The Rule of the Heavens # 59

A Primary Object of Present Divine Need (continued)

The New Vessel Comes In Only On the Ground of One History Ended

Well, now, this is the point, it was then that Saul of Tarsus, representing his nation and the whole Jewish dispensation, came to his end. He came to his end that day, that was the end, and this vessel only comes in on the ground of one history having been closed. It is a history that has been entirely closed from heaven; that introduces this vessel.

Paul never came in as a distinguished member of his elect nation, he came in as a man on the common level of men, dead in trespasses and sins, and the Lord from heaven never made anything of Paul, or Saul of Tarsus as a distinguished member of a chosen people. He dealt with him there and then as a common member of a sinful race, dead in trespasses and sins, subjected him as such to the assembly, and he got his instructions there. The Lord never made a fuss of Saul of Tarsus on the way to Damascus. He never recognized him as what he had been in the past history. He took him up as a common sinner, and that is why the apostle says: "Of whom I am chief." And he saw that all that he had in Judaism counted for nothing.

Now that is the background truth of the vessel, and what I am coming to now is this, that we never come in any relation to the testimony of Jesus as vessels, or as a part of the vessel, only on the ground that there has been an absolute closing of one history. It does not matter what that history has been religiously, traditionally, that history has to be closed and we can bring none of that with us. Our history begins by seeing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That is where this vessel commenced his history; he took his rise out of that.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 60 - (The Realm Where the Vessel Functions Supremely)