Books by T. Austin-Sparks

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Meeting 37 - What is True in the Lord Jesus Has Got to be True in Us

Thirty-Seventh Meeting
(March 6, 1964 P.M.)

Read: 1 John 1:1-5

We are continuing with our meditation in the First Letter of John. I hope you are not tired of reading the first verses of this letter. It is important for us to notice how John begins what he has to say. So will you please look at these verses again. Well, we have been seeing that John wrote this letter to confirm the people of God in Christ. I am not so much concerned with giving you a lot more teaching as I am that you should really get hold of what John is really saying. John was trying to save the Lord's people in a difficult day from uncertainty. When everything was in a state of uncertainty, John was seeking to confirm believers in Christ, and that is the object of this whole letter.

Now that helps us to understand how he begins. You see, John gathers up everything into one matter. He bases everything upon a practical, personal experience of Christ. In these first verses, John repeats himself again and again, he says, 'That which we have seen and heard and beheld and handled, THAT is what we declare unto you.' If you can say, I have seen, I have heard, I have handled, that means you have got a personal experience. That is not mere theory, that is not just doctrine, that is not something that you heard from someone else. That is something which has come into your own hand and you can say, 'I have handled that.' That is as real to me as any thing that I can take hold of with my hands. John says, "THAT which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." You notice he uses that word "declare" twice. John does not say, "I am going to argue about this. I am going to enter into some debate on this matter. No, this is something that I declare unto you." The apostles never went out into the world to argue about something. They never went out to try and influence people to a teaching. They never tried to influence people to a way of doing things. Their method was not argument at all. It was a declaration of the facts. It was what they called, "testimony." It was what they called, "evidence."

Now in the Letters of John, we have seen that John uses the phrase "this is" ten times, and he links that "this is" with ten things. And the word "evidence" is one of these ten things: "THIS IS the evidence." What is evidence? What is testimony? What is a declaration? I wonder if you have ever been in a court of law as a witness. You have been called to be a witness about some case, and there is the magistrate, and here are all the other people who are going to listen to what you have got to say. If you began by saying, Well, somebody told me this, I heard it said by other people, I have an idea that it was like this. What would the magistrate say? He would simply say, My good man, or my good woman, we are not here to listen to what other people told you, we are here in order that you might give us first hand personal evidence. We want to know what you have seen. If you cannot tell us what you have seen, please stand down, we do not want to listen to you. We want evidence, not theory. We want first hand proof, not what you have got second hand.

So John says, "This is the evidence. This is the witness." He brings everything back to practical experience. And he says to these people who are not quite sure about their position, we have heard, we have seen, we do know, and we declare that unto you. In this letter, John brings everything to the test of personal experience. That is what John means by light. We have got to walk in the Light. We have not to write a treatise on illumination. We have not to write books about the wonderful thing called light. We have not to study the science of light. We have got to walk in the Light. That is something very practical. That is bringing light into experience. That is coming ourselves into the experience of light.

So John begins by saying that this is the message, "That God is Light." What is your idea of God? Some great wonderful Being far away Who cannot be known, some great object somewhere Who must be worshipped. Is that your idea of God? Why does John put God right at the very first sentence of his letter? Because God is a Great Present reality. God is right here to experience. John had had a great experience of God. And he says, 'The only way to escape from uncertainty is to have a real experience of God.' I think we Christians have lost a good deal of the sense of the greatness and the reality of God. We ask the Lord to be Present with us when we gather together. Who are we asking to be Present? If we realized Who God is, we might behave very differently when we are together.

Let me try to help you to understand this by telling you a story. There was a great American preacher. He was really a great servant and saint of the Lord. He was the minister of a very large church in the city of Boston. It was a wonderful building, very beautifully decorated, it had a wonderful organ, and a wonderful choir, and a very large congregation, and he was the minister of that church. And he wrote this story -

He said: One Saturday, as I was sitting at my desk, preparing my sermon for the Lord's Day, I got tired and I fell asleep, and I had a dream. I dreamed that I was in my pulpit in my church. The choir was in its place. The congregation filled all the seats. And I was preaching. As I began to preach, the door at the back of the church opened, and a stranger came in. He looked everywhere to find a seat. And then the man at the door just led him to one empty seat. Something drew my attention to that stranger. He had in his face the marks of a great sorrow. It seemed that he had been through some great suffering, and yet, there was something very beautiful about his face.

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And I found that all the time I was preaching, my eyes continually went in the direction of that stranger. There was something about him that I could not take my eyes away from. And I decided that when the service was over, I would find out who that stranger was. I would get down to the door and I would shake his hand. Well, I preached my sermon, the choir sang, the congregation sang the closing hymn, and then I pronounced the blessing, and the people began to go out, and I hurried down to get to the door to speak to that stranger, but before I could get there, he was gone. I said to the man at the door, 'Do you know who that stranger was?' The man at the door said, 'Oh, yes, don't you know who that was? That was Jesus of Nazareth.' I said, 'Oh, why did you let Him go, I would like to have spoken to Him.' The man at the door said, 'Oh, don't worry. He has been here once, He will come again.'

And the preacher said, I went home, I sat down in my room, and I said to myself, 'Jesus of Nazareth has been in my church today. What did He think of our wonderful building? What did He think of the congregation? What did He think about the way our ladies were dressed? What did He think about the way in which they sang those wonderful hymns about Himself? What did He think about our choir and our organ? What did He think about our worship when we used His name so often? But most of all, what did He think about my preaching? I was preaching about Him. What did He think about what I was saying of Him? And then he said, I woke up. It was a dream. But he said, "It made all the difference to my ministry for the rest of my life."

Now it is true, that every time we gather together in His name, He is there. He has promised to be there. But oh, that my people would always realize Who is Present. How differently they would behave! How punctual they would be in coming to the service. They would say, Jesus is going to be there this morning, we must not be late. And every time we use His name, we should know that He is hearing us! What was it the man at the door said? He has been here once. He will come again.

Dr. A. J. Gordon, who was the man of whom I am speaking, wrote two books. One was about the Lord Jesus coming into this world and being here, the other one was about His coming again. Those two books were born of his dream. Well, you may say that was only a dream; but is there not some truth in it? Why do we ask the Lord to be with us when we gather together, if we do not believe that He is truly Present, although unseen, as ever He was when He was on this earth. Can it be true that Jesus of Nazareth - crucified, risen, glorified - is here in this place tonight? Is that possible? That ought to make a very big difference to us in every way.

It all comes to this, that our Christianity has got to be something very real. It is not to be just something that is a theory, a doctrine, something we have got from someone else. It has got to be something real to us personally. And I have made a mistake. I have used the wrong word. I have said, "It" has got to be real. I ought to have said, "HE" OUGHT TO BE REAL. To Dr. Gordon, the Presence of Jesus that morning was not the Presence of an "It," it was a "HE."

So John brings everything to that test, the test of experience, the test of that which we have seen, that which we have heard, and that which our hands have handled. There is a way, dear friends, in which that can be as true as it was with John. It is possible. It ought to be actual. That you and I can say, I have seen the Lord Jesus. Not with these natural eyes, but nevertheless, truly I have seen the Lord. The Lord has revealed Himself to me. I have heard Him speaking. He has become as real to me as anything that I can handle. Everything is tested by experience.

Well, there were all these theories abroad, all these different teachings, all these interpretations, but John says, "Bring them all back to this test." The proof of everything is: Is Christ a personal experience in your life. That is what John meant by light. Really walking in the Light of a personal knowledge of the Lord Jesus.

Then if you look at this letter again, you will see that John passes very quickly from light to truth. Truth is one of the major things in this letter. Five times He speaks of that which is true, he says, "This which is true in Him and in you. This is the true God." Five times he uses the word "TRUE." But then, eight times he uses the word "TRUTH." I think in my arithmetic, eight and five make thirteen. Thirteen times in a short letter, the apostle speaks about that which is true. Then he put something over against that. Eight times he uses the word "LIE" and "LIAR." So he sets that which is true over against that which is a lie. I leave you to look at the various references. You will find a great deal of instruction if you just follow the word "Truth" through. Truth is set over against everything that is untrue.

What is truth? Truth is that which is real. Truth is reality. Truth is honesty. Truth is openness and clearness. What is the opposite of truth? It is that which is false. That which is unreal, that which is an imitation, that which is pretending, that which is hypocrisy, that which is deception, that which is not single but double. That is the opposite to truth.

Now he comes back and says, "God is true, this is the true God." Christ is true and not false. There is no deception about Him. There is no unreality about Christ. There is no hypocrisy about Christ. There is no lie in Christ. Satan is the liar. He is the untrue one. He tore this creation into pieces by a lie. He told Adam a lie, and Adam believed that lie. And the whole creation was ruined. Everything was destroyed by an untruth. Everything went to pieces because of untruth.

