J.McK. How does the offering up of the nations come in?

• It says, “that in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit”, Romans 15: 16.

• Does that contemplate something achieved in the assembly?

G.R.C. He speaks of himself as

• “minister of Christ Jesus to the nations, carrying on as a sacrificial service the message of glad tidings of God, in order that the offering up of the nations might be acceptable, sanctified by the Holy Spirit”.

• I would think what you say is right because, during this greatest of dispensations, it is not nations as nations that are brought into blessing.

• The offering up of the nations, as sanctified by the Holy Spirit, would involve that they are brought into the body of Christ, the one body.

• He says in Ephesians 3: 6,
  • “that they who are of the nations should be joint heirs, and a joint body, and joint partakers of his promise in Christ Jesus by the glad tidings”.

J.McK. You could hardly think of anything being sanctified by the Holy Spirit outside of the assembly at the present time.

G.R.C. No. So the greatest feature of the fulness of the nations must surely be the assembly.

• There will be a work later when the assembly has gone, but it will not be in any way of the same quality or character.

W.S.S. Would it help to refer to the earlier verses of Romans 15,

• “to confirm the promises of the fathers, and that the nations should glorify God for mercy; according as it is written, For this cause I will confess to thee among the nations, and will sing to thy name. And again he says, Rejoice, nations, with his people”, verses 8-10.

G.R.C. Yes. In their full scope those prophecies refer to the day to come, but they are applied in that chapter to the present time – the time of Paul’s ministry.

W.S.S. So that all these prophecies are very wonderful for us at the present time.

G.R.C. They are. “I will confess to thee among the nations, and will sing to thy name”.

• What is meant is that the Lord is singing, confessing God’s name in praise.

• There is a confession of God’s name in praise among the nations at the present time by vessels of mercy.

• But as we move on in Paul’s ministry we are taught that those vessels of mercy form the assembly, the great vessel of praise.

Now these matters raise the question as to whether we are among the wise. The wise understand mysteries.

• There will always, of course, be mysteries which are beyond the creature, such as the mystery of Deity; but, generally speaking, the wise understand mysteries.

• The only wise God would give wisdom, as Daniel says; He gives wisdom to the wise. So He revealed certain things to Daniel. But Daniel himself did not fully understand them.

• At the close of the book the angel says,
  • “Go thy way, Daniel; for these words are closed and sealed till the time of the end.”

    But then he says,

  • “Many shall be purified, and be made white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand”, Daniel 12: 9, 10.

• That is, a time was coming when words which were closed and sealed, as far as Daniel was concerned, would be understood by the wise.

• That will be true of the maschilim who follow us. It is to those that the scripture primarily refers.

• But then, none of these things are sealed to those who form the assembly. The book of Daniel is not closed and sealed to us. It is an open book to us because upon us the ends of the ages are come, 1 Corinthians 10: 11.

• We have light and wisdom beyond that which the wise – maschilim – will have at the time of the end.

• The ends of the ages are come upon the assembly, and it is the thought of God that everyone who forms the assembly should be among the wise in the fullest sense, possessing wisdom in excess of that which any other family will have.

• So it is important to know that Daniel is not a sealed book to Christians – it should not be;
  • and similarly, the mystery of Romans 11: 25 is not sealed to us; we understand that the fulness of the nations is coming in.

• Then, above all, there is the great mystery revealed to Paul, referred to in Ephesians 3,
  • “the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God”.

• All these mysteries should be well-known to us by the Spirit.

• If they are not known to us we are not equipped to fulfil our part in intelligent supplication and intercession, nor in other services connected with the bringing in of the fulness of the nations.

W.C. Revelation 5 refers to the sealed book and the One who breaks its seals.

G.R.C. The word at the end of Revelation is,

• “Seal not the words of the prophecy of this book”, Revelation 22: 10.

W.C. What you are saying is that all the mysteries you have mentioned are open to the saints, whether in Daniel or Revelation.

G.R.C. I think we should accept that. We should be very concerned indeed if Daniel is a sealed book to us

• because to be among the wise at the present time it is essential to know the truth of Daniel,

• otherwise we are not intelligent as to governmental matters during the times of the nations.

• On the other hand, to be among the wise today it is also essential to understand the mystery as revealed to Paul,
  • otherwise we cannot be skilled workmen for we do not know the objective in view in the work.

• We shall thus not be truly serviceable to God in the bringing in of the fulness of the nations.

W.R. When the apostle breaks forth in his doxology at the end of Romans, he desires that the saints should be established in accordance with the truth of the mystery.

• Then he addresses God as “the only wise God”. Would that be a feature in the matter?

G.R.C. It is a very important feature. Paul is worshipping

• “the only wise God”

• who has made manifest the mystery of Christ and the assembly.

W.R. Would that be the top-stone, so to speak, of His wisdom?

G.R.C. I think it is. The very acme of divine wisdom is seen in the formation, and in the practical working of the assembly under the headship of Christ.

A.J.G. And that in turn becomes the means by which the all-various wisdom of God is made known to principalities and powers in the heavenlies, would you say?

G.R.C. I would. As understanding the secrets disclosed in Daniel, we are equipped to stand before earthly authorities in testimony;

• but as understanding the administration of the mystery according to Ephesians 3,

• we are equipped to render testimony to heavenly authorities, which is a very great matter.

• Daniel was able to give to earthly rulers an impression of God’s wisdom, because God had given him wisdom.

• But then, in the assembly heavenly principalities and authorities are able to take account of the all various wisdom of God.

• It should profoundly affect us that God intends us to be, to some extent at any rate, under the eyes of earthly authorities in testimony,
  • as Paul bore Christ’s name “before both nations and kings and the sons of Israel”;

• and, on the other hand, in our normal assembly service, to render testimony to heavenly authorities as to the all-various wisdom of God.

• We are under the eyes of both.

J.McK. Does the scripture imply that the word ‘now’, that particular period of time, was in mind in divine purpose? Does it focus our attention on the assembly period?

G.R.C. The word ‘now’ is a vital word in this passage: “in order that now”. It goes so far as to speak of God as

• the One “who has created all things, in order that now to the principalities and authorities in the heavenlies might be made known through the assembly the all-various wisdom of God, according to the purpose of the ages, which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord”, verses 9-11.

• What a marvellous thing it is that God established the times of the nations in order to make way for Paul, the apostle of the nations, and his ministry, so that there should be this great result according to eternal purpose.

A.E.M. You are calling attention to the need of following Paul in testimony throughout?

G.R.C. Yes. Would you say more, please?

A.E.M. I do not think we have appreciated it as yet. Every time we preach the gospel we must have in mind both the testimony to the nations and the formation of the assembly.

G.R.C. Very good. So that the gospel and the assembly are never to be divorced.

• And is it not striking that Paul never gives up the scope of his ministry?

• He has nothing less than the nations before him, even as a teacher, for, referring to the testimony, he says,
  • “to which I have been appointed a herald and apostle (I speak the truth, I do not lie), a teacher of the nations in faith and truth”, 1 Timothy 2: 7.

• We might have said Paul was a teacher of the saints – and indeed he was –
  • but by divine appointment, he was a teacher of the nations. That was the scope of his service.

G.H.S.P. Is there a suggestion of Paul’s ministry in the four craftsmen shown to Zechariah?

• First of all he sees the horses in the low valley and the man amongst them, then the horns that scattered Israel, which would refer to governmental matters.

• Then, immediately after the reference to God returning to Jerusalem, he is shown four craftsmen. Is that the positive side?

G.R.C. It is. Zechariah 1 is very comprehensive, because the first view of the Gentile powers, as horses, shows them as under divine control, for they are behind the man riding upon a red horse standing among the myrtle trees.

• Later, viewed as horns, they are seen in their intrinsic character as opposed to God and His people.

• God uses them in His disciplinary ways, yet, in themselves, they are opposed.

