Now there are two aspects of the Christian calling. One is that we are called to heaven like Abraham, to a land that God will show us – Genesis 12: 1.

• We are told that that land is a heavenly country – Hebrews 11: 16. Nothing can give a man such dignity as the consciousness that he has been called by God to heaven.

• In some ways, this is the most important side of the calling. It is the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.

• If we are called to leave our country, kindred and father’s house, we are called into something infinitely better.

• We are called to Christ’s country, Christ’s kindred and Christ’s Father’s house. We are saints, that is set apart for God, by calling.

The other aspect of the calling is what we get in the scripture,

• “Out of Egypt have I called my son”.

• God has called us to provide Him a habitation here in this world. God has called us out –
  • “Let my son go that he may serve me”.

• That is the aspect of the calling that Paul is speaking of in 1 Corinthians.
  • That is something which is down here.

• While we are on the way to heaven, we are called to something that is very important down here on earth, and that is the fellowship of God’s Son.

• Fellowship implies partnership – like a partnership in business, you expect to share in the profits and you share the responsibilities.

• There is also the idea of common interests, common joys, answering to the way men get together in their social life.

• God has His fellowship in this world, and it far exceeds anything that can ever enter the mind of man.

• With all the fellowships that men set up, they seek a figurehead to adorn it.

• In connection with the divine fellowship we have the glorious Person of the Son of God. It is His fellowship, He is over it. How that gives you an idea of the joys there are connected with that fellowship! God’s Son – He gives character to the whole fellowship.

• All the wealth of it can only be measured by the Son Himself. He is the Centre and Sun of it.

• Where His rights are owned, He is always present at its functions. The Son of God can always be there, and will be there if His rights are owned.

Just as in an earthly fellowship, there must be rules, there must be something to bring in order and regulation, so there is with the divine fellowship. That is implied in

• “Christ Jesus our Lord”.

• Every member of it in an unqualified way owns the Lordship of Christ. He gives the Lord unquestioned control over his life, his business, his everything.

• Our Lord is a jealous Lord. Anyone who is not jealous, has not much affection.

• Think of a fellowship like that! No one will do anything that displeases the Lord. Nothing will be allowed in that circle that the Lord disapproves of.

• In case one might fear to have to do with such a fellowship, Paul says, the God Who has called you to it is faithful. It is God Himself Who wants you to be in it.

• All the capital is supplied by God. He is prepared to supply everything and is entirely available to everyone who commits himself to it.

Now you may say, ‘What bearing has the fellowship on God’s habitation ?’.

• It has a very close bearing and the importance of the Christian fellowship lies in this,
  • that is why the enemy has launched his attack on the principles of the fellowship for nearly 2,000 years.

• Outwardly, he has had a large measure of success.

• But first of all we want to see the fellowship in its normal setting apart from any question of the public failure of the church.
  • The first thing is to see the thoughts of God.

• However much the general body has departed from them, there is always a way for the individual who desires to walk in accordance with those thoughts.

• God has not changed, and the Lord has not changed. If, as individuals, we can get the light of those thoughts into our hearts, and say, ‘I am going to stand’, that blessed God will be faithful to us.

• But as I say, the first thing is to see the thing in its beauty. It may not be clear what bearing this fellowship has on the habitation – God dwelling and walking among His people.

• If that is to be known, then Christians must be together in accordance with this one fellowship to which we are called.

• In the tabernacle God has given us detailed pictures of what is set out in the New Testament. Having the teaching of 1 Corinthians and taking it back to Exodus, we get light on the whole position.

• In Exodus, God has called His people out and He wanted to dwell among them, and the tabernacle was to be His dwelling place. What we can see in the tabernacle system is this –
  • if God is to dwell, it all rests on the saints being true to the fellowship He has called them to.

There are some aspects that are hidden, and there are some aspects that are public. What was inside the tent was never seen by unholy eyes.

• We Christians ought to be careful about talking of holy things to unholy men.

• What was inside? The priests saw the boards standing up covered with gold, and all in sockets of silver, and round these bars holding them together.

• I should like to point out that this is one view of those called to the fellowship of God’s Son – one way that God looks at the saints.

• We are all in sockets of silver. We are all standing before God on the basis of redemption.

• Shittim or acacia wood speaks of Christ’s order of manhood. Covered with gold – the divine glory upon us – we are all standing in the virtue of the redemption which is in Christ Jesus represented by the sockets of silver.

• That is not the public view. That is how God looks at us. We were never meant to talk to men about that. That is one of the hidden things of the fellowship.

• Then there were the curtains. These again were never seen – referring to the saints as the work of God, fashioned after Christ and displaying the beauties of Christ.

• Christ is there too, as seen in the Ark, and that is the greatest thing and everything around is in accord with Christ.

Then there are other features of the tabernacle which speak of the outside. Those are the passages I read.

• One of these public views is in the curtains of goat’s hair. It was the protection for the dwelling place – Exodus 26: 7 – what the saints are as protecting the hidden and holy things of God.

• Goat’s hair speaks of entire separation from evil. The goat lives alone on the mountains. Every brother and sister in Chelmsford should know what it is to be alone with God.

• You learn to judge with God. The result is that you can spin goat’s hair. You, at any rate, are going to be clear of evil; you are allowing nothing in your home.

• The curtains are held together by taches of brass, so that the tent might be one – Exodus 26: 11.

• I would desire to raise the question – are we entirely one in our idea of our separation from evil?

• The point at Corinth was that they had different opinions. Whose opinion should it be? – God’s opinion – so that the goat’s hair might be there in every home and in every heart, and that they might be one.

• One thought, one opinion, exactly the same standard; then the enemy will never get in to touch those holy things and the saints will enjoy the presence of God, the presence of Christ.

Now to touch for a moment on the question of brass or copper. It connects in the main with the altar.

• That is really the side of the fellowship I want to leave on your minds tonight.

• It is the foundation of public Christian fellowship. The altar is the basis of everything publicly.

• The only reason that God can go on with us at all is because of the altar and what has been sacrificed on it. If you think of Genesis 22,
  • “There Abraham built an altar”.

• That is the foundation truth, showing how God and Christ have moved, and have gone to the altar to lay a foundation for God to have a people here in this world for His pleasure.

• It was on that ground, – Mount Moriah, 2 Chronicles 3: 1 – that the house was built by Solomon.

• It is the foundation for our blessing and fellowship.

• What do you see in the altar? It is made of brass. Now I had desired that each of us might get the importance tonight of what brass is.

• There are three metals used in the tabernacle – gold, silver and brass.

• A metal has a lustre – it is the outshining of God and therefore the outshining of love. Gold is the way love shines out in a scene where everything is suited to it.

