DISCRIMINATION

Leviticus 11: 1-3; Job 34: 1-4, 16 -21; Philippians 1: 9-11

A.P.D. I was thinking of the need for discrimination. In Leviticus 11 it is a matter of our walk, in Job our hearing; then we get what is refined, what is superlative, in Philippians: "that ye may judge of and approve the things that are more excellent". I trust the brethren will be free. In coming to meetings like these, the Lord might give you an inkling and then you wait on the Spirit in the temple: it is wonderful to experience the truth of the temple. So we do not have everything in a mould to begin with; the Lord would lead us as to what He may have in His mind.

L.McF. Would what you have said have full growth in mind – a full grown man?

A.P.D. Very good: "who, on account of habit", it says, Heb 5: 14. It is to discriminate between good and evil, is it not?

C.F.D. Does this first section you were referring to involve in our walk who and what we are appropriating?

A.P.D. Yes, a cloven hoof would leave a certain imprint. I wonder what kind of an imprint we leave in our walk. Peter speaks about the Lord and our following in His steps, He being a model (see 1 Pet 2: 21). It would not be a matter of generally following but of picking out his steps. We should read the gospels to follow by the Spirit His distinctive steps.

G.H. It speaks in that verse about having your senses exercised. Would that be involved in discrimination?

A.P.D. Yes, I think that is a good scripture: "on account of habit". What are our habits? It has been said that piety is the habit of t he soul to refer to God in everything.

J.A.P. In Leviticus there was a serious break down in the priesthood. Would that lead us to conclude the importance of what the Spirit says in chapter 11 which you read – that had that been attended to the breakdown might not have happened?

A.P.D. Yes, I think that Aaron would have probably had the same access that Moses had if it had not been for that breakdown.

A.C.C. We used to hear a good deal about the line of demarcation. What we eat would bear on that, that there might be discrimination and distinctiveness between what is around and ourselves, do you think?

A.P.D. It is what we appropriate, as our brother said. I think chewing the cud involves assimilation of the truth so that you practice the truth. Mr Hibbert used to tell us when we were young that if you want to know the truth you do not memorise it, you practice it. The best way to know the truth is to practice it. So you leave a certain imprint as you walk; it would be of the nature of what is heavenly, I think. He being a model for us, we are to follow in His steps; that would be the heavenly Man coming into expression.

W.W. It says of Noah that he walked with God (see Gen 6: 9); would that help us in our walk in the scene of testimony?

A.P.D. Yes, what company! He walked with God and God took him. Enoch had the testimony that before he was translated he pleased God (see Heb 11: 5). Would you not want this testimony? Surely we would desire such a testimony. I think that the translation is just imminent, beloved brethren. Do we have that testimony? Are all the sisters and the young people here concerned to have a testimony that they please God? That is a distinctive imprint the cloven hoof would give.

C.F.D. In the Song of Songs the masculine speaker says to the feminine, "How beautiful are thy footsteps in sandals, O prince's daughter!", chap 7: 1. I think that would point to the footsteps of Christ.

A.P.D. Yes. I am sure all the brethren would be concerned to be a model. Christ is the supreme model. I think we learn best by example, seeing the truth in others, seeing it practised.

L.McF. So Daniel, although a young man, purposed in his heart that he would not pollute himself with the king's delicate food (see Dan 1: 8).

A.P.D. We need to make resolves, do we not? It says about some in Judges that there were great deliberations of heart (see chap 5: 5) but it does not seem they had any power to carry them through. We need therefore the Spirit; we are to walk by the Spirit.

A.S.H. As to the feet, I was thinking of the scripture in Isaiah where it says, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that announceth glad tidings, that publisheth peace", chap 52: 7. Would that fit in with your thought?

A.P.D. Yes. How beautiful the feet of Jesus were! In Luke 7 He brought glad tidings to that poor woman; she anointed His feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. So are the feet of those that announce the glad tidings. It seems to me that the general teaching of this chapter would involve our walk in everyday life and our being discriminative as to whom we may appropriate, keep company with. That is a real exercise. We are affected by those with whom we keep company; I am sure of that. It would be for the younger brethren to keep close to the older brethren, keep company with them. Where do our feet take us?

G.H. Maybe you could say something more as to having our senses exercised.

A.P.D. It brings out what is discriminative. We do not class everything as good , we do not say things are harmless when they are harmful. When we are in the presence of God we see things as He sees them. This chapter ends with that: "For I am Jehovah who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: ye shall therefore be holy, for I am holy".

