Giving and its Fruits
Early Ministry by G. R. Cowell
– Part Six

To encourage this he has already in chapter 16 of the first epistle referred to the assemblies in Galatia, and to the great work in Asia.

• Now he calls their attention to the neighbouring province of Macedonia, where, in all their material poverty, the saints had abounded in free-hearted liberality –

• so much so as to go "beyond their power" and they had begged Paul "with much entreaty to give effect to the grace and fellowship of the service which was to be rendered to the saints", chapter 8: 4.

• What a rebuke to the wealthier Corinthians, who needed to be spurred on!

These references to Galatia, Asia, Macedonia, Jerusalem, and their own province of Achaia would all tend to produce expansion of heart and a universal outlook on the interests of Christ – the first essential to giving according to God.

• This is borne out by the reference to the manna in chapter 8: 15.

• As of old, so now God provides fully all the daily material needs of the camp on earth; and, where there is expansion nothing short of this could be the scope of the prayer, "Give us this day our daily bread".

• He does it, however, according to divine wisdom, not evenly, but in such a way as to call forth a flow of practical affections amongst the saints.

• So that, as having a worldwide outlook on the tribes encamped around the tabernacle – those as to whom God has said, "I will dwell among them, and walk among them" chapter 6: 16 – we should see to it that His daily provision is properly administered.
  • "He that gathered much had nothing over, and, he that gathered little had no lack", chapter 8: 15.

• All that God entrusts to each would be held in relation to the needs of the whole camp on earth.

If this principle were maintained there would surely be no need for a saint of God in any land to turn to the world for help –

• though of course we have to recognise that we are in days of brokenness, and suffer in consequence.

• In addition the practical flow of affection, of which the distribution of material things is the witness, draws the saints together, breaks down national and sectional feelings, and yields abounding fruit in thanksgiving to God.

Thus the first principle is equality. Not that the recipients might be in abundance and the givers lack, but the principle of equality as to daily bread,

• that there should be no lack in any part of the camp in the midst of which God dwells and walks.

• In this we are not asked to go so far as our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, that we, through His poverty [or destitution] might be made rich.

• How a contemplation of the matchless grace of Him who gave His all and knew such poverty for us, would produce free-hearted liberality in our giving.

• We may often be too calculating in it – afraid of giving too much, lest we place the recipients in too great an abundance, or exceed the equality principle.

• We certainly need wisdom in it; but if our freeheartedness leads us at times to go somewhat beyond our power, as with the Macedonians, are we not nearer to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and His unmeasured giving?

Secondly, the apostle speaks of the high level of this service of gift, referring to those who carry the saints' bounty as "messengers of assemblies, Christ's glory".

• For in them, and the bounty they carry, is seen in a practical way the evidence that He has formed the two in Himself into one new man. Ephesians 2: 15.

• Thus the administration of the bounty is not regarded as beneath such men as Paul, Titus, and possibly Luke. Chapter 8:19.

• It might be said that such should not be turned aside from their normal service in this way. But shall the husbandman continue to plough when the grape clusters are already ripe upon the vines?

• Here in these practical expressions of affection between Gentile and Jew were seen the fruit of Paul's labours – the new man in practical expression on earth to the delight of heaven;
  • and he would himself be among those who had charge of the fruit, lest after harvesting, it should be spoiled by the manner in which it was conveyed to the brethren at Jerusalem.

• So in administering the saints' bounty today, is it a service beneath the most spiritual?

• Should it not be done personally rather than by letter whenever possible; and also by at least two of the most spiritual "messengers" available;
  • so that in the very manner in which it is conveyed the maximum fruit may be secured to God and to the brethren?

Thirdly, in chapter 9, Paul refers to the principles of sowing and reaping which are greatly encouraging.

• "He that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he that sows in the spirit of blessing shall reap also in blessing", verse 6.

• This touches the spirit of our giving. God loves a cheerful giver.

• And such reap in spiritual blessing, and their righteousness remains for ever. Verse 9. What an eternal return for sowing with our temporal possessions!

• Thus a harvest is secured not only for God and the recipients; but for the givers.

• Further, God "supplies seed to the sower", verse 10. It is He who supplies the wherewithal for those who are prepared to sow in this way.

• One would not doubt that the widow's two mites were not the last she was privileged to cast into the treasury.

• God supplies seed. How blessed that He would "supply and make abundant your sowing, and increase the fruits of your righteousness; enriched in every way unto all free-hearted liberality, which works … thanksgiving to God", verses 10-11.

Finally the givers get the benefit of the supplications of the brethren to whom they minister, "full of ardent desire for you, on account of the exceeding grace of God which is upon you", verse 14.

• Thus giving according to God sets in motion the most precious reciprocal affections between the brethren, affections which belong to the new man,

• and yields an abundant harvest in blessing to the givers and in thanksgiving to God, the Giver of all.

• "Thanks he to God for his unspeakable free gift".

John, in the first chapter of his epistle, says, "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us … If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us".

• Now one feels for oneself how easily darkness comes in; how easily we can begin in the Spirit and then seek to be made perfect in flesh.

• I do not know of anything that mars the fellowship more than a kind of pretence to be a perfect Christian who can never do anything wrong or make a mistake.

• That spirit can come into assembly matters, and nothing is so deadening from an assembly point of view.

