VALUING OUR INHERITANCE

Numbers 27:1-11; Joshua 14:6-15; 1 Kings 21:1-3; Revelation 3:7-13

D.J.W.      My exercise for this occasion, dear brethren, is that we might value and go in for and enjoy our inheritance. You might well ask me, what is our inheritance? The first thing to say is that our inheritance is a heavenly one. The children of Israel had an earthly inheritance, but if we read the epistle to the Ephesians, it gives us a description of what our heavenly inheritance is. In that epistle, Paul writes about the purpose of God, about the wonderful sacrificial service of our Lord Jesus in redemption and the forgiveness of sins, and about our portion as being taken into favour in the Beloved so that we might enter into and experience the liberty of sonship. Paul writes about the truth of the assembly and the greatness of the One who is the Head to the assembly. In chapter 4 you get the working of the body, and the encouraging thing about that chapter is that we can all have part in it. The body is a living organism, and we can all be a joint of supply, with the Lord Jesus as the ascended Head having given gifts for the perfecting of the saints. In chapter 5 Paul writes of the great mystery of Christ and the assembly, and in chapter 6 we get the panoply of God, the armoury which is needed for us to withstand the attacks of the enemy. That very briefly conveys to me something of what our inheritance is. It is to be enjoyed now through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit being here.

I have selected these scriptures because in the first three we get persons who showed by their actions that they valued their inheritance. The daughters of Zelophehad in Numbers 27 faced a situation where their father had died in his own sin and there was no son, but they did not want to lose their inheritance. I think that this was very pleasing to God, and as Moses brought their cause before Jehovah, He said “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right”. Then it goes on to the setting up of “a statute of right, as Jehovah commanded Moses”, that in such circumstances, such persons were no longer to be disinherited. I thought that it brings out the pleasure that God had in the desires of these daughters of Zelophehad.

In Joshua, Caleb represents someone who was maintained in the energy of life; for us it is by the Spirit. In those long years in the wilderness, Caleb had the land in his heart. He referred to how he had been maintained for forty-five years and his appeal to Moses was that he might be given his inheritance in Hebron. I think Caleb represents the spirit of energy in relation to the things of God that goes through to the end. In the previous chapter, it says that Joshua was old and advanced in age and Jehovah said to him “Thou art old, advanced in age, and there remaineth yet very much land to take possession of”, Josh.13:1. That might point to some weakness, but I think that Joshua also represents in a sense what is apostolic. In our day, what is apostolic is not something that is carried through in its fulness, but the principle is carried through in the energy of life as seen in Caleb. So Caleb got his blessing. It was the land where the Anakim were, but that did not daunt him! No difficulty daunted him; he went in for it with zeal.

I thought in relation to Naboth in 1 Kings 21 that he valued the inheritance of his fathers. Ahab said “I will give thee for it a better vineyard than it; if it seem good to thee, I will give thee its value in money”. But that had no appeal to a man like Naboth; he said “Jehovah forbid it me, that I should give the inheritance of my fathers to thee!”

There was no outward show in Philadelphia; they had a little power and had “not denied my name”, and the exhortation to them was to hold fast what they have “that no one take thy crown”. Philadelphia is not something that is great in outward appearance. It was moral traits that were seen in Philadelphia; they did not deny the Lord’s name, they kept the word of His patience, and therefore it is a moral condition. I think it has been said that Laodicea claimed everything and had nothing, and Philadelphia claimed nothing but had everything.

N.J.H.      At what point do we receive the inheritance?

D.J.W.      I think the inheritance comes within our range as a result of the finished work of Christ. The reception of the gospel has in mind not only the meeting of my need, but our entering into what God has provided. Speaking reverently, I think that God resents it if we do not value what He has provided for us in Christ. We have been blessed with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” (Eph.1:3); every one of our blessings is in Him, and heaven is the place where it is enjoyed.

N.J.H.      Once redemption had been effected at the beginning of Exodus 15, Moses and the children of Israel sang, and that song reached to the inheritance. When Miriam responded in song, she did not refer to the inheritance. So while it is the divine thought that through redemption we should receive the inheritance, the question is – are we taking it up? Is it filling our life?

D.J.W.      Yes, that is the burden of my exercise. The secret of that seems to be in the place that I give the Spirit firstly individually, and then the place we give Him collectively. Taking up our inheritance is not an individual thing but it is something that we do together. We do value it individually, but we have others with whom to work it out and enjoy it.

