TREASURES OF TRUTH                                                                         Volume 1

Chapters.

1. THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN

2. SONSHIP THE HOPE OF ALL CREATION

3. THE PREPARATION OF THE SONS OF GOD

4. THE SEALING OF THE SONS OF GOD

5. GOD SPEAKING BY HIS SON

6. THE ADOPTION OF SONS

 

 

 

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION

The material contained in this book, GOD'S GREAT FAMILY OF SONS, has been in preparation over a period of some twenty years.

As we read the word of God, our minds begin to grasp what great importance our Lord has placed upon His intention to bring forth a vast family of sons of God. Paul, writing to the Romans, made this very significant statement: "Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren." Rom. 8:29.

Great importance is added to this incredible statement by reading the translation of Weymouth, which, if possible, gives an even more forceful understanding of Paul's inspired statement.

"Those whom He has foreknown He has also predestined to share the likeness of His Son, that He might be the eldest in a vast family of brothers; and those whom He has predestined He has also called; and those whom He has called He has also acquitted; and those whom He has acquitted He has also glorified." Rom. 8:29, 30. (Weymouth).

As we read the pages of this book, we will see the purpose of God unfolding — a pre-determined plan by which He will govern the universe in the aions to come.

G.R.H.

 

Chapter 1

THE SIGN OF THE SON OF MAN

So many truths come pouring into the soul that there seems to be a lack both of time and of ability to write them. We must indeed be rushing rapidly to the close of this age which we call the Dispensation of Grace. The same glorious sun which set in turn upon the successive dispensational days of Innocence, Human Government, Conscience, Promise, and Law is now extending its lengthening shadows across the harvest fields of the dispensation of Grace.

There was a time when the Pharisees came to Jesus seeking a sign from Him that would prove that He was the Son of God. It is a surprising fact that this same question was repeated at least twice in the Gospel of Matthew. (Matt. 12:38, 39 and 16:1-4). Both times they asked for a sign and on each occasion He told them that the only sign that would be given was the sign of Himself, that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale so also should He be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

It seems to me that for centuries our eyes have been kept holden to many of the great truths of the scripture. We have read and reread the Bible, usually taking for granted that we understood perfectly what was written, and frequently just reading over the passages and noticing little or nothing of their message. I do not think we should be overly concerned about this lack of understanding, but we should remember that God never reveals anything to anybody until He is ready to reveal it, and He is never ready to reveal anything until the time has come to prepare for that great event which He is about to accomplish.

For centuries Israel had looked for the coming of the Messiah until their eyes were dim with watching, but who among them all had even a hazy idea of how that coming would be accomplished. They did not expect a virgin birth; they did not 'expect a lowly birth; they did not expect a despised and and rejected man nor a man at variance with their established creeds. They did not expect a crucifixion, a resurrection, or an ascension to heaven. All these things were contrary to their expectations and their long established beliefs; consequently they rejected Him. I suppose that Mary was the first person in all Israel to have the wonder of the virgin birth explained to her and that less than a year before the great event was to transpire.

No, we need not worry about our ignorance of things. Our only concern should be that when God does send us light that we receive it, for, if we reject it, the light we have becomes darkness and we can understand nothing. My old instructor, Elmer Hoff, taught me a lesson I hope I shall never forget. He said, "The moment you say no, you close the door for the Spirit to teach you anything." What a lesson that is! How badly we all need to learn it! The moment the Spirit of God begins to shed light on a truth, it is time to begin to ask Him to instruct us in it. Do not submit God's revelation to the criticism of some dead church member or preacher, for they like the birds of the air will steal away the seed of the truth before it has a chance to sprout or take root within you.

We will never discover anything that God has hidden from us, but when by His grace He draws back the curtain and reveals the hidden treasure, it is time to grasp it, for if we tarry it will be covered again, and we will miss it. Do you remember that Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, "I thank thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so. Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight"?

There can be no doubt we are living in an hour when the Lord is revealing many things that concern the coming age. I am certain, however, that even now we see them only darkly. We catch only faint and fleeting glimpses of these wonders of the golden age. We are looking for the unveiling of the sons of God. We are looking for the revelation of Jesus Christ. The revelation will reveal what is hidden. The unveiling will reveal what has been kept veiled. As the lightning flashes forth from inky clouds, so the manifestation will disclose that which has been hidden in darkness. "Let us therefore fear lest, a promise being left us of entering in to His rest, any of you should seem to come short of it."

One of the greatest truths ever kept hidden from the eyes of man is this: that Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, was from His birth to His resurrection the greatest sign that God has ever given to the world. Everything about His life and His ministry. His birth, His death, His resurrection was a clear distinct sign of things that are to come. We may have overlooked the fact that no less an authority than Jesus Christ Himself made the clear definite statement that "as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so also shall the Son of man be to this generation." Luke 11:29, 30. This passage tells us that Jesus was a sign to this generation in the same way that Jonah was to his generation. When I meditate upon the experience of Jonah as he went into the whale's belly and felt the bars of hell close about him, then to come forth from that hell to experience the glory of a resurrection, it seems small wonder that his preaching so mightily affected the Ninevites that in forty days one hundred twenty thousand souls turned to the Lord. Jonah's experience was a sign to the Ninevites of wonderful things to come when Christ would go into death and hell and then lead forth in triumph an innumerable company of captives from the pit itself. Eph. 4:7-10. But we dare not stop here. The glorious victory of Christ in descending to hell and leading forth a host of captives is in itself a sign of the day when the sons of God will unlock the gates of hell, for the gates of hell shall not prevail against them.

So it was that God told King Ahaz, "Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and ye shall call his name Immanual (God with us)." Isa. 7:14. It was not the virgin birth that was to be the sign. It was the Son that was born of the virgin that was the sign. Therefore when Simeon came by the Spirit into the temple after the birth of Jesus, he prophesied saying, "Behold, this child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be spoken against." Luke 2:34.

The Lord Jesus Christ was the only begotten Son of God. He was a Son in a way that no other man has ever been a son ofGod. He was begotten by God. He came from the bosom of the Father. He was a Son before other men existed and when He partook of flesh and blood. He was born, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. He was born through the miraculous work of the Holy Spirit and even as a human being He was begotten of God.

Now that which is born of God is begotten of God as James says, "Of His own will begat He us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." Jas. 1:18. We can therefore reverently say that the blessed Jesus was the only begotten Son of God, but that He was a first fruits and a sign that other men, thousands of other men, would through the miracle working power of the Holy Spirit become sons of God, begotten of God through the omnipotent power of the Holy Spirit. These are they who are born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Jno. 1:13. Strange and glorious as this may seem, James in the verse quoted above shows that we who are being born of God are ourselves but & firstfruits of all God's creatures. Jas. 1:18. We are a sign therefore that all creatures shall be eventually born of God.

I wish with all my heart that Christians would stop believing that they are born again the moment they believe. This doctrine, taught almost universally among evangelical people, has been an enormous hindrance in the progress of Christians, for they, thinking they have reached sonship, fail to press toward the mark of full sonship in Him. If men could only see that "that which is born of God cannot sin, for His seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God," (1 Jno. 3:9) then they would not be in such a hurry to declare that they are born again and thus full sons of God. There is a universe of difference between being justified by faith and being born again. Both the thief on the cross and the Philippian jailor believed on Christ and were justified from their sins, but I think we would be very wrong to imagine that they had done any more than "receive Him" and, because they had received Him, power was given to them to become sons of God.

We shall yet see walking on this earth a great company of begotten sons who have been born of God even as Christ was born of God. These sons will be completely incapable of sin in any aspect or in any sense of the word. I am sorry to say that, though I have been a believer for many years, yet I am still capable of sin in thought, word, and deed. But I think I can truthfully testify that I am far less capable of sin now than I was when I first believed, and I see such a growing hatred within of all that pertains to sin's realm that sin is rendered well nigh impossible. Those who thus walk are in the process of becoming sons of God and, when that birth is complete, they will have this testimony, "They cannot sin because they are born of God." "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure." 1 Jno. 3:2, 3.

We speak too lightly about the deep and sacred things of God. We speak flippantly about such divine eternal wonders as the new birth, sonship, the fulness of the Spirit, transfiguration, and the manifestation of the sons of God. The light and frivolous way in which these truths are handled proves beyond a doubt that those who handle them understand them less than Belshazzar understood the sacredness of the vessels of the Lord from which he drank wine with his lords and ladies. If we are going to approach God at all, we are going to have to come in an attitude of wide-eyed awe. We shall have to approach with reverence and godly fear lest we blaspheme and take the name of the Lord in vain. I hate to hear any man use light, frivolous, and familiar terms when speaking of the things of God. Surely if Michael the archangel durst not bring a railing accusation against the devil because we are forbidden to speak evil of dignities, then I must approach all the sacred truths cleansed by the blood and having my mind renewed and hallowed by the Holy Spirit.

