I recall years ago my pastor making this challenge to us: 'If you'll commit yourself to reading the entire Notes on the Pentateuch by C.H. MacIntosh, along with  his Miscellaneous Writings, you will become a spiritual man!' I know there is more to becoming a spiritual man, but I took this as a serious challenge to my laziness and lack of a systematic study of God's word. Each morning I took my Notes on the Pentateuch and Miscellaneous Writings to McDonald's for a breakfast of a sausage biscuit and cup of coffee. I have to admit, there were some times I was reading, but little was actually registering. I often would catch myself realizing I'd just read a whole paragraph and had no idea what I had just read. So, I'd read it again. It took a while, but I read both books cover to cover. I'm not saying I'm a spiritual man, but I am testifying I have an amazing foundation of spiritual understanding and revelation, not only of the first five books of the Bible, but of the entire Bible.

"I have therefore entitled this message, Preachers of Righteousness. The thing that makes any preacher righteous is that he is not speaking his own word. The word is not his own; it is God’s, and that alone is what makes the word righteous, that the speaker refuses to speak out of his own capability and savvy. It is a phenomenon that has been so little addressed by the church. There is hardly any understanding of the dynamic of the divine things between God and man involved in true proclamation."

"Although the Bible contains so much about the warfare of God’s people, and although we as His people may have had much teaching on the subject, it would probably be true to say that we have largely failed to apply the instruction we have received—to situations, to circumstances, to happenings; and that this accounts for many of our troubles, individually and collectively. While there is much for which the enemy is not to be blamed as the first cause, but which is due rather to our own foolishness or un-guardedness — our own faults — yet there is still very much more that is attributable to his interest, to his interference, to his action. Our need today is not so much to be informed as to the reality of spiritual conflict — we know that to be a fact! — as to be more alive to the extra factor lying behind situations, the situations with which we are trying, with so little success, to cope. We try to cope with things, as though they were everything, and so often we miss their real underlying significance.
"What we need, therefore, is understanding and wisdom —for wisdom means the ability to apply knowledge —wisdom as to this whole spiritual campaign, our warfare and its principles. But let me say at once: we are not embarking upon a study of Satan, or demons, or demonology! It is a very favorite trap of the enemy to get people occupied and obsessed with himself, and, by the help of God, we are not going to fall into that. Our object is to study spiritual warfare itself, as viewed mainly from the Lord’s side." T. A-S.

The word "cannot" stands written as an impassable barrier - "cannot understand or receive the things of the Spirit of God." In reality, our lives are set in a realm of things spiritual. God is Spirit, therefore the supreme Reality, the supreme factor, the ultimate environment of this universe - God - is Spirit. Man, in the deepest and truest nature of his being, is spirit. He has a soul and a body. Evil forces in great power encircle man on this earth, and they are spiritual forces. But more, the entire temporal order is constituted upon spiritual principles and meanings. The visible things are but symbols of spiritual things; the seen things are types of unseen things. God has constituted this whole universe, in every aspect and detail, upon a basis of spiritual principles; they are tokens of something more than themselves.

1. Accrediting Linked to Sufferings
2. Discrediting Spiritual Ministry
3. Accrediting Linked to Sufferings
4. Accrediting Linked to Resurrection

1. Offended with God?
2. Elisha Offended?
3. John Offended?
4. Offense vs. Confidence
5. The Heavenly Way

The first thing then to take note of is that the word of God does take account of the possibility of our being offended with Him. It does not say anywhere that that possibility should never arise and will never arise. The Lord has nowhere said that we shall never have any occasion for being offended with Him. He HAS indicated that there will be PLENTY of opportunity for so stumbling at Him, falling over Him, coming down because of Him - if you like: crashing because of Him. There will be plenty of occasion or opportunity for doing so. He has never said that it will never be so. It is as well for us to recognize that.

Temptation is never sin. We all are tempted in this as in many other ways. And as you know, temptation is only another word for trial, so it is translated in some places “trial”. And there’s nothing wrong with trials, with being tried, if you like, with being tempted. And there will always be plenty of opportunity for being tempted to be offended with the Lord.

I believe that in this book there is that which can touch the need at this present time in a very real way; for, indeed, this is a time when the Lord's people need help to meet the many activities which are meant by the adversary to lead them away from, or prevent them from coming to, the place where the Lord has all that His heart desires in and through them. This first part will be occupied with a few general principles which govern the book.

1. The Conflict Between Two Kingdoms
2. Righteousness The Expression of The Righteous One
3. Features of the Righteous One
(a) Meekness
(b) Yieldedness And Obedience
(c) Dependence
4. The Effects of Sin Negated by Righteousness
5. The Issue of Righteousness: Life
6. The Kingdom Established Within by the Tests of Faith

You will at once recognise that those three things are clearly seen in the passage in the book of Ezra. They set the altar in its place. That is the Cross. They came to build the house of the Lord. That is the Church. And when the adversaries saw it, they drew near. That is the conflict.

In the passage in the Gospel by Matthew, chapter 16, you have it again. "Upon this rock I will build my church." "From that time Jesus began to show unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and the third day raised up." That is the Cross; and the Cross and the Church being in view, the conflict is begun. And so you will find it everywhere.

Go further back in the Old Testament to the twelfth chapter of the book of Exodus, and you have the same thing, remembering that the book of Exodus opens with a presentation of the sons of Israel, and you know that the sons of a prince with God are found in bondage and are about to be emancipated. Typically the Church is in view. Chapter 12 brings the Cross in as the ground of that emancipation, but it is all surrounded by intense conflict. The battle is joined when the bringing out of those elect people is begun, and the ground upon which the battle is really fought out is the ground of the Cross. You come to the book of the Acts, and it is just the same: the Cross, the Church and the Conflict. It is the three C's all the way through the Scriptures. Well, then, we need to see God's mind about this matter.
T. A-S.

We have witness borne to that fact in all directions, and we can gather those up into some specific forms of expression.

We begin with the widest range. There is the witness to the fact in the realm of the ungodly. Upon that we need not dwell very much, but it is quite patent that the world outside of Christ is showing in a new way, with a new strength, its desire for life, its need of life. It has its own ideas of how that need is going to be met, and its quest for life takes its own peculiar forms, the forms peculiar to the world's own blindness, darkness and ignorance. Nevertheless it is manifest that the world is seeking life. We do not mean by that that it is seeking its life in God. We do not mean by that that it is seeking what we understand by life, Divine life, spiritual life, eternal life, but it is seeking what it would call "life." Life is the thing which it desires.
T. A-S

Luke 24
"The period during which our blessed Lord lay in the tomb must needs have proved a dark and bewildering moment to many of those who looked for redemption in Israel. It would demand a calm, clear and vigorous faith to raise the heart above the heavy clouds which gathered just then upon the horizon of God's people, and it does not appear that many possessed such a faith at that trying moment." C.H.M.