W.M.P.      To take you back to your reference to Ephesians and things being in Christ, they are in Him and through Him in that epistle. Does that make everything secure for us?

D.J.W.      That is right. Everything is bound up in the person of Christ, and if we have Christ we have everything.

W.M.P.      What you are suggesting should establish us in our souls. There is not only the inheritance set before us but there is the power to maintain it as you have suggested all the way through to the end. What a tragedy it would be for persons to drop out at this stage of the testimony.

D.J.W.      And what will preserve us from that is to have some sense, as Caleb did, of what was in his heart. It was not just in his mind; it was in his heart.

N.J.H.      In Ephesians it is “enlightened in the eyes of your heart” (chap.1:18). I know that is in relation to God’s inheritance but are they very closely connected?

D.J.W.      I think it is. God’s inheritance is in the saints, therefore as we take up our inheritance, He gets His.

P.J.W.      We were taught that it is one thing to lay hold of the truth but another thing for the truth to lay hold of me. I wonder if that relates to your exercise that we might have a greater apprehension of the inheritance. If it really lays hold of us in our affections, as it did for these persons you are bringing before us, that would help us to go in for it more.

D.J.W.      I believe that is right. The daughters of Zelophehad, Caleb and Naboth all had a real valuation of what they had, and they were not going to give it to anybody else. These daughters of Zelophehad were not going to be robbed of it because their father had failed. He did not have part in the rebellion of Korah, which was a partisan thing; what is partisan is baneful and dangerous in the things of God. But he died in his own sin. That does not seem to be so serious although it was serious enough; it was something he did himself. His daughters were quite open about what had entered into the history of their family and they brought it before the tent of meeting; it was a public thing.

T.R.C.      In these three persons who you have brought before us as appreciating their inheritance, they all realised that there was going to be a loss to them. Do you think that is a test to us? We need to love the inheritance, and love it as God does.

D.J.W.      I believe so, and if we value it as we should, we would be prepared to protect it and fight for it. The daughters of Zelophehad obviously valued what they had, and they brought this matter before Moses because they did not want to lose it. God was pleased with that! The section we read brings that out; Jehovah said that “The daughters of Zelophehad speak right”. Therefore God came in for them with something new which was put on the statute book and it remained there. In future, such persons in these circumstances were not to lose what they had.

N.J.H.      They were of Manasseh, an incomplete tribe. You might say that they were the last of their tribe to demand their inheritance, because the other half of the tribe were on the other side of Jordan. Is it like the broken day we are in? We are not going to give up our inheritance, even though not all of our brethren may be available for the moment.

D.J.W.      That is right, and if many of our brethren wish to remain on the other side of the Jordan, the wrong side of the Jordan, then they miss out on what is heavenly. Barzillai was not prepared to go to Jerusalem with David (2 Sam.19:37); he missed out on what was in principle heavenly. It is as the heavenly inheritance is entered into and enjoyed that God gets His portion.

A.M.B.      What they asked for at the end of verse 4 is a possession; “Give unto us a possession among the brethren of our father”. I wondered if that indicated the bent of mind and heart of the daughters of Zelophehad?

D.J.W.      Yes, that is good; it is something that they valued for themselves. They had had a possession, and they did not want to lose it. I question how much the value of our inheritance is burning in my heart. The more we enter into it and enjoy it, the more we will value it.

R.G.      Does the fact that these daughters are named bring out the thought of personality in the saints?

D.J.W.      Do you think that spiritual personality is developed in us as we take up our inheritance and value it?

R.G.      I was wondering that. It was evident that there had been a work of God in the souls of these saints, and this is the fruit of it.

D.J.W.      Yes indeed, and they have a part to play. Each of us has a part to play. If we rightly take up our inheritance, there is a spiritual personality developed; some impression of Christ, some feature of Christ, is seen in each one.

R.G.      So the saints that we gather with are not non-entities; there is something distinctive that can be taken account of in them of the work of Christ.

D.J.W.      Yes. In Acts 1, there were one hundred and twenty in the upper room. The scripture refers to a “crowd of names” (v.15), as if each one of them was distinguished as being the direct fruit of the ministry of the Lord.