• I have sin in me and shall have as long as I am here. James, a prince among the saints, says, "we all often offend". To think that I do not offend is to make myself a better man than James, or Peter.

• We are called upon to walk together in all the blessed light of God, and the only ground on which we can be in that unstained light is that "the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin".

• It takes away all pretence, it brings us right down to rock-bottom, where we are all on one common ground, the ground of mercy.

• It makes us sympathetic, kind and forgiving towards one another; it is the great basis of fellowship – walking in the light.
  • "If we say that we have, fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth".

• One way of walking in darkness is to deceive myself and seek to deceive other people as to my true state as in the flesh – to be darkened by that most subtle notion that my very Christianity makes me perfect in the flesh.

• To keep up false pretences is to walk in darkness. "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all". God has held nothing back; He is what He says He is, and He would have us to be the same.

In John 8 the Lord says, "I am the light of the world", and then, in answer to the question, "Who art thou?" He says, "altogether that which I also say to you".

• No darkness was there; He was Himself the light, and He was altogether what He said.

• Such transparency with us involves the admission of what we are by nature and of our need of the blood of Christ, and also a thankful recognition of God's own work in us that we have been born of God.

• We can take account of one another in that way; we walk in the light together and we have fellowship with one another.

• We thus become acquainted with God's glory, for if I am not prepared to admit what I am, how shall I ever learn the mercy of God? That ray of His glory will be unknown to me, and so will the glory of His grace.

• How shall I understand His righteousness? How shall I understand His holiness? It is only as we get down to rock-bottom that there is room for the divine glory to flood our souls.

• We own the truth, the light exposes the truth, it exposes things as they really are, and as we are prepared to own the truth which the light exposes,
  • our hearts are filled with the light of His glory – His mercy, His grace, His righteousness, and His holiness – and we walk and serve in the light together.

• You can see how this bears on the heavenly city, the principle of transparency, for there is no part dark in it.

• I have no doubt that everyone belonging to that city will give God all the glory; they will own their blessing as the fruit of "the surpassing riches of his grace in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus".

• Thus God's glory shines out through that city – she comes down having the glory of God. She is herself a glorious vessel, but it does not say she comes down having her own glory, but the glory of God.

• She is a living witness to what God is and to what He has done; a witness to His grace, His kindness, His righteousness, and His holiness.

Redemption has involved the outshining of the glory of God in its radiance.

• God's glory was seen in creation; the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handiwork,

• but the radiancy, the full radiancy of God's glory is now shining in the face of a Man.

• The face of a man – I am speaking now of man as a creature – is a wonderful creation. The face of a man is capable of reflecting the attributes of God; that is not true in the same sense of any creature other than man.

• A man's face can express love, pity, compassion, mercy, joy, anger and God made man in His image and glory that man's face might be expressive of these things.

• Man sinned and comes short of the glory of God; but God has displayed His glory in a surpassing way in effecting redemption. Paul speaks of subsisting glory, abounding glory and surpassing glory in 2 Corinthians 3.

• The ministry of righteousness abounds in glory; it is God's righteousness with glory bright that is ministered in the gospel. The way God has wrought in redemption is so glorious that it has brought all that He is in His nature and attributes into display.

• And all is shining in the face of Jesus Christ, the Man who effected redemption, the Man who glorified God on the earth and finished the work which He gave Him to do.

• What a face is the face of Jesus! None can compare with that. He is not a creature, yet He is a Man, and in that glorious Man every feature of the divine glory finds expression.

• One look from that face broke Peter down. What a face is the face of Jesus, and we shall yet see Him face to face!

• But in the Spirit's power, we already behold the glory of the Lord with unveiled face; we are already in the light of the glory.

• I speak of this as a preliminary matter, because we could never have been brought to God Himself, if the work of redemption had not been accomplished,
  • if God's glory had not been upheld in such a manner that it shines out now radiant in the face of Jesus, in such a manner too, that we can find our home in the glory.

• It invites us. It would have repelled and expelled us, but now it invites us, because God's righteousness has been maintained, and God has been completely vindicated, and a basis has been laid on which His love can flow freely towards us.

But all this is in view of our being brought to God Himself. He says, "Ye have seen what I have done to the Egyptians". He is referring to what was typical of the great work of redemption;

• and then He says, "I have borne you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself".

• Where do we find God Himself? Not in Egypt; God is not to be found in the world as a system.

• If we want to find God Himself, at the present time we shall find Him in the wilderness. That is where we first come into contact with God Himself.

• He may have dealings with us in Egypt, but when it is a question of bringing us to Himself, it is a wilderness position.

• And it is touching to think that God was there in the wilderness before the people were there. Moses found Him there, at the bush. The bush burned with fire, and was not consumed, and Moses says,
  • "Let me now turn aside and see this great sight, why the thorn bush is not burnt".

• I would link that with the gospel of John, which shows how God has come into the wilderness.
  • "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God", and then, "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have contemplated his glory".

• God was there; God had come into wilderness circumstances. The wilderness circumstances lay in the fact that He was in the world, and the world was made by Him and the world knew Him not.

• The world was a wilderness to Christ; He grew up as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. There was nothing here to minister to Him.

• And the world becomes a wilderness to us as we recognise the truth of what He said of believers, that they are not of the world even as He was not of the world. We are no more of the world than Christ is.