With this exhortation fresh upon our minds let us think briefly of what it will mean to be begotten of God. I could be wrong, but it seems perfectly clear to me that only three people were ever born sons of God. By this I mean that only three people ever came into this world who were sons of God at birth, body, soul, and spirit. The first son so born was Adam, who having no human parents was formed by the Spirit of God from the dust of the earth. He was a son of God. (Luke 3:38). He was clothed upon with the life and glory of the Lord. To him was given the power to live forever, but to him no power had been given to discern between good and evil. The second son of God born of the Holy Spirit was Eve. When the Lord had caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, he opened his bosom and from a rib of this son He formed a woman, a son of God in all the glory of Adam, made by the Spirit, begotten by the Spirit, and clothed upon by the life of God Himself. She was a true son of God even as Adam, for neither male nor female is known in that realm. No corrupt and dying blood flowed in the veins of these inhabitants of Paradise. No death-dealing carnal mind corrupted them to bring their members under the power of death and sin. They lived in a realm long since closed to the human race. They were clothed upon not with garments of wool and cotton or even seamless robes, but, because of their heavenly brightness and their blessed communion with God, they lived in a realm of transfiguration and were no more in need of earthly garments than an angel. All creatures of that perfumed, effulgent paradise were under their wise and loving control. No timid creature raced in terror from snarling ravenous beasts. The pitiful cry of a dying thing was never heard. Peace reigned supreme and love without alloy. Had this blessed son in his unfallen state walked the earth centuries later, he, too, would have stilled the waves, raised the dead, and healed diseases as did Christ, the last Adam. But this was not God's plan.

The third person to be born of the Spirit of God was Jesus Christ. Christ had existed before the world was. Christ, who proceeded from the bosom of the Father, the One by whom and for whom all things were created, was born into this world by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, who had made Adam from the dust of the earth and who had formed Eve from the bone and flesh of Adam, now by the power of the Most High overshadowed a virgin and brought forth a Son from her womb. These and these alone were born sons of God, but God has given power to all members of the human family who receive Christ to become sons of God, for as many as received Him to them gave He power to become sons of God. Male and female will not be recognized in Christ. Both alike are sons.

My heart sings a thousand hallelujahs, for this earth in God's good grace is yet to see a whole race of sons of God, begotten by the Holy Spirit in the extremity of the age. They are not to rise from the dust of the earth as Adam, but by the power of the Holy Spirit they will arise from the dust and ashes of their crucified selves. "I am crucified with Christ," said Paul, "nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." This is sonship, for in some miraculous way the "I" that was crucified and the "I" that lives are not the same, but from the ashes of our crucified selves God has brought forth a son of God.

There was a very great difference between the unfallen Adam clothed in glory and Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who for our sin laid aside His glory. For He, though equal with God, did not grasp at equality, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Himself the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men (fallen men), and, being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This He did because man was fallen, and to lift him back to sonship He had to come into the condition in which man was that through the shedding of His everlasting incorruptible blood in which flowed eternal life He might give back to all men that eternal life which they lost through disobedience. As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. "For if by one man's offence, death reigned by one, much more! much more) much more! they who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many (i.e. all) were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many (i.e. all) be made righteous." Rom. 5. 17-19. But when this glorious work of redemption had been completed by the shedding of His precious eternal blood. He rose from the dead because death had no power over Him and was highly exaltedand given a name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and earth and under the earth. In my heart I hear Him pray, "And now, 0 Father, glorify Me with the glory that I had with Thee before the world began." Jno. 17:5.

We might well fill the whole book with this glorious truth of sonship, but that is not our purpose now. Our purpose now is to show that this glorious Son of God, begotten of the Father by the Holy Ghost, was a sign son. He was a sign of a vast family of sons who would also be begotten and born of God through the centuries intervening between Bethlehem and the end of this age. This is the truth that inspired Paul's heart as he exultantly wrote, "Whom He did foreknow He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He (Jesus Christ) might be the eldest in a vast family of brothers."

There was a time when certain Greeks came to Philip and said, "Sir, we would see Jesus." When Philip and Andrew told Jesus of the request, Christ made this strange statement of truth. "The hour is come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Jno. 12:20-24. I am sure you must understand what He was telling them, for a spiritual mind could scarcely miss this truth. They wanted to see Jesus, but they did not know that if they wanted to see the complete Christ, the first and the last, they would have to wait until the harvest time at the end of this age when that single corn of wheat that fell into the ground and died would be a whole ear of wheat full of kernels, each one in the exact image of the one who fell into the ground and died, but rose again. This is the fulness of Christ. This is Christ with that vast family of sons in His own image.

I do not think we should build our faith on visions that men have seen, but I was once deeply impressed by one who told me he had seen a vision of Christ. In the vision Christ appeared as a huge man who seemed to fill all things. But closer observation showed that the huge form of Christ — head, body, hands, and feet — was composed of numberless thousands of little men, each in the exact image of each other and all in the image of Christ Himself. This is what Jesus wanted to teach us when in answer to the question, "We would see Jesus," He pointed to a single kernel that fell into the ground and became a harvest of identical kernels at the end of the age. Oh, Lord, I shall certainly be satisfied when I awake in Thy likeness.

There are three things in this vast world, and only three: — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;

briefly, appetite, avarice, and ambition. I do not think you will be able to avoid the conclusion that all the inventions, creations, and contrivances of man are in existence to cater to these three things. It was with these three things that Eve was tempted. She saw the tree was good for food (the lust of the eyes), a tree to be desired (the lust of the flesh), a tree to make one wise (the pride of life), and though the temptation was not from within but from without, she yielded to it and partook. The temptation of Christ was on the same basis exactly. The first appeal was made to the flesh through appetite. "Command that these stones be made bread." The second was made to the eyes to awaken covetous-ness and greed. "All this will I give you if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." The third was to the pride of life. "If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down from hence."

I shall not attempt to develop the thought given above, for that is not the purpose in mind, but the truth that we must see here is that Jesus Christ overcame the world, the flesh, and the devil and all that is involved in them, and that He overcame so thoroughly and delivered such a crushing defeat to the wily tactics of Satan that it is actually recorded by the Holy Ghost that the devil left Him and angels came and ministered unto Him. Matt. 4:11. Truly Jesus said, "The prince of this world cometh and findeth nothing in Me." No wonder he left Him. I think we would be right to conclude that never again did Satan come to tempt the Lord, but his next efforts were to destroy Him.

In His great victory over the power of Satan He was a sign that pointed unerringly to another company of overcoming sons. In all the churches of Revelation there were two classes of people — those who were overcomers and those who were not. It is to the overcomers that the glorious promises are given, for they follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth, have partaken of His mind and of His will, and thus are equipped to reign in His kingdom.

Thus to them it is said: "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the paradise of God." Rev. 2:7. "He that overcometh shall not be hurt of the second death." Rev. 2:11. "To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it." Rev. 2:17. "He that overcometh and keepeth My works to the end, to him will I give/wnw over the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessel of the potter shall they be broken to shivers even as I received of My Father, and I will give him the morning star." Rev. 2:26-28. "He that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God and he shall go no more out and I will write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God which cometh down out of heaven from my God and I will write upon him my new name." Rev. 3:12, 13. "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My throne even as I overcame and am set down with My Father in His throne." Rev. 3:21. "He that hath an ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches."

When any man becomes a lover of the will of God, then he becomes a hater of the world and an overcomer of the world. Christ's greatest secret was that He did always the things that pleased the Father. When any man lives in this manner, the world is overcome as a matter of course. No man will ever be an overcomer until the Christ within him is greater than he that is in the world. 1 Jno. 4:4. "Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world." In the lives of most Christians the world is greater than Christ. They do not know it, perhaps, but it is certainly so and at times it is glaringly evident.

Every Christian should seek that God would open his eyes to show him that the world and all the things therein are but vanity and vexation of spirit. Everything that belongs to the world is of a passing nature. It fades as the green leaf. It is like the grass that today is green in the field and tomorrow is burned as if in an oven. It is like the mist that appeareth for a little time and is gone, or like a vision of the night that vanishes with the awakening. It is a bubble that bursts, a whiff of perfume that came from nowhere and disappeared into nothingness. "I said of laughter, it is mad, and of joy, what doeth it?" I love Phillips' translation of 1 Jno. 2: 15-17. "A man cannot love the Father and love the world at the same time, for the whole world system, based as it is on man's primitive desires, their greedy ambitions, and the glamour of all they think splendid, is not derived from the Father at all, but from the world itself. The world with all its passionate desires will one day disappear, but the man who is following God's will is part of the permanent and cannot die." Who is he that overcometh but he that believeth that Jesus is the Christ? This glorious overcoming first Son of God is a sign and a herald of a vast company of completely overcoming sons who will stand in His likeness at the end of the age.

Whenever God requires anything of man, there is always a reason for it. The reason so many people fail to attain the great heights of the Spirit is because they are unable to see God's purpose, and therefore they have no particular incentive to seek the great heights that are in Him. We have been far too taken up with theories about heaven and childish notions about mansions in the skies to be able to see the true purpose of God. I have positively no hesitation whatever in telling you that according to the scriptures God's plan for man from the very foundation of the world was to make man the true lord of the universe and to bring all things into subjection to him. This is certainly Paul's theme when in Heb. 2 he says, "For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come — but one in a certain place testified saying, What is man that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man that Thou visitest him? Thou madest him (man) a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him (man) with glory and honor and didst set him over the works of Thy hands. Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." Heb. 2:5-8. This is a very definite and glorious statement and shows in few words the true purpose God had in creating man. It shows the reason for the fall and all the intricate infinite preparations of man through the fall, through suffering, through tribulation, sickness, death, and a thousand other trials that man might eventually be fit and equipped for the rulership which God ordained for him in the very beginning. All this truth is found in the very first words God ever spoke about man. "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness and let us give him dominion..." Gen. 1:26. If men and women could see this by the Spirit instead of the fairy tales we have been taught through the centuries about harps and mansions in the sky, they would have some incentive to partake of the glorious sonship God is looking for in His people.