P.A.G.      Is remembering the Lord in the breaking of bread part of our heavenly inheritance? We are showing forth His death until He comes. That is down here, but we are remembering Someone who is in the glory. There were hindrances to these daughters of Zelophehad; as has been said, the tribe was incomplete, the inheritance that they should have had could not be taken up because there was no son. There might be a brother or sister here feeling that there is a hindrance to them taking up their inheritance, but God can overcome that if we have the desire.

D.J.W.      Yes. I am glad you bring that in, because the Supper, and the service of God that proceeds from it, are the rich veins of our inheritance. Everything seems to flow out of that. The Lord comes to us in the wilderness position as we have been taught, but He comes in with a view to taking us over into His own realm. Then He leads us to the Father where we can enter into the joy and liberty of sonship in the Father’s house. If I enter into that in reality in the service of God, I believe the result would be that the inheritance would become more precious to me.

J.A.B.      You spoke in your opening remark about enjoying the inheritance. Do persons who enjoy the inheritance become influential?

D.J.W.      Yes, it is normal Christianity. We sometimes get over-occupied with what is abnormal, but I think that what we are speaking of is normal Christianity, in that you come to value others who appreciate the same things that you do. Christ is the Centre, He is the bond, and we are drawn to Him. The Supper has been referred to. What we look at as we gather for the Supper are the emblems and the sacrifice that was involved in them, and that draws us to the person of Christ. Then we enter into the service of God with others. That helps us to value those we have with whom to share this rich inheritance.

J.A.B.      I wondered if the examples you have chosen would represent three successive generations. Caleb was one of the original spies who went up to see the inheritance; he had the land in his affections. Then the daughters of Zelophehad were a generation on from Caleb; their father had lived at the time of Korah. Naboth would be further on in the history from that. Each generation has to learn the value of the inheritance for themselves. Does it help them if to see older persons who enjoy it?

D.J.W.      Yes, that is right. That was Paul’s burden in 2 Timothy in passing things on to Timothy. He passed them on undiluted. Those of us who are getting older have sat under sound teaching, and now my exercise is to pass that on undiluted. It is also interesting that in the second epistle to Timothy, Mr Darby has a footnote which says that ‘The whole subject of the epistle is energy in a darkening state of the assembly’¹. That is Caleb.

J.Sp.      Ephesians speaks about being a joint of supply (chap.4:16). Would that be important?

D.J.W.      Yes, I think that should be an encouragement to the very youngest, that as having some appreciation of Christ, we can be a joint of supply. Each one is necessary.

T.R.C.      I was thinking about what has been referred to as being passed down to the next generation. Caleb instilled this into his daughter (Josh.15:19). Achsah realised that things must be maintained in life; for us it would mean the gift and power of the Holy Spirit. We have had good spiritual fathers who have shown us these things, but the test now is, are they burning in my heart?

D.J.W.      Yes, that is the burden of my exercise. You refer to the generations. Caleb’s daughter asked for the upper springs and the lower springs. She had a southern land, and she valued what she had, but she needed to be maintained in it so she needed the upper springs and the lower springs. They have been linked to the epistles to Romans and Ephesians. Romans brings in the individual side, and the moral exercises which are worked out in us, then we find the upper springs in Ephesians which brings out collective experience in relation to the inheritance.

J.W.      Paul said in Acts 26 that he was to turn them from “darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith in me” (v.18). Remission of sins and inheritance seem to go together, and then the area where they are enjoyed is among those that are sanctified.

D.J.W.      So the inheritance is enjoyed among those that are set apart from the things of this world. We are drawn to what is heavenly and the heavenly Man by the activities of the Holy Spirit within us. In that verse, our needs are met, but then as we take up the inheritance among those that are sanctified by faith in Christ, God gets His answer.

F.J.R.      In Ephesians, Paul says “ye have been sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the earnest of our inheritance”, Eph.1:13,14. Is your thought that the Holy Spirit is the spiritual energy for this?

D.J.W.      Yes, He is “the earnest of our inheritance”, so that what we touch in the service of God is eternal in character. The earnest of the inheritance means that He gives us some foretaste of what will be our eternal portion.

A.B.      When Moses died, Jehovah said “as I was with Moses, so will I be with thee; I will not leave thee, neither will I forsake thee”, then He went on to say “for thou shalt cause this people to inherit the land which I have sworn unto their fathers”, Josh.1: 5,6. What would be involved in that?