"Some, we are aware, would fain persuade us that things are so totally changed since the Bible was penned, that we need other guidance than that which its precious pages supply. They tell us that society is not what it was; that the human race has made progress; that there has been such a development of the powers of nature, the resources of science and the appliances of philosophy, that to maintain the sufficiency and supremacy of the Bible, at such a point in the world's history as the nineteenth century of the Christian era, can only be regarded as childishness, ignorance, or imbecility."
C.H.M.

The fact that Moses was Jewish, a Levite, and a prince in Egypt counted nothing as qualification for being the deliverer of a nation. However impressive things were humanly, he had to be emptied of them in order to be qualified. It is a remarkable paradox, that in order to be sent of God, we have to be emptied first of our qualification."

"There is a special promise made for the meek that is not given to any other, “The meek shall inherit the earth.” Indeed, the Lord’s own death on the Cross as well as His whole earthly life is a statement of that meekness and humility. Just His coming in the form of man is a humiliation for God. He was confined in a body, limited to a finite form, and fixed in very narrow place within Israel, from Galilee to Jerusalem, for His thirty-three years. His whole life had to be expressed and developed within the confines of one small geographic piece of His own creation. In only three-and-a-half years, and by His own example, He had to express and set forth a mode of being that would be given to mankind as a basis for all the days that are left for the human race."
Art Katz

"Some time before these messages were given, desiring to be quiet and away from many things, I went down into the country with my heart very much to the Lord for His word. In the early hours of the morning it seemed as though the heavens opened and everything became alive: it all opened up wonderfully, and centered in one phrase – 'Pioneers of the Heavenly Way.' That really does sum up the verses that we have just read, and, while we are going to think and perhaps say much about the heavenly way, it is this matter of pioneering the heavenly way that will be our main concern. It is necessary, to begin with, for us to consider to some extent the heavenly way itself, but I repeat that it is this whole tremendous business of pioneering that way that I believe to be the main concern of the Lord, and hence of ourselves, at this time."
T. A-S.

It embraces the counsels of the Godhead before the world was — it embraces the creation; it embraces redemption; it embraces the final glory. All that is in the face of Jesus Christ. Indeed, there is nothing which concerns us, as creatures related to God and eternity, which is not to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. God comes to us in the face of Jesus Christ, and all that ever we shall or can know of God is to be found in the face of Jesus Christ. The face is the human medium of communication. The face is the medium of personality.

The personality is the character formed in secret, the sum of all secret history, and it embraces itself in the face. Sooner or later, somehow, the personality will betray itself in the face. But in order to read the personality through the face, there has to be a certain amount of qualification. You cannot off hand read a person through their face. You need to have certain ability to do so. If all that is of God is in the face of Jesus Christ, there has to be given revelation in our hearts, as well as in His face. We have to be able to see the face of Jesus Christ.

All that is but a wide and sweeping survey or intimation of what the face of Jesus represents. It must be brought nearer to our hearts in a practical way, but I want to remind you of this before we go further, that it has ever been by reason of a vision of the face of Jesus Christ, that God has secured lives and instruments which have reflected His own glory.
T. A-S

Captivity In The Lord
I. The instrument of the Lord's testimony in a place of limiting by the will of God.
II. The importance and value of seeing and accepting things into God's light.
I. The instrument of the Lord's testimony in a place of limiting by the will of God.

Prison - Vision - Provision
1. Prison: God only knows all the exercises of an eager heart when shut out and shut in by -what seems to be - the unkindness of men, or the overtaking of adversity!
2. Vision: And yet such times can be times of an 'open Heaven' and much spiritual enrichment
3. Provision: And the fruit may be life to many in a time of spiritual famine

This is the all-governing end of all His dealings with us. This is the greatest of all our needs. It is the secret of strength, steadfastness, and service. It determines the measure of our usefulness to Him. It was the one passion of the life of the apostle Paul for himself. It was the cause of his unceasing striving for the saints. It is the heart and pivot of the whole letter to the Hebrews. It was the secret of the life, service, endurance, confidence of the Lord Jesus as Son of Man.
T. Austin-Sparks

1. A Victory To Be Appropriated By Praising Faith
2. The Battle Already Won In The Cross
3. The Enemy’s Only Ground Of Hope
4. The Enemy’s Suggestions To Be Repudiated
5. Confidence Essential To Victory
6. Introspection Leads To Defeat

The question is this -What has God revealed as His supreme objective resultant from the Cross of Christ? The question which springs out of that is - how has God revealed that the objective shall be secured and expressed? Probably it will be that subsidiary question which will occupy us largely in these meditations, leading to the answer to the main question.

"As we approach this main question, we may do so by a series of enquiries. Is the supreme outcome of the Cross of Christ found in there being so many Christians enjoying the knowledge that they are saved? Further, is it found in so many saved people seeking to get other people to the same position - enjoying the fact of being saved? Further, is the answer found in having so many saved Christians mainly occupied with their own sanctification, the way of victory, and a fuller life? And, yet again, is it to have so many Christians devoting themselves to the knowledge of deeper things, the deeper things of God? And if we put all the four together, have we got the objective, that is, God's full objective, in the Cross of Christ? All the things that I have mentioned certainly are part of it; but when we have them all - salvation, soul-winning, sanctification, education - does it end there? Are any, or all, of these the end? Will that satisfy God? Will that fill up His desire and expectation and be an adequate outcome of Calvary? Well, that is what we are going to look at, as the Lord enables."
T. A-S.

Table of Contents:
Chapter 1 - God's Standard
Chapter 2 - A Presentation of the Man
Chapter 3 - The Sealing of His Brethren
Chapter 4 - The Spirit's Work in This Dispensation
Chapter 5 - The Process of Reproduction
Chapter 6 - God's Standard of Judgment
Chapter 7 - The Bride
Chapter 8 - The Man Who is Alive
Chapter 9 - The Man Child

"That word 'ordained' is a very interesting word. It is the Greek word from which we get our English word 'horizon.' It means, basically, to set bounds or limits, to mark out a defined or determined realm. In this passage, the Man is the realm, the marked out limit, the defined sphere in which God will judge the world. It is suggestive that the phrase in the original Greek is, literally, 'IN the man.' (Compare 1 Cor. 6:2: 'if the world shall be judged IN you.')

T. Austin-Sparks

When anything which has received the imprimatur of the Lord Jesus in any measure has become the object of special assault on the one hand, or peculiar insufficiency of consideration on the other, the suspicions of the watchful should be aroused. Surely this must signify that the enemy back of human minds is especially concerned to obscure something of vital account to his opponent the Lord Jesus. If ever this was true and exemplified in any direction it is true in the case of "Jonah". Here in this short narrative and the three references to it by the Lord Jesus, there is a comprehensiveness of the most vital, profound, and far reaching truth, which it would be difficult to find in so narrow a compass anywhere else in the Scriptures. That is saying a tremendous thing, but we have weighed our words, and hope that as we proceed the statement may be seen to be justified. Our method will be, not so much an exposition of the text as a recognition of the great truths; and these may not be brought out strictly in the order of the narrative, but in the order of practical application. Firstly, then, we shall take the Master's own use of Jonah as in Luke 9:29, 30.
T. A-S

Table of Contents
Preface
1. The King’s Dream
2. The King’s Image
3. The King’s Furnace

"Follow thou me." John 21: 22

"The following Tract is a reprint of a paper which appeared in a recent number of 'The Present Testimony,' containing the substance of a Lecture on the first three chapters of the Book of Daniel. It is published in this form, at the request of a number of Christian friends and with earnest desire that the Holy Spirit may be pleased to use it for the purpose of leading many hearts to seek a closer walk with God."
C.H.M.

