Books by T. Austin-Sparks

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Chapter 10 - The Servant's Continual Need of Grace

Reading: Luke 9:28-36; Matt. 17:1-9; Mark 14:66-72; 2 Pet. 1:18.

One would not put these Scriptures together in this way - for it would seem rather unfair to Peter - but for the fact that this account given in "Mark" of Peter's denial was virtually Peter's own record of what took place. The great influence in Mark's life eventually was Peter, and it is quite generally accepted that the Gospel by Mark, as it is called, is really Peter's record of things, and bears all the marks of his nature and character. It is therefore impressive that Peter recorded so definitely and clearly the account of what took place, and drew attention so plainly to the vehemence of his denial of the Lord. That is some justification for placing the denial alongside of the great event of the transfiguration.

We have seen on an earlier occasion how heaven and hell, God and Satan, were contending for the ground in the soul of this man, and that everything for Peter's future usefulness to the Lord depended upon the Lord's having the ground by Peter's own yielding of it to Him.

Now here we might speak of the height and the depth possible in the soul of one person. Here is the mountain - probably Hermon, over nine thousand feet high - a symbol of the great spiritual height represented by the transfiguration. We are not speaking about the transfiguration at the moment, but it does represent a very great height of spiritual vision and experience. One would think that it would be impossible to rise to anything higher than to see the glorified Son of man. How high a spiritual thing that was for these men! And then, right at the other extreme, it is difficult to think of anything much deeper and lower than Peter's vehement and repeated denial of his Lord. How high! How low! How wide is the range of possibility in the life of any child of God! I expect we know just a little of this. There are times when we feel we are on the very mountain top with the Lord, and we wonder if ever again we shall be found guilty of the doubts and fears that have characterised us before. We feel that now we shall go on, and there will be no more ups and downs; and it is not always very long before we seem to be just at the other extreme, and wonder if ever we shall be up again. This is not an uncommon experience. We may be amazed at Peter and say, 'If ever I had such an experience and saw the Lord transfigured, I should never get anywhere near denying Him after that.' But I think we know enough to know that such things are not impossible. There are great heights and great depths which remain possible to the soul of any man or woman. And that is the point, I think, of the whole thing.

You see, the Lord was making it perfectly clear to Peter and to others during their time with Him that they, in themselves, were not to be relied upon, and He was saying through them to us that the stability is not in us, in what we are at all. We can never come to a place where we are settled and sure that there will be no more variations; we are not of that stuff, especially when we come into the spiritual realm where we have to meet the extra factors which Peter was undoubtedly meeting in the desire of Satan to have him to sift him as wheat. So stability is not in us, and the Lord takes great pains and goes a very long way to settle us as to that matter, to undercut all the ground of self-strength and self-sufficiency. It is something that has got to be established and maintained all the way along in order that one thing may be made manifest - one thing which came out in Peter's life and is perhaps the great thing which characterised him. That one thing is the grace of God.

The Lord knew whom He had chosen (John 13:18). "He needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for he himself knew what was in man" (John 2:25). And yet, knowing exactly these heights and these depths, these terrible reactions and rebounds, knowing how far Peter could and would go - and we too in the same way - He chose him. Surely it is sovereign grace! When you come to read Peter's letters, you find that the key to his letters is grace. It is a simple, but tremendously helpful, message to our hearts. On the one hand, the Lord leaves us in no doubt whatever as to what kind of stuff we are made of, and it would be very easy for us to despair of ourselves when we find the tremendous extremes of elation, and then of depression, which are possible in us; but the grace of God is greater than all that, and it is through making us aware of that utter worthlessness which belongs to us that He displays His grace most gloriously.

Peter, as an example, is taken on the way which lays down a very sure foundation for the grace of God. We can understand Peter speaking much about grace. But then, you see, there was the ministry aspect of it. "Simon, behold, Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat; but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not; and do thou, when once thou hast turned again, establish thy brethren" (Luke 22:31,32). The real ministry of Peter was going to be strengthening, confirming, encouraging his brethren, and undoubtedly that ministry was along these lines. Many of his brethren would come to the place where they were prepared to give up and disappear from the work because of the consciousness of their own insufficiency and weakness. There would be a great need for a confirming, establishing, and strengthening ministry, for this very reason, that the Lord was never going to allow His blessings, however great, to obscure the fact that all was of grace, and that on the human side all was weakness and worthlessness. In that realm we well know how much a ministry is called for to strengthen and confirm the Lord's people. And so the ground for that had to be laid very truly and deeply in Peter's own life. If we are allowed or caused to see, perhaps in some deeper and fuller way, our own worthlessness, it is that we may discover more fully the grace of God in order that we may be able to help others who are on the point of despairing and giving up. There is a ministry factor in it, and we find that, in the case of Peter and Paul and others, the Lord was making the ground safe for service.

It is very impressive to notice that, however great were the blessings of the Lord, however much the power of God came to rest upon these men - and I need not remind you how greatly Peter and Paul were blessed and used by God - yet all that was never for one moment allowed to cover over the fact of the utter helplessness and worthlessness of the men in themselves. It seems as though the Lord kept that balance all the way along. There is a very great peril in being used and blessed - the peril that we should forget that this is the Lord and not ourselves at all: that we do not figure in it. If the Lord for one moment lifted His hand from us we should go utterly to pieces and could commit the most awful sin and make shipwreck of our lives - as the outflow of what is in us. That could be, and the Lord would take great pains to see that that does not happen as the result of His own blessing. He will not bless to our undoing. So, if He blesses, if He uses, He will always balance it in some way with that which will keep us aware that this is not coming from us but from the Lord. He makes usefulness safe by always keeping us conscious of the underlying fact of what we actually and truly are in ourselves.

I think these are some further characteristics of the life of one who may be led into a knowledge of the Lord and into usefulness to Him. Service has its principles, and Peter undoubtedly represents the man of service to the Lord. But what a background there is for that service! And it will never be otherwise with any of us. Even though we may never rise to the measure of Peter's value, nevertheless we are going, either here or hereafter, to be of very great service to the Lord - that is what He is after, but our theme will ever have to be, Grace, wonderful grace, unspeakable grace.

The End

Up next, But Ye Are Come Unto Mount Zion

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In keeping with T. Austin-Sparks' wishes that what was freely received should be freely given, his writings are not copyrighted. Therefore you are free to use these writings as you are led, however we ask if you choose to share writings from this site with others, please offer them freely - free of changes, free of charge and free of copyright.

But Ye Are Come Unto Mount Zion
by T. Austin-Sparks

Publisher's Preface

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Greetings in the Name of our Lord Jesus! Again we come to you, placing into your hands a series of messages given by T. Austin-Sparks. Again, we are sure that you will reap a great spiritual harvest from these messages shared at a Bible conference not so many years ago. We find them to be still fresh with the dew of the Spirit, and, surely, they are “seed left over for planting.”

The reader should put himself in the place of one who is attending a Bible conference and read this volume from that vantage point. Also, it will be of great benefit to the reader, before beginning this book, to read Hebrews 1:1–2 and Hebrews 12:18–29.

The punctuation used in preserving these messages from tape was not used to adhere so much to the correctness of English grammar, but was used, we trust, to facilitate the spiritual message given: we were not so much thinking of literary accuracy as we were praying to the Lord to preserve and pass on the spiritual content of these meetings by the anointing of the Holy Spirit.

“Strong meat” was, and is, given in these sessions where “Zion gathered.” We are sure there was much Holy Spirit conviction upon these words as they were shared amongst the Lord’s people, for it is a message of strong words concerning the much-needed spiritual apprehension of Christ. There is much here to encourage, to invigorate, and to strengthen the Body of Christ as it walks in the truth: “Ye have come to Mount Zion.” But, also, there is much “shaking” in these messages: “the removing of those things . . . as of things that are made”; and, as our brother said to the brethren at that conference then, so now we say to all who read:

“Be ready for a crisis.”

Your brethren in Christ

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Chapter 1 - The Crisis of Our Times

We remember, O Lord, that it is written: “He spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast.” By the Word of the Lord were the heavens, the earth, created. Our prayer, Lord, is that Thou would speak acts. That Thy Word may be Thine act. Not just words, Lord, but words of power—Divine fiat, by the Word something done. Make it like that, even now. In the Name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.

The matter that the Lord has laid on my heart for these first morning sessions is that of what has come to us, and what we have come to, by the coming of the Lord Jesus. For this present hour, I just want to lay down two fragments of Scripture upon which we shall move at present. The first is found in the Old Testament in the First Book of the Chronicles, chapter twelve at verse 32: “And of the children of Issachar, which were men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” The second is in the New Testament in the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter one at verses one and two: “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son.” Knowledge of the times... at the end of these times... hath spoken in His Son... spoken “in Son”:—Sonwise. You will notice that these scriptures and their context are set in a time of crisis and change, very big crises, very significant change. In the Letter to the Hebrews, the reference to the end of certain times and the introduction of other times represents a tremendous crisis, what Dr. Campbell Morgan called “The Crisis of the Christ.” That is what is before us now: the crisis of the Christ, which is, the crisis of the dispensations.