D.J.W.      We drew attention to verse 1 of chapter 13 and it is clear that there remained very much land to take possession of. That was a weakness, but the antidote to that is Caleb in the next chapter. His inheritance was in Hebron. The Anakim were there; you might say he could have chosen an easier area, but he did not shrink from it. There was the energy of the Spirit typically seen in Caleb to take possession. He had said that if God would be with him, he would take possession. That was not self-confidence, but it was in the confidence that Caleb had in God that he could overcome every obstacle in order to enter in and enjoy the purpose of God. Hebron speaks of that.

N.C.McK.       Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders about “the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give to you an inheritance among all the sanctified”, Acts 20:32. It is interesting that he spoke there about being built up. Is Caleb one who was built up spiritually and was able to take and enjoy the inheritance in that way? The Ephesians had had all the teaching of Paul and you might have thought that it was enough, but they needed a spiritual constitution and moral formation in order to enjoy it and take hold of it.

D.J.W.      I think so. Caleb was maintained in the wilderness because he had another spirit (Num.14:24). The spirit among the children of Israel was one of rebellion, wanting to go back to Egypt, but Caleb had the land in his heart and he was kept alive for forty-five years. Now the younger ones cannot go back forty-five years, but some of us who are a bit older can. The brethren will forgive me for saying something personal. Forty-five years ago takes me back to 1970. As a young man, I was shaken to the core by a major division. God in His grace preserved me. What did He preserve me for? To be a worldly Christian? To settle down with the things of the earth? No. He preserved me to enter into my heavenly inheritance, so that there is a response for the heart of God Himself.

W.M.P.      Caleb speaks here about “the word that Jehovah spoke to Moses the man of God, concerning me and thee”. Could we bring that down to our local settings, our gatherings together; a word in the ministry meeting or what we get in our readings? Is it God’s intention that all of that should be gathered up in our souls, to prepare us for this step in faith and help us in the line of energy?

D.J.W.      Yes, that is right. One interesting thing about Caleb is that he had tasted what was in the land; he had tasted Eshcol’s grapes. The others came back with a bad report and they made the heart of the people melt. I would not care to be among those that make the heart of the people melt. But Caleb had tasted these grapes and to him it was a very, very good land. He had experienced it so nothing would move him away from taking possession of it.

W.M.P.      Help us about that matter of experiencing it for ourselves. You have referred to what is collective several times. Does it really enter in a substantial way into our gatherings together like this, and then in our local settings?

D.J.W.      Yes. The daughters of Zelophehad bring in the subjective side of things, which relates to what we experience; not what we hear about but what we actually experience. That seems to be a very important thing.

P.J.W.      All the teaching that we have, Paul’s ministry and all that has come down to us, is with a view to helping us to go in for and enjoy the inheritance. We sometimes speak of it as being our inheritance, which in a sense it is, but the Scriptures and ministry are to help us to go in for our heavenly inheritance, do you think?

D.J.W.      I think so, and that involves the maintenance of Paul’s ministry. It is the heavenly side of things.

P.J.W.      I was thinking about what has been said about the names of these daughters. Priscilla and Aquila were a couple who staked their neck for the sake of Paul (Rom.16:4). It is a question whether I am prepared for that.

D.J.W.      I think it is. Paul’s ministry had a distinctive heavenly character; he spoke about a Man in heaven. Many dear believers we meet will speak of a Man who was here, Jesus, and that is good, but Paul’s ministry relates us to that Man where He is in heaven. The Holy Spirit links us to the Man in heaven and the maintenance of a heavenly testimony to Christ in the scene of His absence and rejection. That is involved in entering into our inheritance.

R.G.      Our relations with the Holy Spirit are very important. When we come to the point where it says “the Spirit and the bride say, Come” (Rev 22:17), it suggests a remarkable consonance between the Holy Spirit, a divine Person, and the assembly, a creature vessel. That is something we should cultivate in our hearts.

D.J.W.      I believe so. Such an occasion as today’s would prepare us for that, the Spirit and the bride saying “Come”. The Spirit works in us; “the washing of water by the word” (Eph.5:26) goes on to remove the spots and the wrinkles, so that what will be presented to Him will be glorious.

R.G.      That is good. We are not here having a conversation about things we know a little bit about; what is being done by the Spirit relates to eternity. Something will be worked out in the saints which will last for eternity.

D.J.W.      Yes. The verse to the overcomer in Philadelphia links on with what is eternal; “new Jerusalem” and “my new name”. That is eternal.

