The Great Transition From One Humanity To Another # 3
Humanity Is God's End, continued
When we get under the hand of God, we are going through it. What are you expecting this week? When you go away from here, you will meet friends and they will say, "Have you had a happy time?" I think I told you before of a conference I was at once. At the end, testimonies were asked for from the ministers as to what the conference had meant to them; one and another got up and said, "Oh, I have had a wonderful time; I have had a glorious time; this has been the best time of my life, ..." and so on. And then one man got up, his eyes were red, his face was strained; he said, "I do not understand this; I have had an awful time. This week has meant devastation to me. Everything that I held as important is gone. I am left with a necessity for a new Christ, a bigger Christ than ever I have known." What are you expecting this week? Well, I hope you have a good time! But your "good time," dear friends, in the light of eternity may be a very bad time. When it comes to seeing the real fruit, it may come out of a devastation.
What is God doing? - He is devastating one kind of humanity. We are going to see that as we go on from day to day. He is doing it. I do not know what your experience is, but I know it is mine. I know it is the experience of many of the most used and blessed servants of God - that they are going through a terrible time. Spiritually they have come to the place, where if the Lord, the Lord does not really stand by and take over and see them through, it is an end even of their long spiritual experience. All the past will not stand unless the Lord comes in in a new way. Is not that true with many? Yes, that is what He is doing. He is working on this very ground of the two humanities - one being that which we are by nature; and the Other, that which we are in Christ.
So, what we are occupied with at this time is first of all, to behold the Man, TO BEHOLD THE MAN. And I would pray, and do pray, that when this week is finished, we shall be able to truly express our hearts in those wonderful words of a poet known to many of you. These are some lines from that wonderful poem:
"Christ"
I am Christ's, and let that Name suffice me.
Aye, and for me He greatly hath sufficed.
Yea, through life, through death, through sorrow, and through suffering,
He shall suffice me, for He hath sufficed.
Christ is the end, for Christ was the beginning.
Christ the beginning, for the end is Christ.
Those words express what we would all like to be the issue of this time - Christ.
A New Captivation of Christ.
A New, Wonderful Appreciation of Christ.
A New Seeing Of the Significance of Christ In God's Universe
Now for these remaining few minutes of the introduction, I want to just pinpoint this one thing. Have you recognized, (perhaps you have without putting it in these words) have you recognized that the very heart and pivot of our Bible is an immense transition? The heart of the Bible is where the Old Testament ends and the New Testament begins, for here are two halves of human history, of humanity. Right there, at that point we come on this great immense transition. The New Testament is wholly taken up with the meaning and the nature, the fact of this transition, this movement from one thing to Another in humanity.
You will recall so much in your New Testament when I just mention these things. First of all it is a transition from one man to Another, from Adam to Christ. We read that in 1 Corinthians 15: "the first man," He called 'him? ..." No, He called "them" man (Gen. 5:2). That is racial; that is humanity. He called them. That is very simple - the first man, Adam. It is the same thing, "Adam" and "man," as you noticed in the margin of Genesis 5. "He called them "man." And the New Testament wholly bears upon this transition from one humanity to Another, from one racial head and inclusive person to Another. It is a New Humanity, going beyond transition then, which is a racial one, from Adam to Christ, from the first man to the last Man.
Secondly, there is a transition from one nation to Another. I know there is room for a lot of controversy there about Israel; nevertheless, the New Testament and Christ Himself came down on this quite emphatically: "The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you (that is, Israel), and shall be given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof." Heavenly Fruit, not earthly. Transition from one nation to Another.
And Peter, oh, Peter! I am amazed at Peter, are you not?! That erstwhile Judaistic traditionalist who had a battle with the Lord over Gentiles in Caesarea, going to the house of Cornelius and even saying in a contradiction of terms to the Lord, "Not so, Lord." You cannot put those words together - "Lord" and "Not so." The other man, Paul, you remember when he met Christ, said: "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?" But Peter has not got out of his tradition quite yet; and even at Antioch - dissimulation. When James and the elders came down from Jerusalem, Peter withdrew himself from eating with the Gentiles. He has still got a little bit of grave clothes left on him, but marvel of marvels, when you come to his letters he is out. "Ye are the elect race." Who? - The saints scattered throughout Pontius, Galatia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia. An elect race. He is out of the one nation, now into the Other. The transition has been consummated in this man. But it was a battle. Always a battle over this old association with the natural man. We are going to see much more of that.
Then it is a transition from one economy to the Other. Your letter to the Hebrews is one solid argument for this transition. I am so impressed with the constant recurrence in the New Testament of one phrase which leads out with linking words: the phrase is "Not, But." John began that, did he not? Christ said to the woman of Samaria: "Not in this mountain, nor at Jerusalem, but in spirit." (John 4:21, 24). "Not, nor, but" - and you find that occurring again and again.
And here you come to this great transition from one economy to Another, the old economy taking in the great ministry of angels: that is a subject for a morning in itself. The ministry of angels in the old economy. The law was given through angels. Angels came again and again to Gideon, to Daniel. The archangels, marvelous ministry of angels - but the Letter to the Hebrews opens up, "Not unto angels ... but" - "Not, But" - what a change! And the following argument is that this New Economy infinitely transcends the ministry of angels.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 4)
Wednesday, May 10, 2017
Saturday, May 6, 2017
The Great Transition From One Humanity to Another # 2
The Great Transition From One Humanity to Another # 2
Now do you not agree with me that we have got too near things, and we have made things the everything? Is that true? Yes, even our Christian doctrine - and it is precious and important and vital and essential - yet, we have isolated our doctrines and made them the everything. We can make even the doctrine of the Cross the everything, and I can mention many other things which are like a circumscribed circle for many Christians today. They cannot see beyond that, and they cannot see anything more than that. If you talk to them, they have no interest in anything but that. They come back to it every time and hold you to it. This loss of proportion and perspective and vision in its entirety is the cause of many of our problems and much of our arrested spiritual life.
Now why am I saying this? For two reasons. You will have to get a larger vision than your personal problems and see them in a related way. I do not know very much about the science of relativity, but I come down very strongly on the principle of relatedness or relativity. We must see everything in its relatedness to everything else, and not just things as an end in themselves. I want to share with you this morning what is on my heart, and what is so much alive to me now is this comprehensive setting of the spiritual life, getting it in its greatness, its vastness, its immensity.
Now immensity can, of course, be awe-inspiring to the point of making you stand still and hold your breath. But immensity can also be an emancipating thing. You see the greatness of that into which we have been called in Christ! The Greatness of Christ! Oh, if we could this week get a new apprehension, grasp, of the infinitudes of our Christian calling, we would go away an emancipated people. And in that setting then, let us begin.
Humanity Is God's End
This morning we have read many passages in the Bible, and I would have liked to have added many more of the same kind, but these are enough as a starting point. Do you recognize what they are all about? From Genesis, the beginning, right through the Scriptures, it is one thing: man. No, it is two men, and what we are going to be occupied with is this double humanity, or two humanities, for they are the subject matter of the whole Bible. The Bible is the story of God and man, and everything is gathered into that; nothing is in the Bible but what relates to that.
Of course, the Bible begins with God: "In the beginning God..." First we have the fat of God. This is where you start, and you are not far along before you come upon man. Human history begins with God, God a a fact - God initiating everything, taking the initiative; God at work - God's mind working out in action, in what He does. Remember that is a Bible principle. If you want to know the mind of God, you will come to know it by what God does and not always by what He says to do. More often, God's mind is revealed by how He deals with you than by what He says in words in your ear.
