RESOURCES AVAILABLE TO THE OVERCOMER IN CHRISTIANITY

Joshua 6: 1–27; Romans 8: 31–39; 1 John 2: 14–25

DJW Paul tells us that in the last days difficult times shall be there (2 Timothy 3: 1). We are in those days and we are also in days when anti-Christian influences are increasing. There are various pressures on the hearts and spirits of the beloved brethren, and thus the importance of overcoming in such a day. The addresses in Revelation 2 and 3, and the promises in them to the overcomer, give us some impression of the preciousness of an overcomer to the Lord Himself. I thought in this reading we might be encouraged to see the resources that are available to the overcomer. Where we read in Joshua 6, Jericho was overcome, speaking to us of the world, but not in the aspect of the world as typified in Egypt. That speaks more of the resources of the world and its entertainment and so on; whereas the overthrow of Jericho is a heavenly conflict in that it is one that takes place in the land, and that speaks to us of the mind of man in the things of God. In the Christian circle there is to be one Man that is pre-eminent, and that is the Lord Jesus. We see in Jericho a system of things in which the glory of man is predominant.

But in this chapter the first thing to see, I believe, is that they had the ark, as a type of Christ, and nothing would have been accomplished here, apart from the fact that the ark went around the wall with them. And then you have the seven priests blowing the trumpets. That really is the testimony sounding out, and I wondered whether it would be illustrated in the early chapters of the book of Acts, in the light that the apostles at that time really turned the world upside down, and the walls of Jericho came down. The Holy Spirit had come and there was to be a sphere of things in which Christ was to be supreme; also, if we read in Hebrews 11: 30, we see that it is by faith the walls of Jericho fell. That is another thing we have that is precious. Peter speaks of precious faith (1 Peter 1: 7). It was a rather protracted exercise involving patience and involving discipline. There were the men of war. Interesting thing to see is that men of war do not do a thing in this chapter. They are there, you might say a show of power, but things were accomplished in a different way.

And then in Romans 8 we have the love of Christ. What a powerful reservoir that is, beloved brethren, for the overcomer, the love of Christ. And nothing could separate us from that in this section in which Paul is speaking. “If God be for us, who against us?”. That is not the ‘if’ of doubt but is ‘if’ of consequence. If such a One, so great, is for us, then what are our enemies? It is for us to draw upon the reservoir of the love of Christ. He ends the chapter by saying nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God, “which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That is where it is centred. It is centred in a glorious Man.

And then in 1 John 2 I thought we might see firstly how it says of the young men, “ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”, pointing, I think, to the place that the word of God has in our affections. It becomes part of us and as knowing it, it helps us in a day when, as we have said, anti-Christian influences are at work, as we see in this section. And then I thought it is encouraging to see, that as addressing the little children, he says, “ye have the unction from the holy one.” It is another resource we have in the Holy Spirit, so that in the midst of such anti-Christian influences there is that, you might say, a spiritual inward intuition in us as having the Spirit, which would fortify us in a difficult day. I wondered whether that might be profitable for us on this occasion.

JS You mentioned about the difference between the Egyptian world and what is typified in Jericho. Would what is represented in Jericho have to do with the character of things in the world that would hinder us from coming into the enjoyment of heavenly things?

DJW Yes, I thought that, if there is to be progress in taking possession of the inheritance and making that our own; that is seen in its fulness in Ephesians, is it not? Paul could say in Acts 20, “I have not shrunk from announcing to you all the counsel of God” (Acts 20: 27), but this area of Jericho has to be overthrown in our hearts if we are to go forward and possess what is ours.

JS To help us to realise that we need to appreciate the ark as typifying Christ, Son of God, do you think?

DJW Yes, I wondered that for nothing would have been accomplished unless the ark was present with them. A sense of divine support and presence is a tremendous thing, when you might take account of such forces that are to be overcome. Everything can be done in the presence of the ark. I wondered whether the character of the conflict, and the way that Jericho was overcome, links with what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 10, “For the arms of our warfare are not fleshly, but powerful according to God to the overthrow of strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10: 4). I thought that is what we might see in Joshua 6 and Paul at the beginning of that chapter speaks about entreating them by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ.