Now John is saying, in order to destroy the works of the devil, we must have our feet firmly based on truth. What is true in the Lord Jesus has got to be true in us. Dear friends, you and I have got to be absolutely true. There must be no falsehood about us, no pretending to be something that we are not, no trying to make other people believe something about us that is not true. There must be nothing of Satan's lie about us. In every way, we must be true. There must be nothing unreal about us. And again John says, "This is the proof that Christ is in us." If we are a lie, then we are a contradiction to Christ. If ours is only a profession and not a reality, that is a contradiction to Christ. Christ is the truth. And if He dwells in us, He will make us true. And we shall hate everything that is false and a lie.

Now you must be very patient with me and forgive me for being so strong on this matter, because we are dealing with something that is very vital. I have just said that it was by a lie that this whole creation was torn to pieces. Everything was ruined because of untruth. Even God Almighty will not hold anything together if there is a lie in it. If there is any falsehood anywhere in us, or in our company, sooner or later we are going to pieces.

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Have you seen a big building that has become out of the straight? It has sunk down a bit. And there are cracks in the building and cracks in the wall. What are you going to do about it? If that is your property, you will do something about it. Perhaps you will fill up the cracks in the walls and in the ceiling. And then you will paint it over, and you think it is all right. That is hypocrisy. What is the cause of the cracks? There is something false in the foundation. And in the course of time, the lie that is in the foundation is manifested in the building.

In the country where I have spent much of my life, the country of Scotland, we have a great many big trees. And we have some big storms in that country. And after one of these storms, you can go along the road and see many of these great trees lying on the ground with their roots in the air. How do you explain that? Do you begin to blame the tree? You say, that is a silly tree to have tumbled down like that. No, what you really say is, there was something wrong with the roots. The roots had not gone deep enough, the roots had not got a tight enough hold. And when the wind blows, the weakness in the roots became manifested.

You see, it is the foundation or the roots that are the truth. If there is anything false there, someday it will be manifested. The building will not be able to stand. The tree will not be able to endure the storm. And that is only what John is saying in another way. You Christians are just being knocked all over the place. There are these winds of doctrine, there are these storms of opposition, there are all these difficulties arising, and many of you are just going to pieces. The reason is that there is somewhere in the foundation an untruth; somewhere behind your life there is something false. And if that is true, even God will not keep it going. When the lie came in through Adam, God did not stop the break up of the creation. God wanted to show mankind for all time that a lie is a disastrous thing. Anything false can ruin everything. The world just declares that truth. That where there is not the truth, things cannot stand.

But there is the other side to this, they that are in the truth in Christ will endure forever. Their life will not be broken. Their work will not be destroyed. The values of their testimony will last for all eternity. How important, then, it is that at every point in every detail, we should be true. There should be nothing false about it. We shall only hold together in the truth.

Now I just want to finish in these last few minutes by pointing you to something that John brings up in this connection. Indeed, he brings up two things. One of them I will mention now, and perhaps the other one we will deal with tomorrow night, if the Lord wills. In chapter two of this letter, verse twenty, "But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." And verse twenty-seven, "But the anointing which ye have received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in Him." Now you see there, the connection between the anointing and the truth. The anointing is far too big a matter for us to begin to consider tonight, but I can say this in a very few words. How shall we know what is true? How shall we know that we are in the truth and the truth is in us? How shall we know what is true and what is a lie?

John says the answer to that is, "The Anointing which is in you." In other words, the Holy Spirit in you will make you know. He will make you know what is true and what is false. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, Jesus called Him that. If He is in us, then He is in us as the Spirit of truth. The Bible says: "The Spirit Himself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God." It is by the witness of the Holy Spirit in our hearts that we know we are children of God. The true children of God know by the witness of the Holy Spirit in them that they are children of God. If the Holy Spirit is in us, and if we are not grieving the Spirit, if we are not putting something in the way of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will bear witness with our spirit as to what is true and what is not true. This is the Word of God. Oh, then, how important it is that we know the meaning of the anointing within.

Do you know that word "ANOINTING" is only an enlargement of the word "CHRIST?" The name "Christ" means: "The Anointed One." The anointing means the extension of Christ. The same Holy Spirit as was in Jesus Christ is in all His born again children. Paul says, we are anointed in Him. That means that the "Anointed One" is in us, and we share His anointing. Now in Him is no lie. He is the truth. If He is in us, He will bear witness to the truth. We ought to be so sensitive to the Holy Spirit that when we say something that is not true, we know we have said something not true. When we meet something that is false, we know inwardly that is not true. What a different situation there would be amongst Christians, if it was always this way. Well, John says, 'The anointing in you teacheth you all things, and He is true and no lie.'

So then, to be established in Christ, we must know what it means really to have the Holy Spirit in us. That brings us back to where we began. The test of everything is experience. It is not the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. It is not books on the Holy Spirit. It is the personal indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Oh, what a lot I would like to say about that to you. But how very careful our leaders ought to be to make sure that every young Christian knows that the Holy Spirit is dwelling within, that every child of God really knows what it means to have the Holy Spirit dwelling within. That is a solemn responsibility resting upon all teachers of the Lord's people. But even if our teachers fail, that does not excuse us. John is not talking about the teaching of the Holy Spirit, he is talking about the experience of the Holy Spirit. He says, 'The anointing which is in you teacheth you all things, and He is true and no lie.' I can only trust that He, the Holy Spirit, will make us understand what has been said tonight.

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Meeting 38 - Life is the Basis of Everything

Thirty-Eighth Meeting
(March 7, 1964 P.M.)

We will turn to the First Letter of John. And as this is the last of our evenings together on this letter, we come to the last chapter of this letter. Chapter five and verses nine through thirteen.

"If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God."

THIS IS THE WITNESS, or as we said last night this is the evidence. In this last chapter, the apostle is gathering up everything that he has written in the letter. As we have said, John wrote this letter because the faith of many Christians was being shaken. Their faith with regard to God was being shaken. And their faith with regard to Jesus Christ as the Son of God was being shaken. So John wrote this letter to confirm the faith of the believers. He says, then, finally this is the evidence. This is the witness, firstly as to God, and then as to His Son Jesus Christ. Then he says this witness or this evidence has got to be inside the believer. And here he has these two fragments, "This is the witness that ye may know." That is what we read just now. This is the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son, and these things have I written that you may know. What is the witness? What is it that we are to know? The answer is in one word, and that word is "LIFE." "This is the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son, that He hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life, and he that hath not the Son, hath not the life. And I have written that you may know that you have eternal life." So the evidence is in our possession of what is called eternal life. We are going to spend our time this evening looking into this word, "Life."

I expect most of you who are believers, believe that you have eternal life. You believe that when you came to receive the Lord Jesus into your life, you were given something called eternal life.

Well, all true believers in the Lord Jesus believe that they have eternal life. But, if I came to every one of you believers and asked the question, "What is that life that you have got?" I wonder what your answer would be? If I say now, you believe that you have eternal life, please describe to me what eternal life is. Well, that would not be so easy. You might have some difficulties in giving an answer. You would say, "Well, I believe I have got eternal life, because the Bible says if I believe on the Lord Jesus, I am given eternal life. But if you ask me to explain what that life is, I am afraid I cannot answer it." Or perhaps you just underline the word, "eternal." And you would say, "Well, I suppose eternal life means that life goes on forever." Of course that life does go on forever, but that is not just the meaning of eternal life that it goes on after death. It means very much more than that. It is not only the extent of life, IT IS THE NATURE OF LIFE. THIS IS A SPECIAL KIND OF LIFE.

May I just say here that I know that Saturday night is the young people's night, and I see a large number of young people here. While I am speaking to everybody, I am having the young people very much in mind. So I want to try and explain this matter quite simply. And we are asking the question, "What is this life that God has given to us in His Son Jesus Christ?" We begin to answer that question by noting one word. John says, "I have written these things that ye may know that ye have eternal life." So we begin with that word "KNOW." That you may know that you have eternal life. Not only that you believe that you have eternal life, not only that the Bible says that you have eternal life, not only that the preacher preaches to you about eternal life, but, "That ye know that ye have eternal life." And this life is inside of you, you know it is inside of you.

So this life, this eternal life in the first place is a new consciousness. You are really aware in yourself that you have got eternal life. To you this is not a theory, it is not a teaching, but it is an experience. First of all, you are able to say, "I know that I have eternal life." The explanation of what that life is comes later on, but because we do not understand it, and because we cannot explain it, that does not mean we have not got it.

Now look at a new born baby. If it is a healthy baby, one thing about it at the beginning is that it is all alive. It will let you know that it is alive by the noise it makes. It will let you know it is alive by the way in which it throws arms and legs about. Somehow it knows that it is alive, and you know that it is alive. There are many evidences that it is alive.