• But then the opposition is met by the four craftsmen, and I think it would be right, in this day, to link them with Paul and those who work with him.

• One is impressed by the way Paul maintains the scope of his commission in 1 Timothy 2 as a herald and apostle and teacher of the nations in faith and truth;

• and also, as a prisoner in 2 Timothy 1: 11, he says,
  • “I have been appointed a herald and apostle and teacher of the nations”.

J.McK. Would the reference to himself as an ambassador, in Ephesians 6: 20, imply that the apostle was maintaining these relationships between heaven and the nations?

G.R.C. I would think so. He was at the seat of power of the fourth empire and regards himself as an ambassador bound with a chain.

A.G.B. Is it significant that the light of this truth came so early into the soul of Paul relative to his own commission?

G.R.C. The word to Ananias in Acts 9: 5 is,

• “Go, for this man is an elect vessel to me, to bear my name before both nations and kings and the sons of Israel”.

• The order is noteworthy.

A.G.B. That was said on the same day that Paul’s eyes were opened. Yet how long we may go on without having this great scope of service before us.

F.B.F. Would the Lord, in speaking to His disciples privately in Matthew’s gospel, show that He wanted the personnel of the assembly to be intelligent as to prophetic things? He speaks of Daniel.

G.R.C. The Lord’s words in Matthew should turn everyone’s attention to Daniel because he says,

• “he that reads let him understand”.

• I do not think the Lord says that about any other book in the Bible.

D.McI. Why are you emphasising the word “to the nations”?

G.R.C. It seems to me to show the grandeur of the universality of God’s outlook, which the servant was to take in from the very inception of his ministry.

• He was to bear Christ’s name before nations and kings – what a magnificent commission! – and the sons of Israel.

• The sons of Israel are put last because this is the time of the nations. It is a question of the fulness of the nations coming in; and Paul was the vessel – the apostle of nations.

R.G.B. In the Acts, after Paul had been taken – he had been at Jerusalem – the Lord says,

• “as thou hast testified the things concerning me at Jerusalem, so thou must bear witness at Rome”, Acts 23: 11.

• Then as he goes up from the shipwreck, in chapter 27, the angel says,
  • “Fear not, Paul; thou must stand before Caesar”, verse 24.

• I wondered if that shows how it was definitely in the mind of heaven – that Paul’s commission should be completed and that he should stand before the highest authority among the nations.

G.R.C. I am sure that is right. So that Paul’s imprisonment in Rome was of the Lord; he was the

• “prisoner in the Lord”;

• but the purpose of it was that he was
  • “prisoner of the Christ Jesus for you nations”.

• He was held in the centre of power of the fourth great empire; to be there as a witness to all nations and to bear Christ’s name before Caesar himself.

• As regards his last recorded service he says,
  • “that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear”, 2 Timothy 4: 17.

H.H. Does his view of himself in this chapter as the least of all saints help him in relation to his service among the nations in proclaiming the unsearchable riches of Christ?

G.R.C. He is speaking of the greatest things; he is speaking of the glad tidings of the unsearchable riches of the Christ, the riches with which he would endow the assembly,

• the unsearchable wealth of the One who is the Head of the assembly.

• So he immediately goes on to bring in the truth of the Mystery,
  • “to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the Mystery”,

• because, unless we are prepared to face what is involved in the administration of the mystery, that is, the practical working out of it,
  • we shall not come into the gain of the unsearchable riches resident in the Head.

• They are available for the nations, but only for those of the nations who become subject and obey the truth of the gospel and the truth of the Mystery, and thus fit into their place in the body, the assembly.

H.F.R. You were speaking just now of Paul and those working with him. Is it not a great feature of the recovery in these last days that there are those working with Paul?

G.R.C. Like Priscilla and Aquila, “my fellow workmen in Christ Jesus”, Romans 16: 3.

• It is the highest level of workmanship to be Paul’s fellow-workmen in Christ Jesus.

• Such people would have the whole plan in their minds; they would, in measure, have Paul’s intelligence in the mystery, and would be working in order that
  • the administration of it might be known and worked out amongst those obedient to the truth.

• That great point is obedience to the truth, and the working out in practice of the truth of the body, the assembly, until we arrive at what the assembly is as the great vessel of praise and worship to God.

• It is the great vessel of praise and worship Godward and of administration manward; but to arrive at that
  • we have to face all the exercises connected with membership of the body, the sovereignty of the Spirit’s activities in the body, and the necessity for Christ as Head.

• Paul’s ministry is accepted by so few because it means the utter setting aside of man in the flesh.

H.F.R. The enemy’s effort is ever to divert us from Paul’s ministry.

A.C.S.P. Would you be free to say a word as to the obedience of faith connected with the mystery? We have connected the thought of the obedience of faith with the gospel. Do we need our thoughts about the gospel enlarged?

G.R.C. We do. The obedience of faith in the end of Romans is connected also with the mystery.

• It is “made known for obedience of faith to all the nations”, Romans 16: 26.

• You cannot do anything with a person who is not obedient.

• The truth of the gospel is presented for the obedience of faith, and the truth of the mystery is on exactly the same principle.

• We present the truth of the mystery with a view to securing persons who, through God’s grace, are prepared to be obedient to it, and it must be in faith because faith alone is capable of laying hold of the thoughts of God.

• We have to grasp the idea in the faith of our souls.

• God would impart to us His own thoughts and give us the divine conception of what the assembly is. So that we know what we are working to; but in the working out of it we have to follow patiently Paul’s ministry;
  • we have to begin with the truth of the body in Romans 12 and work on through the truth of the body as presented in Corinthians and Colossians until we arrive at Ephesians.

• In that epistle the truth of Christ’s relationship with the assembly is fully developed, and also the way the assembly, under His Headship and endowed with His unsearchable riches,
  • becomes available both in service Godward and in administration manward.

• Both are in mind in what the heavenly principalities take account of.

• They take account of the assembly engaged in the service Godward, where the fullest expression of wisdom is seen, as well as in administration manward.

J.M: Is this seen anticipatively in Malachi 1: 11, where it says,

• “from the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation: for my name shall be great among the nations, saith Jehovah of hosts”?

• Is that Paul’s ministry working out, do you think?

G.R.C. It seems to be remarkably fitting as applied at the present time. In the world to come God’s name will be linked with Jerusalem; but

• at the present time in every place incense is offered to His name and a pure oblation, because the assembly, as here testimonially, is formed of local companies.

A.J.G. In view of what has been said as to all the nations, could you say something as to God, in His ways, limiting the working out of the truth of the assembly to the western part of the earth? The treasure in Genesis was found in one section of the earth.

G.R.C. Yes; and Paul, of course, was directed westward, but it did not prevent his maintaining a universal outlook in his service.

• So one’s impression would be that, while we would accept that in the ways of God the testimony as to the assembly has moved westward, we must also be prepared for God to maintain a foothold in Asia.

• The present work in Bombay, though small, seems to indicate that God intends to maintain a foothold in Asia.

A.J.G. That is very interesting, and we do have the statement in Colossians that the gospel has been preached in all the creation under heaven.

G.R.C. Yes. We are not given the service of many of the apostles, are we? The Spirit records the main line in the Acts, would you say?

A.J.G. Yes.

A.G.B. It is significant that Simeon, with the Babe in his arms, speaks of a light for the illuminating or uncovering of the Gentiles.

G.R.C. Quite so. I think we should now consider the service of prayer because it is a most potent way in which we can help forward the bringing in of the fulness of the nations,

• in the sense of the completion of God’s work in the assembly, even if we are prevented through limitation from doing much in the way of active service.

• We can all thus have part in what is really the most important service of all;
  • and the exhortations to prayer in Ephesians and 1 Timothy put together show the two great outlets we have in prayer,

  • the two ways in which we should approach God in true communion with Him,

• because we are not in true communion with God unless we have a universal outlook.