Many Evangelicals hold that the Apocalypse lies just ahead. Could radical Islam be the catalyst to trigger last days’ events?

"Therefore, we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:16-18).

There is a danger that we will dismiss this as a kind of biblical rhetoric, as a kind of fanciful manner of speaking peculiar to Paul, and nod with a kind of acquiescence that it has a sweet sound to it, but completely lose what is being said.

The foundation of the apostolic mind-set is a true apprehension of the things that are eternal, not in anticipation of a future enjoyment, but of a present appropriation, and that is what makes the church peculiar. We have no idea how important the subject of eternity is. To lose the meaning of this word is to lose everything. It is to condemn the church to being mundane and ordinary, institutional and mechanical, a weariness of the flesh, instead of a joy and a power. In other words, the absence of eternity in the consciousness of the church disfigures and nullifies it as being church. We are going to have to contend for this word because the world is not hospitable to it. Paul not only found this eternal dimension, but he dwelt in it, and yet that did not condemn him to irrelevancy. On the contrary, it made him all the more relevant, and so will it make us also.

The clause in the thirteenth verse (of Col. 3) very largely represents what has been laid on my heart for this time: "The Son of his love"; then that which follows, the position which He occupies according to the will of the Father - "He is before all things, and in him all things consist" and He in all things having the pre-eminence: then, "Christ in you, the hope of glory." I think we can well sum up all that in the phrase "The Centrality and Supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ," and with that be wholly occupied for the rest of our lives, not only for this present time.

And so it is upon the centrality and supremacy of the Son of God's love that we shall dwell as the Lord will enable us. The Word of God brings into view four spheres in which that thought and purpose of God concerning the Son of His love is to be realized. There is the sphere of the believer's own individual life; then secondly, there is the sphere of the Church which is His Body; in the third place there is the sphere of the kingdoms of this world, the nations of the earth; and in the fourth place He is to be central and supreme in the whole universe, heaven and earth and what is under the earth.

We may not be able, in the time which we have in these days, to reach unto all those spheres and see what the Word of God has to say about the Lord Jesus in relation thereto, but we shall move as the Lord enables and at least take the first one or two of those spheres. But before coming to the first of them may I remind you also that the centrality and supremacy of the Lord Jesus is the pivot and the key to all the Scriptures.
T. A-S

1. An Earthly Objective with Heavenly Significance
2. The Objective - The Church and its Heavenly Function
3. The Objective Divinely Conceived
4. Mistaken Human Attempts to Reach the Objective
5. Divine Sovereignty Ruling and Overruling
6. God's Objective not Frustrated by Human Frailty
7. The Break-up of all that is of Man
8. God's Objective Certain of Ultimate Attainment

1. Christ is a Heavenly Order
2. The Kingdom of God is Jesus Christ
3. Christ is a our Sanctification
4. A Personal Note

We take the Epistles and we think of them as having to do within the building of the Church and the churches, the superstructure of Christianity, and so we take the technique of the Acts and the Epistles as a technique, as a system of doctrine and a system of practice, a system of Christian order, and the Epistles become - and have become for so many and for Christianity in general - a crystallized system of practice, order, form, teaching; and the weakness in the whole position is just this, that that is something as in itself and the Lord Jesus has just been missed and lost.

There has been a great deal done in recent days to bring the greater magnitudes of the universe within the intelligence of the ordinary man and woman. This means that many people are interested in the explanation of the universe, and, no doubt in particular, of the course of this earth and of the creation and history of man; but we believe that we have the positive and final answer to the inquiry. For us there is but one definite and conclusive explanation of the universe, and that explanation is a Person - the Lord Jesus Christ, with all that is eternally related to Him. However much we read and study we shall never get the explanation of the universe, in whole or in part, until we come to see the place of the Lord Jesus in the eternal appointment of God.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of OUR WARFARE are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strong holds)” (2 Corinthians 10:3–4).

"While there is much for which the enemy is not to be blamed as the first cause, but which is due rather to our own foolishness or un-guardedness — our own faults — yet there is still very much more that is attributable to his interest, to his interference, to his action. Our need today is not so much to be informed as to the reality of spiritual conflict — we know that to be a fact! — as to be more alive to the extra factor lying behind situations, the situations with which we are trying, with so little success, to cope. We try to cope with things, as though they were everything, and so often we miss their real underlying significance.
"What we need, therefore, is understanding and wisdom —for wisdom means the ability to apply knowledge —wisdom as to this whole spiritual campaign, our warfare and its principles. But let me say at once: we are not embarking upon a study of Satan, or demons, or demonology! It is a very favorite trap of the enemy to get people occupied and obsessed with himself, and, by the help of God, we are not going to fall into that. Our object is to study spiritual warfare itself, as viewed mainly from the Lord’s side."

T. A-S.

1. The Ground Of Satan's Power
(a) The World
(b) Uncrucified Self
2. The Need For Persistent Determination

"Avenge me of mine adversary!" That means that the people of God will be pressed into recognizing that they are not up against some human situation, and therefore their cry will be in relation to this ultimate issue, being avenged of the adversary - pressed into crying.

When you get back of things to the adversary and bring that adversary up before the Throne of God and the Church cries, "Avenge me of mine adversary", you have touched the realm of spiritual effectiveness, you have got behind things. My longing, my craving, is to find the Lord's people seeing this and acting accordingly.

We are going to be occupied with the meaning of Christ. Before we come immediately into touch with that matter, there are a few preliminary words that I want to say, and they have to do with something of which we are all conscious, a matter which is troubling, I think I can say, the majority of real Christians. It is the matter of the lost impact of Christ, of the Gospel, of Christianity. We are suffering from a handicap, and that handicap is tradition. Christianity has become that - a tradition so largely, something handed down from generation to generation. It has become a theology, a set of doctrines, of statements about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and many other things, and as such it has passed very largely into the mental realm - a thing to be worked out in thought, a matter of reason. It has also become a great mystical cult. It has passed into the realm of art, and music, so that you can accept Christianity on that basis and be a Christian along that line, and yet that it shall stand completely out of relation to your inner life. Think of all that goes to make up Christianity as it is known today, of the external, the soulish appreciation; and it has no impact. There is the great need, surely, - and this is what we are seeking to come to at this time.
The great need is to get back to the real meaning of Christ, so that a new impact may come upon ourselves, and there shall come a new impact upon the world through us.
T.A-S.

"How many times has the Spirit broken loose and moved in a new and free way, only to have that way brought under the control of man and crystallized into another 'Form', Creed, Organization, Denomination, Sect, 'Order', Community, etc.! The invariable result has been that the free movement and life of the Spirit has been cramped, or even killed, by the prison of the framework into which it has been drawn or forced."

