GOD’S INHERITANCE IN THE SAINTS
Exodus 15: 13-18
Psalm 22: 1-3, 21, 22
1 Peter 2: 9, 10
Ephesians 1: 15-23
AM The passage in Ephesians refers to “the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”, which is an expression well-known to us: “his inheritance in the saints”: that is God’s inheritance which is in the saints. I wondered if we might look at the verses we have read just to get some fresh impression of what God has secured, what He has done, and how He has done it. I think it is important that we keep in our minds the way in which divine Persons have acted. Exodus 15, where we have read, refers to many things that God has done. First, He “redeemed” the people and “guided them … unto the abode of thy holiness”, then, later, it refers to “The place” where He has made His dwelling,
The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared.
Think of these features, all coming out in relation to what God has secured in the saints. In another passage, which comes earlier in Exodus, He establishes the fact that His people are in the relationship of sonship: “Israel is my son”. He is not Pharaoh’s son; he is “my son”; and so are His sons. God puts in His claim there. Pharaoh had no right to make the people serve him. God says, “Israel is my son, my firstborn. … Let my son go, that he may serve me”, Exod 4: 22, 23.
In Peter it is a question of what God has secured in a people upon the earth, “a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession”, and it is in view that we “might set forth the excellencies of him who has called” us, that there should be that display. This is what God is looking for at the present time, really what He will display eternally. It is also true that God must have something on the earth at the present time. It would not be morally right if Christ had been rejected from this scene and God did not have a display of His excellencies here. He is continued in His people down here. The apostle writes, “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”.
In Ephesians Paul goes into the heights. He prays that we might have “the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. The saints are here upon the earth in rejection by the world as Jesus was, of no significance to man’s world at all. What does God have in such people? There are “the riches of the glory” manifested. Later in this book we get the angels looking down, “the principalities and authorities” looking down in wonder at “the all-various wisdom of God” (chap 3: 10) because of what has been wrought for His own pleasure. This is all for His pleasure; this is God’s inheritance. What a result from the work of Jesus! Perhaps the brethren can help to expand these thoughts.
DAB Would it be right to say that there is really nothing outside the inheritance or the assembly that divine Persons find their satisfaction in? In one sense divine Persons are self-existent. As Man, Christ finds His all in the assembly. Would it be right to say divine Persons themselves find that in the saints?
AM It must be so. There is no other body at this time that is being formed through faith and believing. The assembly is before the eye of God, and this is where He finds His dwelling. The Holy Spirit is here, and where He dwells is the dwelling place of God. What a heritage God finds in the assembly!
DAB The scripture in Exodus 15 refers in verse 13 to redemption at the beginning. What you go on to is the matter of purchase, is it not? There is a continuation there, an added thought,
Till the people pass over that thou hast purchased.
That really relates to assembly truth.
AM It does. We as individuals are redeemed: God had a claim upon us, but because of what we are by nature, we have come under another power, but God has acted and redeemed us. Now, the assembly has no such history. The assembly is holy. Take the type of Eve, taken out of the side of Adam. No alien power has had a claim there, but God has purchased her and at what a price!
JL Can you enlarge just a little on how the Possessor of all things can inherit anything?
AM Well, that is a wonderful thing. We have that marvellous hymn, number 5, which contains the words,
For, added to the riches that were then,
Thou hast secured vast myriads of men
Thy house to fill.
The way divine Persons have worked is that there is increase for God. You have something in mind.
JL Just to magnify the wonder of what has been secured through the work of the Lord Jesus in answer to the purpose of divine love that never existed before!
AM It is wonderful! In man’s world matter can neither be created nor destroyed. In God’s world there is what is new and living and what did not exist before, and it is all for His pleasure.
JCG Does it come out in relation to David? 1 Chronicles 29 speaks about the way in which God has drawn them together, “for all is of thee, and of that which is from thy hand have we given thee” (v 14), and it goes on further and says, “In the uprightness of my heart have I willingly offered all these things” (v 17), and then he speaks about “thy people” offering “willingly”. That is the great result of the work of God in each one of us.
