to God’s name and a pure oblation. Malachi 1: 11.

• So we have a long way to go – there are ever so many places where it is not offered yet. We hear of one here and there – we are delighted – but there are a lot more places.

Ques. It says in Ephesians 3:

• “But to him that is able to do far exceedingly above all which we ask or think”, verse 20.

• Would we be encouraged by passages like that?

G.R.C. Yes, I am sure – as to what God can do.

• And now we ought to move on briefly to the later part of the chapter, because these exhortations, from verse 14 onwards, stand related to Paul’s heart being expanded towards them. He is free, now, to speak.

• Why did he not bring this into the first epistle? Why did he not make this an issue? You may say, ‘Why was it not made an issue earlier with us?’

• But how patient God is, that now there is some expansion, He is free to speak about the gospel of the glory, and about reconciliation and new creation. There is a groundwork.

• He exhorts them to let their hearts expand themselves and then to deal with what would cause contraction.

• We might think that the looser we were and the more things we linked up with, the greater freedom we should have, but it is really the greater bondage, the greater contraction of heart relative to all that is of God.

• And so this is an appeal of love. The apostle is reflecting God in this. As one of the ambassadors, he is beseeching them, as the chapter opens.

• This is how to approach the brethren on this question – you do not approach them with a cudgel! He says,
  • “But as fellow-workmen, we also beseech that ye receive not the grace of God in vain”, 6: 1.

  • Then he says, “Be not diversely yoked with unbelievers”, verse 14.

• It is the appeal of a lover. He ends with saying in chapter 7: 1,
  • “Having therefore these promises, beloved”.

• He is appealing to his beloved. He says, ‘Now let your heart expand in those great spiritual things, and you will find it will be easy for you to get free from all these yokes’.

• A young man who was in them a good bit, recently wrote to say that at the last meeting he attended of a learned society, he felt terrible.
  • He was longing to get out of it, because they were just clothing themselves with their knowledge, glorifying themselves, and giving no glory to God. He said it was all cedar wood, and he was longing to get free.

• Now, that is the attitude that Paul’s ministry is calculated to bring about, that you are longing to get free. So he says,
  • “Be not diversely yoked with unbelievers”,

• and in his manner of speaking he is really representing God. He is really speaking on behalf of the God who is dwelling among them and walking among them.

• Who is the God who is dwelling among us in love, come down in love to dwell? How is He going to talk to us in this matter?

• Is He coming out of His dwelling, as it were, with threats? No, he is speaking to us in the first instance in love.

• He does not say, Go out here, He says “Come out” – Come to Me; be ye right in relation to Me and my dwelling.
  • “Come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord”.

J.L. In Numbers 23, it says,

• “Lo it is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations”, verse 9.

• It might appear as if that would narrow them up, but the next verse goes on to say, “Who can count the dust of Jacob” – having in view great expansion.

G.R.C. That is a very fine illustration, and, of course, that principle is always true. It is a people that shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the nations.

• We should not have our name on any of these rolls of membership, and that kind of thing.

• We have to be enrolled on Parliamentary electors’ lists – that is no question of ours, it is a matter of what the State does; we do not use our vote.

• But it is not for us to be numbered among the nations. That is a principle of all time. God’s people are not to be reckoned among the nations.

• And, as you say, instead of that meaning contraction, it means great expansion, and I believe that is what we shall find if we answer to the call of God –
  • His loving call to come out, to come out to Himself; come out to enjoy His habitation in a way we have never known it before.

• I believe we shall be so in accord with the truth, that other Christians will be attracted out, and then, “Who can count the dust of Jacob?”

• So that it is not only spiritual expansion, but we can look for other kinds of expansion too.

A.I. Why is the title, “Lord Almighty” used here?

G.R.C. Well, just as comfort – comfort to us in the pressure that we may fear through giving heed to these injunctions.

• “The Lord Almighty” can do anything in all circumstances. But that is not the first way we learn Him as Almighty – this is a secondary way.

