Paul speaks of riches in more ways than one. In Ephesians 1 he speaks of

• "the riches of God's grace which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence".

• He brings that in in connection with redemption. Think of the riches of God's grace! In the next chapter, he speaks of the
  • "exceeding riches of God's grace"

• which He is going to display in kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

• In his doxology in Romans 11 when he thinks of God's wisdom and knowledge, he says, "O depth of riches".

• But the passages I have read all refer to "Riches of Glory". It is a remarkable expression.

• We have been speaking of divine glory and the glory of God radiates in the face of the Lord Jesus, it is all there; He is
  • "the effulgence of God's glory and the expression of His substance".

• All that can come into expression has come into expression in the Person of Jesus. It required a Man if God was to be expressed.

• If the invisible God was to come into expression He must come into expression in one who was His image, and man, as an order of being, was made in God's image and glory.

• God's purpose in making man was to have an order of being capable of expressing Him in all His attributes. It is wonderful to keep in view the purpose of God in making man.
  • "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness" Genesis 1: 26.

• If God was to be adequately and completely expressed it required that the Son should come. In the 1st of Hebrews the theme is the Son.
  • "God has in these last days spoken to us in Son".

• God Himself has come into Manhood, and known under that Name, the Son, and it says of Him that
  • He is "the effulgence of God's glory and the expression of His substance".

• It says elsewhere He is the image of the invisible God. Truly Man! He must be Man to be God's image, and yet to be a complete expression of God, He must be God.

• He is the image of God because He is God, and therefore the radiancy of glory in His face is complete. But it may be known through others.

• The glory which shines in Him will be diffused through the assembly, which is His fulness. All is derived from the Man; the woman is the glory of the man.

• The full riches of God's glory is radiant in the Lord Jesus Christ, radiant in His face, and we, as beholding that glory with unveiled face, are transformed
  • "into the same image, from glory to glory even as by the Lord Spirit".

• How great this is! Wealth of glory is there in that Person, shining out, and that wealth becomes available to the universe in the way the outshining becomes effective in the objects of His purpose,
  • "vessels of mercy before prepared for glory".

And so the initial thought which Paul brings in as to "riches of glory" is that

• "God, minded to shew his wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory".

• There is glory in all its wealth in the face of Jesus, but the very wealth of that glory becomes manifest to the universe in the way that God, on account of His glory being established in Christ,
  • can take up vessels like ourselves, and thus make known the riches of His glory to the universe.

• It is not that we add anything to the glory that is in Christ; but the wealth of it comes into expression in that He can take up persons like ourselves as vessels of mercy.

• God's rights in mercy are based upon the fact that His glory has been upheld and established in the Person of Christ and is radiant in His face.

• By That Man God has rights in mercy over all men and He exercises those rights in His call, as this chapter shows in verse 11,
  • "that the purpose of God according to election might abide, not of works but of him that calls".

• So God is free to call according to His purpose – in His infinite mercy He has called you and me.

• We are vessels of mercy, and in calling such as we – worthless creatures in ourselves – and preparing us for glory. God manifests the wealth of His glory that He can do such a thing.

It is important to see that in this chapter, the clay is fallen humanity, not innocent humanity but fallen humanity, and that none of us had any rights.

• Everything rests on the sovereign mercy of God – His rights in mercy. We had no rights, and because He has fallen humanity to deal with He may
  • "endure with much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction".

• It does not say He fitted them for destruction, but He endures with much longsuffering to make His power known. Like Pharaoh of old, we find rulers raised up that God might show in them His power.

• But others, made of the same clay, are taken up in mercy. We are vessels of mercy, I wonder whether we have each learned to regard ourselves as "a vessel".

• It is a question of the Potter and the clay and the vessels. If God has exercised His rights in mercy and called you and me it is in order that we might be vessels, and a vessel is something that is to be filled.

• God is preparing us to be filled with glory. We are being formed morally and transformed with a view to our place in the great vessel in the day to come. But then, Peter speaks of saints even now
  • "rejoicing with joy unspeakable and filled with the glory".

• According to our measure, God's thought is that we should already be filled, so that there is a present making known of His glory in these vessels of mercy.

• According to Romans 8, we are already called, justified, glorified. You say, how can that be? Because the Holy Spirit dwells in us.

• Vessels of mercy, but think of how God fills them! He comes into them Himself, vessels which, to begin with, were just the clay of fallen humanity.

• God begins to operate, He calls, He works by His Spirit. There is the work of God there, and then God Himself comes into the vessel by the Holy Spirit.

• How much it has cost God to lay a basis whereby He can show the riches of His glory upon vessels of mercy! If we understand that, we shall have no reserves in committing ourselves to God.

• In His mind we are each a vessel, and if we understand that we shall hold ourselves as vessels for God to fill.

• He fills us with the Spirit, He fills us with the glory, and Romans shows how these vessels of mercy are secured.

• In chapter 6 we are brought to yield ourselves to God as alive from amongst the dead. That is like Matthew 5, 6 and 7. But in Romans 12 we have a vessel.
  • "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God".

• When it says "body" it is a vessel that is in mind.