Now, would it not seem to be divine sense, human sense, and common sense that, if the almighty God is preparing man to reign over His creation, if He is preparing him to rule the earth, if He is planning to put all things in subjection under his feet, then that man must be prepared for this lordly rulership? Could the wisdom of God set a man to be lord and ruler of the world if the world can overcome him? He who is to rule the world must be an overcomer of the world. Does not the scripture say, "Know ye not that ye shall judge angels"? Could we imagine God's setting one to judge Satan who is continually overcome by Satan? Or can he be a judge of sin who is overcome by sin? Will he not have to be a complete overcomer before he can judge the world or angels? He who is overcome by thieving can scarcely be called upon to judge the sin of theft. Abraham said of God, "Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" What greater argument then can be presented than that he who is to rule all things must first of all have overcome all things] Even in the world as it is now no one can rule that which he has not overcome. Let all those therefore who hope to reign with Christ set their hearts and affections on overcoming the world and all things in it. It is our understanding of these precious truths that is the ground and foundation of our faith, and "this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith." Jno. 5:4.

Let us turn away from our subject long enough for a word of exhortation. I do not see how a Christian is ever going to be an overcomer and enter into sonship by following the ordinary course of church activity. There is something about the continual vain repetitions of the church that keeps Christians in a state of spiritual infancy. When the Jewish offerings and sacrifices got to be nothing but a ritual which they performed every week. God turned His face away in disgust and said it was a weariness to Him and a stench in His nostrils. What more is there to the wearisome repititions into which the churches have entered? Do they not go through the same ceremony every week as they sing their hymns, say their prayers, give their offerings, and wait for the preacher to pronounce the benediction? This is not the path that leads to sonship. Regardless of what your traditions may be, this is the path to spiritual stalemate and infancy.

Every man must come to know God personally, individually, and independently of all theories and traditions. He must through private communion with his Lord enter into such friendship, unity, and fellowship with Him that should earthly and spiritual dependencies vanish he would be completely undisturbed and unmoved, or should every Christian be removed from the earth and he left alone that he would feel no lonesomeness or lack in anything. David, the king of Israel, had entered this blessed abiding place when he took up his harp to sing, "God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble; therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and the mountains carried into the midst of the sea." Psa. 46:1,2. And again the same knowledge must have filled his soul when he said, "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Psa. 91:1. There is a secret place for us in God where crowds can never come. There are gardens to which Jesus often resorts with His disciples. Jno. 18:2. There are mountains of transfiguration where He leaves the clamoring crowds below while He takes a few up higher with Himself. The shout and song of revival meeting has been a method of God during the dispensation of grace, but to sit with Him in His throne will be the order of the kingdom. I have no hesitation in saying that the last sands of this imperfect age of grace are running through the hour-glass of time and the perfect kingdom morning is at hand.

When Jesus Christ, the sign son, was baptised with the Holy Ghost, He knew the fulness of God in a way that no other man has yet known it. God gave the Holy Spirit to Him without measure. "God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto Him." Jno. 3:34. However much other men have experienced the fulness of the Spirit or however glorious was their baptism in the Holy Ghost, I feel they are all terribly lacking when compared to Him. His life was under the complete dominion of the Holy Spirit. The words He spake, the deeds He did, the prayers He prayed, the miracles He performed, the places He went were all the result of that limitless fulness which God gave unto Him. His birth, His life, His works, His death. His resurrection, His ascension were all by the Holy Spirit. He made no mistakes in any word He spoke for He spake by the Holy Spirit. He made no errors in judgments for judgment was not His but God's. He was never overcome by the arguments of clever men but silenced them all with a word of wisdom from God. When Aaron the priest was anointed with the holy oil, Moses poured it on his head until it ran down over his face and beard, over his body and down to the very skirts of his garments. This is typical of that measureless fulness of the Holy Spirit which Christ enjoyed — not just a drop of oil on the forehead applied by the finger, but oil in abundance for the whole man. Psa. 133:2.

All who read these lines must be able to give proof after proof and evidence upon evidence that Jesus Christ possessed the glorious fulness of the Holy Spirit, so we will refrain from going further to make proof of that. But let us consider that great company of sons who are to come in His image and in the same fulness that He, the sign Son, had.

Self-satisfaction is an enormous, blinding, deceiving evil. A man who thinks he is righteous never bothers to seek righteousness, but a man who knows he is unrighteous will seek the righteousness of Christ. While scribes and Pharisees prided themselves that they were the children of Abraham, they knew not that they were the children of the devil, and they hated Christ for telling them so. "For they, being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness, had not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." Rom. 10:3. The same principle holds true regarding the fulness of the Spirit. It is a great indictment against us all that we have claimed the fulness of the Holy Spirit when indeed our lives showed little or no sign of the Holy Spirit at all, let alone His fulness. It is a pitiful misconception prevalent in the entire professing church that each division in it should imagine that the Holy Spirit is imparted by obedience to the form of baptism laid down in their particular creed.

I do not want to belittle or depreciate anything that God has done for any man. We should be extremely thankful for any experience we have had in Him, but let us abolish all opinions that would lead us to believe that our little thimbleful of water is God's ocean, or that our little Pentecost was the Spirit without measure or all the fulness of God. Let us rather realize that at best we have partaken of a mere earnest of our inheritance and that the whole inheritance still lies out ahead of us. We have partaken of a few luscious grapes from Canaan, but just beyond us lies a whole realm flowing with milk and honey and wine. Why should men refuse the meal after they have tasted its goodness? Why do we refuse the inheritance because we have partaken of a few pennies ahead of time? Why be satisfied with a stagnant pool when a river of the water of life is flowing from the throne of God? Paul prayed that we might be filled with all the fulness of God. Jesus declared that those who believed on Him as the scriptures had said would find rivers of living water flowing from their beings. Let us then wake up to the fact that we know nothing as we ought to know, and we have received nothing as we ought to receive. Our confident assurance that we are filled with the Spirit has been a blindfold that has kept us from seeing the rivers and oceans that lie just beyond us. Do not cast away the good that God has given you, but do, I pray you, cast away all self-satisfied belief in your fulness, for this dams up the fountains of living water. If it is true that rivers of living water can flow from the innermost being of men who believe on Christ, then there is one thing of which I am certain. Before those rivers of living water can flow from our being, all obstructions will have to be removed that they might first flow into our being. Let us settle it in our hearts that there is an everlasting fulness that can only be ours as we become empty of self-righteousness and give up our proud belief in our own fulness.

I do not propose to discuss here the many promises that go to prove that we can be filled with the Holy Spirit, but the undeniable fact that Jesus Christ, the sign Son, was given the Holy Spirit without limitation or measure is also an undeniable' proof that there is an experience of equal glory and magnitude awaiting all those who will enter into sonship. Indeed, every day I am convinced more and more that it is the ever increasing fulness of the Holy Spirit that produces sonship, for by it we are both born of God and brought to the maturity of full sonship. It is a most significant fact that, at the moment Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost, there came a voice from heaven declaring Him to be God's beloved Son in whom He was well pleased. Matt. 3:17

There is a fulness of the Spirit awaiting all those who long for sonship. It is a fulness that none but Christ has ever received. It is a fulness reserved for the time of the manifestation of the sons of God. It is a fulness that brings to a complete maturity. It is the early and latter rain in the first month. It was John the Baptist who said, "Of His fulness have we all received and grace for grace," (Jno. 1:16) and there is no doubt whatever that we have all received of His fulness, but we have by no means received His fulness. It was the beloved Paul who many years later bowed his knees before the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and prayed "that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." Eph. 3:19. Have we ever even remotely understood what it would mean to be filled with such divine and almighty fulness — filled with all the fulness of God? For centuries we have grovelled along imagining our little stagnant pool was His mighty ocean, so robbing ourselves of His fulness. We have wrestled with the demon at the foot of the mount, excusing ourselves because we could not cast him out, when just above us in the mount God was declaring, "This is my beloved Son," Matt. 17.

It is unfortunate that Christians in these latter days have always associated the fulness of the Holy Spirit with power for service. They grasp eagerly for the baptism of the Spirit in a vain and selfish hope that they will have superhuman power over sickness and disease, or that they will have a spectacular ministry, or be possessed with spiritual gifts. But there is something far more important than this that has been completely overlooked. There is something far more important than powerful preaching and working of miracles. That important thing is the purifying effect the Holy Spirit will have upon the individual and personal life.

The scripture declares that we are changed by His Spirit from glory to glory until we come into the image of the Lord. "But we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Cor. 3:18. This is a truth Christians are missing. It is pitiful that we have overlooked it so long. We are like the disciples who sought who would be greatest, not knowing that he who would humble himself and become least would be the one who would be filled with the fulness of God.

I feel I cannot be too strong in my earnest exhortation to all who read that we would earnestly seek day by day to have an ever increasing fulness of the Holy Ghost. It is your God-given duty to seek the Spirit with far greater earnestness and sincerity than you would for silver or gold. I greatly fear that the god of this age is the dollar bill. It is called the almighty dollar and certainly that is the honor given it by most Christians today. Earthly and financial gain has become the prime and foremost requisite in most Christian lives while prayer, meditation, the reading of the Word, praise, kindness, love, the grace of giving, tithing, the leading of the Spirit, constant communion, repentance, and all such things that pertain to the fulness of the Spirit have been relegated to the realm of annoying nuisances that hinder us from going all out for the god of his age. How sorely we need to read and learn the lesson taught us by Peter when he wrote, "And beside all this, giving all diligence add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; and to knowledge temperance;

and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; and to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, charity." Now listen to the promise that follows this exhortation. "For if these things be in you and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ... For if ye do these things, yet shall never fall; for ,so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ." 2 Pet. 1:5-8, 10, 11.

