Joyfulness
Early Ministry by G. R. Cowell
– Part Three

It is important to keep in mind that, so far as one sees in Scripture, God has only three units before Him.

• I am speaking, of course, of what is down here in testimony.

The first is the individual Christian.

• Each individual is a unit in God's eyes, having his own history and his own place with God.

Then there is the Christian household; God regards the Christian household as a unit.

• The word to the Philippian jailor is, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved". That is the individual – the jailor.

• Then it adds, "thou and thy house"; that is another unit. He was baptised, he and all his straightway.

• So God regards the Christian household as a unit. In fact things began that way with Israel, for they were to take a lamb for a house.

Thirdly, there is the assembly – the greatest unit of all, far exceeding any other. We being many are one bread, one body.

• What God intends to secure in the fullest sense is the assembly – the great universal vessel, but expressed in local companies.

I am convinced that, in the Christian position, any other unit than these is not of God, not any other kind of association even amongst Christians.

• Young people getting together by themselves and forming a kind of association is not of God.

• Youth movements are common today, but they are not of God. Such associations are not divinely recognized units.

• God supports what He has established, and He has establshed the individual, the household and the assembly,
  • but He does not support what He has not estab-ished, however useful it may seem to men to be.

• In the end all such associations damage the testimony. If we want to taste divine joy, we must keep to divine units.

God is prepared to support each one of us individually to an extent that we little conceive. "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

• He is entirely committed to each one of us as individual believers.
  • "He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things?"

• There is nothing too much for God to do for each one of us individually. He has proved His love in not sparing His Son. We little conceive what God is prepared to do for the individual Christian.

• If we did we should be full of jubilance and exultation in God, as apprehending in some degree what He would do for one man, one woman, or one child.

• He has given His Son and He has given the Holy Spirit, and has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

Luke 5: 27-29, 36-38

Levi is an example of an individual believer. The Lord saw him and said, "Follow Me", and it says, "having left all, rising up he followed Him".

• Later in the chapter the Lord brings in teaching to indicate what kind of a person Levi was – a new skin full of new wine.

• In the earlier part we have the Lord meeting our need, but the result is that He Himself attracts the heart. This attraction leads Levi to rise up and follow the Lord.

• There is no doubt that he was a man full of joy, for he knew how to make others happy.

• You cannot make others happy if you are not happy yourself, and you cannot bring new wine into other people's hearts if you have none yourself.

• He made a great entertainment for Jesus in his house. I like that word entertainment; it was not one of those dull occasions when a lot of people are present, and everyone is afraid to speak.

• Such conditions are not joyful, but this is a great entertainment for the Lord Jesus. Do you think the Lord Jesus enjoyed it? I am sure He did.

• Would you not like to make an entertainment for the brethren, to have the brethren in your house, and find them all happy there? Levi aimed at that and did it successfully.

• He made a great entertainment for the Lord and he had a great crowd in his house. It is a great thing, whether we have little accommodation or much, to fill it.

• God's thought is filling; we are to be filled with the Spirit. He also says, "that my house may be filled", Luke 14: 23.

• There is no doubt that Levi filled his house. If I have only a very small room, I can fill it.

• The Lord said of one, "She has done what she could". Whatever you have, fill it to capacity, but be sure it is a spiritual entertainment, not simply a meal. Brethren do not come just for a meal.

• Spiritual entertainment is not a question of speaking about anecdotes or exploits.

• What is wanted is something of Christ – something spiritual making way for the Lord Himself to come in; as He said to Zacchæus, "Today I must remain at thy house".

What Levi does in his house shows the kind of man he was.

• Of course there were the critics, those who criticized the kind of persons invited.

• But we do not base our invitations on natural or social considerations. That would not suit the Lord. He wants us to have in our houses the kind of company that is suitable to Him.

• If you are on right lines the Lord will answer the critics; He will defend His own.

• So He says here, "Can ye make the sons of the bridechamber fast when the bridegroom is with them?" He brings in thoughts that are most stimulating.

• Then the Lord goes on to say, "No one puts new wine into old skins, otherwise the new wine will burst the skins and it will be poured out and the skins will be destroyed; but new wine is to be put into new skins and both are preserved".

• He is indicating the kind of man Levi was. If he was capable of making a great entertainment it was because he was a new skin containing the new wine.

• That is what the Lord has in mind to make every one of us, whether we have houses or not. He would have us all to be joyful, as new skins full of new wine.

Much of our difficulty lies in mixing things up: law and grace for instance, faith and works, and flesh and spirit.

• We are not under law but under grace. Let us enjoy it, and not mix faith and works.
  • Faith has works, of course, but do not let us go back to dead works.

• Let us be clear on these matters, like Paul in Romans 7, so that each one of us realizes that he is a "new skin".

• I am the new thing, and the Spirit links on with me in that way – "I myself", according to Romans 7, serve God's law;
  • and "I myself" am found moving along with the Spirit in Romans 8 and thus the flesh is kept in its place.

• So we have the idea of the new skin and the new wine. That is God's thought, and it is true, in any case, abstractly that as believers we are "new skins" and have new wine.

• Let us be full of the Spirit, not marked by half measures and mixtures.

• Christianity is a joyful system, and Levi was a joyful man personally, but his household was affected by it too.
  • Why should not our households be joyful places? Levi's was.

• God is out to secure households. He wants individuals full of joy and song, and households full of joy and song.

• Think of what it cost God to secure households, how He values them! It is "a lamb for a father's house, a lamb for a house".

Later in the gospel, as regards Zacchæ:us' house, the Lord says,

• "Today salvation is come to this house, inasmuch as he also is a son of Abraham, for the Son of man has come to seek and save that which is lost", Luke 19: 9-10.

• God is seeking lost households, and He wants complete households.

• Exodus 12 refers to fathers' houses. I wonder whether we are all fathers, whether we have the feelings of a father as patterned after God?
  • If we have, we shall not be able to tolerate one being left out of things; they must all be brought in.

• Moses says, "We will go with our young and our old, our sons and our daughters". He would not leave any behind, for, he says, "we have a feast of Jehovah", Exodus 10: 9.
  • That is the true spirit of a father; all must come and be at the feast.

• A man who is joyful is influential, for joy is an influential thing. It influences the household.

• How influential the jailor was! He carried his whole household with him, in the middle of the night, too, for it says that he and all his were baptized straightway.
  • He says, as it were, 'We must not put it off for a moment; bring them all in '.

• Then, it says, he rejoiced householdly in God. It was not a legal matter, his joy carried them all with him.

• That is a thing for all fathers to take account of. Are we influential enough to carry the whole family with us? It is not always easy to carry the young, nor indeed the old.

• Moses was not undertaking a light thing when he said, "We will go with our young and with our old", for there was the Red Sea to go through.

• It would have been easier to have left them behind, but no, they were all to go, not one was to be left behind.

Acts 2: 2, 4, 44, 46-47

So God would have our households joyful places. Baptism is a wonderful thing if properly understood.

• It makes households joyful places, for the members are baptized to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

• Do you enjoy the Father in your home? Do you enjoy the Lord Jesus there? And the Holy Spirit? Have you ever thought of being filled with the Holy Spirit in your home?

• Why should not our homes be on a better level than they are?

Individually and householdly we are to be full of joy and song and then this merges into the assembly.

• The assembly is dependent on the households and the households are dependent on the assembly.

• The households and the assembly are closely linked together at the end of Acts 2: "and every day being constantly in the temple with one accord, and breaking bread in the house".