• We must begin with the members in chapter 6, every member yielded to God – the tongue, the ear and the eye all yielded to God as instruments of righteousness.
  • It is in view of having a vessel, the believer's body, holy and acceptable to God.

• What glory there is to God even now, in that He has persons who belonged to the lump of clay, fallen humanity, and now their bodies,
  • instead of being instruments of sin, which could incur only wrath from God,

  • are a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to Him in the power of the Spirit of God indwelling.

All this is to prepare us for our place in the great vessel. The great vessel is not a vessel of mercy.

• Those who form it are all vessels of mercy, but the great vessel is not called a vessel of mercy.

• It is a vessel of divine workmanship in which all of us as individual vessels are to find our place.

• According to Romans 12 we present our bodies with a view to finding our place in the one body in Christ. That is the great vessel, and that is what Paul has in mind in Colossians.

Colossians deals with Paul's ministry of the assembly, and he speaks of the assembly as "Christ's body".

• "I rejoice in sufferings for you and fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly".

• The assembly is called a vessel. Peter saw a vessel like a great sheet, descending out of heaven, and Paul was the minister of the assembly and in that connection he says,
  • "To whom God would make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the nations which is Christ in you the hope of glory".

• Romans and Corinthians speak of the Spirit in us. Romans 8 does say "if Christ be in you". It is just touched on.

• The great theme of Romans is the Spirit in the individual,
  • and the great point in l Corinthians is the local assembly as the vessel of the Spirit, which is a greater matter than the individual.

• But in Colossians it is a question of "Christ in you". If the Spirit is in us it is with a view to Christ being in us.

• Christ in persons involves formation, and if the Spirit is given His place Christ will indeed be in us.
  • "If any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is not of Him";

• but if the Spirit has free course in us individually and collectively we shall have some understanding of the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
  • "which is Christ in you, the hope of glory".

• It is a glorious matter that God should have among the Gentiles a vessel of which it can be said "Christ in you".

• Paul says it was given to him to "complete the word of God". This means that his ministry unlocks the meaning of the scriptures, it unlocks the meaning of the types.

• Without Paul's ministry we would not understand the types. They find their answer at the present time in the fact that there is a company on earth in whom Christ is.

• If you take the first type – the woman was taken out of the man, she was derived from the man, and so, at the present time, in this great vessel, the assembly, we have a vessel which is derived from Christ.

• It says in this epistle "the body is of Christ". What came out previously was the shadow. Eve was but a shadow, the tabernacle was but a shadow – types of the assembly; but now the reality is here.

• We have a vessel now which is not the shadow of what was to come but it is the real thing for Christ is in the saints.

What riches of glory there is in this, that God, having established the outshining of His glory in Jesus, has brought to pass

• a great vessel which is derived from Christ, which is truly His body, and is the answer to all the types of old that relate to the assembly.

• There is nothing more important, for young people especially, than to get hold of the idea that the real thing is here, that of which the Old Testament gave only types and shadows.

• It exists among the Gentiles, – soon to be displayed; but it is glorious already.
  • "The riches of the glory of this mystery … which is Christ in you the hope of glory".

• The hope of glory is the expectation of the day of display when it will no longer be mystery; but there is already glory attaching to it, riches of glory. It is a great thing to be in this glorious vessel.

• Paul laboured to present every man perfect in Christ. He wanted every believer to find his or her place in that vessel.

• I would ask every believer, Have you found your place in the great vessel.

• First you must learn that you are a vessel and hold yourself as a vessel. If you do that you will very soon find your place in that great vessel – "one body in Christ".

• Paul's concern was to present everyone in their place in Christ, their divinely appointed place in this great vessel.
  • He toiled with that in view, "combating according to his working which works in me in power".

I pass on now to Ephesians, chapter 1 where it speaks of

• "the riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints".

• This brings in the fulness of what God has in the saints.

• Colossians is the actual position at the present time among the Gentiles. It is a great position; riches of glory attach to it,
  • but in Ephesians we are outside the realm of time and locality.

• He is praying that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him,
  • being enlightened in the eyes of our hearts so that we might know – that is conscious knowledge – what is the hope of his calling.

• It is the whole matter that is spread out before us, not the present provisional position, but the whole matter.
  • "The hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and the surpassing greatness of his power towards us who believe". What a range of things!

• Dear brethren, it is only in the measure in which we answer to Romans as to being vessels ourselves,
  • and answer to Colossians in the sense of merging in the great vessel in so far as we are able now in this present provisional aspect,

  • that we shall have a heart to take in what is presented in the 1st chapter of Ephesians.

• You must know something of what is substantially existing at the present time to be able, in your spirit, to take account of the whole thought of God.

• Fellow-believers who never touch the truth of the assembly in its concrete form down here know nothing about Ephesians.

• You must touch the thing concretely down here to be able to take in abstractly the vast complete view according to divine purpose. Otherwise, as I say, you have not a heart to take it in.

• If the eyes of your heart are to be enlightened you must have a heart able to take in the whole scope, "the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints".