• The world hated Him, and it was a wilderness to Him, and the world hates the believer; the true believer finds it nothing but a wilderness.

• Sad it is, indeed, if any one of us finds the world anything but a wilderness. Mr. Darby says:
  "This world is a wilderness wide,
  I have nothing to seek nor to choose".
  Hymn 139.

Would to God that were true of every one of us! We have nothing to seek nor to choose here; it is a wilderness; it is a question of letting God order, and letting God provide, as subject to His movements.

• The moment we begin to seek and to choose, and to make our own path in it, it is evident that the world is not a wilderness to us.

• The man to whom the world is a wilderness leaves his course with God. He lets God order his matters, he is shut up to God. His objective is not to make a home in the wilderness, but to arrive at the land of God's purpose.

• But it is touching to think that God has been in the wilderness before us, because the Lord Jesus has been here, and in His being here, God Himself was in the wilderness, where He could be contemplated.

• He said of Himself, "Before Abraham was, I am". He uses the same name which the God who dwelt in the bush used to Moses in Exodus.

• The name "I Am" and the name "Jehovah" attach not only to the Son, but equally to the Father and to the Spirit. Jehovah was in the wilderness of old; that was the name by which He was known to the children of Israel; Jehovah was their God.

• Now God has come into expression in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and we know Him thus. As a name of relationship governing the dispensation, the name of Jehovah has given place to the name of Father,
  • but in a personal sense the name by which we know God now is "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", to which we are baptised, for only thus have we the full disclosure in a personal way of the Jehovah of the Old Testament.

• The Father is to be known; the Son is to be known; the Spirit is to be known.

• In coming into the wilderness we are coming into a place where God has been before us, and indeed still is, as He says, "I have borne you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself".

• The wilderness is designed so that we might know in a personal way the God who has brought us to Himself.

We see His glory shining upon us in the face of Jesus. We are attracted by it; we know and are sure of our salvation because of what Christ has done, and the glory which He has secured to God.

• But all that is to lay a basis for us to know God Himself in a personal way, and the personal name of God for us is the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

• That name is not connected exactly with the solution of moral questions, nor with the vindication of God's glory.

• If we think of the glory of God we think of God as God, in His nature and attributes. Moral issues had to be settled that God might be glorified.

• But it was in view of God being known to us in a personal way, as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

• We begin to learn these personal links in the wilderness, and to learn them in an experimental way, in which we could never learn them in any other setting.

• The wilderness becomes a place of extreme value, when we understand that God has borne us on eagles' wings and brought us to Himself.

• If we understood that we should not want the world to be anything but a wilderness, because, if it becomes anything but a wilderness to us, we have lost God Himself.

• We may still maintain a profession, we may still be breaking bread, but we have lost God as to all practical joy and communion if we give up the idea of the wilderness.

• How our hearts cling to Egypt, as the children of Israel did! How we lust after the world and its things. How we cling to earth!

• I want to make the wilderness attractive to you, I want to make the world entirely unattractive, so that you should not look upon it any other way than as a wilderness.

The value of being in it, the only reason we want to stay in it, is because of the opportunity to learn God.

• God is with us in it, so we are not asking to be taken out of it. The Lord did not ask for His own to be taken out of it. He said,
  • "I do not demand that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them out of evil".

  • "Sanctify them by the truth. Thy word is truth".

• So the wilderness is a most valuable place, because we have the companionship, if I might use such a word, of God Himself. We are brought to God. The Lord has suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring us to God.

• Far be it from us, dear brethren, to look upon this world as anything but a wilderness from now onwards, however we may have regarded it hitherto.

• It was when the children of Israel accepted the wilderness, that the glory of Jehovah appeared. They had passed through the Red Sea, and Matthew 28: 19 is the Red Sea for us. What a marvellous thing baptism is in the light of that verse!

• As coming out of Egypt, as leaving the world, God's thought is that we should be brought into all the blessedness that is connected with God Himself; and, I say again, God Himself involves the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is a personal matter.

• The very idea of baptism is that we are baptised to the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. That is the objective.

• "Is the wilderness before thee?" It is in one sense, but the great thing is that in baptism we are not occupied with the wilderness that is before us; we are occupied with the God to whom we are brought.

• We are to learn what the Father will be to us in the wilderness; we are to learn what the Lord Jesus Christ will be to us, in the wilderness; we are to learn what the Spirit will be to us, in the wilderness.

• What a blessed thing that we can take up the wilderness with that in our minds! The wilderness becomes an attractive place when we realise that God Himself is there.

• I would not like to be anywhere but in the wilderness at the present time. I would like to be in the land in my spirit as opportunity occurs, but in actuality I would not like to be anywhere but in the wilderness.

It is said in Exodus that "when Aaron spoke to the people they turned towards the wilderness"; they accepted it.

• Up till that time, they had not turned thus. But when Aaron spoke to them they really faced the position.

• And instead of seeing a barren land where drought abides, full of pitfalls, with no path in the waste, teeming with difficulties, what did they see? They saw the glory of Jehovah.

• The world cannot show us anything like that; we shall never know it unless we are out of the world.

• It typifies the glory of the Father by which Christ was raised from among the dead according to Romans 6 and which now shines upon those who "are become identified with him in the likeness of his death", verses 4-5.