• Of course under Paul's ministry the breaking bread was put in its proper setting, but he speaks of "the assembly in thy house". There is to be no moral discrepancy.

So in Psalm 42, where the psalmist speaks of moving up to the house of God, he recalls the day when he passed along with the throng, as he says, with the voice of joy and praise, a festive multitude (v. 4).

• What are we like on our way to the meeting? When we leave our homes, having the Lord's Supper in view, are we a festive multitude?

• This festive multitude was on the way to the meeting, so to say. Festivity had begun at home.

• In Luke 15 the father says, "Let us eat and be merry" – God takes the lead in holy festivity.
  • If we move up thus in this spirit, we shall be ready for the "feast of Jehovah".

• It will be no effort then to get the children along; they will be already in the spirit of it – a festive multitude.

• God would miss the children if they were not there. He wants to see whole households at the feast.

Deuteronomy 16: 10-17

In Deuteronomy 16 we have read about two feasts – the feast of weeks and the feast of tabernacles.

• The word feast here means festival: what a great festival the Lord's Supper is!

• The feast of weeks refers to Acts 2, but it goes on and takes in the whole dispensation – the gift of the Spirit and all that flows out of it.

• The feast of weeks would embrace all our meetings.
  • It would include the meeting for ministry – or the meeting for the prophetic word, which is more accurate, because the prophetic word includes song; see 1 Chron. 25: 1-7 –

  • the reading meeting for enquiry in God's temple, and the prayer meeting – praying in the Spirit.

• All these things are the result of the Spirit coming and are all embraced in the feast of weeks. What buoyancy that is intended to enter into them all! There should not be any painful pauses when we are together.

In Acts 2: 1 it says, "they were all together in one place". We can gather without being together.

• In verse 44 it says, "all that believed were together"; that does not mean that they were always together in assembly but they were together in heart and soul.

• If we are together thus, it will be manifest, when we do assemble, that we being many are one bread, one body.

The feast involves assembling, for it speaks here of the place where Jehovah has put His name and that place is His assembly.

• So we gather in the light of His assembly, and as we gather we are to be really together, allowing nothing which would prevent the infinite blessing that the Spirit would bring in.

• Then in verse 11 it says, "thou shalt rejoice". Do we rejoice on all our occasions?
  • "Thou shalt rejoice … thou, and thy son, and thy daughter and thy bondman, and thy handmaid, and the Levite that is in thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow".

• All are there. No member of the household is to be left out. You may say that only the males need have gone, but love will not leave one person behind.

In the beginning of Samuel when Elkanah went up to sacrifice to Jehovah, he took his family with him,

• and also in Luke 2 we see the Lord's parents doing the same thing.

• So here it supposes love working and influential joy affecting not only the household but the stranger also.

• Let us get the stranger to the feast. If we know of any persons in whom the Spirit is working, let us get them to the feast.

Then the passage goes on to the feast of tabernacles, which links with Paul's ministry.

• If we are in the gain of the feast of weeks the Spirit will be unhindered and He will lead us on to the fullness of things – the whole counsel of God.

• The feast of tabernacles implies the fullness of Paul's ministry and the Lord's Supper opens the door for our enjoyment of it in a special way.

• It says, "When thou hast gathered in the produce of thy floor and of thy winepress".
  • It supposes that we have arrived at the fullness of the harvest in our spirits with God. The Spirit Himself is the earnest of our inheritance.

• Think of the produce of the vine and the olive all gathered in, an abundance of oil and wine. So it says. "Rejoice in thy feast", verse 14.

• Usually the feasts were called Jehovah's feasts, but here the Spirit of God calls it "thy feast".

• It is not only God's feast but ours; where He finds His supreme joy we find ours. So it says,
  • "Thou shalt rejoice … thou, and thy son, and thy daughter and thy bondman", and so on.

• What pleasure God has in seeing whole households at the feast. He wants to see all the children there, and the stranger too.

• We need not fear the stranger being there if we are in power; such will be held by the power and joy of the occasion.

You say, 'We are very weak, we do not feel equal to this kind of thing'.

• But let us have the divine thought before us, and God will give His help. The dispensation is to end on this note of festivity and spiritual joy.

• When things are in abundance naturally our appreciation of spiritual things often diminishes.

• The present shortages are in the ordering of God, emphasising to us the fact that all that is best remains freely available;
  • spiritual things are not straitened at all, there is scope in the Spirit for unlimited joy and festivity.

• So it says, "Seven days shalt thou hold a feast to Jehovah thy God in the place that Jehovah will choose, for Jehovah thy God will bless thee in all thy produce and in all the work of thy hands, and thou shalt be wholly joyful".

Then it continues, "they shall not appear before Jehovah empty; each shall give according to that which is in his power to give".

• God is not asking for something that is not within our power, for it says, "according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which He hath given thee".

• He has filled us with joy individually, and householdly, and now assembly-wise we are full of the spirit of festivity and we can say, "Of Thine own have we given Thee".

• He has blessed us with the corn and the oil and the new wine – what can we do but give it to Him? So God has His portion.

• He calls it our feast; it is most touching that He should do so. But it is also a feast to Jehovah. His joy is supreme in it.

May God help us in these matters for His name's sake!

God would have us all in this. Paul is writing to Timothy that he might be fully in it:

• "Be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner".

• Paul can speak of Him as "my Lord" and so did Mary Magdalene. We can never be properly in fellowship if we cannot say that.

• But if you can say "my Lord" to Him and if I am saying "my Lord" to Him, then he is our Lord, that is how the fellowship comes into being in a practical way.

• He is your Lord and my Lord and we go along together; we are both set to maintain what is due to His name.
  • So Paul says, "Be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord". We are not to be ashamed of it.

• There is reproach connected with it, but Peter says, "If ye be reproached … happy are ye".

• Also the Holy Spirit is committed to the testimony. If we are in the testimony of our Lord, "the Spirit of glory and of God" will rest upon us.

• He may be already dwelling in us, but it becomes apparent to everyone that a person has received the Holy Spirit when the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon him.

• In this manner Stephen went into death and thus his enemies were defeated. No one could defeat a man like Stephen.

"Be not ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me, His prisoner".

• We can never be properly in the testimony if we are ashamed of Paul. The enemy has right through the ages sought to keep Paul a prisoner.

• Those who obey Paul's doctrines will suffer reproach, but do not be ashamed of Paul. We cannot give up Paul's ministry.

• This chapter begins, "Be strong, therefore, my child", and it brings out features of spiritual manhood.

• While there are certain things that only man as man can do, yet the features of spiritual manhood should mark women as well as men.
  • It is a question of courage, intelligence and affection in the testimony.

  And so the first feature required in one who will be fully in the testimony is to be a child of Paul, and I would desire that everyone here might be a child of Paul.

• Follow up his ministry fully. None of can say we have fully grasped it. Peter speaks of certain things written by Paul as "hard to be understood".

• It is for us to go in for these things that are hard to be understood. They are the great secrets of God, and what greater honour could we have than for God to let us into His secrets!

• The great secrets of God are embodied in Paul's ministry and they centre in Christ and the assembly.

Then we are not only to go in for his ministry, but to be marked by his spirit.

• Paul could say he was the chief of sinners, and "less than the least of all saints". He was glad to be the servant of all for Jesus' sake.

• Paul's children are marked by the same spirit of true and genuine humility, taking always the lowest place. Only thus can we help each other.