• So in Ephesians it says,
  • “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 saints”;

    the word ‘all’ comes in many times –

  • “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: 18-19.

• What a marvellous exhortation for continuous prayer in relation to the working out in practice of Paul’s ministry!

E.C.M. Why does it say, “praying at all seasons”?

G.R.C. It is not limited to the prayer meeting. It should mark the prayer meetings, of course;

• but praying at all seasons bears somewhat on the morning and evening oblation.

• It is the kind of prayer that God expects to hear at His altar.

• It is not our household altar or our individual altar; it is the prayer at God’s altar, and if you are at God’s altar
  • you are in communion with Him in the sense of all that He has secured in the value of the Person and work of Christ, and thus you could not leave out one member of His household.

• Your thoughts are towards His house, His habitation in the Spirit.

• Your concern is that every member of God’s household should come into the full gain of Paul’s ministry and be fully functioning in their place in that vessel in which glory is rendered to God.

G.H.S.P. Is that set out in Colossians? In chapter 1 Paul speaks about combating immediately after his reference to the mystery, and in the last chapter he speaks about Epaphras combating in prayer.

G.R.C. Yes, I am sure. There were two men taking the matter up in combat. It thus involves the idea of conflict.

• But the universality of this should impress us. God’s altars are both square. They are said to be square.

• Not only are the measurements given which show that they are square, but the word ‘square’ is used, both when the instructions are given and when they are actually made.

• You cannot be at the altars of God without a universal outlook. We tend to be so parochial or national or bounded by a district.

• Of course, we have special responsibilities in our locality – I am not ignoring that at all – that is where we have to work things out in practice; nevertheless the prayer here is
  • “all prayer and supplication in the Spirit … with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”.

E.C.M. Is not that another link with the nations, that God’s house is the house of prayer for all nations?

G.R.C. That is the 1 Timothy 2 side of the matter.

• Ephesian prayer may be more like prayer at the altar of incense, where you are in surroundings which remind you that everything is of God and you are thinking of the saints according to divine thoughts and purpose;
  • but I wonder whether we include every member of the household of God when we are praying,

• and whether we pray to God that during that day every member of His household on earth might get some sense of blessing from Him and some increase in the knowledge of Him.

• We might find many more in fellowship if we prayed continually thus. The saints would surely get help in the knowledge of God.

F.P.S. Would it help us to find out something about the saints in a universal way?

G.R.C. I think it is our business to find out. As to those we walk with, they are specially on our hearts

• and they need special prayer for grace to be an exemplification of the truth they hold.

• I think we can well afford to pray every day, night and morning, if not more often, that the saints with whom we walk might be a far better exemplification of the truth.

S.A.V.W. The last verse of Psalm 28 has the saints universally in mind:

• “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance; and feed them, and lift them up forever”.

G.R.C. That is good. This prayer stands related to Paul and his ministry; that is, we are concerned that Paul’s ministry should have full scope.

H.G.H. Does the reference to the mystery of the glad tidings include the mystery of the assembly?

G.R.C. I would think so. It is a general statement covering both parts of his ministry.

W.C. With reference to the four heads of the river, in Genesis 2, there is only one head that surrounds the place where the gold is, and the onyx stone and the bdellium are there.

• There is a universal movement which perhaps might refer somewhat to the Spirit in relation to need. It surrounds the whole land of Cush.

• But there is the land of Havilah, which is special, one out of the four. Do you think that bears on the gold coming to light, and what is precious to God in the service?

G.R.C. Are you meaning that there should be prayer relative to universal need, but then there is that which we have specially to pray about?

W.C. Yes. I was thinking of the flow of the Spirit in this way, and that we might be in the current of it.

• There is that which relates to people’s needs, which must be met, but there is that which is beyond need and which is special to this particular land of Havilah.

G.R.C. You mean that our prayers should not be limited to God meeting men’s needs, but that there might be a full answer to His thoughts in the working out of the administration of the mystery according to Paul’s teaching?

W.C. Yes. The gold is there, if it can be brought to light, and prayer would enter into that.

W.F. You were saying that the truth of the mystery was to go as widely as the truth of the glad tidings. Do you think we should pray that some feature of the mystery might enter into the preaching in the open air?

G.R.C. I think that, in some way, an impression of it should be given, although you will notice it is not said that the truth of the mystery is preached.

• It is made manifest and made known, according to Romans 16, and in Ephesians 3 Paul says,
  • “to enlighten all with the knowledge of what is the administration of the mystery”.

• My impression is that the most effective way in which the knowledge of the mystery is manifested is in seeing people working it out.

• I believe there should be something in the preaching of the glad tidings to bring people to where they will see the truth of the mystery in manifestation by seeing it actually worked out amongst the saints.

A.B. In that way, is the preaching connected with the house of God?

G.R.C. It is. So it should bring people into the house where they will see the thing worked out.

A.J.G. Like the report that reached the Queen of Sheba. She came and saw the wisdom of Solomon in the system that was operating under his hand.

G.R.C. That is an excellent illustration. She heard – that might be like the report that would reach men in the preaching – she heard of Solomon’s wisdom

• but she came and saw, and there was that functioning under Solomon’s hand, typifying the administration of the mystery in our day, which was manifested and thus made known to her;

• and that emphasises the importance of the truth being worked out, in however few, in every locality, so that it is available to be made known to any exercised soul.

R.G.B. In 1 Corinthians 14, where prophetic ministry is going on, the man falls down and worships, and says,

• “God is indeed amongst you”.

G.R.C. Quite so. We should now turn to 1 Timothy 2: 1-7, which presents the other side of the truth and links more with the altar of burnt offering.

• We could not truly approach God at His altar without having a universal outlook, such as the passage suggests, because
  • the burnt offering altar is not only the place where we commence our approach to God but it is also the basis of God’s approach to man.

  • The Man Christ Jesus has given Himself a ransom for all.

• At the altar we are in communion with God, and His outlook and desires are towards all men, and He has in His thoughts kings and all that are in dignity. Our prayers, therefore, are to embrace all.

W.S.S. Paul never had less than all men in his mind. According to Colossians 1: 28, for instance, he laboured to present every man perfect in Christ.

G.R.C. Quite so. In this passage four things are referred to, namely, supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings. It is not a formal matter at all.

• Supplication supposes that the one who is approaching God knows what is urgently needed at the moment, both in respect of men and of kings and all that are in dignity.

• He is, of course, thinking all the time of Paul’s ministry going forward, whether he is praying for all saints, according to Ephesians 6, or for all men, and kings and all in dignity, according to 1 Timothy 2.

• But then supplication, whether for saints or for men, implies that one knows what is urgent at the moment.

• It has already been suggested that we should make ourselves acquainted, as far as possible, with what is happening among all saints all over the world;
  • but we also need to be acquainted, in a right way, with what is happening amongst all men.

• Then, if we are truly with God, and praying in the Holy Spirit, we shall know how to supplicate, pray, intercede and also to give thanks for all men and for kings and all that are in dignity.

R.H.S. All these things are in the plural – supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings – showing that they are matters of urgency.

F.G.H. The quiet and tranquil life referred to would be essential with a view to our working out and arriving at the full truth of Paul’s ministry?

G.R.C. Quite so. The passage runs on to the fact that, as regards the testimony, Paul had been appointed a herald and apostle, a teacher of the nations in faith and truth.

• The whole thing is in mind. So it says that our Saviour God desires that all men should be saved and come to the knowledge – literally, ‘full knowledge’ – of the truth.

• We pray for all men, for kings and those in authority, but always having in mind that Paul was the herald and apostle and teacher.

• We pray intelligently, therefore, knowing what is urgent relative to Paul’s ministry going forward.

A.C.S.P. We would have little thought of a fearless servant like Paul needing the prayers of the brethren that he might be bold as he ought to speak; Ephesians 6: 20. Ought we to think more of prayerfully supporting those who take a lead?

