Notes on the Epistles to the Thessalonians

J. N. Darby.

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1 Thessalonians

When the Thessalonians received Paul's first epistle, they had not long been converted to the Lord. They then were in all the freshness of Christian life, waiting for the Son of God from heaven, and suffering persecution for His sake. But their faith was mixed with a measure of obscurity. They thought that those from among them who had died would not see the Lord at His coming. To meet their need, the Holy Spirit addresses this epistle to them, in order to establish their faith, to give them light as to the coming of Jesus, and to comfort them in the midst of the persecutions they were going through.

Chapter 1: 1. "The church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father." The Epistles to the Thessalonians present the only instance where we find the expression, "in God the Father," used to indicate the position of a church. In the other epistles, in general, Paul says, "the church of God which is at Corinth," or "the saints which are at Ephesus," etc. It is probably because the Thessalonians were recently brought to the faith that Paul speaks of them in this way. Taking, so to speak, this church at its birth, he only sees it in its relationship to God. "One God and Father" - such is the first notion that springs from faith.

"Grace be unto you and peace": that is to say, May all the energy and riches of that grace in which you stand be displayed in you.

Verse 3. The great christian principles shewed themselves in all their force among the Thessalonians; hence it is that we remark so much freshness in their spiritual condition.

"Your work of faith." See the acts which belong to faith - acts like those which are presented in Hebrews 11 and in James 2; the act of Abraham delivering up his son, and that of Rahab preferring Israel to her own country, etc.

Your "labour of love": that is, the pains one takes in the Lord, the labour one pursues in love, though amidst difficulties.

"Patience of hope"; that is, patient waiting for the promised glory.

"In our Lord Jesus Christ," translate, "of our Lord Jesus Christ." In Him is the source of all blessing for our souls; from Him it is that we derive strength and in Him we find that which nourishes the spiritual life.

294 "In the sight of God and our Father." In the presence of God we find the exercise of conscience. These two blessings - the maintenance of life in Christ, and the exercise of conscience before God - present the two sides of the Christian life. When the soul is in a good state, there is always an exercise of the conscience before God. One may, it is true, after a period of blessing, walk for some time with a certain measure of life, but without the conscience being much in activity. But if conscience is not reawakened, the time comes when one slips away and declines rapidly.

Verse 4. The great principles of Christianity - faith, hope, and love, which were in activity among the Thessalonians, gave evidence of their election. And this proof is the only practical proof of the election of the saints.

Verse 6. "Followers of us, and of the Lord." The Thessalonians had a share of the experience of Christ, when He was on earth. Like Him, they possessed the joy of God through the word, and they suffered persecution.

Verse 8. The faith of the Thessalonians had had an echo; it was noised abroad.

Verse 10. Converted through the power of God, the Thessalonians, far from remaining in the world and seeking to reconcile the world and faith, were, on the contrary, formed by that faith to wait for the Son of God from heaven.

Chapter 2: 1-12 gives a beautiful instance of the feelings and ways of grace in the conduct and labours of a servant of God.

Verse 7. "As a nurse," etc.; that is to say, like a mother who nurses her own child. It was in this spirit of tenderness and affection towards the Thessalonians that Paul had laboured amongst them.

Verse 13. After having called to remembrance his labours, what care Paul takes to maintain the Thessalonians on the foundation of the word which they had received through his preaching. The apostle puts himself aside and gives thanks that they had received that word, not as the word of man, but as being the word of God. Thus their faith was founded on the word of God, although it was by the ministry of a man that it had been produced and placed upon that foundation.

295 There are two evidences, which shew the divine authority of the word of God - works of power, that is to say, miracles; and the effective action which it exercises in the heart. The word of God was accompanied by works of power, when it came unto the Thessalonians through Paul's preaching; chap. 1: 5. And now, in his letter, the apostle, to the praise of these believers, proclaims that the same word worked effectually in them.

Verse 14. In consequence of their obedience of faith, the Thessalonians found themselves connected with the churches of Judea, which had preceded them in the same faith (there is one body); and, like those churches, the Thessalonians were suffering persecution from those of their own nation.

Verse 16. "Wrath is come upon them to the uttermost" - upon the Jews. Unbelieving Israel had been visited of God several times by partial chastisements; but now that they had rejected Christ and the gospel, God subjects them to the full extent of His judgment, a judgment which still continues, and will only be executed in the future trouble of Jacob.

Verse 17-20. Had it not been for the hindrances which had several times prevented him, Paul would have visited the Thessalonians. He greatly wished to see again these believers, the fruit of his labours - they who were the subject of his present joy and his crown of boasting at the moment of the coming of the Lord Jesus. Here then is a new element, with regard to the coming of the Lord! in that glorious day Paul and the Thessalonians would be found together.

There is a difference in the way in which the coming of the Lord is presented in these two instances. Verse 10 of chapter 1 places more particularly before our eyes the coming of the Son, and the joy of the saints, in experiencing the deliverance which He will bring them. There the distinction of the rapture of the saints is not yet brought out; the statement simply presents the coming of the Son from heaven. Verse 19 of the chapter we are reading goes farther; it shews the blessedness of the saints gathered together at the coming of Jesus. The testimony rendered to the Son coming from heaven has enlarged the circle of believers. There are numerous saints; all will be gathered together and happy in that blessed day.

Chapter 3. But there are in the hearts of the saints affections which grace produces.

296 Verses 1-10. Paul, in the midst of the care he devotes to the faith of the believers, is the first to shew us how Christian affections can be connected with the cares of the ministry.

Verse 3. "We are appointed thereunto." It reads better thus; "We are set for this" - this is our lot.

Verse 8. "For now we live." It is my life, if ye stand firm, ye Thessalonians, says Paul.

Verse 10. "Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face." This desire was not so soon realised; Paul before that had time to address a second epistle to the Thessalonians; and indeed several years elapsed before he was able to see them again.

Verses 11-13. In this passage Paul puts the coming of the Lord in connection with every Christian affection. This apostle, who abounded in love towards the saints, desired also that they should themselves walk in love, in order to abide in holiness, and to shine forth in that day. He does not yet state the order of the facts by which this result will be seen, but he mentions the moral truths and the practical grace which prepare it.

"The Lord make you to increase and abound in love . . . to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness." The love of God possessing the heart is what enables the Christian to walk in holiness. Here we find again the doctrine of John: "He that loveth his brother abideth in the light," 1 John 2: 10. It is interesting to see these fundamental elements of faith and of individual blessing forming an integral part of the powerful testimony through which Paul was forming the church.

"To the end he may stablish your hearts," etc. It is an actual establishing of the heart, but which will be seen in its results at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ: "We must all be manifested," etc.

"Before God, even our Father." Paul always sees the Thessalonians in their relationship to the Father. It does not appear that these believers had as yet got beyond the state of babes in the faith. "I write unto you, little children, because ye have known the Father," 1 John 2: 13.

The sense of verse 13 is this: May God establish your hearts in holiness (now, by the exercise of love), that ye may be [seen] unblameable in holiness, before our God and Father [at that moment] at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints. In this passage the coming of Jesus is not presented in the act of our gathering together to Him, when we go to meet Him; but in the act of our coming with Him from the Father's house, after having been in His presence. It is that moment which will shew whether we are unblameable.

297 When Paul, occupied with the coming of Jesus, considers the privilege of faith, he sees the saints all gathered together to the Lord, tasting before Him the common joy. When he considers the responsibility of the Christian walk, he always sees the appearing of Christ. There can be nothing but joy in our hearts at that blessed moment when we shall go with Jesus into the Father's presence, taking a place which the love of God has given unto us, and which the work of Christ has procured to us. It will be otherwise when we return with Jesus. Without losing our position and our blessedness in Him, we shall nevertheless be in a different scene; we shall have reached that solemn moment when the consequences of our responsibility will be manifested.