AM I think so. I was looking at that passage in the interval. What you say is very confirming. David attributes everything to God; he speaks of “thy people”. God is interested in souls; it is the people, His saints. God is faithful to His creation obviously and He cares for it, but Paul says, “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that is treading out corn. Is God occupied about the oxen … ?”, 1 Cor 9: 9. God is concerned about His people, and that is His inheritance.
JCG You can help us further as to the matter of guiding them “unto the abode of thy holiness”, which, of course, was first established in the wilderness, and then, “The Sanctuary”, which really is the spiritual power in the heavenlies, is it not?
AM The people here had the end in view. Now, they did not know what the wilderness journey was going to be like, but they had the light as to the end in view, did they not? The people in a sense were sanctified, taken apart. Another verse that was in my mind was Balak when he hired Balaam; he said, “Behold, a people is come out of Egypt” (Num 22: 11), of no account in the world, but they had “come out of Egypt”. They had been redeemed. God had put in His claim. Balaam had no appreciation of them. He said, “Behold, a people”; he did not put a name to them, but God had an appreciation of them. He said, ‘They are mine’.
JTB In Exodus 25 Jehovah says, “And they shall make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell among them”, v 8. That is preceded by the heave-offering, v 2. Is that really the product of God’s own workmanship in souls providing an environment in which God can dwell for His own satisfaction?
AM Yes, that is very good, and that heave-offering was provided by the willing-hearted and the wise-hearted, Exod 35. I think those two things are needed. The affections are involved in the willing-hearted; and the wise-hearted are intelligent as to what is suitable for God.
TWL I wonder if we could think that the souls must be redeemed, but God purchases the heart? Could we say that purchase has in mind affection, which is in line with desire? He “purchased” the assembly “with the blood of his own”, Acts 20: 28. It is the valuation according to the desire of God. He redeemed souls. He has a right to souls and He redeems them.
AM He has a right and He redeems, but the purchase in relation to the assembly was at a great cost. Now, I am sure most have been in a situation where something may be offered for sale, and when you look at the price you say, ‘It is not worth it!’. How great then is the assembly that God was prepared to pay that cost, “purchased with the blood of his own”. The assembly in that setting in Acts 20 is what is on the earth here. It does not there refer to the glorious end according to divine purpose. Paul there is referring to the assembly on earth, and he is saying that God was prepared to pay that price to purchase the assembly that He should have it as His inheritance.
RG There is a scripture in Ephesians, “For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus”, chap 2: 10. There is what is perfect and glorious according to His own thoughts.
AM That is right. “We are his workmanship”. We have been created “for good works”. The good works are what were seen in the life of Jesus here. How much pleasure the Father took in the life of Jesus! What delight that life was to Him! Well, we have been created so that there is in us that which is capable of setting forth something of those good works which were seen in Christ. That is a blessed thing. You might think, ‘What can I do?’, but you can do something.
GBG Does this explain what you were saying about Acts 20, because what was purchased needs to be shepherded. Did you say it is on the earth?
AM I think so. Let us look at the passage, “Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock, wherein the Holy Spirit has set you as overseers, to shepherd the assembly of God, which he has purchased with the blood of his own”. The elders will not be shepherding the assembly of God in eternity. It is the assembly down here that needs care and attention.
GBG Could you bring it down to the local assembly? Overseers are local.
AM Oh yes, that is right. That is where we are responsible and where we get the expression of it. You could not now find every person who belongs to the assembly in Bo’ness coming together. It would not be possible now although it will happen one day soon, but we seek to walk in the light of it, and you cannot do any more than that, which means we keep ourselves apart from what is not in the light of it.
GBG I am glad you say that. Do you think it elevates in our minds what there is in each place, the assembly in a place of which we are part? That elevates the whole thing.
AM Yes, it does. It lifts us up above what is outward. It is what God sees, and God has arranged. God has set us together for a purpose, and it is for His pleasure.