G.R.C. Yes, indeed! It is of the utmost importance that Paul’s ministry should still go forward through those whom God may raise up for that purpose.

• We need, also, help as to how to pray for men; for God is concerned about His creatures both as regards their spiritual and physical needs.

• Nebuchadnezzar’s second dream – Daniel 4 – shows how God uses imperial power to care for His creatures. He is the Preserver of all men, especially of those who believe.

• Nebuchadnezzar saw himself as a great tree of beautiful appearance and abundant fruit, and all flesh was fed from it. I believe this is the beneficent view of empire.

• God uses empire, during the times of the nations, to mitigate, in some degree, the consequences of Babel, for the benefit of all men.

• The Pax Romana and the Pax Britanica have been used of God for the benefit of all His creatures, as well as to provide circumstantial conditions for His testimony to go forward.

• Without imperial power the world would be in chaos and confusion.

• Thus, in praying for kings and those in dignity, we should not be oblivious to the physical needs and sufferings of men, while specially thinking of their spiritual needs.

• Every aspect of Gentile rule described in Daniel should have its own bearing on our prayers.

W.S.S. Is it not a comfort and encouragement that God Himself desires all men to be saved?

G.R.C. It is; and this book shows that He is also the Preserver of all men. He cares providentially for all men.

• He cares for men in order that they might be in a state of mind and heart to receive the gospel.

W.S.S. I pray for all men, but I cannot take into my mind the thought of all men, but I pray to the God who desires that all men should be saved, so I am comforted in praying in that way.

G.R.C. Yes, but it says here we are to pray for all men. The Spirit is in us to help us to carry this out, and we have the scriptures to make us wise.

• We should be among the wise, to know how to supplicate, pray, intercede and give thanks for all men – to know what to pray for at any given time;
  • to make specific requests knowing well that the thing we ask for is needed, and God will answer those prayers.

A.C.S.P. Does the way it is put, that God would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth, show that in God’s mind it is one great matter?

G.R.C. Yes. The word ‘knowledge’ there implies ‘full knowledge’ of the truth, which involves the whole of Paul’s ministry. Then it summarises the truth in a most remarkable statement:

• “God is one, and the mediator of God and men one, the man Christ Jesus”.

• You have there a remarkable statement of the truth.

F.G.H. Is your thought that in order to make specific requests for men and authorities wisdom is required?

G.R.C. That is just the point. Are we among the wise? Every member of the assembly should be among the wise.

• God is soon going to secure the wise among an earthly people. It says the wise will understand; Daniel 12: 10.

• Those who follow us will get the gain of the discipline they will go through.

• They will be in no doubt as to how to pray, and we in our day should be in no doubt as to how to pray, whether for all saints or for all men, or for kings and all that are in dignity.

H.F.R. The Spirit knows, at first hand, just what is needed. He knows the urgent matters and He would help us to pray; even when we do not know how to pray as in Romans 8: 26, the Spirit intercedes.

D.McI. It adds “thanksgivings”, showing that prayers are answered.

G.R.C. Quite so. Intelligent prayers of faith are always answered.

A.E.M. Would you pray for the present situation? Many men are on strike, many saints are affected. Men are affected, their wives and children are affected. Is it a matter to take to God in prayer?

G.R.C. I am sure it is. Our compassions go out to men in their suffering.

• They are being misled and the devil is behind it. Wives and children are suffering, and we should pray for them.

• We should also pray for those in authority in connection with the present situation. Men have come in a body, as in Daniel 6, and they are endeavouring to influence the government.

• They have done so in Australia and America in such a manner as to secure trade union legislation.

• In this country they have not been able to coerce the government yet; and I believe they never will while the assembly is here, provided the saints are urgent in prayer. If we pray, God will strengthen the government against these bodies of men.

• The universal fellowship to which we belong, the fellowship of God’s Son, would be unable to function if they had their way. That is Satan’s aim in the matter, and therefore we must pray.

• We must pray to God to strengthen governments against these bodies of men.

So, as thus prepared by divine communications, we should be ready to face the beast, as far as we may be called upon to do, without any fear of man in our hearts.

• Paul faced him alone; he said,
  • “At my first defence no man stood with me, but all deserted me. May it not be imputed to them. But the Lord stood with me, and gave me power, that through me the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear; and I was delivered out of the lion’s mouth”, 2 Timothy 4: 16-17.

• If the Lord ordered that Paul should face the Gentile power in its bestial character, it was just to manifest His power and the Spirit’s power.

• The power which was operating in Paul was immensely greater than the power delegated to the Emperor.

• The Emperor could bring all his power against Paul, but he could not possibly overthrow that man; the Spirit of God was indwelling him, and the Lord was standing by him. It was impossible to overthrow him!

• The whole power of Rome could not overthrow him; so much so that the situation ended in complete victory.
  • He said, “that through me the proclamation might be fully made”.

• It was at that time, when all forsook him, that God operated through one man in order that the proclamation might be fully made. There was never such a proclamation!

• The truth as to God and as to man was fully set out, the proclamation from the King of the ages,
  • “the blessed and only Ruler … the King of those that reign, and Lord of those that exercise lordship”.

• Paul was His ambassador, His direct representative, and the truth as to Him was proclaimed fully and all those of the nations heard.

• Paul faced an array of temporal power such as few, if any, have been called upon to face. Luther faced a great array of power, but Paul faced what represented the power of the whole Roman empire at that time.

• It was all arranged by God, in order that through him the proclamation might be fully made, and all those of the nations should hear.

Paul was in no wise intimidated by the beast. The Roman beast is a terrible one, different from the other beasts, as it says in this chapter.

• According to Revelation, in its future manifestation it is like a leopardess and its feet as of a bear and its mouth as a lion’s mouth. Who would not be terrified?

• But Paul was not terrified; no believer need be terrified if he is right with God. He was right up against the lion’s mouth, but he was delivered out of it.

• What a fearless man, conscious of the power of God, one who could say in a greater way than Daniel that God gave him wisdom and might! So he says,
  • “The Lord shall deliver me from every wicked work, al1d shall preserve me for his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for the ages of ages. Amen”.

  • Paul’s last doxology!

• We have spoken about young men – the importance of young men carrying forward the testimony; but here we see an old man –
  • “Paul the aged”

• – going out in full battle array, carrying the standard through to the end, and never more powerful than at the end! And he speaks of the Lord’s heavenly kingdom.

There is a reference to the heavenly kingdom in Daniel 7. First of all it says in verse 13,

• “I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man, and he came up even to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.

  “And there was given him dominion, and glory and a kingdom”.

• Everything is put into the hands of
  • “one like a son of man”

• – what a contrast to the beast!

• The beasts come up from the sea – verse 3 – that is how they arise; and their character is that they arise out of the earth – verse 17.

• But of the Son of man, it says,
  • “who is in heaven”, John 3: 13.

• His is a heavenly kingdom; its origin is heaven. What a blessed contrast!

• When the times of the nations finish and the final beast is judged, the Son of man is given the kingdom!

But then it says further down in verse 18,

• “But the saints of the most high places shall receive the kingdom”.

• Paul is to be preserved for this heavenly kingdom as one of the saints of the most high places.

• It is true that Daniel could not look on to this dispensation, the mystery being hidden in God; so that there is a reference here to other saints besides those of the assembly,
  • those who have a heavenly portion – Daniel, himself, I suppose, amongst them – and including those who are martyred after the assembly is raptured.

• But yet who can doubt that the Spirit, in His mind, would have before Him, in a peculiar way, the saints of the present time?

• Mr. Darby says he has no doubt that the expression ‘the heavenlies’ in Ephesians is taken from this passage. We already know our part there.

• Those in the Old Testament days sought a better country, that is, a heavenly, but they did not know what it was to sit down there.

• But those who have known the quickening power of God, according to Ephesians 2, know something of that already.

• I do not say all the saints are in the good of it but I am saying that those who know the quickening power of God, according to Ephesians 2,
  • can have some experience now, by faith, of having been raised up together and made to sit down together in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.

