WORKMEN OF THE LORD

John 9: 1–7, 35–38; Acts 16: 6–10, 28–33; 2 Timothy 2: 15–22

RG The thought in mind is a simple one as to workmen. The last scripture we read refers to a good workman, not needing to be ashamed. I feel that despite the fact that we are in a broken day, divine Persons are still working to a pattern and They expect us to do the same as we take up responsibility. I suggested John 9 to begin with, because the Lord there says, “I must work the works of him that has sent me while it is day”. It would remind us, I believe, that the Lord had a distinct commission, and that He was operating within the limits of that which God had laid upon Him. We get the same thought extended in Acts where it is evident that the Spirit of God had a definite area of things in mind, and instructed Paul and those with him accordingly. I think we might get some help in seeing how the direction of the blessed Holy Spirit comes in to keep us, even in times like these. And then as was remarked in Timothy we have the idea of a good workman, and needing not to be ashamed. We might say that in these days a little lowering of the standard, or a little less might be expected because of difficult conditions, but Paul seems to emphasise rather that things should be maintained. He says, “cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. We need to do that and I believe it is being done. That briefly is what I had in mind. I trust it can be developed.

JS The Lord said, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work”, John 5: 17. This shows how divine Persons have worked and we have to learn how we can fill our part in the work.

RG God worked at the beginning in the creation and one feature of work according to God is that it can be taken account of. He assessed it and pronounced it good. So today the work of the saints, the work which is carried out in the power of the Holy Spirit should produce results, and I believe that these works do.

GBG The Lord also says in John’s gospel, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me, and that I should finish his work”, John 4: 34. I was thinking of what you were speaking of in Genesis there was a finish and a completion. Do you think we see in this case in John 9 the finish of His work in this man when he believes on the Son of God?

RG Yes, I think that is important. There are exercises that continue for a long time, and some of us just have to hang our heads in regard of that, but the divine thought is that matters should be completed, and the Holy Spirit is here to that end, and they will be completed.

MGW What would there be for us in this where it would appear that the disciples’ line of thought was off track? We tend to need a reason for everything do we? They said, “who sinned ...?” But this remarkable response from the Lord, it is “that the works of God should be manifested in him”. This is a basis for your enquiry, is it?

RG Yes. It is so with us that we tend to analyse circumstances that arise, but we should keep clearly in our minds that what God is doing He is doing for His own glory, and it is our blessing to fall in with what He is doing.

JS Could you say something more about the workings and the limits that have been set?

RG Well, I think it is an important principle, that when God has something in mind. He provides an area in which it is going to be worked out. That is, with Israel the framework within which they operated was the law, and God gave them the land in which to work that matter out. So with us, Persons would say to us, ‘Why do you not join up with other companies?’, or ‘Why do you not have joint preachings, or joint Christian efforts with others?’ Now we do not deprecate what others do, and they stand or fall to their own Master, but I think we have to see the area within which God is working, and that for us is a spiritual area. What do you think?

JS I think so. Paul said, “as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation” (1 Corinthians 3: 10), he would have the whole scope of what God had in mind in the building, and others were to work in relation to that.

RG That is right and it is a good scripture to bring in because “other foundation can no man lay besides that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 3: 11. If we had a fresh impression of how much God’s thoughts and arrangements centre on Christ, and how little they centre, indeed not at all, on the workings of the world and its systems, then it would help us I think.

JCG Do you think, therefore that this whole chapter brings out the glory of the One who is doing the work? The glory of the Man who is performing the works of God? The man comes to an understanding of Jesus, a man called Jesus. But by the end of the incident when he is cast out of the system, he comes to believe on the Son of God. The works of God would help us in appreciating who Christ is, do you think?

RG I think that is important because we might think our work is just to ‘hold on as best we can’, but God’s work is constructive and what He works out in the saints is constructive, so what you have said helps, because in divine things progress should be normal as we see in this man.

GBG Is this man’s obedience one of these works of God? It would be a feature of God working in a soul that there would be obedience to the Lord, and that is the way of blessing, is it not?