BB The thought of God's name being set carries the idea of His renown.
AM A day is coming when His glory will be seen publicly in connection with the saints, but the glory of God is to be known among the saints, is it not? It is to be known, maybe not in an outward way, but it is still glory, and it is seen in “the riches of the glory of his inheritance”.
DCB In verse 13 of Exodus 15 it says, “Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness”. Later, in verse 17, it says, “Thou shalt bring them in”. Say something as to the fact that verse 13 views them as already brought in.
AM If God says that He is going to do something, it is as good as done. We can rely on God; He is faithful to His word; and if He says He is going to do something, then we can accept that as if it had actually taken place. It is as good as done.
DCB Does it help us to have that view, to see that what God has in mind He has done? It speaks of Abraham as believing “the God … who calls the things which be not as being”, Rom 4: 17. He had a view of things complete in God’s mind.
AM I do feel, dear brethren, that we need to get firmly in our souls the greatness of the assembly as a glorious entity. I never tire of the last two chapters of Revelation. See the assembly in her glory according to divine purpose! Get that view into our souls first because otherwise we will be governed by breakdown and failure and the history of the church, and that is not what is to govern our thoughts.
AGM All these matters,
… the mountain of thine inheritance,
The place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling,
The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared,
are to be found in the local assembly. One of the old brothers local with us in Cullen used to remind us, ‘Keep the purpose of God before you and work on to that’, and that is really “hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness”. Do you think occasions like this help us in this way, that our eyes are focused on God’s great thoughts?
AM Well, that is right, and that is what, we trust, is happening today. God acts according to His own purpose. He has not had to deviate from His purpose. That is settled, and He acts according to His own purpose in order to fulfil what will be for His glory eternally.
JL The abode of God’s holiness and guiding His people into that is a consequence of God’s love, is it not? That is what God rests in. “The abode of thy holiness” is love. “He will rest in his love”, Zeph 3: 17. That is His final abode, is it not?
AM Yes, it is. His love was the source of everything. God had a need because His nature is love. He had a need for that love to be expressed. That is a feature of love; it must be expressed. It must have an object. And the love of God required an object on which it could be expressed, and this is what He has secured, saints in sonship, secured in the assembly. That is where the love of God can be really known.
JSS Does the thought of planting suggest life and fruitfulness? Does God receive His inheritance from people who are characterised by enjoying life?
AM I think that is right. It also suggests care, the care of a gardener. If you plant something, you choose your location, you have the right soil, and you use care and nurture it. It says in one of the psalms, “Thou, O God, didst pour a plentiful rain upon thine inheritance, and when it was weary thou strengthenedst it”, Ps 68: 9. Think of God exercising that care in order that there should be what is living, what is springing up to Him in response!
NCMcK Was it mentioned earlier that “Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness” was initially the wilderness; whereas the reference that follows to “the Sanctuary” has in mind what is heavenly? I need more help with that.
AM Well, that is what they were being guided to. “Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness”. They are coming out to the wilderness. For the first month they were just being carried by grace, and then God said, “And they shall make me a sanctuary” (Exod 25: 8), and the first thing is, “they shall make an ark”, v 10. Does that help?
NCMcK It has helped very much. It confirms what you have been saying about the value of the assembly, what God has here on earth at the present time, something very valuable where He can make His abode. We tend to defer the thought of God’s inheritance to what He will have eternally, but actually what He has here now is precious and by way of an abode at the present time, an inheritance here.
AM It would be morally impossible for God to be without that which is pleasing to Himself on the earth now. The Lord Jesus has been here; the world has rejected Him and He has gone on high. Could it be possible that for two thousand years the world has gained the superiority? It could not be. God has secured something through the work of Christ. I asked for the opening of Psalm 22 to be read because it shows us something of the cost it was to Him; so the psalmist could say, “why hast thou forsaken me? … And thou art holy”. To secure “the abode of” His “holiness” required the cross.