• Abraham learned Him as Almighty in connection with his own body, in the quickening of his own body.

• We really learn the Almightiness of God properly, if we learn it at all, in the exercise of Romans 7 and 8.

• We learn the almightiness of God in the gift of the Spirit in our own bodies, so that we can bring our bodies into subjection and control, and we get over that great mountain of sin in the flesh.

  That is what is typified in Abraham. He learned the power of God in his own body in connection with that Name being disclosed.

• Therefore, I believe if we have learnt the power of God according to Romans 7 and 8 in our own soul history, we shall be ready to trust Him as to circumstances. Circumstances are nothing like the mountain of sin in the flesh.

M.R. So, instead of fearing circumstances, chapter 7: 1 says,

• “perfecting holiness in God’s fear”.

G.R.C. “Having these promises”. The greatest of the promises is,

• “I will dwell among them, and walk among them”

• – a most amazing thing! I do not think our hearts have grasped the magnitude of it at the present time, God dwelling among us, and walking among us, and being our God, and we His people.

• What a promise! Who would miss it? Who would miss the gain of it?

• Then there is the matter of His care in our circumstances. And having those two promises,
  • “let us purify ourselves from every pollution of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in God’s fear” – and we need to fear God.

F.R.G. So that you were saying in another place that this matter of separation must proceed from what is inward.

G.R.C. Otherwise we are like the swine, the animals that had the cloven hoof but did not chew the cud. There was nothing inward.

J.H. Does it appear that these yokes would have been contracted during the time that Paul was there, and when he wrote?

• The revival began on the basis of total separation, but it would appear that material prosperity and other things had caused this drift to come about?

G.R.C. Well, I think the revival began as to separation from religious evil. There was, of course, separation in other ways, too, but the stress at the time was religious evil.

• But then, of course, since that time the great bodies of men have been built up, have they not?

• The trades unions, and the great trading corporations, and the professional associations were not existing at the time the revival began.

• We have become involved in some of these things, and it is a question of extricating ourselves.

J.H. We have been caught in the thing. The great American industrial progress, and so on, in the western world, has dominated this last half century. We have been caught up in the thing. J.N.D. and F.E.R. came out on the basis of total separation.

G.R.C. Yes, total separation but in F.E.R.’s day there was not the same stress on separation in business matters, and the saints generally were not so concerned about it.

Unless we are keeping the new commandment, it is not a bit of good exhorting people to keep any other; without the new commandment operating, the others will just become legal formalities.

• How can we be preserved in loving one another as Christ loved us? Only by going into the holiest continually, keeping at the top, continually going into the presence of God.
  • “As the Father has loved me, I also have loved you”, John 15: 7,

• that is the level; it starts with the Father. As the Father loved Him, so He loved us, and we are to love one another, as He loved us.

• Well that was exemplified in Paul. He said,
  • “And yet shew I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence”.

• He showed it to them! So the first thing is to show one another; not to demand, but to show.

• The next thing Paul did was to shine. First he showed the thing, and then he shone. He shone upon them
  • “the radiancy of the glad tidings of the glory of the Christ, who is the image of God”, 2 Corinthians 4: 4.

• You say, ‘Yes, but the Corinthians were already converted’. Certainly they were. But they knew little or nothing about radiancy of glory; they had not parted with the first man. So Paul shone upon them.

• Then he went further: he besought them and entreated them. Now it is on these lines that we help one another as to the Lord’s commandment.

• You can see how different the application is from the old covenant – the Lord says, if you love Me, keep them.

• Paul shows how to do it, shines upon those who were not doing it, entreats them and beseeches them.

• And then, if you think of the Lord’s commandment, it is not only connected with cases of discipline; the Lord’s commandment includes many positive things.

• One is the truth of the body. That is the Lord’s commandment – Corinthians 12. Are you keeping that?

• Have you found your own place in the body, and are you encouraging every other member to function in his place unselfishly, glad if another member is glorified – no envy, no rivalry? That is the Lord’s commandment.

