My Brethren - Early Ministry - G. R. Cowell

THE CLOSING MINISTRY
OF THE DISPENSATION

Mark 11: 15-17, 27-33; 12: 1-3, 6-11, 13-25, 28-31, 34-44; 13: 1-4
Address at Brooklyn, N.Y., November 5, 1957
Readings in New York and Other Ministry, 1958, Volume 27

THE CLOSING MINISTRY OF THE DISPENSATION
Mark 11: 15-17, 27-33; 12: 1-3, 6-11, 13-25, 28-31, 34-44; 13: 1-4 Address at Brooklyn, N.Y., November 5, 1957 Readings in New York and Other Ministry, 1958, Volume 27

The Lord’s closing ministry in the temple is of great interest in each gospel and brings out in a remarkable way the truth of His Person.

The climax in the 8th of John is,
- “Before Abraham was, I am”.
The great I AM had come to His temple and did not leave it without it being filled with His glory testimonially. So He says, “Before Abraham was. I am”.
Light had been shining in the temple because He was there.

In the synoptic gospels, His closing ministry in the temple culminates in the bringing out of the truth of His Person in the way of a question, as it says in Mark 12: 35,

“How do the scribes say that the Christ is son of David? for David himself said speaking in the Holy Spirit, The Lord said to my Lord, Sit on my right hand until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet. David himself therefore calls him Lord, and whence is he his son?”

So again before the Lord leaves the temple, it is filled with His glory testimonially.

Now I believe the closing ministry of the Lord in the temple bears on the current revival and its teaching.

According to Mark 11: 15 it says,
- “And they come to Jerusalem, and entering into the temple, he began to cast out those who sold and who bought in the temple”.
The present revival commenced with that kind of action. Those who were commercializing that which professes to be the house of God, were exposed by an extraordinary ministry which revealed in their true character the corruptions practised in Christendom from one end to the other.
No doubt those whom the Lord cast out of the temple came back the next day and continued their practices.
So in the current revival, there has been the exposing ministry but the practices have been persisted in by those who have blunted and seared consciences. They go on with that which has been exposed.
JND’s writings are in the great seminaries and the religious leaders know about them. They are all the more responsible.
At the close of His discourse, and after He left the temple, the Lord said, as to the temple, there shall not be left a stone upon a stone.
If, after such a ministry, the money-changers and those who sold doves came back and carried on as if nothing had happened, there could be no result but unsparing judgment. Every stone has been cast down.
In like manner the whole Christian profession is going to be removed in the most unsparing judgment ever witnessed.
Ours is a solemn day. We live in the time between the giving of the ministry which has exposed evil practices from one end of Christendom to the other, and the time when unsparing, unmitigated judgment will fall upon those who continue in them.

But then, in what comes out in the temple between the casting out of the money-changers and the Lord’s final departure from it we see how truth comes out in the presence of opposition.

The very questions of the opposers bring out the truth.
That has been true of the current revival. The great features of truth have been recovered in the face of opposition and have been brought out in clarity through the very questions of opposers.
Though the opposers themselves have never got the gain of the answers to the questions, all the way through there have been disciples, like those who were with the Lord, who have got the gain of them.
From this standpoint we have to look at the ministry of the current revival in its bearing upon the whole of Christendom.
We still form part of the great house; we still form part of that which publicly bears the name of Christ in this world and assumes the place of the temple; and the bearing of the ministry that the Lord has given, whether through JND or FER or JT, has been on the whole profession.
Certain ones only have got the gain of it but the whole profession will be judged in the light of the fact that this closing ministry has been brought to it. Responsibility rests upon the whole profession.

The ministry has come out in the face of opposition; temple light has shone in spite of opposition.

I am likening now the close of the dispensation when the Lord was here – the close of His life – to the close of this dispensation.

In spite of all the opposition in that which professed His name, He went on bringing out light. He knew well that there were those there who had ears to hear and who would get the benefit.

That is how Satan defeats himself. He raises up opposition but the very questions raised by the opposers, whose hearts are too hard to get any benefit from the answers themselves, bring out answers which are just the light needed by those who are keenly following the truth.

So the first question raised after the cleansing is:

“By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?”

– the very question raised early in the history of the current revival.

Men challenge the authority of the ministry just as they did when the Lord was here; and in Acts they said, ‘How have these men letters having never learned?’ They had never been to a seminary.
Similarly in this revival one of the first issues raised was the authority of ministry. Men would say that persons who have never been ordained ought not to minister.
The Lord answers the question with a question. Temple light was shining and sometimes temple light is best brought in in the nature of a question. The Lord says
- “I also will ask you one thing, and answer me, and I will tell you by what authority I do these things: The baptism of John, was it of heaven, or of men? answer me”.
Now in that one question, which they were not prepared to answer, temple light shone on the great question of ministry and its authority. As to any ministry the point is, is it of heaven or of men?
Men ordain other men, they send them to schools and colleges; but the authority of those men is given by men and that is not divine authority at all.
The authority of all true ministry is of heaven, and it carries the stamp of authority with it in such a manner that there is no need for anyone to assert it.
That was true of the Lord’s own ministry, par excellence. What He said carried such weight that it could not be gainsaid, its authority was manifest, and these men knew it
In Mr. Darby’s case, also, men knew it. The opposers could not gainsay the power and truth of the ministry, although they resisted it.