GBG The Lord says, just as He is about to leave his own, “be of good courage—I have overcome the world”. He says, “These things have I spoken to you that in me ye might have peace”, John 16: 33. And He had just said, “I came out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I leave the world and go to the Father”, John 16: 28. And at the beginning of chapter 17, “Jesus spoke, and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father”. To overcome what was in this world, He had that other world in his affections and was bringing it before His own, do you think?

DJW Yes, I think that is right. In those chapters from 14 to 17 He is preparing His own in view of His own departure, and He is assuring them. He is saying, ‘Well things may be difficult, I am going away’. Amongst other things, He says that the Comforter will come, but also be assured “I have overcome the world”, John 16: 33. He has led the way in that.

GBG You referred to the overcomer in these chapters. There is no question—it says, “He that overcomes”, not if you are overcomers. So there will be overcomers, but ought we to be amongst the overcomers?

DJW Yes, I thought that, and do you think it is persons, therefore, that hear what the Spirit is saying to the assemblies who are the ones that overcome?

MWG Why do you think it is that the taking of Jericho could not all have been done in the first circuit or in the first day. Is it something of an extended exercise for our souls?

DJW I wondered that, whether it was an extended exercise. It certainly is an important exercise for entrance into the land. It would need energy every day. Six days they walk around this wall, but, on the seventh day so much more energy is required, and the period of seven days seems to be a complete period in the canon of Scripture. A complete period when the thing has to be arrived at in a definite and real way, because if we are to enter into the counsels and purpose of God, as Paul speaks of it in Ephesians, we must overcome the world in our hearts. I think one result of it is that Christ becomes greater to us. They had the ark there and now everything was being accomplished because the ark was there.

CKR Is the whole chapter about the overcoming of one city? When you read it all, you obviously had something in mind in the significance of it. The strategy that is used, the priestly element, all the various bits that come into this, the shout, every one of them has some significance, but the triumph is complete, is it not?

DJW Well, as I said at the outset I believe that the priest is also an important element in it, and the trumpet is not to give an uncertain sound, and there was to be no sound from anybody until the word was “Shout”. So that there was discipline in it. And as that is carried out then the walls of Jericho fell flat. In a certain sense we take it up individually, but the collective side is also involved in it, so that there is in the Christian circle the result is that it is for the glory of One Man, and that is Christ. John the baptist says, “He must increase, but I must decrease”, John 3: 30, I think enters into the exercises of overcoming Jericho.

CKR Also for the beautiful salvation of one house. In Rahab’s house and all that that would speak of, would show that there is always salvation out of a Jericho environment in view of getting into the land.

JDG Does it test our faith? I mean they went around the city once, then came back to their camps at night. Would they sleep? Would they be convinced that Christ could do this?

DJW Yes, say some more please.

JDG Just that they went around one day, you said by faith, but the walls were not overcome that night. How can Christ overcome this one big city in my soul? The next day is the same thing. It must have been a test of faith each night.

DJW Yes, it was a test of faith, and in Philadelphia they are credited with keeping the word of His patience, are they not (Revelation 3: 10)? I wondered whether that would link with it too.

JDG Christ being in residence has a great effect on my soul, does it not?

DJW Yes, and it had a great effect on the apostles in early Acts after the Holy Spirit had come, and looking to heaven and see a Man at the right hand of God. And they spoke in power in relation to that Man and the walls of Jericho were overthrown.

JDG When they had come over the Jordan they had seen the power of Christ in death had they not?

DJW Yes.

DTP It is essential the priestly element is prominent amongst us, because that is how the working out of matters from God’s side takes place and there is the consolidation in our souls as we see it operating. Joshua himself had needed a little adjustment when the Angel appeared to him. Does that show how matters are operating in power through the priestly service towards those strongholds?

DJW I think that is right and important for us. A priest is one that is dedicated to God, is he not? One who thinks for God and acts for God. There is energy and power in the blowing of the trumpets, and that is to be the thing that the people are to recognise as to when to give this great shout. I mean in a certain sense to the natural mind it would be quite a ridiculous thing, marching around this wall, and you can understand the king of Jericho saying, ‘we will not need to be too much worried about this’. But things are arrived at and heavenly conflict is fought in a different way, a new way.

TDB Could you say something about the first two verses? It says “Jericho was shut up and was barred, because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in. And Jehovah said to Joshua, See, I have given into thy hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the valiant men”. I was just wondering if you had some impression as to that.