JCG The Spirit is really the abode, is He not? “He abides with you”, John 14: 17. “The abode of thy holiness”, somebody remarked that this is perfect tense. I wondered if that is how it would affect our making way for the Spirit through the week. In our meetings we enjoy eternal life in which we move in prayer to divine Persons. We rely on “the abode”, that is the Spirit dwelling within us, whereas “the Sanctuary”, as we have been taught in ministry, really is the service of God, and the presence of God in the heavenlies.
AM That is right. In the holy of holies there was nothing but what speaks of Christ. There was the ark in all its excellence and glory: that was in the divine presence.
NJH “A habitation of God in the Spirit” (Eph 2: 22): does that not confirm what we are saying? I was thinking God will not have lost anything by public breakdown, will He? My mind went to Zephaniah, “Fear not; Zion, let not thy hands be slack. Jehovah thy God is in thy midst, a mighty one that will save: he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love; he will exult over thee with singing”, chap 3: 16, 17.
AM That passage is beautiful. God rejoicing, exulting over His people. What joy the word “exult” conveys, and that is what God does: “He will exult over thee with singing”.
BWL The end of Psalm 78 speaks about “Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance”, v 71. I was thinking when Paul went to Corinth, the Lord told him He had “much people in this city”, Acts 18: 10. Does that relate to the wilderness side of things? Then Ephesians is God’s” inheritance in the saints”, the saints viewed from the purpose of God.
AM Well, that is right, there are the sanctified ones. We were saying this morning that our part is with the sanctified ones. That is the company we have, but God looks upon them, each one a saint, and that is the divine viewpoint, but “the people”, I think, particularly relates to the wilderness. “Till the people pass over”, it says in this song.
DS Does, “The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared” involve the operations of the three divine Persons? I wondered if you could help us in relation to that. This is the climax of everything God is seeking to arrive at, the place where He dwells. Does it involve, “I go to prepare you a place”, John 14: 2? It involves the operations of the Spirit in the formation of the assembly, and the Father as “bringing many sons to glory” (Heb 2: 10). Is this the great thought of the operations of divine Persons?
AM I think so. Think of what it meant to the Lord Jesus to undertake that great work, and then when the Lord Jesus rose, there was that little company that were to form the embryo of the assembly. What an extraordinary thing took place in the history of the world at Pentecost! A divine Person came down out of heaven, “and filled all the house”, Acts 2: 2. There was the start of this great dispensation in which we are in which the presence of the Holy Spirit is known.
ABB Looking to verse 18 which you read, “Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever!”, you have mentioned the world and its disregard for God’s rights, but do you think there is real pleasure from the divine side in those who acknowledge divine rights as Christ ever did as Man here on earth? It is real savour and pleasure to God.
AM That is right, and the thought of reigning takes you beyond Moses. It takes you on to David. We have already had a reference to David. God made known to Moses where He was going to dwell, but to David that He was going to reign. His rights would be acknowledged; His kingdom would be established; and David says in the passage that has already been quoted, “Thine, Jehovah, is the kingdom”, 1 Chron 29: 11. It is all His, and He is going to have that place, gladly acknowledged by His people, “Thy people shall be willing in the day of thy power”, Psalm 110: 3. Well, the day of His power is now in the souls of the saints. You do not put that off until the millennium.
I just referred to that passage earlier where Jehovah put in His claim and He said to Pharaoh, “Israel is my son, my firstborn”, Exod 4: 22. The greatest blessing we can enter into is sonship, sons before God. What a dignity that is! We might have thought that sonship only belongs to our eternal portion, but Mr Darby’s hymn says:
And here we walk as sons, through grace (Hymn 120).
The world cannot see that we are sons. It is the believer’s secret. How is it that he goes through this scene with a certain dignity that a lot of people do not understand? It comes out in his language; it comes out in the way he comports himself. Why is that? It is because he is a son, part of God’s inheritance!