• So he says, "Thou therefore my child, be strong in the grace which is in Christ Jesus".

• For those who are set to understand Paul's ministry, and to be imitators of Paul, all the grace that is in Christ Jesus is available. It is unlimited.

• John says, "And of His fulness we all have received and grace upon grace"; grace upon grace, never to be exhausted. There is everything to encourage us to go forward.

2 Timothy 2: 1-6

The apostle continues, "Take thy share in suffering as a good soldier of Jesus Christ". We are all needed as soldiers of Jesus Christ.

• We are soon coming out following Him as the armies of heaven, but let us all be in the army tonight.

• The Lord Jesus has from His side enlisted all of us to be His soldiers. We learn of old that all the Israelites were enlisted for military service from twenty years old and upward.

• That would refer in our day to everyone who has received the Holy Spirit. You may be only twelve years and yet have received the Holy Spirit, and in virtue of this be twenty years old spiritually.

• It is your privilege to commit yourself to the testimony of our Lord. The moment you do that it means that you recognize that you are a soldier, for the fellowship is a military position.

• Jesus has enlisted you to be a soldier, for the truth must be defended.

• Men are prepared to defend what they value. They defend their fatherland and homes.

• We are called to defend the truth of the assembly and to maintain all that is due to the Lord's name. We have the most precious things to defend.

The soldiers in Israel defended their houses, their tribes, and, above all, the tabernacle where God was dwelling.

• The Christian soldier always fights for God. He holds his house for God, he holds the local gathering for God, and
  • he holds in his affections the one body on earth, as we may say, the great tabernacle system.

• He is prepared to defend all these things, not by imposing suffering on others as men do, but by taking his share in suffering.

• The Christian conflict is carried through to victory by soldiers prepared to suffer, not by the soldiers who cause others to suffer.

• If we are prepared to suffer, God will maintain the truth. It involves standing for the truth in a spirit of meekness.

• We may try to maintain what is right in fleshly energy, but the weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

• It is easier to act in the flesh in support of what is right, than to act in the spirit of Christ;
  • but in doing so we bring disgrace on the truth, the very truth we are standing for.

• A Christian soldier is prepared to suffer. God will see that the truth goes through and will stand by us.

• Even if we have to suffer unto death, God will raise us from the dead; we shall be vindicated then.

• God vindicates us even now as we identify ourselves with the truth.

If anyone contends in the games, he is not crowned unless he contends lawfully.

• God wants us not only as soldiers but He would have us as true athletes running the race.
  • We are pressing on for the "prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus".

• But we must contend lawfully, and this applies to matters which come up in our localities.

• Sometimes when fresh features of truth are coming out, in our anxiety to get others to accept them,
  • we exaggerate things and go beyond the truth and then, even if we gain our point, the brethren will be damaged.

• We need to have the right object before us, but we must not drop into the idea that the end justifies the means.
  • In seeking to bring the truth before the brethren we must not go beyond the truth.

• He is not crowned unless he contends lawfully. A man may win the race, but if he has broken the rules he does not receive the crown.

• We, in seeking to bring the brethren into the truth, need to see that we keep within the range of the truth in question,
  • otherwise, even though we reach our end, we shall not have the Lord's approval.

The husbandman must labour before partaking of the fruit. Everyone here is called to be a labourer.

• A labourer is one who does not mind hard work, nor does he mind what kind of work it is. Each hour of work has helped to forward the fruit of the vineyard.

• In Romans 16 it says, "Greet Mary, who laboured much for you". Some of the greatest workers have been sisters.
  • They are prepared to give heavy and devoted service so that fruit may accrue to God.

• There will be no fruit in the vineyard without labour.

These four things are set together.

• We have Paul's child, a soldier of Jesus Christ, a person contending in the games, and then a labourer.

• Would we all not desire to be marked by these features, whether brothers or sisters?

• Young sisters going out into the office are in the front line as soldiers of the Lord.

• Boys and girls at school who have to say 'No' to things of this world are already in the ranks.

• Of necessity young Christians have to face the foe, and the Lord loves them and will stand by them.

2 Timothy 2: 14-26

Now in the later part of the chapter he says, in verse 15, "Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God".

• We come here to something more skilled. A workman is a skilled person.

• He speaks here of "cutting in a straight line the word of truth". This would be an accurate worker.

• You cannot be a skilled workman all at once, but you cannot be too young to begin your training.

This verse refers to the Levite in full maturity. It is the spiritual age of 30.

• At 25 they went into the work, but at 30 definite responsibilities were allotted to them.

• Paul speaks of Priscilla and Aquila as his fellow-workmen in Christ Jesus, showing that sisters come into it as well as brothers.

• This involves the highest level of workmanship, meaning that they entered into Paul's knowledge of the mystery of the Christ,
  • so that they were able to work intelligently in their labours, like a builder who has the architect's plan before him.

• Timothy was to strive diligently to this end. It needs diligence "to present thyself approved to God".

• What a blessed thing to be approved to God! It is not a question of men, but of God looking at the work.
  • No one but a child of Paul could pass such a searching examination.

Now verse 21 speaks of a vessel, an important view of the believer.

• The apostle says, "Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you?"

• What a wonderful thing that each one of us here is a vessel of the Holy Spirit!
  • Yet many Christians who have the Spirit are linked up with unholy and unclean associations, and are not available for the Master's use.

• If you are a vessel of the Holy Spirit, He is dwelling in you so that you may be available to the Master.

• To be available it is essential for each one of us to act upon the injunction, "Let everyone that names the name of the Lord withdraw from iniquity".

• Further it is necessary that he should separate from vessels to dishonour. This will cause much pain of heart.

• It is one things to separate from iniquity; but we cannot, except with great grief, separate from fellow - believers.

• But if they will not leave the iniquitous system we must leave them. It is imperative to do so.

• The Holy Spirit dwells in us and we cannot remains in unholy asociations.
  • So that if our fellow-believers will not leave unholy associations we must leave them.

• We shall not help them by remaining; we shall only encourage them to remain.

• We shall help them most by being faithful ourselves; and thus we shall become vessels to honour, meet for the Master's use, prepared for every good work.

The most important good work is service Godward.

• The Lord says, "She has wrought a good work toward me", and again, "The Father seeketh such as His worshippers". What is for God must be first.

• How wonderful to be serviceable to the Master, so that He can freely use us in the service of praise to God, as well as in blessing to man!

• In seeking to serve men, many Christians cut them - selves off from the true assembly service to God;
  • and in so doing they do not truly serve men, because they have no place to lead men to.

• Let us see to it that each of us is "a vessel to honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master"!

Finally in verse 24 Paul speaks of "a bondman of the Lord". This underlies all the other features.

• We make very little headway until we recognize that we are the Lord's bondmen and bondwomen.

• The Holy Spirit is free with such persons, as we read in Acts,
  • "Upon My bondmen and upon My bondwomen in those days will I pour out of My Spirit and they shall prophesy".

• There is nothing happier than to be a slave of Jesus Christ and a slave of the saints for His sake;
  • and the bondman or slave of the Lord is marked by the spirit of His Master.

• He is gentle towards all, meek, and patient. These features are to mark us in every aspect of service.

• Let us all aspire to have the features that were to mark Timothy; Paul's child, the soldier of Jesus Christ, the one who contends lawfully, the labourer, the skilled workman, the sanctified vessel and the bondman.

