HEIGHT AND DEPTH

HEIGHT AND DEPTH

Proverbs 25: 1 - 5; Ephesians 1: 3 - 11; end verse 20 - 23; Ephesians 4: 9, 10; Philippians 3: 13 - 15.

I desire, dear brethren, to indicate what it is that God is working for at the present time, that is, the end to which He is working. The passage I have read in Proverbs 25 is very applicable to the present time, for as you will notice, it says that “These are also proverbs of Solomon; which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah transcribed.” The days of Solomon were Israel’s brightest days. In Solomon’s day the house of God was built, the ark was brought to rest, the service of God was set up and was functioning, and the glory of God filled the house. It really typifies what was no doubt reached at Ephesus under the apostle’s ministry; that is, the full thoughts of God in blessing had been made known and there is no doubt that at one time the assembly there entered into them and responded to them, but then when we come to the days of Hezekiah, things are very different. Between the days of Solomon and the days of Hezekiah, a great departure had come in. Ten out of the twelve tribes were irremediably lost in captivity in Assyria, and even the remaining two tribes had very largely turned away from God. Ahaz the king who preceded Hezekiah was probably, up to that time, the most wicked king that Judah had ever had. But in Hezekiah’s day, a measure of recovery was granted. The house was cleansed and the service of God was re-established, and the passover, the feast of unleavened bread, was kept for seven days, and then for a further seven days. And it says there was joy in Israel such as had not been since the days of Solomon. So that Hezekiah’s days represent, in picture, a recovery to the greatest levels of truth that were ever ministered to God’s people, and in that way answer very much to the days in which we find ourselves at the present time. For though it be in much outward weakness, as indeed the position under Hezekiah was as compared with that under Solomon, the fact remains that in the ways of God those of God’s people who are available have been recovered and are being recovered to the most precious features of the truth that were ever made known by the apostles. And it was in the days of Hezekiah that these proverbs of Solomon were apparently brought to light and were transcribed so that they might be on permanent record, and hence they obviously have a particular application to us at the present time.

The first thing that is said in these proverbs which the men of Hezekiah transcribed is that “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” It is most important, beloved brethren, that we should understand that, that God take pleasure in concealing what He is doing, because then we are content even if things outwardly appear to be very small and insignificant. “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” We were having before us yesterday that the idea of mystery enters into Christianity in a very marked way, and this is in accord with that idea, that it is God’s glory to conceal a thing. The object in that is that God intends to keep His holy and precious things outside the range of the natural man. And so when the incarnation took place, perhaps the most marvellous event that has ever occurred in the history of this world, when He who is God became Man, it is marvellous the way that God concealed it. When Jesus was born, He was born in Bethlehem and laid in a manger: there was not room for Him and those that were with Him in the inn, and therefore He was laid in a manger. Very few had any idea of the immensity of what had taken place in that God had come into manhood. The immensity of that was entirely concealed from the knowledge of the natural man, and God works deliberately on those lines. You will remember that the angel notified what had taken place to the shepherds and the angel said, “today a Saviour has been born to you in David’s city, who is Christ the Lord. And this is the sign to you: ye shall find a babe” (it should not read the babe), that is, the angel was not specifically directing their attention to the Person of the Lord Jesus though of course that was involved, but he said, “ye shall find a babe.” That was the nature of the sign God gave, “a babe, wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger.” Luke 2: 11, 12. It was as though when God intimated the greatest possible thing, that a Saviour had been born who should be Christ the Lord, the sign by which they were to be assured of it was not a sign that would appear to man, or that to the natural man would convey any idea that something of transcendent significance had taken place, but the sign was to be “a babe wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and lying in a manger.”

I only mention that, beloved brethren, to enforce this statement, for it is God’s glory to conceal a thing, and I think as we follow His ways we shall see that that principle always operates, that He always conceals what He is doing. When the Lord Jesus died, to outward appearance it was defeat, but then God intervened and raised Him from the dead, but He did not make a public display of the resurrection. The Lord Jesus was never seen as risen from the dead save by chosen witnesses; He was never seen by the world; and then similarly He was taken up into heaven. God did not make a public matter of it. He did not display it. It was just to a chosen few that the privilege was given of witnessing the Lord Jesus taken up into heaven, not that God has left Himself without witness to these great things, for the Holy Spirit has come down from heaven and has testified to the great fact of the resurrection and exaltation of Christ, and the testimony of the Holy Spirit has spread throughout the whole world. But at the same time, God works in that way, for it is His glory to conceal a thing, and I venture to say without the least fear of it being inaccurate, that the world at large knows nothing whatever of what God is carrying on among the saints at the present time. But then, “the glory of kings is to search out a thing”. Kings are the saints as marked by royal dignity, and it is our honour to search out a matter.