Judges 6-8

"In studying the history of the nation of Israel, we notice two distinct eras, namely, the era of unity, and the era of individuality — the period in which the twelve tribes acted as one man, and the period in which one man was called to act for the twelve tribes. We may take the Book of Joshua as illustrating the former; and the Book of Judges as a sample of the latter. The most cursory reader cannot fail to discern the difference between these two books. The one is characterized by external power and glory; the other by weakness and failure. Power is stamped on the former, ruin on the latter. In that, Jehovah gives the land to Israel; in this, Israel fails to take the land from Jehovah." C.H.M.

"And He said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning Me. Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behaved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead on the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send the promise of My Father unto you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high" (Luke 24:44-49).

Four breakout Christian apologists, no strangers to “fringe” topics, take a radical look at Cosmology based on new discoveries in physics and unconventional insights into the Bible. "From the unbridled quest to exploit quantum science to engaging supernatural entities ... a mind-blowing exposé of the Cosmos." Paul McGuire, The Paul McGuire Report

"No man can give a definitive and comprehensive summation of the whole genius of the word apostolic, but let this be a broad guideline and statement, so that it might enter our contemplation and change our conduct."

Teaching: A Moral Vocation
"I am happy to have this opportunity to share with you and I appreciate the fact that this is on your own time and that you would rather be home because I myself was a teacher for seven years, a history teacher in California. I was a Marxist radical for four years in the school system with the mindset that we need a revolution. I took a year’s absence and when I came back to teaching, I was a Christian. I lost all my friends and became more radical than I had ever been as a Marxist, and this affected all that generation of students."

To my readers I would say that, although the main subject of the tripartite nature of man is such a controversial one, this book is not entered as a part of the controversy. Such a course would only be to contradict its main contention—that Divine things can only be entered into by revelation and never by reason. Indeed, I have no wish that anyone should read this book unless they are really exercised about reality and spiritual things. I would ask for openness of heart as the one concession to the Spirit of truth if, peradventure, He might be ready to use what is written here for enlightenment.

"No claim is made to any expert knowledge. The contents represent more the result of observation and experience amongst Christian people over a wide area during a good number of years, than of study of the subject itself."

T. A-S.

"I have found the Lord putting it into my heart quite strongly to say something about the service of God; and I think we can gather it under that first clause - 'Behold, my servant.' Of course, here the words are prophetically related to the Lord Jesus. There is no doubt about that, because they are actually quoted in the twelfth chapter of the Gospel by Matthew, verses 17 and 18 - '...that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Behold, my servant whom I have chosen; my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased'; and there are other passages in the New Testament which are a repetition, in part of these very words."

1. Satan Knows Our Weakest Moment, and Uses It
2. Loneliness is a Part of the Price of Leadership

"I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord" (1 Kings 18:22); "I, even I only, am left" (1 Kings 19:10,14); "Yet will I leave me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal" (1 Kings 19:18); "Then he mustered... seven thousand" (1 Kings 20:15); "Elijah... a man of like passions (nature) with us" (James 5:17).

Most biographers seem to feel that it would harm their subjects, weaken the testimony, or do injury to the work to which they were called if they dwelt upon their human nature on its weakest side and pointed out when and where they broke down. There is also a mistaken kindness in this omission; the idea that, all of us being so faulty, we should never refer to the weaknesses of others. If the life was truly glorifying to God as a whole, and the work was really a work of God, it only enhances the grace of God to show how He was with, and blessed, such VERY human and imperfect vessels, and no one who really loves the Lord will take that fact as a cover and condemnation of repeated failures. At the same time it is true that God is the only One Who has the right to speak of human weaknesses, and everyone who does so under His direction must do it with deep humility and fear: the reason for this is recognized in such representative cases as Moses, Elijah, David, Peter, etc. Even in the case of Christ Himself, although He did NOT succumb, yet this factor held good, and in His case the fact is definitely shown. That factor is this: Satan knows our weakest moment, and uses It.

We are very thankful for the rich blessing, brought to wider circles of the Lord’s people, through the ministry of our brother. Our great desire, in presenting these addresses in printed form, is that the Lord may place them into the hands of those whose heart is set upon Christ that He may become their All. We have sought to retain, as much as possible, the original form of the messages — spoken in English — which we ask our readers to bear in mind where certain ways of expression are used.

Gümligen, Switzerland,
December 1935.

The definition will wait upon all that we have to say; I do not stay to try to explain that in any preliminary word. You will notice that I leave out the article and just say “Overcomer Testimony”, not something new in itself perhaps to any of us, but I believe in the intention of God, new in emphasis. We begin by reminding ourselves of the fact of overcomers throughout the whole history recorded in the Scriptures, the fact of Overcomers in Divine history.

1. THE PRIESTLY MINISTRY OF CHRIST AND THE FATHER'S LOVE
2. AN OPEN HEAVEN
3. THE MARKS OF THE MINISTRY
(1) Life
(2) Peace
4. GOD'S JEALOUSY OVER THE LEVITES
5. THE CHASTENING OF THE SONS OF LEVI
6. SATAN'S HATRED OF LEVITICAL MINISTRY

Familiarity with words and ideas very often takes something from their value. Few passages in the New Testament are more familiar to us than 2 Corinthians 5:17: "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation..." (R.V.M.), but the full force of the one governing word there has, I am quite sure, not fallen upon our hearts, and we have still very much to learn as to that essential newness of the new creation in Christ. Indeed, we may say that many of our troubles, our difficulties, our weaknesses, our failures, our problems, our perplexities are the result of our having failed to sufficiently grasp the import of that one word "new." We have, very largely, proceeded with a good deal that is old into the new creation, or we have tried to do so, and we have discovered sooner or later that that cannot be done, that we are attempting an impossibility. So that it may be quite profitable for us to dwell for a little while upon this essential newness.

That natural birth, even though it might be into surroundings where the kingdom of God is the one interest, never brings into it. No one can come into the kingdom of God by natural birth. One may be born into a Christian family, and into the midst of Christianity as a religious system, or what is called the Christian Church, but no one is in the kingdom of God on account of such birth. This is another kingdom altogether, wholly other than the kingdom of nature, even though it may be religious nature; and this, being a new kingdom, and a wholly other kingdom, requires a new and wholly other life. It is a Divine kingdom; it is the kingdom of God, and therefore it requires a Divine life, a life which is God's life. "As the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given the Son to have life in himself". Thus, in the whole universe, the Father and the Son alone have that life in themselves. It is important that we should know that, even when we have received eternal life, we do not have it in ourselves. We will speak further of that presently. "God hath given unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son". It remains in Him. "He that hath the Son hath life". It is never parted from Him.

The miracles of Christ are not only called "wonders" (that which arrests and bewilders the reason) they are also "signs" — that which points to something else; they are indicative of something more and simply something beyond or behind. While it is doubtless true that the healing miracles implied and signified that in His redemptive person and work Christ would at length deliver the human body from its corruption and all the painful fruits of sin therein, we believe that the present emphasis is to be placed mainly upon illustrative suggestiveness of the maladies specifically dealt with although not all specifically named (Matt. 4:23, 10:1; Mark 1:34).

