WITHOUT ENCUMBRANCE
J.L. So many impressions are in our minds as we have come from the Supper that you feel the need of the Lord directing us together, but where we broke bread this morning we had a word as to how every encumbrance and restriction is lifted in view of our part and place in an area where there is no restriction. I suggest these passages with the desire that the Lord may help us together in drawing on one another, as to how we are set free through the gospel, the gospel setting us free from every liability and encumbrance. The young people are to know this and to know the reality of the remission of sins. The way the cup is alluded to in Matthew would, I think, remind us of how the Lord extends the matter as He comes to the cup, alluding to it as "this is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many for remission of sins". The Lord would serve us thus through the gospel, and the way He befriends us in the glad tidings, to set us entirely free from What would hinder or encumber us in any way, in view of our being with Him in the testimony and in relation to the service of God. I was affected by what we had this morning in this connection, how the Lord Jesus Himself came into a situation where He was held as doing the will of God: "a baptism to be baptised with, and how am I straitened until it shall have been accomplished!", Luke 12: 50. And the passage, too, in Job 37: "By the breath of God ice is given; and the breadth of the waters is straitened" (v 10). The Lord Jesus as Man came into a restricted area fulfilling the will of God, involving His death and all that He undertook for men in effecting redemption. Men are to be set free from the load of sin and encumbrance, and set free practically, in view of a place in the testimony and part together in the service of God.
E.C.B. You referred, I think, in giving thanks for the cup to our being without encumbrance and I thought of the man who walked and leaped and praised God (see Acts 3: 8). He had been encumbered all his life but he was then without it. The Lord Himself had come into conditions where He was even encumbered with graveclothes, but He Himself is to be seen leaping upon the mountains and skipping upon the hills. Were not many of the miracles which Jesus did in the gospels really to relieve persons of encumbrance? "Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And she was made straight, and glorified God", Luke 13: 12. The scriptures you have referred to have in mind the Lord's blood shed for many for remission of sins, and then in John 13 there is His washing our feet; both of those references in their own settings would have in mind our being free from every encumbrance, whether, you might say, constitutional or contracted, in view of the service of God.
J.L. The Lord would serve us, as He does, not only in what He has done by His death but continually in setting us free from what may hinder us. In chapter 11 of John the Lord is acting in power in the raising of Lazarus from among the dead. But then He says, "Loose him and let him go" (v 44). You might say where would he go as loosed? It suggests the part the brethren have in setting a person fully free from what ever may have encumbered in view of their part with Christ.
D.J.H. Only such a Person could relieve us of such encumbrance. I was much impressed this morning as we approached the Supper as to the Person who said "This is my body" and "this is my blood".
J.L. Yes, only He could do it. We tend sometimes to carry in our minds the sense of encumbrance whereas the blood would set us free.
A.J.E.W. We had an impression of the incarnation. The blessed fact of One no less than a Person of the Godhead coming into manhood has really in the perfect wisdom of the divine counsels brought total defeat to the devices of the foe, touching the situation at its root. The foe is left powerless by the surpassingly wonderful manner of divine intervention in a Man.
J.L. How glorious that One of the divine Persons became Man and met the full force of Satan's activity! So that the Jordan fled: "What ailed thee, thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou turnedst back?" (Ps 114: 5), as if death and Satan's forces put up no fight at all, they had to flee and give way.
E.P. Would you think there is a certain completeness in what is said in John 19 after the Lord had died? When the soldier with a spear pierced His side it says "immediately there came out blood and water".
J.L. Yes I think so. Wonderful glory that from the side of Christ as dead on the cross there flowed both blood and water!
R.T. In the beginning of Revelation John says "To him who loves us, and has washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests" and so on, chap 1: 5. Does that link on with what you are saying?
J.L. Very good. It is the present tense; it is not presented to us historically. We can experience the constancy of His love every day. We are brought under the authority and sway of Christ. "Made us a kingdom" has in view how God is to be served.
J.A.G. "Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins", Matt 1: 21: do we begin to learn intimacy on this line so that we are ready? When He says "I Jesus" we know who it is.
J.L. Yes. He is Emmanuel, and I Jesus, His personal name. This is the One who has shed His blood for us, a great matter that every soul can enjoy, every young believer who has confessed the name of Christ can know the assurance and the certainty of the fact that his sins are gone because the blood of Jesus has been shed.
