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 READINGS 
 
 EPHESIANS 
 
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 in 2008 witii funding from 
 
 IVIicrosoft Corporation 
 
 littp://www.arcliive.org/details/epliesiansnotesofOOtaylricli 
 
EPHESIANS. 
 
 NOTES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 Daily Noon Bible Readings 
 
 IN THE 
 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 
 DURING MARCH AND APRIL, i8j} 
 
 BY 
 
 MALACHI TAYLOR, 
 
 At 228-9 Temple Court, 
 
 PRKSS OF 
 
 Exchange Printing CompanYj 47 Broad Street, New York. 
 
LOAN STACK 
 
^S j 
 
 Ti 
 M 
 
 A MEETING has been held for more than seven 
 years, daily, for reading the Scriptures, at the noon 
 hour, in 229 Temple Court, New York City. The 
 following are notes from one month's teachings, 
 there. Those who heard were desirous of having 
 them in a permanent form, and so had them taken 
 down stenographically and printed. The colloquial 
 and conversational style in which they were given 
 has been preserved by special desire, which was 
 emphasized by the request that they be not altered, 
 at all, but published as spoken. Some portions 
 were cut out as being mere repetitions. 
 
 The " readings " are now given to a wider atten- 
 tion, with the prayer that He whose word it is 
 may afford comfort and refreshing through these 
 pages to His saints. 
 
 It is hoped that the noon meetings may be kept 
 up till the Lord come. 
 
 1:29 
 
INDEX 
 
 Chapter T page 3 
 
 II. 
 III. 
 IV. 
 V. 
 VI. 
 
 50 
 
 76 
 
 110 
 
 144 
 
 168 
 
Readings in Ephhsians. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 In this book we are taken into the counsels of God, 
 in Himself, before the ages ; all connected with 
 Christ, whom He had in His mind, who was really 
 in the Father's bosom ever— the Son of His love, 
 according to Prov. viii. 22-31, where we find Him 
 the Object of His special delight from eternity, while 
 His own thoughts and His desire were toward the 
 sons of men, rejoicing in the habitable parts of the 
 earth. 
 
 Now we take up these precious thoughts of God 
 that have included us; taking us up, apart from 
 anything in us but worthlessness ; for it was impos- 
 sible for God to carry out these richest and most 
 minute thoughts of His until the cross had demon- 
 strated the true worthlessness and incorrigibility of 
 man. There was nothing good in him, and he could 
 not be corrected ; he was without strength ; indeed, 
 that becomes the reason as well as the occasion and 
 opportunity for God to work His works ; that there 
 was no hope in him, no strength, really nothing. Of 
 course it will bring out this. And all practical truth 
 flowing out from this will be, not our doing some- 
 thing as springing from ourselves, — no such word as 
 " you are saved if you do," but that the doing is but 
 the acting out of what He has made us, and in nowise 
 
^helps the salvation, simply manifests it. There is 
 nothing that brings so rich an expression of doing 
 as saved, according to the tone and elevation of our 
 place as in the heavens, and belonging there ; and 
 therefore denying everything that belongs to the 
 earth, and in principle putting it to death and nega- 
 tiving it, all the way through, as this wondrous book. 
 [ It is marvelous how a little book like this can con- 
 \ tain so much. It grasps vastly more than the whole 
 I of the Old Testament together. It brings us into 
 fellowship with God, according to things that were 
 never made known to the Old Testament saints or 
 writers or the angels that surround His throne. 
 They were in His own counsels, waiting until He 
 could come out and tell them all ; when He should 
 have Christ Jesus in the glory ; the Son of God by 
 title of what He had done down here, as well as the 
 Son in Himself before He came down here. And 
 ' none other could give it but the Apostle Paul, be- 
 cause none other had the revelation of Jesus as the 
 J Son of God in the glory. It is not simply as in the 
 Father's bosom— the only begotten Son of God— He 
 was that when He came into the world, and was so 
 before the foundation of the world ; that He was 
 every step that he took along here through these 
 scenes. But now He gets a new title as raised up into 
 heaven and having accomplished everything. This 
 Man that met the whole matter of guilt and sin and 
 ruin God raised up into the glory. 
 
 And now it is but carrying out the beginning of 
 this great structure of which we form a part ; we are 
 in it as He is in it ; He is the Head and cap-stone and 
 foundation, and everything ! The model, plan, pat- 
 tern ; and we, part and parcel with Him ! 
 
 So, you see, we come into the richest thing that 
 God has to tell of His thoughts concerning His Son, 
 and concerning us with Him. It is true, this is not 
 
a book of worship ; that is Hebrews ; that is telling 
 us, as partakers of the heavenly calling, we are to 
 be occupied with Him. This is not telling us about 
 our place in order to occupy us vnth our place, but to 
 make us know the dignity and the character and full 
 breadth and stature of such a position, and to make 
 us walk in conformity with it. God is looking for 
 character. If Christ was the character of God, as 
 the word used in Hebrews, "The express image of 
 His person," so are we the character of God's mind, 
 the highest thought and the highest glory ; taken out 
 to be the expression of His thought in all the ages to 
 come. 
 
 Thus we come to this book, to follow it step by 
 step. As Romans shows the righteousness of God, 
 beginning with us as guilty sinners and proving us 
 guilty, so this reveals the ineffable expression of 
 His grace, "the riches of His grace," and the un- 
 fathomable mercy of God, meeting us without refer- 
 ence to conduct but simple condition, as we were left 
 wounded and dead at the wayside, like the poor man 
 who had gone from Jerusalem to Jericho, and left 
 half dead and utterly lost ! That is the condition. 
 Taking Romans ii. and Ephesians i.-iii. together, we 
 find in the one case our guilt proved, no matter 
 how we may step into the presence of God with our 
 thoughts of our own goodness, letting us know what 
 we are ; and this is telling us what we were, inde- 
 pendently of conduct and by nature, thoroughly 
 contrary to God. And therefore it is in this book 
 that we get God brought out. Probably there is no 
 portion of Scripture in which the name of God is 
 more constantly used than Ephesians ; it is distinct 
 and unique ; more of God than of Christ. God is | v^ 
 seen back of all, when He is seen as the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. These are the two 
 titles of God — God and Father ; God in regard to all 
 
 6 
 
 ^ 
 
 ir 
 
 (j^ 
 
His counsels, and Father in regard to the full expan- 
 sion and expression of His heart. 
 
 Can we read such a book ? None otherwise than 
 as filled with the Spirit, with no mind of our own, 
 "We have received not the spirit which is of the 
 world but the Spirit which is of God," that we might 
 know these things. Could we bear this infinite 
 weight of love that He tells out ? None otherwise 
 than by being strengthened by His Spirit, to live it 
 out in our lives. 
 
 We all know that everything tends downward. 
 ' Multitudes of men that are children of God by faith 
 \ in Christ Jesus have no apprehension at all of the 
 : heavenly calling. They scarcely read this epistle, 
 because they cannot make out anything of these 
 . things. How many that have read all this are living 
 according to man to move forward, and what is mov- 
 ing forward but to move downward all the more. 
 So we need to be lifted up and out of our thoughts 
 into God's thoughts. So we will take it up slowly 
 and carefully, resting upon Him to open it to us. 
 
 Like other epistles, it begins by stating the author- 
 ity by which it is written. It is nothing to us if it is 
 of Paul simply ; if it is only PauFs meditations, or 
 Paul's imagination, or Paul's reasoning, it is nothing 
 at all. And therefore we have to learn how he got 
 all this. What right has he to say it to us ? We 
 learn in the Epistle to the Komans that he was sep- 
 arated unto the good news of God concerning His 
 Son Jesus Christ, who was made of the seed of 
 David and declared to be the Son of God with power, 
 according to the Spirit of holiness, by the resurrec- 
 tion from the dead. We find the resurrection is the 
 statement of power to us all the time, the power 
 which we are to apprehend continually ; and in 
 Ephesians we are to be occupied with that. That 
 gospel is called again in Second Tim. i. 8, " The gos- 
 
pel according to the power of God." This gospel 
 gets very wonderful names. It is called in First 
 Tim. the *' gospel of the happy God." The calling 
 is, in Philippians, the calling on high ; in Hebrews, 
 the heavenly calling ; and here, the heavenly call- 
 ing. The gospel is the gospel of the grace of God,"^ 
 and of the glory of God, and of the power and the 
 v/isdom of God. Thus we have everything in this 
 good news. The wonderful thing is that we are the ■' 
 ones that have it. We talk about His passing by j 
 angels, but He passed by thousands and millions of ; . 
 sinners through all the ages, and Israel, as far as 1^«'^ 
 these things are concerned. Prophets and priests ] J 
 never heard such a word ; and if we are content toj ^ 
 act as prophets and priests should have acted, we are M(y»^ 
 excessively low ; if we are content to be the Jew that \y^ 
 Christendom makes of itself to-day, we are excess- ' Tli*^ 
 ively low in all conceptions of truth ; if we will J "^^ 
 insist upon putting ourselves under the law, and it* 
 have the slightest figment of ritualism, or make any 
 system of men, we are excessively low in all concep- , 
 tions of God, and of what He is doing. Man is a y^^ 
 failure, and God has demonstrated it all, and God 
 comes out and has filled everything; then calling 
 our attention to it, that we might know what is the 
 height and depth and breadth and length. 
 
 Now, if .one comes to us to state these things, 
 where did he get them ? I say that it is necessary we 
 should know where he got them. Paul is not saying 
 now that he is a servant but an apostle of Jesus 
 Christ, definitely sent. I shall listen to him, because 
 he is sent with a special message ; it is full-orbed 
 truth; an apostle of Jesus Christ; back of that, 
 '^through the will of God." 
 
 God in everything that He has done has had to do 
 everything about it. When He had it in His mind 
 to take up Israel, He said, " I have seen the affliction 
 
of my people/' and He had to go down to where they 
 were, and then He had to get Moses ready with many 
 a pleading, and then to have Moses go into Egypt 
 and plead with Israel to let God do it ; and then He 
 had to go to the enemy that held them, and insist 
 upon it that he should let them go — by all the smit- 
 ings of the nine judgments, and preparing them for 
 the great final one — the destruction of the first-born 
 and destruction of Pharaoh's hosts in the sea. God 
 had to do it all Himself, and so He had to do it all 
 J in the matter of our salvation. Where then is this 
 idea that we do our part and He does His part ? 
 Where is boasting ? It is excluded by this simple 
 law of grace. There is no deeper, more destructive 
 he that goes about now among men than the thought 
 of their doing for salvation. Ephesians will nail 
 that lie eternally. The whole of this gospel is by 
 God's own mind, and His own hand, and then He 
 picks out His apostle, and it is by His will only. 
 Paul chose no such place ; he chose no truth ; he had 
 nothing to choose, but he simply is sent, and God's 
 will is behind it all. 
 
 Ver. 1. '' Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the 
 will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and 
 to the faithful in Christ Jesus." The word " Ephe- 
 sus " does not make much difference. It is left out 
 in many manuscripts. It would seem to be to the 
 Laodiceans, from what we read in Colossians. The 
 epistle to the Ephesians gives us the church, and 
 what it is, and the Head also, although not occupied 
 with the Head. It gives the truth concerning the 
 church. Colossians is occupied definitely with the 
 ^i Head, and with making us walk worthy of the Head. 
 ] So we have the Head in Colossians and the Body in 
 I Ephesians, the two forming the one Man of the 
 f future, the One that is to reign over all things— the 
 / Man of Psalm viii : " Thou hast put all things under 
 
His feet;'* the Man of Heb. ii. where it says, *'For 
 not unto angels did He subject the world to come, 
 whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere testi- 
 fied, saying, What is man that Thou art mindful of 
 him, or the son of man that Thou visitest him? 
 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels ; 
 Thou crownedst him with glory and honor, and 
 didst set him over the work of Thy hands ; Thou 
 didst put all things in subjection under his feet." 
 Then the whole of this wonderful Chap ii. of 
 Hebrews tells us four different reasons why He be- 
 came a man, and that it was necessary He should I 
 become a man to get us up there. 
 
 Now we see all these things mapped out. We see 
 it first by the character of the epistle, the one who 
 writes it, and then the fact that it is sent out broad- 
 cast. Some have supposed that it is a circular letter. , 
 We are quite sure it means all saints, whether it is ' 
 addressed to a certain church or not. It may have 
 been carried by Epaphroditus and Onesimus from 
 the prison at Rome ; Epaphroditus going from the 
 prison, and carrying it with the Epistle to the Colos- 
 sians and the Epistle to the Philippians ; and then 
 given as they went to these various assemblies at 
 Ephesus and Philippi and Colossae. In that case, 
 we should see why they should be together, and why 
 there is such a wonderful agreement among all three 
 of them ; Ephesians and Colossi ans going together to * 
 form the church with its Head, and Philippians com- 
 ing between to tell all the wondrous glad living with 
 these two epistles to guide. Philippians is not a • 
 doctrinal epistle ; it is simply a glad walk with Christ 
 in the glory and before Him ; reaching out and 
 running up thitherward ; emptying out everything 
 of himself in the second chapter, starting out on the ' 
 run in the third, and in the fourth knowing the peace.j 
 of God and the God of peace, and the Lord's own 
 
f peace all the time. That is consonant with these two 
 epistles ; the three go together. Then that sweet little 
 
 i epistle to Philemon, which is the gushing out of the 
 heart, and the practical thing of how to treat a brother 
 that had been a slave, and the power of the truth. 
 
 "The saints which are at Ephesus, and the faith- 
 ful in Christ Jesus." That is the standing— in Christ 
 Jesus. It is not under Christ Jesus, as we have in 
 Matthew ; the Kingdom, in which He is over and 
 they under, and looking out fit subjects for that 
 kingdom ; but it is saints, separated definitely for 
 that purpose, to be with Him and in Him as to their 
 standing ; as in First John, iv., we are as He is, ex- 
 
 / actly ; and as it is given in Hebrews ii., "Forasmuch 
 as the children were partakers of flesh and blood, He 
 also Himself, in like manner, partook of the same 
 that He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified 
 might be all of one." We were sanctified by Adam 
 into infamy and crime and guilt. We were just like 
 our head, Adam. We are now set apart by another 
 One. For sanctify can just as well mean set apart 
 to bad as to good, for the word simply means " set 
 apart." We were one nature with Adam, and are 
 one nature here. Now we are of the same material 
 as Christ is, " Who was the image of the invisible 
 God and the first-born of an entire creation.'' So we 
 are the creation and He is the Head of it ; and He is 
 the first-born, and we are a kind of first-fruits, too. 
 We spring up from the grave and join the new Man, 
 and are linked with Him eternally. 
 
 "The faithful in Christ Jesus." This would be 
 those that are simply having that as a fact, and faith 
 receiving it ; it would be "full of faith." 
 
 Ver. 2. " Grace be to you, and peace, from God 
 our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ." Grace, 
 
 f we understand, is God's distinctive favor. In Romans, 
 v., "By whom we have access into this grace wherein 
 
 10 
 
we stand." Now, as having access into that special 
 favor from God, we are addressed on that ground. 
 " Grace to you," and from Him, according to His full 
 stature ; the full revelation of God ; "the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." There is nothing 
 higher that can be told of Him. Could God ever 
 have done anything higher and richer, and fuller of 
 meaning ? It is having His Son made of woman that 
 He might bear our sins, and taking Him up from the 
 grave. Could anything be higher that God could 
 do than what He does with Him ? And by that act 
 He confers upon Himself a new title that He shall 
 be known by from that onward, as the God and 
 Father of this One that He has raised up from the 
 dead. 
 
 And then Christ's title : it is as here in the flesh, 
 then raised up and made both Lord and Christ, an- 
 swering every demand of God in placing Him here, 
 and having all power and dominion as Lord over 
 everything there, He speaks as Sovereign and Lord. . 
 Doubtless He is also Jehovah of the Old Testament 
 as well, before He gets all this bestowed upon Him. 
 He took the lowest death possible ; and then see His 
 coronation ! We get into broad, infinite extremes 
 when we come to talk about God and Christ. The 
 superlatives here are plentiful. He goes to the low- 
 est depths — deserving as a sinner, because He took 
 our deserts— and now God takes Him up as utterly 
 satisfied with it, and then crowns Him as Lord and 
 Christ, involving the sovereignty of the universe 
 itself and all that He meant as the God of Israel, 
 as well. And He gave Him, as having to do with 
 us, a new title, "the Son of God," as the Seed of 
 David. Israel were saints ; they were separated in 
 an earthly way, but we are saints of the highest, 
 heavenly. " Grace and peace, from God our Father, ^ 
 and the Lord Jesus Christ." Our God and Father, ' 
 
 x% 
 
because we are saints of God, and then from our 
 Lord Jesus Christ as His own, members of ^is body. 
 Suppose, before we get through, there shall be 
 some things that will look into our faces and rebuke 
 sharply ? Can we fail of being comforted, as well as 
 being impressed, by such a word as this, " Grace and 
 peace from our Father, and from the Lord Jesus 
 Christ"? 
 
 The character of this epistle is so rich, it has to be 
 put in the richest way, and begins by an ascription 
 of praise. It discloses the wealth and glory and joy 
 of God in words and phrases whose simplicity is sub- 
 lime. We do well to mark how the epistle starts. 
 Take the Epistle to the Hebrews. " God, having of 
 old time spoken unto the fathers in the prophets by 
 divers portions and by divers manners, hath at the 
 end of these days spoken unto us in His Son, whom 
 He appointed Heir of all things, through whom also 
 He made the worlds. " There we have the entire range 
 of all that He has to speak to us. Then we are oc- 
 cupied with the Son all the way through that book 
 of Hebrews. Here we are occupied with our bless- 
 ing, and hence it begins by ascribing to Him the 
 praise. ' ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." That takes in Christ as man down 
 here, and God not ashamed to be called His God. 
 Then He raises Him up from the dead and declares 
 Him His Son. He was the Son while He was down 
 here, and the only begotten ; but for the work that 
 He did He gets the title of the Son of God. God is 
 His Father. Men may say of Jesus what they will 
 —and they have done so— but God treats Him ac- 
 cording to all that He has done. And we shall find, 
 too, that it tells out God's heart in regard to the 
 
 j-Y^^I matter of salvation, that He thus gives Jesus the 
 w f title of the Son of God because He laid down His life 
 
 '^ for sinners. Then He Himself takes the title of the 
 
God and Father of this One that did it all. And thus I 
 God has gained His title of the '' God and Father of { 
 our Lord Jesus Christ," which would never have been 
 known had not Christ died ; and that death would 
 never have been accomplished had not man been a > 
 sinner. So man's sin has brought out Christ and 
 God, and filled the entire universe of bliss with its 
 richest thoughts. And the God and Father has 
 blessed us, according to the stature to which He has 
 risen in this book. Go back to creation, in Gen. i., 
 and see that when God had created everything, He 
 called it all good. He is the Creator of that wondrous 
 heaven and of the earth, and He calls it all good ; 
 and He is the Creator of man and beast and every- 
 thing, and it is all good. But there He has no title J 
 of " God and Father " He has no title of '' God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," because there is 
 no Lord Jesus Christ revealed. Doubtless He is God 1 
 in the full-orbed character of the Father and the Son 
 and the Holy Spirit at that very time. Because He I 
 says, " Let us make man." He never says, " Let us I 
 make grass, sun, earth, etc.," but when it came to! 
 man. He says, "Let us make man." But there is no 
 blessing and glory ascribed to Him as blessing man in 
 earthly places. But when He has come out to the 
 final ground, and given the finishing stroke to all 
 that He has created, that which is spoken of as His 
 poem in Chap. ii. ; and tells us all that which pertains 
 to it, the depths of His wisdom and the riches of His 
 grace and the working of His mighty power, when 
 all these things in God are discussed in this book, 
 then He takes titles in accordance with it. And in 
 accordance with all that thought He has blessed us. 
 Have we, in faith, reached up to that ? How we 
 have to stretch ourselves to do that ! How impos- 
 sible to do it, except by what we find in Chap. iii. 
 " Strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner 
 
 18 
 
; man." It is simply the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, 
 by which we know and receive and act in these 
 
 . wonders of the heavens. But then, you see, He 
 
 ^ wants us to take it all. Such language as He gives 
 here would have been impossible to name among 
 angels ; impossible to have tried to tell it to the high- 
 est that he ever had on earth ; to the Noahs, to the 
 Abrahams, to the Davids, to the Daniels— the wisest 
 aud most gifted and richest in His thoughts. They 
 simply would have stood amazed at this, just as Solo- 
 mon would have stood amazed at any one saying to 
 him, when he had called the blessing of God upon 
 that temple, if one had announced these few words, 
 *' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual 
 blessing in the Heavenlies in Christ." Do you not 
 see how such a man would have been totally misun- 
 derstood ? Shall you and I go and put ourselves 
 back on that level ? We have lost Christian stand- 
 
 I ing if we do. All the present truth is gone and denied 
 when we put ourselves on that ground. We cannot 
 stand with Solomon. Our feet must be infinitely 
 above his head, because we stand in heavenly places. 
 When it is announced to us that we are blessed with 
 all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies, we forsake 
 all that is earthly and the earth itself. It is this that 
 gives force and character to the word, *' You are not 
 of the world, I have chosen you out of the world." 
 And that is because of the cross that has separated 
 us forever by death from all that we were. We are 
 crucified to the world, and the world crucified to us. 
 We are risen ! And therefore that He has blessed us 
 with all spiritual blessings is the announcement for 
 us. It is *' according as He hath chosen us in Him 
 before the foundation of the world." 
 ■^^-J In Prov. viii. 18-31, Wisdom is speaking, and First 
 •^" j Cor, u 30 lets us know who this Wisdom was, "But 
 
of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who is made unto { 
 us wisdom from God, even righteousness and sane- ? 
 tification and redemption." And Christ is the one. 
 
 ** Riches and honor was with Him." " Yea, than 
 
 fine gold." "My revenue than choice silver." 
 
 Fine gold is that which passed through the fire to 
 become refined, the fire of judgment. The fineness 
 of gold always has reference to the gold tried with 
 fire, and all its dross taken out of it, and it is just a 
 picture of Christ's death and the cross. This then is 
 better. If we were redeemed to earthly places, it 
 would be like the beginning of the Acts. Israel 
 brought on the earthly ground, which was proposed 
 to them in Acts iii. That would be fine gold ; but 
 better than gold gets us clear up. ** I lead in the way 
 of righteousness ; in the midst of the paths of judg- 
 ment." The way of righteousness is right through] 
 the heart of Romans. The way of judgment is right 
 through the whole matter of the cross. Romans is j 
 always the expression of the way of righteousness ) 
 of God in dealing with us. It brings us out with- { 
 out condemnation, and His whole heart for us, and \ 
 Himself for us. " That I may cause those that love me i 
 to inherit substance : and I will fill their treasures." 
 I am sure he has filled us perfectly in these things. 
 " Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of His way, 
 before His works of old. I was set up for everlast- 
 ing, from the beginning or ever the earth was. When 
 there were no depths I was brought forth; when 
 there were no fountains abounding with water. 
 Before the mountains were settled, before the hills 
 was I brought forth : While as yet He had not made 
 the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the 
 dust of the world. When He prepared the heavens, 
 I was there : when He set a compass upon the face of 
 depth ; when He established the clouds above ; when 
 He strengthened the fountains of the deep ; when 
 
He gave to the sea His decree that the waters should 
 not pass his commandment ; when He appointed the 
 foundations of the earth ; then I was with Him, as 
 one brought up with Him; and I was daily His 
 delight, rejoicing always before Him." It is the 
 thought of God commanding the light to shine on 
 the fourth day, and the third day the earth to show 
 itself, and the second day the firmament to be 
 between the waters above and below, on the first 
 day commanding simply light, and then all brought 
 out so the whole thing is disclosed. Think of His 
 going on day by day, given in Genesis i., and that 
 He — Wisdom — was there daily. Every day, as He 
 called out these. He was His delight. Think of all 
 that had preceded in the thoughts of God in regard 
 to this ; think of what it says in Psalm xlv. : " In the 
 y,,A*l^*vwh[plume'pf the book," etc. Think that when it came 
 ^ ^own to the sacrifices and offerings of Israel, that 
 He could say, "These are simply the symbols of the 
 day, and by and by I am to come, delighting to do 
 . His will." Oh, it is delightful to go back into God's 
 thoughts I It belongs to us, simply because we are 
 in Christ, We get our title to-day in the fact that 
 we are sons of God. It is not yet manifested, but 
 we are awaiting manifestation. Every one will 
 have his perfect place ; its complete end. It has 
 made us to have boldness in the day of judgment, 
 because we are as He is. The heart must get a great 
 deal of comfort in reading this verse : *'Then I was 
 by Him, as one brought up with Him ; and I was 
 daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him." 
 Everything was to be brought out for Him, to mag- 
 aify and manifest Him. Then His own special 
 delight was in the habitable part of the earth, as it 
 was thus brought out, and the land brought out ; and 
 .^ was near when on the third day He said, "Let the 
 , waters recede and the earth come forth." It was 
 
the day that marked the resurrection — the third daj,, ^ • 
 just as the spiritual earth comes forth from all the j 
 darkness and death through the death and resurrec- I y^^' 
 tion of Christ. And so it says, ^* Rejoicing in the 
 habitable parts of the earth." It does not say, '* Re- 
 joicing in the sea." Habitable is the very part that 
 IS looked upon in so many places in the Scripture. 
 It is the word used for the physical world. The 
 other word used for world is simply "age." This 
 was where Christ was to be crucified, and where His 
 feet would touch, and He rejoiced in the habitable 
 parts of the earth. **My delights were with the sons 
 of men." In John xi. there are two things : dying 
 for the nation Israel, and then to gather together all 
 the children of God that were scattered abroad. God 
 is going to have there an earthly people, and it is His 
 delight. In the one He rejoices, — in the other He 
 has His specific delight. We have the two things 
 there. It is what pertains to us ; that God was pro- 
 posing in the ages to have us, and Christ was rejoic- 
 ing in it all, and His heart leaping forward in fellow- 
 ship to us. 
 
 Yer. 4. "According as He hath chosen us in Him, 
 before the foundation of the world, that we should 
 be holy" (that means separated unto Him) "and 
 without blame before Him in love." That has to do 
 with conduct in accordance with the separation. 
 We are separated unto God ; then because we are 
 separated unto God we must be like Him, blameless, , 
 without blemish. Then we have that which charac- ;! 
 terizes the whole matter so richly — "In love ! " You / 
 know the two things that are revealed concerning j 
 God ; that He is Light — that involves our separation / 
 and blamelessness ; and "God is love"— that involves 
 the thought that we are separated in love. We have fjy^ 
 two titles of God all the way through Ephesians. , jj 
 He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,, 4^ 
 
 IT 
 
> 
 
 We shall have, during the whole of Chap. i. and 
 Chap. ii. too, Him as the God of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. It will be His counsels." Out of the mind oi 
 God these things come. Then in Chap. iii. we shall 
 hare come in deeper still into all God's heart, and 
 find Him the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 so we find one of the most singular things in Script- 
 ure. There are only two phrases in Scripture that 
 seem left unfinished. One is the word of man and 
 
 'i the other of the Holy Spirit telling us about God. 
 One is in Ex. xxxii. 32: ''If Thou wilt forgive ! '* 
 He had never heard the word forgive in his life, 
 and therefore it was, " If Thou wilt forgive." 
 Then God came out with a new revelation of Him- 
 self, in which forgiveness was a very prominent 
 word ; an entirely new revelation, because God had 
 not taken Israel out of Egypt on the ground of for- 
 giving anything at all. He said, "I have seen the 
 
 ' affliction of my people And I am come down to 
 
 deliver them." He gave His full name of Jehovah, 
 which contained those seven things that He would 
 do for them (Ex. vi. 6-8), and after He had given 
 the law, they broke the law by bowing down to the 
 golden calf. Then it was all over. Now it is for- 
 
 , giveness or death. And Moses, actually led by God 
 
 Himself, says, ''If Thou wilt forgive," and he could 
 
 . get no further. God responded to that by passing 
 
 'before him and proclaiming His name anew ; not 
 simply Jehovah, but Jehovah, merciful and gracious. 
 The other place where the thing is left with a blank 
 is in Chap. iii. of this book. It is, ''That we might 
 know what is the breadth and length and depth and 
 
 ' height," it does not say of what. It is left indefinite. 
 It is infinite. Now, it is according to this that we are 
 to be trained. We are to go to school to this infinite 
 love. We are to go to school under the two titles of 
 Qod and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the depth 
 
of His purposes, and the infinite range and scope of 
 all that He will disclose, and then His fathomless 
 heart ! Ourselves to explore more and more ; and 
 to be the expansion of what God is, in our position. 
 What an invitation it is to us to leave what man 
 calls joy down here, and be occupied with Him ! 
 What testimony we have in regard to this. The 
 testimony began the moment we were saved. We 
 know our place in God and in Christ. How this cor- 
 responds with Hebrews i. God is now speaking in 
 the Son, Now we are to know what the Son is and 
 what is involved in this knowledge. The possibility 
 of all these blessings is the scope of our life. In 
 Him, in contrast with under Him. 
 
 Ver. 5. *' Having predestinated us unto the adop- 
 tion of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according 
 to the good pleasure of His will." I use the word 
 ** son-place " instead of adoption, because that is pre- 
 cisely what the word means. Adoption means son- 
 placing, but it tells you how you got there. It is 
 very nice to be adopted, but I can every moment as 
 an adopted child look into the face of my father and 
 say, " I am not your own son." But I cannot look into 
 the face of God and say that. I was a son of Adam 
 as born of the human race, but I have been taken 
 out of the race of Adam into His family ; slain there 
 — thank God ! — crucified ; slain as a felon — an object 
 of shame and guilt and ruin before God — put to 
 death. It is not adoption ; it is son-placing. I am 
 born in His house and in His arms. A born son ! 
 (John i. 12, 13.) Witness :— " As many as received 
 Him, to them He gave the privilege of being sons of 
 God : who are born not of the flesh but of God." 
 Sometimes adopted children are let go after a while, 
 but a born son never gets out of the blood, and out 
 of the life. He may act badly, but he is a son. So 
 you see the word adoption is hardly sweet enough 
 
 19 
 
) 
 
 when we have such precious things here. We are 
 predestinated to the son-place. Predestination and 
 
 ! foreordination are the same word, of course. You 
 will find that it is not, foreordained to be saved. It 
 
 ^ is not naming you by name to be saved. That is a 
 
 j poor idea of predestination. God has saved people 
 without that. He did it in the Old Testament times. 
 The millions that will be brought to God and believe 
 in Him, and be His people actually, and never go 
 out, in the millennial times, will be just as clearly 
 His own as we are ; and yet concerning these, and 
 concerning those in the Old Testament times, there 
 is not a word said about being predestinated. These 
 were not predestinated to any condition, yet they are 
 ^ !&aved just as much as we are. Predestination has 
 ^ not to do with salvation. With what has it to do 
 J^ then ? It has to do with the people that belong in 
 J this specific time when Christ is raised up in heaven 
 and declared to be the Son. And that continues 
 until the time He comes down. During the whole of 
 the present period God has His Son up there, and 
 He is making sons, and this is just the period of 
 sons. He is speaking to sons now in His Son. 
 He is talking son language and of son conduct, and 
 son reflections of Himself in the heart. "Behold 
 what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon 
 us that we should be called the sons of God. And 
 we are. For this cause the world knoweth us not 
 because it knew Him not." Now that is predestina- 
 tion. It is what the predestination of Scripture looks 
 at. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, 
 
 I these are sons of God." The Old Testament saints 
 were not led by the Spirit of God. To be Christ's 
 is to have the Holy Spirit in us ; every believer has 
 the Holy Spirit in him. Then these are sons. Pre- 
 destination is to position as saved, not salvation 
 
 {itself. "Whom he foreknew he predestinated to be 
 
 20 
 
conformed to the image of His Son." You cannol 
 find a thing about the believer in the Scripture tc 
 which the word predestination attaches, that does 
 not involve the place of the believer ; not the salva- < 
 tion, but the style of it. 
 
 Man rejected Christ down here, and sent Him 
 away; now while God has Him up there, He 
 says, **Sit Thou on my right hand until I make 
 Thine enemies Thy footstool." Until is a little word, 
 but it covers the entire eighteen hundred years in 
 which He is making sons, having predestinated us to 
 the son-place. 
 
 Ver. 6. *' According to the good pleasure of His 
 will." What a vivid contrast that whole matter is to \ 
 what is called Christianity, and to what is called 
 Christian preaching and teaching and praying and 
 worship to-day. This is the way God is acting now. . 
 We know that there was a time that lasted fifteen hun- 
 dred dreary years, in which God held back from act- 
 ing according to His will, excepting on rare occasions. 
 The people were under the law, wrong all the time 
 and failing utterly of His kindness — because the laW^ 
 says, I will do thus and so, if you do thus ; and cursed! 
 is every one that continueth not in all things that ) 
 are written in the book of law. God retreated and 
 waited while man was doing. The sad thing is that' 
 we have that mingled with a great deal of teaching 
 of to-day, and we were born in the midst of it. It is \ 
 as though God would put a limit — "If you do so," etc. ^ 
 Now, this is not true. It is a denial of the truth that ; 
 God has given. He is acting now independently of 
 man in any way whatever. Everything of Christ has 
 put man out of the way. He has been put to death 
 as a felon, and now God can go right on and act. 
 Never before in the history of man on the earth had 
 God the distinctive opportunity and place to act ; but 
 now, since Christ is raised from the dead, there is a 
 
 21 
 
 / 
 
iiew creation. We have a figure of this in Gen. i. 
 '* In the beginning God created the heaven and 
 the earth. And the earth was without form and 
 void." Not that it was created so, it became so, 
 an utter ruin, doubtless brought on by judgment. 
 ' Well, what then ? He must come into the scene, 
 and so He does, and the first thing is that the Spirit 
 moves upon the face of the waters, and the word 
 of God comes forth. The Spirit and the Word, 
 just as much as the Spirit and the Word to-day are 
 acting. How simple it is, and what a wonderful 
 creation it is in the end, and how He pronounces it 
 all good ! Man does not have to provide a thing ; it 
 is free — all open to his hand. The earth produces, 
 and he eats from what it produces. Now it is so in 
 this new creation. It is a scene of entire ruin, and 
 when man can consent to let God reach all altitudes 
 and breadths and lengths, and do all things accord- 
 ing to His good pleasure, — that is the salvation of 
 God in this day. I suppose the trouble is that men 
 are not made to know that they are utterly lost. 
 Romans starts upon the principle of ungodliness in 
 the natur 3 and unrighteousness in conduct, and says, 
 ^*The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against 
 it all." There is no use of man saying, "I will try 
 to do better." ** There is none good ; no, not one." 
 Then in Chap. iii. " Now the righteousness of God 
 is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the 
 prophets." So we see that God was writing it down 
 that He could act according to His grace, and in 
 righteousness do it ; have a righteous way in which 
 he could save, after all. Then here in Ephesians, we 
 start with man utterly dead, and it is Christ dead, 
 too. God comes into the scene in which man is dead 
 and Christ dead. You will find in this chapter that 
 Christ is dead and taken up out of the grave. You 
 will find in Chap. ii. that you were dead, and He has 
 
taken you up too. That is according to the good? ^j^^Jr^ 
 pleasure of His will. Now He makes man partakei ! ^^ 
 of His highest things, because it is according to His! ''''jy 
 will. There is nothing contingent upon our conduci; i^*-^ 
 in it ; not even after we are saved. I may falter and/ 
 limp, and make the poorest kind of a walk, but I ami 
 a saved man ! I am not talking about other things,—^! 
 the enjoyment of it, or the question of rewards, but oi 
 the simple matter of salvation itself. I am not going^ 
 to encourage anybody to walk in a limping, halting^ / 
 way, far be it ! The higher truth you give to men,j ^ 
 the more you bring them out of the limping. Where^, 
 the truth is applied, it takes a man clearly out of the 
 world, instead of leaving him here to work his way 
 as best he can. He is dead to the world, and the 
 world is dead to him by the crucifixion of Christ. 
 Now, lifted out of it, he learns how to live by being 
 occupied with Him who is the head and glory of that 
 very place. 
 
 Here then, is what God is doing according to His 
 own will. Do you not know that the hardest thing i 
 you ever found in the world was to let God have a I 
 will ? I remember a dear brother telling me that ^ 
 he read a portion in Chap. ix. of Romans when he 
 was a young man, in regard to, " What of God, will- 
 ing to show wrath, and to make His power known," 
 etc. and he said, " I won't have anything to do with 
 that ! "—as if that could stop God. But God was 
 very gracious to him, and in the course of an hour 
 he very humbly went and picked up the Bible he had 
 thrown off from him, glad that God had a will, and 
 that that will took him up as a lost sinner and saved . ^ 
 
 him. "T?v.K^ 
 
 Now it is simply of His good pleasure. Satan has ' ' ^^ 
 nothing but bad pleasure in**his will. Christ came ^ 
 and said, '' My peace I give unto you; not as the |,,(**^^'' 
 world giveth give I unto you." The world must 
 
 23 
 
always have an equivalent. It is the good pleasure 
 of BQis will to take us up for nothing. ""^ 
 y Then the object of it : ''To the praise of the glory 
 of His grace ! " It is to exploit His grace, to bring out 
 the full character of it. Did God have an opportu- 
 nity to show all that He was when He made angels ? 
 When He made Adam ? When He restored the earth 
 and in IToah started afresh ? He was bound, and 
 could not show Himself, and nothing but bringing 
 man to death would give Him an opportunity of 
 showing just how much love there was in Him. 
 \ Grace is love in the light ; it is love according to 
 ; righteousness ; grace reigning through righteous- 
 ' ness ; love showing itself with righteousness to- 
 . ward the lost guilty one. Then it is to the praise 
 of the glory of His grace. Are we not lifted into 
 a wondrous place then, when we are to be there 
 to be just the effulgence of His grace, to show out 
 all the riches of His grace ? In Romans we have 
 our place to show the righteousness of God. In 
 Ephesians we are placed, if possible, higher, to show 
 out the exceeding richness of His grace through all the 
 ages. That would make us not try to present a good 
 character to men, or to care for reputation, but to 
 let it be understood that we were the vilest of all, the 
 guilty man of Romans iii., the lost man of Ephes. ii., 
 dead in trespasses and sins, walking according to 
 this world ; led of the devil, his dupes all the time. 
 This is the boast we make. God has so presented 
 the matter that we hasten to take the place of 
 guilty sinners and lost men. I am not to turn 
 around upon God and say, I am not a son now — I 
 was picked up as a worthless thing, — lower than any- 
 thing on earth — the lost sinner is, — and then placed 
 in the highest, just that He might show what He is, 
 j — not what I am. His righteousness when you come 
 ' to talk about guilt, and His grace when you talk 
 
about condition of tuin ; all being to the praise of ) 
 the glory of His grace ! 
 
 Hence we are held up as the very brightest jewels | 
 through the millennial age and through the eternal I 
 age. 
 
 One other clause in Ver. 6— the old version says, 
 "Made us accepted." The new version says, ** Which 
 He freely bestowed on us." It is that grace which 
 He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. The 
 thought is that he has taken us into favor in the 
 Beloved. 
 
 We see two reasons for what has come to us ; first, 
 the will of God to show out Himself ; and second, 
 the Beloved, in whom He has placed us. These are 
 two grand pillars to bear this structure up. So we 
 have this second reason, that He has taken us into 
 favor in the Beloved. This He has to give, — that is 
 what we are. In First John we have several things i 
 connected with our position. We are told that we 
 are in the place where we are to have His joy and 
 full fellowship with Him. In Chap. ii. that our 
 sinning need not hinder ; if we confess our sins they 
 are put away. In Chap. iii. that we are sons of God ; 
 and in Chap. iv. that we are just like Christ. In!^ J>> 
 Chap. V. that He has given us eternal life, and this | 
 life is in His Son. We have the son-life, and He has • 
 written it that we might know we have eternal life, 
 and then know all these rich things in the varied 
 chapters. ** Taken into favor in the Beloved " then, 
 is the reality. We never need have a question as to ^ 
 how much He loves us ; He loves us as much as He 
 loves His Son. Christ said, "That the world might 
 know that Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved 
 me ! " What an immense word that little word of 
 two letters, "as," is. We are as He is ; we are hated 
 by the world as He was ^^ated. These are the things 
 that are given us by Christ's own statement apart 
 
 2fi 
 
 kV- 
 
from us, as we listen while He is talking to the 
 Father; telling what we are to God, and that He has 
 done it. (John xvii.) To be as in Romans righteous 
 before God, and in Ephesians risen and seated in 
 heavenly places to be quickened together with 
 Christ ; not apart, but with ; to be seated in heaven- 
 ly places in Him, and being satisfied with Him : to 
 be in Colossians complete in Him : to be in Thessa- 
 lonians just waiting for Him, and counting on His 
 coming to take us worthily up to our place. " Ac- 
 cepted in the Beloved," then, is a very sweet thought. 
 
 We are getting the germinal principles in these 
 early verses. We go on now. 
 
 Ver. 7. "In whom we have redemption through 
 His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the 
 riches of His grace." That comes down to the 
 method in which it is done practically. After all 
 that has been said, one might say. That is all very 
 beautiful, but how am I to get it ? And so we pause 
 at the end of Ver. 6 with just such a thought, How 
 did you got it ? Now He says in Ver. 7, "In whom 
 we have redemption through His blood, the forgive- 
 ness of sins," and then He gives the standard of that, 
 " according to the riches of His grace." That is a par- 
 ticularly clean forgiveness, is it not ? Two things : 
 — Redemption connected with our being bought, 
 completely, out of the whole thing we were in. If I 
 was bought as a slave, I belong to the man that 
 bought me. Now if he has redeemed me, that is it. 
 Then if I am bought by that man, he puts a new 
 suit of clothes on me to have me fit for him. So God 
 makes His own redemption, and this is the standard : 
 "According to the riches of His grace," so Ver. 7 
 tells us the simplest thing, — the first word of the 
 gospel, — that we learn in believing on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; we get a life. That is the link for all 
 the blessings in this chapter. It is that we believe 
 
 26 
 
on Christ and get redemption and forgiveness of sins. 
 It is the lowest thing that is in Ephes. in regard to 
 what God has done ; but do you know that it is the 
 highest thing of most Christians of to-day ? I heard 
 a venerable minister say, ''My great business is tof 
 get my soul converted, and to get safe to heaven."! 
 Every word was false. Not that that man meant to: 
 to lie, but Satan did. Now then, that is God's busi-j 
 ness. You call on any Christian to-day, and if he is 
 in a sweet frame of soul and has had some experi- 
 ences, what will you get ? "I am glad to say that 
 I am forgiven." That is only the beginning, — the 
 first little word of the whole thing. The little child- 
 ren in First John know their Father ; they have got 
 as far as that. Every believer has eternal life, and ] 
 the same life that Christ has ; he has^is sins for- 
 given him ; that is the simplest thing of all ; that is 
 Romans, — though Romans goes further than that. 
 Ephes. proposes to give us infinitely more than those, 
 in that He tells us we have it. All the sweet things 
 we get in First John come back to this : — ''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 you have that for the starting 
 point ; and this truth in Ver. 7 is the starting point 
 for you. It is the door by which you enter ipto all 
 this infinite matter that Ver. 3 begins with. "He 
 has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly 
 places in Christ." So we proceed to the next thing. 
 Notice the order here : He tells us first the large 
 things that He has done, because it begins with the 
 perfection of Him who has done it. Now we are 
 linked with Him there. Look at the measure of that, 
 — " According to the riches of His grace." We need 
 not lie awake nights and wonder if we are forgiven. 
 A person once said, " I pray every day for the for- 
 giveness of sins," and I said, "How do you get 
 
 ?7 
 

 along? Are they all forgiven?" ''Well, I think 
 they are." It takes a good while to find out how 
 rich the riches of His grace is. What He does is 
 always in accordance with Himself, and not accord- 
 ing to the mind of men. The next verse begins an 
 entirely different thing. Keep that same grace 
 before you. 
 