John 20: 16-17

Now I read a verse or two in John 20, to draw attention to the features of womanhood, and while these features would come out specially in the sisters,

• yet they are to mark the assembly as a whole, because, whether we are brothers or sisters, there are to be feminine features proper to the assembly.

• We have been speaking of features which fit us for the testimony here, but in Mary Magdalene we have features which would lead to the calling on high.

• It needs the features proper to womanhood, features that would specially mark sisters, but also are to be seen in the whole company.

• Mary Magdalene followed the Lord in selfless devotion all the way.

• She was amongst those who followed Jesus in His path, ministering to the Lord of their substance, going from city to city and village to village in devoted service.

• Those women had never been formally called like the apostles into the service, but they went in devoted love to the Lord to lavish their all upon Him.

• That is what I meant by womanly features – selfless and devoted affection for the Lord.

We find Mary Magdalene and other women standing by the cross – John 19: 25.

• It needed true womanly affections to go as far as this in public reproach and shame.

• They also followed to the tomb and saw "how His body was placed", Luke 23: 55.

• The men were not found there, but the women were there, showing where womanly affections would carry the saints.

• And then very early in the morning on the first day of the week, when it was yet dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.

• Peter and John did not receive the message; they returned home, but Mary stood at the sepulchre weeping. Nothing would satisfy her but Jesus Himself.
  • "Tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away".

• It shows a love that did not calculate – a weak woman would take Him away. It was the link of love. She must have Him at all costs.

• It is to a love like that that Jesus manifested Himself. It is a heart like that that is ready for the highest truth.

Mere knowledge or ability will not fit you for the highest truth; what is needed is a heart full of love for Christ.

• So, in speaking of the hope of God's calling, Paul prayed in Ephesians 1
  • "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wis-dom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, that ye might know what is the hope of His calling".

• It is a question of being enlightened in the eyes of our heart.

• Mary, a true woman – the Lord calls her "Woman" – is an example of one so enlightened.

• With a heart full of love for Christ, it was a simple matter for the Lord to enlighten her in the eyes of her heart.

• Do you think Peter and John would be ready for a message like this? Not at that time.

• But this woman, with a heart full of love, was ready without the slightest hesitation to receive the greatest light that had ever come to a creature.

• She became at once the most intelligent creature in the universe; she had laid hold of what is the hope of His calling.

• We are Christ's brethren and sons of God; and corporately we are the assembly which is Christ's body.

One would desire that we might all be secured for the testimony unreservedly,

• being marked by the features of manhood that are necessary in facing the exigencies of the testimony according to 2 Timothy 2;

• and also by the features of affection proper to womanhood and thus proper to the assembly as a whole, which give us the capacity to take in the most profound thoughts of God,

• so that we are able intelligently to enter into our heavenly relationships.

May the Lord help us for His name's sake!

We owe everything initially to the fact that the Lord Jesus is a Man of war

• If He were not a Man of war none of us would have been delivered from the enemy's power. No man can be his own saviour.

• We were held by forces which were entirely beyond our power to meet, and so the Lord Jesus came in to flesh and blood conditions in view of conflict.
  • "Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, He also, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death He might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage", Hebrews 2: 14-15.

• He delivered us out of the land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage – why? Because the word was "Let My son go that he may serve Me".

• The Lord has delivered us for the service of God.

• If anyone is slack or indifferent as to the service of God, let me remind you that the Lord Jesus entered in conflict and into death to deliver you for the service of God and not for anything less.
  • He did not go into death, bear the wrath of God, and bear your sins in His body on the tree, simply to save you from the consequences.

• He did all that to secure you and me livingly, vitally and wholeheartedly in the service of God.

• After Israel had come through the Red Sea, the word was, "Let them make Me a sanctuary that I may dwell among them". God cannot be served suitably apart from the sanctuary.

• So, if we are secured for the service of God, we must begin to think about the sanctuary and the part each one is called to fulfil in its formation.

It is evident that we owe more than we can measure to the fact that the Lord Jesus came into flesh and blood conditions to be a Man of war.

• He was not a Man of rest here; He said, "foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has not where to lay His head".

• His whole course was one of conflict, but He ever had in view the final battle-ground. As a Man of war, He chose the battle-ground,
  • "that through death" – that was the battle-ground – "that through death He might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil".

• None of us could have done that; we are powerless against the devil.

• Now that we have put our faith in Christ, we can resist the devil and he will flee from us, but
  • we would have had no power against the devil if he had not been annulled by the Lord Jesus.

• What a Warrior Jesus is!

Then, in Timothy, Paul speaks of "our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has annulled death, and brought to light life and incorruptibility by the glad tidings", 2 Timothy 1: 10.

• The last enemy to be destroyed is death, and He has annulled death, not only him that had the power of death. He has annulled death itself, and brought life and incorruptibility to light.

• Death is another enemy which we could not meet at all; death vanquishes every member of the human race; no man can rise again in his own power.

• But the Lord Jesus has annulled death so that, for those who have faith in Him, death is a completely defeated foe; in fact it is our property, death is ours.

• He has led captivity captive. That which held us in captivity He has made ours, and death is one of the weapons in our armoury. How much we owe to our Saviour Jesus Christ!

• The believer is already in life. He has life in Christ Jesus and enjoys it in the power of the Spirit. We could not serve or worship God if we did not know life beyond death.

• We need to be delivered from the power of Satan typified in Pharaoh and his taskmasters, and we need to be delivered from the pressure of death, if we are to serve God.

• All has been done in view of our being wholeheartedly in the service of God.

The conflict still goes on, but not on the same basis. The fundamental battles have been won, and in those the Lord Jesus had to fight the fight alone.

• Nevertheless the conflict goes on, but the enemy now has the character of the "lords of this darkness".

• If only the light enters the soul of man he gets deliverance; so Satan's only hope now is to keep men in the dark. So it is said,
  • "our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual power of wickedness in the heavenlies", Ephesians 6: 12.

In one way it is a simple kind of conflict. We have not to meet him who had the power of death, for he has been annulled; the great enemies are down.

• We have only to meet an enemy who is seeking to darkyen people's minds as to what the Lord Jesus has done.

• The moment the light breaks in, he has lost his power over the soul, and our business is to see that the light is kept shining. How simple our part is, compared with what the Lord Jesus did!

• He is available to us. We can be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength; that is the only way to stand. We are to put on the panoply of God so that we do not become casualties.

• The moment I become a casualty I am of no more service in the army for the time being. I am out of the fight and, as far as I am concerned, the enemy will get his way and blind people's eyes.

• But I ought to be shining as a light in the world, holding forth the word of life, and for that I need the panoply of God.

• Would to God that we really shone! Would to God that we were like heavenly luminaries here on earth, which no power of Satan could obliterate!

• For that we need to be strong in the Lord and in the might of His strength, and to have on the panoply of God.

If any part of the armour of missing, Satan will get in and we shall cease to shine.

• If our loins are not girt about with truth, he will get a point of attack and we shall cease to shine.

• If we have not the breast-plate of righteousness, our conscience will be defiled and we shall cease to shine.

• But if we are clad in the panoply of God, we who were once darkness will be light in the Lord, and the lords of this darkness will be defeated.

• Think of how the light shone in Paul. A light above the brightness of the sun shone upon him and that light radiated from him in the presence of the dignitaries of this world.

As we shine, the shining exposes, for light makes everything manifest.

• People do not like anyone who shines. Men would rather give up the warmth and genial influence of the light than be exposed, than to be shown what they really are.