A.C.C. Would you say more about the imprint. I was thinking about Mary of Magdala in Mark 16; it says "She went" (v.10); the 'she' is emphatic. And then "they went and brought word to the rest" (v.13). Is there a depth of imprint, a certain emphatic character there?

A.P.D. Yes, there would not be anything indistinct about her. testimony, about what she was. What do people think of you when you are in your work? Do they realise that you are a Christian and that you love the Lord Jesus? There is something different about you, you have left an imprint wherever you go that you belong to another Man. You go out in the morning with the knowledge in your heart that you belong to the Man at God's right hand. That does not leave you all day. That would leave an imprint, an impression. You do not take colour from the men and women you may have to associate with; you do not want to appropriate them, because we become like those with whom we keep company, with whom we may socialise. This raises a great exercise as to the truth of separation. But then I think something positive is to come out in our walk. As has just been said, how deliberate, how emphatic would be the testimony of Mary. Is it so with us or are we just wishy-washy Christians?

K.N.P. The Lord says, "whosoever shall do the will of my Father who is in the heavens", Matt. 12: 50. Is that the mark that the imprint makes? It is from another place, an order of things not linked with what is down here.

A.P.D. And it would leave an impression of what is characteristically heavenly. You may say that is reading more into this chapter than is there, but I think we would be entitled to bring that into it – follow in His steps. He is the great model for us and you pick out His steps, pick them out one after another, the deliberate way in which He was in the will of God and brought what was heavenly into expression here.

G.D.P. As to younger brethren being with the saints, was that not the burden of Moses, that they would go out with their young and their old (see Exod 10: 9)?

A.P.D. Yes. That is where we learn what Christ is like. I remember as a boy a beloved brother in Toronto, Mr Ernest Pittman, who set out to me features of Christ. I remember that distinctly.

T.E.D. Tell us about the fact that some of these animals have a cloven hoof but they do not chew the cud.

A.P.D. It is Pharisaical. What do you say?

T.E.D. I was thinking of the need not only for the distinction in our walk but the need for going over things privately.

A.P.D. I am sure of that – the assimilation of the truth. Someone said "Alas, master, and it was borrowed! ", 2 Kings 6: 5. We need to assimilate the truth and make it our own so that we practise the truth. We need, dear brethren, to practise the truth, not hold it as a theory.

S.E.H. Is Cornelius a good example of this? The vision that came to Peter was that what God had cleansed do not thou make common (Acts 10: 15) and Peter says, "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that fears him and works righteousness is acceptable to him" (v 35). He had become a clean animal in that sense, He feared God and worked righteousness.

A.P.D. Those are fine characteristics, are they not? What is to come out in the life of a believer is that we fear God and work righteousness.

J.A.P. Is that not an important matter that we have all had to learn? We used to think that everybody who was not in our fellowship was unclean, but God has a great work which we must respect, although the matter of separation seems to be the test as to fellowship. But we must respect God's work.

A.P.D. Peter had to have his vision enlarged.

G.H. It says of Cornelius that he feared God with all his house. He must have had a wonderful influence over his household.

A.P.D. A remarkable man, Cornelius! Why did God take up Cornelius to bring the Gentiles into the truth? He would not be offensive to the Jew. He was a pious man and he had a memorial in heaven, as if God made it easy for the Jews to accept him. He could have taken up a Gentile in whom the flesh had been manifested in a flagrant sense, but He considered for His people in the kind of a man that He took up to bring the Gentiles into the truth.

C.F.D. The work in that man preceded anything in him in regard to what was apostolic. An independent work of the Spirit was in the man, and that really came out in his prayers and in his alms. The Jew would understand prayers and alms giving, making Cornelius, as you have mentioned, more acceptable.

A.P.D. Exactly. God even considers for our prejudices. You say, We should not have any. God in His goodness introduced such a man in view of making the whole matter of the work among the Gentiles more acceptable. Now to go on to Job. Elihu is a remarkable young man. He says, "Hear my words, ye wise men; and give ear unto me"; then he says, "For the ear trieth words, as the palate tasteth food". It is interesting that this simile should be used. We need to have discrimination as to what is ministered. If you think of these three friends of Job a lot of things they said were good, but the spirit of truth was not in them.

W.W. Is that the Berean spirit? They searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so and they received the word with all readiness of mind (see Acts 17: 11).

A.P.D. Yes. Sometimes there is ministry and there is no salt in it. The palate tasteth the food and it is savourless: salt brings out the savour. Such ministry would not exercise us but is just a lovely picture on the wall without producing any exercise. The Lord Himself speaks about salt.