DJW Well, it was evident that God had been with His people. What had happened previously had made persons fear, because God was with them. And this experience of Jericho was to reinforce that God was with them, and because of that the walls of Jericho fell flat. If God was not there, there would be nothing accomplished.

RGr Could you say something please about the shout which you have referred to? There was a process of time and education entered into the six days, but God acted when His people shouted.

DJW It seems that the shout is a result of active faith in the soul, and it is under regulation as well. It is under divine regulation. But you have some thought yourself?

RGr It seems to be something that God greatly values when His people speak together with one voice, with one accord, in other circumstances. The time will come when the Spirit and the bride will say “Come”. Do you think we have to learn to be used to the idea of speaking together under the prompting of the Spirit?

DJW Yes, I think that helps and your thought as to unity is important. Where there is unity there is increase of power and we are working to the same end. There is that which works in us individually but as together there is the same exercise and the result is that Christ is our all.

JS Do you think the blowing of the trumpets would suggest the ministry that would call attention to Christ? Would it call attention to the way that the wall can come down before Him?

DJW I think that is right and important. There were conditions in Corinth where they were reigning as kings, and, you might say, the walls of Jericho had not come down there. They were saying, “I am of Paul, and I of Apollos” (1 Corinthians 1: 12) and so on. There were parties and the lack of unity that our brother has referred to. But Paul laboured with the Corinthians that they might have their eye exclusively for One. “I have espoused you unto one man, to present you a chaste virgin to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11: 2), and all that is involved in the exercises of Jericho, do you think?

JS He says also, “I myself, Paul, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”, 2 Corinthians 10: 1. He is really making way for Christ in the affections of the saints, do you think?

DJW Yes, I think that is right, and what was referred to in John’s gospel just now. It is the character of Man that was here, the meek and lowly Man. But it was that One that overcame the world, and the same principle is to be worked out in the saints.

GAB You referred earlier to the fact that the armed men went before, but they were not used, perhaps indicating that there can be no compromise, but when it comes to the actual conquest the people went up. The people shouted and the people went up. I was wondering if it might correspond in some sense with what the apostle says in 1 Corinthians 5, “ye and my spirit being gathered together, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 5: 4)? Perhaps it took them some time to come to that but that was what was in mind. The people— they gathered together with the apostle.

DJW Well, I think that is important. We are bound up together and unless we work at this together there is not unity, is there? And I may be responsible for bringing in an element that promotes the glory of man, whereas the only influence that should come in, and it is in the hearts of all the people as you say, is that Christ must have the first place in all things. In Colossians there was the danger of philosophy and vain deceit (Colossians 2: 8). That is the mind of man. Man would say that to enter into the religious order of things you need to go to college, and that is the mind of man working, but that had to be overcome at Colosse for them to move forward, you might say, on to Ephesian ground.

MWG Is there another lesson in this to the effect that we do not use this as a precedent? In Israel’s history in the beginning of Samuel, to defeat their enemies, they took the ark into the camp and they shouted with a great shout, but what a sorrowful result all that was. Could you help us on that?

DJW David went up into much exercise, deep exercise, that the ark should be brought into its true place, did he not? It was not until the ark was brought into Jerusalem into its true place that the service of God could proceed. But where Christ has his true place we can then move forward unhinderedly to enjoy the purposes and counsels of God.

MWG We are also encouraged when we read the first chapter of Ephesians and we look at all the blessings that were in mind. I want to get into this, but every one of the blessings is in Christ, is it not? It is the Beloved, so that everything depends on my secret links with the Lord, and the purpose of heart to get on, and then I will discover that there is power there to bring me into things. They are not just glorious impossibilities.

DJW No, and as you enter into it you find others do too and that is the working of the Christian circle, is it not? Free of the glory of man.

JDG The people also have to take a sword. The time comes when they had to take a sword. When the walls come down the people have to act. We have to enter into the conflict of Jericho ourselves. When the walls come down, the people have to go straight forward. They then have to enter into the conflict personally.

DJW Well it does not work out in the Christian circle unless it is true in me, does it? That is the first step; to say that the walls of Jericho have come down in me and that Christ has that supreme place.

JDG And if they do not come down in me I can affect the whole company.