This is the evidence - "Life." Now when we receive this eternal life, we do not, any more than a little baby, understand what we have got. We cannot explain it, but we know we have got it. We are aware that something has come into us, which was not there before. Some new strong energy has entered into us. It has taken hold of our consciousness. And if anybody asks us anything about it, the only thing we can say is, "I cannot explain it, but I know I have got it." That is the beginning of the Christian life. It is a new consciousness, a new awareness of something having come in that was not there before. The evidence or the witness is in ourselves. John says, "That ye may know." And the true believer ought to be able to say, 'Yes, I do know that I have eternal life.'

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Then in the next place, this Life gives us an altogether new direction. First, it is a new consciousness, and then it is a new direction. This power that has come into us in this Life, sets us in a certain new direction. In the New Testament, and in our common language, we use the word "converted." We speak of someone who has been saved as having been converted. Jesus spoke about being converted. Well, what does converted mean? It just simply means turning right around and going in the opposite direction from that in which you were going before. If you were going that way, now you turn right around and go this way. And it is this Life that has done that. It just turns you right around and gives you a new direction. The old ways which you used to follow are now behind you. And your ways which are before, are all new ways. That is the second fact about eternal life. And if that is not true, there is something wrong with our conversion. It is not conversion at all. It is only profession.

I remember when I was a young man newly saved. There was a great Christian Society for young people. It still goes on in England and America today. It was called, "The Society of Christian Endeavor." And all the young people who joined the Christian Endeavor were given a badge to wear on their coat, or on their dress. It was a little badge of two letters in English. C for Christian, and E for Endeavor. These two letters were put together in a silver badge. And these young people wore the badge.

Now one day there was a young fellow wearing the badge. He went along the road, and came to a theater, where there was something quite worldly and not good going on. And he stopped for a moment, and then he walked toward the door to go into the theater. There was a big man in uniform standing at the door. And he looked down at the young man, and he pointed to the badge, he said, "Young man, this is no place for you. If you want to go in there, you had better take that badge off." You see, it was a contradiction of his profession. And a man of the world knew the difference. The man of the world knew that there is a difference between a Christian and a kind of people that went into that theater. That young man was denying his testimony. On his coat he had a testimony in metal. In his life he was contradicting the testimony on his coat. And you know the world is very wise about these things. The world knows that a Christian ought to be different, that the Christian ought to be going a different way from the world. Now that is a very simple illustration, but you see, this Life that God gives in Christ sets us in a certain direction.

I intended to bring a compass here this evening, but I forgot it. You all know what a compass is, you know it is like a little watch, it has a magnetic needle. If you want to know where North is, you put that compass down, and the magnetic needle always moves in the direction of the magnetic North. So that you can take your bearings from your compass. The compass is quite true if there is no interference with it. Now young people, note these two things. If I had brought my compass with me this evening, and I had put it down on this desk just in front of me, I would be looking to see where the North is. I expect you could tell me without a compass where the North is. You see, I am not quite sure as to where the North is here, but I would be looking at my compass to see where the North is. But in this instance, my compass would tell me lies, it would not speak the truth. Why was that? Because I have put it in front of this piece of metal, and that metal turns the needle away from the North. The compass needle must be free from all outside interferences. If I had lifted it away from these metal objects, it would tell the truth.

Now this is an illustration of eternal life within us. This Life that we have received from Christ always points a certain direction. It always moves like the magnetic needle in one direction. And that direction is Christ. That direction is heaven. It turns away from all that is not Christ and all that is of the world. Those who have this Life ought to know in their own hearts, what the Lord is pleased with, and what He is not pleased with. The very Life in them explains the right and the wrong. Of course, you all understand this. If you are a true Christian, if this Life is really in you, and you one day lose your temper, you become impatient. And you say something that is not kind. You are angry with somebody. How do you feel after this? Do you feel happy? Do you feel it is quite all right? You know quite well that you feel very bad inside. And the needle inside you points to Jesus and says, "Go and confess to Him what you have said, and what you have done." And the Life inside is not happy until we have gone to the Lord Jesus and asked for His forgiveness. You see, we have the witness of Life in us, and this witness of Life is a certain direction which is always toward the Lord. It is a Life away from this world toward Him. It is an upward Life and not a downward Life. Well, the second thing about this Life is that it brings into us a new direction.

Then there is a third thing about this Life. It brings into us a new power. It is a power which was not there before; before, we could not stop doing certain things. We were not able to do the right things before. We were always doing the wrong things. We were always saying the wrong things. And if anybody said, "You should not do that," we simply had to say, "Well, I cannot help it, that is the way in which I am made." But when this Life comes in we can do what we were never able to do before. Paul the Apostle said, "I can do all things through Christ Who strengtheneth me." This Life is a new power to do what we could never do before. It is the power of victory. It is the power of a holy life. It is a mighty power at work within us. You see, this Life is not a theory, it is a real power.

I expect you know what mushrooms are. Well, something happened in England a few months ago. The government had decided to make a new motor road. They spent many months in cutting a way for this new road, and then the workmen got to work and put the concrete on this road, to make it very strong to carry all the motor traffic. The road was finished and it was opened, and the traffic started on it. Not very long afterward something happened. The road began to rise up in bumps, and there were cracks in the road. All the work seemed to be in vain. There was something breaking up this strong concrete road. So they had an investigation. And you know what they found? They found a bed of mushrooms underneath. Now you would say, "Mushrooms lifting a concrete road?" Perhaps you think I am telling you a funny story. All that work, all that concrete, and mushrooms spoiling it all.

But you see, it was just the power of life in a very weak thing. You could take a mushroom in your fingers and just break it into pieces. You say, there is no strength in this. Put it in the ground, and if there is life in it, in cooperation with its other friends of the same kind, it will lift anything. The power of life is a wonderful thing. I have seen great rocks broken open by a tree growing up from just a seed. This Life which is in Christ Jesus destroyed the power of death, and tore open the grave. DEATH AND THE GRAVE COULD NOT HOLD HIM, BECAUSE HE HAD ETERNAL LIFE. So we have something very wonderful when we have this Life. It is a power which can carry us through any kind of opposition. It is a new power.

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Then John says another thing about it. If you look into this letter, you will find that John has a lot to say about fellowship. He says, "If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another." And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son. Then he speaks about our fellowship with one another. But what is it that makes this fellowship? It is this very thing - this eternal life. It is not a theory or a teaching of fellowship. We may have all the teaching and yet, the fellowship may break down. But, Life is a thing which draws all who have it together. It ought to be possible for us to recognize another Christian wherever we meet one without being introduced. It ought not to be necessary for anybody to say, 'You know, this is a Christian. I want to introduce this person to you as another Christian.' That ought to be quite unnecessary. We ought to know another Christian immediately when we meet him or her without first being introduced. There is something about Christians which just speaks without words. And, you know, Life does speak without words.

I think in this country, the seasons are not so distinct as they are in our country. That is, you do not notice a great difference between spring and summer. I do not know whether we are in spring or in summer today. But if you went to Europe, you would find a very real difference. When we left England, it was cold and windy, with ice and snow. Letters are now telling us that spring is coming. And if you were to go over there today, you would see all the new flowers coming out through the ground. You would see all the new buds on the trees, you would see life showing itself in many, many new forms, the mighty demonstration of resurrection life. You can see it almost every day, but you cannot hear it. You go and put your ear to the tree and you will not hear anything; you put your ear to the ground, but you will not hear anything. And yet life is shouting at you from everywhere. It is speaking without words.

Now I am not saying that we Christians are not supposed to speak about life. I am not saying that we need not give a testimony in words. We must do that. My complete release in the Christian life came on the night when I stood out in an open air meeting and gave my testimony for the first time. I did not know what liberty in Christ meant until I gave my testimony. So do not think that I am saying you need not speak about Christ. But what I am saying is this: That even when you are silent, Christ ought to be manifested. The Life that is in us speaks for itself. So John says, This is the witness, this is the testimony, this is the evidence, even eternal life. IT IS FELLOWSHIP.

Now you know a living human body is constituted on the basis of fellowship. Most of you know that. Especially the doctors who may be here, they know all about that. But have you thought about it? Our bodies are constituted on the principle of fellowship. That is, all our members and all our organs work together. They work on the principle of fellowship. I could prove that to you, but I am not going to. If I were to take this microphone, and if I were to throw it at the head of that brother sitting there, and he saw this microphone coming at his eyes, what would he do? He would put his hands up. One member comes into cooperation to protect the other, but something had happened before that. His eyes saw the microphone coming, and the eyes said to the hand, put yourself up in front. Now you see, I could go right through the whole body like that. Not one of the millions of cells in a body is an independent unit. Every part of our body, to the smallest part works together with all the other organs.