• This has to be distinguished from the glory of God. The glory of God is the radiancy of God which has shone out in the establishment of divine righteousness with glory bright. That is the basis of everything.

• But the glory of the Father involves the tender personal affections of the Father. The Father Himself, the Lord says, loves you. He knows every one of us better than we know ourselves – He, of whom the Lord says, "Thine they were, and thou gavest them me".

• We were His in purpose before the ages of time. What glory attaches to the Father, what glory of love and grace connected with purpose conceived before the world began, and carried through in spite of the sin question!

• Not that redemption was an afterthought. Peter speaks of precious blood of Christ as of a lamb "foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world".

• All was to be established on the ground of redemption; but, nevertheless, the glory of the Father is connected with the purpose of divine love which lies behind all else, and so the Lord says,
  • "Thine they were and thou gavest them me".

• We belonged to the Father in purpose before we belonged to anybody, and He gave us to the Son. What a personal matter! It is God Himself, known in a personal way.

• As they looked towards the wilderness they saw the glory of Jehovah, typifying the glory of the Father, the One who foreknew, whose we were in a past eternity, and who gave us to the Son.

• The glory of His love is such that it enters into every detail of the formation and history and circumstances of each one of us. The One whose we were, and who gave us to the Son, is the One who watches over us, as our hymn says.
  "A holy Father's constant care
  Keeps watch with an unwearying eye".
  Hymn 138.

As we accept the wilderness, we come into the light of the glory of that blessed Person, His personal interest in us, His personal care, which extends down to every detail of wilderness need.

• The Lord says, "Your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things", so He says

• "Do not be careful about your life, what ye should eat, and what ye should drink, nor for your body, what ye should put on".

• How much thought we are apt to give to these things. "All these things do the nations seek after"; that is the principle on which people of the world live.

• People who are engrossed in such things are not in the wilderness. But the Lord Jesus says,
  • "Your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things"; but "seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you".

• In the light of this, wilderness difficulties disappear. All circumstantial difficulties disappear in the light of the Father's glory, and we are able to step out in the wilderness in newness of life,

• walking in a new way altogether, walking as Jesus walked, walking in the sunshine of the Father's love and care, restful in Him, trusting in Him, and thus free to care for His interests. What a wonderful thing!

Then in Romans 7, the apostle speaks of our being to another, to the Christ. We "have been made dead to the law by the body of the Christ", speaking to us of the love of the Christ.

• When His body is mentioned, His love is especially in mind.

• Think of the love of that blessed Man, the One of whom, when Paul speaks of His coming after the flesh, He says immediately, "Who is over all, God blessed for ever", yet truly Man.

• We are dead to the law by His body. The law condemned us to death, the death of a curse, and He has taken that upon Himself, in His body, so that the bond of law, which could only bring condemnation and death, might be broken, and that we might be to Him.

The blessed Spirit of God is the bond of union between every individual Christian and the Lord; He that is united to the Lord is one Spirit.

• And thus we come into personal and experimental relationship with the Man Christ Jesus, that blessed Man who yet is God.

• It could not be said, I believe, that we are to be to another if He were not God. Not that the link is with Him in Godhead; it is with Him, in manhood.

• But I believe it would be idolatry for such a link to be asserted in place of the law which God had given, if He were less than God in His Person.

• We are to "be to another, who has been raised up from among the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God".

Then in chapter 8, where it is a question of sin in the flesh, we find that our wants and woes bring suited grace.

• There is the grace and love of the Father in chapter 6,

• the grace and love of the Lord Jesus who has delivered us from the power of law and the curse in chapter 7,

• the grace and power of the Spirit delivering us from the law of sin and death in chapter 8. "The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus", Paul says, "has set me free from the law of sin and death".

So in these chapters we come to know, in an experimental way, the God who has borne us on eagles' wings and brought us to Himself.

• We begin to learn what the word 'Himself' means; we begin to have experimental knowledge of the love and grace of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

• And it is well to note how much is said about the Holy Spirit in Romans 8, because in the wilderness we so specially need the Spirit and all that He would be to us in our life of responsibility and testimony, our wilderness life of suffering here.

• Let us explore more and more what the Spirit would be to us. He dwells in us, sets us free from the law of sin and death, is life in us, giving us power to put to death the deeds of the body so that we should live; and then it says,
  • "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God".

• In the wilderness, in the circumstances of pressure, He is the Spirit of adoption whereby we cry, Abba Father.

• And not only is He all that to us as in us, but He is with us, in the wilderness, because it is said, "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit". He Himself is accompanying us.

• We are accustomed to that idea of Him being with us as well as in us collectively, but it is true, also, as in the wilderness, individually.
  • "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God".

  • "The Spirit joins also its help to our weakness", and "the Spirit itself makes intercession with groanings which cannot be uttered".

• What a Comforter He is in the wilderness, accompanying us all the way, never leaving us!

• If we give Him His place, He will keep us ever in the enjoyment of our bond of union with Christ, and of our relationship with the Father.

• Thus that blessed Name to which we are baptised, the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, becomes a reality to us in the wilderness.

• And the end of Romans 8 suggests a soul who, in the power of all this, can raise a triumphant note,
  • "If God be for us, who can be against us?" and he is persuaded that nothing can separate us "from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord".

