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The ‘poor wise Man’ is the subject of the preaching and
Solomon was considering this Man.
Solomon was perhaps the wealthiest man who ever lived, and
yet in the secret of his soul he was not carried away by
affluence and was able to write this book and tell us to
consider this
‘poor wise Man’. The testimony will be preserved as we take
the ground of not having anything here and that all belongs to
Christ. The scripture says, “for your sakes he, being rich,
became poor”, 2 Corinthians 8: 9. He became that! Can you
and I become that? There is teaching in the gospel to preserve
our cities and I think we need a revival in the public preaching
because it is the means of salvation and the means for
recovery. We have been recovered, not only initially from our
sins but also in assembly matters, and to the principles held in
the assembly, through the teaching of the glad tidings. It is a
question of the gospel at the present time and of how the
gospel goes out not only to the unconverted but to saints who
are astray, in which we have all at one time or another had our
part.
And so, beloved, I would like you to consider with me the
preciousness of the glad tidings and the preciousness of what
was done by Jesus to save the city. The teaching in Hebrews
is that the Lord Jesus suffered without the gate of the city.
We never can take responsibility as to the city, the assembly
position in the locality, unless we know what it is to be outside
morally of these wicked cities; it is our salvation The Lord
Jesus was crucified outside the city of Jerusalem and the
teaching in Hebrews is that we go forth to Him outside the
camp to identify ourselves with Him where He died. The city
was unworthy of His sacrifice; they put Him outside to crucify
Him. In Stephen’s martyrdom you will see that he too was
stoned outside the city. And the apostle Paul was converted
outside the city. That is where we have to come to know the