DJW You can affect the whole company negatively. But if it does you can affect the whole company positively.

PAG I was just wondering, perhaps it follows on what has just been said, that the seven days seem to bring about conformity to the mind of Christ. At the beginning, in verse 2, Jehovah says to Joshua “See, I have given into thy hand Jericho”. Well, He had that from the beginning, but on the seventh day it says, “Shout; for Jehovah has given you the city”, so they seem to now be in conformity, do you think?

DJW Yes, that would involve, as you say, the seven days. They would not be ready beforehand, but now there is that being reached in the souls of the saints that corresponds really with what was seen in Christ as the Overcomer, and that is effected on the seventh day in power.

CKR What do you feel then is the significance of Rahab’s house there?

DJW Well I wondered whether it shows the magnificence of grace, that one that was in the midst of Jericho could be saved out of it. That is what the gospel does. She is called Rahab the harlot which emphasises the grace, does it not? But do you have some thought?

CKR To me it is a marvellous triumph that there is a house saved. Jericho had already fallen for her, in that sense, and she waited the divine timing to effect the full deliverance. But not only was she brought out, but her whole house was saved, which is like a Pauline touch of the gospel. To deliver us all from the world in view of the land and the inheritance.

DJW So that links with Acts 16 with the jailor does it not? “Thou shalt be saved, thou and thy house” (Acts 16: 31). The movement forward there of the testimony was to the west and Paul was being the former of assemblies, brings out that households are needed for the working out of this. They have been spoken of as bulwarks of the local assembly.

CKR Could we have households saved out of Jericho in view of overcoming, in view of the land, but that is always needed, especially in a broken day.

DJW Yes, I think that is right and it is a constant exercise. In John’s epistle it says, “Love not the world, nor the things in the world”. Maybe the world, as such, is not such a threat, but the things in the world can be transferred into the Christian circle and our households, therefore, the place that Christ has suffers.

JSp God had to say to Sardis, “I have not found thy works complete before my God”, Revelation 3: 2. I think what you say is important. There may be small things that we think of not much importance, but one of the aspects of this is the completeness of matters.

DJW I think that is right and you get some impression of how God delights in what is complete. The work of Christ itself was complete. He says, “It is finished”, John 19: 30. He takes delight in the completion of an exercise among the saints.

GBG Does circumcision come into this? That is a complete thing, is it not? That was in view of going into the land and then quickening. I was thinking of how we individually overcome these things. It must involve what is individual. So there are always the moral exercises, and then if our affections are stimulated and quickened in relation to Christ that is an overcoming kind of thing, is it not? Other things are left behind, not necessarily just falling off, but accessing the importance of having Christ before us. The Colossians are quickened, are they not?

DJW Do you think circumcision involves the cutting off of the flesh? And each of us has to see to it, that in what we protrude and project in the Christian circle, there is nothing of that order of man that was so obnoxious to God, but rather what is of the Spirit, do you think?

GBG Yes, it impressed me some time ago. Christ is where He is already, and there is nothing of the flesh or of that order in that sphere at all. It is just not suited to the sphere. That is where circumcision comes in. These things are not suited to the heavenly sphere.

DJW I am sure that that is right and I find that it is a constant exercise in that way. The fact that this exercise took seven days shows that we do not arrive at these things overnight, but there is a certain process that we have to go through. So that John the baptist said, “He must increase, but I must decrease”, John 3: 30.

AMB Do you encourage us to persevere in the matter of overcoming?

DJW Yes, that is a good word I think, persevere. But you have some more to say?

AMB You have spoken of this as a seven day matter. It was extended and a test to the faith of the people. A test to their ability to continue, a test also of their moral energy, do you think? Especially on the seventh day when they had to go around seven times. But they were led, spiritually led by Joshua in that, and the result was a complete overcoming. But it required energy and faith. It really required spiritual determination.

DJW We are exhorted to persevere in prayer, for example. Do you think the word perseverance comes in when you recognise that there is a force against you? I say to the younger ones here that if you set your heart for Christ then there will be a force against you, but what I would like to draw your attention to is the resources that are available to us. So that despite difficulties and maybe prolonged exercise we have the resources, in Christ and in the Spirit, to overcome.

AMB I think what you have said is very necessary and very encouraging too. For an instructed Israelite the land was before them, and God had promised them that land, so there could not be really any doubt about the outcome, but they needed to be in it.