The Holy Spirit does not hesitate to reveal or affirm in the records that many maladies and infirmities had demons directly behind them, and Satan directly responsible for them, as well as specific sin as an immediate ground of them. From the illustrative, the parabolic, in the gospels we work through the Cross into the more spiritual and heavenly realm by the resurrection and ascension of Christ and have more to do with the spiritual counterpart than with the physical; while still there remains in the Church a testimony and a prophecy to the entire redemption of spirit, soul, and body.

There are diseases and morbidities which relate to the "inner man," and in so far as he is of greater importance than the "outer man," so the temporal is subservient to and waits upon the spiritual and eternal. We do not propose to deal with the relationship of the two, but suggest in passing that the quickening of the mortal (dying) body depends upon a life in the renewed and energised spirit indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
T. A-S

1 Samuel 4 and 7
"The two chapters given above furnish a most impressive illustration of a principle which runs all through the inspired volume, namely, that the moment man takes his right place, God can meet him in perfect grace — free, sovereign, unqualified grace: the fullness of God waits on an empty vessel. This great principle shines everywhere from Genesis to Revelation. The word "principle" hardly expresses what is meant; it is too cold. We would speak of it as a grand, living, divine fact, which shines with heavenly luster in the gospel of the grace of God and in the history of God's people collectively and individually, both in the Old and New Testament times."
C H M

"There are few exercises more profitable for the Christian than that of reflecting upon the character of God as unfolded in the history of the saints and fathers of ancient times recorded in the Scriptures of the Old Testament: and indeed this might be expected from the very nature of the subject, which is such that, whatever be its extent, it unfolds principles to us which stand intimately connected with all that is important for us to know or be established in. Thus, whether we get the dealings of God on a limited scale, as with any one of the fathers personally or more widely extended, as with the seed of Israel afterwards, it is nevertheless the same lesson we are called upon to learn, namely, God and man. Now, this is what should enhance exceedingly the value of the Old Testament to the Christian; almost the great body of its teaching is of the above character: and not only so, but it also (as looked at in this point of view) guards effectually against the mere exercise of imagination; for when we consider the history of any man or people, it is not necessary that we should decide positively what is shadowed out therein;* It is enough for us to see that we have before us a more or less extensive development of the character and actings of God and man; and this, without ever descending beneath the surface of Scripture, cannot fail of being instructive and edifying to the soul." C.H.M.

MOST AMERICANS ARE UNAWARE THAT LIFE AS THEY KNOW IT IS ABOUT TO CHANGE—FOREVER. Europe and the U.S. have imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to the invasion of Russian military forces into eastern Ukraine and Crimea. The Ukraine is immersed in a civil war between pro– and anti-Russian factions. Heading into its second year, the U.S. and Russia are entangled in a dangerous war of words escalating to include deployment of further American military forces in Eastern Europe. What’s more concerning: Russia has dedicated 2,000 tactical “nukes” to this arena and announced the deployment of 40 new strategic ballistic missiles capable of striking America’s homeland. Russia sees itself under attack from the U.S. on all fronts—and running out of time. Will this apprehension trigger nuclear war in Europe? Will it cause Russia to launch nuclear missiles targeting the United States? Could this happen within just a few short years? Or sooner?

This book contains 365 daily meditations from the writings of T. Austin Sparks who was one of the leading Christian spiritual giants of the 20th century. To all those who want to grow in the knowledge of Christ this book is without comparison. Austin-Sparks emphasizes the centrality and supremacy of Christ, the Church and the Cross. For the serious Christian this is an outstanding collection of spiritual ministry and refreshment. It has been said that to read Sparks is to discover Christ as few men have ever known Him.

The golden chord that runs throughout Sparks’ books is the exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ. The object of his ministry was to contribute to the Divine end which is presented in the words of Ephesians 4:13-14: “…till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge (literally full knowledge) of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ: that we be no longer children …”

Day by Day with T. Austin-Sparks is a compilation of excerpts from his ministry, a daily meditation - one for each day of the year.

One of the dangers of the Last Days are the presumptuous apostles who throw their weight around and who seem to have a measure of authority and knowledge that seems to impress the undiscerning. There is, fortunately, one measure of authenticity that cannot be feigned or emulated, namely, true meekness. Meekness is not something that one learns at school, but something attained under the hand of God in union with Him who is meekness, to men who have been called up to ascend ‘the Mount.’ It can only be given out of a man’s proximity with God, who Himself is meek and lowly of heart. Meekness or humility cannot be obtained in any other way.
Art Katz

1. Every Dispensation Governed by Faith
2. The Basis of Faith
3. The Nature of Faith
4. The Issue of Faith

1. THE ALL-GOVERNING PASSION
2. THE EFFECTUAL POWER
3. THE ESSENTIAL BASIS
4. THE PROGRESSIVE PRINCIPLE

There are few words in his writings which reveal how committed to the Lord Jesus this man was. The whole context is one consummate outpouring of his heart to the One whom he said had "apprehended" him, and he focuses all in a brief half sentence: "That I may know him."

The impressive thing about this expressed ambition is the time at which it is made. Here is a man who has had a revelation and knowledge of Jesus Christ greater than any other man up to that time. That knowledge commenced whence as he said, "it pleased God to reveal his Son in me". That beginning devastated him, and sent him into the desert to try to grasp its implications. Later he had been "caught up into the third heaven and shownunspeakable things, which (he said) were not lawful to be uttered". Between, and around those two experiences, there is evidence of an ever growing knowledge of Christ. Here, after all that, near the end of his life, he is crying passionately: "That I may know him."

The very least that we can say about this is that the Christ in view was a very great Christ indeed, who outstrips the greatest capacity and comprehension of man. This stands in such tremendous contrast to the limited Christ of our recognition and apprehension! How very much more there is in Christ than we have ever seen! But we must break down our verse. It is divided by its main words, and can be stated in its four phrases.

(1) The all-governing passion: "That I may know him."

(2) The effectual power: "The power of his resurrection."

(3) The essential basis: "The fellowship of his sufferings."

(4) The progressive principle: "Conformed to his death."

1. The Need For Balance
2. Complementary Truths
3. The Adversary Using God's Work Against Him
4. A Peril With Every Blessing
5. The Objective Side
6. Perfect Salvation When We Believe
7. The Perils Of The Objective Apprehension
a. The Peril Of Shallowness
b. The Peril Of Delayed Maturity
c. The Peril Of Contradiction
d. The Peril Of Truth Taking The Place Of Life
e. The Peril Of Missing The Prize
8. The Subjective Side
9. Identification With Christ
10. The Peril Of The Subjective Apprehension

We are become partners with Christ, that is the true rendering. The correct understanding and apprehension of what is here is very important, because it is strictly in keeping with the whole object of this letter. The letter has as its object partnership with Christ. The object is intimated at the beginning of the letter by such words as "Son" and "heir"-"God... hath at the end of these days spoken unto us in his Son... whom he appointed heir of all things..." The words "Son" and "heir" are key words to the whole letter.