 Ver. 8. "Wherein He hath abounded toward us 
 in all wisdom and prudence." He has abounded 
 unto us, and it could not be otherwise. Prudence is 
 the word used there. Refer to Prov. viii. Speaking 
 of Wisdom, Ver. 12 says, ''I, Wisdom, dwell with 
 prudence and find out knowledge of witty inven- 
 tions." The witty inventions just means discovering 
 the highest thoughts of God's own mind ; the finest 
 characteristics of the mind now found out, — all 
 those things that God has written out for all the 
 " future, and all the things of the past, and all that 
 ^ Christ is in the present ; and we have the entire 
 scope of wisdom from God ; and Christ is that Wis- 
 dom, and now He has been shown unto us in all 
 these things. Probably the word prudence is best 
 rendered by intelligence j that would be 'the thought 
 that we could best apprehend. Therefore, it would 
 be, " He hath abounded unto us in all intelligence 
 and all wisdom ; " all His wisdom and intelligence 
 in regard to His mind. In Rev. iv. we find a com- 
 pany of people on twenty-four thrones around the 
 great central throne. The thing that distinguishes 
 I these twenty-four elders is their consummate wis- 
 dom and knowledge. They seem to be placed up 
 there to tell all about everything that is going on ; 
 perfectly at home amidst all that is going on ; they 
 bow before the throne of God and ascribe praise to 
 Him in regard to all creation, and tell the reason 
 1 why ; they bow before Christ, telling the reason of 
 Uheir worship ; and when John does not know wbo 
 
can open those seals, they tell him it is the Lion of 
 the tribe of Judah. They tell who they are who are ^ ^ ,^ 
 arrayed in white robes (Chap, vii.), gathered out of t *^^ * 
 every nation with reference to the millennial glory, ^^v--* 
 and selected by God that they shall be there ; they v^l** 
 tell, in Chap, xi., as they all together bow before ^''^^ 
 Him, all that is to come to pass clear down to the^' 
 end. Now, there is nobody in the scope of all Script- 
 ure that would correspond to them but the people in 
 these vv. 8, 9 and 10. It is a mystery to everybody 
 else but the church. It was one of the things that 
 Isaiah referred to when he said, "From the begin- 
 ning of the world eye hath not seen," etc. Then 
 Paul comes in and says, " But God hath revealed 
 them unto us." And we have in First John ii. 20 : 
 " But ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye 
 know all things." Nobody can teach us if we get it 
 from Him. Then in First Cor. viii. 1 : *' We have all 
 knowledge;" and in First Cor. ii. 6: ** We speak 
 wisdom among them that are perfect." That is per- 
 fection. Thus we have it carried out in so many , 
 places of the Scripture that we are peculiarly blessed I ^^yO 
 in knowing ; and as if to make it all the stronger, in . 
 
 the last epistles First John closes up by repeating, ^j^g^ 
 "We know, we know!" Not one of these things ^^^ 
 could be known by the human mind, or by instruc- 
 tion, or by observation, or by reasoning. 
 
 We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings 
 in heavenly places ; and in the same grace that did 
 all this. He has abounded unto us in all wisdom and 
 intelligence. Having made us ready to receive, then 
 He makes known — what ? 
 
 Ver. 9. " Having made known unto us the mystery 
 of His will, according to His good pleasure, which 
 He hath purposed in Himself." It is what He had 
 in His own mind, in Christ. We may go back to 
 wh^t we were speaking of before, into the coun- 
 
sels of God before the ages, as set forth in Prov. viii. 
 and in the Psalms and in Hebrews i. We may go 
 back into what is referred to when Christ says, *'I 
 
 came not to do mine own will, 1 have finished 
 
 the work which Thou gavest me to do." We may go 
 back and see the plan of the ages and the mind of 
 God, which is according to righteousness and holi- 
 ness and truth, and then say, The door is opened 
 through redemption into all that ! There is not a 
 door closed now. We are competent to take up the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, which opens heaven. Indeed, 
 we are solicited, as partakers of the heavenly calling, 
 to do that very thing. Could He talk that way to 
 Noah or Abraham ? They could have nothing lower 
 than this if they were placed in the heavens as we 
 are. Heaven is open all the time. How vivid the 
 
 \ contrast to the wretched, low, mean Christianity of 
 ^ j the present day ! Get out of it as fast as you can. 
 
 ^ The latter part of Yer. 9 is that which gives the 
 character, elevation and depth of it. ''Which He 
 hath purposed in Himself." It is leading us back to 
 God before there was anything created and the desire 
 and purpose of God to have company; that He would 
 have some to enter into His joy ; to be in fellowship 
 
 (with His things and His thoughts. It is one of the 
 most overwhelming and touching thoughts in regard 
 to God, that He sought our company. That He came 
 down to us as lost sinners, in the lowest place pos- 
 sible, to take us up into the highest place possible, to 
 •'^be His companions through eternity, passing angels, 
 ^ ,, and passing various dispensations until He came at 
 ^ *last to the lowest and the farthest off ! He came to 
 such, appealing for their society, to take in all His 
 delights. Of course He had to make us altogether 
 new in order to do this. This is wliat "after the 
 counsel of His own will" means, — that which He 
 purposed in Himself. Contrast this with the theo- 
 
 V 
 
logical way of telling things,— that God did just for 
 His own glory, this, that, and the other ; true, but 
 cold. But come to the Scripture, and we find that 
 the heart warms all the time toward the amazing 
 love that came to bring us unto Him, and that He 
 might have His delight in us; and as we have learned 
 that it was the delight that He had in His own Son 
 that He shares with us. So He has made known to 
 us the things hidden from others. That is what the 
 word '* mystery" means; a thing hidden, and now 
 revealed, a secret. We can no longer talk about 
 mysteries except as something now revealed to us. 
 God's thought is, there is a mystery which in the 
 former ages was never revealed at all. Now He 
 brings it out as clear and wide as the heavens. God > 
 is not satisfied to put us into the place ; He must 
 give us the intelligence of that place, and the knowl- \ 
 edge of that place, so as to form the walk of that 
 place, and the life of that place. This is His will. 
 One has to think of God, then, as having shut up 
 within His own mind all these rich thoughts in 
 counsel with His Son — Himself wisdom — and then; 
 seeking to have somebody to talk to. Then we can^ 
 go back and see Him making Adam, but directly 
 Adam fell, and there was no fellowship ; then, see- 
 ing what Adam's descendants were down to the 
 Flood,— beginning again with Noah, but Noah failed 
 utterly; then coming and taking up Abraham after 
 all had sunk into idolatry ; then revealing Himself 
 to him in a very large way, indeed, giving some of 
 the largest thoughts, one may say, because He was 
 the Almighty God and the Everlasting God, and 
 then taking a name connected with Abraham — "I 
 am the God of Abraham !" — thus coupling His name 
 with him. But we never find anything of sons; we' 
 never find anything of heavenly places; we never 
 find anything of making known to them the mystery 
 
of His will. He was still keeping back those richer 
 things. Then taking up Israel— a people in bondage 
 and a people that knew very little of Him, — He 
 made known to them His acts, and to their leader 
 His ways, but they were ways on earth and connected 
 only with the earth. But He was with them then, 
 and will be with them again when they shall be 
 blessed indeed, and the curse removed. But all 
 this was nothing compared with what He had in His 
 mind to reveal to sons, when He has raised up His 
 Son into the heavens, and made Him the pattern 
 according to His first thought. Now He reveals 
 everything. " The son abides in the house forever" 
 but the servant abides at his master's will and not to 
 know the master's purposes. But the son is heir to 
 all the things of the father. 
 
 This, then, is the way of it. God is telling us out 
 things that were kept secret. And He has done it 
 all according to His will. He has not called us in, 
 proposing to make us partners, and said, How much 
 will you do if I will tell you this ? but He has told 
 it out perfectly without consulting us. He has done 
 this for Himself and according to Himself, putting 
 us where we are and making us competent to receive, 
 and our only contribution is our utter emptiness and 
 ruin. (Gen. i. 2, 3.) 
 
 What is this purpose that He has told out ? Ver. 
 10. "That in the dispensation of the fullness of 
 times He might gather together in one all things in 
 Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on 
 earth, even in Him." Here are times going on from 
 the time of Adam to Noah, and from Noah to Abra- 
 ham, and from Abraham to Israel, and from Israel, 
 all through its varied history under priests and 
 kings and prophets, down to the Christ. Now these 
 are varied times but there comes out a new people, and 
 Pe p9int§ to the fulness of the tm^^s, the copsum- 
 
mation of all times, and He makes known to us that 
 in that dispensation He is going to head up in this 
 Son whom He has raised up from the dead all things 
 in heaven and earth. 
 
 Ver. 11. ** In whom also we have obtained ^n in- 
 heritance, being predestinated according to the pur- 
 pose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel 
 of His own will." We are his own heritage. Is 
 not this wonderful ? And we have also this thought, 
 — the amazing difference between our position and 
 these others that Christ will head up. He will head 
 up all things in heaven and earth, by Him in whom 
 we are already. We belong especially to Him. Wej Jr*^ i 
 share all His fortunes through the glory. We arel ^f^%/^ 
 part and parcel with Him. We get it directly as : jv" 
 members of His body ; where He moves through the iv*; 
 bright universe of bliss we move with Him, because lit/* 
 we are His body. His prayer for us (John xvii.) was, ^ ^ 
 "I will that they be with me w;here I am." We |&*^ 
 must be there, with Him in heading up and ruling 
 overall things, — "being predestinated for this very 
 purpose, according to the purpose of Him who work- 
 eth all things after the counsel of His own will." I 
 need not enlarge upon that. 
 
 Ver. 12. " That we should be to the praise of His 
 glory, who first trusted in Christ." We are the first; J ,. *-' 
 trusters in Christ. We have first to do with Him as * • ■y^ 
 coming up from the dead, the first ones that see 1 ^"^ ., 
 Christ and the first that are linked with Him. Wej i^ '^.^L 
 are first in His heart as the main object that He ^^^ 
 comes after, leaving all, and so we become the dear- ^^^f^ 
 est object on the earth to Him. So it is that Christ 
 had us as the one object, and securing us to take in 
 all these things in common with Himself, and all 
 these things in fellowship with the Father. All the 
 deep counsels of God are ours. He has made known 
 ^9 VLS this^ ^u4 sa^^ that these are distinctly ^Ijr Xq th^ 
 
praise of His glory. We, who thus trusted or hoped. 
 Forehoped is the word that would express it. So, 
 while we have come in late, after Adam and his 
 times, and Noah, and Abraham, and Israel, and all 
 that, and come down here when all is put to death 
 in the cross, the end of the ages is come, and He 
 starts a new creation, composed of first-born ones. 
 We, then, linked with Him, are just the ones that are 
 held up as the jewel sparkling in the heavens. That 
 is our place — the expression of His own glory. Does 
 not this take us out of all this common idea of 
 Christianity ? We shall learn in Chap. iii. that this 
 is Paul's gospel ; and you can search through the 
 Scripture until you get to Paul, and you will not find 
 a syllable like it ; and I am afraid you might light 
 a thousand electric lamps and search through this 
 city, and everywhere else, and find in all that is 
 preached and written, except as the Lord has struck 
 for Himself a ligfet, very little of it preached. And 
 yet it is the one gospel that God is giving out in 
 this day. It is the one gospel that men are not giv- 
 ing out. Men are paying their thousands and tens 
 of thousands to get anything else but Paul's gospel. 
 Now we have a thought added in Ver. 13. "In 
 whom ye also, after that ye heard the word of truth, 
 the gospel of your salvation : in whom also, after 
 that ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit 
 of promise." Leave out the word ** trusted." He is 
 marking those that were the first trusters. " After 
 you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your sal- 
 vation, in whom also you were sealed with that Holy 
 Spirit of promise." Christ promised the Holy Spirit 
 only to those who succeeded His day. The Old 
 Testament saints had no Holy Spirit dwelling in 
 them at all ; the millennial saints will not have the 
 Holy Spirit as we have. Here, then, are a people 
 definitely taken up, having a specific standing va, 
 
Christ, and a specific hope of being caught up to be 
 with Him, and of reigning with Him. Israel before 
 were servants ; Israel, and the Gentiles that are to 
 come, will be subjects under Christ in contrast with 
 us. We then have all this, and it is to fasten it, and 
 to fasten us in Him, linking us with Him as the 
 members of His body, we are sealed in Him. The ; 
 millennial saints are all of Israel that are saved with j^" 
 the Gentiles that no man can number. Rev. vii. tells \k^ 
 of the twelve tribes of Israel, and then a multitude | 
 of Gentiles that no man can number. They will j ^ji 
 fill the millennial years, and they will all be subjects ' 
 of the King. We will be reigning with the King. 
 They will not have the Holy Spirit dwelling in them ; x ^ 
 the Holy Spirit is given to us because we belong v.l 
 where we are not ; we belong in heaven, but we are 
 walking down here. Now to keep us in our place 
 the Holy Spirit is given ; and that is what is meant 
 by the '* earnest ; " He is the earnest of our inheri- 
 tance ; but Israel of old belonged to the Land, and 
 they did not need the Holy Spirit, because God was 
 literally there and dwelling with them. But we, j 
 dwelling here but belongings up there, to make that j 
 the place of our heart, imust have the Holy Spirit. > 
 But the Holy Spirit is not only an earnest, but we 
 are bound to Christ as members of His body by one 
 Spirit— by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwell- 
 ing in us is a matter of testimony from God ; He , 
 says, " You are sealed by the Holy Spirit." Sealing! 
 is setting apart ; but it is more than that here ; it is i 
 being fastened to Him. You might be taken apart 
 — every member of your body You get an exam- 
 ple of that in Ezekiel xxxvi. : " A heap of dry 
 bones." Now one might be just that ; then you 
 might say. There is a body : these are the component 
 parts of a man. But it would not be a body joined 
 to the head. But we might have them all joined to 
 
 35 
 
iM 
 
 A*-[; 
 
 the head, and just go slumping along like an idiot, 
 not knowing where to put our feet and hands. "What 
 is the matter with him ? He has not the spirit of a 
 human being. Put the spirit of a man in him, and 
 every muscle comes into place, and he uses them 
 aright ; these members are baptized by one human 
 spirit into one body ; it had its effect of making the 
 man a unit. So the one Holy Spirit has brought 
 every memler into his place, and all to the Head. 
 
 I So that we are sealed in Him. The Spirit sets us 
 apart for the future ; that is the purpose of sealing. 
 We are marked off for Him,— members of His body, 
 
 * and we are to be manifested as such, and to be mani- 
 fested as one at the coming of Christ, but the Holy 
 
 ' Spirit makes us know it now as a fact, because He 
 is the earnest of that inheritance, keeping us true to 
 that, and making it true to us until we get there. 
 
 Ver. 14. "Who is the earnest of our inheritance 
 until the redemption of the purchased possession, 
 unto the praise of His glory." We are to inherit 
 everything with Christ, and to reign with Him ; so 
 we just hold it as a fact. What does that do with a 
 man ? It makes him say, I have nothing to do with 
 things here ; all my politics are in heaven ; I am not 
 going to mingle this wretched earth with heaven ; I 
 am not going to take up Satan's place with the Lord 
 Jesus' place ; I cannot be of Christ and the devil ; I 
 cannot be associated there and with the unbeliever 
 here ; I am definitely and practically told not to do 
 it. ** What fellowship hath light with darkness ? 
 And what concord hath Christ with Belial ? Or what 
 part hath he that believeth with an unbeliever ? " I 
 am told it positively and in plain terms ; but in spite 
 of it, hundreds and thousands are being told over and 
 ^^f over again that they must go into politics and fix it 
 
 ' up ; a false statement all the way through. Behind 
 it all is the giant liar, Satan. Now, the reason that 
 
 86 
 
we cannot have to do with these things is the fact 
 that we are His people. 
 
 The possession has been purchased ; it will be re- 
 deemed when the Lord comes. He sold all that He 
 had for the earth, for us, for the world, and He is 
 going to have it all His own world in time. Now, 
 until that we are sealed— joined to Christ— the Holy- 
 Spirit keeping it fresh in our hearts, and the reality- 
 will be known at the coming of the Lord ; until that 
 time this is what the sealing is. 
 
 That is the first section of this chapter, and of the 
 book. What have we had ? An expression of praise 
 that we are raised and seated in heavenly places in 
 Christ by the will of God, who purposed that we 
 should be holy, and without blame before Him in 
 love. Having preordained us to the position of sons 
 unto Himself by Jesus Christ, — the same character 
 of sonship ; and then in whom He has taken us into 
 favor in the Beloved ; He will let us know our place 
 as in the Beloved, just as He is, and then in Him we 
 have forgiveness of sins and redemption, who has 
 abounded unto us in all wisdom and intelligence, 
 having made known all His secrets, telling us all 
 about Christ. He has brought us into His presence 
 and seated us around His feet, just to tell us about 
 the Wonderful One that has been in His thoughts 
 from eternity. His own Son ! What a wonderful 
 thing it is to be a child of God in this age ! It is not 
 to plod and work and worry along to try to get saved 
 at last, and do our best, and somehow to bring some- 
 thing to God by which His love can be purchased 
 and our salvation secured, but to enter into what 
 Christ is now at the right hand of God. The moment 
 we believe, we are there ! 
 
 Now, if we have well looked into this in the few 
 words we have had, — because, you kuow this is in- 
 exhaustable,— we will turn to the next section, and 
 
begin with Ver. 15 : " Wherefore I also, after I heard 
 of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the 
 
 saints " There are three things that constitute 
 
 Christian life and character. There are three objects 
 before us. There is faith, having to do with the per- 
 fect work of Christ ; there is hope — having to do with 
 all that is to come, Christ coming to take us and we 
 reigning with Him ; there is love, having to do with 
 the intermediate, and by the favor of God. Faith, 
 love and hope ; each of these has range for action. 
 Hence, in First Thess. it says, *^ Remembering with- 
 out ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and 
 patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before 
 our God and Father." There were the three things 
 all in action. In Ephes. he calls attention to two of 
 them, but the other is not named. We are right in 
 the midst of that which the hope takes hold of. The 
 Holy Spirit is making it a reality to us, and faith in the 
 Lord Jesus Christ taking in all that He has done, 
 and love going out toward all saints. It is brought, 
 of course, as the thing right before us ; we are spoken 
 of as being in the midst of it, the Holy Spirit making 
 it a present condition. But is it not very sweet to 
 find ** love unto all the saints ?" He then proceeds 
 ^to tell us what the saints are. We understand that 
 the saints are ourselves and all of God's children in 
 ithis age, and they are such by virtue of their being 
 saved. Every believer is a son, separated unto God. 
 feThe word " saint " has been lost, and those who have 
 [^^jJ^recovered it and talk about it are made fun of. That 
 ^' we should call each other saints is a jest with some ; 
 ) i but it is a proper title. In proportion as the world 
 has become worldly, it has lost the title of separate 
 people, for that is what *^ saint" means, — simply cut 
 off to Him ; that is what ' ' holy " means too, separ- 
 ate. " When I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus 
 and love unto all saints." How sweet that is I 
 
 88 
 
 x>' 
 
In the next verse we find, that having learned all 
 these tilings, he ceased not to give thanks for them, 
 making mention of them in his prayers. What was > 
 there to pray for ? He did not have to pray that 
 they might be raised and seated in heavenly places, 
 and for love one to another, and that they might be 
 saints, but, on the ground of all that, he was praying 
 for something else, and we will see that this prayer) 
 proceeds upon the facts of God, these things that are ! 
 true of them. 
 
 Ver. 17. '' That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
 the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of 
 wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him." 
 Now the God of our Lord Jesus Christ takes us right 
 out into all His counsels and thoughts and the 
 deepest purposes of God. Here we have Him as 
 the One to whom the prayer is made ; He having 
 purposed all these things in Christ, the prayer would 
 be that we might get hold of all these purposes. He 
 is also the Father of glory. The glory will be the 
 manifestation of a great deal more than has ever 
 been brought out ; the glory will reveal Christ as the 
 Head of the church, and the Head over all things ; 
 all things reconciled unto God, and in the end the 
 new heavens and the new earth, — all under Christ 
 and through Him. And then we have God brought 
 out as the Father of glory, the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ as well as the God of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, in the full revelation of heart as well as mind. 
 Though God is Light, He is also Love, and He must 
 have a full expansion and revelation of His heart 
 and His love. So we have the Father of the glory, 
 and that glory will be the expression of God's love. 
 You see how widely He can shine then, because He 
 is righteous, and has put down everything that is 
 evil, and then God has free rein just to be all that He 
 is in the fullness of His heart. This is why He is 
 
 39 
 
 iV 
 
called the Father of glory. It takes us into the past, 
 — the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, and it takes us 
 into the future— the glory that is to come. And now in 
 accordance with that the prayer is : " That He may 
 give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in 
 the knowledge of Him." He has imparted to us all 
 wisdom ; then what we need is the Spirit to take in the 
 revelation and to receive the wisdom. And for this 
 ** the eyes of your heart being enlightened." You see 
 this grasps the same thought we had in regard to God 
 as the Father of glory. The heart must take that in ; 
 and so it is the eyes of the heart, rather than the un- 
 derstanding, being enlightened. What must we 
 have, then, unfolded to us, and what must be the 
 character of the Christ of which we are a part, that 
 requires the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of 
 God and the eyes of our heart to be enlightened ? It 
 cannot be simply information such as gratifies curi- 
 osity ; it cannot be simply a history of His doings, 
 or His purposes or results, it must be that which un- 
 folds His nature and declares all the riches of His 
 grace as toward us in Christ Jesus. God gives us 
 nothing for mere intellectual enjoyment ; I am sure 
 all that He gives is beyond intellect ; a human 
 mind could not begin to take in these things ; be- 
 cause they are God's own heart. Himself. It is a 
 marvelous thing that we are the ones to take up 
 ■ all this. Now it is that we may know these three 
 things : First, what is the hope of His calling ; 
 His calling, we learn in Philippians, is on high, 
 and we learn in First Tim. that it is a holy calling 
 also ; we learn that it is according to His purposes 
 and His mind, to the praise of His glory ; what He 
 purposed in Himself. Now connected with that is 
 the hope. " What is the hope of His calling," then, 
 involves what we have been saved for. Your chil- 
 dren are not born just for the sake of being born, 
 
 40 
 
but they are born for the sake of being human be- 
 ings, and to take up human things. They are to 
 grow and develop, and then consummate in their 
 lives your hopes. What is the hope of the calling of 
 that little infant ? You can understand that ; and 
 now understand it in regard to ourselves. What isi 
 the hope of His calling ? He calls us into the full 1 
 range of His love. It underlies every epistle Paul 
 wrote ; it is the one thing on account of which He 
 stirs them up in Oalatians because they are sinking 
 down to the Jewish standard by putting themselves 
 under the law j it is that to which He calls them in 
 1 Cor., when the tendency is to get into worldly 
 matters, and to discuss them, and to use gifts rather 
 as adornments, if not playthings. It is the thing 
 in 2 Cor. to get them away from all associations 
 here, political, social, and everything else ; every- 
 thing of this world ; and, therefore, to be not un- 
 equally yoked with these things. It is this that we 
 have in Colossians, placing it right before us ; He 
 keeps that before them all the time. *' There is the 
 land for which you were brought out of the world ; 
 now keep that before you." 
 
 Then what is the hope ? ** We are to be strength- 
 ened with all might according to the power of the 
 glory, to all patience, with long-suffering and joy- 
 fulness." The present scene, instead of being one 
 in which I am made very happy in circumstances, 
 in which the church spreads itself and becomes the 
 mistress of everything that is going on, is really the 
 time and place of rejection, and the hope, under 
 these circumstances, is to keep up the heart with 
 God's patience and joy fulness. It is that which 
 inspired the Apostle's own heart in 2 Tim., when 
 he had to tell of persecutions everywhere. And 
 now he says, "There is laid up for me a crown 
 of righteousness." Indeed, there is no proper way 
 
 41 
 
of getting hold of the gospel that Paul gives, with- 
 } out getting the definite hope of that gospel. Of 
 j course, it is not hoping to be saved, because we 
 j start with that. ''Blessed be the God and Father 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us 
 with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in 
 Christ." We are told then, "in whom we have 
 redemption and forgiveness of sins." The hope has 
 nothing to do with being saved ; it is what you are 
 saved for. I might go on and show that this is 
 the expression of every epistle. 1 John takes it up 
 in this way: "Behold what manner of love the 
 Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be 
 called the children of God, and we are." " Therefore 
 the world knows us not." That settles the whole 
 thing at once ; our calling has at once made an 
 enemy of the world ; the world knoweth us not be- 
 cause it knew Him not. " Beloved, now are we the 
 children of God, and it is not yet made manifesfrTibhat 
 we shall be. We know that if He shall be mani- 
 fested, we shall be like Him ; for we shall see Him 
 even as He is. And every one that hath this hope on 
 Him purifieth himself even as He is pure." 
 i So that the hope is very definite ; it is being with 
 the Lord Jesus in the highest glory, instead of tak- 
 ing up anything down here where Satan reigns, 
 over the earth, with all things under His feet, and 
 bowing to the enemy of Jesus. Cannot we let honors 
 alone until we get there ? Cannot we let our ambi- 
 tion take hold of that, and have none for things here ? 
 The next thing that is prayed for is that we may 
 know "the riches of His inheritance in the saints." 
 It is not exactly that the saints are His riches, but 
 rather He has the riches with them ; the riches will 
 be brought out by having them ; it involves the fact 
 that He will not do without his saints. Let us take 
 the illustration from Israel ; we can understand how 
 
 42 
 
Moses would plead with Israel when he was in 
 Egypt and when they had gone through the Red 
 Sea, that they should remember what is the hope of 
 God's calling. Certainly they were called in a very 
 unique way. They were the slaves of the Egyptians, 
 but God called them out completely and separated 
 them in the desert, and they were there forty years 
 that He might dw^ell among them and make them 
 understand what they were called out for. What 
 would be the use of making them cross that desert if 
 they did not know what they were called for ? They 
 must go and take the land ; God had just allowed 
 the others to be there as squatters. God never 
 counted the wealth of all the kings in all the prov- 
 vinces of that land in any way, and yet there was 
 plenty of wealth there ; plenty of war instruments ; 
 plenty of land to till and cultivate ; but God never 
 counted it anything. No, He must get His saints 
 there. They were His earthly saints then. That is 
 the first time that God would write the history of 
 that land, when they were connected with it in anti- 
 cipation or possession. Does this give an illustration 
 of the wealth of God in His saints ? In like manner > 
 we are called to the heavens ; and you know this 
 links it so closely with that in John xiv. : **I go to 
 prepare a place for you, that where I am there ye , 
 may be also." He is the forerunner, in Hebrews j \ 
 gone up into that place ; and yet it is not occupied \\ 
 by us, for the enemy is there; "principalities and ll 
 powers " are there fo be expelled, and we are to oc- f 
 cupy it ; everything awaits usj we are just to go up' 
 and take possession with Christ of that which satis- 
 fies Him, to the place which He has prepared, and i 
 to occupy it according to the full breadth and length ■ 
 of it, according to His thoughts and mind and pur- 
 poses. And He wants us to understand it now ; not 
 to refer a.U this to when we die or when we arel 
 
 43 
 
caught up ; we are to feel its force now. From the 
 day that God called Israel out of Egypt, they were 
 separated unto that land. That ought to have been 
 cheering and charming them, — the thought of the 
 Amorites driven out and their walls razed and their 
 land taken up by themselves ; a new people ; a cir- 
 cumcised people ; a redeemed, an exalted, an anointed 
 people I It was their business to keep that before 
 them all the time, and step more and more like con- 
 querors all the way through until they got there ; 
 not to wait until they got there, but to be filled with 
 the idea of Jericho falling, and the cities being taken 
 generally. It was their business to do that ; and do 
 you not see that it was their business to walk by faith 
 in reference to it ? Because God did not tell them 
 all about it but allowed them to send spies that they 
 might see that what He told them was true ; and 
 they came back laden with the fruits of the place, to 
 show them what it was ; but then as the very high- 
 est incentive that they ought to go there they were 
 told about the walls and the giants, and if they 
 had walked by faith, they would have said, '* We 
 will go through all this. If He be with us all these 
 things shall be conquered ! " 
 
 The riches of that place were to be counted by God 
 when He had His people in it. Now that is just 
 what the riches of His inheritance in His saints 
 means now. Why did we not hear of heaven in the 
 Old Testament ? Because there were not any saints 
 I to occupy it. There was no occasion to exploit 
 heaven in the Old Testament at all. God and angels 
 were there, and they came down here to dwell ; but 
 who dwelt there ? If they spoke about God dwell- 
 ing there, it was at a distance. " The heaven of 
 heavens cannot contain Him." Now the whole mat- 
 j ter is heaven, not earth, at all, at present. Do un- 
 ■ derstand that there is not a particle of the ^^rth t9 
 
be occupied now. "We have no business to try to 
 make it better ! We have nothing to do with root- 
 ing out anything ! What have we got to do with 
 this world ? The whole scene is heaven. Well, but • 
 we are down here; some say, "What about the 
 wilderness ? " let us see. If Israel had been think- 
 ing about the wilderness, they never would have 
 reached the land, and some of them did not, — they 
 perished in the wilderness. Keep the thought on 
 heaven, and think of the conquest now in heavenly 
 places. Kemember that heaven, as a final thing, is^ 
 not found, in type, in Joshua and Judges ; not until 
 Solomon is seated on his throne is there any final type^A 
 of heaven to us. Kemember that between Joshua's!; 
 entrance and Solomon's throne is just the part that 
 Ephesians covers. Here are men that in simplicity 
 are holding, amidst the opprobrium that is heaped 
 on them, the one fact that they are seated in heavenly 
 places, and they are taunted every day in the week 
 with, " What are you doing ? " They are doing, by 
 that, more than all their critics, because that is the 
 one thing to-day. Anybody that proposes to improve 
 the world is out of the circle of God's thoughts. 
 Ephesians lets us know that very definitely. That/ 
 is the second thing in the prayer. 
 
 Beloved, let us remember that it is not many years 
 that this truth of Ephesians has been recovered; and 
 let us therefore not be satisfied to be occupied with 
 the things that our fathers had, even as godly men. 
 Remember that we have had truth that was given in 
 the beginning brought back to our ears and our 
 hearts, and therefore we should be ashamed to be 
 as our grandfathers were, and we should be ashamed 
 to blush at taunts of " What are you doing ?" Our f 
 business is entirely with the glory, and if you want ( 
 a key to it, take Hebrews iii. 1 : " Wherefore, holy ' 
 brethren, partakers of the heavenlj^ palling, consider 
 
Him." That is where we see Him ; He is not here. 
 Then we go into Chap, xii., and it says, "consider 
 Him. " And I consider Him as He was down here, the 
 beginner and the ender of faith. But we first are 
 called upon to consider Him up there ; here taking 
 hold in our own hearts, being linked by the Holy 
 Spirit to-day, it is the hope of His calling ; and then 
 the riches of His inheritance in His saints, He and 
 they occupying it all j every place that the sole of 
 our feet shall tread upon then to be ours. This is 
 the only proper way to live. 
 
 The third thing that He asks for that we might 
 know '*what is the exceeding greatness of His 
 power toward us who believe, according to the work- 
 ing of His mighty power." Power toward us, re- 
 member, in our behalf ; power shown in bringing us 
 into this. The very beginning of this gospel, as Paul 
 gives in Romans, — Christ is declared to be the Son 
 of God with power. The gospel itself is called the 
 gospel according to the power of God in 2 Tim. i. 8. 
 Do you see, therefore, that we might know what 
 • is the exceeding greatness of His power ? Here is 
 a power beyond all other power. Surely it was 
 
 ti^ power that stretched out the heavens, and filled them 
 with their dust of stars ; surely it is pow^r that 
 
 ,v^ keeps everything in its place, and makes everything 
 move ; it was power that formed Adam ; it is power 
 that sustains man ; it was power that brought back 
 the world after the Flood ; it was power that took 
 Israel out of Egypt. It is recalled to our minds in 
 Romans ix : " What of God, willing to show His 
 wrath and to make His power known, endured witli 
 much longsuffering vessels of wrath fitted unto 
 destruction." And then He came and showed mercy 
 to those that He fitted. Now there was power in all 
 i that. A fine illustration of power was that opening 
 of the Red Sea^ and having them get out on the 
 
other side, and sing that wondrous song of Jehovah; 
 and then it was power by which He brought back 
 the remnant after He had driven them out of the 
 land. But, really, He never shows the exceeding 
 greatness of His power until He comes to the match- 
 less thing He has done for us, and now He calls our 
 attention to it, and asks that we might know what 
 is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us 
 who believe. This power is that by which He 
 raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. The power 
 toward us is that He has raised us up also, and now[ 
 our apprehension of that power is that we know\ / 
 
 resurrection standing, and it is as simple as any 
 thing you can state. Why do men pray for power, 
 to get a name as servants ? God has not called us 
 to be servants. It is only playing with words to talk 
 that way ; there is no Scripture for it. I am quite 
 aware that there was a word given: *'You shall 
 be endued with power from high," but what were 
 they when it was there ? Only Jews, and it came 
 with the Holy Spirit after the resurrection of Christ. 
 Then power is shown in resurrection. It is not to' 
 have resurrection shown to us ; He wants us to know 
 it. The great thing is that we are to know just what 
 He has done. *' According to the working of the \ 
 strength of His might." You see that has to double ^ 
 the word ; **the strength of His might !" 
 
 Vers. 20, 21. ** Which He wrought in Christ, 
 when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at 
 His own right hand in the heavenly places, far above 
 all principality and power and might and dominion 
 and every name that is named, not only in this world 
 but also in that which is to come." That is where] 
 the power is. It is not that you may get power, but/ 
 that you may know that power that He exercised, ; 
 to know what your standing is. He hath raised Him' 
 from the dead, and set Him far above principalities* 
 
 47 
 
 fj-ViTi 
 
and powers, — ^that is all of Satan's hosts in the 
 heavenlies. "And every name that is named, not 
 only in this world but also in that which is to come." 
 A reference to it is given in the end of Eomans viii. 
 We look back upon the wilderness and say, "We 
 are more than conquerors through Him that loved 
 us." We look forward to all the Satanic hosts that 
 we are to meet, and say, " For I am persuaded that 
 neither death nor life nor angols nor principalities 
 nor powers nor things present nor things to come 
 nor height nor depth nor any other creature, shall be 
 able to separate us from the love of God, which is in 
 Christ Jesus our Lord." There is the true idea of 
 power. Here He is praying to the Father of glory 
 that we may know what is the working of the power 
 of His might, by which He raised Him up and set 
 Him there, far above all these principalities and 
 powers. So we can say that we are persuaded that 
 nothing can touch us ; but you will find that when 
 we come to Chap. vi. we must fight, 
 
 Yers. 22, 23. "And hath put all things under His 
 feet and gave Him to be the Head over all things to 
 the Church which is His body, the fullness of Him 
 that fiUeth all in all." Is not that a distinct place ? 
 Head over all, and Head to the Church. It is as if 
 I were Governor of the state, and my head and body 
 go together ; my head is to the body, and I am head 
 over the state. What a unique place we have, the 
 church itself His body ! The fullness of Him that 
 filleth all in all ! It is precisely the thought of the 
 human body. My body, after all, is the fullness of 
 the head, in this, that I could not do anything with- 
 out it, Imagine a fish's body given to your head ! 
 A fish could not carry out what is projected by your 
 head. You must have just the kind of body that 
 was made for you ; and this body is the fullness of 
 the head. Now we are the fullness of that Head up 
 
 i9 
 
yonder in the glory. He fills every one Himself, who 
 fills all, in all. 
 
 All along through this book we must keep these. 9 JL^ 
 three things before us: what is the hope of Hisj' / , 
 calling, and the riches of His inheritance in the: L.«>J 
 saints, aad what is the working of the mighty 
 power. He says that is working toward us, — and'I^vv^ 
 therefore we get the next thought, *' and you." This ' 
 is opening out to us what the truth is, and what 
 Christian living is, because it tells us what our call- 
 ing is and what our standing is. May God make it 
 jnore and more to the heart and the walk I 
 
 4t9 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 Ver. 1. " And you hatb He quickened, who were 
 dead in trespasses and sins.'' ** Such were some of 
 you," the Holy Spirit says in First Cor. vi. after giv- 
 ing some ten descriptions of evil character, idolaters, 
 murderers, and thieves, etc. **Such were some of 
 you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but 
 ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and 
 by the Spirit of our God." Here in Ephes. we are 
 not looking at conduct so much as at condition, and 
 we are seeing in this chapter the material out of 
 which this body of Christ— His fullness— is formed. 
 In the last chapter it said that He was raised up and 
 seated in the heavenlies, far above principalities and 
 powers and every name that is named, not only in 
 this age, but in that which is to come, and made the 
 Head over all things to the church, and then this be- 
 gins, — "Even you, who were dead in trespasses and 
 sins"; leaving out the words in italics, I should read 
 it in that way. As was said, Ephes. finds us in the 
 place of death. J esus is dead and raised up by the 
 power of God and set in the glory ; and we were 
 dead, too, and then raised up with Him. First he is 
 referring to the Gentile believers, for he says, "you" 
 land "we"; the "you" refers to the Gentiles, and 
 I the " we " to the Jewish portion. You Gentiles were 
 dead in trespasses and sins. God's definition of 
 death in regard to our body is the body without the 
 spirit is dead. His definition of death in relation to 
 1 Him, is man without God, given in the second part 
 ' of this chapter : "having no hope and without God 
 in the world." It is then the same as my dead body 
 without the spirit. In First Tim. v. a woman is 
 
Spoken of as being dead while she liveth, because 
 she is acting apart from God's mind. Here it is 
 dead, without God. How ? In trespasses and sins. 
 And we see that while dead, they were very active. 
 
 Ver. 2. " Wherein in time past ye walked accord- 
 ing to the course of this world, according to the 
 prince of the power of the air. the spirit that now 
 worketh in the children of disobedience." That is 
 simply as their fathers walked, as everybody walked, 
 just as they are at it all around us. They are walk- 
 ing apart from God and all His thoughts, as Cain 
 was when out of the presence of God, and he built 
 for himself while out of the presence of God. 
 
 This, then, was the condition of this Gentile por- 
 tion of the body of Christ ; walking according to 
 the course of the age. You know what that is ; it is 
 going on away from God ; but it is more than that ; 
 led by Satan, the prince of the power of the air; 
 and to make it clear, "the spirit that now worketh 
 in the children of disobedience." That refers to the j 
 Jews, for they were under the law, and disobeyed it. ( 
 Now the same spirit led you wholly. He is still the 
 prince of this world, having everything under him. 
 We know that when the hope of the Jew was given, 
 to have Christ as their Prince and King, and all that 
 God purposed He should be and shall be ;— they said, 
 **Not this man, but Barabbas !" They really chose 
 Satan in choosing him. It is strange that Barabbas 
 means "son of the father." (The antithesis of all 
 that Christ was and is)— a robber and a murderer. 
 That is precisely the character of Satan, he is a 
 murderer, a liar, and a robber. In Luke x. that man 
 that fell among thieves is the sinner in Satan's 
 hands. 
 
 Such, He says, you were. It is simply condition ; 
 it is nature, and the nature showing itself. In 
 Romans it says that the wrath of God is revealed 
 
 51 I 
 
from heaven against all ungodliness. We are shown 
 in that first chapter that the unrighteous condition 
 came from the ungodly nature. They did not like to 
 retain God in their knowledge, and God gave them 
 up to act out the evil that was in them. Had they 
 stayed with God, this would have been restrained. 
 They were thus acting according to the course of 
 this world, that, we are told (First John v.) lies in 
 the wicked one and hates God and hates Christ and 
 hates Christ's own. (John xvii.) The mind of the 
 flesh that is spoken of in Romans viii. is enmity 
 toward God ; it is acting out the hatred and enmity. 
 And you were this. 
 
 Now he turns to the Jewish believer, "among 
 whom we also had our conversation," — acting of cit- 
 izenship, if you will. It is the same word and refers 
 to practical living. " Among whom we also had our 
 living." These people were under the law. The law 
 labeled all this conduct : murder, idolatry, thieving 
 and lying. Therefore it speaks of conduct here as 
 the acting out of the lusts. The law came as a 
 school-master to restrain ; never to make them bet- 
 ter, but to hold them in. *' Among whom we also 
 had our living in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the 
 desires of the flesh " ; but worse than that, the mind 
 went with it. The very thing that is appealed to in 
 regard to practical acting is the mind, as we have it 
 in Col., "Set your mind on things above." It is 
 always the practical matter of living godly. I am not 
 told to be a new man ; I am that, but to let my mind 
 take hold of it. I am not told to be risen with 
 Christ because I am, but I can be told to apprehend 
 it. The whole mind was bought over to all this vile 
 conduct. Now this has its type in Gen. i. 2 : *' And 
 the earth was without form and void." A mere ruin. 
 God did not make man that way any more than He 
 1 made the earth that way. (Is. xlv. 18.) He never 
 
 5S 
 
made it to be empty and a ruin ; but He made it to 7*^ 
 be inhabited. So He made man for something else, .i^W"^ 
 and then finds him in this condition. And just as in ^^^< 
 creation, that had got down to this awful scene of 
 ruin, so this is the place for God to come with the ^^^^ 
 Spirit and the word. Here the Jews were shown to 
 be children of wrath even as the Gentiles, but then 
 the Gentiles were under th^ same spirit as ruled the 
 Jews. Both, all were alike. So we have God in this 
 chapter, coming in a fuller way, not simply acting, 
 but God being rich in all His actions. In Chap. i. 7 
 it says, **We have forgiveness of sins according to 
 the riches of His grace." It is the rich God; it is 
 God according to all that is in Him. It is on this 
 that He acts ; just what He is in Himself ; all 
 brought out by man's sin, and all manifested by the 
 cross and the resurrection of Christ. It is the open- 
 ing of heaven through all this, and God perfectly 
 told out. All that we get in Ephes. is a grand super- 
 lative ; no minor things to talk about ; all the fullest 
 and deepest and widest. ** But God, who is rich in 
 mercy." After all, nothing could get beyond Him. 
 Man in his ruin could not. 
 
 Ver. 4. *'But God who is rich in mercy for His 
 great love wherewith He loved us." Mercy would 
 not be spoken of in reference to angels that excel in 
 strength. It is not spoken even of those that are 
 raised and seated in heavenly places. The addresses \ 
 to the church, as such, never have the word ''mercy 
 in them. *' Grace and peace to you;" but when he 
 comes down to the individual, like Timothy and 
 Titus, he may say, " Grace, mercy, and peace ;" be- 
 cause there is need, in his individual weakness, for 
 mercy. Such is the character of mercy, that it only 
 looks at the wretched condition. The church, of 
 course, cannot be looked at in this position, as need- 
 ing mercy. But here, " God, who is rich in mercy." 
 
 68 
 
 ^Y^ 
 
We have, in Rom. iii. 25, Christ set forth as a mercy- 
 seat. God has a righteous ground for laking us up, 
 guilty ones, and placing us before Him as sons. 
 It is on the ground of what Christ has done, meeting 
 the whole matter. But in Ephes. it is not a question 
 of righteousness ; it is simply mercy. It is not to 
 show out His righteousness ; it is to show forth the 
 exceeding riches of His grace. How about God 
 dealing with us righteously when He finds us sim- 
 ply poor miserable lost things, and pronouncing us 
 guilty ? In Ezekiel xvi., looking at the whole of 
 Israel simply as a helpless thing, He says, " It was 
 a time of love." Love shows itself toward wretch- 
 edness and ruin ; righteousness shows itself toward 
 guilt. And that is God ; in both cases God is won- 
 drously magnified. He is rich in mercy and He acts 
 for His great love's sake wherewith He loved us. 
 We get great love, a great salvation, a great act of 
 power by which He raised up Christ from the dead, 
 a great Saviour Himself, coming out and saying, 
 "Sacrifice and offering Thou wouldest not, but a 
 body didst Thou prepare for me; In whole burnt 
 offerings and sacrifices for sin Thou hadst no 
 pleasure : then said I, Lo, I am come (in the roll of 
 the book it is written of me) to do thy will, O God !" 
 He plunges right into the whole thing, goes down 
 into the lowest depths and takes up the lost. Every- 
 thing about it is great. The great depth from which 
 we were taken, and the great height to which we are 
 placed. It is greatness all through to the glory, and 
 all through the new heavens and the new earth. 
 " For the great love wherewith He loved us !" You 
 have no small thing. You cannot talk about love in 
 this without putting an adjective before it. In Chap. 
 i. we had the ** power of His might;" not simply 
 power, and not simply might, but the power of His 
 might. You and I have a reason for joyful confi- 
 
 64 
 
dence in God. There was nothing grudging andf 
 nothing small in what was done. It is not sufficient) 
 
 to raise up Christ God gives Him the highest; 
 
 name in the glory. 
 