It is time to stop, look, and listen. It is time to see if our rush for gold is cancelling out our progress toward the kingdom of God. We are living in very, very important times. We are continually hearing wonderful things. But I warn you that the heights of sonship, the kingdom, and all the fulness of God are not attained by merely hearing about them. They must be our heart-absorbing, soul-consuming quest. Otherwise we will be like those who have heard the pipe but have not danced, and those who have heard the voice of mourning and have not wept. It has always been a vicious trait of man to hear but not to do. Thousands love to hear and read new things and listen to spiritual revelation, but never raise a finger to attain. Don't waste time telling me that we need do nothing about it. Don't try to persuade me that all we need do is believe. I would rather far listen to Paul who knew what he was talking about when he said, "Forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forth unto the things that are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Again he says, "Leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on to perfection." Heb. 6:1. This last exhortation plainly shows that constant adherence to elementary doctrines is as great a hindrance to spiritual progress as anything could ever be.

I firmly believe it is time to leave the shadowy imperfect things of the dispensation of grace and begin to lay hold on those more permanent things that belong to the kingdom. Let us therefore no longer be interested in laying the foundation of repentance from dead works and faith toward God, baptisms, laying on of hands, but let us seek to go on to the perfection of sonship and the fulness of the Holy Spirit.

When I speak of the fulness of the Spirit, I am not speaking of an initial baptism of the Holy Spirit such as you may have received thirty or forty years ago, but I am speaking of an ever increasing fulness that gradually saturates and overwhelms your life, your being, and your walk until all your thinking, your walking, your talking, and your doing is done by the Holy Spirit Himself. Your whole life becomes a life lived in a realm that is strange and ethereal to all other men because almost all men live on a plane completely governed by the natural and the carnal mind.

It is difficult to illustrate what I mean because we have spent our lives interpreting scriptures as they seem to suit our experience regardless of how low the plane may be on which we dwell. But let us for a moment consider the pattern son, Jesus Christ, for He is the true pattern and sign of the sons who are to come. The life of Jesus Christ, the pattern Son, the apostle Son, the high priest Son, was a life completely swallowed up by the fulness of the Holy Spirit. Immediately following His baptism it is stated, "Then was Jesus led of the Spirit into the wilderness," and I have no hesitation in saying that in His case from that very moment on there was never a thought or a word or a deed which was outside the realm of the Holy Spirit. The works that He did were in His Father's name. Jno. 10:25, 5:36. All His words were of the Father. "I do nothing of Myself; but as My Father has taught Me, I speak these things." Jno. 8:28. And again: "I speak that which I have seen with My Father." Jno. 8:38. Nothing was ever done to please self in any way, but rather He said, "I do always those things that please Him." Jno. 8:29. Empty laughing and joking had no place in His life, but He "rejoiced in the Spirit" (Luke 10:21), and for the joy that was set before Him He endured the cross and despised the shame. He was born of the Spirit, was baptised in the Spirit, lived by the Spirit, worked by the Spirit, talked by the Spirit, died in the Spirit, rose by the Spirit, and ascended by the Spirit, and even now, though He was crucified through weakness, yet He liveth by the power of God.

Perhaps it is beyond the scope of this message to speak much of that blessed person, the Holy Spirit. But that we may better see our vast need of Him as Lord of our lives, let me point out a few of the names and titles of the Holy Spirit, for each and every name given to Him in the word of God teaches us some new thing that points to our immense need of living and moving in Him. First, He is the Holy Spirit, That is His name. While men struggle for lives of holiness and righteousness, God is telling us that His glorious fulness will make us holy. He is the Spirit of Holiness. Angels are spirits and they are holy, but He is the very essence, the source, and the spring of all the holiness in the universe. He is the Spirit of Adoption (sonship). What a truth is here, for all those who long for sonship, for all who are led by Him and who are under His control are sons of God and cry from the Spirit within, "Abba Father" (our Father). He is the Spirit of Truth. All the truth of the universe eminates from Him and all who are under His control speak only the truth of the Lord.

He is the Spirit of God. 1 Cor. 3:16.

He is the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, council, and might. Isa. 11:2.

He is the Spirit of the Lord. Isa. 11:2. He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. Phil. 1:19 He is the Spirit of Burning. Isa. 4:4. He is the Spirit of Life. Rom. 8:2. He is the Spirit of Grace. Heb. 10:29. He is the Spirit of Glory. 1 Pet. 4:14 He is the Eternal Spirit. Heb. 9:14.

Each one of these names is worthy of life-long thought and meditation. This is not a variety of names given to break the monotony of sameness. These names teach us that everything we could ever hope for, desire, or accomplish is found in the fulness of the blessed comforter, the Paraclete, that proceeds from the Father and the Son. To those who seek for holiness He is the Spirit of holiness; to those who long for sonship He is the Spirit of adoption. He is the Spirit of truth to all who love truth and the Spirit of wisdom to those who would be wise. To him who longs for understanding He is the Spirit of understanding and where there is need of power He is the Spirit of might. To those who would be in the image of Christ He is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. For freedom from flesh and corruption He is the Spirit of burning and judgment. He is the Spirit of life to all who love life, the Spirit of glory for our transformation, the eternal Spirit bringing all those who are in unity with Him to the fulness of God's life for ever and ever. In Him let us live and move and have our being. He was the all-embracing, all-controlling power in the wonderful life of that pattern Son, Jesus Christ, and He will also be Lord in the lives of all those who by the Spirit of glory are coming into Christ's image.

My heart is filled with a burning longing as I think of those whom God is calling to share the image of His Son. Oh that we all might seek His fulness, that we might cast from us every unclean and hurtful thing, that base thoughts having their beginning in the corrupt fountains of the carnal mind might be swept away. Those who seek for glory and honor, immortality and eternal life will not find it in the flesh pots of Hollywood, but they will find it in the ever increasing fulness of the Holy Ghost, and every man who has this hope in him purifies himself even as He is pure.

Chapter 2

SONSHIP THE HOPE OF ALL CREATION

The languages of earth do not contain words descriptive and meaningful enough to adequately describe the immensity and all-embracing scope of the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. Human vocabularies were designed to fit human needs and are capable of nothing more. Once the heart of man reaches out to a realm beyond the natural, it finds itself lost for proper descriptions and hopelessly bound up in the phrases of human speech. For unnumbered centuries men have sought to extol and magnify the work of Jesus Christ, but their efforts and eloquence have been no more than the shining of a penny candle in the darkness of a world blinded by sin, full of human ways of looking at things, and with no power of perception beyond the darkness of the natural mind. In trying to honor Him, we have often brought Him dishonor and, in trying to magnify His work, we have dragged it in the dust and desolation of human reason and finite understanding.

If only men would open their hearts that they might behold the power and glory of the all-embracing purpose of the Father in that hour when He proclaimed the edict, "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness." If we could even begin to grasp <he depths of meaning of those mighty words, "Let us give him dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and everything that moveth upon the earth." Gen. 1:26. Oh that men might see that at that moment wisdom was rejoicing in the habitable part of God's mountain, so that the morning stars sang together, and the sons of God filled the vastness of heaven with their shouts of joy and anticipation as they beheld what the end of the plan would be! There is always the possibility of our being wrong, for lacking in understanding we always are, but there is a chord deep in my heart that still echoes to that shout of joy. There is a faith to believe that in the long-forgotten past we were there with Him in spirit beholding with joy the unfolding of His marvelous plan. But as Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten his former glory when his brilliant mind was taken away and he was given the mind of a beast, so we, too, have forgotten the glorious things of the past ages, because for a purpose we were born into this world in sin and shapen in iniquity. This assurance I have that, if the "spirit returns to God who gave it", then certainly it must have come from God in the first place. There is little possibility of our denying that.

For many centuries all creation has groaned and sighed under the thralldom of sin and decay, but our heavenly Father had a. purpose eternal and omniscient when in hope He subjected the whole creation to the desolation of the fall. "For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope." Rom. 8:20. Ever since that day the earnest expectation of the creature has waited for the manifestation of the sons of God. Verse 19.

Every man needs the spirit of revelation from God. I do not refer to that silly spirit so often found among zealous Christians that is always clamoring to come up with some new idea that they can call a revelation. It is not a flurry of fantastic fancies that we need, but a great spirit of wisdom and understanding given by God that will unfold to us the immutable almighty omniscience of God's eternal purpose. That spirit of wisdom and understanding from God gives the heart of man the ability to receive and understand the purpose of His divine mind which has been planned from time immemorial.

There is certainly no lack of fantastic notions among Christians which they imagine are revelations. Should I try to imbibe or believe even half the weird doctrines people propose to me, I would now be floundering in a sea of utter confusion and my frail bark would soon be wrecked upon the rocky reefs that encompass the island of oblivion. Paul once wailed out his complaint against the useless doctrines of the Galatian Christians in these words: "After ye have known God, or rather are known of Him, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed labour upon you in vain". Gal. 4:10, 11. Then to the legalistic Colossians he insisted, "Let no man judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holy day, or of the new moons, or of the sabbath days; which are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ." Col. 2:16, 17. All such doctrines are only noisemakers that are sent to attract our attention away from making Christ our supreme Lord and head. See Col. 2:18, 19. Let us seek to abandon all such side issues and seek to concentrate on Christ. Those who will possess the mind of Christ will find in Him the end of all doctrine, the antitype of all types, the source of all rivers, the fulness of all love, and the culmination of all purpose. He is the head of us all, "and it is from the head alone that the body is nourished and built up and grows according to God's laws of growth." Col. 1:19 (Phillips). Let us abandon then the doctrines that concern themselves with eating and drinking, touching, tasting, and handling, or of days, weeks, and years, and seek to become one with Christ, for all who have come unto unity with Him need instruction in none of these things. The complete will of God flows forth from their hearts as naturally as pure water gushes from a pure fountain.