J.A.G. Does that help us to link on quickly with any manifestation that the Lord may give?
J.L. I think it would. So that in the soul that knows Him there is an immediate reaction to the way in which He manifests Himself.
E.C.B. Does this liberate them to sing a hymn and go to the mount of Olives? In reading Matthew 26 one might be almost surprised that they should sing a hymn in these circumstances. But were they not liberated from everything that might encumbered, and in type, ready to move into the spiritual realm ?
J.L. Yes, I would say that. You feel how the singing of a hymn sets us together in affection. You are thinking of the One you are addressing as you sing the hymn. "They went out to the mount of Olives": it is the sphere near to heaven, the point, I suppose, nearest to heaven here, that upward and inward way. I would like to be more acquainted with the hymnbook, to know it better and to have it, you might say, easy of access to my mind. The Spirit would help us as we seek to be acquainted with it.
C.R.B. Could you say something as to what we would understand by the Lord saying "this is my blood"?
J.L. The allusion is to the cup: "this is my blood, that of the new covenant". As we know, this is presented "as they were eating", as they were eating the passover. "Jesus, having taken the bread and blessed, broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat: this is my body. And having taken the cup and given thanks". The Lord brings this forward into Christianity saying "this is my blood, that of the new covenant, that shed for many", He is introducing the preciousness of the unfolding of the divine disposition and the greatness of God's favour that is opened out through His death.
D.A.B. Is it interesting the way that the Lord brings this out in such proximity to such great pressure as was upon Him in this chapter? I have often noticed how what is precious and positive is so interwoven in this chapter with what is wicked - for example, verses 1 to 5, then the section from verse 6, then verse 14; the wickedness of Satan is very close and it must have pressed upon the Lord's spirit, yet He can speak in this way of His own being set so entirely free.
J.L. I think that is very affecting, because Satan is raising all his forces, but the Lord is thinking of His own to set them free, and thinking right down the dispensation. It says "Drink ye all of it". What an affecting thing that is on the lips of Jesus! And in Mark it says "They all drank out of it", chap 14: 23. If I drank out of it and you drank out of it and we all, each of us individually, drank of this cup, what an effect would be imbued in our spirits as to the blessedness of the divine disposition and the way God has come near to us in the glad tidings.
A.J.E.W. When you speak of the divine disposition is it a rather interesting detail that the word 'new', as the note tells us, has very doubtful authority? It is the covenant as if to suggest that it is not exactly here in contrast with something that has gone before; it stands in its own blessedness as from God, stands by itself as unique.
J.L. That is very fine; it is the unfolding and opening out of what has not been opened out before, the blessedness and fulness of the disposition of God, unconditionally, in His relations with men through the gospel. What the new covenant will mean to Israel when God renews His relations with them in grace, the truth of the gospel means to us now.
D.J.H. The life was in the blood, was it not? Does that help as to what you were, under the Lord's hand, bringing before us yesterday, that life in which God found such infinite pleasure? It would the value of this precious blood and thus it can free us from every encumbrance.
J.L. Yes, and the blood being for the eye of God, God satisfied in respect of the shedding of the blood of Jesus so that He can come out righteously and bless men.
E.C.B. Would you say something as to the reason why Jesus brings in the blood "shed for many for remission of sins" at this point - that is in connection with the cup at the Supper - since we would understand that you would be in the gain of the shedding of the blood (indeed of the passover) before you come to the Supper. Does this one side of things have in mind a good deal our relief and this other side presented here have in mind directly our being liberated to serve God?
J.L. Yes, I think it has; and completely set free from anything that would hinder us in relation to serving God, because the service of God is the greatest engagement in which we can participate.
E.C.B. So this side of things has in mind our being confirmed in the fact of the service of God being established in righteousness, does it not?
J.L. Surely, set up in righteousness; and God has a righteous basis for forgiving men, blessing them, and setting them up here in view of His praise. So we are not left to be isolated units in the midst of Christendom; we are really set up together in view of what is proper to the assembly for the praise of God.
E.C.B. This is not to occupy us with our sins, even as remitted or forgiven, at that point in the service of God, is it? It is to bring out the glory of the blood and of the divine disposition.
J.L. I think so, and it would give us assurance. If there is one thing that many young people need it is assurance, the assurance of the fact of the work of Christ - the incarnation and the death and resurrection of Christ, and the effect of His work. You have no doubt at all; your faith is settled in a blessed Man who has been into death and who is now exalted in glory.