• If a Christian is shining, there is the warmth and attractiveness of the light, but nevertheless it shows men to be what they are.

• So you will meet with opposition, and yet, if a person is shining, what a difference it makes in the office or the school!

• Where God is working, and God is working all the time, there will be souls who will be prepared for the exposure in order to have the warmth and genial com-fort of the light, and they will be secured for Christ.

• So that in our conflict we are not against men, we are for men.

We do not wrestle against blood and flesh; we are not against any man;

• our struggle is with principalities and authorities, the universal lords of this darkness, and that is so even when darkness comes in amongst the brethren.

• We are not against anyone, but we are concerned that the light should shine, it must shine whatever happens, and if that is to be so we all need to be military men.

• Shining is referred to in the most advanced epistles. It sounds simple, but you will never shine if you are not a military man; you need to be a man of war with all the armour on, and then you will be able to shine.

• But then a young person can put the armour on; it is available for all Christians, and young Christians often shine best.

We may all take character from Christ as the Man of War. He came into the world as light; He was the true light which lightens every man.

• But men refused the exposure in spite of the warmth and healing rays. Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deed were evil.

• But God is working all the time and we must count on this. There will be some who accept the exposure and do the truth, and come to the light.

• In John's gospel, all the way through, people were coming to the light, yet the opposition was there all the time.

• The Lord was continually surrounded by enemies, but the light shone brighter and brighter. The more He was attacked the brighter the light shone.

The result of conflict is spoil; spoil is needed for the house of God and in the service of God.

• 1 Chronicles 26: 26 speaks of what King David and the chief fathers and the captains over thousands and hundreds and captains of the host dedicated from the wars and out of the spoil to maintain the house of Jehovah.
  • If we are not men of war, we shall secure no spoil.

• Think of the spoil the Lord Jesus has secured. It is out of the captivity that He has led captive that He builds the house of God. We are all in that captivity.

• We were captives to Satan, but He has led the whole captivity captive, and so we have become spoil; and as we are prepared to face matters of conflict,
  • we shall secure spoil, spoil in our own souls and in the souls of others; and God will give us others to walk with; we shall secure spoil as the fruit of the light shining.

Because David was a man of war and had shed blood, God said that he could not build the house. The house cannot be built in war time, so to speak.

• In war time the spoil was gathered; it was so great that it really could not be computed, but that is not construction. Having secured the spoil, constructive work is needed.

• If the sanctuary is to be built, peaceable conditions are essential. And so the man of war was not to build, but God told David that his son would be a man of rest.

• His name, Solomon, means "peaceful". In his days God would give peace and quietness. Peaceable conditions are to be our objective.

• A Christian is not a war-monger, nor is he character- istically war-minded.

• He is always ready for war, he is always to wear the armour and take his share in suffering as a good soldier;
  • but characteristically he is a son of peace, and a peace-maker.

• These things sound contradictory, but they are not so. Even though we have to engage in warfare we always have in mind to secure peaceable conditions amongst the saints.

• The Lord went into death to make peace. He made peace by the blood of His cross. In Ephesians 2 it says that He is our peace, and that by His cross He has slain the enmity.

• Five or six times in the New Testament God is called the God of peace, and in almost every apostolic salutation there is the word 'peace – "grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ".

• The Lord Himself is called the Lord of peace. The Christian should be a peace-maker and a son of peace.

• Although he has to engage in war, it is all in view of securing peaceable conditions on a right basis amongst the saints.

• The fruit of righteousness in peace is sown for those who make peace, but he must make it on a righteous basis.

But then, on the way to the building of the house, Solomon, the man of peace, shines as a man of wisdom in dealing with moral issues connected with those within, that is, within the company of the saints.

• "All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice", 1 Kings 3: 28.

• With the Lord Jesus it is not only that the wisdom of God is in Him; He is the wisdom of God and the power of God, and He settled every moral issue at the cross and will yet direct and sustain a world of glory where God will have His supreme place.

• The One who is the wisdom and power of God is equal to settling every issue that arises in our localities.

In addition to the general conflict the time comes when we have to deal with persons who, although they are linked up with that testimony and should be shining and in conflict themselves,

• have become tools of Satan, and are wielding darkening influences among the saints.
  • Solomon's wisdom shines in the way he dealt with these.

• David, the man of war, was dealing with enemies without and did not touch these matters, but to Solomon, the man of peace, David say, as it were,
  • If you are to be the man of peace and to have an undisturbed reign so that you can build the sanctuary without any hindrance, you must see to it that moral issues are settled within; you must deal with persons who are lending themselves to the service of hostile powers.

• There could be no settled peace while men such as Adonijah, Joab, Abiathar and Shimei were active. They would have undermined the whole position.

Adonijah says, "I will be king" – a man like that is of no service to the saints. Paul said he was less than the least of all saints.

• A man who says, "I will be king", will bring in disruption. You cannot build the house with a man like that free and active among the saints.

• Although Adonijah was given a breathing space, what he says to Bathsheba proves he had not changed at all.

• He says, "all the faces of the men of Israel were toward me to make me king, but Jehovah has turned the kingdom to my brother". He was still thinking that all the faces of the men of Israel were toward him.

• He had not judged himself; that notion was still in his mind. Such a man has to be dealt with although he was the king's brother.

Then there was Joab, a man who had been in the forefront of conflict, who had fought battles, had obtained spoil and had dedicated it to the house of God, who on one occasion had sought to prevent David from doing what was wrong.

• You say, He must have been a good brother; yet see what ambition was there. He was man who could not tolerate a rival.

• Why should he be concerned about a rival? Because he wanted a place himself. And so he killed Abner and Amasa, who were better men than himse lf.

• He was prepared to murder anyone who showed signs of outshining him. That is a terrible thing.

• If we are really serving the Lord we shall never resent being outshone. The more others shine the better; we all get the benefit of it.

• David said that the sons of Zeruiah were too hard for him. They did not partake of his spirit, for David never had ambitions for himself.

• He only desired power as king in order to serve his God. He shines in the Spirit of Christ.

• He is just a servant of God and of the people. He would use all his power and influence as king to make his God known.

• How different Joab was, slaying two brothers who were better men than himself, lest in any way he should be outshone; and so, at length, under Solomon, in divine wisdom, that man was dealt with.
  • Things may go on for a long time, but at last they are exposed.

Then Solomon thrust Abiathar out from the priesthood. Abiathar was the high priest, a man who had had a most honoured position in the service of God.

• But he went astray in connection with Adonijah. It proved that priestly instincts and sensibilities had not developed properly with him.

• He occupied a position that he was not equal to and at last he was exposed, and even such a one as he was thrust out from the priesthood.

• We feel it keenly in our day when someone is thrust out from the priesthood; we feel what God is losing, and yet there is no other way if the reign of peace is to be secured, and the sanctuary to be built.

Then Shimei, the Benjaminite who cursed David, is exposed.

• He had had a long time to change, but had not changed; he had never severed his heart's link with Saul, and so he is exposed.

• He was not prepared to keep within what is proper to the assembly; he leaves Jerusalem.

• His ignorance of assembly principles exposes him, as we might say, and so he is dealt with.

• All these incidents show what is essential for true peace. If we are to secure the realm of peace, we have to deal with evil within.

David had dealt with enemies without and Solomon with evil within, and now there were conditions of peace for constructive work.