Chapter 4: 1-12. Here Paul adds several developments to the truths which he mentioned at the close of chapter 3; and first of all on the subject of holiness and love.

Verses 1-8. When Paul was with the Thessalonians, he had shewn them the conduct that is pleasing to God. We must preserve or possess our own vessel in sanctification and honour. If anyone disregards his brother in overstepping his marriage rights, it is not man only but God whom he disregards; for the Holy Spirit dwells in that brother who has been wronged.

Verse 8. "Despiseth." It means, He therefore that [in this] disregards [his brother], disregards not man but God.

"God, who hath also given unto us his Holy Spirit," to dwell in us - Christians. Some read you instead of us.

Verses 9-12. Love is of God. By Him we love the children of God - the brethren. And this love, because it has not its source in the sympathies of man, but in God, is a love which is exercised likewise towards all; chap. 3: 12. Nevertheless, the object which is here recommended to the attention of the saints is brotherly love. The Thessalonians were not wanting in it. They were taught of God, and did not need to be written to about it. Only it was well that they should abound in it, even more and more, and seek earnestly to manifest to those without a quiet and reputable walk. When love is true, we do not merely confine ourselves to the effusions of brotherly love; we watch also, lest as to things without we should be in fault.

298 Verses 13-18. Paul presents, at the end of the chapter, fresh developments on the subject of the Lord's coming. He had already given the chief features of that truth; he now returns to it, in order to supply details, and to introduce elements which had not yet found their place in the subject. What he adds as a fresh element is particularly the doctrine of resurrection. Doubtless, the Thessalonians would not have denied that there will be a resurrection from among the dead, but they might not perhaps have been able to apply it to the Lord's coming.

Verse 14. "Them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him." The departed saints will be found again at the coming of the Lord Jesus. They will reappear on the scene at that blessed moment. You, Thessalonians, you will find again your lost ones! And these are the glorious acts that will then be accomplished. "The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air," v. 16, 17.

Verse 15. "We which are alive and remain." As regards the coming of the Lord, the saints form two classes. There will be one class composed of those who have fallen asleep through Him, and the other of the saints who will be then on the earth. It is these latter ones that Paul points to, when he says, "We which are alive and remain." When he was writing this epistle, he considered himself as included in that class.

Verse 16. "A shout" - an assembling shout. The word here used in the Greek meant originally, the shout raised by the chiefs, on the Greek galleys, to call the men at the time of resuming their work. In our day we mean something similar when we speak of sounding a call to assemble.

It is interesting to see, in the course of this epistle, the progressive order with which the apostle sets forth the truths which concern the coming of the Lord. Instead of immediately attacking the error which was mixed up with the faith of the Thessalonians, he first takes up the subject at the point where it was known to those believers. He begins by using this language to them: You are waiting for the Son of God from heaven! This is indeed the privilege of your faith; for it is to this end, in effect that you were converted; chap. 1.

299 Then, by developments which it is precious to know, he brings them to those things which necessitate our gathering together in that day; chap. 2.

He then fills their hearts with the truth, so that they may be built up in God for that august moment; chap. 3.

It is after this that Paul develops the coming of Jesus for the saints, rectifying errors of judgment in the minds of these believers on certain points; chap. 4.

Lastly, after having expressed the whole portion of the saints in this event, he mentions the portion of the world; chap. 5.

Chapter 5. In the preceding chapters Paul had not pointed out any period of time in connection with the Lord's coming. Here he takes up the question of "times and seasons." But the moment he touches upon this point, he ceases to say "we." He says, "they," "them," those that are without, from whom he takes great care to distinguish the saints, by pointing to them by these words, "But ye brethren," when he again addresses himself to them. "The times," when it is a question of the Lord's coming, are connected with this world and judgment. The saints have their portion above, outside of the ages. They are taught by the Holy Spirit to be constantly waiting for Jesus.

Verses 2, 3. But the world will know what the day of the Lord is - that day which will bring with it sudden destruction on the earth.

Verses 4, 5. The saints will not be overtaken by that day. Why? Because they are not in darkness. Paul adds, "Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day." Hence, for us, a privilege and a character; the privilege of not being overtaken, as those will be who dwell in darkness, and the character of children of light. There are not in the word mere naked doctrines. The truth always clothes with a certain character those whom it places in the position of privilege.

Verse 10. "That, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him"; whether we belong to the class of the living or to that of the sleepers (the departed saints), when the Lord comes, we shall live together with Him.

Verse 22. "Abstain from all appearance of evil." It may be translated equally well, "Abstain from every form of wickedness."

300 Verse 23. "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly." God is often called, "the God of peace." (See Phil. 4, Heb. 13.) There is peace where all is perfect. If we live in these relationships where peace exists, we shall walk in holiness.

"Sanctify you wholly." That is, sanctify you in every point, sanctify the converted man - the whole man. One may, in certain respects, be faithful to God, and in others be faulty. Remark, that Paul does not say, "sanctify perfectly"; but he says, "sanctify wholly," which expresses another idea.* "Your whole spirit and soul and body." The spirit is that which is most excellent in our moral being, that by which we are placed in relationship with God and distinguished from the brutes. The soul is the seat of the affections; it is a faculty of an inferior order which is to be met with, in a certain measure, even among animals: "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life" - "both men and cattle," Gen. 7: 22, 23.

{*The doctrine of perfect sanctification, preached by Wesley, does not admit of the communication of life which is made to the believer; it only requires the action of the Spirit on man such as he is. "The Holy Spirit," it says, "sanctifies the body, the soul, and the spirit." At bottom, this is to set aside regeneration; and it is perhaps for that very reason that the same doctrine will see something good in man, and gives this definition of sin, "a wilful transgression of the law." If sin is merely a wilful transgression of the law, Paul was wrong to express such grief about sin where it was not wilful; Rom. 7.}

Wishing to shew how sanctification takes up a man in his whole being, Paul says, "spirit, soul, and body." In other passages we read simply "the soul," when the soul and the spirit are meant: or else we read, "the spirit," when the spirit and the soul are meant. These two spiritual elements are the instrument on which the life acts, which God has given to the believer, and the body is in its turn the instrument which obeys the spirit and the soul.

Verse 24. It is a consolation for us to know that God is faithful; and that if we walk with Him, He will act in our behalf.

2 Thessalonians

The summary of the second Epistle to the Thessalonians is this. False teachers had come, taking advantage of the little light which the Thessalonians (as yet young in the faith) possessed on the Lord's return; and seizing the occasion of their tribulation, they had thrown them into trouble of mind by telling them, "The day is present." In opposition to this work of the enemy, Paul reassures them by writing to them this epistle, the object of which is to shew them that the day of the Lord was not yet present. These data are the key to the book.

301 Chapter 1. In this epistle, as in the preceding one, Paul, in saluting the church of the Thessalonians, sees it "in God our Father," v. 1, 2.

Then, before entering upon the special subject, the apostle considers the circumstances of the Thessalonians; and, on the occasion of their sufferings for the gospel, he recognises their good estate in Christ, and finds in their tribulations an evidence that they were really in the Christian position. "Your faith," he says, "increases exceedingly and your love abounds, so that we ourselves make our boast in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions. . . . For these tribulations are the portion of those who inherit the kingdom of God," v. 3-5.

Then he shews in what an end these tribulations would issue and the change of position they were preparing between the persecuted and the persecutors at the appearing of the Lord Jesus. In that day we shall be at rest while the wicked will find themselves in tribulation. The Lord will manifest against them His retributive justice. This change of condition is not mentioned, as though it were only to be accomplished at the Lord's appearing; but the words by which it is expressed shew what will be the respective condition of saints and unbelievers at that moment. It is already a first intimation, shewing that the Lord will not put the saints into sorrow and trouble when He comes; v. 5-10.