• Who knew more of that than Paul? And those who belong to the most high places are the ones who are said to receive the kingdom – a wonderful thing!

• When the Son of man receives the kingdom we shall receive the kingdom with Him. What a comfort in view of this present time! If we suffer we shall reign.

• As suffering for Him here in testimony we can look on to the time – now imminent – when the Son of man shall be given everlasting dominion – verse 14 – and
  • “the saints of the most high places shall receive the kingdom, and they shall possess the kingdom for ever, even to the ages of ages”, verse 18.

• Our part in the kingdom will be heavenly, as Paul says,
  • the Lord “shall preserve me for his heavenly kingdom”.

But then, in verse 22 it says,

• “judgment was given to the saints of the most high places”,

• that is to say, judgment is put into their hands.

• The present period of testimony is surely education for us in view of the honour yet to be placed upon us, for Paul says to the Corinthians,
  • “Do ye not then know that the saints shall judge the world? Do ye not know that we shall judge angels?” 1 Corinthians 6: 2-3.

  • The force of this verse – Daniel 7: 22 – is that judgment is put into their hands, they were to execute it.

• The Lord Himself, of course, executes the judgment at His appearing; He does it personally. But the judgment of matters generally in the kingdom is carried on by the heavenly saints.
  • “And judgment was given to the saints of the most high places; and the appointed time arrived, and the saints possessed the kingdom”.

Then to complete the picture, it says in verse 27,

• “But the kingdom and the dominion, and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavens, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most high places”

• – not to the saints of the most high places, they are in the heavenlies, but to the people of the saints. That refers to the Jews and to Israel, as recovered and raised up here on earth.

• They are regarded as the people of the saints, and the earthly side of the kingdom, that which is “under the whole heavens”, is committed to them.

• The heavenly saints have their part and the people of the saints have theirs.

• Think of the honour God is placing on the saints of the most high places in this chapter! They are said to receive the kingdom and to possess it for ever and ever, and judgment is committed to them.

• Finally the earthly people are brought in as their people; not spoken of here as the people of God but the people of the saints of the most high places, showing what an affectionate link there will be between the heavenly saints and the earthly people in that day.

• So the picture is complete – the heavenly saints are in their position; and the earthly people are in theirs, as having the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heavens.

Now I want to refer to the Son of man Himself, but first of all to the Ancient of days. He is introduced in verse 9 in connection with a session of judgment.

“I beheld till thrones were set, and the Ancient of days did sit”.

• This is a scene of the utmost splendour!
  • “His raiment was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was flames of fire and its wheels burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came forth from before him”

• – it is a throne of judgment. Think of His attendants!
  • “Thousand thousands ministered unto him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him: the judgment was set”.

• What a glorious scene of majesty this is – the times of the nations finished and the day of reckoning come in connection with the final phase of the fourth empire in which the pride of man reaches its height in blasphemy against God.

• We shall be with the Lord Jesus then. You may say, Who is this Ancient of days? The Ancient of days is God Himself. Who is the Person who appears? It is the Lord Jesus. The Lord Jesus is the Ancient of days.

• The passage read in the book of Revelation shows that He is both the Son of man and the Ancient of days – marvellous truth, the mystery of His Person!

• Truly Man, and, as the Son of man, the kingdom is given to Him.

• Viewed in this vision as Son of man, He comes up to the Ancient of days. And yet the truth of the whole matter is that the Son of man is the Ancient of days.

• What a glorious thing it will be to be amongst the thousand thousands who minister to Him and the ten thousand times ten thousand that stand before Him! How we shall rejoice to belong to His train in that day!

But it is not only that we shall belong to His train, but in verse 9 it says,

• “I beheld till thrones were set”.

• They are not shown as occupied in Daniel but in the book of Revelation – chapter 4 – they are occupied, the elders are sitting on thrones around the throne.

• No doubt we shall have our part among the thousand thousands who minister to Him, but we also have our part upon the thrones.

• How precious it is to think of the Lord Jesus in His glory thus!

• On the one hand, He is the Son of man in whom the promises centre, and, from that standpoint, He is given dominion and glory and a kingdom – in verse 14; and yet, as to the truth of His Person, He is Himself the Ancient of days. So verse 22 says,
  • “until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most high places”.

• The Son of man is the promised coming one, but, when He comes, it is the Ancient of Days who comes.

Now what I wish to point out in Revelation 1 is that we have to do with this very same Person in a judicial way now.

• In many ways, the description in Revelation tallies with that in Daniel.
  • “I saw … in the midst of the seven lamps one like the Son of man”, and then in verse 14, “his head and hair white like white wool, as snow”.

• Here we have presented, in the one blessed Person, the Son of man and the Ancient of days, and He is appearing in judicial character;
  • not sitting on a throne of judgment – it is not a session of judgment – but as walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps.

• It is the present gracious service of the Lord Jesus. How could we face Him if He were sitting on a throne of judgment in regard to our assembly responsibility? How could we face Him if a stream of fire issued and came forth from before Him?

• But although His eyes are as a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass burning in a furnace, He is walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps.

• Think of the grace of Christ, so great a Person, One who is Himself the Ancient of days, though Son of man, walking at the present time in the midst of the seven golden lamps.

• Under His all-searching gaze He is taking account of the assemblies in their responsibility,
  • not to bring in penal judgment, as He will do in Daniel 7 upon the beast,

• but that we might be brought to a judicial view of things corresponding with His own, and into a walk corresponding with His; that
  • we might discern things as His eyes, as a flame of fire, discern them, and that our feet might be brought into ways of righteousness and truth.

So He gives His own estimate of what He sees, and in five of the seven assemblies He calls upon them to repent.

• How we need to repent in the presence of such a Person as this and the grace that leads Him to walk in the midst of the seven golden lamps, taking account of all that is there,
  • with a view to bringing us, if we are prepared for it, into the current of His own thoughts and His own judgment of matters,

• so that we might be overcomers in the present situation and in due course sit with Him in His throne.
  • “He that overcomes, to him will I give to sit with me in my throne”.

• The overcomer has learnt to judge things as He judges them here, repentance has had its full place, and He says, I will give to such a one
  • “to sit with me in my throne; as I also have overcome, and have sat down with my Father in his throne”.

• It is the Ancient of days speaking; yet to the worst state of the church He says,
  • “as many as I love”.

• Think of the affections of Christ! This is our Beloved, this is the Beloved of the assembly,
  • but seen here in the greatness of His Person and in His judicial character, like a Son of man

• and yet, by the description, the Ancient of days, and; by His own assertion,
  • “the first and the last”

• – a most definite title of Deity.

• This is the Beloved of the assembly, His eyes as a flame of fire, of whom it says,
  • “Jealousy is cruel as Sheol: the flashes thereof are flashes of fire. Flames of Jah”, Song 8: 6.

• With the jealousy of divine love He is looking at the assembly here in responsibility, yet with a love that remains in its strength. He says,
  • “I rebuke and discipline as many as I love”.

• He is moving judicially among the assemblies to bring us back to first love; and I believe the first step on the way back is to appreciate the Lord Jesus in this character.

If we appreciate Him thus the first thing we shall do is to fall at His feet as dead.

• John knew Him, perhaps, more than others as “the Beloved”, yet he fell at His feet as dead.

• But as seeing Him thus and raised up by Him again, and facing assembly failure in His presence, John’s affections for Him would be immensely intensified.

• And so with us. If we face assembly responsibility and failure in His presence, and are brought into accord with His mind and judgment, we shall love Him in a way we have never done before.
  • This is really the first step in recovery to first love, which this book supposes.

• The Lord presents Himself in certain ways throughout the book, and the object in view is recovery to first love, and it is there at the end.
  • “I am the root and offspring of David”,

• not now the Ancient of days, it is another view –
  • “the bright and morning star. And the Spirit and the bride say, Come”.