RG So we have recently had a case of a young sister asking her place in Grangemouth, and it was possible to take account of the works of God. We are not looking for an old person’s wisdom in a young one, but there was something that was of God which greatly encouraged the brethren. Is that what is in your mind?

GBG That is right. It is, you might say, a simple thing but we all have to begin that way, do we not? But this man, after the mud was put as ointment on his eyes, was not told ‘go and you will see’, he was just told to go. So obedience was the test was it not?

RG What you say is important, that obedience is the beginning of everything. Saul of Tarsus, that arrogant proud man, for once did what he was told, and it led to great blessing.

CKR Do you have something in mind as to the Lord saying, “I must work”? John 8 is concluded with all that was involved in that by way of His dealings with the Jews and He has now moved on and He sees the Father’s work in a soul. It seems almost, we use the word carefully, stern, to bring forward another of the ‘musts’ in John’s gospel. ‘I must work the works of Him’.

RG Yes, that is helpful both in the context of the chapter here, and in relation to the exercise on hand, because there are certain imperatives with God in relation to the testimony, which He will not allow to be set aside. Our salvation lies in going along these lines.

CKR So as the Son He can show His own initiative, yet ever within the scope of the Father’s operations, and He appears to do that with this particular soul, does He?

RG Yes that helps. He operates within the limits of divine thoughts really.

JAG This man got light and vision, consequently he had judgment. So he is steering his right course now, a feature which 2 Timothy would have in mind.

RG Colossians speaks, as you know, about “growing by the true knowledge of God”, Colossians 1: 10. I think we see something of that in this man. He gained his sight, but then he grew in his knowledge of the Lord. Is that what is in your mind?

JAG Yes, I wondered that because washing off of the mud and the spittle was the finish of the earthly man. It is like the Jordan. The man has got clear of himself, and it is obvious he has by the way he conducts himself.

RG He is a striking instance of what we are speaking about in this setting. In chapter eight we know that the Lord’s words were rejected, and here in chapter nine it has often been said they rejected His works. But this man shone, do you think?

JAG He is ready for the flock.

RG Yes, exactly. So you can see the moral order of this, but it now involves that he is cast out. That is the only place of safety.

JCG Do you think that we need to look for the tenacity of the work of God? That particularly comes out in the way in which this man developed, does it not?

RG Yes, I think that is helpful and I think it is a needed word at the moment. There are exercises amongst us, which it is not now the time or place to talk about, but there are exercises being carried, and we might become discouraged because of the weakness of conditions, but this man lost the very thing he depended on most, that was the support of his parents, who no doubt were a help to him in his blindness, but they washed their hands of him. But what you say came to light, the tenacity to go on brought him into blessing. We need that.

RGar Was this one of Solomon’s great stones, hewn stones, costly stones, to be built into the edifice? I was thinking of Solomon’s workmen. He had his workmen and he had overseers for his workmen, but he himself had the pattern, and the Lord has the pattern here in His mind all the way through. His work is related to the pattern, and now we get a trophy that can be fitted in as a costly stone, do you think?

RG Yes. This man, you might say, made giant strides really, but I believe when the Lord says, “I must work the works of him that has sent me”, what He had in mind was taking up what the Father had already begun. We have had it quoted already, “My Father worketh hitherto and I work” (John 5: 17), there was something here that the Lord built on, do you think?

JS The Lord was doing this work as it says, “while it is day”. “The night is coming, when no one can work”. Is He working, you might say, within the limitations there, and He is working in the light do you think?

RG Yes, I think we need to marvel at the grace involved in that. And to refer to Solomon again he said to God, “the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee” (1 Kings 8: 27), and yet God in His grace has come within the limits, which He Himself made, and set man in. God is operating within these. It is marvellous grace, do you think?

JS I think so indeed. Something is being worked out in souls as a result of that. God has set His heart on men, and He is working within that to bring out what is really an answer to Himself.