So this great truth has been recovered that authoritative ministry is of heaven and, if it is of heaven, it carries its own credentials with it.

It is a remarkable thing that it comes from the Man who is above the heavens. It comes from an ascended Christ, who has ascended above all heavens
- “that he might fill all things; and has given some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds and teachers … with a view to the work of the ministry”.
The Lord Jesus has ascended above all heavens, an altitude to which the creature can never go.
Psalm 68: 17-18, from which Ephesians 4: 8 is quoted, applies the name Adonai to Him, a plural word used only of God and implying the right of lordship that is inherent in Deity. He has ascended in the right of His own Person. So the Psalm says:
- “The chariots of God are twenty thousand, thousands upon thousands; the Lord”, Adonai, “is among them: it is a Sinai in holiness. Thou hast ascended on high”.
He has gone above all heavens in the right of His own Person, and it is from that altitude that the ministry comes. He has given some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some shepherds and teachers.
What immeasurable authority, therefore, lies behind the ministry, the authority of the Man who is Adonai and who has ascended above all heavens. Who can resist it?
Men may resist it, but they are dashing their heads against a stone. They cannot overthrow it because of the One from whom it has come. The truth will go through, it cannot do otherwise.
One of Mr. Darby’s earliest papers was on ministry and deals with its source and origin and its nature. How wonderful that God has given us light on this question. Those who accept the light as to its authority, get the benefit of the ministry given.
Those who accepted John the baptist’s ministry as being of heaven, got the benefit of it. Those who accepted that the ministry of the Lord Jesus was of heaven, got the benefit of it. Thank God that so many have got the benefit of the ministry in these days.

Following this, the Lord begins to speak to them and to set out the truth in a dispensational way,

particularly distinguishing between the Jewish dispensation and the present one; and all this has been clarified in the way of temple light in the present revival.

Christendom publicly has gone back to Jewish practices but the Lord has brought out clearly that Israel has been set aside. Israel failed to provide the fruit which was looked for, even when God sent His beloved Son.
They cast Him out of the vineyard and murdered Him and therefore the vineyard has been taken away from them and given to others; for the Lord says in Matthew 21: 43,
- “The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it”.
That nation is the holy nation of 1 Peter 2: 9. That nation is composed of Christians down here, a holy nation, a people for a possession. This light would free us from Judaism and all connected with it, which can yield no fruit for God.
But then coupled with that is the truth of the present position, that the stone which the builders rejected has become the cornerstone, or, as the note says, head of the corner.

The headship of Christ should have its full place with us. It is a balancing truth as over against the authority of ministry.

The authority of ministry is not to establish clericalism, just the reverse. Ministry is given,
- “for the perfecting of the saints … with a view to the edifying of the body of Christ; until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man … in order that we may be no longer babes”, Ephesians 4: 12.
Now where gift is allowed to override the truth of the body, it no longer edifies the body. It may please the brethren and save them many ‘body’ exercises but it no longer edifies the body. It no longer helps the saints to grow up, but keeps them in a babe state.
The purpose of gift is to bring about in increasing measure amongst the saints, true body conditions and formation. It is for the building up or edifying of the body of Christ, and it is to cause us to grow up to Him in all things, who is the Head.
So that ministry, in its very nature, insofar as it is successful, tends to make the saints independent of gift because they grow up to Him in all things who is the Head, and they function bodywise, the body thus building itself up in love.
Not that we shall ever cease to need and value ministry while we are here, for other generations come along, and gift always brings in excess which we are all delighted to have.
We shall always rejoice to have authoritative ministry; but the measure of its success is seen in body formation and growth so that the saints are no longer babes.
So the Lord brings in this great truth of Himself as the Head of the corner which would save us at all times from clericalism.
If we give way to clericalism, not only do the saints suffer, but the minister suffers, we all suffer.
That is why, while emphasizing the authority of ministry and the altitude from which it comes and its invincibility if rightly ministered, yet we have to see that it is never used to promote clericalism, but to promote the very opposite, that is, body formation and the functioning of each member in his place.

The next question raised has been a prominent question in the present revival, and relates to Caesar’s authority.