• We may be pressing some item of the Lord’s commandment dealing with evil and so on – which is essential in its place – and yet ignoring the positive commandment;
  • not in any way concerned about fitting in our place in the body, merging with our brethren bodywise;

• and therefore we shall never know the truth of the temple. If you do not merge with the brethren bodywise, you can be sure of this:
  • in the measure in which you fail to merge with the brethren bodywise, you will fail to know anything about the temple, collectively.

So we have the positive commandments of the Lord, as well as the negative.

• And how we need to encourage one another on the positive commandments, on all of them, by “showing” one another, by seeking to be an example, on these lines.

• I do not wish to go into any further detail as to the Lord’s commandments, but what I am saying bears on what we have had before us today: the distinction between old covenant ministry and new.

• If, of course, every overture is rejected; if the showing is rejected, if the shining is rejected, if the entreating is rejected, if the beseeching is rejected, if the “many tears” of Paul are rejected, there is nothing to do but exercise assembly discipline.

Well, now, to return to our subject of knowing, and enjoying, and living, as it were, in our own place.

• In the first passage we read, we find a boy. It is the second mention of the temple in scripture, the first mention being in the first chapter of the book of Samuel; but this is an important mention, and there are certain features brought in.

• But the astonishing thing is that in this first mention of the temple dealing with positive truth, a boy is concerned.

• And what is stressed is the lamp of God and the ark of God; they are two great features of the temple. The lamp, the light of God is there.

• We speak of the temple as the place of enquiry, and so it is: the lamp of God is there, and the light is shining; but to refer to what I said a moment ago,
  • as far as our practical getting the gain of it collectively is concerned, if we are not in the good of the body, we shall never get the gain of the temple.

• The manifestations of the Spirit are through the members of the body,
  • and it is through the manifestations of the Spirit that the light shines in the temple.

• The lamp of God was there – it had not gone out – and the ark of God was there.

• What a glorious presentation of Christ: the Ark of God – not here the ark of the covenant, nor the ark of the testimony, but the ark of God.

• A magnificent presentation of Christ – the ark of God. In one place in connection with this title it speaks of God sitting between the cherubim – 1 Chronicles 13: 6.

But what I wish to stress is that a boy was there. What a priviliged place! What an encouragement for young people!

• What an encouragement for parents like Hannah. This was the result of Hannah’s exercise and her vow, and how she lent her son to Jehovah all the days of his life.

• And the result was that, as a boy, Samuel was in the temple of Jehovah, where the ark of God was.

• Think of being in the presence of Christ like that – right at the centre of the system typically, in the very innermost place; it typifies our place.

• The temple then was a figure; now we have the reality – Christ Himself, in the presence of God.

• And you will note that the temple here is the temple of the tabernacle; the house was not built. The tabernacle had a temple, and the house had a temple.
  • The temple is the shrine where God is, where the ark is – most blessed place.

• The holiest is the temple of the tabernacle; that is what is in mind in Corinthians. Corinthians is the tabernacle setting, the assembly in the wilderness, the tabernacle of witness,
  • “Ye are temple of God” – Ed. note: there is no article before ‘temple’, 1 Corinthians 3: 16.

• It is the temple of the tabernacle of witness, here on earth.

• Individually, we can enter into the shrine, the presence of God, as Hebrews shows,
  • but whatever we enjoy individually, if things are right – and mark you that word, if things are right – we shall enjoy more when we are together.

• It is in the assembly that we enjoy things in fulness. Indeed, the assembly is
  • “the fulness of him who fills all in all”, Ephesians 1: 23.

• So the Corinthians were characteristically “temple of God”, the temple of the tabernacle.

• That is where Samuel was, in the type, and where we can bring our children. It is the present position – the temple of the tabernacle.
  • “Ye are living God’s temple”, he says.

• I love that word “living” coming in! It disposes immediately of hard and fast rules in the service; we get general light, but it disposes entirely of a liturgy.