God is speaking in His actions, speaking very loudly in His works. God's mind is being revealed in His actions; God is at work, at work preparing everything for man. When He has made that preparation and brought man in, God says: "There is nothing more to do; at this stage, We can rest." And God is at rest when He has man introduced into his prepared place and scene.
That man Adam, the New Testament tells us, is a figure of Him that was to come, in Whom God will ultimately find His full rest. Man constituted; the man conditioned; the man environed; the man probationed. All God's interests are centered in humanity; not in things, as such. No thing is an end with God. Man is God's end. Humanity is God's end.
With this thought, we are right back there in the very center of the interests of God, humanity. But that man Adam disappointed God, failed Him, and was rejected by God. And at that point, God reacted, reacted with the intimation of Another One. Another Man, a Representative Man, Whom God had foreordained before the foundation of the world. This Man is foreordained and then forecast, foreshadowed; and that line of the reaction of God toward the Man, against this other man, runs all the way through like a red line through the Old Testament. In figures, in type, in prophecy, in the spiritual history of an elect line, all moving on toward that Other Man, that Other Humanity, the different Humanity, until we reach the New Testament.
The New Testament is the crisis of humanity. Have you thought of Christianity like that? Or have you thought of Christianity only in its parts, its fragments,such as the Atonement for a man's sin, man's personal salvation, man's securing of eternal hope and glory. There are all parts of salvation, and we have made so much of them. Well, you cannot make too much of the parts, of course, until you reach the point where the parts become less than the whole; and, dear friends, we have got to readjust our conception and idea of Christianity at this point to see that with the coming of the Lord Jesus, a crisis in the whole history of humanity is reached. It is the crisis of the final word of rejection of a humanity, a kind of man, and the introduction of an entirely different kind of Humanity with the Person of Jesus Christ. When you grasp that, your whole Bible is going to come alive; it will come alive.
What have we come into? What is regeneration? You call it conversion, being "born again," or you call it regeneration. What is it that we have come into? - It is generation into Another Humanity altogether different as a member of a different race of creatures, a different species of Humanity. With the New Testament, this immense crisis in human history is introduced, a crisis of humanity. Another Humanity is introduced with our New Testament, the full and final type of Humanity that God is going to have; and, the tremendous thing is, all that belongs to the perfection of man is found in this Representative One. That is introduced with our New Testament.
Jesus stands in a unique relation to the human race, and do you not see how rays of light focus upon this great fact? What is it that God is doing? - with you, with me, as a bit of this humanity. What is He doing? What is He after? What is the explanation of our experience under the hand of God?
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 3)
Now do you not agree with me that we have got too near things, and we have made things the everything? Is that true? Yes, even our Christian doctrine - and it is precious and important and vital and essential - yet, we have isolated our doctrines and made them the everything. We can make even the doctrine of the Cross the everything, and I can mention many other things which are like a circumscribed circle for many Christians today. They cannot see beyond that, and they cannot see anything more than that. If you talk to them, they have no interest in anything but that. They come back to it every time and hold you to it. This loss of proportion and perspective and vision in its entirety is the cause of many of our problems and much of our arrested spiritual life.
Now why am I saying this? For two reasons. You will have to get a larger vision than your personal problems and see them in a related way. I do not know very much about the science of relativity, but I come down very strongly on the principle of relatedness or relativity. We must see everything in its relatedness to everything else, and not just things as an end in themselves. I want to share with you this morning what is on my heart, and what is so much alive to me now is this comprehensive setting of the spiritual life, getting it in its greatness, its vastness, its immensity.
Now immensity can, of course, be awe-inspiring to the point of making you stand still and hold your breath. But immensity can also be an emancipating thing. You see the greatness of that into which we have been called in Christ! The Greatness of Christ! Oh, if we could this week get a new apprehension, grasp, of the infinitudes of our Christian calling, we would go away an emancipated people. And in that setting then, let us begin.
Humanity Is God's End
This morning we have read many passages in the Bible, and I would have liked to have added many more of the same kind, but these are enough as a starting point. Do you recognize what they are all about? From Genesis, the beginning, right through the Scriptures, it is one thing: man. No, it is two men, and what we are going to be occupied with is this double humanity, or two humanities, for they are the subject matter of the whole Bible. The Bible is the story of God and man, and everything is gathered into that; nothing is in the Bible but what relates to that.
Of course, the Bible begins with God: "In the beginning God..." First we have the fat of God. This is where you start, and you are not far along before you come upon man. Human history begins with God, God a a fact - God initiating everything, taking the initiative; God at work - God's mind working out in action, in what He does. Remember that is a Bible principle. If you want to know the mind of God, you will come to know it by what God does and not always by what He says to do. More often, God's mind is revealed by how He deals with you than by what He says in words in your ear.
God is speaking in His actions, speaking very loudly in His works. God's mind is being revealed in His actions; God is at work, at work preparing everything for man. When He has made that preparation and brought man in, God says: "There is nothing more to do; at this stage, We can rest." And God is at rest when He has man introduced into his prepared place and scene.
That man Adam, the New Testament tells us, is a figure of Him that was to come, in Whom God will ultimately find His full rest. Man constituted; the man conditioned; the man environed; the man probationed. All God's interests are centered in humanity; not in things, as such. No thing is an end with God. Man is God's end. Humanity is God's end.
With this thought, we are right back there in the very center of the interests of God, humanity. But that man Adam disappointed God, failed Him, and was rejected by God. And at that point, God reacted, reacted with the intimation of Another One. Another Man, a Representative Man, Whom God had foreordained before the foundation of the world. This Man is foreordained and then forecast, foreshadowed; and that line of the reaction of God toward the Man, against this other man, runs all the way through like a red line through the Old Testament. In figures, in type, in prophecy, in the spiritual history of an elect line, all moving on toward that Other Man, that Other Humanity, the different Humanity, until we reach the New Testament.
The New Testament is the crisis of humanity. Have you thought of Christianity like that? Or have you thought of Christianity only in its parts, its fragments,such as the Atonement for a man's sin, man's personal salvation, man's securing of eternal hope and glory. There are all parts of salvation, and we have made so much of them. Well, you cannot make too much of the parts, of course, until you reach the point where the parts become less than the whole; and, dear friends, we have got to readjust our conception and idea of Christianity at this point to see that with the coming of the Lord Jesus, a crisis in the whole history of humanity is reached. It is the crisis of the final word of rejection of a humanity, a kind of man, and the introduction of an entirely different kind of Humanity with the Person of Jesus Christ. When you grasp that, your whole Bible is going to come alive; it will come alive.
What have we come into? What is regeneration? You call it conversion, being "born again," or you call it regeneration. What is it that we have come into? - It is generation into Another Humanity altogether different as a member of a different race of creatures, a different species of Humanity. With the New Testament, this immense crisis in human history is introduced, a crisis of humanity. Another Humanity is introduced with our New Testament, the full and final type of Humanity that God is going to have; and, the tremendous thing is, all that belongs to the perfection of man is found in this Representative One. That is introduced with our New Testament.
Jesus stands in a unique relation to the human race, and do you not see how rays of light focus upon this great fact? What is it that God is doing? - with you, with me, as a bit of this humanity. What is He doing? What is He after? What is the explanation of our experience under the hand of God?
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 3)
Wednesday, May 3, 2017
The Great Transition From One Humanity to Another # 1
The Great Transition From One Humanity To Another # 1
This book contains a series of messages given at a conference in July, 1968, by our brother T. Austin-Sparks just shortly before he went to be with our Heavenly Father in glory. Having received so many spiritual benefits from these messages, we feel that God would have us to share them with the Church, His Body.