DAB It says in Galatians, “But because ye are sons” (chap 4: 6); so every believer is a son.
AM “For ye are all God’s sons by faith in Christ Jesus”, Gal 3: 26.
DAB And then it says, “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father”, Gal 4: 6. That is the wonderful power for response, is it not?
AM Well, it is.
DAB And God’s enjoyment of His inheritance is in that matter of sonship.
AM Exactly. What pleasure He finds in His sons! Even naturally a father would find pleasure in his sons. What pleasure God would find in His sons! “God has sent out the Spirit of his Son into our hearts”, the Spirit of that One, that One who always gave Him pleasure. There was not a moment when He did not find pleasure in the life of Jesus. The Spirit of that One has come into our hearts.
DAB It is a very stabilising matter just to think that we are sons, every person in this room, all the young folk, those who are believers in the Lord Jesus; they are sons according to divine promise. Whether we appreciate it or enjoy it, it is in one sense irrespective, but God has said, ‘This is the Spirit I have given you so that you might enjoy the blessings of sonship’.
AM And there are times when we may not behave as a son should, but the Father will never disinherit us. He still loves us; He still retains the relationship.
BB Where does the new man fit into this?
AM You have something in your mind. The new man really is the display of Christ here in the saints.
BB In Ephesians it is God’s workmanship, but in Colossians you have to put it on, the features of Christ that God finds so pleasurable, worked out in the saints through suffering, through sorrow.
AM Yes, whatever the circumstances. The Lord Jesus went through all the circumstances of life. He knew what it was to come into this scene and be rejected of His own; He knew what sorrow was; He knew what it was to suffer; He knew what it was to be accused of things He had never done; He knew what it was to be rejected simply because of the goodness that shone out in Him, and He knew the joys of life too. He knew what it was to gather His own around Him. He knew what it was to have joy in them. He went through all the circumstances of life and the new man is the display of what was seen in Jesus in the saints here whatever their circumstances.
TWL Would you help in relation to Psalm 22 about how God has done this? I was wondering whether the scripture in Acts 2: 23, “him, given up by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” fits in to how God has done this.
AM Yes, the Lord Jesus came into this world with the full knowledge of divine counsel. It was all in His heart. He knew that He came in order to suffer and to die. Now, we came into this world to live. He came in to suffer and to die, and the sufferings included those which none other could endure. We read that terrible cry in Psalm 22, and when the Lord Jesus was on the cross, I might say carefully, He did not simply quote scripture. There were no other words that He could use in that awful cry.
TWL I was thinking of it in the light of what we have had in relation to redemption and purchase, and what you said in relation to cost. Only God could determine cost. It was the life of Christ. It should affect us, should it not, that that is how God has viewed us before ever there was a sin question? He has viewed us as valuable enough that the life of Christ was the purchase price.
AM And so the answer did not come on the cross. The answer came in the place of death. “Yea, from the horns of the buffaloes hast thou answered me”. Resurrection is the great divine answer! Christ was raised, raised and glorified by God. How could He not be raised and glorified?
NJH The Lamb was “foreknown indeed before the foundation of the world” (1 Pet 1: 20); so God knew the cost then as well as the One who would take up that condition.
AM How great then the love that took such a way, but then how great the result! God’s inheritance, how great it must be that a divine Person should take that way, even going into death and remaining there for the three days and three nights. What did God have on the earth for three days and three nights? But the moment came when He had His Son in resurrection.
JTB Does “the horns of the buffaloes” suggest it was from the most distant point? The forsaking, and then His death, involved that; He could not go further, could He?
AM We read of the scapegoat in Leviticus, and it went “to a land apart from men”, Lev 16: 22. I remember Mr Craig saying that when the Lord Jesus suffered on the cross, He did not only go “to a land apart from men”; He went to a land apart from God. That is very affecting. God actually forsook Him; He forsook Him there on that cross: He was alone, absolutely alone.
GBG I was just thinking about that. He actually acknowledged to His God that He had forsaken Him.
