Saturday, November 25, 2017

A Job Experience # 3

A Job Experience # 3

The Work of the Holy Spirit In the Life and Experience of Job, continued -

Now, Paul and the others with him were not having suicidal thoughts anymore than Job was when he wished he had never been born (Job 3); or when Elijah requested for himself that he might die (1 Kings 19). Suicidal thoughts are always the work of the devil, they are never the work of the Holy Spirit. No! These people were in trouble and they were very, very discouraged; and all that they, themselves, had ever wanted to accomplish for the Lord seemed doomed to failure. They were "pressed out beyond all their natural ability, their natural strength, their natural sufficiencies. They found themselves in a place where anything that they could do would not change the situation. They had come to a place where the sufferings were so great, the afflictions so fierce, the trouble and pressures so weighed them down, that they wanted to give up; it seemed that they could not go any further. They were weak and insufficient and, to them, it seemed like the end. And it was the end! It was God's End! for God's End is that we be "pressed out of measure," and His Wise Reason for this is found in 2 Corinthians 1:9: "But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God Which raiseth the dead..."

So we see that Paul and the others were having a hard time: - they despaired of life; they were so anxious about Titus that they left an open door for the Gospel; Paul had fightings without and fears within, he also writes that he had asked the Lord three times to remove that which was "a thorn in the flesh"; etc., etc. However, a few years later we find this same Paul, who had been so pressed out of measure that he even despaired of life, writing to the Philippians these precious words as he faced certain death (he just did not know when):

"For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Phil. 1:21).

He says, "I do not know which to choose; I desire with all my heart to depart and be with Christ. And yet, to remain on in the flesh is more needful for you." What a dwelling place in Christ, what a reality in Christ, Paul had come into! He could now say with with full assurance and joy in the Lord:

"...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am,
therewith to be content.
I know both how to be abased,
and I know how to abound:
every where and in all things I am instructed
both to be full and to be hungry,
both to abound and to suffer need.
I have strength for all things in Christ
Who empowers me -
I am ready for anything and equal to anything
through Him Who infuses inner strength into me,
[that is, I am self-sufficient in Christ's sufficiency].
(Phil. 4:11 - 13).

Paul says, "I have learned how to be content in whatever state I am." And where and when did Paul learn this? He learned much of this through the experiences which he wrote about in 2 Corinthians; and if Paul and those with him could learn these things, so can we. We can, if we yield to the effectual work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, learn in "whatsoever state" we are in "therewith to be content," for the Holy Spirit will work into our lives the true reality of contentment in Christ - contentment which can say, no matter how difficult our situation may be, "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Spiritual Warfare Must Be Fought In Each and Every Age

It was about 27 years after the resurrection of Christ when the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write 2 Corinthians. Rome rules the known world, and the Roman Emperor Nero had been in power for about three years, and, as yet, there was not much indication of the great havoc he would cause against the people of God. However, in the unseen realm, a great spiritual battle was taking place and building to a world-shaking, age-convulsing climax. Two forces - one, Spiritual and Holy; and the other, religious and evil - were battling for the hearts of God's people. This same kind of unseen battle had taken place in Job's time, and in Noah's time, and in Daniel's time. And we know that this spiritual warfare must be fought in each age and generation; and this is because, even though satan knows he was completely triumphed over by Christ's death and resurrection, he is still doing his evil-all to stop the Church from becoming the Fullness of the One Who defeated him - the archenemy of God furiously rages against the Church because he knows he has no place, and never will have a place, in the realm in which Christ is All, and in All!

Therefore, as Paul was writing his letter to the Corinthians, the Church was about to face its greatest persecution thus far. The malignant hatred of satan against Christ was about to be unleashed upon them. And God was preparing them (and all Christians to come after them) for this great struggle; and through their sufferings, tribulations, and great pressures, they would come to know Him as "the Father of Mercies, and the God of all Comfort."

Beloved, when we are in the midst of great distress, we all need comfort; but we also need to realize that the comfort that proceeds from the natural man will not suffice when we are in the midst of the battle of the ages. Comfort that comes from the natural man, even if it comes from our closest and sincerest Christian friends, will not help us endure - the comfort that springs from the natural man will not produce a people who will endure until God has His End through His Way. And so it is important to know that the true comfort that has its source in God will always bring us into a fuller, and more intimate knowledge of our Christ.