RG Well that is what was in view. It goes on in chapter 10 to one flock, one shepherd, and other sheep I must bring, not of this fold. Really Paul’s ministry shines through that. It is the truth of the body I suppose.

MGW We read elsewhere “that he who has begun in you a good work will complete it unto Jesus Christ’s day”, Philippians 1: 6. Do you feel that the blessedness of that in our souls would give us a real urge to be workmen on this line and complete it? Is that the idea?

RG Yes, I think the Lord, in His operations with the saints, is working with the Holy Spirit to set us free. Things are difficult and broken. That is all true, but I believe the Lord would have us to understand, especially at the Supper, that He has won the victory and the line we are on is victorious. You might say, ‘Oh I could show you many shortcomings’. Maybe, but the line the Lord is on is victorious and He wants us to be in that frame of mind, do you think?

JAG Could you help us about the mud and the spittle, and that having to be washed off?

RG Say more of what is in your mind.

JAG Probably the root of the whole thing, because I suppose the man in principle is moving in the power of an indissoluble life.

RG Yes, I think what you say is very valuable—we must take account of the moral element that enters into this. The Lord dismissed the idea of this man having sinned, or his parents. That was not the point. But there was a moral issue, which the Lord met in His own grace by, speaking reverently, committing Himself to the position. He spat and made mud with His spittle.

NJH Would the blind man’s apprenticeship commence as he went to the pool with the mud applied? We are told of this “pool of Siloam, which is interpreted, Sent”. There must

have been something working in his soul as he was going. Still blind, with the mud applied. I just wondered if there was the beginning of something, the making of the man.

RG Yes, I think it is important because we might think ‘oh well this just happened, one, two, three, without any exercise’, but there was exercise. The man must have had thoughts in his mind, but the point is he did what he was told and that is a great salvation.

RHB I was wanting to know what the ‘night’ is? The night when no one can work. What does that refer to?

RG Well, do you not think that it has in mind the fact that the day was there when He was still present. He says, “I must work the works of him that has sent me while it is day”; but the night was coming when He would be cast out and crucified. What is your own thought as to it?

RHB He says, “The night is coming, when no one can work”. We know that the work went on in the Acts, in the passage that you read, and Paul speaks of him and others as being God’s fellow-workmen in Corinthians, does he not? Was the Lord referring here to the period before the coming of the Spirit, or was He looking on to the general darkening of Israel?

RG I would be subject to help on the matter, but I had thought of it as having in mind the fact that Israel, for the time being, would be rejected and the work then would spread out among the Gentiles. Would it bear that interpretation do you think?

RHB You refer to the Lord’s own commission. He said He had been sent to the lost sheep of Israel’s house, and that is largely where His ministry was confined. There were one or two from without brought in, but largely it was in that area was it not?

RG Yes, that was His commission. We can see from Matthew that in time He turned away under God’s hand. His thoughts widened out to the assembly, but Israel as a nation, I think, were still in the light. It was still available to them although John tells us that “the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not” (John 1: 5); but the light was there and this was one of the remnant who was saved in view of that, do you think?

JAB Have you any thought about how we identify the work of God? From one point of view it was easy for this man to know what had happened to him. He had been blind all his life and now he could see and we have referred to what comes out at the end, that he did Him homage. For most of us brought up in Christian households, progress in response to divine workings sometimes seems to be very slow, but what would you say about being able to identify this work, because we have to identify it first of all in ourselves and then in others. Otherwise what we are speaking about is just a doctrine and not the reality of what God is doing today. Is that right?

RG Yes, it is part of my burden that Paul at one point says, “as not beating the air”, 1 Corinthians 9: 26. That is not the work of God. We should be obedient but we should be intelligently obedient. I think when we begin to discern the work of God in ourselves, that involves the teaching of Romans, “I myself”, Romans 7: 25. We accept not only in faith but by some experience that there is something in us that is struggling against the flesh. That would be the beginning of it and I think would lead, as we have been taught, in priestly exercise to discerning and valuing the work of God wherever it appears. But what do you think?

