ASCENSION

^[p. 296] ASCENSION

The great principle of christianity is ascension. Study the connection in which it is used, in the gospel of John: the angels of God ascend; the Son of man ascends; “I ascend unto my Father .. “.; it is the principle of ascension. Descent is according to the laws of nature, but the principle of christianity is ascension. You get the same thing in the epistle to the Ephesians. It is a great point to get hold of in the apprehension of divine things. In connection with that I want to lay down another principle: the greater the glory the greater the grace. If I had time I could easily work it out, but I think you will find the principle true. If you take a high churchman, his idea of grace is all in connection with descent and humiliation; he would connect all the thoughts of grace with the coming of Christ into the world; and the practical working of that is that he connects the grace of God and the humiliation of Christ with the man that is here. In the idea of the high churchman the sacraments are an extension of the incarnation, and his ideas of grace are limited to Christ having become a Man, thus putting a kind of sanction on humanity to revive or restore the man here.. .. The true principle is, the greater the glory the greater the grace. The greater apprehension you have of glory in Christ, the greater the grace; “we see Jesus .. . crowned with glory” — that is the climax. The first man has gone in Christ’s death. Christ has ended the man after the flesh. He is raised again for our justification, and, at the same time, you have a place with God beyond death — “risen with Christ”. That is the effect of the resurrection of Christ. You begin then to apprehend the exceeding riches of God’s grace. If you appreciate the death of Christ, you must be prepared for the end of man after the flesh; on the other hand if you pass on to the resurrection of Christ, it means that you are ^[p. 297] apart from man here, from every man. You are on a new footing and belong to a Man of an entirely new order — you are risen together with Christ. But there is a step beyond that; and that is, the same one is crowned with glory and honour. In His resurrection we have a new place before God that man never had before, justified and risen with Christ, but at the same time He has gone to the right hand of God, and we are accepted in the Beloved. The greater the glory the greater the grace.

FER Saints who are hindered by social links do not get the benefit of ministry.. .. I am certain that if people are not free in regard to associations they will make no progress in divine things.

ISO You cannot help getting on the level of people you associate with.

FER You cannot help being affected by them. Separation may appear hard with some people, but down here it is an absolute necessity for any one who is going on with God. The fact is this, I think God knows the world and the effect of influences upon His people better than we do, and He is wiser than we are, and so it is better to take the path He has indicated.

If the Spirit of God works in a man He does bring home that which is revealed in Scripture. Many a one has been born again through a dream or some providential thing which brought God home to him.

‘Doing good’ is the way you put to silence the ignorance of foolish men. It is not ‘talking good’.

^[p. 298] The ways of God are severely retributive, and it is so with us as christians. If you are hard and severe, it will return upon you some way or other.

Righteousness is not simply paying twenty shillings in the pound, but giving to Christ what is due to Him.

There are those who have heard the voice of the Son of God, and who live; there are those who are satisfied; and then, too, there are those who have rivers of living water flowing out from them. These things cannot be gainsaid. They are standing evidences of christianity.

In the latter day all the literature which is right and morally refreshing will go out from Jerusalem.. What Jerusalem will be in the last days the belly of the believer is to be now; John 7:38.

Young people look after one thing and another.... They say there is no harm in them, but I say these things war against the soul, and people who go in for them are not going on. It is a grave question with all of us who have to do with young people. We have our responsibility in regard to it. They look up to us, and we have to seek to influence them. In natural things we do not give our children poison instead of good food, and so I think spiritually we ought to try and keep our children from poison.

^[p. 299] The lower people are in the social grade, the more opportunity there is for testimony. When a man is wealthy he has to be divested of the thought that it is a mark of divine favour.

I think prosperity may be a mark of divine favour, but I question if it ever was the thought of God that man should amass wealth.

(The book of) Proverbs is specially written for the young.

I believe the Jewish mind is infidel, for the Rabbis have given up the promise of His coming, both the first and the second. The result is, they get into materialism, and seek to make wealth here. The same thing has come in among ourselves; the coming of the Lord has not much place with us. I suppose no two facts affected us more, to begin with, than the coming of the Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit.

It appears to me that if God saved everybody it would seem as if man and Satan had gained the day. When the fall came in, the only hope was in the sovereignty of God’s mercy, but I believe the moral effect on man would not be good if all were saved, for it would not leave God His own proper place as God.

I believe there must be an eternal witness to the presence of sin having been here. The lake of fire is God’s eternal witness to His righteous judgment of sin.. .. The ‘lake of fire’ is eternal separation from God, with, I believe, inflicted punishment.