With that in mind, I seek to pursue this scripture in Proverbs and to link it up with the scriptures we have read in Ephesians and Philippians. As I was saying I wish to indicate by the Lord’s help what it is that God is working to secure, and I think for the present purpose we may limit our consideration to what it says in verse 4, “there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner.” God is working to secure a vessel, a vessel which is to be produced as the result of a refining process which He is carrying on at the present time, but the great thought before the mind of God at the moment is a vessel. You remember when Peter was in Joppa he saw a vessel; he fell into a trance and saw a vessel as a great sheet being let down from heaven, held by the four corners and let down to where Peter was, and taken into heaven. What he saw was a vessel. God was making known to him that He had in mind to secure a vessel. The vessel is nothing less, I need hardly say, than the assembly, the assembly too as the body of Christ, a vessel which is intended to be a vessel of praise to God at the present time and throughout eternity, as it says in Ephesians, “to him” (that is, to God) “be glory in the assembly in Christ Jesus unto all generations of the age of ages.” I understand that means that the assembly is to be the vessel in which glory is to be ascribed to God unto the age of ages. That is to say, it is to be capable of unceasing praise to God throughout all generations of the age of ages. Now if it is to be capable of that, it is surely essential that we, as composing the assembly, should become instructed in the glory of God; it is not right that we should have limited thoughts as to God. We can never become fitted to ascribe glory to God worthy of His name if our thoughts as to God and His glory are limited. The glory of God, I understand, is the shining out of God in His love pre-eminently, for He is love, but also in His wisdom and in His power and in all that attaches to Him, if one might use the expression, which He uses as subservient to the working out of the thoughts of love. Our apprehension of this will enable us to ascribe glory to Him in a way that is worthy of His name.

With that in mind, Solomon in these Proverbs says, “The heavens for height, and the earth for depth.” That is what I wanted by the Lord’s help to enlarge upon a little, because the intention is that we should become familiar with heights, as we sometimes sing, ‘Heights of glory thou hast given’. And then we are also to become familiar with depth because God is glorified in the heights to which He can go in blessing, and He is also glorified in the depths to which His love can go in sacrifice in order to reach His end. We are to be balanced thus in the appreciation both of height and of depth.

The epistle to the Ephesians presents to us the thoughts both of height and of depth; it is largely occupied with the thought of height. It is written, as of course all the epistles are written, but in a sense I suppose the epistle to the Ephesians supremely so, from the standpoint of Christ being exalted. The apostle says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ,” chapter 1: 3. He did not say that until Christ had already come and had accomplished redemption and had gone to the right hand of God and the Holy Spirit had come down. That having taken place, the apostle was able by the Spirit to say that God “has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.” That is, all that God had in His mind in the way of blessing for the saints is now set forth in Christ as a Man in His presence in glory, and the Holy Spirit given to us links us up inseparably with Christ where He is, giving us in the Spirit to partake in His life, and giving us understanding of what is involved in the position which Christ fills as a Man in the presence of God, and giving us the ability to respond to it worthily. And so the apostle in thus speaking in Ephesians traces things back to their source, that God has “marked us out beforehand for adoption through Jesus Christ to Himself”: He has done that. He has “chosen us” it says, “in him before the world’s foundation”. We are familiar with these things in the letter, beloved brethren, but I believe it is intended of God that we should sit down quietly in the presence of God and allow these thoughts to sink into our minds, just allow ourselves to become impressed with the fact that God did take account of us. He foreknew us before the foundation of the world: had us in mind personally before He founded the world. The thoughts of love were formed and then the founding of the world took place in due time in order that in the, world He might work out the thoughts of love that He had already formed. This had us in view, beloved brethren, as it had all the saints in view, not simply collectively but individually, everyone of us and all of us together, “chosen in him before the world’s foundation, that we should he holy and blameless before him in love.” Then it says, “marked us out beforehand for adoption (or sonship) through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace.” The point in view in all this is not that we should be complacent in our blessing but that we should be vocal in God’s praise. It is “to the praise of the glory of his grace”; the glory of it! How glorious God’s grace is! And the saints are to he vocal in the praise of it. We are not to be dumb, we are not to be silent. The saints are laid hold of in order that they may be the vehicle of praise to the blessed God as appreciating the glory in which He is made known. And so it says, “to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he has taken us into favour in the Beloved.” I know nothing more affecting than that, beloved brethren, that there is at this present moment in the presence of God, the Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, marked out by that wonderful description, the Beloved; beloved in a most absolute way; beloved in His Person as the Son, and beloved on account of His moral worth as Man, the true antitype of David and of Solomon. David was loved on account of what he was, his name means ‘beloved’, and he was a man after God’s own heart, he was loved on account of the moral worth that was there. Solomon was loved in sonship, he was the one of whom God said, “he shall be my son, and I will be his father,” 1 Chronicles 22: 10; (see also 1 Chronicles 17: 13, where the truth is stated in the reverse order). Both these types of Christ find their fulfilment in Christ as He is now in the presence of God as the Beloved. And God has taken us into favour in the Beloved. That is, there is a settled position of love that has come in in Christ according to God’s purpose and in that position every one of the saints is set. Who could have conceived it, dear brethren, but God? And God having conceived it, who could have brought it to pass save by way of a divine Person having become Man, and brought into manhood an order of manhood such as is great enough morally to satisfy and rejoice the heart of God for ever, and in that position take up sonship in order that we might be brought into the affectionate position that sonship involves and that God might find His pleasure in us as sons?

