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VALUING WHAT IS PRECIOUS

P.J.W. There is much in these verses in Peter’s epistles, but I was particularly thinking of the precious blood, the precious corner stone and then in the psalm the precious oil. I wondered whether we could be encouraged as considering what these things mean both for us and for God. I was struck by a remark of Mr Coates, that a believer who walks with God has a continually growing sense of the preciousness of the blood of Christ¹. That is quite a challenge. We hear about it week by week in the gospel, and the question is – how much do I really value it? The apostle contrasts it with corruptible things. He speaks of being holy, then of passing “your time of sojourn in fear, knowing that ye have been redeemed”. The knowledge of the redemptive character of the blood of the Lord Jesus would help us with these things. We are redeemed from our sins, but in this chapter, it is more from what might hold us in relation to earthly or religious things, associations that would keep us from ministering fully to the pleasure of God, things that may not be in keeping with true Christian fellowship. So he says, “ye have been redeemed … from your vain conversation”. Peter is speaking to the Jews mainly, but it would have its application to ourselves. He brings forward the preciousness of the blood, “as a lamb without blemish and without spot, the blood of Christ”. It struck me that one of the reasons it is so precious is because it is His blood. There is a hymn which speaks of His blood, and it says:

‘Ours is a pardon bought with blood,

Amazing truth! the blood of One

Who, without usurpation, could

Lay claim to heav'n's eternal throne!’

(Hymn 233),

the blood of such a One, of whom Peter says, “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”. We may enquire about what that means as to God’s purpose. Peter goes on to say, “Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth”, listing all these many features which should mark believers. He speaks of the end of all that man is naturally; “all flesh is as grass”, and then he would incentivise us to lay aside all these things that attach to that man by coming to the Lord Jesus. He says “if indeed ye have tasted that the Lord is good. To whom coming, a living stone”, then he goes on to speak of that living Stone. I was struck in the hymn we sang by what men did to the Lord Jesus:

‘Scorned and betrayed, beset by powers malign!’

(Hymn 99)

Peter says that He was, “cast away indeed as worthless by men”. He no doubt had a strong impression of that as he saw the way that the Lord Jesus was treated, so he says, “but with God chosen, precious … Behold, I lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious”. Peter then goes on to speak of what believers are, “a chosen race”, but it is in order “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”. There seems to be a progression in the way in which Peter writes and it is all based on the work of the Lord Jesus and on His precious blood.

I thought of the psalm; no doubt the precious oil would be a reference typically to the Spirit. How precious the Spirit is. I think we need not only to have a continuing increase in our valuation of the blood and the Lord Jesus Himself, but also of the Holy Spirit. Paul says, “Thanks be to God for his unspeakable free gift” (2 Cor.9:15), which would no doubt include the wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit. It speaks here in the psalm of conditions that obtain, no doubt, where the Spirit has been given and where He is free. We might think of the early days of the church when the Spirit was given from an ascended Head. It ran down in that sense to the hem of the garment, to that little circle in Jerusalem that became the beginning of a tremendous testimony. What marked them in those days was unity. David says, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”. We know all about division, sadly – how many divisions have come in over the course of the testimony and how much there has been in my lifetime – but the psalmist says it is “pleasant … for brethren to dwell together in unity!”. I think that the more we are together in relation to these precious things, the blood of Christ, Christ Himself the precious corner stone and the preciousness of the Holy Spirit, the more it will be conducive to unity and that which is pleasant to God.

A.A.C. That is very good. We are told that the blood links very much with life and so you began with the precious blood which has been poured out, a life laid down, and you finished with life for evermore. I wondered whether these things are foundational; they are absolutely essential for what will answer to God’s glory eternally. Do we see in the blood, especially, the preciousness of a life? Is that what we are to gain from it?

P.J.W. There could be no life for evermore without that life of Jesus having been given up. What you said as to what is foundational is good, because the precious blood is something that even the youngest believer must value. We never get beyond it. However much or however little we may grow spiritually, we never get beyond the value of the precious blood and all that it means – not only what it means to us, but what it means to God. I suppose the reference here to the Lamb would make us think of the passover when God said, “when I see the blood, I will pass over you”, Exod.12:13. So first of all, the precious blood is precious in His sight.

