Books by T. Austin-Sparks

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Now we come to the inclusive message of this chapter. In the light of all that we have just said, if this thing is going to be done at all, it is to be something that only the Lord can do and will do. Supposing these people had been a vast multitude, it had been a day of big things so far as numbers were concerned, supposing they had a great army to support them, and then they had turned to do this work, what would have happened? They would have simply said, "Well, you see we were so many, and we had such strong support. That is why we were able to do it. So, we did it, it was ourselves that did this." The Lord will not have anything like that. The Lord wants that which will bring all the glory to Himself. So, here we have a testimony to that which is wholly of the Lord, and not of man. Do remember, dear friends, that that is an abiding truth for ever. There is not one thing, not one thing in relation to the Lord that you and I can do by ourselves. There is not one thing that a great multitude of people can do by themselves. If it is something that relates to the glory of the Lord, nobody but the Lord can do it. Did you ever try to save yourself? Did you ever try to work your own salvation? Well, you know how impossible that is. It had to be the Lord or it would not be anybody at all. Have you tried in your own strength to stand up against the difficulties and oppositions of the Christian life? You have learned that you cannot do it. If the Lord does not put the strength into you, then you will break down. And it is true also in the work of the Lord. The Lord's work can never be done by natural strength. The Lord is going to have all the glory, or He is not going to have anything. And that is what this chapter tells us. It is not this and that and something else, but it is My Spirit, saith the Lord. This thing is going to be of Me, or it is not going to be at all. That which brings most glory to the Lord is that which can only be attributed to Him.

But note this next thing. If it is going to be like that, if the Lord is going to do it, if the Lord is going to have all the glory, if it is going to be something that no one but the Lord can do, it must be in a vessel of pure gold. That is why the lampstand or candlestick comes into our chapter. The prophet saw a candlestick of pure gold. That is a symbol of the vessel of the Lord's testimony. The light which that candlestick will give, is the testimony of the Lord; and the testimony of the Lord has got to be in a vessel of pure gold. We are not talking about material things now. We are talking about the symbolism here. What is this pure gold? It is a vessel that has no mixture in it! It is not something of the Lord and something of man. It is not some of the Lord and some of the world. It is not some of the Lord's will and some of my will. No, it is only the Lord, with no mixture whatever - a candlestick of pure gold.

How did this candlestick come into being? If you follow the instructions to make the candlestick for the tabernacle, the Lord said two things about it. One, it must be of one piece, and it must be of beaten work. Now here we have two principles of that which serves the Lord, that which will really bring glory to the Lord, that which will make the Lord pleased. The vessel must be of one piece. That simply meant that you are not to bring a lot of pieces and try to join them together from the outside. You are not, by your hands, to take hold of people and say, 'Now, you come and join us.' You are bringing all the pieces from the outside and joining them together. That is what they do in factories. The Lord does not work on that principle. Now, take very careful notice of what I am saying. I am giving you the fundamental principles of anything that is really of God. And God says this about the vessel of His testimony. It must not be so many unrelated pieces just brought together. There must be a basic fundamental oneness about this. Man must not just join others to this. The oneness must be the result of something that God has done in all. All concerned, must have one vision. All must see just that one thing that God wants. What the Apostle Paul called, "The eternal purpose of God." It is essential that all who are going to serve the Lord in this way, must have one vision. If two brothers, only two brothers, who hold responsibility, are not one in vision, it may divide the whole work. This oneness must relate first of all to those in responsibility. They are seeing the one thing. They have one mind and one spirit. And that must apply also to all those who are concerned with the Lord's testimony. It is absolutely essential that we all see the same thing. We all have the same vision. And we all have the same spirit, that we are one piece, not just so many pieces joined together, but one piece.

Now you notice the second thing that the Lord says. This candlestick must be of beaten work. Here is a large piece of gold. It has got to be formed into a candlestick of testimony. How are you going to do it? There are two instruments or tools that are going to be used. One is a chisel to cut, and the other is a hammer to hit hard. It is going to be of beaten work. That means, it is going to be formed out of discipline, and suffering. This vessel of testimony will be the result of a good deal of hammering, that is, of suffering. That is what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "That I may know Him, and the fellowship of His sufferings" (Philippians 3:10). Now Paul was a great vessel of testimony, but see how the chisel and the hammer were put to work on that man. It seems that he was knocked all over the place. He was picked up and knocked down again. A great deal of hammer work was done on him. Now these few people in this chapter were people who had gone through sufferings. They had had many hammer blows in their lives. But the Lord was going to make them into a vessel of living testimony. That may explain a lot to us. You understand what the Lord is doing with us? What He is doing with you and with me? We have had many hammer blows. Sometimes we thought we were going to be knocked to pieces. But really, the Lord has only knocked us together. Instead of breaking us up, He has made us one. That is the effect of suffering and discipline. It must be a vessel of pure gold, and it must be a testimony that has been brought out of adversity.

Now I will just close with this. Do you remember in the chapter, the two olive trees? I think that is a very beautiful picture, a very helpful one. On either side of the candlestick was an olive tree, and these two olive trees were pouring their oil into the candlestick. This was not just some reservoir of oil, not just some container that held just so much oil, these were living trees, and they had an unending supply of oil. And that is what the Lord meant when He said, "By My Spirit." 'For a vessel that has gone through suffering, for a vessel that has been hammered out, for a vessel that has been made pure in the fires of adversity, for a vessel for My glory only, I have an inexhaustible supply. My resources will never come to an end.'

The living olive trees will go on pouring their oil out for all times. I am quite sure you believe, that you agree that this is a very beautiful picture in this chapter, and how true it is to spiritual experience. The way which the Lord is working to get what He wants, and the inexhaustible resources of His grace, THAT IS FOR US, dear friends. So here we have represented a testimony of the greatness of the power and the grace of God. That is what the Lord wants with us. That is what the Lord wants with His people that He should have a candlestick of pure gold, one that has been formed for His use through sufferings, one that has come to know the great resources of His power and of His grace for what He wants. "Not by might, not by an army, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts."

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Meeting 26 - Are You Risen-Ones With Christ?

Twenty-Sixth Meeting[/c4enter]
(February 23, 1964 P.M.)

Will you please turn to the Letter to the Colossians, chapter three, verses one through four. "If ye then be risen with Christ." That is how our translation puts it. But, literally, it ought to be in the form of a question. The question is: Have ye been risen with Christ? Have ye really risen with Christ? The apostle says that when Christ died, we all died in Him. Before God, in the death of the Lord Jesus, all have died. And before God, the only ones who are really alive are those who have risen with Christ. What was history in the case of the Lord Jesus has to be experienced in the case of men. It is an historic fact that Jesus died and rose again. That is history. What is history in the case of Jesus must become experience in the case of believers. Notice the change in the way in which the apostle puts this. He does not ask any question as to the death side. He states that as a fact. He simply says, "You died." But he puts a question on the other side, and he says, "Have you been raised with Christ? Before God, you are really dead by the death of Christ, but are you sure that you are raised in the resurrection of Christ?"

Well, he puts that in the form of a question, and then he goes on to answer the question, and what follows in this chapter is the answer. He is talking now about "Risen-ones," and he is stating what Risen-ones do, what their position is. In the first place: RISEN-ONES ARE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF CONDEMNATION, JUDGMENT, AND DEATH. Condemnation, judgment, and death lie behind the Risen-ones. "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus had made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1,2; ASV). That is the position of Risen-ones. Well, we can bring the question alongside of that. In view of condemnation, judgment, death, have you been "raised together with Christ?" That is the first blessing of Risen-ones. The question is: Are you enjoying that blessing, the blessing of condemnation, judgment, and death BEING BEHIND YOU, no longer in front of you? That is the position of Risen-ones.

The next thing that the apostle says about RISEN-ONES IS THAT CHRIST IS THEIR LIFE. "When Christ, Who is our life, shall be manifested, then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory" (Col. 3:4; ASV). Christ, our Life! The Risen-ones are those who have Christ as their Life. What was history with Him has to be experienced in believers in the matter of Life! Christ is the Life of our inner man. We know that Christ is Life within us. He is the very Life of our spirit. He is the Life of our mind. This apostle speaks much about the renewed mind. Christ as the Life of our new minds gives us ability to understand what we could never understand before. The mind has been enlightened, and we now have spiritual understanding. We have a new mind. Christ is the Life of our mind.

Not only is He our Life for our spirit, and our mind, HE IS LIFE FOR OUR BODIES. "If the Spirit of Him That raised up Jesus from the dead be in you, He That raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies" (Rom. 8:11). There is such a thing as Divine Life for our bodies now, and not only in the great resurrection from the dead. The Word is Christ Who is our Life, and not Christ Who is going to be our Life some day - Christ is our Life now. There is such a thing as Christ being our Life in these mortal bodies now.