JAB I am glad of what you say and very much go with it. We often see examples, and we praise God when we see them, of persons whose lives are changed, quickly, from one direction to another, and it causes your heart to go out in thanksgiving. In principle we should be able to see that in every believer, and in ourselves too. It is a question of really being able to have the sensitivity to identify what we speak of as the work of God.

RG Well, if we are accepting responsibility in the place in which we are set, I think we begin to discern that. The scripture in Mark says “first the blade, then an ear, then full corn in the ear”, Mark 4: 28. You can see something of that kind of life in the saints, do you not think?

JS Do you think we see how he progresses in his knowledge of the Lord Jesus? First he refers to him as a man called Jesus, then as a prophet and then he comes finally to know him as the Son of God. Is that how you see growth taking place in a soul and in yourself?

RG Yes, I think he got a tremendous start when he spoke about a man called Jesus. He did not say the Saviour or the Lord. He is that of course, but acquaintance with the Person is something that is valuable beyond price. You see we usually, I speak for myself, come to the Lord because we need Him. We are conscious of our sins. We need a Saviour and we fear the consequences of not having a Saviour. To come to appreciate the Person Himself is valuable.

JCG The singleness and purity of the work of God in the man, and in the saints today, would result in persons being cast out from the religious or worldly systems. They would find no compatibility there, but the beauty of the matter is that there is a further revelation of the Person involved, and that is great progress, is it not?

RG Yes it is. One of the things that sustains us in the testimony at the present time is our knowledge of divine Persons. We should have some sense that we are speaking to Someone who knows us and hears us.

JD He says firstly “I saw” and then he says “I see”. Would that be progress? The thing becomes current and the work becomes manifest, do you think?

RG Well I think that is another important part of the exercise. We can so quickly become routine in what we do, and it is good to have right habits, the assembling of ourselves together, and so on, but the great exercise is that we should be kept alive, quickened in our affections. And that is really divine workmanship.

I think we should go on to Acts. The men spoken of in Acts 13 were workmen. The Holy Spirit says, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”, Acts 13: 2. Work is my responsibility and I should understand what it is.

JSp I was thinking of Nehemiah’s men. They had a weapon in one hand and a trowel in the other. If we are holding the ground it is very important. He said, “I cannot come down” (Nehemiah 6: 3), they were linking on with what God was doing. Do you think that would have a bearing on it?

RG I think that is helpful, because things today are quite testing. I mean up to about the middle 1950’s (and I am talking now about what a lot will not remember or know anything about), there was a very well established arrangement which God had blessed and used, but for various reasons that has broken up to some extent. I am not saying the truth is different, it is exactly the same, but we need more of this ‘a weapon in one hand and a trowel in the other’. That is an unusual way to go on. You can either work with a trowel or fight with a sword. But to go on with a constructive work and maintain vigilance is what is required today.

JS I was just thinking they were guided in relation to this work by the Spirit. They were not allowed and they were forbidden to go certain ways. Do you think that is an important thing in our time? We have to ascertain what the Spirit is saying now, as He said then, “Separate me now Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them”, Acts 13: 2. Is it a matter of being guided in relation to where the Spirit is working?

RG I do think that. We are not working at our own charges, nor exactly working purely in the light of precedent, although past ministry is useful, we have the thought of commandment, things are established, but we do need current speaking.

RGar You spoke about the 1950’s. Linking on with what our brother has said about the Spirit, do you not think that the Spirit being drawn attention to in 1948 was an indication from the Lord as to how He meant us to proceed? We lost view of that in the 1950’s and especially later in the 1950’s. Would you say that?