A.A.C. I liked your reference to Mr Coates, because sometimes in natural things we get the basics and then we move on, but the blood is something which, as Mr Coates implied, we will be occupied with for ever. As we are occupied with the preciousness of it now, it will mean more and more to us. Do you think that this would help us in the liberty of our souls in response to God, as we have an ever-increasing impression of this? Then what you have spoken of as to the Spirit would be essential for our understanding of that.

P.J.W. Yes. We will never value the blood as God does, it will never be as precious to us as it is to Him, and yet as the days go by, we can always increase in our valuation.

D.A.B. We learn from Hebrews that Moses celebrated the passover by faith. God’s intention was what Peter recalls here, that Israel should have been a “kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Exod.19:6), but they failed in that because they did not have faith in the blood. They had taken it for granted that they were coming out of Egypt, but Moses celebrated the passover; he had some idea what the blood meant to God.

P.J.W. It is interesting that when Moses gave the people directions, he sometimes added to what God had said. He brought in the use of hyssop, which I think has been suggested would link with the thought of worship, and he speaks about the basin. The blood, it seems, was to be in a basin; nothing was to be lost.

D.A.B. Was that what Peter was doing here? The preciousness is clearly first of all for God, as the priests were to be too, but then he says, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”; it is those things added to bring us into line with God’s view.

P.J.W. So we can bring that expression back into this first chapter; “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”: not only the preciousness of Christ, but also all that He has done and His precious blood.

G.C.B. Is redemption particularly for God? I was thinking that He could have nothing greater in His mind than the precious blood of Jesus in view of redeeming His people to Himself.

P.J.W. It suggests that something had been lost and had to be redeemed. We could think of what man was for God. He created him for His will and His pleasure but man was lost through sin. What you say is right; redemption is first for God; it is in view of a people for Himself.

D.A.B. Redemption removes every claim except God’s, but that cannot be done without a ransom. What God has been ready to give shows how much He values what He has secured. That should move our hearts, that God was ready to give what was most precious to Himself to have us for Himself.

P.J.W. The fact that God was prepared to pay that price of the blood of His own Son means that what He was redeeming for Himself was also infinitely precious to Him.

J.R.W. The fact that it is stressed, “without blemish and without spot” supports what has been said. It would remind us of the burnt-offering, which is entirely precious to God.

P.J.W. The animals that were sacrificed had to be that. It would have been difficult to find an animal without spot or blemish: they would have had to look carefully, but there was no question as to this One. It says of Jesus that He “offered himself spotless to God”, Heb.9:14. His was the only sacrifice that God would accept. I suppose God accepted the Old Testament sacrifices on the basis that He looked forward to this one sacrifice.

J.R.W. I was struck with what you said as to the remark of Mr Coates, that we should increase in our appreciation and valuation of that precious blood of such a One who “by the eternal Spirit offered himself spotless to God”. That it is the blood of such a One should touch our hearts.

P.J.W. In the instruction as to the red heifer, it was to be “without blemish” (Num.19:2), which, it has been suggested, speaks of what is outward, while “wherein is no defect” might suggest what is inward, representing perfect conformity between the outward and the inward. Then it says, “upon which never came yoke”. There was nothing, apart from the will of God, that had any influence on the blessed Lord as He moved in His pathway here. So that suggestion, “without blemish and without spot” would cover not only what He was personally but the whole of His life. There was not a blemish or a spot in His life and He never came under yoke.

A.M. In the song of redemption in Exodus the word is, “Thou … hast led forth the people that thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness”, Exod.15:13. It was shown to Moses that when the priest came in to the holiest of all, his standing was the blood sprinkled before the mercy-seat. It is the ground on which man’s liberty in the very presence of God could be known. It is not just an initial thing; it takes us right in to the most elevated sphere.

P.J.W. I am glad you say that because I thought about how it speaks about the blood as that which cleanses: “Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the holy of holies by the blood of Jesus”, Heb.10:19. It says of Jesus that He went in with “his own blood”, Heb.9:12. The high priest entered “into the holy places every year with blood not his own” (Heb.9:25), but Jesus having entered in with His own blood has made a new and living way in for us. Paul enhances to us the preciousness of the blood; it has so many aspects for the believer.

A.M. It came to mind as you were speaking of growing in our appreciation of it, that really the more we consider it, the more we see our need of the blood all the way in, right to the most exalted sphere.