AM And publicly. Men heard it; they said, “If thou art Son of God, descend from the cross”, Matt 27: 40. In one account it says, “if he will have him”, Matt 27: 43. He publicly had to acknowledge that God had forsaken Him. Terrible thing! But it was necessary in order that God should have an answer, and that answer should involve us.
JCG He entered the grave as well. I wondered if that was why prophetically the Lord says, ”by night”. He speaks about “by day” as to the sufferings and the forsaking, but “by night, and there is no rest for me”. The full three days had to be entered into. We understand the Lord would have felt the extent of that tremendously.
AM Yes, so when He was buried - this is very holy ground; it does not do to speculate - how God felt it; the Lord Jesus was actually dead and buried. Think of those thirty-three and a half years of unbroken communion, the pleasure that God had in them. Then the Lord actually died, and God felt that, and how the Lord felt it as going into death! He was out of sight in that tomb. How morally essential it was that at the end of those three days He should be raised. Every attribute of God was involved in the resurrection of Jesus.
NJH What does that mean, every attribute of God?
AM The Father could not leave Him in death. His love would not allow it. But it was also a matter of righteousness that He should be raised. “For thou wilt not leave my soul to Sheol, neither wilt thou allow thy Holy One to see corruption”, Ps 16: 10. The Holy One had to be raised from the dead. God’s power was involved in raising Him from among the dead, and one thing which we should find so appealing is that God’s grace was involved because if Christ was not raised, where would we be? The grace of God was involved in raising Christ from among the dead.
NJH ”Raised up from among the dead by the glory of the Father” (Rom 6: 4) encompasses that.
AM Exactly. I do not think “the glory of the Father” can be limited to one thing. It is all that the Father is, “the glory of the Father”.
AMB And that it was secured thereby answers to verse 3, the holiness of God. He was going to dwell “amid the praises of Israel” in conditions that the Lord Jesus had secured by the work He has done, answering to the holiness of God.
AM Yes, indeed; so as soon as the answer comes it is “in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee”. The praises are there. They were there from the moment of resurrection. There was the great answer, and this was God’s portion.
GBG It has been said that often in the epistles the resurrection is God thinking about men. “Raised for our justification” (Rom 4: 25) is God thinking of blessing men in resurrection. Of course, there was what was for the Father’s pleasure especially.
AM Well, that is right, and I think what we have said as to all that the Father is being involved in that is for our blessing, is it not?
AMB What do you say about verse 22, the Father’s name declared and praises in the midst of the congregation? The Father had never been known in that way before.
AM I think the disciples would have taken account of the Lord Jesus in prayer to the Father. They asked Him to teach them to pray; so they would have been conscious that there was a relationship there that in a sense was mysterious to them. They did not have that same relationship, but in resurrection the Lord says, “go to my brethren”. In that relationship they were to enter into, the Father’s name was declared, “my Father and your Father”, John 20: 17. What a day, the day of resurrection, was!
AMB Something wonderful came to light in the Lord in resurrection that was for the Father’s pleasure and would be for His glory too.
AM Yes, indeed. From that day, after those terrible three days, the Father found pleasure on earth, and that has not stopped, has it? The presence of the Holy Spirit here has guaranteed that, and will guarantee it to the end.
AGM Does the name of the Father involve all that is knowable of the Father? We have spoken of the nature of God and the attributes of God, but the Lord has made known everything that is known now as to the Father. Would you say some more about that?
AM The name Father always conveys God known in grace, and that gives character to the day in which we are. The grace of God is flowing; it is available; and the Father is the source of it. Think of the grace that is towards us, the grace that has met us, the grace that had taken us up, and has changed us by that precious work, so that there should be something suited and pleasurable to the One who has shown the grace.
AGM So there has been a full revelation of the Father, and there is no other way that this could have been done. Does that really bring out the depths of the heart of God in wanting to make Himself known?
AM That is right. There could be no other way. The Father’s heart is so great that in order to make it known the depths had to be, to us, immeasurable. The Lord Jesus measured them. They were not unfathomable to Him, but they are to us.