 We have then, " For the great love wherewith He 
 loved us," and (Ver. 5) *'Even when we were dead 
 in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ ; (by- 
 grace ye are saved.)" He has to bring in that little 
 parenthesis. It seems that it is brought in to assure 
 us. We might say, O, that seems too much I Some 
 have said the boldness seemed almost blasphemy. 
 It is to meet that lack of confidence in us that He re- 
 minds us that it is grace, G od's favor. He is going 
 to show His favor. He has had something that has 
 really brought out all the love in Him. Now the 
 grace must be manifested ; and let it come ! Our 
 highest obedience is to let God say what He will, 
 and we follow it. There is nothing richer. It is 
 just letting Him do that that He shall find empty 
 vessels more and more ready to take it in. Is not 
 that worship ? We simply respond by repeating the 
 lesson we have learned, in His ear. For He is bound 
 to make us worshippers by everything that He does. 
 If He had left one grain for us to do, we would never! 
 have been worshippers. It would yet be undone. ) 
 
 We have been reading in Chap. i. that He quickened 
 Christ, and He takes us right along and says, "You 
 are with Him I" Ver. 6. " And hath raised us 
 up together, and made us sit together in heavenly 
 places, in Christ Jesus." Raised us up together in^ 
 the heavens in Him, not under, but in Him. It is , 
 marvelous. It is here to be meditated upon ; the ' 
 heart to take it in and enjoy it. The best treatment 
 of God is to enjoy the things that He tells us and to 
 be happy in them ; for He is the happy God now in 
 all that He does. 
 
 What, then, has He done? Seated us in the 
 
 66 
 
heavens. It does not speak of being placed there, 
 
 and then getting out of it ; that we can get out, or 
 
 that He will put us out. Let us go back and get the 
 
 ^x^v fundamental word of Christ, given in John x., "I 
 
 ^ vV ^^^^ unto them eternal life ; and they shall ne^er 
 
 ^'^ -^ perish." The word is there that they shall never 
 
 make themselves to perish ; neither shall any in the 
 
 broad range of the universe pluck them out of His 
 
 /hand. And further: *'My Father, who hath given 
 
 them unto me, is greater than all ; and no one is able 
 
 ito snatch them out of my Father's hand." Here, 
 
 J then, He says "able to." It is a question of power. 
 
 jWe have learned that power belongs to God. In 
 
 'Rom. viii. 38, we have, "For I am persuaded that 
 
 neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
 
 nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 
 
 nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
 
 be able to separate us from the love of God, which is 
 
 in Christ Jesus our Lord." Because principalities 
 
 and powers are in question there ; the rulers of the 
 
 darkness of this age. We shall have to fight them, 
 
 as is spoken of in Chap. vi. here. So we have God's 
 
 power brought into the case, and it is displayed in 
 
 raising Him up. When we get into Col. we will find 
 
 that Christ is the one subject. And here it is God's 
 
 ^ own power and wisdom all the time. 
 
 Well, then, seated us in the heavenly places for 
 W^ I what purpose ? Ver. 7. " That in the ages to come 
 ^ ' He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in 
 His kindness toward us, through Christ Jesus." 
 And this is to show Himself ! We have just given 
 Him the scope that He wants, when we have made 
 known the fact of our being lost sinners. If I go 
 out to adopt a child, I might find various ones, of 
 course ; but if you find that the child I have taken 
 up was taken from the meanest place — ^the most un- 
 likely place, probably from an enemy's house, and 
 
from the utmost poverty and filth,— you would say, 
 Well, I don't see anything in that child ; but he is 
 showing himself and how loving and kind he is. lit 
 is just this, and we were mean and bad enough to bef 
 taken up, that God might show in the ages to cornel 
 what He is. God had no other means of showing! 
 Himself than taking up such lost ones. He waited/ 
 a good while before it was thoroughly demonstrated 
 in us ; — from Adam clear down to Christ ! Then 
 man was disclosed as bad enough to begin on, for He 
 slew God's Son, and then besides the meanest of all 
 outsiders taken together with these and lifted up to- 
 gether and quickened together with Christ, company 
 for Him ; and raised up and seated together in 
 Christ. Is not that an elevation ? Is not it the 
 riches of His grace ? And they that are legal in their 
 thoughts are wanting to rob God of that one treas- 
 ure of His heart. Because He has taken us up to 
 show forth the exceeding riches of His grace. In 
 John xvii. Christ prayed that we might be there in 
 the glory and manifested as one. *' That the world 
 may know that Thou didst send me, and lovedst 
 them, even as Thou lovedst me." Beloved, we shall 
 be like Him there, because we are as He is, here. 
 We are seated in the heavenly places to show all this 
 wealth of His love ; the exceeding riches of His 
 grace through all the ages. There is the millennial 
 age and the everlasting age— the new heavens and 
 new earth— and we are to be linked with Him. \ 
 Whether we are with Christ or not, there is one [ 
 thing told us, that we are the habitation of God. i 
 We learn in the end of this chapter that we grow j 
 into an holy temple ; just now a tabernacle, like the ' 
 tabernacle in the wilderness, that grew into the 
 temple when Solomon's hand changed it. Thus we . 
 are growing into an holy temple for Him to dwell in. j 
 We have Christ and the Lamb during the Millen- 
 
 67 
 
nium, ond God always. What a marvelous thought 
 this is for us, brethren ! That God has taken us up 
 to show Himself ! Shall not He do it ? Do your 
 hearts refuse to let Him tell out His grace ? It is not 
 to tell how much we are. The full, high thought is 
 that He has taken us to be with Him during the mil- 
 , lennium, and through the eternal ages, to show His 
 kindness toward us. 
 
 You remember that the great lie of Satan was that 
 God was not kind. " He has not let you eat that 
 fruit, because He knows that you would be better 
 off." Christ answers everything that the devil has 
 against God. He answers all the unbelief and the 
 malignity. Now He is answering that first fling 
 against Him, that He is not kind, for we shall be the 
 revelation of His kindness through eternity. 
 
 Ver. 8. **For by grace are ye saved, through 
 faith ; and that not of yourselves ; it is the gift of 
 God." The former mention of this was paren- 
 thetical, as we saw. It was as if to reinforce the 
 heart in regard to such a large statement : that we 
 are quickened together with Christ, and raised up 
 together in Him. The faith shrinks from such a 
 thought, as though I say, It cannot be ! So He says, 
 ** By grace ye are saved." Do not refuse it, because, 
 saving you by grace, He can do anything. But now 
 it comes as a direct statement. **For by grace ye 
 are saved, through faith." Here we are taken into 
 Romans. There we have the righteousness of God 
 witnessed by the law and the prophets, now mani- 
 fested unto all, and upon all who believe, for there is 
 no difference, being justified freely by His grace, 
 ** through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus." 
 There is the foundation of it all, "the redemption 
 which is in Christ Jesus." It is all done freely, be- 
 cause it is grace. Then we have an argument on 
 that specially in Galatians ; that Christ is no more 
 
 68 
 
Christ if there is anything placed upon you to do. 
 If there is anything placed upon you in the word, 
 then it is law, and there is no more grace about it ; 
 or else law would not be law. And so the argument ' 
 then is that it is all grace. To have it attended or 
 supplemented by anything of your doings, would j 
 simply destroy the whole idea of grace. 
 
 *' Saved by grace." "Saved," here, is absolutely 
 delivered. It is infinitely more than forgiveness 
 of sins. We have not been talking about sin and 
 forgiveness but of our condition as Gentiles under the 
 dominion of Satan, acting out our nature ; and the 
 Jew, in spite of the law, becoming a child of wrath, 
 even as these others. It is grace or nothing, is it 
 not ? But you see it is looking at us in the condition 
 of ruin in which we are found, and therefore He 
 says, **It is simply grace." And not only that, bu 
 He lets us know that it is altogether a gift ; an 
 everything here by which we grasp it is a gift, thd 
 open mouth and the open ear and the open eye, all^ 
 gift. " It is the gift of God." My eye is as much a 
 gift as the scenery around me. The sun and the 
 glory of the earth that I can behold and the faces of i 
 my friends, — they are all gifts ; the object of the|} 
 vision and the power of vision. So are the taking in^ 
 of the message from God and the hearfc responding 
 to it. How varied the work of Christ ! And then 
 how varied the ruin into which He came ! As in 
 Rom. iii., *' Where is boasting, then ?" There where 
 we are being righteously dealt with, He says, 
 " Where is boasting ?" It is excluded. By what 
 law, of works ? No, by faith. Faith simply takes 
 what Another has done. 
 
 Here it is the same way. Ver. 9. " Not of works, 
 lest any man should boast." How well the Holy 
 Spirit knows us ! If we had an atom of anything 
 that we did, we would rest on that. Alas ! multi- 
 
 69 
 
I ship. 
 
 tudes are depending on their works. This is what 
 man would do and boast of it. ''Not of works" 
 knocks all that to shivers ! Man does boast — there 
 in no question about it. "I fast twice in the week ! 
 I give tithes of all that I possess !" There was one 
 of God's Jewish people, who had fifteen hundred 
 years of God's teaching back of him, and yet the 
 man says, " I have done this !" Another man comes 
 and stands before God, and beats his empty breast, 
 and says, *' God be merciful to me, a sinner !" and he 
 is justified rather than the other. 
 
 Ver. 10. "For we are His workmanship, created 
 in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath 
 before ordained that we should walk in them." We 
 I have been told of our being taken up for a specific 
 \ object. Here we learn that we are His workman- 
 A beautiful word is here used. The word 
 poem" translates it. The word is used twice in 
 Scripture. Once in regard to God's old creation 
 (Rom. i 20) and the other in regard to this, the new 
 and distinct creation. We find that a creation has 
 all these elements within itself to be expanded. It 
 stands unique ; God's masterpiece ! See how He has 
 done it. He put forth His mighty power to do it ; 
 He has brought in the riches of His grace to do it. 
 By- and-by we will find that He has put all His wis- 
 dom in it. And He holds this up, the highest 
 thing in the universe ! And we are that ! He is not 
 speaking to us individually. In Chap. i. He says He 
 is the Head of the church, which is His body, the 
 fullness of Him that fiUeth all in all. We are the 
 ones. He has raised us up. 
 
 " Walk about Zion and tell the towers thereof, and 
 mark well her bulwarks "—was the word in regard 
 to another piece of God's work down here on the 
 earth ; and now by reason of the glory that excelleth, 
 th^t is nothing. Here He holds up His own specifi^J 
 
 «9 
 
work. As I might go into one of the factories of 
 Europe, where for the last year the best brains and 
 thought have been gathered to make articles to be 
 exhibited in the World's Fair, and there will be the 
 masterpieces of ten thousand shops,— and I say, " Do 
 you always make that ?" "■ No, but we can do that. 
 We have spent more time on that, and plans have 
 been proposed in regard to that, that would not 
 enter into everything." *' You mean, then, that this 
 is a sample, a masterpiece ?" ** Yes." 
 
 That is just what God tells us in this chapter. The [ . 
 church, — the body of Christ, the fullness of Christ i )^^ 
 Himself, — must be like Christ ; perfect in every par- 1 • ^^ 
 ticular, as the whole— a unit — glorious indeed. And \^^ 
 we learn directly that He has not only constructed, 
 but He has continually to instruct, that He may pre- 
 sent it to Himself a glorious church, without spot or , 
 wrinkle or any such thing. Beloved, we are not tak- 
 ing an ideal place. It is as real as the form you 
 wear. It is as real as God's own existence. It is as 
 real as that Man that He has raised up to the glory. 
 *'If we believe that Jesus died and rose again," we 
 have it all. We are linked with that One. And where 
 are any of our doings in this matter ? We are His 
 workmanship. 
 
 Now, the perfection of this masterpiece is that it 
 is not simply for show. Suppose they were to make 
 a show ship, and show steam-engines, and show pi- 
 anos. The ship would not move, and the engine 
 would not move, and you could not play on the 
 piano, and what are they worth ? The very idea of 
 having things about the house is that while they are 
 beautiful, they are also to be of use. Thus use is the 
 thing that it is made for. And so God crowns this 
 with glory, and all that is highest and richest and 
 sweetest. He has shown His own infinite thought 
 through it. 
 
That, then, is what the church is. Created in 
 Christ Jesus. Created, a distinct creation, as abso- 
 lutely standing by itself as the first creation was, 
 when God made the heavens and the earth. This, 
 then, is for a special object; ^'unto good works, 
 which He had before ordained." In the ages before, 
 God alone, with the Son before Him, purposed that 
 in Him He would have a company with Him, as the 
 ^ object of His own delight, and He would have some- 
 thing that should show out Himself. We do not know 
 in the ages that are to come what will be. We do not 
 know, but we are at the dawn of the universe, our- 
 selves. We do not know all these things in the infinite 
 space above us, what they are ; whether they are just 
 forming or not. We do not know but that we our- 
 selves are but the beginning. It is the first work that 
 His whole heart and mind and strength were put into; 
 and it comes forth from the womb of the morning. 
 He will never make anything like it again. And you 
 and I, picked up from the dunghill, are the ones ! It 
 crushes and breaks one down to the very ground to 
 think of such love. When will we respond to it ? 
 We could not respond to one syllable of it except by 
 the Holy Spirit, and, therefore, let Him have it all 
 and none of our thinking and acting in it. ** Not of 
 works ;" the mite that we would contribute we 
 would boast of all our life. So it says, *'not of 
 works, lest any man should boast ; for we are His 
 workmanship." 
 
 Shall we go to religious systems to learn what the 
 works are to be ? Shall we get a number of men to- 
 gether to plan out what we are to do ? Or shall we 
 wait on Him, and take it all from Him, and have no 
 ear but for Him? *'Unto good works!" Yes. 
 When people say, ''What are you doing?" I say 
 that we are doing most by turning our backs upon 
 , all that man is undertaking, and acting according to 
 
Second Tim. ii. 21, 22. In contrast with what this 
 tells us, everything that is going on by man has been 
 blasted by the breath of Satan, call it by whatever 
 high-sounding title they like. 
 
 Here at the end, just before the Lord comes, He 
 revives this truth for us. Let us take it up then. 
 The good works were that those He had in His mind 
 before the foundation of the world are to be carried 
 out up in the glory. Take the character of a bride, 
 which is given in Chap. v. Take the body, that is 
 spoken of here. Tell me if the prospective bride of 
 a man is called out to work all the time until she is 
 joined to him ? He has chosen her for himself ; and 
 until she comes to him, he has nothing for her to do. 
 The thing she is chosen for is to be with him. Ke- 
 member that the full effulgence of our light, the real 
 glory of the church, are to come out directly ; seen 
 with the Lord ! But we are to walk in them. Now 
 we walk with our head and heart and mind in 
 heaven. In Col. iii. it is, **Set you mind on things 
 above." In Heb., which just opens heaven, and tells 
 us about Him seated at the right hand of the Father, 
 it is, " Consider Him !" So the mind is to be on Him. 
 And everything in all these books is to get the heart; 
 more and more engaged with Him. Now, walk thus : 
 and with the Holy Spirit telling us, and Christ up 
 there as the object, how safe our walk must be ! even 
 though we walk through the valley of the shadow of 
 death. It is nothing but death and darkness here. 
 Though we walk through the night, we are children 
 of the light. It is the glory before us ! See your 
 calling then ! We are created for something after 
 all. It is not individualized, but as gathered together 
 in one and made one. 
 
 Now we have closed the first part of this chapter. 
 This has had to do with our individual calling as 
 lost sinners. That is the moral condition. 
 
IsTow the second part, beginning with Ver. 11 — 
 another section altogether — is looking at our dispen- 
 sational condition, and it has not to do with moral or 
 spiritual matters so much. It is what you were, any- 
 how. In speaking to Gentiles alone, it would neces- 
 sarily be dispensational. 
 
 Vers. 11, 12. ** Wherefore remember, that ye 
 being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are 
 called Uncircumcision by that which is called the 
 Circumcision in the flesh made by hands ; that at 
 that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from 
 the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the 
 covenants of premise, having no hope, and without 
 God in the world." At that time you were apart 
 from Christ, separated from Christ. When you 
 know that all things in heaven and earth were pre- 
 pared to be in His hands and associated with Him ; 
 that everything is named because of Him, and made 
 by Him and for Him, — what was it to be apart from 
 Christ ! We were there, dispensationally. I go 
 through the Old Testament, and I find a people called 
 out, and Christ illuminates every page in regard to 
 that people. Everything telling of Him, as though 
 He were with Him all the time. I find that as they 
 got further away from God, there was more and 
 more of Christ told out before them. Prophets were 
 raised up on purpose to tell about Him. Christ all 
 the time before them ! The Gentiles were outside, 
 and no Christ was spoken to them. They were apart 
 from Christ. Why ? Because they were aliims from 
 the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from all 
 those covenants. That tells the story. Then you 
 can see the meaning of this, "Having no hope!" 
 When did God ever go out to the Gentiles to offer 
 them anything ? When did He present promises be- 
 fore them ? When did He set up anyiaing that 
 should tell His own heart toward them? H^ 
 
 «4 
 
gathered a people and separated them in the wilder- 
 ness, and put them in the land, that they might be a 
 blessing after a while, and until He could get them 
 ready, what hope was there for the Gentiles ? And 
 they came down to the day of Christ's death and 
 resurrection, and the Gentiles had never had a parti- 
 cle of blessing from the Jew, because they could do 
 nothing but curse. What was our hope ? None. If 
 there could have been any mind illuminated in re- 
 gard to those things, thoy would have said, "Well, 
 there is no chance for us. These that are His own 
 people — look what th'jir condition is ! The very 
 name of their God they do not know ! What hope is 
 there for us ?" And then, what ? Without God ! 
 All this time God had not made Himself known f 
 among the Gentiles. It begins away back in the ) 
 descendants of Noah. "Your fathers dwelt on the 
 other side of the flood and they served other gods." 
 Now, calling Abraham out was not making this any 
 better. The nations were still without God ! And 
 " in the world !" — Satan the head of it and the 
 world, — as it is said in the beginning, — under the 
 prince of the power of the air. Can you think of 
 anything more wretched ? Nothing, save to have it 
 perpetuated throughout eternity. No wonder He 
 said, "You walked according to the course of this 
 world. That is all you had, and that is all you 
 were !" And thus, in order to enhance our delight in 
 what God has done. He tells us what we were. 
 There are many things said about the poor sinner, 
 but they never reach d|^vn to the depth of this 
 verse. It does not mean me, individually, but it 
 means the whole race of us. All the Gentiles, as 
 such, have nothing to look for there. Israel had it, 
 and they would not let anybody else have it. So we 
 were then absolutely outside of the range of God's 
 €VctioA, il^ turns His back, so to speak, and says to 
 
Israel, " You only have I known of the inhabitants 
 
 of the earth." If they were not His, and we shut 
 
 s out from God, and having no God — what is it ? You 
 
 i cannot name that. " Lost" hardly tells it. Then see 
 
 how beautifully that word comes in in Gal., ''Now 
 
 f that you are known of God !" He has now gone out 
 
 and gotten us ; He knows us ! 
 
 Ver. 13. "But now, in Christ Jesus, ye, who 
 sometime were far off, are made nigh by the blood of 
 Christ." God gives special emphasis to the present 
 period, the present truth, and the present gospel, — 
 the now. That is so often brought forth in Paul's 
 epistles. Kom. iii. 21 : ** Now the righteousness of 
 God, apart from the law, is manifested." Rom. 
 viii. 1 : " There is, therefore, now no coud^imnation." 
 The " now " is this time, when Christ is up in 
 heaven, waiting till His enemies be made His foot- 
 stool, and is seated at the right hand of the majesty 
 on high. God is gathering out a people and link- 
 ing them with Christ as His own body. It is a very 
 special time. In speaking of either the presence or 
 the absence of this truth, we speak of it as church 
 truth. We speak of a man " not seeing the church," 
 ,or the truth of the present dispensation. A man 
 i> that does not see what God is doing now, cannot read 
 the Scriptures intelligently. He is apt to mix the 
 Old and New Testament people, and say that the 
 I' church began with Adam. He does not see what 
 God so clearly brings out in this chapter, when He 
 says, "Ye, who sometime were far off, are made 
 nigh ;" nor what is given in 1 Cor. x. 32 — the Jew, 
 the Gentile and the Church of God. Not to see the 
 "now," therefore, is to fail to apprehend all truth. 
 \ It is surely a very different thing for Christ to be up 
 in heaven, and gathering a people to Him, to share 
 with Him all that He has in heaven, from being a 
 J^ing ou the ^^rth, reigning over ^ people ^nd toy-. 
 
 
bv-' 
 
 ing subjects — no matter how loyal and obedient they 
 may be. This is the distinctive thing, and how 
 richly it comes in here. *'You were far off and 
 aliens from the commonwealth of Israel," the people 
 with whom God was dwelling, and for whom He was 
 mapping out all the earth. You were without 
 Christ, because Christ was promised to them. God 
 made no promise or covenant with you. You were 
 without God in the world. 
 
 What a wondrous breaking in like light at noon-.^ 
 day this is ! But now, not under Christ Jesus but; i^^^ 
 "in Christ Jesus." We get no such thought as that 
 for Old Testament samts. It is only for us in this 
 perfod. In Christ Jesus! That very verse marks] 
 what is distinctive and peculiar in Eomans in regard 
 to our standing. In Chap. iv. it looks at forgive- 
 ness of sins ; when we get further along in Chaps. 
 v., vi., vii., and viii., it is in Christ Jesus. It is 
 having died with Christ ; being in Him, as passing 
 through the grave into resurrection. It is being in 
 Him before God, and having no other name or 
 nature or standing. 
 
 You must see that the Gentile could have no 
 standing whatever except by a new way. The 01d> 
 Testament would allow him nothing of inheritance. I 
 It might allow him blessing after Israel is restored 
 to their place, and they are placed there to bless all 
 the nations. For a Gentile to get into all that He 
 speaks of in the beginning of this book, — seated in 
 heavenly places and blessed with all spiritual bless- 
 ings, which is the theme and text of the whole 
 book — he must be, not under Christ as in the millen- 
 nium, but in Christ Jesus, and lifted above and out- 
 side of everything here. There will be milHons of 
 Gentiles under Christ but not in Christ. Thus in 
 Christ Jesils we are brought nigli. "Ye, who were 
 
 ^V 
 
 . AM 
 
 sometime far off,"— there is no telling how much ^ 
 
 67 
 
that means. The verse preceding told us that we 
 were without hope, strangers from the covenants of 
 promise, aliens from Israel, wherein all the promises 
 
 were contained; and without God: and now, 
 
 that we were far off. The distance that the Gentile 
 
 was, as such, from God is simply immeasurable, 
 
 because they were separated and totally apart from 
 
 ' God. But we are brought nigh by the blood of 
 
 ) Christ ; not by our prayers or our promises of ser- 
 
 ^ vice. " Not of works, lest any man should boast." 
 
 So it is nothing of these. Not by pledge of anything 
 
 that we would do, but by the blood of Christ. How 
 
 the Holy Spirit fulfills His work in taking of the 
 
 things of Christ ! The blood of Christ brings us 
 
 ' nigh. Now, in Rom. v. we are justified by 
 
 the blood. In Col. i. we have forgiveness of sins 
 
 through the blood. In Heb. x, we enter into the 
 
 holiest by the blood of Christ. 
 
 All this is dispensational. There is nothing that 
 depends on individual faithfulness in all this ; Israel 
 were God's people and belonged in that land, without 
 reference to individual conduct or apprehension of 
 it. They were there. The mistake of much that is 
 called Christian living is, that they dwell on experi- 
 ence and make relationship to God depend upon it. 
 We are dispensationally in heavenly places. We are 
 dispensationally brought into the holiest, because 
 we are in Christ Jesus. And we are dear to God 
 and loved as Christ is. These things ought to be 
 thought of more, and told out more, to rid people of 
 the thought of their own experience making any- 
 thing. The word of God forms character ; the grace 
 that is shown to us so ineffably forms experience ; 
 makes ail the living, too ; not that the living makes 
 the position. 
 
 Ver. 14. "For He is our peace, who hath made 
 both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of 
 
 68 
 
partition between us." Now He is the whole of our 
 peace with God and peace with one another. That 
 is, the Gentile and the Jew, for He says, " He hath 
 broken down the middle wall of partition between 
 us." Here is the dispensational thought carried out 
 still ; making both these parties one. Take the 
 kingdom character, when Christ reigns on the earth. 
 The Jew will be blessed richly, and the Gentile will 
 be blessed, but they will not be one. He will give 
 one language to Israel, but it does not say it will be 
 so with the nations. They will have one King, but 
 He does not speak of unity. It will be one kingdom 
 but it is not a unit. Here He has made both one. 
 Now you can make a union, but it counts for noth- 
 ing with God. My body is not a union. It is a unit,' 
 one spirit guiding every motion. So He has made 
 both Jew and Gentile one. And this is how it is 
 done. He has lifted us both up out of our former 
 place ; the believing Jew out of his place and the be- 
 lieving Gentile out of his, and brought them to- 
 gether into one. Both were in condemnation, lost 
 and guilty. And now they are in Christ Jesus. We 
 find ourselves (Gentiles) having as much title to 
 Christ as the Jew, that had all his literature filled 
 with Christ in promise, and all his ceremonial set- 
 ting forth Christ. We are as much in Christ as He^ 
 is, and yet we have come in at the eleventh hour. \ 
 That is precisely what that beautiful parable teaches 
 us. They that wrought all day got rio^ore than 
 those that wrought one hour. It is grace that is thus , 
 set forth. God had promised them Christ, and He 
 puts them into Christ, and Christ died according to 
 promise. He made no promise to us, but we get as 
 rich a blessing as they. 
 
 Vers. 15, 16, 17, 18. '* Having abolished in His 
 flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments 
 contained in ordinances : for to make in Himself of 
 
 69 
 
twain one new man, so making peace ; And that He 
 might reconcile both unto God in one body by the 
 cross, having slain the enmity thereby : And came 
 and preached peace to you which were afar off, and 
 to them that were nigh. For through Him we both 
 have access by one spirit unto the Father." Now we 
 \are brought nigh by the blood of Christ, and through 
 .Him we both have access by one Spirit unto the 
 Father. Surely, the Jew formerly never had that. 
 He never had access unto the Father. Access is in 
 I Christ Jesus and through the Spirit, the Spirit set- 
 ting forth before us all that Christ is, and all that we 
 are in Christ, and dwelling in us to make actual to 
 us all that Christ has done. That is the Spirit's 
 place in regard to apprehending ; to make every- 
 thing true and real that Christ has done ; to repro- 
 duce Christ in us. Our abiding-place, therefore, is 
 in the holiest. 
 
 Ver. 19. " Now, therefore, ye are no more stran- 
 gers and foreigners but fellow-citizens with the 
 saints, and of the household of God." It still refers 
 to the Gentiles. We can take this little portion, and 
 put it against all the prophecies for the Jew, and say, 
 *' It is richer still and better than all they had !" 
 We do not have to go back into those prophecies and 
 say they all belong to us. It is a mistake to say 
 that. They are all earthly. God has stocked His 
 word with promises for them, and yet He has told us 
 more in this one little section, and in that one word 
 " in " than all the prophecies contained. It is higher 
 and richer. It is the great thing, then, and it came 
 out after prophets had done their work and died. It 
 came out after Christ had come to fulfill the prom- 
 ises to the fathers as the minister to the circum- 
 cision. It came out after man had lifted up unholy 
 hands and smitten God's Son. It came out of the 
 gushing heart of God. The prophets were incapable 
 
 70 
 
of holding it, and had no pen that could tell out all 
 this. God has brought it out, like the sun at mid- 
 day, without any preparation. It is a new revela-;^ 
 tion, a thing hidden, and now revealed as brightly \ 
 as anything can be revealed. It is ours ! We are * 
 no longer strangers and foreigners. Never to be 
 called heathen again ! Nothing of that. We are as 
 near as they are, and both as near as Christ is ' 
 to God. Nothing can be richer and sweeter than ^ 
 that. 
 
 Besides this, we learn that He has blotted out the 
 handwriting of ordinances. Not simply dispensa-i 
 tionally that we are here, but there is nothing thatj 
 can stand between us and God, by circumcision, or 
 priestly or religious code, or sacrifices or cere- 
 monials. They are all gone. We have nothing to 
 do with them. There is nothing intermediate to get I 
 us to God. And he came with the fullness of the 
 revelation, so that we could at once — the moment 
 we believe, without any intermediate steps — be 
 placed there. The handwriting of offences between 
 us and the Jews is all taken away. We get the 
 same thing in Col. The blood of Christ has done 
 everything ! It brings us in, and it blots out all that 
 is written against us— that anybody might refer to— 
 when it blotted our sins out and blotted us out, too, 
 thank God ! For that is what the death of Christ 
 did. It blotted us out and made a new creation in 
 Christ Jesus. Now we must be where God places 
 us. It is as wrong for you and me to leave our I 
 standing, and act as though we were Jews, as it was J 
 for angels to leave their holy habitation. They are ^ 
 bound in chains, reserved unto the judgment of the 
 great day. We have no right to leave the place God 
 has placed us in. He has fixed us as He has fixed 
 the stars, in our heavenly position. Perfect open- 
 ness of approach ! Access by one Spirit unto the* 
 
 71 
 
Father ! And we dare not leave all the boldness and 
 confidence of such a standing and blessing. 
 I Now to correspond with the foreigners it says we 
 'are citizens — fellow-citizens. But where am I a 
 citizen ? In heaven. I have not become a Jew. 
 i Where can it be but where Phil. iii. 20, tells us, in 
 J heaven. To correspond with the word strangers, 
 we are members of the same household. That is 
 u nearer and dearer. O what precious names we get ! 
 T ; We are called "Beloved of God!" We are called 
 ^v ''Sons of God!" We are called dear children and 
 X*^ saints of the heavenlies. We are worshippers di- 
 rectly, close up to the face of God. All these things 
 apply to us. It is not simply that none of them ap- 
 plied to us when we were Gentiles, but none of them 
 applied to the Jew. We are both lifted up into 
 another household, and Christ Himself is the Head. 
 It is hard to say these things in any other way than 
 in the simplest words that can be said, but what 
 massive meanings there are! It is sad that few 
 apprehend what the many have been called to. 
 \ Every believer on the earth to-day is just where this 
 ; chapter says we are. But how becoming it is for us 
 ^ to take hold of these things because they are de- 
 parted from so much. Many have practically fallen 
 from their high estate. They have come down to 
 make the world better, — as if we could ever do a par- 
 ticle of good when we are out of our place. No 
 father would allow his son to do anything in the po- 
 sition of disobedience. If you had placed your son 
 in the house, and should go away, and come back to 
 find him in the wood-pile at work, it would count for 
 nothing because you had told him to stay in the 
 house. There is nothing in it ; not being in their 
 y place makes it of no value to God. They say they 
 ^ fi are serving the Master. We have not the word Mas- 
 ^ (iter in the scripture ; it is teacher. We have no task- 
 
 >^^^ ^- -— r. — 
 
master holding a rod over us. We are brought into ^J^"^ 
 the place of nearness to God, and the work to which j^l *n 
 
 we are appointed is another work altogether from 
 what men are choosing. *' Before the foundation of \, '^ 
 the world chosen unto good works which He Him- *" ^| 
 self has appointed." The practical part of this book fj^^^*^ 
 will tell us. If I were talking with men that were ' 
 unfamiliar with these things, and were reading 
 along to a company of believers that were just saved, 
 and were telling them about this position, I would 
 say, " Wait until you get to the end of this book." 
 But the uneasy mind hinders all the time. Men will 
 read Ephes. and go and act the Jew. God never! 
 gives any word or credit for any doing that is out- j 
 side of our place. * 
 
 I have left out some passages. "And that He 
 might reconcile both unto God in one body by the 
 cross, having slain the enmity thereby : And came 
 and preached peace to you which were far off, and 
 to them that were nigh." That is, the peace was 
 preached to us. It had to be proclaimed. In the end f>^Jk jjp 
 of Luke you will find the gospel for the present f ^ 
 period. It is that repentance and the remission of \ 
 sins should be preached among all nations. It is a ' 
 distinctive commission for this time. Of course, it 
 goes further, for in preaching Christ, we preach not 
 only remission of sins, but a new man. And remem- 
 ber that we have Christ here as the peace, then 
 making peace, and then going and preaching peace, 
 and it extends to all those that are far off, and these 
 that are nigh. Then comes the word about our 
 access. 
 
 And being told that we are fellow-citizens with the 
 saints, we are also told this (Vers. 20-22): **And 
 are built upon the foundation of the apostles and 
 prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cor- 
 ner-stone; In whom the building, fitly framed to- 
 
 78 
 
gether, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord; 
 In whom ye also are builded together, for a habita- 
 tion of God through the Spirit." Now we are builded 
 together. Here is another thought than simply one 
 body. In being redeemed we are joined in one body 
 by the Holy Spirit. This is what forms the one body, 
 as in First Cor. xii. : '^ For in one Spirit were we all 
 baptized into one body." That is the baptism of the 
 Holy Spirit. When a man is saved, he is baptized 
 by the Holy Spirit into that body. He need not pray 
 for this baptism ; it is done. 
 -^ Here, however, is the thought of a house — a build- 
 ing — and so we are builded. This looks at the 
 external matter. The building is to be inhabited by 
 somebody, but we are not the inhabitants. In First 
 Cor. iii., it speaks about our being stones. "But 
 if any man build on the foundation gold, silver, 
 precious stones, wood, hay, stubble." Now, it is the 
 church which is God's building. Upon what is this 
 built ? Upon the foundation, Christ Jesus, the cor- 
 ner-stone. We learn it by the apostles and prophets. 
 Now they giving out this, as Paul says in First Cor. 
 iii. : " As a wise master-builder I laid a foundation." 
 He was a wise master-builder, and had the thing in 
 charge. The church is not built on anything but 
 that. Thp house may have those that are not living 
 members of the body. The workmen can bring into 
 this wood, hay and stubble, but God never does. 
 J. We are builded together, then. For what purpose ? 
 * ^'l For a habitation of God by the Spirit. Then it was 
 I V^i purposed that the Holy Spirit should inhabit this 
 " house. Then it says that, in whom, fitly framed to- 
 
 il^' gether, we are growing. It is to grow. It grows. 
 ^ It is rather the future thought. " Grows into a holy 
 j temple." At present it is after the pattern of the 
 ' tabernacle in the wilderness. It is a wilderness jour- 
 ney, and we hold the ark of God, and the various 
 
 74 
 
 ^ 
 
vessels that speak of Christ. We just carry Christ \ ' 
 through the wilderness. By-and-by there will be a 
 temple displacing the tabernacle, and that will be in 
 the glory. We are the body, of course. We shall , 
 be the bride then. Looked at externally, we are the 1 
 house— the tabernacle. It will be the temple then. ? 
 *' Unto an holy temple." God still living in it. 
 
 What varied glories we have had as w^e have gone 
 along through this Chap, ii., but is not this the 
 crowning one, to be the perpetual residence of God ? 
 We are told that we were picked up but yesterday) 
 out of the farthest place, and are now brought nigh, ' 
 and made to be the very dwelling-place of God Him- ■ 
 self. How wondrous it is! Through the millennium 
 and through the ages to come ! 
 
 We have now outlined these chapters. Here and 
 there a little word about it. How feeble it all is ! 
 The chapter itself is richer than all that can be told 
 about it. May God make it rich to our hearts ! 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 We find from this chapter that there are certain 
 secrets in the Father's bosom that He never let 
 out in preceding ages. 
 
 We had closed up in the former portion of this 
 epistle — the first two chapters--^ what was to be said 
 in regard to what the church is. its calling, its pur- 
 pose, its pursuit; what it is for all the ages, and 
 what it is now ; looked at in itself, as related to 
 Christ, forming the body of which He is the Head ; 
 and then looked at as a house of God, growing into 
 a holy temple, to be a dwelling-place for God through 
 all the ages, the millennial age and the eternal age. 
 A marvelous distinction, a wonderful elevation, a 
 magnificent reality and prospect ; simply unnamable 
 by any of our thoughts. 
 
 It would seem natural to begin the practical ex- 
 hortations, after having given the full statement of 
 the truth, but there is something else to tell. These 
 things are not only true, but they are true according 
 ^J'^o the plan that was hidden in the bosom of God, 
 "^ Himself, and in His mind. Such rich things could 
 not be told until He had a fit audience. Angels were 
 , not a fit audience because they were servants. Israel 
 were not a fit audience because they were simply 
 subjects to a king. Gentiles, of course, could not be, 
 because they had nothing of the mind of God, and 
 . when Christ came they knew Him not. Who could 
 listen ? Who could receive, and to whom could be 
 told this infinite secret ? To none but the saints in 
 ^*\^ Christ, raised and seated in heavenly places, just as 
 M" He is ; partakers of the heavenly calling and QUtsid^ 
 of everything here. 
 
This secret borrows no thought from anything that 
 has ever been told out by Himself in regard to the 
 earth, and in regard to the people of the earth. And, 
 of course, it borrows no thought from anything that 
 man has, but tells from His own heart that which 
 had been kept secret from the foundation of the 
 world Psalm xlix. tells of such things. Moses tells 
 out that there are such things. ** The secret things 
 belong to God, and things that are revealed to you 
 and to your children." We are told that He made 
 known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children 
 of Israel. But there He stopped. That wonderful 
 doxology in Romans xi. reaches the full scope of all 
 this wisdom and these acts, but they never reach 
 into this distinct secret. That is kept hidden. 
 
 "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have 
 entered into the heart of man the things that God 
 prepared for them that love Him." Whun that is 
 quoted in First Cor. ii., our apostle, Paul, says, "But 
 unto us God revealed them through the Spirit." We 
 have certainly, in looking over these chapters, learned 
 something very animating, something great, of God's 
 own mind and heart and purpose from before the 
 foundation of the world. We have been called into 
 a place that is wonderful indeed, but now we are to 
 have this added to it. He tells us beside the revela- 
 tion, " Now understand, this revelation is definitely^ 
 for you and for nobody else." It was never told to 
 other ages. Moses, David, Isaiah, Daniel— none of 
 the men of the Old Testament times— learned it. The 
 angels that were around His throne had no hint of it. 
 John the Baptist and the Twelve in New Testament 
 times never had the disclosure of such things. We 
 go back and see what Christ said to the Twelve : 
 " You have been with me in all my trial. You shall 
 be with me in the glory, and sit on twelve thrones." 
 |Iq 4id iiot open a particle to them beyond that JIq 
 
says to them in John xv. : " You shall testify of me, 
 because you have been with me from the beginning." 
 There is a supplementary word to that in Acts i. 
 Peter asks which of those that had been with Him 
 through His ministry here should be chosen to take 
 the place of Judas. The Lord Himself appointed 
 Matthias, because they cast the lot before Him. So 
 he who was not kept by Christ in His own hand, was 
 superseded by another one, whom He Himself chose. 
 ^ Then the Twelve were complete. They had no such 
 ; revelation as Paul gave, which is the thing that we 
 'look at in this chapter. He began where they left 
 off. It is not to tell us what the truth is, but to em- 
 phasize it. It is peculiar to us and to our time. It 
 is a gospel that was hidden. " But we speak God's 
 wisdom in a mystery, even the wisdom that hath 
 been hidden, which God foreordained before the 
 worlds unto our glory : which none of the rulers of 
 this world knew ; for had they known it, they would 
 not have crucified the Lord of glory." We are told 
 that it is beyond thought, the deep things of God. 
 Understand it, the Holy Spirit must dwell in us. 
 ' ' But we received not the spirit of the world, but the 
 
 ^ y Spirit which is of God." Your intellect could not 
 JOiXJ grasp it, and it cannot be gathered from the Old Testa- 
 
 VJ^ ment. It was not there to be gathered from it. It 
 vy"^ \ could not be proved out of the prophecies. There 
 U 1 was not anything that involved it, because it was 
 
 1^ J not there. 
 
 J*^' You see, then, it is a parenthetical chapter in that 
 I respect. Chap. iv. begins in the same way that this 
 does, so we could leave this out. But, beloved, the 
 truth that is given is not simply for information ; it 
 is not only to instruct the mind, but it is to fill the 
 heart. It is to get us associated with the Person of 
 Christ. It is to make us delight in Him, make us at 
 home Vi\ Him, to glory in Him, and just to have Him 
 
 id 
 
everything to us. The peculiarity of the truth that 
 we have is just that, to enrich the mind and heart 
 and conscience, and to engage the faith ; the heart 
 taken up with Him ! This chapter is peculiarly so. 
 It is the very heart of the epistle. 
 
 Ver. 1. **For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of 
 Jesus Christ for you Gentiles ; " as though he were 
 going on beseeching them on the ground of what is 
 done. You know all exhortations in Scripture are 
 founded upon what is done and settled. And so 
 here. It is sufficient in itself to found exhortations 
 upon. And therefore he says, *'I, therefore, the 
 prisoner of the Lord;" adding "for you Gentiles." 
 Here is a special thing, as though somehow he had 
 been brought into the place in connection with the 
 Gentiles, that have never had anything before. The 
 Jew for fifteen hundred years had something. God 
 had sent priests and kings and prophets, pleading 
 with them in every form, and doing everything for 
 
 
 them, and set His worship among them, and giving h^ 
 them all blessings. If they had been faithful and ^ 
 fruitful, what a wonderful world it would have been I j )^f*^ 
 
 But now he says, " I, the prisoner of the Lord." 
 When did he become the prisoner of the Lord for the 
 Gentiles ? When he began to make his plea in Jeru- 
 salem, and told how the Lord had met him in the 
 way, and how the light had shone about him, brighter 
 than the noonday, and that the voice came from Him 
 that was above, and said, "I will send you to the 
 Gentiles." At that word '' Gentiles " the whole com- 
 pany was in an uproar. They said, "Away with 
 such a man !" "He is not fit to live!" There is 
 something peculiar about this. Israel were to be 
 blessed on purpose to give to the Gentiles ; and it 
 will be yet. But here the moment came which was ' 
 their chance. They ought to have sprung to the 
 front with that very thought. It would have been 
 
 79 
 
repentance just to have taken up that, because the 
 Gentiles would be blessed by Israel. But that was 
 just the moment when it turned the other way. 
 
 J Hence, you see, he was a prisoner for the sake of 
 the Gentiles. You and I ought to feel that. What 
 
 I we get comes out of the prison-house. For that 
 
 }j cause he was sent there. 
 
 Ver. 2. "If ye have heard of the dispensation of 
 
 ! the grace of God which is given me to you-ward." 
 It took in the Jew too. But the Gentile might step 
 forward and say, "It is especially for me, because 
 the JeTvs have had their chance." O, brethren, you 
 know the reason ! You know Chap. ii. told us the 
 whole reason when it said, " You were dead in tres- 
 passes and sins." It was the time alone when God 
 could come out and do this great thing, when man 
 had sunk so low. His part was that he had sunk 
 down to the lowest possible place, and God must go 
 down and bring him out of this. This was the room 
 and scope for God, the occasion for all that He 
 did. 
 
