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may turn again to this great matter of the glad tidings. The

father said to the elder son, “It was right to make merry”; that is

the central thought in the Father’s heart that there may be

recovery to His house. That is the central thought at the

present time as to how we may get recoveries in our localities,

and it is through the glad tidings we will get them, that is to

say, through the ‘poor wise Man’ and the way He went to

secure the salvation of the city. We are not told all that He did,

but the four gospels tell us in principle how the Lord Jesus

secured salvation for the assemblies in our various localities.

The apostle said to the Corinthian brethren that the Lord Jesus

has been made wisdom to us (1 Corinthians 1: 30). It is the

means of salvation for our localities. It was in the wisdom of

God that the Lord Jesus was crucified outside the city. That is

your salvation and mine; we have to go forth to Him where He

is and take on His reproach and carry it and prove that we

have His company in such a position. Then God can trust us

with the cities in which we live.

The Lord Jesus resolved the sin question outside the city. He

was between heaven and earth and He resolved the

matter for the glory of God and for the blessing of men. The

apostle Paul got help in the way (Acts 9), and then he was told

to go into the city where there was a man who could be

trusted, Ananias, one who was morally right and walking in

separation from evil. Yet God had to tell Ananias that there

was a matter of recovery on foot, that Paul was being secured.

Thus we need our brethren to serve us and to help us about

the sin question. Ananias helped the apostle at a critical time

into better things and the apostle came to receive the Holy

Spirit through his contact with Ananias. It is a wonderful thing

to come to these meetings today; you are in the realm of the

Holy Spirit. Yesterday we were in our business and in our

other areas of life, but today we are among the brethren and

are helped by the Holy Spirit to be enlarged spiritually. When

Paul met Ananias the whole matter of what was spiritual was