P.J.W. Your suggestion is confirmed by what John writes in Revelation about how Jesus has “washed us from our sins in his blood, and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father”, Rev.1:5,6. It is all on the basis of the blood. That would link with “a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation”. Do you think the children of Israel, though they may not have fully understood it at that point, came into something of the good of that, although they failed later? But at that point, when they sang the song of redemption, they were “a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation”.

P.M. Is the whole of God’s purpose secured and established on the basis of the blood? We may think of it in relation to its application in this dispensation but everything that God will secure in a universe of new creation is based on the precious blood of Jesus. How precious that must be to God.

P.J.W. Yes, and do you think it has its application even to the creation? I wondered whether that linked with what Peter says, “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”. God had this way of redemption in His heart, in purpose, before there was anything but Himself.

P.M. I was affected that the blood of such a One was great enough to secure and establish all that was in the purpose of God. How great that is.

P.J.W. That would help us to increase in our valuation of the preciousness of Jesus as the precious corner stone. He is not only the corner stone of what Peter speaks of as the spiritual house, but the corner stone, the foundation, of everything for God is in that One.

D.A.B. Jacob made his fortune out of spots and blemishes. I was thinking of what has been said, that a lamb without blemish might have been hard to find. It was a new idea for Israel, that that is what God required. Do we need to understand that God knew that it could be found? He did have One who was perfect, who could be the means of setting aside all that we might have built on.

P.J.W. When did Jacob change his thoughts? Do you think that it was after he put Joseph and Rachel at the back (Gen.33:2), as though the Lord typically was becoming precious to him? He ended as a worshipper, which is no doubt the intention in all these scriptures and these meetings that we have.

R.M.B. Is it right to say that, through redemption, God has established an incontestable right to have us for Himself? Is it intended to touch our hearts that, in establishing His claim over us, He has not done so by some arbitrary decree, but He has demonstrated that He was prepared to pay the full price?

P.J.W. God has rights over us as Creator, but I think what you speak of, His rights in redemption, are infinitely more precious. He was prepared for the shedding of the blood of His own beloved Son. We will never fully know how precious the Lord Jesus is to the Father. We sing that hymn:

‘And to know the blessèd secret

Of His preciousness to Thee’ (Hymn 277).

Would that be what the Spirit would seek for our souls, that we might learn more of that secret? We will never fully understand it, but I think what you say as to an incontestable right is helpful; it can never be challenged.

R.M.B. The blood of Christ establishes the perfect righteousness of God. No one can call into question that God has paid the full price to have us for Himself.

P.J.W. He has paid that price for me; that would make the blood precious to me.

R.M.B. Do you have more in mind as to what we are redeemed from?

P.J.W. It is not, in this setting, from our sins, but it is “from your vain conversation”. Peter was writing to Jews and they were prone to be held by the Jewish system in which they had been brought up. I wondered whether the blood not only frees us from our sins but frees us from every other association that would hinder us, whether it be what is earthly, what is worldly or what is religious. The blood redeems us from any association that would hinder us from enjoying heavenly things .

R.M.B. It sets us free from all those other associations in order that we might fully answer to God’s claim, which we have spoken of as being established through redemption.

P.J.W. I wondered whether that is why Peter’s writing is progressive; he ends with “ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession, that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you”. We are to be set free from everything that might have a claim upon us naturally, to set forth God’s excellencies.

D.A.S. Would the reference, “ye are not your own? for ye have been bought with a price” (1 Cor.6:19,20) have some bearing on that?

P.J.W. The greatness of the price that has been paid would make us realise that we cannot do as we please.

D.A.S. It is not only our liabilities being removed, but the fact that in the shedding of the blood of Jesus, we have been bought: “ye are not your own …”. That would have a moral effect on us if it were taken in.

P.J.W. It would make us think of what has been said earlier – if such a price has been paid, how precious must you and I be to God.

T.J.H. It says “who has called you out of darkness …”. Would you say that the word darkness is perhaps broader than we might immediately think?

P.J.W. It is anything that is not according to God. Paul says that the Father has “delivered us from the authority of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of his love”, Col.1:13. “Having purified your souls by obedience to the truth to unfeigned brotherly love, love one another out of a pure heart fervently”; the more we value the precious blood, the more we will value one another.

C.H.S. Do you have some thought about obedience?

P.J.W. We used to be told when we were children that it is the first step to happiness.