That does not mean that we never know anything about sickness, it does not mean that He always miraculously heals us of our sickness. But in these mortal bodies, He is Life to help us go on. We come back from many of our sicknesses because the Life of the Lord is in us, and we go on in spite of our own physical weakness by the strength of His Life. This is the heritage of Risen-ones. And the apostle asks the question again against that: 'Are you risen with Christ? Do you know Christ as the Life of your inward man? Do you know Christ as the Life of your new mind? And do you know Christ as the energy even of your dying body?' This is what Risen-ones ought to know.

Then the apostle goes on to speak about THE CONDUCT OF RISEN-ONES:- Firstly, the position of Risen-ones, and then the life of Risen-ones, and then the conduct of Risen-ones. What do Risen-ones do? Verse five says this: "Put to death therefore your members which are upon the earth." And what does he mean by that? He uses a lot of words to explain that. The first word is "Fornication." Risen-ones put to death fornication. A Risen-one does not live in fornication. The second word is "Uncleanness." A Risen-one does not live in uncleanness. The third word is "Passion." A Risen-one does not live in passion. The next thing is "Evil Desire." A Risen-one does not live in evil desire. And, then, the last word is "Covetousness." And the apostle says, 'Covetousness is idolatry, that is, a life of wanting everything for yourself.' A Risen-one does not live in these things.

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Then he gives us another list of why THE RISEN-ONES ARE VERY DIFFERENT PEOPLE. Verse eight: "Put ye away also all these things," put away "Anger." Risen-ones do not live in anger. Put away "Wrath," put away "Malice," Put away "Railing," put away "Shameful Speaking out of your mouth: lie not one to another." Why? Because "You have put off the old man." All that belongs to the old man went into the grave with the Lord Jesus. And Risen-ones leave the old man just where the Lord has put him: IN THE GRAVE.

Then the apostle says: "You have put on the new man." And the new man is the Risen-man. This is the conduct of Risen-ones. I want you to notice, especially, verse eleven. In this new man, the apostle says, "There cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all" (ASV). You notice the different classes that the apostle mentions? There are national differences - Greek, Jew, Barbarian, Scythian. These are different nationalities. Of course, we could add a lot more to that and we could say, British, Chinese, Indian, African, American. And the apostle says, in Risen-ones, there are none of these. If you are taking account of national differences, you belong to the other side of the grave. If you say, 'Well, you see, he's only an Englishman.' Or if you say, 'Well, he's only an African.' 'Well, you see, he's only an American' - you are contradicting the fundamental reality of the Risen-ones. Paul says there can be none of this in Risen-ones.

First of all, CHRIST IS ALL FOR RISEN-ONES. Christ is all and the only One. And then he says, "And Christ is in all." Oh, what does that mean? A Jew, a Greek, a Barbarian, a Scythian, an American, a Chinese, an Englishman, if they belong to the Lord, Christ is in every one of them. If they are Risen-ones, Christ is in all. And we are not to know them on national grounds: We are only to know them on Christ ground.

Then the apostle marks another distinction. He says, "bondman, freeman." These are the people who are of a high social standard and others of a low social standard. These are the masters and these are the servants. Paul says, "In the Risen-ones, there is no such distinction." Risen-ones are not governed by social distinction. The superior ones do not look down upon the inferior ones in Christ, and the inferior ones do not hate the superior ones. We are all one man in Christ Jesus. Christ is all, and in all.

Now we must close with just one more thing. WHAT IS THE LIFE OBJECT OF RISEN-ONES? The answer comes right at the beginning of the chapter. Are you risen with Christ? You will prove that you are by this! - you will seek those things which are above, where Christ is. You will not set your minds on things on the earth. All your interests will be centered in Christ in heaven. Of course, you will have business interests, but you will make your business serve Christ. You will say about your business, 'This is not to be my slave, this has got to serve the Lord Jesus.' You will have family interests, but you will say, 'My family interests have got to serve the Lord Jesus.' You will have social interests, that is, you will have friends, but your friends must come along the way of the Lord Jesus. Those with whom you make your friends, must be the friends of Jesus. So Risen-ones will have everything centered in Christ.

Sooner or later, dear friends, you and I will leave this earth. With some of us, it looks as though it is going to be later. We are getting old, but we are certainly going to leave this earth. The youngest one here cannot say that he or she is going to get old. By some sickness, or by some accident, you may leave this earth early in life. But whether it be sooner or a little later, or quite late, we are all going to leave this earth. Then what matters? What is the thing that matters when that comes about? The thing that is going to matter for all eternity is how much of Christ was there in us while we were here? The young ones must say, 'As a Risen-one with Christ, I am going to have as much of Christ as possible.' And they must say, 'Christ is going to have as much of me as possible.' Christ must be all, and that applies to the middle-age, and it applies to the old-age. The big question in eternity will be: 'How much of Christ was there in us while we were in this world?' Paul says, 'It is not this or that, but Christ is all, and in all.' That is what it means to be Risen-ones.

Over against all that, he says, 'Are you risen with Christ? Are there all these evidences in your life that you have been raised together with Christ? Is Christ your Life? Is your heart set upon things of Christ? Are you behaving like Risen-ones? Is Christ all, and in all?' These are the evidences of our being risen together with Christ.

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Meeting 27 - Is Christianity a Legal System on the Earth, or is it a Spiritual Movement From Heaven?

Twenty-Seventh Meeting

(February 25, 1964 A.M.)

We are asking the Lord to help us in these mornings to consider some of the most vital matters of our Christian life. In our New Testament we have a number of documents. But amongst those documents, there is one which stands related to perhaps the most vital question that has ever risen in relation to Christianity. In the matter of space, it is not a very long document. Indeed, it is one of the shorter ones; but into its brief space the writer has crowded the very essence of Christianity. He took up his pen to write this document with an intense determination to settle this great question. So he concentrated into a short space the very essence of Christianity. I do not think the apostle ever wrote anything under a greater sense of importance and necessity. This letter just throbs with the sense of his passion about this particular matter. A great question had arisen. That question threatened to destroy the real nature of Christianity. The question was this: What is this thing which has invaded this world by the coming of Jesus Christ? For in the coming of Jesus Christ into this world, God had broken into history, and God had broken into history to make an immense change in everything. So the great question was: What is it that has come into this world with Jesus Christ? Is it just the continuation of an old system with some things added to it? Is it a legal system shaped on the basis of the old Jewish system? In other words, is it just the continuation of Judaism with something added to it? Or is it an entirely new, living, spiritual movement from heaven? Is the old garment of Judaism just to have some new patches put into it? Or is it to be an altogether new garment? Is it the old wine-skins of Judaism to have new wine put into them? Or is it to be an altogether new wine-skin? This was the great question.

This great question represented a vast difference, and that difference became a great battlefield between the old and the new. This question just wrought Christianity into confusion. For a time, everybody but a few were in a sense of uncertainty about this. It led to very serious divisions amongst the Lord's people. It even insinuated itself among the first apostles themselves. Peter, the leader of the twelve, had a great battle over this question, and at one time he came into serious conflict with the Apostle Paul on this matter. James, who was one of the brothers of our Lord on this earth, had serious reservations about this matter. The first Christian martyr died on this very question; Stephen was martyred because of this very matter. Wherever Christianity went, this dispute followed it. We, in our time, are not able to realize how tense was this strain over the matter of the real nature of Christianity.

Although this particular document to which we refer did settle it very largely at that time, the nature of this controversy has persisted right through into our own day. Is Christianity a legal system, or is it a spiritual life? It was in relation to that question that the Risen and Ascended Lord broke through from heaven and laid His hand on the Apostle Paul. Jesus came right out of heaven, right through from the glory, and put His hand on this man Saul of Tarsus. It was not a small thing for the Lord Jesus, Who had sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens, to get up off the Throne and come back here again. He must have seen that there was a very serious matter involved. So He did not send an angel or an archangel; He left His place in glory and came down to that man on the road to Damascus, and He laid His hand upon him. Afterwards, Paul described it as being apprehended by Christ Jesus. You know what that word "apprehended" means? Well, I hope you do not know what it means so far as the law is concerned. When the policeman is after a criminal and he finds the criminal, he puts a very strong hand on him. And that is the word that the apostle used. He said, 'I was apprehended. I was arrested by Jesus Christ.' And it was in relation to this specific question. The Lord arrested Paul as the instrument through which He was going to answer this question. So serious did the Lord regard this matter, that it is impossible to understand the Apostle Paul's ministry unless we recognize this particular connection. The whole of the Apostle Paul's ministry related to one issue: And that issue is the true, spiritual, heavenly nature of Christianity.