Now these are some of the heights, dear brethren. It says, “The heavens for height.” We are to take account of heaven, Jesus is there, and as we take account of Jesus in heaven we begin to get an impression of the height, the great height of blessing and glory which the blessed God is capable of. We cannot give any explanation of it save that He is pleased to do it. It is a question of the good pleasure of His will. Not one of these statements in the first chapter of Ephesians is without importance, and we are to allow each one of them its place in our hearts. “According to the good pleasure of his will,” that is to say, we are to be impressed with the sense that God is what He is, that He is love in a most absolute way, love working in wisdom, love working in power with infinite resource to accomplish its own thoughts, in order, dear brethren, that we should form part of the vessel which is to ascribe glory to God in a way that is worthy of Him throughout eternity.

Then it goes on to say, “in whom (that is, in the Beloved) we have redemption through his blood”. A wonderful thing that there should be an immediate reference to the blood of the Beloved, testifying how far in depth the Beloved has gone in order that God might give effect to the thoughts of love that He has formed. Apart from redemption, apart from the removing of all the disabilities that lay upon us, these thoughts that God had formed before the foundation of the world could never have been brought to pass, and who was there great enough to accomplish redemption save the very same One who is marked out here as the Beloved? And hence as soon as the height has been brought in, “taken us into favour in the Beloved”, the Spirit of God gives us a touch in regard of depth in order that there might be a certain depth added to us, that there might be balance with us, that we might be affected by the sense that the Beloved has had to go into death in order that all God’s thoughts might be made good in Him as gloriously risen from the dead and ascended into the presence of God.

And so it says, “the earth for depth”. I shall refer again in a moment to the earth, but if we get height set out before our eyes in Christ in glory, we get depth presented to us in the distance to which Christ has gone in order that divine love might reach its end. And as I say, it is the heights that set forth the glory of divine love, in the heights to which it will go. Depth sets forth the glory of divine love in another aspect as to the lengths of sacrifice and suffering to which divine love has been capable of going. And then as we go on in the epistle to the Ephesians we find that God has not only brought us into a place of remarkable blessing, but it says also that in His grace He has abounded toward us “in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known to us the mystery of his will.” Now this is important, beloved brethren, because one feature of sonship (and sonship is for the pleasure of God; sonship is not primarily for us although we are brought into it and greatly blessed in it) is not only that the position should be filled out in the affections proper to sons but also that it should be filled out in the intelligence proper to sons. Every parent takes pleasure in children when they are young and in the simplicity and affection and attractiveness of children, but no parent wants his children to remain young. No parent would be satisfied to find his children grow up as regards years but not develop in intelligence. Every father would be disappointed if his son were not intelligent. And intelligence is a great feature in sonship, and hence we ought to be concerned to acquire understanding of the things of God. It is a feature of sonship to be intelligent. And so it says, “according to the riches of his grace; which he has caused to abound towards us in all wisdom and intelligence, having made known to us the mystery of his will.” What does the world know of what is going to take place? The world knows absolutely nothing. God has a will in regard of the matter as to what is going to take place on the earth and what is going to take place in heaven. The world knows nothing of it, but God knows perfectly. But He has been pleased to retain it in mystery - “It is the glory of God to conceal a thing.” But He has made known to us the mystery of His will, and what is it? It says, “for the administration of the fulness of times,” that is, the world to come, which is now so imminent. It is just about to burst upon us, the world to come of which we speak. And that is the mystery of God’s will, “for the administration of the fulness of times; to head up all things in the Christ.” That is, Christ is going to have His place as Head of everything both in heaven and on earth. The world knows nothing of it, but the saints should know something of it, they should be intelligent as to it.