 Vers. 3, 4. "How that by revelation He made 
 known to me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few 
 words ; whereby, when ye read, ye may understand 
 my knowledge in the mystery of Christ." If Peter 
 could say in Acts ii., "We were witnesses of these 
 things, and heard from His own lips ; " we can see 
 how Paul could say, " I have seen the Lord, too, and 
 this is the thing that I have heard. It is made known 
 by revelation." Do you not see why in Chap. i. he 
 prayed that we might have the spirit of revelation, 
 to take it all in ? Of course you learn in Chap. i. 
 how your preparation was, that when you heard the 
 word of your salvation you received the Holy Spirit, 
 making the heart hold it now as a reality, to be 
 entered upon directly. 
 Then a little parenthesis here. Ver. 5 : " Which 
 
 ao 
 
in other ages was not made known unto the sons of 
 men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles 
 and prophets by the Spirit." That tells us the whole 
 thing. It would be folly for us to hunt the church ; 
 in the Old Testament. Moses nowhere could tell* of I 
 it, because he learned about the earth. Prophets! 
 came in to take up what Moses had told, and after ' 
 Israel had failed utterly, to say, " It shall still come ;" ' 
 but never up in heaven. It is a mistake to quote the 
 prophecies with reference to the pr osperit y of the 
 ch^TcETTfor they have not a particle of church in 
 them. How do we know? Because it says it was 
 not made known in other ages. It is a unique thing, 
 anS standing out alone. TheT)hing that is formed is 
 just held up above everything ; God's own poem. 
 We are His workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus 
 unto good works, which were appointed before there 
 was ever a man on the earth ; before there was an 
 earth to have a man on it ; before the foundation of 
 the ages. So God had this in His thought, and you, 
 see when it comes out — after the cross. The cross is 
 the end of man and of all dispensations. All attempts 
 to correct man failed, and this is the end of the whole 
 thing. Hence, from the cross, man is under con- 
 demnation ; not on probation at all. God is doing 
 nothing to try if man will be good. Then is the time, 
 when man is under the curse, for God to come in 
 with His Christ, and in us to show the exceeding 
 riches of His grace. 
 
 If Israel is the light of the world, we are going to 
 be the light of all tEe ages and all the highest places 
 — the very heavens ; the testimony of God's mind, 
 richer than the scope of the prophecies and Moses 
 added together. 
 
 Now it was not made known to other ages and 
 generations. Moses could say, "It is not in rae;": 
 Isaiah could say, "It is not in me;" Daniel closed) 
 
 81 
 
up his book and went and searched. " The prophets 
 
 searched diligently." Daniel was told to shut it up ; 
 
 but now everything is open ; the open heavens and 
 
 the open heart of God, and everything revealed. 
 
 The result is according to what we had in Chap. i. 
 
 ; 8, 9 : *' He has made known to us the m^rstery." 
 
 I That is what Paul means by saying what he said 
 
 j before in few words. 
 
 Now everything that we have thus far had in this 
 epistle needs this ; needs it as that which shall hold 
 them all together ; as that which shall really bring 
 them up into prominence of meaning; that which 
 shall commend them to our attention. 
 
 Ver. 6. " That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, 
 and of the same body, and partakers of His promise 
 in Christ by the gospel." This verse, then, tells us 
 what it is. Let us look at these things carefully. 
 Co-heirs, — it is a little more than fellow-heirs. It is 
 equal. You cannot find that in the Old Testament. 
 All that is said about the Gentiles being blessed is 
 with reference to Israel getting their place. The 
 Syrophenician woman accepted the place of a dog, 
 and she was right. The Gentiles are not equal heirs 
 with Israel in any of the promises of the prophecies. 
 We had it in the second chapter. " You were stran- 
 gers from the covenants of promise." He did not 
 say to Gentiles, "If you do so and so." He did not 
 call back anything that He had promised in Abra- 
 ham, Isaac or Jacob. His word in Rom. xi. is that 
 Israel is beloved for the fathers' sakes. And coming 
 down to David, we learn nothing about our being 
 beloved for the fathers' sake. The Gentiles have no 
 ^ standing in the case. They shall come in as tribu- 
 tary to Israel, when they- shall be established in their 
 ■land, to be the centre of everything, and giving out 
 \[the word of God. The Gentiles will receive it from 
 I' them. It is a secondary place, and none can fipd 
 
 83 
 
v^ 
 
 anything better in any of the prophecies, though 
 you search diligently. 
 
 *' Co-heirs" is the first thing. Second, *' Co-mem- 
 bers of His body." Suppose I say that Israel and 
 the Gentiles are to be heirs of the blessing. It would 
 not be heirs, either. Heirship involves previous rela- 
 tionship. Israel were related, and these should be 
 co-recipients of blessing, but here it tells us some- 
 thing infinitely beyond that—'* members of the same 
 body." We saw that in the preceding chapter ; the 
 middle wall of partition being broken down; all 
 made one in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Then, it is heavenly, of course, because they are 
 not both one on the earth, and never will be. It is 
 members of the same body ; having equal place ^ A 
 and equal rights and equal position. TeU me what^ ^-^^ ' 
 you find in the Old Testament that gives the Jew 
 any blessing now ? Nobody can find any blessing 
 for the Jew to-day, as such. They have not a word 
 of blessing in their synagogues to-day. The syna- 
 gogue is of no account, anyway. The Jew is only! 
 blessed when he is in his land. The synagogue now 
 is a mere meeting by their own will. The Jew Jhas 
 no standing to-day. He is kept, but he has no stand- 
 ing. If the purpose of God was limited to Israel and 
 the Jew, he has ceased altogether for the present. 
 There have been eighteen hundred years in which 
 the Jew, as such, has not been touched. There are 
 hundreds of blessings promised in the prophets, but 
 they are unfulfilled, The pledge is there, because 
 Christ died and rose. The sufferings of Christ are 
 to be followed by the glories. The sufferings being 
 literal, the glories must be literal. 
 
 You have no thought, in the Old Testament, of the 
 Jew being of the same body, but here we get it. We 
 are told what that body is in the end of Chap. i. He 
 has raised Christ and seated Him above principali- 
 
 
 1#- 
 
ties and powers, and made Him to be Head over all 
 
 . things. Israel will come into their land and Christ 
 
 \ will bo over them, and over the other Gentiles, but 
 
 He is Head to the church. The church through all 
 
 i has its definite place. 
 
 The third thing is, *' partakers of His promise in 
 Christ by the gospel." In Christ, not under Christ. 
 What is our place ? "Partakers of His promise in 
 Christ." You see the elevation of tone and the char- 
 acter and the exceeding sweetness of it all. Surely 
 this fastens upon us what we have had in the former 
 chapters, told in a few words there, and enlarged on 
 here. The church of the living God belongs in the 
 
 j^ ^ heavens. It is composed of Jew and Gentile, made 
 new, that have been dead and risen, and that Christ 
 is the Head, and they are to be with Him in the glory, 
 and associated with Him in everything, and never 
 under Him as subjects. They come with Him and 
 reign over subjects, but they are in Him. This 
 verse contains^^LiTEKis, and it was never told before, 
 but given to Paul by revelation. 
 
 Ver. 7. ** Whereof I was made a minister, accord- 
 ing to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by 
 the effectual working of His power." We might go 
 back and get the history of that in Acts ix. Saul, 
 exceedingly mad against those that were believing 
 in Christ, had taken out a commission from the high 
 priest to go and do what he could to stop the whole 
 . matter of preaching Jesus risen. And just before 
 
 ^-"; he entered into Damascus he saw that light up in 
 ' heaven and Christ up there, but he did not know 
 j^^Liniy and he said, "Who art thou. Lord ?" and was 
 answered, "I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest ! " 
 Would you have understood that ? Would he ? No. 
 It was a most remarkable phrase. How could he 
 persecute Him up in heaven ? The Holy Spirit is 
 given to him. You know Ananias visits him, and 
 
 84 
 
now what ? The Holy Spirit is the only One by 
 whom we understand anything. To Saul is given 
 that one statement, **You are persecuting me!""^ 
 The Holy Spirit makes this clear to him that he is 
 hurting Christ by hurting any of His that are down 
 here. What is it but the germ of the one body ? So i 
 Christ says, "You hurt me." It is membership of 
 His body. If you were to tread on my toe or pinch 
 my finger, I should say, "You hurt me /" 
 
 Moreover, He was up there, and Paul got the fact 
 of His being up there. That is the place. Then he 
 learned what He at once said ip Ver. 20 of that chap- 
 ter, that Jesus is the Son of God, and you know from 
 Matt. xvi. this is the rock on which the church is to 
 be built. It is church truih, then, with Paul. It is 
 heavenly places and not earthly, and the Son of 
 God up there is everything ; and we are His mem- 
 bers. 
 
 Then we have the third thing — " partakers of His 
 promise in Christ." All the Old Testament promises 
 were under Christ ; this goes beyond, for it is in 
 Christ. Do you see what that power was ? It was 
 an immense thing for Paul to be stricken down in 
 his religiousness ; to have been smitten to the ground, 
 and to become as a dead man, and then to rise a new 
 man, with other thoughts. That was the working 
 of the mighty power. I know not any other occa- 
 sions wherein the Lord may have told him, but 
 certainly he got that here. It was wonderful grace, 
 was it not ? Instead of actually killing him, He had 
 him rise, a new man. It was all grace, all light, all 
 peace, up there, and this poor heart, full of hate, is 
 met and conquered forever. He may well say, " By 
 the ejffectual working of His power!" "By the 
 grace of God I am what I am." And what a won- 
 derful thing he received by it, a revelation with 
 these three statements, co-heirship, co-membership 
 
 85 
 
of Christ, and co-partakers of promises in Christ, of 
 Jews and Gentiles. 
 
 Ver. 8. " Unto me, who am less than the least of 
 all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach 
 among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ." Of course Paul felt the fact that he had 
 been called, as he said, **as one born out of due 
 time," as not worthy to be named among those that 
 he had been persecuting. He gives it all in 3 Timothy, 
 in that form ; because he had persecuted the church 
 of God. 
 
 And then the wondrous weight of truth must nec- 
 essarily humble a ma^h, and this would account for 
 this expression, "less than the least of all saints," 
 because here is something that no saint's heart can 
 hold unhelped. He was taken up in the midst of his 
 hatred to Christ, and at once shown the Lord Jesus 
 in the glory. It was even beyond what Stephen 
 saw. He saw Jesus standing at the right hand of 
 God, but Paul saw him in another title. Not the One 
 that would come down and reign over Israel, but 
 now seated with Him in the glory. All titles are 
 now made good to Him of Lord and Christ and the 
 Son of God, and hence it is that Paul began his min- 
 istry with that utterance of "Jesus is the Son of 
 God." 
 
 You remember in Isaiah vi. how the prophet be- 
 holding the glory and the seraphim there, crying. 
 Holy, holy, holy, is the Jehovah of hosts, was him- 
 self humbled, and made to think of himself as a 
 man of unclean lips. It was the glory that just re- 
 duced him to nothingness. And it is thus always. 
 Instead of being lifted up with pride, one is all 
 broken to see the immensity of the revelation that is 
 given of Christ Jesus as the Son of God. I am 
 quite sure that we could enter into fellowship with 
 Paul, as we have gone along here, in the abundance 
 
 86 
 
of the revelation. And we are not to hold back 
 from it. I have no fellowship with those that speak 
 about having such an overpowering sensation that 
 they say to the Lord, "Withdraw thine hand T' 
 The Holy Spirit strengthens for all these things. 
 
 When an infant comes into the race of man I 
 could say of him that the possibilities of all the 
 highest things on earth are his. He may be one of 
 the finest in philosophy and art and science, and 
 write the best books, but he is a babe. They belong 
 to him, if he can reach them. They belong to him 
 on the earth into which he has come. And so, no 
 matter how feeble we are, we are introduced into 
 Christ — born of God. We are simply in our native 
 element when we are listening to these very highest 
 and richest and most precious things of God. 
 
 One of the quietest books in the world is the Scrip- 
 ture. But somehow, in Ephes. it has to add on, has 
 to double adjectives, while simple statements are the 
 ordinary forms of Scripture. But this abundance of 
 revelation does make the Scripture come to our 
 understanding by telling us large things. So the 
 epistles are filled with this exceeding greatness of 
 the glory. To this less than the least of all saints 
 was this wonderful dispensation given ; a special 
 one ; not in common with the Twelve, any more than 
 with the prophets of the Old Testament. It was 
 given to him alone. And so much the more was he 
 bound to tell everybody. It was the one truth that 
 was to go out into all the world. By-and-by, when 
 this people that are formed by this truth that Paul 
 received, are caught up, and God comes back to 
 make His name as the God of Israel, there will be a 
 gospel of the kingdom that will go abroad every- 
 where, as a testimony in all the world. But there is 
 now a gospel that is an "all the world" gospel, dis- ; 
 tinctively. (Col. i. 21.) It is the delight of all this, ' 
 
 87 
 
that it is not for a few, though, unfortunately, it 
 gathers but few. But this has to go everywhere, and 
 the reason of it is that God is perfectly satisfied with 
 what Christ has done. The whole question of sin 
 and guilt and ruin is met perfectly in Him. His Son 
 is to be presented, and that must be told. He is 
 making a feast for His Son, and He must tell every- 
 body. 
 *j I This, then, is the gospel of Paul — the Person of 
 ' the Son of God, all the work that He has done and 
 all the glory that He has won. That is to be told 
 out. And we who have to do with Him are to learn 
 ' it all, everything ! 
 
 Now he tells us that this is the unsearchable riches 
 of Christ. That would be quite the word, after telling 
 us that these things were not made known to other 
 ages and generations. All that he is telling out 
 never was upon the lip of prophet of the Old Testa- 
 ment, nor even in the heart and mind of the 
 Twelve. There never had been an utterance given 
 of this new wondrous truth of the heavenly places, 
 ^ and Christ in the glory. It is unsearchable, then. 
 jy^ You need not search the teachings of Peter and 
 -" James and John and the Twelve, in the beginning of 
 ,#-' Acts. You need not search through Isaiah, for that 
 is all of earthly glory. And so all the Old Testa- 
 . ment — search it as you will, — will yield up nothing 
 1 of this heavenly truth. Man by -searching cannot 
 find out God. " The world by wisdom knew not 
 God." And yet God comes and reveals Himself, and 
 we are brought face to face with God, and brought 
 right to Him and in His presence, and enter into the 
 holiest through the blood of Jesus, and worship be- 
 fore God Himself, and know Him ! 
 
 But if searching will do nothing, what will ? The 
 Spirit of revelation in the knowledge of Him ; just 
 being open, to let Him tell us what He will. And 
 
 88 
 
Paul received it that he might tell it. And it is now 
 the universal gospel. I sorrow that it has been 
 lost, but God in grace revives it, or else we would 
 not talk about it to-day. 
 
 Here again we must notice the distinction between 
 the gospel of the Twelve and the gospel of Paul. 
 John XV. tells us definitely. *' You shall testify of 
 me, because you have been with me from the begin- 
 ning." In pursuance of that, Matthias is the one 
 that takes the place of Judas, because he had been 
 with Jesus from the beginning of His ministry, un- 
 til the day that He was taken up. Then the prophecy- \\y^ 
 of Joel was to be fulfilled, and the Spirit of God to \ Ji^ 
 be poured out upon them, and then they began to j (^' 
 tell Israel, "He will come to reign over you." But *a^^ 
 they did not utter a word that Paul gives, in all that ^ * . (?J 
 they said. Now Paul comes where they leave off, as j ' **^. ' 
 they come where John the Baptist leaves off, and' ; . /^** 
 John the Baptist comes where the prophets left off ; i 
 each telling their* gospel ; their good news. The 
 prophets exceeding the priests in telling the good ^^^^^ 
 news that they had. John comes and says, ''It is ^j^t^ 
 
 ready to come now !" and that is a new gospel. A/'^ - 
 And after Christ has come, and been slain, the ^,f^T^ 
 Twelve say, ''But He will come back, and you will , "jj 
 have an earthly kingdom yet !" Now this would all j,^'*'*^ 
 be true, but now I see that we come into a higher 
 place altogether. And so Paul says, " I will tell you ] 
 about Him up yonder." The Twelve simply have ' 
 what was in the prophets, and the accomplishment : 
 of it that day. That is the thing that corresponds to ' 
 what we have in Col. i. 23, where Paul speaks of the 
 gospel of which he is the minister. "If you con- 
 tinue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not 
 moved away from the hope of the gospel which is 
 preached in all the world, which you have received, 
 whereof I am made a minister." And then, after he 
 
 89 
 
has told that, a second thing is given in Ver. S5. He 
 completed the word of God and filled up that which 
 was behind in the afflictions of Christ in his own 
 body, for Christ's body, which is the church, 
 "whereof I am made a minister." 
 
 Paul must be like Moses. Moses goes to Egypt 
 and calls out Israel, and after he gets them out he 
 must form them. He must give them laws, and di- 
 vide them into their tribes. He must arrange their 
 marching order, and just how they shall build the 
 tabernacle. That is more than calling them out. 
 He must accompany them. 
 
 And so Paul must do two things : he must give the 
 gospel of the calling on high — which is the gospel of 
 the power of God, — which is the gospel of the glory. 
 He must do that, and then he that believes gets all 
 the assurances that are given in that gospel. He 
 knows he is saved. The assurance of the hope — he 
 knows what he is saved for. The assurance of the 
 understanding of this mystery of being seated in 
 heavenly places. All three things are spoken of by 
 him. Now he must give the administration, *'to 
 make all know what is the administration of that 
 mystery." Like Moses arranging everything accord- 
 ing to God's mind, Paul himself arranged the church, 
 as well as formed it by preaching. It corresponds 
 exactly to what is spoken of in Col. i. 23-25. He is 
 the minister of the gospel, and then the minister of 
 the church, which is formed by that gospel. 
 
 So you will understand the meaning of Ver. 9. 
 '' And to make all men see what is the fellowship of 
 the mystery, which from the beginning of the world 
 hath been hid in God, who created all things by 
 
 ^j^is^\ Jesus Christ." That is, all that are saved, because 
 ^^^ , ,there is not a syllable of what Paul gives that can be 
 
 ** ^^*' (Understood by an unsaved man. *' The natural man 
 ireceiveth not the things of God, because they are 
 
 90 
 
 ♦• 
 
V 
 
 spiritually discerned;" that is by the Holy Spirit 
 which is in us. Not that we have received a fine 
 clear intellect, but we have received the Holy Spirit 
 that we may know. These things are discerned by 
 the Holy Spirit in us and not by our simple intelli- 
 gence. So it is not to make all men see, but to make | 
 all the saints see what is the administration of the { 
 mystery. 
 
 ** Which from the beginning of the world hath 
 been hid in God." We find from this verse the 
 reason why it is unsearchable. It was hid in God. | yj^ k 
 If it had been hidden in the Scriptures, we could goj -Ij ^ 
 back and search and find it. But it was hidden ind,^^^^ ^^ 
 God up to the time of Paul. Now it is no longeiv, jMljtv 
 hidden. And then it is spiritually discerned. <J<>^/ 
 
 You see what the fellowship or administration re- 
 fers to, then, the practical carrying out of the truth 
 of what the church is, and what it shall be and do. 
 According to the mind of God, then, the thing was 
 hidden in God, who created all things in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Ver. 10. *' To the intent that now unto the princi- 
 palities and powers in heavenly places might be 
 known by the church the manifold wisdom of God." 
 We see the reason of this word *' manifold" — that 
 there are a great many things connected with this 
 creation. Various dispensations came, each with its ^J 
 
 own specified truth. For instance : from Adam to / 
 Noah it is simply man ; man without government ; 
 man left alone. Of course it is ruin. He^tarts 
 
 
 .:? 
 
 ruined as soon as he sins, and he goes on as man >« 
 without any law among men, and is left just as the ^ 4^ 
 beasts of the field are left, and the result is that they l'^ 
 become corrupt and violent. Then from N oah down 
 to Abraham man has government. This is a new 
 element in connection with creation. But manj 
 ever falls and gets away from God. If he is going to 
 
 n 
 
govern himself, he hunts up other gods and be- 
 comes an idolater. That is what government in 
 man's hands will lead to always. It will lead away 
 from God, and that is what the dispensation begun 
 with Noah comes to. 
 
 Then Abraham is called out apart from dll that, 
 and God revealed Himself to him, not as connected 
 with the heavenly thing, but revealing Himself still, 
 and saying *' This la^d." It is with reference to the 
 •^v*'^ land. He is to be a stranger to it, that he may first 
 get acquainted with God. Man must get back to 
 God before he can take up the earth at all. There- 
 fore it is four hundred years before man is allowed 
 H to take possession of the earth at all. God knows 
 ^^ ^ Abraham, and He now passes Abraham, Isaac, and 
 ^ Jacob through a school to get them acquainted with 
 Himself, and then He takes up Israel, and puts them 
 through forty years of schooling to get them ac- 
 quainted with Him. They are particularly shut up 
 with Him, that they may all the time be occupied 
 with God before they can ever take up earth again. 
 Then He brings them through all the various 
 methods of school and into the land, and says, ** Now 
 I occupy it, and drive out everything else." 
 
 The creation combined a great many other matters. 
 Man simply being put on the earth and dwelling, and 
 man in government. He has learned subjection. 
 Subjection is the first lesson in government. So 
 with the church ; we are in subjection, and await the 
 time to govern. The old creation has its varied ele- 
 .'ments there. Step by step all these things come, 
 rand thus we see that God was just mapping out for 
 *'man according to the ages. And now Israel having 
 failed utterly, God leaves the church here for a testi- 
 mony to the heavens, not the earth, of His many- 
 sided wisdom. Why should He show the earth ? 
 They are Jews and Gentiles from whom He takes 
 
 93 
 
out the church, and they could not understand and 
 they are left. 
 
 Ver. 11. ^^ According to the eternal purpose which 
 He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." '' Eternal f 
 purpose" is the **plan of the ages." All those agesj 
 He was having this one purpose before Him, and' 
 what was it ? To display in the ages to come His 
 kindness towards us, and to display now, by lifting 
 us above the earth. His wisdom. The church then is 
 to display the manifold wisdom of God, according to 
 His mind. Not this terribly apostate thing, that for 
 fifteen hundred years has not had a thought of God's 
 mind in it ! It makes the enemies of God to blas- 
 pheme. Not that of which Christ says, " I will spew 
 you out of my mouth !" But the church as set forth 
 in th'e Scripture is to display His manifold wisdom, 
 and it will if it is subject to the word in regard to it. 
 There is a wisdom that He had in His Christ, and 
 there was the wisdom that He had in the first crea- 
 tion. There is a wisdom that comes out in each one 
 of them. In Israel He is showing out man in ser- 
 vice. ** Israel is my servant!" and that is another 
 element. First, man simply runs loose, and then 
 man in government, and then man as a servant. 
 
 He shows His wisdom in gathering up the ele- 
 ments. The church will stand as a unique thing, as 
 clear as a diamond, and it contains the thoughts of 
 God, that were given from the beginning all the way 
 through, and the church, as such, was hidden in 
 God. But now He is bringing it out according to the 
 purpose of the ages. That is what His purpose is. 
 Israel was intensely bad all the way through their 
 history, but there came a time when the original 
 plan given to Moses, after hundreds of years, is 
 brought to the eyes of J osiah, a little child on the 
 throne. _ Now 1l3, seeing all that was given hun- 
 dreds of years before, and seeing the condition then, 
 
 93 
 
 ^ 
 
 n 
 
breaks dowu before God and takes his place accord- 
 ing to Moses, so that he had a standing with God. 
 And for a little while they had things according to 
 the purpose of God ; but it could not be carried out, 
 because all Israel were not there. And, then, it could 
 not be done. Now the church is called out for a 
 special purpose, to show the wisdom of God. It is 
 not to show it to the world. The trouble is that the 
 I church is turned up-side -down. It has become a 
 I part and parcel with the world, and showing itself 
 f to the world. It gets to be a thing talked of. In 
 i) countries like England and Germany and Italy eccle- 
 \siastical affairs have to be represented in their parlia- 
 i ments. In this country it is not quite like that, but 
 it is brought into prominence as much as burglaries 
 ^^ and murders, etc. It is a matter of daily history. 
 ^ *^^ '■ Now the church is really, in principle, invisible. " Be- 
 ^ ^4^ hold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
 ^^ • upon us, that we should be called the children of 
 !».»**' God : and such we are. For this cause the world 
 knoweth us not, because it knew Him not." It is 
 not to make a display to the world now, but making 
 a display to principalities and powers in heavenly 
 places. The testimony of the church is heavenward. 
 In Chap. ii. we had that the testimony of the church 
 for the future ages is to be earthward. Now in di- 
 rect contrast to that, to show the manifold wisdom 
 to the principalities and powers in heavenly places, 
 according to the plan that He had in His mind all 
 the way through. At last He gets the people, but 
 at last, having them, they fail more than any other 
 have failed. They had the highest place, but fell 
 from it. 
 
 God's plan through the ages was to exalt Christ. 
 He put us into Christ, to make known through us his 
 manifold wisdom during the present interval. All 
 this in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whona w^ hav^ 
 
 94 
 
boldness (both Jew and Gentile) and access in Him 
 by the Spirit unto the Father, and now here it is 
 again. 
 
 Ver. 12. " In whom we have boldness and access 
 with confidence by the faith of Him." '* The faith 
 of Him " means the principle of faith, the ground of 
 faith ; the objective matter of faith and not subjec- 
 tive. He is speaking of the dispensational character, 
 and it is on the principle of faith. Whenever we see 
 "the faith of Christ" or "the faith of the Son of 
 God," we may know that is what it means. It is not 
 a question of our faith but of the fact of faith. 
 Why does he bring in the access, then, when it was 
 all settled at the end of Chap. ii. ? He has been giv- 
 ing us the dispensational facts that in other ages this 
 was not known, but in the present age it was re- 
 vealed through him unto the apostles and prophets, 
 and then the purposes of God all the way through 
 with reference to the present and now, and linking 
 it with us, not as simply dispensational, but making 
 it come home to our hearts. At the end of Chap. i. 
 and the first part of Chap. ii. it is looked at in a 
 spiritual way, and here it comes back to this, " In 
 whom we have boldness and access with confidence 
 by the faith of Him." It is to save us from what 
 would be simply theological. It is a poor way to 
 look at it, through theology simply. God never 
 gives it really that way, and if for a moment we 
 turn aside to look at things that way, Ho always 
 brings us back by making us see how it relates to us 
 in our own hearts. We get that as soon as we get 
 the Person of Christ. Having said this, therefore, 
 the next is simply to appeal to them in regard to his 
 tribulation. 
 
 Ver. 13. "Wherefore I desire that you faint not 
 at my tribulation for you, which is your glory." 
 This w£^s definite when we spoke of it before ; that 
 
 9^ 
 

 the tribulation he was suffering was because he 
 would go to the Gentiles ; because he was the apostle 
 to the Gentiles, and because he did go to them to tell 
 them all the truth. And this tribulation he was suf- 
 fering from the Jews, who would have killed him at 
 sight. Nothing in Scripture shows the obduracy of 
 man more than that ; that the very people that were 
 appointed to give blessing to the Gentiles were ex- 
 ceding mad against the one who would do it. He 
 was not disobedient to the heavenly vision and went 
 in accordance with it. 
 
 Now we come to the close of this wonderful reve- 
 lation of Chap, iii., which comes in as a parenthesis, 
 to enlarge our thoughts and deepen our joy in the 
 whole matter. And so rich was it that it seemed 
 good to the Holy Spirit to have it clinched and 
 fastened to us by praying with reference to the full- 
 ness of it. 
 
 There is no richer utterance than prayer or praise . 
 There is an encouragement to tell all out, because we 
 are in the presence of God. In prayer we tell the 
 best things, and so the Holy Spirit adds to this, as 
 though it were insufficient to tell us the character of 
 truth in this chapter, and it must be closed up by 
 this wonderful prayer, as Chap. i. was in its state- 
 ments. 
 
 Here, the prayer is to the Father. In Chap. i. it 
 was to the God of our Lord Jesus Christ. But we 
 are forecast into the glory here. We have come into 
 the deeper heart of God. What we have now is not 
 simply counsels but the counsels of His own heart, 
 and therefore — 
 
 Ver. 14. **For this cause I bow my knees unto 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." Of course we 
 must have heart in this, not simply things that are 
 for our spiritual intelligence. Here we can under- 
 stand why it was said *' That the eyes of your heart 
 
 96 
 
may be enlightened." And so in Romans it says, 
 " With the heart man believeth unto righteousness/* 
 So everything in Scripture is far removed from cold 
 statement, by presenting the Person that takes hold 
 upon the heart. Here it is not a creed but a real life, 
 a living Person, and we, living persons. So, while 
 Christ was the Word, I am to be also the expression 
 of the word. Each of us to be but the word of God 
 in everything ; the practical utterance of God. " No 
 man hath seen God at any time." Now we are 
 down here instead of Him, and we live Him, by 
 walk and thought and utterance and by every ex- 
 pression of the new man. It is the revelation of 
 God. God should be seen in us as He was seen in 
 His own Son, for we, too, are sons. 
 
 This, then, becomes unutterably precious: **For 
 this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ (Ver. 15.) of whom every family 
 in heaven and earth is named." In Heb. xii. we 
 have the families of the heavenly. W"e are told that 
 we are partakers of the heavenly calling, but we are 
 also told of others that belong in the heavens. We 
 have come into this company. We have come to 
 Mount Zion, to the new Jerusalem, to the city of the 
 living God, the God of resurrection. It is the same 
 word that Peter gave when he said, ''Thou art the 
 Christ, the Son of the living God." We have come 
 into the scene of the living God. What company do 
 we have then? ''To an innumerable company of 
 angels— the general assembly. And then the church I 
 of the firstborn ones." That is ourselves, the second 
 family. Then, to separate these from the saints of 
 the Old Testament, God's name is introduced — "To 
 God, the Judge of all ;" showing that all these saints 
 had passed the judgment. God is named not as the 
 merciful One but as the Judge of all. This fixes 
 everything all the more securely, that He has judged 
 
 37 
 
it. Then, " To the spirits of just men made perfect.'' 
 This is looking at the whole of the heavenly family. 
 •, These are the Old Testament believers, of which 
 f there is a little sample roll in Chap. xi. When they 
 died, they died without knowing, which was imper- 
 fection ; but their perfection came when Christ rose. 
 They will be there, with bodies like ours, when the 
 Lord comes. 
 
 Then, **To Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, 
 and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better 
 than that of Abel." What a blessed word that is ! 
 The blood of Abel crying from the ground against 
 man^ and the blood of Christ speaking peace^f or us^ 
 TBus the heavenly f amilies'are named all inclusively, 
 and exclusively of everything else. 
 
 Then we come to the earth ; and the earthly fami- 
 lies when the restoration takes place will be under 
 the Father. There will be a revelation of the Father. 
 Christ began it when he spoke in Matt, and gave 
 that wonderful statement in Chaps, v. — vii. He 
 brought before them the Father ; not Father as we 
 know Him, but He was telling of the Father. lie 
 says, "Your Father in heaven." Farther away off, 
 of course, but still Father. 
 
 And so we have, " Of whom every family in heaven 
 and earth is named." Now the families of the earth 
 merely Israel and the Gentiles, and these will be 
 through the millennium and there will be these dif- 
 ferences then. We have this scene given in Rev. 
 xxi. 9, xxii. 4. It is God and the Lamb. Giving 
 Christ, as you may see, separate, just as he has been 
 separated down here dispensationally. But at the 
 end of all He gives up the kingdom to the Father, 
 and God is all. But during the millennium the dis- 
 tinctions are still held that God has made in relation 
 to His person. In the eternal age there does not 
 seeni to be the manifestation of th^ F^thar, Son and 
 
Holy Spirit. But God (the Father, the Son, and the 
 Holy Spirit) is all. 
 
 So we see what it means by saying, *' Of whom 
 every family on earth is named." Now we will have 
 it directly in the next chapter, when speaking of the 
 unity, "One Father, by whom and through whom 
 and in whom we all are." Let us pause a little on 
 this matter. It is very precious to think of it. In 
 Thess. i. 1, the first epistle written by this apostle of 
 the church to the church, he says, ** The churchy 
 which is in God our Father." JSTot the church which j 
 is in God simply, but God revealed as our Father, j 
 with a Father's heart. Leave out the idea of Father! 
 and you have only God in purpose and mind, andi 
 revelation of the mind : but where is the heart tl 
 Where is relationship ? Where is living in and lean-j 
 ing on Him, and being in His bosom ? And so thei 
 church had to wait for its manifestation until God 
 was revealed as God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. In creation there was no such revelation. 
 In Noah's day there was no such revelation. In 
 establishing Israel there was no such relationship 
 brought out. When John the Baptist came to re-f 
 store Israel, there was no such relationship broughtj 
 out. Christ mentions the Father with reference to 
 the future. And all this revelation of God as the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and as our 
 God and Father, waits the final revelation — the rev- 
 elation of the church. So it is the church which is 
 in God our Father. And so in the full revelation of 
 Christ— getting all his title of '' Christ " and " Lord," 
 and therefore Christ Jesus our Lord ! The church 
 iriy away back in the beginning, but still all there,— 
 in God our Father and in Jesus Christ our Lord,— 
 everyone in Him, and according to Pro v. viii., the 
 object of His delight. The Man Jesus with His title 
 made true to Him of Lord and Christ, had to wait 
 
 99 
 
y 
 
 , Until He was risen. It had to wait until He was up 
 in the glory, and until the Apostle could say, ** He is 
 the Son of God, who was made of the seed of David." 
 Then we have the church. It is church time, it is 
 J Son time, it is making sons, it is Son speech. 
 ^^v So all these things are dispensational. There were 
 ^^ no sons in the Old Testament times. There was no 
 ^ \ Holy Spirit dwelling in them. There was no form- 
 ic ing into one body, the church and the risen Christ, 
 ^*^ the first-begotten from the dead. Now these are the 
 ,t)-* "* things that we range in freely, and we must not act 
 out of them. If we run outside of these bounds, 
 where will we go ? Into that Judaism, which was 
 , once right, but is now all wrong for us. We should^ 
 use care in regard to speech about God, and in ad- 1 \;Jt^ 
 " fjf^ dressing Him and saying. Lord, when we mean God \ *^ 
 and Father. " Lord " in the Old Testament is Jeho- j ^ 
 vah. We could not get a blessing there now. Those \ 
 who live after the church is taken away, the Jewish 
 remnant, will get a blessing under the title of Him ' 
 as Jehovah. But we cannot get a blessing there now 
 ^"'^ any more than that woman that came to Jesus and 
 said "Son of David," and was turned away. But 
 when she called Him Lord, taking the place of a 
 dog, it was all right. *'Be it unto thee as thou 
 wilt:' 
 
 Paul was set to tell of Christ Jesus as Son of God, 
 and his gospel was to declare the God and Father of 
 our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, his bowing the knee 
 to the Father is introducing our hearts into the widest 
 scope of the present period. 
 
 According to the titles of persons you speak to 
 are the things you speak about. An earthly people, 
 ( speaking to God as Jehovah, will ask for earthly 
 , things as the highest, because they belong to the 
 ! earth. But when we call Him our God and Father, 
 , there is nothing wider or deeper than that. That is 
 
 100 
 
what we have gained by Christ going into the grave, . 
 and being raised and seated in heaven ; and so let us ) 
 call Him such. '*I ascend to my Father and your 
 Father." So we see how the Holy Spirit, here, can/ 
 bring out that prayer. 
 
 Ver. 16. *' That He would grant you, according to 
 the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with 
 might by His Spirit in the inner man." In Chap. i. 
 we found everything that is spoken of in regard to 
 the present interval of Christ's being in heavenly 
 places, and our being there, is to the praise of His 
 glory and the glory of His grace. We are associated 
 with that and nothing else. And we have no less 
 treasure to draw from than the riches of His glory. 
 How people do trifle with their privilege in prayer 1 1 
 They pray for little things, when they could take the | 
 heavens ! How they will say. Pray for me in this 1 
 thing and that, instead of making their prayer with I 
 regard to Ephes. iii. It is like what we have in Phil. ; 
 iv. The writer here, then the prisoner of the Lord, 
 when a few little things were sent unto him, to min- 
 ister unto him, says, ''But my God shall supply all 
 your need according to His riches in glory by Christ 
 Jesus." There is no other standard for blessing us. 
 With my children at home, that is the highest stand- 
 ard of all blessing, that they are with me. The son 
 abides in the house forever. I may be kind to my 
 servants and to my friends, but my children are as 
 myself. They are entitled to everything I have. 
 
 Now God has His sons up there, and we take hold 
 upon everything. " According to the riches of His ' 
 glory." All that is coming ! All the display of God \ 
 —for that is what glory is — the display of character. 
 Not according to some revelation of God simply, that " 
 He has to supplement afterwards ; but the full expan- 
 sion of- what God is in Himself. 
 
 *' That He would grant you according to the riches 
 
 101 
 
 V tv 
 
of His glory ; " and there must be something very 
 wonderful, if we must be strengthened to take hold 
 of it. " To be strengthened with might by His Spirit 
 in the inner man." The Holy Spirit within us is com- 
 petent to take in everything. This is the marvelous 
 thought, that you and I have God dwelling in us, to 
 measure the measureless in heaven ; that we are at 
 home with and in Him ; that the more simple we are, 
 the more the Holy Spirit is free to act, and the more 
 we need not be astonished at anything. Take them 
 with the peace and tranquility that God has in giving 
 them. We are to be strengthened with might in the 
 inner man, in order to take in these things, and to 
 live in them. 
 
 Ver. 17. *^That Christ may dwell in your hearts 
 by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in 
 love." It is not simply that we are believing in 
 Christ, but that Christ may dwell. It is not Christ 
 our hope up yonder, nor Christ on the cross, but 
 Christ Himself dwelling in us. What a wonderful 
 thing! The Holy Spirit making Christ present in 
 us ; the whole action of our life ! How wonderfully 
 that is brought out in John. How we are associated 
 with Him there ; having the same death and the 
 same burial, the same resurrection and the same 
 favor, and the same intercourse all the while ! 
 " That my joy may be in you. As my Father loved 
 me, I love you ; continue in my love." In First 
 John we are as He is. We are sons of God, and 
 this is the style of life that God has to say, " That 
 Christ may dwell in you ;" your faith apprehending 
 that. 
 
 Do not get the thought that we get things, and 
 
 that things become true of us by faith. Not at all ! 
 
 / The moment we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 
 ! everything is true of us that will ever be true, but 
 
 ■ we are receiving more and more every day, and 
 
 102 
 
faith is the open mouth to take it in. " Faith comes 
 hj hearing," and so we, as children of God, have 
 everything and know everything, and are associated 
 with everything that God and Christ have, and are 
 brought into practical fellowship by every day's 
 truth that we receive, taking in these things more 
 and more. He is in us and we are in Him, be- 
 fore God. Christ is in us down here for walk, and 
 to make the life ; which must be a Christ-life all the 
 way through. It is occupation with Him that will i 
 make it. We are the same as He is ; that is our/ 
 right and title. We say there is nobody in heaven! 
 or earth that can put us out of our position, because 
 the new birth meant that. This is what it is for 
 Him to dwell in your heart by faith. It is dwell, \ 
 too! In John xv. it is '* Abide in Him." That iaj 
 the practical thing. You are there, but stay there, 
 practically. We get the meaning in this way : we 
 are in Christ. Suppose we go back and act in Adam 
 or Moses. We are not in Adam or Moses. They are 
 set aside completely in Christ. Now you stay in 
 Christ, practically. "Now, little children, abide in 
 Him." The enemy is here, to say to the prof essingj 
 (christian who does not know his place in heaven, 
 and is acting wholly on the earth, and taking for hisj 
 christian walk the ten commandments, which are| 
 an offense and an insult to God. It is a denial of the' \^ 
 cross and resurrection for a man to put himself un-; 
 der the ten commandments. Then, of course, it is? tt-^ 
 just as bad an insult for him to act in his own lustsl ^m 
 in any form. It cannot please God. Nothing willjC*^ i^ 
 please God except a walk in the Man in whom weP'*^ 
 are. 
 
 "That ye, being rooted and grounded in love." 
 That is His love. Apprehending love more richly. 
 You see now why we have to have the Holy Spirit 
 to strengthen us for this ; that we may be rooted 
 
 103 
 
 Jlv^' 
 
and grounded in love. In Peter it says, '* Grow in 
 grace." We have to be planted there before we can 
 grow. Many that are absolutely before God, planted 
 in grace, are trying to grow up in the law. That is 
 what makes such trouble in their minds. And so it 
 is, **Be rooted and grounded in love," that we may 
 be able to apprehend with all saints. 
 
 Ver. 18. ''May be able to comprehend with all 
 saints what is the breadth and length and depth and 
 height." In Chap. vi. we are told to pray for all 
 saints ; and in Chap, i., '* When I heard of your love 
 unto all spants." You see how all saints are before 
 the mind of the Holy Spirit here, because the book is 
 about the saints, our position and our standing and 
 our hope, the hope of the calling of God. Our rela- 
 tion and apprehension with all the saints. This is 
 the object of all teaching among the saints, to get 
 them to apprehend what is already true. It is not 
 to tell people that are saints how to be saved, nor to 
 tell them that they may risk their salvation, or be 
 tripped up on it, but to tell them the things that 
 apply to them ; who they are and what they are ; all 
 that God has purposed in regard to them, and all 
 that is to come. The Holy Spirit is to take of the 
 things of Christ and show them. And then He is to 
 show us things to come. O what a wondrous thing 
 it would be if all the saints were getting it ! Of 
 course in this day there is but a little remnant that 
 are getting any of the truth at all. Would that it 
 were otherwise. It is intensely sad, but we have to 
 consent to it that this is the fact. It would be very 
 terrible to think that there were no more saints than 
 those that are receiving this light on Ephes., Thess., 
 and Col. They are saints as believers on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ, whether they know these things or 
 not. 
 
 The thing to apprehend is what is the depth and 
 
 104 
 
length and breadth and height, and I believe the, i^ 
 
 sentence is not finished. There are two unfinished 
 sentences in Scripture, the one where Moses in Ex. 
 xxxiii. said to God, " If Thou wilt forgive," and then j 
 stopped, not knowing whether He would or not. He I 
 had never heard such a word as *' forgive." The law 
 had not one word about forgiveness in it. "How , 
 could he, therefore, do other than halt ? 
 
 The other is this passage,— ''To know what is the ^ 
 depth and length and breadth and height — " you 
 have come to an infinite thing. It is not the depth 
 and breadth of God's love, but simply that we have 
 come into the full expansion of everything that God 
 gives out, and that you may know what is the 
 breadth and length and depth, — (Ver. 19), "And to 
 know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, 
 that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God." 
 In Chap. i. the prayer was to the God of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, that we might have the spirit of reve- 
 lation in the knowledge of Him, to know. There 
 were three fundamental things there to know. It 
 was taking in God's counsels. That was knowledge. 
 *' What is the hope of His calling and the riches of 
 His inheritance in His saints and the working of His 
 mighty power." And the prayer is that we might 
 know these things. But now, after He has given us 
 the disclosure of God's heart, and all the love that is 
 in Christ, as set forth in that one Person, the heart 
 must have its expansion and overflow. It is simply 
 exulting and triumphing and worshiping. This is 
 what He would have, "To know the love of Christ 
 that passeth knowledge." It is more than knowing. 
 And not only that, but *'to be filled unto all the full- 
 ness of God." 
 
 Beloved, there is no way of talking about these 
 things except to state them. Only to give them so- 
 lemnity and due weight as we read them. Now we 
 
 105 
 
 hJ 
 
i^' 
 
 »^ 
 
 have come to the limitless. In the age of Moses and 
 the prophets there were limitations. *' Eye hath not 
 seen or ear hath not heard,"— so there was a limita- 
 tion then. In regard to prophecy, the Spirit of 
 Christ that was in them did signify the sufferings 
 of Christ and the glories that should follow. But how 
 little they knew about it ! They had to ask, " What 
 does this mean ? " And it was revealed that these 
 things were not for them, but for a future age. Then 
 they stopped. They were limited. We are told that 
 angels desired to look into these things, but there 
 was a limitation for them. We are made to know 
 ,^i l' very distinctly what a difference there was between 
 ,^^Israel and the angels. He made known His acts to 
 ^y^ Moses, and that was beyond what He told angels. 
 ^ Then God broke out afresh among Israel before 
 w»f* Christ came, giving John. He was sent to bear wit- 
 ness of the Light, but he had to stop, for he had a 
 limitation. He says, " I knew Him not ; but He 
 that sent me to baptize said. He is the Son of God. 
 He must increase, but I decrease." We fall heir to 
 all the things in Christ. John retires and leaves all 
 these for us. 
 iC Then the Twelve take up what they know, and 
 they tell of all He did and said, from the day He 
 ^ *^* began His ministry to the day of His ascension ; but 
 J^^ there is a limitation. 
 ^ f >' ' But now Paul comes, and the heavens are opened, 
 '" and Christ in the highest place that God puts Him, 
 on the throne of the Majesty of heaven, and with an 
 ^ infinite scope of things, and the key to every thought 
 ^^ of God and the whole Scripture. We are in an un- 
 j^ ^ limited field. It is not for speculation nor to gratify 
 y^ curiosity nor to spur up the mind to be more and 
 ' ' more active in these things, but it takes the heart. 
 We are intensely interested in the Man. It is not a 
 literary pursuit, something that cultivates, but the 
 
 106 
 
 
interest of the heart with the Heart up yonder. To 
 be filled unto that fullness. To be filled as He be-i 
 comes the fullness. We learn in Col. that He Him-; 
 self is the fullness, and all the fullness was dwelling 
 in Him. Then we have, **You are filled up in 
 Him!" I always wanted to preach on that, "You 
 are complete in Him ! " But I never have done it . 
 yet. It is such a large thing. You are filled up j 
 completely, and all this fullness is in Him. **That; 
 ye might be filled unto all the fullness of God." God 
 has not shown His fullness by creating the stars and 
 filling the heavens and having the millions of things 
 that are here ; he has done it by showing out this 
 new Man in the heavens. He has really concen-( 
 trated all His heart and all His will for all the ) 
 future, through the millennium and through eter- 
 nity, in that one Person ! And He does not ask me 
 simply to stand by and look, but to come in and par- ^ 
 take and partake and partake of that ! And that 
 corresponds with what we have about gazing uponi 
 Him, and being changed practically into His image. \ 
 And, " We shall see Him as He is, and we shall be ' 
 like Him." It is quite true that we are now as He/ 
 is, even in this world. 
 