• Inside the tent all is gold – all is of God, the saints viewed as redeemed to God in Christ Jesus, where there is nothing to hinder.

• Silver is love acting to secure its objects. When we look at polished silver, how bright it is! It suggests the purity and holiness of the way love has acted to redeem.

• We stand in the silver. It is the outshining of God in redemption – the way love has moved to remove all that lay upon us.

• The copper is the way the same love acts in the presence of evil.

• Copper or brass has an entirely different appearance from the other two metals. How will love act in the presence of evil?

• Jesus is the altar. Here in this world, we see Him moving as the altar. He shone in the lustre of copper here in this world.

• How did love act? Love will never tolerate evil. It is not love that passes by evil. If evil is allowed, love is killed.

• What is love going to do in the presence of evil? Love is not going to give up one divine principle. Christ surrendered nothing. In a world of sin He upheld everything.

• What many Christians call love is simply cowardice – they are afraid to suffer for the truth. True love will never condone any evil.

• That is the copper – copper can suffer – it can stand an enormous amount of heat, an enormous amount of suffering in that sense.

• Jesus maintained in this world the divine standard. Every other man was condemned.

• If you stand by divine principles, you condemn others who do not stand by them. In that way, every man stood condemned –
  • “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God”.

• It was the outshining of God’s glory in a copper character.

• If you measure yourself by Christ, you will find you are short. But then He died on the altar, rather than one divine thought should fall to the ground.

• Simply maintaining divine principles would not have maintained divine thoughts. The only way love could act was for Jesus to die upon the altar in order that God’s thoughts of blessing for man might be secured.

• One would desire that our hearts might be directed to Christ. This net of brass was like the heart of Christ in which burned the holy feelings of God about sin and yet He could offer Himself on the altar.

• Now if you and I have come into blessing, it is because we have partaken of the sacrifice. That is the first idea of Christian fellowship – eating and drinking together, and where they ate together was at the altar.

• The peace offering means this – that Christ loved us and gave Himself for us. That is the aspect of the peace offering – and as Christians we have all partaken of it.

• You may not have partaken of the Lord’s Supper – that is the memorial.

• But I must appropriate for myself that He gave Himself for me and accept Him as my Saviour – otherwise I am not a Christian at all. In this way we have all partaken of the sacrifice.

Now in 1 Corinthians 10: 18 the scripture says,

• “Are not they who eat the sacrifices in Communion with the altar?”.

• That is the point I want to come to. If you have eaten of the sacrifice, i.e. owned Christ as your Saviour, you are in communion with the altar.

• The altar was made of brass, therefore my standing will be in brass in this world. I am coming to the public side of the fellowship which is connected with the altar.

• I have partaken of the sacrifice, then I ought to be in accord with Christ as the altar. And so the pillars around the court stand in copper – or brass – everyone on a base of copper.

• It is because we are such cowards and unfaithful to Christ that we reverse things. We bring into public our standing in silver. It was never intended that we should parade our standing in silver.

• It was never intended that we should parade before men that we are redeemed by the precious blood of Christ and on that ground allow all manner of looseness in our associations together as believers. It is a terrible thing.

• That is the inside view, but the public view and qualification for fellowship is that we are standing in sockets of brass.

• The basis of our public walking together in this world is that those who call themselves the people of God should be here standing in sockets of brass.

• I want to raise this exercise with you – the importance of my standing here in this world as in accord with the altar.

• We have said that Christ is the altar. He would not give up one divine principle.

• That is the idea of the saints standing in sockets of brass, that we stand in this world true to divine love in a scene of evil – that we would rather suffer than condone evil. We will stand in sockets of copper.

• Then there is the thought of purity in the fine twined linen round the court. Men do not like purity.

• Our links with the brethren are on the ground of redemption and so the connecting rods were of silver – Exodus 27: 10 –
  • but our public standing – what would qualify us to be known as the people of God in this world – is that our feet are standing here in sockets of copper.

There is one point that may trouble souls.

• If I stand firm for divine principles, is that really showing love towards my fellow Christians?

• Brotherly love is not quite the same love. Scripture distinguishes between the two.

• I love all the brethren wherever they are, but if evil is there, I may have to gird brotherly affections – like the Lord in the Revelation was girt about the breasts with a golden girdle.

• One would desire to encourage our hearts to be in communion with the altar.

• Let us seek grace that our standing here publicly in the world may be in complete accord with God’s judgment of things. God would help us in that way.

When the laver of brass was made, it was made with the looking glasses of the women.

• If we are judging on the lines of our natural minds, we shall so judge evil that we judge everyone else and leave ourselves still in the picture.

• I am looking at myself in a mirror – that is not the way of love. They gave up their mirrors.

• They gave up their mirrors to form this vessel which was to wash the last traces of defilement from the holy priests. I love that thought.

One desires that the thought of brass might remain in our hearts, and that we might be marked by it, and thus be in communion with the altar.

I would like to refer briefly to that again. It is important to have before us God’s own thoughts,

• and the tabernacle system which was God’s dwelling place of old brings before us

• how God’s saints are set together in relation to one another, as in accordance with His own thoughts.

• Some of the presentations are secret and hidden, and others are public, and so you have inside the tabernacle what one would speak of as the secret side of things.
  • No unholy eye ever saw inside there.

• The boards standing in their sockets of silver represent the saints, that is all Christians, as they stand before God as redeemed, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

• That is the basis on which we stand before Him, that He has redeemed us with the precious blood of Christ.

• One trusts that every soul here is on that ground before God. It is the only ground – in those sockets of silver.

• The boards were of shittim wood covered with gold.

• That is a view of the people of God according to God’s work in them, and not according to what they are naturally, but viewed as covered with gold –
  • what a wonderful view of the saints of God standing in sockets of silver and covered with gold!

• Every saint will yet become a living expression of God’s glory and love. In the day to come it will be seen that all are covered with gold.

• Inside the tabernacle, everything corresponds with Christ as He is now before God.

The furniture inside speaks of Christ as He is now – risen from the dead and gone into heaven.

• The place of every believer before God corresponds with Christ there –
  • “we are justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus”.

• Just as the ark was shittim wood covered with gold, so were these boards.

• The silver rods indicate that we are baptised by one Spirit into one body. That is the inside view.

• I want to indicate that there was the inside view. As going into the presence of God, the priest would enter into the blessedness of what the people were before God. It is in these conditions God dwells.

Then there is what was public and seen in the tabernacle.

• We referred in the main to the altar. It was a thing that could be seen. The altar refers to Christ as He was here, as the One that upheld all that was due to God.

• The public side of Christian fellowship is connected with the altar. Those who have eaten of the sacrifice are in communion with the altar.
  • Every true believer has eaten of the sacrifice.