RG I think it is important. The facts are that after the war, during which things had been repressed and difficult because of the conditions, there was a certain feeling of relief and liberty. Persons generally, and amongst us too, began to make money and there was an almost insensible lowering of standards. Now some amongst us tried to combat that, but what they really did, as our brother has pointed out, was that they went from one leader to another to another saying, ‘Is this the man?’, ‘Is this the man?’. What the Lord had in mind, I believe, was what Numbers 21 speaks of, that was inward leadership; by the Spirit being acknowledged, the Spirit made way for and the Spirit’s leading followed. We have gone through quite a difficult time since then, but I believe that the Lord is speaking to us again about the Spirit and about His leadership, with a view to the completion of things, the rapture itself. Does that go with your exercise?

RGar Yes, so that when the Spirit and the bride say “Come” (Revelation 22: 17), the day for that is very close, and if that is the case then the Spirit is operating now that we might be in accord with Himself, as we take our place sovereignly as the bride alongside of Him, do you think?

RG Yes I do. I think it is a time of awakening affection.

CKR Does Genesis 24 not show us a very good complete product of the Spirit’s working to secure the wife of the heavenly Man? So, therefore, the Holy Spirit is working in me and in you, and in every rightly assembly minded person, to develop the truth of the assembly and maintain it at the height of its calling, do you think?

RG Yes. What you say is helpful and bears directly on what we are at.

CKR So the Spirit is moving into the West here in Acts 16. The material is being secured, the value of working in households begins to be developed and then local assemblies develop. Is that so?

RG Yes, that is helpful and I would say something else about the matter of separation. There was right teaching as to separation in regard of business associations, trade unions, and so on, but we have also had help as to separation ecclesiastically, and 2 Timothy 2 would bear on that. My own feeling is that something we could well look at, I say with respect, is separation in households. To be frank, I fear some of the things that are coming into our houses, electronic things which in themselves are useful, that is email, and so on, they have a place, but they bring other things with them. I think these are things that we should be careful about.

NJH These workmen kept in unity in the face of restriction placed by the Holy Spirit, and awaited till the time that heavenly intervention took place and directed them. Is that important?

RG Yes, you could maybe amplify that a little.

NJH I was just thinking that in chapter 13, John Mark really gives up the work, he leaves it, and Barnabas is affected by it in chapter 15, but here the workmen are together, and they are accepting the restrictions placed by the Holy Spirit. Is that an important at the present time?

RG Yes it is important, because you could well think of brethren being discouraged. Barnabas was a thoroughly sound man. He is spoken of in Acts as a good man, but he was affected and turned aside. It is in the face of these circumstances that I believe we need to be particularly sensitive about the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

APG So this is one of the places where Luke comes in, does he not? Paul refers to Luke as a fellow-workman.

RG Yes, that is good. Say more on that, please.

APG The thought of fellow-workmen is attractive, others are referred to as fellowworkers with God, but there is also working with one another to the same objective.

RG I think it would answer some of the exercises we carry locally, if we had the sense, the confidence, that we were fellow-workers. We are working for the same Master, we are working to the same end. I think what you say about Luke is good.

JCG Paul says in Romans 8, “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God” (Romans 8: 16), and while it is in a different setting, do you think that the interaction between the Spirit of God and our spirits is a preservative? I think of what has been said as to what took place in the 1950’s, and what you are bringing before us as to electronic machines and their use and so on, so there is a need really to have the inward maintenance of what the Spirit would give us as a witness from heaven and Christ in glory with our spirit, and that would be a preservative would it not?

RG Yes, that could hardly be overstated. I feel that our relations with the Holy Spirit are paramount. They always were of course, but there are so many pressures nowadays that it is difficult to walk along the street and not be defiled. And what is the answer? Well I believe the answer is in the Spirit and in sowing to the Spirit and reaping life eternal.

JAG The workmen are to promote Christ among the brethren, and consequently bring about features of the bride.

RG Yes, say more, please.

JAG I think it is beginning to be manifest because of the evidence of love among the brethren, we have love among ourselves.

RG Yes. I do not want to leave the impression that I think things are very bad or very difficult, I am rather seeking to preserve what is here in the saints because it is most attractive. I would be sorry to see anything that would spoil what is enjoyed among the saints.