• That is, at the end of the book, there is recovery to first love proved by the fact that the bride is entirely in accord with the Spirit. The Spirit is saying, Come, and the bride is saying, Come.

• Recovery to first love involves the whole book of Revelation; the book deals with judgments and other things, but the presentations of the Lord, if appreciated, will bring about first love in our souls.

Now that brings me to what He has in view in acting judicially. He has in view the bringing in of all that which He died to secure – all that engages Him as the Root and the Offspring of David.

• How attractive that title is to the assembly!

• When He comes in judgment, according to Daniel 7, and sets up the kingdom, it will be in view of bringing into public display the result of His operations of love and grace as the Root and Offspring of David;
  • but His judicial dealings at the present time are to bring about similar results in testimony now.

• What David and David’s offspring, Solomon, established was, typically, God’s best! All the most treasured thoughts of God were carried into effect, typically, by them.

• But they were only types; they point on to this blessed Person who is the Root of David.

• No one but David’s Root could carry into effect those great and precious realities which were set out typically in the works of David and Solomon. The One who is the Root has come.

This title, like that of the Ancient of days, asserts His deity, but it is a different presentation. He says,

• “I am the root and offspring of David”.

• These are two aspects of the truth of His Person.

• Just as in chapter 1 we see that the Son of man and the Ancient of days are one Person,
  • so, at the end of the book, the Root and the Offspring of David are one Person.

• The assembly understands these things; the assembly apprehends, as no other creature, the truth of the Person of Christ, though the mystery of His Person is unfathomable.

• The Lord has no need either in the first or the last chapters to separate the two ideas. Those who form the assembly are intelligent enough to understand and hold in their affections both aspects of the truth.

In His judicial dealings at the present time, as walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps He has in view a Philadelphian result. It is in that address He says,

• “These things saith the holy, the true; he that has the key of David”,

• and there He promises to make the overcomer a pillar in the temple of His God and to write upon him the name of His God and the name of the city of His God, new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from His God, and His new name.

• Thus the judicial activities of the Lord, whether we think of them in their completeness in the future, or whether we think of them now, are to make way for
  • the development and bringing out, whether now in testimony or then in future glory,

• of all that He died to establish, and all that He has laboured for so unceasingly as the Root and Offspring of David.

• May our hearts be encouraged in the light of this and may we be prepared to have to do with Him now in judicial character.

• Let us be prepared to come into the presence of the One like a Son of Man who is yet the Ancient of Days – His eyes as a flame of fire, His feet as fine brass, His countenance as the sun shining in its power. What majesty!

• As we are prepared to be in His presence and to get His estimate of things, it will clear the way for
  • assembly formation and service now which will delight His heart as the One who is the Root and Offspring of David.

Now I wish to say a word about Timothy because we have there an exhortation.

• “I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom”.

• Some may have questioned whether what we have been engaged with today is really important for Christians. I can tell you it is most important. Paul bases his exhortation upon it.

• He is bringing Daniel 7 before us, as well as other passages, when he speaks of His appearing and His kingdom, and He is bringing that to bear upon us as a lever in our souls to impel us to get on with the work.

• And what is the work? Proclaim the word. By Paul the proclamation was fully made in the presence of Nero.

• We are to be urgent in season and out of season in proclaiming the word. It really involves using the sword of the Spirit. We should pray to be more adept in the use of it.

• The Spirit has made Himself better known to us and we should become more expert in using the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

• Of the One in Revelation it says,
  • “Out of his mouth a sharp two-edged sword going forth”.

• In fact, when the Lord Jesus comes from heaven at the head of His army, according to Revelation 19, the only weapon He uses, apparently, is the sword of His mouth. You do not need any other weapon.

• Armies and navies will never settle anything finally because the conflict, the real conflict, is in the minds of men. Once you could bring men to govern themselves by the word of God, everything would be settled.

• If difficulties arise among the saints, the moment you can cause the word of God entirely to govern the minds of the saints, there is no more difficulty. Everything depends on that.

• When the word of God really governs the minds of men on this earth, wars, as we know them, will cease, the conflict will be over.
  • We are, therefore, engaged in the real conflict.

• Among the nations we see physical conflicts which achieve nothing as to the solution of good and evil.

• They achieve things in the ways of God. God is over all in His providential ways. But, in the conflict we are engaged in, the only effective weapon is the sword of the Spirit. If only we knew how to use it!

• So he brings all this to bear upon Timothy:
  • “I testify before God and Christ Jesus, who is about to judge living and dead”.

• He is about to judge us. Not only is He walking in the midst of the seven golden lamps with His eyes as a flame of fire and His feet like fine brass, but presently He will cause us to stand before Him.

• Paul speaks about a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge would give him in that day.

• We shall not stand before the Lord for penal judgment like the beast and the wicked dead. Thank God for that! But what is not judged now will have to be judged.

Before we appear with Him in His kingdom we shall have heard what the Judge has to say, the righteous Judge.

• He is about to judge living and dead, and about to appear and introduce His kingdom. It is all this that makes it so urgent that we should get on with the work at the present time.

• The proclamation of the word involves the work of the ministry, the work of the Lord, and it involves the conflict, too. It involves the use of the sword of the Spirit, and so Paul says,
  • “convict, rebuke, encourage, with all long-suffering and doctrine”.

• I have already referred to the way Paul went out. He went out with full battle honours, wielding the sword of the Spirit with the utmost effect in the presence of the greatest opposition that the Roman empire could bring to bear upon him.

• And so he calls upon us – bringing all these great impending events to bear upon us – to proclaim the word.

May the Lord help us in all these matters; and may He help us rightly to discern the difference between the vision given to Nebuchadnezzar and that given to Daniel.

• What I have been saying about the beasts and their character does not alter at all the truth set out in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision that the authorities that exist are set up by God.

• Though, in themselves, they are bestial in character according to Daniel 7, yet, in the light of the vision in chapter 2, we have to recognise that God is over the whole matter of government and that He controls them.

• An understanding of the two visions will help us in our prayers. We shall pray that God may keep them under control and not permit them to display their bestial character.

• If He does permit it at certain times for disciplinary purposes, that is all part of His ways, but an understanding of these visions will help us to pray to God for restraint, that He may hold them in His hand and use them for good
  • until that time when the kingdom, to which we already belong, will, in the Person of the King, strike the feet of the image and it will disappear from the earth.

• The days of indirect government on God’s part will be over, and the direct government of God in the hands of Christ will fill the earth.

May God help us in these matters for His name’s sake.

Now Abraham is pleading with God for Sodom, that possibly there might be fifty righteous, and when God said if there were fifty He would spare the whole city for their sake, he says it may be that there will lack five of the fifty.

• He is imbued with the spirit of intercession but, at the same time, as marked by it, he says, I who am dust and ashes. A remarkable thing for Abraham to say,
  • “I who am dust and ashes”.

• Job repented in dust and ashes. It is not quite clear, perhaps, at what time Job lived but he said it as brought into the presence of God and made to feel that his only outlet was to abhor himself and repent in dust and ashes.

• But Abraham says, I who am dust and ashes, as though the full weight of having to do with God as in a world that was marked by evil, though Abraham himself was separate from it, had been made good in his soul.

• Well, one only refers to it, dear brethren, as believing that this kind of spirit and the facing things with God will give us greater power with God.

• There is no doubt that Abraham acquired great power with God in this remarkable incident of persevering intercession and, at the same time, there is nothing sentimental about his intercession,
  • he knows when to stop.

• He goes so far, step by step, saying, perhaps there may be ten found there, and Jehovah says, I will not destroy it for ten’s sake. But Abraham went no further.

• That is, he had a suitable sense of what was due to God, and that if the conditions in Sodom were so bad that there were not ten righteous persons there, it was only right that judgment should fall, although,
  • no doubt, he had confidence in God – that if there was one righteous man – as there was in the person of Lot – that man would be spared.