H.A.H. Does it bear, too, on the public position? Reference was made to the introduction of our Lord's name in this gospel. It is "he shall save his people from their sins", While no doubt that goes on, as you have said, to the way God will take up Israel, does it bear, too, on our position? We can extend it in that sense and include what has come in publicly, those who feel the burdens, as He says in chapter 11?
J.L. Yes, it is not that we come to the Supper with the burden of sin upon us. But the way the Lord presents Himself in relation to the cup in Matthew is to free us completely from every liability and encumbrance and set us free in our minds and in our affections, free to be with Him in the realm of His glory and in relation to His Father and His God.
R.T. Does the drinking being emphasised in Matthew give a sense that we are on new ground entirely?
J.L. I think so. Do you not think that if we each really drink - "Drink ye all of it" - the effect would be to release us from what is inimical to this realm where the Lord is having sway? You cannot have any distance or any sense of doubt at all. If we are each drinking into the blessedness and favour of the divine disposition and what is entirely new, the effect of that is that we are unified in relation to the testimony here and in relation to the service of God. And John would do that for us, John's ministry would set us in the family.
R.W.F. In connection with assurance, is it helpful to see what is meant by remission of sins, that really it is a complete clearance before God? It is inappropriate for us to allow any encumbrance in the light of that, do you think? God's disposition is toward all and the many come into the gain of it, but there is a complete clearance before Him.
J.L. Quite so, and we can continually enjoy that. There might be what is hindering come into our minds. It is not that we come to the Supper having sins undischarged, but the Lord's service would set us entirely free so that we are suitable, ready to be with Him in relation to His glory and His place before His Father and His God.
P.S.W. Would this reference to "my blood" prepare us immediately for response to Himself? We had some sense of the urgency with which the Lord was looking for the response from His own and we would be set free for that.
J.L. In Ephesians the reference is to His blood: "in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of offences", chap 1: 7. We enjoy that in our links with Him where He is, that the One who shed His blood and in whom we have redemption is now in glory. And we know our place with Him there. So in the opening out of the greatest thoughts as to the counsels and purposes of divine love Paul brings in that allusion to redemption by blood.
J.A.G. The liberty the woman has in Simon the leper's house was brought about by her knowledge of Christ and the knowledge of remission of sins. So the service of God is free to proceed in its fulness despite breakdown.
J.L. The Lord extends that: "Wheresoever these glad tidings may be preached", Matt 26: 13. What an effect that woman's testimony has!
C.R.B. Would the eating and drinking here keep us ready at any time to remember the Lord according to Luke and Corinthians? The Supper as involving remembrance is directly connected with the presentation in Luke and Corinthians, is it not? Does the presentation here involve the moral preparation so that we are ready at any time to be completely free for remembering Christ according to His own desire?
J.L. The eating would affect us constitutionally. We are conditioned therefore constitutionally as we take the Supper, the eating and the drinking. The drinking is in view of satisfaction: "Drink ye all of it". Think of the fulness of the outflow of divine favour that is available for us to drink so that we are satisfied and full!
C.R.B. So that the uniqueness and glory of the life of Jesus - as related to the blood would keep us occupied with Him in the realms of glory where He is at the present time.
J.L. I think so: and every feature that entered into that life; as the hymn says, 'No trait is lost' (hymn 229), every beauteous feature carried through, it shines in Him where He is.
J.D.N. Paul would give us this assurance that you were speaking of in the fact that he introduces the Supper. Then he says "let a man prove himself, and thus eat of the bread, and drink of the cup", 1 Cor 11: 28.
J.L. Yes, Paul has the light of it from Christ in glory. How near that comes to us, that the Lord Himself gave Paul the special instructions as to the Supper, what he received from the Lord, what he delivered to the saints. And, as you say, he says "let a man prove himself, and thus eat". So you do not prove yourself and stay away, you prove yourself and eat.
F.M.K. "Drink ye all of it": should we see that working out with each other so that we move together as one in the service?
J.L. Yes; if I drink out of it and you drink out of it and the brother next to me drinks out of it, what an effect on the soul constitutionally; that is, you are affected by the disposition of God in grace through the glad tidings.
J.C.E. We learn to move together, and the expression "they went out to the mount of Olives" suggests that they were fully one with the Lord. It seems very restful the way the Lord assures to them the display of things in a time to come, but He just goes on with what is spiritual connected with what is the covenant, the only one.