A.G.M.      Very often we have things in our minds, but it is important to have them in our hearts.

D.J.W.      Yes, it involves our affections. Caleb had the land in his heart and that seemed to be the secret. It was not only what he might have gained in the way of knowledge, but it was what he had actually experienced and retained in his affections.

G.A.B.      The daughters of Zelophehad were seeking an area of territory, but Caleb is looking for a mountain. That would put him in a situation of great strength.

D.J.W.      Yes it would, and the Anakim were no deterrent to him. We may try and get round the difficulties without facing them, but as we face them we receive help from God in order to take possession of what is ours.

G.A.B.      It would require strength to climb a mountain, especially for a man of his age, but he said “as my strength was then, even so is my strength now”. The joy of the inheritance was so burning in his heart that nothing would hold him back.

D.J.W.      Well, it is an exercise to be a Caleb. As we get on in years, how are we maintained in these things? Are we maintained in freshness and life? Caleb was.

A.M.B.      How do we take possession? Is it predominantly an individual matter to appreciate and understand our spiritual inheritance, but then we enjoy it together? Does each one of us have to take possession for ourselves?

D.J.W.      Yes, it starts off as an individual exercise. What do I experience? Have I experienced something of what Paul goes over in the epistle to the Romans, for example? Have I found a new Husband, that my resource is in Christ? Have I found resource in the Holy Spirit to walk in newness of life? Romans does not take us on to what is collective very much, but those exercises as faced produce assembly material whereby we can be ready to go into what is collective, because our brethren have been the same way.

A.M.B.      That is a great basis for enjoying things together. You have had spiritual experiences that you appreciate, and I have in my measure, and we then have a bond in common and we can enjoy things. As you have already said, things are made to live for us by the Holy Spirit. His quickening touch is indispensable for what we are speaking about.

D.J.W.      Yes. Joshua and Caleb would have been a great encouragement to each other during those forty years of wandering. They were surrounded by people of a different spirit, but they had had the same experience and therefore they would have been an encouragement to each another.

A.M.B.      Numbers 13 is very interesting. There were twelve spies who went up, and they all saw the same things. Two of them came back and said, This is a very, very good land and we can possess it because God is with us. The other ten saw the same things and came back with a completely different report. Caleb and Joshua speak of believers who, by the Spirit’s power, are in the good of the inheritance that is ours.

D.J.W.      They tasted that the Lord is good (1 Pet.2:3).

N.J.H.      Ephesians says “in order that ye may be fully able to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height”, Eph.3:18. You get an impression of Christ and the assembly being central to that whole scene, which is the inheritance.

D.J.W.      Yes; that is what Ephesians is.

P.A.G.      Do you think that our attitude and demeanour are very important? If I go around despondent and negative, young brethren might wonder what I am enjoying. It says of Solomon’s men, “Happy are thy men! happy are these thy servants”, 1 Kings 10:8. There are things that are great burdens to our spirits, but we really ought to be happy in relation to the inheritance we have.

D.J.W.      We enter into a wonderful benign administration under the hand of Christ, and as we have part in these things, it builds us up in the most holy faith (Jude v.20). If you and I are built up in the most holy faith, then that strengthens what is collective and adds to the richness of the inheritance.

P.J.W.      As to the ten spies, they agreed that it was a very good land, but they looked at the difficulties and said, We cannot overcome them. That is often my difficulty; I have not got the faith for it. What do you say about faith in connection with what you are saying?

D.J.W.      Hebrews speaks of “looking stedfastly on Jesus the leader and completer of faith”, chap.12:2. It means taking your eye off everything else and fixing your eye on Him. That is the way we are sustained. We get our eye on other things – Peter took his eye off Christ and saw the waves and began to sink (Matt.14:30). We are often not what we should be, but let us keep our eye on the Man in whom God has found His complete delight and seek to be developed in features that are like Him. As we take up our inheritance, that is what will come into expression in our testimony.

A.R.H.      Was that seen in Paul before Agrippa? His heart was full of the inheritance. All he was suffering was of no account; he wanted everyone to be like him except his bonds (Acts 26:29). The inheritance shone there.

D.J.W.      That is a good example. He wanted everybody in that court to enjoy what he was enjoying. They could have it, because Paul, in that chapter, was not speaking as an apostle but as a Christian. Therefore what he was enjoying is open to everyone, and he wanted them to have it.