Then the Hebrew Letter brings us to the crisis of our own time. It brings us not only to the great general movement from one regime to another, but also to the specific application of that movement to our own time. And as in the setting of the passage in Chronicles, so in this Letter to the Hebrews, the important thing is not just to know of a change of times, of regime, of Divine economy, but it is to have understanding of what the change is. I think we shall see that it is of immense consequence not only to know that there are different dispensations, different economies in the Divine sovereignty, but it is vitally important for the Lord’s people to know the nature of the times in which they live. I would venture to suggest to you, as far as God is concerned, that perhaps the most important thing, just now, is for the people of God to know the nature of the time in which they live, seeing that there is such a tremendous amount of confusion, and complications are immense and far-reaching just now in Christianity. Many, many people do not know where they are. Many do not know what is right, and what is not right; what is the truth, and what is not the truth, etc. And, I repeat, the supremely important thing is to have knowledge,—“understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” now—to know what we as Christians ought to do now because of the peculiar and particular nature of what God is doing now. I think you will agree with me that is very vital.

In the Scriptures, throughout the Bible, we do have many crises, many movements through a crisis from one state, position, order, to another. I am not going to mention them, but you know that the Bible is marked throughout by reaching a point from which everything takes a new complexion, a point that represents a new phase of the movement in the going of God. The Bible is full of that sort of thing. God moving, moving by stages, and every stage marked by some crisis. When we use the word crisis, we mean we are brought face to face with something of tremendous significance which is going to govern the whole future and make all the difference in the future.

From the Divine side, these crises are onward movements: they are God moving on. From the human side, they are God moving back because things have deviated on the human side. Things have gone off the direct line of God and other things have come in which God never intended in His original pattern; and since there has been deviation, a crisis arises which has this twofold meaning: God is going on, but in order to go on He must bring back. He must take His people back to the point from which they departed. That is exactly where we are. God is going on, He is not giving up, He is not defeated, He is not having to revise His program: He is going on. But from the standpoint or side of His people, He is having to pull them back and say: “Look here, you have gone off the line, you have moved away from My intention, you have deviated, you must come back to the point from which you departed and pick things up again with Me. I am going on; if you want to go on, you must come back and rejoin Me at the point where you deviated.”

I think it is perfectly clear that the two aspects of any crisis are always those; and the crisis therefore, very often, is one of leaving an entire regime (what I have called economy, order, development) leaving it in its entirety, leaving it behind and moving with God in a new entirety, moving with God on new ground to what is wholly and originally, exactly, according to His Mind. These are things involved in these crises. This is the method of God. I believe that the Lord wants to show us this week something of the present crisis in Christianity, and if that seems too objective, then let us simply say the Lord wants to show us the present crisis in your life and in mine in relation to His original thought and His full thought.

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True Spiritual Discernment: A Knowing by Experience

Now we have to insert here that men never really learn anything theoretically. You are not going to learn anything by volumes of words being poured out upon you from this desk this week. Then, you may ask, “Why come here, why do you men talk to us?” No, you are not really going to learn anything by all this: I say, really learn. Man never really learns anything except by experience. Take that in, underscore it. God knows that, and that is why God is so practical. That is why God will take years and years, centuries, three or four thousand years, governed by this thing that men do not learn by what they are told: they only learn by experience. That is, they have got to have a history with God, under the hand of God, before they will learn anything.

Do you think you know something? How do you know it? How have you come to know it? By attending conferences?—No, there can be a terrible tragedy along that line. I know definitely of people who have had the fullest teaching for many years,—20, 30, 40 years— people could hardly have more teaching than they have had, and at the end they have jettisoned the whole thing, washed their hands of it. They knew it all. They said, “We know it all. We know all that. You cannot tell us anymore than we know.” So you may come here year after year and think you know. Well, how do you know? God knows that we really know nothing only by history, by experience. This sounds very elementary and simple, but we have got to get down to this: we are coming to this point of spiritual understanding of the times, our times, and knowing “what Israel ought to do.”

Now I ought to put an hour in, just here, on two Greek words in the New Testament. I took the trouble to go through the New Testament with these two Greek words; and I got a surprise, after a good many years of studying the New Testament, to find that I had sheets of paper full of references on these two words, both of which are translated into English as the word “know.” Yet, these two Greek words are two entirely different words in two entirely different realms. One Greek word means “knowing by information.” You know it, because you have been told. You have heard it, you have read it, and so you know that way. The other Greek word for “know” is an entirely different word which means, “you have a personal experience of that thing,” and you know it because it has done something in you and become a part of you. It is your history, it is your experience. It is your life—it is you.

The New Testament can be divided by those two Greek words. For example, “Know”:—“This is life eternal, that they may know Thee,” not by information but the word here is “experience.”—Have an experience of Thee.—This is life, this is something very definite. I must not go on with that but just indicate it and point it out because our New Testament is built around these two words which are two very different kinds of knowledge. And here we are with Issachar who “had understanding of... what Israel ought to do.”

Now we have said that the Bible is marked by time marks and that we are brought with our New Testament to a new time mark or crisis. And everything for you, for me, for all the Lord’s people, is really going to depend upon whether we have this spiritual discernment, this understanding, this spiritual knowledge, this kind of knowledge of the second category of which I have referred—of what God is really doing now, what He is working at now; not in general, but in particular.

Oh, if only this week could bring us all to that kind of discernment, then this will be more than a Bible conference of words and teaching. It will have tremendous issues, which make for a crisis. And let me say at once, I hope you are here for a crisis; and I hope that you are prepared to be turned upside down and inside out, prepared to leave a whole regime if God says, “That is finished with,” and to really embrace His present economy and commit yourselves to it. I hope that is the position in which you are, because you will be found out on that as we go on with this important matter of recognizing and understanding, especially and inclusively, of what happened, what really happened, when the Son of God, Jesus Christ, entered history, when He came into this world. I am convinced, dear friends, that very, very few Christians today understand what really happened when Jesus Christ came into this world, and that is what we are going to spend hours upon, trusting the Lord to give us the opening of our understanding.

Three Cycles (Phases) in Relation to Christ

You see, the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, into history, split history down the middle. The one side said, “Finished,” and the other side said, “Beginning.” Great, immense divide was represented by the entering into history of Jesus Christ, and we have got to understand that divide.

There have been, of course, three cycles in relation to Christ. Firstly, there has been the historical. When I first came to the Lord and became interested in the things of Christ, it was the time when everything was being made of the historical Jesus. The Jesus of Palestine, the Jesus of Bethlehem, of Nazareth, of Capernaum, Jesus of Jerusalem, Jesus of the mount outside Jerusalem called Calvary, Jesus of Gethsemane, the Jesus of the three and a half years, or the thirty years,—the Jesus of history. Everyone was interested in that: that is what engaged us. There is nothing wrong, of course, with that; it is quite good. That was a phase, and it may be a phase still with some, but then there came a change, and we passed into what we might call the theological or doctrinal Christ. Much was learned about the Person of Christ, the virgin birth, the Deity, Godhead, and all of what is called the fundamentals of the faith of Jesus Christ—the theological and doctrinal Christ. And, my word, what a phase it has been. What a tremendous battleground the Person of Jesus Christ has been.

There is nothing wrong with this second phase. There is nothing wrong with being occupied with the Person, the Deity, the Eternal Sonship, that is all right, but you have to go on because this will not get you through. Your theology is not going to get you through when you move into a realm of such terrific spiritual conflict that your very faith will be struck at its roots. You may be shaken of all that you “know” in that way. It will not stand. The Lord’s people are not going to get through the final crisis on theology, on Christian doctrine, even though it may be fundamental. They cannot get through on that alone.

Now, there are your two phases. They may run concurrently, or they may be more or less defined as periods. However, there is another one, a third one, which is the ultimate, which is the supreme. It is that phase that we are going to be occupied with this week. It is the spiritual phase. So, you can have the historical and you can have the theological without the spiritual; and though you may have all that, and not have the spiritual, you are not going to survive. You have not touched the real heart and core of the great divide, the great change that has taken place with the coming of Jesus Christ. It is the spiritual life of Christ that matters, not the historical. It is the spiritual understanding of Christ and not the theological that matters. But if you do not understand that as yet, stay with me, for we will be getting nearer to that as we go along.

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The Spiritual Revelation of Jesus Christ, Inwardly

Now these three phases are clearly recognized, and we have come to the last, the spiritual revelation of Jesus Christ inwardly by the Holy Spirit—Supreme, Absolutely Essential, Indispensable. As I said, God, when He moves (and He is moving now on this line if you can but discern it) is moving onward, but He is moving backward. And if you can get hold of that last thing that I have just said, you will see how true it is that God is moving back in order to move on.

What is the New Testament based upon? The historical life of Jesus? No. The theological life of Jesus? No. That is all there. That is what is foundational; however, the real root of Christianity, this new dispensation, crisis, and movement, the real root of Christianity is gathered into the words of the Apostle Paul, who so very much represents in himself, in his own experience, in his history with God, the nature of this whole dispensation; and in the simple but profound words, it is all gathered up: “It pleased God,—it pleased God,... to reveal His Son in me.” This is something more than the Damascus Road objective experience. That was just the turning point in the great crisis. That was the impact upon him of a meaning which was to begin then and unfold through all the rest of his life. “It pleased God,... to reveal His Son in me.” That is it. Not to me, in me.

What Paul later wrote was quoted here last night: “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge (our second category word, but with a prefix: in the full knowledge) of Him.” A spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, of Christ. That is inward: right deep down at the very source and center of our being, God has made us to see, and to see the significance of His Son, Jesus Christ.— Out of that, Christianity comes, true Christianity, and anything less than that is dangerous Christianity. Dangerous for the individual concerned and dangerous for the Church. This is what I mean by the spiritual crisis, the spiritual aspect, above and beyond and more than the historical and the theological or the doctrinal. The spiritual: the revelation of Jesus Christ within.