1. The Blood
2. The First Need of the Sinner
3. The Believer's Conflict with the Accuser
4. The Cross
5. The Name

Let us for a moment reflect upon that well-known statement: "...that I might live unto God... I live: yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and that which I now live... I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God..."

I think it is a matter of very great importance indeed that we should recognize the objective aspect of the Apostle's faith, and of the faith which is to be likewise in us. I mean that the Lord Jesus is the object of faith as presented here, and that makes faith objective, and if we grasped that as we should, clearly and strongly, it would make us very safe, and it would deliver many of the Lord's people from those perils which so often beset them.

Now note: the Apostle says, "I have been crucified with Christ..."; not, I am being crucified with Christ; not, I am going to be crucified with Christ; not, I once started being crucified with Christ and am going on being crucified with Christ to the end. That is not what is said, but, "I have been crucified with Christ". What he means is that the thing was done in totality when Christ was crucified; not that a part of me was crucified, and a good deal more left to be crucified, but the whole was crucified in Him. Now says he, in effect, I have definitely accepted that as a full and complete thing, an actuality: in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me, I have been crucified. That is where the life of faith begins. It was done.
T. A-S.

"Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and spake forth unto them, saying... This is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel, And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy." (Acts 2:14,16-18)

"The knowledge of Christ is THE basis of the whole of the life of the child of God, and underlies every phase and aspect of that life. That is, it underlies our very relationship with God; it underlies all our growth in grace; it underlies every fragment of our service. There is nothing which comes within the compass of the life of the Christian which does not depend upon the knowledge of Christ. But that knowledge is a thing which will never be exhausted here, however long we live, and however rapidly we grow. We shall never overtake the finality of that knowledge. That is why an apostle, at the end of his life, still more than at any other time in all his history, gave expression to the deepest desire and longing of his heart as being to 'know Christ' (Phil. 3:10). We may say that for every increase in spiritual life, spiritual strength, spiritual effectiveness, spiritual usefulness to the Lord, some further measure of the knowledge of Christ is essential. We increase by this knowledge; we progress by this knowledge; we are more for the Lord in accordance with the living knowledge of the Lord Jesus which is coming to us.

"This knowledge is essentially a spiritual thing. It is a knowledge which is altogether closed to any capacity or ability or faculty, save that of the spirit. The measure in which we represent the Divine thought and fulfill the Divine purpose, will be the measure in which we are learning Christ after the Spirit."

T. Austin-Sparks

What an unspeakable mercy for one who really desires to walk with God, to know that there is a way for him to walk in! God has prepared a pathway for His redeemed in which they may walk with all possible certainty, calmness and fixedness. It is the privilege of every child of God, and every servant of Christ, to be as sure that he is in God's way as that his soul is saved. This may seem a strong statement; but the question is, Is it true? If it be true, it cannot be too strong. No doubt it may, in the judgment of some, savour a little of self-confidence and dogmatism to assert, in such a day as that in which we live, and in the midst of such a scene as that through which we are passing, that we are sure of being in God's path. But what saith the Scripture? It declares "there is a way," and it also tells us how to find and how to walk in that way. Yes; the self-same voice that tells us of God's salvation for our souls, tells us also of God's pathway for our feet; — the very same authority that assures us that "he that believeth on the Son of God hath everlasting life," assures us also that there is a way so plain that "the wayfaring men though fools shall not err therein."
C H M

Table of Contents:
I. Past Service - Exodus 21: 1-6
II. Present Service - John 13: 1-10
III. Future Service - Luke 12: 37

"For even the son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).

"It is very necessary to retire from all thoughts about our service to the Lord, and our work for Him, and to have our hearts occupied with His service toward us. And when I say this, you will not suppose for a moment that it is my desire or thought to weaken in any heart in this assembly, in the smallest degree, the desire to work for Christ, whatever sphere He may open for you, or according to whatever gift He may have bestowed upon you. Quite the reverse; indeed, I would seek in every way to strengthen and intensify that desire. But then one knows both from experience and observation that we may be so occupied with our work and our services that our hearts may lose the sense of what Christ is toward us in His marvelous character as a servant." C.H.M.

The topic of eschatology, or the study of last things, is as confusing as it is enthralling. Books devoted to the study of Bible prophecy often don't take into consideration that there are multiple points of view and the right one is far from obvious. In S. Douglas Woodward's first book, Are We Living in the Last Days? What Christians Believe about the Apocalypse, he identifies the primary points of debate between Christians in the 21st century. He covers the three predominant views of Protestants on each topic and encourages the reader to "think for themselves" to decide what they believe about prophecy. Over the past five years, Woodward has earned a reputation for tackling tough issues with a thoroughness to detail and pertinent documentation to convince the dubious.

A Call to a Consecrated Life

We have many men today who are glib and who know how to play on words, and have made careers out of having an ability to speak. If you are attractive, have a gift of gab, and a certain kind of administrative ability and a certain winsomeness with men, then you can go far in the religious world today. True preaching, however, cannot come from this world. Preaching is altogether a divine and supernatural phenomenon. It is the word of life. It quickens the dead. The hearing of it constitutes an "event." It sets in motion things that have a myriad of consequences. It has a power and a life unto itself. It is a word that is sent.

That something being absolutely essential to God's full satisfaction, the dominant note of the Prophet was one of dissatisfaction. And, there being the additional factor that, for obvious reasons, the people were not disposed to go the costly way of God's full purpose, the Prophet was usually an unpopular person.

But his unpopularity was no proof of his being wrong or unnecessary, for every Prophet was eventually vindicated, though with very great suffering and shame to the people.

he human race, as a whole, failed to realize this grand design, but the testimony was taken up by individual witnesses, like Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and others. In a very real sense the testimony of the glory of God rested on their shoulders; they carried the enormous responsibility of being here on the earth where the enemy had almost entirely succeeded in marring or veiling that glory. These lonely figures were the men who stood for the preservation of that testimony to God's glory. Then the testimony passed from individuals to a nation, when Israel was brought into being to be a corporate vessel of the divine testimony, a people in whom the glory of God could be displayed. Ultimately Israel failed, so the testimony was transferred and passed on to the Church, consisting of Israelites to whom Gentiles were later added. The glory of God certainly blazed up anew in the Church at the beginning. In the course of time, speaking generally, the Church has also failed, and it is not without significance that one of the seven churches of Asia was threatened with an entire removal of its lampstand. The article, however beautiful in itself, has no significance by its mere form or profession, but only as the light of God blazes out from it. This is what God is always seeking, the display of His glory in and through His people.

The great concern and business of the Church is to be a testimony to God's glory. The one plumb-line which measured Jerusalem was that of the glory of God in the midst (Zechariah 2:8), and this measurement is what matters for us today. The final judgment will be based on the degree of glory found in our lives. Nothing else will be of lasting importance. Those who have lived most of their lives already and perhaps been active for God, still do well to face this challenge concerning God's glory, and those who are only just beginning should know the real standard for all Christian living. We may well wonder how it can be. Zechariah had the same problem in his day, and this vision gave him - and us - the answer: "Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord of hosts".