• The Lord is the great ‘Liturgios’, the Minister of the holy places. That word ‘minister’ there in Hebrews 8: 2 means that He is in charge of the liturgy.

• Men cannot make one! But of course it needs the exercise of faith.

• The leaven of the Sadducees says, ‘We must have a rule, we cannot get on without it’.
  • Faith says, ‘The Lord Jesus is the Minister of the holy places; He is the “Liturgios” of the holy places; He is in charge of the service’.

  • On our side, we “worship by the Spirit of God”, Philippians 3: 3.

• Therefore, you have “Ye are living God’s temple”. There is nothing dead about it, nothing fixed and formal about it.

• We have light; we know that the supper is the Lord’s supper; we know that the Lord says,
  • “My Father and your Father, My God and your God”;

• the Lord has given us light as to the service; but the details of it are in His hands, and on our side we take our part in it by the Spirit.

• There is no other way to serve acceptably; the flesh profits nothing. “Ye are living God’s temple”.

• Would to God we knew more about it – the very presence of God in our midst, and the service proceeding.

So here we have a boy in the temple. How it would encourage us as to our children, to have them at the meeting, where the lamp of God and the ark of God are.

• And how early God communicated His mind to this boy! So it is an encouragement to the boys and girls, as well as to parents. How many parents here have made a vow as to their children?

• Then, if we apply this to the daily approach, how important that our children should become accustomed to the altars of God: to the holiest, and to the altars of God. Think of the Psalm:
  • “Yea, the sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she layeth her young, thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my king and my God”, Psalm 84: 3.

• How important it is that we should have priestly households, and that in our personal and household relations we should begin at the top; begin in the presence of God; begin in the holiest.

• How important, as getting God’s viewpoint – and we have spoken about that this afternoon – the viewpoint of new creation and reconciliation, that we should come to His altars.
  • Without His viewpoint, we can never pray aright! You will never pray aright unless you have been in the holiest.

• But then our children are carried along with us, so that they become accustomed, not merely to a family altar – that has its place; and they are also taught to have a personal altar – but to the altars of God.

• The sparrow finds a house there, and the swallow a nest.

• The sparrow might suggest what the saints are as bearing the reproach of Christ,
  • and the swallow what we are as birds of passage, having no continuing city here.

• But where is our home then? Our home is in the presence of God.

• The Old Testament cannot go all the way; it cannot say that the house and the nest are, as it were, in the holiest, but Samuel was in the holiest, as the type goes.

• Here the way into the holiest was not made manifest, yet the Psalmist goes as far as he can:
  • “thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my king and my God”.

• It is a great thing that our children should learn to be at God’s altars and thus get the scope of what is before God in their early days. It is the safe place for the children – the altars of God.

• We do not want them to have a home here. Our home is there, in the house of God.
  • “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house”

• – not visit it. For how many years, it may be, we have been content to be visitors in the house of God.
  • “Blessed are they that dwell in thy house”.

• For it means that we take every opportunity of entering the holy of holies, and of serving at the altars of God.

• It is our dwelling place-and our children are there, with us.

• Well, may the Lord encourage us in these things, to have our children with us, both in our personal and household approach, as well as in the assembly.

Then, in our next passage, we have a servant in the temple. Samuel was to become a servant, a great prophet, but here we have Isaiah. This passage shows that we get our commision from the top.

• Whatever we are given to do, if we do not get our commission from the top, our service will never be what it should be; it will never have the full flavour of Christianity about it.

• So we find Isaiah in the temple. In the year that king Uzziah died, he saw the Lord
  • “sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up”.

• A wonderful thing, the link between the throne and the temple. It is in Revelation, all through the book.

• Isaiah saw “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up” – “the Lord”, ‘Adonai’, a divine title of God, often used of the Lord personally, as in Psalm 68, but here evidently referring to God as God, for it says,
  • “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts”, verse 3.