 Cannot you see what an appeal it is to our hearts 
 to be filled unto all the fullness of God ? His full- 
 ness is Christ, and our own fullness is Christ, His 
 own glad, rich, and free invitation. We shall never \ 
 be usurpers in taking these things. We shall never/ 
 be rushing in where we do not belong. For they are) 
 ours, as they are His ! 
 
 Ver. 20. "Now unto Him that is able to do ex- 
 ceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, 
 according to the power that worketh in us." Here 
 we have to stretch ourselves to take in what is said. 
 "Exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or 
 think I" Then led up and held to it by the Iloly 
 
X 
 
 Spirit working m us as newly created and risen 
 
 sons. 
 
 Then the appeal, ''Now unto Him that is able to 
 do exceeding abundantly ! " How little prayer seems 
 alongside of this. And how little prayer is in the 
 way it is generally expressed. And when I have 
 reached out to the furthest and up to the highest of 
 all that I can apprehend of what Christ is for me, 
 and what God purposes in regard to me in Christ, 
 He says, "There is a range beyond all that, that you 
 have not reached up to yet." And when, with the 
 Holy Spirit to do this asking, with groanings that I 
 ;' could not utter ;— now, after I reach the limit of all 
 possibility in prayer in asking all these things,— 
 "To Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly 
 above it all!*' I am cast upon God for eternity. I 
 think, in view of it, we may say, as Psalm Ixxii. 
 ends, " The prayers of David are ended ! " Do you 
 know why ? It was not the end of his Psalms. He 
 had given the Psalm that tells about Christ in His 
 glory, and he had come to the limit — the end of all 
 prayers. It just tells the whole story. 
 
 Now, when we have gotten to the end of all this 
 to know our place and privilege and resource and 
 the fullness of God in Him, and have spoken to Him 
 in regard to all this, then we are cast upon the in- 
 finite God and the Christ in His heart, to bestow of 
 it beyond all we ask or think. I do not want to 
 belittle it by talking about it ! 
 
 " Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus 
 throughout all ages, world without end, Amen." 
 Now let us take up that that we. had in Chap. i. 
 again. "When we were dead. He quickened us 
 together with Christ and raised us up together and 
 seated us together in heavenly places in Christ, that 
 in the agesjo^come^Ue might show the exceeding 
 riches of His grace in His kindness toward us by 
 
 lj09 
 
Christ Jesus." Now, this ascription is farther along 
 than that, for it says, "Unto the ages of ages;"! 
 never ceasing. That involves the millennial and the 
 heavenly age ; what is called the new heavens and 
 the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. Ini ^ 
 the millennial age it is righteousness reigning, but in 
 the eternal age it is righteousness dwelling. It is all 
 very well to have a righteous King, but here they, 
 will live where it dwells. 
 
 Now He comes further along here, as though He 
 would bring out the whole. He says, *' Be glory by 
 the church, through the ages of ages." Well, it is 
 our place, brethren, and that is where we are. Amen. 
 And every heart may well respond to that. 
 
 Now we are ready, then, having been told this to 
 get our hearts engaged, and to touch us in the most 
 vital way with the revelation that is for the heart, 
 after having given us that to supplement the former 
 two things that were told about the church as the 
 body and the church as the house, to come in that 
 freshness and fullness of apprehension of what Christ 
 is in Himself to the application of all this. You see 
 a reason why we should have turned aside, as Moses 
 did, to see this great sight in Chap. iii. ; that we should 
 take up what has been said in Chaps, i. and ii., and 
 see its glories as it comes to the soul within us, re- 
 freshing and filling. When he has done that, not 
 content with saying it back there at the end of Chap, 
 ii., he adds what is given in Chap. iv. 1, 
 
 |0» 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Ver. 1. *'I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, 
 beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation 
 wherewith ye are called." Do we see the power 
 in this application ? But what is the beseeching ? 
 Why, that we take up this thing, and walk worthy 
 of the calling wherewith we are called. We will 
 have to be led along in detail in that. We cannot 
 take it in at one viewing. We can look abroad in 
 all the heavens at night, but we shall be more pro- 
 foundly affected if we go to some powerful telescope, 
 and see millions of stars there, and calculate dis- 
 tances. Then, how profoundly we shall be affected 
 with what God has done. So it is well to say, *' Walk 
 worthy of the Lord ; " but the same Holy Spirit that 
 says that must say, " thus, and thus, and thus ; " and 
 tell us one thing after another. He gently leads, 
 after all. He will lead us along in detail. But, first 
 of all. He will begin with the very highest thought. 
 It is a very high one to say, "Walk worthy of this 
 calling." But He must give us certain simple prin- 
 ciples ; and what would you say would be the first 
 one ? Has there been anything said through the 
 whole of this chapter, and in Chap, i., where we are 
 told that we are raised and seated in heavenly places, 
 and that God purposed all that before the foundation 
 of the world ;— has there been anything said to make 
 us lifted up in our own estimation ? The flesh would 
 take it up and hold itself superior ; and therefore, the 
 proper word is, now, for the recompense — "all low- 
 liness ! " 
 
 Ver. 2. ''With all lowliness and meekness, with 
 long-suffering, forbearing one another in lov^," Jt 
 
is self-emptiness. As they are God's thoughts en- 
 tirely, I must have none of my own thoughts. I 
 must have none of the lifting up of man's thoughts. 
 We are strengthened, but the wonderful matter is 
 that it is Christ's life and not our own. It is because 
 we are Christ's that we get all And so, '* with all 
 lowliness." It is the first thought, and it would seem 
 to be the only one that could have been given here. 
 
 And then, ''meekness." That is quietly waiting, 
 is it not ? That is making nothing of self. It is not 
 having my way in this. It is taking it up with per- 
 fect simplicity of spirit. Inasmuch as He is talking 
 about the saints, you see them recognized here at 
 once. " With all long-suffering, forbearing one an- 
 other in love." It is peculiar that He should have 
 given that verse before the others. But Christ was 
 meek and lowly in heart. 
 
 Second, toward man. ** Forbearing one another 
 in love." Now we have these two attributes as we 
 begin to walk in the truth that is told us in the for- 
 mer portion of the epistle. We shall have need of 
 both of these. W^e shall need to recur to them con- 
 tinually. There must be all lowliness and meekness. 
 We are to esteem others rather than ourselves. We 
 are to forbear and bear with more and more tender- 
 ness. 
 
 The latter part of Ver. 2 recognizes the fact of our 
 being among the saints. We are not looked at sim- 
 ply as alone. The whole epistle is with reference to 
 all the saints ; that is, all believers, and everything '] 
 ;hat was told about them shows that we are one in 
 
 mat was toia aoout tnem snows tnat we are one m ^ \j 
 Christ — Jew and Gentile. We were quickened to- Ja^ 
 
 gether with Christ and raised up together, and no 
 matter how it is denied on the earth, we are one, for 
 God says so. It is just as I know I am saved because 
 God says so, and as I know the Lord is coming for 
 He sa}' s so. It is an immense advantage to us that 
 
 
we take things from the word just because God says 
 it. Then we have something to settle it eternally. 
 
 • It is not because we feel it : because we might feel a 
 great many false things ; but because we have the 
 
 I word of God for it. 
 
 Here, then, these three primary truths ought to be 
 
 well settled by and for every one of us. I recur to 
 
 the work that Christ did, and therefore I know that 
 
 I am eternally saved. He cannot go back and die 
 
 over again, and therefore I cannot go back into my 
 
 old condition. Then for the present He is up in 
 
 heaven, and God tells me all about Him up there, 
 
 and the Holy Spirit is sent down to gather us into 
 
 one body. We know it, then, because God tells us. 
 
 We know it as He says it. Then, of course, we have 
 
 other truth with regard to Him, up there. Not only is 
 
 He the Head of the church, but High Priest repre- 
 
 \^^^ senting us there constantly, and we representing 
 
 tV Him here constantly, as sons of God. And then 
 
 t»^ when we sin He is Advocate for us. These cover 
 
 ^- the time that He is up in heaven. Then, in the 
 
 ^ ^t^-^ future, Christ is coming in the glory and we are 
 
 '^ ^ coming with Him; therefore, we must needs be 
 
 jj^^"^ , caught up to meet Him. Then we come back with 
 
 » it { Him, to reign in the glory. And it is so placed 
 
 '^^ before us that we are as sure of it as that we are 
 
 jij^ saved. The heart must take it up as an immediate 
 
 * thing, always. 
 
 Then "the hope of His calling" that we had in 
 Chap. i. is that we are to come and reign with Christ. 
 Then we have learned that by the church He might 
 show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kind- 
 ness toward us. There is the testimony, and the time 
 and place of testimony, in all the ages to come. 
 Then we learn that for the present period, now unto 
 angels and principalities and powers in the heavenly 
 places we are to manifest the manifold wisdom of 
 
 US 
 
IP 
 
 God ; that they might learn the wisdom of God by 
 our practically demonstrating it. 
 
 These are the things that are positively told us, 
 and we are to rest upon them all the time. You will 
 see from this that we are not to show ourselves on 
 the earth, but now, during the present interval, to 
 the principalities and powers in heavenly places. 
 Men have read what they call the Sermon on the.u^ 
 Mount—a portion that pertains particularly to thej ^' 
 Jews — and they have said that the church is thej*'^ 
 light of the world, but it is not so. That was the . r^ 
 people that were to be on the earth, and they had no 
 other scene. And because that was given up, and 
 they rejected Him even after He was crucified and 
 risen, now He has a heavenly people. Because 
 Noah's descendants failed utterly in all that had to ^ H(i 
 do with showing out God on the earth and maintain- 
 ing His worship here, so that they lost God alto- V^ 
 gether and turned to idols ; therefore God called out 
 from the midst of that idolatry Abraham, and he 
 simply had to walk with God. His tent and his altarr 
 were a continual testimony that he was a stranger,! 
 and that his heart was elsewhere. The Church is too 
 busy in the true place of testimony to be occupied 
 in testifying to the earth. We must get that clear, 
 because here we read about gifts. They are for the , 
 edifying of the body, the building of the church. It 
 is false to say that the church must convert the 
 world. We do not find a word about our converting 
 the world. The prophets are full of it", but we have 
 gone through Chap, iii., and have seen what the' 
 church is, that it was not a subject of the prophets, 
 was not made known to other ages and generations. • 
 It was a secret that was kept hidden, but it is now 
 revealed. And then that we should be members of 
 His body, connected with the heavens, just as Abra- 
 ham was called out from e\ery thing, to be separate ' 
 
 U8 
 
; from everything that was going on. He had nothing 
 j to do with converting the Amorites. Did not he fill 
 his place ? He did when he stayed there, but when 
 he went down into Egypt he failed. So, just as soon 
 ^ as we go down into the world, we are as he was in 
 Egypt. Abraham lied when he did it, and so will 
 we when we do it. Take heed that we are not occu- 
 pied and associated with that which is apostate to 
 . the truth now. 
 
 Ver. 3. "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the 
 Spirit in the bond of peace." The first word is "en- 
 deavor"; but there is no such word as endeavor in 
 the Scripture. It would do, I suppose, for a legal 
 church to interpret it and say "endeavor"; but it 
 ^yifJ^ will not do for God's word. It means, "Do it!" 
 ^ The same word that is given in Second Peter iT^ 
 ti^ "Giving all diligence" to perform practically what 
 ^^ you are called for. "Endeavor" means with us to 
 *^' „ try : not to succeed. This means giving all diligence, 
 ^^\^**\ ."and actually putting your whole heart and mind to 
 .^^ \ do it. There is no such word as " trj^" in Scripture. 
 ' God never told a man to try to believe. He never 
 Hjtj^^^ told a man to try to do anything that He told him to 
 ^ do. He says, "Do it!" *'Trj" is of the devil^ 
 All the " Try, try, try again " is of the devil. Do it ! 
 God tells us infinite truths. Now take them. The 
 moment you doubt, it means, "I will try to believe 
 you, but I do not know as you are telling the truth ! " 
 He says the work is finished, but you say, " I will 
 try to believe it." It is only making God a liar. 
 When He says that Christ is the Head of the 
 church, and I say that I will try to believe it, I am 
 . trying to help Him out by making other heads and 
 ^rulers. That is simply impeaching God. A great 
 deal of the piety of the day is making God a liar. 
 ,The momeni one believes, he is a son of God as 
 ■much as he will ever be. 
 
 U4 
 
il 
 
 Here we have learned all these things in these: 
 three chapters ; indeed, in the first and second, as 
 the third only emphasizes all that. Now if we have 
 learned these things, what next ? Do them ! Whati 
 is the first thing we learned ? Raised and seated in 
 heavenly places, and then that we are one in Christ v 
 Jesus. Then, keep that unity, the unity of the j)^. 
 Spirit, the unity that the Holy Spirit has to do with. ' % 
 " In whom, after ye believed, ye were sealed." We, ^^***r 
 were sealed in Christ. All the believers from the J^^:^^ 
 resurrection down, form the body of Christ. The. VU>^ 
 believers of the Old Testament are not in the Body, » , -» \ 
 of course. This being the case, we are to keep that ^ 
 unity. Can we not keep It? Practically, we can 
 deny it. The unity of the Spirit, then, is the unity 
 that the Spirit has set forth in this word, and the 
 unity that the Holy Spirit forms. Sealed in Him, 
 each one is attached to Christ, in His body ; just as 
 the arm is attached to one's body. Everything within 
 me has its connection with my head. So we are all 
 as necessary to Christ as He is to us, just as my 
 finger is as necessary to complete my body as my 
 head is. So the Holy Spirit is the One that, gather- 
 ing us to Christ, is to move everything. We must 
 keep the unity in the uniting bond of peace. That 
 does not mean that every one is to go his own way. 
 There is no independence about it, as there is no in- 
 dependence in the members of my body. The inde- 
 pendence is in my spirit. There is not a muscle that ij^p,v> 
 dares have any movement of its own ; the head; |^ ^ 
 must control everything. That is the thing to start, * ^^ 
 out with. We do not control in the church. God * 
 has not called us into His counsels and said, *' You 
 make certain creeds," etc. He has not asked our 
 counsel. The Head proposes to do the whole thing. . 
 
 So that is what we are to keep. The keeping of 
 to-day may be more difficult than in Paul's day..; tS'- 
 
 116 *^V 
 
There was then very little of the dirision* of to-day, 
 very little of the worldliness. Giring diligence to 
 keep His word, we may have to stem the tide, and 
 we may have to stand almost alone. Never mind ; 
 diligently keep. Will anything less than that satisfy 
 , the Lord Jesus Christ ? Will our plans and meth- 
 ods and systems satisfy Him ? The thing that He 
 has not told us to do will not receive a reward. 
 We must do exactly what He says. Then we must 
 go back to see what the principle is. Seven things 
 constitute the unity of the Spirit. 
 
 Vers. 4-6. " One body and one Spirit, even as ye 
 are called in one hope of your calling ; one Lord, one 
 
 v«^ faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is 
 
 ^^ \ above all, and through all, and in all." Now these 
 
 . vt^ * T are the seven units that constitute that unity. Seven 
 is God's number of perfection throughout the Script- 
 ure. Then the perfect number of unity contains all 
 these things. 
 
 We begin then with the one Body. I need not en- 
 large upon that, because we have spoken of it. Here 
 is the unity of the Catholic church, and there is the 
 unity of the Methodist church, and every one of 
 
 Jf these is a unity. We have more than one unity, 
 have we not ? Did He say, ** Endeavoring to keep 
 
 > r^ ■ the unity of the Protestant church " ? Every man 
 of God in this world is in the church, and sealed in 
 Christ by the Holy Spirit, and we are all members 
 'one of another. Every one that is a saved man, — 
 
 . ^ ,. I am a member of him, and a member with him. 
 *1»* 'Not the various bodies, but the one body. There is 
 
 ^ ^^T^o warrant in the Scripture for the various bodies. 
 
 /V '^ As soon as such a thing was manifested in Corinth, 
 Iw the Holy Spirit had to say to them, "I know all 
 
 ^^^ ] about this. Is Christ divided ? You are members 
 of Christ, members of one body." He did not say, 
 "Endeavor to keep your Paul system, and your 
 
Peter system, and your Apollos system"; but re- 
 buked them and called them carnal. Now that First 
 Cor. is before us, we have something by which we 
 can judge for this day. We might never have 
 known had it not begun already back there. The 
 Holy Spirit has taken occasion to correct all this, by 
 which we can see. 
 
 Then, second, one Spirit. Not a thousand spirits »- 
 but one. Not one to live in and lead each denomina* %'^*^^ 
 tion, and then each individual to be led by a sei)arjate . .^^ 
 spirit* We do not get that from the word. The ^j^ 
 Holy Spirit has written what He has for us in the J^ ^^ 
 Scriptures. There is no such thing as getting inde- * Xj^m^ 
 pendent revelations from the Holy Spirit ; He has 
 completed the word of God. 
 
 Now the unity of the Spirit has the Spirit solely as 
 guide. How am I going to guide my children ? By 
 my word. I shall write it if I am away, and I shall* 
 talk to them if I am present. The Holy Spirit is 
 competent to tell out what He wants, and He has 
 done it. And Paul says it is complete. We turn to 
 Col. i. 25, and we find that he completed the word of 
 God. 
 
 So, then, we have this, — one Body, one Spirit; 
 only one. Being sure that God lives, and that Christ 
 died and rose again, and that the Holy Spirit is pres- 
 ent if you are led by the word and I am led by the 
 word, we will go together perfectly. I know there i ^ 
 are degrees of understanding, as there are degrees ^ ^ 
 of faithfulness in walk. But if we both take the \M 
 same word, and are alike subject to it, we will both * i 
 get the same thing and can mind the same thing. ^ 
 If we all have the same word, we will all have the ' |^*^^ 
 same thing from that word. The Holy Spirit is not i ^ 
 the word, but He has given the word. So, heeding 
 the word is heeding what the Holy Spirit says. It » 
 is not what you make out of it, but what it says. 
 
 117 ^ ~'2:^-'- 
 
You will find it exceedingly instructive to bring 
 others back to it. There never would have been a 
 question about verbal inspiration if men had paid 
 heed to what was written. AVhen Jeremiah said, 
 ** Thy words were found and I did eat them; and 
 Thy word was with me the joy and rejoicing of 
 mine heart;" it was the words, not the general 
 scope of it. You get the general scope of it, too. 
 There is not a book in Scripture that more clearly 
 confirms, and actually makes a fact, the perfect in- 
 spiration of the Scriptures than the book of Revela- 
 tion, because it takes up every subject from the 
 beginning. Evfery book empties into the book of 
 Revelation, just as every book starts from Genesis. 
 John, in Revelation, does not utter a word of him- 
 self, but simply what is told and shown him by Christ. 
 Is not that verbal inspiration ? Then we find that all 
 the subjects that are taken up in Scripture are taken 
 up as no book of man could take them up, and none 
 other subjects are taken up than those given in the 
 preceding books. 
 
 And so we find that the Holy Spirit gives out the 
 word that we are practically to act as one. There is 
 little dependence upon the Holy Spirit to-day, but a 
 constant appeal to man's will. Men get together and 
 say. We will form a church ; we must have a pastor. 
 Fifty will vote for A., and forty for B. Is that of 
 the Holy Spirit? W ell, they say that fifty is more than 
 forty, and A. is elected. So it is in regard to every- 
 thing else. Before we get through with this chapter, 
 we shall find that God gave gifts. Is there the unity 
 of Spirit in such things ? Is man's will keeping the 
 unity of the Spirit ? 
 
 What will it involve ? A great deal for every one 
 of us. That we be broken, and that we take the 
 first word He tells us, that of meekness. It is be- 
 cause we have gotten something for ourselves that 
 
 118 
 
•3 
 
 we have put forth our will ; and now if we are 
 broken in accordance with the first word of this 
 chapter, we are ready to let God tell us, "I give 
 gifts." Then we will find how He sends them forth 
 Himself, and He will take charge of them. As soon \^ 
 as we provide, it is not God's church at all, but man's.j 
 
 WEat is the next*lhing ? ** One hope ; " the hope 
 of His calling. What is the hope of the church to-? ^ 
 day ? To spread over the world and convert it.^ 
 Not one syllable of it true, according to the word of/ ' 
 God. We are told that the Holy Spirit dwelling in v - • ' 
 lis is an earnest of our inheritance until we are there ; 
 until the redemption of the purchased possession. 
 That will be our real time of display. What is a 
 woman that is betrothed to a man to be married to 
 him ? As betrothed, she is no more the same woman ; 
 she is a woman still, but not the same. She is lifted 
 out into a peculiar prominence. But until the mar- 
 riage day, what is she ? As pledged to him, she is 
 to be faithful to him ; waiting for him. That is the 
 whole of the church's position. Then comes the 
 time of the marriage and lihe display and the house- 
 keeping. Sne is called apart from all other women 
 now for him, but the time will come directly, and 
 that for which she is called apart will be consum- 
 mated. It is not our display now. It is display 
 after a while. Now by keeping the word as the 
 church, we display to the principalities and powers 
 in heavenly places. God has taken us out to be an i 
 example ; if we are subject to Him, we shall be this. I ]^^ 
 The hope of our calling, then, is by-and-by to be dis- { 
 played. It may be in a very little while. 
 
 If we are all right on the one body and the one | 
 Sp'rit, and have not the one hope, we have failed. 
 Ir we are all right on the one baptism and one Lord, 
 and leave out the others, we fail. You must keep 
 them ail ! Seven things that we have given to keep, 
 
 119 
 
^fi^ and they, all, one. Practically keep and act in tliem 
 ,^ * all. The Lord may come before to-morrow. Let us 
 t^^^ , get them clearly and really. 
 
 V,^ Ver. 5. " One Lord, one faith, one baptism." This 
 
 has to do very especially with confession. "One 
 
 Lord." It is not simply one Christ ; it is Lordship. 
 
 ' This takes away the idea of the authority of man, 
 
 whether it be one or a multitude. Apprehended 
 
 properly, it would keep us from bowing to man, or 
 
 ^ ? allowing any choice by man, or headship of man in 
 
 i^ . any form. With that standing right before us, it 
 
 fj^t^'^ \ would seem strange if we did not know the poor 
 
 l"* j human heart ; how far the church has wandered 
 
 ^ ^ \ from God, and come to allow just the opposite of 
 
 this, for in the professing church there are lords 
 
 many and rulers many, by election of man. One 
 
 . ^ Lord is the distinctive honor which Christ has had 
 
 given to Him. He is made both Lord and Christ, 
 
 and so is the one Lord. All the gifts are in His 
 
 hands, and He has them all to bestow, and He has 
 
 the whole governing of the Assembly in every way. 
 
 Then, "one faith." Now that faith brings us 
 
 out of our old condition as sinners, guilty and lost, 
 
 through the death and resurrection of Christ into a 
 
 place in Him, so that we are no longer what we 
 
 were. There is nothing short of that as to faith. 
 
 Paul refers to it in Second Tim. iv., "I have kept 
 
 !. the faith." It is the peculiar position into which we 
 
 are brought. The truth in regard to it of Christ's 
 
 death and resurrection and our death and resurrec- 
 
 - tion in Him. It is not simply confessing that there 
 
 is one God, that Christendom has come to now, but 
 
 it is absolutely the faith and belief on the Lord Jesus 
 
 Christ that takes us out of everything we were ; out 
 
 of ourselves, out of the world, and presenting us 
 
 there before Him, a new creation altogether. 
 
 Next, "one baptism." And this is the expression 
 
 120 
 
of that faith externally. As many as believed were 
 baptized. It has to do with the external matter of 
 leaving the world. I, as a Jew, left my Judaism, 
 and you, as a Gentile, left your Gentilism. Now to 
 be buried into death, and then raised, as Col. gives 
 us, by which we are risen, and have come out prac- 
 tically from the old standing that we had, as men, in 
 any form. Rom. vi. gives it. We are baptized into 
 His death, wherein we are risen again in newness 
 of life. It is not a sealing. It has not any saving 
 quality in it. The faith saves; but the baptism is^ 
 the confession of it. It confesses the whole thing of i 
 death and burial and resurrection. The link with! 
 Christ is confessed thus. We had to die to get to Him. » 
 
 Ver. 6. " One God and Father of all, who is above 
 all and through all and in all." Then we have this 
 precious fact, held by one God and Father. That is 
 our God and Father. This is to be kept, then, the i 
 fact that God is our Father, and it has become so 
 through all this ; through the one Lord and the work ' 
 that He has done, and by my confession I am brought 
 into that place that God is my Father as He is the 
 God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is \ 
 over all ! " Of whom every family in heaven and 
 earth is named;" thus He is over all. **For this 
 cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, of whom every family in heaven and 
 earth is named." 
 
 He is through all and in all. That is fellowship. 
 Christ said in John xiv., '• If a man love me, he will 
 keep my words : and my Father will love him, and 
 we will come unto him, and make our abode with 
 him." It is really having Him in us, and as Father. 
 
 Now these things are the unity of the Spirit, and ' 
 lacking any one of them, we fail. O how many are 
 lacking ! How Christendom of to-day has denied 
 every one ! They have turned aside from them, and 
 
 121 
 
have taken all that is Jewish in direct contrast to 
 all that is given ; this church truth, and the practi- 
 cal holding of all that God has given in this heavenly 
 , calling and standing and hope. He, then, that 
 denies one of them or fails in one of them, is not 
 ; keeping the unity of the Spirit. 
 
 This is the definite and unique thing that the Holy 
 
 Spirit is now setting forth. The Holy Spirit was not 
 
 down here dwelling in the people in Israel's day. 
 
 But we get a totally distinct character of things 
 
 by the Holy Spirit dwelling here as the result of 
 
 Christ's death and resurrection ; and these seven 
 
 , things constitute them all, and this is the reason 
 
 iL it^^ why it is called the unity of the Spirit. 
 
 jTf. ' Right in faith and wrong in baptism will not do. 
 
 »•** And right in baptism and wrong in the unity of the 
 
 **• body will not do. But how can we talk about it ? 
 
 v»^*w There is nothing like it on the earth. While He 
 
 A* I says give all diligence to keep this, we find that it is 
 
 the one thing that has not been kept. 
 
 Having said what the unity of the Spirit is, the 
 next is to speak of gifts to the body. To my body 
 there is given every gift that is needed to nourish it. 
 I have hands to provide food and put it to my 
 mouth ; I have feet to carry me where I need to go, 
 and eyes to see, and ears to hear. And so I have 
 every gift to sustain my body. And so the body of 
 Christ has gifts. 
 
 Ver. 7. ** But unto every one of us is given grace 
 according to the measure of the gift of Christ." That 
 is, He has given grace to exercise that gift. 
 
 You remember in 1 Cor. xiii., the gifts are the 
 distinctive result of love, the expansion of love ; so 
 much so, that He says that if I have not love it does 
 not matter what I have, there is nothing at all in it ; 
 I have nothing ; people have received nothing. How 
 emphatic that is in that chapter ! It takes the whole 
 
 122 
 
 IP 
 
of that section, Chap, xiii., to bring it out. Then 
 the gift cannot be for show or emolument ; it must 
 always be the expression of Christ's own love to His 
 own. So it says, " To each is given grace according 
 to the measure of the gift." One gift may need it 
 more than another, and one may be seen to be the 
 expression of love more than another. Certainly it 
 must be Christ's love that goes out to save the lost 
 sinners through the evangelist. It must be love 
 that will exercise a pastoral care. It must be love 
 that opens the word to the saints. All these gifts, 
 you see, are simply love. ** To every one is given 
 grace." 
 
 And then, quoting from Psalm Ixviii., looking to 
 the glory of Christ, Ver. 8 : ** Wherefore He saith, 
 when He ascended up on high. He led captivity 
 captive and gave gifts to men." Here it is quoted 
 with special reference to the gifts connected with 
 the church. " Thou hast led captivity captive or led 
 a multitude of captives." Here, I apprehend, is what 
 we have in regard to the Old Testament saints, 
 delivered from their captivity in hades, and going jC-^*^ 
 up to be with Christ. A multitude of captives they 
 were. 
 
 Next, there is a little parenthesis. Vers. 9, 10. 
 " Now that He ascended, what is it but that He also 
 descended first into the lower parts of the earth ? 
 He that descended is the same also that ascended 
 up far above all the heavens, that He might fill all 
 things." If He ascended, He must have been here ; 
 and further there was going down into hades. 
 Psalm xvi : ** For Thou wilt not leave my soul in 
 hell ; neither wilt Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see 
 corruption." Then He is looked at at the right 
 hand ; " At Thy right hand there are pleasures for 
 evermore." And He is not satisfied when He gets 
 up there to be there simply for His own enjoyment, 
 
 133 
 
 t\^ 
 
There are pleasures for evermore, it is true ; the 
 
 fullness of joy is there ; but He is there for our 
 
 sakes. He is there to be crowned because He has 
 
 done this work, and then having these gifts to 
 
 bestow upon His body. Is it not a wonderful thing ! 
 
 And why are men acting as though He were not be- 
 
 I stowing gifts ? They are electing and choosing men 
 
 j as though He did not do it, when He had to ascend 
 
 up on high and to be crowned with the reward of His 
 
 work, in order to do it. When I look at all these 
 
 ^associations, where they ordain and license, etc., I 
 
 u say, " How did they get a right to bestow gifts ? 
 
 gW , Did they ascend on high ? " 
 
 We find in Rev. v. that He is the only One that 
 
 j^^ takes that roll and opens those seals ; the only One 
 
 f^^^^ in all the universe ; the One that has shed His 
 
 ,'^*^ blood to purchase the whole. He is the only One 
 
 2^^ that has a right to say who they shall be. No man 
 
 y^^^f^ can add to it, any more than He can add to the word 
 
 Ay\^ "* of God. And they cannot do it without having to 
 
 ^> answer for it. It is impeaching His authority and 
 
 f^^ His right to bestow all gifts. These things are not 
 
 -"#. written in a trifling way at all. They carry their 
 
 foi'ce with them all the time. 
 
 "He ascended on high." First though. He must 
 
 go down. And no man that has not been down 
 
 there for sins and is not sitting at the right hand of 
 
 iv:t'* God for sins, has any right to do this. 
 
 ** And what are the gifts ? Ver. 11. "And He gave 
 
 some, apostles ; and some, prophets ; and some, 
 
 evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." The 
 
 gifts spoken of here are those that go on to the end. 
 
 See the difference between what we have in this 
 
 chapter and in 1 Cor. xii. 28. You remember in 
 
 1 Cor. i. 7, they "came behind in no gift." They 
 
 all had gifts. The church had that in the beginning. 
 
 It is a blessed thing, in the midst of the apostasy 
 
 l?4 
 
so wide that we are in, that Christ is seen address- 
 ing the remnant, and saying, *'To him that over- 
 cometh." It is a blessed thing when we know that 
 many gifts have departed, to find that certain gifts 
 will go on to the end. How blessed that is ! How 
 blessed in the history of Israel, when the priest had 
 no power in his place, and when the king had turned 
 aside and they were gone into idolatry, and when 
 the Shechinah had left and gone into the heavens, — 
 how blessed it was for poor Israel then to say, "We 
 are not deserted of God." Among their assets were 
 prophets. What were prophets ? People to be the 
 mouth of God. And so to-day we are blessed that 
 we can get God's word. God will preserye to the 
 end the gifts that will give His word, pure and 
 simple. Therefore, He says that He gave some 
 apostles, and we have them yet in all their sim- 
 plicity, just as God gave them. He had them write 
 down truth that He gave them for us, unmixed with 
 philosophy, standing pure and clear, by the Holy 
 Spirit, and we have it yet. Christ could say to the 
 Jews in His day that they had Moses though he was 
 dead long ago ; and so to-day we can say that we 
 have Paul. We have the whole revelation that was 
 made known to him. Paul is as fresh to-day as if 
 he had just come into this room, and said he had 
 just received the revelation. All that is contained 
 in Cor. and Eph. and Col. and Gal. We have them 
 all. We are thoroughly furnished in regard to 
 church truth and church conduct. We have an 
 epistle written on purpose to show us how we ought 
 to conduct ourselves in the house of God, the church 
 of God. (First Tim.) We have one in the age of 
 apostasy to tell us exactly what our resource is. 
 (Second Tim.) We have one in a day like this, when 
 legality is almost universal, the Epistle to the Gala- 
 tians, by this same Paul. If we want to know what 
 
 126 
 
church truth is, we get it from this epistle, Ephe- 
 sians. If we want to know our relation to the Head, 
 that we may hold fast the Head, we have Colossians. 
 If we want to know how to act under all this truth, 
 so as to walk as the heavenly persons and not as 
 earthly ones, we have Philippians. If we want to 
 know how to act in the simplicity of the same, we 
 have the Epistle to Philemon. If we want to know, 
 ^ in the day of the most terrible ritualism, that is in- 
 \1\^^ creasing more and more all the time and turning 
 everything over to Judaism, we have the Epistle to 
 • the Hebrews, that warns us on all sides and shows 
 Him up in the glory. If we want to have Christ 
 Himself, through whom all gifts came, we have to 
 take all these epistles together, and He is brought 
 out rounded and full of grace, more and more for the 
 heart and conscience and faith of each one. Then if 
 we want to know, in the midst of this denial of the 
 faith, in regard to salvation, what it is in itself, we 
 go to the Epistle to the Romans, which tells the 
 whole thing ; beginning with us in our sins and ex- 
 posing us as guilty, and then bringing in the right- 
 eousness of God to meet all ; and so we are brought 
 into life in Him, and there is no condemnation be- 
 fore God ; we are sons of God and heirs of God, that 
 His grace and His righteousness have been shown 
 for us ; gi^ace reigning through righteousness unto 
 eternal life. Why, we are perfectly equipped, for 
 he gave apostles ; and we have them yet. It is fool- 
 ish to talk about successors to the apostles. It is a 
 crime against the church, and it is only of Satan, 
 We have apostles ; we do not want any successors. 
 
 Paul tells us in Col. i. 25 that it was given to him 
 
 to complete the word. Then if we want to know all 
 
 ' about the coming of the Lord and the judgments of 
 
 Christ Himself, for He will judge in His own house, 
 
 the church, and will judge Israel and take care of 
 
 126 
 
His little remnant, and judge the professing church 
 in its apostasy. We have to listen to John in the I 
 Book of Revelation, "The Revelation of Jesus! 
 Christ." 
 
 If we want to know what fellowship is with the 
 Father and with the Son, we listen to the same voice 
 of John in his first epistle. If we need to have all 
 this pressed upon us with reference to the coming of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, we read his second and third 
 epistles. If we want to learn all about our being 
 pilgrims and strangers, and learn that the trial of 
 our faith is more precious than gold, we turn and, 
 listen to Peter, who was the man to talk to the rem- 
 nant and to the pilgrims and the strangers, and 
 appealing to us to walk in all separation, because 
 God is separate, and making us know that we are a 
 holy and a royal priesthood. 
 
 And we have prophets of the New Testament./* 
 Everyone that gives out the word is a prophet, giv- j V 
 ing it for exhortation and comfort, and to profit 
 everyone with it. They are linked with the apostles.' 
 Take Paul and Barnabas, sent of the Holy Spirit, and 
 then Silas came, and that would be like a prophet, 
 giving out God's utterances all the time ; not neces- 
 sarily opening scripture as teachers, but giving out 
 the miiid of God as received from Him ; the mouth 
 of God to us. We have the word to judge him by if 
 he does not speak according to it. He may stand in 
 the pulpit, but if he is not giving the word of God 
 he is a false prophet. A prophet simply speaks for 
 another. To prophesy is to speak for another, not \ JP < 
 to speak one's own words. Now, then, if I give you ^ 
 mj opinion, I am not a prophet. If I give you God's . jX 
 mind, I am prophesying. That is what this'^ift 'f-'^ 
 means. The pro'phet is named with the apostles, but 
 here it is spoken of as though it might be another 
 giftj and it is. Then, He gave some evangelists, \ 
 

 » messengers of good tidings. Well, the good tidings 
 * were contained in what the apostles gave. We find 
 in 2 Timothy i. 11 that Paul said he was all three ; 
 he had all gifts. He speaks of that in 1 Cor. xiv. 
 
 First of all, the apostle gets the original truth from 
 God, and we have it. And the evangelist takes out 
 \j^ the message by word of mouth, — the simple good 
 r, news that Christ died and rose again, — and he goes 
 ^Y^ out to the sinner. That is the evangehst's work ; it 
 has to do with sinners. He is to bring the precious 
 news that Christ Jesus came into the world to save 
 . .sinners, and that it is all done. Then he has a little 
 JvAnore to tell. The good news contain what the hope 
 •^ of our calling is, and he must tell what he is saved 
 to, and that is the membership of Christ. The evan- 
 gelist has not finished when he gets a man to believe 
 on Christ, but he must tell him what he is when he 
 does believe, and that the Lord is coming. 
 / Now we come to the next, pastors and teachers. 
 ^' The pastor and teacher is one. Every teacher is 
 ^ necessarily a pastor ; he cannot help it. It is in the 
 
 \r^. gift. If he teaches, he is opening out the word, 
 J^' and probably he will have to minister also as a 
 pastor. That has to do with the individual care of 
 the soul. It is not visiting and taking tea, but it is 
 the actual spiritual nourishing of the individual. He 
 has to open the Scripture to this one personally, in 
 the matter of trial and difficulty, and he has much 
 to do with the word beside simply opening it and 
 explaining it. 
 
 Ver. 12. Now what are all these gifts for ? " For 
 the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the min- 
 istry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." Edi- 
 fying is building up. We are built up by the word, 
 and not by sympathy or intellectualism ; we are 
 built up by the word only. 
 *< For the perfecting of the saints " is the first thing. 
 
 128 
 
Iaj^ 
 
 They must first have the word, and then they must * 
 have the teacher to go on unfolding it. " For the ; 
 work of the ministry." There is the general minis- 
 try. Then, '^For the edifying of the body." The 
 other has an individual bearing, but here it is to 
 gather and build up. Now the evangelist is the one 
 that builds up the body. He adds to the body, for 
 every soul that is saved is a member of the body. 
 Then there is the building up in the truth that the 
 teacher does. They all work together. What is it 
 given for ? That we shall not be tossed about by 
 every wind of teaching, by the sleight of men, giv- 
 ing what they think. 
 
 Ver. 13. "Till we all come in the unity of thei 
 faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto , 
 a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the / 
 fullness of Christ." The gifts that are spoken of in ^**^ 
 Ver. 11 must necessarily go on to the end, for this •viKjj^*^ 
 verse says it; that these gifts are until all is over CU*^ 
 and we are caught up. Now that perfect man, andi jK^JL 
 stature of the fullness of Christ, isTHe complete j 
 body7 joined to the Head, and that cannot be until ftTTj^ 
 the last one is saved during the present period, aiicl ' \^^ -^ 
 thus we have pledged the gifts by which the word . j ** 
 will come to us. We may have no gifts of miracles, I jA 
 but we will have gifts that will keep the word before ^* ' 
 us. Can anything be more delightful ? We shall 
 always have the word of God, just as the righteous 
 ones among the Jews could say, "We have the 
 prophets given to us. The mouth of Jehovah speaks 
 to us." And so to-day ; clear up to the end, no mat- 
 ter what comes. All the epistles, saving Rom. and ■ 
 Thess. and Eph., that contain primary truth, are . 
 
 teUing of aposlasy deepening, and as we go on fur- yl4^ 
 ther down to the end, we are told that this will be ; ^ 
 
 that the whole thing will be a profession of godli- /M*-*^ 
 ness, yet going on in pure wqrldliness. Now while i 
 
 129 
 
{ that is so, we can have this as the only comfort. 
 I We shall have the word until the body is complete, 
 i the perfect Man,— the man in Christ Jesus ; and that 
 j could not be if there was one left out. I apprehend 
 i we are nearing the end, when the last one will be 
 brought in; and I think that God is stirring the 
 hearts to preach the gospel afresh, that He may 
 bring in very rapidly. While there are many evi- 
 dences that the end is close by and the time to be 
 caught up, we shall have the truth for the evangelist 
 and the teacher, because we have the truth that was 
 given to the apostles and the prophets. 
 
 Ver. 14. **That we henceforth be no more chil- 
 dren, tossed to and fro and carried about with every 
 wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning 
 craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.*' 
 Driven about like children, ^i^he figure seems to be 
 like a vessel on the water, and driven about by every 
 wind, and tossed about rudderless. The waters 
 would be the nations among whom we were cast, — 
 that we are not dependent upon what this one says 
 or that one says, nor are we to be turned aside by 
 any blast of infidelity or untruth, but simply held to 
 the truth, and not to be driven about by winds of 
 , doctrine and false teaching. And we are to have it 
 I so that we can speak it. 
 
 Ver. 15. " But speaking the truth in love, may 
 grow up into Him in all things, which is the Head, 
 even Christ." It is spoken to us in love. That is 
 the ground of all. We can ourselves speak it among 
 ourselves. What a sweet and tender word that is ! 
 Here we are cast alone where Satan is reigning, and 
 yet we can be carried along until the Lord comes 
 because those gifts are yet extant. 
 
 May we never allow any of these things that are 
 going on to-day, but always go back to the apostles. 
 Th£^t is the great thing. Let everything be weighed 
 
 m 
 
and measured by the word. Then we can be sure 
 that we will be carried through. " May grow up 
 into Him in all things, which is the Head, even 
 Christ." That is the figure of the body again, grow- 
 ing up ; every part of the body growing naturally ; 
 and the word is to form the body of Christ, so 
 that every part shall grow proportionately ; all 
 being brought under the power of the same truth. 
 How thoroughly opposed this is to what is often! 
 said, that you can get anything out of the Bible. { 
 Yes, if you do not read it you can. But if we are 
 formed by the apostles, and are taking the word as 
 God gave it, we will get the same thiug, and grow 
 up in the same proportion, and as we get it we shall 
 certainly grow up together. 
 
 And then, growing up into Him ; part and parcel 
 of that body of which He is the Head. When a child 
 grows too large in the head for his body, there is 
 very great danger. When his body outgrows his 
 head, he will probably be a fool in another direction. 
 But when body and head grow together proportion- 
 ately, that is the perfect child ; and so here is the 
 perfect Man, we growing up into Him. It is mar- 
 velous that here, right down to the very end, we 
 can have it all, as perfectly as in the days of the 
 apostles. 
 
 Ver. 16. *^ From whom the whole body fitly joined 
 together and compacted by that which e^ery joint 
 supplieth, according to the effectual working in the 
 measure of every part, maketh increase of the body 
 unto the edifying of itself in love." You get the 
 thought that every part has to do a work. It is not 
 the great gifts. Every muscle and bone and blood- 
 vessel in my body has to do its distinctive work, 
 and all acting together. Of course they are sup- 
 plied by the food and the air, etc., that every part 
 may grow, and thus we learn, not only that there are 
 
 131 
 
gfreat gifts of apostles and evangelists and teachers, 
 but that every one of us is a gift to the whole body. 
 To do without one little portion would be to have 
 an impaired body. It is true my eyelid is not as use- 
 ful as my arms may be. I could even have it cut off 
 and yet walk about and work. The arm seems to 
 be a great thing, but the eyelid is exceedingly neces- 
 sary to me. Every little joint is needed to make the 
 perfect body ; and so every child of God is needed, 
 and is there for the purpose as much as the other 
 
 jl^ \ gifts are. It is very sweet to think that Christ can- 
 . ^^ ! not get along without us. It is a blessed fact that 
 
 ^tf He cannot get along in the glory until joined to us. 
 