God gave witness to it by means of a dream to Nebuchadnezzar even as long ago as Daniel’s day. Nebuchadnezzar saw a great image, the head of gold and the breast of silver, the belly and thighs of brass, the legs of iron and the feet partly iron and partly clay. He saw the whole thing, the whole course of things that would develop in this world in the way of Gentile domination. And then what did he see? He saw a stone cut out without hands, smite the image on the feet part of iron and part of clay, and the whole image was broken to pieces, not only the iron and the clay but the brass and the silver and the gold. The whole thing was scattered like the chaff of the summer threshing floor and there was no room found for it. And then it says that the stone cut out without hands became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. That is Christ. The stone cut out without hands is Christ displacing the world of man’s glory and filling the whole scene Himself. The saints are intelligent about these things, or should be. And we should not only be intelligent but we should be greatly interested, because we Gentiles are heirs with Christ. That is another feature of divine grace and wonderful wisdom, that this vessel of which I am speaking, the assembly, composed of men and women from every nation under heaven is to inherit jointly with Christ; “in whom we have also obtained an inheritance, being marked out beforehand according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his own will.”

I pass on to the end of chapter 1, it says, God has set Christ “at his right hand in the heavenlies, above every principality, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name named, not only in this age, but also in that to come; and has put all things under his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.” I have been saying the assembly is to share with Christ, and here she is seen as having part with Him in His headship over all things. The headship of Christ over the world to come will be exercised by means of “the assembly, which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.” The light of God and the influence of Christ will be diffused abroad through heaven and earth by means of the assembly, His body. I only ask you, dear brethren,

to take these things in that we might get an impression of the vastness of what God has before Him and the immensity of grace into which we ourselves are called, because as I said, God is calling out a vessel not only fitted for these great things, but in the appreciation of them, fitted to ascribe glory to the God who has thought of them, who has desired them and who has devised the means for carrying them into effect.

Before I speak on the passage read in chapter 4, I just want also to refer to the passage in Philippians because that is another aspect of the heavens for height, and it refers to us individually. So far, I have been referring largely to the assembly, although sonship of course is something we are brought into individually. It is those who compose the assembly who are brought into sonship, but sonship in the main is that which attaches to each of us individually. But when we come to the epistle to the Philippians there also we are on individual lines although it refers again to the saints who compose the assembly. The apostle Paul, nearing the end of his days as he wrote the epistle, shows us that the one thing that was governing his mind was his desire to have Christ as His gain. It is a marvellous thing to see the great apostle, endowed as he was with extraordinary knowledge and extraordinary gift and devoted in service I suppose above any other, that as he is nearing the end of his days it is not his service that is occupying him, it is not his gift that is engaging him, but his one desire is to have Christ as his possession. He apprehends that he himself has been apprehended to be found in Christ; he remembers well what he was once, a blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious, an insolent overbearing man, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and all that. Paul would understand all that he had been, but he understands that divine grace had taken him up to be found in Christ, not only as a matter of status but in actual formation, perfectly conformed to the image of Christ, not only as regards bodily condition, but in moral features. Think of every one of us, dear brethren, being found perfectly in correspondence with Christ. The assembly is to correspond with Him, but every one of us individually (not that any one of us individually by himself can perfectly express Christ, the fulness of Christ) is to be found in the image of Christ, conformed to the image of God’s Son. That is what we have been taken up for and if that is so, dear brethren, why do we retain features of the old man? Why do we cling to them? If we understand what God has taken us up for, why does it not rather promote in us a desire to go in for it and to allow the Spirit of God to carry on His work of moral conformation in us now? Why do we cling to things that after all are only a shame to us as we see them in the light of God’s thoughts for us in Christ? If I cling to some element of natural pride or of family status or of some distinction that learning in this world can give me, or of any position or reputation that wealth might give me or any reputation that I might even gain in the assembly - and then I see that God’s thought for me is that I should be found in Christ - I say is there anything of those things in Christ? Why, beloved brethren, we see at once how entirely incompatible it is! Everything of that sort has to go because we have been apprehended to be found in Christ, and nothing less than that, for the pleasure of God. The more we apprehend the heights of divine grace as set out in God’s calling on high in Christ Jesus, the more it will greatly affect us now, and I am sure will stimulate the process of self-judgment which always has to be going on with us, the process of displacement, the letting go of things that are not worthy of us as saints in order that we may take on what befits those who have been called with a heavenly calling.