We recognize the authority of ministry and the authority of the Lord as Head. Where, then, does Caesar’s authority come in?
This exercise still continues amongst us, and temple light continues to shine upon it. It has been shining especially during this century and is still shining.
We have been instructed as to Caesar’s place and how to hold Caesar in our thoughts and prayers. We are to give him his due, but not more than his due.
It is a great matter with God that we should be intelligent. We are God’s direct representatives; we are the sons of God, we form the house of God, and we are to represent Him rightly. We have a greater place than Caesar; for we are the kingly priesthood.
But then Caesar has a place. God has given him a place. There is no authority except from God and those that exist are set up by God. As His priesthood we should understand all this.
The place Caesar has should be clearly defined in our minds and we should not fail to give him his due, but we should know where to draw the line.
The Lord’s answer, like all His answers, puts the whole truth in a nutshell. No one could answer like the Lord, not even an apostle. In many instances you will find that the Lord puts the whole truth in so few words that you stand amazed. So His word here is:
- “Pay what is Caesar’s to Caesar, and what is God’s to God”.
- Prior to that He says, “Whose is this image and superscription? And they said to him, Caesar’s”.
Now that is the whole point of the matter as to our relations with Caesar. It is a question of the image and superscription.
Man was created in God’s image and glory; the true representation is lost in sinful man but it is recovered in the new man, which is created after God in righteousness and holiness of truth.
We are responsible to represent God, His image and superscription is upon us. Nothing we do is to mar that image and superscription. If Caesar demands something that will mar God’s image and superscription, we must say, No, to Caesar.
Our first responsibility is to be here representative of the God whose sons we are, whose house we form and whose priesthood we are to function in.

Mr. Taylor helped the brethren greatly in Great Britain during 1914 to 1916, those critical war years,

pointing out that Romans 12 comes before Romans 13.

In Romans 12 we are called upon to present our bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is our intelligent service.
That word is priestly service. We are priests of God, and these bodies of ours are to be used in the representation of God. They have been presented to God, and nothing can override His claim.
It is not until the 13th chapter that you get the claim of Caesar and what is in chapter 13 cannot override what is in chapter 12.
The presentation of the body is irrevocable. Having been presented to God, it cannot be presented to Caesar; and if Caesar demands the use of my body in such a manner that I can no longer be truly representative of God, I must refuse the claims of Caesar. He has encroached upon the rights of God.
Our first responsibility is to represent the God whose sons we are and whose priests we are. That is why we cannot carry arms; and we have to make this clear to the authorities.
Caesar has authority and we recognize it; God has given him authority. We must do his bidding insofar as we can, so long as it does not infringe upon the rights of God and our responsibility to represent God.
Rome would say that the church’s place is to rule over the nations; that will not do at all – not in this day. That would be interference with Caesar’s rights.
Protestants say the church should be subject to the authorities, and they make the king the head of the church. That is entirely wrong. The church is subject to Christ.
So the Lord has been throwing light on these matters so that there might still be a true representation of God here; Caesar’s rights being recognized as they ought to be and a true witness being rendered to Caesar.
It has always been God’s way, ever since He committed power into the hands of the Gentiles, to bring His direct representatives before them to bear witness to them. It is necessary for more reasons than one.
Firstly, God desires that all men should be saved, including the rulers. He converted Nebuchadnezzar. He has a certain affection for men who are useful to Him in the sphere of government – see the references to Cyrus in Isaiah 45 – and He would bring His testimony in its most powerful form before them, in order that some might be saved.
Secondly, He would bring home to their consciences their responsibility to Him, in view of the day of judgment.

It is a wonderful privilege to carry God’s testimony before kings and rulers.

As going before such the Christian is in a greater position than the ruler, not in the realm of God’s government down here, but in actuality. He is one of the priests of God; he has access to God; he knows and represents the God who gave the ruler his authority.
He bears witness to God and His rights; and a true witness, as history proves, will often, in the most astonishing way, affect the conscience of the ruler.
Many rulers, when faced with the enormous problems of government, and their own incapacity, are forced to the conclusion that a greater power than they is overruling. They may not know God, they may not fear God, yet they get some sense that a greater power than themselves is behind the scenes. It was evident with certain statesmen during the last war.
So that what is brought before them in testimony, finds a certain confirmation in their own experience, and thus reaches their conscience.
What I am stressing now is the privilege, if God so orders it, of having to appear before authorities. When the rights of God and Caesar’s claims clash, it has often meant believers being called upon to appear before the highest authorities; and it is God’s will that witness should be borne at the highest levels, so that He may be justified when He judges.
All those men who have exercised authority have got to stand before Him in judgment. So this question is not one of minor importance.
Temple light has shone upon it through much exercise and in the face of opposition, and it is still shining. How important, then, it is to have these things in balance – the authority of ministry, the supreme authority of Christ as Lord and Head, and then the authority of Caesar.

The next question clarifies the nature of our spiritual links in Christ.