Therefore, in an effort to retain the Holy Spirit's anointing upon them, we have sought to preserve these addresses in their original spoken form, with very little grammatical correction. We feel our brother Sparks has left behind an abundant spiritual legacy for the members of Christ's Body because we have found these messages have brought us into a fuller and greater revelation of the Heavenly Man. And so it is our sincere prayer to God that this book will help furnish in His Body what is needed until we all come to see what Paul saw in the Heavenly New Man of glory.
________________________
The New Testament: The Great Transition
Our Father, our God, we ask Thee now that Thou, Who didst say "Let light be," will shine into our hearts at this time "To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is that face we together have said we are seeking now. We seek Thy Face. We thank Thee that the veil is taken away. We thank Thee that the heaven is open. We thank Thee that the Holy Spirit has come. What we pray for is our need - so deeply conscious we are of it - our own impotence and helplessness, our inability to do anything, to say anything worthy of Thyself. O Lord, we confess utter dependence upon Thee, but we say to Thee, Lord, we trust Thee. Now make this then a time of entering into the good of that opened heaven, that anointing Spirit, that revelation in the Face of Jesus Christ. We ask it in His Name, Amen.
I want to lay the foundation for our meditation in this morning session, the first session of this week, by asking you to turn to several passages of Scripture from the Old Testament and from the New. Beginning in the Book of Genesis at chapter five, verse two, it states:
Male and female created He them, and blessed them, and called their name, man."
Now come over to the New Testament in the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verses 45-49.
"So also it is written, the first man became a living soul. The last Adam a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy, the second Man is of heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall (or let us) also bear the image of the heavenly."
And then, please, in the Letter to the Colossians, chapter three at verse nine:
"Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doing, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him That created him; where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all."
And finally, in the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter two at verse five, it says:
"For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak. But one has somewhere testified, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of Man, that Thou visitest Him?"
As I have said, in this morning session we are laying the foundation for our meditations. We shall be somewhat general and comprehensive and later work inward to get to the real heart of things, however, first it is necessary for us to have a comprehensive view and vision of what is before us.
I have no doubt that not a few of you who are here at this time have come with problems, and I find that Christians everywhere the world over are full of problems in our time. If it is not problems about their own spiritual life and themselves (as it is in many cases), it is problems about other Christians; or it is problems about the Church generally and, perhaps, locally. Also, there are problems about the world. These problems are manifold, and they are apt to drain our spiritual life and get us very much locked up and held up in our spiritual progress. It is like that. A lot of Christians are doing that today. They are missing the glory because their eyes are either turned inward or earthward: that is their problem.
You remember when the people of Israel were going over the Jordan into the promised land: the Word to them was this, "You shall set the ark,a space between you and the ark, of two thousand cubits, because you have not passed this way heretofore" (Josh. 3:3, 4 paraphrased). There is a wealth, a mine of profound wisdom, in that simple prescription: "a space of two thousand cubits between you and the ark, because you have not passed this way heretofore." If you get too close to things, you will lose your perspective and you will lose your way. Do not get too near. Keep things in proportions, in perspective.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 2)
This book contains a series of messages given at a conference in July, 1968, by our brother T. Austin-Sparks just shortly before he went to be with our Heavenly Father in glory. Having received so many spiritual benefits from these messages, we feel that God would have us to share them with the Church, His Body.
Therefore, in an effort to retain the Holy Spirit's anointing upon them, we have sought to preserve these addresses in their original spoken form, with very little grammatical correction. We feel our brother Sparks has left behind an abundant spiritual legacy for the members of Christ's Body because we have found these messages have brought us into a fuller and greater revelation of the Heavenly Man. And so it is our sincere prayer to God that this book will help furnish in His Body what is needed until we all come to see what Paul saw in the Heavenly New Man of glory.
________________________
The New Testament: The Great Transition
Our Father, our God, we ask Thee now that Thou, Who didst say "Let light be," will shine into our hearts at this time "To give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is that face we together have said we are seeking now. We seek Thy Face. We thank Thee that the veil is taken away. We thank Thee that the heaven is open. We thank Thee that the Holy Spirit has come. What we pray for is our need - so deeply conscious we are of it - our own impotence and helplessness, our inability to do anything, to say anything worthy of Thyself. O Lord, we confess utter dependence upon Thee, but we say to Thee, Lord, we trust Thee. Now make this then a time of entering into the good of that opened heaven, that anointing Spirit, that revelation in the Face of Jesus Christ. We ask it in His Name, Amen.
I want to lay the foundation for our meditation in this morning session, the first session of this week, by asking you to turn to several passages of Scripture from the Old Testament and from the New. Beginning in the Book of Genesis at chapter five, verse two, it states:
Male and female created He them, and blessed them, and called their name, man."
Now come over to the New Testament in the First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter fifteen, verses 45-49.
"So also it is written, the first man became a living soul. The last Adam a life-giving Spirit. Howbeit that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; then that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy, the second Man is of heaven. As is the earthly, such are they also that are earthly: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall (or let us) also bear the image of the heavenly."
And then, please, in the Letter to the Colossians, chapter three at verse nine:
"Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his doing, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him That created him; where there cannot be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all."
And finally, in the Letter to the Hebrews, chapter two at verse five, it says:
"For not unto angels did He subject the world to come, whereof we speak. But one has somewhere testified, saying, 'What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Or the son of Man, that Thou visitest Him?"
As I have said, in this morning session we are laying the foundation for our meditations. We shall be somewhat general and comprehensive and later work inward to get to the real heart of things, however, first it is necessary for us to have a comprehensive view and vision of what is before us.
I have no doubt that not a few of you who are here at this time have come with problems, and I find that Christians everywhere the world over are full of problems in our time. If it is not problems about their own spiritual life and themselves (as it is in many cases), it is problems about other Christians; or it is problems about the Church generally and, perhaps, locally. Also, there are problems about the world. These problems are manifold, and they are apt to drain our spiritual life and get us very much locked up and held up in our spiritual progress. It is like that. A lot of Christians are doing that today. They are missing the glory because their eyes are either turned inward or earthward: that is their problem.
You remember when the people of Israel were going over the Jordan into the promised land: the Word to them was this, "You shall set the ark,a space between you and the ark, of two thousand cubits, because you have not passed this way heretofore" (Josh. 3:3, 4 paraphrased). There is a wealth, a mine of profound wisdom, in that simple prescription: "a space of two thousand cubits between you and the ark, because you have not passed this way heretofore." If you get too close to things, you will lose your perspective and you will lose your way. Do not get too near. Keep things in proportions, in perspective.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 2)
Saturday, April 29, 2017
The Release of the Lord # 6
The Release of the Lord # 6
"We straitly charged you not to teach IN THIS NAME," said the High Priest, but they rejoiced that "they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor FOR THE NAME." (Acts 5:28, 41).
So it goes on and on. The Name is the power and passion throughout.
But it is more than a title or designation. It is the "content" of the name. What was it, and is it, that is contained in the Name?
Firstly, the Name embodies:
1. The Victory of a Nature
In Philippians 2:9, we are told that Jesus, as a reward for His condescension, humiliation,and obedience unto death, was given "the name which is above every name." This represented among other things the triumph of an unsullied and unblemished nature. Sinless, He carried His robes of character through every "temptation common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13), and "offered Himself without spot unto God" (Hebrews 9:14). The world, evil men and the powers of darkness combined to corrupt or entrap Him and blemish His character, but, even when "He Who knew no sin was made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) and "bare our sins in His body upon the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), His own spirit remained unbending and undefiled. This victory cut the ground from under the feet of the evil powers. "The prince of this world came and had nothing" in Him (John 14:30). The Name is the embodiment of tried and proved holiness: hence it is the ground and instrument of victory for the sinner over sin, and for the believer over satan and the evil powers.