• That involves "the church complete and in His beauty dressed", and it involves the whole of heaven and earth brought into blessing and into response to God, under the influence of Christ and the church.

• That is why the passage ends with Christ at the right hand of God, and refers to Him being
  • "Head over all things to the assembly which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all".

• Think of the vastness of God's inheritance, and all this flows out from the fact that God's glory has been secured in a Man, and is shining in the face of a Man, and the riches of it will be seen universally in this universe of bliss of which I have been speaking.

• The riches of the glory of God's inheritance in the saints will be manifest – Christ and the assembly giving light and influence and direction to the whole universe,
  • men and angels, principalities and authorities all now under proper divine influence through the Man on whom God had bestowed every official dignity, the Christ.

But then in chapter 3 it speaks of "the riches of the Father's glory". Paul says,

• "I bow my knees to the Father".

• The universe of bliss is before His heart, but His heart is going out to the Father, of whom every family in heaven and on earth is named. He is going to the source of things – the Father.

• What liberty Paul had with the Father in these great matters! How much do we pray to the Father about the greatest matters?

• This is the greatest prayer uttered by any apostle; the only prayer in scripture which exceeds this one, is the Lord's own prayer in John 17.

• Think of the liberty Paul had with the Father! He speaks to the Father of the riches of His glory. What can we say to the Father about that?

• Think of the wealth of the Father's glory. There is something peculiarly attractive about the Father's glory.

• If we think of the glory of God we think of the way God has met the moral issues that have been raised in the universe, and how in meeting them
  • He used the occasion to bring into display all that He is in His nature and attributes, all shining in the person of the Lord Jesus.

• But when we think of the glory of the Father I think it brings to our minds divine purpose, conceived in love before the world began, carried through indeed on the basis of divine righteousness with glory bright –
  • but nevertheless conceived before any moral issue had ever been raised.

• It was a purpose which was essential to satisfy affections that were there in God and a desire to be known in the most intimate relationship.

• Do you want to be exceedingly rich? I would say, Go in for some appreciation of the glory of the Father.
  • So, he says, "He would give you according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by His Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts".

• The Trinity are brought in here; the Father according to the riches of His glory strengthening us with might by His Spirit with a view to the Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith.

• If we understand the Father's glory we shall have Christ as the Centre of our affections. Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father.

• The Christ is the One upon whom every honour has been put because He is so delightful to the Father's heart. He is the Head and centre of the scene which is essential to the Father's affections.

• If the Father has named every family it is essential that all these families should surround in a concentric circle this glorious Man, so that all are under His impulse and direction.
  • Thus the whole scene is secured and maintained in delight for the Father's heart.

• So the Father strengthens us that the Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith, and that we might know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge with a view to our being filled to all the fulness of God.

We began with the thought of vessels, and this is the climax – filled unto all the fulness of God.

• God Himself made known in this most blessed way through the manifestation of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit – filled to all the fulness of God.

• You can understand in the light of that how the assembly becomes a vessel fitted to ascribe glory to God as the remaining verses of the chapter show. Every person in it is filled unto all the fulness of God.

Well, now my last passage deals with circumstantial matters. We have spoken about them today. In the last chapter of Philippians Paul is speaking about his circumstances.

• None of us have had such variation in circumstances as "our beloved brother Paul", a beloved apostle, but he is our beloved brother. He says,
  • "I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am to be satisfied in myself, I know both how to be abased and how to abound. In everything and in all things I am initiated both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer privation. I have strength for all things in him that gives me power".

• What a model! Here is a man who knows what real wealth is. He is not dependent on material things for his happiness. He is in a Roman dungeon and he says,
  • "I have learnt in those circumstances in which I am to be satisfied in myself".

• He was the wealthiest man in Rome – a prisoner in the Roman prison, but the richest man in Rome, just as when he was brought before King Agrippa he was the richest man in the whole company.

• There was the pomp and splendour of Agrippa's court, but he as much as says to Agrippa, I would not change with anybody,
  • "I would to God both in little and in much, that not only thou, but all who have heard me this day, should become such as I also am, except these bonds", Acts 26: 29.

• So Paul had learnt in whatever circumstances he was to be content in himself.

• He knew the Father, He knew the Son as the Christ and the Son of the living God, and he knew the Holy Spirit. He knew what riches in glory meant, and he was indeed the richest man in Rome.

• But then the Philippians ministered to him, and the result is in verse 18, he says,
  • "But I have all things in full supply and abound; I am full, having received of Epaphroditus the things sent from you, an odour of sweet savour, an acceptable sacrifice, agreeable to God".

• It was not merely that he was glad to have some food and clothing brought to him, though no doubt he needed if. "I am full", he says.

• A little love from the saints filled the great heart of the apostle, and then he says,
  • "But my God shall abundantly supply all your need according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus".

• How anxious we often are about the details of our path. How much anxiety may turn us away from the main thing in life, seeking the kingdom of God and His righteousness.

• Let us admit, dear brethren, perhaps in every week of our lives, how much we are distracted and turned aside by over-occupation with secondary things!
  • Not so Paul: "This one thing I do" he says earlier in the epistle "I pursue".