Christ is the head of all pricipality and power; therefore, concern not yourself with principality and power, but with Him. "By Him all things consist"; therefore, concern not yourself with things, but with Him and all things will consist by Him. He is the end of all things; therefore, concern yourself with Him who is the end and all things will have their end in Him. He is the head of the body; therefore, seek to be joined to Him and your place in the body is assured. Christ is our wisdom and our righteousness;

therefore, seek neither wisdom nor righteousness, but seek Him and both wisdom and righteousness shall be yours because He is yours. Christ is our life and our light; therefore, seek neither life nor light, but enthrone Him upon the candlestick within you and the bright shining of the candle shall give you the light of God. Oh what time and effort we waste in seeking things, things, things instead of knowing Him. In His presence is fulness of joy;

therefore, seek not joy but His presence. "At His right hand are pleasures forevermore," therefore, seek not pleasure but to stand at His right hand. The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear. The Lord is the strength of my life; of whom shall be afraid?

CHRIST ON DAVID'S THRONE. Psa. 23.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures.

He leadeth me beside still waters.

He restoreth my soul.

He leadeth me in paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for

Thou art with me.

Thy rod and

Thy staff they comfort me.

Thou prepares! a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

We may have read that beautiful passage ten thousand times. Most of us know it by heart, but today it holds new meaning. I think I see today what David saw when inspiration gripped his soul and he sang those meaningful words. See how he makes the Lord the hub and centre of everything — the shepherd, the leader, the feeder, the restorer, the anointer, the comforter, and the eternal abiding place.

We hear a great deal today about many many wonderful things. As we draw nearer the end of this dispensation and the kingdom morning sends its first rays upon our waiting souls, there will be an ever increasing flood of light and revelation. This we must certainly expect and accept, for new days bring new things, and new dispensations are sent to flood the world with greater light and greater experience in God.

No truth has come with more soul-gripping force and power to the elect of the Lord than the hope of sonship. Well indeed may we lay hold upon that glorious eternal hope, for divine wisdom has ordained that that sonship should be the hope of all creation. It is for sonship that the whole creation groans in a sort of universal travail while it waits to see the glorious sight of the sons of God coming into their own. Rom. 8:22, 23.

Every man and woman who has even in the least partaken of revelation must leam that to love sonship is not a 25 presumptious infringement on the plan of God. To love and covet sonship is to love and covet the very purpose of God from timeless ages. When the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy, was it not because they were then beholding the final fulfillment of God's plan for His sons and for the whole creation through them? Let us give ear to the inspired words of Paul as he shouts, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world (before the ages were formed) that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according to the good pleasure of His will." Eph. 1:3-5.1 am afraid that we have all failed to grasp the true meaning of that scripture because of the rather weak expression "unto the adioption of children". The true meaning is that He has predestined us to sonship, or, as Moffat says, "designed us in His love to be His sons."

It is hard to understand how the true purpose of sonship has been overlooked and missed for so many centuries. For many ages Christians have thought of sonship as a sort of sentimental thing that amounted to little more than a kind expression on God's part that we should be patted on the head and called sons of God. To most people sonship means little more than material for another Sunday morning sermon or at best some title we will possess in the ages to come.

The truth is that our sonship is now and always was the hope of the entire creation of God. Sonship is dearer to God's heart than any other thing. God the Father has carefully planned our sonship from timeless ages. Every detail of the process by which we were to attain the perfection of sonship was laid down in heaven's blueprint before there was a world, an age, or a dispensation. In the hope of sonship He has subjected the entire creation to the thralldom and decay of ages and dispensations. He has caused men like Abraham to become wanderers and pilgrims on the earth throughout their lives in the hope of bringing them to the perfection of sonship He demands. He has sold men like Joseph into slavery and imprisonment to bring them to sonship. He sends His predestined sons to pass the night in lions' dens and burning fiery furnaces and drops His Jeremiahs into muddy wells all in the hope of sonship. He sends His only begotten Son into the world to learn obedience by the things He suffered, to be despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. He afflicts His apostle, Paul, with a grievous thorn and causes him to cry with joy from the blackness of his grief, "These light afflictions which are but for a moment are working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory." And for our sakes who are often as sorely tried he names in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews a great cloud of witnesses that died in faith after a life of suffering to wait for that glorious resurrection when both they and us would in the mercy of God be made perfect together.

The sonship which God has planned cannot be attained lightly and with ease. All who bear this eternal hope within their breasts may as well resolve here and now that the only path that leads to sonship is the path of suffering. Along that path is lonesomeness, temptation, despair, trials, tribulations, misunderstanding, rejection, pain — a great variety of sufferings that come in one way to you, another way to me, and in still another way to our brother or sister traveller. It is unavoidable. It cannot be dodged. At the beginning of the road that leads to sonship stands the first Son of God, Jesus Christ the Lord, saying, "If any man would follow Me, let him deny himself (self) and take up his cross and follow Me." It is still the way of the cross that leads us home, and be warned of this: Your associates will become fewer and fewer as you approach the agonies of Gethsemane, and when you reach your cross you will find yourself alone — alone except for Christ who has now formed within you.

It disgusts me to hear these breezy preachers proclaiming abundance for all and freedom from all sickness and pain and poverty. It has a wonderful appeal to the flesh and to the carnal mind, but it is a way that seemeth right unto a man and the end thereof are the ways of death. It is a gross untruth to tell a suffering man that his suffering is caused by some inconsistency or sin in his life. How often I have heard it proclaimed that the tribulations and distresses through which God's people pass are caused through some sin in their lives and that if they were right with God they would have no trouble at all. It is a lie, I tell you. It is a lie. The opposite is the truth. I know that sin and profligacy have caused many forms of sickness and distress among wicked men, but that is another question altogether and certainly gives no license to condemn a righteous man who is living in good conscience before the Lord. Was Job sick because he was sinful? No! A thousand times No! He was sick because God wanted to bring him to sonship and to sonship He brought him. I often think of the nosey way the disciples asked Jesus about the blind man when they said, "Who did sin, this man or his parents that he was born blind?" Jesus replied, "Neither this man nor his parents, but that the glory of God should be manifested." Jno. 9:2, 3. I do not ask you to glory in your sickness, your loss of business, or whatever other tribulation may come upon you, but glory in the fact that as you allow these things to work in you the lesson God intended the end will be sonship. Perhaps, if we enquired of God as Paul did, we might hear Him say to us, "My grace is sufficient for thee, for My strength is made perfect in weakness," and then we could rejoice and say with him, "Most gladly therefore will I take pleasure in afflictions, in distresses, in persecutions, that the power of Christ may rest upon me, for when I am weak then am I strong."

I thoroughly believe in divine healing and could write a book on the healings I have seen in my own ministry, but I greatly fear that healing has been taken over by unscrupulous men who, in site of all their protestations to the contrary, make themselves rich by playing upon the sufferings of the people. The eyes of the people have been turned away from Christ while they run endless journeys to place their confidence in a human being — in a highly advertised man.

What hypocrites we have become as we blithely sing, "The way of the cross leads home," yet senselessly smite the man who has a cross to bear! What inconsistent humbug is it that allows a man to read the words of the Lord, "We shall through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of heaven," while with tongue in cheek we condemn those who are sweating blood as they wrestle in their Gethsemanes or struggle beneath their heavy cross on the way to their Golgotha! Such men and women, void of spiritual understanding, do not know that they themselves are adding their weight to our cross and are casting stumbling stones before our bleeding feet. Have you ever considered the scripture which says, "Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind; for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin that he should no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men but to the will of God." 1 Pet. 4:1, 2. "He that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin!" There is something about suffering of any kind that brings the world and the flesh into its proper perspective. Suffering makes us understand things as they really are. By suffering we see the worthlessness of all the passing vanities of earth and by it we are weaned away from the vain deceits that concern a purely physical world. Suffering of any kind causes us to be done with the transient affairs of this present age and inspires us to anchor all our hopes within the veil whither the forerunner is for us entered.

Since heaven's greatest desire for the sons of men is that they shall be sons of God, let us leam that God scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. For what son is there that receiveth not chastisement? Chastisement is sent that we might leam the will of the Father and come to cherish that will above all the glittering prizes of the world now present or the world which is to come. We are not asked to accept suffering for suffering's sake, but we are asked to accept and endure suffering for sonship's sake. This is the royal road that leads us to sonship. This is the burning cleansing fire that is to try us. It will not singe one hair of our head nor leave the smell of fire upon us, but it will bum off our bondages and shackles and leave us free to walk unharmed in the fire with One like the son of God.

I do not know how or why Christians came to the conclusion that sonship was to be declared and made manifest by mighty works. It pains my heart to hear of men who imagine they are manifested sons of God, because of their prominence in some field of ministry. / know of no man or woman on earth today who even remotely resembles a manifested son of God. We are at the very door of the great manifestation of the sons of God, but God hath reserved it for a time known only to Himself. Then the wonderful perfection of the sons of God will be manifested. There will be a resurrection of those sons who sleep to join those who still walk the earth. "They without us should not be made perfect". Neither shall we without them be made perfect. There shall be a resurrection unto life that shall disclose the wonder of the ages. It was for this very reason that the Lord said to Daniel, "Go thy way, Daniel, for thou shalt rest and stand in thy lot at the end of the days." Dan. 12:13. It is near, very near; even at the doors.