• It is a soul in triumph in the wilderness, in the knowledge of God, known in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

A soul in triumph thus in the wilderness will soon arrive at the land.

• In Ephesians 3 the apostle describes the land. The land for us is not heaven actually, but it is heaven enjoyed now. it means that we enter now into the realm of divine purpose, and so the apostle prays to the Father about it.

• The Father and the Son and the Spirit are brought into that prayer, not now in relation to the wilderness, but in relation to the realm of God's purpose.

• God is with us in the wilderness with a view to our arriving now, in the present time, at "Canaan's long loved dwelling"; arriving at the present enjoyment of our eternal portion;
  • and the experiences of the wilderness are such that we arrive in the realm of purpose furnished with wonderful substance.

• When we actually reach heaven, and the wilderness is actually over, what we have acquired in the knowledge of God in the wilderness will remain substance in our souls and contribute to the praise of God through eternity.
  • "There no stranger-God shall meet thee".

• See how important the wilderness is! God will fill heaven with those who have known Him and proved Him experimentally in a personal way in adverse circumstances, where they were shut up to Him, where they had no one but Him.

• How wonderful that God is going to fill heaven with people like that! No wonder He affords wilderness experiences. How important it is!

But then we are privileged to enter heaven in some measure, in our spirits now, and the Father is engaged to help us in it. It is touching to think of the Father helping and strengthening us, to enter the land.

• It is no geographical movement with us, just as the wilderness is no geographical movement.

• The world becomes a wilderness; we are still in the same place; and in Ephesians 3 we are still in the same place geographically,
  • but the Father strengthens us by His Spirit in the inner man, so that we might be brought in our spirits into the realm of His purpose now. What a wonderful thing!

• And so in this passage we come to God Himself in a fuller way than we could do in the wilderness.

• As far as experimental matters go, the wilderness is unique, but when we arrive at the realm of divine purpose, we come to fulness.
  • It is not simply the glory of the Father, but "that he may give you according to the riches of his glory".

• As we enter the realm of purpose, we discover the riches of the Father's glory as coming into a realm where every family is named of Him in heaven and on earth.

• We enter into the wealth of the Father's love in a way that we could not do in the wilderness.

• The wilderness is unique and will never be repeated, but it is in view of our reaching, even now in our spirits, the realm of purpose, where as having known the glory of the Father in the wilderness we now can apprehend the riches of His glory.

• Also we have known the love of the Christ in the wilderness, but according to this prayer, we are to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge. It is fulness here.

• In Romans it is, "Who shall separate us from the love of the Christ"; that is in the wilderness,
  • but when we come to the realm of purpose, and know love in its own sphere, it is the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge.

• Similarly, as to the Spirit, Paul prays that He would strengthen us with power by His Spirit in the inner man. We have the idea of the power of the Spirit in Romans 8,
  • but here there is a double thought, "that he would give you to be strengthened with power by his Spirit".

• Everything here is superlative, and so it is said that we might be "filled even to all the fulness of God". It is God Himself in His fulness.

• We begin with being baptised to the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and we end with being filled to "all the fulness of God". It is the same preposition meaning "to" or "into".

The verses in Revelation go on to finality, in the new heavens and the new earth, and we have this final word,

• "the tabernacle of God is with men, and he shall tabernacle with them, and they shall be his people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God".

• The men that God Himself is with includes the assembly, and no doubt includes the other saved families of men. But the assembly forms the tabernacle itself; the assembly is the tabernacle of God.

• How near to God are those who form that tabernacle! How near they must be, when it is said, even of saved men generally, that God Himself is with them!

• He is with them through His tabernacle, as dwelling in His tabernacle. Then how near He must be to those who form that tabernacle.

• This is the way we are to learn God in the assembly now, the nearness in which we are to God Himself. Who will understand this expression like the assembly, those who form the tabernacle itself?

• God Himself shall be with them; the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, God Himself, personally known, shall be with them, their God.

• "He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes". What a touching thing that is! He does not trust an angel to do it; He does not ask a saint to do it. It shows how personal this matter is.

• I suppose God Himself is the only One who can effectually wipe away tears, the tears that flow from the feelings of the divine nature in the saints.

• We can know something of this even at the present time, for we are still in the vale of tears, and, before the Lord comes it may be we shall have many more tears to shed.

• But God is able to wipe them away, and we prove it, especially on occasions of assembly privilege. God Himself does it, how touching that is!

He does not depute it to anybody else; He wipes away every tear from their eyes. What a loving action! What a God we have!

• In the light of it we can indeed say that God is love, and we can bow in worship before that God.

• In the desert He teaches us the God that we have found, but then we shall know Him also in home surroundings through all eternity – God Himself known in a personal way, and in personal relationships.

• May the Lord bless the word for His Name's sake!

The Work of the Lord

I go back now to the question of work. It may be some of us are not very fond of work – let us beware of being slack in the work of the Lord. This is the time for work.

• It is the time for toil. Toil means hard work. How little we know of it compared with Paul and others, to whose labours we owe so much!

• If Paul had not toiled as he did, where should we be today? How much we owe to him!
  • Above all, how much we owe to Christ, and the unspeakable toil that He undertook!

• That is the work of the Lord. It means securing people through the gospel, and then seeing that they are fitted into their place in the assembly. No one is perfect in Christ who is a free lance and on independent lines.