The Lord alone can do that. We all have to pray to the Father of Glory to do it. But it can be done, and it can be done here. It can be done so that we go away from this place saying, “I have seen. I have seen. I can never be the same. A whole regime is left behind, an entirely new order has come in for me. I am out of something, and I am in something else, and I have seen. I have seen Jesus Christ.” This is the focal point, dear friends, of the message that I have to bring to you.

The Great Divide: the Cross

Now the Bible is divided into two main divisions, what we call the Old Testament and the New Testament; but, note, it is more than a division of books—Genesis to Malachi comprising so many books, one half of the Bible: then from Matthew to Revelation, so many books, and thus the Bible is divided into two. Oh, but it is much more than a division of books. It is this great divide, this spiritual divide.

The four Gospels,—what do they really mean? When you have stood back and asked yourself that question, —what do they represent? First of all, they introduce the Person Who Himself is the crisis and Who brings in and precipitates the crisis and changes the dispensation in its entirety. The Gospels have introduced the Person Who does that and Who is that: this is the crisis of the Christ.

But you notice, of course, that all the four Gospels, while differing in details of content, all four Gospels head straight, direct, up to the Cross. Every one of them has this characteristic in common, whatever other differences there may be, they all have this in common, that they climax with the Cross. The Person of the crisis is introduced, and the crisis itself is the crisis of the Cross. The Cross is the crisis of the change that has come in with the Person. And this is what it amounts to: here is the Person, here is His earthly life and walk, work and teaching, but none of that can become of any value to you until the Cross has been planted over it all. You can have all there is about the historic Jesus and the theological Christ, but nothing will happen until all that is in those Gospels is brought right up to the Cross, and the Cross makes effective the crisis of the Person.

The result and the issue is that between the two divisions of the Bible, between the Old Testament and the New Testament, right there is the Cross. Right there you have got to put the Cross. Between Malachi and Matthew, so far as books are concerned (and I am not speaking of the chronological order of the Bible, but about the spiritual understanding of it), so far as books are concerned, you must put the Cross right there— because on the one side of the Cross, all that goes before and leads up to Malachi, all that has been from Genesis to Malachi, on that side of the Cross, to that side the Cross says: “No more, no more. No, finished! That is done with.” And then from that point on, from Matthew to Revelation, to that side the Cross says what? “Yes, all things new!”

If I were to illustrate, I would draw a big cross and I would draw a thick line right down the center from the top of the Cross to the bottom of it, not only would I draw this line on the Cross but I would begin drawing the line above the Cross right down from heaven through the Cross to the devil, a wide line—no man’s land—and then on one side of the Cross I would write one word, one big comprehensive word, “NOT,” as big as the Cross. Then on the other side of the Cross, the onward side, not the backward side, I would put one other word, “BUT.”

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“Not”—“But”

Now brethren, I have just said something that to experience can take up all your time for the rest of your life. Do you know those two words are two governing words throughout the whole of your New Testament; and if you would care to make a very close, analytical study of your New Testament in the light of this, underlining every occurrence where these two words are used together, you will have an immense, new comprehension (revelation) of the meaning of Christ and of the difference that He has made, of the great divide, and of what we are in.

The “not” and the “but” applies to everything. It is made to apply to the very beginning of Christian history in the individual. Open your Gospel by John. Where are you at once? “Which were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” Here is your big “Not”—“But” at the very beginning, and if I went on to show you how this applies to everything in the New Testament [and we are going to come to it later on in some particulars] you would see the Cross, with its great divide and center looking backward over all that has been right up to that closed door, no way through. This is God’s great “NOT”—ah, but in the resurrection, and remember resurrection is in the positive always, and in the resurrection “BUT” is in the positive.

Now “neither” is only another word for “not”: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (creation)”—“Not– But,” and so you could go on. It is just wonderful how those two words open up everything and give us an insight into what has come to us and what we have come into with the coming of Jesus Christ. And here is this great division—with the Cross there between the testaments, there at the end of Malachi [which is a tragic, tragic book of the failure of everything in the past] and at the beginning of Matthew [which is a book of hope, light, life, everything fresh, new]. With this division is the great “BUT” of a new order of things: it is the end of a system and the beginning of an entirely new one. The Cross of the Lord Jesus has written these two words over the whole history covered by the Bible. The Bible is intended to comprehend human history, and human history is comprehended in these two words: “Not”–“But.”

Now there is something here that I must say, and I hope that it may be helpful. The Cross is a very practical thing. With God, the Cross is not the doctrine, or just the doctrine, of the way of salvation, the way of redemption. The Cross is not just the theology of the atonement, and all such doctrine, and it is certainly not just the historic thing represented by the crucifix. The Cross is an immensely practical thing with God, intended to make actual this divide; and although you may know all about the message of the Cross (or believe that you do), although you may be full of the teaching of the Cross, the real test of the knowledge that you have about the Cross is where this divide has been made in you, where the Cross has resulted in the leaving behind of one entire regime and system and order.

Oh, I know you say, “The Cross has meant that I have left the world and the things of the world.” Oh, that is only nonsense to talk like that. You really do not know what you have got to leave behind. Nevertheless, you will learn under the hand of God what the Cross means about the elimination, the moving away, further and further away, from the old order. We are coming to that in Hebrews. We are going into this letter to the Hebrews, and you will come to a phrase which you know: “Let us therefore go forth to Him without the camp, bearing His reproach.” What does that mean to you? “without the camp.”

It takes a lot of time to learn what that means, and it means going through some literally terrific, devastating experiences of our soul life. This is the work of the Cross: it is a going out on the one side, a going out of an immensity, of one entire regime, but it is “to Him.” Oh, it is to Him—that is another immensity, is it not? You see, the Cross is a tremendously practical thing, forcing this gap, this divide, wider and wider as we go on so that the fact is [like it or not like it] the fact is that as we move more and more in spiritual understanding and apprehension of the meaning of Christ, we find ourselves more and more alone, so far as many Christians are concerned, and certainly so far as the traditional system of Christianity is concerned.

Now to bring this preparatory introduction to a close, let me again come back to the starting point and say that progress in the life and purpose of God depends upon spiritual discernment [that with which this letter to the Hebrews has to do in its entirety, remember what it says?—“Let us...”—that is one of the key words, key phrases, to the whole letter. “Let us therefore go forth— let us leave, let us beware, let us go on unto perfection”]. What I am saying is that progress in the life and purpose of God, for the individual and for the Church, depends (and if you forget everything else, write this inside) depends upon spiritual discernment, this kind of spiritual knowledge and understanding as to the nature of this great change that has come in with the Lord Jesus. —Discernment—!

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Knowledge [Spiritual Understanding] of the Times

Now let us go back for a moment to our Old Testament passage in 1 Chronicles 12 and scan the chapter. It is a new movement, it is a crisis, a turning point. David is out there, outside the camp. He is in the wilderness, he is in his cave; and now there are coming to him men of many of the tribes, just nuclei, just a few, a kind of remnant of Israel, coming to him outside the camp. There in this chapter are described the various characteristics of these men, men of valor, men of courage, men of strength, great strength, men of ability to make war, men who are committed with all their might, for it says: “These came with a perfect heart.”

Very good, and so there are all these coming ones, who are falling away to David, characterized by these things; and then right there in the midst of this are the men of Issachar who had knowledge of the times (understanding of the times) and knew what Israel ought to do. Right at the heart of this return movement, this new movement of God which is a recovery movement, right at the heart of it, there is put this contrasting, almost striking thing: “men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do.” And I venture to suggest that with all the driving force of these other men, with all their muscles, all their physical force, and all that side of things, but for these men of Issachar there would have been something lacking which might have spoiled the whole movement. I believe it is put there to show that with all that is being done (with all that is right and well-meaning) the thing that must be here right at the heart of everything is spiritual understanding, spiritual discernment, spiritual knowledge,— men who know what the significance of this time is, men who have knowledge of the times and what this means.

Oh, this is not just something happening that men are doing. No, this has a meaning—a deep, profound, Divine meaning; and these people have seen it. They have understanding as to the meaning of this present time; and because they have understanding, they know what Israel ought to do. Do you not feel that is important, very vital?! Well, what did the men of Issachar really see? What was it that they understood? What was it that they knew Israel ought to do? Pause and think. Look at the context again. Of course, it is historic in illustration but spiritual in principle, and the answer to that in this dispensation is the Letter to the Hebrews. Where do you read it in your Letter to the Hebrews? “God, having in time past (old times) proceeded in this way, adopted this method [He is finished with those times] hath at the end of such times and methods spoken in His Son, Whom He appointed Heir of all things.”

This brings us back to what Israel ought to do concerning David, and why they ought to do it. We have come to David. God’s chosen, sovereignly chosen, God’s elect, God’s appointed, God’s intended ruler, God’s principle of heavenly authority amongst the Lord’s people— David means all that. They knew that Israel ought to turn back to David and put David in the place for which he had been anointed of God.

Now that is simple, in language, but do not forget it represented something. You still have got Saul alive, you still have got the old regime of Saul. He is not dead yet, he has his forty years run and, my word, what a problem for Israel! God’s man, God’s anointed man is not in his place fully, he is on the way there; but this is God’s way. Turn over to your letter to the Hebrews and there you are! What is the movement, the final movement, the full movement, which embraces all the parts, the fragments, comprehends all and makes everything final?—Fulness and finality are the words to write over the Letter to the Hebrews: it is a Christ movement with spiritual understanding of what He is, Who He Is, what He represents in the universe of God—it is the spiritual apprehension of Christ.