There is something about sonship that has a deep root in the hearts of all people. The families of earth anxiously await the arrival of a son. In ancient times it was thought a tragedy that any family should be without a son who would carry on the work and name of the father. This longing in the heart of all mankind had its origin in the heart of the eternal Father who, upon bringing His only begotten Son into the world, proclaimed, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." It must have been a wonderful night for the shepherds of Israel who heard the heavenly choir of angels proclaiming the coming of the Son of God. It was a grand moment in John's life when he saw the heavens proclaiming, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased." God was delighted with His Son, His 'only son. So delighted was He in that Son's perfection that even before the worlds began He purposed to prepare a whole family of sons in His exact image and likeness and form of them one great body of sons which should rule the entire universe according to His divine will.

The languages of earth simply do not contain words that are able to express the vast importance of this family of God's sons. There is not a doubt but that every one of us has failed to comprehend the universal purpose of God in bringing many sons to glory. Words utterly fail to explain the truth which revelation inspires, leaving us helplessly groping for expression. If the Spirit of God will come to my aid, I will try to state as best I can the wonderful purpose of God in sonship. Well do I know that my best efforts will fall far short of His glorious understanding, but, if His Spirit will stir the deep chord of revelation, then we shall ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man the things God hath prepared for them that love Him, but He hath revealed then to us by His Spirit.

"... The works that I do shall ye do also and greater works than these shall ye do, because I go to the Father." Jno. 14:12. This passage of scripture has been the subject of discussion for centuries. The discussion always involves the mighty works of Jesus and the practical impossibility of anyone's doing any work greater than His work. We recount His mighty acts in healing every manner of sickness and disease. We tell with awe of His raising the dead back to life again. We repeat with wonder the story of the stilling of the sudden storm on the lake of Galilee and of His walking the stormy waves. We love to read the accounts of the devils that were cast out by His word and of the endless hosts of sad and afflicted who went away filled with joy and we tell of His words of wisdom and the teachings which none could gainsay nor resist. We speak of His undying love and mercy to all who needed Him. We glory in His death and resurrection and His ascension into heaven. So many marvels crowned His wonderful life that words fail us to tell or imagine how glorious He really was. Perhaps the beloved John most appropriately described it all by saying, "I suppose, if all the books were written that should be written, even the world itself would not contain the books that should be written." Jno. 21:25.

What then are these mighty works of which He spoke when He who could not lie declared, "The works that I do shall ye do also, and greater works than these shall ye do because I go to My Father"? If we are going to understand what He said, we shall have to open our hearts to a completely new understanding of God's eternal purposes. We will have to see that sonship is God's masterpiece, and that in the manifestation of the sons of God the eternal purposes of God find their complete fulfillment.

The great soul-gripping truth is this. Jesus Christ, our Lord and Saviour, is the only begotten Son of God. Moreover He is the first begotten Son of God, but not the last begotten. He is the firstborn of a vast family of sons who through the wisdom and grace of God are to be born of God, not of water, not of blood, not of flesh, but born of God. Jno. 1:13. Thus it is that Paul by the wisdom of God given unto him did write, "Whom He did foreknow He did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." Rom. 8:29. I love the translation of Weymouth which reads, "That He might be the eldest in a vast family of brothers." Just how vast that family is I am not sure, but I am sure there will be 144,000 who have the name of God in their foreheads. These are sons of God. Rev. 14. It is a small company in relation to the billions of earth, but for the sake of sonship and one body in the exact image of Jesus Christ it is indeed a vast family. This is the manchild company spoken of in Rev. 12. These are they who are to be caught up to God and to His throne and who will have the privilege of perfecting the woman in the wilderness and of bringing her forth purified, leaning on the arm of her beloved.

Before we speak further of greater works, let us open our hearts that God may speak to us and show us what a son of God really is, for the greater works of which Jesus spoke are not to be performed by ordinary believers, but by that vast family of sons who are now nearing the hour of manifestation. They are that chosen company, selected from many ages, who through fires and furnaces of affliction have been brought into that same glorious image of Jesus Christ. These sons of God are like Him. They are exactly like Him. They are in His image. Rom. 8:29. They are in His image and after His likeness. They are so completely sons of God, so completely like Him, so completely born of Him, so completely of His mind and will and purpose that their one difference is that He (the blessed Jesus) is the eldest in that vast family of sons, Rom. 8:29. He is the head of the body of sons and they with Him are the bridegroom, the last Adam in all His completeness.

With the pen of inspiration Paul wrote, "/( behooved Him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain (Jesus Christ) of our salvation perfect through suffering." Heb. 2:10. In like manner John, his soul aflame with inspiration, wrote, "Beloved, now are we the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is, and every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as He is pure." 1 Jno. 3:2. When He shall appear, we shall be like Him. Wonderfully like Him! Exactly like Him! In His Image! In His likeness! The omniscience of His wisdom, the purity of His truth, the omnipotence of His power, the immutability of His love, the faithfulness of His purpose! Full of His grace, His purpose. His kindness, and His unending mercy! The sons shall be like Him for He shall dwell in them

all.

Oh, what glory divine it would have been to have stood with John that day on lonely Patmos to behold with him that complete Christ! The Christ of Nazareth complete with all His sons in the end of the age! The glorious head with eyes as lamps of fire all complete with the other sons of His body standing with His beautiful feet burning as though in a furnace of fire! And when the voice of that One like the Son of man rang out, it was not the voice of the lonely Galilean, but the voice as the sound of many waters. Many waters means many peoples, and the peoples here are the sons of God. The vision is recorded for our knowledge and inspiration thus: "On the Lord's day I was inspired by the Spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like the blast of a trumpet.... I turned to see who it was who was speaking to me; and then I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the centre of the lampstands One resembling the Son of man, clothed in a robe which reached to His feet and a girdle of gold across His breast. His head and His eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like silver bronze when it is white hot in a furnace; and His voice was as the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and a sharp two-edged sword was seen coming from His mouth, and His face was like the sun shining in its full power. When I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead." Rev. 1:11-16 (Weymouth).

Before the glory of that vision John fell to the earth as dead. Never in all his long, eventful life, filled with the wonders of spiritual experience, had he ever once imagined the breath-taking glory of the Lord's Christ. He had seen the Galilean subjugate to His control any force or power He desired. He had beheld the awe-inspiring view from the mount of the transfiguration. He had walked with Christ after the resurrection and had seen His glorified body. He had watched Him ascend to heaven and had experienced the glory divine of the fulness of the Holy Spirit. If any man on earth understood the purpose of God, it must have been John, but though he had seen the glory of Christ as He was at first, he was not prepared to see Him as He is at last. Before the effulgent glory of that vision he fell as dead. Years before he had heard the Saviour say, "Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." Now as his eyes beheld the harvest, Christ in fulness and completeness, he understood the meaning of those words. Many sons brought to glory! Every one in His image and likeness! Everyone with His nature. His mind, and His voice so that His speaking was as the voice of a multitude. Here for the first time we get a picture of what the body of Christ really is — not a hodge-podge of religious denominations, sects and organizations, but one like the Son of man with one vision, one voice and one likeness.

If by the grace of God the truth of this holy vision can burst upon you, all other loves will fade away from your heart. The activities of a visible Babylonish church system have tarnished and dimmed our vision so that we see nothing of the truth. In our desire to promote we have promoted things instead of Christ. We have loved programmes and meetings instead of loving Him until we find ourselves in the end of the age with a sort of Christless Christianity. Oh, how we have lauded our systems, our education, our degrees, and our theology! But the more of worldly wisdom we know, the less we know of the wisdom of God, and the deeper we go into such systems, the farther away from God we get. How proud we have become of our titles and degrees that are supposed to commend us to the world as men of understanding in spiritual things when in reality we know nothing yet as we ought to know! Men love to be called Reverend and Doctor, Most Reverend and Very Reverend, Reverend Doctor, Father, and many other such titles. But this I know; any man who even glimpses the glory of God will be ashamed of his knowledge and repent that he ever thought himself to be someone of importance. Let us drop all these titles that commend us to men, but not to God, and humble ourselves in His sight that we may begin to partake of the wisdom that is from above, for we cannot partake of His wisdom which is from above until we abandon our wisdom which is of this world.

Let us return now to the thought of the greater works.

When the beloved Luke wrote the book we call the Acts of the Apostles, he commenced his work with the enlightening statement, "The former treatise have I made, 0 Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day in which He was taken up ..." Acts 1:1, 2. The part of the verse of interest here is the statement "began to do and teach", for this tells us as nothing else can that Jesus did not complete His work when He was on earth, but He only "began" His work.

In making the above statement, I am fully aware that such a thought runs contrary to long-established views of theology, but we are not concerned with the views of theology, for theology is not really the views of God but the ideas of men. I am concerned only with the purpose of God as it is revealed in His word in the light of inspiration and revelation.

When the Son of God came into the world, He came to do only one complete work and that was the work of redemption. The Son of man came, not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45. Thus it was that, when He died, He uttered the three significant words, "/(is finished." Thus also He declared before the Father, "I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." Jno. 17:4. What people of all ages have failed to see is that Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, did the work which God gave Him to do and no more than that. All the other wonderful things He did were only a beginning of a work that was to be carried out by the other sons who were to come into His glorious image as the ages passed. To them it is given to do greater works than He did and to bring to God's universal creation the endless blessing of the redemption He purchased with His eternal blood, which He gave for the life of the world.