• First things were always first with him. Circumstances were secondary, but why should we allow undue anxiety in the light of a passage like this?
  • "My God shall abundantly supply all your need according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus".

• What are the resources? "According to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus"; in that blessed Man and the system of which He is Centre.

• It is according to that that He enters into our circumstances and abundantly supplies all our need. He may not give you all you would like to have as to your natural desires because it would impoverish you spiritually.

• He wants you above all things to be spiritually rich, to know what His riches in glory are. If you know that you will be really rich.

• In the way He deals with your circumstances He always has His eye on the main thing, and that is your spiritual progress. He will meet your circumstances according to His riches in glory.

• You may have in mind a career down here. I am not saying you should not have that in mind, subject to God's will. But it may absorb you. You may have in mind more than food and raiment.

• You may want to get on, as they say, in the world, but God is concerned that you should get on in the true sense, that you should move on to apprehend His "riches in glory in Christ Jesus".

• He wants to make you a really wealthy man, to give you a really successful career, and in doing it He will abundantly supply all your need here, in a way that is best for you. He was doing what was best for Paul.

• We can afford to trust Him, and that brings us back to what we began with this morning – the sermon on the mount. Philippians would link with the sermon on the mount, that we might learn to trust God in our circumstances here.

• It is in these circumstances we prove in a rich way the tenderness of the Father's care. When Paul says "My God", he is not limiting his thoughts. His God was the God he knew, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

• But mark his note of worship, after speaking of what is circumstantial, he says,
  • "But to our God and Father be glory to the ages of ages".

May the Lord help us in these matters, that we may get an impression of the riches of God's glory for His name's sake!

It is a great thing to have some impression as to the greatness and glory of God's Christ: the wonder of the moment really is that God's Son is God's Christ.

• As we know, these two titles, to a large extent, sum up the truth of Christianity.
  • John says "these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God", 20: 31.

  • Peter says in his confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God", Matthew 16: 16.

• It is not that the Christ has become God's Son; it could not be put in that order, for the Son of God is a relationship, whereas 'the Christ' is an office.

• The marvellous thing is that a divine Person in manhood, the Son of God, fills out the position of God's Christ – the great official position,
  • yet a position involving absolute personal excellence and beauty; otherwise there would be no qualification for the position.

• The Christ is the greatest official position in the universe, and this place is given to the Lord Jesus; He is God's Christ. He is the Man of God's purpose, the Man of His counsels.

• All God's thoughts concerning man have been secured in a Person, and God has anointed that Person as having found His delight in Him,
  • and has thus distinguished Him as equal to filling this great official place in His universe;

  • distinguishing Him as the One who is qualified in every way to be the Head and Centre of the world of glory in which God will rest.

• He, the Christ, will give character to the whole system by way of the anointing.

• The types help us in these matters. The Ark was in the midst of the Tabernacle, an anointed system; and it was also in the midst of the house that Solomon built.

• Aaron, David and Solomon were each anointed. All these types converge on this great title THE CHRIST, although the Antitype goes farther than any type ever could.

But if we consider the greatness, the excellence of this blessed Man, the Man Christ Jesus, how wonderful it is to think of His love, the love of the Christ.

• What a love that must be! So the type in Exodus 21 is a wonderful one. "I love". It is really Christ speaking in Spirit.
  • "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free".

• It is a Man that speaks; he has a wife and children, a Man speaking with all the feelings of a Man. He says, "I love".

• It is one indivisible love flowing in all directions, upwards, horizontally and downwards,
  • "I love my master, my wife, and my children";

• an expression, as far as affection goes, of perfect manhood, love flowing in all directions in a perfect way, love of such a character that he says, "I will not go free".

What I want to bring to your attention is the present character of the love of the Christ. The scriptures we read are not exactly referring to the past;

• there is a good deal in Scripture about the past where He expressed His love beyond measure,
  • "The Christ loved us, and delivered himself up for us", Ephesians 5: 2.

  • "Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it", Ephesians 5: 25.

• But the love expressed in the giving of Himself remains and must remain if the system, of which He is the centre, is to be a living system of response to Himself and to God.

• The love of the Christ expressed there must be a living, abiding, eternal force; and so it is.

• So the scriptures we read are treating of the power of Christ's present love. What power can be greater than the present love of the Christ?

• So it says, "I love my master, my wife, and my children". Hebrews chapter 2 speaks of the children,
  • "Behold, I and the children which God has given me", verse 13, –p>
    • and also of the assembly, verse 12.

  • It says, "Since therefore the children partake of blood and flesh, he also, in like manner, took part in the same", verse 14.

• Think of the love of the Christ! He is the head and centre of a world of glory, for God purposed it should be so.

• But how fully He has considered for us as the children. "Children" refers to what we are down here – our actual condition. The love of the Christ has taken account of this condition.

• We are partakers of flesh and blood at this very moment, and because we are in these conditions,
  • "He also, in like manner, took part in the same, that through death he might annul him who has the might of death, that is, the devil; and might set free all those who through fear of death through the whole of their life were subject to bondage".