J.A.G. In 2 Corinthians 11 it is one Man, to present you to one Man. I suppose in Matthew 26, in the section from verse 6, there must have been at least two men. The disciples were indignant, but as Christ is the sole object the things represented by the woman really come into function, I suppose.
J.L. To one Man, a chaste virgin to Christ. Well, it took Israel quite a time to arrive at the fact that God had anointed David. So that it was one man; it was not Saul.
J.C.E. They did arrive at it very fully because they realised that God had anointed him. That was the third great point on their coming to David, was it not?
J.L. Yes it was - a happy time when we arrive at that in our souls, is it not? that we agree with God's choice, that Christ is really God's selection.
J.C.E. I was thinking of the concern that we always have, and which you promoted yesterday, that we should learn more of what the Lord is in the Father's view.
E.C.B. It is often our experience in the service of God, I suppose, that it is not the encumbrance of sins but of things that are not necessarily sins, like distraction and anxiety and preoccupation and worry and all that kind of thing, that we should be released from. The clearing is with a view to our being actively able to call Him to mind, thus helping us on the inward side of the Supper rather than the testimonial side.
J.L. Yes, because the remembrance is an inward matter. The announcing of His death is public; we announce His death till He come. Anybody can come in and see what we are doing as we take the Supper. But the remembrance is the inward upsurge of the activity of the affections for Christ.
D.A.B. Do the emblems help us in that? They are something that our eyes can see, to take us away from things that would distract us. It is very blessedly simple that the Lord has provided a memorial of that kind, is it not?
J.L. Yes, and the Spirit, too, would help us as we turn to Him secretly even in our thoughts and count on His help.
I wondered if John 13 would further this line, the Lord serving His own. The circumstances are that the betrayer is there, but He is serving them all in the feet washing - "part with me" in relation to the testimony, a heavenly testimony in this dark world, and part with Him in the realm of heavenly associations before His Father and His God.
E.C.B. It is interesting how free Jesus is in this chapter to call attention to Himself: "part with me", "Do ye know what I have done to you?", "Now is the Son of man glorified". It bears on what has been referred to as to there being one Man, does it not?, as if the Lord would close His active service among the disciples with their minds concentrated on Him. He leads them into this realm where the heart is untroubled, do you think?
J.L. I think so. That is why in chapter 14 it is "Let not your heart be troubled". What a release from anything that would hinder the mind and affections! Judas has gone out, and the reference to the Son of man glorified - what a wonderful area of spiritual enlargement and blessing is opened out by Christ in the company of His own in a realm where He is not disturbed by the fact that Judas is ready to deliver Him up!
E.C.B. The Lord is going to lead them into "my peace" and "my joy", is He not? It must have been a remarkable thing to Peter after the experience of Jesus washing his feet, that He says "The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled": you wonder how He could say that.
A.J.E.W. The very expression "Let not your heart be troubled" is affecting because it puts the matter back upon us in a certain way and raises the question of our full appropriation of what the Lord is setting on. Why should our hearts be troubled? It is as if the Lord is anticipating the way in which our own minds and affections would be working and the way in which we have to do with the Spirit so that we do not, so to say, allow our hearts to be troubled. Things work out in us, do they not?
J.L. That is very good. Does it really raise with us the measure in which the enjoyment of the truth of Christianity and the nearness of our relations with Christ works out practically in an unfettered state in feet washing. It would remove any sense of encumbrance our souls, an untroubled state?
J.D.N. Is this a private service the Lord is doing here.
J.L. Yes, He goes round each one, each individual. One servant used to remind us that John would remind the disciples and say to them, He washed my feet.
J.D.N. What I have in mind is that the Lord would do it in such a priestly way, speaking reverently, that He would not expose us. He may expose us to ourselves.
J.L. He stoops to do it, does He not? He takes the wash hand basin and goes round in that service of love. Think of Him as He came to each one, each individual, and think of the experience that each would have as the Lord attended them in grace and served them in and set them up fully free to be with Himself in relation to the unfoldings that He has in chapter 14, beginning with the Father's house.
D.J.H. In Matthew it was 'all' and 'many', but here it is very personal, is it not? It is each one, according to the need of each. I was thinking of the reference to anxieties and preoccupations. We are all different but He would serve us each, would He not?
J.L. He does not fail to do that.