If one little organ suffers, all the body feels it. Have you ever had a toothache? Have you had a bad toothache? Well, is it just located in the tooth? Does not all the body feel it? Don't you altogether feel bad because of that one little tooth? You see the body is one whole, and not one little part is independent. It is all constituted on the principle of fellowship. If it were dead, all the teeth might be wrong and the body would not know it. The arm might be wrong, the foot might be wrong, but the body does not know anything about it, it is dead. But if it is alive, it lives on the basis of fellowship.

Now there is a lot about this in the New Testament. Paul says about Christians, If one member suffers, all the members suffer. The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of you. The hand cannot say to the foot, I do not need you. You know that those things are in the Bible. We, as Christians, are not just independent units. The Life which we all have makes us necessary to one another. Not one organ in the human body can realize its life to the full by itself. Separate any organ from the body, cut off the hand or the arm or any other member or organ of the body, separate it from the body as a whole, it can never realize its life and the purpose of its creation when it is separated from the body. It demands the uniting Life to make it able to fulfill its function.

Now I could give you many more illustrations of this, but with only a few minutes left, I must come to an end. But this is what I want to say to you all, and to the young Christians particularly. Your fellowship with other Christians is absolutely essential to the fullness of your life in Christ. As an individual member, you only have so much life. When you bring several members together, you have got so much more Life. When you bring all the members together, there is still much more Life. If we separate ourselves from other children of God, we limit God's Life in us. We limit our own spiritual Life, and we limit our own spiritual usefulness. Fellowship is essential to life, and the more true fellowship, the more life. See, the Lord Jesus spoke about this when He said, "two or three of you." He is Present where two or three are gathered together. But how do we know that He is Present? This is the witness, that we have Life. It is a good thing to have real fellowship with other believers. What a terrible thing it is to be isolated and cut off from other believers. It is a matter of life to have fellowship. And John says, "This is the witness." LIFE IS THE BASIS OF EVERYTHING.

I thought of saying a lot more things about this Life. But you see, it is eternal life. It is God's Own Life, and it would not matter if we would stay here for years talking about it, we will never get to the end of it. That is the wonderful thing about this Life. It is inexhaustible. You will never get to the end of it. You will never fathom its depth. Eternal life is a wonderful thing. We must come back to where we started. This is the evidence that God has given unto us eternal life, and these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. Now do not take this as just so much more teaching, because life is not teaching. Life is just life. You cannot describe it. All the wise people in this world have never yet been able to explain what life is. We will never explain it, but we can experience it. We can know that we have it! May that be true of all of us. Amen.

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Meeting 39 - The Law of the True Manifestation of Christ is the Law of Death and Resurrection Union with Christ

Thirty-Ninth Meeting

(March 8, 1964 A.M.)

Reading: John twelve, verses twenty to twenty-six:

"And there were certain Greeks among them that came up to worship at the feast: the same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus. Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: and again Andrew and Philip tell Jesus. And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will My Father honour."

In order to appreciate the meaning of these verses, it is necessary for us to see their setting. If you will look again, you will find that these words were said at the time of the Jewish passover. The great Jewish passover was about to be celebrated in Jerusalem, and Jews from all over the world were gathered in the city. Jews out of every nation were represented there at this time. But there was something special about this particular passover. It was the last passover in the earthly life of the Lord Jesus. It was the last time that He would keep the passover on this earth. If you read on in this Gospel, you will see that it was not long after this that Jesus kept the passover with His disciples in the upper room. That is what He meant when He said here, "The hour is come that the Son of Man must be glorified." This was one of the greatest hours in the history of this world. So that everything that was happening carried a very special significance for the Lord Jesus.

Among the many peoples who had come to Jerusalem for this passover were these Greeks. We do not know why they wanted to see Jesus. But that does not matter very much. Jesus was being talked about everywhere. Everybody was speaking of His miracles and of His teaching, and no doubt His fame had gone far and wide. When these Greeks came to Jerusalem, they found that everybody was talking about this Person called Jesus of Nazareth. So they thought that they would like to see Him, and they came to one of His disciples and they said, "Sir, we would see Jesus." They wanted an introduction to Jesus.

Let us say again that all nations were represented in Jerusalem at that time. These particular visitors said, "We would see Jesus." Jesus did not say, 'Well, bring them to Me,' or 'I will come out to them. I will grant them their request, and let them see Me.' He did not go to them and say, 'Now what is it you want to see?' He said something that did not seem to have any connection with their desire. He immediately uttered these remarkable words, He said, "The hour is come that the Son of Man should be glorified." "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone, but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit."

What did Jesus mean by saying that, at that time? Men said, "We would see Jesus." Jesus answered, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die." Is that any answer at all? It does not look like an answer to their question. It almost looks as though He is ignoring their request. It seems as though He is talking about something else altogether. He did not seem to take any notice of these Greeks. He did not say, 'Well, they want to see Me. I will go out and show Myself to them.' He did not say, 'Bring them to Me.' And when they came He did not say, 'Well, here I Am, now you can see Me.' He said, "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth by itself alone." And yet, in those words, He answered their question. He answered their question in a much more wonderful way than ever they expected. What Jesus really meant was the way in which they wanted to see Me is not the true way. They will only see Me as Jesus of Nazareth. They will only see Me as an object of their curiosity. They will only see Me as Somebody about Whom people are talking. They will only see Me as Someone Who is of interest here in Jerusalem at this time. And that is not the true way to see Jesus. And so He said this seemingly, mysterious thing.

What He meant was this: It is not the historical Jesus, it is not the physical Jesus. But it is the Jesus of death and resurrection. The only way in which you will see Jesus will be as THE RISEN LORD; the One Who has gone into death and has triumphed over death and Who Lives for evermore as the conqueror of death. And we, here today, know that He was right. We are a company of several hundred; but all over this world today, there are millions of people like ourselves, people who know that the Lord Jesus is alive, people who have the experience of the living Christ, people who know that although He became dead, He is alive for evermore.

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I say there are millions of such people on the earth today. How many more millions there are in Heaven since Jesus was here, we do not know. John, in the Book of the Revelation describes it in this way, "A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations - ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands" (Rev. 7:9; 5:11). Now I expect there are some mathematicians here today, but here is something that goes beyond your best mathematical ability. John finds it quite impossible to describe. Thousands and ten thousands and thousands of thousands, and a great multitude which no man could number. Out of every nation and kindred and tongue, and they all came from one little grain of wheat. One grain of wheat which fell into the ground and died, and then was raised from the dead by God Almighty. When you see that great multitude on earth and in heaven, then you see Jesus.

These Greeks said, "We would see Jesus." But Jesus said, 'This is not the way to see Me. If you really want to see Me, you will have to see Me in Resurrection with My Life distributed into a great multitude which no man can number. That is the way,' says Jesus, 'In which you will truly see Me.' All the nations were represented in Jerusalem, but Jesus is saying, 'I shall be seen in men and women out of every nation.' Now that is the great truth that is set forth here. It is a very wonderful thing, but of course it is a great challenge. What does it say to us? It just simply says this, that if we are united to the Lord Jesus, He is to be seen through us!

He has His Own personal existence in Heaven, but so far as this world is concerned, and so far as eternity is concerned, He has got to be seen in His Own people. Do you see what a challenge that is? If anybody in this world says, "We would see Jesus," they ought not have to go to Jerusalem, or to any part of the world. Their question ought to be answered by us. They ought to see Him in us. It ought to be possible for people to say in that man and in that woman, 'I have seen Jesus. In that company of Christians, I have seen Jesus.' I used to say, 'I would see Jesus,' but I have come to see Jesus in His Own children. Jesus has no other way of showing Himself to this world, but through you and through me. And the only purpose for which we are here as the Lord's people is to show Jesus to the world, that if anybody wants to see Jesus, they can see Him in us.

Do you notice that Jesus here passes immediately from Himself to other people? First, He is saying that He is this grain of wheat, "The hour is come, that the Son of Man should be glorified." - I am the grain of wheat. Then, He immediately passes to others and He says, "He that would save His life shall lose it." He brings us into this matter. He is not alone. He brings us alongside of Himself to show Himself to the world. Having said that, we must look at this law of manifestation, because what was true of Him, has got to be true of us. And if He says that the way of true manifestation is through death and resurrection, that is what He means by, "He that keeps his life, will lose it. He that loses his life for My sake, shall keep it." He is only saying that we have got to go the same way as He went. We have to go the way of death and resurrection in union with Him. This is the law of manifestation: What was true of Him, has got to be true of us.