J.A.P. We have to sort out the scripture of truth in the book of Job. In reading the Bible we need to get the scripture of truth. Does that help?

A.P.D. I think that is good. Eliphaz speaks of his experience; he had a vision (see chap. 4: 13). Bildad speaks of tradition, and Zophar what can be known scientifically. But God says to them "ye have not rightly spoken of me", chap 42: 7. Ministry entitled 'The Second Established' (see Vol. 51) greatly helps to open up this remarkable book: I suppose the beloved brethren read Mr Taylor's ministry constantly.

C.F.D. Why should we read Mr Taylor constantly?

A.P.D. I think that is the test at the present time. What you find is that the spirit of truth is in that ministry.

C.F.D. Do you think it involves that the ministry is not only cumulative but that it becomes magnified as we realise that the Spirit of God has carried on from what has been given earlier by the Spirit. Do we get final touches of all those ministries in those volumes?

A.P.D. I seek to read those ministries in the light of Mr Taylor's ministry. I think in that way we get the gain of the current voice of the Spirit.

S.E. H. So the Spirit is still here and is still speaking. Would it be right to say that we do not want to view Mr Taylor's ministry as the climax of the testimony because the Spirit is still speaking and further light may come out by the Spirit in the temple?

A.P.D. We want to be ready for the current speaking of the Spirit, but I also believe that there has been a certain distinctiveness and authority which gives character to what may follow.

L.McF. In the light of what you have said I was thinking of the bones of Elisha and the life that came out of them (see 2 Kings 13: 21), linking with the ministry you are referring to.

A.P.D. I am sure you experience that. I think there is much in this suggestion that "the ear trieth words, as the palate tasteth food".

G.D.P. Is that the suggestion in Kings where Elisha said "Bring me a new cruse, and put salt in it", 2 Kings 2: 20?

A.P.D. Yes, and the Lord's references to salt. You want some sense of God speaking, exercising our hearts that we might be consistent, that the truth may be manifest, may be practised by the beloved saints.

A.C.C. Hearing would be trying things, not only what you hear but how you hear.

A.P.D. You do not swallow everything, you try. the words. It is not that you are sceptic al, not that you are wanting to be critical, but there is what is critical in a right sense. We sometimes use the word only in the sense of condemnation but there is the critical faculty that the saints have as having the Spirit to discern the truth.

J.A.P. The Lord said to the lawyer in Luke 10, "how readest thou?" (v 26).

A.P.D. Yes. I have thought recently that you can savour the truth, you can enjoy the truth. How do you read the Scriptures? Do you read them just to get through them? You may say, I have read a chapter this morning, but do you read them to enjoy them? Think of the words the Spirit of God employs. Peter says, "such a voice", 2 Pet 1: 17. You want to stop and think about that: "such a voice". Think of all the depth of the Father's feelings and affections that must have come into Peter's soul as he said "such a voice"; not just a voice but "such a voice" and "uttered to him by the excellent glory". I think, dear brethren, that we want to read the Scriptures read the ministry, to enjoy them. How do you tell if the ministry is from God? The suggestion is here: "the ear trieth words, as the palate tasteth food". Let us choose for ourselves what is right; let us know among ourselves what is good!

C.S.E. I think that all ministry should point to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the model Man in all things.

A..P D. That is right. I think the element of exercise would come into our souls that I would like so much to be like Him. I am so unlike Him. You feel in His presence how much help you need.

W.W. In 2 Kings 4 they were able to discern that there was death in the pot. The answer was, "Then bring meal" (v.41).

A.P.D. Very good. I do not suppose that the ma who gathered the wild colocynths did it deliberately; I think it was carelessness. Then they discerned that there was death in the pot. I think the meal is like Paul's corrective epistles. In Corinth he brings in "Jesus Christ and him crucified" (1 Cor 2: 2): that is the meal. It is very interesting to see how Paul brings in adjustment by the presentation of Christ.

C.S.E. In Mary sitting at the Lord's feet and listening to His word I suppose her ears would try, so to speak, the Lord's words as they came from His lips, and the Lord said she "has chosen the good part, the which shall not be taken from her", Luke 10: 42. Getting into the Lord's presence as we read, and having our outlook and affections focussed on that blessed Man to get the confirmation that what is coming from Himself, is food for our souls.

A.P.D. That is very helpful. Then of course we need to be discriminating in what we hear. There is a lot of evangelical literature current in the world, but much of it contains doctrinal error. We need to be careful because we are affected by what we read.