• Think of Christ in His love, taking account of our position as children and of our need of deliverance during our life-time in order that we, as children down here, might be completely set free at the present time;
  • not waiting for the enjoyment of that scene of glory until we are actually there, but free to be in spirit there now.

• What a marvellous thing, that He should come and deal with the enemy's power in order to free us during our life-time.

• Let Him have His way. Let us be free from every form of bondage so as to revel already in the joy and blessedness of that scene of which He is the Sun and Centre.

• He came that we might be in the joy of it now. How He loves the children! "I love my master, my wife, and my children, I will not go free".

Then it says, "For both he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren". Hebrews 2: 11.

• Have you ever thought what was involved in that expression? What it meant to Jesus? It says,
  • "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all", Hebrews 10: 10.

• What it cost the Lord! How much that statement means –
  • "he that sanctifies and those sanctified are all of one".

• How the Christ has loved us as His brethren! He has set us free as children in order that we might be in liberty in a higher sphere, in relationship with Him as His brethren,
  • "all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren".

Then it goes on in that passage,

• "in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises".

• We come, one might say, to the wife. In the midst of the assembly, no doubt, involves the truth of union.

• The Christ is not in Zion today: He has left other interests to be united to the assembly.

• In a supreme way today you will find the Lord in the midst of the assembly. "I love … my wife". The Lord Jesus has secured the assembly.

I am not only concerned that we should have a fresh impression of His love in the way He expressed it in the past, but His present love for the assembly.

• His love to the assembly was expressed in that He delivered Himself up for it, but think of His present love. It is incomparable.

• We not only look back to the way He expressed it, as He says, "My body for you", – wondrous expression of the love of the Christ – but we also have the consciousness that that love lives.

• It is a present love, so much so that it says,
  • "Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be united to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh", Ephesians 5: 31.

• That scripture is not referring to the time when the Lord delivered Himself up, but to His present attitude, indicating His marvellous affection for His assembly now.

• In this passage the love of the Christ is seen as attracted to an object equal to His affections, an object adequate for them; for it says,
  • "We are members of his body; we are of his flesh and of his bones".

• How does the love of the Christ react to a vessel that is adequate for such affection? He leaves all else to be united to His wife. He has precious interests as Son of Man, Son of David and Son of Abraham, but it says,
  • "Because of this a man shall leave his father and mother".

• What marks the present dispensation is this very movement of affection on the part of the Christ. He leaves father and mother to be united to His wife, and
  • "the two shall be one flesh".

• Union is a present truth, to be displayed in the future. The Lord will not take up His other interests until His wife, the assembly, is with Him in them;
  • but at the moment it is a question of His leaving things to be united to the assembly.

• Would that we had some sense of the love of the Christ! It would draw our hearts to Him!

• If only we had a sense of the greatness of the Person, of the surpassing affections that mark Him as the Man Christ Jesus, and of the fact that
  • in the assembly He has a vessel so adequate for those affections that He leaves other things to be united to her, we would not hold back.

• We should be stirred in the depth of our souls, dear brethren, to be for Christ and to be to Christ.

But then it says, "I love my master", the perfect Man, the Man Christ Jesus in His affection Godward.

• If He is united to His assembly, what is the next thing? He uses that vessel in the service of God. That is the force of Ephesians 3,
  • "To know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge";

• it involves the truth of union, and in the power of union with Christ the assembly is capable of being filled to all the fulness of God.

• How else could it come about? We would not have strength for it apart from the truth of union.
  • "To know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God".

• In union with Christ the assembly is capable of this. The result is,
  • "To him" i.e. to God "be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus".

• What a response in this vessel, in conscious union with Christ, to God, as God, in all His greatness!
  • "I love my master, my wife, and my children", the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge has this great final result.

Now I come back for a moment to Romans; it touches the first point I mentioned,

• the way the love of the Christ comes down into our circumstances here to free us for these great things.

• He has thought of us as children. If He had not done so we would not be free for these things; we would be held by the pressure that marks our condition down here.

• So Romans shows how the love of the Christ comes down into our circumstances. It is the love of a Man with all the sympathies of a Man, a love which surpasses knowledge and will yet fill the universe from end to end,
  • "the breadth and length and depth and height",

• and yet coming down into our circumstances here! So it says,
  • "Who shall separate us from the love of the Christ?"

• Romans 8 has to do with us as children, but it speaks of sons as well,
  • "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God", verse 14.

• In the full sense of the chapter we are awaiting sonship, the redemption of our body. Although already in our souls in the dignity and joy of it, our actual position is children,
  • "The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God",

• and in this suffering position here the Christ is occupied with us.
  • "who is also at the right hand of God".

• He was occupied with us on the cross. This is not at the cross but the right hand of God. That is where the love is now,
  • "who also intercedes for us".

• So the love of the Christ is active at the right hand of God. Hebrews 7: 25 says,
  • "always living to intercede for them".

• We are always on His heart and on His shoulders, day and night: He never forgets His own. He is living for that very purpose.

• He is devoted to the assembly at the present time, and, in order that He may have us with Him on the highest plane even now in our spirits, He serves us on the lowest plane.
  • He serves us in all the practical matters of the pathway here. He ever lives to intercede for us.