DJW Yes, and they needed to have a conscious sense that God was with them. The ark was with them.

APG So there is no real foundation in the world. The world seems imposing but there is no real foundation. But what God is building on Christ is a sure foundation. Is it good to see that?

DJW That word comes in in 2 Timothy 2, “Yet the firm foundation of God stands” (2 Timothy 2: 19), despite outwardly, the enemy being active, and successful in that public breakdown and ruin have come into the church. We get a warning in this chapter about rebuilding Jericho. And very largely in Christendom that is what has happened, that there has been a system of things that promotes the glory of man, a hierarchy which points to the glory of man rather than the glory of Christ, but the firm foundation stands.

CKR Jericho was one of the places that Elijah and Elisha visited before Elijah was taken up. Were the resources to overcome all of these going to be the double portion of the ascending man? I just thought it cannot be without significance that Elijah and Elisha they went and had a look at Jericho, and then they go on from there to the Jordan. And then Elijah is taken up. It is as though this is one of the landmarks that have to be overcome for the continuation of the testimony.

DJW I think that is good. The double portion would involve drawing upon Christ as a glorious risen Man, and upon the Holy Spirit here, do you think?

CKR That is Romans and 1 John, is it not?

DJW Yes. Perhaps we should go on to Romans. We have this reference to “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?”, and I think that is a very attractive thought. In Ephesians 3 Paul speaks about “the love of the Christ which surpasses knowledge” (Ephesians 3: 19), and being strengthened in the inner man (Ephesians 3: 16). That may be related to the sphere of privilege. Here the love of Christ is related to a sphere of testimony, where there is opposition known. But when you think of the time of the Reformation and the many martyrs, they must have entered into the truth of these verses as to the love of Christ. Who could separate them from it? And then there is that wonderful verse, “It is Christ who has died”. Wonderful fact and what had been accomplished by that death, “but rather has been also raised up”, brings in the living character of Christianity. “Who is also at the right hand of God” and what is His activity there, as at the right hand of God? He is living there to make intercession for us. That is another thing that is very positive for us, that we are taken account of in the scene of conflict and our names are brought forward in heaven. You think about that and how also He intercedes for us. It is wonderful resourceful service of Christ.

RGr And do you think that when we come into, and get the good of the Spirit’s realm, we begin to become used to the idea of victory? We are much taken up with failure and it is real, and we need to judge ourselves constantly, but we should see that we are in a sphere of things which is marked by victory, and Paul says, “but thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ”, 1 Corinthians 15: 57.

DJW We more than conquer through Him that has loved us. It is not just that you scrape through, but we more than conquer. And that is illustrated again in Acts 16 with Paul and Silas. They were in the prison, praising God with singing. They brought out the moral superiority of Christianity. They more than conquered through Him that had loved them.

RGr I think that is helpful, because we find if we allow the weight of things to press on our spirits, the glory of what is connected with the purpose of God, and its results, becomes dim with us. But if we are in the light of the victory then these things shine the more brightly.

DJW Yes, that really is the burden of my exercise in this reading today that we recognise that it is a day when difficult times are here and there are many things that press upon the hearts of the saints in different ways. But we need to see what is for us. “If God be for us, who against us?”

JS Do you think this matter of Christ interceding for us is really the present exercise of His love towards us? So we are strengthened, and more than conquer, even though adverse things come up in our circumstances and in the testimony.

DJW I think it does. I think the intercessory service of

Christ has been spoken of as His unfinished work, in that it goes on constantly for us; and for myself I do not know whether I think about the value of it enough. If I am preserved, then it is largely due to the intercessory service of Christ, and I would add too, to the intercessory service of the saints. Many a godly sister, who may not be able to move about, how much we owe to the prayers of such that we might be maintained in the testimony.

JS So I think it is a very important feature of the love of Christ, and it comes out through the prayers of the saints too, as you say. At one point Jacob said, “All these things are against me”, Genesis 42: 36. And we may feel like that sometimes, but it is a great matter to be established in the sense of how the Lord loves us and serves us.

DJW That is right, and do you think that very often the Lord expresses His love to us through the saints? He brings out the value of one and another and the value of fellowship. His love is reflected in the saints.