2. The Victory of Meekness
This is a feature that is made much of in the Scriptures. It is that which lies within the so-often-used- symbol of The Lamb. The essence of meekness is selflessness. Unresisting, unassuming disinterestedness and teachableness, these are its marks. In its spiritual power and moral values, meekness is the most far-reaching virtue of all. The ruin of creation and man; the distance and discord between man and God; the rift in the universe, and the bitter and terrible entail of sin and death, with all the sorrow and suffering of a disrupted order: all this is due to that satanic pride which led its aspirant to set his throne "above the stars of God," to be "like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13, 14); and, on being hurled from his high place, to conspire to wreck God's word and to dishonor His Name. The One Who would undertake the immense task of undoing and rectifying this damage and vindicating THAT NAME must Himself be without the slightest trace of the evil thing - pride; He must, indeed, be the very personification of its opposite. No ground suitable to satan's victory must be found in Him, for satan cannot cast out satan (Mark 3:23). That little phrase, "He humbled Himself" (Phil. 2:8), speaks of one of the mightiest and most potent forces in God's moral and spiritual universe.
The NAME, then, represents all that satan-undoing virtue, hence its potency when used in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. The Victory of Love
This universe is shot through and through with hate. From that primal hatred of God mentioned above, the work of the evil powers is ever to turn man against God, and to make man - as God's chief creation - destroy himself by mistrust, suspicion, fear, jealousy, rivalry, sin, and a thousand other ways. Into such a world, there came One Who should declare and demonstrate the love of God, and inculcate His love in a new creation: it was the inbreathing of the Spirit of love; the planting of the Vine, the fruit of which is love. You will find that the New Testament, when you trace this matter of love through it, is just the Testament of Love. The Cross of Christ is where all the hate in the universe - human and satanic - converged and overflowed, and where all the love of God met and defeated it. That victory is embodied IN THE NAME. No one can hate another and bear THE NAME OF CHRIST.
How much more is gathered into THE NAME! The power of truth; the victory of faith; and so much more. It is indeed a MIGHTY NAME, in Heaven and earth, and hell. The Holy Spirit knows all its meaning, nature, and content; and when He came to vindicate and glorify THAT NAME, and the Church lived and worked under His anointing, "mighty things" happened IN THE NAME.
The recovery of faith in THE NAME, with a new appreciation of its significance and a return to its ground, would prove that it is no less potent now than it was then. But there must be an all-dominating passion for its honor - a single-minded jealousy that will govern all things with the one consideration: Is this glorifying to THE NAME OF JESUS?
So THE NAME is not merely a formula to be appended to our prayers or professions. It is a power: but its potency demands that everything correspond to an be governed by the Spirit and character of its Divine Bearer. We may take THE NAME upon our lips, but, as it happened with the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:4), the evil powers may turn and rend us because they do not recognize the person: "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?" THE NAME must be taken and used in the power of the Spirit, and that power is only found where Jesus is truly present in unoffended good pleasure.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
"We straitly charged you not to teach IN THIS NAME," said the High Priest, but they rejoiced that "they were counted worthy to suffer dishonor FOR THE NAME." (Acts 5:28, 41).
So it goes on and on. The Name is the power and passion throughout.
But it is more than a title or designation. It is the "content" of the name. What was it, and is it, that is contained in the Name?
Firstly, the Name embodies:
1. The Victory of a Nature
In Philippians 2:9, we are told that Jesus, as a reward for His condescension, humiliation,and obedience unto death, was given "the name which is above every name." This represented among other things the triumph of an unsullied and unblemished nature. Sinless, He carried His robes of character through every "temptation common to man" (1 Cor. 10:13), and "offered Himself without spot unto God" (Hebrews 9:14). The world, evil men and the powers of darkness combined to corrupt or entrap Him and blemish His character, but, even when "He Who knew no sin was made sin for us" (2 Cor. 5:21) and "bare our sins in His body upon the tree" (1 Peter 2:24), His own spirit remained unbending and undefiled. This victory cut the ground from under the feet of the evil powers. "The prince of this world came and had nothing" in Him (John 14:30). The Name is the embodiment of tried and proved holiness: hence it is the ground and instrument of victory for the sinner over sin, and for the believer over satan and the evil powers.
2. The Victory of Meekness
This is a feature that is made much of in the Scriptures. It is that which lies within the so-often-used- symbol of The Lamb. The essence of meekness is selflessness. Unresisting, unassuming disinterestedness and teachableness, these are its marks. In its spiritual power and moral values, meekness is the most far-reaching virtue of all. The ruin of creation and man; the distance and discord between man and God; the rift in the universe, and the bitter and terrible entail of sin and death, with all the sorrow and suffering of a disrupted order: all this is due to that satanic pride which led its aspirant to set his throne "above the stars of God," to be "like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:13, 14); and, on being hurled from his high place, to conspire to wreck God's word and to dishonor His Name. The One Who would undertake the immense task of undoing and rectifying this damage and vindicating THAT NAME must Himself be without the slightest trace of the evil thing - pride; He must, indeed, be the very personification of its opposite. No ground suitable to satan's victory must be found in Him, for satan cannot cast out satan (Mark 3:23). That little phrase, "He humbled Himself" (Phil. 2:8), speaks of one of the mightiest and most potent forces in God's moral and spiritual universe.
The NAME, then, represents all that satan-undoing virtue, hence its potency when used in the power of the Holy Spirit.
3. The Victory of Love
This universe is shot through and through with hate. From that primal hatred of God mentioned above, the work of the evil powers is ever to turn man against God, and to make man - as God's chief creation - destroy himself by mistrust, suspicion, fear, jealousy, rivalry, sin, and a thousand other ways. Into such a world, there came One Who should declare and demonstrate the love of God, and inculcate His love in a new creation: it was the inbreathing of the Spirit of love; the planting of the Vine, the fruit of which is love. You will find that the New Testament, when you trace this matter of love through it, is just the Testament of Love. The Cross of Christ is where all the hate in the universe - human and satanic - converged and overflowed, and where all the love of God met and defeated it. That victory is embodied IN THE NAME. No one can hate another and bear THE NAME OF CHRIST.
How much more is gathered into THE NAME! The power of truth; the victory of faith; and so much more. It is indeed a MIGHTY NAME, in Heaven and earth, and hell. The Holy Spirit knows all its meaning, nature, and content; and when He came to vindicate and glorify THAT NAME, and the Church lived and worked under His anointing, "mighty things" happened IN THE NAME.
The recovery of faith in THE NAME, with a new appreciation of its significance and a return to its ground, would prove that it is no less potent now than it was then. But there must be an all-dominating passion for its honor - a single-minded jealousy that will govern all things with the one consideration: Is this glorifying to THE NAME OF JESUS?
So THE NAME is not merely a formula to be appended to our prayers or professions. It is a power: but its potency demands that everything correspond to an be governed by the Spirit and character of its Divine Bearer. We may take THE NAME upon our lips, but, as it happened with the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:4), the evil powers may turn and rend us because they do not recognize the person: "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?" THE NAME must be taken and used in the power of the Spirit, and that power is only found where Jesus is truly present in unoffended good pleasure.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(The End)
Monday, April 24, 2017
The Release of the Lord # 5
The Release of the Lord # 5
The Basic Reality
The evidence is overwhelming that from Pentecost onward the basis of the fullest, richest, and most effectual world-testimony of Jesus has been a 'holiness movement from heaven': that is, a heart-changing, life-revolutionizing, whole-being-captivating realization of Who Jesus is - the first as to His Sovereignty in the Throne of Deity, and the second as to His Sovereignty in the life at all points. To be 'filled with the Holy Spirit' is to be filled with holiness, love, humility, joy, and a passion for securing to the "Beloved" the fruit of His travail in every nation. No 'spiritual' movement, convention, teaching, is valid without the hall-mark of spontaneous concern for the eternal well-being of others. Far too often intensive movements result in morbid introspection. There is nothing more paralyzing than this. And the reaction from it is just as perilous. Enthusiasm, interest, high spirits, 'personality,' education, or enterprise, harnessed to a more or less dated 'decision for Christ,' are frequently the points of emphasis in this reaction.