Great confusion exists in Christendom. The idea of carrying over natural relationships into the next life is very prevalent, as though these human relationships, that belong to flesh and blood conditions, will be resumed. The Lord puts all that in order.
If people have that in their minds, Christ never has the place He should have with them. In the new man Christ is everything and in all. No natural relationships intrude.
Our relationships in the spiritual sphere are with Christ – His brethren, His body, His bride; and with God the Father as sons, and with one another as brethren in Christ. The light of this helps us at the present moment.
The new man is existing here on earth, and we are privileged to touch the reality of it on occasions such as this. We are privileged to touch the blessedness of spiritual relationships which will abide for eternity, and we need to be intelligent as to those which will abide and those which will not.
You can see the benefit of this in the recovery of the truth, that these things should be clarified in the minds of the saints. In this connection the Lord said to those who opposed,
- “Do ye not therefore err not knowing the scriptures nor the power of God?”
One was impressed this afternoon with the need to know the Scriptures. In the passage read in John 2: 22 it says,
- “When therefore he was raised from among the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this, and believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken”.
That is a governing idea in the temple. We believe the Scripture, and we do not accept anything contrary to Scripture; but we also believe what is current. You would not believe what is current if it were not according to Scripture.
They “believed the scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken”. The word which Jesus had spoken was the oral ministry, we might say, at that time, and that is to be expected in the temple.
We need to know the Scriptures but, as knowing the Scriptures and testing things by Scripture, we are to have our ears open to what the Spirit is giving currently.
Let the prophets speak, two or three, and let the others judge. The saints know the Scriptures and they appreciate all that is currently given by the Holy Spirit.

Following this we get the question of the first commandment and it brings in the all-embracive claims of God, a most important matter,

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, and with all thine understanding, and with all thy strength”.

This is the secret of spiritual progress. We are not putting it out as a demand of law now; we love because He first loved us and love claims our life, our soul, our all.
God’s claims in love are nothing less than one hundred per cent. If we are to be in the gain of spiritual things, it is a question of one hundred per cent.
All thy heart – think of God having all your heart! And all thy soul – no ambition and longing outside of God, God the great centre of your desire! The soul is the seat of ambitions and longings. The Psalmist puts us to shame when he speaks of his longings,
- “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?”, Psalm 42: 2.
We are to love God with all our soul and all our understanding. You may have to apply your understanding to material matters, young brothers and sisters; you have your studies to do. But do not let them dominate you.
God will help you in them; if He sees that what you are going in for is good and profitable. You have to give attention to them; but always keep in mind that your understanding as renewed by the Holy Spirit, can find its only worthy object in God Himself.
He is the great study, if I may use the word rightly, of the renewed mind of man – the all-absorbing occupation of the human understanding.
For some of us, our days of business study are over, and we would not like to divert our understanding in the slightest degree from absorption with God. The divine claim is a one hundred per cent idea and this lays the basis for an apprehension of the Lord’s question which follows.

The opposers were silent, they dare ask Him no more; and now He brings in the greatest light by way of a question of His own. If David called him Lord, how is he his son?

Now you come to the greatest question and the greatest light shining through the question. Do you know the answer? The Psalm from which He quotes tells us the answer:
- “The Lord [Adonai] at thy right hand will smite through kings in the day of his anger”, Psalm 110: 5.
That verse asserts His deity. The first verse is,
- “Jehovah said unto my Lord [Adon] Sit at my right hand, until I put thine enemies as footstool of thy feet”.
‘Adon’ is a word sometimes applied to men in authority and sometimes to God; but ‘Adonai’ in verse 5 is a word applied only to God. It is an unquestionable assertion of the Deity of the One who is at God’s right hand.
The Psalm itself, therefore, answers the question, but the opposers were not prepared to submit to the scripture nor to the current word at the moment. Nevertheless there were those who were getting the benefit of the light.
That is the position all the way through; the ministry bears on the whole of the profession and there are those who are getting the benefit. The opposers are not getting the benefit, but their very questions are used to bring out the truth which reaches a climax in the Lord’s great question.

I believe this particularly links on with the moment we are living in. It is the great truth as to the Person of Christ linked up with the truth of the Godhead, because these truths go together.

In asking this question the Lord testimonially filled the temple with His glory. This question understood would mean that, for the hearts of the faithful, the Lord would be seen sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filling the temple. He is the root and offspring of David.
It is a question of the final way in which He addresses Himself to the assembly. Just prior to that in Revelation 22: 13 He says:
- “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end”
– an absolute assertion of Deity. But then, wonderful though that is, the next presentation has an even greater appeal to the affections.
- “I Jesus … I am the root and offspring of David”.
It combines His deity and His Manhood in a most attractive way. The offspring of David, Solomon, was a great object of affection in the Old Testament, yet but a feeble type of the Lord as the great Object of affection.
This dispensation is thus closing with the glory of Christ vividly shining before our souls, His deity and His Manhood held reverentially, in the way they should be, in our souls; and then, what must necessarily accompany that, the great truth of the Godhead.
It is in relation to the greatness of Christ and His Person that the whole truth of the Godhead has come to us following the ministry as to the Sonship of Christ. That ministry laid the basis for the whole truth as to the Godhead to shine out.
We are living in this glorious time when testimonially the glory is filling the temple. It is there for every believer in all Christendom, and there are some who are getting the benefit of it.
The ministry is printed, it is on the lips of the brethren, it is there for all who would take account of it; but the great thing is that some are getting the benefit. This widow gets the benefit.
The light shining in this glorious way is culminating with the full light of the Person of Christ, who He is. What is the answer? It is seen in this widow – she cast all that she had into the treasury, one hundred per cent.
- “This poor widow has cast in more than all … into the treasury: for all have cast in of that which they had in abundance, but she of her destitution has cast in all that she had, the whole of her living”, Mark 12: 43-44.
This tests us all, of course, but I believe it is what the Lord is bringing us to. I believe He is so filling the temple with His glory and the glory of God that we shall come to this, like the poor widow.
May God grant that we do come to it, so that we shall cast into the treasury all that we have, the whole of our living. The love that exceeds our highest powers, demands our life, our soul, our all. That is what the Lord is bringing us to.