Now Paul by that mighty act from heaven had come to see this great difference. He had come to see that a great divide had been created between old Judaism and new Christianity, between the old earthly Israel and the new heavenly Israel. He had come to see that these were two distinctly different nations. He had come to see that this question divided the ages. What had existed in the past ages was now terminated. And something new had been introduced to be the nature of things for all the eternal ages. When the Apostle Paul himself came to see that, when that broke upon him from heaven, that is, the vast difference between the legal and the spiritual, he threw himself into THAT BATTLE to the last drop of his blood.

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That battle began immediately when Paul was saved. When he had been met by the Lord, and entered the city of Damascus, after being baptized and receiving the Holy Spirit, he testified to them that Jesus is the Christ. Recognizing what that meant where this man himself was concerned, recognizing that he had changed his ground, that he had left the ground of legalism, the ground of Judaism, that he had taken the ground of Christ: THEN THE BATTLE STARTED. And right through the thirty years of his life, everywhere he went he was found in that battle.

The last chapter of the Book of the Acts, which leaves Paul in prison waiting the sentence of death, finds him still in the battle. The Judaizers are with him in his prison. He seeks to reason with them, but then he has to turn from them and say, 'It's no good, I must turn to the Gentiles.' The battle was on from the beginning to the end of his life; and this battle was on one mighty issue: Is Christianity a legal system on this earth, or is it a spiritual movement from heaven?

Now, I began by saying that there is a document in the New Testament which sets forth the answer to that question, and I expect many of you have already come to the conclusion as to what that document is. If you are not sure about that, let me say at once, it is the Letter to the Galatians. It is now fairly or generally believed that this letter was the first letter that Paul wrote. In my early days, it was believed that the Letters to the Thessalonians were the first letters that Paul wrote. And I used to say that. But further investigation has led those who know very well that the Galatians Letter was probably the first letter. Now I am not going to argue out that matter this morning. You can believe it or you need not believe it. But, if that should be true, how significant it is that that should be the first great issue about which the apostle wrote. And if you read that letter, and feel the strength with which the apostle wrote it, you can discern how serious he felt this question to be. He saw that there was that which was threatening the whole nature of Christianity. And so he set himself to do this work. That is, to preserve the pure spiritual nature of what had come in with Jesus Christ.

Now before we proceed to consider what is in this letter, there are two basic things which must engage our intention. First of all, what the apostle himself meant by this letter, and that is contained in chapter one, and verse eight, "But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any Gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema" (ASV). The whole letter is gathered into that one sentence. "The Gospel which we preached." He says that what he is dealing with is the nature of the Gospel. He says we preach the Gospel to you. This letter then is a restatement of the Gospel. Now various names have been given to what is in the New Testament. It is called by many Christianity, and that is a very comprehensive term; or it is called the Christian faith, or the Christian religion. In the New Testament, it is known by none of those names. The New Testament never speaks of this as Christianity; it never speaks of it as the Christian faith; it never speaks of it as the Christian religion. It is known just by one name. Everything that is in the New Testament and which came in with Jesus Christ is just called The Gospel.

Now here is something that we need to carefully notice. You see, we draw a distinction between what we call the Gospel, and fuller teaching for believers. By the Gospel, many mean that which is for the unsaved, and what we give to the saved, well, it is something else. Suppose you are going to have some gospel meetings at the end of the week and they are not for believers, they are for the unsaved. That is an altogether artificial distinction. Everything in the New Testament for the unsaved and for the saved is called the Gospel. It is not a religion. It is not a philosophy of life. It is not a system of truths and practices. It is just the Gospel. And that word means: "Good News." It is given various connections, such as the Gospel of our salvation. But there is one overall and inclusive thing about this word, and that is, "The Gospel of God concerning His Son Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:1-3). So when we divide between the Gospel for the unsaved and something else for the saved, do you see what we are doing? We say, we have left the ground of God's Son, and we have come on to some extra grounds for Christians. The Gospel is comprehensive of everything in Christ. You will never get to the place where you will cease to discover something new concerning God's Son; and although we may be discovering more throughout all eternity, it would still be the Gospel.

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Do you think the Gospel ends when you are born again? Do you think the Gospel ends when you leave this world and go to the Lord? If you see the great multitude, which no man can number around the throne, and you listen to their song, they are singing a gospel hymn, "Worthy is the Lamb." But they have come into a very very full understanding of God's Son. See, the Gospel is the Gospel of God concerning His Son for all time, and for all eternity. The Gospel is something infinitely bigger than salvation from sin; it is infinitely bigger than deliverance from judgment and death. The Gospel comprehends all that is in Christ. It was that for which the apostle was fighting. It was not just for the salvation of these people, but that they should understand what they are saved into. That is the battleground. He says, "The Gospel which we preached." And what does it amount to? A whole letter is crowded into that one sentence. The Gospel is emancipation from all legal bondage. It is emancipation into the liberty of the sons of God. That is the theme of this letter: Emancipation from all legal bondage. Emancipation into the liberty of the sons of God. And Paul says, "That is the Gospel which I preached."

In this letter, Paul calls legalism a yoke of bondage. He cries, "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage." When he used that word "yoke," he was using the same word as Jesus Himself had used in Matthew eleven, verses twenty-eight through thirty. Jesus looked out on the multitude, He said, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden. Take My yoke upon you, and learn Me. My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." He was speaking to the multitudes who were under the yoke of Jewish legalism. He said to be under that yoke is to be in labour and be heavy laden. He says, "My yoke is easy," by which He meant: I will liberate you from the yoke of Jewish bondage. I will set you free from all this toil under legalism.

The scribes and the Pharisees had thousands of interpretations to the Old Testament Scripture. They had taken the law of Moses, and they had put two thousand interpretations upon every law. Everything that God had said, they had interpreted it to mean a thousand different things. And so they had taken the Word of God and given to it an interpretation which became a great burden to bear. Not only had God said, "Thou shalt not," the scribes and the Pharisees had said, "Now that means, 'thou shalt not this; thou shalt not that; and thou shalt not a thousand things."' Not only had Moses said, "Thou shalt," the scribes and Pharisees said, "Thou shalt a thousand things." Jesus said, "They bind heavy burdens and put them on men's shoulders." That is always the effect of legalism. Under a legal system, you just do not know what you may do. You are always asking: 'Now, really, may we do this? If we do this, shall some judgment come upon us? And if we don't do it in that way, shall we fall under the judgment of God?'

That is how it was then, and Paul himself had been under that burden. He tells us about it in the seventh chapter of the Letter to the Romans. And he ends that terrible story with "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this dead body?" That whole system is a system of death, but then he adds, "I thank God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I now meet all in Christ." Now that is the battle of this letter to the Galatians. So this is what Paul calls the Gospel. And as I have not the time to go to the second thing this morning, I am going to leave it there. I mean the second fundamental thing that lies beneath this letter. If the Lord wills, we will speak about that tomorrow. But let him who runs, READ; and let him who reads, RUN. Run out of all this sort of thing into the liberty wherewith Christ makes us free.

Now what I have done this morning is just to present the great question. This great question as to the true nature of Christianity, or of that which came in with Jesus Christ. But I must say this as I close, do not take what I have said as everything; that is only the beginning. We have really got to see what it is that we are in, in Christ. In general, we are in liberty. But we have got to see what that means. So do not go away and say: 'Well, he said this.' Just keep that quiet and say, 'There is something more that we have got to learn about this.' I leave that with you for this morning, but it is a glorious Gospel - the Gospel of our liberty in Christ. And we refuse to be brought back into bondage by any man.

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Meeting 28 - The Great Distinguishing Mark Between a Legal System and a Spiritual Life is by Direct Revelation of Jesus Christ

Twenty-Eighth Meeting
(February 26, 1964 A.M.)

Read: Galatians

We covered so much ground in more than an hour yesterday morning that it is quite impossible to go over it all again. All we can do is just remind you of the great matter which is engaging us at this time. We have said that this matter is one which had been the most vital question in the history of Christianity. It is no other question than "What is true Christianity?" In other words, "What was it that invaded this world with the coming into it of Jesus Christ?" Around that question, an immense battle raged in the time of the apostles, and in the nature of that question, the battle still goes on! It took a peculiar form in the days of the apostles; then, it was a matter of Judaism or Christianity. Since that time it has not been a question of Judaism and Christianity. But all along, and today, in principle it remains the same. The question is, "Is Christianity a legal system or spiritual movement from heaven?"

We saw that battle and that question was concentrated by the Apostle Paul into his brief letter to the Galatians. And the Letter to the Galatians is concentrated into one phrase, a phrase with which the apostle begins the letter, that is, "The Gospel which we preached." And we saw that phrase, "The Gospel," is not something just for unsaved people, but comprehends everything that is in the New Testament. That is the first basic thing to be taken account of. It is the comprehensive meaning of the Gospel. Not only Good News for the world and the unsaved, but the Good News of God concerning His Son for the people of God. So we spent some time on the nature of the Gospel.