Oh, the words sound so full, do they not? Perhaps familiarity robs them of their strength and point; but, dear friends, everything for Christianity, for destiny, depends now upon an adequate apprehension of the meaning of Jesus Christ in God’s order of things. And this is going to be devastating to a whole system, and a Christian system, so called. This is just devastating for you, for me. It will be that for us. The thing is going to disintegrate; our Christianity may disintegrate. Perhaps you do not understand what I mean. Yes, there is going to be a big “No” of God written over a whole Christian system. And men, although they are not intelligent as to this, they do sense, strongly and growingly sense, that they have got to do something to keep Christianity intact. I believe that the whole ecumenical movement is a tremendous effort to save Christianity from collapsing. The whole World Council of Churches is to put Christianity on crutches and save its reputation. Men are doing this, making a tremendous effort, because there are those who are saying Christianity has had its day, it no longer means anything. And you may say that that is infidelity, that is apostasy, but, dear friends, do not make any mistake—if you are going on with God, you are going to come into spiritual experiences in your life with God where you will be tested on every point of your Christian life as to whether this is valid, as to whether this will stand up to the situation, as to whether this is going to get you through. Yes, on the things that you believe most strongly and think you know most fully, you are going to be tested. Do not make any mistake about it—the time may come in your life when you will be tempted to question the very deepest realities of your past conviction.

There are men and women in this world who are going through that now. I think of some of those who have spent long years in prison for the sake of Christ and I read what they wrote before, and I have to say, “I wonder if they believe that now? I wonder if they hold to that now? I wonder if that is getting them through now? That is a tremendous statement that they made about the all-sufficiency of Christ, and so on and so on, but I wonder if it is getting them through?” I believe they will come through because He is Lord, because the heart is right with Him; but, mark you, I am simply saying this— that this great question of the real, spiritual significance of our faith, of our Christianity, is going to be put sorely to the test. It is going to be found out then whether it is Christian tradition, Christian doctrine, Christian theology, the Christian system generally accepted, or whether it is Christ!! We are going to be stripped down to Christ, stripped down to the place where we say, “All I have left (after all my learning and teaching and Christian work) all I have left is the Lord Himself.” But is that going to be a fatal position?—Not at all! You know about the old woman on the ship, do you not? In a tremendous storm, she looked at the captain and said, “Captain, are we going to be sunk? Is this the end?” The captain said, “You had better pray.” And she said, “Oh! Has it come to that?” Yes, we will be wrecked on Christ and then we will be found out whether we are under the “Not” or under the “But.” Shall we pray...

Now, Lord, for Thee it is to interpret, explain and apply and give the understanding. Our reaction to it all is—this flesh cannot, this flesh cannot. We in ourselves cannot. We know it, but Thou art sufficient. Our hearts are open to Thee. Lord, our hearts, we trust, are truly toward Thee. Make use of this feeble ministry to give us interpretation of future experiences in Thy dealings with us, Thy strange ways. O Lord, open our eyes and give us spiritual understanding, we ask in the Name of Thy Son, Amen.

[Shammu]

Chapter 2 - A New Israel

Lord, not as a part of our program but from our very hearts we say, “Break Thou the bread of life to me.” Thou art the Bread of Life. Give us of Thyself this morning. May there be a true ministration of Christ in this hour. Send Thy Spirit, Lord, in a new way to us. Open our eyes that we may see Thee. Lord, answer this prayer for Thine Own Name’s Sake, Amen.

In the Letter to the Hebrews, at chapter one, let us again read verses one and part of two: “God, having of old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by divers portions and in divers manners, hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in His Son, Whom He appointed Heir of all things....” And the peril running immediately alongside of our reading of those words is the peril of familiarity. What I mean is this, that after more than sixty years of being actively in ministry of the Word, therefore closely acquainted with the Scriptures, these words are more alive and more meaningful today than ever. So it ought to be. My trouble is that I have not long enough to live with these words and with this letter.

In a certain sense, you ought not to know your Bible. You ought, and we ought, to be coming to the Bible every time as though we did not know it, and it ought to be to us like that, something which we really, after all, do not know. I cannot convey to you my own sensing of this. I can only make a statement like that, as to how it ought to be. The trouble is, the difficulty is, to convey that sense of immensity, vitality, urgency that is present with me in this Letter to the Hebrews. It must come to you in that way and that is why we pray: “Oh, send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me that He may touch mine eyes and make me see beyond the sacred page.” Beyond the sacred page—that is where we have to see. We see the letter, we see the page, we see the words, we know them. They are so familiar, but it is something in the beyond, beyond the actual writing, that we have got to see. The Lord help us this morning.

Now having repeated those words at the beginning of this letter, I trust that you have already grasped the significance of the introductory words which are really a comprehending of the whole letter or the truth that is in this Letter to the Hebrews. I trust you have seen the two things that comprehend this letter. In times past, there have been fragments, pieces, portions, bits, aspects, but now all that and much more is gathered up together, is comprehended, is brought together in completeness. There are no more different portions, no more different times, no more different ways, but now there is one time, one way, one all “comprehensiveness.” It is all here. Fulness is reached, and this is the other time, the subsequent time, the ultimate time of fulness, completeness.

So this Letter to the Hebrews, brings us the ultimate fulness of all things in the Son, not only comprehending, not only fulness, but finality. This is the ultimate, the end, there is nothing beyond this. It is the end of all God’s speaking. God, Who did speak in those many different ways, forms, methods, has now spoken fully and finally, there is nothing beyond. We ought to be impressed with that.

I do not know what you are looking for, what you are expecting, what you are praying for, but God has given all that you could ever ask or pray for. It is present, it is now. He has no more revelation to give, only of what He has given. Revelation, now and henceforth, is not new truth, it is only light on The Truth.

Now I want you to go over to chapter twelve of this letter, just to pick out again our governing words. Remember what we said yesterday about the two all-inclusive, governing words which are running right through the New Testament? Chapter twelve, verse eighteen: “For ye are not come....”—Then what? Verse twenty-two: “But ye are come....” Not—But. Here in verses 18 through 21, you have a comprehending of all that has been. It is very comprehensive; and all that is ruled out, finalized, with this word “not.” Then with verse twenty-two, there is the introduction of another great order of things, wonderful, beyond our fathoming.
I am not exaggerating, dear friends, when I say that we could spend a whole year on verses twenty-two and onward. The fulness and profundity is so great because it comprehends the Bible. It is this great divide between the “not” and the “but”; and as I said beginning yesterday, we are at this time concerned with what we have come to in the advent of Christ and His Cross. What we have come to, what we are.

I wonder if you will ask this simple question, “What are you?” I wonder what your answer or answers would be. Perhaps you would say, “Well, I am a child of God. Well, I am a Christian.” Oh, the answers would be manifold. So now, this morning, as the Lord enables, I want to focus on what we are.

God’s Intervention: a Divine Act

Here then in chapter twelve within these verses is the great, great divide between the “Not” and the “But” as concentrated in this one letter. Other letters are very far reaching, very great and comprehensive; but in this letter, the particular meaning is that all that lies on the two sides of the Cross is concentrated in this letter called the Letter to the Hebrews.

Now you will notice [and I am not dealing with the detail of these verses, only with the general statement], under the not—“ye are not come to...”—under that “not,” you have the constituting of the former Israel. You are taken to Sinai, and at Sinai the former Israel was constituted a nation. They were a people, a rabble, a multitude before, and a mixed multitude at that; but now here at Sinai, they are constituted the ancient Israel, the former Israel. They were Hebrews made into Israel. First Hebrews, Jews, now Israel as a nation. I know the name Israel goes back before that as to the person. It goes back to Jacob’s new name and his family, but here they are constituted as a nation out from the nations, separate from the nations, distinct among the nations, a nation called collectively Israel.

This is something new in history, something new among the nations, something new in this world on this earth. It is a new beginning of God,—God’s act, God’s doing. I need only to take time to quote the Scriptures: “I have chosen you,” says the Lord. “You are My people,” implying, “You are the result of My action in history.”

The first word in this Book of Hebrews is “God,” and that word always stands right at the head of every new movement of God. What does it say in Genesis? “In the beginning God...”—God in action at the beginning. It is God taking the initiative; and this people Israel is the result of Divine intervention in the history of this world with a Divine action, God’s Own prerogative, wholly, completely, uniquely of Himself. God in creation, a new beginning, that is the Old.

Then you come to the New, and the New opens with the Gospel by John: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”—“In the beginning God”!—But this is another new movement. “A new creation” is here indicated, pinpointed, and it is described. “In the beginning God created... man” (Genesis 1:1, 26). But here in John a new humanity, mankind, is brought into view under a “Not” and a “But.” “Which were born, not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”

[Shammu]

 “Not of bloods”? In the Greek text, “bloods” is in the plural. Why is it in the plural? All right, we will not assay to tackle our liberal theologians, but the Holy Spirit is always very exact and correct, and the Holy Spirit causes it to be put in a way that you almost overlook it, so that you are hardly struck by it, and He puts it this way, “not of bloods,” not of Joseph and Mary. That is the mingling of bloods, is it not?! That is the ordinary, natural mankind, the mingling of bloods, two sexes. “Not of bloods”—this is a direct application to the virgin birth. Not of all that (two sexes), “but of God”!