I will just touch on the next chapter to show what is a complementary truth.

While the ministry bears upon the whole profession and there are some getting the good of it, from another standpoint those who really get the good of it will find themselves in a separate position.
The Lord leaves the temple and He sits on the mount of Olives and, in that setting, questions are raised by those who are sympathetic. Thank God it is not always a question of light coming out through questions of opposers.
We have known that kind of thing in recent years; but there is also the blessed way we can sit down together, as it were, on the mount of Olives, in the gain of the Spirit and thus in the gain of the temple, and, as lovers of Christ and in the light of His glory, we can make our inquiries.

One more word. Following the shining out of this glory in Mark 12: 37, He denounces the scribes in scathing terms.

If you want to read a chapter of unexampled severity, read the corresponding passage in Matthew 23.
After the full truth of His Person is brought out and rejected, the extreme severity of the Lord’s language is to be noted.
- “Serpents”, He says, “offspring of vipers, how should ye escape the judgment of hell?”.
Matthew 23 is a fearful chapter, all spoken in the temple. It reminds me of Revelation 15: 8, where it says,
- “The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power”.
So on the one hand the temple is filled with the glory of Christ and, on the other hand, going alongside it, there is the most fearful denunciation and foretelling of judgment like the smoke filling the temple.
And we should enter into the meaning of both, because, when those angels come out of the temple of the tabernacle of witness in heaven, to receive the seven bowls full of the fury of God, they are coming out from us. The tabernacle of witness is ourselves, the assembly.
- “I saw, and the temple of the tabernacle of witness in the heaven was opened; and the seven angels who had the seven plagues came out of the temple … And the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power”, Revelation 15: 5-8;
showing that we are to be brought into accord with Christ in the severity of our judgment of what is corrupt around us.
May the Lord help us in these matters, but especially as to the glory of His Person, and as to our response to it, for His Name’s sake.

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THE UPWARD WAY

Matthew 2: 15; Romans 1: 7; Colossians 3: 15; Philippians 3: 12-15
Address at Westfield, N.J., November 9, 1957
Readings in New York and Other Ministry, 1958, Volume 27

THE UPWARD WAY
Matthew 2: 15; Romans 1: 7; Colossians 3: 15; Philippians 3: 12-15 Address at Westfield, N.J., November 9, 1957 Readings in New York and Other Ministry, 1958, Volume 27

I wish to say a word on the Christian calling addressing my brethren here tonight as those who are beloved of God, called saints, that is, saints by calling.

In thus addressing you, my desire is that the Holy Spirit might give us a deeper sense than we have ever had before of the greatness, the magnitude of the Christian calling, so that our souls may be stirred.
Philippians is particularly a soul epistle. We see the longings, the aspirations of soul of Paul as he says,
- “but one thing – forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”.
His soul was ever stirred, ever in movement. Whenever he thought of Christ, superlative emotions entered his soul, superlative thoughts, so he spoke of
- “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”;
just as when he thought of God, his soul was prostrated in worship. How many times, when he wrote his epistles, his soul was prostrated in worship!
You get in the Psalms expressions such as
- “My soul thirsteth for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?” and
- “As the hart panteth after the water-brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God”.
It is in the divine mind that our souls should always be in movement after God. It is interesting in that connection that Paul’s final doxology was to the Lord Jesus. He said,
- “The Lord shall deliver me from every wicked work, and shall preserve me for his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for the ages of ages. Amen”, 2 Timothy 4: 18.
Paul’s soul moved even at the close of his life, prostrated in worship before the Lord Jesus. This is really the soldier’s doxology, one might say; he was on the battlefield, about to enter into his final contest. He had been saved from the lion’s mouth but the final pouring out was still ahead of him:
- “I am already being poured out”, he said.
In what a wonderful way Paul went out; his soul still stirred as he surveyed the battlefield, saying,
- “The Lord shall deliver me from every wicked work, and shall preserve me for his heavenly kingdom; to whom be glory for the ages of ages. Amen”.
How good it would be if our souls were always in movement in that way!

I want to speak especially to young people. Words fail to express the honour placed upon the man, woman or child who is a subject of God’s calling,

“called according to purpose”.