• According to this chapter, if we know this love we shall be overcomers. We need to be overcomers.

• If we are overcome how can we enter into the relationship that He so longs that we should know, the wifely relationship attaching to the assembly? We must be overcomers on the Romans' line.

• Christ is active at the right hand of God to sustain us so that
  • "we more than conquer".

• It is not that we just get through, but we are easily superior; more than conquer. If we knew the love of the Christ we should be easily superior to every difficulty that can arise;
  • "we more than conquer through him that has loved us".

• What a marvellous thing it is to be easily superior to everything here as knowing the love of the Christ!

• We have seen it in others and have read about it too. We have read about the martyrs, that when the greatest test came they were easily superior.

• Marvellous! – the power of the love of the Christ known in circumstances here!

Then in 2 Corinthians it says

• "For the love of the Christ constrains us".

• He is not now sustaining us so that we are easily superior, but constraining us so that we come to a right judgment.

• One of our greatest hindrances in moving on to the height of our calling and privilege is a wrong or mixed judgment. So he says,
  • "the love of the Christ constrains us, having judged this".

• If we allow the love of the Christ to constrain us we shall come to a right judgment and not be detained by the old things;
  • "the old things have passed away".

• Christ is not connected with the old things at all. We have no links with Him in connection with the old things. His love has operated even unto death to lift us right out of the old things and bring us into the new things.

• We cling to the old things and we are hindered, and Christ fails to get His portion; but the "love of the Christ constrains us" to come to a complete judgment of the old things.

• The Lord says in the gospel, after speaking of the new garment, the new skins, and the new wine,
  • "no one having drunk old wine straightway wishes for new, for he says, The old is better". Luke 5: 39.

• That is a wrong judgment, an absolutely false judgment. If we give way to what is old our judgment will be perverted. Apart from the fact that the new is intrinsically better, the old is spoilt in any case.

• In the Revelation 21: 5, it says,
  • "Behold, I make all things new", and in verse 4, "He shall wipe away … for the former things have passed away".

• Look at the disabilities connected with the old! But, apart from that, the new is infinitely superior. Yet we are so often held by the old things. We try to find our life in the world, yet the world is judged.

• We may seek to find our life in what marks the flesh, yet every movement of the flesh is sin.

• Or we may seek to find our life in nature, in what is right in its own place. There was nothing wrong in knowing Christ after the flesh, but it says,
  • "yet now we know Him thus no longer".

• The love of the Christ led Him to go into death to bring the old to an end vicariously for God's complete satisfaction and glory. Why? To bring us into something infinitely superior in connection with Himself.

• Why not let us live where we belong? If we are born anew, we belong to the new; we do not belong to the old order. Do not let the old order claim you. We are new skins; we have tasted the new wine. Do not go back to the old.

• Let us look at things from God's standpoint;
  • "old things have passed away".

• God is not looking at us as in the flesh but as born anew, born of God. God has before Him a scene of glory centering in Christ, and for Him old things are passed away and all things have become new. Why not for us?

• The love of the Christ constrains us to come to this judgment.

• I am not preaching death to nature. The remarkable thing is that if I live in nature I shall fail in nature, and nature will fail me;
  • but if I live on the other side, in what is new, I shall carry out everything in connection with nature to God's praise and glory.

• In the most spiritual gospel the Lord attended a marriage because He wanted a home to be set up here for God's testimony.

• In the power of what is spiritual, what is of nature can be held contributory to the testimony at the present moment.

• If you live on the other side of death with Christ you will fulfil natural relationships to God's praise and glory.

The power of Christ's love, according to Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5, would deliver us from every disability so that we should move on to Ephesians.

• Corinthians does not develop new creation, but it is developed in Ephesians.

• We are told about it in Ephesians so far as it can be written, but we need the Spirit to bring us into it. What wonderful relationships exist there!
  • – brethren of Christ, sons of God and, what is less known, the peculiar relationship of the church as His body, His bride, His wife.

• All these things belong to the new creation sphere which we have been brought into. What a marvellous place the church has in union with the Man who is the very centre of the whole scene of glory!

• If we appropriate the love of the Christ according to Romans and Corinthians we shall be free to live in Ephesians, and thus
  • the Lord Jesus will have a present answer to His love, and we shall know His love in all its blessedness in its own sphere.

• It is blessed to know it in the sphere of testing; it is far more blessed to know the love of the Christ in its own sphere. That is what is in mind in Ephesians 3: 16.
  • "to be strengthened with power by his Spirit in the inner man; that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love, in order that ye may be able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height; and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God".

• How wonderful, as knowing Christ's love, to be filled into God's fulness! and the result is,
  • "to him" i.e. God "be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages".

May God grant that we may, through this occasion, have a deeper impression than ever before, of the greatness of God's Christ, and the greatness of the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge, for His Name's sake!

I believe it would greatly affect us if the truth entered our souls that we have come to a system of love, because nothing moves us like love.

• We speak of being in the current of the Spirit and it really means being in the current of love, for the Spirit is not leading people on lines of legality.