• If I can say that Christ loved me and gave Himself for me, I have partaken of the sacrifice of peace offering – that sacrifice in which all can have part.

• God had His part – the fat; the priests had their part in the breasts and shoulder, and every Christian as a clean person in the sight of God has a right to eat of that sacrifice.

• The responsibility attaching is to be in communion with the altar.

• The public view of the saints is seen in those pillars around the court – each standing in a socket of brass.

• The altar was of brass, and every pillar stood in brass representing believers as in accord with the altar. That is the public aspect of the Christian fellowship.

The enemy has induced Christians to bring out into public view their standing in sockets of silver.

• He would say that because we are all redeemed, therefore we can go on together as loosely as we like.

• But our public standing and fellowship is not in redemption. It will be in the day to come when we have glorified bodies – our bodies will then have been redeemed.

• The joy of our standing before God now is a secret matter. I trust this is plain to everyone here.

• We never give up the thought that we are redeemed, and we are held together in those holy bonds, as redeemed, as indicated by the silver connecting rods linking the pillars,
  • but our base is in copper – we are in accord with the altar.

• Unless the outward responsibilities of fellowship are maintained, we shall never enjoy those secret things.

• Unless we are in accord with the altar, we shall never be able to go into the tent.

• As we stand true to the altar, then all those inner things can be enjoyed by us. It is most attractive to be in accord with the altar.

• Think of being in accord with Christ as He was here – walking as He walked – and so on.

• I think we can see that at the beginning of the Christian era, all that was a living reality.

• They were all together with one heart and with one soul, eating their food with joy. The heart of the whole multitude was one.

• At the outset, the Christian company was in the full joy of the blessing of God. They were conscious of God dwelling among them.

• But the outward side of things was commensurate with the inner. They were in accord with the sufferings of Christ.

• So when evil raised its head – Ananias and Sapphira were dealt with –
  • “and of the rest durst no man join himself to them”.

• Unless people were real, they dare not join themselves to them.

• The joy and blessedness of the company was manifest to all, though none could understand the secret unless they were Christians themselves.

• No one dare join them unless they were prepared for the obligations of fellowship. Think of those early Christians all set in sockets of brass – they were true to Christ in public.

If you come down to our day, I believe if you read the addresses to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, you will see there how the brass was given up.

• In Ephesus, there was decline. The Lord says,
  • “You have left your first love”, Revelation 2: 4.

• He alone could see that.

• Outwardly, they were correct, but unless you are maintaining your first love, in virgin affection for Christ, you will never be true to the altar.

• We need that Christ should be everything to us.

• In the next church, Smyrna, the Lord had allowed persecution, and the copper had come to light.

• That cleared away the dross that was coming in, and preserved to some extent the integrity of the saints.

• In the next phase He speaks of the throne of Satan and the doctrine of Balaam.

• Balaam showed that the way to corrupt the saints was to encourage them to go after this world and so this church corresponds to the period in which the world began to patronise the church.

• In Thyatira, you get the depths of Satan. They were allowing a system of iniquity, which brought iniquity into the things of God.

• It was not the mind of God at all. A system has grown up which calls itself Christian –
  • “which calls herself prophetess”

• – that is, professed to have the mind of God, when actually it is not the mind of God at all. You find the copper is lacking completely in the allowance of Jezebel.

• In those dark middle ages when iniquity had such a great sway in Christendom, there was no outward escape from it. Tens of thousands of those that were faithful died at the stake.

• But Sardis, which means ‘escape’, speaks of the time when God opened up a way out. We should thank God for His mercy, that today the religious and secular powers are no longer working together,
  • and everyone is at liberty to withdraw from the iniquity that has come in. God has brought in a way of escape.

• You get in Philadelphia a return to the conditions where brass is brought in. Philadelphia means brotherly love.

• In those conditions as keeping His word and not denying His Name we are recovered to the idea of the brass or copper, and are thus in accord with the altar in these last days.

• I am sure that is what the Lord Jesus is looking for in these days. He has made a way of escape. It is open to every heart in obedience to be true to His name.

That brings me to the scripture I read. In coming to this, there is one thing that greatly touches my heart, that is,

• that God should have looked down the ages, and should have considered for the very day in which I live, and made provision for it.

• The Lord Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew looked on to our day, and speaking of the assembly, He goes right down to two or three –
  • “there am I in the midst”. Matthew 18: 20.

• As much as to say, ‘If you can only find two or three on earth who are prepared to stand in sockets of brass, I am there in the midst’. What a marvellous word! How it speaks of the faithfulness of Christ! –
  • “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.

• Gathering to His name means that we refuse everything that is not consistent with His name – everything not consistent with the altar.

• Jesus surrendered no divine principle. He died to put sin away from before God. He never lowered the divine standard, He was the true altar.

• To be gathered to His name implies,
  • “Thou hast kept my word, and hast not denied my name”.

• To keep Jesus’ word means that I am a lover of Jesus, and allow nothing inconsistent.

Well, it speaks of two or three. Those two or three have to begin as individuals. It has become an intensely individual matter to be true to the Lord in a day like this.

• In writing to Timothy, the apostle marks out the path of faithfulness for the days in which we live.

• In this chapter in Timothy, he brings in the name of the Lord. He says,
  • “The Lord knoweth them that are His”.

  • “Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity”.

• I believe that is the great test of faithfulness in the present day – how much you love Christ. If you name the name of Christ, the word is,
  • “Depart from iniquity”.

• How can I depart? Am I justified in separating from fellow Christians?

• As you think of those sockets of silver you need not fear that any of your brethren will be lost. In the end every believer will be seen in his place before God.

• But if we are to enjoy things at the present moment, we cannot base our public fellowship on the sockets of silver. The word to us is,
  • “Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity”.

• in other words, let everyone stand upon sockets of copper.

• At Pentecost everyone was standing like that, they were feeding on the sacrifice and were true to it; they were in accord with all that He was here on earth; they were true to the fellowship.

• The standard has never been lowered. God calls upon everyone of us to take our stand on divine principles, to withdraw from everything in the nature of human innovation in the things of God.
  • Iniquity is lawlessness in the things of God. Lawlessness means doing our own will.

• Most of us here have houses of our own. What should we think if someone came into our house and began to criticise the way we governed it, and to insist on bringing his own ideas into it? That is what man has done in the house of God.

• God has made it perfectly clear what principles should govern the service of His house here on this earth. The word of Christ and the word of God have made it clear what God’s thought is for us in His house.

• But men have said ‘No’ – ‘We know better’ – they have brought their own thoughts and ideas into the things of God.

• We have the vast profession not governed by the word of God, but the service of God being conducted in the way men think right.

• The government of the church publicly is according to what men think is expedient. All that is iniquity. If I conduct God’s affairs in my own way, it is an intolerable thing.