How great the purpose for which He has called you; how tremendous the destiny! Those called by God at the present time have a destiny beyond any other creature’s; far beyond any archangel, far beyond any Old Testament saint.
A little one in the kingdom of the heavens is greater than the greatest in all past dispensations.
Not only has He designed for men a greater place than angels, but for men of this period – and that is yourselves, you young people who have heard the call of God – He has destined something greater and more blessed than any angelic being or any man of any other dispensation will ever know.

But the first thing is that He calls you out, and that is testfug. He says,

“Out of Egypt I called my son”, Hosea 11: 1.

God has called you to His eternal glory in Christ Jesus; He has called you to the place of son.

And what does God say about His son?

“Israel is my son, my firstborn … Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exodus 4: 22-23.

The calling of old, of Israel, great as it was, was but a foreshadowing of our calling, which is by far greater, for we belong to the assembly of the firstborn ones.
You know what a great word the word ‘assembly’ is, and that very word means a ‘called out company’; a company called out for the greatest possible purpose.
And so God has called us out; and we constitute, as called out, the assembly, the called out company of the firstborn ones, whose names are enregistered in heaven. A marvellous thing to be brought into such relationship – God has called you out because He wants His firstborn sons; He wants you for Himself, He wants you to serve Him.
Where can you serve Him? Not in Egypt. Pharaoh said, Serve Jehovah here; Moses said, We cannot serve Jehovah in Egypt. No service of God can go on in this world where Satan is the god and the prince – the world as a system serves its god and its prince.
God calls His son out of Egypt, calls you out that you might serve Him. And where can you serve Him? In the assembly. God called His son out of Egypt that His son might serve Him, but how did He serve Him? As priest. And where is He to serve Him? In the tabernacle. That is all typical.
God calls us out of the world to serve Him as priests. And where are we to serve Him? In the assembly, the great vessel of service.

But then it does involve what is testing. Abraham, the father of us all, was called out from a city of the Chaldees which has recently been uncovered and found to be of a culture equal to Paris of the present day, a highly civilized city.

Abraham was called out. Jehovah said to Abraham,
- “Go out of thy land, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house”.
It is a testing thing, to leave country, kindred and father’s house. But you cannot carry any of those things into the assembly. There are no nationalities in the assembly, neither Jew nor Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free. You cannot carry your kindred into the assembly.
You can be thankful for godly forebears like Timothy’s mother and grandmother; nevertheless, natural relationships, as such, do not belong to the assembly. We have to learn in that sense to leave our kindred.
Some of us have actually had to leave our kindred. There are those in France and India at the present time who are suffering from the severance of nature’s most cherished links for the sake of the truth.
Come out of thy country, thy kindred, thy father’s house. And, what is especially testing, is thy father’s house; but all those things pale into insignificance before the call of God: God, the One who is from eternity to eternity.
Think of Him calling me because I have a place in His purpose. He has called me out; can anyone resist a call like that? Such a call comes as a command. If I were called to Buckingham Palace, it would come as a command. I would disobey at my peril.
Think of the majesty of God, the King of the Ages; think of Him calling such as we!

So the word in 2 Corinthians 6: 17 is

“Come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord, and touch not what is unclean, and I will receive you”.

Separation becomes a very easy matter.

Our very calling constitutes us saints, which means persons set apart.

Everyone here who has been called by God, has been set apart by that calling. You are a saint; God has made you that; He has set you apart by His calling. But the point for you is to answer to it.
The Corinthians were not answering to it. They were going on with evil and yet Paul addressed them as
- “the assembly of God which is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints”.
He did not lower the level. He told them what they were. The calling of God had set them apart. This was the basis for the exhortation,
- “Come out from the midst of them, and be separated, saith the Lord”.
Nowadays we have also to separate from other Christians. At present Christendom has become in character as Babylon, and the word is,
- “Come out of her, my people, that ye have not fellowship in her sins, and that ye do not receive of her plagues”, Revelation 18: 4.

Now I want to speak of what we are called into. The very calling out brings you into what is the greatest thing you could be brought into, the assembly.

These two things go together, the very calling out constitutes the assembly, the called out company and that company that is called out is the very greatest thing in the universe.
So the apostle speaks of what we are called into-we are called into the fellowship of God’s Son; the greatest and wealthiest fellowship that has ever existed on earth.

But then according to Colossians 3: 15 we are called “in one body”.

I have spoken of sonship, we are called into the family, as we leave our country, our kindred, our father’s house; and what a family we are called into! But then we are called “in one body”.

I might say in passing that Leviticus 11, which deals with the clean and unclean animals and fishes, birds and crawlings things, bears on all this.