E.C. Would you say something about having part with Him. He does not say, Unless I wash thee thou wilt not be clean; He says "thou hast not part with me".
J.L. It is a very remarkable expression which I think we should ponder over more; to be near to Christ in this intimate way - part with Him. As we know, it relates to the testimony here, but it relates too to our part with Him in heavenly blessings and enjoyment, as the Lord has us with Himself before the Father.
R.T. Does it go on to John 17? "They are not of the world, as I am not of the world" (v 14); "They were thine, and thou gavest them me" (v 6); "that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them" (v 26).
J.L. It is very profound because from verse 23 - "thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me: we can understand that we are loved by the Father with the same love as He loves Christ. And in verse 26 the saints are viewed as having capacity to love Christ as the Father loves Him.
R.T. The Lord would lift our sights as He does this service. We might be concerned with the defilement but He is thinking of part with Him in His own realm before the Father.
J.L. Quite so, where defilement can never enter, where there will never be any encumbrance, where sin or death or disease, not one trace of what sin has wrought, will ever enter. It is a realm of blessedness, untarnished, untainted by sin. The Lord would have us to be with Him in it.
E.C.B. These words "part with me" were new light, were they not? Nothing like that had ever been indicated before, and yet the whole substance of Christianity from our side, and in a sense from His, is in it. It is given to Paul to open it up.
J.L. Surely it is. And would you say that in the message the Lord gave to Mary there is a strong suggestion of it?
E.C.B. Yes, I think there is. As was said just now, in John 17 it is "that where I am they also may be with me" (v 24). And the Lord begins to touch that in chapter 14, but He really brings out the blessedness of it in chapter 17. But when He said "part with me" no one had ever heard anything like that before.
E.P. Would you say that the service continues and the "part with me" continues?
J.L. The Lord continually serves us. How He does it is His matter, but it is He Himself who does it. It may be a brother or a sister or a piece of ministry, or it may be in the secret of your communion with the Lord even through the night; He is serving in grace in this way of feet washing and He often does it through the brethren.
E.P. So He says "as I have done to you" - "as". It shows that the character of what He has done and the power of it would be current, a present thing.
J.L. I think what the Lord means to bring out through His service, is capacity in the saints.
F.M.K. So it becomes love's commandment in this chapter, does it not?
J.L. It does. The Lord left the example. The Lord's examples are very fine; this is one of them.
F.M.K. A good example because it is "as I have loved you, that ye love one another".
J.L. Yes. So as was remarked, in chapter 17 the saints are loved with the same love that the Father loves the Son, but then "that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them". Is there not something profound in the way that the saints are viewed as having capacity to love Christ as the Father loves Him?
E.C.B. Paul carries these things somewhat further, does he not, because there is the aspect of things we have through the gospel related to 'by', but here it is 'with', but in Paul it is 'in'? Do you think that takes this as far as you can get it? "Taken us into favour in the Beloved" (Eph 1: 6) is something even in a sense more than this.
J.L. I think that is a good enquiry. In Colossians Christ is viewed as in us: "Christ in you the hope of glory" (chap 1: 27) but in Ephesians the saints are viewed as in Christ.
E.C.B. There is a whole aspect of things in the gospel (largely in Romans) that we have through Him, and by Him, but then there is an aspect of what it is with Him - raised us up together - and then there is the side of in Christ Jesus (Eph 2, vv 6,7,10) and you cannot get closer than that, can you?
J.L. That is very suggestive and I think would raise exercise with us as to what power we have by the Spirit to penetrate into the divine realm in view of increasing in the knowledge of God.
J.A.G. 'As far as' and 'into': is that the result of the linen towel, the feet washing?
J.L. It shows how far Paul could go in the divine realm and in exploring the wealth and blessedness of what is bound up in the knowledge of God.
J.A.G. Completely free from distraction as the brethren have been saying.
J.L. Yes; what a thing it is to be in an area where we are absolutely undistracted! And Paul says "whether in the body or out of the body I know not" 2 Cor 12: 3. So your reference to a man in Christ.
C.R.B. When it says in chapter 13 that He was going to God, that would involve what was inscrutable, would it not? But would departing out of this world to the Father have in mind the fulness that comes out in chapter 17, that we should be consciously in the presence of the Father in another world, but with Christ and therefore restful?