The cost to a convert in New Testament times was too great to permit of anything that was superficial or merely a matter of romance or enthusiasm. The motive power must spring from a very real and deep knowledge of the Lord, balanced by an ardent passion for His satisfaction in the nations.
What Pentecost Was
We have failed far too terribly to realize what 'Pentecost,' and the 'baptism of the Holy Spirit,' really was. The external accompaniments and effects have obscured the deeper elements. We have interpreted it in terms of activity, signs, waves of emotion, excitability, and so forth. But our supreme need is to know the true meaning of this 'baptism.'
We therefore give the following all-inclusive definition. The baptism of the Holy Spirit means the enthronement of the Lord Jesus as absolute Sovereign, without reservation or rival, in the entire life, in all its interests and activities.
Within this compass there are one or two specific things which we may point out.
Firstly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism into the holiness of the Lord. It is a baptism with fire, which must be interpreted, primarily, not as zest, but as sanctification. Pentecost was a 'holiness movement from heaven.' This was the significance of the terrible incident with Ananias and Sapphira. This holiness of the Lord, established by the Holy Spirit, has to be carried into every phase and department of life: spirit, mind, body; relationships, transactions, methods, means. Anything doubtful, questionable, equivocal, and so on, is a contradiction and an antagonism to the Spirit of Holiness. It is unfortunate that it should be necessary even to mention such things in the realm of the work of the Lord, but that necessity is laid upon us.
Secondly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a 'baptism into the love of Christ.' This is another element in the "fire." It need hardly be said that this love is something more and other than natural warm-heartedness, largeness of nature, generosity, sentiment and nice words. It is love which 'suffers long, envies not, knows no jealousy, makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is not puffed up, never rejoices in self-vindication when opponents are proved wrong, is always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, never seeks its own ends or interests.' This love knows how to be abased, to be set aside, to be outshone; how to have its interests crossed; how to persist when forsaken; and much more. Only the Holy Spirit can impart and maintain this love.
Thirdly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the 'baptism into the war of the ages.' Not into a religious playground or sports field, but into the grim, terrific, bloody conflict with "principalities and powers," with "the world rulers of this darkness," with "the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Immediately upon our Lord's baptism, the Spirit came upon Him, and He was brought there and then, by the act of the Spirit, into awful contact with the leader of the opposing hierarchy. So it was with the Church. So it is with every one baptized into Christ. Thank God, the victory has been secured and the issue settled at Calvary, but the fight continues. It will take the mighty energizing of the Spirit of the Lord of hosts - "strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man" (Eph. 3:16) - in all the efficacy of the Precious Blood, to accomplish the deepest work of God in this age. There will be times when we are unable to work, or to preach, or to do anything but 'stand and withstand.' Many are contented while they can be active and do something. This can be a real snare. It is spiritual vitality that counts, not much busyness!
A Practical Instance
We will conclude with an incident from the story of Uganda which carries its own significance.
In the early days of the Church in Uganda, a boy who had been baptized came to Pilkington and told him of his failure to be true to Christ in the pathetic words, "I sin as much as ever I did." Pilkington was cut to the quick, and the desire for fresh spiritual power was deepened in his heart. Shortly afterwards he went apart on to one of the islands in the Victoria Nyanza that he might wait upon God and receive fresh power from Him. His prayers were answered, and later he could write to Bishop Tucker as follows:
"I want to tell you that we (mission and people) are in the midst of a time of great blessing. God has enabled several of us to see that for a long time past we have been working in our own strength, and that consequently there has been no power in our lives, and very little blessing. We have, however, been brought to see that the command, 'be filled with the Spirit,' is as much laid upon us as upon the Ephesians, and that power for effectual service is placed at our disposal if we will but appropriate it. I cannot tell you the difference it has made to us in our lives as well as in our work. Now we are full of joy, whereas a little while ago (I am speaking of myself in this) the depression was almost unbearable. As for our work, God is now using us, and a wonderful wave of blessing is passing over the land."
Part Three
In any consideration of the effectiveness of the Church's witness in the world in its early days, it is essential that careful note be taken of the governing concepts in New Testament evangelism is undeniable. We therefore essay to bring some of those into clear relief. That to which we would give primary place -
The Power of the Name
In the book which gives us the record of those first decades of Christianity, we might almost say that - apart from the Holy Spirit Himself - the paramount place is given to the Name of Jesus. In almost His last words to His disciples before returning to Heaven, the Lord had said:
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer ... and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached IN HIS NAME unto all the nations..." (Luke 24:47).
On the Day of Pentecost Peter cried:
"Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ..." (Acts 2:38).
In healing the lame man, Peter said:
"IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6).
To the crowd that ran to see the miracle, Peter said that it had been "by faith IN HIS NAME" (Acts 3:16).
To the High Priest, Peter declared that the man was healed "IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ ... Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead..." (Acts 4:10).
The Council commanded that they should "speak henceforth to no man IN HIS NAME" (Acts 4:17).
In the face of threats and commands the Church prayed that 'signs and wonders might be done THROUGH THE NAME of Jesus' (Acts 4:30).
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 6)
The Basic Reality
The evidence is overwhelming that from Pentecost onward the basis of the fullest, richest, and most effectual world-testimony of Jesus has been a 'holiness movement from heaven': that is, a heart-changing, life-revolutionizing, whole-being-captivating realization of Who Jesus is - the first as to His Sovereignty in the Throne of Deity, and the second as to His Sovereignty in the life at all points. To be 'filled with the Holy Spirit' is to be filled with holiness, love, humility, joy, and a passion for securing to the "Beloved" the fruit of His travail in every nation. No 'spiritual' movement, convention, teaching, is valid without the hall-mark of spontaneous concern for the eternal well-being of others. Far too often intensive movements result in morbid introspection. There is nothing more paralyzing than this. And the reaction from it is just as perilous. Enthusiasm, interest, high spirits, 'personality,' education, or enterprise, harnessed to a more or less dated 'decision for Christ,' are frequently the points of emphasis in this reaction.
The cost to a convert in New Testament times was too great to permit of anything that was superficial or merely a matter of romance or enthusiasm. The motive power must spring from a very real and deep knowledge of the Lord, balanced by an ardent passion for His satisfaction in the nations.
What Pentecost Was
We have failed far too terribly to realize what 'Pentecost,' and the 'baptism of the Holy Spirit,' really was. The external accompaniments and effects have obscured the deeper elements. We have interpreted it in terms of activity, signs, waves of emotion, excitability, and so forth. But our supreme need is to know the true meaning of this 'baptism.'
We therefore give the following all-inclusive definition. The baptism of the Holy Spirit means the enthronement of the Lord Jesus as absolute Sovereign, without reservation or rival, in the entire life, in all its interests and activities.
Within this compass there are one or two specific things which we may point out.
Firstly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism into the holiness of the Lord. It is a baptism with fire, which must be interpreted, primarily, not as zest, but as sanctification. Pentecost was a 'holiness movement from heaven.' This was the significance of the terrible incident with Ananias and Sapphira. This holiness of the Lord, established by the Holy Spirit, has to be carried into every phase and department of life: spirit, mind, body; relationships, transactions, methods, means. Anything doubtful, questionable, equivocal, and so on, is a contradiction and an antagonism to the Spirit of Holiness. It is unfortunate that it should be necessary even to mention such things in the realm of the work of the Lord, but that necessity is laid upon us.