Verse 5. "A manifest token of the righteous judgment of God." The persecutions which the Thessalonians endured proved they were "counted worthy of the kingdom of God." The judgment of God would bring this into evidence, as it would also manifest what had been the conduct of the persecutors.

Verse 8. There are two classes of persons on whom the vengeance of the Lord will come at His appearing: those who knew not God (that is, sinners in general), and those who do not obey the gospel.

302 Chapter 2. While declaring, in the preceding verses that the Lord, in His day, will manifest His retributive justice, Paul lays down a general truth which governs the subject. Now he enters upon the special point: - Is that day come?

Verses 1, 2. Read, "Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind . . . as that the day of the Lord is present." The coming of Jesus, and the gathering together of the saints to Him at His coming, is a motive, for the latter, not to be troubled as if they were to be included in the judgments which the day of the Lord would usher in. They will be with Him before that. When He shall be revealed from heaven, the saints will have rest; chap. 1: 7. Evidently they will no longer be on this world's scene, for it is not then that there will be rest on earth.

The seducers told the Thessalonians, "The day is present"; and not "the day is at hand."* The Greek word is the same that is used in Romans 8: 38, and 1 Corinthians 3: 22, to signify, "things present," in contrast with "things to come." The language of the seducers signified that this day had been already entered on.

{*If we change the word "present," the whole epistle becomes unintelligible.}

Having the declaration that the Lord should come and gather them together to Himself before that day, and being themselves still on earth, the Thessalonians had, by this very fact, a proof that the day was not yet present.

Verses 3, 4. Here is another proof. The one who will be the object of the Lord's judgment in that day was not yet on the scene. As long as, on the one hand, those who are to be on the seat of judgment are not gathered together (the saints above), and while, on the other hand the criminal is not brought to the bar, there can be no judgment.

Verse 6. "What withholdeth." It is not in order to prevent the revelation of the lawless one that God has put a restraint; it is to prevent his being revealed before his time. The adversary is always ready for evil. In the day that God takes away the bridle, Satan will immediately shew himself at work to drag men into apostasy.

"That which restrains;" the Greek means a thing. What is it? God has not told us what it is, and this, doubtless, because the thing which restrained then is not that which restrains now. Then it was, in one sense, the Roman empire, as the fathers thought; who saw in the power of the Roman empire a hindrance to the revelation of the man of sin, and thus prayed for the prosperity of that empire. At present the hindrance is still the existence of the governments established by God in the world; and God will maintain them as long as there is here below the gathering of His church. Viewed in this light, the hindrance is, at the bottom, the presence of the church and of the Holy Spirit on the earth.

303 The Antichrist will be the head of the ecclesiastical apostasy. He "denieth the Father and the Son." He "denieth that Jesus is the Christ." He will be at the same time a civil head, although the first beast (Rev. 13: 1-10) will be the one to whom the authority and throne of the dragon will be given. The Antichrist, whose seat appears to be in Judea, will be a kind of lieutenant of the beast. Herod might furnish us an example.

Verse 8. "The Lord shall consume . . . with the brightness of his coming." Mark these last words. The lawless one shall be consumed by the presence of the Lord, manifested at His appearing. This leads us to distinguish between the coming of Jesus and His appearing. The Lord will first come, and then He will manifest Himself - He will appear.

Verse 9. "With all power and signs and lying wonders." It is very solemn to see the terms used by Peter, in his preaching at Jerusalem (Acts 2: 22), to denote the works of power which accompanied the ministry of Jesus, now used by Paul in this epistle to express what the man of sin will do. What seduction there will be then!

Elijah's miracles will also have their counterfeit. The lawless one will cause fire to come down from heaven. And here are signs which, in the days of Elijah, were the touchstone of truth - signs by which one recognised that Jehovah was God, which now will be accomplished in behalf of the beast! (Rev. 13).

Verses 9-12. These verses furnish circumstantial but most solemn details concerning the ecclesiastical action which will take place then, and the power of seduction which will be at work among men. The lawless one will come "with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish." God will send "strong delusion," and men will believe what is false, that they all may be judged who have not believed the truth.

304 Such will be the moral state of things during the great tribulation which is to come on the earth. Two passages in the prophets (Jer. 30: 7, and Dan. 12: 1), as well as two passages in the gospel (Matt. 24: 21 and Mark 13: 19), tell us of this great tribulation. There we remark that it will fall more especially on the Jews, although it may happen that the Gentiles also shall suffer from it. It is to the sorrows of this crisis that the sufferings of that remnant refer, which we find on the scene in the Psalms. The tribulation will take place during the latter half of the last week mentioned in the book of Daniel (chap. 9), and will last until the Lord's appearing.

Besides, there are two passages in the Revelation which speak of a general tribulation. The first is Revelation 3: 10, where we read these words, "The hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world to try," etc. Then we have Revelation 7: 9, 17, where we find persons saved out of "all nations, and kindreds, and peoples, and tongue," coming out of the great tribulation. From the evidence given by these passages, we find that there will be a general tribulation on the whole earth; then, at the last moment, a more special tribulation for the Jews.

The church possesses the inestimable privilege of exemption from going through these evil days. Not only will it not be on the earth at the appearing of Jesus (and this is what we have seen at the beginning of the chapter), but, besides, it will not be there at the time of the great tribulation. The Lord has said, "I also will keep thee out of the hour of temptation." We shall not therefore pass through that hour.

Verses 13, 14. There are persons who obey not the gospel; but you, Thessalonians, you have obeyed it. But this was before ordained of God, because He has chosen you from the beginning (according to a counsel determined before all ages), in sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth, which are things accomplished in time.

"Chosen you to salvation" - such is the object which God has purposed in Himself. "In sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth" - such is the effect produced in the elect, conformably to God's purpose. "Our gospel" - such is the means used of God to produce that effect.

305 Chapter 3 contains various exhortations and wishes of Paul in behalf of the Thessalonians. It mentions prayer, obedience, love, and the patience of Christ; also how to treat any walking disorderly: then salutations.

Verse 5. "The Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the patience of the Christ." The teachers who told the Thessalonians, "the day is present," had not that patience.

"I will come again"

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Nothing is more prominently brought forward in the New Testament than the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. This was the first comfort of the angels to the sorrowing disciples: "This same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven," Acts 1: 11.

And if you turn to 1 Thessalonians you will find it presented in the end of every chapter as a common doctrine. It was not at all a strange thing - immediately after conversion to the living God - "to wait for his Son from heaven, even Jesus, who delivered us from the wrath to come."

Again, in Hebrews 9 we read that "He appeared once in the end, of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself . . . and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation."

In 1 Thessalonians it is presented in the way of warning as well as the object of the blessed hope of the saints: "For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not escape."

From this we see the amazing difference between the coming of Christ for this world, and for those who trust in Him. To the world He comes as a judge of both quick and dead (see Malachi); but in this John 14 we find a wonderful difference in the whole principle and spirit of a believer's expectation of Christ.

"Behold, he cometh with clouds and every eye shall see him, and they who also pierced him; and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him," Rev. 1. "But who may abide the day of his coming? and who shall stand when he appeareth?" Mal. 3.

Dear reader, let me ask you, Can you stand before Him at that day? Do you think that you would have confidence before Him at His coming? Could you say, "Lo, this is our God, we have waited for him?" This is He whom I have loved and longed for? Men always judge according to what is suited to themselves. In 1 Thessalonians 4 it is said, "So shall we be ever with the Lord." Now, are you suited to be ever with the Lord? Have you this confidence? If it is founded on anything good in yourself, it is a vain ground of confidence. Peter, as soon as he found himself in the presence of the Lord, felt that he was not suited for the Lord. I am too corrupt, he said. This was a true judgment of Peter; and love for the dignity of the Lord and for holiness. If you are content that holiness should be lowered that you may get off, you do not care for holiness, though you do for getting off. The moment I have seen the holiness of the Lord, and that happiness is in holiness, there is the immediate feeling of my unfitness for that holiness; though there may be the longing for it, which the Lord will doubtless in mercy answer.