As the people of God, we are not born that way. You are never born a Christian. You are never born naturally a child of God. You never inherit Divine life by natural birth. Well, that goes without saying, but we are “born of God.” We are God’s act! It is God’s act to produce a new mankind, a new and different humanity never produced by the will of man, never produced along natural lines at all, “but of God” a new humanity, a spiritual race. Not a natural race at all, but a spiritual race.

So then, what is the implication both of this letter, comprehensively, and of the New Testament, as a whole. What is it?—a new Israel, that is what this letter is saying to Hebrews: not those Hebrews of history, a new Israel has come in.

I think you ought to note, if you have not, it is a very simple thing, of course, everybody should be familiar with it; but I am very glad to notice that in a late translation and interpretation of the Bible called “The Amplified,” I am very glad and happy to note that wherever the name “Christ” is mentioned in the New Testament, this Amplified links the name and word “Christ” with “Messiah.” It puts them together: they are one because, as you know, “Messiah” is the Hebrew of which “Christ” is only the Greek, meaning the same, “The Lord’s Anointed.” Keep that in mind. The Christ is the Messiah. The Messiah in the history of Hebrew mentality, concept and expectation, the Messiah of the old Israel is the Christ of a new Israel. One name, same name, same meaning, but carried over now; and so wherever you read the word “Christ” in your New Testament, do not forget the hyphen, say “Christ-Messiah.”

It is most impressive as you read that version: every time you come on the mention of “Christ” and then it says, “Messiah.” Do you see the meaning? Do you see the significance? Do you see what this is driving at? It is a new Israel because this is, shall we say, a “new” Messiah? Is that quite correct? It is the One Messiah, it is the old Messiah; and here this letter is saying that all of the old Israel’s hopes, expectations, conceptions, of their coming Messiah—all they ever had associated with that name of the Coming Messiah, is taken up in Christ, comprehended in Christ. He comprehends and fulfills it and goes beyond their conception; and, as we shall see, beyond their acceptance.

Well, it is a new Israel, not that one of their limited, narrow, exclusive conception, mentality, or even expectations. It is much, much greater and much bigger than all that which the old Israel ever hoped for, looked for, prayed for, expected. It is much bigger indeed, and we will come back to that in a minute. It is a new Israel beginning with the [and I must use the word, though it is not quite right] “new” Messiah, the Christ, the “Christos,” the Anointed One.

Now this, as we have said, is a new act of God. A new act of God is the Messiah, the Christ, and a new act of God is the new Israel; and there are two governing, dominating features and factors in this new Israel as the act of God. There are two aspects. One is the Resurrection of Christ, God’s act, God’s unique act, for the Resurrection is God’s specific, peculiar act in history. It is the act of God. God raised Him! God raised Him! This is not resuscitation: this is resurrection; and, of course, God saw to it that there was no doubt whatsoever that He died, that He was dead. So far as He, as a man, was concerned, He was dead and buried. And if you are in the grave for three days and three nights, you have pretty good ground to conclude that that person is dead. All right! No resuscitation, no breathilizing, no! nothing of that. He is dead. He died, and now only God... only God and the intervention of God can make for anything further. He is God’s Act, in His Resurrection.

But then, the other aspect of this act of God is Pentecost. Pentecost was God’s act. God did it! It is the intervention of God by the Third Person of the Trinity, the intervention of God in history to bring as from death this new race. I do wish that all people who are so interested in this word “Pentecost” would recognize really what Pentecost was. They limit it to this and that and something else. The Lord save us from this restricted conception. Pentecost is the act of God in bringing to birth a new, altogether new, humanity. It is God producing a new kind of humanity, unique, different. It is God’s act! Resurrection and Pentecost are one thing as God’s act, firstly in the One Son and then in the sons to be. That is all very simple I know, but I am working on toward my object.

[Shammu]

The Growing Light:—Increasing Understanding of this New Dispensation

Now then, you come back to your New Testament, and especially to begin with the Book of the Acts; and what have you in the Book of the Acts? The gradual dawning upon the apostles (yes, upon the apostles) and then upon the believers of what has happened, of what the meaning of Christ was. It is dawning, it is the faint rays seemingly of a new day just coming up over the horizon and shooting across the sky, and in their consciousness there is something happening. Notice, in the beginning, they still continue to go up to the temple, in the ordinances of the temple, the ritual of the temple, the time of prayer at the temple. They are still going up, but something is happening, something is spreading over their sky, and that fades out. It fades out. They are losing that attachment. They are losing that mentality. They are meeting in homes, they are meeting wherever they can: they are not meeting in the temple any longer. No, it is not a sudden thing that happened so that they can make a sudden break. I say it is the dawning of the meaning of a new day. It is so real, so clear; they do not put it into any system of teaching and say, “You must come out of that denomination. You must come out of that system. You must leave that order of things.” No, it is just happening. Something is happening, and they are finding themselves out. And note this that I am going to say: first of all, it is not a physical separation. No, first of all, it is an inward spiritual separation. I will put it this way, they find themselves out before they are out. They find that they no longer belong. No one has ever told them that they must leave their denomination, their church, their mission, their organization. No, something has happened inside.

You know, in the old creation, God commenced from the outside: in the new, always from the inside, and in this spiritual dispensation it is that you just find yourself somewhere, perhaps where you never intended to be. Peter never intended to be in the house of Cornelius. He quarreled and argued with the Lord about the house of Cornelius, “No, Lord, not so.” All right, Peter, what has happened to you? Do you not know what has happened to you? You are going to know, and Peter does come to know. He will write later on about the spiritual house of God. Do you see what I mean? Something has dawned, has broken. It is a new day, and the dawn has come in, and the light is growing, growing. That is the first movement.

Dear friends, do take hold of this. This is an organic thing. It is a movement of life within. It is not legal, “Ye must” or “Ye must not.”—“You must leave this and leave that in order to come to God’s fulness.” It is not that at all. I say, stay there until you cannot for your very life’s sake, for your very walk with God, for your very knowledge of the Holy Spirit within. Stay, stay. “Come out-ism” is a dangerous thing. That is not how it was. It was from the inside. It is the way of the Holy Spirit, the initiative of God, the act of God, the dawning of a new awareness that “Something is happening to me because it is happening in me.” I know what that means. I have had crises like that. I have had crises like that when I knew that something had happened to create a divide, and “Now, Lord, what am I to do? If I take action, look what will happen.” And so I stuck and on a false pretext went on. At the end of some months, I found myself like this—I was not in it. “No, that is not where I am finding the Lord. That is not where life is,” and I have gone back to the Lord and I have said, “Lord, what am I to do?” He said, “So many months ago, I took you out in spirit. Now perhaps you will have to follow in body.” Oh, do not put a teaching on that. Do not take hold of that and crystallize it into a doctrine. It is a spiritual movement because this is a spiritual dispensation.

That commenced, as I have said, at the beginning of the Book of the Acts, and before you are through with that book, what will you find? You will find that the light has been growing and growing; and you will find in the letters that are compassed by that book the growing revelation of what? The growing revelation of what has happened, of what the meaning of the resurrection of Christ and the advent of the Holy Spirit really meant. It is a growing revelation not of some new thing, as a thing, but of what was at the beginning, at the root of things.

So God is moving (so to speak) backward, in order to move onward; and you have this growing revelation under these two words, “Not—But.”—This is an inward thing: “Not—But.” The Day is moving on. It will come to its glorious consummation when what happened at the beginning is found in the consummation of the “New Jerusalem, coming down from above”—the sum of this new thing that happened with the coming of the Lord Jesus. And we will be coming back to that in Hebrews later on. But you are marking the way, the growing light, transforming the mentality.

Oh, I have the New Testament, all of it, in mind as I am speaking. The growing Light—increasing the understanding of what this new dispensation means: the light within growing. You will have many, many exact statements in the growing light which has grown from the day when Paul first had Christ revealed in him. Paul did not have it all at once. As he says, it was “the growing light.” It was growing all the time, and he will say presently: “The Jerusalem which is beneath is in bondage. Cast out the bondwoman.” Not that Jerusalem, “but the Jerusalem which is above is our mother.” You see the language and what it means?!

Remember what the Letter to the Galatians is about? Is it not along this line of contrast between the “not” and the “but”: “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.” And is it not impressive that right at the end of that letter, in Galatians 6:16, Paul uses this significant phrase: “the Israel of God,” the whole Israel of God, the new Israel? Yes, and that throws light upon the whole letter. You see, one Israel is gone, the old Israel is gone. That is the argument of the letter, and that is why Paul got into such trouble. That is why this letter is such a battleground. That Israel no more, but now another with its Jerusalem headquarters above, its birthplace above, a new Israel entirely. Dear friends, this is a very vital point in our consideration, or in what the Lord is trying to say to us—we must recognize the new dimensions of God in this that has now come in on the “But” side.

What was the tragedy of the old Israel? Of course, the tragedy of the old Israel, finally, is their dismissal. Their dismissal: “The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” That happened! and it stands today. The kingdom of heaven taken away—not for that Israel, but for another! The tragedy of Israel is that they are dismissed from the dispensation, or the dispensational movement of God. This has lasted for two thousand years. How many more years we do not know, probably, not so long, but you leave that alone.