A.B.      Paul wrote to Timothy “Lay hold of eternal life, to which thou hast been called”, 1 Tim.6:12. Is that really the inheritance? He also wrote about “having nothing, and possessing all things”, 2 Cor.6:10.

D.J.W.      Yes, that is important. If you lay hold of a thing, it is worked out in your soul in the way of experience. There is no substitute for experience. If we are to be maintained steadily, it relates to the personal link we have with Christ and that prepares us to share that link with others.

T.R.C.      So do you think that Naboth laid hold of that in type? The vineyard is a place of enjoyment and the enemy is set against the saints enjoying what it speaks of.

D.J.W.      Yes. Ahab said ‘I will give you another vineyard or I will give you money for it’, but Naboth valued what he had because it had come down from his fathers, and the fruit of that vineyard brought joy to his heart. The fruit of the vineyard is for the joy of God and man.

T.R.C.      So it comes down to affection.

D.J.W.      Yes. You and I and others here have been brought up in this, and perhaps the exercises that bring us into the inheritance are not as real as they should be. If I could speak again from personal experience, my parents as a young couple came into fellowship from the Church of England. They told us as children the reason that they came out from the Church of England. They saw that the clerical system was not established by Scripture and therefore it had become a lifeless thing. They came to the meetings and they went to a fellowship meeting, a reading. They had never experienced anything like that before, the way that the Scriptures were handled. These were the things that they passed on to us as children; it was the fruit of their own experience. I have come in by a comparatively easy way, but it is to be as real!

G.A.B.      Does the thought of the vineyard include God’s inheritance in the saints? The fruit of the vine cheers both the heart of God and man (Judg.9:13).

D.J.W.      Think of the joy in the heart of God as He takes account of the saints entering into His service with joy in our hearts and appreciation of the way that we were in God’s mind for blessing before the world’s foundation; chosen in Christ before the world’s foundation (Eph.1:4). He has no greater pleasure than seeing us come into the liberty of that.

G.A.B.      It has often been said that God gets His joy as we enter into ours. We should not be serving God in a formal way, in an outward manner only. What is actually worked out in our own souls, the enjoyment of our heavenly portion, yields so much for God and there is cheer for God’s heart as well as the heart of man.

D.J.W.      Yes, and the experience of it makes us value it more. We have tasted that the Lord is good and therefore we are brought in to have part in a living system of things, a spiritual house, becoming living stones and offering spiritual sacrifices through Jesus Christ (1 Pet.2:5). There is a return to God in that.

J.A.B.      As we enjoy our inheritance, are we able, with God’s help, to value it and to know what it is worth? This king said, I will give you a vineyard that is better. Naboth knew that that was impossible. We should be the same, should we not?

D.J.W.      I believe that is right. You might look around at other things, but let us value what we have. It is not to claim anything, but if you experience it then you value it.

J.A.B.      We do not claim anything. This is not just for some brethren, this is for every believer. We wish fervently that they were all valuing and enjoying something of what we can value and enjoy today.

D.J.W.      Yes. I am glad you say that because an Ephesian takes into his affections all the saints. He desires that they should come into what he is enjoying. Whether others enjoy it, we do not know, but we are to enjoy it ourselves.

N.J.H.      We can be assured that Naboth’s father did not plant this vineyard at the side of the palace. It speaks about “universal lords of this darkness”, Eph.6:12. It shows that there is so much against the inheritance. This palace must have been built after the vineyard was there.

D.J.W.      The enemy is set to destroy the inheritance that God has in the saints. If he can destroy what there is in the saints, then there will be no answer to God Himself. He is set against any assembly response to the heart of Christ.

P.A.G.      We could not have a better vineyard, but the king also says that he would give Naboth its value in money. Is there a value in money we can place on the inheritance?

D.J.W.      I do not think so, no! Peter said “Silver and gold I have not; but what I have, this give I to thee”, Acts 3:6. There was something burning in his soul and he wanted that poor man to have it.

P.A.G.      Yes, Peter sets the silver and gold aside in his epistle. He says “ye have been redeemed, not by corruptible things, as silver or gold, from your vain conversation handed down from your fathers, but by precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ”, 1 Pet.1:18,19. That is God’s value; we could not put a different one on it, could we?

D.J.W.      No. Silver and gold has a central part in man’s world, but it has no place in God’s world. We have something far more precious than silver and gold – precious faith! That man in Acts 3 came into the gain of it; there was an immediate response in his heart and God’s heart was gladdened by it.