We are called out of religious evil typified by those beasts which have no cloven hoofs, or, if they have cloven hoofs, do not chew the cud.
Real Christians who are going on with the truth have cloven hoofs; that is, they walk in separation; and they chew the cud, that is, they take the truth unto themselves. It works inwardly, it is not just an outward external separation.
The most unholy people in God’s sight are those who maintain an outward, external separation but without inward reality. They are represented by the swine; it has a cloven hoof but does not chew the cud.
Such were the Pharisees – outwardly correct, but nothing went in – nothing affected the inwards which were full of plunder and wickedness. We have to separate and judge this principle in our souls.

Then there are the fishes. The clean fishes are those with fins and scales and represent those capable of going against the evil current of this world.

Peter deals with that.
- “They think it strange that ye run not with them to the same sink of corruption”, 1 Peter 4: 4.
They are the fish going downstream, carried along with the current. In the workshop, in the school, all go with the stream.
How sorry you feel for men, women and children, going on with the latest fashion, the latest line of thought that happens to be prevalent at the moment, changing every few years, nothing stable, nothing lasting, all leading to corruption. They think it strange that we do not run with them to the same sink of corruption.
Those going on with the truth are like the fishes with fins and scales; they are facing against the current; protected by the fins and the scales. They arm themselves with the mind, as Peter says, to suffer in the flesh. They are prepared to go against the stream.
In this world you either go with the stream or you suffer. But the clean fishes go against the stream, prepared to suffer. We must all be prepared to go against the stream, in school, in workshop, in business, and count it a joy to do so.
- “If ye are reproached in the name of Christ, blessed are ye”.
It is not a long-faced but a joyous matter. As soon as you show a joyful countenance in doing it, the victory is won. Men will be afraid to approach you any more, because they know well enough that you have something better than they have, because they have consciences.

Now when we come to the body, in Colossians, we have been “called in one body”.

“Let the peace of Christ preside in your hearts, to which also ye have been called in one body, and be thankful”.

We are thankful we are called in one body. It is a great thing to merge in the body.
Some who have gone astray of recent years have come to grief through not merging in the body. They have reserved to themselves the right of independence of thought and judgment, which results from a form of pride.
Christ is head of the body, the assembly. No one of us is safe unless we have a right appreciation of the body, the assembly, and learn to merge in it.
We have been called in one body, each of us a member in it. The thing is to find our place in it, and to take account of the Spirit’s manifestations through the members of the body; then we shall be preserved.
But if I trust my own mind I shall go astray. That is the Colossian error,
- “vainly puffed up by the mind of his flesh” – “philosophy and vain deceit”.
The working of the human mind leads you to vanity. You deceive yourself and try to deceive other people, your mind intruding into things you have not seen.
There are things that are open to you to see and that you should see, and you will see them if you appreciate the body. You will get the gain of the manifestations of the Spirit, and in the light thus shining you will see things according to God. But if you let your mind work, you will not.

And so, most drastic things are said about the unclean birds, birds of prey in Leviticus 11: 13-19.

See that no one lead you away as a prey through philosophy and vain deceit, bringing his own ideas to bear upon you.
See where millions in Christendom are being led away through not recognizing the truth of the body and the Spirit’s activities in the body and thus arriving at God’s full thought of the assembly.

There is an order in which we enter into the truth and we cannot alter it. In Romans 12, we have to learn our place in the body relative to one another.

“We, being many, are one body in Christ, and each one members one of the other”.

We learn our place in the body relative to our brethren, each having a right valuation of the other. That makes way for having a right valuation of the Spirit, as in Corinthians. If I am adjusted with my brethren, I am ready to recognize the Spirit.
If there is no friction amongst us as brethren, but all are happy, recognizing one another, respecting one another, then the Spirit is free. We are right with the Spirit. And that makes way for Colossians, and that is where we learn the greatness of the Head.
This must be the order. The unspeakable wealth that is available comes to us by the Spirit. But Colossians is not occupied with the way it comes to us, but where it comes from, the Head.
Whatever comes to us on the Corinthian line through the Spirit is coming from the Head because
- “in him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily”,
and we are filled full in Him.
If we do not recognize the truth of the body, we fail to hold the Head, and if one member in a meeting is not holding the Head, he is a potential, dreadful danger. That is the point in Colossians, it is warning you lest there should be even one man amongst you not holding the Head.
So, according to Colossians, we are called into one body, and instead of all the notions of the deceitful, vainglorious mind, we have the word of the Christ dwelling in us richly:
- “Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God”.
The result is the whole service can go on. As the word of the Christ, coming down from the fulness that is in the Head, dwells in us richly, and spiritual thoughts and spiritual food, mutually enjoyed, are imparted to one another in all wisdom,
- then there is the return, an outflow in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in our hearts to God.
And so the service is established. That is what we are called into.

Now all this paves the way for what the assembly is for God as in Ephesians.