• We may try to follow on legal lines, but we have been brought to a love system, and we need to be in the current of love – it is the only thing which matters.

• We have spoken this afternoon of joy, peace, and so on – love must be first;
  • "the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which has been given to us", Romans 5: 5,

• in order that we may be brought into the current of love; and if we are fully in the current of joy and exuberance, we shall influence our households like the Philippian jailor, we shall speak like Moses who said to Pharoah,
  • "We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters; with our flocks and with our herds will we go".

• Love requires them all, not only ourselves but also our children. God needs the children. Christ needs them, and the Spirit needs them too.

• We will not leave them behind, we will carry them over in this current of love; neither will we leave behind our flocks or our herds.

• How could Levi have made a great entertainment for the Lord if he had not used his material substance?

• Everything we have is to be available. God intends to bring us into love's current – individually, householdly and assembly-wise – and as in love's flow we are freed from all reserves.

God Himself has led in the way of love. If we want to see the thing working out we have to look at Himself:

• "God is love".

• We think of the glory of God's grace and the riches of His mercy, but what lies behind all is love.
  • "God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us", Ephesians 2: 4.

• We see it expressed in the Lord Jesus; in Him love has come into manifestation.
  • "Hereby we have known love, because He has laid down His life for us", 1 John 3: 16.

• The Lord Jesus went through deepest sorrows and sufferings because of the joy that was set before Him – it was love's way, love's service.

• He drank the cup in all its bitterness; yet He was moving according to the dictates of love and that carries its own satisfaction. He loved us and gave Himself for us.
  • "the Christ also loved the assembly, and has delivered himself up for it", Ephesians 5: 25.

• How fully love has been expressed in Jesus!

• Then think of the Holy Spirit! His service is going on at the present time, even at this moment; His continuous service is a wonderful witness to love, it is a self-less service.

• Scripture speaks of the love of the Spirit, and the love of God, and the love of Christ, in fact, God is love. So we are brought into love's system which has its source in God Himself.

What I wish to show next is that if God has moved in love – expressed in Christ and made good to us by the service of the Holy Spirit

• – nothing but responsive love in us is an adequate answer; for nothing but love can satisfy love!

• This may be a simple statement but it is very profound.

• In Luke 7 the Lord Jesus says to Simon,
  • "There were two debtors of a certain creditor: one owed five hundred denarii and the other fifty; but as they had nothing to pay, he forgave both of them their debt: say, which of them therefore will love him most?"

• Thus, one may say, the Lord Jesus lays bare His own heart. It is a beautiful expression coming from the lips of the Lord Jesus showing what He was seeking,
  • and I believe the Lord Jesus is looking around a company like this, brothers and sisters, young and old, including the children, with this kind of enquiry, "Who loves Me most?"

• It is not a question of who is most active or most able, but "Who loves Me most?"

• His is love supremely, He has given Himself: Why? in order to get love in return. So His concern is who will love Him most, and He sees this woman and He says,
  • "she loved much".

• I would like a commendation like that! What is encouraging is that she had not been long on the road, she represents a newly converted person; and yet the Lord could say, "she loved much".

• It really means it is not beyond the reach of anyone to give the Lord what He seeks. You say, 'Wait till I am grown up!' But why not give joy to the heart of Christ tonight?

• It is the privilege of each one here to give the Lord what He values most – He wants love. No amount of activity will satisfy Him without love; and He says of this woman, "she loved much".

But this woman proved her love by what she did. It was within the reach of others, but we do not read Of any other at this juncture acting in this way.

• The foundation of love in us is the deep sense of what the Lord Jesus has done for us in love. The greatest lover from this standpoint is the one who has the greatest appreciation of the Saviour.

• Think of Saul of Tarsus, what a lover he was! He had been the greatest hater of Christ and he expressed it by seeking to kill or put in prison all the members of His body: he would stamp out the name of Christ from the earth.

• But he becomes the greatest lover, and he says,
  • "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first", 1 Timothy 1: 15.

• One has thought sometimes if you had met Saul of Tarsus you might have said to him, 'You were always an upright man according to man's estimate, you must be a fifty pence debtor', and he would have said,
  • 'Man, you do not know what you are talking about, you are completely out of reckoning. It is not a question of another fifty or five hundred pence. You could not measure the debt I owe'.

• The way we get a right measure of the debt we owe is not by looking at ourselves but by looking at the cross and bearing in mind that if I was the only sinner in the universe it would have needed the Lord Jesus to give Himself to save me.

• Fifty pence or five hundred? Think of what it cost to redeem one soul! It says,
  • "who gave himself a ransom for all", 1 Timothy 2: 6.

• That is the price He paid, that is how the debt was paid.

• It is a fact that if I was the only sinner in the universe there would have been no redemption for me if Jesus had not given Himself.

• How much it cost we cannot measure. If you weigh things up like this you will understand the Lord's question,
  • "Which of them will love him most?"

• If He gave Himself for me how can I have reserves? This woman had no reserves; she loved the Lord with all her heart, she threw her reputation and her fears to the wind.