And then we said there was a second basic thing before we could consider the content of this letter. Because this letter is very largely based upon this particular thing - that is, Paul himself, and the basis of his apostleship. I would like to think that this letter is fresh in your minds. I would like to think that since yesterday, you have read it right through again, and I would like to suggest that every day this week you read this letter. That will help me a lot in what I have to say.

Now, if you are familiar with this letter, you will know what a large place the Apostle Paul himself takes in the letter. He speaks very much about himself, and about his apostleship. There is a sense in which it is the man behind the letter. And that means, the man behind the Gospel. There is such a large place occupied by the apostle himself personally, but that is for a purpose. And the purpose is certainly not that Paul is seeking to glorify himself. It is not to magnify Paul; but it is to MAGNIFY JESUS CHRIST. That is proved by the fact that in what is quite a short letter, the name "Christ" occurs forty-three times. We shall refer to that again.

Now the reason for the prominence of the apostle in this letter is the whole question of the great change which was made in his time. This immense historic and spiritual change in the ages was very largely turning upon this man, Paul. It was not his desire that it should be so. Certainly Paul would have wished it otherwise. He did not want to be the prominent figure in this controversy. But it was his opponents that were making him the central figure. They were opposing Paul's right to teach what he was teaching. They were setting Paul over against Moses, or Moses over against Paul. In effect, they were saying, God always referred to Moses as "My servant." So by the Scriptures, Moses was the accredited servant of the Lord, and as the accredited servant of the Lord, Moses gave the whole Old Testament system. Moses gave the system of the law. And Moses wrote the Scripture at God's dictation. God verbally told Moses what to write. So that the Old Testament was verbally inspired by God. That means that the Jewish system was inspired by God. It was through Moses that God gave the great system of worship which we have in the Book of Leviticus.

Now you see how it seemed that these opponents of Paul had a very strong case against him. They said, Paul denies all that. And Paul says, all that is finished with. For instance: They concentrate upon the question of circumcision. They say, now in the inspired Old Testament, circumcision is a very important thing appointed by God. The Bible, as they had it, said circumcision is something. This man Paul, deliberately says, circumcision is nothing. Therefore, Paul is contradicting the Scriptures; Paul does not believe in the inspiration of the Scriptures. They went further than that. Not only did they attack his teaching, but they attacked him. You know, that is always a bad weapon of a bad cause, wherever there is a people who attack persons. They turn from what the person teaches to the person himself; and they try to discredit the person. And that is what these enemies of Paul did. They said, Paul is not a true apostle, at most, he is inferior to the other apostles. He is a false teacher. He is unsound in his doctrine. And he is a dangerous man. So they sought to undercut the ministry of Paul.

You will see by this, how prominent the place was that Paul occupied in this great issue - the great historic and spiritual issue as to the true nature of Christianity. And because these powerful enemies focus their attention upon Paul himself, it all drew from Paul a personal testimony; and it is in that testimony that we have the very essence of true Christianity. It is in that testimony that we have the new wine which will burst the old bottles, and we have the new garment which Paul will not try to patch up. In this testimony, we have the thing which constitutes the new heavenly order in which we live. By the way, we have to thank the enemies of Paul for a lot. We have to thank these enemies for the great light which emerged from his sufferings. We have to thank these enemies for the great emancipation of Christianity from a dead legal system. God turned the persecution of Paul into a wonderful advantage for this whole dispensation. It is very often like that. God gets out of the winepress, the pure wine. But that which goes into the winepress has to be crushed and broken; and then the pure wine of the Kingdom flows out. And that is how it was in this case.

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Now it must be clearly understood, that the battle was not between Paul and Jews, but it was between tradition and spirituality. Paul only comes into it because he has seen the difference, and is speaking that which he has seen. So we come to understand Paul's personal answer.

Before we pass on, let me add this: it is very important in this great matter for us to settle this same issue: was the Apostle Paul a peculiarly chosen vessel for this purpose? Does the Apostle Paul stand in a particular relationship to this whole dispensation? Ever since those days, Paul has been a subject of violent attack. The liberal and modernistic theologians have attacked Paul. And the thing which they have said is this, 'Paul is not a true interpreter of Christ.' Of all the men in the Bible, there is no more controversial personality than the Apostle Paul. Even those who will accept Jesus, with limitations, will not accept Paul at all. And we have to settle this question. What relation does this man Paul stand to the whole dispensation? Until we are clearly able to answer that question, we cannot understand his ministry. Because all of Paul's ministry focuses down upon this one issue. That is, the spiritual and the heavenly nature of the dispensation, which came in with Jesus Christ.

So we must spend the rest of our time this morning in considering Paul's apostleship. But do remember that in all we say, we are really thinking of this particular issue: THE SPIRITUAL AND THE HEAVENLY NATURE OF THIS DISPENSATION. The principles of Paul's apostleship lie at the very foundation of this dispensation. Well, let us look at it in just two fragments. The Letter to the Galatians, chapter one, and verses eleven and twelve: "For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the Gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ."

Chapter two, and verse six: "But from those who were reputed to be somewhat (whatsoever they were, it maketh no matter to me: God accepteth not man's person) - they, I say, who were of repute imparted nothing to me."

All right then, these two fragments settle the question. The source of Paul's apostleship, 'not from men, neither through a man. I received nothing from men, it came to me by revelation of Jesus Christ.' What does that amount to?

I must pause here to put in parenthesis just this request. We are having these morning meetings, and perhaps you are looking upon them as meetings for teaching, and you will perhaps remember them in the future as some special meetings in which a special subject was considered. Well, of course, there is teaching, and it is focused upon a special matter. But I do want to say this to you earnestly, that what I am saying is not only a statement of truth, it is a 'testimony' of your foundation. It is a test as to the ground upon which you individually stand. So that this is not just a series of special meetings for teaching, this is a vital challenge to our spiritual position. If what we have said is true, that the whole dispensation in a sense focuses upon the spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul, that is, in a fuller way than in any other case except the Lord Jesus Himself, then what we have said about Paul's apostleship is basic to our own spiritual lives.

So what does this source of Paul's apostleship mean for us? It means that the basic reality of this dispensation is a personal, direct encounter with Jesus Christ. I want to repeat that. It is perhaps the most important thing out of which everything else will come. The basic reality of the dispensation in which we live is a personal direct encounter with Jesus Christ. It is personal between Christ and ourselves personally. It is direct because it is not through man. It is not through a priest or any other kind of intermediary. It is not through a ritual; it is not through a system; and it is not through man. It is directly between Christ and ourselves. We shall fail in the very purpose of this dispensation, unless we can say, 'that is how it is with us.' The method in which it happens may differ between Paul's experience and ours, but every one of us individually must be able to say: 'I have met Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ has met me directly. Men may have helped, but I did not receive it from men. I did not even receive it from those great men in Jerusalem. I did not receive it from the great representatives of Christianity. I received it personally and directly from the Lord.'

What a searching thing that is! How that will find us out. It just raises some questions. How did we get what we have got? Are you prepared to go home with that question? How did I get my Christianity? How did I get what I have got? How did it come to me? Did it come to me by thinking it out? I reasoned out this matter of Christian life, and I came to certain intellectual conclusions, in comparing it with all other things I saw that this was the best thing, so that in my mind I decided that this thing is right. Is it just an intellectual conclusion? Is that how I got it? Is that the ground on which I stand? Or, did it come to me by the impact of some strong personality? Some teacher, or some leader, with a very forceful personality and I came under the impact of that personality. So I received it through a man's strong personality. Is that the ground on which you stand? Was it through the persuasion of other people? They said you ought to come to Christ, and they kept on saying that, and at last I yielded to them, I gave way to their persuasion, and so I profess Christianity, and I got baptized, and that is the ground on which I stand.

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How did we get what we got? That is going to decide everything for the future. Sooner or later the stresses of life will come upon our position. The Lord will allow our position to be tried in the fires. And His object in so doing will be to find out exactly what we are resting upon. So Paul said, "I received it not from men, nor from a man. Peter may have been a very important man, but I did not get it from Peter. James may have been the Lord's Own brother in the flesh, and he ought to know, but I did not receive it from James. John was a very loving devoted disciple, he was one of the first three, but I did not get it from John. These men gave me nothing. I RECEIVED IT BY DIRECT REVELATION OF JESUS CHRIST. That is the basis of this dispensation. That is the basis of true spiritual Christianity. And that is the great distinguishing mark between a legal system and a spiritual life.

Now in the next place, for a few minutes, we have to consider the crises behind Paul's apostleship. You see, we are keeping close to this letter. And for the time being, we are keeping close to Paul's testimony, which testimony is the basis of things. Behind the apostleship of Paul was a tremendous crisis. Chapter one, and verse thirteen, "Ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and made havoc of it" (ASV). You must say that with very strong emphasis, because that is how Paul said it. "My life in the Jews' religion," fancy Paul saying a thing like that; a man who was a Jew by birth and upbringing, a man who was just kept in Judaism, I would have liked to see the look on his face when he said this - "In the Jews' religion. In the Jews' religion," that is how I lived in time past. I persecuted the Church of God, and I made havoc of the Church of God. And I advanced in the Jews' religion, beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the tradition of my fathers. Unless you put sufficient emphasis upon all that, and realize what all that meant to Paul or to Saul of Tarsus as he was called before, you cannot appreciate the tremendous crisis in his life; the immense crisis behind his apostleship.