Now I am not speaking about the death of our bodies, and I am not speaking about going into the grave of the cemetery, and some day when the trumpet sounds, we shall be raised from the dead. That is not what is meant here. This death and resurrection is a spiritual experience. It is the experience which has to come into the life of every true believer. Many of you know what the Apostle Paul wrote in the sixth chapter of the Letter to the Romans. He said, 'We were crucified with Christ, that is, when Christ died, we died in Him, we were buried together with Him. When He was buried, we were buried in Him. We were raised together with Him, and we walk in newness of life.' That is a spiritual experience. It all has to lay right at the foundation of every Christian life, and believe me, dear friends, Jesus will never be seen until we have that experience. Only as we go THAT WAY will we be a revelation of Jesus Christ. It is through crucified men and women that Jesus is seen. The law of the true manifestation of Christ is the law of death and resurrection union with Christ.

Let us come back to this grain of wheat. Jesus said that He was that grain of wheat, and it falls into the ground, and it dies. What does it die to? If you were to open the ground after a week or two, and look for your grain of wheat, what would you find? You would find that nine tenths of it had gone. You would not be able to find the greater part. All that you would find would be just a little germ, a very small part of that grain of wheat. All the other has gone. What is it that has gone? Well, all that which was capable of seeing corruption has gone. And that which cannot die remains, and it is that which is raised again. What are these nine tenths that had to go? Now if you know anything about yourself, you know quite well that that describes you. The greater part of us is ourselves. "The self-life," what the New Testament calls "the flesh," and in the death of Jesus, the self-life has to go. In order that that true Life of Christ may be raised from the dead. So to die with Christ, to be crucified with Christ, just means that the self-life has been put to death. The self-life has been buried in the grave of Jesus.

We know what the Apostle Paul meant when he said, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. 2:20; ASV). "No longer I, but Christ." I have died with Christ, and now it is just Christ Who lives in me. And if Christ lives in you and in me, other people will see Jesus. So that the law of seeing Jesus is union with Him in death and resurrection. It is death to all the self-life. Now what happens to this little grain of wheat? It has surrendered a great deal of itself, but when that has taken place, the life that is in that little germ is released. It is no longer in bondage to things here. No longer in bondage to this world. No longer in bondage to all the limitations of this life. Through death, this Life is released. It is like a prisoner set free.

You remember on the Mount of Transfiguration, it says that Moses and Elijah were speaking to Jesus, and it tells us what they were speaking to Him about. Perhaps you have not noticed that. You know about the transfiguration. And you know that it says that Moses and Elijah were there speaking to Him. And perhaps you have not noticed what they were talking about, but it tells us what they were speaking to Him about, and here unfortunately our translation does not have it. In the original language, it says they were speaking to Him about the EXODUS that He was about to accomplish in Jerusalem. Everybody who knows the Old Testament knows what the exodus is. There is a book in the Old Testament that goes by the name of Exodus. It is the book of the story of the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt. God broke their bondage. They went out a free people, and they sang a great song of deliverance. They were able to say, 'We are out at last. We have had our exodus, we are free.' They can sing about their deliverance from bondage. Now that is exactly the same word as is used here on the Mount of Transfiguration. Moses and Elijah were talking to Him about the exodus which He was going to accomplish in Jerusalem. His Cross was going to be His exodus, His deliverance from all bondage. In His Resurrection, He would be free. The Life which was in Him would be released.

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So we come back to our grain of wheat. It falls into the ground and it dies, and then its Life is released, and up that Life comes. You see a little green shoot coming through the earth. It grows and it grows, and then there begins to form the whole wonderful combination of that grain - what we call the ear of corn. Let us take this ear in our hands. What have we got here? Not one grain, there may be fifty in one ear, or it may be more than that. Then we take every one of these, and we let them fall into the ground and die. And if it is fifty grains, we are going to have fifty times fifty. If you go on like that, this thing will spread all over the world. All this worldwide testimony has come from the release of the Life of one grain. If you look into every one of the millions of grains, you will find the Life of the original grain. So it is not only a case of multiplication of Christians, it is a case of the re-embodiment of Christ's Life in every one. In His death and resurrection, His wonderful Life was released, and that Life has passed into every true believer. Jesus said, "I am come that they might have Life, and that they might have it abundantly." He came into this world for that special purpose. So that it is His Life in us, which reveals Him to the world.

But let us look still more closely. The law of seeing Jesus is the law of sacrifice. Jesus said, "He that keepeth his life" - there is such a thing as keeping your life to yourself, of holding on to your own life, of saying this life is mine. This belongs to me, I keep it to myself. Jesus said, "He that keepeth his life shall lose it." "He that loses it" - or lets it go - "shall find it unto Life eternal." The law then is the law of sacrifice. The law of letting go our life for Christ. Do you want to find your true vocation in this world? Do you want to find the true purpose for which God created you? Do you want to find the true purpose for which Christ died for you? Do you want to know what God wants to do with you? And God does want to do something with you. He has called you according to a great purpose, and every one of you has a place in the thought of God. There is some purpose relating to your life in God's will. There is a vocation with which you are called in Christ. Do you want to find what that is? Do you want to know what Christ has called you to? Well, here is the law. While you hold on to your life for yourself, you will never know. Jesus says, "He that loses his life shall find it;" that is, whoever will give up his own life for My sake shall find the purpose of his life.

Now the disciples of Jesus had great ideas for their own life. They had their own ambitions in life. Sometimes they said to Jesus, "Grant that when Thou comest into Thy Kingdom, we may sit one on Thy right hand, and one on Thy left hand." And we read that they had a quarrel one day. Think of the disciples of Jesus quarreling. They are having a really hot dispute. One is saying no, and the other is saying yes, and what is it they are quarreling about? Who shall be greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.

See, they got an idea of the Kingdom as being something of this world, and of themselves as being very important people of that Kingdom. They had ambitions for themselves, and their lives. They had their own ideas of what they wanted to be and wanted to do. But look at them after the Cross of Jesus. That Cross has struck a very heavy blow to these disciples. All those old ideas are gone, all their own personal ambitions are gone, and now it is only for Christ that they want to live. So disciples became apostles: From something just local, they became worldwide; from something just of time, they became eternal. After two thousand years we are still reading about them. We are still getting values from them. If the world goes on for another two thousand years, it will be the same. Of course, it may not go on for another two thousand years, but as long as this world does last, the values of these men's lives will be going out to people everywhere.

They let go their own ambitions for Christ. They died to their own thoughts and plans for themselves in order to have Christ's plan. They found their true life's work when they put themselves wholly into the hands of the Lord Jesus. When they said to Him, 'Lord, not my way, but Your way; not my will, but Your will, not my plans for my life, but Your plan; not my ambitions, Lord, but what You want for my life.'

So we pass from just being ordinary people living a life for so many years and then going into the grave. There comes into our life this wonderful thing. Jesus is seen. Jesus lives through us. There is no greater thing to live for than that, and if anybody in this world is hungry to see Jesus, if there is anybody who is really in their heart saying, "I would see Jesus." Do you know what the Spirit of God will do? Jesus will not come down out of Heaven to that person. He will not say personally, "Here I am." He will lead that hungry soul to you. He will bring those who want to know Him to you. He will bring you to them. You know, the New Testament has a lot about that.

There was a man, once, who was traveling in his chariot across the desert. He had been up to the feast at Jerusalem, but his heart was hungry. All the religion in Jerusalem, had not satisfied his heart. He had heard the priests talking. He had seen the sacrifices being offered. He had seen all the crowds filling the temple, but he was going away, back to his country, a disappointed man. His heart was still hungry. All that religion had failed to satisfy his heart; and as he was sitting in his chariot, going back to his far away country, he was reading the Old Testament. And he was reading the Prophet Isaiah, he came to chapter fifty-three. He read that chapter. And he said, "I wonder what that means. I would give a lot if only I understood what this prophet is talking about."

And as he traveled with his heart toward God, God knew about that hungry heart, and God had a man some distance away. He said to that man, 'Go down to the desert, I have a piece of work for you to do there.' He did not know what he was going for, but he obeyed the Lord, and he traveled all the way from Samaria down to the desert. And as he was wondering what it all meant, he saw this chariot coming along. And the Lord said, "Go and join yourself to that chariot." And as he got near, he heard this man reading the Scripture, and he said to him, "Do you understand what you are reading?" The man said, "How can I understand it if no one teaches me? Who is the prophet speaking about?"

And Philip opened his mouth at the same Scripture, and preached unto him Jesus. And the man saw; and when they came to a certain water; and he said to Philip, "Here is water; what does hinder me to be baptized? What does hinder me from being united with this Christ, in death and burial and resurrection?" Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, thou mayest." The man evidently said, 'Yes, I believe with all my heart.' And both of them went down to the water, and Philip baptized him. The end of the story is: "And the man went on his way rejoicing" (Acts 8:26-39). God knows where there are hungry hearts. God needs to have people who know the Lord Jesus. And God will bring them together.