Paul on that line says, “Brethren, I do not count to have got possession myself; but one thing - forgetting the things behind... I pursue, looking towards the goal, for the prize of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus.” How did this reaching forward to the things before work out with the apostle? I believe the epistle to the Philippians gives us some idea as to how it worked out practically. God had ordered for the apostle that he should be found in prison, he was not there as a felon, he was there in fidelity to the truth, and then in the prison, dear brethren, God had ordered for him that he should be still further tested by certain brethren preaching Christ of contention, thinking to add tribulation to his bonds. Think of that, as though it was not enough to be in a Roman prison, and to be there unjustly, but God allowed that devoted servant to be still further tested by brethren preaching Christ of contention “supposing to arouse tribulation for my bonds.” How did he meet it? Did he repine and murmur, did he complain indignantly of the brethren who were preaching Christ of contention? No, dear brethren, he did not, he had Christ in his soul and he apprehended that there was a moral excellence in obedience. The second chapter of this epistle shows us how greatly Paul appreciated the moral excellence of obedience as traced in the Man Christ Jesus, the mind that was in Christ Jesus, the One who was “obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him.” Paul had Christ Jesus in His moral excellence in his heart and therefore every test that came upon him, however severe it was, Paul would accept in the spirit of obedience to God’s will, and as accepting it in that spirit, as he says, “through your supplication and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ... that in nothing I shall be ashamed, but in all boldness, as always, now also Christ shall be magnified in my body,” Philippians 1: 19, 20; I say in the spirit of obedience he would take on more and more the features of Christ Jesus.

Well now, beloved brethren, God is working with us to that end. It is a question of whether we apprehend the heights. The calling on high of God in Christ Jesus is another feature of the height, “the heavens for height”. We are to take account of what is in heaven, what is set out in Christ and to allow it to have its own moral affect upon us.

Then it says, “the earth for depth”. In Ephesians 4 it says, “But that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended into the lower parts of the earth?” Think of that! The One who ascended far above all heavens that He might fill all things, before He went to that exalted position, descended first into the lower parts of the earth, that means the grave, and He descended there for us, beloved brethren. If He had not descended into the lower parts of the earth, tasting death in all that it meant to Him, it would not have been possible for God’s thoughts of love in regard of us to be effected. But God has been pleased in His wisdom to allow sin to come in and allow those who were in His purpose to become involved in it, in the guilty and lost condition and penalty of death that is involved, in order that it might become the occasion for us to learn not only height, but also depth. We should be lacking in our knowledge of God if we had not an apprehension of depth. We have to learn depth, the depth of which divine love has proved itself capable in order to effect its end, and that depth has been seen in Christ. He descended into the lower parts of the earth before He ascended up far above all heavens.