In Luke 2:25, we are told that Christ, the Messiah, is The Consolation (the Comfort) of Israel. Now what does this mean? Israel had long hoped for their Messiah, the Christ of God: all of the Old Testament points to this. Israel was waiting for the Messiah to come and make their lives a better one in this world. They believed He would be King over the world and that they would be the privileged ones who would rule the world with Him.And they believed all things would then be wonderful and happy, and whatever it was that made them unhappy, weak, insufficient, sorrowful, afflicted or persecuted, etc., would be ended. And, if we are honest, most of us hope for similar things, particularly when we are in a very hard place, a place which presses us beyond measure. When we are in a place where there is nothing that can be done to remedy the situation, oh, how we desire to be out from under the pressure.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 4)

Saturday, November 18, 2017

A Job Experience # 2

A Job Experience # 2

In these glorious words, we are told that Christ is Head over "all things to the Church," and we are told that the Church, which is Christ's Body is the Fullness of Him Who fills all in all.

Beloved, on the one side, the Church (all the redeemed) reaches its Fullness - its Complete and full Development - in and through Christ, and, on the other side, Christ Himself finds His Fullness in the sum total of all that He brings into Living Union with Himself.

All these scriptures concerning fullness make it clear that the Fullness of Christ has always been God's End. Since the beginning of all things, all that God has done, and is doing, and will do, in and through the lives of His people is moving toward His End! Therefore, the main purpose in all of God's dealings with His own, as it was with Noah, Daniel, and Job, is to bring forth a greater measure of the Fullness of Christ. God did a full work in the lives of "these three men," but, of the three, perhaps Job is the greatest example of how God is working in a person's life in order to bring about His End. - "Ye have heard of the patience (the endurance) of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord (the outcome of the Lord's dealings), that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful" (James 5:11).

It is through the workings of the Holy Spirit that all that Christ is, and all that Christ accomplished, is made solid, real, substantial, complete, and entire in and through the lives and experiences of the people of God - people like Noah, Daniel, and Job, and people like us!

Now, in order for us to understand the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and in the lives of others, we need to have an ever-increasing comprehension of the Holy Spirit's greatest all-encompassing work. The Holy Spirit Who is all the accumulative energy, force, inherent strength, and might of the Omnipotent God, did His greatest work when He raised Christ from the dead. And in Ephesians 1:20, we are told of the exceeding greatness of this work which was "wrought in Christ," when Christ was raised from the dead.

"...which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right-hand in the heavenly places."

The word "wrought" (energeo in the Greek) speaks of that which was made alive, of that which was made operative, of that which was made active, of that which was energized, of that which was worked in Christ, when Christ was raised from the dead by the Holy Spirit of God. All that God had purposed in Christ was "wrought" in Christ when the Holy Spirit raised Him from the dead. - And let us remember when Christ was raised from the dead, all the redeemed were raised together with Him (Eph. 2:5, 6).

"So then death worketh (energeo) in us, but life in you."
death and life= Resurrection Life

The work of the Holy Spirit is an eternal work, and that which He works into, and through, the lives of God's people will always have eternal results.

So,as we consider the work of the Holy Spirit in the life and experience of Job, we are going to find that Job is not the only one to have such an experience. We will find that all who remain faithful unto God, all who endure until God has His End through His Way, will have Job's experience. We do not mean that those who remain faithful will have the exact same things happen to them that happened to Job, but we do mean that all who remain faithful will have the same deep spiritual experience of coming to the end of themselves! The faithful will come to the same place as Job in their life and experience, they will bow to the workings of God in their lives, and they will cry: "Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in duct and ashes"; then Job "prayed for his friends" (Job 42:6-10): - "So then death worketh (energeo) in us, but life in you."

Brethren, as we were praying and studying through the Book of Job, the Lord led us over and over again to the Book of 2 Corinthians and in 2 Corinthians we found the deep effectual working of the Holy Spirit in the life of Paul, and in the lives of those who are with him. In that book, they were having what we may call a Job experience, they were being brought to the end of themselves. It is important to realize that the work which the Holy Spirit does in the lives of God's people is an eternal work which produces eternal results in God's purpose. Also, we need to see that this work is a corporate work, it is never only an individual work in an individual person. The effectual working of the Holy Spirit is always a corporate work: it is a corporate work, whether it be in an individual or in a local body, or in a group such as Paul, Timothy, Titus, etc.; or whether it be in "these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job" - three men who are eternally linked together, even though they lived at different times and in different periods of history. The work that the Holy Spirit does in the lives of God's people is a corporate work, because all that the Holy Spirit "worketh" has one goal, one aim, one end, and that is that Christ be all, and in all.

Thus, the work that the Holy Spirit did in Noah, Daniel, and Job, and that effectual work He did in Paul and Timothy and Titus, etc., etc., cannot be complete without the effectual work He is doing in us, and in those who come after us. Only then will Christ be all, and in all.