 ^ * He cannot begin the glory until we are there. Thus 
 
 the working of every part, every joint of supply, 
 *' maketh increase of the body unto the building up 
 of itself in love." What a crowning word that is in 
 regard to the growing up of the body of Christ. 
 Not unto a union but unity and growing in love. 
 
 For the gifts are the outflow of love. The result 
 of all truth will be to knit us together. Not to pro- 
 fess simply that we are one body, but absolutely 
 knit together; every one having fellowship with 
 every other one ; knit together in love. 
 — Now that closes the first application of the truth 
 in Ephes., and we turn aside to look at the moral 
 application. These have to do with the practical 
 life in regard to the body of Christ. The same truth 
 has its moral power, and so Ver. 17 begins a new 
 section altogether. 
 
 Ver. 17. *' This I say, therefore, and testify in the 
 Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles 
 walk, in the vanity of their mind." You see it is 
 linked, afteft" all, with the other; not to be tossed 
 to and fro, and taking any wind of doctrine, and 
 now not walking after their own thoughts in the 
 vanity of their own minds. 
 
 188 
 
Ver. 18. "Having the understanding darkened, 
 being alienated from the life of God through the 
 ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness 
 of their heart." Having the understanding dark- 
 ened is the condition now of the heathen, from whom 
 we were taken. " Because of the blindness of their 
 heart ;" lets us know very distinctly that everything 
 starts from the heart. It is with the heart that man 
 believeth unto salvation, and it is the heart that gets 
 alienated from God ; it is the inclination, you under- 
 stand. Next, the intellect follows. Getting away 
 from God, the mind takes up all that is away from 
 Him, and the understanding gets darkened, — the 
 origin of all this that men speak about,—" I cannot 
 understand ; I cannot believe this ; my mind seems 
 incapable to take all that ; my mind must have bet- 
 ter arguments than that." That is all folly. Their 
 minds are not so big, but their hearts have been 
 alienated. Let the boastful infidel be put in danger 
 of death, and he will send for somebody to talk to 
 him about the future and Christ and salvation. Let 
 him really face death on board a sinking vessel, and 
 he will begin to pray like other folks. The mind is 
 not the great difficulty; the understanding is not 
 the primary cause, but the heart alienated from 
 God. Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ clears up 
 the intellect. Man is prejudiced against God. If I 
 am prejudiced against a man, I cannot believe any- 
 thing good about him. This is the state of the heart. 
 
 Yer. 19. "Who, being past feeling, have given 
 themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all 
 uncleanness with greediness." "Being past feel- 
 ing." They have no response to Him, it seems. Is 
 not this the word of God ? No man's word would 
 ever have defined the departure of man from God as 
 this does. It is kindred to what we have in Romans, 
 In Romans it says that God gave them up. They 
 
 183 
 
^ 
 
 left God altogether, and then He gave them up to all 
 unclean passions. Here it says they have got thus 
 by having become past feeling. 
 
 The exhortation is to us, you see. Now we are 
 not to walk as we used to walk. Why ? 
 
 Ver. 20. '*But ye have not so learned Christ." 
 
 O, it is a wonderful thing how Christ comes in as the 
 
 key to everything ! Take that Epistle to the Colos- 
 
 sians, and in Chap. ii. it will tell you of the various 
 
 things that are corrupting the gospel, and it will 
 
 show this fact, that man does not want Christ. The 
 
 key is Christ. We do not require great learning, 
 
 then, to take these things. It is in Christ, and that 
 
 - . .= tells it. So here it does not require the ten com- 
 
 v''j|L mandments put around me to say, " Thou shalt not 
 
 ^ ^-Kdo this." It is enough to say, **We have not so 
 
 learned Christ." 
 
 How perfect this is ! It is for the simple believer 
 on the Lord Jesus Christ, — the man that can know 
 he is saved. That tells everything. We do not 
 want anything that the world offers ; we have 
 Christ. We will not listen to this learning; it is 
 not Christ. You will be affected often where dis- 
 cussions come up with the absence of Christ. It 
 was so in a late trial. Nobody seemed to mention 
 Him. The announcement in regard to the great 
 .' meetings in Chicago, the parliament of religions, 
 gives no mention of Christ in any one day. It is a 
 parcel of religions — Christianity among them — but 
 there is no Christ Nobody is to talk about God's 
 Christ. Would not that be enough to keep everyone 
 that knows Christ away ? It may be of interest to 
 man, but it is not Christ. I pick up that bill and I 
 read it and say, "There is nothing for me ; there is 
 no Christ there." " Ye have not so learned Christ." 
 Christ never makes us act out all thesp lusts. He 
 never leads us about into all these foolish things. 
 
 134 
 
Ver. 21. "If so be that ye have heard Him, and 
 have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus." 
 Now that is looking at Christ up in heaven. It gives 
 the title of Him as the risen One— Christ. *' I have 
 heard Him from heaven." As we have it in that 
 sweet hymn, " I have heard Him and observed Him. 
 What have J to do with idols ?" (Hos. xiv. 8.) If 
 we listen to the teachings of Jesus on the earth, we 
 would get righteous, Jewish teaching for the earth ; 
 but if we see Him up yonder, we have that which 
 takes us right out. 
 
 Then He says, '* As the truth is in Jesus." Why 
 does He change the word there ? Because He is 
 looking here at that man crucified on the earth. 
 And that tells the whole thing with reference 
 to what we are. Everything is crucified. Our- 
 selves and our lusts are gone through death. The 
 old religious man is gone. Everything is gone ! 
 Death has settled it all ! That is as the truth in 
 Jesus. 
 
 Then we might put in the word "namely," show- 
 ing what the truth is in Jesus. Ver. 22. " That ye 
 put off concerning the former conversation the old 
 man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful 
 lusts." Practically I am to put off, because the 
 cross has put it off. There is no compromising that 
 truth. He lets you know that the old man is cor- 
 rupt. He is not a little bad, with some elements of 
 good in him, but he is corrupt. We have much need 
 to have that impressed on us in a day like this, when 
 there is a constant appeal to cultivate man and to 
 grow to be better. We are told sometimes that we- 
 fail to recognize the native goodness of man. The; 
 word says that he is corrupt, — "According to the' 
 deceitful lusts." And those very lusts come into! 
 nine-tenths of the religion that is going on. Men 
 are gratifying their own thoughts and desires in 
 
 136 
 
many of the things ttiey are doing. The truth in 
 Jesus is another thing. 
 
 Witness Titus iii. **But after that the kindness 
 and love of God our Saviour toward man appeared ;" 
 that is, philanthropy— " Not by works of righteous- 
 ness which we have done, but according to His 
 mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration 
 and the renewing of the Holy Ghost." It is here 
 mercy and pity. God, who is rich in mercy, for the 
 great love wherewith He loved us, — "Which He 
 shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our 
 Saviour." He had to renew and then wash besides. 
 That is God's philanthropy, and nobody has any 
 philanthropy that falls below that. It is making a 
 new man by the abundant mercy that is shown in 
 Christ Jesus. 
 
 So we have to put off all that. Then, the other 
 side, "to be renewed." Ver. 23. " And be renewed 
 in the spirit of your mind." But we are renewed by 
 the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy 
 Spirit. But He says we must be renewed. How ? 
 "In the spirit of your mind." I have not been re- 
 newed in the spirit of my mind by the act of Christ. 
 I am made a new man, but the spirit of my mind is 
 the practical thing. I must take it up and enter 
 upon it. I must walk more and more in that re- 
 newal, let my intelligence take hold of it. That is 
 what the renewal of the mind is. 
 
 This is very much marked in the jfipistle to the 
 *Philippians, where the mind is the great thing that 
 \ He talks about ; never about our being saved, for 
 sin is not mentioned in Philippians, but the mind is 
 tol;ake~hold. It' is that being~raised and seated in 
 heavenly places and linked with Christ up there ; 
 the mind is to take hold of it. It is not that we are 
 not crucified or that we are to be crucified, but " Let 
 this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." 
 
 186 
 
tt is not that we are to be put into conditions of 
 peace, but the mind is to get the peace of God and 
 the heart is to have it. It is all practical. And that 
 is what it means here, — ''to be renewed in the spirit 
 of your mind." 
 
 Ver. 24. "And that ye put on the new man, 
 which after God is created in righteousness and 
 true holiness." We give up the old conduct and now 
 take up new conduct. ''Holiness of the truth." 
 There are two things. Righteousness has to do with 
 conduct toward men and holiness toward God. The 
 new man is created with reference to that, and he is 
 never satisfied, therefore, with anything less than 
 perfect righteousness in conduct and perfect holi- 
 ness toward God ; separation from everything evil, 
 and a thorough righteousness in all our walk in con- 
 nection with men and God too. This, then, is the 
 general principle. 
 
 The next verse begins with particulars. Ver. 25. 
 ""Wherefore, putting away lying, speak every man 
 truth with his neighbor : for we are members one of 
 another." " Putting away lying ;" that is putting 
 off. " Speaking the truth ;" that is putting on. This 
 is the negativing of all that I was, for we were all 
 liars. Everything is false that man has, and every\| 
 thing in the end is going to be false in the world. 1 
 Unsaved men are all to be led along until they be-P 
 lieve a lie and the liar. It is the evil one down here.] 
 
 Well, then, we were thus, and He says, " Putting 
 away lying." A lie is but a covering, something that 
 man can run under. He pretends to be something 
 that he is not. All that must be given up. What 
 next? "Speaking the truth;" "every man speak- 
 ing truth with his neighbor." That is because we 
 are members of the body. How would it do for one 
 member of my body to be false to the rest ? It would ^ 
 be palsy; if it was all over it would be paralysis.) 
 
 187 
 
What kind of a life would that be for my body ? So 
 He says, ** Speak every man truth with his neigh- 
 bor." The word " neighbor " includes all that join 
 us. Hence the reason, *^we are members one of 
 another." 
 
 Ver. 26. "Be ye angry, and sin not ; let not the 
 sun go down upon your wrath." This is another 
 principle. One of those things that men and women 
 speak most about is temper. God never put any- 
 thing into us that was not of use. We are to be 
 Y righteously indignant against evil. We should sin 
 ' if we were not angry sometimes at evil. Not to rise 
 up against all the iniquity that is going on would 
 not be like Christ. Be not afraid of that kind of 
 anger at all. If you are, you may sin. We are not 
 placed here to be just moving along through the 
 community without giving rebuke or feeling resent- 
 ment towards that which is evil. It is a time for 
 resentment. We ought to resent the infamous infi- 
 delity that is growing everywhere. But He says, 
 *' Let not the sun go down upon your wrath." We 
 cannot hold it very long. We can stand against a 
 thing, but the indignation must be overpast in a 
 very little while. Why ? It will begin to be anger 
 against men ; it will be resentment that comes from 
 me toward another person ; just what I might have 
 done as an unsaved man. It defiles to hold it, but it 
 is a righteous thing to have, for we are told to abhor 
 that which is evil, as well as to cleave to that which 
 is good. 
 
 Ver. 27. " Neither give place to the devil." Now 
 in Romans we are told to give place to wrath. That 
 refers to anything personal. There would be a place 
 where I should sin, and there would be danger all 
 the time. In Romans it means evil against our- 
 selves. It says to give place to God's wrath, — He 
 will repay. But where it is against Christ Jesus, 
 
 Ids 
 
being a member of Christ, I must stand against it. A 
 It says, ''Do not give place to the devil in that way."! 
 That keeps me from resisting and resenting evil. 
 When it is a personal affront, give place ; but when 
 it is an affront to Christ, never allow the devil a 
 hair's breadth. 
 
 Ver. 28. " Let him that stole, steal no more ; but 
 rather let him labor, working with his hands the 
 thing which is good, that he may have to give to 
 him that needeth." We see the thoroughness with 
 which God takes care of the matter of conduct. 
 Many have objected, sometimes, to the character of 
 the truth, and say it is high truth, but we must un- 
 derstand that we are a high people, and so nothing 
 but high truth pertains to us. Just as well might 
 an Israelite that had gone away from God object to 
 the truth belonging to the land and say, ''That is 
 Land truth. Why do we not have wilderness 
 truth ? " The facts were all true for them from the 
 moment that God proposed to take them out of 
 Egypt, to the time when all their enemies were con- 
 quered ; and it was " Land truth." And all through 
 we have the truth of the heavens. God has no wil- 
 derness truth to give us. We are called with a holy 
 calling ; with a calling on high. And therefore we 
 are not to say that we want truth that is down here, 
 for the truth belonging to our place is the truth for 
 us here. If we had truth apart from heavenly truth 
 it would keep us down here. The truth can never 
 be a particle too high for us. It is a mistake to talk 
 that way. The wilderness that God gave to Israel 
 was the first two years, and the other thirty-eight 
 years were their own fault, for it was their place to 
 go to the land directly. The real truth for the wil- 
 derness is what we would find in Numbers xiv. And 
 Caleb held that, and it made him a stranger. And he 
 got there, too. And then the truth after he had gouQ 
 
 139 
 
into the Land was, " If Jehovah be with me." That 
 was the whole thing. 
 
 So here. But look, then, at the wonderful superi- 
 ority of that to what it would be to be under the law. 
 But a good many are disposed to be under the law, 
 which is, of course, contrary to all truth. It is a denial 
 of our ground altogether to place ourselves under the 
 law. Now, instead of being under the law for not 
 , stealing — for the law would curse you, for you all 
 I stole — here we have, "Let the common stealer" — 
 I the word is the regular stealer, the one accustomed 
 ( to it — " steal no more." We were all that ; we were 
 stealers and liars and everything else. But we have 
 become new men, and there is no stealing here. 
 "Ye have not so learned Christ." But, on the con- 
 trary, act according to your character, and what is 
 that ? The new man acting in grace all the time, 
 and to labor for the sake of giving to others. Then, 
 instead of taking out of your pocket, I turn around 
 to give to everybody ; and in order to do it, to labor 
 and earn it. What a difference ! It is just the dis- 
 tance between the two conditions of what I was in 
 Adam and what I am in Christ Jesus ; another man 
 altogether ! 
 
 Yer. 29. "' Let no corrupt communication proceed 
 out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use 
 of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the 
 hearers." Corrupt communication used to be plen- 
 tiful with the old man in Adam ; but now instead of 
 q,ll this it says, " but that which is good to the use of 
 edifying ;" just the opposite. " That it may minister 
 '^race to the hearers." We are to be almoners of 
 grace all the time. How shall they know the grace 
 of God if we are not showing it out ? Minister 
 grace, then, to all. 
 
 Yer. 30. " And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, 
 whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption," 
 
 140 
 
•f^ 
 
 Now we see precisely how to be kept in the enjoy- 
 ment of the life that is given us, and all the things 
 that are said in this book as to our place. Grieve \ 
 not the Holy Spirit. As surely as we grieve the] 
 Holy Spirit His communications and communion .. ^ « 
 with us will cease. It will not put us out of Christ :<^ » . 
 to grieve the Holy Spirit. It will not make it untrue Mp 
 that we are saved and heirs of God, but it will keep \V5 
 us from the enjoyment of every particle of it. Grieve J 
 not the Holy Spirit, then. He gives us to understand 
 that it could not take us out of our place, for He 
 says, ''Whereby ye are sealed." There is no such 
 thing as grieving the Holy Spirit away. If God 
 were man, He would have been grieved away long 
 ago, of course. But God is not man, and He is infi- 
 nite in grace. He wants us as dear children to en- 
 joy Himself, and we are children forever. It would 
 be denying everything connected with our calling 
 and our standing and our place in Christ and in the 
 heavens, to say, Grieve away the Holy Spirit. But 
 you can see how grieving may be done. Suppose we 
 do not heed what He tells us and our sins are uncon- 
 fessed. Suppose I insist upon being under the law. 
 Nothing can grieve Him more deeply than that. So 
 in Gal. He says," You have fallen away from grace.", 
 Not fallen from salvation, but as to their standing—/ 
 that they are standing in grace. So this is clear 
 enough, — "Grieve not the Holy Spirit, whereby ye 
 are sealed unto the day of redemption." That is,| 
 until the Lord comes and redeems everything that is; 
 His, which He has long ago bought. 
 
 Ver. 31. "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger 
 and clamor and evil- speaking be put away from 
 you, with all malice." We are only particularizing 
 what was given in a general form from Ver. 21 to 
 Ver. 24. "All bitterness;" we are never to enter- 
 tain the slightest bitterness toward anyone. We are 
 
 141 
 
not to carry about with us the remembrance of evil 
 that is done to us. Kesent as much as you please 
 what is done against the Lord Jesus Christ, but we 
 are never to resent any evil done to ourselves. ^^All 
 bitterness and all wrath and anger and clamor and 
 railing." This is personal, you see. In Ver. 26 we were 
 to be angry, but that had to do with standing for the 
 truth and against evil ; but now it is with reference 
 to self. The fact is, self is put out of the case, and 
 therefore none of the interests of self are allowed. 
 It is a wonderfully short and incisive word that is 
 given us in John, **We are of God, and the whole 
 world lieth in the wicked one." In Col. we have, 
 ** You have died, and your life is hid with Christ in 
 God." That is an infinite distance, too. We go as 
 the Israelites went out of Egypt, leaving everything. 
 They left their leaven there. You are to bring noth- 
 ing that will leaven or will spoil anything. Not 
 anything of the old is allowed. 
 
 Ver. 32. "And be ye kind one to another, tender- 
 hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for 
 Christ's sake hath forgiven you." This is the oppo- 
 site. Put off the wrath ; put on this ; and this is the 
 measure of it: "Even as God in Christ hath for- 
 given you." Well, we learn in Ver. 7 of Chap. i. 
 how much that was: "In whom we have forgive- 
 ness of sins according to the riches of His grace.'' 
 What a standard ! And you and I are to act in the 
 same way. 
 
 Q. This is different, then, from Matt. vi. 12 ? 
 
 A. Yes ; that is forgiveness as we forgive ; thus 
 that prayer is against us. That is waiting for the 
 Lord to come down and deliver them, oppressed on 
 all sides by the enemy, who insists that they shall 
 worship him, and then it is with enemies all about 
 them. It is a wonderful prayer : " Forgive us as we 
 forgive ! " But for us that are in Christ, and have 
 
 149 
 
Christ's own life, that are brought into fellowship 
 with the Father and with His Son in regard to every- 
 thing, and that know all things, and by the Holy 
 Spirit are really to-day in heaven, forgiveness ought 
 to be the easiest thing in the world. But then our 
 being forgiven is placed first. *'As you have been 
 forgiven." Everyone can see that what is called the^ >rN-*^ 
 Lord's Prayer would not do for us at all. The man' t 
 of Ephesians and Hebrews and Colossians could not M^^ 
 pray that prayer. A man in Christ cannot pray it,' 
 because he prays in the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. So, if I am practically denying the things 
 that are done, in the death and resurrection of Christ, 
 I am grieving the Spirit. If I put myself under law 
 or ritualism, I am doing the same thing. Of course 
 it is ignoring the whole matter of the Holy Spirit. 
 May we be kept from it. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Wb have had a wonderful model shown xis in the 
 last verse of the preceding chapter. ** Forgiving one 
 another as God has forgiven you." That is a very 
 ! remarkable fact, that we are called upon to be imi- 
 I tators of God. It is not simply to follow Christ as 
 He was down here, which of course would be infi- 
 nite in its character, but it is taking us right up to 
 God Himself, and says. Be just like Him. Here He 
 broadens it out. 
 
 Vers. 1, 2. "Be ye, therefore, imitators of God as 
 dear children ; And walk in love as Christ also hath 
 loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering 
 and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor." 
 "Walk in love." That is precisely the way God 
 / walks. We learn that God is light, and that God is 
 love. Now He has done everything in the light 
 perfectly, — brought out the sin and iniquity and 
 thoroughly judged it in the cross ; and so He walks 
 along in love toward those who were sinners, acting 
 toward them in infinite love all the time. And so 
 He comes to us and says, You be the same. All 
 your walk is to be in love. God has settled the 
 whole account of sin — forever. Therefore, I may 
 take up the matter of love, which never fails. 
 Tongues may fail ; prophecies may fail ; faith may 
 fail ; but love goes on forever. So, having the ques- 
 tion of righteousness settled, how grandly we can 
 walk I But then we have, as we must always have, 
 the one Model held before us— Christ. So it says, 
 "As Christ also hath loved us." That is the way to 
 love. Then we have it in practical expression,— 
 " And hath given Himself for us an offering and a 
 j^acrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor," 
 
Here, then, is the perfect definition of love, as set 
 forth in the holocaust offering, called the burnt 
 offering, in Leviticus i., and as the meat offering in 
 Chap. ii. It is Christ fulfilling everything that Qod 
 would have from man toward Himself and toward 
 man. Now that offering is held before us, not sim- 
 ply as that in which we are accepted, but in which 
 we are to off'er up ourselves. We are to be continu- 
 ally walking in that way. It is a very remarkable 
 fact that we are called upon, not only to take our 
 place in the value of what Christ has done in this 
 offering in Leviticus, but to act in that way ; to have 
 a thorough love for men in Christ. We are the onlyr 
 beings that God could call upon to do this. Angelsl 
 could only obey. But we are alive with Him, andl 
 the life of the new man is like the life of Christ . 
 
 So that love is the fruit of the Spirit ; and peace and 
 joy are the fruit of the Spirit. It is not a command ; 
 it is fruit. You know there is nothing more exacting 
 than a tree, with the sap running through it, and 
 everything made for bearing fruit. So with the new 
 man, with the Holy Spirit dwelling in us to lead us out. 
 
 What is the first fruit? Love. "And walk in 
 love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given 
 Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for 
 a sweet-smelling savor." We have a very beautiful 
 expression of that in Phil. iv. In the ministry of 
 those dear Philippians to the apostle in person, he 
 sees it as a savor of a sweet smell unto God. They 
 had denied themselves to help him in his need. And 
 thus it became a sweet savor unto God. This is very 
 sweet to learn, that the Spirit has thus dignified the 
 simple act of the believer, when it is done solely as 
 to Christ, and for Christ's sake. So if we need to 
 know what this means, we have that as an example. 
 We have Christ's own life. He was ever ready at 
 the call of any one. He never thought of Himself, 
 
 145 
 
but was always thinking of the Father, and always 
 having His mind, and always thinking of others. 
 That was a sweet savor. 
 
 Ver. 3. ** But fornication, and all uncleanness, or 
 covetousness, let it not be once named among you, 
 
 , as becometh saints." These things that were forbid- 
 den in the ten commandments, not the first four, but 
 the latter six ; those that pertain to man ; of them 
 He now says, " Do not these things." But He does 
 not say as in Ex. xx., ** Thou shalt not." That puts 
 it in a cold way, and man in the flesh could not do 
 right. But having told us who we are, and that we 
 
 ■are just like Christ before God, He forbids these 
 things that are in the ten commandments, for it is 
 still true that God does not like them. But He goes 
 further : '' Let them not be even so much as named 
 among you ! " To have to name them is defiling, in- 
 volving that we would do them. God has so thor- 
 oughly taken us out of the old man, and associated 
 us with the new, and made us like Christ, that He 
 says, "Not so much as named among you." Con- 
 ceive the idea of their being such a thing named as 
 Christ committing one of these things ! Why, you 
 would shudder at the thought. Think of their being 
 such a thing named as His not coveting, or not steal- 
 ing, or not lying ! The very naming of it is the aw- 
 fulest thing. He would have us, then, so thoroughly 
 immaculate in thought and conduct that we should 
 not even name them. There is nothing that can ex- 
 
 ' press such perfect cleanness as that. You can see 
 why, not being under the law, you are vastly above 
 all this. What is the rule, the standard ? ** As be- 
 Cometh saints." That is more to you and me than 
 the ten commandments with their thunderings ; in- 
 
 . finitely more. '*As becometh saints.'' A saint is 
 one separated unto God. It can never be made too 
 high, or too clean, or too pure. 
 
 lie 
 
Ver. 4. "Neither filthiness nor foolish talking 
 nor jesting, which are not convenient. > but rather 
 giving of thanks." He speaks of certain things not 
 being convenient. It is not a question of consistency 
 with our profession simply, but of what we are. 
 They are of another life than ours. Is not that a 
 marvelous way of putting it ? How thoroughly the^'^ 
 Holy Spirit has guarded believers against the neces- \ ^^^^ 
 sity of bringing in the ten commandments. They 
 are an offense, for the ten commandments have to 
 name these things. The idea of children of God that ^r'-"^"^ 
 are as near to God as Christ is having to have these 
 things rung over their heads, and in their ears con- - *^ 
 stantly ! Why, you see, it is lowering the whole 
 character of what we have, and what we are in 
 Christ Jesus. It is an offense, in itself. 
 
 Therefore, He says, giving it force (Ver. 5) : "For 
 this ye know, that no whoremonger nor unclean 
 person nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath 
 any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of 
 God." That is in the millennium, the kingdom of j 
 Christ, and then afterward, the kingdom of God. L ,1 
 When God told David that He was going to set up a \ I'V^ 
 kingdom under him, He was looking forward to - 
 Christ reigning ; and then when it is all to be given 
 up to God. 
 
 Now in neither of these is anything allowed that 
 is here prohibited. Now He says, " For you know 
 that as to the principles of that, it was the law first ; 
 and then afterward in the millennial times on earth 
 He is going to write the law in their hearts." But 
 we are infinitely above that. There are no series of 
 negatives in our case. It is just the opposite. Not 
 only not to steal, but to labor with our hands, that 
 we may have to give. We are not only not to fight 
 men, but we are told to deal with them in love. That 
 would hinder a child of God from going to law. We- 
 
 147 
 
f- 
 
 Cannot fight for right here ; we belong to heaven. 
 So it goes all the way through — the whole character 
 of it ; all that we have and are among men. 
 
 Ver. 6. * ' Let no man deceive you with vain words : 
 for because of these things cometh the wrath of God 
 upon the children of disobedience." Here we have 
 another thought. Some may say, 1 am free from 
 the law. As though they were going to take out a 
 license to do wrong because they are not under the 
 law. After all, no matter what it be, whether Juda- 
 ism, which was under the law ; or the church, which 
 is not under the law ; or the millennial glory, when 
 Christ is reigning ; or the kingdom of God in the 
 future ; — ^there is one thing — He will never allow 
 these things that the law prohibited. The wrath of 
 God came upon all those that were disobedient. 
 Those under the law had something to disobey, and 
 so they are called children of disobedience. Do not 
 let anybody deceive you by saying, **You can do 
 things of this kind; you are not under the law." 
 God has always put these things under a ban. But 
 in the new man He has put them further and further 
 away. In Col. iii., without saying. Put away all 
 things that come in under the ten commandments, 
 He says, ''Treat them as dead." Then He tells us 
 also to put away all these things not mentioned in 
 the ten commandments. We cannot be satisfied 
 with sTmply liaving the law. We must have all the 
 others. That is life in Christ acting itself out. 
 
 Vers. 7, 8. *'Be not ye, therefore, partakers with 
 them. For ye were sometime darkness, but now are 
 ye light in the Lord : walk as children of light." 
 It is not that we are only brought into the light. If 
 we were brought into the light simply, we would 
 have all these things exposed. But He says, ** Now 
 we are light in the Lord." We are the very sub- 
 stance of light. We stand forth as an expression of 
 
 U8 
 
the righteousness of God through eternity. He has 
 dealt with us righteously, and has raised us up anew 
 in Christ, and we stand as the very expression of 
 light. Why ? Because we have been so thoroughly 
 exposed. God has gone down to the very core of our 
 nature and conduct, and put all away in Christ cru- 
 cified and risen. We are not only in the light, but 
 we are God's own light. It is not in ourselves, we 
 are light '^ in the Lord." We are not to be under the 
 Lord, as separated from Him, but we are actually in 
 Him. We have the same life that He has, just as 
 we had the same life that Adam had. We are 
 linked with Him in the most intimate way. We 
 ought, then, to be as much an expression of light 
 down here in our walk as Christ was. How do we 
 compare with that ? We ought to be just like Christ, 
 abhorring evil in every form, and showing out right- 
 eousness and grace and holiness in every act of life. 
 We shall have plenty to confess. So it is, " Walk as 
 children of light." 
 
 And then in the parenthesis He says (Ver. 9), " For 
 the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and right- 
 eousness and truth." Kow the law said, " Cursed is 
 everyone that continueth not in all things." Giving 
 it in its substance, — "Thou shalt love Jehovah, thy 
 God, with all thy heart ; " never letting up on any- 
 thing. And so this is in the Lord and in the light. 
 How wonderfully different ! But does it allow any 
 evil ? Does it for a moment allow sin ? It is the 
 cleanest thing that God has ever brought out, and 
 brought out in these last times ; since He has raised 
 up Christ from the dead. Here are cleanness and 
 holiness at last. 
 
 Ver. 10. "Proving what is acceptable unto the 
 Lord." That is, proving practically what is well- 
 pleasing to the Lord ; learning and exhibiting it. 
 
 Vers. 11, 12. "And have no fellowship with the 
 
 149 
 
unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove 
 them. For it is a shame even to speak of those 
 things which are done of them in secret." This 
 takes us back to Chap, iv., Vers. 17, 18, telling how 
 the Gentiles walked. It is a shame even to think of 
 such. And in Ver. 4 of this chapter, "Neither filth- 
 iness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting ; " the talking 
 and jesting that had to do with uncleanness. It is 
 the character of the ribald jest. I do not think that 
 God in any place dislikes laughter, 'ffe means the 
 unclean jesting 
 
 What, then, are we to be occupied with ? Giving 
 thanks. We can do that with as bright a face as 
 the sun has at noon-day ; as cheerful as Abraham 
 was in his feast at the weaning of Isaac ; as the 
 father was when he received home his son and had 
 music and danckig and the feast. He means that 
 we shall be happy. But not the foolish talking and 
 jesting. To make a man happy, I would not send 
 him to the theatre. I would get his conscience 
 purged before God, and then his soul will light up 
 and it will be a permanent thing. 
 
 Ver. 13. **But all things that are reproved are 
 made manifest by the light ; for whatsoever doth 
 make manifest is light." That is, brought out, 
 exposed. That is what the courts are at when they 
 are examining witnesses. If a man is guilty, it will 
 bring it out. The ligjht is that which makes mani- 
 fest ; the light is God's word coming in and bringing 
 out what we are, and what we have done. *' What- 
 ever makes manifest is light." There never has 
 been such an expression of light as Christ's own 
 death down here, for it showed God's hatred of sin 
 and love for us. 
 
 Ver. 14. " Wherefore He saith, Awake, thou that 
 sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall 
 give thee light." It is using this quotation to illus- 
 
trate the point. Light has come, and now it is time 
 to shine in the light all the time. It is not groping 
 toward the light, but the light has come. Every- 
 thing has been looked at thoroughly, and now stand 
 in that judgment. Now it is for the heart to go out 
 in its full liberty and delight in Christ. The Christ- 
 ian is a light in the world. The more we walk in 
 Christ the more we shall be misapprehended. " Be- 
 hold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed 
 upon us, that we should be called children of God ; 
 and such we are. For this cause the world knoweth 
 us not, because it knew Him not." '*If then ye 
 were raised together with Christ, seek the things 
 that are above, where Christ is seated on the right 
 hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are 
 above, not on the things that are upon the earth. 
 For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God." 
 Our life is a hidden thing. The more we walk in the 
 light, the more we shall not be known. People can 
 tell, of course, whether I am honest or kind. But as 
 to the light, it is just total separation, in which I 
 recognize that I have been cut off from the best 
 things in the world,— those that are not sin. A mul- 
 titude of people would give up the worst kind of 
 things, but some of the nice things we would like to 
 take. They would take those things that have to do 
 with culture and refinement and wealth. They hope 
 to improve man. They would enter into politics if 
 they were clean. But that is not what God says. 
 Christ says, "You are not of the world. Therefore 
 the world hates you." This quotation is speaking of 
 the time when Christ should come, but it is quoted 
 for our benefit. It is to illustrate what we have. It 
 is looking down to the millennial day for Judah, but 
 comes to us and says, "'Your light is come; now, 
 you shine I " 
 Ver. 15. *' See that ye walk circumspectly, not as 
 
fools, but as wise.'* The whole matter has been laid 
 out before us in the preceding verses, and this is the 
 word of wisdom. When one understands what wis- 
 dom is defined to be in First Cor. , i. 30, even right- 
 eousness, sanctification, and redemption, one can 
 see how we ought to walk in wisdom. It involves 
 all these things ; redemption going on, of course, to 
 the deliverance of the body, when we shall be with 
 Christ forever. 
 
 Now, knowing ourselves thus, and knowing that 
 God has thus acted in Christ toward us, it becomes 
 the standard, the appeal in regard to our walk. And 
 you see what an appeal it is. Walk according to the 
 righteousness that is shown in Christ Jesus in our 
 being raised up from the dead. Walk according to 
 that infinite redemption, which we are sharing and 
 shall share. What tenderness, what sweetness and 
 simplicity, and what thorough heartiness toward all 
 that are about us ! We see that there is nothing 
 grasps us more closely than the truth that is given 
 in Ephesians; and the higher the truth, the more 
 does it demand, practically, in living. Those who 
 are constantly talking about the wilderness and 
 wilderness truth, but little apprehend the power of 
 heavenly truth to make a walk and to form man- 
 ners. Here we have it, then, in a general way. 
 
 Ver. 16. *^ Redeeming the time, because the days 
 
 are evil." Be wise, then, buying up opportunities. 
 
 Why, it would make every child of God as rich in 
 
 blessing as the sun is, carrying life and light and 
 
 ^ heat with us everywhere. How the world would be 
 
 '■ absolutely blessed were God's children taking up the 
 
 word to act by it, instead of this Jewish position that 
 
 they have taken, which has corrupted them so that 
 
 they are not up to even the Jewish standard. When 
 
 ,any get out of place, they always act the worst 
 
 i Angels which kept not their first estate, — what did 
 
 159 
 
they become ? The very worst in conduct. The 
 church that drops down from its place becomes the 
 lowest and meanest thing there is ; going beyond 
 Israel in its apostasy, and continually referring to 
 the law, or to some wilderness truth. Our standard 
 is heavenly truth. And that would exact from me 
 more than religion could, in life and cleanness of^ 
 conversation and habit. 
 
 Ver. 17. "Wherefore be not unwise, but under- 
 standing what the will of the Lord is." The more we 
 walk in the truth, the more we shall come to un- 
 derstand what that will is. ** If any man will to do 
 His will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be 
 of God. " And in Col. i. , " Fruitful to every good word 
 and work," and then " increasing in the knowl- 
 edge of God." We need never be in darkness, and 
 need never appeal to the ten commandments, nor 
 need any worldly methods^of men. We have the 
 highest ideal of life by having the highest truth in 
 regard to our own place in the glory and for it. 
 
 Ver. 18. *' And be not drunk with wine, wherein 
 is excess ; but be filled with the Spirit." It is the 
 Holy Spirit occupying us, and not the spirit of the 
 world, which would be expressed by wine, because 
 wine is the expression of joy, both of God and of 
 men. It means here anything that is simply human 1 
 joy, — the joy of the first man. Occupation with the 
 things of the world would be to be drunken with 
 wine. And literally, it would have us know that we 
 are not to be drunken, but are to let the Holy Spirit 
 permeate us everywhere as liquor permeates a man's 
 body, just controlling a man, and making him to, 
 act in an unnatural way. So let the Holy Spirit' 
 direct us, and let Him have full place. Let us be 
 full of Him, yielding to Him in everything. 
 
 Ver. 19. ''Speaking to yourselves in psalms and 
 hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making 
 
 t58 
 
melody in your heart to the Lord.'* Then, instead 
 of all this foolish conversation or trifling and worldly 
 wisdom and intercourse, speaking to each other in 
 psalms and hymns. What a wonderful way that is ! 
 The very language of heaven ! And speaking in 
 that tone, the tone of worship and praise, the tone 
 of delight in God, the tone of self -emptiness, because 
 the worship would involve self-emptiness, and being 
 filled with God. It is speaking in that tone. I need 
 not sing to my brother, necessarily, but it is speak- 
 ing in the tone of the psalm and hymn, the highest 
 way of expression. We shall never find a weakness 
 in the truth that God gives. We shall never find a 
 failing there. It will always be unfolding. Let us 
 but converse in the thoughts of God, and whither are 
 we led ? I have seen dear children of God commu- 
 nicating to each other about Christ's Coming, until 
 their faces glowed with delight. This is psalms and 
 hymns. Then, as the psalm and hymn are really 
 the highest fruitage of literature, so we take the 
 highest form of expression to communicate to each 
 other the things of God and of Christ. 
 
 Then He adds : *' Singing and making melody to 
 the Lord." Of course we see how rich it would be 
 in contrast with all that is going on that is called 
 singing and worship ; singing simply to please the 
 ear and to gratify man's taste. How much singing 
 for man, and how little for God ! Here, it is singing 
 and'making melody in your hearts unto the Lord. 
 It does not make any difference what kind of a voice 
 we have, or whether we can keep time or tune. It 
 is the occupation with Him who is the highest in the 
 glory. It is the matchless fact for us that we are 
 brought into all these things that are dearest to Him, 
 and according to His own delight. 
 
 Q. Would it be wrong to sing some of those splen- 
 did passages in the Creation or Messiah ? 
 
 li)4 
 
A. It is never meant for God. Why should we ) 
 ever have any such thought ? It has no more to do ^ 
 with God than singing Pinafore or the Mikado. i^/A^ 
 
 Q. But these are not based on a good thing. j 
 
 A. God's good things are not man's good things. 
 It is not quality of voice or tone. Let God measure 
 and give the standard of the goodness, then. The 
 standard is singing and making melody in your 
 hearts. The standard of everything for God is 
 Christ. The standard of our songs must be Christ 
 in the glory. Now, there is no good thing short of 
 that risen man. We can sing better when we sing 
 in time, of course ; I am a man, and it pleases me. 
 But what has that to do with it ? We could not sing 
 together without time and tune. We must have a 
 melody to sing ; and there would be the harmony 
 because there are different voices. But if it is done 
 simply as a matter of taste, that is all there is of 
 it. Man gets pleased, and God is left out of the\ 
 case. ' 
 
 We have the Holy Spirit and God dwelling in us 
 and everything given, that the man of God may be 
 perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works, 
 and we are to go on, and get more and more 
 informed ; yet it is the same book. We will see 
 Him more and more as we see Him in this book. 
 We do not get a single thing by ourselves ; every- 
 thing by the Holy Spirit. He is the earnest of our 
 inheritance until the redemption of the purchased 
 possession. First Cor. ii. is our legacy, a full revela- 
 tion of the truth. There we have the Holy Spirit 
 given us that we might know these things, and all 
 the deep things of God. And further along in Cor., 
 ''All things are yours," ''height, depth, and every- 
 thing." And we are Christ's, and Christ is God's. 
 Then we must not refer these things to the future. 
 The Holy Spirit associates the present with all the 
 
future, th© Holy Spirit making all true to us because 
 it is all Christ's. 
 
 Q. Among the all things is death. What does it 
 mean ? 
 
 A. We have conquered it and are overcomers 
 there. In Rom. viii. we have, *' For I am persuaded 
 that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor princi- 
 palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things 
 to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creat- 
 ure, shall be able to separate us from the love of God 
 which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." The very first 
 thing mentioned is death. 
 
 You would have to be very careful that you use 
 words worthy of Him. Suppose you sing, "I am 
 trying to climb up Zion's hill." Do you think there 
 is any worship in that ? The finest singing that I 
 ever knew in any church was conducted by an in- 
 fidel. That did not make them any the less fine 
 singers. They do it better than those that are saved. 
 Edwin Booth could read those things so that it would 
 bring tears. These men make it the study of their 
 lives to get the expression and tone. There was 
 plenty of it last Sunday, doubtless, and the congre- 
 gations were very greatly impressed and pleased, 
 and probably some of the prayers were of the same 
 kind ; but the impressiveness was for man. 
 
 " Unto th© Lord ! " That stands above us yet ; 
 and it is richer than anything we have said or have 
 thought. It is a very sweet close of what we have 
 had in these chapters ; for now we are going into a 
 new subject altogether. 
 
 Ver. 20. '* Giving thanks always for all things 
 unto God and the Father, in the name of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ." This is according to the ton© of the 
 whole book, " our God and Father." Let us speak a 
 little more about giving thanks, because we have 
 her© the key to alL It is " In the name of the Lord 
 
Jesus Christ." I question whether in the name o 
 Handel and Haydn and all these that they have i 
 their chants and their carols and their various song^. 
 — whether that means the name of the Lord Jesus 
 Christ. It is giving thanks in the name of a man. 
 But in the Lord Jesus Christ is away up there, ac- 
 cording to what we are in Christ. If we were to 
 admit this fleshly singing, it would lower the tone, 
 and we would all feel it. But when we come to 
 the end, it is in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 We are standing before God just as He is. We are i 
 as near and as dear to God as He is. And now in 
 that life and standing we get this. It has nothing 
 to do with voices any more than it has to do with, 
 the violin or trombone or organ. You cannot make, 
 melody to the Lord with any instruments at all. If; 
 you do, you go back into Judaism. The organ and ; 
 the violin and the harp and the instrument with ten '. 
 strings belong back there. • 
 
 Ver. 21. "Submitting yourselves one to another 
 in the fear of God." He that cometh from above is 
 above all ; and yet Christ, speaking of Himself, said, 
 " I am among you as one who serves." We have in 
 Phil, ii., *' He that was in the form of God emptied 
 Himself and took the form of a servant." He came 
 to the lowest rank of all. In Eph. , to correspond to 
 this, we have our place in Christ Jesus in the heav- 
 enly places, and all the glories are before us and we 
 are at home in that, and now for a recompense, be 
 empty. "Subjecting yourselves one to another," 
 corresponds with Christ's own doing. What we 
 were as sinners is not in question ; we do not empty 
 ourselves of that. The cross has taken away all 
 that we were. But now we come down, because we 
 are so high in our place and belong in the glory and 
 are ready for anything. Here, He begins with the 
 natural^ fixed relationships. 
 
 ^5? 
 
Ver. 22. "Wives, submit yourselves unto your 
 own husbands, as unto the Lord." It begins with 
 the one that is the sweetest and the most precious, 
 the nearest, the expression of the heart of God. In 
 the beginning, in that which was pronounced upon 
 Eve, we see how she was cast upon God in a pecu- 
 liar way, and this is spoken of in 1 Tim. ii. 15, "She 
 shall be saved in child-bearing." How sweet it is, 
 and how He thinks of her ! God never forgets these 
 things. He never forgets what Eve brought into 
 the world, and He never forgets Eve's condition, 
 nor that of the daughters of Eve. He gives her the 
 privilege of first of all being spoken to of the sweet- 
 est thing, — "Wives, be in subjection." That is the 
 highest thing there is, to be in subjection. He tells 
 all of us to be subject. The wife is to be no more 
 subject than every other relationship calls for, but 
 she is specially in subjection to her husband. How ? 
 As unto the Lord. It does not make any difference 
 what the husband is, for if it is unto the Lord, there 
 is just the place for her to show it. Then the Holy 
 Spirit enters into the fact that here there is a setting 
 forth of the relationship of Christ to the church. 
 
 Vers. 23, 24. " For the husband is the head of the 
 wife, even as Christ is the head of the church ; and 
 He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore, as the 
 church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be 
 subject to thf-ir own husbands in everything." The 
 husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head 
 of the church. You see at once what an appeal that 
 would be to the wife. Of course, these are all chil- 
 dren of God. He is not addressing a wife that is 
 unsaved. How the wife is exalted when she is told, 
 You are occupying toward your husband a position 
 that is parallel with the relationship that the church 
 has with Christ ; and as Christ is the Head of the 
 (jhurch, your husband is your head. Be in subjeC' 
 
tion as the church is to Christ. He says, *'In all 
 
 things." Then, Christ being Head of the church, 
 He is also the Saviour of the body. That means her 
 body ; the very thing that the wifely relationship is 
 for. He will deliver her through her own distinctive 
 trial as wife. Maternity is what is referred to here. 
 