Note, it was a crisis, not a development. It was a crisis, not an evolution. It was a clear-cut thing that happened at a certain time. There was a crisis in this man's life. And that crisis meant the dividing of his whole life between what was in the past and what was in the future. For him it was the finishing of a whole system and the beginning of an altogether new heavenly order of things.

The next thing to note is this: That while it was the Sovereign Act of God, as we said yesterday, Jesus Christ rose from His throne in glory and came right down to this man. It was therefore A SOVEREIGN ACT FROM HEAVEN. Yet at the same time there was something upon which God could act. There was something in this man which gave the Lord the ground for acting. It was not merit, but there was something there. What was that something? Now I ask every one of you here to take note of this, God had ground on which to act in this man because he was a man who meant business with God. You must remember that although Saul of Tarsus was doing the wrong thing, he was doing it according to the light of his conscience. He afterward said that he did it in ignorance, that he thought that he was doing God's service. And however darkened his mind was, and however wrong his conduct was, he was a man who meant business with God. In his ignorance, he was doing it for God. He thought that this was what God wanted. There is a sense in which he had a heart for God. And there was no mistake in that. His zeal, as he calls it, was very great for what he believed to be for the Lord. That was a ground upon which God could work.

Listen to this, brethren, those who are indifferent, and do not care very much, will never get very far with the Lord. If things do not matter very much, then the Lord does not matter very much. There is an Old Testament word which says, "To the upright Thou will show Thyself upright; to the pure Thou will show Thyself pure; but to the froward Thou will show Thyself froward." God is going to be to us what we are to Him. If we are indifferent, if we are careless, if we do not care very much, the Lord will not come to us in this way. If you look at the men and the women who had counted most for God, you will know that at the beginning there was a very serious crisis. What was the Lord doing? He was getting this ground of reality. He was testing them as to whether they wanted Him just for their own good and pleasure or whether they wanted Him for Himself.

A young man who had great wealth came to Jesus, and he said, "Good Master, what must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" And it looks as though Jesus played with him, first of all, He said, 'Why do you call Me good? There is only One that is good, and that is God.' There is a real test in that. Well, you know what is written in the law, 'Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thou shall love thy neighbour as thyself." Still the Lord is drawing him out. And the young man said, "All this have I kept from my youth." All right then, we will bring it right to the test. "Go, sell all that you have, give to the poor and come follow Me, come and follow Me without anything. Follow Me without a penny, follow Me without a reputation." Is eternal life more important to you than all that you can have in this world? And you see, the Lord had found the spot, "What must I do that I may inherit eternal life?" Why do you want eternal life? Is it more important to you than all things in this world? Are you prepared to let go of everything in this world for eternal life? The young man dropped his head, dropped his hands, turned quietly round and walked away. You see the point?

The Lord wants to know whether we really mean business. We shall get nothing unless we really do mean business with God. We may be wrong in our way of life. Our minds may be very blind and darkened, but even so we can mean business with God. And although it was a Sovereign Act, yet the Lord had ground upon which He could work. That zeal, although it was misdirected, meant something to God. What is our attitude toward the Lord and the things of the Lord? Are we only half alive to this matter? Are we asleep? Or are we on full stretch, saying, "What the Lord wants for me I am going to have, if it can be had. No matter what it costs me, my heart is set upon what the Lord wants for my life." So we have considered the crisis behind this man, and we must leave it there this morning. And if the Lord wills, take it up from there tomorrow morning.

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Meeting 29 - The Only True Emancipation from all Forms of Legalism is to See Christ

Twenty-Ninth Meeting
(February 27, 1964 A.M.)

Read: Galatians

We continue with our consideration of this great fundamental question as to the true nature of this dispensation. The question being: Is Christianity a legal system or a spiritual movement from heaven? We have seen that this question became a very serious battleground right at the beginning. It was on this question that Stephen was martyred; and his great successor, the Apostle Paul, became the focal point of this battle. So with the Letter to the Galatians before us, we are seeking to see what the apostle had to say about this. In as much as he was made the very center of the controversy, we have to consider the apostle himself. So far, we have looked at the source of his apostleship. He said that it was not from men, nor from a man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ - an apostle of Jesus Christ and God the Father. Then we went on yesterday to consider the great crisis behind his apostleship.

This morning we are going to consider the constituting of his apostleship. We turn then to the Letter to the Galatians. Chapter one, and verse fifteen: "When it was the good pleasure of God, Who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among the nations" (ASV). It was the good pleasure of God to reveal His Son in me. And then the well known words in chapter two, and verse twenty: "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God."

Now may I remind you that the thing of importance for us is that this spiritual experience of the Apostle Paul contains all the principles of this new dispensation. If we ask the question, "What is true Christianity?" Then the answer is found in the spiritual history of this man, the dispensation in which we live is founded upon these principles. So that which constitutes this dispensation is that which constituted the apostleship of Paul. After emphatically stating that he did not receive it from men, not even from those who were apostles before him, he goes right to the heart of this matter, and he says, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." So this dispensation is founded upon an inward revelation of Jesus Christ. If you and I want to know what it is that we are supposed to be in, it is that.

Our true Christian life rests upon an inward revelation of God's Son. The Apostle Paul had come to see the immense significance of the Son of God. Here is a man who was absolutely intoxicated with Jesus Christ. In everything he saw Christ. And as we said yesterday, in this very short letter of Galatians, the name "Jesus Christ" occurs no fewer than forty-three times.

First, "IT PLEASED GOD TO REVEAL HIS SON IN ME." And then, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me." In that Cross of Christ, one man, Saul of Tarsus, has gone out. The Cross has dismissed one kind of man. And the resurrection has brought in another kind of man; and that other kind of man is Christ. So Christ takes the place of Saul of Tarsus. This is foundational, the basis of this whole dispensation. What an immense difference it would make if we saw Christ as Paul saw Him; it is hard work for our imagination to do that.

Paul had come to see Who Jesus of Nazareth was. You remember that on the Damascus road, when he said, "Who art Thou, Lord?" Jesus answered, "I am Jesus of Nazareth." He did not say, "I am the eternal Son of God." He did not say, "I am God Who became incarnate." He said, "I AM JESUS OF NAZARETH." And Paul was on the ground, he was helpless and blind. The brightness of THAT GLORY had laid him to the earth, and the very first sensation that this man had was, "This glory, this power, Jesus of Nazareth? Jesus of Nazareth, all this?" I say it is very difficult for us to understand. You remember some of the things that Paul wrote later about Christ? When he wrote his letter to the Philippians, he spoke of Jesus as, "before times eternal, existing as equal with God." He said, "He was on equality with God." And then, when he wrote his letter to the Colossians, he gave a matchless picture of Christ. He says that, "He was before all things, and all things were created through Him, whether things in heaven, or things in earth, whether principality, or power: all things had been created by Him, and through Him, and in Him all things consist. It was the pleasure of the Father that in Him should all the fullness dwell." And that is Jesus of Nazareth. You see, Paul had come to see the significance of God's Son.

Now just think of that again: Existing on equality with God; the instrument and the heir of all creation by the will of the Father; all things being put into Him by the appointment of the Father; He had to have the preeminence in all things, and on-and-on. This was the One Whom Paul, or Saul of Tarsus, and his friends and his nation crucified. Persecuting and crucifying God manifest in the flesh. Persecuting and crucifying the One Who created all things. See how vast this One is! Now here is a little man who is crucifying Him! Can you enter into that? Can you realize at all WHAT this man felt when he saw Who Jesus of Nazareth was? No wonder Paul wanted to be liberated from a system that could do that. Paul's whole being cried out, 'Let me be emancipated from a thing that can do that. Let me escape from a system that can do that.' No wonder this word "liberty" was such a big word with Paul. And no wonder Paul was so angry about this system. In this letter he says, "If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel than that which we preached, let him be anathema." And he said it again. He said, "I repeat that." How angry he was! The Gospel was the Gospel of God concerning His Son. Nowhere in all his writings, with all that he had to meet, is Paul found to be so angry as in this letter. He seems to throw all discretion to the winds. He completely discards all compromise. And he says, 'There can be no compromise with a system which can have this effect.'

Legalism always crucifies Christ afresh BECAUSE legalism cuts out the greatest word in Christianity. The word over the door into true Christianity is the word:"GRACE." Legalism always wipes out "Grace," and puts in its place "LAW."