Well, in Ephesians Paul bows his knees in prayer, chap 3: 14. It is not the only time he does this. It is as if he would say, those matters are so great, it needs divine power to make them known; so he bows his knees, making mention of the saints in his prayers that they should have “the full knowledge of him, being enlightened in the eyes of your heart, so that ye should know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. Paul had spent three years in Ephesus. He knew the brethren there; he had been in their houses; he had helped them. He also knew what was going to come in afterwards; but he did not lose his appreciation of the brethren. He said, “that ye should know … the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”. Paul had a valuation of them as part of God’s inheritance.
DAB Can you say something as to the title, “the Father of glory”?
AM Everything that God does is characterised by glory. He is the source of it, and everything that the Father does is glorious. There is glory which is for us to take account of and is seen in divine Persons in the way they have acted, but then there is soon to be the public glory, but it is all of the Father. But what would you say?
DAB It is very blessed as to “what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints” is. It is really a shining out of His glory, and it is “his inheritance in the saints”.
AM Yes, in fact that is what glory is, a shining out. It is the shining out of all that is of God. That is the glory of God. Now, Abraham saw the God of glory. Stephen speaks about that (Acts 7: 2), but Stephen saw something that Abraham did not see: “he saw the glory of God, and Jesus” (Acts 7: 55), and the glory of God is shining out, not only in heaven as Stephen saw it, but it is shining out in the saints that have been secured here. Look at the work of God, and it is all for His glory!
DAB What you see in the saints is the product of divine glory shining; it has entered into us and it is shining out.
AM Yes, It is not just a reflection.
JCG In Romans 8 Paul says, “whom he has justified, these also he has glorified”, v 30. Do you think we need to appreciate what the Spirit has in each one? It would help us to keep positive in relation to the truth. I was thinking again of Caleb. He went with the other spies into the land to get the fruit of the land when he was forty, but when he became fifty, he did not go back; when he was sixty, he did not go back. He carried on, and that is the glory really of what the Spirit does in the saints, and we need to appreciate that in one another, do we?
AM Yes, it must have been shining out in Caleb. When you think about it, he was eighty-five years old when he asked for that mountain, and he was forty years old when the spies came back. That means he had been in the land for not much more than five years. Actually, he had been in conflict in the land. He would say the enemy is not having this territory and he had been in conflict in the land for five years, yet still there was no diminution in his affection, no hardness had entered into him. He still had that mountain in his heart. Wonderful man! May we be more like Caleb!
JL Does that in some way reflect the fact that the power of God is surpassing? “The surpassing greatness of his power” is “towards us”. It was rightly exercised in raising Christ from among the dead, but what God has effected among the saints shows the activity of His surpassing power in operating for His glory among the saints.
AM That is right. “The surpassing greatness of his power” was exercised once in the raising of Christ from among the dead, but that same power, the power that raised the Lord Jesus out of death, is “towards us”. Naturally, we may wonder about that, but it is true. It says, “the surpassing greatness of his power … in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead” is “towards us”.
MBG I was wondering about 2 Corinthians 4 where it says, “the God who spoke that out of darkness light should shine who has shone in our hearts for the shining forth of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ”, v 6. He “shone in our hearts for the shining forth”, but then that chapter goes on to say, “our momentary and light affliction works for us in surpassing measure an eternal weight of glory”, v 17. I was wondering if what is worked out at the present time has a substantial result for God. It is not only a reflection, but there is a work in each one that will result in something substantial for God. I wondered if it would relate to the glory of His grace, the greatness of all that God has secured through His operation of grace.
AM Yes, that is good, and the “weight of glory” just conveys that, what is substantial. There is nothing fanciful about divine ways. There is something being worked out and it is substantial. What goes on in the hearts of the saints is substantial. There is “an eternal weight of glory” being wrought, and God sees it in that way. Now, many people have experiences, but not everybody gets the benefit of them, but God would use our experiences to work out “an eternal weight of glory”.