• Paul is speaking of himself as minister of the assembly. He filled up that which was behind of the sufferings of Christ for His body's sake, which is the assembly, of which he became minister.
  • And he says "Whom we announce", that is Christ, "admonishing every man, and teaching every man, in all wisdom, to the end that we may present every man perfect in Christ".

• Paul did not cease his work when persons came to the Lord and knew the Lord Jesus as their Saviour; he went on labouring, toiling, to present every many perfect in Christ.

• "We, being many, are one body in Christ". If a man does not recognise that, how can he be perfect in Christ? We are "one body in Christ, and each one members of the other".

• Paul's example would surely stimulate us all to work with one another. We ourselves are the material for the house of God.

• The truth of the one body in Christ underlies the truth of the house of God, and the material we have to work with is one another. Much of the work today is on mutual lines.

• Thank God He has given us some material. We would like to have more, but He has given us some. Let us get to work with one another, as it says, "in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another".

• Paul speaks of teaching every man and admonishing every man in all wisdom. He was specially gifted to do it. But we can do it for one another.

• We can teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, helping one another to find our place in this corporate vessel and to fill out our function in it.

• This is a great work; it is the greatest constructive work that has ever proceeded on this earth.

• The work of building the tabernacle and of building the house that Solomon erected, was great in its way, but those houses were only figures of the true.

• Now the true house is here and the saints are the material. And it is a question of getting to work, so that the features of the true house might come into expression for the pleasure and glory of God at the present time.

That was the position typically in Haggai. A remnant had returned from captivity in Babylon and had begun to build, but the enemies had got to work, and the king had issued an order that the work was to stop.

• Historically it would appear that the king's order was the reason the work stopped. But the prophet tells us the real reason.

• The work stopped because the people became half-hearted in it, and a half-hearted worker is of no use to God. They began to consider their own things.

• It is remarkable that in Philippians, the most exalted epistle as to Christian conduct, where Paul speaks much of the work and those engaged in it, he says, "all seek their own things, not the things of Jesus Christ".

• What a statement to make! And that was the state of the returned captives within a few years of their return. Have we got into that state?

• It is a terrible state for returned captives – brands plucked from the burning, brought back from captivity in the pure mercy of God and recovered to His own thoughts. How base to use their release from captivity just to devote themselves to their own matters!

• There is a great system around us, which claims catholicity, and which exacts so much from its devotees that nations under its sway become poor. God has, in mercy, released us from that fearful domination.

• Men, too, are led captive by their lusts. How much they spend on lusts and pleasures from which we have been delivered! From all these captivities we have been set free.

• What then are we doing with our time and our money? Are we spending it just for our own gratification on earthly things?

• You say, I am not spending it on anything that is wrong. No, perhaps not wrong in itself, but utterly wrong if what you are spending it on has become an object to your heart and has displaced God and His claims.

• Paul speaks in Philippians of those who were enemies of the cross of Christ, who minded earthly things. Delivered from worldly things, they gave themselves up to earthly things;
  • and what is so astonishing is that these returned captives, who should have had such a sense of mercy in their souls, with all the love for God which that engenders, should so quickly have slipped into occupation with earthly things.

• The king's decree to stop the building would never have stopped them if God had been supreme in their hearts. It was just a test of their state.

• When the prophets aroused them, they did not wait for another decree from the king, but began to build before the decree came. It was all a question of state. The prophet says,
  • "Is it time for you that ye should dwell in your wainscoted houses, while this house lieth waste?"

• Think of returned captives living in wainscoted houses, adding luxury to their dwellings, as it were, while God's house was lying waste.

I want to raise the point with us all as to whether God is our first love. I would challenge my own heart as to that. Is God my first and supreme love, my all-commanding love?

• "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", Mark 12:13.

• You say, If I give God that place in my life, how will it affect my other relationships? They will not suffer. Give God His place, and every other relationship will fall into its right place.

• The perfect One said, in spirit, "I love my master, my wife and my children". It could not be put in any other order.

• Did the wife and children suffer because the Master came first? Not at all. Who has been loved by Christ like the wife and children?

• The challenge is, dear brethren, whether God has the first place with us. As returned captives, surely, in a special way, that should be His place in our affections.

• If He has the first place, no fear of man will stop us going forward. We shall fear God and not man. That is the first thing these people are brought to: "And the people feared before Jehovah", chapter 1 : 12.
  • They no longer feared the king and his edict; they feared before Jehovah – reverential fear.

• Immediately Jehovah spoke to them again and said, "I am with you". How gracious God is! Before they began to build, He said, "I am with you". And then the word comes,
  • "Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah … But now be strong, Zerubbabel, saith Jehovah; and be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, the priest; and be strong, all ye people of the land, saith Jehovah, and work: for I am with you, saith Jehovah of hosts".

• That is the thing I want to stress – work. We may not like the word much, but work – that is what is needed. Not the taking up of the Lord's things as a hobby, but as a work.

• You say, Where am I to begin? Begin with your local brethren, work with them. Visit the sick, visit those who are waning in their affections, go after them.

• Keep company with those who are going on, and help them forward. Keep the pattern before you, the plan of the assembly. Paul was the wise architect. He had the pattern before him.