• The Holy Spirit calls upon you and me to have nothing to do with human thoughts, but to get right back to the word of God and to the word of Christ.

• If God has shown us His mind, then if anything else is brought in, it is iniquity.

• The enemy will do all he can to prevent you from acting like this. If you have withdrawn from iniquity he will still attack you.

• In 2 Timothy 2, the Lord has again looked right on to our day. He has provided all that will meet the enemy’s arguments.

• Satan has come to me and said, ‘Well, these Christians in those sects and systems seem to get a certain amount of spiritual food’. The amount of spiritual food is very little indeed, but still they do get some.

• Then the Lord uses them in the gospel, souls are blessed, and the enemy will come along and say – ‘Can the systems be wrong?’. This scripture answers that,
  • “If we are unfaithful, He abides faithful, for He cannot deny Himself”. 2 Timothy 2: 13.

• The Lord is not going to be deterred by the evil that comes in. The Lord is not going to let His own starve. He is not going to be restrained by any power of evil,
  • “He cannot deny Himself”.

• His love for His own is such. But because He abides faithful, is that an excuse for us to be unfaithful? No! We should depart from iniquity.

The enemy in his next argument would say, ‘You have got these things very clearly in your mind, you ought to stay there and help them’.

• This passage answers that. In speaking of those human thoughts that are coming in, the apostle says,
  • “Their word will eat as doth a canker” – gangrene.

• If anyone is ill, the physician gives up attempting to heal when gangrene sets in. He calls in the surgeon to cut off the affected limb.

• That is the actual position that the minds of men have brought to pass in the Christian profession. If you keep in touch with it, you will become infected by it. The only safe thing is to cut yourself off from it.

• Some of us have seen people often led away by that argument. The way to keep free is for us to be obedient, then you may be able to help others.

• Thirdly, what the enemy would challenge us with is this – ‘Look what a narrow path it is. You will be of no use to the Lord’. This passage answers that. It says in verse 21,
  • “If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work”.

• Every good work – does that look like restricted service?

• The vessel to dishonour is still a vessel, but not for every good work.

• The vessel to dishonour is a Christian who remains in unclean associations. The Lord will use him as far as he is able to use him.

• But prepared for every good work means firstly service Godward. Most people who speak of restricted service are only thinking of serving men.

• The highest service that Christians have is that they are priests. How much do we know of that service?

• Every good work, God’s service, Godward, saintward and manward – how blessed to be available to the Lord in all those ways.

• Wherever there is departure from the thoughts of God, the service Godward comes to nothing. Yet that is the most important of all.

• But where there is readiness to obey, the person becomes available for every good work.

• How can anyone who is not in communion with the altar truly minister to the saints of God?

• How can anyone fully preach the gospel who is not true to the principles of the gospel?
  • “Flee youthful lusts, but follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with those that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”

• – that is God’s provision for our day. It is available to every Christian.

• The powers that be are favourable; it is just a question of my own love to Christ.

• If we keep His word, we shall be true to His name, and we shall withdraw from iniquity. We shall become vessels sanctified and fit for every good work. You will be a true vessel meet for the Master’s use.

• What encouragement there is to move on these lines! It is an intensely individual thing, to say, ‘I can see God’s thought, and if no one in the world will go with me, I am going that way’.

• As going that way, you find others who have come to the same decision –
  • “follow righteousness, faith, love, peace with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart”.

• I find others, and that brings me to the two or three in Matthew. I find two or three in Chelmsford, and we can gather to His name –
  • with no one but Christ before us, and in the light of the scriptures we can have things according to what God desires in His house.

• Wherever there are tabernacle conditions, God will make His presence felt. The point is, are we faithful? If so, we shall always have God’s presence with us. How blessed! So it says,
  • “Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.

I just read from the scripture in Ezra because it is a striking thing that after the return from captivity, those two shining vessels are mentioned.

• The holy vessels refer to the saints of God themselves. The enemy had carried them away to adorn his world in Babylon. God came in and made a way of escape.

• In the day of return from captivity, there is this additional idea of two vessels of shining copper precious as gold.

• To work out assembly thoughts in our day, you must have at least two or three vessels of shining copper, precious as gold, who have departed from iniquity, and have decided to be true to God’s thoughts and Christ’s Name.
  • “Two or three gathered in my name”

• – we can all be amongst those two or three. How precious to the Lord are those that keep His word. and do not deny His name!

May the Lord help us to answer to it, for His name’s sake!

We sought on the first occasion to indicate the normal view of the fellowship, that is to say, we endeavoured to show what God’s thought is about it

• and not what may appear under the name of Christianity at the present moment.

• We dwelt on the tabernacle as showing, in picture, the way in which God has set Christians together and we noticed that there is an inside view and an outside view.

• Inside the tent was a view which only the holy priesthood was allowed to see – the saints of God as represented by the boards of shittim wood in sockets of silver and covered with gold – the view of the saints of God as God looks at them.

• It will be brought to pass actually in the future. We are awaiting the adoption, the redemption of the body, when our redemption will be complete. The saints will then be seen in all the public results of redemption.

• But it can be seen by faith today and enjoyed, for every Christian, as having received the Holy Spirit, belongs to the holy priesthood and should, unless disqualified, be at liberty to go inside – into the presence of God – and see His people as He sees them.

Then there is the public view of the saints as represented by the pillars round the court that stood in sockets of copper.

• The public ground of fellowship is not that we are standing in sockets of silver. That is our standing before God.

• It is said by some that because we – i.e. Christians – are all redeemed, therefore we should go on with one another and be together without regard to the evil we may be connected with.

• But that is bringing those sockets of silver from the inside place and making them public,
  • whereas the public basis of Christian fellowship is that we stand in sockets of copper which connect with the altar of copper.

• It means that, in public, in our walk and ways, we should be in accord with the altar as those who have partaken of the sacrifice – 1 Corinthians 10: 18.

• If we have partaken of the value of the death of Christ then it is our responsibility to be in accord with the holy altar. What does that mean?

• The altar is a type of Christ especially referring to what He was here among men where sin is. He displayed on every hand the brass or copper, that is, there was no compromise with evil.

• Divine love could not surrender one divine principle – it would suffer rather than surrender. He went about doing good, but he never surrendered one principle.

• Instead of that, having shown perfectly in Himself what the divine standard was, He died upon the altar that all the blessing of God might come to you and me, who had sinned and come short of the glory.

• We get a suggestion of that in the verse I read to-night,
  • “He” [God] “hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew not sin”.

• Sin was not overlooked or condoned. That would have meant that Christ died for nothing. No lover of Christ could tolerate that thought for a moment.