Grace is the chief word in the vocabulary of the Christian. Do you notice that where legalism reaches its fullest expression, it always puts the crucifix in the place of the empty tomb? The badge of the Christian is the empty tomb. That is 'Life from the dead.' The badge of legalism is a crucifix, 'a dead Christ.' Legalism always brings death, and the chief thing about Christ is resurrection. It is Life from the dead. This was something that Paul came to see when it pleased God to reveal His Son in him. And he said, let me get out of all this legalistic system. Jesus of Nazareth Whom we crucified is alive. He has been revealed alive in my heart.

[Shammu]

The only true emancipation from all forms of legalism is to see Christ. Not all the forces in this world would have emancipated Saul of Tarsus from Judaism. The only thing that did that was seeing Jesus. And so, I repeat, the only thing that will emancipate us from all forms of dead legalism is to really see the Lord Jesus. And that would do it. It does not matter what you are bound by - a dead traditional Christianity, or any other kind of bondage. If you truly see the significance of the Lord Jesus, you will be emancipated. We must not go about telling people that they must come out of this and that. Whatever it may be, it is not our business to tell them they have got to come out of that and come into this. Let me emphasize that, that is not our business. If you do that sort of thing, you will only make matters very much worse. A great deal of mess and confusion always follows that sort of thing. Anyone who says, Now you must leave that and you must come into this is going to make trouble - trouble that will not glorify the Lord Jesus.

The thing that will do it for anyone is to really see Jesus. It is not our business to preach the church in the first place. You hear what I have said? It is not our business to go about the world preaching the church. Whether it be the Church universal or the church local. We are NOT commissioned to go and preach that. We shall never know what the Church is until we have seen Jesus, because Jesus is the Church in corporate expression, or to put it round the other way, the Church is the corporate expression of Jesus. We can never understand what the Church is until we understand Who Jesus is. Otherwise, the Church for us will be something so small, so limited, so exclusive. Jesus is not like that. How great He is! How wonderful He is! Paul says: "The Church is the fullness of Him That filleth all in all."

Now the Apostle Paul was the greatest teacher of the New Testament time on the matter of the Church. But his knowledge of the Church was the result of his seeing God's Son. You see the simple beginning of it. Jesus said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?" Saul might have said, "I am not persecuting you, Lord, I am persecuting these Christians." If he had said that, Jesus would have answered, "It is the same thing. I and these Christians are one body. You cannot touch a member of My body without touching Me." How true that is in the physical body. You take off your shoes, and you walk across the floor, and you come across a pin, and it pricks your little toe, the farthest, smallest extremity of your whole body. And you quickly lift up your foot. It hurts you. How do you know it hurts you? Because that farthest extremity of your body has a relationship with your head. When you say that has hurt me, you are saying it with your head. You see the point, you cannot touch the remotest part in the human body without touching the head. The whole nervous system of the body is centered in the head. So Jesus would have said, "It is the same thing. Touch one simple child of Mine and you touch Me." I think Saul of Tarsus never got a bigger surprise than he did when Jesus said that. When it was shown to him that to touch any of the simple Christians on the earth was to touch the glorified Son of God, that was the beginning of his understanding of the Church.

There is nothing legal about that; that is very spiritual. If we really see the Lord Jesus, we shall be emancipated. Some of us have had that experience. We were in legal systems; our horizon was that system. Then the day came when the Lord opened our eyes to really see the significance of Christ. And that whole system fell away as being all nonsense. No, it is not our business to say, 'Come out of this and that, and come into this other.' The word "must" or "thou shall" does not belong to this realm. That belongs to the old legal realm. The "must" becomes a spiritual thing, not a legal thing. We could say of Paul, there was a mighty "must" in his spirit. I have seen the Lord, and I am seeing more and more of what the Lord is, and this is creating in me this great imperative. "This one thing I do, leaving the things which are behind, I press on toward the mark of the prize of the on-high calling." So we do not say, 'Change your system.' But we do say, 'Ask the Lord to reveal His Son in you.' Then the great work of emancipation will begin.

I wonder if you have noted that whenever God made a new move, He always did it on the basis of His Son. Whether that move was a new phase entirely, or the recovering of something that was lost, He always put His Son in the front. The beginning of the Bible is God creating a new world. And He does it all in and through and by His Son. His Son is the Agent, the Instrument and the Pattern of the creation. Later on, when God was making another new move with Abraham, He constituted the life of Abraham upon the basis of His Son. Step by step He brought Abraham right up to the climax. And what was the climax? It was this, "Take now thy son, thine only son, whom thou lovest, and offer him a sacrifice." That was the climax of Abraham's life. All his life was gathered into that. In that step, Abraham entered right into the heart of God. "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son." The new move of God with Abraham was on the basis of God's Son.

The next great move of God was with Israel, the nation. The nation Israel is in bondage in Egypt. The emancipation of that nation from that bondage was on the basis of that Passover, the blood and the flesh of the Passover Lamb. God had put His Son right at the beginning of the national life. Having gotten them out of bondage on the basis of His Son, He constituted them in the wilderness on the basis of His Son. The tabernacle in the wilderness was a comprehensive and detailed representation of God's Son. Many years later, when that nation had departed from the Lord, and when every appeal to them had failed, God raised up the prophets. Now some prophets prophesied toward the captivity; and some prophesied as to that which looked beyond the captivity. But both of these sets of prophets always kept the Lord Jesus in view. Isaiah fifty-three is the great picture of the suffering Son and Servant of the Lord; and that looked beyond the captivity. You see, the history of these people was based upon the presentation of God's Son.

The next great movement of God in this world is the New Testament. It begins with the incarnation of the Son of God. It goes on to the resurrection of the Son of God. And it goes on to show that the full meaning of the Son of God is to be manifested through the Church. It is always God's Son in view. Every new movement of God is taken by a fresh presentation of Christ. In the first three chapters of the Book of the Revelation, Christ is seeking to bring back the churches to their former spiritual position. This is a move to try and recover what has been lost. And therefore you have in the first chapter that matchless presentation of Christ. What a wonderful description of Christ that is! Just read it again, every detail in that description is of some aspect to Christ. It is a symbolic, comprehensive presentation of the meaning of Christ. I think it is perfectly evident to us all, that from the Book of Genesis in the creation, to the Book of the Revelation at the end, God always moves on the ground of His Son.

So we come back to Paul, this is a new and mighty movement of God. It is the emancipation of a people from all the death of legalism. The people of Christ's day were as much in bondage to legalism as Israel was in bondage in Egypt. And the same God Who said to Moses, "I have seen the affliction of My people, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; and I am come down to deliver them. Come now therefore, and I will send you." The same God saw the bondage of the people to that legalistic system, laboring and heavy laden under the yoke of legalism. The same God said, "I am come down to deliver them." And as it were, He turned to Paul and said, "Come, and I will send you." A chosen vessel for the liberation of His people.

So great is this matter with God. Well, all these are gathered into these words, "It pleased God to reveal His Son in me." "I have been crucified with Christ" to the whole system of legalism. 'It is true that I am alive, and yet it is not I, but Christ Who liveth in me.' This is one more chapter on this very great question, 'What is Christianity?' Is it a legal system imposed upon God's people? Or is it a great liberating spiritual movement from heaven? The answer is found in this: "Have we really seen the Lord? Have we really seen the significance of Christ?" Only if we have, shall we be a free people. We will leave it there for this morning. If the Lord wills, tomorrow morning we shall deal with what I feel to be one of the most important aspects of this whole matter. It will be the real fundamental difference between the old and the new dispensation. So I suggest that you try to make time to read this letter again before tomorrow.

[Shammu]

Meeting 30 - The Rule of Heaven will Divide Between the Evil and the Good, Between the Leaven and the Unleavened Bread

Thirtieth Meeting
(February 27, 1964 P.M.)

The Gospel by Matthew, chapter thirteen, and verse thirty-three: "Another parable spake He unto them; 'The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till it was all leavened'" (ASV). This is the fourth parable on the kingdom, and like the ones before it, it has two interpretations. Bible teachers are quite divided on the meaning of this parable. The most popular interpretation is that the leaven is something good. Indeed, it is the Gospel of the Kingdom, and the Gospel of the Kingdom is going to spread all over the world until there is nothing bad left. Indeed, the world is going to become wholly good in this dispensation, I say, that is the most popular interpretation. It is popular because it is just what we would like it to be. We would very much like that to be true. But is that the true interpretation of the parable?

The much less popular interpretation is that the leaven is something bad. And that evil is going to spread more and more over all the world. Well, that is not a popular interpretation, and it is not popular because we do not like that idea. However, it is never a matter of whether a thing is popular or unpopular. A doctor's medicine is not a popular thing because we do not like it, but it is the right thing. And there are many quite nice things that are not good for us. So it does not depend upon whether the thing is popular. The thing is, is it true? Which is the right interpretation?