307 Two things are needed thus to meet the Lord. First, the conscience must be right: I may have the kindest father, yet if my conscience is not right, I cannot be glad to meet him; and, secondly, affections must be there - the Lord must be my portion. If my heart is on literature, or on anything else here, I shall not like to be where Jesus is. I shall rather be here for a time. If you like the world, you are fit for the world. Heaven is just the contrary, and you know it; and therefore you do not want to go there, because it would take you from being here in the world. There is the comfort of the gospel. It did bring down to men's consciences all that would attract God. But alas! men no more desired the Lord's company here, than they do there. The coming and rejection of Christ here is the plain proof that the world is not fit for Him, and He is not fit for them.

But now to turn to John 14. We find persons here the opposite of all that is in the world. "Let not your heart be troubled." About what? His leaving them. Their happiness, comfort, and joy was in having Christ with them. But now, he says, I am going, but I am not going to be happy without you. There is plenty of room for you. The thing with which He at once comforts their hearts is this, "I will come again." I cannot stay down here in this vile place, I am going to prepare a place for you, but I will come again and receive you unto Myself, that where I am there ye may be also. The Lord reckons on this satisfying their hearts; and their consciences did not hinder. "The Father's house!" Oh! they could go there. "I will receive you unto myself." He knew the chord that rung in their hearts: to be with Himself, the source of all blessing. Thus we get the character of these disciples: they were persons whom the absence of Jesus distressed, and whom the presence of Jesus would comfort, not here, but with Himself.

308 There we find what begot this character. It was all founded on His own word. We do not care for what does not concern us. But as soon as we see a thing that concerns us, it becomes important; and then we want certainty. Now it is very blessed to have God's own word for the basis of our certainty.

For instance, I am a sinner - how then can I get into the Father's house? Because God has said "Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more." Well, God is true, and He will not remember them. Do you say I am presumptuous to say so? I do not say so; God says so; and again in John 5: 24, "He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation"; and John 3: 33, "He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God is true." Thus when the power of the Spirit brings home the word, I have certainty. Faith is in the word, but it is about something. Christ is presented, and man is brought to the test. People always judge by their inclination, and not by their reasoning. Now the effect of the testimony of the Spirit of God when Christ is revealed is that men are not fit for Him, and their hearts do not like to be with Him.

These disciples had loved the Lord. Christ had attraction for their hearts. There at once we see the object of their hearts' affections. Christ had fixed their hearts. Take Mary Magdalene, for instance. She was all wrong in her intelligence, yet Christ had attraction for her heart. So with the rest of the disciples. They all ran away for fear; but it was love to Christ that brought them into the place of fear. Thus we see that Christ Himself was the object of their hearts. They were the companions of Christ - all fear being gone - according to His love and grace. "Ye are they," He said, "who have continued with me in my temptations." Why? He had continued with them; but He speaks as if indebted to them for this fellowship. And being in companionship with Christ in heart, He brings them into all joy into which He is going - nothing less than the Father's house. What attracts me is found in Christ, and then I get from Him the certain assurance that He is coming - and coming for me. Now when the heart is on Christ, what a thing it is to know that He is coming! Am I afraid? No, I am looking for Him. And it is to His Father's house He is to bring me. All that makes heaven a home to Christ will make it a home to me. O come, Lord Jesus. If I have learnt to love Christ, I have learnt to love holiness, to love God. God, in Christ, has brought down to my soul all that God is. What shall I get in heaven? Another Christ? Another God? No. It is the one we have seen and known. "Whither I go ye know." I am going to the Father, and you have seen the Father in me.

309 Ah! but He has not given up His holiness, perhaps you reply. No, indeed, He has not. But Jesus knew all that is needed for me to be with Him. And if He will make the heart to love, He will put the conscience perfectly at rest, that I may love Him. Will He do that by dulling it? No. He will do something that will enable me to stand in the presence of God in whose presence I am to find my joy. He reveals fully God in His holiness, and takes away the sin that would hinder my being in the presence of that holiness. And not only does He put sin away, but He purges the conscience here, so that I am enabled to enjoy God, in full and free affection.

Nothing is more attractive than the death of Christ; but, besides that, it puts away the sin of which I was guilty: an act in which I had no part, an act the proof of perfect love, while it meets perfect righteousness. I had done the sins, and I could not undo them. Jesus said to Peter, "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me." This touched Peter's heart. If you are not cleansed according to My cleansing, according to what suits God's presence, you have no part with Me. O what a comfort! Instead of saying, Depart from me, Jesus said, "Now you are clean." And in Peter we see the proof of a good conscience. He said to the Jews, Ye denied the Holy One and the Just, the very thing he himself had done fifty days before. Now a man will talk of every sin but what he is guilty of; he will shirk that. But here Peter was in perfect peace about the very sin he was guilty of; his conscience was perfectly purged.

The happiness of the heart that is touched is to be with Christ; and conscience is purged for being in His presence. Between the Lord's saying this, and coming for them He had put away sin from God's sight, and from their conscience. "I will come again, and take you unto myself, etc., and whither I go ye know." There is no uncertainty. We know where we are going to. The soul has found fully the object that has set it at rest, and that will satisfy it up there without fear.

310 Could the Lord thus address you? Could you say, O that is what I am wanting? Or, are you saying I've got here what I would like to enjoy? Is that being a Christian? A Christian may vary in strength of affection, never in object. I am sure I do not love the Lord enough, but I am sure it is the Lord I love. I have no confidence in my own heart, but all confidence in Him. He has died for me; that is what I count on: He has put away my sins; that is what I need: He is coming again; that is what I am longing for.

Dear reader, let me ask you, was it ever a trouble to you that you had not Christ? Do you know where you are going? It may be you have hope; but have you present certainty? Now we, Christians, have; for Christ is known, and when He is known, there is perfect rest in His word. "I will come again, and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." "Amen, Even so, come, Lord Jesus."

Notes on 1 and 2 Timothy

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The fact of flesh (that is, of the flesh being in us) does not make a bad conscience. It requires flesh in action, so as to produce outwardly what is bad, to do so.

"Holding faith and a good conscience" - in this we have the doctrine of the epistle. I may see what is beautiful in creation, and delight in it; but the moment I rest in it, I make it an object, and then sink down into it.

"We know" is a technical expression for Christian knowledge. It is not merely knowing objectively, but rather such and such is made a subject of revelation, and we have got it and know it.

"Using the law lawfully" is convicting sinners by it. The legalist takes the ground that the law proves he cannot take. The law never goes beyond the brazen altar, that is, man's responsibility as man. The law condemns all that flesh produces, but not flesh itself.

The sabbath - rest - is an integral part of man's relationship with God; God did rest in creation, but not now since man has fallen. The sabbath is annexed to everything (or order) that is set up (with responsible man as man); but in the New Testament, it is always set aside as is man, the child of Adam fallen.

Paul calls himself the chief of sinners; that is, he was a rejecter of the Lord after He was crucified and glorified; the Jew (properly speaking, is characterised as being) a rejecter before He was crucified. Stephen's martyrdom was the closing scene of the dispensation for the Jew. The chief of sinners is an end of self, and we are in the same boat with Paul when we take that place.

The gospel of the glory (of Christ) is the highest point of grace as it reveals the glory to the person who is trying to destroy it: in preaching, however, you must go back to where the want is in the soul.

"Make shipwreck of faith" is running into heresy, backsliding, giving up a good conscience.

Not only man has fallen - there are fallen angels, and the heavens are defiled; all things had and are to be reconciled. Those that are reconciled do need a mediator for intercession-a mediator came in with a broken relationship, an advocate with a retained one.