Secondly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is a 'baptism into the love of Christ.' This is another element in the "fire." It need hardly be said that this love is something more and other than natural warm-heartedness, largeness of nature, generosity, sentiment and nice words. It is love which 'suffers long, envies not, knows no jealousy, makes no parade, gives itself no airs, is not puffed up, never rejoices in self-vindication when opponents are proved wrong, is always slow to expose, always eager to believe the best, never seeks its own ends or interests.' This love knows how to be abased, to be set aside, to be outshone; how to have its interests crossed; how to persist when forsaken; and much more. Only the Holy Spirit can impart and maintain this love.
Thirdly, the baptism of the Holy Spirit is the 'baptism into the war of the ages.' Not into a religious playground or sports field, but into the grim, terrific, bloody conflict with "principalities and powers," with "the world rulers of this darkness," with "the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." Immediately upon our Lord's baptism, the Spirit came upon Him, and He was brought there and then, by the act of the Spirit, into awful contact with the leader of the opposing hierarchy. So it was with the Church. So it is with every one baptized into Christ. Thank God, the victory has been secured and the issue settled at Calvary, but the fight continues. It will take the mighty energizing of the Spirit of the Lord of hosts - "strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inward man" (Eph. 3:16) - in all the efficacy of the Precious Blood, to accomplish the deepest work of God in this age. There will be times when we are unable to work, or to preach, or to do anything but 'stand and withstand.' Many are contented while they can be active and do something. This can be a real snare. It is spiritual vitality that counts, not much busyness!
A Practical Instance
We will conclude with an incident from the story of Uganda which carries its own significance.
In the early days of the Church in Uganda, a boy who had been baptized came to Pilkington and told him of his failure to be true to Christ in the pathetic words, "I sin as much as ever I did." Pilkington was cut to the quick, and the desire for fresh spiritual power was deepened in his heart. Shortly afterwards he went apart on to one of the islands in the Victoria Nyanza that he might wait upon God and receive fresh power from Him. His prayers were answered, and later he could write to Bishop Tucker as follows:
"I want to tell you that we (mission and people) are in the midst of a time of great blessing. God has enabled several of us to see that for a long time past we have been working in our own strength, and that consequently there has been no power in our lives, and very little blessing. We have, however, been brought to see that the command, 'be filled with the Spirit,' is as much laid upon us as upon the Ephesians, and that power for effectual service is placed at our disposal if we will but appropriate it. I cannot tell you the difference it has made to us in our lives as well as in our work. Now we are full of joy, whereas a little while ago (I am speaking of myself in this) the depression was almost unbearable. As for our work, God is now using us, and a wonderful wave of blessing is passing over the land."
Part Three
In any consideration of the effectiveness of the Church's witness in the world in its early days, it is essential that careful note be taken of the governing concepts in New Testament evangelism is undeniable. We therefore essay to bring some of those into clear relief. That to which we would give primary place -
The Power of the Name
In the book which gives us the record of those first decades of Christianity, we might almost say that - apart from the Holy Spirit Himself - the paramount place is given to the Name of Jesus. In almost His last words to His disciples before returning to Heaven, the Lord had said:
"Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer ... and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached IN HIS NAME unto all the nations..." (Luke 24:47).
On the Day of Pentecost Peter cried:
"Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ..." (Acts 2:38).
In healing the lame man, Peter said:
"IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6).
To the crowd that ran to see the miracle, Peter said that it had been "by faith IN HIS NAME" (Acts 3:16).
To the High Priest, Peter declared that the man was healed "IN THE NAME of Jesus Christ ... Whom ye crucified, Whom God raised from the dead..." (Acts 4:10).
The Council commanded that they should "speak henceforth to no man IN HIS NAME" (Acts 4:17).
In the face of threats and commands the Church prayed that 'signs and wonders might be done THROUGH THE NAME of Jesus' (Acts 4:30).
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 6)
Friday, April 21, 2017
The Release of the Lord # 4
The Release of the Lord # 4
The Starting Place of the Testimony in Every Nation - continued
Let us again state the all-inclusive basis and background of all true, victorious life and service. It is the revelation of the Person of Christ crucified, in the Godhead, and in the throne of absolute sovereignty, and this objective fact becoming by the Holy Spirit a power in the life and a passion in the heart.
It is the effect of this that lies behind all the great record of conquests in many regions, through many instruments. This goes behind, and makes unnecessary, all advocacy of 'foreign' or other missions. Not that such advocacy has been fruitless, for God has come through it; but its strenuousness and its costliness are the marks of spiritual decline, and are the characteristics of a system which speaks of a bondage in which the Lord's honor is involved. We shall best explain what we mean if we illustrate from history.
Some Notable Examples of Modern Times
We have before us the records of movements and men that have been really effectual and fruitful in the world-testimony of the Lord Jesus.
Here is the amazing story of the great days of the Moravian mission. In the first twenty years they actually sent out more missionaries than the whole Protestant Church had done in two hundred years. Of the closed lands entered, the range covered, the sufferings gladly endured, the lives lived and laid down, the grace of God manifested, it stirs wonder and shame to read. Someone has said that 'if members of the Protestant churches went out as missionaries in corresponding numbers there would be a force of 400,000 foreign workers, which is vastly more than the number estimated as necessary to achieve the evangelization of the world.'
Only for want of space do we reluctantly refrain from giving pages from this tremendous story; but what lay behind it?
In the first place the Cross had been deeply wrought into the very being of this people. Their country was made a field of blood by massacre. They were driven from their homes. From a population of three million they were reduced by persecution to one million. Indeed it sometimes appeared as if they would be entirely extinguished. Out of these fires of afflictions there arose a company purified by the fire, and with another fire burning in their bones. It was the fire of a passionate love for the Lord Jesus. The meetings of these brethren, when they later became possible, breathed the atmosphere of "the upper room." Covenants were made that self in all its forms should be entirely banished - self-will, self-love, self-interest, self-seeking. To be poor in spirit would be their quest, and everyone would give himself to be taught by the Holy Spirit. A prayer-watch was set up which should burn day and night, and by means of relays the entire twenty-four hours were occupied in seeking the Lord. 'To win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of His sufferings,' was their adopted motto.
All this is its own argument. Here a deeply inwrought work of the Cross issued in a mighty, personal love for the Lord Jesus. Personal considerations were lost, and no persuasion was necessary. Shall we not say the truth when we say that souls languish by the millions in darkness and death for want of a deep baptism of the Church - the company of saved ones - into the passion and love of God in Christ?
If the China Inland Mission has been a monument to anything as to God's methods, it is supremely so to the living reality of union with Christ. With all his vision and passion for inland China, it is well known that Mr. Hudson Taylor, as he went from place to place addressing gatherings of Christians in this and other countries, said very little about China, often nothing at all. He just poured out his spiritual message to bring the Lord's people into a fuller knowledge of the meaning of their union with Christ. The central and supreme thing in this fellowship with the Lord was the universal efficacy of prayer.
Listen to him: 'In the study of that Divine Word I learned that to obtain successful workers, not elaborate appeals for help, but earnest prayer to God ... and the deepening of the spiritual life of the Church, so that men should be unable to stay at home, were what was needed.'
Were we to put the inner history of this work - the original spiritual background - into a few words, we should say that it was NOT a matter of organization, advocacy, propaganda, appeals, or advertisement. It centered in a man with a deep knowledge of God, born of a deeply inwrought work of the Cross, bringing to the Lord's people a living, spiritual message as to their fullest life in Him, and as to the practical outworking of such a life through prayer.