• In 1 Chronicles 22: 19 David commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son:
  • "Now set your heart and your soul to seek Jehovah your God; and arise and build the sanctuary of Jehovah Elohim, to bring the ark of the covenant of Jehovah, and the vessels of the sanctuary of God into the house that is to be built unto the name of Jehovah".

• That is the word for us. At the present moment we should all be in this matter, engaged in constructive work in our localities, so that sanctuary conditions may be secured.

• "Let them build Me a sanctuary", was the early proposal after they had left Egypt.

• In that setting the reference is to our local exercises, the assembly in the wilderness, and unless we face matters there we shall never be able to rise in our spirits to the idea of the assembly according to divine purpose.

• Unless there is something concrete locally that answers to sanctuary conditions, the Spirit of God will not be free to lead us into the full and blessed thoughts of the sanctuary of which it says in Psalm 78, "He built His sanctuary like the heights".

• That is referred to in Exodus 15, where it is said, "The Sanctuary, Lord, that Thy hands have prepared".

• That refers to the assembly according to divine purpose, viewed entirely as God's work. He built His sanctuary like the heights;
  • but unless we are doing some building here and unless there are, in some concrete way, sanctuary conditions down here we shall not be free in our spirits to enter into the realm of divine purpose.

• But, if there are such conditions, the Spirit of God will be free to lead us in our spirits to see things as God sees them,
  • to look at things as though they were already accomplished, to enter in and look out upon the whole realm of glory according to the prayer of Ephesians 3.

• There must be something concrete here as a base, and then the Spirit of God will lead us on and give us a view of the whole realm of glory and of the assembly as the sanctuary which He has built like the heights.

• Thus the service of God, though outwardly feeble here, will proceed as taking on the glory of that eternal scene, into which we enter in spirit.

• And so the word here is to all the princes. You may say, I am not a prince. Then I would say,
  • What have you been doing since you were converted? What have you been doing since the saints have learned to value the Spirit more?

A prince is a man who has learned to value the Spirit and to give the Spirit His place. That need not take forty years. Israel means Prince of God.

• It is open to all of us to be princes. It is a question of learning to walk, not according to flesh, but according to Spirit, and to mind, not the things of the flesh, but the things of the Spirit.

• If you do so, you will have power to join in this constructive line of things; and, indeed, it is only one who is moving in the Spirit who can be a man of peace.

• Otherwise the works of the flesh become manifest in us and there is nothing peaceable about them.

• "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace …" A man walking in the Spirit is a son of peace and he is a peace-maker.

• However much he may have to touch war-like matters, his object is to secure conditions of rest and peace among the saints, so that under the impulse and direction of the true Solomon the constructive work may go on.

May the Lord help us in this matter to take character from Himself in our little measure!

• He is so great in all these ways, so far beyond anyone else, as the Man of war, the Man of wisdom, the Man of peace,

• but yet in our little way we are to take character from Him and to be men of war, always ready to be called upon;

• to be men of wisdom in local matters, and to be men of peace, engaged in constructive work, with a view to the sanctuary of God being known by the saints and the sanctuary service proceeding in power.

Later, in one of the moments of greatest pressure in his life, David wrote Psalm 56, a Michtam or golden Psalm, written when the Philistines took him in Gath. It is a remarkable psalm.

• To think that David, under pressure that he was then in, when he had to feign himself mad in the presence of Achish, King of Gath, could write a psalm like that!

• He did not wait until the pressure was over. He praised God in the pressure. This is what we need to learn. And so in that psalm he says,
  • "In the day that I am afraid, I will confide in Thee. In God will I praise His word, in God I put my confidence: I will not fear; what can flesh do unto me?" Psalm 56: 3-4.

• Think of David writing that in the terrible pressure he was in in Gath, the very home town of the giant he had slain.

• And he goes on to say, verse 8, "Thou countest my wanderings; put my tears into Thy bottle: are they not in Thy book?"

• How he learned the tenderness of God in time of pressure, the God who counted his wanderings.

• Surely he should never have fled to Gath even though Saul was seeking to kill him, but he says, "Thou countest my wanderings". God does not forsake His servant.

• "Put my tears into Thy bottle", he says. "Are they not in Thy book?" think of God having a bottle and a book for the tears of the saints.

• I am sure there are some here tonight under pressure, but let me encourage you. David himself says, "In pressure Thou hast enlarged me", Psalm 4: 1.

• And that golden psalm shows how he was enlarged in the very place of pressure where he might have been full of remorse.

• He fled to Gath again later and again he went through deep pressure, but he strengthened himself in his God.

• It was at the time he lost Ziklag and he wept until he could weep no more.

• We might think God would take no notice of tears when, in some degree, we are ourselves responsible for the pressure, but how tender God is!

• He strengthened himself in God and his faith became stronger in the pressure than it ever had been before. "I will not fear", he says, "What can flesh do unto me?"

But I want to speak of the experience of one greater than David.

• The word 'Gethsemane' comes from the same root as Gittith and Gath.

• There, all pressure, all possible pressure, was brought to bear on the perfect One – One who was surrounded by enemies and yet was never in a false position.

• What a wonderful contemplation Gethsemane is! "Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels", Psalm 8. It links with Hebrews 2: 9,
  • "Jesus, who was made some little inferior to angels on account of the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour". And it goes on to speak of Him tasting death for every thing.

• Further, it goes on to speak of the many sons being brought to glory, God having made the Leader of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

We are allowed to contemplate those sufferings in Gethsemane. What they meant to His soul! He says, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death".

• He was going into the place of supreme pressure, pressure into which no creature could go.

• The experiences of David and all others sink into insignificance compared with the pressure into which Jesus went. It says, "He began to be sorrowful and deeply depressed".

• Think of that being said of Jesus – deeply depressed. And yet in that pressure His perfection shines out in all its glory.
  • "My Father, if it be possible let this cup pass from Me; but not as I will, but as Thou wilt".

• That word, "Thou wilt", refers to sovereign will, not often used in Scripture. It was a question of God's purpose.
  • "In the volume of the book it is written of Me". He had come to do God's will.

• If we think of the supreme pressure that Christ went through, we can see that the eternal praise of God has come out of it.

• What immense results accrue from that pressure! "Thou art holy, Thou that dwellest amid the praises of Israel".

• God dwells amidst fragrant praise; and all has come to pass through the pressure Jesus went through.

Psalm 8

Now I want to show how the pressure of Psalm 8 applies to ourselves.

• "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise because of Thine adversaries, to still the enemy and the avenger", Psalm 8: 2.

• This Psalm refers especially to the sufferings we come into on account of the testimony. "Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!"

• We are in the testimony. We are bearing witness to that excellent Name, the name which is above every name, the name of the One who has been through the depths.

• Because of the depths He has been through, He now has a name which is above every name, and in Him God has set His majesty above the heavens.

• God's majesty in its greatness and glory is now shining in Christ, the rights of His throne all upheld, and we are here to bear witness to it.

• In the coming day there will be a remnant at Jerusalem bearing witness to it amidst the greatest pressure.

There are two kinds of enemy – as notes 'o' and 'p' verse 2, JND, indicate – "Thine adversaries".

• The internal enemy, the Antichrist of that day, and then the external enemy, "to still the enemy".

• What a crucible the remnant will be in, persecuted even unto death by the enemy within, the Antichrist, one of themselves, and persecuted from without by the Gentile power in league with the Antichrist.

• Not only that, but bearing the terrible disciplinary action of God from the desolator who passes through the land because of that dreadful combination between Rome and Jerusalem.