It seems to me that the wild creatures of creation together with the grass of the fields and the trees of the woods have more understanding of God's plan for them than do the theologians of the church, for Paul by the word of inspiration wrote these words: "The earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope. Because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and not they only, but ourselves also which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (sonship), to wit, the redemption of the body." Rom. 8:19-23. Perhaps there is no other single passage of scripture which throws so much light on the great works which have been left for the sons of God to do. The whole of God's creation is breathlessly waiting for the time of the manifestation of the sons of God. The whole creation has been subjected to a sort of universal travail. It has endured for centuries the terrible bondage of corruption, but God has placed a hope in all creation that it will eventually be delivered from its thralldom and decay by the ministry of the sons of God, who are now being formed in the very image of Christ and will be manifested in the glory of His resurrection at the end of this age and throughout the entire kingdom to come.

The mighty works which Jesus, the first Son, began will be completed by the other sons who are coming into His image. This is not presumption on the part of man. This is the plan and purpose of God. Failure to see this truth has caused men to create many hare-brained schemes to try to convert the world or to bring in some Utopia of their own choosing long before God's time.

When Jesus said, "Greater works than these shall ye do," He meant exactly that. As the Head Son of the body He demonstrated the mighty power and glory of manifested sonship and showed that all things, absolutely all things, come under the power and authority of the sons of God. While He was here. He with wonderful grace and power opened the eyes of blind men and caused some who were dumb to speak. But a greater day is at hand when under the rule of the sons of God all blindness and dumbness will flee from the earth, for "the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the tongue of the dumb shall sing." In His beginning of miracles He healed many that were sick of divers diseases, but the day is at hand when "the inhabitants shall not say, I am sick." Isa. 33:24. Jesus by His power of eternal life raised men from the dead, but the day is coming under the government of the sons of God when men shall not die at all, but live out the fulness of their days in reverence and godly fear. Isa. 65:20.

It would be simple to go on and on with these comparisons. There are, however, other mighty works which Jesus during all His life never once began to do. I am absolutely certain that there was no sickness or disease known to mankind that He did not cure. There was no demon that did not flee at His order. Even death dropped the keys and fled at His command. Wind and water obeyed His will, and those who came to take Him went backward and fell to the ground when He spoke. But did this King of kings and Lord of lords ever attempt to set up a kingdom and govern the world? Did He ever call all the nations before Him and set up a judgment seat? Did He ever attempt to wipe inequity and inequality from the earth? Did He command men to beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning-hooks? Did He ever command the demon of war to flee from the hearts of men and trouble the earth no more? Did He cause the desert to blossom as the rose or Jerusalem to be safely inhabited? No, He did not — not because He could not, but because God has reserved these greater works of universal magnitude and glory for those sons of God who are to share His image and who appear at the end of the age.

The work and scope of the ministry of Jesus of Nazareth was amply described by Himself when He entered into the synagogue and read from the book of Isaiah. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me because He hath anointed Me to preach (proclaim) the gospel to the poor. He hath sent Me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim deliverance to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." Luke 4:18, 19. His whole life consisted of a proclamation and a demonstration of those all-embracing wonders that are to come during that coming kingdom age, which He here calls the acceptable year of the Lord.

There is yet another work that transcends by far anything that has ever been known. It has been so carefully hidden from our understanding that for the most part we do not even know of its existence. There is a realm beyond the natural realm where men with spiritual senses see, hear, taste, touch, and smell all spiritual realities. The transcending glory of that realm has been lost to man ever since the fall. Which do you think is greater? To restore a man's natural hearing that he may hear the sounds of earth such as music and the voices of people or to restore that spiritual ear that listened to God's voice in lovely Eden and heard the voice of Alpha and Omega on the Isle of Patmos? Which would you say was greater — to restore a man's physical sense of taste that he might taste loaves and fishes or restore his spiritual taste that he might taste and see that the Lord is good? Again which do you think is the greater — to restore man's physical sense of feeling that he might feel the hard substances of earth or to restore his spiritual sense of feeling that he might feel the moving of the breath of God? The physical sense of smell is a wonderful sense, indeed, but the fragrance of heaven's perfume is greater far and will once again be enjoyed as it was in God's Eden long ago. There is an unseen world all about us which the natural man does not comprehend. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man. Yet it is there. We lost our spiritual sight in Eden. We lost our spiritual hearing. We lost our ability to smell and taste and feel all spiritual things. The Bible gives abundant examples of the existence and nearness of that glorious realm of spiritual reality and it is clear for anyone to see that all who have experienced the blessedness of even a momentary entrance into that realm have found that it alone is real, while we who are in this bondage of corruption live in a world of illusion and unreality.

There is coming a day when all the glories of the spiritual world will be opened to men and this glorious freedom, this greater work, is reserved for the sons of God to do. We are nearing the hour of the manifestation of the sons of God. The long, long awaited liberation from bondage, thralldom, and decay is near at hand. The greater works which Jesus, our elder brother, told us of are soon to begin on the earth. The hour is at hand when the government shall be upon His shoulder to order the whole world in justice and judgment, peace and equity for the glorious kingdom age. At this very moment the governments of earth are falling apart at the seams and collapsing, but God is preparing an enduring kingdom that shall never be destroyed. The sons shall reign with Him.

I have found even among good men that there is a tendency to imagine that the Son of God (Jesus Christ) and the sons of God who are to be manifested at the end of the age are two separate entities. This is not true. Such an idea comes from a lack of understanding as to what a son of God really is, and how such a son comes into being at all.

It is impossible to explain to the natural mind how two entirely separate things can, though separate, still be one. Men seem to be able to understand how a foot, a hand, and a head can, though separate and different, all be members of one and the same body. We are able to understand this because these members are joined together by flesh and sinew and blood, but when we are asked to believe that the Son of God at the right hand of the Father is one with the sons of God on earth, we flounder in the bogs of unbelief and trip over the stones of doubt and misunderstanding. If, however, we would ask God to reveal this mystery, we would easily see that, if physical members joined only by the weakness of flesh and blood can be one, how much more one are things joined by the Spirit of the living God! An arm that is severed from the body no longer belongs to the body because the bonds of flesh are broken, but time or place or space has nothing whatever to do with the unity of the Spirit, for the Spirit is omnipresent even as God is omnipresent. Therefore, whether a man's abode is on earth or in heaven makes absolutely no difference to spiritual unity, for to spirit there is neither time nor place. Time, place, distance, and all such things belong to the bondage and corruption of the flesh. The Spirit is confined by none of these things. Some day we will realize what a world of truth lay in the words of Jesus when He said, "No man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." Jno. 3:13. He who lived as a Son of God and had His being in the Father and in the Spirit, even while standing upon the earth, was able to declare that He was in heaven, and so truly He was.

This should help us to see how we are one with Christ and how Christ is one with the Father. This should help us to understand the fathomless depths of meaning in the words of Jesus, "I in them and Thou in Me that they may be made perfect in one," Jno. 17:23, and again in verse 21, "That they may be one as Thou, Father, art in Me and I in Thee, that they also may be one in us." It is this unity with Him and this alone that makes a son of God.

With all emphasis we must declare that sons of God only exist because of their vital relationship to Jesus Christ. By this I mean that Jesus Christ dwells in you as God Almighty dwelt in Him. If He does not dwell in you, you are not a son. It is Christ in you that is the hope of glory. Not Christ in heaven! Not Christ in the Father! Not Christ in your brother! It is Christ in you!

Good works, giving of amis, preaching, signs, miracles, healings, and all the rest have nothing whatever to do with sonship. We can have all these things and yet never live a day as a son of God. There are far too many people in the world who have the mistaken idea that their mighty works are proof of their sonship. Actually these works are proof of nothing. The works may be good; they may be commendable; they may be beneficient; they may be worthy of reward, but they are not proof of sonship, and never will be. Surely Jesus made this fact abundantly plain when He said, "Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy Name, and in Thy Name cast out devils and in Thy Name done many wonderful works? Then will I profess unto them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' " Mark 7:22, 23.1 can truthfully say that I believe in prophecy, but prophecy is no proof of sonship. I thoroughly believe in the casting out of devils, but it is not proof of sonship. Certainly I believe in wonderful works. But though you fill the earth with them, they will not commend you to God nor prove your sonship.

Let us consider again for a moment Paul's statement in Col. 1:26, 27. "Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but is now manifest to His saints... which is Christ in you the hope of glory." The glory spoken of here is not heaven as has been generally supposed, but sonship. That is the highest and most glorious glory that God has ever given or ever will give. "The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them," said Jesus. Jno. 17:22. "Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate them He also called, and whom He called He also justified, and whom He justified He glorified." Rom. 8:29-30. This is glory; this is glorification; this is sonship. The only hope of sonship, the only hope of glory, is for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to dwell in you and control and order every step of your life. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in me is the hope of glory. Sonship is not what I am, but what He is. Sonship is not what Christ is apart from me, but what He is in me.

Jesus Christ Himself was the Son of God because in Him dwelt all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. Even He did not hesitate to declare, "I can do nothing of Myself; as I hear I judge, and My judgment is just, because I seek not My own will but the will of the Father which sent Me." Jno. 5:30. And again He said, "The Son can do nothing of Himself but what He seeth the Father do, for whatsoever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." Jno. 5:19. (If you would behold the glory and power of sonship, you should read Jno. 5:18-32.) Both the words and the works of Jesus were the words and the works of the Father who dwelt in Him. "The words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself; but the Father that dwelleth in Me He doeth the works." Jno. 14:10. It is the indwelling Christ that fills us with the very spirit of sonship. It is Christ within that causes the spirit to cry Abba Father. We can never be sons of God until that only begotten Son dwells in us. His indwelling presence will transform our lives until we are in His image and we can say with John, "As He is, so are we in this world."