J.L. Is not the Father put over against the world in John? "If any one love the world, the love of the Father is not in him", 1 John 2: 15. The Lord is leaving the world and going to the Father, and that is the realm of affection and relationships into which we are introduced in company with Him.
C.R.B. Where we can know Him as holy Father and righteous Father and Abba Father.
D.A.B. The reference in verse 3 seems to be characteristic according to the note. It says "he came out from God and" 'goes' "to God", as if that is the Lord's objective in His movements. And that is the spirit of things in which He desired to have His own with Himself.
J.L. Surely, He is not going alone. You think of the men given to Him out of the world - men, the mature suggestion in the saints, drawn by the Father to Christ, but given to Christ and He bringing them to the Father.
D.A.B. I wondered if there was a connection with Philippians 2 which we had in the meetings here in April. You might say that the Lord knew that God would highly exalt Him, but He takes this downward way. Do we have that in verse 5, that immediately there is that reference to His exaltation He stoops to serve His own. Was that the mind that was in Christ Jesus; the going down mind, even in service to His own, even though what was glorious was in prospect?
J.L. Philippians presents that to us, the mind that was in Christ Jesus. And he says "let this mind be in you", chap 2: 5.
E.C.B. We should be able to answer the Lord's question in verse 12: "Do ye know what I have done to you? ". So that conscious of what He has done, we are then consciously unencumbered. Mr Darby has 'Like Him, to know that glory beam unhindered' (hymn 72).
J.L. Yes. It is the realm where the soul can live in relation to God. Mr Darby's hymns are full of the blessedness of an unfettered experience of being in the presence of God.
E.C.B. So that our normal experience from the service of God, apart from all the aspects of worship and service, should be that it has done us good.
J.L. Surely; it is good to get into heaven together. I said to a brother this morning, was it not good to get into heaven together, to be there in a realm where Christ is everything and in all and where the Father's favour and love are so enjoyed, and the blessedness of God known in the outshining of Himself in the economy is before us? Wonderful experience to go in together!
E.C.B. In the week we touch so little what is encumbered, I think. Nearly everything that happens to us, for a moment or two at least, becomes a burden, but what a relief it is and rest to have been in a sphere where there is no encumbrance. So that we are fortified by the service of God, and cheered by it because we have been in the sphere where our souls really belong.
J.L. Yes. Do you think then that the more we get in together, the more we would come out and be on a foreign soil in the enjoyment and character of what is heavenly?
T.J.B. So Jesus says "where I am ye also may be", chap 14: 3. There is a sense of what is normal in that is there not? He says "were it not so, I had told you":
J.L. ls He not opening out His secrets to His friends? ls not the Lord bringing out this great side of friendship in the way He disclosed the secrets of love?
D.J.H. Just a year or so before Mr Darby died he said that for him to be with Christ for ever would not be very different from what he knew now. That is a challenge, is it not?
J.L. It certainly is. That is a challenge because, as was said, we come into the week with responsibilities and the discipline of employment and all that goes along with that, and the family life and exercises in relation to the wilderness; we tend to get jaded by it.
A.J.E.W. Whilst it is going back to the Matthew setting, this freedom from distraction through the week would surely be involved in the Lord speaking at the end of that gospel of "the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit", and then saying "Behold, I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age", chap 28: 20. Surely one point in mind there would be to guard us against distraction.
J.L. I think that is very helpful, because it is divine almightiness and power, is it not? He is not viewed as leaving the earth but He is viewed as identified with the saints. So there are matters that we can well leave to the Lord and not fret about. The Lord has things in control in relation to the testimony. "I am with you all the days, until the completion of the age". And that will continue, will it not, until the rapture?
F.M.K. The woman at the end of Proverbs was in the gain of that; she overcame the encumbrances, did she not?
J.L. She did. I am quite sure that the Lord would say "My delight is in her", Isa 62: 4. Think of the Lord's delight in the assembly as faithful to Him in His absence!
LONDON
11 October 1981
Key to initials (All local unless otherwise stated)
C.R.Byng; D.A.Burr; E.C.Burr; T.J.Burr; E.Croot; J.C.Evershed; R.W.Flowerdew; J.A.Gardiner, Aberdeen; D.J.Hutson; H.A.Hutson; F.M.Knappett, Maidstone; J.Lovie, Macduff; J.D.Newberry, Hamilton; E.Palmer; A.Taylor, Barnet; A.J.E.Welch; P.S.Warren