• Think of the tremendous pressure upon the remnant, and yet they will maintain the testimony for the glory of Christ's name.

Now it is incumbent upon us to do that today, and it devolves upon young people, in a special way. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou established praise".

• I know that we should all be marked by the spirit of the babe and the suckling. We would all desire this.

• Nevertheless, at the time the Lord quoted this passage in the gospel, just about a week before He died, there were the children in the temple saying, "Hosanna to the Son of David".

• The Lord was about to face the internal enemy, the chief priests and the scribes, those who should have recognized Him but who betrayed Him; and also the Gentile power.

• No doubt, the Lord felt the delivering up of Judas most, but it says that the chief priests and the scribes delivered Him up to Pilate, and Pilate delivered Him up to the will of the people.

• That was a night of delivering up. But,as the power of darkness was assembling its forces, there arose the note, "Hosanna to the Son of David".

• Virtually they were saying, in the language of the psalm, "Jehovah our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!".

• It shows the importance of the young people, as well as the older ones, being in the service of praise.

• Alas, we have adversaries within, even among our-selves at times – but then there is the great adversary within in Christendom, the Romish power, and there is the enemy without, communism, unionism.

• These enemies are all intent under Satan to crush the testimony.

What is God's answer? The Lord uses the word 'perfected'. "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings Thou hast perfected praise", Matthew 21: 16.

• God's answer to the enemy is to perfect praise in the mouths of babes and sucklings. Men and women are to be marked by praise, but also young people.

• You may say, Why young people? Because young people are specially serviceable in the testimony.

• The eyes of the world are on the young. The world is content, to some extent, to let the older ones go.

• But what confounds the enemy, what silences him, so that he has nothing to say in the presence of it –
  • is to see boys and girls and young people growing up in wholehearted loyalty to Christ, bearing His name not only by word of mouth in testimony, but also in praise.

• Praise in many ways is the most powerful form of testimony. Another powerful form is preparedness to suffer and if we are in the spirit of praise we shall be prepared to suffer.

• There are the enemies. If we silence them in their opposition, they may use violence against us. We are to be prepared for that.

• It is all part of the testimony – all part of the way God glorifies that glorious Name, that testimonial Name, the Name of Jesus.

But it is well to remember that perhaps the most powerful form of testimony is God's name confessed in a sacrifice of praise.

• "By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise continually to God, that is, the fruit of the lips confessing his name", Hebrews 13: 15.

• That means it is testimonial. You are thinking of God when you are praising, but the enemy listens to you. He cannot help it.

• I have heard one person after another, who have been affected by the truth, saying how they were impressed with the young people in the meeting, young people with heart and soul in the things of God.

God did not commence this dispensation with twelve old men. He commenced it with twelve men in the prime of life.

• Similarly, in the previous dispensation, it was the youths of the children of Israel who first offered up bullocks as burnt offerings and peace offerings.

• God would bring forward young people in a right way because the eyes of the world are upon them.

• They are in the forefront, therefore. And the way God silences the enemy is by perfecting praise in the mouth of such.

• Satan is confounded and silenced when he sees young persons, in wholehearted devotion to Christ, engaged in praise.
  • And we all need to be in it. It begins with sisters praising God in their homes.

• The greatest service of praise is at the Lord's Supper, and it may be if we are more and more vitally in it God will bring more and more persons in, to take account of God's name confessed in a sacrifice of praise, assembly-wise.

• Then we are to praise in all circumstances, as David did and Paul and Silas did. They carried their harps to prison with them. We should never leave our harps behind.

• And so when Mary comes to see Elizabeth, praise goes on. How good it would be if our neighbours heard praise in our households.

• However great the enemy's pressure is, God would answer it by so bringing us into things by the praise of His people.

I believe the idea of praise perfected is that, as the truth comes out, there is the appropriate answer in the saints.

• If the truth comes out as to the Spirit, there is the appropriate answer, not only among the older brethren but the young.

• If the truth as to God comes out there is the appropriate answer. Praise is perfected – and that is how the testimony is carried forward.

• As one phase of it after another is brought out, there is a perfected answer, in the saints.

• There is something living there. It gives the lie to what the enemy says, that what has come out is not the truth, because there is the living evidence of it in praise.
  • "The living, the living, he shall praise Thee", Isaiah 38: 19.

• If the doctrine were false it would not bring life into the souls of the saints. It is a proof that the doctrine is right when praise is perfected, in the mouths of babes and sucklings.

Psalm 81

Now I pass on to Psalm 81. It is by Asaph who was a very intelligent and feeling man. He went through pressure because of what he observed yet could not understand.

• A feeling man goes through pressure on account of such things. We all remember Psalm 73, "… until I went into the sanctuaries of God; then understood I their end".

• He had been through much pressure, much exercise as to the understanding of God's ways. But we understand the reason for these, even if we cannot understand the detail of them, in the sanctuaries.

• The whole system is instructive. The altars, the holy place and the holiest, all are instructive as to what God is aiming at in His ways, the detail of which may seem inexplicable.

• He is working to bring us into accord with the brazen altar, the laver, the golden altar, the shewbread on the table and the boards,
  • and if we understand that, we can see the necessity for His ways though we cannot explain the detail.

In this psalm Asaph is thinking over the history of Israel, entering into the feelings of God about it. It is like a man going over church history.

• How God feels church history! "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, that Israel had walked in my ways!".

• This is not reading a book on church history for the Bible gives us enough as to church history to produce in us right feelings with God about it. We have the types too.

• All these things are to help us to understand what God has borne with and the intense grief of His heart! "Oh that my people had hearkened unto me!" What He would have done!

• Asaph feels this. That is the way of recovery in a day like this.

• The men who led in the recovery were really Asaphs. They wanted to understand the reason for the state of Christendom, and to learn God's original thoughts.

• As they entered into them they entered into the dreadfulness of the departure and began to feel with God about it.

• If we have feelings like this, from out of that very pressure we shall get a remarkable appreciation of God.

In Psalm 8 we find a remarkable appreciation of the excellence of that Name and of His majesty placed above the heavens. That is what strengthens us in testimony.

• Psalm 81 begins, "Sing ye joyously unto God our strength, shout aloud unto the God of Jacob".

• What we discover if we have been with God and felt with Him about church history is that everything He established at the beginning, every privilege, is available to the saints at the end.

• So out of the depths of this form of pressure you again have praise. All pressure is intended to lead to praise, whatever form it takes.

• We have our part in the ruin and can say we have sinned against God, but we can confess our sins and the sins of the people as Daniel did,
  • and as we do so, and are with God in it, we discover that God is unchanged and that He is the strength of His people today as much as He was at the beginning.

• In fact, the very day of weakness enhances what God is to His people. "Sing ye joyously unto God our strength, shout aloud unto the God of Jacob".

• We can bring in, not only the Gittith, but instruments of joy. "Raise a song, and sound the tambour, the pleasant harp with the lute. Blow the trumpet at the new moon, at the set time, on our feast day: For this is a statute for Israel".

• We go back to all the statutes and we find they all still stand. We can blow the trumpet of victory even in this day in which we live.

Our great feast day is restored to us, the Lord's Day, and the Lord's Supper, the great set feast.

• We have it in a way, undoubtedly, which has never been known since apostolic times.

• There is a joy among the saints today, who feel things with God, that may, in some way, be greater than at any time in church history.

• Every statute He made for His people at the beginning is still available.