We should earnestly consider the following question with prayer for guidance and understanding. Why was it that Jesus boldly and truthfully declared, "If ye had known Me ye should have known My Father also: and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him"! Jno. 14:7. Why was it He said to Philip, "Have I been so long time with you and yet thou hast not known Me, Philip? He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father'"! Jno. 14:9. This passage would be without any hope of understanding were it not for the verse following which says, "Believest thou not that / am in the Father and the Father in Me?" Because the Father dwelt in fulness in Christ, therefore whoever had seen Christ had seen the Father. It is equally true that, when Christ lives in fulness in any human being, controlling and ordering his life, then whosoever has seen that man has also seen Christ. Paul the apostle saw that great truth by revelation when he declared, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me." The I that was crucified was himself, but the I which lived was Christ.

During the last few days these tremendous truths have flooded in upon my soul. If you would be holy, do not try to be holy. Christ is holy so let Him live in you. If you long for righteousness, do not try to be righteous. Christ is righteous, therefore let Him live in you. If you long for purity, do not seek to be pure. Seek to let Him live in you for He is pure. Do you long for sonship? Do not waste time seeking sonship. Let Him live in you. He is God's Son. Your relationship to sects, denominations, people, or things means nothing at all. It is your relationship to Him that counts, for that means everything.

Did He not say, "He that hath the Son hath life, but he that hath not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on Him"? Why is it that he who hath the Son hath life? Is it not because in Him is life? Is it not equally true then that He that hath the Son hath wisdom, for in Him dwelleth all the treasures of wisdom? Is it not true also that He who hath the Son hath the mind of Christ, and he that hath the Son hath purity, holiness, truth, longsuffering, love, gentleness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance, judgment, and government? Does not the word declare that God has made Him wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption? Oh! world of truth, in Him are all things! Christ is all and in all, and Christ in you is the hope of glory. Here and here alone is the glory of sonship.

A. B. Simpson must surely have grasped the truth when he wrote these immortal words:

Once it was the blessing, now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling, now it is His Word;

Once the gift I wanted, now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing, now Himself alone. All in all forever, Jesus, will I sing;

Everything in Jesus, and Jesus everything.

 

 

 

Chapter 3

THE PREPARATION OF THE SONS OF GOD

We should approach all the great truths of God with a sense of reverence and godly fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding, and all people who would approach unto God should come to Him with a sense of great awe, realizing that He is infinite in all wisdom and understanding but that we know nothing yet as we ought to know. It is much better to listen than to speak in God's presence. It is wise on our part to wrap the mantle of humility about our heads and stand to listen to His blessed voice. If men and women can be found who are more anxious to hear God speak than to hear themselves speak, we will find men and women who know the purpose of God. Sadly and bitterly we must confess that we have stood up boldly to argue our causes both loud and long, but we have spent little time at His feet disowning our own wisdom, disclaiming our own knowledge, emptying ourselves of vain traditions, repenting of our vain doctrines taught to us by men, and beseeching Him that we might be partakers of His eternal wisdom, His infinite understanding. His counsel and His might. Oh that men would seek to cast off their natural minds, their human ways of looking at things, and become partakers of the mind of Christ!

Perhaps few people will believe me, but there is a day coming when all the great sermons will fade into insignificance in the light of His greatness and all the doctrines will become utterly lacking before the glory of His fulness. The great man will bow his head before God in shame and repentance and confess that he knew nothing as he ought to have known.

My heart's desire and prayer to God every waking hour of my life and in the night seasons as well is that I might be filled with the wisdom of Christ and be made one with His purpose and the knowledge of His will. For this to be accomplished, I find myself repenting constantly of the foolish things I have said, taught, and preached, and of the limited light and understanding I have had when I almost thought my little flickering candle to be as important as the sun and my tiny grain of sand to be the earth itself. Surely once again we need a Gamaliel to say to us, "Ye know nothing at all," or a Paul to say, "If any man thinketh he knoweth aught, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know," or Jesus to say to men who are so self-assured and confident in their knowledge of things, "Ye do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures or the power of God."

I am saying these things here and now so that we might know before we start reading the following pages that there is a universe of truth which we have never touched, heard, seen, nor tasted, and that if we would bow our heads before God and admit our ignorance. He would open to us the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man.

One of the first things that Christians need to learn is that God is God. We need spiritual revelation to show us that God is almighty, that all the power and authority in the universe belongs to Him; that all things were made by Him, all things were made/or Him, and all things consist and exist by His power;

that thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers whether in heaven or earth or hell were created and designed by Him as part of His plan and purpose. Nothing can breathe or exist a second without Him. Nothing has power that He has not given. Even Satan himself is helpless and powerless and has no strength except what has been given him in the purpose of God. God is omnipotent. God is almighty. All power in heaven and earth belongs to Him.

Christians need a revelation of God's wisdom. It is not enough to say God is omniscient knowing the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. We must be able to see that a mind so infinitely wise as to contain all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the universe would never allow anything of any description to sneak unknown into His purpose that He Himself had not planned. No mistakes were made in the Garden of Eden. Every detail was planned as part of an eternal purpose. "The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope." There were no mistakes in Eden. Neither were there any after thoughts about Calvary. All was planned before the foundation of the world. God is not making any mistakes today either. No enemy of any description is hindering His purpose even in the least, but all things are working together to triumphantly complete His purpose even as Paul once said, "We can do nothing against the truth." 2 Cor. 13:8. No man can truly love God until he sees Him wise beyond the possibility of error, omnipotent beyond the possibility of defeat, immutable beyond the possibility of change, incorruptible beyond the possibility of decay, immortal beyond the possibility of death, loving beyond the possibility of loss, and eternal beyond the corroding influence of time.

Such a God as this leaves nothing to chance but includes all in His purpose. Only creatures of ignorance take chances. God never does. It was not chance that sold Joseph into Egypt. It was purpose. It was not chance that shipwrecked Paul on the Island of Melita. It was infinite purpose. It was not fate that confined him to jail. It was purpose. It is not bad fate that three quarters of the earth have not heard the gospel. It is purpose. The glory and the wonder of that infinite purpose will be made crystal clear in the ages yet unborn when all who sat in heathen darkness will see a great light. Once a man sees by the Holy Ghost that all things are working according to His purpose, then with confidence, abandonment, and dedication he can cast himself upon the almighty arms of the Father and submit himself to the direction of Him whose mind is infinite and His purpose immutable.

It is with knowledge of His glorious infinity and of the smallness of our own wisdom that we open our hearts to learn a little more about that purpose of purposes, the manifestation of the sons of God. You may have to change your mind a little or a lot as you read through these pages, but please remember that a change of mind is not a sign of stupidity, but of growth. It was not a backward step when man first began to believe that the earth was round and not flat. Mankind is forever discarding some clumsy old theory as new light is shed on the wonders of the universe. The puff of smoke on the ocean's horizon is a sign that a ship is coming, and the cloud the size of a man's hand was a sign to Elijah that many clouds were on the way, and the sound of abundance of rain.

There is nothing more important at this hour than the preparation of the sons of God for manifestation. The manifestation of the sons of God is God's purpose for the end of this age, or, should I say, for that period between the ages of grace and the kingdom, in like manner as Jesus Christ, the first Son, was manifested between the ages of law and grace. It is the next great event in God's order. There is an event for which the whole creation is groaning and travailing. That glorious event is the manifestation of the sons of God. For years we have been taught that the hope of the church is to be raptured out of the world to escape the tribulation. For years I went along with that belief, but I cannot help but feel that most of the hope for a rapture is built upon man's human desire to escape suffering and tribulation, not knowing that it is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God. While we have some statements that appear very definite about our being caught up, we must remember that Paul was caught up to the third heaven and yet remained right here on earth. John at Patmos was twice caught up to higher and higher realms in the Spirit in one and the same experience yet remained here to bear witness to it. Compare Rev. 1:10, Rev. 4:1. Then again the same truth is evident in Rev. 12 where the man child was caught up to God and His throne, yet was found feeding the woman in the wilderness even as Elijah did.

I have no great desire to change the mind of any man about these things, for we can safely leave this to the revelation of the Lord. However, the sons of God are not to be raptured out of the tribulation but will walk victoriously through it. They are not to be burned to a cinder by the fiery furnace of tribulation, but they are to walk as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego with the Son of God, preserved in its sevenfold flame, to emerge liberated, unscathed, victorious, and without the smell of fire upon them. They are not to be eaten by the lions of the den, but to stand as Daniel unscathed and unharmed as the angel shut their mouths. They are not to perish of thirst in its wilderness, but to drink as Elijah of the brook of the living waters. They are not to die of hunger in its famine, but to supply the woman with meal and oil till judgment is sent forth unto glorious victory. They are not to be slain by its Jezebel (Babylon), but to defeat her prophets, destroy her altars, and race before the chariot of the king proclaiming rain upon the earth.

"I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him (God) who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children (sons) of God. For the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (sonship), to wit, (which means), the redemption of our bodies." Rom. 8:18-23. This wonderful classic written by Paul on sonship shows what the true hope of mankind really is. May I further add that that hope is not confined to man but includes every creature and thing in the animal and vegetable world, and heaven itself is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.

We must now prepare to follow along into deeper waters. You will not be able to hear with natural ears nor understand with natural minds what I am now going to say. You must beg God to open the eyes of your understanding that you might know the hope and the purpose that lies before us, and I pray mightily th