• In the light of Christianity, it is the Trinity. But how do we know the Trinity? – in a man!

• So it is Jesus; Jesus is the King. He is the One sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, but the One in whom
  • “dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”.

• What a King! So that, as in His presence, from this standpoint, we are in the presence of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

• Where the Lord is exalted and supreme like this, the Father's presence is always known, like the cloud on the mount.

• You cannot separate divine Persons in this sense. You can distinguish; but where surroundings are suitable, divine Persons are never separated.

• If conditions are there for the dwelling of God, we shall know the presence, not only of the Holy Spirt, but of the Son, and of the Father.

• So this passage sets out the idea of the temple in the full blaze of glory, and the seraphim are examples for us – the service is proceeding.

• All priestly service should proceed in the light of the holiest, in the light of the glory – in our day, that is. It was not so in Israel's day, but it is in our day.

• It is in the light of the holiest, and in the enjoyment of out place in the holiest, that we can take up the service, at the altars.

• And here was Isaiah – he sees the seraphim.
  • “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts”,

• they call to one another. What a bearing this has on assembly service – the idea of alternate singing or praise, calling to one another, each note going higher.
  • “And one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” verse 3.

• Think of the majesty of the scene! We should touch majesty at the end of the morning meeting; as well as other features, we should know what majesty is – the greatness,
  • “the right hand of the greatness on high”, Hebrews 1: 3.

And so “the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke”, verse 4.

• It bears on what we have been saying as to a right judgment about things. When it is a question of dealing with what is offensive, the house is filled with smoke.

• Isaiah was not yet fit for the place – the house was filled with smoke. And so he says,
  • “Woe unto me! For I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts”, verse 5.

• Here was a self-judged man, and rapidly one of the seraphim flies:
  • “and he had in his hand a glowing coal, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar; and he made it touch my mouth”, verse 6-7.

• This is a very affecting scene: “Thy hand hath ope’d these lips, once dumb”. Hymn 150 – 1973.

Isaiah’s lips were to be opened, in testimony to men and praise to God.

• And the King, Jehovah of hosts, sitting on that throne, “high and lifted up”, was the very One who suffered on that altar, so that a glowing coal might expiate Isaiah’s sin. That is the most touching thing.

• Whatever glory and majesty we are in the presence of, as we see it shining in Jesus, glorified, how it touches our affections that the One in whom we see the glory now, in radiant display, is the One who has been to the very bottom.

• The glory is in display in Him, and we can be in the presence of it, in virtue of the fact that He has been to the very bottom. God made Him to be sin – that very One! – who knew not sin,
  • “that we might become God’s righteousness in him”, 2 Corinthians 5: 21;

• that we might be in glory with Him on the basis of righteousness; that we might be in the very shrine for ever, on the basis of divine righteousness. Can we conceive of such a thing?

• Our hearts can hardly grasp the idea that this great One, the King, on a throne high and lifted up, in His grace has suffered as a sacrifice on that altar. Otherwise, Isaiah would have been expelled forever.

• Instead of the glory expelling us now, it attracts us. How we love the King! We think of where He has been for us. No wonder our lips, once dumb, are opened to sound forth His praise!

• The point in reading this scripture is that we get our commission for service from the top:
  • “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

• This is another touch of the Trinity, I suppose.
  • “Who will go for us?” “Here am I; send me”.

• And so here is a man going out in service from the very presence of God. There is no other proper way to go.

Then if we pass on to Luke, we have a man, Simeon, and it is said of him that

• “he came in the Spirit into the temple”, Luke 2: 27.

• The official priests were faithless and dead – Sadducees – but here is one who, though not an official priest, is a real priest.

• He came in the Spirit into the temple. What a functioning priest he was! They brought in the child Jesus, and it says
  • “he received him into his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now thou lettest thy bondman go, according to thy word, in peace; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face of all peoples; a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”, Luke 2: 29-32.