 Then the address to the husbands. Ver. 25. " Hus- 
 bands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the 
 church, and gave Himself for it." The wife being 
 cast thus into her relation to her husband, how must 
 the husband take it up ? If the wife is to be subject 
 to him as th<» church is subject to Christ, he must 
 act Christ. He mu^t have no other model or prin- 
 ciple in relation to her than just such as Christ has 
 toward the church. *' Husbands, love your wives, 
 even as Christ loved the church. ^^ Why, it makes 
 him a servant. The woman being in subjection does 
 not make her a servant. There is no such thought 
 as that in Scripture. But I find that the highest 
 servant in the universe is Christ Himself, serving 
 the church. God serves. When Christ said, "My 
 Father worketh and I work," He is telling about 
 serving. Did He not give Himself up in order to 
 get the church ? And then when He gets it. He is 
 serving it all the time. A man is therefore to serve 
 his wife. Why, of course, that is his place ; doing 
 all for her. Christ loved the church, and gave Him- 
 self up for her. Is not that the most perfect service 
 that can be named ? Then, that He might set her 
 apart to Himself. 
 
 Ver. 26. "That He might sanctify and cleanse it 
 with the washing of water by the word." There is 
 a daily and hourly service. Looking after her con- 
 duct, cleansing according to John xiii. and First 
 John i. 6-ii. 2. 
 
 Ver. 27. " That He might present it to Himself a 
 glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any 
 
 159 
 
such thing ; but that it should be holy and without 
 blemish." If He is looking after every spot and 
 wrinkle, is not that a perpetual service ? 
 
 Wow see what is the rule for the husband with 
 relation to his wife. There is not a word about, 
 Husbands, rule your wives, or command your wives, 
 any more than there is. Strike your wives, or scold 
 your wives. It is the most unspiritual and unnatu- 
 ral that these things should be. There is something 
 higher and sweeter and richer than all these things. 
 The Christian household is to be according to the 
 pattern shown in the heavens. And the Lord dis- 
 closes His own house and its exquisite intimacies as 
 the model. If to us to live were Christ, how natural 
 this would be. The marriage of the Lamb, Rev. 
 xix., will disclose how glorious and without spot or 
 wrinkle is the church through His love and service. 
 So ought men to love their wives. 
 
 Then, to give it even more intimately, it says, Ver. 
 28, " So ought men to love their wives as their own 
 bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself." A 
 man carries his body with him always, and is always 
 looking after it. It is not selfishness, it is self -pro- 
 tection. He must feed that body, and give it rest 
 and labor and exercise. He must cleanse it daily. 
 He must see to it in sickness and in health, and he is 
 charged with it all the time. So ought the husband 
 to love his wife. 
 
 Vers. 29-31. " For no man ever yet hated his own 
 flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the 
 Lord the church : For we are members of His body, 
 of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall 
 a man leave his father and mother and shall be 
 joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one 
 flesh." Is there a sweeter section to be found in 
 the book than this ? He has gone on in Chap. iv. to 
 tell us not to steal and not to lie and all those things 
 
 160 
 
that are not even to be named among us as becometh 
 saints, and He has told us to be filled with the Spirit, 
 but now He gives us the best— to be subject one to 
 another. And the husband's subjection to the Lord 
 Jesus is that he is acting the Lord Jesus toward his 
 wife. Follow it step by step. It is most wondrously 
 sweet. And now we get the thought that, after 
 all, that peculiar symbol of love and tenderness and 
 care actually represents Christ's care for the church. 
 Why, it seems to me that it brings it home to us in 
 the most tender way, in a way to command our 
 hearts. Does Christ actually love us as one loves 
 his wife ? A man will cross the continent just to 
 get a glimpse of her. Does Christ care for us that 
 way ? And a man's life is rounded up and filled up 
 and made sweet by his wife. Is that the way Christ 
 feels toward the church ? Is it not precious ? 
 
 There are seven things told : Christ loved the 
 church, and gave Himself for it that He might 
 sanctify it and cleanse it by the washing of water 
 by the word ; that He might present it^to Himself a 
 glorious church, without spot or wrinkle ; th^n He 
 nourishes it and cherishes it. There we have the 
 fullness of Christ's care for the church. 
 
 Q. Is that collectively ? 
 
 A. Yes. Well, He does it individually, too. Of 
 course washing the feet is individual. He cleanses 
 bv the word. But the love is toward the whole, as 
 well. 
 
 Now how precious that makes every member of 
 Christ's body to us ; to look upon each member of 
 Christ's body as an object of this intense love and 
 constant care and this exquisite enjoyment on the 
 part of Christ. A wonderful model we have in Solo- 
 mon's Song. There the lover, Christ, is always seen 
 looking at and talking to the beloved one, the one 
 whom He calls His love. He never speaks to any- 
 
 161 
 
body else. She is the one that talks to others, but 
 He never does. There is progression on her part, 
 first saying, ''My Beloved is mine," and after a 
 while, "My Beloved is mine and I am His." And 
 in the end she says, as the result of all that she has 
 gone through, " I am my Beloved's and His desire is 
 toward me." That was true in the beginning, but 
 she did not learn it until the end. That is the pro- 
 gress in regard to hor. There is no progress in Him, 
 because He is perfect from the beginning. 
 
 And so again also with reference to ourselves : " I 
 am black but comely ;" as the curtains of Solomon 
 were comely, and the tents of Kedar were black. 
 Black in ourselves but comely to Him, because of 
 His eyes that can see comeliness. He gathers us to 
 Himself and makes us fair for Himself, without spot 
 or wrinkle or any such thing. This is a very sweet 
 thing to come in here. We have been talking so 
 much about God's love. Ephesians occupies us with 
 the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 with God's purposes and the carrying out of them, 
 and then we have had the exceeding riches of His 
 grace. "W e have had Him rich in mercy, and now 
 after all is done, and the church is really seen per- 
 fected, she is seen as a bride, and there is a Bride- 
 groom, and then they are looked at together ; and 
 now we have love that is'more tender and exquisite, 
 — more a personal relationship than the other. Here 
 is that which comes right along in living, we living 
 together with Christ. The church is the object of 
 His desire. He saw it, and His whole heart being 
 set on it, God gave it to Him. As Adam came down 
 to Eve's place, so Christ came down that He might 
 have her, so entranced was He with her beauty ; 
 
 ijust as the Bridegroom pleads in Solomon's Song, 
 
 \*' Let me look upon thy face ! " 
 j It would be a very nice thing if husbands were 
 
 i«8 
 
more occupied with telling their wives how precious 
 they are to them, ever wooing them, instead of having 
 it taken as a matter of course that they love them. 
 You must have a selfish heart if you cannot tell her 
 over and over again what she is to you. We have a 
 model, at any rate. 
 
 Vers. 32, 33. *'This is a great mystery; but I 
 speak concerning Christ and the church. Neverthe- 
 less, let every one of you in particular so love his 
 wife even as himself : and the wife see that she rev- 
 erence her husband." Lest we should think that the 
 whole thing was only a figure of Christ and the 
 church, He comes back to it and says, You hus- 
 bands, love your wives in that way. And "Wives, 
 reverence your husbands." It has not said a word 
 about the wife loving the husband, and yet it is the 
 charge to the husband that he love his wife. It 
 being a picture of the love of Christ to the church, 
 the love of the church to Christ is not in question. 
 The love of Christ to the church is the great thing. 
 The whole dispensation in which we are is for tell- 
 ing out God's love. The former dispensation was, 
 "Thou shalt love God." The present one is, "Be- 
 hold what manner of love the Father hath be-\ 
 stowed." It is a false thing to be saying, "Thou J 
 shalt love God." It will not do to repeat it and say,; 
 " Hear also what our Lord Jesus hath said: Thou^ 
 shalt love God," etc. He has not said it to the, 
 church. He was repeating it in answer to the ques- 
 tion of a Jew. God is taking time now to show out 
 His love, and Christ's love is brought out. And it 
 seems the Father is delighting, when He thus places 
 Christ and the church together, to say, "It was not 
 good that He should be alone ; I make one meet for 
 Him, and to help Him." What a help the church is 
 to Christ, that it should be the receptacle of all the 
 love that He has in Him, and all the patience, and 
 
 163 
 
all the service. I find no thought in Scripture of 
 Christ devoting Himself to the sinner. It is not said 
 that Christ loves the sinner or loves the world. He 
 loves the church. *' God so loved the world," — hut 
 it does not say that Christ loved the world. It is His 
 heart on His own. And thus they are shut up to- 
 gether, Christ and the church. How complete the 
 household with husband and wife. They form a 
 household of their own. We all know it. We retire 
 and leave them. They do not need our company. 
 
 How complete this is ! The glory shall unfold it, 
 and the heart should take it up now. We little think 
 how much we are valued ; of what value to Christ ! 
 Christ would be bereaved without one of us. And 
 when the church gets down from her place and gives 
 herself to other loves, what an awful thing it is ! 
 When that which was so much loved by Him is 
 spoken to on the ground that she has left her first 
 love and has become the unchaste one, and is that 
 one to be driven out of society, and will be, too, it 
 becomes all the more alarming in its character. 
 
 Kow there is no cold treatment of this husband to 
 his wife. There is nothing cold or formal,— nothing 
 as a matter of course. There is intense devotion. 
 All that is in Him is at her behest. It is for her. 
 A woman who has married a child of God, who is 
 subject to the word, must know that she is as wealthy 
 as it is possible to be in this universe. She can say, 
 There is Christ loving the church, and giving Him- 
 self for it all the time, and my husband is said to be 
 that ! Then she would delight to put herself under 
 that hand and say, I am subject ; I am delighted to 
 be subject to him, and he subject to the Head. It 
 would come in as the most exquisite of delights 
 always. *'For this cause shall a man leave his 
 father and mother and be joined unto liis wife, and 
 they two shall be one flesh." We have Christ as the 
 
 16i 
 
model for that. Christ left the very heavens to get ^ 
 His wife. He left Israel, His natural mother on the ! 
 earth, and said, " Who is my mother ?" He denied : 
 her and turned to the church. He has come out 
 from Israel as a man leaves his mother's house, and ; 
 has gone and taken up the church. Now He saySj 
 " A man cleaves to his wife, and all other things are 
 in subjection to that." Why ? A man's wife is him- 
 self. He may owe allegiance to his father and mother, 
 but he is really one with his wife. That is the reason 
 the word about the unequal yoke (Second Cor. vi.) 
 does not look at that. A yoke is to keep people to- 
 gether. If that is all there is between you and your 
 wife, it is a strange thing. It took the two to make 
 one. God formed Adam, and he was both male and 
 female. He took out of him the woman. There they 
 stood apart. But they are to be together, to complete 
 the man. God might have kept them together as 
 one, but He took them apart that they might show 
 out what Christ is ; that man having gotten away 
 from God, Christ should come down and take form, 
 and so take us up, and the sentence is now that the 
 heart may have it as a matter of intelligence. Hus- 
 band and wife can thus take it up in the intelligence 
 of God's love. Instead of being necessarily one, they 
 are one by being brought together heart to heart. 
 
 Now one other little thought. Tlie more you and 
 I are taught in the word, the more we shall find that 
 the family is the place to show it in; the more 
 precious the relationship becomes, the more the love 
 will be renewed every morning. You are not living 
 on anything stale. You are not wearing the love 
 out if you learn from the word. There is not 
 any true sweetness in the natural man or the 
 natural woman; but there is everything when 
 they are both children of God, and going on 
 with everything with Christ. He is not talking to 
 
 X6o 
 
the husband and wife outside of the Assembly. f*oor 
 things, they must do the best they can. He is talk- 
 ing to His own. 
 
 Then, let us take up this last verse in its fullness. 
 " Let every one of you in particular so love his wife 
 even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence 
 her husband." You cannot get too high a conception 
 or impression of the relationship of Christ to the 
 church. So, then, it is for us to keep up to it. If 
 any husband ever snarls at his wife or says a cross 
 word, let him confess it to God and to her right 
 away, for that is not loving the wife as Christ loves 
 the church. Let him bring God's word and not his 
 word. And then, what is above, to cherish and 
 bring her into the place, but not to man's will. That 
 is not the model at all. The model is Christ's love, 
 and not human love. Now see that you do it. And 
 if a man never goes out and says a word for God, 
 nor writes a letter to plead with some sinner to be 
 saved, and if he never makes any display whatever, 
 if he is acting toward his wife as Christ acted toward 
 the church, he will do more than a great deal of the 
 testimony that is going on in the churches. As 
 children of God we will obey. We have nothing to 
 do with won't or will when it comes to the things 
 that God tells. We have had some very wonderful 
 statements in this book of Ephesians, and it is a pity 
 if when it comes home we say. But suppose you can 
 and will not ? 
 
 Q. Are we not still in the flesh ? 
 
 A. No. The word says we are not. We are in the 
 body but not in the flesh. 
 
 Q. Is there any man that lives that does not snarl 
 once in a while ? 
 
 A. He has no business to do so. No man is acting 
 at all as a Christian who will expose his wife or talk 
 about her faults. Cover them a thousand miles deep. 
 
 166 
 
Nobody has a right to know anything about a wife*s 
 failures except himself. It is not loving as Christ 
 loved th<j( church. Christ exposes the church to her- 
 self but not to the world. A man should marry a 
 wife to serve her, to bless her, to enrich her, to free 
 her, to glorify her. He may have little opportunity 
 of other service, but this service, as unto the Lord, is 
 ever grand and unique and wonderful. The true life 
 of both man and woman, as such, comes out in this 
 relationship when made one, and each has the choicest 
 opportunity of adorning the doctrine of Christ. Let 
 each take up home-life anew in the presence of this 
 love of Christ. 
 
 " No man hates his own body, but nourishes it as 
 Christ the church." Christ does not expose the 
 church. A man does not go into the street and ex- 
 pose his own body ; no more should he expose his 
 wife. It may be that sometimes the wife may not 
 be all that the husband would like her to be, but he 
 has no business to expose her. That is not loving as 
 Christ loves the church. Here we learn these two 
 things, that the church is His Bride and His Body, 
 and we have all these wonderful thoughts in regard 
 to it. ** I speak concerning Christ and the church." f 
 
 167 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Now we come to the next relationship, parents and 
 children. Ver. 1. *' Children, obey your parents in 
 the Lord: for this is right." "In the Lord." That 
 is the key to it all. Suppose a parent is bad ; he is 
 to be obeyed then for the Lord's sake, because the 
 relationship involves it. Anybody could obey a very 
 excellent man, just as anybody could love a very 
 lovable and excellent woman, but this is to come in 
 where they are unlovely, and therefore He says, 
 " In the Lord." Then He says, " it is right." 
 
 Vers. 2, 3. " Honor thy father and mother, (which 
 is the first commandment with promise), that it may 
 be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the 
 earth." Now right means righteousness. That 
 takes us at once back to the legal code, and what it 
 would be even in the legal code. It is as we had in 
 Chap, iv., and refers to the law, as the law would 
 not allow dishonesty and theft and murder, and of 
 course, being in Christ, these are not even to be 
 
 f named. Some might say, We are not under the law, 
 and therefore we are not bound to these things. So 
 there is a reference to the law. The law is always 
 
 i the expression of righteousness for man ; and there- 
 fore when He says it is right He is referring to the 
 law, and adds, ''It is the first commandment with 
 
 i promise." Are we then under the law by His put- 
 ting this in ? No. But He gives you the thought, 
 and shows that the law even came in with a promise 
 under such circumstances. We do not want the 
 law in order to live under it, but it is to show how 
 God put His seal on that obedience to parents. That 
 is all. Just as it is in Chap. iv. on the other matters. 
 
 168 
 
Just as it is in Col. iii. in regard to the law. You 
 ?nay not do a thing that the law would not allow you 
 to do. 
 
 Ver. 4. " And ye fathers, provoke not your chil- 
 dren to wrath : but bring them up in the nurture 
 and admonition of the Lord." It is \he Lord all the 
 time We stand always as a token of what God has 
 done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in 
 Him. We represent Him. Let us be what we will, 
 husband, wife, child, or father, we are to act thus in 
 the Liord. 
 
 Now the parent, the father, is not to provoke the 
 child. It is done very often. I was reading yester- 
 day of a teacher that was complained against be 
 cause she called her pupils blockheads and fools. 
 Not very nice titles in school, of course, but parents 
 have done it too, and worse names. And when pa- 
 rents say. If you do that again I will knock your 
 head off, —that is surely one of the things forbidden 
 here. *' Bring them up in the nurture and admoni- 
 tion of the Lord." How is that ? To nourish and 
 cherish your children as the Lord does you ; His 
 kind of admonition. He forbears threatenings, and 
 He is always gracious . And as the principle is given 
 elsewhere, ** Let your speech be always with grace, 
 seasoned with salt;" that is the wholesome thing; 
 but a wholesome word is a very different thing from 
 provoking to wrath, — saying a thing to a child in 
 anger, and raising anger. I remember years ago, as 
 a school-teacher, when I wanted to get the children 
 reduced to silence, I would speak in a whisper. You 
 cannot speak in a whisper and have them keep a 
 loud voice very long. There never was an ugly word 
 that did not come from our own condition of heart ; 
 the circumstances never called for it. Nothing ever 
 requires that we should be angry and speak sharply 
 to the wife or child. Whether children are Christians 
 
 169 
 
or not, the fathers are to act according to what He 
 says. The father that is addressed here may not be 
 the father of Christian children. ''Bring them up 
 in the nurture and admonition of the Lord ; " His 
 training and discipline. 
 
 The question is often asked when we speak of not 
 being under the law, the ten commandments— what 
 shall we teach our children ? how shall we bring 
 them up to know right and wrong, to observe the 
 former and avoid the latter ? The answer is here. 
 The nurture and admonition of the Lord, that is, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ. Why should they not be told of 
 His death for sinners and their need of that death, 
 as soon as they are able to understand love in their 
 parents ? Why should not the parents make that 
 whole subject ''familiar as household words," so that 
 as the little ones grow up they take it in as naturally 
 as any other narrative ? Why should they not be 
 told that they needed Him to die for them, and then 
 when they believe this, accept it as a fact that they 
 do believe and so are saved, not expecting more of 
 them than the parents show ? Is it not true of them 
 that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the 
 word of God ? Who hear more, than they, and 
 who retain more clearly what is told them ? Let 
 this be the thing told, this the theme, the joy of the 
 family, the word of God on the matter of salvation, 
 the authority that settles everything, giving perfect 
 assurance and rest. Let the Lord Jesus be the nearest 
 and dearest friend of all, in short the Chief One in 
 the family and in our lives. I see no reason why our 
 little children should not be all children of God, not 
 by being ours by blood but by believing on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ from the earliest years, nurtured thus. 
 
 And then when naughtiness is exhibited, bring in 
 the Lord Jesus as the standard, as the grieved One 
 and the One through whom forgiveness comes upon 
 
 170 
 
confession, the same as to ourselves. His love the 
 grand incentive for all life, His life ours, His home 
 ours, His coming for us our hope. 
 
 We know that children listen to Bible stories as 
 they do to no other stories. 
 
 Ver. 5. ** Servants, be obedient to them that are 
 your masters according to the flesh, with fear and 
 trembling, in singleness of heart, as unto Christ." 
 As it is everywhere else in Scripture, there is more 
 said to servants than to any other class ; and more 
 of what is sweet and precious, to lift up the heart 
 and to comfort. A servant about whom I knew 
 something some years ago could not understand that 
 according to the flesh she had a mistress, and because 
 she came to the Lord's table and sat with her mis- 
 tress she did not understand how it was that she 
 could not sit at the same table in the mistress' house. 
 Now while she was her sister in the Lord, she was 
 her servant, socially. I think she understood it 
 after a little. I said to her, ** It may be possible that 
 in the course of time you will get married and be- 
 come mistress of a house, and your mistress might 
 be left destitute and become your servant. Then it 
 would be her business to obey you and wait upon 
 you at the table." The only way for a child of God 
 to act is to take the place he is put into. If I am in 
 the place of a child, I am not to be the father or as- 
 sume anything paternal. If I am in a servant's 
 place, I am to take it. I best honor the Lord Jesus 
 there. Well then, obey. This is a very different 
 word for the servant from the one used for the wife, 
 be in subjection ; here it is obey, and the master 
 must necessarily command. Everything that the 
 master tells is a command. " I say to my servant. 
 Do this, and he doeth it." A servant is to do what 
 he is told. He has nothing to do with thinking or 
 planning, or changing the order that is given him, 
 
 I7i 
 
I It is what we are to Christ, servants ; we have no 
 I business to think or plan or project anything. You 
 i see a wonderful fact here, that every relationship is 
 of such a character as we have to God and to Christ. 
 Husband and wife, — it is Christ and the Church, 
 father and son, — God is our Father, and we are His 
 sons ; master and servant, — " One is your Master," 
 and we are servants. We are the bride of Christ ; 
 we are sons of God ; we are servants of the Lord. 
 Now it is for Him to tell us what to do. We have 
 no right to use our minds in regard to it. Take the 
 word from His mouth. We are all related to Christ 
 as a body-servant to a man, to attend Him ; and He 
 tells us exactly what to do, and that is all we have to 
 do. Bluster and intense activity do not show ser- 
 vice. If I had a body-servant, there might be a few 
 times that I should have to say to him. Now, stir 
 around and do this ! But the ordinary way would 
 be to do it with calmness and quietness. The less 
 fuss and noise about it the better. Nowadays the 
 servants are making a fuss, that is, the servants of 
 the Lord. The word '* do" gets in the way ; it hin- 
 ders progress. What is enough for us ? Obey ! 
 
 Then again, understand that the Holy Spirit is 
 speaking here to those that are not only children of 
 God, but all the freshness of Ephesians is in the 
 case ; the truth that is here. 
 Q. Did the Ephesians apprehend this letter ? 
 A. I am not acquainted with them. If it was 
 written to the church at Ephesus, we find not long 
 after that they have such an address as this : "I 
 have against thee that thou hast left thy first love." 
 I can only say that we have to do it. When we get 
 the truth that is given in the beginning richly in our 
 hearts, it will be easy to do the others. We are to 
 be modeled after them; we are to take the truth. 
 People write biographies and tell stories about dif- 
 
 X7« 
 
ferent men, in order to get us to do. It is not the 
 way the Lord does. In James it says, "Ye have 
 heard of the patience of Job," etc. He had to wait 
 a while and the Lord brought it out. Then we have 
 in Hebrews the great company of those that were 
 examples of faith acting. He just mentions them, 
 and then says, " Now you have been looking at all 
 these witnesses, now look off unto Jesus." There is 
 One that you are to follow. " Looking unto Jesus, 
 the author and finisher of faith." 
 
 Q. We are not told impossibilities then ? 
 
 A. We dwell among impossibilities always. The 
 whole of what we take in is of that character. Faith 
 deals only with impossibilities. Walking by faith 
 never says *'try," but simply ''do." ''Whatsoever 
 things you have heard and learned and received and 
 seen in me, do !" Phil. iv. 9. 
 
 Now, that is a standard above all our heads. He 
 said, "Forme to live is Christ!" "Forgetting the 
 things that are behind, I press forward to those that 
 are before." He said, " Follow me, I follow Christ." 
 He says, "I count all things but loss for the excel- 
 lency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for 
 whom I have suffered the loss of all things that I 
 may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having 
 mine own righteousness." "That I may know Him 
 and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship 
 of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His 
 death." We are told by Paul that God predestinated 
 us to be conformed to the image of His Son. We are 
 told to follow after holiness ; to be imitators of God. 
 Why, the truth of Paul and the exhortations of Paul 
 are marvelous. They reach above everything else 
 that you get in Scripture. They deal in impossibili- 
 ties. There is not a thing that we are not bound to 
 do as new men. God has nothing for the flesh but 
 death. The flesh n^ver had anything for Him. So 
 
 173 
 
we are told to do all these impossible things. He did 
 not say, Keep your temper as well as you can ; do not 
 murder more than a little. He never puts it in that 
 form . How strange it would sound to allow anything. 
 We are in the hands of a holy Father. We are in 
 the righteous One. The sin is in not living up fully 
 to the standard of what Christ is. There is nothing 
 called for short of holiness ; absolute separation from 
 everything that is defiling, of the flesh and the world, 
 and separation unto God the Father and Christ and 
 everything that is there. It is as total separation as 
 there will be when we are caught up. 
 
 "With fear and trembling." We find that word 
 
 J several times. It does not mean fear and trembling 
 
 I according to our idea. What kind of a servant 
 
 \ would that be who would tremble all the time ? 
 
 There are three places where it is used. Paul's first 
 
 use of it may be the key of the whole matter. He 
 
 tells the Corinthians that he was with them in fear 
 
 and much trembling, but one has not the slightest 
 
 idea that the apostle was afraid of any living man. 
 
 f But there was fear and trembling about himself. It 
 
 just means the reducing himself to nothing. The 
 
 . only fear would be that self would be allowed. 
 
 The next use of it is in Phil, ii., where he says, 
 " Work out your salvation with fear and trembling." 
 There it is the self destroyed altogether ; as though 
 I were knocked into a shivering mass. Here the 
 servants are to act in that way. It would be to be 
 afraid of himself, but not afraid of his master. The 
 more he is afraid of himself, the less occasion he has 
 to be afraid of his master. The boy who stands up 
 in his class and gives his lesson with confidence 
 shows that he has been afraid he would miss it. The 
 servant that has not a thought of himself shows that 
 that fear and trembling amount to something. His 
 time and spirit and body are his master's. That is the 
 
 I7i 
 
way Paul was to the Corinthians. That is the way> 
 we act out our salvation. You have it, now act it 
 out. You cannot work a thing out that you have 
 not. When he says that God works in, and then you 
 work out, that will do. 
 
 " In singleness of heart." That is, having no self. 
 It is unmixed. '* As unto Christ." O what a differ- 
 ence there would be in servants ! Where would you 
 get all these combinations of working-men, if every 
 child of God even were acting that way. There are 
 hundreds of children of God in these combinations, 
 and see what they do. Just think of children of God 
 keeping the world in agitation by their unitedness, 
 instead of being separated unto God. " With single- 
 ness of heart as unto the Lord." And that is the 
 key to everything for the child of God. One could 
 say, It is hard to meet their demands, but for the 
 Lord's sake I will do it. He that does a thing in 
 such a way is higher than a king, and in a better 
 place than the president. 
 
 Ver. 6. "Not with eye service, as men-pleasers ; 
 but as the servants of Christ, doing the will of God 
 from the heart." '^JSTot with eye service, as men- 
 pleasers." To do a thing when the master is about 
 and give it up when he is gone. *^ Doing the will of 
 God from the heart." 
 
 Ver. 7. *' With good will doing service, as to the 
 Lord and not to men." If we have apprehended 
 that when we were bad we were quickened with 
 Christ, one would be a better husband or child or 
 servant or master. If not, he had better go back 
 and get that, as the way by which he can learn all 
 these in their practical power. 
 
 Ver. 8. " Knowing that whatsoever- good thing 
 any man doeth, the same shall he receive of the 
 Lord, whether he be bond or free." I am serving my 
 master, then, because 1 belong to the Lord, 
 
 176 
 
Ver. 9. "And ye masters, do the same things 
 unto them, forbearing threatening : knowing that 
 your master also is in heaven ; neither is there re- 
 spect of persons with him." I may esteem myself 
 very high because I have a servant, but He says, 
 " There is no respect of persons with God." Here it 
 is all right to be master and servant, and you have 
 in this the kind of government for us. And inas- 
 much as there is nothing said about political position, 
 citizenship, we will find no directions in regard to it. 
 Our citizenship is in heaven ; not here. 
 
 Ver. 10. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the 
 Lord, and in the power of his might." This takes 
 us back at once to the type of it in the book of 
 Joshua. You recall that in the last of Deut. Moses 
 spoke to Joshua, — " Be strong and of good courage." 
 Then when we open Joshua, we find that he is 
 spoken to thus by Jehovah Himself. And those two 
 and a half tribes to whom he has to speak regarding 
 what they are to do, say, " Only be strong and be of 
 good courage." Then, too, the whole of the people 
 reiterate that verse, "Be of good courage." It is 
 not said to another man, under any other circum- 
 stances in the history of Israel. You see why. They 
 were entering upon the land actually to take posses- 
 sion of that which was then possessed by the adver- 
 sary, filling the land full of the enemy's gods. And 
 now Jehovah's people, Israel, have come in. After 
 that Joshua sees the Captain of Jehovah's hosts out- 
 side the walls of Jericho, and he asks, "Art thou 
 with us or against us ?" and he says, " I am captain 
 of Jehovah's hosts." And Joshua at once with- 
 draws his sandals, and stands before him as before 
 God Himself. He has a sword in his hand, and he 
 says, "Every place that the sole of your foot shall 
 tread upon shall be yours." And then he is again 
 told to be strong. There is an appropriateness in the 
 
 ]7a 
 
exhortation "be strong" when fighting is in order. 
 They were now to fight for every foot of the land 
 which was all theirs by the purpose and promise of 
 Jehovah. And they were now in it with the enemy 
 before them entrenched in their walled cities. 
 
 We get more when we come to look at the word, 
 "Be strong," because we go back to Chap, i., where 
 it says that the third thing that was asked for was 
 that we might know the power of His might, which 
 He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the 
 dead and set Him at His own right hand in the heav- 
 enly places, far above all principalities and powers. 
 Those principalities and powers are spoken of di-^ 
 rectly as those against whom we contend. Christ! 
 has been raised up and seated above them. Satan isl 
 under His feet, and he is to be under our feet prac-j 
 tically. 
 
 Then, as Joshua was to be of good courage,— and 
 there was nothing said about it when the Israelites 
 were in the wilderness, — so in the simple matter of 
 salvation, and the simple fact of His coming to take 
 us up to Himself, there is nothing said to us about 
 strength, but here comes the place of practical ac- 
 tion, in regard to the very thing to which we are 
 called. 
 
 The whole of their history was linked with that, 
 land. They had no purpose without reference to it. 
 We know it from the fact that they have no place in 
 the history of the world now. They are not doing 
 anything while they are out of the land. They are 
 not giving testimony of any kind. The land and the 
 people are married. When out of the land they 
 are not counted. That is very marked when you 
 look at the account given in 1 Kings, with regard to 
 the building of Solomon's temple, where we are told 
 of four hundred and eighty years since the time of 
 the exodus of Israel from Egypt, while they were 
 
 111 
 
six hundred, because the exact number of years that 
 were not counted were the years that they were not 
 in their place. You will find something kindred to 
 that in the history of the church. Take the history 
 of the church as the Holy Spirit gives it in Chaps, 
 ii. and iii., of Kev. You will find that there is a 
 time when Christ does not count the church at all. 
 From Thyatira onward the church as a whole is not 
 looked at at all. 
 
 Now having these elements, we come to under- 
 stand what is her6. Just as that was the time for 
 fight, when they had come into the land, and the 
 fighting went on until Solomon's time ; from the time 
 of Joshua clear down to the time of David ; and that 
 is our time down here. So, having learned that we 
 are in heavenly places, we are now to contest it with 
 Satan. Satan's purpose is always to defeat God's 
 mind and God's purpose. When God would have 
 Adam in the garden, Satan came in and spoiled it 
 all, and Adam was driven out as the result, a sinner. 
 When God restored things in the days of Noah, in 
 principle making a new earth and putting man on a 
 new ground altogether, Satan spoiled that by turn- 
 ing men away from God, and making idolaters of 
 them, so that they worshiped demons. When God 
 called out Abraham from that, then Satan at once 
 comes in to spoil it all, and Abraham goes down into 
 Egypt instead of staying in the land. When after- 
 wards God takes Israel by the hand and leads them 
 out of Egypt, Satan opposes in every way, so that if 
 God, OD the one side, causes the wheel of the 
 chariots of Pharaoh's hosts to come off and stops 
 their progress, Satan does the same thing with 
 Israel, stopping them on every occasion. And now 
 when God has a heavenly people Satan does not care 
 about stopping the Jews from going into the land ; 
 he cares for keeping God's people from occupying th^ 
 
 178 
 
heavenly ground. He is just where we are. And so 
 when people think that the fight against Satan 
 means to put down the grog-shops, and to shut up 
 the gambling hells, and to clean up the town, they 
 are very greatly mistaken, and blinded ; for those 
 are the matter of the flesh and the world, and the 
 flesh and the world are both crucified to us. Faith 
 says, *^ I am dead to the world." Now faith cannot 
 make the devil dead. He gets people to fight in the 
 wrong field and not fight him. 
 
 Take an illustration, — in Gen. xiv. we find that 
 there were four kings against five ; the five, by their 
 very names and everything, are types of the filthi- 
 ness of the flesh, like the rum power and gambling 
 and vices generally. The four kings, from the place 
 that they were in, represent to us that which is try- 
 ing to make everything decent, the religious power. 
 It is really the city of Babylon. It is what the 
 church comes to in the end. Now where was Abra- 
 ham all that time ? He did not touch one of them. 
 But when his brother Lot was taken by these four 
 kings, he fought against the four kings and got him 
 out of it. And that is our fight to-day. There is no 
 devil at all in the vices for us to fight. The devil is 
 not in drunkenness, but the lust of the flesh. He is 
 the religious one, with the full purpose of fighting 
 against God. If the highest thought of God is, '* I am 
 going to bring my people into the land," then that is 
 where Satan must be to keep them from it, and to block 
 the wheels, and to make it just what it was, that they 
 never did take possession of it. It is a very sad his- 
 tory to learn that there came a time in the reign of 
 Saul — who was Satan's man clear through — that 
 there were but two swords in Israel. Saul had one 
 and Jonathan the other. They had to go to an ene- 
 my to grind an agricultural instrument. But they 
 had no swords to sharpen. Just as afterwards in 
 
 179 
 
Israel's history the word of God had been shut uji 
 for hundreds of years. Their king was to have the 
 word of God fresh, and to have it before him all the 
 time. But it was not so. And when a copy was 
 found and brought out from amidst the rubbish, it 
 condemned everything, and Josiah took his place in 
 brokenness, and the truth was restored. Just so to- 
 day ; the multiplying of Bibles by the million, and 
 the covering of the Bible with a veil that grows 
 thicker every day. Now all that is just what it was in 
 the day of Israel when the Bible was utterly hidden 
 beneath rubbish. Here we have the rubbish of ration- 
 alism and the denial of the atonement, and the 
 rubbish of ritualism and of worldliness. And they 
 will be ready to come together directly and have a. 
 common religion in which Buddhism and Mormonism 
 and Christianity can come in. Understand this, that 
 while every one of these heathen religions will have 
 a splendid showing ; when Christianity is shown it 
 will be a mere travesty of it. It will be the philoso- 
 phy of Christianity. The anti-christ is not going 
 to be filthy any more than the devil is. There was 
 nothing filthy about him when he came to the woman 
 in the beginning and said, "You shall be as gods." 
 He is the religious one. Do you not know that one 
 of the things about Satan is that he is the god of this 
 age ? He is the prince of the world. That is a pretty 
 high place, politically and religiously, and it is not 
 worth while to try to degrade Satan from his place 
 as prince and god. There is where he deceives, 
 Imaking people believe that they are fighting the 
 [devil. This shows how he succeeds. We had better 
 ibegin wrestling against the right one. 
 
 Vers. 11, 12. "Put on the whole armor of God, 
 that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the 
 devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
 but against principalities, against powers, against 
 
 180 
 
the rulers of darkness of this world, against wicked 
 spirits in heavenly places." Now let us go back to 
 what we had in Chap, iii., that the purpose of the 
 church during the present period was that now unto 
 principalities and powers in the heavenly places 
 might be known by the church the manifold wisdom 
 of God. To whom ? Not to men, because they could 
 not understand it. "* Therefore the world knoweth 
 us not," because we are sons of God. As soon as the 
 church can be understood, it ceases to be for Christ 
 at all. It is inhabited by the Holy Spirit, whom the 
 world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him 
 nor knows Him. These are germinal principles. If 
 we are that, the world cannot understand. What, 
 therefore, have we to do with the world ? But it says 
 that we are to show to the principalities and powers 
 in heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God. If 
 we are to show it to them, we are there to fight. 
 
 " Therefore, be strong in the Lord." How are you 
 going to be strong ? Strong in ritualism, and getting 
 under the law, and building up a moral life ? Strong 
 in the formalities of certain denominations ? Is that 
 strength ? Who said, " In union there is strength ? " 
 Did God ever say it ? Now then remember that 
 strength is not in man at all. It is not in numbers 
 any more than it is in your right arm. " Strong in 
 the Lord and the power of His might." What is the 
 power of His might ? Resurrection. In order to be 
 strong we must apprehend resurrection. That takes 
 us clear out of the whole thing. *^ If ye be risen 
 with Christ, seek those things which are above. '* 
 ** Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual bless- 
 ings in heavenly places in Christ." That is the place 
 and that is the one power, — the power by which He 
 raised up Jesus our Lord. That is the only power 
 by which we can fight. 
 
 181 
 
*' Take up the whole armor I^or we wrestle not 
 
 against flesh and blood." Israel did. You will all 
 along have the contrast. Kesurrection power that 
 was spoken of in Chap. i. is like the power of 
 God in bringing them through the Red Sea and 
 through Jordan. The power of God for Israel was 
 shown in opening the Red Sea and taking them 
 through it. It is resurrection, in type. That gener- 
 ation died that had gone through the Red Sea ; and 
 now God must have them go through the water 
 again. Then, instead of taking them up into the 
 land which was presented to their fathers, He must 
 lead them again and get them on the other side of 
 Jordan, and open the Jordan as He opened the Red 
 Sea forty years before. He gets them there when 
 the Jordan is at its flood, and then He just as quietly 
 opens with the power of His hand a passage through 
 as He opened the Red Sea. It is the power of God. 
 It destroyed the enemy in the Red Sea. There is no 
 enemy to be destroyed in that way here. 
 
 Now look for a moment at the difference between 
 those Philistines that were in the land and Israel 
 that were going into the land. The Philistines had 
 gone there without going through the Red Sea or 
 Jordan. Their original home was in Egypt, and 
 they had passed up into the land, and had actually 
 
 f given it its name. Palestine and Philistine are the 
 
 1 same thing. The song of Moses even brings in the 
 name of Palestine; not as a sweet name, but as 
 the place of the enemy. Now God would have 
 the people that were going into the land to be the 
 real possessors of it pass through death and resurrec- 
 
 : tion. You understand what the Philistines were 
 relatively to Israel ; they were the people of the 
 world on heavenly ground. They represent the pro- 
 fessing church to-day as clearly as anything can do. 
 
 j How many are there among believers that are appre- 
 
 182 
 
hending that they are on heavenly ground ? Did \ 
 you learn it when you were told the gospel ? I am 
 sure I did not. I went on talking about the Lord j ^ 
 Jesus, and yet not apprehending who I was at all, i 
 nor knowing what I was saved for. 
 
 You see the exceeding importance of these three 
 things that are prayed for in Chap. iii. Now it is 
 the common thing and a common heritage from our 
 fathers, that they did not know anything about the 
 place the church is in. Probably, the large propor- 
 tion of Christendom is not saved. That is just the 
 character of the Philistines that were to be driven 
 out. They are connected with Satan, and he is 
 the one that we are to oppose. We are to possess 
 that all the time. How can we do it ? By asserting 
 our heavenly place ; simply denying that we are 
 under the law, for we are in Christ. Denying that 
 we are associated with ritual, for we are already in ^ 
 
 the holiest as worshippers. This is our place. Deny- ^ \a>^'* 
 ing that our business is to convert the world, but 
 that we are to wait for the Son of God, and to be .(j|V 
 caught up to meet Him. There is not much ordi-^ 
 narily said in the professing church that we do not ' 
 have to negative. They do not begin by letting a* 
 man know he is eternally saved, and they do not go 
 on by telling him that he stands in a risen Christ. 
 They do not go on and tell him that the Lord is 
 coming, but they keep him in doubt in regard 
 to everything. As a result, they make men in-J 
 fidels. 
 
 See, then, the necessity of this word, *'Be strong." 
 Not to be strong in our own resources but in the 
 Lord. Remember, He gets His title as risen. Now 
 we stand in resurrection only. Then we fight 
 against Satan up there. The fight is to maintain 
 the heavenly place all the time. It is just as Israel 
 entered their land and there stood the walls of Jer- 
 
 183 
 
icho. What is to meet it ? Be strong, first of all, in 
 the One that is strong. 
 
 Then we wrestle against wicked spirits^ and we 
 
 wrestle against the rulers of the darkness of this 
 
 / age ; that seems to be connected with politics. We 
 
 i are wrestling against politics, because the head of 
 
 \ the world is Satan. We are wrestling against 
 
 everything that man is telling about progress of 
 
 the world. We are as definitely against all that 
 
 as we are against Satan, because he is the head of it 
 
 all. " The rulers of the darkness of this age." All 
 
 ^ that is against God and shuts out Christ. And in a 
 
 : little while, after these that are Christ's are caught 
 
 j up, there will be a darkening of everything that is 
 
 1 heavenly. It will be simply darkness. There will 
 
 be no light at all. What are we to do then ? " Put 
 
 on the whole armor of God." Not one piece of armor, 
 
 only. There are some that are disposed to take one 
 
 piece, and talk about faith simply ; and people will 
 
 run out on one principle, and they make foolishness 
 
 of it. And there are some people that will get the 
 
 word of God, but they do not know how to use it, 
 
 for it has not used itself in them. They cannot 
 
 say, " Thy word have I hid in my heart." So it will 
 
 not do to take only one piece. *^ Take the panoply." 
 
 It is a unit. 
 
 ' ' Stand against the wiles of the devil. " It is not im- 
 moral things, the lusts of the flesh ; we have had that 
 in the past chapters ; those filthy things not even 
 so much as named among you, any more than they 
 would be in heaven. The thought ought not to come 
 in. The idea of being told, not to steal and not to 
 murder ! You know that involves something, that 
 such are not even to be named. The real fight is 
 against him who is hindering us from being heavenly 
 in our walk. " Put on the whole armor of God, that 
 ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the 
 
 I8i 
 
devil.** "Devil" means accuser; as the serpent he 
 is a deceiver. He has crafty ways ; just such as T 
 have already illustrated by telling you how he has 
 succeeded in getting us to do something else than 
 the things for which we are called. 
 
 Ver. 13. "Wherefore take unto you the whole 
 armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in 
 the evil day, and having done all, to stand." Now 
 this is the day of evil. This is the day in which we\ 
 are told by Christ, "Now is the judgment of this! 
 ^world." The whole thing is under judgment. The 
 prince of this world is ruling now ; Satan is that \ 
 prince. We are told, then, that we wrestle against 
 wicked spirits in heavenly places, the rulers of the 
 darkness of this age. It must therefore be the evil 
 day now. It must be the whole time that we are 
 here. And so we are always to be on the alert, and 
 always to be fighting against him. 
 
 We notice that there are two characters of armor 
 spoken of. We have first the defensive, including 
 the girdle, the breast-plate, the sandals for the feet, 
 the shield of faith, and the helmet; every one of 
 them in front, as you notice, involving a fight with 
 the enemy face to face. There is no armor for the 
 back in this. He is not expecting us to turn our back 
 upon the enemy. We are to withstand in this evil 
 day. And then, "having done all, to stand." To 
 stand just that way, ready. We withstand by means 
 of defensive armor ; we stand and use the offensive 
 armor. Now let us look at the armor. 
 
 Ver. 14. " Stand therefore, having your loins girti 
 about with truth and having on the breast-plate of ) 
 righteousness." The girdle was that which held to- f 
 gether all the armor. It was then especially used ■ 
 with reference to the breast-plate, and it held all the 
 armor, and was to brace up the man. We find in 
 fighting even now, when men stand face to face and 
 
 185 
 
fight with their fists, they always have a belt. It is 
 to hold a man together. And the girdle here is truth. 
 Now if we take it that we are called in order to be 
 saved at last, that is not the truth. If it is simply 
 a question of our being made Christians in order to 
 do good, that is not the truth. We have had the 
 truth. Chap. i. 3. gives it. The truth is that we are 
 blessed according to that full title of God. "Who 
 hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly 
 places in Christ." We are blessed in heavenly places, 
 in contradistinction to the earthly. If we esteem 
 ourselves as belonging to the earth, the truth is not 
 holding us. 
 