JAG To go back a little, the mud and the spittle washed off is the answer to all that line of things.

RG Yes. I think what you say is doubly helpful because I might say, ‘Oh well, I will address myself to the young people and tell them they should think about this or that exercise’. The thing is for me to do, and act, so there is an attractive result seen in persons, for those who may not fully understand all that is involved in the truth.

JS As they proceed on this line they find two good households in Philippi, and there was a good meeting established there. Do you think this is the line on which we should be working?

RG Yes, I think what you say is good, because in Philippi the apostle takes account, when he writes to them, of what is positive. He has to touch on one or two little things, but he speaks of what is positive.

MGW Just following that, would it appear that this is the beginning of the work for the Philippian jailor? He took them the same hour of the night and what remarkable work it was for the comfort of these men, do you feel?

RG You almost set the Philippian jailor, in one sense, alongside the man in John 9. He just turned right round under the influence of what he saw in the apostle.

GBG You mentioned that Philippi was a good locality. Is it your thought that we have responsibilities locally, and most of our work is local, is it not? Paul says in the setting of what is local, “the work of each shall be made manifest”, 1 Corinthians 3: 13. Therefore, what are my activities actually locally, not just in public (we may not dare do anything wrong publicly), but what are my activities behind the scenes? All that kind of thing has a bearing on this, do you think?

RG Yes, I do. It brings us to 2 Timothy where it speaks of a good workman, that is one thing, but needing not to be ashamed. Now who would make him ashamed? It would be the person who was assessing his work. What we do we do as before the Lord.

PAG Just before you go on could you say something about what it means for a house to be saved?

RG When the Lord went to the house of Zacchaeus he said, “Today salvation is come to this house”, Luke 19: 9. I think the teaching of Corinthians as to the unbelieving wife or husband would show that God looks on a house in the light of His own work there. It has in mind that the unbeliever may be saved. What is in your own mind?

PAG Well I think that is helpful and would it then extend the thought of work to the responsibility of heads of houses and to their wives, such as have wives, in relation to what the house would provide by way of a place of safety, for those in it and for the brethren who may come to it?

RG I think that is right and I think the psalm that we often quote, “Walk about Zion ... Mark ye well her bulwarks” (Psalm 48: 12, 13) applies. The households of the saints are the bulwarks of the assembly.

RGar It was once said, “choose you this day whom ye will serve ... but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah”, Joshua 24: 15. It is not only my house, it is me and my house. There is where responsibility rests, does it not?

RG That is important because there is no point in saying right things if I am not carrying on right practice. It is just hollow. In 2 Timothy I had just briefly in view the thought, “Strive diligently to present thyself approved to God, a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. It would save us from any thought that we could afford to water down or adjust the truth in the light of present circumstances. It is particularly insistent, “a workman that has not to be ashamed, cutting in a straight line the word of truth”. It is not the truth exactly, it is the word of truth. It is the expression of it.

JAG That would help, and we need help, to respect assembly judgments whether we think they are right or wrong until they are proved otherwise.

RG That is a very important point and has been the cause of a lot of trouble. If I heard of an assembly judgment, I would accept it, there and then. Somebody might say, ‘But what if it is wrong, and what if there is a fault with it?’ Well, that may come to light, but if I reserve to myself the right to withhold support of an assembly judgment until I am satisfied, that just brings confusion.

DCB I was wondering if you would say something as to the important matter you have mentioned about the Spirit’s leadership, which I am sure carries through this, and just how we know it?

RG I speak of it as feeling the need of it. But I do have the feeling, to refer back to what our brother said, that there was a distinct voice to us in 1947/48 when the ministry of the Spirit was first introduced, that the Lord had in mind the kind of leadership that is spoken of in Numbers after chapter 21. Moses had gone, Joshua was not so prominent. It was, as we have been taught, a time for inward leadership. How to discern that from day to day is a constant exercise. Perhaps you could help us.