Here I am going to upset a lot of you: you leave Israel alone for the time being. You will only get into terrible confusion if you get down on this earth with an earth touch in these things. Some of us have lived through things,—we remember the Kaiser (forgive me, that is not an attack upon any nation or people) but we do remember him going to Jerusalem and having a new door broken into the wall of Jerusalem so that he never went in through any of the old gates of that city. No, but because of who he thought he was, a new gate must be broken in the wall for him. And some people fitted that into prophecy and said, “Therefore, the Kaiser is... the Messiah!?” All right, was he? And when General Allenby entered Jerusalem and brought the Turkish rule to an end, the prophetic school laid hold of it, brought it down to earth and said, “The end of the time of the Gentiles has come.” How long ago was that? Was it the end? And then there was a dear man of God who got caught up in this kind of thing and went from Belgium to Rome to see Mussolini to say to him, “You are the last Cæsar to reconstitute the Roman Empire.” Whereupon Mussolini had a great statue made of himself as the last Cæsar and put a great relief map of the revived Roman Empire with ten kingdoms behind his statue. The last Cæsar of the revived Roman Empire? Need we say anymore? You see, you go on like that and it leads to confusion if you come down onto this earth. Leave it alone and see what God is doing, and God is doing a spiritual thing, not a temporal thing.

[Shammu]

 I could take an hour to enlarge upon that last phrase, “not a temporal thing.” Do you see, in the sovereign activities of God, that now He is confounding and confusing and breaking down all temporal representations of His heavenly kingdom?! Men are trying to set up local churches after New Testament order. You have never had more confusion in local churches than you have today. They are trying to set up things, constitute things, Christian movements, Christian institutions, Christian organizations, and they are all in confusion and do not know what to do with one another. You may think that is an exaggeration, but you see what I mean? —God is breathing upon every temporal representation in order to have a spiritual expression of Christ! That is the heart of what we are saying, and that is what is here.

Now I was saying, we must recognize the spiritual dimensions of this that has come in with Christ and this into which we have come. The spiritual dimensions are diverted from Israel’s tragedy, because Israel’s tragedy is that of being set aside in this dispensation. But why? Have you ever wondered why Israel has been set aside? The answer is in one word—exclusive-ism. “We are the people. Truth begins and ends with us. You will never be able to get anywhere with God if you are not circumcised. Except ye be circumcised, ye cannot be saved. The nations are dogs, are dirt. [Poor Jonah, poor Jonah was caught in this.] We are the people. We are the beginning and the end of all God’s Word. You have got to come on to our ground, be on our ground, or you are out.” Dear friends, you never will be on God’s ground if you do not come up out of that.

Exclusive-ism—God never meant that when He took Israel out of the nations, made them a distinct people, constituted them His Own peculiar people. He never meant that. He only meant to plant them in the nations to show the nations what a God He is, WHAT A GREAT GOD HE IS; and this startled and stunned Jonah that God could ever think in mercy upon anybody outside of Israel, that God could ever think in mercy upon Nineveh.

And so you have this exclusive-ism all the way through, and that is the trouble in the New Testament with the Lord Jesus: it is the exclusive-ism of Judaism, that is the battleground. The battle in the life of the Apostle Paul was that. He was hammering at this brick wall of Jewish exclusive-ism, and all his sufferings are because of that.

This new Israel is so much greater than the old because Christ, this Messiah, is so much greater than their conception of a Messiah. We have got to recognize the immense dimensions of the new Israel and resist exclusive-ism where Christ is concerned, as we would resist a plague. I am not talking about fundamental truths and the personality of Christ; I am talking about the greatness of this One Who is introduced in Hebrews: “God, ...hath at the end of these days spoken in His Son, Whom He appointed Heir of...” an exclusive party? —No, “of all things.” That is Paul’s great word all the way through: “all things, ...all things, ...all things,” and in the end, “to sum up all things in Christ.” And if I need to safeguard, I am not talking about universalism. I am talking about God’s ultimate realm and sphere where it will be nothing but Christ. The rest will be outside altogether; wherever that outside is, it will be outside and not inside. “For without...”—that is the last word of Revelation, “For without are the dogs, (and so on), and everyone loving and making a lie.” That is false, that is out, that is gone.

The Meaning of Sonship: Superior Is Christ

Now, what is the governing concept here in this letter right at the beginning? It is that God hath spoken at the end of these times “in Son.” There is no article—“in Son.” What is the meaning of Son or sonship?—Always fulness. Always fulness! The fulness of the Father is in the Son, Divinely conceived. The Son is the fulness of the Father: the Firstborn is the fulness and takes up all that is of and in the Father. Fulness! Then, as we have said, sonship is finality, finality; and then as to this letter, as to the whole revelation of sonship as here revealed, explained through this letter, and in the first chapters particularly, superiority! Using that word in its right sense, superiority. Do you notice the superiority of this Son, “appointed Heir of all things”? Do you also notice the catalogue here of things?

SUPERIOR to Moses. Superior to Joshua. If Joshua had brought them into the rest, there would be no more: he did not, therefore, he never reached finality. This One, this Son, superior to Moses, superior to Joshua.

SUPERIOR to angels. To angels? Yes, superior to angels, and think of the angelic ministries right through the Bible, their ministries, visitations, deliverances, activities. One angel in one night by a breath of his nostrils wiping out a whole, mighty army that was besieging Jerusalem, one angel. Think of all that was mediated by angels. This letter is arguing about the angels who ministered the old covenant. Yes, this Son is superior to angels.

SUPERIOR to Aaron and all his system and economy of priesthood. All that system comes under the “not.” The tabernacle that was. This letter says there was a tabernacle. Past tense. There was a tabernacle and there was a Holy of Holies and there was a Holy Place. Superior is Christ to all that, and what a place it had.

SUPERIOR to the old covenant, and this letter deals with the old covenant and “the days come,” quoting Jeremiah 31:31, “...the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant.” This letter has a lot to say about the new covenant.

SUPERIOR to all the sacrifices, millions upon millions of sacrifices slain through the generations, and the river and ocean of blood of those sacrifices immeasurable, covering centuries. How vast! One Sacrifice only, One Shedding of Blood only, Superior to the whole lot, Superior to the hundreds of years of sacrifices and blood shedding, and this One Single Sacrifice, Shedding of Blood, Superior to the whole lot.

NOT—BUT. This is what we have come to, and this is the substance of the Letter to the Hebrews. How great then is sonship in Christ! How much vaster than any traditional or historical expression, representation, system, order, economy.—This is what we have come to in Christ!

[Shammu]

The Quest of Right Standing with God

Now I must close somewhere, but first let me ask: what is the consummate issue of all this? Can we bring all that we have said, and all that can be said, and could be said down to one, inclusive, comprehensive issue? We can, and although I do not know about you (you may have doubts as I have about some translations, new translations of the New Testament), but I do thank God for this Amplified. I do, because at this very point it has helped.

You see, I have studied theology. I have studied Christian doctrine. I know the doctrines of grace. I know the Letter to the Romans. I think I do: at any rate, I am fairly well-acquainted with what is there and of what the theologians and the doctrinaires have said about it. And when you mention the Letter to the Romans, of course, Luther and all the rest spring into view with their phrase “justified by faith,”—“righteousness... by faith.” Oh, I tell you, friends, theology strikes me cold. It may not you. It may mean more to you, but to me as one who has had to deal with all this theology and doctrine and system of Christianity in its doctrines, and so on, it is awfully wearisome. Theology is a very wearisome thing, you know, (deadly thing, I think) but here this Amplified version has come to my rescue.

When I heard and read the word “righteousness,” what did it mean? Well, in the Old Testament, the symbol of righteousness is brass. Brass? Oh, how hard is brass, how cold is brass, I am not interested in “brass.” Are you following what I mean? And that is what that word came to mean to me, even in the New Testament. Oh, a glorious teaching, but I am not talking about the teaching, I am talking about the phraseology, the terminology. What is it that is represented there? Now here my Amplified version has rescued me. Oh, I am basking in the sunlight of this, every day now rejoicing in this. What does it say? Wherever that word “righteousness” or “justified” occurs in the “Amplified New Testament,” you have: “Right standing with God.”—“Right standing with God.” Dismiss your theology. That is it.

Right standing with God has been the quest of humanity from the beginning. It does not matter where you go in the darkest heathenism, amongst the most ignorant, unenlightened realms of humanity, right through all the strata, the one thing, whether man will put it into words or not, whether it is in his phraseology or vocabulary, the one thing deep down in every human creature is to be in right standing with God. All these heathen rites, sacrifices, rituals, after all, they are trying to find a place of right standing with, well, they say “God,” even though they have no right conception of Who God is or what God is. “Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship,” said Paul, “Him (THE UNKNOWN GOD), declare I unto you.”

I remember very early in my Christian life I tackled a monumental book, Professor Edward Caird’s “History of Religion and the Greek Philosophists.” [Do not tackle that, I nearly “spun round.”] But in this magnum opus, Caird concentrated it all into one statement: “There is not a human being on this earth, of any race whatever, who does not have a consciousness of standing in relation to some supreme object of worship whom he calls god.” Is that true? Of course it is. Every person has a consciousness of standing in relation to a supreme object of reverence, and he calls that object “god.” He does not know anything about that object, but he just calls it god. Now then, here we are, the quest of humanity all through history, whether or not man has greater or lesser enlightenment and understanding, whether man has little, none, or much enlightenment and understanding, the quest within is to be on good terms with this object called God, to be in right standing with God.