• We can have our holy convocations, we have the Lord's Supper, the set feast; we have the new moons, as it were, the various phases of the truth as they come out, each yielding its own quota of praise to God.

• So one would encourage us all, dear brethren, not only to be like David, who wrote Psalm 8 and who knew such pressure, but also to be Asaphs,
  • feeling things intelligently with God, in such a manner that we prove in our souls that He is as much our strength at the close of the dispensation as He was at the beginning.

• He has never changed. He is all that He ever was, and every privilege that He designed for His people at the beginning is available at the end, though in outward obscurity.

Psalm 84

Now I turn to Psalm 84. We have here the sons of Korah. They had known sorrow. They would never forget their father's part in the great rebellion.

• Numbers is a great book for learning what God has borne with and what He has had to deal with amongst His people.

• But there are two particular forms of pressure in this Psalm. One arises from loving God in such a manner that your soul longs, yea even faints for the courts of Jehovah. "My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God".

• We have thought of a soul discovering that God is what He ever was to His people and singing joyously to God his strength.
  • But here we have a soul enrapt with God, that his one desire is to dwell with God.

• One cannot express how much God values longings of soul like this. "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah".

• God is so precious to you that you want to be with Him in His surroundings. His dwelling place is your home. You know no other home, in the proper sense of the word.

• If this were true of us, at every opportunity we would enter the holiest.

• We would enter those courts, and for us it mean entering the very presence of God, the holiest of all. Of course what we enjoy individually is much enhanced assembly-wise.

So, after speaking of entering the holiest, the writer of Hebrews says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together", 10: 25. It could not be!

• If we enter the holiest at every opportunity day by day – if that is our habitual resort – we shall never forsake the assembling of ourselves together,
  • for there we experience the presence of God and tread His courts in the most blessed way.

• Our soul would be longing for every assembling.

Now for such an one reproach comes, because you cannot have these feelings and longings without being known as a sparrow and a swallow.

• If all your longings are in this direction and your home is where God dwells, men will regard you as worthless.

• There will be nothing about you that fits in with their system. You will be here as one who belongs to the holy of holies and that will not suit the world at all.

• The Lord Jesus speaks of Himself as the sparrow alone upon the housetop [Psalm 102: 7]; and the swallow is a bird of passage. We are just strangers and sojourners here.

• This is the true character of the saints, but it comes into evidence in those who can use the language of this psalm,
  • "My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of Jehovah; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God".

• Such a man is but a sparrow here, and that is a reproach among men. Such a man is but a bird of passage.
  • Abraham never ceased to be that. Even when he had become a wealthy man the king recognized that he was till a sojourner; Genesis 21: 23.

• Even wealthy people can be in the gain of this. God chooses to make some of His people wealthy for the sake of the saints and the testimony.

• And it is remarkable that even a man who has worldly substance can be known, among those he has to move with in the world, as a sojourner. Abraham was known like that.

• This is how we should be known by men around. These are the features they should see, the features of a sparrow and a swallow.

• And so it says, "The sparrow hath found a house". Where can the sparrow live but in the house of God?

• He is of no account in this world, but there is a place where he is of account – in the house of God. "The sparrow hath found a house".

Many young people go house-hunting, and God needs households, believing households, in relation to His testimony.

• But let me say to you, young person, while God grants you a house here, let your true home be the house of God. Let His presence be your home.
  • "The sparrow hath found a house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she layeth her young".

• You desire a nice house for your children; but be sure to bring your children to the altars of God. That is where you are to have your nest.

• Do not make your home a nest for your children, where they will just settle down to natural things.

• The true nesting place is not your home. That is good in its way, but the real nesting place for the young is God's altars.
  • "Thine altars, O Jehovah of hosts, my King and my God".

• So that you bring the young people to the centre of the system. What a place to nest! We can expect results among the young people then.

• For ourselves we serve at the altars as knowing our place in the holiest. Christ's service has made the way for us to go into the holiest, not our service.

• Our privilege is to go right in, and thus as having been at the centre, we can have God's outlook, His universal outlook, and we need to nest our young there.

In our homes, if our prayers centre around ourselves and our houses and our children, that is not nesting our young people at God's altars.

• Even in our household prayers we are priests. Our houses are priestly houses.

• The aim should be, as having been in the holiest and thus acquiring God's outlook on all saints, and all men and kings and all in dignity, to function at His altars.

• We have our household altar; we have our personal altar; but the thing to begin with is God's presence and then God's altars, and to have our children with us in it.

• It does not take a long time to do these things. It is not a question of the time we give to it, so much as the fact we do it.

• You can understand such young people becoming assembly persons early. They have been used to the universal outlook, God's own outlook on things, in the morning and evening prayers at home.

• They have been at God's altars there. They love to be at the meetings because there we touch the altars of God in the fullest way.

And so he goes on, "Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house". That is the point I am getting at.

• Are you a dweller there or do you just go occasionally? Are you just a visitor?

• Are you living in your own home and just a visitor in God's house? Or are you dwelling in God's house? God wants you to dwell there.

• He loves you. It rejoices His heart to see you come into His courts, and it should rejoice your heart. His joy is filled full, as He sees the answering response in us.

• You say, 'Well, I do enter into it when I go to the meetings'. That is not good enough. We need to enter into the presence of God day by day.

• You will value the meetings more than you ever did, and they will mean more to you, if you are a dweller in God's house.

• As for your own house, it is a tent. You are a pilgrim and sojourner. You are thankful for the mercy, but you hold it in relation to God's house.

• And he says, "they will be constantly praising Thee".

The second form of pressure in Psalm 84 is what falls upon those in whose hearts are the highways.

• "Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee, – they, in whose heart are the highways".

• If we value the house of God, we shall want to maintain the law of the house. The law of the house is a very extensive matter.
  • It is summarized in Ezekiel 43: 12; "all its border round about is most holy", but it is given in great detail in the Pentateuch, as well as in the New Testament.

• The highways referred to are the highways that lead to Zion, the great highways of the Lord's commandments.
  • Three times in the year all the males were to appear before God and they went on those highways to Zion.

• It is a question of having the highways of divine principles in our hearts, and if so, we shall come into pressure, because these principles are such that the flesh cannot be tolerated.

• Alas! not all believers have these longings for God. Not all believers are finding their dwelling in His house.

• Therefore, not all believers cherish the law of the house, and so those in whose heart are the highways have to pass through the valley of weeping.
  • But "passing through the valley of Baca (or weeping), they make it a well-spring; yea, the early rain covereth it with blessings. They go from strength to strength".

• So there is nothing to fear about this kind of pressure. God is with you in it, and you are with God. Your strength is in Him and you go from strength to strength, and each one appears before God in Zion.

• As moving together in these highways, we arrive at the full purpose of God. We arrive at the full truth of Paul's ministry.

Well, all this should encourage us to accept the pressure. So the psalm ends,

• "Jehovah of hosts, blessed is the man that confideth in Thee!"

• One has noted the brevity of that prayer in verses 8 and 9. "Jehovah, God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob".

• The prayer is one verse. "Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of Thine anointed".

• Not a long prayer about his own needs! He is not thinking of them at all. He knows the presence of God and what it is to be in the presence of God's anointed.
  • He says, "Behold, O God our shield, and look upon the face of Thine anointed".

• We need to look upon the face of God's anointed. Our prayers then will centre in Him and what God is doing through Him.

• May God help us as to these few thoughts in view of the link between these psalms, all played on the Gittith – all psalms which show how great are the results of pressure, when we go through it with God.