• Keep in mind what the objective is, that the saints should be set together as one body in Christ, all functioning in their place,
  • all available according to Corinthians, as vessels of the Spirit for manifestations of the Spirit;

  • all available according to Colossians as holding fast the Head;

  • all available according to Ephesians to fill their place in the service and praise of God in the assembly.

• Keep that in your mind and work to that end. Work in your local company, to achieve these features there. There is plenty of work to do.

• I would encourage the young people to work. While you have your youth and energy, work. The Lord has plenty for you to do. Find out what there is to do and do it.

• Visiting is a thing which can be taken up in youthful energy, and those who do it will receive great profit in their souls. They will minister comfort to the aged and the sick, but the aged ones will minister even more to them.

There is work to be done. Let us be always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that our labour is not in vain in the Lord. Everything else is in vain.

• God says, "Yet once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the earth, and the sea, and the dry land".

• You may be labouring for other things, but be assured that everything except God's building is coming down. You may be aiming at becoming a captain of industry, a prince of commerce or something of that kind.

• Let me turn your attention in other directions. You may build up a big business here, but it will come down. God will shake everything.

• I am referring to the danger of making these things an objective. That is where the damage is done, in minding earthly things, making them your objective.

• You may be house-proud, business-proud, clothes-proud, and so on. The sin comes in in making these things an object.

• God may be pleased to give you a house. Why does He give it to you? For the testimony. Houses are needed in the testimony. In the early days the assembly often met in houses, and much goes on in houses today.

• God needs houses and He will provide us with the houses that He needs if we are simple with Him.

• But do not make your house your object. Let God be your object and His house. The moment I make earthly things an object, I am in the path of sin.

• According to Leviticus 11 things that crawl on the earth are an abomination to God – an abomination indeed when the church was in pristine beauty, but how much more among returned captives!

• And the serious thing is, if I am unclean in this way, I contaminate others. That is the meaning of the latter part of this chapter. If an unclean person touches another they become unclean. The thing spreads.

• There is a danger of this kind of thing spreading amongst us, the minding of earthly things.

• God may entrust you with things; He entrusts some men with riches. Joseph of Arimathaea was a rich man; a rich man was needed at that time. In the course of the testimony rich men are needed, and, if God entrusts a man with riches, all well and good.

• But let him not make his riches an object. Let God be his object always, and let him understand that what he has been entrusted with in material means is for the testimony.

• If God gives me a house, it is in view of the testimony. If God gives me means, it is in view of the testimony. It is to be used in the work of the Lord, not to hinder me in the work of the Lord.

Haggai's message is a wholesome word to us, as to what we, as returned captives, are occupied with, as to whether we are clean in this respect.

• You say, I have come out of Babylon, I have left all the religious systems, I have left the trade unions, I am clean.

• But if earthly things are your object you are not clean. And you are carrying about with you a contamination which is most insidious, and which can corrupt the brethren.

• We need persons who are heavenly minded, who are prepared to give themselves up to this great matter of the rebuilding of the house in order that there should be, in every locality, the true features of the assembly in expression.

• Such were badly needed at Corinth. Paul had laid the foundation, but they were each to see how they built upon it and were exhorted
  • to be "firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord", and to "be vigilant; stand fast in the faith; quit ye like men; be strong".

• So it says here in Haggai, "Be strong and work", and then,
  • "the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, and my Spirit, remain among you: fear ye not".

• If we know what the divine plan is, and if our hearts are right with God, giving Him the all-commanding place in our affections, and if we are set for the furtherance of what is pleasurable to Him in His house, we have nothing to fear.

And I would say that, if we are convinced as to what God is doing and what will stand, it will save us from being apologetic about our Christianity.

• We have nothing to apologise for. We stand before the Lord of all the earth. We are concerned about His rights. We are working on a building which will stand when everything that man has built has come down.

• We have nothing to be ashamed of. We can afford to be bold in the gospel, bold in speaking of Christ.
  • "Proclaim the word; be urgent in season and out of season".

• Let us give up an apologetic attitude. Let us speak to people boldly of Christ as those who know where they stand and what they are doing, and that what they are engaged in is going to abide when everything else is shaken and comes down. Let us tell people that they should be in this matter, too.

• A bold front is needed, because more material is needed for the house. An apologetic attitude will not help to deliver our brethren from the systems around. A bold attitude will help them.

• I do not mean fleshly boldness or aggressiveness, but spiritual boldness. "Quit yourselves like men; be strong. Let all things ye do be done in love".

The prophet closes with another word as to the shaking, in view of encouraging us to go on with the building.

• I believe God is shaking at the present time, as He says there, "I will shake all nations". Both the Eastern and Western camps of the world are shaking at the present time, and God is behind that.

• There is more hope of reaching men through the gospel, and of delivering our brethren from the systems.

• When the world appears strong, we are all liable to be caught up in it, and to devote ourselves to our own wainscoted houses, because things down here appear more secure; but
  • when God shakes the nations it is for our good, to release us, and to release others, for His house.

• That is the view of the first shaking here, and the result of it for us is that the latter glory is greater than the former.

• Outwardly the recovery will never be like Pentecost, or Ephesus, when the saints were publicly one. And yet there is a glory about it which is all its own.

• Features appear which are not mentioned originally and which could only come to light in a day of recovery. We are moving on to the latter glory.