1. The Strength of the City
2. The Beauty of the City
3. The Costliness of the City

It’s a problem, the sufferings of the Lord’s people, but if Paul is right, here’s the answer: “Our light affliction which is but for a moment…” and you can only talk like that if you can see the other, the rest: “that worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory” eternal weight of glory! That is the end, the object, the goal. Our light affliction; it isn’t light at all, it is very heavy affliction unless we can see what the Lord is after and then perhaps affliction will be seen in a different way.

So here we are: costliness. The Lord is after this true value and when He gets that, these characteristics, when He gets them - strength and beauty and real preciousness, costliness - the process will be fully justified.

There is a word on one's heart in connection with proximity to Christ. It is very clear in the Lord's Word that there are differences in the matter of proximity to Christ; that distances from Christ are very different; are greater and lesser. You have but just to take that thought and carry it for a moment into the New Testament on the literal side to see the bearing upon the spiritual side. There is this passage here in Matthew 26:30, and you begin at the most advanced point where the Lord is alone "and He went a little farther." His "little farther," of course, was going all the way with the will of God. That bit just spoke of the utterness, the completeness of His separation unto His Father's will. He went the bit farther than anyone else, He is seen there alone. From that point you get differences of distance from Him.
T. Austin-Sparks

The Body of Christ: Its Heavenly Aspect
1. The Eternal Oneness of the Body
2. A Heavenly Position Necessary to Apprehending the Oneness
3. Our Attitude Towards Differences

God's Mind About the Church
1. Spirituality
2. The Apostle Paul
3. The Value of Spirituality

The Family of God
Introduction:
The Divine thought is … to have spiritual families.

The New Birth
1. What it is to be Born Again
2. Why We Must Be Born Again
3. How We Are Born Again

Table of Contents
Chapter 1 - The State of the Overcomer
1. What the Overcomer is — His Position, Vocation and Adversary
2. Three Aspects of the Overcomer: His State, His Position, His Testimony
3. His State
(a) Righteousness which is of Faith
(b) A Life Governed by the Principle of Righteousness
Chapter 2 - The Position of the Overcomer
1. The Assault upon the Church's Life
2. The Church's Position
(a) In the Heavenlies in Christ
(b) Ascendancy in Christ over the Power of the Devil
3. The End of Heavenliness - The Manifestation of God's Glory in the Church
4. Satan's Objective - the Nullification of the Church's Position and
Warfare through Corruption
5. The Prophecy of Balaam

In this introductory word it will be necessary for us to take a broad view of what is before us and to be occupied mainly in a general outline. The more specific spiritual application will remain for subsequent consideration and you will understand that the peculiar nature of this present time is just in preparation for what may follow.

We shall have to take what this book ('Daniel') brings into view along a two-fold line, in the main. Firstly the historical and prophetical; and then secondly, the typical and spiritual. But I would like here immediately to say that it is not in one's thought or intention to deal with the book of Daniel in any way exhaustively along prophetical lines, that is, it is not just prophecy as contained in this book which will occupy us, although that will be latent and sometimes patent all the way through.

We are aware that prophecy by itself need not be spiritually helpful or enriching or building up. It may be very interesting, very fascinating, very educational, but it does not always have a spiritual effect, and I do not think the Lord ever intended His people just to study prophecy as a subject, but to recognise that everything in His thought is intended to reach down into the life and to make very radical changes there, and in order for prophecy to do that, you have to do a great deal more than study dates, times, seasons and signs. There has to be a spiritual interpretation and application, and it is that which we have especially in mind here. But for the present moment we just take some more or less broad view of what is here brought before us.
T. A-S.

"In tracing the inspired record of the houses of Israel and Judah, from the period of their separation under Rehoboam, we can without difficulty recognize the marked distinction between them. The line of kings from Jeroboam to Hosea presents only a dark and sorrowful catalogue of evil-doers in the sight of the Lord: we look in vain for an exception. Even Jehu, who manifested so much zeal and energy in the abolition of idolatry, proved, in the sequel, that his heart was far from being right with God. In fact, a dark cloud of idolatry seems to have settled upon the whole house of Israel, until they were carried away beyond Babylon, and scattered amongst the Gentiles.
"Not so, however, with Judah. Here we find some happy exceptions — some pleasant rays from that lamp which the Lord so graciously granted in Jerusalem for David His servant's sake. The soul is refreshed by the history of such men as Josiah, Asa, Joash, and Hezekiah — men whose hearts were devoted to the service of the sanctuary, and who therefore exerted a holy influence on their times.
"It is on the narrative of one of these blessed exceptions that I desire to dwell for a little, trusting the Lord to give instruction and profit in so doing." C.H.M.

"It is at once interesting, instructive, and encouraging to trace through Scripture the history of what is called 'The Remnant.' We may remark at the outset that the fact of there being a remnant proves the failure of the ostensible witness or professing body, whether Jewish or Christian. If all were faithful there would, of course, be no moral ground for a remnant, nothing to distinguish a few from the general body of professors. The remnant, at any time, will be found to consist of those who feel and own the common failure and ruin, and count on God, and cleave to His Word. These are the great characteristic marks of the remnant in every age. We have failed, but God is faithful, and His mercy is from everlasting to everlasting."
C.H.M.

As a nation, we have steadily progressed through this darkened passageway since World War II, in part due to the presence and influence of hundreds of Nazis who were invited into America after the war. Woodward asks, “Has America become the equivalent evil empire of the twenty-first century?”

It is an ultimate, classic and eternal confrontation and collision, and therefore every element in this text and everything that the Spirit of God is expressing through Paul to men is not only powerfully pertinent in that express moment, but it continues to reverberate throughout all time and history and even to this hour. It actually might be said that it is more pungent and more significant now at the conclusion of time and history, than it was two thousand years ago when Paul spoke it. The elements are the same. Nothing has changed.

"Called. Chosen. Faithful."
1. The Call of God
2. The Cost of the Calling

"These shall war against the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them, for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings; and they also shall overcome that are with him, called and chosen and faithful." Revelation 17:14.

There is a sense in which these three words represent a graduation from one plane and sphere of probation to another. While we may be "chosen in Him before the foundation of the world," it is also true that in the matter of trusted service and honoured intimacy with God the choice is from those who "make their calling and election sure."

God's Faithfulness to Us in His Son
1. God's Faithfulness Based Upon His Love For His Son
2. The Father's Attitude To Us in His Son
3. Faithful to Conform to the Image of His Son
4. Faithful in Leading Into Afore Prepared Good Works
5. Faithful in Fulfillment of Vocation
6. The Ground of Rest

"God is faithful, through whom ye were called into the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord".

That comprehensive statement means that God's faithfulness is based upon His love for His own Son; His faithfulness to us is because of His faithfulness to Him. Because of the fellowship with His Son into which He has called us, we enter into that faithfulness. That means much. It raises the very big question - which question, of course, we ought never to entertain - as to whether the Father would ever be unfaithful to His Son. We have a fairly solid block of Scripture to establish the nature of the relationship between the Father and the Son, and the Father's estimate of the Son, which would certainly lead us to rule out any such question as to whether the Father would ever be unfaithful to the Son, would ever fail Him, would ever go back upon any promise to Him. That, of course, is unthinkable.