DCB Just firstly to agree that it must be a constant exercise. We see the way in which Paul worked in Acts 16. I wondered if this reference to the Spirit of Jesus suggested that kind of sensitivity, and then we know things just by the character of the way in which the Lord Jesus served. You would see that leadership would always be in accordance with that.

RG Yes I think that is right, especially your reference to the Spirit of Jesus. It is a thing I would desire for myself, to cultivate, not just knowledge, that is good, but if I could use the word reverently, acquaintanceship with the Lord. Knowing Him, going into His presence apart from need, not to ask Him for anything, but rather to gain a greater appreciation of Himself and of His Person. Do you think that would help?

RGar And acquaintance with the Spirit. I have wondered, and I am speaking for myself, if I have known what it has been to speak and commune with the Spirit enough. I love a little remark of Mr. J. B. Stoney’s, he said that when a hymn comes into his mind to give out in the meeting he always asked the Spirit if that was the right hymn for the right time. That is communion and being able to commune and speak with the Holy Spirit.

RG The Spirit of God is here in the saints. He is as available to us as Christ was to His own in that sense. But I think communion with the Holy Spirit would save us from a lot of things. It would give us right instincts. There are some things you say, ‘Well, that just does not feel right somehow’. You might not be able to give a scripture or quote a bit of ministry, but your spiritual instincts would tell you it was not right.

JS Do you think the way that the Lord said, “he shall guide you into all the truth” (John 16: 13), involves a very sensitive attitude towards the Spirit?

RG Yes, a Guide. Say more then about what guiding is.

JS I wondered if we have to go along dependently and sensitively and in self judgment in order that the Spirit may indicate what He has in mind as to the truth.

RG Yes, I think that is right. The scripture in Galatians comes to me often. Things had been very difficult and the state was low, but Paul towards the end says, “he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life”, Galatians 6: 8. Now that involves a transaction. That is you sow, but you reap. You are in conscious contact with the Person involved.

JS I wondered if this would have a bearing on this matter of cutting in a straight line the word of truth? We are in accord, you might say, with the Spirit’s guiding, and He will never lower the standard of the truth, and He will guide in relation to what is needed at the moment, do you think?

RG Yes, it is an important matter. It is the word of truth. It is the expression of the truth. I can go to the bookshelf and pull down a book and say, ‘that is what the ministry says’. Is that the mind of the Spirit? I am not setting aside the ministry, we need it, and it is valuable.

NJH Cutting in a straight line actually runs through the ministries we are privileged to have. These men were cutting a straight line one after another and brethren were brought into it. There had been a hiatus I think as you referred to, where we really had to get back to the Spirit, so that we are reading ministry as well as the Scriptures by the Holy Spirit, is that right?

RG That is a necessary word because I am not in any sense seeking to suggest that the ministry is somehow secondary or has lost its importance. It was secured at cost and by the Spirit, given by God, and it is for our salvation. I link it with the commandment, but we need the other side too, that is of the word, and our ministry meetings and other meetings would help in that, do you think?

WL The plummet is in the hand of Zerubbabel. The plummet is fixed from above. Christ is on high, the Spirit is here, there is complete correspondence. Do we need to build with regard to the plummet?

RG That is helpful. In fact I thought about Zechariah because you get the idea of the craftsmen at the beginning who operated in relation to God’s thoughts. But what you say about the plummet is valuable, and I think would link with what was said about the straight line in the ministry. The ministry we have has been measured by the plummet I believe, and it is of immense value, but what I plead for is that this thought of cutting in a straight line the word of truth means that we get the wisdom to apply what the Lord has taught us and apply it rightly at the time. That is where the skill comes in.

TDB I was thinking of Lydia in that respect. It says that she attended to the things spoken by Paul and she was quite open about him coming to her house saying, “If ye have judged me to be faithful to the Lord, come into my house”, Acts 16: 15.

RG Yes, it involves our spirits. We can take (some more than others) things into our minds, which is good, but I think the spirit in which we hold things and do things is important, and attending to the things spoken by Paul would enter into that.