C.H.S. Yes, and no doubt persons brought up that way are better off than those who have not been. Peter begins that way, “unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ” (1 Pet.1:2), and he speaks a number of times about obedience. The present moment is marked by the work of God and the faith of men, both of which are distinct and important, but does the secret of the moral way into these things becoming precious to us lie in Peter’s frequent references to obedience?

P.J.W. I think that is helpful. That is a good verse you draw attention to, “unto the obedience and sprinkling of the blood”. It is the blood again, linked with the thought of obedience. The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey God and the basis for the giving of the Spirit is the precious blood. The thought of obedience is important. No doubt Peter felt that at times he had been very disobedient, as we all have.

C.H.S. He speaks very specifically about obedience. He refers to “children of obedience”, then about “obedience to the truth”. It is the way that the Father separates us; the Lord said, “Sanctify them by the truth”, John 17:17. I thought that these references of Peter’s here would help us in relation to things becoming precious to us.

P.J.W. He says, “Be ye holy, for I am holy”. Obedience would be on those lines.

J.R.W. I wondered if you could open up this word “foreknown”; “the blood of Christ, foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world”.

P.J.W. I was hoping for help together about what the brethren might think about it. It seems to me that it links with God’s purpose. Is it too much to say that the blood was central to God’s purpose?

D.A.B. Is it right to say that what was foreknown was the Christ? I was thinking of how precious He was to God. As soon as God set out to have and fulfil a purpose, Christ was at the centre of it. How much it must therefore mean to God that that purpose could only be fulfilled if that object of His eye lay in death. It is very moving to think that God had such wonderful thoughts and they centre in Christ where He is, but in order to secure those thoughts, and us in relation to them, that Christ must give His life, which was so precious to God.

R.M.B. Does it help that it says in verse 20, “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world, but who has been manifested” – not ‘what' has been manifested?

P.J.W. What has been said about that precious One who is central to all God’s thoughts that He ever had in His mind is helpful. Even when He said, “Let us make man in our image” (Gen.1:26), it was Christ that was in God’s heart. That One had to give up His life and His blood had to be shed.

R.M.B. The divine person who we know as Christ was there, of course, with God before the foundation of the world. But in connection with what has been said, do you think it was Christ as the Lamb who was foreknown, linking on with what has been said about having in view His incoming to this world, His sufferings in death and the shedding of His blood?

P.J.W. We could say that everything for the pleasure of God is secured on the basis of sacrifice. That would be the thought in the Lamb.

J.R.W. Help us as to foreknowledge.

P.J.W. Foreknowledge is His omniscience, that God knows everything; “whom he has foreknown, he has also predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son”, Rom.8:29. It is beyond our minds to grasp that God knew in the beginning all that was going to happen, all those that would be saved, all those that would be lost. It is all in His foreknowledge, although this in no way relieves men of their responsibility to obey the glad tidings.

J.R.W. That helps. It goes on, “who by him do believe on God”. What you are bringing before us would enhance the preciousness of the blood, enhance the preciousness of the Person and would enhance the preciousness of what has been secured for God through that.

P.J.W. That verse demonstrates how satisfied God is with the work of Jesus and with the blood, because He has “raised him from among the dead and given Him glory”.

D.A.B. In John 17, the Lord Jesus refers to “the glory which I had along with thee before the world was” (v.5). That is what has been referred to; He was there. But when He refers to the foundation of the world and the purpose that the Father had in relationship to it, He says “for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world” (v.24). It is not just His existence but the relationship and the beauty of what was there in divine purpose in Christ under God’s eye. I was thinking of what you said as to foreknowledge. God, as it were, looked forward to the beauty and fulfilment He would find in the Lord Jesus and His offering.

P.J.W. I like what you say as to the Father’s love because it really enhances these things. It is not some sort of cold philosophy or action plan as men would have, but it came from God’s love. His love is enhanced to us in the fact that He was prepared to take this route to bring about everything for His own pleasure and for the blessing of men.

P.M. Does the purpose of God suggest that He had an end in view, right from the very beginning, but does foreknowledge involve that He knew every step of that way in which, and by whom, the purpose would be secured?

P.J.W. As we sometimes sing:

‘Through pathways sore’. (Hymn 5)

We should speak a little about the precious corner stone. It is spoken of first as a “living stone” to whom we come. This is not exactly initial, but should be a characteristic matter with us; the more we come to the Lord Jesus, the more precious we will find Him.