In Ephesians we are called on to be imitators of God; in Colossians, like Christ; in Philippians, to walk as a saint, as personified in Paul.

312 An unmarried man might be a ruler, but he could not be an elder. A ruler is a gift, an elder an office; gifts are for the body; office is local. We have an example in Timothy of a young man who ruled elders. A ruler is a person who gets an ascendency over others morally, and keeps their wills from working by the power of the word in the Spirit.

Christianity takes up creation as God made it and sanctions it, and brings in another power, namely, spiritual power.

The snare of the devil which is a bad conscience, brings in the same condemnation; the person is charged with the same thing Satan is charged with, namely, pride. (See Ezekiel 28.)

The precious stones are on the king of Tyre in creation (worldly glory); on Aaron in grace (the high priest); in the new Jerusalem, in glory.

The Holy Ghost dwells in the individual believer, and in the whole church, only.

"Justified in the Spirit" - that is, the power of the Spirit characterises the justification. "Seen of angels"; it is only by Christ angels have seen God. "Believed on in the world," that is, announced and received there by faith.

The Reformation reformed the existing body as it then was: we go back to the beginning.

The everlasting covenant has a different character from the new covenant. There are many covenants in Scripture, but the old and new are distinct, and with Israel only.

Every prophetic word comes from relationship broken for us now, as Christians and in Christ, everything is restored; 1 Tim. 4: 5. Hence the creature is sanctified by the word to me, prayer goes up from me in response.

There are two characters of forgiveness of sins - the one as in Romans, justification, in which man has no power, the other, the sins or failure of a justified person. The church can forgive these. It is administrative forgiveness.

Dependence is kept up in Scripture without ever questioning acceptance.

Salvation is by grace: reward is for labour.

God is the only one that has immortality in Himself. When we speak of mortality, it only applies to the body. "The soul that sinneth, it shall die," means that each one shall die for his own sin; in other words, it is individual responsibility.

313 2 Timothy.

When the power of evil comes in, then it is just the time to expect courage. These are truths for the times. There are truths for eternity, which are more blessed. Through grace we now have Paul's testimony, which had been lost, brought out again.

In the early church they used to pray for the saints, not to them. In the fourth century Christ was the only one they did not pray for.

"Purge from." It is not exactly discipline here, but to separate myself from. There is the Lord's certainty, and man's responsibility, acting on which I then get ecclesiastical apprehension.

A thing may not be wrong for a person ecclesiastically, if he has no conscience about it; at the same time the church cannot be ruled by an individual person's conscience.

The word "receiving" (into communion) should not be admitted at all. Properly speaking, we are all in. One has now to ascertain whether people are real - who calls on the Lord out of a pure heart.

"The last days" are more definite and distinct than the "latter times" - "perilous," because of the form of godliness.

It is said, You must believe in the church because it is holy, and you must believe it is holy by faith!

We are always deficient in strength in service if we do not recognise that we have to do with Satanic power, as in Jannes and Jambres.

If I do not believe the word till it be sanctioned by someone else, I do not believe it at all; it is the sanction I believe.

No one speaks of the church but Paul, nor of Christ's coming for the church but he.

When we meet together, we recognise the presence of Christ, not the habitation of God.

External testimony proves the folly of other men, but does nothing for faith. All arguments only remove the rubbish, they do not give faith. By removing rubbish from a plant, you do not make it grow, but you give it liberty to do so.

A gospel rejecter is under the responsibility of rejecting love. There is rather a want of will to come than a want of power: "Ye will not come unto me that ye might have life."

We find that angels are the power of providence, Israel the power of government, and the apostles the power of grace in the Spirit.

Notes of a discourse on 1 Timothy 1

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Wherever the Spirit of God reveals truth, it is the revelation of Christ to the soul. It is essentially practical. It fills the soul, the affections, with Christ. The Lord said, "For their sakes I sanctify myself." The foundation once laid, God forms and fashions the soul by the revelation of Christ, at the same time delivering us from present things, and associating us with Himself.

What characterises the Christian is that which takes him out of the world altogether (he has his relationships to fulfil in this life), makes him an epistle of Christ, manifesting the life of Christ, and leading him to long for the time when he shall find himself in the Father's home, like Christ, with Christ for ever, nothing more to jar.

God has associated him with Himself and with that place; and our part is, as Christ's was here, to manifest that our place even now is there. Aye, our place is in the last Adam, not in the first.

This "charge," the "end of the commandment," was Timothy's commission. His mandate, as it were, was to make manifest this place which saints had in association with the life of Christ. He speaks of "the glorious gospel of the blessed God." We are called to inherit blessing, to inherit it from one who dwells in blessing. "The glorious gospel" tells me how man is brought back to God, and thus shews the triumph of God and blessing over evil.

The first beginning of the history of man gives us the triumph of evil over natural blessing. Consequent on this came judgment. Next comes the law, a requisition from man who had pretensions to good. A rule was given of righteousness (if man could make it out). There was no triumph of good here, but a requirement from man of what man ought to be. The law was not given to Adam, the law was given to sinners - to fallen man. The law would have been of no use to Adam before the fall; he would not have understood, "Thou shalt not steal," etc. The law brings out evil to our consciences. Who has loved God today as he should have done? Who has loved his neighbour as himself? It is not the blessed truth of the triumph of good over evil; but it is most useful to bring to the conscience these two things - first, not only that we have sinned, but why you and I have sinned. Shall I tell you why? Because we liked it. "In me, in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing"; and, what is more, when I desire to do good, evil is present with me.

315 If we are to be with God, we must be fit for Him. When Isaiah saw His glory, he felt he was a man of unclean lips. I cannot go back to paradise and natural blessing; I cannot stay where I am; but I must be able to look into the light of that glory, and say it is my joy, or I cannot walk with God who is light. To this end I must learn what verse 5 speaks of - "the end of the commandment," love, faith, and a pure conscience.

A good conscience is only conscious of what the pure heart should be in the presence of God, having an entire unclouded confidence (faith unfeigned) in God - "That your faith and hope might be IN God." If I fail, I fly back to God; if I am weak, I fly back to God with faith unfeigned in Him, as the One who has delivered me; counting upon God, as the One that is for me, to bring me back to my place.

Verses 8 and 9. The law never gives life; the law never gives strength; the law never gives an object. If the law could have given life, righteousness would have been by it. The law gives no power against sin, but slays. The law gives no object. But when we turn to Christ, in His Person we find the one good, all purity, all goodness, perfectly divine. Oh! if I could get such - as Paul says, "win Christ" - One above all my wretchedness; One who comprehends me, but in so doing brings such grace and peace; One who was brought into the midst of all evil, but who was superior to it. When He is once known, we do not want to excuse sin, we want to get rid of it. Does He hide sin? Nay, He would have truth in the inward parts (not the truth of doctrine now). When once thus known, God is trusted in all love. In the Gospels we have a full, perfect exhibition of the triumph of good over evil. See the woman taken in adultery; see the leper who was not only defiled, but whose touch defiled another, but not Christ. What grace (however imperfectly) to know God! I discharge my heart into the bosom of Him whom I can trust. To whom could I ever tell out all sin? Not to any friend out and out, but to Him unreservedly. And mark how He carries me on. Having opened my heart by the goodness He has shewn me in bringing me into His presence, I learn sin put away by Him who needed not to be spared, but was able to bear the full brunt of God's wrath.

316 Oh! that one work by which He put away sin! God being perfectly glorified by that which met sin! Not as the Jewish sacrifices did - sin and sacrifice - sin and sacrifice - and sin again; but done for ever! I get then this truth, that in virtue of what Christ has done, the Christ is set at His right hand, God having stepped in, and in this blessed One met sin and put it away. It is done! If it is not done, when is it to be done? Can Christ die over again? It never can be done. He cannot return from glory to do it. It is done, and now we see why it is called "the [not 'glorious gospel' but] gospel of glory."

I am brought into light. No light is like the light which shines at the cross. Your sins were as scarlet, they are made white as snow. I am brought in conscience through a new and living way into God's presence, and spotless. By the Comforter sent I get the power of it. The true conscience is one that knows nothing in the heart but what the Holy Ghost puts there.

The estimates of the conscience are always according to the presence it is in. Duties flow from the place we are already in. Some think the knowledge of grace releases us from duties; but nay, it founds them. A child of God for ever, I have the duties of a child for ever. A pure heart will reject what is contrary to the Holy Ghost. In a good conscience Christ is all. Whenever I have failed, I have left Christ out.

Faith unfeigned trusts Him ever, and keeps a good conscience; a perfect and pure heart confides in that love; and whence did it come? It sprang from Himself. By Him we believe in God, and what He expects from us is that we should know not only we are blessed in Him, but with Him. His perfect love is shewn by bringing us into blessing with Himself. Driven out of earthly paradise by sin, we are brought into heavenly paradise by redemption; and He leads our thoughts, desires, and affections after it, founded on His perfect work; a faith unfeigned giving us the knowledge of His heart, a heart to enter into all our sorrows and trials.

The smallest thing let in contrary to Him jars. We belong not to ourselves; we are Christ's, not our own. We ought not to have good consciences if indulging in what is contrary to Him.

317 I ask, if He came this night, would He find you with a whole heap of things to huddle out of your heart, or is it ready? Is your heart waiting, full of affection for Him? There is no truth so powerful to empty the heart of all that is contrary to Him. If waiting, how much freer and looser should we sit from all on earth. The Lord apply the question to your hearts, whether, if He came, you could open to Him immediately, and so look with joy unclouded to see Him.

Propitiation and Substitution

1 Timothy 2: 6.

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My intercourse with saints, and especially with those who preach, has led me to discover that a good deal of obscurity in their manner of putting the gospel, and I may add a good deal of Arminian and Calvinistic controversy, arises from not distinguishing propitiation and substitution. I am not anxious about the words, but about the practical distinction, which is very simple and I think of moment. I say the words, because in propitiation, in a certain sense, Christ stood in our stead. Still there is a very real difference in Scripture.

This difference is clearly marked in the offerings of the great day of atonement. Aaron slew the bullock, and the goat which was called the Lord's lot, and sprinkled the blood on and before the mercy-seat and on the altar. The blood was presented to God, whose holy presence had been dishonoured and offended by sin. So Christ has perfectly glorified God in the place of sin, by His perfect obedience and love to His Father in His being made sin who knew no sin. God's majesty, righteousness, love, truth, all that He is, was glorified in the work wrought by Christ, and of this the blood was witness in the holy place itself. Our sins gave occasion to it, but God Himself was glorified in it. Hence the testimony can go out to all the world that God is more than satisfied, glorified, and whoever comes by that blood is freely, fully received of God and to God. But there was no confession of sins on the head of this goat; it was about sin by reason of Israel's sinfulness, but it was simply blood offered to God: sin had been dealt with in judgment according to God's glory, yea, to the full glorifying of God, for never was His majesty, love, and hatred of sin so seen. God could shine out in favour to the returning sinner according to what He was; yea, in the infiniteness of His love beseech men to return.

But besides this there was personal guilt, positive personal sins for which Israel was responsible, and men are responsible, according to what is righteously required from each. On the great day of atonement, the high priest confessed the people's sins on the scape-goat, laying both his hands on its head: the personal sins were transferred to the goat by one who represented all the people, and they were gone for ever, never found again.

319 Now this is another thing. Christ is both high priest and victim, and has confessed all the sins of His people as His own, borne our sins in His own body on the tree. The two goats are but one Christ, but there is the double aspect of His sacrifice, Godward, and bearing our sins. The blood is the witness of the accomplishment of all, and He is entered in not without blood. He is the propitiation for our sins. But in this aspect the world comes in too. He is a propitiation for the whole world. All has been done that is needed. His blood is available for the vilest whoever he may be. Hence the gospel to the world says, "Whosoever will, let him come." In this aspect we may say Christ died for all, gave Himself a ransom for all, an adequate and available sacrifice for sin, for whoever would come - tasted death for every man.

But when I come to bearing sins the language is uniformly different. He bore our sins, He bore the sins of many. "All" is carefully abstained from. I say carefully, because in Romans 5: 18, 19, the difference is carefully made. The first, our sins, is the language of faith, left open indeed to anyone who can use it, but used and to be used only by faith. The believing remnant of Israel may use it, including the blessing of the nations, for He died for that nation; Christians use it in faith, for all that have faith use it. The second "many" restricts it from all, but generally has the force of the many as contrasted with a head or leaders, the mass in connection with them. Adam's the many were in result all, but all is in connection with him. Christ's the many those connected with Him. But it will never be found in Scripture that Christ bore the sins of all. Had He done so they never could be mentioned again, nor men judged according to their works That Christ died for all is, as we have seen, clearly said. Hence I go to the world with His death as their ground and only ground of approach, with the love shewn in it. When a man believes, I can say, Now I have more to tell you, Christ has borne every one of your sins, they never can be mentioned again. If we look at the difference of Arminian and Calvinistic preaching we shall see the bearing of this at once; the Arminians take up Christ's dying for all, and generally they connect the bearing of sins with it, and all is confusion as to the efficacy and effectualness of Christ's bearing our sins, and they deny any special work for His people. They say if God loved all He cannot love some particularly; and an uncertain salvation is the result, and man often exalted. Thus the scape-goat is practically set aside.

320 The Calvinist holds Christ's bearing the sins of His people so that they are effectually saved, but he sees nothing else. He will say, if Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, there can be no real love for anything else, and denies Christ's dying for all, and the distinctive character of propitiation, and the blood on the mercy-seat. He sees nothing but substitution.

The truth is, Christ is said to love the church, never the world, that is a love of special relationship. God is never said to love the church, but the world. That is divine goodness, what is in the nature of God (not His purpose), and His glory is the real end of all. But I do not dwell on this, I only point out the confusion of propitiation and substitution as necessarily making confusion in the gospel, enfeebling the address to the world or weakening the security of the believer, and in every respect giving uncertainty to the announcement of the truth. I believe earnestness after souls, and preaching Christ with love to Him will be blessed where there is little clearness, and is more important that great exactitude of statement. Still it is a comfort to the preacher to have it clear, even if not thinking about it at the moment; and when building up afterwards, the solidness of the foundation is of the greatest moment.

On Rule

1 Timothy 5: 17.

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I agree that, as a rule, gatherings get on where there is one who cares for souls. I have long noticed it; and, while in a small gathering, care one for another may be easy and simple, I have always held it to be a bad sign if time and increase of numbers did not develop the care of souls in persons whom love led to devote themselves more or less to it.

It may be in one aspect mutual or general, as Hebrews 12: 12-15; or more direct and positive, as 1 Thessalonians 5: 12-14, where, indeed, we have both. Hebrews 13: 17 (v. 7, they are deceased). In none of these cases are they viewed as official. It is, moreover, the contrary to official in 1 Corinthians 16: 15. They are those who "take the lead" (1 Thess. 5: 12) and "leading men" a word used of Judas and Silas in Acts 15: 22.

In 1 Corinthians 16 they have "addicted themselves," as indeed we have no trace of elders at Corinth; the Lord, doubtless, allowing it that we might have the internal state, and care, and duty, of an assembly in Scripture itself. These care-takers were not, as is truly said, the gift of teachers. This case is distinguished in 1 Timothy 5: 17. But it was desirable, not that they should be teachers as a gift (pastor and teacher are united under one head in Ephesians 4), but that they should be "apt to teach," 1 Tim. 3: 2; able to carry the word with them in their episcopal ministrations, and use it - shepherd and feed, not merely superintend; though they might usefully do the latter alone according to 1 Timothy 5: 17.

These have been the passages which have guided students of Scripture as to that by which God meets the need of saints when public order and official authority are lost to the church, with general warnings in Old and New Testament as to the care of the beloved sheep of Christ. Still the promise remains, that where two or three are gathered together to Christ's name, He is there in the midst of them.

But I would draw your attention to one of these passages - and this is my object in these lines - a leading one on the point. The household of Stephanas had "addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints." In the heart of him who so labours, when rightly done and efficient, it is done in the spirit of service, not of rule. Love works: they addict themselves; as Paul, free from all, became the servant of all for Christ's sake. There is a gift of rule, but love delights to serve. In this verse, which is a specially guiding one, service (diakonia) is that to which they addict themselves. He who thus addicts himself in love, will assuredly find himself blessed in it, though patience may be exercised, and must have its perfect work.

Fragmentary Remarks

2 Timothy 2.

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I believe that the churches have been merged in the mass of ecclesiastical popular hierarchism, and lost; but I believe also that the visible church, as it is called, has been merged there too.

Still there is a difference, because churches were the administrative form, while the church, as a body, on the earth, was the vital unity.

What I felt from the beginning, and began with, was this: the Holy Ghost remains, and therefore the essential principle of unity with His presence; for (the fact is all we are now concerned in) wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

When this is really sought, there will certainly be blessing by His presence; we have found it so, most sweetly and graciously, who have met separately.

When there is an attempt at displaying the position and the unity, there will always be a mess and a failure: God will not take such a place with us.

We must get into the place of His mind, to get His strength. That is now the failure of the church. But there He will be with us.

I have always said this. I know it has troubled some, even those I specially love; but I am sure it is the Lord's mind. I have said, We are the witnesses of the weakness and low estate of the church.

We are not stronger nor better than others (Dissenters, etc.), but we only own our bad and lost state, and therefore can find blessing. I do not limit what the blessed Spirit can do for us in this low estate, but I take the place where He can do it.

Hence, government of bodies, in an authorised way, I believe there is none; where this is assumed, there will be confusion. It was here [Plymouth], and it was constantly and openly said, that this was to be a model, so that all in distant places might refer to it. My thorough conviction is, that conscience was utterly gone, save in those who were utterly miserable.

I only, therefore, so far seek the original standing of the church, as to believe that wherever two or three are gathered in His name, Christ will be, and that the Spirit of God is necessarily the only source of power, and that which He does will be blessing through the lordship of Christ. These [the Spirit present and the lordship of Christ] provide for all times. If more be attempted, now, it will be only confusion.

324 The original condition is owned as a sinner, or as mutilated man owns integrity and a whole body. But there a most important point comes in. I cannot supply the lack by human arrangement or wisdom. I must be dependent.

I should disown whatever was not of the Spirit, and in this sense disown whatever was - not short of the original standing; for that, in the complete sense, I am - but what man has done to fill it up; because this does not own the coming short, nor the Spirit of God. I would always own what is of God's Spirit in any. The rule seems to me here very simple.

I do not doubt that dispensed power is disorganised; but the Holy Ghost is always competent to act in the circumstances God's people are in. The secret is, not to pretend to get beyond it. Life and divine power is always there; and I use the members I have, with full confession that I am in an imperfect state.

We must remember that the body must exist, though not in a united state, and so even locally. I can then, therefore, own their gifts and the like, and get my warrant in two or three united for the blessing promised to that.

Then, if gifts exist, they cannot be exercised but as members of the body, because they are such, not by outward union, but by the vital power of the Head, through the Holy Ghost.

"Visible body," I suspect, misleads us a little. Clearly the corporate operation is in the actual living body down here on earth, but there it is the members must act, so that I do not think it makes a difficulty.

I believe, if we were to act on 1 Corinthians 12: 14 further than power exists to verify it, we should make a mess.

But then the existence of the body, whatever its scattered condition, necessarily continues, because it depends on the existence of the Head, and its union with it. In this the Holy Ghost is necessarily supreme.

The body exists in virtue of there being one Holy Ghost. There is one body and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling; indeed this is the very point which is denied here.

325 Then Christ necessarily nourishes and cherishes us as His own flesh, as members of His body; and thus goes on "till we all come," etc. (Eph. 4). Hence, I apprehend we cannot deny the body and its unity (whatever its unfaithfulness and condition), and (so far as the Holy Ghost is owned) His operation in it, without denying the divine title of the Holy Ghost, and the care and headship of Christ over the church.

Here I get, not a question of the church's conduct, but of Christ's; and the truth of the Holy Ghost being on earth, and His title when there; and yet the owning of Christ's lordship. And this is how far I own others.

If a minister has gifts in the Establishment, I own it, as through the Spirit, Christ begetting the members of, or nourishing, His body. But I cannot go along with what it is mixed up with, because it is not of the body, nor of the Spirit. I cannot touch the unclean, I am to separate the precious from the vile.

But I cannot give up Ephesians 4, while I own the faithfulness of Christ. Now if we meet, yea, and when we do meet, all I look for is that this principle should be owned, because it is owning the Holy Ghost Himself, and that to me is everything.

We meet and worship; and at this time we who have separated meet in different rooms, that we may, in the truest and simplest way, in our weakness, worship. Then whatever the Holy Ghost may give to anyone, He is supreme to feed us with, perhaps nothing in the way of speaking; and it must be in the unity of the body.

If you were here, you could be in the unity of the body, as one of ourselves. This Satan cannot destroy, because it is connected with Christ's title and power.

If men set up to imitate the administration of the body, it will be popery or dissent at once.

And this is what I see of the visibility of the body; it connects itself with this infinitely important principle, the presence and action of the Holy Ghost on earth.

It is not merely a saved thing in the counsels of God, but a living thing animated down here by its union with the Head, and the presence of the Holy Ghost in it. It is a real, actual thing, the Holy Ghost acting down here. If two are faithful in this they will be blessed in it.

If they said, "We are the body," not owning all the members, in whatever condition, they would morally cease to be of it. I own them, but in nothing their condition. The principle is all-important.

326 Christ has attached, therefore, its practical operation to two or three, and owns them by His presence. He has provided for its maintenance. Thus, in all states of ruin, it cannot cease till He ceases to be Head, and the Holy Spirit to be as the Guide and the Comforter sent down.

God sanctioned the setting up of Saul; He never did the departure from the Holy Ghost. The "two or three" take definitely the place of the temple, which was the locality of God's presence, as a principle of union. That is what makes all the difference. Hence, in the division of Israel, the righteous sought the temple as a point of unity, and David is to us here Christ by the Holy Ghost.

On the other hand, church government, save as the Spirit is always power, cannot be acted on.

I suspect many brethren have had expectations, which never led me out, and which perplexed their minds when they were not met in practice. I never felt my testimony, for example, to be the ability of the Holy Ghost to rule a visible body. That I do not doubt; but I doubt its proper application now as a matter of testimony. It does not become us.

My confidence is in the certainty of God's blessing, and maintaining us, if we take the place we are really in. That place is one of the general ruin of the dispensation. Still, I believe God has provided for the maintenance of its general principle (save persecution), that is, the gathering of a remnant into the comfort of united love by the power and presence of the Holy Ghost, so that Christ could sing praises there

All the rest is a ministry to form, sustain, etc. Amongst other things, government may have its place; but it is well to remember that, in general, government regards evil, and therefore is outside the positive blessing, and has the lowest object in the church.

Moreover, though there be a gift of government, in general government is of a different order from gift. Gift serves ministry, hardly government. These may be united as in apostolic energy; elders were rather the government, but they were not gifts.

It is especially the order of the governmental part which I believe has failed, and that we are to get on without, at least in a formal way. But I do not believe that God has therefore not provided for such a state of things.