• Think of that holy Person being made sin! Sin was judged in the One Who could sustain the holy judgment of God on sin and exhaust it. What a magnificent thing it is – the sacrifice of Christ!

• How it speaks of the love of God and of the love of Jesus Who was willing to go that way! If that came home to our hearts we could never allow any other standing for ourselves, than that of copper or brass.

• The Lord Jesus in order to maintain the divine glory, has taken our place and has been made sin for us.
  • Who can measure the distance to which He went, in order that every divine principle might be upheld and yet that we might be saved?

• As contemplating this, our great desire should be to be in communion with the altar.

• Think how He suffered! My standing here in this world must be in complete accord with His death.

• I cannot allow one principle of evil in my walk and ways. That is the idea of the pillars standing in the sockets of copper.

• The silver, of course, comes into it, for the connecting-rods of the pillars were of silver. This means that our links with one another are through redemption.

• I regard you here as brothers and sisters in Christ because we are all redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, and, in that way, I do not choose my company – God chooses my company.

• Nevertheless, the public ground of our standing and fellowship together in this world as Christians is typified in the sockets of copper.

At Pentecost the inside and outside completely corresponded – there was no discrepancy.

• On the one hand, the saints were full of joy in the consciousness of their place before God and of God dwelling among them;

• and, on the other hand, they were like pillars standing on sockets of copper, for, though their joy was manifest to all, it says,
  • “For the rest durst no man join himself to them”.

• No unholy person dare come into that company.

• But, alas! in the history of the church the copper was given up until even the woman Jezebel was allowed – she who calls herself prophetess.

• That is, a priestly class came into being, professing to have the mind of God and over-riding the authority of scripture; thus bringing the grossest iniquity into the things of God.

• To maintain the sockets of copper in those dark days meant for thousands of our brethren imprisonment and death at the stake.

• But God has made a way of escape and today we can depart from iniquity without fear of prison or death. How God looks for us, as loving Christ, to act upon the word,
  • “Let everyone that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity”, 2 Timothy 2: 21.

• We must put the Lord first. As naming His name we are called upon to withdraw from all that is iniquitous and to separate from vessels to dishonour and thus to get back to the sockets of copper.

• You can be sure of this, that unless the public position is maintained you will never enjoy truly the inward.

• But where there is a return to divine principles, God will not withhold the inward joys from one faithful soul.
  • “If any man love Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him and make our abode with him”, John 14.

• If you can get two or three it is very much better. It needs two or three to take up the public priestly service of God.

I want to speak tonight of the end God had in view in establishing this fellowship and that is that He would dwell among His people.

• I would like to speak of the immense joy and blessedness connected with God dwelling among His people.
  • If God is to dwell with us it must be on His terms and His conditions.

• If any are willing to act in obedience to His word, He will dwell with them and the joys of His house can be known. Paul had that in his mind in 1 Corinthians.

• All sorts of evil had come in at Corinth – in the meeting, in the homes, and in their businesses.

• In the meeting there were divisions and party leaders, in the homes there was moral evil, in business some were going to law with their brethren, and some were even entangled in idolatrous associations;
  • and Paul unfolds in that epistle the Lord’s mind and what copper really means.

• He touches all points and brings them back to faithfulness to the altar.

• Then, in the second epistle, he can speak of what God has in view,
  • “Ye are the temple of the living God; as God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people”.

• How marvellous that God has set up the Christian fellowship in this world that He might dwell among His people!
  • The saints themselves are the temple. That word for temple means the shrine itself.

• I would like you to think of this for a moment, that God regards His saints as the inner shrine in which He dwells. That is God’s thought for His saints in Chelmsford, that they should form His shrine.

• Men have built their shrines – material shrines –
  • “but God dwelleth not in temples made with hands”. Acts 7: 48.

• His thought is that His saints should be the shrine in which He dwells,
  • “I will dwell among them and walk among them”.

• What a holy people we should be if we were in the sense of that.

The passage in Corinthians is not intended to connect in our minds with Solomon’s house but with the tabernacle. The tabernacle was just as much a shrine.

• God did not walk among them when Solomon had built the house, for the house was a fixed dwelling; but in the wilderness God walked among them. He guided them in the cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night.

• It is most touching to consider that, as we go through the wilderness, God would walk and dwell among us. But to experience this we must walk in a holy way.

• How we often use the word ‘saint’ in a loose kind of way and forget its meaning. It means a sanctified one, that is, one set apart for God. We are saints by calling for our calling has set us apart.

• We are called to be part of this sanctuary or shrine of which I have been speaking. As sanctified ones, we are each intended to be a board in the sanctuary.

• One would greatly desire that a conception of this might lay hold of our hearts.

• Love cannot bear distance – God desires to dwell with us and has called us to be saints.

• How blessed to see two or three Christians walking together so as to form a shrine for God, as in the light of His temple.

Now one might have thought that Paul, in bringing forward these great thoughts, would have emphasised the truth of redemption; but instead he says,

• “Come out from among them and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you”.

• I want to say a word on that before I go further. Think how sweeping it is! Earlier in the chapter he has raised the question,
  • “What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? and what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?”

    And then he says,

  • “Come out from among them and be separate”.

• He wants them to be enlarged – verse 1. You may say, ‘If we act like that, we shall be narrowed up’.

• The truth is that if we are going in with the world we shall indeed be narrowed up;
  • but the way to be enlarged is to tread a narrow path and have God with you, and God is holy.

• In the early days these things were outside the Christian company, but in the history of the church they have come inside.

• There is Belial inside the professing church today – that which is the positive lie of the enemy.

• The darkness of the human intellect has come in
  • and there is idolatry in the professing church – the worship of man and his greatness.

  • These things are all inside today.

• And so this separating entails separating from vessels to dishonour –
  • that is professing christians who are in touch with those unclean things

• – do not so much as touch it.

• If I have fellowship with one who is himself in touch with the things then I have touched them.

• See how far-reaching this is. If I even greet one who holds evil doctrine, I partake of his wicked works. 2 John 11.

• If we think of the holy presence of God amongst His people, we can understand why this is necessary.
  • “He made Him to be sin for us. Who knew not sin”.

• Such is the ground of His dwelling amongst us. I could mention many unclean things, but it is not profitable to be occupied with evil. Suffice to mention one or two.

• The doctrine of a clergy and laity is not according to Scripture; for scripture makes it plain that every Christian who has received the Spirit of God is a priest.

• The idea of a clergy is therefore a very wrong thing and we are not to touch it.

• Similarly, any lie or working of the human intellect, as in contrast with the truth that came out in Christ, is not to be touched.

• If we are to know the presence of God amongst us, that is the standard we must uphold.

And so in the next chapter the Apostle says,

• “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God”.

• Perfecting holiness means that we correspond with Christ where He is. He is the measure of our sanctification. Our old man was crucified with Him.