For myself, I come down on the second interpretation; that the leaven is not something good, but something evil. And I am going to tell you why I believe that is the true interpretation. If you look into your Bible, and trace this word leaven all the way through, beginning with the first mention of leaven in the Book of Exodus, chapter twelve, and moving right through the Bible, until you come to the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter five, you will find that with one possible exception, leaven is always something bad. It is always something which God will not allow. In the Old Testament, God gave very, very careful instructions about leaven. The passover bread was to be unleavened bread. In every Jewish household, to this day, on the eve of the passover they light a lamp and the wife or mother takes the broom and sweeps every room and every corner to see if she can find any leaven. This is what they believe to be God's attitude toward leaven. So that wherever this word is used right through the Bible, it is almost, if not altogether, an evil thing.

You will remember that when we were speaking about the parable of the mustard seed, we pointed to the law of consistency. And we said that Jesus in His teaching never contradicted Himself. Never did He, in one address, use the same thing for two opposite meanings. So when we had the parable of the darnel (the tares), the darnel was the work of the evil one. When we had the parable of the mustard seed, the birds of the air which lodged in that tree are the same birds as in the parable of the sower. In the parable of the sower, Jesus said, "The birds of the air are the evil ones." In the parable of the darnel, it was an evil one that did this thing. The law of consistency demands that we interpret this parable of the leaven as being something evil. Jesus is teaching that in this dispensation, we are to expect to find evil things in this world.

Now you notice that these parables all relate to this present age. And in the last parable, the parable of the drag-net, Jesus says, at the end of the age, He will send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that make to stumble. The law of consistency demands that we say, they will gather out all the leaven and destroy it. Now I want to know where you stand on this matter. If these parables relate to this present age, which ends with the coming again of the Lord Jesus, is it true that the whole world is being converted? Is it true that all evil is being taken out of this world in this age? Is it true that the leaven of the Gospel is transforming the whole of this world and nothing evil is left in it? Is there anyone here tonight who believes that? If I ask for a vote, I am quite sure that everybody would say, 'There is more evil in the world today than ever there was.'

The final argument is this, the Bible does not teach that the whole world is going to be saved in this dispensation. But it does teach that "evil men will wax worse and worse." It does teach that "because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold." So we are thrown back upon this second interpretation. We come down upon what the Bible says about this. The leaven represents evil, and leaven is everywhere forbidden in relation to the things of God. I can only make that statement, but if you would like to look at your Bible, you will find it is quite true.

[Shammu]

So we are going to first of all look at the nature and the effects of leaven. Of course, you know what leaven is and what it is used for. If the brothers do not know, the sisters do. It is that which you put into the dough to make your bread. But what is its nature and what are its effects? First of all, leaven always sets up fermentation. Have you seen the effect of the leaven when it is put into the dough? The dough was a very quiet thing until you put the leaven in. There is no disturbance and no excitement until you put the leaven in the dough. But as soon as you have put the leaven in, you find something begins to work up excitement. Everything becomes disturbed. This leaven stirs up everything. Now you know that this is the same principle of alcoholic liquor. Alcohol is simply another form of leaven. And you know quite well that if you take alcohol, you begin to get excited. There is an inward disturbance. And if you take too much, you lose your senses, and then want to fight, and a lot of disturbance takes place. This thing ruins homes. It ruins lives. It ruins businesses. Indeed, alcohol is a curse. And that is only another name for leaven, for it is the same thing. That is the nature of leaven, and those are the effects of leaven to begin with. Just keep that in mind and we will come back to it.

The next effect of leaven is inflation; it makes things unnaturally big. I have noticed that in your market and outside your churches there are a lot of men selling balloons, hundreds and hundreds of balloons. Well, they are made to look very attractive with many pretty colors, but what are they? Well, you take this very thin skin and you begin to blow into it. You fill it with wind and you make it larger and larger with wind. And then you take a very little pin, and you prick it, and the whole thing is gone. It is an artificial inflation that cannot stand up to anything. It is something which has been made unnaturally big. An artificial increase of size.

When I was a very little child, I was sometimes sent to stay with my grandmother. And on Friday night, in the kitchen, the servants always made the bread for the next week. They made the dough in a big bowl, and having put the leaven in, they worked it with their hands and with their fingers, and then they just put it in the bottom of the bowl and they covered the whole thing over with a cloth, and they went to bed. The next morning I was up early, I went into the kitchen and I lifted the cloth, and the dough had filled the whole basin. In the dark, it had grown and grown. It had become something very big, the leaven made it do that. Hold that and we will come back to it.

Another thing that leaven does, it breaks things up, it disintegrates. You see the holes coming in the bread. The leaven tears the dough asunder. It makes the loaf into a thing with many, many parts and many holes in it. It just breaks things up and divides. Hold that and we will come back to that.

Then the last thing, unleavened bread is not very pleasant to the taste. Leaven is put in to make the bread taste nice. It is something to make an appeal to the natural taste. Unleavened bread is not very nice to taste, and so that we may be very pleased, we put leaven in. It appeals to our natural taste.

Now do you see the meaning, the nature and effects of leaven? There has come into this universe something that disturbs the universe. All these terrible wars, about which you know something, are the result of this disturbing influence which has come into the universe. There is something in this universe that stirs up human nature. Like alcohol, it makes men fight against one another. It keeps the world in unrest. It produces all this excitement of the human evil nature. Then, again, this something that has come into this universe results in an enlargement that is quite unnatural - a false development. That is a thing that we have seen in these last few years. In the case of the wars, there has been an attempt to develop this world in an unnatural way. Anything that results in unnatural development and enlargement is evil.

The Apostle Paul said, "Through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." Anything that makes us unnaturally big is evil. Whether it be the individual life, or whether it be what is called the work of God, trying to make it bigger than its real spiritual measure, inflating it beyond its genuine spiritual degree, that is something evil, that is leaven.

Anything that results in divisions and breaking up - disintegration is evil. Do not let us excuse our divisions. Do not let us look favorably upon the divisions amongst the Lord's people. If there are only two of us who are divided, let us not make excuses for that, let us say, 'This is wrong, this is evil, this ought not to be, there is some evil at work to divide us.' And what may be true between just two people, is true amongst all the Lord's people. We must not look upon divisions as being good, they are bad. And we must know that God is against divisions. He does not accept this working of leaven.

Then what about this leaven that makes things appeal to our natural taste? Paul said to Timothy, "The time will come when they will not endure sound teaching; and they will heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." And he goes on to say that they will believe the lie instead of the truth. Why is that? Because these teachers appeal to the natural life. These teachers cover over evil. Indeed, they will sometimes call evil good. People do not like the teachers who tell them what is wrong, that this thing and that thing are contrary to God. They like leavened bread, it pleases the flesh.

Well, these are the effects of leaven. And I am quite sure that there is no one here tonight who will argue that any of those things are good. You see, it is all bad. Now let us look at the symbolism of leaven: We will listen to the Lord Jesus and then to the Apostle Paul on this matter. Jesus gave three warnings to His disciples. First, He said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees. Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees." And what did He say was the leaven of the Pharisees? He said, it is hypocrisy - pretending to be something that you are not, something that is quite artificial and unreal. You have only got to watch those Pharisees to see it. They make long prayers in public. They look at a poor sinner and they say, "O God, I thank thee that I am not like that man." They send somebody in front of them to blow a trumpet and say this wonderful righteous man is coming along; Jesus says, it is all hypocrisy. It is all false and unreal. And if there was one thing that Jesus hated more than another, it was unreality - pretending to be something that you are not, making a lot of noise amongst the people of God with nothing behind it. Indeed, the life behind is quite a contradiction.

[Shammu]

Well, that is capable of a very wide application, but that is the principle of the Pharisees. Jesus said, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." I do not know what the word means in your language, but in the Bible language, it means, acting a part. It is the picture of an actor on the stage. He may be dressed up to represent a great king, but he is not a great king. It is only his dress. Or he may be there acting the part of something else, but he is not that something else. He is just pretending to be that. And that is the real meaning of the word hypocrisy. Jesus said, "Beware of play-acting in the things of God."

The second warning was, "Beware of the leaven of the Sadducees." Now we are told that the Sadducees did not believe in angels or spirit or resurrection. They said, 'There are no such things as angels, there is no such thing as spirit, there is no such thing as resurrection.' What did that mean? They ruled out the whole reality of the supernatural. They set aside everything that was spiritual. Therefore, they were pure materialists. They lived only for the present time because they did not believe there was anything afterward. They lived only for this world because they did not believe there is another one. For them, there was nothing supernatural, all was now - just material - in this life on the earth.