Perhaps you are a hungry heart. Perhaps religion has not satisfied you. Perhaps you are still wanting to see Jesus. Well, the Lord will bring somebody across your path. He will arrange that your heart does not remain hungry. He will bring you into touch with that which helps you, which will lead you into a real experience of Christ, and you will go on your way rejoicing. That is, if you do what this man in the chariot did, believe with all your heart and surrender your life wholly to the Lord Jesus, and then the world will see Jesus through you.

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Meeting 40 - The Cup of the Lord

Fortieth Meeting
(March 8, 1964 P.M.)

Will you please turn to the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter ten, at verse sixteen, "The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ?" Chapter eleven, at verse twenty-five, "In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in My blood."' The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not a communion of the blood of Christ? This cup is the new covenant in My blood. In the few times that I have been with you at the Lord's Table, I have sought to show something of the fuller and deeper meaning of this table. And that is what I want to do tonight.

I want to say just a little about the cup of the Lord. In the two passages which we have read, two things are said about the cup. Firstly, that it is a communion in the blood of Christ. The real words are these: Is it not that which we have in common with the blood of Christ? So that in the first place, it is something which we have together in the blood of Christ. And the second thing is: That the cup is the new covenant in His blood. I am going to take the second first: The new covenant in His blood. Perhaps we have not recognized the real meaning, the deep meaning of the covenant in the blood of Jesus. It is something which has made us absolutely one with Christ. A covenant is something which brings two people together in absolute agreement. In a covenant, they both put their hands down on the document and say, 'We are absolutely one in this matter. We commit ourselves together to the terms of this covenant. As long as we live, we stand together as one person in this covenant.'

Jesus says, "THIS CUP IS THE COVENANT IN MY BLOOD." And He says, "For those who enter into this covenant with Me, I will lay down My Life for them. I will live for their interests. All their interests will be My interests. And I will give My Life for them." This blood is a new covenant. But there are always two parties to a covenant. And in principle what applies to one party applies to the other. Jesus says, "This is the token that I lay down My Life for you." He says, "Will you lay down your life for Me? Will you come onto the common ground of this covenant? Will you take this cup and mean, when you drink it, what I mean when I shed My blood?" Of course, there is a difference, He died for our sins; we cannot die for our sins. By His blood, He atoned for the sin of the world. We can never do that.

But at the same time, this covenant means the same thing for us. It means that we have entered into a covenant with the Lord. In His blood, we have been made one with Him. And now, forever, we live only for Him. His interests are our supreme interests. We will live for Him and we will die for Him. Do you know, dear friends, every time we take this cup, that is what it means? That is the deeper meaning of the cup of the new covenant. On His side, He has committed Himself to us. If we dare to take that cup, we mean that we commit ourselves to Him. We have been joined in an everlasting covenant in His blood. As we have partaken of His blood, so we have been made one with Him in life. I trust that we shall all remember this every time we come to the Lord's Table. When each one of us takes that cup, let us stay for a moment, and ask ourselves the question: What does this mean? What do I mean by this? What does Jesus mean by this? It means that He and I are one in a Life covenant forever. As His Life was for me, so my life is for Him.

I remember an incident some years ago in India. We were gathered around the Lord's Table; and sitting on the front seat were two young Indian men. They were a very fine type of young man. And I was speaking about the Lord's Table. I was saying something about what it means to partake of the cup and the loaf - how it requires an utter committal to the Lord. And I asked everybody to face this matter again. Then we bowed in prayer. And the brother brought the cup, and he took it from one to another; he brought it to one of these men. I noticed he took it in his hand, and with his eyes closed for a moment, he waited quietly, evidently thinking very hard about this, and then as though he came to a decision, he lifted the cup to his lips and drank. And then it was passed to the other young man next to him. He took it in his hand, and I saw his face was going through some terrible struggle, and he was thinking hard about this, and then at last he shook his head like this, and passed the cup on.

He had made his decision. He had said, "I cannot enter into this covenant. I cannot let Jesus have my whole life." He was honest with God. I admired that young man. Although I was very sorry that he did that, that he went away from that meeting a man who refused to let Jesus have his life, I did have to say, well, I admired him for being so honest. Many will just take the cup and drink it. It is a matter of form. It is what Christians do. It is what we do every time we come to the Lord's Table. We never pause for a moment, before we drink, and ask ourselves again the question: Has Jesus really got the whole of my life? Do I mean to be as wholly for Him as He has been for me? Do I put my hand to the covenant again, and say, "For life, for death, for eternity, I am the Lord's?" That is what it means, dear friends. This is what the Lord means by it. And that is what He wants us to mean by it. "This cup is the new covenant in My blood."

Now the time has gone, I cannot say anything about the other passage. It may just be that I have another opportunity, I do not know. But remember this, if I never say any more to you, this is a blood covenant between the Lord Jesus and us, between us and the Lord Jesus. We have entered into an eternal understanding with the Lord Jesus. Because He has given Himself so absolutely for us, we give ourselves absolutely to Him and for Him.

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Meeting 41 - Prayer is the Basis of Everything in our Life with the Lord

Forty-First Meeting
(March 10, 1964 P.M.)

Chapter nine of the Book of the Acts, at verse ten through twelve, "And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, 'Ananias.' And he said, 'Behold, I am here, Lord.' And the Lord said unto him, 'Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.'"

The last words of verse eleven, "BEHOLD, HE PRAYETH." From these words, we see that the life of the Apostle Paul in relation to the Lord Jesus commenced in prayer. Although he had spoken to the Lord on the Damascus road, this was really the first time of prayer that he had with the Lord Jesus. Perhaps it will surprise you to know that this time of prayer between Paul and the Lord Jesus lasted for three days and three nights. I wonder how many of us here have prayed for three days and three nights continually. Well, three days and three nights of prayer lays a fairly good foundation for a Christian life, and no doubt this time laid the foundation for the life of the apostle.

Have you realized that some of the greatest things that ever the Lord has revealed to us came through the prayer life of the Apostle Paul? You have only to call to mind some of his prayers, and you will see that they were a revelation of which there is nothing like it anywhere else. If you look in the Letter to the Ephesians, you will see the wonderful things that came out when Paul prayed. The same was true in his Letter to the Colossians; and there are many other prayers of Paul in his letters. In those letters, he tells us what he prayed for, and they were very wonderful revelations of God's mind. Now we are not going to study those prayers tonight. We are not even going to read them. But we are simply pointing out that prayer is a wonderful way in which God makes Himself known, and prayer is the basis of everything else in the life with the Lord.

Now I expect you are wondering what Paul was praying about during those three days and those three nights. If we could answer that question, we should have a fairly good basis for prayer. That is, we should understand what true prayer is, we should know some of the things which constitute true prayer. I think that I shall be right when I suggest some of the things that Paul was praying about in that first wonderful time of prayer. And I feel that these are the things which ought always to find a place in our praying.

We shall not be wrong if we say that the first thing in that first prayer was humiliation and confession. It was the prayer of a broken and a contrite heart. I am quite sure that was the first thing in Paul's prayer. You see, he had just come to realize what he had been doing with his life. It was not so long before this time that he gave his consent to the death of that remarkable young man, Stephen. It says that the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And it says that Saul was consenting unto his death. Then Saul had obtained authority from the high priest to put men and women in prison. And Paul tells us, himself, that he persecuted the church unto far distant cities. Again it says, Saul, breathed out threatenings and slaughter against the people of this Way. Thus, he had just come to realize what a great mistake he had been making. How terrible was the thing that he had been doing. What injury he had been doing to the Lord Jesus. He had been responsible in spirit and in principle for the crucifying of Christ. His sin had really nailed Jesus to the Cross.

And now he was alive to all this terrible truth. His prayer, therefore, must have commenced in deep humiliation and contrition of heart. He must have been confessing to the Lord how wrong he had been, and asking the Lord for forgiveness. You know, dear ones, that is the first element in any true prayer, the acknowledgment of our own sinfulness, the confession of how unworthy we are of the mercy of God. We can never come into the Presence of the Lord without a sense of our sinfulness. We can never stand before Him without bowed heads because of our unworthiness. No pride or self-righteousness is allowed in the Presence of God. The Word of God says, "To this one will I look, even to him that is of a broken and contrite spirit" (Isa 66:2). And I am sure that this spirit was in this man in his first prayer. I am quite sure that there were many tears shed by Paul during those three days and those three nights.

Then the second thing in that prayer, I am quite sure, must have been a spirit and attitude of surrender to the Lord. There must have been in him a spirit of absolute submission to the Lord. The complete committal of himself to the Lord Jesus. Many times after that, he called himself the prisoner of the Lord, and many times in his letter, he said, "Paul, the bondslave of Jesus Christ." I am quite sure that it was in that first prayer that Paul took that position of the prisoner and the bondslave of Jesus Christ, with an absolute submission and surrender to Jesus as his Master. And I am sure you will agree with me that that must be a feature of all our praying. First, a confession of our own sinfulness, and then an absolute submission to the Lord Jesus, as His prisoners, and as His bondslaves.