Now we ought to start all over again with the beginning of Hebrews. Here is the One, the Son, and the great thing about this Son, the glorious thing about this Son is that He is in right standing with God. All this other in the past was an attempt to get in right standing with God, and it never did, it was a failure. But here is the Son, first of all, inclusively, comprehensively, the Beloved of the Father, the Beloved Son. “My Beloved Son.” Dear ones, could you have terms that more gloriously express right standing with God?! Think on that. Dwell on that. And then the letter goes on to say, “bringing many sons to glory”; and all the rest of the letter, which we leave now, is the way of right standing with God in the Son.

Glorious letter! How great! comprehensive! wonderful! this letter is, and that is only the fringe of it. We will get more into it later if the Lord wills, but I think you have really got enough for the time being. The Lord help us, we pray...

Oh, send Thy Spirit, Lord, now unto me, unto each one, that He may touch our eyes, make us see, make us see. Oh Lord, that the result of this hour in Thy Word would be, might be, that this people will really be able to say, not mentally but in the heart, “I have seen the Lord, I have in some new, more wonderful way seen God’s Son, seen what God is doing,” and that we are able, Lord, to understand now what we are—God’s new and final Israel. Teach us more of what that means, but set Thy seal upon this time.

Now, Lord, there is a little interval, and immediately when this is closed now, these people are going to turn and talk about all sorts of things. Save us, Lord: the whole value of this can go in five minutes if we are not very watchful in setting a seal against our lips, having the door of our heart kept. Lord, help us for we are not here just for meetings and messages: we are here for life crises. You precipitate them, Lord, for Thy Name’s Sake, Amen.

[Shammu]

Chapter 3 - “Ye Are Come unto Mount Zion”

While we wait upon Thee [on Thee, Lord, we wait] and while we do need Thee to bless us and ask Thee to bless us while we wait on Thee, we would rise even higher and say, Lord, satisfy Thyself. Get to Thyself the reward of Thy sufferings, the travail of Thy soul. Lord, find Thine Own Satisfaction. Ours will, we know, follow. We shall not lose anything if the Lord gets what He wants. And so, may we find our blessing in Thy Blessing, for Thy Name’s Sake, Amen.

The Letter to the Hebrews; and we are this morning coming to the concentration of the whole letter in one section. In chapter twelve, you will note that this concentration of the whole letter in this section is governed by the two words, “NOT—BUT.” Verses 18–25:

    For ye are NOT come unto a mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, and unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and the voice of words; which voice they that heard entreated that no word more should be spoken unto them; for they could not endure that which was enjoined, if even a beast touch the mountain, it shall be stoned; and so fearful was the appearance, that Moses said, I exceedingly fear and quake:

    BUT ye are come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable hosts of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than that of Abel. See that ye refuse not Him that speaketh.

Not—But. We shall not dwell upon the various details gathered under the “not.” We will simply say that this does represent a tremendous change over from one whole system of Divine activity and method in the past which is, or was, of the nature of the tangible, the sentient, the palpable—what you could see with your natural eyes and hear with your natural ears and touch with your hands and register by all your natural senses of soul and body. That comprehends the past system, and over it is written “Not”—not anymore. That kind of thing is left behind. And, mark you, dear friends, it is because that has been overlooked or not recognized that Christianity is in the poor state that it is in today, for Christianity is built very largely upon this “not.” You will see that more, perhaps, as we go on the positive side. But register that, register what you are not come to. Take it clause by clause in its significance. Take each clause with its significance and see what we are not come to. We are not come to a system that can be appropriated and known by natural senses. That is very comprehensive, touches a very great deal, that is finished. The Cross has cut in between that and this “but we are come.”

Now I want to be very implicit and careful. Did they really come to Sinai? You see the description? The Holy Spirit through the writer is making it very, very definite and positive and emphatic that this was something very real—so real that even Moses, who had such access to God, such fellowship with God, with whom God did speak Face to face as a man to his friend, this man said: “I exceedingly fear and quake.” Was that real? Was that imaginary? Was that just abstract? No, this thing was very real. People cried out, “Stop, we cannot bear this. We cannot endure this.” Very real! That is what they came to. If you had been there, no doubt, you would have said, “There is no imaginary thing here. This is something terrific.” “But we are come,” and do you mean to say that the “but” is less real than the “not”? Do you mean to say that this that we are come to is abstract, while that was concrete? Oh, no, I am sure that this is even more real, after its own kind, in its own realm; and, dear friends, that is the point upon which we must focus everything, the reality of what we are come to.

When you go on and break this all up into its details, if you are in your own senses, senses of mind and soul, you are just completely baffled. It seems so idealistic or imaginary, so ethereal, so unreal. See, to the natural, the spiritual is unreal. To the natural man, the man of soul, what is essentially and intrinsically spiritual is unreal. Their reaction is “Oh, let us be practical, let us come down to earth, let us get out of the clouds and get our feet solidly on the terra firma, let us get down to things that are more real.” That is the reaction of the natural man to the spiritual. But to the spiritual man, spiritual things are far more real than the tangible. And this that we are come to, to say the very least, is as real as what they came to at Sinai, even though after a different order.

Zion: the Consummation of Everything

Now I want you to note the tense of the verb, because it is very important to get the tense: “we are come to Mount Zion.” Not we are coming, not we are going, not we shall then arrive at Zion. No, “we are, we are come.” I know you will go on singing, “We Are Marching Upward To Zion.” We know what you mean, but we are not marching upward to Zion. The Word says: “But ye are come to Zion,” present tense. We are supposed to be at Zion now. Have you got that? There is here, of course, a contrast between Sinai and Zion, but it is not only contrast here, but note, in keeping with what I have just said, it is more than contrast, it is consummation!

This Zion was on the horizon for Israel right at the beginning. I think it is an impressive and amazing thing that you find the people through the Red Sea and on the far side; and then you look at Exodus 15 and find them on the far side and you have this, right there, before ever they had marched into the wilderness and on to the land—or got anywhere other than on the other side of the Red Sea—you have this: “Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, the place, O Lord, which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in, the Sanctuary, O Lord, which Thy hands have established.” Right at the beginning Zion is in view, as the end, the consummation of their journeyings and their experiences. During the next forty years? Ah, yes, and many more. Zion is on the horizon from the beginning. Zion is not the beginning, Zion is the consummation of everything.

This is the Letter to the Hebrews. In old times, they were on the journey, stage by stage, phase by phase, step by step. You remember that chapter which is just full, smothered, with that word in Numbers, “and they journeyed and they journeyed and they journeyed.” I think it is forty times in one chapter, “and they journeyed.” This is “the old times.” The Letter to the Hebrews says, “We have arrived, we have arrived.” How? Because all the bits and pieces, phases and stages, steps and movements, have come to their consummation in Jesus Christ. We have arrived, we are come to the end of all God’s movements in His Son. He is the consummation of all!

[Shammu]

Zion: the Perfected Work of the Lord Jesus Christ

Now then, still this word “Zion,” which it says we are come to, remains a bit abstract so far as our mentality is concerned. We must, therefore, get down to see what this Zion is that we have come to. We have said Zion is consummation, comprehension, or comprehensiveness, but what is it? What makes it up? What is the constitution of Zion as God’s end?

[1] ZION: A PEOPLE IN THE GOOD OF THE COMPLETE AND PERFECT WORK OF CHRIST

First of all, we say Zion is an inclusive and comprehensive term; in other words, we are come to the all-inclusive and all-comprehending thought and intention of God when we have come into the Lord Jesus. We may have to grow in our apprehension and understanding of what we have come to, but God has nothing whatever to add to what we have come to. We have got it all! In Christ, we have all! God has reached His end in His Son, finished His New Creation in His Son, and entered into His rest. So the letter here says, “We who have believed do enter into His rest.” It is a comprehensive term, Zion —it is coming into all that God has placed in His Son for us. Christ is the sum total of all God’s work over which is written: “It is finished.” That does not mean just come to an end, it means it is all completed, it is all completed, it is all perfect!

You know the formula when the priests brought the sacrifice for the atonement and placed their hands upon the head of the sacrifice, they uttered a formula which in the Greek means, “It is perfect.” They had gone with their trained eye over that sacrifice, turning up every hair to see if there was one of another color, any minute point of contradiction and inconsistency, through and through, opening its mouth, examining its teeth, every part gone through the trained eye of the meticulous priest; and when he finished his examination, and when the sacrifice had been put up for ten days under that scrutiny to see if there would be any development whatever of an inconsistent, imperfect element—at the end, he brought it forth and put his hands on it and pronounced: “It is perfect.” That is the Letter to the Hebrews. By one offering, forever He has perfected, made complete; and when Jesus cried, “It is finished,” it was the cry of the verdict of an Offering Perfect, without spot or blemish, to God. It is perfect. It is complete. His work and His Person are in right standing with God.

The sum of all God’s work is represented in the symbolic name, “Zion.” But Zion is seen to be not only Christ Personal, but a corporate thing. It is the people of Zion, as well as Zion—the people of Zion, a corporate thing; and Zion then is a people who are in the good of the complete and perfect work of Christ, a people who are the vessel of that work of the Lord which is complete.

Zion? It is so easy to say things like this, and this is Bible teaching, perhaps, you might say, good Bible teaching; but, oh, my friends, we have got to see before we get through this week that it is not just as simple as that. And you will discover almost every day of your life that this position of standing in and being in the good of the finality of Christ’s work is not a simple matter—it is challenged, up hill and down dale, all the way along, that you should be moved, we should be moved, from this position of the perfected work of the Lord Jesus. We are come to something perfect, and we should be the people embodying that perfect work of the Lord Jesus! I do not mean that we are perfect, but His work is perfect; and He Who is perfect is with us and in us. The time will come when that perfection will be manifested. I think that is a very wonderful fragment in Thessalonians: “When He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed”—marvelled at!—and I suppose we shall marvel more than anyone else. Well, that is Zion. It is Christ and Christ collective, Christ corporate, the foundation of everything. His perfect work as His perfect Person—that is Zion!