1. Different Categories of Spiritual Greatness
2. A Question of Attaining
3. Marks of Supreme Greatness
(A) The Perception of God's Full Thought
(B) A Sense of Responsibility
(C) Spiritual Stamina
(D) Inclusively - Standing For The Fullness of Christ
4. A Way of Faith

We are not so much concerned at the moment with the details of the exploits of these three men as with the fact that David had a number of mighty men who came to him when he was in the stronghold in the wilderness, shut up because of Saul, and that the thirty chief men were divided into groups, each group representing a standard. The thirty were, shall we say, of one more or less general standard of excellence, and then they were divided into smaller groups, each of which represented a higher standard of excellence, until we arrive at the three named above, who are called the first three. Of all the others it is said that they attained not unto the first three. The point which I want to deal with is that of attaining unto pre-eminence in the estimation of the Lord.

Why was this story written? Why have we the record of these men and their feats of strength? Do you think it is just to include in the Bible some thrilling stories of wonderful things that certain men did? Sometimes some of them seem almost phenomenal. But do you think that the record is here just for that purpose? If the Bible is written really on the basis of spiritual principles and not just to record human stories, earthly things, there is something which is spiritual behind everything.

The Burden of the Valley of Vision
1 Prophetic Vision
2 End-Time Overcomers

The Importance and Value of God-Given Vision
1. IT IS CONCRETE WITH GOD
2. IT IS COMPREHENSIVE
3. IT IS CONSTANTLY ENLARGING
4. IT ALWAYS MOVES UPWARD
5. IT IS THE GROUND OF OUR TRAINING
6. IT MAKES MEN OF PRAYER

There are two great things which must impress thoughtful readers of the Word of God. These two things run from start to finish of the Scriptures. One is the breaking in of God in relation to this world, and His persistent and unwearying intervention in its course and history. The other is the unbroken chain of attempts to cast Him out of the world and to rid it of God. It would appear that something like this latter had taken place before the creation, one was recorded in Genesis. After that attempt had been made which is recorded there, in which Adam was involved, and through him the entire race, the breakings in of God are for a time connected with individuals. These stand to represent Him and His rights, and to maintain His testimony, and the most conspicuous thing in that representation and testimony is an altar. Thus it was with Abel, Noah, Abraham, and Isaac. These men, standing by their altar, formed a break in the well-nigh universal usurpation of God's rights in the possession of the world and its government. Upon them fell the weight of holding it in token for God, and the test of faith was terrific. When we reach Jacob, while there is an inheriting of what has be featured the testimony until then, there is a new development. This new and extra factor is the House of God. The greatest experiences and crises of his life are in some way connected with Bethel. The introduction of this feature is a landmark in the course of the ages. It is not merely a man's dream, it is a Divine intervention. Not many times do we read of the heavens opening and God speaking through the rifted clouds, but it is significant that whenever it is so in some way it relates to the great spiritual truth which is central to what happened on that night at Luz, and which cause it to be known forever after by a new name - Bethel - the House of God.
T. A-S

Table of Contents
Chapter 3 - The Testimony of the Overcomer
1. The Overcomers Testimony
2. The Nature of the Testimony of Jesus
3. The Blood the Ground of Life
4. The Blood Effectual through the Cross
5. The Lesson of the Candlestick
Chapter 4 - A Heart Matter
1. A Man after God's own Heart
2. The Overcomer Characterized by the Same Feature
3. The Real and the Unreal
4. The Challenge and Possibilities of a Supreme Devotedness to the Lord Himself

The ground upon which we stand is very much more positive at this present time than even the Old Testament saints enjoyed, for we look back to Calvary’s triumphant accomplishment. Yet the Old Testament position and condition is also a true picture of our own time and condition spiritually; I am thinking in terms of books of the Bible and not of verses.

We want to see what the Books of Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther have to say to us. I feel convinced that we are living in a time very truly represented by these books, and in that sense we are living in Bible times, so that these books are very up-to-date, and have their abiding meaning for our time.

T.A-S.

"Let My people go, that they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness" Exodus 5: 1

"What a volume of truth is contained in this sentence! It is one of those comprehensive and suggestive passages which lie scattered up and down the divine volume, and which seize, with peculiar power, upon the heart, and open up a vast field of most precious truth. It sets forth, in plain and forcible language, the blessed purpose of the Lord God of Israel to have His people completely delivered from Egypt and separated unto Himself, in order that they might feast with Him in the wilderness. Nothing could satisfy His heart, in reference to them, but their entire emancipation from the land of death and darkness. He would free them not only from Egypt's brick-kilns and task-masters, but from its temples and its altars, and from all its habits and all its associations, from its principles, its maxims, and its fashions. In a word, they must be a thoroughly separated people, ere they could hold a feast to Him in the wilderness." C.H.M.

Table of Contents:
The Atonement
The Advocacy
The Advent

Hebrews 9: 24-28.
"For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: nor yet that He should offer Himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; for then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the ages hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: so Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time apart from sin unto salvation."

[The English reader should be informed that the three words which are rendered in the above passage “appear” are not the same in the original Greek. But our object is to deal with the facts set forth rather than with the words employed.]

"The foregoing passage sets before us three great facts in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ. It speaks of what we may venture to call three distinct appearings, namely, an appearing in the past; an appearing in the present; and an appearing in the future. He hath appeared in this world to do a certain work; He doth appear in Heaven to carry on a certain ministry; and He shall appear in glory. The first is Atonement; the second is Advocacy; the third is the Advent." C.H.M.

This compelling sequel to Power Quest Book One: America's Obsession with the Paranormal, reveals the hidden history of Nazi infestation of American institutions after World War II. Beginning with the 1952 flying saucer flap over the nation’s capital and concluding with the CIA's clandestine mind control agenda of the 50s-70s, the reader is confronted with highly charged and seldom known facts.

This is the import of the New Testament historical revelation. The winning of the church, the conversion of the nations, the transfiguring of the universe are the three chief stages in the triumphant course of His redemption. Christ Himself is the first-fruits, the beginning of a new humanity. In harmonious rhythm of ages and periods the Divine economy moves towards its eternal goal. The end of the whole, as its beginning, is God Himself (I Cor. 15:28).

Apostolic Conversion
Pretext or Reality?

This is the verbatim transcript of a message given in 1993 to an American congregation of a spiritually impressive kind. That is to say, that it had all the appearances of a committed body, serious in the Lord, and whose lively worship seemed to testify of its abounding health. Nevertheless, after two nights of meetings, I felt, as the speaker, an increasing sense of despair that not much had been transacted and that if the Lord did not radically intervene there would be little point in continuing.

This message was given on the third night, having spent the day in fasting and earnest intercessory prayer. With hardly a single exception, the entire congregation went down on their faces at its conclusion in a depth of groaning and intensive seeking of the Lord.