C.S.E. The same is true of the hymns. There is a lot of sentiment expressed in certain hymns but we have to see whether the truth is in the hymns that we sing. Care entered into the selection for the book that we have currently.

A.P.D. Yes; you would not be too legal about these things but what is sentimental does not effect anything morally in the soul.

C.F.D. Singing seems to be something that intelligently has been reserved for man. So,

,;in the midst of the assembly will I sing thy praises", Heb 2: 12. The Lord sets the thing on and we are related to Him in it and it is really for the heart of God. It is not from angels; they are said to shout but not to sing.

A.P.D. We should close with the reference in Philippians. It is what is superlative that is before us: "that ye may judge of and approve he things that are more excellent". Paul, for instance, speaks of "a way of more surpassing excellence, 1 Cor 12: 31. I suppose it was described in his own service in Corinth, a way of love.

L.McF. So he is praying to that end: "that your love may abound yet more and more in full knowledge and all intelligence, that ye may Judge of and approve the things that are more excellent". I feel the need of discrimination, as you have been saying, to discern the things that are going through.

A.P.D. Yes. So he speaks in this book of "the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord", chap 3: 8.

J.A.P. It is the positive here.

A.P.D. Yes. You might say you can compare one glory with another. It is spiritual refinement that is in mind here.

A.C.C. Choosing what is right is a bit of a job, and then knowing among ourselves what is good. You have something in view. Would these verses give us that objective?

A.P.D. I think so.

A.C.C. I heard Mr Lyon say once that it is now not a question of choosing between colours but between shades of colours. That is Philippians, is it not?

A.P.D. That is very fine. Peter speaks of the excellent glory (2 Pet 1: 17) and Paul speaks about a way of more surpassing excellence, the way of love. We want to occupy ourselves with these things that we may be pure and without offence for Christ's day. What a day that will be, Christ's day, when everything that is excellent will be displayed!

G.H. Paul said "Daily I die", 1 Cor 15: 31. What is involved in that?

A.P.D. What does that mean, Mr Craig?

A.C.C. It is a constant exercise, is it not? That would precede being able to choose rightly, would it not?

A.D.P. Yes.

A.C.C. Do you think that here we have the wedding day in mind?

A.P.D. Yes, very good.

A.C.C. We want to look our best, do we not? Any bride wants to look her best on that day.

J.A.P. She says in the Song of Songs, "Yea, he is altogether lovely", chap 5: 16.

A.P.D. What a description she is able to bring forward of her beloved! How can we describe our Beloved, not just because of what we have heard or what we have read but because of what we have experienced? What can you say about Jesus because you have found Him to be altogether lovely, the chiefest among ten thousand?

A.G.S. Mary regarded Him as her Lord. That should be true of us, should it not?

A.P.D. I am sure that is right. She says "They have taken away my Lord... and I know not where they have laid him", John 20: 2. It was love that kept her there at the tomb. We may say she was somewhat unintelligent; but what kept her there was her love, until He manifested Himself. I think what has been suggested is most interesting, the wedding day, and then our brother's reference to the Song of Songs, "Yea, he is altogether lovely". Can you say that dear brethren, dear sisters, from your own experience, that He is altogether lovely? I think we want to be real Christians; we do not want to be half-hearted Christians.

C.F.D. What is a Christian?

A.P.D. Luke says about the brethren at Antioch that they "were first called Christians", Acts 11: 26. I suppose because of the characteristics that were seen in them, some thing was named that was there. Followers of Christ would be perhaps a definition of it, if you could define it.

C.F.D. When Mr Craig was here – I think it was the last time – he said, Could you call yourself a Christian? He put that out as a challenge. He asked me if I thought that. Now what did you mean when you said that?

A.C.C. That is a year ago. How far have we moved on since then? I think it is very interesting that God is working to this end – "Jesus Christ's day". What an incentive therefore and encouragement for us that we might aim at the same thing!

A.P.D. Yes. We spend so much of our time with the moral question in ourselves, our tendencies, our propensities; how little time we spend in being occupied with Christ! You hasten to get home, get free from your work, of course to see your wife, but to get into the presence of the Man at God's right hand, to enjoy Him again and again and again, to enjoy His company. And, if I might say so, He is looking for you to come, dear brethren. He wants your company.

G.H. That beloved man , Mr Otsing, certainly must have been enjoying it; he writes 'Thy radiancy draws us apart' (hymn 131). He had a sense of that.

