EXTRACTS

Now as to what involves the Lord’s glory down here, we get three things mentioned—“My word, my name, and the word of my patience”. Just think soberly before the Lord of those three things. The Lord is not here. From the standpoint of this book He is absent, but His word, His name, and the word of His patience are here, and those three things involve His honour and His glory. The Lord approves those in Philadelphia, and encourages them because they have kept His word and have not denied His name. That was true locally in regard to that local assembly in Philadelphia, but speaking of that assembly, which existed one thousand nine hundred years ago, is not enough, the message of the Spirit to that assembly must have an application to the very end, because it goes on to His coming. He says to Philadelphia, “I come quickly— hold fast” etc. The whole construction of the message supposes that this assembly continues to the close. No one dies in Philadelphia, there are no deaths. Philadelphia is here till the rapture, hence it is He says, “Because thou hast kept the word of my patience, I also will keep thee”. How does He keep them out of the trial? Just the same way that the Lord kept Enoch out of the flood by taking him away before it came, so He will “keep” Philadelphia by taking her away before the hour of trial comes. Enoch was never in the flood, God took him before the flood came, and so it is here; Philadelphia goes on to the end, until the Lord comes to take His assembly to Himself.

Pressure may have come upon you to let go, to give up the truth of the assembly, but this message is most encouraging, for this message of the Spirit is the assurance that the Lord is going to maintain the truth of His assembly to the very end. I am in sympathy with Him about it, and I would like to be in the testimony of it. Would not you? God maintains it.

Philadelphia presents that which the Lord approves, and which the Lord encourages, and which the Lord vindicates. It is not a question of the Lord approving you and me, but that He will maintain the truth of His assembly to the very finish, and He encourages our hearts to be in accord with His heart. God’s people often get their eyes on themselves, or on some one else, and they get into confusion and trouble—doubting and fearing. We want to get our eyes off ourselves and off others, and to have our eyes fixed on Him and to get back to first love and hold fast the truth as involved in My word, My name, and the word of My patience, because in keeping those three things we hold fast the honour and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ at the present time.

The Closing Ministry of J. Pellatt (Vol. 2, pp.133–135) In these meetings the thing is to aim at something; even in our ordinary meetings, our ordinary reading meetings, as we call them, let us aim at something. It is not simply that we are reading through a certain book, a certain chapter in it, and certain verses, but aiming at something. There is something there that the Spirit would fasten on our souls, and be sure you get it. What is needed in any way, be sure you present it, that you are certain in what you are doing, for Christianity is a system of certainty. The devil would make it otherwise; certain persons in Christendom are uncertain all the time, the devil has made them so; their doctrine has made them so. Thank God we have the Spirit of God, and He guides us into all the truth.

Then moreover there is a certainty, there is a point in the doctrine, for every week is distinctive. Every week at the Bible readings, there is something fresh for us, because we are dealing with infinite things; what is inspired by the Spirit of God; what the Spirit is operating in the gifts, whoever they may be, the Spirit is operating in them so as to accomplish something. Hence Christianity is an institution of accomplishments. The Lord Jesus has gone up into heaven, angels and principalities being made subject to Him. The way is clear, nothing can hinder it, and He is operating down here, not in regard to the nations, but in regard to the assembly. The whole period of the dispensation is marked by accomplishments.

I have no doubt that the middle ages were different; I believe there was something done however; and since the Reformation and onward, the Spirit of God has become free among the saints and there are accomplishments day by day, and these accomplishments require skill, they need ability, and hence the importance of young men acquiring skill. In the days of Jeremiah the skilled labourers were captured by Babylon; Jeremiah 24: 1 and Jeremiah 29: 2.

We cannot get on without the skilled labourers, and it is for each one of us to be skilled, to learn how to do things so that some end is reached in all our meetings.

J. Taylor (Vol. 60, pp.192, 193)

JT It would be a lesson for him, but his experience would also be on our account; as being the father of all them that believe (Romans 4); the result of his experience would extend to all the family of faith, to the end that, however tested we may be, we should not allow our circumstances to govern us, but abide in the place of privilege, i.e. in the land. In Isaac’s case the error of Abram was prevented by God’s direct intervention, showing that if God sets out a principle, He helps His people in later days to be governed by it. He not only shows us what we should be governed by, but helps us to conform to it ... The principle had been set out in the earlier experience—that the believer should not leave a divinely given place because of adverse circumstances. Isaac, of course, should have known that; but God forestalls his natural inclination to go down to Egypt, and enables him to keep by right principles, which saved him from doing what his father had done.

CAM So that we not only have experience, but also a word from God as a preservative, in that way.

JT I think we may infer from this scripture and from Isaac’s experience, that although divine lessons are clearly set out, we need divine help in order to profit by them.

J. Taylor (Vol. 16, pp.146, 147)

Rem. This matter of service among the brethren, involving a responsible matter such as an address or any service among the Lord’s people, necessitates that those who have it in their hand should be acquainted with the moral state, as well as the ability, in the one selected.

JT Quite so. It is very important, and to take the best advice you can get. Timothy had a good name, a good report among the brethren; and when it is a matter of a large number, it is all the more important that any person who is to be entrusted with a service should be reliable, not simply the brother who can speak well, but who is reliable as to the truth. That is the principle that is to be set out.

J. Taylor (Vol. 76, p.99)

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