Consequently, in 2 Corinthians, we see that Paul and the others with him are in the throes of what we may call a Job experience; and in such an experience, the Holy Spirit is at work bringing them to the end of themselves, so that the fullness of Christ becomes a living reality in their lives. Thus we find Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writing to the Corinthians, and to us, of this experience; for Paul knows that if the Corinthians, and all Christians who come after them, are to remain faithful unto the Lord until God has His End through His Way, that they must also experience the reality of their being brought to the end of themselves. Paul writes: "For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia,that we were pressed out of measure, above strength (beyond our strength) insomuch that we despaired even of life."

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 3)

Saturday, November 11, 2017

A Job Experience # 1

A Job Experience # 1

The Work of the Holy Spirit in the Life and Experience of Job, i.e. - In the Lives of God's People

In this book, we are going to consider the work of the Holy Spirit in the life and experience of Job; and we must consider this in the light of God's Eternal Purpose in Christ. This will lead us right into the great spiritual conflict that is taking place in the heavenlies. In the Body of Christ, those who are on the front lines of this intense spiritual conflict are those who are committed to intercessory prayer: they are committed to intercession that has one intent, one purpose, and one motive, and that is that God have His End through His Way - and that Way is always the Way of the Cross, and its principles of self-denial.

This kind of intercession becomes a progressive reality and power in and through our lives in the measure that we yield ourselves to the chastening of the Lord. Therefore, the measure in which we yield to the chastening and the discipline and the training and the correction and the purging of the Lord is the measure that we are being filled with, and controlled by, the Holy Spirit; consequently, true intercession - effectual prayer that results in God's End - can only be realized in our lives as we submit to the chastening of the Lord! God laid down this basis principle of chastening and intercession right from the beginning of the Recorded Word, in what is probably one of the oldest books in the Bible, Job. Here we find one of the greatest examples of God's principle of chastening, which results in intercession, and we find it in the life and experience of Job.

In His Word, God places great value upon Job as an intercessor, for in Ezekiel 14:14 we find him in the company of two other effectual prayer warriors, Noah and Daniel! When all else was against them, these three men - Noah, Daniel, and Job - stood at all cost for God's End: they endured, they remained faithful, and they submitted to God's dealings in their lives until God had His End through His Way. And in doing so, "these three men" participated in the great unseen battle that was taking place in the heavenlies - they participated in the battle which would consummate "all things in Christ" and at the same time destroy the works of the enemy.

In the fiercest of times "these three men" interceded and prevailed on the behalf of others, and on the behalf of God. Noah stood in faith and travailed for the saving of his family and for the continuance of the human race and, most important of all, for the preserving of "The Seed", which is Christ. Daniel interceded for the nation of Israel and for the "remnant" (The remnant" from each and every age) which would build and restore the temple - the spiritual house of God. And Job, who went through some of the fiercest trials that man can face, prayed for his friends - he interceded for those who, when he needed them most, had been unkind, judgmental, and needlessly cruel to him - perhaps this is one of the greatest tests of all - and when Job, the one who God called "My servant," prayed for his friends, the Lord turned Job's captivity and abundantly blessed him. And we shall see as we go on that Job's blessings had much more than an earthly or natural significance, for God had prepared Job to be a vessel of eternal intercession, a vessel through whom the God of all comfort could freely flow.

Therefore, in Ezekiel 14:14-20, in order to emphasize this kind of intercession ... intercession that produces that which God intends... the Holy Spirit three times refers to "these three men." And three is the number of Divine fullness, and Divine fullness will be the central theme as we consider the life and experience of Job in the light of God's full purpose in Christ. We shall see that the number three, as it is used in connection with "these three men", indicates that God brought forth His fullness in and through the lives of Noah, Daniel, and Job. Let us examine why.

In the Scripture, the word "fullness" is used three times to describe the Divine Fullness:

The Fullness of God (Eph. 3:19)
The Fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13)
The Fullness of the Godhead (Col. 2:9).

Now each time the word "fullness" is used in the above scriptures, it is used in connection with the work that God is doing in the lives of His people, in order that they may become the fullness of Christ - 

...that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God (Eph. 3:19).

...till we all come...unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13)

For in Him (in Christ) the whole fullness of Deity (the fullness of the Godhead) dwells in bodily form, and in Him you have been made complete (made full and have come to fullness of life) (Col. 2:9-10).