DSp So do we conquer in the world as we do things in the spirit of Christ? “If God be for us, who against us?”. We see that God is for us as we take up things in the spirit of the Man who overcame the world and overcame the enemy. We would rather overcome things otherwise, naturally speaking, but overcomers are to have the spirit of Christ.

DJW I think that is right, and we do not find it in us naturally. But that is something that the Spirit, as free, develops in us, the spirit of Christ. Joshua 6 shows that things are accomplished in that spirit, and it is the same with us. Christ is our model in everything.

GAB When David brought the head of the giant to Jerusalem he more than conquered. It is the love of Christ that would give us the strength to more than conquer.

DJW Yes, so it says, “He who, yea, has not spared his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him grant us all things?” He has given His best. He has overcome everything. He has overcome the world and He has accomplished the will of God in every detail. Such a One is for us and such is the love of God that He has not spared Him.

Well, perhaps we should go on to John’s epistle. There are two features that I thought we might draw attention to in it. The first is that what is written to the young men, “because ye are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one”. We are told elsewhere that the whole world lies in the wicked one (1 John 5: 19), but the young men have taken on the word of God. We are here today for that reason, to hear the word of God, then the place it is to have in our affections, as part of us. And as that is so that there is the fortification of the truth, you might say, that preserves us when the spirit of anti-Christ and of the apostasy is sweeping in. And then what is said to the little children. “And ye have the unction from the holy one”. There are many anti-Christian influences that work in the schools these days. There was when I was at school but more so today. It might be a simple thing to say, but for the help of the younger ones, that the principle of evolution is an antiChristian principle, and if you have the unction from the Holy One, that inward spiritual tuition as to what is right and what is wrong helps you to stand against that.

PAG Could you say what is involved in the word of God abiding in us?

DJW The word of God is God’s current mind for us, and as that comes to us how do I receive it? Do I receive it into my affections and it becomes part of me so that it abides in me and, therefore, fortifies me? But do you have something yourself?

PAG What you say is helpful. For something to abide it means there is no resistance to it. So do you think that overcoming the world involves that we are not resisting what God is saying to us?

DJW Yes, it rather has a settled effect upon us. If it abides in us we are in a settled condition, do you think, which fortifies us?

JS Do you think Lydia might be an example to us in this regard, that the Lord opened her heart to attend to the things spoken by Paul (Acts 16: 14). The word of God had come

through Paul, but her heart was opened to receive the things said, and she would attend to them.

DJW Yes, that is the state of affections, her heart was opened to attend to the things spoken by Paul. That is significant for us in the last days. The things spoken by Paul are under attack and Christendom has very largely departed from them, but if the Lord works in our hearts so that we attend to them, I think it is another preservation to us against the tide of apostasy that is sweeping in.

CKR Would you also encourage us from a young age a thorough knowledge of the Scriptures? I was thinking 2 Timothy 3 it is in that chapter that Paul calls attention to Timothy, “from a child thou hast known the sacred letters, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation” (2 Timothy 3: 15). The word of God abiding in you would surely cause inwardly a scripture perhaps to come to mind, to help you to overcome something, would it?

DJW Yes. I am glad you draw attention to the importance of the Scriptures. I wish I knew them better myself, but Mr. J. N. Darby encouraged the brethren to think in Scripture, did he not? I think that is a most important thing, and along with that the word of God brings in His current mind; but the word of God is never divergent from the Scriptures. It is based on the Scriptures.

CKR That beautiful pattern is shown in the way the Lord met the devil in the temptations by drawing on the Scriptures. I was thinking it is a beautiful blend of the word of God, and actually the literality of the use of Scripture, in order to overcome the various temptations the devil brought against Him.

DJW Yes, that is good. That is helpful.

JDG In verse 13 he says, “I write to you, little children, because ye have known the Father”. That is a great comfort, for all of us but for the little ones amongst us, they know the Father. That is at the beginning of Christianity not the end of it.

DJW That is right and would it relate to the way that the Lord Jesus, Himself, coming into manhood made known the Father? That is what is from the beginning, what was in Christ, as seen in that order of manhood here.

JDG They must be able to address that Person of the Godhead as Father.