Mr. Hudson Taylor was no 'teacher' in the sense of presenting truth in a systematized form. He was not one of the great 'Bible teachers,' in the generally accepted sense of that term. His was a message which immediately led to two issues: firstly, the relationship of the believer to the Lord;and then the practical outworking of that, in prayer and other forms of service, to bring the Gospel to those whose only chance of receiving it was by means of such special endeavors. Mr. Hudson Taylor's life (and therefore, we must think, the history of the mission) turned at a given point upon a deeper realization of what oneness with the Lord really means. This is revealed in a letter to his sister which is printed in the second volume of his life.
Not only in Africa, through the South African General Mission, but in all parts of the world, the ministry of Dr. Andrew Murray has been wondrously rich in its fruits. It was not, again, by advocacy of propaganda, but purely by spiritual teaching, through a ministry almost exclusively to the Lord's people, a message concerning practical holiness, the ministry of intercession, and the power of the Holy Spirit, that this fruit was born. Out of this ministry sprang the above 'Mission,' and the consecration of many lives to the Lord's service. The ministry, not the 'Mission,' was the dynamic.
We could add at great length the evidence, pointing to the influence of such lives, and to the power of the movement for the 'deepening of spiritual life.' The pages of the missionary issues of Christian periodicals; the messages of 'Keswick's' great men in those early days; and the pages of that monumental History of the C.M.S. by Dr. Eugene Stock, all bear testimony to this.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 5)
The Starting Place of the Testimony in Every Nation - continued
Let us again state the all-inclusive basis and background of all true, victorious life and service. It is the revelation of the Person of Christ crucified, in the Godhead, and in the throne of absolute sovereignty, and this objective fact becoming by the Holy Spirit a power in the life and a passion in the heart.
It is the effect of this that lies behind all the great record of conquests in many regions, through many instruments. This goes behind, and makes unnecessary, all advocacy of 'foreign' or other missions. Not that such advocacy has been fruitless, for God has come through it; but its strenuousness and its costliness are the marks of spiritual decline, and are the characteristics of a system which speaks of a bondage in which the Lord's honor is involved. We shall best explain what we mean if we illustrate from history.
Some Notable Examples of Modern Times
We have before us the records of movements and men that have been really effectual and fruitful in the world-testimony of the Lord Jesus.
Here is the amazing story of the great days of the Moravian mission. In the first twenty years they actually sent out more missionaries than the whole Protestant Church had done in two hundred years. Of the closed lands entered, the range covered, the sufferings gladly endured, the lives lived and laid down, the grace of God manifested, it stirs wonder and shame to read. Someone has said that 'if members of the Protestant churches went out as missionaries in corresponding numbers there would be a force of 400,000 foreign workers, which is vastly more than the number estimated as necessary to achieve the evangelization of the world.'
Only for want of space do we reluctantly refrain from giving pages from this tremendous story; but what lay behind it?
In the first place the Cross had been deeply wrought into the very being of this people. Their country was made a field of blood by massacre. They were driven from their homes. From a population of three million they were reduced by persecution to one million. Indeed it sometimes appeared as if they would be entirely extinguished. Out of these fires of afflictions there arose a company purified by the fire, and with another fire burning in their bones. It was the fire of a passionate love for the Lord Jesus. The meetings of these brethren, when they later became possible, breathed the atmosphere of "the upper room." Covenants were made that self in all its forms should be entirely banished - self-will, self-love, self-interest, self-seeking. To be poor in spirit would be their quest, and everyone would give himself to be taught by the Holy Spirit. A prayer-watch was set up which should burn day and night, and by means of relays the entire twenty-four hours were occupied in seeking the Lord. 'To win for the Lamb that was slain the reward of His sufferings,' was their adopted motto.
All this is its own argument. Here a deeply inwrought work of the Cross issued in a mighty, personal love for the Lord Jesus. Personal considerations were lost, and no persuasion was necessary. Shall we not say the truth when we say that souls languish by the millions in darkness and death for want of a deep baptism of the Church - the company of saved ones - into the passion and love of God in Christ?
If the China Inland Mission has been a monument to anything as to God's methods, it is supremely so to the living reality of union with Christ. With all his vision and passion for inland China, it is well known that Mr. Hudson Taylor, as he went from place to place addressing gatherings of Christians in this and other countries, said very little about China, often nothing at all. He just poured out his spiritual message to bring the Lord's people into a fuller knowledge of the meaning of their union with Christ. The central and supreme thing in this fellowship with the Lord was the universal efficacy of prayer.
Listen to him: 'In the study of that Divine Word I learned that to obtain successful workers, not elaborate appeals for help, but earnest prayer to God ... and the deepening of the spiritual life of the Church, so that men should be unable to stay at home, were what was needed.'
Were we to put the inner history of this work - the original spiritual background - into a few words, we should say that it was NOT a matter of organization, advocacy, propaganda, appeals, or advertisement. It centered in a man with a deep knowledge of God, born of a deeply inwrought work of the Cross, bringing to the Lord's people a living, spiritual message as to their fullest life in Him, and as to the practical outworking of such a life through prayer.
Mr. Hudson Taylor was no 'teacher' in the sense of presenting truth in a systematized form. He was not one of the great 'Bible teachers,' in the generally accepted sense of that term. His was a message which immediately led to two issues: firstly, the relationship of the believer to the Lord;and then the practical outworking of that, in prayer and other forms of service, to bring the Gospel to those whose only chance of receiving it was by means of such special endeavors. Mr. Hudson Taylor's life (and therefore, we must think, the history of the mission) turned at a given point upon a deeper realization of what oneness with the Lord really means. This is revealed in a letter to his sister which is printed in the second volume of his life.
Not only in Africa, through the South African General Mission, but in all parts of the world, the ministry of Dr. Andrew Murray has been wondrously rich in its fruits. It was not, again, by advocacy of propaganda, but purely by spiritual teaching, through a ministry almost exclusively to the Lord's people, a message concerning practical holiness, the ministry of intercession, and the power of the Holy Spirit, that this fruit was born. Out of this ministry sprang the above 'Mission,' and the consecration of many lives to the Lord's service. The ministry, not the 'Mission,' was the dynamic.
We could add at great length the evidence, pointing to the influence of such lives, and to the power of the movement for the 'deepening of spiritual life.' The pages of the missionary issues of Christian periodicals; the messages of 'Keswick's' great men in those early days; and the pages of that monumental History of the C.M.S. by Dr. Eugene Stock, all bear testimony to this.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 5)
Tuesday, April 18, 2017
The Release of the Lord # 3
The Release of the Lord # 3
The "testimony of Jesus" then, is that Jesus lives universally triumphant, and the Church is the "pillar" (or monument) of that truth. It is His resurrection Body, possessed of His risen Life and administered by the Holy Spirit, as the repository of that life.
The testimony of Jesus is in effect a life - His Life. Not a mode of life, but a vital, infinite force; indestructible, irresistible, incorruptible, a vital force mediated to the spiritually dead wherever there is a readiness and willingness to believe on the Lord Jesus.
It burst the old molds, "wine-skins" of tradition, worn-out systems, man-made orders and forms.
It sets aside even those things which were once raised up and greatly used by God, but which have ceased to be living, and are only past history. Even Judaism ceases to count here. The testimony of Jesus liberates captives, and a word spoken by its power is as an irresistible challenge to "let My people go." Lazarus must come forth when He, "the resurrection, and the life", commands through His Church. This life, issuing forth from the risen Lord as within 'the Body' by the Eternal Spirit, is the compelling power of the world-mission and testimony of Jesus.