This great work of God - to bring about the fullness of Christ in the lives of His people - is summed up in Ephesians 1:22 and 23 where the word "fullness" is used to describe Christ and His body:

And He (God) put all things in subjection under His (Christ's) feet, and gave Him as Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(continued with # 2)

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Christ In Heaven And Christ Within # 4

Christ In Heaven And Christ Within # 4

The Subjective Side

That does not cover all the ground, but it must be enough on that side for the moment. We turn just for a moment to the other side - Christ in us, or the subjective work of Christ. What does Christ in us mean? We know from the Word that it means conformity to the image of Christ. Paul uses the phrase: "Until Christ be (fully) formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). In salvation we have everything as to our own perfection in Him. When we receive Christ we receive within us potentially all that is in Him as to His present character - not only His position but His character, mark you. It is not where He is but WHAT He is. It is not now what He possesses but what He is. He possesses our salvation,but we know what He is, and "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2). So that all that He has given to us potentially when we believed is there to be developed; and, as Paul says, Christ is to be fully formed in us, and we are to be conformed to the image of God's Son. That is a very wonderful thing. It is: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ in us means that eventually we shall be like Him to the full. But this is not the fact of our being saved, this is the object of our being saved. This is not salvation in its fundamental and initial meaning: this is salvation in its out-working to its full meaning, the image of Christ, God's Son.

Identification With Christ

How do we accept that? We accept that by recognizing the second side of Calvary's work. The one side - the objective - is what Christ has done for us, apart from us, in His own Person. We accept this other side of conformity to His image - the subjective - by accepting that Christ not only did that for us but as us, that is, representatively. We come to Romans 6 and recognize that when Christ died we died, when Christ was buried we were buried. That is His representative work. Now we accept all that in simple faith at the beginning; but, mark you, that does not become operative in any full measure until the objective side has been settled. There must be a settlement, definitely, positively, finally, that our salvation in Christ is perfect and complete, before there can be any full measure of the out-working of Christ in our hearts. The Lord must have that basis upon which to work.

This is where the danger comes in with a great blessing. Oh! it is a great revelation, a wonderful unveiling, that God has chosen to make us like Christ - not only to save us with a perfect salvation so that the question of sin and condemnation is answered finally and for ever, but to conform us to the image of His Son; what a revelation, what a blessing! Yes, but God cannot do that second thing until the first thing is settled, because it is in that realm that there is unspeakable peril. What is the peril? It is this:

The Peril Of The Subjective Apprehension

If the Lord were to get to work to empty us of ourselves in order to make room for the Lord Jesus; to show us ourselves in order to show us the Lord Jesus; to make us to know what we are in ourselves in order to make us know what Christ is in us; to make us know our weakness in order to make Christ's strength perfect in it; to make us know our foolishness in order to make Christ as our wisdom, perfect in us; if He were to start to do that and the question of our salvation were not settled, the devil would jump in at once and use God's very work against us, and when the Lord was dealing with us to make room for His Son, the devil would begin to say: 'You are under condemnation, God is against you, these very dealings of God with you are proofs that your salvation is not certain.' And so it is with a great many in whom the Lord begins to work out things. They allow the enemy to jump in and take hold of the very work of God and turn it against God, by bringing up doubts in their hearts as to their salvation.

Do you see that? So often that is done, and the peril is there, running right alongside of the greatest blessing all the time. It is thus that the enemy tries to use God's truth against God.

Now the subjective side of God's work demands for its effective outworking that we are settled once and for all as to our salvation; that comes first! If you have only the one side, the objective, and all your emphasis is upon that, you may be shallow and you may not grow spiritually. If you dwell only on the subjective, you become introspective and begin to doubt your salvation; your eyes are always turned in upon yourself, and the result is that you begin to look for something in yourself that an commend itself to God; and therein lies a denial of the perfect work of salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus. You see it is an undermining and undercutting of the whole of the work of Calvary. These two things must go together. On the one hand - fully and finally in Christ we are as perfect in the hour when we believe as ever we shall be. On the other hand - all that is in Christ is going to be made, not theoretically true, but actually true in us by the Holy Spirit. But the second demands the first, and we must keep the balance. We must rejoice always in the fact that our names are written in heaven, that we are saved with a perfect salvation; but, on the other hand, we must remember that there is something that the Lord wants to do - not to make salvation true, but to make the image of Christ an inward thing. That is the outworking of salvation.

So this balance is necessary, and we must give equal emphasis. If we over-emphasize the subjective we take something from the glory of Christ. If we over-emphasize the objective we take something from God's purpose. It is a matter of the work of God in Christ, and the purpose of God in Christ: and these two things must both have their place.

May the Lord give us understanding, so that we come into a place of rest and are delivered from the perils which lurk in the vicinity of every Divine blessing.

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(The End)