DJW Yes, that is right. He could say, “He that has seen me has seen the Father”, John 14: 9. But Philip says, “shew us the Father”. But the Lord says, “Am I so a long time with you, and thou hast not known me, Philip?” All we know of the Father is in Christ, is it not?

JDG When the world was against Christ, they addressed the Father. So in this passage here we are speaking about little children, that is little children. They are being encouraged to speak to the Father, One known to them, One whom they have been taught on their knees to address, since little children.

DJW What a support it is to speak to the Father, the Father of compassions and the God of all encouragement; One that can understand and know all that you are passing through, personally, and One who loves you; One who would make a way through for you as you are dependent upon Him.

JDG You carry that with you all through your life.

DJW Yes, we will need it while we are here.

GBG Would that be Roman teaching? The apostle in Romans speaks of the armour of light (Romans 13: 12). Light is a protective thing, is it not? The truth coming into our souls and being cherished, we can then stand against these suggestions of Satan against the truth. Is that how it is to be met, by the armour of light?

DJW Yes, do you think there is a link with the word of God in that? It is bringing light in, do you think, in relation to His present mind, so that we are fortified against what the enemy may do?

DTP And that light brings in what our relationships are with one another, does it not? How strong these links and bonds are. It is so necessary and vital in the working out of matters in the truth in the local assembly, do you think?

DJW Yes, so God has provided for us in this provisional time. What we are speaking of now we will not need when we are in heaven, but we need it now and God has provided it for us. There is what is in Himself, what is in Christ, what is in the Spirit, but then there is what is in one another, in the circle of the fellowship.

DTP Yes, and we have all the same links in the relationships together, because it is all in Christ, in the Father, and in the Spirit, and you are led on and you find it is the love and the faith that binds you together.

DJW It is, and what maintains the fellowship at the proper level is that we are all drawn to Christ. He has the supreme place in our hearts. We love the truth and we love one another.

DTP Yes, and the word ‘abide’ comes in often in John’s gospel, does it not? We need to abide in these things.

JS So we can see the importance of the unction here.

DJW I thought it was encouraging that John could say to the little children, “ye have the unction from the, holy one.” You might feel weak and insignificant sometimes, when you are young, and you might look at the forces of the enemy, but John says, this is the last hour, it is a time of crisis, and the enemy is powerful but “ye have the unction from the holy one”. That spiritual intuition in relation to what is right and what is wrong, so that you are preserved from being swept away in the anti-Christian influences that are prevalent, do you think?

JS I think that is very important so that is an encouragement for our young ones just coming into things, that in the Spirit they have this capacity for detecting what is antiChristian, as you say.

DJW Well it is a very real thing in the day in which we are. What John speaks of here, “there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is the last hour”. How many voices there are abroad, but the preservation is in knowing the Shepherd’s voice, as John speaks of in his gospel, and do you think the “unction from the holy one” has a part in that? JS I think it does, so that there is the ability to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus, as the Shepherd, along with the ability to detect things that are not according to the truth.

DJW Yes, so that we become familiar with the Shepherd’s voice. We do not have to differentiate between other voices. All we need to know is the Shepherd’s voice, is it not?

JSp Is there a very close link to “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world”, 1 John 4: 4?

DJW Yes, “greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world.” That is a great comfort. If you take your eye off Christ, you might get overcome, as they were in the Old Testament with the Anakim, but you keep your eye on Christ “the leader and completer of faith”, Hebrews 12: 2. Looking steadfastly upon Him, the Holy Spirit helps you in that.

APG The man in John chapter nine, who was healed, was an overcomer. He could speak of what he knew. “One thing I know” (John 9: 25) and then he became a teacher. He was an overcomer, was he not? He was convicted as you were saying earlier.

DJW And he was true to the light that he had. And then as being true to that light found himself outside of the system of things in which Christ had no place. It is then that Christ finds him and says to him, “Thou, dost thou believe on the Son of God?” (John 9: 35). I will bring you into another world in which I am the centre. That can be known and enjoyed now in the flock which is described in chapter 10.

Reading in Dundee
1 October 2011

KEY TO INITIALS

T. D. Beveridge	J. D. Gray	D. Spinks
A. M. Brown	A. Gray	J. Spinks
G. A. Brown	R. Gray	J. Strachan
A. P. Grant	D. T. Pye	M. G. Wood
G. B. Grant	C. K. Robinson	D. J. Wright