 In Chap. ii. we are quickened together with Christ, 
 that in the ages to come He might show the exceed- 
 ing riches of His grace. That is the truth. We are 
 builded together as a habitation for God by the Spirit. 
 That is truth. We are eternally saved as believers 
 in Christ. That is truth. If we, therefore, go halt- 
 ing and doubting whether we are saved, do you not 
 see that we are not girded at all ? The truth is not 
 there. 
 
 In Chap. iii. we learn that we have a very distinctive 
 character of truth that was not given to other ages and 
 generations at all ; not even given to the Twelve, 
 but given to Paul ; and that our present testimony 
 is that we show to the principalities and powers in 
 the heavenly places the manifold wisdom of God. 
 Anything short of this would not be the truth. One 
 would be without a girdle. 
 
 Now if we are not girded in this way, how can we 
 fight ? How could Israel fight the Amorites if they 
 did not know who they themselves were as called of 
 God, according to His purposes given to Abraham 
 and Isaac and Jacob ; "and He has led us all this 
 way Himself, and we are here in the land and it be- 
 longs to us. We are here by right and title of 
 
 186 
 
Jehovah, the Lord of the whole earth !" Why, they 
 would have been as weak as water if they had not 
 had that. It is necessary, therefore, for us. And 
 that is the thing to hold us together. Everything 
 must be held and bound closely to us. 
 
 "Having on the breast-plate of righteousness." 
 That would be maintaining a good conscience. You 
 find Paul saying, **For this do I exercise myself, to 
 have a good conscience toward God and toward 
 man." Moreover, it has to do with the affections and 
 the heart. The breast-plate would seem to express 
 that. What is it, then ? Righteousness. Not only 
 that we are standing in the righteousness of God, 
 but we are always to maintain a good conscience, to 
 act in perfect righteousness. In other words, that 
 the word not only has settled us as to where we are, 
 but it also has affected our conscience and heart. 
 1 Tim. i. 5 : ** Now the end of the commandment is 
 love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and 
 of faith unfeigned." That is the purpose ; to bring 
 out the whole heart. See how we are equipped in 
 Romans v., *' The love of God that is shed abroad in 
 our hearts. " That is the reason we know that * * tribu- 
 lation worketh patience." Witness Chap. i. of 1 
 Thess. : " Remembering without ceasing your work 
 of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in 
 our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father." 
 
 We get, then, the great thought of the breast-plate 
 covering all the vital part of the man. All that is 
 vital is to be shielded ; all this matter of the heart 
 going out toward God and toward man, and having 
 everything clean before God as to conscience. Now 
 it is a blessed thing that God has opened a way of 
 restoring conscience if we sin. *' If any man sin, we 
 have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the 
 righteous." " If we confess our sins, He is faithful 
 and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us 
 
from all unrighteousness." God cannot have us be- 
 fore Him otherwise than with a purged conscience, 
 with a clear perception of our place in Him, and then 
 walking in accordance with it. You see that this 
 comes at the end of all that He has told us in regard 
 to a moral walk. It comes after church walk. This 
 is the very closing up. 
 
 So, then, having all the effect of all the exhorta- 
 tions, — every element that He takes up in regard to 
 cleanness and honesty and kindness towards others 
 and love going out toward every one and subjection 
 of life all the time, and all the multitude of things ; — 
 after all that, these are the things that have to do 
 with keeping a good conscience. We are to keep 
 these very things that are written. We are not 
 under the law, but we are to be infinitely better than 
 those under the law. 
 
 Here then we see the value of the breast-plate ; 
 that we cannot be attacked in that way. Suppose 
 Satan should attack me by saying, Well, you are a 
 pretty Christian ! See what you are. You failed 
 there, and you have an accumulation of guilt on 
 your conscience ! Blessed be God, he cannot accuse 
 me before my Advocate Himself makes it known to 
 me through the word. As Christ said in John xvi., 
 **I tell you beforehand." He will not let Satan 
 accuse us in that way. He will first expose us to 
 ourselves, and on confession we have it all put away. 
 
 The breastplate, therefore, was to defend the body 
 against the weapons of the enemy. So the defense 
 fof us would be that good conscience restored and 
 kept. It is a most thorough, sifting and searching 
 thing. No man can use the word effectually that 
 has not had it used on himself. 
 
 Ver. 15. "And your feet shod with the prepara- 
 tion of the gospel of peace." We can stand before 
 Qod unshod. Indeed, we must ; (Exod. iii. 6, Josh. 
 
 m 
 
V. 15.) It is an expression of weakness, of self-abase- 
 ment, of nothingness ; (2 Sam. xv. 30, Isa. xx. 2-4, 
 Ezek. xxiv. 17-23.) But before Satan we must be 
 shod. We are strong in the strength of the Lord. 
 And that strength is the peace which we have through 
 the gospel. We stand in perfect peace, and that is 
 our preparation. If we do not stand in perfect peace 
 and rest confidently, where are we ? How do we 
 know but what Satan says is true ? How do we 
 know but that we will have to run into this avenue 
 or that, to get peace ? Suppose Satan sets us to 
 work, as is his custom ? He is willing that every- 
 body should go to work and clean up this city. Sup- 
 pose he tells us, as some say, that the way to get 
 peace is to go to work. We have a peace that he 
 cannot touch. We are standing in it. Men that 
 fight do not fight barefooted. You would find that 
 their shoes have nails in them to hold them to the 
 ground, that they shall not recede. And when it is 
 said that every place that your feet shall tread upon 
 shall be yours, it is actually advancing. So we see 
 the necessity of the shoes. 
 
 And now what is it ? Perfect peace ; peace with 
 God; all settled. Then peace of heart and mind. 
 We have in Phil. iv. perfect peace in regard to all 
 circumstances ; so profound a peace that Satan can- 
 not tell us anything. Take the case of Hezekiah. 
 There was an enemy appeared at the gate of Jerusa- 
 lem, and he told the truth when he said, " If I gave 
 you ten thousand horses, you could not put horsemen 
 on them. Do not let Hezekiah make you think that 
 Jehovah-will appear for you. Has not He punished 
 you a great many times?" That is Satan's way. 
 Those are the arrows that he throws ; the weapons 
 of his warfare are just that kind. Now Hezekiah, 
 when he received the letter, took it in quietly and 
 laid it before Jehovah, as if he said, This is not my 
 
conflict. And God did take it up, and next morning 
 there were hundreds of thousands dead around the 
 walL Was there not peace there ? How did he get 
 it ? He knew God. 
 
 And this is peace of heart and mind. And, again, 
 there is another peace spoken of, Christ's own peace. 
 He says, "My peace I give unto you." You see 
 where it is, — peace of conscience and heart and 
 mind ; all found in Him. We do not ask anything 
 of the world to contribute to our peace. Then what 
 a defense that is ! We are not to be ruffled by any- 
 thing, or thrown off our balance. Our weaknesses 
 have been so thoroughly met that we are perfectly at 
 peace on that. Then, being despised down here is so 
 absolutely met up yonder by the wondrous name of 
 sons of God and the promise of the glory directly, 
 that we have perfect and profound peace. There we 
 can stand. We have taken in that good news so that 
 Satan cannot win. 
 
 Some years ago, when speaking on John xiv. about 
 peace, a man arose, after I had finished, and dis- 
 tinctly denied all I had been saying. He said, '* The 
 way to get peace is for every man to go to work I" 
 I could, since then, have told him of one who went 
 to her pastor and said that she had not peace, and he 
 set her to work once and again ; but she did not get 
 peace. 
 
 Now in order to meet that, we must have peace to 
 start on, because the great thing of Satan is to occu- 
 py us with ourselves, our state, or work ; with 
 spreading the kingdom, as it is called ; with enlarg- 
 ing a "cause." There is a sincerity about it, but it 
 is according to a wrong standard. We have never 
 had that as the word of God in regard to us. He 
 says we are infinitely above that. We are not con- 
 tending against difficnlties down here in earthly 
 places. We are contending against infinitely more 
 
 190 
 
subtle adversaries than that. Look at Israel for a 
 moment. Satan was not very much troubled about 
 Israel in the wilderness. When God said that He 
 was going to keep them there thirty-eight years 
 more, Satan did not need to be troubled. God had 
 said, **I am going to take them out of Egypt, and 
 plant them in the land of Canaan." Their being in 
 the wilderness was not a part of God's counsels. 
 So Satan could rest. When they got into the land, 
 he would have been glad enough to have them go 
 back into the wilderness. Satan cannot hinder your ' 
 being saved, for the moment you believe on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ you are eternally saved. What can he 
 do ? Why, he can cripple all our testimony. We 
 are to testify to the heavenly places, and he will 
 make us testify to earthly places. He will make us 
 go into all these things and improve them. Every- 
 thing is turned to falsehood in this case. Now, if we 
 are planted absolutely on the ground, so that the 
 ground and we stick fast to each other, we can fight. 
 Our ground is the heavenly ground, as Israel's 
 ground was Canaan. 
 
 Ver. 16. " Above all, taking the shield of faith, 
 wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery 
 darts of the wicked one." Breastplate, girdle, shoes, 
 and then taking up the shield of faith ! That is held 
 over head, over body, and over all, — wherever a dart 
 comes. What is that shield of faith ? Here it is not 
 simply that I am saved. You will find in Romans 
 not only that Abraham was justified when he believed 
 God, but that is the way in which he walked all 
 the way through. It is said of him as much in Gen. 
 xxii. as it was in Chap, xv., because he is walking, 
 simply believing what God says. When he does not 
 believe Him, he is of course unfaithful. But the 
 whole of his walk is simply believing what God says. 
 
 Now we go on to learn more and more about the 
 191 
 
heavenly places. In each epistle that Paul gives we 
 learn more and more pertaining to that ; how to live 
 it and all its principles, and we come effectually to 
 do so. What do we get then, in God ? We learn 
 just what God is. See how full of God this one 
 epistle is ! While Philippians is occupied with Christ 
 Jesus, this is occupied with God, as the originator of 
 everything. " Blessed be the God and Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." We are listening to Him and 
 learning all about Him. Well then, it is faith, not 
 simply faith in the Lord Jesus Christ by which we 
 are saved ; but faith that grows as we learn more and 
 more about God ; everything in the word giving us 
 more and more of God. Do we not know that Satan 
 is the blasphemer of God as well as the accuser of the 
 brethren ? How can a blasphemer give us any 
 thoughts if we let God's thoughts fill us ? That is 
 the word, is it not, in its use in our own lives ? The 
 shield of faith is thus held up against everything. 
 Let him say what he will against God ; we know 
 God ! It meets every dart. God wants us to quench 
 all the fiery darts. Let them stick in that shield. 
 They cannot stick in us if the shield is held up. So 
 you see that faith is the one thing that would cor- 
 respond to such a shield. 
 
 I remember a brother coming to me some years 
 ago and saying, '' Now the hymn that I used to sing, 
 ' A Little More Faith in Jesus,' is true. I feel like 
 singing it." I said. That is hardly the thing; you 
 want a little more than that I guess. It is not faith 
 in Jesus that is spoken of in the Scriptures ; it is faith 
 in the Lord Jesus Christ; One who has died, and 
 j riseji, and received the title of Lord and Christ, as 
 
 I the One who has filled up the whole matter in God's 
 mind. 
 
 Faith in God is taking all that is given of Him, 
 just as you eat and drink and breathe for your 
 
 199 
 
 ii 
 
living and for your strength ; taking more and more 
 of the word of God. We eat when we are hungry. 
 We can use the strength afterward for anybody. 
 So then, we are eating that word ; we take more and 
 more of God all the time to meet the demand ; and 
 it does meet it by giving such a knowledge of God 
 that Satan's shafts are nothing. A man that has 
 God's word is never uncertain that he is saved, nor 
 what he is, nor where he stands, nor what God ia 
 for him. A man that is uncertain, has not God's 
 word at all. He is not reading it, because right 
 before him is — *'He that believeth on the Son of 
 God hath everlasting life." It comes with much / 
 assurance. 
 
 Ver. 17. " And take the helmet of salvation, and 
 the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." 
 This is looking at the whole matter of salvation, 
 past, present, and future. In 1 Thess. v. we have 
 the hope of salvation, because he is talking about 
 the coming of the Lord all the time. In Phil, we 
 have it a present thing, that we are to bring out in 
 the actions ; and also a future thing in the glory 
 with Christ. The soul is saved by believing on the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, and we go on in the old body 
 with a new spirit, and are waiting and praying for 
 the glory, and the whole matter is salvation. 
 
 Now, the helmet is on the head, — the seat of in- 
 telligence. Our intelligence should take up the 
 grand scope of this salvation. How much impor- 
 tance there is in that ! There is one of the places 
 where one can be most easily attacked. People get 
 into a happy frame of mind, and sing that they are 
 saved now. They say, ** O, I am saved now ! " That 
 is not having the helmet. The helmet must grasp 
 the whole matter of salvation. What are you saved 
 for ? Who are you, as saved ? Is it a matter of our \ ' 
 hoping to get to heaven to see our friends ? Or is it i 
 
 193 
 
that we are now really saved, and are waiting for 
 the glory ? The helmet is the full intelligence of 
 what we have, and who we are. It takes the entire 
 matter of salvation, itself, its scope and fruition ; 
 the work of the cross and the work of Christ now 
 and the work of Christ coming for us ; for us there, 
 and for us now in the glory, and for us when He 
 comes. Salvation has these three things : faith, 
 love, and hope. The love of God is shed abroad in 
 the heart now, and the coming of the Lord is the 
 hope, the same Lord Jesus who was on the cross. 
 Thus we have grasped the whole matter. The man 
 ; that is simply hoping to be saved cannot fight Satan. 
 '' He is not fit to fight. His head is uncovered ! 
 
 You know that all truth was gone in the time of 
 Thyatira. It was Rome, full-fledged. You know 
 that Sardis was spoken of as having a name that 
 she lived, and yet was dead. He says, "I have not 
 found your works perfect, i. e., complete." (See Col. 
 i. 25.) Why ? Because Luther recovered but one 
 truth. He did not recover church truth and the 
 coming of the Lord. He did not recover the full 
 declaration of the Son of God, seated at the right 
 hand of the Majesty. One truth was grand when 
 there was none and everything was upside-down, 
 and the church became teacher and lawgiver instead 
 of Christ the Head. It lacked those very elements 
 that make the church. 
 
 Now salvation involves those three things, and we 
 cannot maintain a heavenly ground unless we know 
 what we are raised for. We have this all as defen- 
 sive armor. It is the word of God in its effect upon 
 our hearts and consciences and lives and walk in 
 every way. It corresponds with drill in modern 
 warfare. We must be drilled in the truth, having 
 the word in us, affecting and forming us, from head 
 to feet. So that we shall be the standing, walking, 
 
 194 
 
living word. We can fight only if we are girded 
 with the truth, and helmeted with the knowledge of 
 what this salvation is, and shielded by the faith that 
 takes in what God is and His purposes in regard to 
 us, and what He is in strength and righteousness 
 and goodness and grace, for us. If we are not^ 
 standing thoroughly and positively established in 
 this good news that has given peace, we are not fit 
 to take up the sword. That is the reason there is so 
 little fighting done, because there is so little heav- 
 enly living according to our calling and the hope ; 
 because people are not listening to the word, " Go 
 out to meet Him ! " And people go on talking about 
 fighting the good fight of faith, when they are sim- 
 ply trying to hold out faithful and to get to heaven 
 at last. It is preposterous and false. Satan is just 
 defeating the whole thing by getting us down to 
 those things. When we are not fighting against 
 him, we are fighting with him. He is the god of this 
 age. If we have not been drilled by the Holy Spirit, 
 we cannot use the sword against the enemy. We 
 have only been trying to keep the enemy off from 
 us thus far. You will see then that there will be no 
 doubts and fears and hanging of heads and hearts, and 
 then we shall not be occupied with making this world 
 of Satan's a pleasant place, in simply improving it. 
 
 Ver. 17. " And take the sword of the Spirit, the 
 word of God." All the former armor was, as we have 
 seen, defensive. While we wrestle, Satan wrestles. 
 He wrestles with wiles. You can see at once that the 
 heart must be enlightened, and the mind informed, 
 and the conscience formed, and the whole life con- 
 formed to the word of God, to meet wiles. No one everv 
 met the subtleties of Satan with anything less than 
 the word of God. Nothing else can answer all the 
 blasphemy of Satan against God and all the untruth 
 about Christ, but what God has given Himself, the 
 
 196 
 
One who knows all about Christ and has delighted in 
 Him. We must have it throughout ; not simply as 
 a matter of intellect, but in every element of our 
 life as new men. We must have that word forming 
 us, to grow up into all that God gives us. This is 
 the only way to meet the advances of Satan. 
 
 And now we are to attack. The sword is not sim- 
 ply a defensive weapon ; it is an offensive one ; and 
 hence we have to make our thrusts with that sword 
 to smite Satan. It is a blessed fact, then, that we 
 are not left defenseless, nor are we left without the 
 means of fighting. Christ said a great deal when 
 He said, " I will not leave you orphans ; I will come 
 to you." *'If ye abide in me, and my words abide va^ 
 you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done 
 unto you." It is the abiding in Him instead of abid- 
 ing in what we were, either as in Adam or in Moses, 
 — absolutely in Christ, new men in heaven, that we 
 stand at all. And how do we know anything about 
 ] that ? Solely by the word of God. There is not a 
 ( principle nor a fact that holds us up, that informs 
 { us in regard to our position, or in regard to Christ, 
 ' that comes from reason, or is the outflow from the 
 natural man, or is caught up by our native intelli- 
 gence or ability. It is s mply the new man, and he 
 cannot receive anything but the word. The Holy 
 Spirit does not take the word of man but the word 
 of God. He deals entirely with that. You are really 
 shut up to the word then, but it is a bounteous thing 
 in itself. Having the word of God, therefore, if it does 
 exercise us vitally and thoroughly, so that we know 
 we are crucified to everything here and risen out of 
 everything here into association and fellowship with 
 the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ, and know 
 whither we are bound, and what we are as saved 
 sons of God and fellows with Christ,— then we are 
 ready for battle. 
 
 196 
 
Then we begin the defense by parrying every 
 stroke. And now let us glance at Israel in regard to 
 this. Everything that pertained to Israel was ac- 
 cording to God's purpose and mind, and then given 
 out by His word. And therefore, let it be in start- 
 ing out of Egypt, or being in the wilderness, or get- 
 ting into the land, or fighting there, or afterwards 
 having everything established under Solomon, and 
 going on to live and expand in the life that was 
 given, it must be absolutely in accordance with His 
 word, and nothing else. It was the word that called 
 out Israel ; it was the word to Pharaoh that took 
 them from all that was in Egypt ; it was the word 
 of God to Moses that brought all those plagues ; it 
 was the word of God that had them stay or go. 
 There was not a thing about Israel that sprang from 
 man's mind. It is quite contrary to the idea of man, 
 of progression and development, of beginning in a 
 rudimental way and then gradually growing up into 
 something better. The whole idea of Israel was 
 full-orbed from the mind of God. But we know that 
 they failed all the time, and that they were cast out 
 of the land and were broken down from everything 
 in which they had been placed. They did not heed 
 the word. 
 
 Now look at Christ, and He starts out, gathering in 
 all the thoughts of that word. He says, according to 
 Ps. xL, " I delight to do Thy will ; Thy law is within 
 my heart." And according to Psalm xvii., " By the 
 words of Thy lips I have kept me from the paths of 
 the destroyer." He is formed by the word, filled 
 with it, being its very expression Himself,— the 
 Word of God. And Satan comes with his assault, 
 and we see how subtle it is, and appealing even to 
 His power as the Son of God. We find Him an- 
 swering, '' It is written ! " And it meets that stroke 
 of Satan completely. When He is appealed to as 
 
 197 
 
though there were in Him any pride of life, taking 
 Him up to the pinnacle of the temple, ** Cast thyself 
 down!"— the answer is, ''It is written. Thou shalt 
 not tempt Jehovah thy God." And Satan is silenced 
 on that subject. Then when a further trial is given, 
 — " Here are the kingdoms of the world. You can 
 have them at once. I will give them all to you if 
 you will fall down and worship me." Man fails 
 whenever each one of these is offered. What kept 
 Him ? " It is written ! " He could not have met 
 ' those things without valuing the word above all 
 things. It was but taking what Psalm cxxxviii. 
 gives : " Thou hast magnified Thy word above all 
 Thy name." It was not calling on the name of Jeho- 
 
 • vah, nor speaking to Him. It was not looking back 
 . at past things. It was simply the word that God 
 i had written. It was taking up as an absolute fact, 
 
 " Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every 
 word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." 
 "Thou shalt worship Jehovah thy God, and Him 
 only shalt thou serve." Now they were realities, 
 and He stood and beat down Satan, and Satan fell. 
 
 What shall we use — our ingenuity, and make our 
 plea with him and yield half way, or shall we stand 
 perfectly on the word of God ? What has the word 
 of God told us ? First, where and who we are : sons 
 of God in the heavenly places. Now, shall we not 
 . hold to that, and assert it continually in confidence, 
 in the midst of all that would destroy it and the tens 
 of thousands that are going down into the world ? 
 The word of God is enough for us that we are in 
 heavenly places and are heirs of all that is to come, 
 
 • and are to reign over the earth. Hold on to these 
 things ! Then the food that Satan would present to 
 us will not do. He wiU present science and wealth 
 and attachments here. It will not do for such as we 
 are, heirs of the glory. It will not do for those who 
 
 198 
 
are sons of God. It will not do for those who are 
 risen and seated with Christ in heavenly places 
 already. It will not do for those whom God has 
 blessed with the richest blessings. We look out to 
 the glory that is beyond, and find that it will not do 
 for heirs of all that glory to take a single thing now. 
 
 Suppose he appeals to our pride, the pride of life ; 
 intellectual ability, or what one has gained of repu- 
 tation in any form. It will not do for one who is 
 infinitely higher than all that to listen for a moment 
 to it. The dignity that is reserved for us will out- 
 rank all positions that can be offered here. 
 
 It is now the word, then, as it is actually written. 
 We meet doubts of salvation by simply saying, " He 
 that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting 
 life." We meet all his falsehoods in regard to the 
 future by just learning what the word says about all 
 that future. Past, present, and future are set before 
 us, and faith, hope, and love take hold upon all these, 
 and the way becomes plain. 
 
 Now, beloved, the specific word is in regard to the 
 heavenly places and the calling on high, and there is 
 not a word connected with Israel that will help us, 
 except as a type. We cannot go to their Scriptures 
 and find anything taken literally. Ours are the un- 
 searchable things, which cannot be found in the Old 
 Testament. It will not do, then, to go back into Old 
 Testament methods of worship or of living or of 
 occupation. We come against all this with the word 
 of God and say, ** We are not of this world, and there- 
 fore we are not going to help it along at all." God 
 has not written behind a veil, and therefore we will 
 not have a particle of ritual or ceremonial in worship. 
 We are not of Israel, and therefore the ten com- 
 mandments will not do for us. We are above every- 
 thing, and therefore none but the very Christ can be 
 our rule of life. * 
 
 199 
 
I am trying to bring out the practical thought of 
 how the word is used as a sword— the only implement 
 we can fight with. We are shut up to that word. 
 We are cast into a scene where Satan is prince, and 
 we have nothing but the word. Has not God shown 
 His confidence in His word ? Has He not shown us 
 that He knows He has given us enough to make us 
 capable of meeting everything ? It is the word, and 
 not thoughts of men. Hence I answer everyone who 
 says, "Don't you think?" with ''The word says." 
 f People reply to us, in regard to the literal word and 
 j ask why we do not use the hteral words in Ex. xx. 
 I Simply because He has told us that all these things 
 happened as types, and were written for our instruc- 
 I tion and our learning, and are not written directly to 
 \us. Well, why not believe that the believer has a 
 portion in this world, — that the rich man ought to be 
 rich ? Simply because the word has told us that all 
 that Israel was blessed with is but a type for us. 
 The word tells us that. Why make this distinction 
 between Jew and Gentile ? Just because the word 
 does. And so it goes all the way through the word ; 
 the word defending the word ; the word of God open- 
 ing out the whole book to us, so that we know what 
 belongs to us and what belongs to another people : 
 and thus we are enriched and strengthened and filled 
 up and started on our course and held to it, to be 
 valiant and to fight the fight of faith. 
 
 See Paul, for instance. He comes to the end of 
 his life and says, " I have fought the good fight, I 
 have finished the course, I have kept the faith." 
 That is, the truth that was told him. " Henceforth 
 there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
 which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me, 
 and not to me only but to all those who love His ap- 
 pearing." What had he done ? He had endured 
 every trial, all persecutions, and the worst treatment 
 
 200 
 
from Jew and Gentile and church, false brethren ; 
 he had encountered all the hate and malice and 
 wrath of the Jew, in every form. And all that he 
 had to show for anything that he did was that he 
 had received a revelation of the word from the Lord 
 Jesus Himself. " I have kept that revelation and 
 that faith." He had fought his fight, then, having 
 that before him. His sword was just that truth. 
 And into your hands, beloved, that same sword is 
 placed. That faith that Paul had given him is our 
 sword. May God make us to see all the more clearly 
 that nothing but the word of God means anything. 
 Let us remember that the word says of itself that it 
 is true from the beginning. (Ps. cxix. 160.) That is, 
 from the first word, clear through. Let us remem- 
 ber that the word speaks of itself as being in itself 
 sufficient for the man of God, that he may be perfect, 
 and thoroughly furnished unto all good works, and 
 needs nothing else. Let us remember that the word 
 says of itself that it is perfect, converting the soul ; 
 that it is sure, making wise the simple ; that by it 
 we are warned, and are kept from the evil one. Let 
 us take it on its own assertions, and carry it in our 
 hearts until it becomes the substance of every 
 thought, of every act, and then Satan himself must 
 needs be foiled. It is by the word that we know 
 there is a Satan, and the method in which he will 
 approach us. And so it is by the word that we meet 
 him. 
 
 Ver. 18. "Praying always with all prayer and 
 supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto 
 with all perseverance and supplication for all saints." 
 It is but the expression of absolute dependence. Be- 
 fore we go into the fight and are fighting, we are 
 expressing our dependence on Him all the time. 
 " Praying with all prayer." It is simply leaning on 
 Him. It is helplessness waiting on strength, find- 
 
 201 
 
ing everything in Him ; and it is all the time the 
 expression of helplessness, lest even the knowledge 
 of the word give me pride and make me puffed up. 
 The more I know God, it is only to get more from 
 Him, and to say, " I am nothing." 
 
 " In the Spirit." We are told in Romans viii. that 
 we know not what we should pray for, but the Holy 
 Spirit in us prays with groanings that cannot be 
 uttered ; beyond all our estimates and ways ; and 
 that in accordance with God's mind. " Praying as 
 saints ; " praying as beloved of God, sons by calling ; 
 praying as worshipers ; praying as those intro- 
 duced and established in the holiest ; praying as 
 heirs of God ; praying just where He has placed us 
 and keeping that ground. That is praying in the 
 Spirit. Do not think that praying in the Spirit 
 ! means getting into a heat and fervor. It is praying 
 according to what the Holy Spirit has set forth; 
 ) praying according to all that we hope to be when 
 j Jesus comes, and glory dawns. Then there is watch- 
 ing thereunto. It is that the mind of God should go 
 with our prayer ; acting with reference to the prayer ; 
 according as we pray, so let us look to everything. 
 And then, ** Praying for all saints." Here we are 
 coming to the whole scope and sweetness of Ephes- 
 / ians. It is the book about the saints. It is not about 
 / Christ as Head ; we get that in Colossians ; it is not 
 about our occupation with Him in the glory ; that 
 we have in Hebrews. It is not about the coming of 
 the Lord for each of us individually, and we going 
 up to Him ; that we have in Thess. It is definitely 
 about the saints, and telling us what they are. 
 ** Love unto all saints" was one of the things found 
 in these believers. And thus, while we pray, we are 
 to take in all the others, according to their standing 
 and the purposes of God. A beautiful example has 
 been given us in Chaps, i. and iii., and another ex- 
 
 202 
 
ample is given in Col. i. 9-14. These are clearly 
 examples of how to pray for saints ; — always accord- 
 ing to what they are ; not according to their walk or 
 their feelings, but according to where God has placed 
 them, and then according to their need, of course ; 
 and thus it is that we can always be confident that 
 somebody is praying for us, if this is heeded. 
 
 Then we have one more matter in regard to prayer. 
 Ver. 19 : "And for me, that utterance may be given 
 unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make 
 'nown the mystery of the gospel." Paul is alive \ 
 yet in every epistle he has written ! Moses was alive 
 in the day of Christ, in all that he had given. So 
 Paul is to-day in the word. And then as we have in \ 
 Rev. xi. two witnesses spoken of that shall come at H*^ 
 a certain time in the middle of that last period of ^ 
 seven years of Daniel, just before the three and a C^*" 
 half years come, to testify as Moses did of every- 
 thing in the beginning, and to hold that up afresh ; 
 to testify as Elijah did when Israel had sunk down 
 into worshipping Baal ; then Moses and Elijah, hand 
 in hand, testifying in regard to Israel, and that in a 
 time of infinite need ; so we, in this time, have need 
 of a restoration of Paul. We go back to all the truth 
 that Ephesians and Colossians give in regard to our 
 Head ; that Hebrews gives in regard to our worship ; 
 that Romans gives in regard to our righteousness ; 
 that Thessalonians gives in regard to the coming of 
 the Lord. It is all through Paul. We have but to 
 recover it. It is again unfolding that which was lost 
 for hundreds of years ; then, what shall we do ? Pray 
 for people that are giving any truth with boldness, or 
 pray for Paul, if he says, "Pray for me." Can I 
 pray for Paul ? Most assuredly, for I can pray that 
 his truth may be brought out and known to all the 
 saints. Just as in the day of Jesus it would have 
 been the proper prayer that Moses might be known 
 
 20d 
 
again ; just as down in that time that is spoken of in 
 Rev. xi., it is Moses and Elijah ; God giving witnesses 
 according to His own mind, at the different times. 
 
 And now ours is the recovery of Paul, and there- 
 fore pray that boldness may be given to speak it in 
 confidence. What is given in Philadelphia,— '* Be- 
 hold, I have given you an open door," corresponds to 
 this, and so it shall go out. 
 
 *' And for me, that I may speak boldly." There is 
 no other way but boldness. It is a bold ground that 
 is given to us. It gives us perfect confidence in the 
 presence of God in the glory. No apology for it; no 
 cringing to power, or to general belief, no compromise 
 with it; no saying, "I am not going to antagonize 
 things." Speak the truth, let it find what antagonists 
 , it will. We are praying that it will antagonize 
 j everything on earth. Brelhren, there is no truth for 
 \ us but this. Have we been at it ? Have we been 
 t so full of ourselves that we have forgotten to pray 
 /for the saints ? Then let us be at it now more and 
 ' more. May God give us a heart for all these things. 
 Ver. 20. ** For which I am an ambassador in bonds : 
 that herein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." 
 Kather a peculiar way of treating an ambassador to 
 put him in bonds. It would be considered the deep- 
 est insult. It was meant by Satan as an insult 
 against the government that Paul belonged to as an 
 ambassador of the good news, to get all out of the 
 deep and terrible condition of death and of being 
 under the wrath of God, and to bring into the heaven- 
 lies, in fellowship with God, in a new creation. And 
 he was in chains for that very thing, because he 
 would make known to the Gentiles the revelation 
 that he had received from Christ Jesus the Son of 
 God. He would stand to that heavenly truth. That 
 \ is what is referred to in 2 Tim. iv. 9, ''I have kept 
 • the faith." As sons of G od we cannot hold anything 
 
 204 
 
else. It is in itself perfectly satisfying and absorb- 
 ing, and including everything else, necessarily. 
 
 And because he had told that, that he must go to 
 the Gentiles, he is sent to Rome and to prison; a 
 prisoner of the Lord, really ; but the word of God is 
 not bound ; therefore he could send it out. He was 
 a prisoner for the Lord's sake. An ambassador from 
 another court, in bonds ! What realities there are in 
 such statements as that ! How thoroughly it makes 
 the truth stand out ! And then, that the bonds should 
 not intimidate him. As it is said to the Philippians, 
 **And in nothing terrified by your adversaries ; which 
 is to them an evident token of perdition, but to you 
 of salvation, and that of God. For unto you it is 
 given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on 
 Him, but also to suffer for His sake." 
 
 So, in the midst of these wondrous things that we 
 have learned in this epistle, we get the opposite. His 
 treatment by man and Satan ; but it gives it a brighter 
 setting, casts it up into the highest prominence, from 
 the very treatment that he receives here. It is very 
 evident that if we hold and walk in that truth we 
 must separate from the world, because it is purely 
 unworldly. 
 
 Q. This fight is in which of the heavens ? 
 
 A. It is in the heavenly places. It is in our posi- 
 tion as above the world, and we are having no tie 
 with the world at all according to what Christ said 
 Himself, "You are not of the world ; I have chosen 
 you out of the world." It is a complete separation 
 from everything that is here, and it is spoken of as 
 in the heavenlies. First of all, Christ is raised up 
 and seated in the heavenlies. That is where the 
 fight is going on. I could not say it is the heaven 
 where God's throne is, but yet Christ is seated at the 
 right hand of the Majesty, and that is certainly where 
 Christ is. Then in Rev. xii. we find Michael and his 
 
 205 
 
r^ 
 
 angels fighting against Satan and his angels in these 
 /I heavenly places. Well, Michael is evidently Christ 
 • Himself. The very name means *'like unto God.'' 
 ^ And we are with Him, because it is Michael and his 
 hosts. There we notice, of course, the result of all 
 the fight. Satan is cast down. The scene in Job, 
 Chaps, i. and ii. , does not refer to any fighting. It is 
 the sons of God coming together to worship Him, 
 and Satan appearing among them, and his field seems 
 to have been down on the earth. That is perfectly 
 in accordance with the character of things in the Old 
 Testament, because God was having no heavenly 
 truth to announce in the Old Testament ; and hence, 
 when he was asked where he had been, he said he 
 had been going to and fro upon the earth. So we see 
 how Satan works. He kept Abraham from taking 
 the place that God would have had him in, and stay- 
 ing in the land, for almost immediately we find Abra- 
 ham going out of it into Egypt. Then the grace of 
 God brings Abraham back to the place where he was 
 before, and he worships again at that altar, and is in 
 his tent, again a stranger. But we see Satan's action 
 there in making the world attractive. That is what 
 he does now. 
 
 When God had Israel on the earth, Satan would 
 not be acting in heaven, although that would be his 
 ! place. The angels that excel in strength, that do 
 His commandments, hearkening unto the voice of 
 His word, are represented in heaven. Satan is an 
 angel; possibly the highest angel of all, the arch- 
 angel. Certainly he had followers. He is the prince 
 of the power of the air. That is above. So we find 
 Christ raised up there, and we are raised up and 
 seated there; and Satan is there and our fight is 
 there, with wicked spirits in heavenly places. By 
 reference to Job we find that it was in the presence 
 of God that he appeared. 
 
 206 
 
An illustration is given very beautifully in Chap, 
 iii. of Zech. in regard to Judah and Jerusalem. Of 
 course they had been banished for their iniquities, 
 and there is Joshua, the high priest, representing 
 them, and Satan standing there. He had done all 
 that. He had kept poor Judah down there and got 
 them into the filth. Now we see how beautiful that 
 portion of Ezekiel, Chap, xxxvi, is,— " I will sprinkle 
 clean water upon you." There was Joshua standing 
 there in filthy garments. Now put them together. 
 God was going to cleanse them from idolatry, and 
 the word comes, " Take away the filthy garments !" 
 And then the prophet himself says, " Let them put a. 
 fair mitre upon his head." There is the crown that 
 belongs to the priest. All is restored, but Satan is 
 the one that is rebuked. "Is not this a brand 
 plucked from the burning ?" Passed through the 
 fire, is the idea. Now that is Satan coming down 
 here and so he could say, ** Going to and fro, and up [ 
 and down the earth." The church is seen, in the 
 word, up there, and therefore it is a direct struggle. 
 
 Q. Then it has nothing to do with the Christian on 
 the earth ? 
 
 A. No, except to try to make us fond of it, and to 
 go on with it ; to cover the thing with a glamor and 
 attractiveness, so that man will go on with it. To 
 make him enter into all the worldly ways in accord- 
 ance with man's notions. But we really do not be- :> 
 long here. We must always see ourselves where the • 
 Scripture places us. Israel was counted as nothing 
 if they were out of the land. We are not counted J 
 when we are not apprehending our place in heaven. ( 
 Heb. iii. 6. We walk by faith, but in the last it shall 
 be sight. Israel's conquest was by faith until the day 
 of Solomon. 
 
 Yer 21. " But that ye also may know my affairs, 
 a,nd how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faith- 
 
 ?07 
 
f ul minister in the Lord, shall make known to you 
 all things." That is linking himself so closely with 
 them, that he knew they would want to know all 
 about him. The apostle stands, not only as the 
 teacher and the apostle of the truth of the heaven- 
 lies to the church, but also as the representative, in 
 many respects outlining in his own life the history 
 and action of the church. As he says in 2 Tim. iii : 
 "You have known my teaching, my manner of life, 
 my persecutions." These are the three things con- 
 nected with Paul : his teaching, and his way of life, 
 and the persecutions that the church truth caused. 
 If he had gone along with the world, there would 
 have been no persecutions. If he had had no perse- 
 cutions, the offense of the cross had ceased. How 
 did he get into the heavenly places but by the cross ? 
 If we are not persecuted, then the offense of the 
 cross has ceased. It would tell a bad story for us ; 
 for, all who will live godly must suffer persecu- 
 tion. Now it is not very severe, but it is ours to re- 
 ceive scorn and neglect and opposition, at home and 
 in society. One may say he does not feel it. That is 
 all very well. I might stand in the midst of flames, 
 and be so filled with delight in Christ that I would 
 not feel the flames. That is possible. It has been 
 so. But the flame would be very real ; it would kill 
 me. So it may be persecutions that I am enduring, 
 though by grace lifted above them. 
 
 Paul's life, therefore, was exceedingly important 
 in regard to church truth and the whole walk of the 
 church; the doctrine and administration of the 
 church. So he says, "Concerning my affairs." In 
 the book of Acts we find that Paul very decidedly 
 represents the church ; in its getting into Judaism, 
 and getting into prison as a means of discipline. The 
 church is no longer free when it gets off its ground. 
 I am quite sure that nobody would say that the 
 
 S08 
 
church is where it was. Individuals are, but where 
 is the power of former days ? Where are the mira- 
 cles and signs ? Where are all the gifts of the early 
 day ? It is not worth while to try to imitate them in 
 order to assert them. It is not a proper confession of 
 the truth. We can build up nothing. We can ap- 
 point nothing. We just bow and confess that the 
 whole thing, as far as profession is concerned, is 
 ruined. But God is not ruined, and Christ is not 
 ruined, and the real body of Christ is not ruined. If 
 we can find it, it is not ruined. That is all perfect \ 
 and complete. When the last one is gathered to it, ^ 
 we will be caught up. Thus we see the beautiful i 
 idea of the apostle's sending word about himself. / 
 
 Ver. 22. '* Whom I have sent unto you for the 
 same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and 
 that he might comfort your hearts." Why should 
 such a thing as that be put at the end of such an im- 
 portant epistle as we have here ? It is important 
 that they should know his life as an apostle, and they 
 would want to know how it goes with him. Tychicus 
 will tell them, for he is a faithful servant of the Lord. 
 He proposes here to comfort their hearts. How de- 
 lightful ! To count on their having such fellowship 
 with him that they would need to be comforted con- 
 cerning him. 
 
 Ver. 23. " Peace be to the brethren, and love with 
 faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ." Faith is what receives all these things. It 
 is the simple, open heart to take in everything. 
 ** Peace and love from our God and Father." By 
 faith, you see. And '* From Christ Jesus our Lord." 
 Keeping the dignity and title of both God and Christ. 
 In connection with the church He is the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. The truth about 
 Christ is that He is Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 Ver. 24. '' Grace be with all them that love our 
 
 209 
 
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen." Love is not 
 mere sentiment ; as we had it in speaking about 
 husbands loving their wives. Sentiment cannot 
 always be commanded, but action can. So loving 
 the Lord Jesus Christ is an action. 2 John says, 
 "This is love, that we walk after His command- 
 ments." Love is never a thing that is merely ex- 
 pressed ; as, *'0, how I love the Lord Jesus!" 
 There is no warrant for it in Scripture. There is an 
 immense warrant for our telling how He loves us, 
 and how He loves the church. This is love, that 
 you do His commandments. That is the expression 
 of love. And therefore He says, " Grace be with all 
 them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." 
 It is the acting out in perfect righteousness Christ's 
 own love. 
 
 Q. Are we not commanded to love Him with all 
 our hearts ? 
 
 A. No. Did you think you were ? 
 
 Q. " Thou Shalt love the Lord thy God " 
 
 A. Well, let us look at it. Christ was down here 
 upon the earth among the Jews, and had not died 
 yet ; had not been made Lord and Christ, lifted up 
 into the heavens ; had not become the object of faith 
 as the invisible One. He was down here among the 
 Jews to establish a kingdom, and to be their king. 
 Now a Jew comes to Him and says, " What is the 
 first great commandment of the law ? " And He says, 
 ** Jehovah thy God is one God, and thou shalt love 
 thy God with all thy heart and mind and strength." 
 Are you Israel ? Does it say anything about loving 
 the Lord Jesus in all this ? You ask whether we are 
 not commanded to love the Lord J esus Christ, and I 
 say. No. The quotation is not about our Lord, but 
 about Jehovah, the God of Israel. Jesus was down 
 here, and was raised, and is seated in heaven. We 
 have died. Now where are we ? Coming out a new 
 
 210 
 
man, you must have a new life, new principles, new 
 rules, a new scene, and everything new ! *^ If any 
 man be in Christ, there is a new creation ; old things 
 have passed away, and behold all things have be- 
 come new ?" '* But, if any man love God, the same 
 is known of him" (1 Cor. viii. 3). He need not be 
 boasting of it, but rather let him glory in the Lord, 
 in afflictions, that he is counted worthy to suffer 
 persecutions for Christ's sake. 
 
 May God use these simple words, meant to open 
 this wonderful letter to our hearts and minds and 
 consciences, to the honor of Christ Jesus our Lord. 
 
 THE END. 
 
UNLESS YE HAVE BELIEVED IN VflIN!" 
 
 1 Cor. XV. 2. 
 
 Knowing what I well know, what would it be 
 
 To find all false ? To be bereft 
 Of Christ, my Life, of God, of certainty 
 Of sonship, fellowship ? — What, then, to me 
 
 In the sad universe would there be left ? 
 
 To suffer, in one awful hour, eclipse 
 
 Of all that has been truth and bliss ? 
 Of all the glowing light that more than tips 
 The future scene ? What horror that the lips 
 
 Could utter ever could be matched with this ? 
 
 No Heart of love for me; no Mind to guide; 
 
 No purpose in the maze of life ; 
 None to forgive me when I step aside 
 From right; no light on all that may betide; 
 
 No explanation of this wearying strife. 
 
 No meaning in affliction ; none that cares 
 
 For what I do, of good or bad ; 
 No spiritual or moral standard ; prayers 
 And praises, faith and hope, delusive snares; 
 
 What would or could there be to make me glad ? 
 
 dread, chill lonesomeness I All in me set 
 And fitted for this One, these gifts, 
 
 And filled with longings — never to be met I 
 My birth, a mockery ; and life, regret ; 
 
 An ever deepening grief which nothing lifts I 
 
 1 love the folly of believing all, 
 
 More than the wisdom that denies; 
 The learning that would make my earnest call 
 To Love, only the tossing of a ball 
 
 Into the air, that cannot reach the skies. 
 
 The whole vocabulary of delight 
 
 The whole of living, walk and fruit 
 Is in the grasp of faith ; that makes it sight 
 To the new man and, clearing, too, the night, 
 
 Gives what will his exacting nature suit. M T. 
 
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