[2] ZION: THE SUPREME VICTORY OF THE LORD

Number two: Now, of course, I am keeping very close to the background, the symbolic and typical background, of the Old Testament because while the things of the Old Testament have gone, the meaning and the spiritual principles are eternal so that the spiritual meaning and principle of Zion is taken over and applied here. That is why the very name, Zion, is taken out of the Old Testament and brought here into the New: so that the next thing about Zion is that it is the very symbol of His absolute victory.

Do you remember the beginning of Zion? After they had brought David back from his exile and made him king, the Jebusites occupied this site and they sneered at David from Zion and said, “Thou shall not come in hither”; and they fortified it with the blind and the lame and said, “These are enough to keep you out of here. This is an impregnable stronghold, so much so that the weakest can hold it, save it. If the weakest, the blind, and the lame can do it, well, of course, it goes without saying what the strongest can do.” The Jebusites considered this Zion to be absolutely impregnable, the last word in the unassailable and “uncapturable.” They said: “You shall not come in here, indeed, it is quite impossible for you to do so.”—“All right,” says David. [They accept the challenge.] “We take up the gauntlet. You will see.” We know what happened. He did break through and break in and take the stronghold and destroy the erstwhile impregnability, and it became the city of David, the City of the Great King. His great victory, his immense victory, is centered in, registered in, established in, Zion; and Zion is the very symbol and synonym of the great prowess of God’s King, of God’s Anointed.

Now, bring that over: “Ye are come to Zion,” the City of the Living God, ye are come to Zion. What have we come to? We have come, we have come, to the Supreme Victory of the Lord Jesus Christ over the formerly impregnable—and what was that? We quote from Matthew: “I will build My church; and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” And what have you heard as the exposition of “the gates of Hades?” I am not sure that in the early days I did not make this mistake. “Gates,” in the Bible in the Old Testament cities, were the place of the counsels of the elders, where they came to their decision by discussion and counsel and made their decisions for the city and the land; and so we have said the “gates” are the counsels of Hell. Do not make that mistake. That is right, but that is not what it means. What is the otherwise impregnable stronghold of the prince of this world? It is death. It is death. The spiritual stronghold into which the Lord Jesus broke was that impregnable stronghold of “him, that is, the devil, that had [the hold] the power of death” (Hebrews 2:14). So the Risen Lord in the presentation of Himself in the Book of the Revelation, right at the beginning, says, “I am He That liveth, I became dead; and, behold, I am alive unto the ages of the ages; and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”

Spiritual death is a tremendous thing, a terrific thing, so much so that the Apostle Paul almost exhausts the vocabulary in this connection when he says that we should know “the exceeding greatness of His power, exceeding greatness of God’s power.” Think of that! The psalmist would say, “Selah.”—Think of that!

“The exceeding greatness of His power (which is) to us-ward who believe, according to the working [the energy, the Greek word here is energy] of the strength of His might, which He wrought [or energized] in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead.” What language, what language. It is simply beyond Paul’s expressions. He had a very good vocabulary, but he is finding himself hard put to express and explain what it meant to raise Jesus from the dead—to overcome death!

[Shammu]

 Oh, it is so easy to say, “God raised Him from the dead,” but do you see what it meant? The illustration in the Word—and, of course, the illustration always fades in the presence of the reality—but the illustration in the Word is Egypt and Pharaoh and the gods of the Egyptians. See how God is just, shall I say, panning out His power in those ten judgments. The first is a great power, the second is a great power and more, and the third is still more, and on to ten. Increasing power, increasing power, breaking down something, steadily, steadily, breaking down a great force; and when you come to the consummate thing, what is it? It is life and death, the death of all the firstborn in Egypt; and when that is registered, the people are free, out they go, resurrected! It is an illustration. Types are always poor things in the presence of the reality, the reality is the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead by the glory of the Father, by the exceeding greatness of His power—and that is to us-ward. Dear friends, I do not think we have begun to understand what it cost, and what power lies behind, our being born again, our being brought from death unto life.

Now we come back to Zion. That is Zion. “Ye are come to Zion.” Ye are come to the immense victory of the Lord Jesus in the realm that supremely challenged God and heaven, the realm of death. Death. And so you have here in this letter, especially in the first chapters of Hebrews, so much about death. “He tasted death for every man.” He tasted death for every man: “He delivered all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15). Underline death in those early chapters because it is basic to all that follows; and when you come to the end of the letter, you have that great note struck again: “Now the God of peace, Who brought again from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the eternal covenant, make you perfect.” We are brought again from the dead. There is the potential, there is the dynamic, of our being made perfect. That death, which put a period to all spiritual perfection before, has now been broken by the Great Shepherd of the sheep.

Did I say put a period? You remember in Hebrews, remember Aaron and all his sons, the priests? It says they could make nothing perfect because they died. Death put a period to their work, and nothing was perfect. But He has perfected forever. Why? Because He lives forever, “I am alive unto the ages of the ages,” therefore, that is the hope and dynamic of your being made perfect.

Oh, thank God, “the exceeding greatness of His power” which is going, eventually, “to present us faultless before the presence of His glory in exceeding joy; a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing,” —presented faultless. Oh, what a word! What a sweep of the board that is! Faultless! My, we down here are just obsessed with one another’s faults and with our own faultiness; and that is one’s trouble—looking for the perfect assembly, the perfect church, and the perfect Christian, and we are just all the time occupied with what is not perfect. The fault and faults. To present us faultless—“He is able to present us faultless before the presence of His glory in exceeding joy.” Why? Because He has conquered death. Death is the stronghold, the stronghold, and He has plundered the stronghold of Satan:

    He plunged in His imperial strength to gulfs of darkness down:
    He brought His trophy up, at length, the foiled usurper’s crown.

The crown of Satan is death. The crown of Christ is Life: “I will give thee the crown of Life.” Well, are we spending too much time on details about Zion? This is what we have come to, or are supposed to have come to. May we be given strength and faith to apprehend what is being said. May we enter into the marvelous joy of it.

[3] ZION: THE PLACE OF HIS DWELLING

Number three: Zion, again, was and is in its spiritual meaning, in its reality, the center of His dwelling. His dwelling. The Lord dwelt in Zion. The Lord was found in Zion. You notice the words from Exodus 15? “Thou wilt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance, the place, O Lord, Which Thou hast made for Thee to dwell in....” We know historically that it was there that God had His Sanctuary; and I ought to say here that without dealing with details, as in Hebrews 12, verse 18 and onward, Jerusalem and Zion look like synonymous terms. They look as though they are interchangeable. They are not exactly the same thing, but dare I stop to deal with the difference that there is? It may come out without any special consideration, but here is “the city which Thou, O Lord, hast made—the heavenly Jerusalem.”

And so we come then to this place of His dwelling, the place where the Lord is. If you were asked where you would find the Lord, I wonder what you would answer. You might mention many things, such as, “If you want to find the Lord, you come to our meetings. You come to our company, our place of worship, and you will find the Lord there”; and so you localize the Lord. I know in the Old Testament they had to go to the places where He caused His Name to be. However, in the geographical and literal sense, that is no longer the case.

To understand this, let us see that here is a great danger into which Christendom has fallen; and we are all in danger of localizing the presence of God. I mean literally saying: “This is where you have to come, or that is where you have to go, if you want to find the Lord.” Do not be deceived. That is not true. We have passed from that system. That is under the “not.” That is under the not. It sweeps all that conception away. There are no sacred “Ephesus” or “Philippi” or “Thessalonica”: if there were, they would be today where they were two thousand years ago. They are not. They have gone. The Lord was met there, but you will not meet Him there any longer, not in that way. No, not even in Jerusalem, and not in Rome. But where is the Lord? The Lord Jesus has given us, is it a formula, a prescription? “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am.” There I AM, that is the only localization (I hesitate to use the word “locality”) that is the only localization of the Lord!

Now, at any place where you may have met the Lord, amongst any company of the Lord’s people where people may have met Him, as soon as they cease to be spiritually Zion, to be what Zion really is spiritually, the Lord leaves that just as He left the tabernacle in Shiloh. It is not sacred, the tabernacle is not sacred or it would be preserved until today. No, things on this earth are not sacred to God. The place where the Lord is and is to be found is in Zion; ah, but what Zion means, what Zion is, what we have been saying Zion is—that is what we have come to!

Now you can go and put up a building and get a congregation and put over the door—“Zion.” No! no! no! this is this mentality, you see this mentality? No, Zion is a spiritual thing, a spiritual people, and the great thing about them is... you meet the Lord there when you meet them. With them, you just meet the Lord. You are not meeting a technique, a form, a ritual, a doctrine, a teaching, an interpretation and all that. You are just meeting the Lord. “Ye are come to Zion.”—Oh, let that be a test as well as a statement. We will give up everything, and rightly so, we could let anything go—buildings, places, and all our constitution—we let it all go if people are not finding the Lord when they come where we are. Paul brings that down to the individual: “Ye are a sanctuary of the Living God.” That is an individual application, “the temple of God.” The place of His dwelling is the place where Christ is in the finality of His work, the fullness of what He has done, where things are according to Christ. That is Zion!