• So we read, as the chapter proceeds, that when the time came and the judgment was poured out Abraham went out to the place where he had stood before the Lord and it says that God remembered Abraham and delivered Lot.

One felt, dear brethren, that this is a matter that we all need help on, really to face the seriousness of conditions all around us which call for judgment,

• and therefore the suited spirit on our part in which to engage in intercession on behalf of men.

Now when we come to Jeremiah 15 Jehovah is making known to Jeremiah that the position with Judah is irretrievable.

• The captivity was just about to take place, Jerusalem was shortly to be destroyed, the position after the reign of Manasseh was apparently irretrievable and so, in order to bring home to Jeremiah, how serious it was, God says,
  • “Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, my soul would not turn toward this people”.

• That is, He is pointing out Moses and Samuel as men who had had remarkable power with Him in intercession.

• We might enquire what was it about Moses and Samuel that made them such effective intercessors.

• We know that Moses was very effective in his intercession, especially at the time of the golden calf; we know that Samuel was very effective in his intercession. What made them so effective?

• The Lord would surely call our attention to those who are effective intercessors in order that we may learn to take on similar features.

• Now Moses is presented to us as one who felt the state of God’s people from the start. He was born of good levitical lineage and the first time he is mentioned, it says, that the child wept.

• He is presented to us in that way as one who is marked by feeling the state of things in which God’s people were involved.

• And then we know that later on, much discipline of course had to be faced before he was fit to be used as the deliverer of God’s people – when he went to Pharaoh to bring out God’s people, having had a command to do so, he was very definite.

• He had to become strong gradually, he developed strength as he moved in obedience to God’s word, but there comes a time when Moses says, we will go with our young and with our old, with our flocks and with our herds, there shall not a hoof be left behind; Exodus 10: 9, 26.

• Nothing could be more definite than the judgment that Moses had and expressed about the world which was holding God’s people in captivity, and he would bring them out.

• There was no doubt whatever in the way he spoke to Pharaoh as to his attitude with regard to Egypt. Now, what attitude have we, dear brethren, in regard of Egypt?

• If it were the Sodom world, we should doubtless condemn it, repudiate it, reprobate it, but what about the Egypt world? The Egypt world is, perhaps, the most dangerous of all from one point of view.

• It represents the world as a system that lives in independence of God, having its resources in itself.

• The very principle of it is in all our hearts, and yet God would have the saints completely delivered from it.

• Indeed one has asked oneself lately how much we are really in the good of redemption, because there is something so absolute about redemption.

• It says that the Lord gave Himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness, and purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works.

• Redemption means that the rights of God over us are absolute, and that He has delivered us from one order of things, or intends to, in order that we might be wholly for Himself and the system in which He is known and served.

• One sometimes fears, dear brethren, that we, to a certain extent, have links with both systems; with the world on the one hand and with God’s system on the other. But that is not the recognition of God’s rights in redemption.

• God’s rights in redemption are absolute, and it says that the Lord has washed us from our sins in His blood – that is we are never to go back to what marked us previously – and has made us a kingdom, priests to His God and Father.

• That is the position we are in – made us a kingdom; all His power and support available for our protection but, at the same time, it is in order that God might have priests in this evil world;
  • priests who minister to His pleasure on the one hand, and, as we have been hearing, to represent Him in prayer and intercession for all men, for kings and those who are in dignity, and so on.

Well now, we shall indeed have no power with God if we are not definite in our repudiation of the world and in our recognition of the claims which He has established over us in redemption.

• Moses says, we will go with our young and with our old, with our flocks and with our herds, there shall not a hoof be left behind, and in chapter 11 of the book of Exodus we find that he went out from Pharaoh’s presence in a glowing anger.

• That is, he really represented God’s own feelings in regard of the system which, up to that moment, had kept His people in bondage. And how many of God’s people are in bondage still. They belong to God, they belong to Christ, and yet are in bondage.

• And one challenges oneself as to how far we really feel it; how far there is godly indignation in our hearts in regard of the position. The Lord lays,
  • “Woe to the world because of offences!” Matthew 18: 7;

• as though He would say that system has provided stumbling blocks for thousands of My people, and woe to it – Woe to the world, He says, because of offences.

• We might say much more as to Moses but one does not want to monopolise the time, but then Samuel, too, he was the product of deep feeling.

• We know how Hannah felt things, we know how she was determined that from the very outset Samuel should be one who served God suitably, so that even as a boy he ministered to Jehovah clothed in a linen ephod.

• Think of that, starting as a young boy with the idea of ministering to God in suited moral conditions; no doubt the effect of his mother’s influence.

And so Samuel grows up in that setting, as one who from the very outset is to be a priest, though not one officially, and one who was marked by feeling in regard to the conditions in which God’s people were.

• Well now he intercedes in power. He calls upon God’s name, as it says in Psalm 99,
  • “Moses and Aaron among his priests, and Samuel among them that call upon his name”, verse 6,

  • and he was answered.

• But he particularly shines near the end of his history. Not that he was not in power before for he certainly was, but at the end of his history he is rejected by the people, and he says,
  • “Far be it from me that I should sin against Jehovah in ceasing to pray for you”, 1 Samuel 12: 23.

• He was not embittered by the fact that he was rejected by the people whom he had served so long. He says, I will teach you the good and right way.

• And there is another thing in which he shone, and which I have no doubt gave him great power with God, and that was the unsparing way in which he dealt with Agag after Saul had spared him.

• All these things, dear brethren, I have no doubt, enter into our acquiring power with God.

• If we are to intercede – intercessions, prayers, supplications, thanksgivings for all men and especially too for all saints as we have in the end of Ephesians –
  • if we are to have power with God, it is a question of taking on, I believe, these features which are particularly seen in Moses and Samuel.

But now when we come to Amos, he is not, in one sense, someone distinctive like Moses and Samuel, nevertheless he acquires power, but he tells one who was opposed to him,

• “I was no prophet, neither was I a prophet’s son; but I was a herdman, and a gatherer of sycamore fruit”.

• He was just engaged in ordinary lowly occupation, engaged with what was living and concerned with fruit:
  • “I was a herdman and a gatherer of sycamore fruit”.

• It is a good thing to be occupied with what is living and what can be sacrificed to God, what can be presented to God, and with the idea of fruit for God, too.

• And Amos was marked by that. Just, you might say, an ordinary person, but at the same time having the good of the saints at heart, for he says,
  • “And Jehovah took me as I followed the flock”,

• that is he would be watching their movements, seeing, we might say, how they were getting on.

• Timothy cared with genuine feeling how the saints were getting on, and that was the kind of man that Amos was, and it is open to anyone of us.

• It is open to anyone of us, the youngest of us, that we should be genuinely concerned how the saints are getting on, following the flock and seeing their movements and, of course, if we are thus exercised, we shall be concerned as to our own movements.

• And as he was following the flock it says,
  • “Jehovah took me, as I followed the flock, and Jehovah said unto me, Go, prophesy unto my people Israel”.

• But now there is another thing comes to light with Amos, and that is that if anyone has the mind of God, so that he can communicate it to His people, he should also be an intercessor.

• We have in chapter 3 of this very book what I believe was referred to during the meetings, that the Lord Jehovah will do nothing but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets, and Amos was one to whom God showed things.

• If God shows us things it is intended that we should not only convey God’s mind but that we should glorify Him by taking up the attitude of intercession.

• And, therefore, Amos is given to witness certain governmental dealings of God, locusts that were eating up all the latter growth and so on, and as he took account of this, he said,
  • “O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech thee!”

    What feeling there was,

  • “O Lord Jehovah, forgive, I beseech thee! How shall Jacob arise? for he is small”.

    His intercession was effective:

  • “Jehovah repented for this; it shall not be”.