There it is functioning.
- This is “the administration of the mystery hidden throughout the ages in God, 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”;
it says, “our Lord” because it relates to the present time,
- “in whom we have boldness and access in confidence by the faith of him”.
What a magnificent statement that is! Should we not face the exercises of Romans, Corinthians and Colossians so as to come into the gain of Ephesians? Should we not be fully recognizing our brethren, fully recognizing the Spirit, fully recognizing Christ as Head?
Now you have a vessel for God. The service of God proceeds from that vessel; the unsearchable riches of the Christ flow and enrich it with a view to God being served.
And heavenly principalities and authorities look on to see such a vessel; a vessel, though physically on earth, yet, through the quickening power of God really, functioning in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.
The tests and difficulties, as in the earlier epistles, have been faced and are finished. Here is the assembly functioning for God and the service of God in all its grandeur going forward.
The assembly under the influence and direction of the true Solomon, having boldness and access in confidence to God by the faith of Him. That addition, “by the faith of him” shows again that it applies to the present moment. Everything is in faith at the present moment.
I cannot tell you much of what those heavenly principalities take account of, but I do feel that they stand by in wonderment to see men, who at present as to actual condition, are a lower order of creation, having access with boldness and with confidence in a manner that angels will never have.
We can approach God, we have access, I believe, in a way no archangel has ever known. We are anticipating, in the Spirit’s power, our full destiny, because our destiny is an altogether higher one than the angels!

This is what you are called into, young believer.

If the Spirit brings this home to our hearts at all, the world will pale into complete insignificance. It is just a cipher, it counts for nothing in the light of this.
So God has called us out and called us in. As to the access in Ephesians 3: 12, FER once said that a soul who has known that, wants nothing else.
It is the greatest bliss the creature can know, to have boldness in Christ Jesus, boldness and access in confidence to God in His greatness, His majesty.
You notice there it does not define the access. It is too great to describe. It is something unspeakable.
So in the light of this we come to Philippians because this should stir our souls. Philippians is the great epistle of the soul. It speaks in the beginning of chapter 2 of being joined in soul. Think of a company joined in soul!
What a strong expression of unity, a company whose longings are one; not some of them thirsting after earthly things, some after heavenly, but the whole longings of the company, one; joined in soul, thinking one thing.
The word for’ mind’ and ‘thinking’ in Philippians is not the same word as in 1 Corinthians 1: 10 where “mind” means the thinking faculty. In Philippians it is a word which conveys the bent of mind. I want to raise the question of what your bent of mind is?
In the light of what has been before us tonight, you ought to have only one bent of mind. We all ought to be unified in it, and that is to be seeking with all our might to apprehend the calling on high of God.
We have been called, called out, called in, we know something of it, but we do not know the whole of it yet. What is your bent of mind?
Well, you say, I’d like to make a good job of business, I’d like to get on well, I’d like to make a lot of money. Or a sister may say, I’d like the most up-to-date kitchen; all the latest things. Well, they may come your way, but if they are your bent of mind, God is against you in that.
He has put the very best before you; He has called you to something greater than angels will ever have. How do you think He feels if you put a few kitchen utensils before that, or a little bit of extra money-making, that you don’t really need?
God would say to you, you have missed the balances of the sanctuary. You have entirely wrong values. So you see, the thing is, What is your bent of mind?
Now Paul is the great example, a man of one purpose. He says,
- “Forgetting the things behind, and stretching out to the things before, I pursue”
– he was going forward with all his might –
- “looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus”.
That was the prize he was after. As many therefore as are perfect, let us be thus minded. We want you all to be among the perfect. You young people, you come into fellowship early, we want you to be among the perfect in this respect; to be thus minded, to have this bent of mind.
You have your obligations to fulfil here; God will help you in that; you need not fear. But what He does look for is a right valuation of His calling. All else is incidental to this.
You have to be diligent in everything and God will do the best for you as you wait on Him. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path, but He will direct it in relation to His testimony. He will never direct it in such a way as to turn you aside from this because this is the main thing.
So if you read Leviticus 11 you will find the most abominable things to God are the crawling things. They are a terrible abomination to God; they represent the kind of people Paul speaks of in this chapter, who have had the light of the greatest things, and in spite of it, they mind earthly things. That is, the bent of their mind is on earthly things.
- Paul says, “Be imitators all together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model (for many walk of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ … who mind earthly things)”, Philippians 3: 17, 19.
He is speaking there, no doubt, of those who go the whole way on this line, they are really apostates,
- “whose end is destruction, whose God is the belly”,
a terrible indictment, and we can go a long way on this line. And as far as we go on this line we damage ourselves, and we damage the brethren. We affect one another. Someone sees me pursuing earthly things and says, Then I can do that, indeed, I’ll go one better. One worse, it is really, of course. So we affect each other.
We need to keep our eyes on those who are going the right way.
- “Be imitators all together of me, brethren, and fix your eyes on those walking thus as you have us for a model”.
Timothy, a young man, was to be a model for the believers, and I would like to call upon the young people here to start on this line.

See that your bent of mind is right and be a model of a believer. We all need courage to be a model on the heavenly line.

So one would desire that we might all be encouraged so that we might all be joined in soul, thinking one thing; that is, having the same bent of mind, and that the upward mind.
May the Lord help us, for His Name’s sake.

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