D.A.B. That is what I experience. Even in an occasion like this, it leads me to see things in Him as the beginning of God’s foundation that perhaps had not moved me in the same way before.

P.J.W. As soon as we come under the shelter of the blood, we are living stones, but that is just the beginning. We have to keep coming, and have to lay these other things aside.

T.J.H. Who are the builders who rejected the stone?

P.J.W. That was the Jews, but I think we have all been there.

T.J.H. It might link with what Peter said in his preaching, “this Jesus whom ye have crucified”, Acts 2:36. God has laid Him as the precious corner stone – God has done that.

P.J.W. It is all what God has done. God has chosen Him, “I lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious”. I was thinking of this word “worthless”; it is a complete antithesis to “precious”. Men found nothing in the Lord Jesus that they valued; they cast Him away as worthless.

A.M. That is a very strong word and it seems that there are only two positions here: the total rejection of One so wonderful as worthless, and on the other hand what is precious. Although we may feel that His preciousness to us could increase, yet there is the scope for it to grow as we are occupied with Him.

P.J.W. Immense scope. What you say about the two extremes is very touching: ”worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious”, and then, “I lay in Zion a corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believes on him” – that is the point – “shall not be put to shame”. Then Peter says, “To you therefore who believe is the preciousness”. That means that, as we come to believe in the Lord Jesus, He becomes precious to us, but then God’s intention is that, as we come to Him, He becomes more and more precious.

A.A.C. We are exhorted by Peter to dwell on the preciousness of the blood. Do you think that dwelling also on the preciousness of this corner stone would help us practically in our lives in view of what we have been talking about? Our lives are lived amongst those who have cast Him away as worthless; but contemplation of this would surely help us in day-to-day separation from what is around us. If my faith and trust is in One who is elect, chosen and precious, and I have some sense of those words being used by God about His beloved Son, it sets the contrast with those who have cast Him away as worthless. I have no common ground with them.

P.J.W. The world is no different; it still has no use for the Lord Jesus, or much use for His people apart from what it can get out of them. Peter goes on to that, “I exhort you, as strangers and sojourners … having your conversation honest … they may through your good works … glorify God”, 1 Pet.2:11,12.

A.A.C. This is a building; the corner stone is foundational and is the point from which all measurements are taken. If my life, as before God, has this One as its foundation, which it should do, it puts everything else to one side; there can be no compromise. It is not that this stone was used somewhere else in the building, it was cast away as worthless.

R.M.B. Is it not a very testing thing to be identified with One who has been totally rejected by the world?

P.J.W. It is a very testing thing. I recall my father quoting one of the early teachers among brethren who said that he challenged himself as to what there was in him to which the world would object. That is a very testing thing. They objected to Christ, and every hand cast Him away as worthless and in the end crucified Him. What about you and me? We all feel our lack, but these meetings would encourage us.

R.M.B. I wondered whether coming to Him as a living stone would involve coming to Him outside of everything that pertains to man’s world and particularly its religious aspects. It is outside and apart from all of that.

P.J.W. That is right, it is coming to Him where He is. He is apart now, “holy, harmless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and become higher than the heavens”, Heb.7:26. That is the position that He occupies now and it is to Him there that we come.

D.A.B. God has not proposed to make a better building on man’s ground, but a new building on new ground – that is what redemption involves. Redemption is important to understand; it involves a new place, not simply that things are repaired or reinstated on the old ground.

P.J.W. That is why I thought of the verse, “all flesh is as grass, and all its glory as the flower of grass. The grass has withered and its flower has fallen”; the old order, so to speak, is completely removed in Christ’s death. God has something new, a new building.

D.A.B. The tendency in Christendom is to establish something that the world will welcome as an improving feature. I remember a brother saying that the world has a place for me and everybody else except Christ, therefore if I want to be identified with Him and have part in this building, I have to leave it.

P.J.W. That raises the challenge, why has the world a place for me? Because I am not like Him enough.

P.M. Is one character of this building that, “ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you”; it has no other feature in display.

P.J.W. I suppose that Christ when He was here set forth the excellencies of God in every detail of His life, and that is to be continued in this building. What is this building at the present time?