Well now, what is to be the moral effect upon us,

beloved brethren? In the light of the calling on high of God in Christ Jesus, am I going to retain any features of the first man that cannot be carried up into heaven? Why not let them go now? But now I say again in the light of the depths, in the light of the death of Christ, am I going to retain that which necessitated the going into death of the Son of God? All these things are intended to have a present moral bearing upon us. It is one thing to say our old man has been crucified with Him, but have we really accepted it, and are we moving in the acceptance of it? The death of Christ is intended to have a moral effect upon us, and I say, dear brethren, there has not been a single trouble that has arisen in the assembly that could not be traced to our failure either to apprehend the gospel or to appreciate it. The gospel brings to us the light that Christ has died. Why did he die? And He has been buried. Why has He been buried? He died, not only to make propitiation for our sins, but in order that the man that sinned might be ended in death, and He was buried in order that that man might be taken out of God’s sight in burial. And I say, dear brethren, that every trouble that arises amongst us in our relations individually or in the assembly, can be traced to the fact that either we have not appreciated the import of the gospel or else we are not going on in the acceptance of it. If we really appreciate the death and burial of Christ (and we have the power in the Holy Spirit to maintain ourselves in accord with it) I say there will be no movement of the first man, of the flesh in one form or another. Whatever comes in in the way of trouble amongst the saints can always be traced to that, that the man God has ended we have brought back again by allowing him scope. So the depths are intended to affect us morally. It says, “The heavens for height, and the earth for depth,” and then it says, “the heart of kings is unsearchable.” God has given us the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts; we have in our hearts the Spirit of God, and the Spirit searcheth all things, yea the depths of God. There is no limit, so to speak, to what can be brought into our hearts in virtue of the Spirit of God whom we have received. There is no limit to what the saints can gain entrance to in their hearts in virtue of the earnest of the Spirit which God has given to us.

Then it says, “Take away the dross from the silver, and there cometh forth a vessel for the refiner.” We were referring yesterday to redemption and purchase, the vessel has not had to be redeemed but the persons who compose it have had to be redeemed. The silver refers to what the saints are now as having been redeemed and now the process is going on. God is carrying it on in secret, the world knows nothing of it, but we should be intelligent as to it. There is a refining process going on in view of a formation of the vessel, a vessel is to come forth for the refiner, a vessel in every way to be corresponding with Christ, corresponding with Him in moral features, corresponding with Him in nature, corresponding with Him in holy intelligence too. A vessel is to come forth for the refiner, but in order that that end may be reached, there is a refining process going on with every one of the saints. Are we conscious of it? If we are going on with God, we shall be conscious of it. Discipline may come in one way and another, it all has in mind that what will come forth is a vessel for the refiner. The more we go on with God, the more we are conscious that His hand is upon us in one way or another. We know what the refining process is, the refiner sits as it says in Malachi, “he shall sit as a refiner.” It is a deliberate process, a process carried on patiently. We know that what the refiner looks for is to see his own image reflected in that which is the subject of the process, and that is going on now, God is carrying it on, Christ is carrying it on, carrying it on with each one of us, but then it comes forth as a vessel for the refiner. I believe the two great things which the refiner will use if we are subject to Him is the height on the one hand and the depth on the other. If we understand what God has called us to, it should have a very sanctifying effect upon us, and as we understand the depth to which Christ has been in love, into judgment and death on our behalf, that also is intended to have a very sanctifying effect upon us. And it is, I believe, by bringing our hearts under the influence of the height on the one hand and the depth on the other, that the refiner carries on His refining process to give the result in a vessel that corresponds with Himself.

Then it says in verse 5, “take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall be established in righteousness.” That will be effected in a very brief moment when once the vessel is perfected. When once the Lord has secured the vessel, when once Christ has His assembly according to His own thoughts, it will take a very short time for the wicked to be taken away from before the king so that His throne may be established in righteousness. In principle, that is taking place in the assembly already; that is, in the assembly the rights of God and the rights of Christ have to be established and maintained already, and that is done on the principle of taking away the wicked. If any one in the assembly is guilty of wickedness, the saints have to separate themselves from him, he is taken away from their midst on the principle of withdrawing from such a one, in order that the rights of God and of Christ should be established in righteousness. That takes place already in the assembly. We cannot establish the rights of God and of Christ publicly, we have to await the coming of the Lord for that, but we can establish and maintain those rights in the assembly, and so, in the principle of it, what will take place in a moment when the Lord comes is already established in the assembly when evil has to be dealt with. What it has in mind is that the rights of Christ and the rights of God are established, His throne is established in righteousness. That will take place in a very brief moment in power from the Lord when once He has the vessel according to His own heart; then He will see that the wicked are taken away from before the king that His throne may be established in righteousness.

May the Lord help us to a clearer understanding of what it is God is working to secure at the present time, this vessel for the refiner. It is His glory to conceal a thing, but it is our honour to search out these matters, and the more we understand what God is working for, the more I am sure we shall be subject under His hand so that the refining process may go on to completion. May the Lord bless His word!