You see, that is a very convenient philosophy of life. It is very convenient for this reason, that it will not accept future judgment. If there is no resurrection, if there is no life after this one, if there is no other world after this one, then there is no such thing as judgment. Judgment goes, that is a very convenient doctrine. Jesus says, 'Beware of that'; there is such a thing as the supernatural. God Himself is Spirit, He is the greatest reality in this universe. There is a life after this, for we shall all be raised: "Those that have done evil, unto the resurrection of condemnation, and those that have done good, unto the resurrection of life." Jesus says, 'Beware of anything that contradicts those great realities.'

Then He gave a third warning. He said to His disciples, "Beware of the leaven of Herod." What kind of leaven is the leaven of Herod? Herod was a man who believed in great worldly splendor. He ruled his world by a great show of magnificence. Everything that looked wonderful was Herod's idea. His was a reign of earthly glory. But this other thing also comes to life with regard to Herod; behind all that outward show, was a life which was absolutely corrupt. John the Baptist told Herod of his corrupt life, and Herod beheaded John the Baptist. Here is a life of outward show, with the inward life absolutely corrupt. Jesus says, 'Beware of anything like that. That is leaven. It must not come into touch with any of the things of God.'

The scribes and the Pharisees came to Jesus one day, and they said to Him, 'Be gone, get away, Herod will kill You.' Of course, they wanted to get rid of Jesus. What did Jesus say? "Go and tell that fox, that I work today and tomorrow, and the third day I am perfected." Go and tell that fox. You know what a fox is? Well, he is one who makes a great show, a great pretense. He looks like a very nice animal. But you let him get in amongst your chickens and see what he will do. His nature is a contradiction to his appearance. Jesus says, "Beware of that leaven."

Now just a word about this that Paul has to say. In 1 Corinthians, chapter five, you have it. Something had happened in the church of Corinth. A man had committed fornication, and by his fornication he had brought evil into the church, and the church had not done anything about it. The church had not taken account of this evil as represented by this man. They let him stay there. They even let him come to the Lord's Table. A man whose background of life was evil. Now Paul wrote to the church about that man. And he said to the church, 'You must judge this thing, and you must put that man out and forbid him the Lord's Table until he repents, because he is leaven, and he defiles the whole church by his presence, and the presence of that evil is robbing the church of its spiritual power.' So Paul says, "Purge out the old leaven." Fornication and uncleanness must not come into the house of God. And, it certainly must not come to the Lord's Table. And Paul says the church is responsible for dealing with that thing. While the church allows that, the church is defiled, God's blessing cannot be upon it. It will, therefore, lose its spiritual life and its spiritual strength. Purge out the old leaven, all that sort of thing is just the working of evil in the church.

Now we must gather this up and come to a close. In the parable of the leaven, Jesus is saying that right through this present age until He comes again, this thing will be in the world. Evil will spread everywhere like leaven. But as in the other parables, Jesus said about the sower and the seed, that while three parts of it would be bad, there would be a fourth part that would be good. As in the parable of darnel, there was the work of the evil one, but there were also the children of the Kingdom. So in this parable, He says, there will be leaven, will be corruption and defilement everywhere, but the teaching of the New Testament is: Keep yourselves pure. See that your garments are not spotted. Walk in this sinful world as those who do not belong to its nature. Although there is leaven everywhere, you be the unleavened bread. But, the world may not like you, the world will not like unleavened bread. It does not please the flesh, but the bread which is pure is pleasing to God. And in the end, He will gather out all that which offends. He will gather out the offending leaven, and He will burn it with unquenchable fire; but the children of the Kingdom, the unleavened bread of God, the pure in heart and in life, He will gather into His eternal Kingdom.

The Rule of Heaven will divide between the evil and the good, between the leavened and the unleavened bread. I think you will agree that this is the right interpretation of the parable. Because it is true to the Bible, it is true to history, it is true to what we see in the world; but it carries the warning, let us offer to God that which has none of this leaven in it.

[Shammu]

Meeting 31 - The Holy Spirit Came Especially for the Purpose of Creating a Spiritual Order of Things

Thirty-First Meeting
(February 28, 1964 A.M.)

This morning we come to what I feel to be one of the most important messages that we have been giving. We have been seeing that the Letter to the Galatians is a concentration of the great change which took place with the coming of the Lord Jesus. That is, that the coming of Christ into this world changed the dispensations, and changed the whole nature of things. So that Christ stands as the dividing of two whole systems. The whole system of Judaism which had existed up to the time of His coming was set aside when He came. From that time, as He said, a new order was introduced, and that is represented by His repeated phrase, "The hour cometh and now is." Now this morning, we are going to consider the essential nature of that great divide. How the new dispensation and the new order differs from the old. This is a matter of supreme importance for us here this morning, and for all Christians if only they would accept it, because Christianity as we know it has been largely constituted on the old dispensation. The great difference between the old and the new has not been fully recognized. So let us get to business and try to understand the difference between the old and the new.

The obvious nature of the old Jewish dispensation was that it was all in the realm of the natural senses. Firstly, it was in the realm of physical senses. Everything was a matter of seeing with the physical eye, of hearing with the physical ear, of feeling with the physical hand. It was something that could be touched, something that was tangible, something that you could put your hand upon. And then it was a matter of physical smelling. You see, the offering and the incense were a matter of physical smelling. They could smell the sweet incense. And then it was a matter of physical tasting. All the feasts of the Jews were a matter of tasting. That needs no argument; that is perfectly clear and simple. To begin with, their whole system rests upon the physical senses.

But it did not stay there, it also went into the realm of the soul. We understand the soul to be composed of three things, reason and emotion and will, that which appeals to the natural reason, and that which appeals to the natural feeling, and that which appeals to the natural will. So you see that body and soul governed everything. God gave them a tabernacle that they could see and handle; God gave them the incense that they could smell; God gave them the feasts that they could taste; however, they were blind to the meaning of these things. In brief, that was the nature of everything in the old Jewish system.

We pass over to see the difference in the new spiritual order. What is the essential nature of that which has come in with Jesus Christ? It is a spiritual order. It is no longer a matter of the natural senses. This whole new order begins at another point. Now we are keeping very close to the Letter to the Galatians. I suppose it would not be fair if I were to ask you how many have read the Letter to the Galatians right through this week. One of the advantages of knowing the Word of God is that you are able to see what is right. There are many other advantages. But in this Letter to the Galatians, the word "Spirit" occurs twelve times, and that is very largely the key to the letter. It is no longer after the flesh, it is now after the Spirit. This is essentially a spiritual dispensation that has come in.

You will remember our message on the words of the Lord Jesus to the woman of Samaria. She had said, 'Men ought to worship in this mountain, and you Jews said, men ought to worship in Jerusalem.' "Jesus said, 'Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father... God is Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."' That is the nature of what has come in with Jesus Christ. We know from the Word of God, and I trust from our own experience, that men are not born of the flesh in relation to God: But they are born of the Spirit. Not of a man but of the Spirit, that which is born of the Spirit, said, Jesus, "is SPIRIT."

In the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter twelve, the writer speaks of the Father of our spirits. He is not the Father of our bodies. He is not the Father of our natural souls. He is the Father of our spirits. We are going to come back to that later on. But what is it that happens when we are born of the Spirit? What really is the nature of the new birth? This is, of course, the very meaning of the advent of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came especially for the purpose of creating a spiritual order of things. And He begins with the individual. The word to each individual is, "You must be born again," and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. What then happens when we are born of the Spirit? When we are truly born of the Spirit, we receive a new set of spiritual senses. They correspond in purpose to the old senses. But they are spiritual and not physical.

We, by the Holy Spirit, receive a new faculty of sight. You know how much there is in the New Testament about having our eyes opened. Jesus pointed to this principle by opening the eyes of the blind. He was illustrating the great spiritual truth that in the new creation, we get a new faculty of sight. And every truly born again child of God ought to be able to say, "Whereas I was blind, now I see." The truth about a child of God is that their first thing is, "Now I see." They have received the faculty of spiritual sight. It goes by different names in the New Testament. Sometimes it is called spiritual discernment. Sometimes it is spiritual understanding. Sometimes it is spiritual perception. But whatever the name is, it means the same thing. I now see what I was never able to see before as to the true meaning of Divine things. I was born blind, but the Holy Spirit has performed the great miracle of giving me new eyes.

This spiritual faculty of sight has introduced us to a new world altogether, not the material world, but the spiritual world. Listen to what the Apostle Paul says about this, he says, 'Things which eye did not see, things which ear did not hear, things which entered not into the heart of man, these things God has revealed to us by His Spirit.'

The first faculty of new birth is spiritual sight. Can you see the difference between the old dispensation and the new? You see, Israel had all these things which they could see with their natural eyes. They could see the tabernacle or the temple. They could see the priests and the sacrifices. They could see the feasts. But they were totally blind to the meaning of those things. And because they were blind to the meaning, they crucified the One Who fulfilled them all. With all their power of natural sight, they were spiritually blind. So the first work of the Holy Spirit in new birth is to give us new spiritual eyes.