A.P.D. Yes. This is a very interesting section because it is not a question of good and evil; it is comparing glories, you might say; it is comparing one excellent thing with another excellent thing. It involves spiritual, refined judgment to be occupied with what is more excellent. How do we regard these beloved brethren that we have the privilege (c1nd I say that dear brethren as feeling it most intensely) to be in fellowship with? Do you regard the fellowship that way, that it is one of the greatest privileges we can have, to be in the fellowship of God's Son, these beloved brethren whom the Lord has given to us?

A.S.H. What do you think of the queen of Sheba? She went to great lengths to learn the wisdom of Solomon and the Lord says, "Behold, more than Solomon is here" Luke.11: 3.

A.P.D. Very good. It says that "Hiram always loved David", 1 Kings 5: 1. That was a love of admiration, but the queen of Sheba's was a love of association, she came to where he was and she found out that he was so much more than she had ever heard.

A.S.H. The half had not been told.

C.S.E. Judging and approving seem to call for a mature development with all of us. Most of us would admit that we like to have things made very simple so that we can just digest them, but this judging and approving the things that are more excellent, I suppose, is a state for each of us to arrive at individually because there is discernment that is to come into all this here. How can we be sure that our discernment and our approval of things are according to what is right?

A.P.D. That is an exercise I am sure.

A.C.C. It seems to originate in love: "And this I pray, that your love". There is nothing more quick to detect, is there, than love? You do not need to be told: love you can detect by itself. That is how the Lord judged in Revelation 2 that Ephesus had left its first love – by His own heart, not by those all seeing eyes. He judged by the feeling of His own heart that there was not the same warmth, not the same response.

A.P.D. That is fine.

S.E.H. John's gospel, we understand, was written last; it shows how love and family affection would continue until the coming of the Lord. I wonder if that is something that the Lord has given us particularly at the present time, an area of things where love is experienced among the saints and where t his character of judging and approving the things that are more excellent can be worked out.

A.P.D. I think that is helpful. So we want to appreciate being one of the family. One thing to notice about the family is seen in what Solomon says: "I was a son unto my father... an only one in the sight of my mother", Prov 4: 3. It is a lovely suggestion. However many children you have, every one is an only one; you understand what I mean, every one is special. There is something about the family of God that is most attractive because every one is special.

C.F.D. Do you think that, as we hurry to get to our homes, we would have some experience of that kind of hurry – to get into the presence of the second family? There is something attractive about the children of God as belonging to the family, that if they are going to be together, that is where I want to be too.

A.P.D. That is helpful. Referring back to Job, "Let us choose for ourselves what is right", that is one thing, but "let us know among ourselves what is good!". You have a sense when you are in the company of the saints that you have come to what we can enjoy, what is good. You say, That is better than anything the world can offer. The dear young brethren need to realise that. We come to that conclusion, that it is so much better.

W.W. The psalmist said , "I rejoiced when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of Jehovah", Ps 122: 1. That is the second family. Then he says, "Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee" (v 6).

A.P.D. Well, we need to do that , we need to pray that the elements of respect and affection and confidence are known amongst us, having in view happier assembly conditions in every place. That should be a daily cry to God every place. That should be a daily cry to God from all our hearts. I think He will hear us. I felt the Lord might whet our appetites that we might enjoy and savour what is more excellent. Peter must have grown in his appreciation of that wonderful time on the mount of transfiguration. He spoke out of turn. It is very interesting that those men who appeared withdrew as soon as Peter says what he does. It is as if they would not obscure, not eclipse, the glory of Christ in any way. I wonder if we have ever done that, Sometimes we make too much of men. When Peter speaks of three tabernacles they withdraw. I think sorrowfully when persons realised that they were gaining too much of a place in the minds of the brethren they did not withdraw, they did not get out of sight to make room for the voice out of heaven, "This is my beloved Son". Would it be fair to say that?

A.C.C. What you are saying is very exercising – that the Lord Himself might be pre-eminent. That is what is in this epistle, is it not? He lets everything go that Christ might be pre-eminent.

A.P.D. That is lovely: the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord", chap 3: 8.

 

NEW YORK

22 April 1989

Key to initials

A.C.Craig, Airdrie; C.F.Dadd, Plainfield; C.S.Elliott, New York; A.P.Devenish, Edmonton; T.E.Druckenmiller, Plainfield; AS.Hinkson, New York; G.Hesterman, Plainfield; L.McFarlane, New York; J.A.Petersen, Plainfield; L.D.Phillips, New York; W.Wallace, Glasgow; S.E.Hesterman, Plainfield; G.D.Pfingst, Plainfield; K.N.Pye, New York; A.G.Spooner, New York