• And then in the next paragraph there is another governmental intervention on God’s part in great severity and again he says,
  • “O Lord Jehovah, cease, I beseech thee! How shall Jacob arise? for he is small. Jehovah repented for this”.

• Then as things continue the position becomes irretrievable but I need not say any more as to that.

• All I had in mind was to point out that whereas with Moses and Samuel we have outstanding persons,
  • with Amos we get what we might call an ordinary person, who is just following the flock and going on with a humble occupation, but available to God, to be taken up to convey His mind,

• but that if we have God’s mind He intends that we should feel what it involves for His people and that we should take up the service of intercession.

• Amos was an intercessor who was effective, with what feeling he pleaded with God! Twice over his intercession was heard, and he becomes in that way a model for us.

Well, dear brethren, that is all that was in one’s mind, hoping that the Lord might use the word just to help us all in what I am sure has been a challenging time at these meetings to us all; in the little time that is left I have no doubt

• the Lord would have us take up with greater definiteness and earnestness than ever before this service of praying in God’s house suitably;

• having intelligence as to what is due to Him and at the same time having divine feelings both in regard of men and in regard of His people.

So I have read these well-known passages with a view to basing a word of exhortation on them.

• The first passage would help the young to be assured of the divine system in powerful operation. I know of nothing more comforting, in a sense, than that the system is here.

• God is equal to every emergency, and He is going to carry things through according to His own mind; and the point is whether we are in the gain of these things.

• When Elijah was taken up into heaven, the words of Elisha were,
  • “My father, my father! the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof”.

• That surely would have reference to what was available to God’s people in power upon the earth, consequent upon Elijah’s going into heaven.

In our chapter, the attendant of the man of God took account of things outwardly and said,

• “Alas, my master! how shall we do?”

• God has great patience with the attendants of the men of God;
  • Joshua was such and God took him on;

  • Elisha was such and God took him on;

  • Mark was such, an attendant, breaking down, but God took him on.

• I would say, dear young brethren, attend on the truth, attend upon those who minister the truth.

• So the word here from Elijah is,
  • “Jehovah, I pray thee, open his eyes”.

• We would wish that everyone’s eyes should be fully opened.

• Mark’s gospel would help the young to see the energy and power in which things are to be carried through, and it is in that gospel that the Lord, in healing the blind man, gives him a second touch that he might see all things clearly.

• I trust that many have had a second touch here these two days; something that might determine and give character to your future walk;
  • something that will help you in the re-assessment of values in the realm of the truth, for you will never gain Christ unless you learn how to value Him.

• The word in Romans 12, as to your “intelligent service”, means that the believer is beginning to be able to reckon and to value.

• So in this passage in Kings the young man needs to have his eyes open.

• What a host there was round about Elisha! It would speak of God for us and of the whole system as available to us,
  • “full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha”.

• Well, what more, dear young brother and sister, could you need in the way of confirmation?

• Commit yourself to the Lord unreservedly, not merely to break bread but from henceforth to be available to the Lord and wholly committed to Him.

Well now, in Mark’s gospel we have a man whose sense of values was altogether disproportionate.

• He had come readily into things; he came running into the way and kneeling down to the Lord said, “What shall I do?”

• The Lord, looking on him, loved him; but immediately He tested him on the line of what value he placed on things. He says,
  • “One thing lackest thou; go, sell whatever thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me, taking up the cross”.

• That is the word, dear young brother! You might be clear of the world in many respects, but then there is your own sphere and the value you set upon it.

• This man went away sorrowful for he had great possessions. The greater your portion in the world the more difficult it will be.

• I would say, keep simple, never get involved: always be simple in your relations in this world, before God in piety and in salvation.

• It says, he went away grieved.
  • “Jesus looking around says to his disciples, How difficultly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!”

• I would say, dear brethren, learn to change your values; sell what you have and you will get an increased value for it, you will have something of your own which will go through with you into God’s day;
  • but do not build up anything that will tend to establish you in independence of God, neglectful of the testimony and unable to carry the cross.

• The word here is, “follow me, taking up the cross”.

Now as to Mark himself. He is often in our minds.

• As arriving at a revaluation Paul says
  • he is “serviceable to me for the ministry”.

• Think of the company, think of Paul himself, and the Lord committed to him, think of Luke being with him, think of Timothy going also to Rome and taking Mark with him! What company there would be in those brethren at Rome!

• Would it not be worth while to be wholly committed to be in the best of company, to be in the very centre of what God is doing with regard to His assembly and to the saints; and, indeed, to all that His counsel involves in connection with the universe?

• So the word to Timothy is a charge. It is a solemn matter to receive a charge; and Paul, though he knew Timothy so well and could speak to him as his child,
  • says, “I testify before God and Christ Jesus”.

• Is that not a solemn matter that things are presented to us on the line of a charge?

• The whole of the two books of Timothy constitute the charge of the man of God; and the word here is that it is laid upon him as in the presence of God and
  • “Christ Jesus, who is about to judge the living and dead”.

• Paul is urgent with this young man; everything is in the nature of command in these epistles. There was to be no option but a man completely at the word of the apostle. Then he is to
  • “take Mark and bring him with thyself, for he is serviceable to me”.

Well, dear brethren, how much there is in these epistles to Timothy, so much that we need to keep the truth in them currently in our hearts day by day, for that is where, so to speak, the Lord has His rights.

• The reference to the Lord in this book is most touching, the Lord Himself!
  • “The Lord stood with me and gave me power”.

• So that we might say this is not simply the divine system objectively, it is not a matter now of the horses and chariots round about Elisha, but it is a matter of
  • persons who can be relied upon, persons, indeed, who are part themselves of the divine system and are here in relation to the will of God.

I trust my young brethren will suffer the word of exhortation and be attentive to the truth;

• never be satisfied with an objective knowledge such as we might acquire in meetings together,

• but rather be diligent in following up the truth in exercise, and working it out consistently in our daily path and in the assembly.

• May the Lord graciously bless the ministry that we have received.

• In a sense it is simple to refer to what we have had and to exhort one another to pay attention to it and to keep the entrusted deposit, for His name’s sake!

So I wanted to speak a word, briefly, about enlargement. I feel we need enlargement.

• We have it, in a measure, in regard to the service of God. We all enjoy it much more than we used to;
  • but I feel that we need enlargement as to the great place that God has given us in His house and in the testimony.

So Jabez came before me. There is something prior to his prayer. His mother bore him with pain.

• Enlargement always brings pain, the pain of a mother. It would mean exercises carried a long time.

• We do not get enlargement suddenly in the meeting; it may begin there, but it means carrying until the child is born and it brings pain.

• What a child Jabez was! He turns to God and says,
  • “Oh that thou wouldest richly bless me, and enlarge my border, and that thy hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil”.

• What a prayer! I feel we need enlargement in regard of our place in the testimony.

• We have been so narrow, so insular, never looking much beyond our own meeting;
  • but the thought of God is to have His saints before Him in all the glorious viewpoint of the prophetic testimony. What a sphere it is!

• We can look round in the world; it is seething and troublous. Politicians do not know what to do; but we, as Christians, know what will be the end of it.

• We cannot tell when, but we know the end, and we have to pray about these great events.

• Bodies of men are arising on every hand claiming the world for themselves without regard to others.

• We have rights in the world, God has given us rights down here; we are here according to the will of God, and He hears us, our prayers move Him.

• He is a God that can be moved, even to repentance! What a God!

So we are to pray for enlargement in every respect in the prophetic testimony of the Lord.

• So Jabez sought to be kept from evil; because it might grieve God? No, because it might grieve him.

• So God would take notice of a man like Jabez. He loves to hear His people pray, whether in the home or in private or in the meeting;
  • He is always listening to what His people say.

• He knows all about what to do from His own side, but He loves to listen to His people and His people’s prayers move Him.

• Think of the mighty power of God moving to bring to pass the prayers of His people!

So I commend to you the prayer of Jabez, feeling the need of enlargement and being kept from evil.