• I would like to make an appeal at this point to each one as to whether you have expressed your love to Christ? He does not ask you to do much: it is a question of your love to Him. He says,
  • "This do in remembrance of me".

• I leave that appeal with every one of you. I do not know where you are in your soul's history but I would like to ask whether you are in any way answering to the desires of Jesus, of His love: it is within your reach.
  • "We love because he has first loved us", 1 John 4: 19.

Now I shall say a few words about what it means to us to be in the current of this love. If we think of the epistle to the Ephesians it ends by saying,

• "Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption".

• How easily our motives become corrupted unless we are unceasingly vigilant. There may be love for Christ but our motives may not be pure.

• How soon the assembly at Ephesus left its first love! They were doing works which the Lord could commend, it was the best meeting in the world – zealous, diligent in all assembly matters – but He says,
  • "I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love", Revelation 2: 4.

• No one but the great eternal Lover would have known that. Love is so sensitive, love detects any decline. The activities may be just the same and no outsider could discern a change: but
  • "I have against thee that thou hast left thy first love".

• There was some mixed motive. The only thing that can satisfy Christ is love in incorruption, love in first degree, love without any mixture; and the epistle to the Ephesians shows that spiritual progress depends on love like that.

• You may not think so; you may think it depends on study of the word and attending meetings – and if you love you will study the word and attend the meetings –
  • but no amount of studying the word nor attending meetings will profit you unless it is accompanied by love.

• Nor is a powerful natural mind required, for you may have all the terms of the truth and know nothing of the truth. Natural intelligence cannot give the truth.

• The fact is that only love can take in the thoughts that love has conceived.
  • "I … do not cease giving thanks for you, making mention of you at my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, would give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart", Ephesians 1: 16-18.

• You see, it is a heart matter; we must have a heart to understand divine things and a heart which has eyes.

• If your affections are in the thing you will become enlightened; and the verses that follow give the great scope of conscious knowledge which the Father of glory would bring us into.

Again, in Ephesians 3: 14-19, the apostle bows his knees

• "to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ … that the Christ may dwell, through faith, in your hearts, being rooted and founded in love".

• It is a question of Christ dwelling in the heart, and of being rooted and founded in love,
  • "in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height: and to know the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge; that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God".

• It is love that gives the capacity to apprehend.

• That explains why elderly infirm sisters who are debarred from normal activities are sometimes found in the apprehension and enjoyment of the great love system far more than those who have all the privileges.

• Such souls may not have the ability to express themselves in words, and, in any case, power of expression depends on gift.

• Yet, as "rooted and founded in love", they apprehend and enjoy the scene of love and glory more than many of those who have gift.

• Thus spiritual intelligence is within reach of all who are "rooted and founded in love". This brings me to the last point.

I have spoken of the Lord seeking love and also what it means to us to be in the current of love – that it is the way of intelligence and enjoyment.

• Finally I would speak of the way love would move us.

• Our love for Christ is bound to come into expression. Paul is the great example, because he loved Christ he could not do too much for the members of His body, he was entirely devoted to the saints.
  • "I fill up that which is behind of the tribulations of Christ in my flesh, for his body, which is the assembly", Colossians 1: 24.

  • "I endure all things for the sake of the elect", 2 Timothy 2: 10.

  • "Now I shall most gladly spend and be utterly spent for your souls, if even in abundantly loving you I should be less loved", 2 Corinthians 12: 15.

• Even, though, if he had no return for his love he would go on loving and serving the saints. That is how Paul proved himself to be a lover of Christ. Again, Jesus says,
  • "if any man love me he will keep my word".

• It is a test to us as to whether we know His word.

• "Word" as used there refers not only to what may be expressed but to what is in a person's mind. It is only a person who loves who really knows what is in the mind of the loved one.

• Commandments are expressed requirements and the lover of Christ will cherish these. But in addition, "if any man loves me he will keep my word".

• With all the intuition of love he will know what the Lord's thoughts and desires are, and these will become his chief concern.

• It involves providing "dwelling" conditions for Christ and for God, and he will not rest until such conditions have been secured.

• You see this kind of love working even in the Old Testament. David said,
  • "I will not give sleep to mine eyes, nor slumber to mine eyelids, until I find out a place for Jehovah, habitations for the mighty one of Israel", Psalm 132: 4-5.

• What a lover David was! His name means "Beloved". He was a man after God's own heart and who should do all His will; yet a man of like passions as ourselves. His one object was to find a place suitable for God.

• That is what a lover of Christ has in his mind. How skilful love is! The lover of Christ makes a place for Him down here.
  • "If any man love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our abode with him", John 14: 24.

• How much is involved in that for love's satisfaction; and, as in love's current, we can move together on these lines.

• What a precious favour this is, for we can all be in it, young and old! As receiving the Spirit we all have the capacity to love and to move in love's current without reserve.

• As we do so we shall acquire spiritual intelligence and enjoyment, and our love will manifest itself in serving the saints, the members of His body;
  • and also, supremely, in working together to provide a place for God.

• Love alone can provide the furnishings suitable to Him.

• May the Lord grant it, for His name's sake!