J.W.      I wondered if the ministries during the last 150 years would be part of the inheritance of our fathers.

D.J.W.      Yes, I am glad you say that. They are ministries that have stood the test of time; they have a living character about them. I challenge myself as to how much I value what has come down to us from our spiritual fathers in that way. There is something distinctive in the way that Mr Darby got light as to the body here and the living Head in heaven. He could see the inconsistency of what was in the religious circles all around him, and it caused him to move out. Let us search into what entered into the exercises of our forefathers and seek that we might in some sense have the experience of it ourselves, and not just as doctrine.

I thought of the injunction to Philadelphia; “I come quickly: hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. What is the crown? The crown must involve Christ Himself; we said earlier that all our blessings are bound up in Him. But I believe that it also involves the truth of Christ and the assembly, which brings us back to Paul’s teaching. There was something of the value of that seen in Philadelphia. There was nothing grand in appearance but there were moral features that were there; the Philadelphian saints did not deny the Name, and they had a little power. Mr Coates said, in relation to looking for a company that the Lord may be with, that there would be the maintenance of a living ministry of Christ, and purification from the influences of the world².

P.J.W.      I understand that Philadelphia means the operation of brotherly love or love amongst ourselves. You were speaking earlier about enjoying it amongst the saints. It needs the sphere of love and brotherly love to be enjoyed.

D.J.W.      I am glad you say that, because the thrust of the enemy’s efforts at the present time is to interrupt brotherly relations. As you say, Philadelphia means brotherly love. That conveys respect for what there is in the hearts of one another, respect for the work of God in one another, and a lowly and subject spirit in order that we might work things out together. It is not promoting our own views but keeping “the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, (Eph.4:3), which involves not only subjection to Christ but how we respect those who are our partners.

W.M.P.      What bearing would the character in which the Lord presents Himself here as “the holy, the true” have on how we maintain things here in His absence?

D.J.W.      It would have a sanctifying effect upon us, do you think? “These things saith the holy, the true”. What is true stands over against what is false. We live in the last days, when what is anti-Christian is coming in. It is not true, but we need to get a sense of the standard in the “the holy, the true”. Philadelphia worked matters out from that. You cannot work things out from the breakdown.

W.M.P.      It goes on to say that the Lord is opening things up for us. Do you think that as He opens things up for us, it would always be in accord with what He is in Himself as “the holy, the true”?

D.J.W.      Yes, “he who opens and no one shall shut, and shuts and no one shall open: I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an opened door”; it is a heavenly door.

R.G.      Are these exercises carried out on the basis of suffering and sacrifice? I was thinking of Laodicea; even there the Lord says “I counsel thee to buy of me …” Rev.3:18. If things are to be put right, we have in that sense to pay for them in our own spirits on a line of suffering.

D.J.W.      Yes, and endurance is involved in “thou hast kept the word of my patience”.

R.G.      We have not come to this point easily, we have come on the basis of suffering and conflict. That would be the inheritance of our fathers, and it is to be held. There is grace to hold it.

N.C.McK.      Would the promises to the overcomer link with the inheritance? God gives things to those who value them. The overcomers were persons who valued these things when circumstances were very difficult. There was “the synagogue of Satan” and those that lied, also the disinterest in Laodicea, but those who overcome are given things which they have valued through that difficult time. Does the repeated “my” in “a pillar in the temple of my God”, and “the name of my God, and name of the city of my God” show the consonance between the overcomer and the Lord Himself?

D.J.W.      Yes that is good, so it says “him will I make a pillar in the temple of my God”. That is ornamental but it is also supportive, something stable and going on to the eternal day. God’s thoughts are not thwarted, they go through and something of the eternal character of things in new Jerusalem is seen in Philadelphian overcomers.

A.G.M.      You get the thought of the pleasure of the Lord in speaking to Philadelphia; Naboth’s vineyard was for God’s pleasure. Ahab would have made it a garden of herbs; he was really seeking to turn a Philadelphian condition into a Laodicean one suiting him instead of suiting God.

D.J.W.      Yes. There is obviously affection for Christ maintained in Philadelphia as a result of appreciating what has come through Him; “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ”, Eph.1:3. If we enter into the enjoyment of that, I think the Lord Jesus personally will become more precious to us.

Reading at Glasgow

25 April 2015