• Could any honest heart want to go on with or touch anything connected with the man who was crucified with Christ? No real lover of Christ would desire to go on with it.

• When we are with Christ in heaven we shall not touch any of these features of sin.

• The very basis of our salvation is that He has delivered us from all these things. Why not maintain now a walk and a path that is in accord with Christ and His precious death?

• That is the burden of this passage – having these promises, let us be true to His death; let us be free from all that He has died to deliver us from.

Now 2 Corinthians 6, is, in a way, a negative chapter.

• While it gives us the promise of God dwelling among us, it is largely occupied with the evil from which we are called upon to withdraw.

• It, however, gives a word of encouragement in connection with this side of things. The enemy, when we think of taking a stand for what is right, would seek to terrify us.

• We may be fearful of losing our employment; but God says, as it were, ‘I will look after you’ –
  • “I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty”.

• This indicates how God regards us down here in the practical circumstances of life. He knows the fears that beset the heart of man or woman.

• Think of the days of martyrdom and what it means for women to tread that path.

• And so the word is sons and daughters, and the One who cares is the Lord Almighty.

The scripture in Exodus links with Corinthians in that

• God says “I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel and will be their God”;

• but it develops the positive side of things in connection the divine dwelling.

• The promise to dwell is connected with the continual burnt-offering and the continual incense.

• If we are to know God dwelling among us, we must separate;
  • but, having done that, there is the positive service connected with the altar and the tent, every morning and every evening;

• the continual fragrance of sacrifice on the brazen altar,
  • and the continual fragrance of incense on the golden altar.

• I can say this without any doubt, that unless there has been this separation – unless we are truly in communion with the altar of burnt-offering – we shall be disqualified from having a part in this holy service.

• We are not only the shrine but are also the holy priests, and are called to serve in the presence of God.
  • “I will hallow the tent of meeting, and the altar; and I will hallow Aaron and his sons, that they may serve Me as priests. And I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel”. Exodus 29: 44, 45.

• The Lord Jesus has died to hallow or sanctify us as priests. Exodus 29 gives details as to how the priests were sanctified. By his death on the altar, He has made us all of one with Him –
  • “The sanctifier and those sanctified are “all of one”. Hebrews 2: 11

• – in this holy priestly service.

• Aaron and his sons all laid their hands on the sin-offering, the burnt-offering, and the ram of consecration; and were thus
  • “all of one” in the presence of God on sacrificial ground. They were also all washed and clothed.

• It typifies how we have been brought on to the same ground before God as Jesus is, as Man.

• Surely no one here wishes to be disqualified from that high and holy service.

• We need to be free as priests and as we maintain this continual burnt-offering on the altar, God says, as it were, “I will dwell among you”.

• How worth while it is to separate, in the light of this, from all that is unclean.

• Every day, morning and night, we begin the day and end the day at this altar. Think of the blessedness of it! – to bring to God an appreciation of the precious death of Christ.

• How can I come before God, telling Him how I appreciate that gracious Lamb, if I am going on with something not in accord with Christ?

• There was the lamb, and, in addition, the meat-offering of fine flour – speaking of the perfect humanity of Christ –
  • and also the drink-offering, poured out in the sanctuary, suggesting the deep feelings that are produced in the heart as we contemplate the death of Christ; feelings that are poured out before God and yield gladness to God;

• and in the power of which, the priest goes into the tent and puts down the incense upon the golden altar.

• It is there, as thus drawn into the holy presence of God, that our hearts are bowed in worship.

In addition to the daily and individual side of this service, there is a great deal of instruction in these scriptures for those who value the Lord’s Supper.

• All that we enjoy individually can be enjoyed far more when we are together. And so we take up as those who are in communion with the altar –
  • “The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?”

• As having in some measure maintained this communion – the sockets of copper – we come together, and are free to approach the altar and to take up the holy service of God at the altar.

• I am not saying that the Lord’s Supper is exactly the altar; but in the early part of the morning meeting the service is of that character.

• We feed upon the sacrifice and, in the consciousness of being a sanctified company, our hearts are filled with joy and we pour it out before God.

• There is the pouring out of our emotions to God as we are affected by what Christ has done for us, and we pass into the inside realities which are depicted inside the tent.

• We go into the immediate presence of God – into the scene where all is of God.

That is the idea of what is inside the tabernacle; there is gold all around; and every item of furniture sets out some feature of Christ’s glory as the Centre and Sustainer of that scene.

• Think of the blessedness of coming into a scene where everything is of God.

• The stranger, who may be present, does not know that we have gone in there. He can see people at the altar and hear the praises, which rightly connect with the altar;
  • and this shows how important the sockets of copper are: for if he knows that I am connected with evil, he will soon say that I am not suited to that holy occasion – that I am a hypocrite.

• But he cannot know that those people have gone inside the tent.

• In their spirits they are in a scene where everything is of God. They see Christ as He is before God – as the Ark, the Golden Altar, the Pure Table, and the Candlestick – and the saints according to the thoughts of God.

• Think of the saints in Chelmsford passing in spirit into such a scene as that. What can you do there?

• All that you can do is just to pour out your heart in worship. You cannot describe it. You are lost in God. That is true worship.

• The outsider does not realise that you have been inside. It cannot be told, what you have seen and heard and touched in that scene;
  • but the response has gone up to God like incense from the golden altar – corresponding in a little way with what went up to God from Christ personally as, for instance, in John 17 when He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, “Father”.

• Christ dying in love and obedience – that is the sweet savour that went up from the brazen altar; but in addition to the sweet savour of His love in death,
  • there is the savour of what He is personally. which is typified in the incense ascending from the golden altar.

• And so if we go inside we are there as God’s sons, in the Spirit of God’s Son, our hearts filled with worship, and there goes up from our hearts some little expression of what went up from Christ as we say,
  • “Abba Father”.

That is the positive side, dear friends. I can assure you that these things are so immense that it is well worth while coming out and being separate.

• You will be marvellously enlarged, for God has a heart that can encompass eternity, and in His presence we touch a scene where time has ceased to be.

• May God help each one of us to answer to His thoughts. The God we know is such a wonderful God.

• Even if there are only two or three who are prepared to stand by His thoughts about things, He will grant them these privileges;
  • and if there be but one, the privilege of John 14: 23 can be known by that one.

• May God help us to be faithful on our side, so that we might prove these things for ourselves, for His Name’s sake!

I want now to speak of the foundation upon which God has formed this fellowship and built His house.

• I want to speak of it first from God’s side. If God is going to form anything, He will lay good foundations.

• And I want to speak of it also from our side. If we are to know the blessings, we also must come to God’s foundation.