There is no precedent in the New Testament for appealing for workers or missionaries. This is at best but a sorry alternative or necessity. When the Holy Spirit is really in possession and the life is manifested, then He takes the initiative in all work and workers, saying, "Separate Me ... for the work whereunto I have called them."
Great emphasis is laid in the New Testament upon receiving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the universally Sovereign Lord - "the Heir of all things." His mission is world-wide, cosmic. World-vision, world-passion, world-vocation, are the inevitable, immediate result of the establishment of His Lordship within. It cannot be otherwise. Then what is the matter that this thing is not spontaneous with so many? Why do not the Lord's people spread the Testimony by simply talking out of a full heart? Is this also the indictment of Acts 19:2-5?
Is the cost a deterrent by which the Spirit is quenched? It will cost. To no place did the New Testament witnesses go with the "Testimony" but what the enemy - the dragon - made war. It was up to him to do so, for he stood to be a very great loser. It was the battle for dominion. This was his unwilling compliment, his unintentional congratulation. They represented something and possessed something which made hell angry and afraid.
The Lord's purpose and method in this age is to bring into resurrection-union with Himself two or three in every place and to 'add unto them such as are being saved.'
It is an accretion of life, not enticement, 'attraction,' advertisement. Here again the Holy Spirit takes the initiative when a true testimony is born.
The greatest need of the hour is a revitalizing of the Lord's people with His risen life by the Holy Spirit. May we soon see this, and come to the place where everything - tradition, system, common acceptances, forms and molds, prejudices, personal interests, reputation, prestige, compromise, the opinions of others, policy, and so on - will be sacrificed, if needs be, for life, and the true and living TESTIMONY OF JESUS. So shall He find His release again and scatter the fire anew.
Part Two
In our last issue our particular emphasis was upon the nature of the "testimony of Jesus." We saw that the great, objective, historic fact, that Jesus was risen from among the dead and was in the place of supreme sovereignty and glory - which fact had been manifested by many infallible proofs - had also a subjective counterpart: namely, within the ones who were His "witnesses." That same Lord Jesus had become to them, by the Holy Spirit,an inward reality,and that inward fact was manifested as a life: "eternal life," resurrection life, life triumphant over death; Divine life in all its holiness, energy, spontaneity, might, persistence, and fruitfulness; in fact, the life which the Lord Jesus is, in Person. (Read: 1 John 1:2; 5:9-13, 20; Acts 1:8, 22; 2:32, 36; 3:15; 4:33; 5:30, 32; 10:40-42; 13:30, 37; Romans 1:4). The testimony to the Person of Jesus is the power of His Life in and through His "members" by the Holy Spirit.
THE STARTING PLACE OF THE TESTIMONY IN EVERY NATION
Our present object will be to show something more of what this means in experience and service, especially in connection with the age-purpose of a testimony in the nations. If comparisons and contrasts are made and disorders pointed out, it is not in a spirit of criticism, far less of censoriousness; neither is it want of appreciation of, or esteem for, the work being so honestly and sacrificially done. God forbid that any word of ours should bring a shadow upon any activity which counts even a little for Him. We have a burden - a sometimes overwhelming burden - occasioned both by the spiritual ineffectiveness (partial or complete) that we see around, and by the manifest misconception and confusion that prevails regarding Divine ends and methods. It is the need for immediate, direct, absolute spiritual effectiveness that governs the pursuance of this subject.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 4)
The "testimony of Jesus" then, is that Jesus lives universally triumphant, and the Church is the "pillar" (or monument) of that truth. It is His resurrection Body, possessed of His risen Life and administered by the Holy Spirit, as the repository of that life.
The testimony of Jesus is in effect a life - His Life. Not a mode of life, but a vital, infinite force; indestructible, irresistible, incorruptible, a vital force mediated to the spiritually dead wherever there is a readiness and willingness to believe on the Lord Jesus.
It burst the old molds, "wine-skins" of tradition, worn-out systems, man-made orders and forms.
It sets aside even those things which were once raised up and greatly used by God, but which have ceased to be living, and are only past history. Even Judaism ceases to count here. The testimony of Jesus liberates captives, and a word spoken by its power is as an irresistible challenge to "let My people go." Lazarus must come forth when He, "the resurrection, and the life", commands through His Church. This life, issuing forth from the risen Lord as within 'the Body' by the Eternal Spirit, is the compelling power of the world-mission and testimony of Jesus.
There is no precedent in the New Testament for appealing for workers or missionaries. This is at best but a sorry alternative or necessity. When the Holy Spirit is really in possession and the life is manifested, then He takes the initiative in all work and workers, saying, "Separate Me ... for the work whereunto I have called them."
Great emphasis is laid in the New Testament upon receiving the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the universally Sovereign Lord - "the Heir of all things." His mission is world-wide, cosmic. World-vision, world-passion, world-vocation, are the inevitable, immediate result of the establishment of His Lordship within. It cannot be otherwise. Then what is the matter that this thing is not spontaneous with so many? Why do not the Lord's people spread the Testimony by simply talking out of a full heart? Is this also the indictment of Acts 19:2-5?
Is the cost a deterrent by which the Spirit is quenched? It will cost. To no place did the New Testament witnesses go with the "Testimony" but what the enemy - the dragon - made war. It was up to him to do so, for he stood to be a very great loser. It was the battle for dominion. This was his unwilling compliment, his unintentional congratulation. They represented something and possessed something which made hell angry and afraid.
The Lord's purpose and method in this age is to bring into resurrection-union with Himself two or three in every place and to 'add unto them such as are being saved.'
It is an accretion of life, not enticement, 'attraction,' advertisement. Here again the Holy Spirit takes the initiative when a true testimony is born.
The greatest need of the hour is a revitalizing of the Lord's people with His risen life by the Holy Spirit. May we soon see this, and come to the place where everything - tradition, system, common acceptances, forms and molds, prejudices, personal interests, reputation, prestige, compromise, the opinions of others, policy, and so on - will be sacrificed, if needs be, for life, and the true and living TESTIMONY OF JESUS. So shall He find His release again and scatter the fire anew.
Part Two
In our last issue our particular emphasis was upon the nature of the "testimony of Jesus." We saw that the great, objective, historic fact, that Jesus was risen from among the dead and was in the place of supreme sovereignty and glory - which fact had been manifested by many infallible proofs - had also a subjective counterpart: namely, within the ones who were His "witnesses." That same Lord Jesus had become to them, by the Holy Spirit,an inward reality,and that inward fact was manifested as a life: "eternal life," resurrection life, life triumphant over death; Divine life in all its holiness, energy, spontaneity, might, persistence, and fruitfulness; in fact, the life which the Lord Jesus is, in Person. (Read: 1 John 1:2; 5:9-13, 20; Acts 1:8, 22; 2:32, 36; 3:15; 4:33; 5:30, 32; 10:40-42; 13:30, 37; Romans 1:4). The testimony to the Person of Jesus is the power of His Life in and through His "members" by the Holy Spirit.
THE STARTING PLACE OF THE TESTIMONY IN EVERY NATION
Our present object will be to show something more of what this means in experience and service, especially in connection with the age-purpose of a testimony in the nations. If comparisons and contrasts are made and disorders pointed out, it is not in a spirit of criticism, far less of censoriousness; neither is it want of appreciation of, or esteem for, the work being so honestly and sacrificially done. God forbid that any word of ours should bring a shadow upon any activity which counts even a little for Him. We have a burden - a sometimes overwhelming burden - occasioned both by the spiritual ineffectiveness (partial or complete) that we see around, and by the manifest misconception and confusion that prevails regarding Divine ends and methods. It is the need for immediate, direct, absolute spiritual effectiveness that governs the pursuance of this subject.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 4)
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