[Shammu]

Then there was a third thing, which I am quite sure was in this prayer of Paul's. It was complete adjustment to the will of the Lord. Up to this time, he had followed his own will, he had allowed his own will to control his life and his actions, he had directed his own life, and he would have said, 'My will be done.' And we can see how thoroughly he sought to do his own will. But now, at this time, he was getting adjusted to the will of the Lord. If he did not use the actual words, I am sure this is what he meant, 'No longer my will, but Thy will, Lord, for my life.' That must have been a feature of this prayer; because it is so evident that from this time to the end of his life, there was only one thing for which he lived, and that was THE WILL OF THE LORD.

Now, while that has to be our attitude at the beginning of our Christian life, that must always be a feature of our prayer life. There are many ways in our Christian life where we have to get adjusted to the will of the Lord. The will of the Lord is not always an easy thing for our flesh; and so very often, we have to have a real battle to get adjusted to the will of the Lord on some particular matter; and prayer is the time in which that adjustment has to be done. It is just possible that some of us here this evening are having a battle over the will of God on something. Well, this is the time to get through with that issue. Our prayer times give us the great opportunity of getting right into line with the will of God on all matters.

Well, just collect up these things before we go any further. True prayer is the prayer of confession and humiliation! True prayer is the time of absolute committal and surrender and submission to the Lord! True prayer is the time for getting right into line with the will of God on all matters!

Now these three things, we could call negative things. Of course they are not negative when we have to face them, they are very positive matters. But when we come to the fourth thing, we move over a bit to another side; and I am sure that this first time of prayer in the case of Paul was a time of deep worship. What does worship come out from? What is it that leads us to worship? What is the true nature and spirit of worship? Is it not a deep unspeakable gratitude for the grace of God?! We only worship in the measure in which we appreciate the grace of God. I am sure that this man on his knees during that time was just pouring out his heart with gratitude for the mercy of God. Realizing what kind of a man he was, realizing his guiltiness, and what an enemy of Christ his nature had been, and yet that risen, persecuted Lord had come down to save such a man as he was, that must have made Paul pour out his heart in the deepest gratitude for the grace and mercy of God. You remember that a favorite way to Paul of opening his letters was with three words: "Grace, mercy, and peace, be unto you." That was the foundation of everything for Paul. Wonderful grace, grace that could never be explained; boundless mercy; and peace with God. That was surely the consciousness of this man during his prayer. It was the prayer of deep worship for the grace of God, and that must have a place in all true prayer.

Now, you notice that given these four things, there is an open way for the Lord to come in. The Lord had His eye upon that man in that room as he was praying. He knew what Saul of Tarsus was doing. He said to Ananias, "Behold, he prayeth." And the Lord knew what he was praying about. And He knew that these four things made up that prayer. THEY OPEN A WAY FOR THE LORD. So the Lord said to Ananias, "Go to a certain house in a certain street, to this man, Saul of Tarsus. That man is praying. Ananias, you go in and lay your hands on him, that he may receive his sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." The Lord had an open way to meet that man. First of all, to open his blind eyes. They were physically blind, but you may be sure that he got a spiritual eye-opening at that time. If Saul of Tarsus was still under a heavy cloud as he knelt there in prayer, if there was still any darkness over his mind, when Ananias put his hands on his head, and said, "Brother Saul," all the darkness went; and his heart was filled with the Light of heaven.

Then, secondly, Paul was filled with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is called the Seal of our Redemption. "We are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise" (Eph. 1:13). We are sealed with the Holy Spirit unto the day of redemption (Eph. 4:30). You know what that means in business. If your seal is upon any goods, you have a right to claim them. You can go anywhere and say, "That is mine, I take possession of it." In the same way, the Holy Spirit is the Seal of God, the Seal of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the Seal of that which belongs to Christ, and He can claim it at any time. It is a great thing to have the Seal of the Lord upon our lives.

Now we know that to receive the Holy Spirit is to receive our equipment for our life's work; because Ananias said this unto Saul (later called Paul). And he said, "The God of our fathers hath chosen thee, that thou shouldest know His will, and see that Just One, and shouldest hear the voice of His mouth. For thou shalt be His witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard" (Acts 22:14,15).

These three things happened when Ananias put his hands on the head of Saul, and used that wonderful word, "Brother" Saul. That was a triumph of grace! But the Lord had an open way to come into that life, and it was because of those four things that we have mentioned which composed his prayer. This may help us a little in our time of prayer, not only for tonight, but for all times of prayer. If this is the way, the heart way of our praying, the Lord will have a clear way with us.

[Shammu]

Meeting 42 - "For the Sake of His Name"

Forty-Second Meeting
(March 12, 1964 P.M.)

We are going to return to the parables of the Kingdom for a little while this evening. The Gospel by Matthew, chapter thirteen, verse forty-four, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like unto a treasure hidden in the field; which a man found, and hid; and in his joy he goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field." The parable of the treasure hidden in the field. The law of consistency to which we have referred requires that we interpret the field again as the world. Jesus said concerning the sower that the field is the world. So here again the field is the world. And as in the other parables, the man is the Son of Man. It is the Lord Jesus Himself Who has found this treasure in the world. And then it says, having found the treasure, He went and sold all that He had and bought, not the treasure, but the field. When He bought the field, He secured the treasure.

Now we are going to start from the outside and work toward the center. We shall come to the treasure last of all. First of all, we want to know the meaning of this selling all that He had to buy the field. I wonder if I were to ask you, if you could give me the Scripture that would explain that, where would you turn? Would you like to think about that for a minute? Well, I will give you the Scripture that will explain that. You turn to the Letter of Paul to the Philippians, chapter two, at verses five through eight: "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross."

There is the Son of Man selling all that He had. It was a mighty all that He let go. He was equal with God. In His prayer in John seventeen, He said, "Father, glorify Me with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was." Equal with God, having the glory of God before the foundation of the world, being the Son of God, He had all the fullness of heaven. He was over all angels and archangels, they would hasten to do His will. And much more than that, He let it all go.

"He emptied Himself," the word is here, He emptied Himself of His heavenly glory. He emptied Himself of His equality with God, and took the form of a servant, was made in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, He became obedient unto death, yea, the death of the Cross. That is the price that He paid for this treasure. This Son of Man paid a very great price, indeed, for the treasure hidden in the field. It says here that He sold all that He had. You and I can never, never understand the meaning of that word, "ALL." Perhaps, when we get to glory, we shall begin to understand how much the Lord Jesus sacrificed for this treasure.

Well, there is the treasure, there is the field, there is the Son of Man, selling all that He had, to purchase that treasure. But it says, 'He bought the field.' It does not say, 'He just bought the treasure.' He bought the field in order to get the treasure. I wonder what that means? I think it is a thing that we Christians have been slow to recognize. We have not recognized that the Lord Jesus redeemed the whole world - every man, every woman, and every child in this world is redeemed. Jesus Christ purchased the salvation of every man. He paid the price for the redemption of all men. The trouble is, that although men have been bought with the precious blood of Jesus, they will not all believe and accept it. And the condemnation will be this, that redemption was bought for you, and you would not accept it. You see, that is the Gospel. Christ has redeemed all. His blood has paid the price for all. It is, "Whosoever believeth on Him, shall be saved." But the world, as a whole, will not accept the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

That leads us then to the treasure. We are able to see what the treasure is. He bought the whole field, but He only obtained the treasure. What is this treasure? Have we got any Scripture that will answer that question? I think we have. If you will turn to the Book of the Acts, chapter fifteen, verse fourteen, "Simeon hath rehearsed how first God did visit the nations, to take out of them a people for His Name." Do you see what that says? The nations. And hidden in the nations, a people for His Name. The Bible does not teach that in this age all the nations are going to be saved. On the contrary, it teaches that at the end of this age many, many will not be saved. But it does teach that in the nations, He has seen a people, and He has come in order to take out of the nations that people for His Name.

It is not that the nations cannot be saved. The prophet cried, "Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth." God would have all men to repent, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But inasmuch as all the nations will not turn to the Lord, He takes out of the nations a people for His Name. The Lord says, Simeon has looked into the nations, and in the nations he has seen this treasure, a people for His Name. And He is, through this age, taking out of the nations, that people for His Name. This is the treasure that the Lord sees in the nations. He sees that treasure in the nations. He never tells us that this one and that one is a part of the treasure, and these and other ones are not a part of the treasure. No, He says, You go into the nations, you preach the Gospel to all the nations. The result will be that some out of all the nations will be brought as His treasure. The Lord only knows who are the treasure. You and I do not know. That treasure is to Him of very great value.