• I believe Genesis 22 is a great foundation chapter. This is the first time love is mentioned in scripture. God says to Abraham,
  • “Take now thy son, thine only son, Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering”.

• There is no doubt at all that God was looking on to the time when He would act in that way.

• Actually we know that Isaac was not the only son, but he was unique in the affections of his father.

• God was looking on to the time when He would send forth His Son, when He would spare His only Son.

• That is the marvel of the gospel, that God has surrendered His only Son into death to redeem us, and that we might receive sonship.

• You can see in that that it means God will secure His house. That is all you need to make up a house, if the father has sons.

You also get worship mentioned for the first time –

• “Tarry ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship”.

• Love and worship come in for the first time. Love is the foundation of everything for God and worship is the end in view.

• Here we see love moving in its purity – without reference to hostile conditions. We see the Father and the Son moving together to lay a great foundation.

• The end is that God can swear by Himself to bless. Here we have a picture that the father and the Son have moved together to lay a foundation for blessing –
  • “Because thou hast done this, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, in blessing I will bless thee”.

• Thus untold blessing has come out because God has not withheld His only Son. On that ground, God can swear by oath.
  • “In blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies”.

• Do you understand something of what that means? There is such a foundation laid here that it brings into view the whole universe filled with blessing.

• You see the heavenly saints as the stars of heaven, the earthly companies as the sand upon the sea-shore, and this earth freed from every enemy, and the whole scene filled with Christ.

• Abraham’s seed speaks of Christ typically. Christ is going to fill heaven, for the saints will all be like Christ. The earthly families too will be of His order, and every hostile element will be cast out. Isn’t that wonderful?

• We can look on to a day, which is most certainly coming, when heaven and earth will be completely filled with people like Christ.

• The foundation lies in divine love and in divine righteousness. Love has acted in a way that has not surrendered one item of righteousness.

• God has laid a foundation which can never be overthrown – love acting in righteousness. What a foundation! It was laid by the Father and the Son.

• You and I had nothing to do with it – poor sinners and undone, we could do nothing. The Father and the Son moved entirely from themselves to do it.

• That is what you see in the Gospel of John – how the Father and the Son moved here in love to lay a foundation for blessing.

• How God felt the cost! What love was told out in it!

At the beginning of this three days journey, after they had left the young men, Abraham took the wood and laid it upon Isaac his son, and he took the fire in his hand and a knife.

• From the beginning of Christ’s journey here in this world, the Father was moving with Him, and it was ever present with Him that that journey was to end in Him using the fire and the knife.

• Abraham, all the way along as he looked at his son, thought – ‘at the end of this journey I have got to use this knife against him’. What that would mean to a father’s heart! It is just to give us some little idea of what it meant to the heart of God.

• Isaac was not in the secret as Christ was – the Lord Jesus knew perfectly well what the end would be. He went that way to save you and me, to lay a foundation for you and me.

• There was unbounded love on the part of both the Father and the Son.

Abraham built an altar. We have had before us how that altar is the foundation of everything. Here we have Abraham building this altar knowing that his son had to suffer upon it.

• The life of Jesus here was really the altar. It set up the divine standard. The only way for blessing to come to you and me was for Jesus to die upon it.

• When you come to Chronicles, this was the foundation on which God was going to build His house. If God was to be worshipped He needed his house here in which to be worshipped. Solomon built it on Mount Moriah – the very place where Abraham offered up Isaac.

• In figure Abraham received back Isaac from the dead, but God actually received Christ back from the dead. He has risen and ascended. What a foundation Christ is as the risen and ascended Man.

• It is upon that foundation – the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ, that the house is built.

• David had to come to that experimentally, but I won’t go into that. David had to arrive at God’s foundation for the house of God.

• If that house was to be built, it could only be at the place where Jesus died. David had to learn by sad soul experience where that foundation was.

Now I want to touch briefly on our side of the matter – as to our coming to the foundation of the blessing, and coming in our movements foundationally to the house of God.

• I think we see this in the scriptures in Exodus and Romans. They bring in our side.

• The first point in Exodus is that they shall each take a lamb. In Genesis, Abraham says,
  • “God will provide Himself a lamb”.

• The Father and the Son moved on together to lay that foundation in His death and resurrection.

• Then we have got to come to that – for me to come to that foundation, I have got to take up the word in Exodus 12 – let each take a lamb.

• If I am to come into blessing, I must take Christ for myself as my own personal Saviour. Nobody comes into this blessing unless they can say,
  • “The Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me”.

• I can see this beautiful picture presented, but unless I can say, “The Son of God loved me”, I am still outside of it. I wonder if everybody here has done that.

• I come to this, that there is no hope of my being saved or of my securing blessing by anything that I can do or anything that I am. That is coming to foundations.

• Do you think that if there was any way in which I could save myself, the Father and the Son would have taken that journey?

• The knife was used, which meant the cutting off of life – the death of Christ; and the fire came into it, because Jesus knew what divine wrath was against sin – during those three hours of darkness.

• He suffered the Just for the unjust. It speaks of this lamb as
  • “roast with fire”.

• I am to take Christ as my Saviour, fully realising that for my sake He bore the judgment of God.

• There are many in Christendom eating the lamb raw. They say that Christ came here as a teacher to help mankind to live a better life, but that we do not need His death; we are not really hopeless sinners, and we shall be able to work our way to salvation. That will not do.

• I have to take Christ as my Saviour, as the One Who bore for me the unmitigated judgment of God. I recognise simply that I am guilty before God, God has a right to my heart, soul, strength and mind, and I have robbed Him of it.

• Has anyone here lived for themselves for one day? Jesus lived here wholly for God. Against that standard, we have all come short.

• I do trust no one here thinks he can in any way stand before God in his own merits. It meant that Jesus had to die upon the altar. You say, ‘Why should that be necessary?’

• To lay a right foundation – God is love, and He desires to bless us, but He would do it on a right foundation.

• Someone who was here last time said he could not understand that it was right for one to suffer for another in order to appease God. Genesis 22 shows us it is nothing of the kind.

• The Father and the Son moved together – both willing to go that way for my sake and yours – the Father and the Son both willing to suffer.

• No one can say that God has overlooked sin – that would bring His throne into contempt in the whole universe.

• Scripture speaks of angels, principalities and powers – the majesty of God’s throne had to be upheld without sacrificing any principles, for God to come out in blessing.

• As I say, we have each to take to ourselves the lamb, and it is not to be watered down in any way.
  • “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water, but roast with fire”.

• It is a most blessed thing to accept the Lord Jesus Christ just as He is, and to realise now, as risen from the dead, I can have my standing and acceptance in the risen Man. I am justified in Christ by faith. That is a foundation which nobody can move.