• How fully Simeon functioned as a priest! First, praising God, bringing in the mind of God in praise – which we always ought to do – prophesying in praise as all the singers prophesied; bringing in the positive mind of God in praise:
  • “a light for revelation of the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel”.

• First blessing, praising God, blessing Mary and Joseph and then a word of prophecy to them, dealing with the actual state of affairs.

Then we have the encouragement for sisters – Anna. She did not depart from the temple,

• “serving night and day with fastings and prayers”, verse 37.

• What an enormous benefit a praying sister is! Some who are laid aside and cannot take on active service can be just in this position, in the temple of God day and night with fastings and prayers.

• The greatest form of service is still open to them: priestly intercession and supplication.

• And you may depend upon it, those lips engaged in intercession and supplication will often burst out in praise. So it says,
  • “she coming up the same hour gave praise to the Lord, and spoke of him to all those who waited for redemption in Jerusalem”, verse 38.

• What a happy service sisters have, in speaking to individuals. They are not called upon to speak at the desk; it is a happy and loving service that is open to women:
  • “The Lord gave the word: great the multitude of the women who published it”, Psalm 68: 11.

• That is Mr. Darby’s rendering in the French; in our Bible it says that ‘publishers’ is a feminine word. The Lord gives the word, a word for the moment, but it becomes the theme of conversation: that is what it did with Anna.

• It becomes the theme of conversation amongst all the holy women, and the holy women know who those are who are looking for redemption. It is the sisters who know, or should know, where real believers are in the place where they live.

• They have the privilege of disseminating the ministry with a feminine touch which only sisters can give. “Come, see a man”.

• The woman in John 4 was not preaching at a desk:
  • “Come, see a man who told me all things I had ever done: is not he the Christ”?

But all this begins at the top. I have already referred to Corinthians, to the collective assembly aspect of the temple, and that it is the living God’s temple.

• Let us keep the praise, and everything else, on a living basis. Let us be living and spontaneous in our response to the Holy Spirit – not laying down rules.

Now we come to The Revelation, and

• “the temple of the tabernacle of witness in the heaven”, Revelation 15: 5.

• That is a remarkable statement. The tabernacle of witness is here on earth at the moment, but it is soon going to be in heaven.

• It is the Corinthian view of the assembly, but as transferred to heaven.

• The tabernacle of witness had to be carried through the wilderness by the Levites. The 15th chapter of Revelation shows that the Levites have done their work, the tabernacle of witness has arrived at its final place.
  • “The temple of the tabernacle of witness in the heaven was opened”.

• Now this deals with what is judicial, and what is judicial must proceed from the top.

• Where do these angels come from who had the seven golden bowls, full of the fury of God? Out of the temple.

• They come from the top, the very presence of God, from the shrine. And which temple? The temple of the tabernacle of witness.

• They come forth from the presence of those who have learned God’s judgments down here. We have learned them in the Corinthian position.

• I wonder if we are learning God’s judgments? You will only learn them, and get a right judgment, in the presence of God.

• In the presence of God you will get a right estimate of the types we have spoken of – the day of atonement, and the red heifer.
  • It is in the presence of glory that you get a right judgment of all that was dealt with at the cross.

• And practical judgments proceed from that level. You say you have a judicial matter on, in a locality? Well, repair to the temple. Individually, enter the holiest.

• If we have all been there, we shall arrive at a common judgment – and a true one according to God.

• Collectively, let the judgment be in a temple setting, in the consciousness of the presence of God. It is a special setting; it is not the temple filled with smoke,
  • “from the glory of God and from His power”, verse 8.

• The temple here is ourselves, as having arrived at our heavenly place in actuality –
  • “the temple of the tabernacle of witness”.

• Had you ever thought about it, that it is our judgment which will be judged on the world?
  • “Do ye not then know”, says the apostle, “that the saints shall judge the world?”

  • “Do ye not know that we shall judge angels?”

• Therefore, when these final judgments of the fury of God are poured out, where do the emissaries come from?