JSp What is the force of the thought of cutting in a straight line? Must we first remove what is extraneous?

RG I think that is an important word because to refer back to Nehemiah, when he went out first on his beast, the place was just in an upheaval. There was rubble everywhere and he could not pass. You cannot cut in a straight line the word of truth in these conditions. There had to be clearance for the work to go on. I think what you say is helpful, because often we get involved in extraneous discussions about things that do not really bear on the point we are at.

JAG Job’s three friends got involved in discussions that were totally useless, but Elihu cut in a straight line the word of truth. As we do that the Lord comes in and supports it and there is help.

RG That I think just defines the situation. The Spirit of God records all these other wanderings in Job but shows where God was.

JCG The truth stands for itself, does it not, and by itself, but if I am to come into accordance with it I need to purify myself. The purging out of what is extraneous makes way for the real activity of the Spirit among the saints, does it not? If I am in tune with that I will fit in with the saints, do you think?

RG There is nothing wrong with the truth—ever. The truth is the truth. The Spirit is the truth. Where the difficulty arises is when I try to apply it unsuitably, or in an unspiritual frame of mind. But what you say about clearing out what is not according to God is necessary. I think our local meetings help.

DS Would naming the name of the Lord help in this matter you are speaking about, cutting in a straight line?

RG Yes, you are right. Say more about naming the name of the Lord. We gather to the name of the Lord Jesus, but do you think naming the name of the Lord involves what I am in testimony as well? What is your own thought?

DS That is exactly what I was thinking. Naming the name of the Lord would help in this matter of what comes out in practice, and then there would be something of it seen in a believer as the truth is upheld, would it not? The truth, as you say, always stands but naming the name of the Lord means you are leaving everything else behind to move in relation to the Lord and the truth, is that right?

RG Yes it is right and, I would say, that the fact there are so many young people here this afternoon, on a day like this—I think that constitutes naming the name of the Lord. I mean we have to be simple about these things as going on in the truth where other things might appeal and do appeal.

JAB Much of what we have been saying about cutting in a straight line involves a horizontal line and that is very necessary, but the line sometimes is vertical is it not? Did the man in John 9 come to that when he said “I believe, Lord” and did Him homage? Everything, every moral exercise has in view a response to God, and that is a vertical line. I am thinking of the plummet that has been referred to. So that while the moral exercises of the pathway are very much needed the line goes up too does it not?

RG I think that is important. Perhaps we should have made more of that earlier because we do not want to close

this meeting with a sense that Christianity is an endless series of difficult exercises down here. There are difficulties and there are exercises, but to be in touch in our spirits with divine Persons in liberty, is a privilege that is beyond price.

JAB I was thinking of Paul and Silas in the jail at Philippi. That is what they were doing in a sense. So that the end product of what is worked at, the result of this divine craftsmanship through the medium of those who do the work, is something that is satisfying and peculiarly pleasing to God. He is pleased with this work because in one sense it is His own work is it not?

RG Yes it is. I think that is perhaps a good note to end on. He is pleased with this work, and you see it where we finished in verse 22, “with those that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart”. Who provided them? Not I. He did it! It is the Lord coming in and joining in with the work that you have been speaking of.

RGar So that the end result is, “serviceable to the Master, prepared for every good work”. And then you find others that are on the same vertical line that our brother has been speaking about and there is a sweet savour arising to God, do you think?

RG I think the word, “prepared for every good work” is something that we need to think about at the present time. Conditions are such now that we need to be able to turn our hand to anything that is useful, that the Lord requires of us. And that I think is involved in being prepared for every good work. Reading at Dundee, 15 June 2010

KEY TO INITIALS

T. D. Beveridge	A. P. Grant	C. K. Robinson
D. C. Brown	G. B. Grant	D. Spinks
J. A. Brown	J. C. Gray	J. Spinks
R. H. Brown	A. Gray	J. Strachan
J. Drummond	R. Gray	M. G. Wood
J. A. Gardiner	N. J. Henry
R. Gardiner	W. Lovie