What is the value of that treasure? It is the value of His Own Name. The overriding factor in this whole matter is the Name of the Lord. The great phrase here which governs everything is, "FOR HIS NAME." The value of the treasure is nothing less than the value of His Own Name. Have you noticed what a great place that Name has in the New Testament? Our salvation is only by the Name. Salvation rests upon the meaning of that Name. He that believeth on the Name of the Lord shall be saved. So that faith in the Name is the basis and the beginning of salvation.

Then we are called by His Name. The Apostle James says, "That worthy Name which is called upon you":- we are called by His Name. We do not know what was in the minds of the people of Antioch, when they first called believers, "Christians." Of course, the world must always put some name onto people. But there is a significance about that Name, when in Antioch, the believers were first called "Christians." That word just simply means, people who belong to Christ. They are Christ's ones. So the Name is called on us, we are called by His Name. Do you call yourself a Christian? As everyone here tonight says, I am a Christian, that simply means, I am one of Christ's. The Name that rests upon Him now rests upon me. I carry the Name of Christ with me.

[Shammu]

What is the next thing? Well, it says in the Book of the Acts, they went forth for the sake of the Name. That is, they went out into the world for the sake of His Name. They went out in life and service for the Name of the Lord Jesus. That is what we are Christians for, to go out into the world with His Name.

What is the next thing? They counted it joy to suffer for the sake of the Name. They counted it an honor that they were worthy to suffer for the sake of the Name. So, suffering for the Name is the next thing. It will depend entirely upon what we think of the Name, and how much we are prepared to suffer for it. The service and suffering are for the sake of the Name of Jesus. When Paul was converted, and was led by the hand into Damascus, during those three days and nights of prayer, the Lord spoke to Ananias, and told him where Saul of Tarsus was at that moment, and told him what he was doing. Then He said to Ananias, 'You go to that man, and you lay your hands on him, he is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My Name before the nations, and I will show him how great things he must suffer for My Name.' The service and the suffering are joined together. The service and suffering are for the sake of the Name.

What is the next thing? It is our character and our conduct for the sake of the Name. The Word is, "Whatsoever you do, do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus." Character, conduct, for the sake of the Name. What we are in ourselves, and how we behave in this world, touches the Name of Jesus. If our character is not good, if our conduct is not good, it brings dishonor upon His Name. So that the Name governs our whole life in every department in this world.

There is one more thing that we will mention in connection with the Name. If all these things are true, which we have mentioned, if we are saved through faith in the Name, if that worthy Name is called upon us and we bear that Name, if we are going forth every day into the world for the sake of the Name, if we are prepared to suffer for the sake of that Name, and if we are seeking to order our character and our conduct for the honor of that Name, then this next thing will become true. We shall have power by the Name.

You remember that almost immediately after the day of Pentecost, Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, and they saw a poor man lying hopeless at the gate of the temple, and he was asking, he was begging for money. Peter looked upon him, and had compassion upon him, and he said, "Silver and gold have I none," but I have got something better than that, "in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk." I think that was the best gift that man ever had in all the years that he had been there. The mighty power in that Name came to that man. Of course, that upset all the Jewish rulers. And Peter and John found themselves in trouble with the authorities. They were taken to the court to be tried and condemned, and the judges said, By what Name have you done this? They meant, By what authority? And Peter said, If you ask by what Name or by what authority this man is made whole, be it known unto you that it is by the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. There is power and there is authority in the Name. They did many mighty works by the Name of the Lord Jesus.

But we shall never know the power of the Name unless we know these other things about the Name. A lot of people would like to have the power without the consecration and the character. The power demands a holy life, a life that is in accordance with the Name of Jesus. And I think there are a lot more people who would like to have the power without the suffering. There is no power without the suffering. It is the people who suffer for the sake of the Name, who know the power of the Name.

But we have not finished the list yet, there is one more. If you look into the Book of the Revelation the Lord says this, 'To him that overcometh, will I write My new Name upon him.' The Name, then, is the Name of glory. It is the crown of glory, crown of glory for those who have believed in the Name, for those who have been consecrated to the Name, those who have honorably borne that Name through this life, to those who have served for the sake of the Name. Those whose characters have been conformed to the Name, and those who suffer for the sake of the Name, that Name will be written upon their foreheads. It will be the sign that they are glorified together with Christ.

I wonder if we have really got what we have been saying. There are not many nations represented here tonight. I do not know how many, but only a few, I think. But all of us here tonight are out of some nation. Are we the Lord's? Why are we the Lord's? Why are we saved? What would be your answer to that question? Well, I am saved in order to have my sins forgiven. I am saved in order to escape the judgment at the last day. I am saved in order to go to heaven. Well, of course, all those things are true. But they are not the real object of our salvation. WE ARE SAVED FOR THE SAKE OF HIS NAME. We are taken out of the nations for His Name. And the value of this treasure out of the nations is just the value of the Name of the Lord Jesus. And the value of that Name is all the glory of heaven. That is the price that He paid for our salvation.

[Shammu]

You see, all that the Lord Jesus let go of was the price that He set upon His Name. And if that Name truly rests upon you and upon me, then we are of tremendous value to the Lord Jesus. It is not the value of what we are in ourselves. Perhaps you could say to me, Well, I am of very little value. It is not true that I am of the value of the Name of Jesus. You would be quite right if you said that. It is not what we are in ourselves, but it is the value of that Name which rests upon us. Our value is the value of the Name. Without that Name, we are of no value at all. But with that Name, we are a treasure of great price. The Lord looks upon us as bearing His Name as something very precious to Him. We are therefore saved for the sake of the Name.

I want to appeal to you, dear friends, I want to say to you, Do seek to have your whole life here according to the Name of the Lord Jesus. Do seek that Your whole character and your whole conduct and all that you do in this life is for the glory of the Name of Jesus. The one question that should stand over everything is, Will this honor the Name of the Lord Jesus? See, there are lots of Christians who say about certain things, Oh well, there is no harm in it. Why should I not do that? There is nothing wrong about that. Why should I not go to this thing and to that thing? Why should I not do what other people do? You see, that is all negative. We ought to say, If I do this, will it honor the Name of Jesus? Am I conducting my business to the honor of the Name of Jesus? Am I using my money for the honor of the Name of Jesus? Is my behavior before people honoring the Lord Jesus? That is the positive way of looking at the Christian life. So, we must ask about everything, Does this honor the Name of Jesus? When there are divisions between the Lord's people, do we say, Oh, this does so much dishonor to His Name. For the sake of the Name, we must do everything to heal this division.

Now we will close by noting one other thing. The Man found the treasure in the field. He sold all that He had to possess that field. When He had paid the price of redemption for the field, He secured for Himself the treasure that was in that field. And, then, what did He do with it? What did He do with the treasure when He got it? It says, "He hid it, He hid it." You see, dear friends, His Own people are hidden in the nations. There is no other way of distinguishing His people in the nations but by the Name that rests upon them. Those people in the city of Antioch did not say, We know these people by their dress, we know these people because of this or that or something else. We know them because of the Name that rests upon them. They are Christ's ones. That is the only way in which the world knows us.

Otherwise, we are no different from other people. We have not become a different kind of species, distinguished in some outward way from other kinds of people, no, we are hidden in the world as Christians. Jesus said, "Therefore the world knoweth them not." The world does not know how valuable they are to God. The world does not know that they are a treasure for whom Christ has paid the greatest price. They are His hidden ones. It is only the Lord Who knows them that are His. The only way in which the world can know who we are is because we are living according to His Name. We are bearing His Name in this world with honor. It is a worthy Name that has been called upon us. So the Lord says, "Be ye holy; for I am Holy" (I Peter 1:16). That is the distinguishing mark of the Christians. It is said of those first believers, that men took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus. Whatever they meant by that, it means something very wonderful. We know these people because they are like Jesus.

Now that is a very simple message, and yet it is a searching message. That wonderful parable is contained in just one verse, but it tells us of what the Lord is doing through this whole dispensation, He is taking out of the nations a people for His Name.

Now here is a wonderful thing. When we all get to heaven, what shall we look like? Well, I want to tell you this, that you will not see me as an Englishman in heaven, and I shall not see you as Chinese men and women in heaven. You will not find white and black and yellow and red people in heaven. We shall all bear the image of the glorified Son of Man. That is better than having a black or a white face, is it not? You see, it says distinctly in the Word of God, that we were foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son. And when we awake, we shall be like Him. If we have borne His Name here, if we have honored His Name here, if we have suffered for His Name here, His Name will be upon us there, and it will be ONE GREAT CHRIST, Christ manifested in us all - because we shall bear His likeness, because we are called by His Name!

The End