• Publicly the latter glory will be when the heavenly city comes down, and that will indeed be greater than the former; greater than anything.
  • But the light of that is shining upon us, so that there might be a moral glory about the present moment that is unsurpassed.

• But the shaking referred to in chapter 2: 21 is final and will result in the overthrow of all the kingdoms so that God might put the impress of Christ upon everything.

• Zerubbabel is a type of Christ as God's signet, and God will put the impress of Christ on every throne and lordship and principality and authority.
  • But that is to be known now in the assembly, Christ everything and in all.

• That is the objective in this prophecy – that what will soon be universally true, the impress of Christ on everything, might be true among the saints at the present time; Christ, and Christ alone, in evidence.

The Service of God

Now I pass on to the second part of my subject, the priestly service of God.

• In that connection Paul quotes Haggai in Hebrews 12: 26. He brings in the shaking to show how it is intended to help us as to the priestly service of God.

• The more things shake here, the more joyful and thankful to God we are that we have received a kingdom that cannot be shaken. That is the point in Hebrews.
  • "Let us, receiving a kingdom not to be shaken, have grace, by which let us serve God acceptably".

• What is already shaking is soon going in order that what is not shaken may remain. The only things that will remain are the things we are privileged to be engaged in.

• All that the great Gentile monarchies have built up, their institutions, their culture, and so on, all is shaking now and all will be removed. There will not be a trace left of what Caesar did, but what Paul did will shine in glory for ever.

• And we, "receiving a kingdom not to be shaken" – what a joyful people we should be!
  • We "have come to mount Zion; and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem; and to myriads of angels, the universal gathering; and to the assembly of the first-born who are registered in heaven; and to God, judge of all; and to the spirits of just men made perfect; and to Jesus, mediator of a new covenant; and to the blood of sprinkling, speaking better than Abel".

• How have we come to them? We are just a feeble company building in our localities. Yes, but the more we build, the more faithful we are on Corinthian lines in building something here, in a concrete way, in our localities,
  • the more free the Spirit will be to lead us into the truth of Ephesians, where, in the Spirit's power, we apprehend what is ever present to God.

• What is before His mind and heart in purpose, and is ever present to Him, becomes present to us.

• But if we are not prepared to build on Corinthian lines and secure conditions for God locally, the Spirit will not be free to transport us into the realm of purpose.

• If we are true builders we shall, by the Spirit, be continually and increasingly transported into that kingdom which cannot be shaken, especially at the time of privilege, and we shall realise, as a great practical reality, that we have come to these things.

• What is present to God, to His mind and affections, becomes present to us. Think of what we have come to, what we shall have all through eternity, and, in the light of it all,
  • let us "have grace by which let us serve God acceptably with reverence and fear".

• We are going on with the work of the Lord, but, concurrently with it, we are going on with the priestly service of God.

I read in Malachi because he was the last prophet and his word is for the priests relative to the service of God.

• The house had been finished. The word to Malachi does not relate to the work of the Lord, but to the service of God.
  • "And now, ye priests, this commandment is for you". I suppose most of us here are priests – this commandment is for us.

  • "If ye do not lay it to heart, to give glory unto my name, saith Jehovah of hosts, I will even send the curse among you", chapter 2: 2.

• God is not sending a curse today, but we shall suffer leanness of soul if we do not take it to heart to give glory to His name.

• What a joy it is to give glory to God's name! Surely there is no higher level of priestly service than to give glory to God's name. Let us serve God acceptably, with reverence and fear.

• We know His name, we know the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; and we bring into that glorious name the glories attaching to every previous name by which God has disclosed Himself.

• What a wealth of disclosure, culminating in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! Surely our hearts are roused as we think of the glory of that Name, and of our privilege to give glory to it.

• So the word here is "from the rising of the sun even unto the setting"; it refers to local companies in every place.

• It is remarkable that the Old Testament could look forward to the present day – "in every place" – not now Jerusalem as an earthly centre.
  • "From the rising of the sun even unto its setting my name shall be great among the nations".

• That refers to the Name to which the nations were to be baptised.
  • "My name shall be great among the nations; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure oblation".

• The altar of incense and the altar of burnt-offering are both functioning.

How can we serve God acceptably? Malachi tells us how we can serve Him unacceptably.

• "Ye bring that which was torn, and the lame, and the sick; thus ye bring the oblation : should I accept this of your hand?"

• This raises the same question that I have already raised as to the work of the Lord. Has God the first and supreme place? He is prepared to accept no other.

• How could God accept anything less than the first place with anyone? You bring something torn and the lame.
  • "Cursed be the deceiver", he says, "who hath in his flock a male, and voweth and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing".

• You have reserved the male for yourself. The best of your energies have been reserved for your own things instead of being devoted to God. God feels it. He will not have it. It is not acceptable.
  • "Let us … have grace, by which let us serve God acceptably".

• How can we serve God acceptably? By bringing all we have without reserve to Him.
  • "For I am a great King, saith Jehovah of hosts, and my name is terrible among the nations".

• He is a great King and He cannot accept anything but the best. The whole of our energies, the whole of our lives, must be dedicated to Him.

• What we do in our ordinary work and ways must all be subsidiary to His work and His service; held as incidental to it, to support it.

May the Lord help us in this, that we may have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably!