And being so about.
Yeah, I just remind you of the possibility—at least the possibility—that the Lord may be speaking in this place tonight. If prayer is answered, it will be so.
And if it should be so, we have accepted a solemn responsibility in allowing ourselves to hear the Lord speak. It may be a very blessed thing to have the Lord speak, but it is a very responsible thing, for we can never be the same if the Lord should speak.
We together have said, “Speak. Speak, Lord, in the stillness, while I wait on Thee.” Give us, then, hearts that are truly touched with the precious blood of Jesus, minds that are guarded, and grace that we may receive and obey.
We ask in the name of the Lord Jesus. Amen.
As quite a few have joined us since last evening, it might be helpful if I were just to hurriedly review the course that we have been following in these evening hours under the general heading, The Cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Our object has been to see how the cross is presented to us in the letters of the Apostle Paul, and how each letter sets forth a particular application and meaning of the cross.
With the letter to the Romans, we noted how comprehensive and all-inclusive the cross is. Then, out of that all-inclusiveness, we began, in the second place, the breakup, so to speak, and the application of the cross to particular and peculiar situations. The first of these was in the first letter to the Corinthians.
We noticed that in that letter there is a great divide made: the divide between the situation and condition of the Corinthians as they were, and the situation and condition to which Paul sought to bring them by way of the cross. He repeatedly emphasized that the cross was the way of transition from the one to the other, and we headed that consideration with the two humanities.
Even where Christians are concerned, there is that type of Christian which Paul describes as the natural man, which literally, in his own language, was and is the man of soul—the soulish man, living wholly upon the basis of the soul.
Then, on the other side, is the other kind of humanity: the spiritual man, the man of spirit, governed by the Spirit. The letter holds us apart in those two categories—the two humanities within the compass of the Christian community.
We saw all the differences between the two, even as Christians, and how the cross comes in there to make the division between soul and spirit.
I am going to stay for just a few extra words in that particular connection.
You must remember that, really, as part of Paul’s background, being the man that he was—with his very thorough Jewish training and knowledge of the Hebrew Scriptures, what we call the Old Testament—there would always be that background to his mentality. The Holy Spirit would take up that background, and although perhaps not always quoting the Old Testament or referring to any particular book in it, it is there all the time. If you look beneath the surface, you will find it.
In this particular connection, which we are considering now, it is so evident that there is a background of that kind to the Apostle Paul throughout the first letter to the Corinthians.
Here in this letter, he brings into view that phase of Israel’s history which was in the wilderness, and its tragic issue. In Chapter 10 of the first letter, he brings that forward as a warning to the Corinthians. Remember, he speaks about their failure and falling in the wilderness after having come out of Egypt, after having been redeemed with precious blood.
This is not my interpretation. This is exactly what Paul says. They died in the wilderness. They did not go through to that unto which God had brought them.
And, I say, he used it as a very solemn warning to the Corinthians and says, in effect, “Be careful. You are now in exactly the same position as Israel was in at that time, and I am warning you that your destiny can be the same as theirs. You may fail to go through to what God has called you unto. You may,” using his own word, “perish in the wilderness.”
I know that will raise some questions in your mind, and I expect you would want to ask me those questions, if you had the opportunity—if I gave you the chance—about final perseverance, and being saved and lost, and all that. Do not project that. We are not talking about salvation. That is settled with the Corinthians. We are talking about inheritance: the purpose of salvation.
Paul makes it very clear that you may be on the foundation which is Christ. In Chapter 3, you may be saved on the foundation which is Christ; but when you are on the foundation, you may put up a superstructure which will be entirely lost. All your life-work may go up in smoke. That is only another way of interpreting Israel in the wilderness.
Now then, what lay at the root of that tragedy of Israel? You have the answer in the fourth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews. Men have struggled all through the centuries over the authorship of the letter to the Hebrews. We are not going to argue about that. But there is something here that is very similar, if not identical, in the tenth chapter of the first letter to the Corinthians and the fourth chapter of the letter to the Hebrews.
You notice that the writer, whoever he was, is speaking about this very same thing:
So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
He enlarges upon the tragedy of Israel perishing in the wilderness and not going in to possess. Then he uses that conjunction to which I drew your attention the other evening, without enlarging upon it as I am now: “For they entered not in”—they perished in the wilderness—
For the word of God is living, and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing even to the dividing of soul and spirit.
There are the two categories, I think: the two humanities. The soulish people perished in the wilderness. The spiritual people, who were raised up, went over and went through. Very impressive, is it not? That little “for”—that mighty little “for.”
The Word of God divides between soul and spirit. The implication of the extra statement is that this was the cause of all the trouble in the wilderness. If you remember the history of those decades in the wilderness, how much there was of this: “What am I getting out of this? How do I benefit by this?”
“I”—“What am I getting?” The soulish man is always concerned with self.
You remember the changeover, the transition, in Joshua and Caleb: “If the Lord delight in us, then He will bring us into this land.” Oh, it is the Lord’s delight, not mine. That is the difference between soul and spirit.
We are going to come upon that very definitely as we come into the later letters. I want you to notice that this is the big issue amongst the people of God: redeemed by precious blood, brought out of the world and bondage to Satan, and yet failing to go right through to the purpose of that redemption and all that God intended.
The cross comes in to save us from falling in the wilderness by the way and missing the inheritance, by acting like a two-edged sword, dividing asunder between soul and spirit. That is the cross in its practical application.
Then we saw, afterward, last night, that that issue is dealt with fundamentally. These issues are not settled all at once, you know; they are only settled fundamentally. There is much yet to be done. We shall find a lot more in Second Corinthians to be done in that connection, but the root has been touched. The axe has been applied to the root. Something has been done.
You look at the seventh chapter of the second letter to the Corinthians. You hear the Apostle speaking about what happened after they got his first letter: “What earnestness it wrought in you! Yea, what clearing of yourselves! Yea, what indignation! Yea, what fear! Yea, what longing desire!” They are broken people. They were not broken before; now they are broken people. They are weeping and sobbing over what they have done.
I say, the axe has been planted at the root. Something fundamental has been done. Therefore, they can come over Jordan, so to speak—come over and get through—and start on new ground altogether: the ground of the open heavens, the ground of the unveiled face.
Remember:
But whenever one shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
You are over on the other side. There is a different atmosphere, is there not, in the second letter to the Corinthians from the first? It is a different atmosphere. There are possibilities now.
They come into the good of the unveiled face, which, in other words used by Paul, is:
Seeing it is God, that said, Light shall shine out of darkness, who shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
You cannot say that in letter number one, but you can in letter number two: “Therefore, having this ministry”—the ministry of the unveiled face. I am not going over all that we covered in a full hour last night, but the point is that they are now represented in their spiritual position.
You notice the spiritual sequence of these letters, do you not? The spiritual sequence is a move forward: new prospect and possibility, new potentiality, new atmosphere.
Oh, when the people got over Jordan, that is how it was. You breathed more freely. As you read your first letter to the Corinthians, especially those early chapters, you are not breathing freely at all—not at all. Now the atmosphere is clear and clean, and there is a new forward movement. This is a great move forward; they are over.
And, as I have said, something fundamental, though not final, has been done.
Very good. The inclusive thing, because, you know, Jericho represented, in its sevenfoldness, the seven nations that were to be conquered. Seven is the dominant number there at Jericho. That is spiritual fullness, or spiritual inclusiveness.
When you have got Jericho, you have, in figure and in spirit and in spiritual position, got the land. You have got everything that is in the sovereign will of God. So, being over into the second letter to the Corinthians, you are over, and you have compassed Jericho. That is, the foundation is dealt with.
Now what? Now, most surely, the people are spiritual people. You do not need me to go back to the beginning of the book of Joshua: the Man standing with the drawn sword, Captain of the host of the Lord, unto whom Joshua capitulated the campaign. You do not need me to tell you that that is the representation of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, who is in charge of the campaign.
Leave all these details. This is where we are in the second letter. Everything looks wonderfully promising, does it not? New atmosphere, new prospects, new potentialities.
What makes Galatians? What makes Galatians hold up arrested progress, bring it to a standstill, reverse it, and send it back onto the old ground?
The whole thing is in Galatians, is it not? Oh, these cries of the Apostle: “O foolish Galatians, who did bewitch you?” “Ye were running well; who did hinder you?” You had come to a certain point. What has happened to you?
And over against Galatians is Ai: old ground touched; Babylon touched; bringing back the old ground of death.
The Apostle in this letter to the Galatians puts it, strangely enough, into two words, or a phrase: “the world.” You know how he finishes the letter to the Galatians:
But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world hath been crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
He links that phrase here in the sequence of things with this Ai business. Because we know what they took at Ai: the Babylonish garment and the wedge of gold. The world touched—the world system touched—that is enough. Even God cannot deliver you from the prince of this world if you take hold of every contact that you make with this world. It arrests spiritual progress.
Well, “the world”—we shall see what that means as we go on. But it is a very comprehensive and inclusive thing. Ai was the arresting hand of something.
Leave the book of Joshua for the moment and come to this letter to the Galatians. I want this arresting hand, this spell, that brought this beautiful movement to a standstill—for they were not at a ripe end; they were going on. What was it?
Oh, of course, you say, “You have told us: getting back onto soul ground again.” Yes, all right. What is that? What is that?
Dear friends, if you look again at this letter to the Galatians, which you know so well, you will find it is in a little suffix: “-ism.” And in this case, Judaism. That was it. That was it.
Tonight, in this consideration of Galatians, I am speaking about the battle for sonship—the battle for sonship. Remember the three major words in this letter: liberty, Spirit, and son. We shall come back to that. That is the final issue.
The battle for sonship rages around, or on the ground of, Judaism. It was that “ism” which brought the Galatian Christians to this standstill, to this arrested progress, and called out this terrible heart-cry on the part of the Apostle:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
It is a pity that the translators have given us “until Christ be formed in you.” No: “until Christ be fully formed in you.” That is the issue: not the beginning of the formation of Christ, but the full formation of Christ. Sonship, undergirded by a full formation of Christ.
And all because an “ism”—a mighty “ism”—was Judaism.
I need not, I think, spend any time in explaining and defining Judaism. I think that will come out as we proceed. What we are going to say will perhaps define it best as we enlarge this thing. But what I am saying is that it was an “ism,” an “ism” that did it.
And this has always had the same effect: Judaism.
Recently I came across something written by a very well-known Christian leader and teacher who, over half a century ago, wrote standard lives of Christ and of the Apostle Paul. Well, they were the great books at that time; you do not hear so much about them today. He wrote this, and I need to read it to you.
“It is so personally related to these things in the craft and subtlety of the devil and man. Christianity has ever tended to wither away into Judaism; into Rabbinism; into scholasticism; into ecclesiasticism; into Romanism; into sectarianism; into dead schemes of dogmatic beliefs; into dead routines or elaborate ceremonial; into dead exclusiveness of parties and party narrowness; into dead formulae of church parties; into dead performances, dead works, or dead attempts; into dead phrases.”
That is pretty good, is it not? All your “isms.” But if he lived today, I wonder how many more “isms” he would have added. I am not going to be so unkind as to give you the extended list, but think—think—the “ism.”
This thing which has become defined as an “ism”—and that, and that, and that. Sometimes it is a distinct error; there are errors. Sometimes it is a mixture of truth and error. Sometimes it is truth itself which has become an “ism.”
Yes, the truth is right; it is in the New Testament. But it has become an “ism.” What is the effect of an “ism”? What do we mean by an “ism”?
Well, that thing has had a fence drawn round it and has, in itself, become the beginning and end of everything. And that says, “Unless you hold this line, accept this ground, come onto this route, there is no fellowship with you. Fellowship is not possible.”
Only if you accept this interpretation, or this experience, or whatever it is, can you have fellowship. You can put in the place of circumcision, “Except ye be circumcised, ye cannot be saved.” Remember that?
That thing may be right in itself, though it has been crystallized and finalized, and the wall of exclusivism has been set up. Unless you come onto this, you are excluded.
And that, as the writer whom I have just referred to said in the quotation, is what he meant by the subtlety of the devil.
You realize, dear friends, that God has never done a new thing in Christian history, or brought forth something that was intended to lead His people further on to that ultimate fullness, but that sooner or later—and usually sooner—men have put upon that a man-made “ism” of it.
They have crystallized it into a teaching, a manner, a practice in Christianity, with its own laws and ways and rights; and that thing has brought arrest to the fullness God intended. Jesus almost stopped there—at Ai.
One of the most pernicious things that the devil has ever done in Christian history has been to make men crystallize living truth into dead form.
And you know, he is clever. He is clever. Oh, take the two-edged sword and the “ism” of Judaism, and cut off its head; rob the devil of his most potent instrument in the days of Paul, which was Judaism.
In fact, everywhere that the Apostle went, that was either waiting for him or on his trail: to discredit, to bring in the arrest of spiritual life and progress. The Galatian battle came to a head in this Galatian situation, and with this Galatian letter, it is recorded that Goliath of Judaism was slain for the time being. It did not lift its head again at that time.
The devil lost a great instrument. But do you think he laid that line down? Well, I have quoted some of these “isms,” and I have said we can add many more.
The Lord Jesus said that when the unclean spirit has gone out of a man, it wanders through empty places. If something better and other does not take its place in that man, in that house, the spirit comes back from his wanderings and looks in through the window, as it were, and sees that the house is empty. He goes off and brings seven others worse than himself, and the last state of that man is worse than the first.
The devil lost Judaism. Just see what was going to take its place. Because of this vacancy in Christianity, this not going on to sonship, he has brought back scores of others worse than himself: “ism,” “ism,” “ism.”
Now, I am not trying to be humorous, or merely making up something new. Dear friends, make no mistake about it: there are very fascinating and attractive “isms.”
New Testamentism, non-New Testamentism. And in some parts of the life and ministry, again and again I have seen dear people of God who were actually open, going on with the Lord in the liberty of the Spirit, with great promise, and then they have been caught in some “ism.”
You simply are helpless. Excuse yourself in the tenet, but that is it. Again and again I have seen it.
British Israelism, whether it is right or wrong, is a sidetrack. It is something with a fence around it, and you cannot get anywhere with those people beyond that thing. That is the upset. I take it as an illustration, but I mean many others.
There is a great business sweeping like a plague in America and over Europe these last years. I dare mention this one: universalism. It is an “ism” which has captivated multitudes, and you just cannot get anywhere with these people once they have got it. But I have known them all so promising—so promising—and then this thing comes subtly along their way, attractive and fascinating, so appealing.
Ultimately, even the devil himself will be saved. What are you going to do with that? Willy-nilly, he will be saved. It undercuts something at the very root of the gospel.
I am illustrating. I am not just making a text. I am trying to show what it means. You may call these things gross errors, but there are things that are not such errors—not such errors indeed. In themselves they are quite true, but they have become the beginning of all and the end of all to the people who have taken them on.
You can get no further—no further. They have lost the great ground, the vast ground of God’s full purpose for this dispensation, and become stuck on something that is only partial at best. Arrested, like Judaism: coming to a standstill, or going round and round in a circle, the circle of this particular thing.
It should be a warning to us, because, you see, this is the thing that has been the enemy of the fullness of Christ all through the centuries. The Lord does something; it is right, the Lord did it; and before long it is crystallized into a system governed by men.
Unless you come directly into that, you are out. You are not included; you have no credit. You must stand on this now—this now—or you are not included at all. The whole thing comes with this. You understand what I mean? Is not this true? Oh, how subtle!
Let us come now to this matter again. You notice that there is a transition in this letter, a transition which is gathered under several words or names. They all mean the same thing: bondage on the one side, liberty on the other; servant and son; the law and the Spirit.
This is the issue—the issue in this letter. What does it come to?
Well, I have been speaking on the one side of the servant: bondage, limitation. The word which really explains the servant in the Greek is the bondslave—the bondslave. What is it? “You must.”
A servant, you see, has no right of his own, no liberty. He has to do what he is told. “You must,” and “you must not.” You cannot follow your own judgment. You have got to obey this, whatever it is. We call it legalism, but there are so many forms. It is the “must” life—the life of the slave. That is the word.
On the other side, over against the slave, is the son. You know as well as I do what a difference there is between those two.
I do not know how it is here in America. I know how it is over where we are. A servant goes out in the morning—he may be the builder, the road-worker, or whatever he is, the employee—and he does not hurry to work at all. He goes as slowly as he possibly can without actually making a breach of the law.
Then he gets there, takes so long to get his coat off, and then so long to get through that; then he looks around, and now it is time to have a cup of coffee. You can go along almost any hour of the day and find them having a cup of tea or something.
There are five men working on that road job, and one is doing a little; two or three are on the job, and the others are always, you know. Then you come along just before the time—“Oh, five minutes to twelve”—and off they go. So they go through the day. They are the servants, the “must” people.
But when you get the son, the owner of the property, the son of the master builder—none of that. No, this thing is a matter of interest, responsibility, and, more than that, love for the father. He will work beyond the appointed hours, and he will work—oh, he will work.
No “must” with him, nothing like that. What is it? It is his spirit. It is the spirit—carried on by another spirit than the spirit of the servant.
That is the letter to the Galatians, you see. Liberty from all this demand, this obligation. “Must” never comes in—never comes in—for the liberty of sonship goes on without considering personal interests, without asking any questions as to, “How much must I? How much can I not?” It is a difference.
We are all in peril of some kind of “must” and drive, even in the things that the Lord has done with us. Blessed be what the Lord has done, if we are not very careful we will bring them into a systematized form, and they will become our prison. Then it will be the bondslave.
Sonship is God’s goal for the Christian. God’s goal. You know the word is, “the manifestation of the sons of God.” That is the consummation of everything: bringing many sons unto glory. God dealeth with us as with sons.
Sonship—there is no higher thought in all revelation than the thought of sonship. That is now ours, we can say; but with God, it is not yet revealed what we shall be.
But we know that, if He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him even as He is.
That is sonship finally consummated, and we are being guided on that course. What a wonderful conception. The Apostle John, you see—the old man John, in his atmosphere of exile, concentrating his long life, yes, suffering, and plenty of it, long life, union with his Master—he has just this word: there is nothing to compare with this, this sonship, the highest thing ever thought of by God for us in redemption.
And we are in the course of this. If that is true, will the devil stop at anything to prevent us getting there? You see, it is going to be this corporate sonship, glorified in union with the Son, which is going to dispossess the whole kingdom of Satan, displace it, and take its place for the government in the ages to come.
The prince of this world is not taking that easily. So, not only will he bring persecutions and suffering from the outside, but if he can arrest our beautiful progress and shut us up to something smaller than God intended, he has frustrated the end, and he has done that.
Oh, the point is: keep in the open with the Lord. Keep out in the light of the Spirit. The Spirit will not let you go wrong. The Spirit will make alive to you all that is intended for you.
But do not begin to say that when you have got that experience or that light, unless others accept it and take this ground, they are outside the pale. “We are the people. We are the people. Truth begins and ends with us.” Oh, God save us from the spirit of it. Give it up.
You have to go and think about the “isms.” Whether denominations are right or wrong, I am not going to argue; but I will say emphatically, denominationalism is wrong. It becomes an “ism,” something that binds you, controls you, sets bounds to you; and it is wrong, whatever other thing it may be.
Where it is right—oh, well—as soon as the enemy succeeds in making that the limit, however good it may be, he has defeated the end. There will be an arrest and a reverse.
I can only now take you back by reminding you of how Joshua handled the situation. Yes, he sifted it down at Ai, sifted it down, down, down, from tribe to family, from family to household, from household to man: Achan.
One man brought revolution and ruin to the whole people of the Lord. You understand? Achan. And it was a very drastic thing that was done. There is a principle involved, you see—principles.
But whatever Joshua did with Achan, I do not think it compares with what the Apostle did with Judaism in Galatians:
But though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach unto you any gospel other than that which we preached unto you, let him be anathema.
As we have said before, so now I say again, If any man preacheth unto you any gospel other than that which ye received, let him be anathema.
It was the curse upon any kind of legalism: “Except ye be circumcised”—except, except. Oh, be careful of these “excepts.”
There are other kinds of “except” which are quite all right:
Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
That is all right. But not a Judaistic “except.”
You see, the very Spirit and Word of God is upon this matter: of keeping out in the open with the Lord as your government, the Holy Spirit as your control, your Teacher. It is safe. When the Holy Spirit really is Lord, there is liberty; but it is safe—safe.
Remember again what John said about the anointing:
And as for you, the anointing which ye received of Him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach you; but as His anointing teacheth you concerning all things.
Oh, be careful. Be careful. “I am quite independent. I do not need anybody to tell me anything.” That is not what John is saying at all—not at all. What does John say?
There are many antichrists in the world. An antichrist is not a curious, fearful creature, you know, with a tail and a pitchfork. An antichrist is something that assumes the place of Christ.
The devil himself is transformed into an angel of light. There are many such things, and with natural judgment and natural powers you are not able to distinguish between the true and the false, the Christ and the antichrist. They may seem to be certainly alike. You cannot discern it, but the anointing will tell you.
The anointing which you have received—when you come into touch with something false—will keep you. The anointing will say, “Be careful,” not in words, but inside. You have a feeling: “There is something not quite clear here, not transparent here. I do not feel happy about this. I cannot tell you why, but I just do not feel quite happy about this.”
There is something in you that says, “Beware.” The anointing will teach you. It is perfectly safe when the anointing is in charge, you see.
And here you are: here is your other humanity, is it not? “The spiritual man,” says Paul, “discerneth all things.”
I would close just by saying this to you, dear friends. In my judgment, the greatest need in Christianity and among Christians today is spiritual discernment. I could not say anything beyond that. I am convinced that in a day like this, of deceptions and misleadings and all that, the great need is spiritual discernment.
Knowing the Holy Spirit in this way, He is able to warn you—just to warn you—not in words. I do not mean by words of Scripture, but in your own spirit, where He dwells: “Yes, that is all right; go on.” The arbiter is life and peace.
Or He will say, “No, be careful. There is danger there.” Then it is for us, in our spiritual sensitiveness, to take note of that.
Let me tell you that it is not my experience that the Holy Spirit speaks with a shout. I very rarely know the Holy Spirit to speak out in a way that there is no mistaking. It has been such a gentle thing, just something that I could miss if I did not pause and learn that the voice of gentleness is so often the voice of the Spirit.
That is sonship, you see: growing to discern, to sense, to understand—the spirit of sonship.
I have said enough. May the Lord help us to understand. If you are praying, and in all your praying, whatever you are praying, ask the Lord that by the Holy Spirit He will develop in you the power of discernment, give you the gift to discern.
So that, as Paul put it in another place, you can discriminate the things which differ. Remember that? The difference in things: good, bad, indifferent, best, excellent. “That ye may approve the things that are excellent.” The original is, “the things which differ.” The Lord make us people like that.
The Lord, there may not have been very much entertainment, or fascination, or attractiveness about all this; but We know that Thou wouldst be very faithful with us. We want Thee to do it.
If warning and enlightenment as to peril is Thy mercy, Thy grace, and Thy goodness, we will be very grateful if tonight a warning light has been turned on—something to save us.
Oh Lord, how we want to go on and go through, to come out into the ultimate consummation: sons in glory, never arrested, never having shortened, never brought short.
Oh Lord, we want the one end, O Lord, that Thou hast called us unto. Now give us understanding. Interpret to us Thy meaning. Thou knowest our hearts and our minds.
Through Christ Jesus, may grace and mercy unto you from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with us evermore. Amen.