I do believe brethren a good deal got practically out of their place, and the consciousness of it, and found their weakness; and the Lord is now teaching them. For my part, when I found all in ruin around me, my comfort was, that where two or three are gathered together in Christ's name, there He would be. It was not government, or anything else, I sought. Now I do believe that God is faithful, and able to maintain the blessing.

327 I believe the great buildings and great bodies have been a mistake; indeed I always did. Further, I believe now (although it were always true in practice), the needed dealing with evil must be by the conscience in grace. So Paul ever dealt, though he had the resource of a positive commission. And I believe that two or three together, or a larger number, with some having the gift of wisdom in grace, can, in finding the mind of the Lord, act in discipline; and this, with pastoral care, is the main-spring of holding the saints together in Matthew 18. This agreeing together is referred to as the sign of the Spirit's power.

I do not doubt that some may be capable of informing the consciences of others. But the conscience of the body is that which is ever to be acted upon and set right. This is the character of all healthful action of this kind, though there may be a resource in present apostolic power, which, where evil has entered, may be wanting; but it cannot annul "where two or three agree it shall be done."

So that I see not the smallest need of submission to popery; that is, carnal unity by authority in the flesh, nor of standing alone, because God has provided for a gathering of saints together, founded on grace, and held by the operation of the Spirit, which no doubt may fail for want of grace, but which in every remaining gift has its scope; in which Christ's presence and the operation of the Spirit is manifested, but must be maintained on the ground of the condition the church really is in, or it would issue in a sect arranged by man, with a few new ideas.

Where God is trusted in the place, and for the place we are in, and we are content to find Him infallibly present with us, there I am sure He is sufficient and faithful to meet our wants.

328 If there be one needed wiser than any of the gathered ones in a place, they will humbly feel their need, and God will send some one as needed, if He sees it the fit means.

There is no remedy for want of grace, but the sovereign goodness that leads to confession. If we set up our altar, it will serve for walls; Ezra 3: 3. The visibility God will take care of, as He always did; the faith of the body will be spoken of, and the unity in love manifest the power of the Holy Ghost in the body.

I have no doubt of God's raising up for need all that need requires in the place where He has set us in understanding. If we think to set up the church again, I would say, God forbid. I had rather be near the end, to live and to die for it in service, where it is as dear to God; that is my desire and life.

Notes of lecture on Titus 2: 11-14

<27037E> 329

It is very striking to notice the connections in which the summary of divine truth, contained in these verses, is introduced. The chapter is occupied with teaching what sort of conduct Christianity demands from those who profess it, according to the relative position in life in which they may be found. It teaches what is becoming in aged men and in aged women. It tells us, also, how young women should behave; and what should be characteristic of young men. It then takes up the common every-day conduct which is due from servants to their masters; and (while teaching them to be obedient, and to seek to please them in everything - guarding against insolence and dishonesty - "that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things") it adds, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

Now there is a reason for the introduction of this passage here; which is simply this: that while men are satisfied - and must be satisfied, for they can go no farther - with the expression of the mere outward behaviour, the word of God occupies itself with the correction of the motives and springs from whence all conduct flows. More than this - no conduct can ever be acceptable in the sight of God that does not flow from a heart subjected to His grace, which brings salvation; and that is not swayed by its daily powers. Rules of conduct are not given, cannot be given, to those whose hearts have not been subjected to "the obedience of faith."

But even here, amongst Christians, there is a very frequent mistake. While the world values Christianity merely for its collateral results, such as the reformation of manners and its conservative effect on society, etc., Christians too often are occupied with the working and effect of God's grace, in the subjects of it - whether themselves or others - to the exclusion of the contemplation of that grace in its divine and absolute character, and in its first and grand effect. I mean this: ordinarily the Christian's mind is more occupied, as expressed in the passage before us, with what the grace of God teaches, than with what it brings. It teaches us to deny ungodliness, etc.; but before it teaches, it brings salvation. How many may be found most anxious to discover, what men now call the subjective power of this grace, who at the same time are utterly at sea as to what is meant, in corresponding phrase, by its objective power! Surely it is well, and necessary, in its place, to see to it that we yield ourselves to the teaching of God's grace, when its lesson is, "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world." But it is not well to overlook, or underestimate, the absolute power of that grace in what it brings. The grace of God brings salvation, or is salvation-bringing, to the lost and ruined, before it teaches in those whom it saves.

330 "The grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared," is but the succinct description of God's intervention in infinite love, by the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, for the accomplishment of redemption.

Apart from all the effects and fruits of grace in those who are the subjects of it, there is God's intervention in perfect absolute goodness, in the scene of ruin and death, which sin has introduced, for the perfect and entire deliverance out of it. The grace of God brings salvation into this world, where sin and death and Satan's power mark the condition of man's existence; and that apart from all effects of that grace, in peace of conscience, or holiness and happiness, on the part of those that believe. There is the grace itself, as well as the blessed fruits which it produces. The salvation which it brings has its own proper character, as the intervention of God in divine love and power, as well as its own blessed results in the position Godward, to which it brings its objects.

The two termini of a Christian's course are here marked as the results of this interposition of God in grace, namely, salvation and glory. The Christian's path, I repeat it, is here shewn to lie between the starting-point, which is salvation, and the goal, which is glory. Grace and glory are inseparable. Conduct, exercise of heart, trial, conflict, service, lie between these two points, and in God's estimate take their character from them; but the salvation was accomplished alone by Christ's appearing in grace - for "grace and truth came by Jesus Christ." And the glory will be accomplished, alone, by Christ's appearing in glory. This is what the passage states. "The grace of God which bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men." It then adds, "looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Intermediately it tells us that the grace, which brings salvation, teaches us, "that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world"; while in verse 14, we have the constraining motive to holiness in the end for which Christ gave Himself for us. "Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works."

331 This is plainly practical as the end, in us in this world, of Christ's infinite love.

Let us look, then, first, at the character of the deliverance, or salvation, which this wondrous intervention of God in grace brings. This cannot be learnt by going over the points of systematic divinity [i.e. the creeds of religious systems], but by a reference to the character of man's condition through sin, as unfolded in the word of God, and manifested by the suffering and death of Christ. Whatever there is of moral distance from God, through sin, this salvation, which "the grace of God" brings, meets, and sets aside. "For Christ hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God." Sin in its very nature separates from God; for light cannot have fellowship with darkness; but then it is said, "Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ." Sin, and death, and Satan's power, and the judgment of God - all marked man's condition of ruin, and all must be met before salvation, full and adequate, can be proclaimed. It is not enough to raise man from his degradation and moral pollution, if such a thing could be, and set him on his pathway to happiness. The conscience must be set at rest on the ground of every claim of God in His righteous holiness having been met, and every possible consequence of sin set aside. And this is the salvation which the grace of God brings. It brings eternal life into this region of death; for "God hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son." It brings in divine righteousness into the midst of condemnation. For "he who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." It brings deliverance from Satan's power; for "through death [Christ] destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." Nay more, the salvation which the grace of God brings puts us in the very place, and position, and acceptance before God, and makes us partakers of the very life and glory of Him by whom the salvation has been wrought. It has no other measure, and has no lower character. Was ever love like this!

332 There is, indeed, the teaching of this grace, which is all-important in its place; but what the heart must know first (as it is its first action, on the part of a God of goodness) is its salvation-bringing power; for without the knowledge of the salvation, its teaching will be misapprehended and in vain.

The grace of God, then, first brings a perfect absolute deliverance of the soul from the whole consequences of sin, and brings into God's presence in acceptance, according to the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ. For the salvation lies in His obedience and sufferings for sin, in the acceptableness of His sacrifice, and in the power of His resurrection; and "as he is, so are we in this world." This is all absolute; it is God's part in the grace which brings salvation.