• They come from us; they come from God, from the very presence of God – but God amongst His saints, those who form the shrine.
  • “This honour have all his saints”,

• as it says in Psalm 149, as to executing judgment.

• Do you understand the dignity of our position, the privilege and the favour of it, the blessedness of being engaged in praise and worship in the temple?

• But do you know this other side, of being wholly in accord with God in His judgments?

• Think of these beings who come out of the temple; think of how they are clothed. It gives you an idea of how pure the temple is, and how wonderful the inside is, as it were. They come out
  • “clothed in pure bright linen, and girded about the breasts with golden girdles”, verse 7.

  • Then verse 8: “And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power: and no one could enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were completed”.

• We shall never arrive at right judgments about anything until we have understood the judgment of God at the cross.

• And I would like to say this, that if our place is at the top, if it is the innermost and nearest place, it is because God’s wrath has been fully revealed – wrath from heaven at the cross;
  • because sin in the flesh has been fully judged;

  • because all that was offensive to God in the flesh has been removed out of His sight in unsparing judgment, in the fire of God’s wrath – reduced to ashes.

• It is on the basis of finality of judgment that the way into the holy of holies has been made manifest, and we taken in –
  • ”taken into favour in the Beloved”, Eph. 1: 6.

• This nearest and most blessed place which is ours could never be until judgment in its fulness had been revealed – and executed, as we may say.

• What a shame it is on us if we seek to enjoy this special and privileged place, and are not with God in His judgment, which has made this place possible for us.

• We are placed there on the very basis that all that we are as after the flesh has come before God in judgment, and is ended.

• But God counts upon us being so formed in our judgment – and indeed we shall be. We shall pass before the judgment seat of Christ – thank God for that!

• What is not adjusted here, will be adjusted there – but the judgment seat of Christ may be a sad time for many.

• We shall be in bodies of glory; there will be no question of penal consequences, but of having to accept adjustment and rebuke in that day, in the presence of the One sitting on the throne.

• Because the judgment seat implies that – we have spoken of the throne in Isaiah.

• But to have to accept adjustment in the presence of the One sitting on the throne who went to the altar for us, will be a most heart-rending experience to any lover of Christ – and we are all lovers of Christ, thank God.

• And so, finally, you have the temple in accord with God in His judgments.

Well, I have only one more word to say, on Revelation 21, referring to the city. It is the final reference to the temple.

• “And I saw no temple in it; for the Lord God Almighty is its temple, and the Lamb”, verse 22.

• What a view of the assembly! The city itself is the shrine.

• It is not like the tabernacle, which had a holy place and a most holy place; the city itself is commensurate with the shrine. So that there is no temple in it; it is itself the temple, in that sense.

• And so far as needing a temple, the Lord God Almighty Himself is its temple – and the Lamb.

• The Lamb is the great Light-bearer:
  • “the glory of God has enlightened it, and the lamp thereof” – the lamp of the glory – “is the Lamb”, verse 23.

  • He is the effulgence of God’s glory, “the expression of his substance”.

• I believe only the citizens of the city will ever behold “that glory beam, unhindered face to face”. Hymn 72: 4 – 1973.

• It is our portion to be in the immediate Presence, always and for ever; we have access there, and shall do eternally, at all times.

• But the nations walk by the light of the city; they cannot behold that glory beam, they cannot look upon the glory of the Lord in the way we can. Other families, as far as I understand, cannot have a direct view.

• The city comes out of heaven having the glory of God because those who form the city are in the direct rays of the glory shining in the Lamb,
  • but she has the glory of God to diffuse, according to the measure of the various families;

• none share her privilege in being in the immediate presence of the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb.

Well, may God help us to understand a little better what Christianity is, and to see that every kind of activity which we undertake will only be in keeping with Christianity if we learn to habituate our true place in the immediate presence of God, for His Name’s sake!

Hymn No. 74, verses 1-4; v. 6
Hymn No. 79, last 2 verses