P.M. The hymn says:

‘O residence of glory!’

and

‘Whose builder is her God’ (Hymn 221)

That is what is being built at the present time. It stands in great contrast to the builders that we were speaking of who rejected the corner stone. There were builders who built a city and named it Cain, and builders who built Babylon. They subsisted for a short time, like the grass, but this building shall be glorious for evermore.

P.J.W. It is not a physical building; it is a spiritual house, “built up a spiritual house”.

P.M. Is it related to what is here in priestliness for the pleasure of God, “a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices …”?

P.J.W. So it is in persons. It would involve every believer who has the Spirit in an abstract way, but it is a question of how much we are setting forth these things.

P.M. If the corner stone is precious to God, the whole building must take on that character?

P.J.W. That brings us back to an earlier remark about how precious the persons who have been redeemed are to the Lord Jesus, that He was prepared to pay that price. It makes the assembly very precious to God. He has purchased it “with the blood of his own”, Acts 20:28. That is another reference to the blood, and while it is a different aspect, it is really the same thing. A spiritual house would link with the assembly.

P.M. I wondered if a view of that and a sense of our being in it would help to preserve us from the world that has cast the Lord Jesus out as worthless.

J.R.W. Did you have some thought as to “chosen”? He was “cast away indeed as worthless by men, but with God chosen, precious”.

P.J.W. There is a verse in the Psalms, “I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of the people”, Ps.89:19. The note ‘o’ to “chosen” says, ‘or a ‘young man’; as ‘excellent’’. I wondered whether it emphasises how precious He is to God.

J.R.W. Does it demonstrate the moral worth, the moral perfection, of the “one chosen”. I know it is a type, but scripture speaks of how God chose David, “a man after his own heart”, 1 Sam.13:14.

P.J.W. It would relate to what Jesus was here as a Man for God’s pleasure. God looked down, and out of the millions of men on the earth, He saw His chosen One.

J.R.W. The glory of His Person heads up everything for God. Everything that is for God is on the basis of His precious blood, but that depends on the intrinsic worth and glory of the Person whose blood it is, which comes out in this section here. Everything for God is secure on that basis. How precious He is for that.

P.J.W. There was no one else that God could choose.

A.A.C. Could you help us as to spiritual sacrifices? This is one of the objects here, that there are these “spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ”. We have spoken about the spiritual house and the priesthood, and this seems to be an answer which ascends to God.

P.J.W. They are acceptable to God. Romans speaks of how we are to present our bodies “a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God”, Rom.12:1. That is not exactly a spiritual sacrifice, it is a material thing, but it is a living sacrifice, “holy, acceptable to God, which is your intelligent service”. I think that would be something of a spiritual sacrifice in that, but no doubt there is a higher thought in what we bring to God during what we speak of as the service of God.

A.A.C. I was thinking that this comes out of our appreciation of the preciousness of the blood, and our appreciation of this One who is elect, chosen, precious, as distinct from the world’s valuation. Is the result of that something which can be given to God by Jesus Christ as a spiritual sacrifice?

P.J.W. If we speak in prayer to God of our appreciation of the Lord Jesus and His blood, that is a spiritual sacrifice, and we can increase in that. Worship would be a spiritual sacrifice, the outgoing of the soul, based on the preciousness of Christ and His blood. It is “by Jesus Christ”, so everything we offer to God must be by, and through, that One.

A.M. At the end of Hebrews, having come to Him outside the camp, we are exhorted to offer “the sacrifice of praise continually to God”, Heb.13:15. Does that link with this thought of the spiritual sacrifice?

P.J.W. That is helpful, “the fruit of the lips confessing his name”. Would it be confessing His name before God, speaking to Him about Christ? What would you say the difference is between praise and worship?

A.M. I think of worship as simple prostration before One who is so infinitely great, but in praise we speak about Him as well. The Lord would even speak about the assembly; in the type, her husband is said to praise the woman of worth (Prov.31:28).

P.J.W. That is helpful. It speaks of the “fruit of the lips”, so praise would be something that we express.

C.H.S. Leviticus helps because it teaches that the oblation cannot be mixed with what is not acceptable; “no leaven and no honey”, Lev.2:11.

P.J.W. No, what we bring to God must be pure. It can only be Christ.

C.H.S. How we are in the presence of God, and how we approach Him is important, as well as what we bring. I wondered whether the Old Testament helps us about that; things have to be acceptable to God. They may be acceptable to those that are listening, but that is not the thought.