JL There is a splendour and variety of God’s work amongst the saints that brings out all the colours, is there not?
AM When light passes into another medium, like from air into glass, for example, it breaks down into its component colours. That is how you see a rainbow, but what is in those colours was all in the original light. All those different wavelengths were in the original white light, but we can see one glory after another.
NCMcK The Father of glory means that whatever glory there is, God is the Father of it. It takes character from Him. It results in glory to Him, the glory in us, even the glory in Christ. The glory of Christ is that God has placed that Man at the centre of His universe. It shows what God is. Every glory, God is the Father of it.
AM Yes, Mr Darby says, addressing the Father,
But not an eye those hosts among
But sees His glory Thine. (Hymn 178)
The glory we see shining in the face of Jesus is the glory of God. How wonderful that the glory of God could thus be known. God said to Moses, “Man shall not see me and live” (Exod 33: 20), but in the face of Jesus, it is shining, shining in the face of a Man.
ASP It involves “the might of his strength, in which he wrought in the Christ in raising him from among the dead”. It is the same power which works in us. It is an inward thing. These exercises and things which are worked out are God’s work in us.
AM That is right. Sufferings which the saints go through can be excruciating, but the power is there, not only to sustain them, to bear them, but through them to work out something which is glorious, which God can take His delight in.
GBG “The riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints”.
AM Well, we are occupied with the saints of the assembly, but I take it that everyone that is secured by God will be glorious to Him and part of what He has secured. “At this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, What hath God wrought!”, Num 23: 23. Think of all that He has wrought, and that will come out in a day to come.
GBG In this dispensation, quoting Mr A J Gardiner, whenever a believer gives thanks for his food, that is part of the glory of God’s inheritance in the saints. God gets a portion from that.
AM Well, He does. Giving thanks is a very important thing generally. We find in the epistles that prayer is often linked with giving thanks. The apostle says, “but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses every understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts by Christ Jesus”, Phil 4: 6, 7. If a believer asks for something, it may be that God will grant it; it may not be; but what the believer gets is peace. Mix the request with thanksgiving and you get peace, “the peace of God”.
ADM Would your reference in Peter then be in line with the result 2 Corinthians 4 speaks of, “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”? “A holy nation, a people for a possession”; “for star differs from star in glory”, 1 Cor 15: 41.
AM Yes, indeed, but they all have glory. The stars are different, yet all are glorious; so Peter says, “ye are a chosen race, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a people for a possession”. These are four great designations, but the purpose of it all is, “that ye might set forth the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness to his wonderful light”. It is not just to light but it is “to his wonderful light”, and we have been called to what is wonderful in order that we “might set forth the excellencies” of Christ. Very blessed! Can you say some more?
ADM I was thinking of Joseph’s coat of many colours. That set forth “the excellencies” in the Person of Christ. Is what you are speaking of really as a result of that?
AM As we are not capable of taking in all the glories of Christ at once, divine skill has been involved in this. Human beings have been so constructed that we can take account of one glory at a time, just one thing after another; the different colours that you are speaking of come to light. We can take account and feast our souls on one glory, and then another glory, and really that happens in a time like this, does it not?
Bo’ness
12th October 2024
List of Initials:-
B Bain, Fraserburgh; A B Brown, Linlithgow; A M Brown, Linlithgow; D A Brown, Bo’ness; D C Brown, Edinburgh; J T Brown, Edinburgh; R Gardiner, Aberdeen; G B Grant, Dundee; M B Grant, Grangemouth; J C Gray, Bo’ness; N J Henry, Glasgow; J Laurie, Brechin; T W Lock, Edinburgh; B W Lovie, Aberdeen; A G Mair, Cullen; A Martin, Buckhurst Hill; N C McKay, Glasgow; A D Melville, Grangemouth; A S Pittman, Grangemouth; J S Speirs, Grangemouth; D Spinks, Bo’ness