The 8th of Romans connects with that. If we take to ourselves the lamb, it will bring us as we go on to be able to use the provision for us of Romans 8.

• We have to learn more and more fully what the death of Christ means.

• What a foundation of blessing there is in the Holy Spirit when a soul has really got down to foundations in the fullest sense!

• The apostle Paul had reached that. Nothing in heaven or in earth could disturb him –
  • “I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

• That is a man who had thoroughly got down to the foundation of the death, resurrection and ascension of Christ.

I want to touch briefly on what he goes over in these verses. He begins with this, that God called us. He says in verse 30,

• “Whom He called, them He also justified”.

• That is, God calls us in the gospel, and if we have obeyed His call, He has justified us, that is, He has put us in those sockets of silver.
  • “Whom He justified, them He also glorified”

• – that is, He has covered us with gold, like the boards of the tabernacle.

• That is how God looks at us, He looks at every believer like that – in sockets of silver – redeemed in Christ Jesus, and covered with gold – glorified.

• We await the redemption of the body, but we are entitled to look at one another like that. The spirit of glory rests upon us.
  • “If God be for us, who can be against us?”.

• As he looks at what we are in the presence of God, he bursts out ‘Whatever can we say?’ and he goes right back to Genesis 22,
  • “He that spared not His own Son”.

• In his mind, he goes right back to that great foundation in Genesis 22 – the Father and the Son moving together. That is the foundation of blessing.

• Then the range of blessing comes into his mind –
  • “I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven” etc.

• What has not God given us? If God gave His own Son, what would He withhold from us? God would save us and redeem us that we might receive sonship.

• We are not only sons, but heirs, which means that He has given us all things.
  • “How shall He not with Him also freely give us all things”.

Now, having got back to the foundation in that way and the blessing connected with it, he touches on details connected with it from our standpoint.

• It is wonderful blessing, but can I be sure of it? What if someone accuses me of some sin which appears too great to be overcome? Paul says,
  • “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God that justifieth”.

• What a foundation to come to – the Father and the Son moved together to that altar of sacrifice, and God has taken it in hand to justify us.

• If the One we have all wronged has moved to clear us, who else can make an accusation?
  • “Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?”

• That brings us to the altar –
  • “He was delivered for our offences, raised again for our justification”. Romans 4: 25.

“Who is he that condemns?”. This is another point, and a deeper point.

• I may be quite clear that the death of Christ has met the question of my sins, and that I am forgiven, and I know what a Christian ought to do, but I have no strength to live up to it, and am in a sense of condemnation.

• Instead of being joyful, I go about in a sense of condemnation. The great condemning principle was the law. The law tells me what I ought to do, but it does not give me the power to do it.

• But Christ bore the condemnation – the law has exhausted itself in Christ. He bore the cross for me, therefore, there is no condemnation.
  • “It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, Who also maketh intercession for us”.

• I feel very much on this question of condemnation, and I think it is a thing that holds us up a lot.

• He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin and condemned sin in the flesh, that we might receive the Spirit, so that the whole question of condemnation might be settled.

• We have Jesus at the right hand of God, always living to intercede for us, and we have the indwelling Spirit.

• We need to rely on the intercession of Christ. He is not condemning but interceding.

• You can write over the end of Romans 8,
  • ‘No accusation, no condemnation, no separation’

• – three great foundational principles of blessing through the precious death and resurrection of Christ. What a place of blessing divine love has brought us into!

The outcome of all this is in Chapter 12 –

• “I beseech you brethren that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice”.

• I would desire to beseech everyone of us here to give our bodies a living sacrifice.

• What else can we do, if we have entered into this marvellous blessing that flows from God? The least I can do is to give my body to Him.

• That brings us to the practical foundation of the house of God from our side.

• If there is to be a practical answer to what God has in His mind as to His house here in this earth – the saints must surrender their bodies to God as a living sacrifice.

• God’s house is His people. We are set together that God might dwell amongst us. The epistle to the Romans shows how God has wrought that the believer’s body might be acceptable.

I linked that with Exodus 35. God had brought them out.

• He asks them to bring a heave offering – to be taken from the willing-hearted. God is not saying, you must give your body. He has come out in the gospel that our hearts might become willing.

• God does not want slaves, He wants willing-hearted people. In Exodus 35, the people are heaving up their offerings before God. All their strength is implied in it.

• It suggests a people with willing hearts giving all their strength to what is for God here on this earth.

• We should come willingly and gladly, in the sense of the blessing that has come to us, and give our bodies a living sacrifice.
  • It means that I am in accord with the altar.

• Christ gave His body into death. At the present moment, none of us are called to death, but to a living sacrifice – what a wonderful privilege!

• If I offer my body to God, I own His rights over every part of me. God has put me in sockets of silver, as redeemed in Christ Jesus, but if I have given my body to Him, I am in accord with the altar which was made of brass.

• I shall not be in accord with the altar unless, I am in those sockets of brass, like the pillars around the court, that is, standing here for what is due to God.

Exodus 35 gives us details as to what the people brought.

• If I give my body to God, does that mean that I bring gold, silver, copper, etc., to God?

• These things all have a spiritual meaning. If you and I surrender our bodies to God, we shall actually bring all these things with us.

• Every believer in Jesus, if he has surrendered his body to God, has got some of these things.

• The gold means that I know something of the love of God in its own sphere. Paul has been speaking of the love of God in Romans 8.

• Some of that love was in Paul’s heart. That means, he had got some gold – the gold would shine out in Paul. He would bring gold with him.

• Romans 8 also shows us what an appreciation Paul had of the silver – what redemption glory is – and he would bring a sense of that among the saints.

• The brass or copper – Paul also knew about that – how love has acted in the presence of evil – how love has suffered to maintain divine principles. We all know something of that.

• Then we have all got some appreciation of how lovely in character our Saviour is – and that is set out in the coloured fabrics;
  • the heavenly man is the “blue”,

  • the “scarlet” is Jesus in His kingly dignity – every believer in Jesus knows that He is the only true king –

  • the “purple” is the imperial colour,

  • the “fine twined linen” is the perfect purity and spotlessness of Jesus.

• We bring all these things. We are set together in relation to these precious things.

• As having surrendered our bodies to God, they become vessels in some little measure in which these things are displayed.

• I can display in some little tiny way the gold, silver, etc., I can display Christ in that way. I move in this body which has been surrendered to God.

• That is the way Christians bring these wonderful things to the Assembly where God delights to dwell.

• These all go to make up the surroundings in which our God delights to dwell. May God help us to answer to His thoughts!

I cannot go into the details of Exodus 35, but may God grant that everyone of us here might come down to foundations, as to the blessing of our souls,

• and then we might come down to foundations in our practical lives by surrendering our bodies as living sacrifices; for His Name’s sake!