P.J.W. That is a challenge, because we know what words to use, but it is a question of what we bring in our hearts.

T.J.H. Is there something for God not only in what we say but in what we are and what we do as dwelling together in unity? I wondered whether what Psalm 133 speaks of, whilst it is pleasant for us, is for the pleasure of God and there is something sacrificial in that?

P.J.W. This unity must be pleasant to God. It comes from God in the power of the Spirit. It links with Ephesians: “keep the unity of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace”, Eph.4:3. I was struck by this description, “precious oil upon the head”, and I was linking it with Pentecost at the outpouring of the Spirit from the Head in heaven upon the saints, that little circle in Jerusalem.

D.A.B. We have been speaking about what goes up to God in praise, but in God’s world, everything has started by coming down. Man does not see it that way. God says, “I am come down”, Exod.3:8. James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift comes down from above”, Jas.1:17. This oil flows down. That helps us to see the divine source in the headship of Christ of all that we enjoy in the Christian circle. Even the Spirit has come down; John says, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending” (John 1:33).

P.J.W. What we have been speaking of as to the spiritual house and the sacrifice of praise finds expression in this circle where brethren dwell together in unity.

D.A.B. We can be objective with what is precious, and we should be, but what we have in the Christian circle is precious. The preciousness is in the Spirit, and it is in the unity too which is found among us. We should be so thankful for the little measure in which it has been preserved for God’s pleasure and for our enjoyment.

P.J.W. That is salutary. We should regard the circle of the fellowship as precious because it is where these precious things are enjoyed and where blessing is enjoyed.

D.A.B. There was nothing in the priests’ garments, right down to the hem, over which this spiritual thing could not flow freely. It is a challenge whether there are or have been things among us that could hinder that flow and the value of it in its results in worship to God.

T.J.H. Do you have anything in mind as to how it “ran down to the hem of his garments”. The hem of the garment is where the edge is finished off; there should be settled conditions in which there can be brethren dwelling together in unity.

P.J.W. I thought the hem embraced the circle of the saints. It says “ran down”; there was nothing to hinder. Often the Spirit is hindered. I can easily hinder Him by bringing in my own thoughts or my own suggestions that are not of the Spirit; that would hinder Him. But there is nothing to hinder this precious oil, it “ran down” or flowed down. It is the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

D.A.B. The woman in the gospel “touched the hem of his garment”, Luke 8:44. Would somebody who has the Spirit find that preciousness if they came in contact with those with whom I associate? The hem had round it what would express the local meetings, the pomegranates – that is where contact of that kind would be made.

P.J.W. I think that is very helpful, and testing too, as to whether a person might be in contact with the circle of those with whom we walk. Would they find healing and all that they need in the Spirit?

D.A.B. Would they find something that has run down, that speaks to them of the headship of Christ, and through that the preciousness of what we have been speaking of? Is this circle a place where the excellencies of Him that has called us are known?

P.J.W. It is an exercise to me that there should be nothing in me to hinder the flow.

P.M. It is the same oil at the hem as is on the head and it runs past the breastplate. The wisdom and the affections of Christ are to be known in the circle.

P.J.W. There is no dilution. The power in the precious Spirit is the same today as it was at Pentecost. Conditions are quite different: we have to take account of the breakdown, which in one sense limits His power, and means that the Spirit is not seen in quite the same way publicly, but the power is the same and it is flowing down just as much.

G.C.B. When Paul addressed matters in Corinth, it is quite clear that he had God’s ideal thought in mind as to the assembly. He spoke about divisions and the differences of thought too, but this was what was in his heart. We might have to speak about differences of thought among us, but we must have this in our minds and hearts.

P.J.W. That is what God looks for, what is pleasant to Him; “brethren to dwell together in unity!”. It can only be as the oil flows. The unity of the Spirit exists, but for me to keep it with diligence means that I must let the Spirit flow in me.

C.H.S. The end in view is that all are to “arrive at the unity of the faith”, Eph.4:13. It involves bearing with one another, working things out in love, but it really flows down from God Himself and the unity we see existing between divine Persons. That is its source.

P.J.W. It is helpful to look through that chapter. It ends with how the body “works for itself the increase of the body to its self-building up in love” (v.16). There is a close correlation between the Spirit and love, and we need to keep in mind the blessing of what God has in mind: “life for evermore”.

London

2 February 2019

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